EI

 

Goleman’s five domain components of emotional intelligence

Goleman broadened Mayer’s and Salovey’s four-branch system to incorporate five essential elements of emotional intelligence — or EQ, the shorthand he sometimes uses:

• Emotional self-awareness — knowing what one is feeling at any given time and understanding the impact those moods have on others
• Self-regulation — controlling or redirecting one’s emotions; anticipating consequences before acting on impulse
• Motivation — utilizing emotional factors to achieve goals, enjoy the learning process and persevere in the face of obstacles
• Empathy — sensing the emotions of others
• Social skills — managing relationships, inspiring others and inducing desired responses from them

Applications for educators

There are very practical reasons to promote social and emotional learning in schools, from kindergarten through college. According to Goleman, bullying, disciplinary problems, violence and drug abuse are reduced in schools with a high EQ. With a solid basis in emotional intelligence, academic performance — as well as behavior — improves. There is an obvious connection to Goleman’s third, motivational component: learning stimulates curiosity and promotes feelings of satisfaction, even joy, when students immerse themselves in the process of assimilating new information.

The EQ of children starts developing long before they ever enter a classroom. But EQ levels will vary widely, depending on each child’s home environment. Thus teachers must be able to recognize those children whose emotional literacy needs a boost. Teachers should be ready to talk about feelings in the classroom. The message is that no emotion is “wrong,” but certain ways of expressing those emotions or acting on them are indeed inappropriate.

In 2002, UNESCO launched an international campaign to promote emotional learning in the classroom. The U.N. body sent a statement of 10 basic EQ principles to education ministries throughout the world. Those principles drew heavily from Goleman’s exposition of emotional intelligence.

Rating emotional intelligence

PositivePsychology.com has created a guide to help people assess their own levels of emotional intelligence. Discover exercises ranging from classifying facial expressions, emotional articulation tools, and communication tasks among other activities. These are suitable for students and adults alike.