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"EMBRACING THE WIDE SKY", A Tour Across The Horizons of The Human Mind, Daniel Tammet, 2009, pages 51 - 52
Are There Different Kinds of Intelligence? (3)
Is There The "Emotional Intelligence"?
Is There The "Emotional Intelligence"?
A third theory that challenges the "IQ" conception of intelligence is that of "Emotional Intelligence" or "EQ", first popularised by psychologist and science journalist Daniel Goleman's 1995 bestseller "Emotional Intelligence: Why It can Matter More than IQ". Goleman argues that a person's emotions play a significant role in thought, making decisions and future success. He defines this form of intelligence as a set of skills that include impulse control, self-motivations, empathy and the ability to relate well to others.
Self-awareness, Goleman argues is the key to being truly emotionally intelligent, because it allow the person to exercise self-control. With sufficient self-awareness, it is possible to develop various coping mechanisms that allow a person to move from a negative emotional state to a more positive one: counting to ten as means of letting the sensation of sudden anger subside, for example.
As with Garner's theory of multiple intelligences, Goleman's EQ concept has been adopted by various schools in the United States, which use it to develop "emotional literacy" programmes, aimed at helping students learn to manage their anger, frustrations and loneliness. Children who are angry or depressed are capable of learning well, and those with long-running emotional difficulties are liable to drop out altogether. Improving the students' self-esteem and self-motivations helps them to perform better in exams.
Like IQ, each of these alternative conceptions of intelligence has been criticised. Critics of the "multiple intelligences" theory, for example, point to lack of empirical evidence supporting it.
Critics of EQ concept argue that it measures conformity rather that ability: who after all is to say when a person's anger or sadness (or other emotion) is or is not appropriate to a particular situations? EQ's sceptics also point out that scientific studies have failed to find a convincing link between high self-esteem an better academic performance.
While mindful of such criticisms, I believe there is considerable value in considering human intelligence in ways that allow us to appreciate the enormous diversity in how people think and behave.
Self-awareness, Goleman argues is the key to being truly emotionally intelligent, because it allow the person to exercise self-control. With sufficient self-awareness, it is possible to develop various coping mechanisms that allow a person to move from a negative emotional state to a more positive one: counting to ten as means of letting the sensation of sudden anger subside, for example.
As with Garner's theory of multiple intelligences, Goleman's EQ concept has been adopted by various schools in the United States, which use it to develop "emotional literacy" programmes, aimed at helping students learn to manage their anger, frustrations and loneliness. Children who are angry or depressed are capable of learning well, and those with long-running emotional difficulties are liable to drop out altogether. Improving the students' self-esteem and self-motivations helps them to perform better in exams.
Like IQ, each of these alternative conceptions of intelligence has been criticised. Critics of the "multiple intelligences" theory, for example, point to lack of empirical evidence supporting it.
Critics of EQ concept argue that it measures conformity rather that ability: who after all is to say when a person's anger or sadness (or other emotion) is or is not appropriate to a particular situations? EQ's sceptics also point out that scientific studies have failed to find a convincing link between high self-esteem an better academic performance.While mindful of such criticisms, I believe there is considerable value in considering human intelligence in ways that allow us to appreciate the enormous diversity in how people think and behave.
"EMBRACING THE WIDE SKY", A Tour Across The Horizons of The Human Mind, Daniel Tammet, 2009, pages 51 - 52
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