http://trochim.human.cornell.edu/gallery/young/emotion.htm
EMOTIONS and EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
This page is an on-line bibliography in the area of emotions and emotional
intelligence, describing current research findings and notes of interest.
The main areas covered are:
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
What is emotional intelligence?
Recent discussions of EI proliferate across the American landscape -- from
the cover of Time,
to a best selling book by Daniel
Goleman, to an episode of the Oprah Winfrey show. But EI is not some
easily dismissed "neopsycho-babble." EI has its roots in the concept of
"social intelligence," first identified by E.L. Thorndike in 1920. Psychologists
have been uncovering other intelligences for some time now, and grouping
them mainly into three clusters: abstract intelligence (the ability to
understand and manipulate with verbal and mathematic symbols), concrete
intelligence (the ability to understand and manipulate with objects), and
social intelligence (the ability to understand and relate to people) (Ruisel,
1992). Thorndike (1920: 228), defined social intelligence as "the ability
to understand and manage men and women, boys and girls -- to act wisely
in human relations." And (1983) includes inter- and intrapersonal intelligences
in his theory of multiple intelligences (see Gardner
for an interesting interview with the Harvard University professor). These
two intelligences comprise social intelligence. He defines them as follows:
Interpersonal intelligence is the ability
to understand other people: what motivates them, how they work, how to
work cooperatively with them. Successful salespeople, politicians, teachers,
clinicians, and religious leaders are all likely to be individuals with
high degrees of interpersonal intelligence. Intrapersonal
intelligence ... is a correlative ability, turned inward. It is a capacity
to form an accurate, veridical model of oneself and to be able to use that
model to operate effectively in life.
Emotional intelligence, on the other hand, "is a type of social intelligence
that involves the ability to monitor one's own and others' emotions, to
discriminate among them, and to use the information to guide one's thinking
and actions" (Mayer & Salovey, 1993: 433). According to Salovey &
Mayer (1990), EI subsumes Gardner's inter- and intrapersonal intelligences,
and involves abilities that may be categorized into five domains:
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Self-awareness:
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Observing yourself and recognizing a feeling as it happens.
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Managing emotions:
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Handling feelings so that they are appropriate; realizing what is behind
a feeling; finding ways to handle fears and anxieties, anger, and sadness.
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Motivating oneself:
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Channeling emotions in the service of a goal; emotional self control; delaying
gratification and stifling impulses.
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Empathy:
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Sensitivity to others' feelings and concerns and taking their perspective;
appreciating the differences in how people feel about things.
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Handling relationships:
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Managing emotions in others; social competence and social skills.
Self-awareness (intrapersonal intelligence), empathy and handling relationships
(interpersonal intelligence) are essentially dimensions of social intelligence.
See the Time
magazine piece for an overview of emotional intelligence. Their article
basically summarizes Daniel
Goleman's Emotional Intelligence book in a few simple pages, interjecting
other experts' opinions and pieces of research to lend to a more balanced
critique of emotional intelligence. In addition, look st the piece on emotional
intelligence from a Hindu
newspaper article. It offers a more theoretical and historical perspective
on emotional intelligence.
Why is emotional intelligence important?
Researchers investigated dimensions of emotional intelligence (EI) by measuring
related concepts, such as social skills, interpersonal competence, psychological
maturity and emotional awareness, long before the term "emotional intelligence"
came into use. Grade school teachers have been teaching the rudiments of
emotional intelligence since 1978, with the development of the Self Science
Curriculum and the teaching of classes such as "social development," "social
and emotional learning," and "personal intelligence," all aimed at "raise[ing]
the level of social and emotional competence" (Goleman, 1995: 262). Social
scientists are just beginning to uncover the relationship of EI to other
phenomenon, e.g., leadership (Ashforth and Humphrey, 1995), group performance
(Williams & Sternberg, 1988), individual performance, interpersonal/social
exchange, managing change, and conducting performance evaluations (Goleman,
1995). And according to Goleman (1995: 160), "Emotional intelligence, the
skills that help people harmonize, should become increasingly valued as
a workplace asset in the years to come."
Tests of Emotional Intelligence
Although no validated paper-and-pencil tests of emotional intelligence
exist, two "fun" versions of emotional intelligence tests have been developed.
Test yourself to see how you rate on emotional intelligence with a test
from "USA Weekend"
or the test from Utne Reader.
Because no one has yet to develop a good scale for emotional intelligence,
you may want to investigate the Web page on personality, temperament, psychopathology,
and emotion scales developed
by Albert Mehrabian, professor of psychology at the University of California,
Los Angeles. You may be able to piece together a few of these scales for
a rough approximation of the dimensions researchers hypothesize characterize
emotional intelligence.
Emotions
Affect, Mood and Emotions
"It is clear, however, that, without the preferences reflected
by positive and negative affect, our experiences would be a neutral gray.
We would care no more what happens to us or what we do with our time than
does a computer."
C. Daniel Batson, Laura L. Shaw & Kathryn C. Oleson
(Differentiating Affect, Mood, and Emotion: Toward Functionally Based Conceptual
Distinctions, 1992)
The terms affect, mood, and emotion are used interchangeably throughout
much of the literature, without distinguishing between them (Batson, Shaw,
& Oleson, 1992: 294). Some of the confusion or lack of clarity may
be a result of the overlap among the concepts (Morris, 1992). Some researchers
have attempted to distinguish these concepts based on structural differences
and functional differences. Schwarz and Clore (1988) differentiated emotion
from mood based on structural differences, such as the specificity of the
targets (e.g., emotions are specific and intense and are a reaction to
a particular event, whereas mood are diffuse and unfocused (George &
Brief, 1995; Frijda, 1987; Clark & Isen, 1982) and timing (e.g., emotions
are caused by something more immediate in time than moods). Batson and
collegues (1992) differentiated mood, affect and emotion based on functional
differences, like changes in value state (affect), beliefs about future
affective states (mood), and the existence of a specific goal (emotion).
"Affect seems to reveal preference (Zajonc, 1980); it informs
the organism experiencing it about those states of affairs that it values
more than others. Change from a less valued to a more valued state is accompanied
by positive affect; change from a more valued to a less valued state is
accompanied by negative affect. Intensity of the affect reveals the magnitude
of the value preference."
If you are seriously interested in the area of emotion, affect, and/or
mood, investigate the Geneva
Emotion Research Group. Located at the University of Geneva, this group
conducts research in the area of emotions, including experimental studies
on emotion-antecedent appraisal, emotion induction, physiological reactions
and expression of emotion (including both facial and vocal) and emotional
behavior in autonomous agents. The University
of Amsterdam's experimental psychology department is conducting research
in the area of emotions as well.
The Brain and the Neuropsychology of Emotions
Double click on the hot
flames for a hot bed of information from The Beckman Institute for
Advanced Science and Technology's Cognitive Neuroscience Group at the University
of Chicago at Urbana-Champaign. The Cognitive Neuroscience Group is a group
of researchers investigating how the brain and emotions work. In additon,
if you are interesting in books on neuroscience, and want a little light
reading for over the weekend, investigate books from Neuropsychology
Central is an on-line resource for everyone interested in the area.
The primary objectives of the homepage are:
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To describe the importance of neuropsychology as a science of brain and
behavior
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To increase public knowledge of neuropsychology as a branch of practical
medicine
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To indicate the contribution which neuropsychology is making to the neurosciences
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To act as a resource for the professional and layperson, alike
Here's just a sampling of what the page includes:
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Neuropsychological
Assessment
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Resources directly related to the assessment of mental function in various
neuropsychologically impaired populations.
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Brain
Imaging
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Resources covering all aspects of neuroimaging with a special emphasis
on functional imaging techniques.
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Cognitive
Neuropsychology
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Neuropsychological theory and resources from the cognitive orientation.
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Homepages
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Personal pages of individuals actively pursuing careers in neuropsychology
and closely related fields.
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Laboratories
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University and medical school labs dedicated to the study of neuropsychology.
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Neuropsychology
Central Forum
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Neuropsychology Central's www discussion group for practitioners, academics,
and interested parties.
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Newsgroups
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Professional and support newsgroups closely related to the study of neuropsychology
and neuropsychological difficulties.
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Professional
Organizations
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Links to organizations and professional conferences.
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Publications
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Printed material available on the internet related to neuropsychology.
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General
Neuroscience
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A hodgepodge of interesting and superbly crafted links related to the neurosciences.
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Various
Psychology Links
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A great place to jump-off this page and into other worlds of psychology.
Another great resource in neuropsychology comes from Brown
University's Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior's page of
neuropsychology links on the World Wide Web. This page is overflowing with
information, and is a great starting point for venturing through the neuropsychology
world on the Web.
Methods for Researching Emotions
The Beckman
Institute for Advanced Science and Technology's Cognitive Neuroscience
Group at the University of Chicago at Urbana-Champaign proceeds in researching
the brain and emotions. On their page they indicate the various methodologies
they use to investigate cognition and emotion. Look at all the abstracts
of technical
reports produced by this group, or select a specific abstract you would
like to view by clicking on the abstract number. ml#CNS-94-02">[CNS-94-02]
Russell A. Poldrack, On Testing for Stochastic Independence between
Memory Tests If you are having problems conceiving a research design
appropriate for investigating some aspect of emotion, just contact Geneva
Emotion Week conference is being held May 16-19, 1996. The conference
has two major themes:
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a colloquium focusing on major topics in the psychology of emotion
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workshops on advanced research methods in the field of emotion
And finally, for an interesting little piece similar to the notion of "how
NOT to lie with statistics," check out Clay Helberg from the University
of Wisconsin Schools of Nursing and Medicine's piece entitled Pitfalls
of Data Analysis or in other words How
to Avoid Lies and Damned Lies from an applied statistics conference.
References
Ashforth, B.E. & Humphrey, R.H. (1995). Emotion in the workplace: A
reappraisal. Human Relations, 48(2), 97-125.
Eysenck, S.B., Pearson, P.R., Easting, G. & Allsopp, J.F.
(1985). Age norms for impulsiveness, venturesomeness and empathy in adults.
Personality and Individual Differences, 6(5), 613-619.
Gardner, H. (1993). Multiple Intelligences. New York: BasicBooks.
Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence. New York: Bantam Books.
Greenberg, M.T., Kusche, C.A., Cook, E.T. & Quamma, J.P. (1995).
Promoting emotional competence in school-aged children: The effects of
the PATHS curriculum. Development and Psychopathology, 7, 117-136.
Mayer, J.D. & Salovey, P. (1993). The intelligence of emotional
intelligence. Intelligence, 17, 433-442.
Ruisel, I. (1992). Social intelligence: Conception and methodological
problems. Studia Psychologica, 34(4-5), 281-296.
Salovey, P. & Mayer, J.D. (1990). Emotional intelligence.
Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 9(1990), 185-211.
Thorndike, E.L. (1920). Intelligence and its uses. Harper's Magazine,
140, 227-235.
Watson, M. & Greer, S. (1983). Development of a questionnaire measure
of emotional control. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 27(4), 299-305.
Williams, W.M. & Sternberg, R.J. (1988). Group intelligence: Why some
groups are better than others. Intelligence, 12, 351-377.
Although I will attempt to keep this information accurate, I cannot
guarantee the accuracy of the information provided. Copyright © 1996,
Cheri A. Young. All rights reserved.