Humans are social beings by nature, whether we like to recognize it or not. Aristotle, in his work The Politics (4th century B.C.), postulated the following idea: from all this it is evident that the city is one of the natural things, and that man is by nature a social animal, and that the unsocial by nature and not by chance is either an inferior being or a superior being to man. Whether it is to our liking or not, we require others to beThe form of socialization is one of the parts that define us as individual entities.
It is estimated that, over the course of 60 years of life, the average person knows almost 5,000 different people. On a smaller time scale, it is worth noting that we humans articulate about 14,000 words on average every 24 hours, 7,000 in men and 20,000 in women. With these data, we just want to show how established our society is in the knowledge of others and communication between different entities.
Knowing how to talk and listen is a good start to have healthy social relationships and reach group goals, but it is not the only requirement. Below we explore ideas of personal growth, author, we explore ideas of personal growth, self-recognition, empathy and much more.We will tell you all about the 8 types of emotional intelligence and their characteristics.
What is emotional intelligence?
Emotional Intelligence (EI) is defined as the ability of individuals to recognize their own and others’ emotions, discern between different feelings, categorize them correctly, and use emotional information to act accordingly. the specific situation at hand.
According to Peter Salovey (one of the leading pioneers of emotional intelligence and health promotion research), EI can be defined as “the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ emotions, to discriminate between emotions and to be able to categorize them and, consequently, to use emotional information to guide one’s own actions and thoughts.
The aforementioned social psychologist and other professionals in the field (John Mayer, David Goleman and Konstantin Vasily Petrides) have proposed three models to explain intelligence. have proposed three models to explain emotional intelligence. We begin by describing them and then dissect the different components of EI.
How is emotional intelligence classified?
It should be noted that, although three main models of emotional intelligence are known, they are not mutually exclusive. Despite the terminological discrepancies that have been flooding the discussion of EI in the psychological field for years, it is of great interest to describe these models. Let us get down to it.
1. Ability models
These models base the construct of emotional intelligence on emotional information processing skills. As a difference with other models, individual personality components are not taken into account in this model..
Ability-based models are based on the use of emotions as tools for understanding and navigating a social environment. The ability to perceive and use emotional information translates into a series of adaptive behaviors. In summary, IE is defended as a tool to perceive, evaluate, express, manage and self-regulate emotions in an intelligent way in a given situation.
Trait models
These models (based on the trait theory, which assumes the existence of stable characteristics in the personality structure of individuals) defend that emotional intelligence is “a constellation of emotional self-perceptions located at the lowest levels of the personality”.. Put more simply, EI consists of the understanding and perception of one’s own emotions and, consequently, the use of personality traits to investigate the domains of emotional intelligence.
As a difference with the previous current, in this one IE is conceived as the skills perceived by oneself (self report), as opposed to the objective skills presented in the skills model. It may seem complicated, but in short, in this case the ability is really what the person perceives of it, or in other words, it is impossible to separate it from the individual personality.
3. Mixed models
The mixed model, postulated by Daniel Goleman (American psychologist, journalist and writer) in his book Emotional Intelligence (1995) is the most famous when it comes to defining emotional intelligence. On this occasion, EI is divided into 5 personality traits, the particularities of which we will tell you about.The particularities of which we will tell you about below.
3.1 Self-awareness (self-awareness)
At this point (and in order to facilitate further explanations), it is necessary to point out that awareness and consciousness are not quite the same thing. A dog is conscious when it is awake, because it perceives the environment, knows it exists and is able to respond accordingly. When an animal faints, it loses consciousness.
On the other hand, consciousness is something more complex to define. Human beings are conscious, but we go one step further on the psychological scale, because our actions also have a certain charge depending on our own ethics and morals. Thus, a person is conscious when he or she has not lost consciousness, but also demonstrates conscience when acting in the way he or she believes ethical and acceptable, according to his or her values.
For emotional intelligence to develop properly, every person must have self-awareness. By being able to recognize our own feelings and emotions, we can learn to apply them in a specific area in the most appropriate way. in a specific area in the most effective way possible.
3.2 Self-regulation (self-management)
This term is quite self-explanatory, as it refers to the ability to control impulses and temperamental the ability to control impulses and temperamental asperities.. To do this, it is necessary to define a series of goals and objectives before each interaction: am I going to achieve something by getting angry? What does the other person expect from this exchange? Is it useful to show displeasure at this particular moment? Self-regulation is not necessarily based on not feeling negative things, but on knowing how to channel them and let them out in the healthiest and most constructive way possible.
3.3 Motivation (Motivation)
Motivation is necessary for the creation of an impulse that puts into action a desired means or action, or to stop doing it. To be persevering, to have will, to be animated and to be energetic is essential to have an adequate and constant emotional intelligence in space and time.
3.4 Empathy (Self-awareness)
Empathy is defined as the ability of a person to perceive other people’s feelings, emotions and thoughts with a mechanism based on knowledge of the other as similar. with a mechanism based on the knowledge of the other as similar. By putting yourself in the shoes of the person you are interacting with, it is easier to understand why they act as they do and to modulate the situation in pursuit of a common goal.
However, be careful: putting yourself in the other person’s shoes does not mean manipulating them for your own good, pretending that you understand what they are going through. Empathy seeks an emotional bridge between both parties to reach a mutually positive common goal, so it is not a unidirectional psychological mechanism.
3.5 Social skills (Relationship management)
In this last point, the individual’s capacity to generate positive responses in the environment is quantified, but without falling into emotional control mechanisms. With all the above traits, a person must be able to “read” the environment and act accordingly to what is required or expected of him/her. to what is required or expected of him/her. What is socially acceptable at one time may not be socially acceptable at another.
Summary
In summary, emotional intelligence is a single concept, but it can be divided into three different models, depending on the weight given to each factor (personality VS skills, for example). In any case, in all cases we are referring to a social construct that allows the individual to develop in the best possible way in a particular environment and elicit a positive response from others.
As a final point, it should be noted that we are not born with emotional intelligence. It develops over time and, depending on the environment and the social opportunities the person has had, it may be conspicuous by its absence. Fortunately, psychological help will teach the patient to put himself in the shoes of others and act accordingly to what is socially accepted.