Concept of EI
Concept of EI
Concept of EI
EI became a major topic of enquiry in the 1980s and in the 1990s scientific
articles were published on the topic (Mayer and Salovey, 1993). The best
selling
trade-book
Emotional
Intelligence
(Goleman,
1995)
further
popularized it. Researchers in the field admit that EI is now used to cover too
many different traits and concepts (Mayer et al., 2008).Over this period two
broad theoretical approaches to EI have developed (Mayer et al., 2008): (1)
the specific abilities approach in which individual mental abilities are
considered of significance for EI and the (2) the integrative-model which
looks at EI as a global ability. The Specific-ability approaches focus on
particular skills individually like emotional perception and identification, Use
of emotional information in thinking, reasoning about emotions and
emotional management. On the other hand the main aspect of integrative
models is that they join the specific abilities to have an overall feel or
measure of EI. For instance the four branch model of EI (Mayer and Salovey,
1997) considers overall EI as joining abilities from four areas: (a) accurately
perceiving
emotion,
(b)
using
emotions
to
facilitate
thought,
(c)
It has also been reports that certain specific emotions can trigger and foster
different types of thinking. For instance Lyubomirsky et al. (2005) reported
that positive emotions foster creativity. For effective decision making and
appropriate handling, correct appraisal of the situation is also important.
Some theorists have gone on to say that accurate appraisal is the hallmark
of emotionally intelligent people (Parrott, 2002).
With respect to the relation between EI and (group) decision making an
interesting study was carried out by Day and Carroll (2004). The participants
of the study had to determine the order in which employees would be laid off
during a downsizing process. This was to be first done individually and then
as a group. Those with high total scores on EI tests (MSCEIT) received higher
ratings specifically a significant correlation coefficient of 0.17 was noted
between individual performance and MSCEIT Perception scores.
Studies investigating the relationship between EI and managerial tasks like
fact finding, analyzing problems and decision making have demonstrated a
significant
correlation(r=
0.28)
between
Emotional
Perception
and
observation
is
that
participants
display
more
positive
self
judgments when the stakes are high (Grubb and McDaniel, 2007).
A logical question follows from this discussion on Emotional Intelligence.
Given its significance for a managerial role or life in general, Can one
develop himself on the Emotional Intelligence front? Recent research and
experimental studies seem to suggest that the answer to this question is in
the affirmative. For instance, Nelis et al. (2009) conducted an experiment in
which the experimental group received an empirically derived EI training
while the control group continued to live normally. Results showed a definite
increment in emotion identification and emotion management abilities in the
training group. Follow-up measures after 6 months showed that these
changes were persistent. No change was noticed in the control group. These
findings suggest that EI can be improved with training.