Emotional Intelligence

I recently took an emotional intelligence test. This test consists of two parts. The first portion of the test is a self-report. The second is an ability portion. The test focuses on your personal abilities to recognize your own emotions, recognize the emotions of others, understand how to motivate yourself, understand how to become close to others, and also focuses on how to manage your own feelings as well as the feelings of others. The emotional intelligence test evaluates many aspects of your own, personal emotional intelligence and also suggests ways to improve it.

The test is out of a possible 100 points. I scored a 64. According to my results, I have some of the basic skills when it comes to identifying, perceiving and expressing my emotions to myself as well as others.  Although I have the basic skills, there is still a lot of room for improvement. If I were to improve my skills in emotional intelligence, I would be in a better position to read people and I would also be more likely to understand how they feel. Improving my skills would also allow me to identify with my own emotions more effectively. Below is an image of my emotinal intellegence test score.

EQ is not immutable. A person’s emotional intelligence develops and changes over their lifetime. People are always evolving and changing the way they think, act, and perceive events. Therefore, a person’s emotional intelligence score will not always be the same. As people progress and go through happenings in their life, the way they think will be altered. Altered thinking will in turn, change their EQ score.

I personally believe that educators should and do play a role in changing EQ scores. Scientific research has proven that, because of how the brain works, the formation of emotional skills is much easier taught in the formative years; birth to late teenager. School is the major activity that takes place for people in this age group. Therefore, what better place to teach about emotional intelligence!  Although there is not a specific subject that teaches emotional intelligence, I believe a good teacher automatically works this into his/her curriculum. Good self awareness, effectively managing your emotions, empathy, good communication skills, and resolving conflicts are all skills that should be practiced and taught in every classroom. These are also the skills that are needed to achieve a good score on the emotional intelligence test.  

I also believe that if a child has a good emotional intelligence score, they will perform better as a student. After all, emotional intelligence is a person’s ability to communicate well, tune into another person’s feelings, think before you speak, solve problems, and to delay gratification. These are all skills that a good student practices.  

Some people say that EQ is more important than IQ. I would have to agree with this statement. If a person can work well with others, they can do just about anything. Good social skills and being able to relate to another individual is very important in the work force. Also, I would much rather be around someone that has a lower IQ but is personable and easy to get along with; as opposed to someone who has a high IQ but is insensitive and can’t communicate effectively.

References:
http://www.connected.org/learn/school.html
http://www.schoolfamily.com/blog/2010/05/24/how-emotional-intelligence-is-linked-to-school-success
http://danielgoleman.info/topics/emotional-intelligence/

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