What is emotional intelligence?
Assignment: Craft an essay that clearly defines Emotional Intelligence and argues why/how each of the foundation skills in that definition is important. Each topic sentence will answer both the definition (ie what is the skill/how would you recognize it?) and why it is important (how is it valuable/why is it valuable to develop?)
Example: “Self awareness is the ability to self reflect and understand one’s own emotions. We need to develop this skill because it is a foundation to all other EQ skills” (and the body paragraph that follows should go on to explain the definition/illustrate it, as well as explain why/how it is that foundation).
Your essay should be 5 pages in length and MLA style throughout.
I have written this so far:
What is emotional intelligence? Emotional intelligence is how we choose to live our lives on a daily basis. We explore this in Daniel Goleman’s book: Emotional Intelligence. His book is an excellent interpretation on how emotional intelligence is far more superior than an IQ and demonstrates a different kind of brilliance. Goleman gives us examples of how emotional intelligence is used in the many different settings of everyday life, whether it be at home, in the workplace or by how well we treat others. He states that we are mentally put to the test and how we react to our emotions determines if we pass or fail. Emotional intelligence is based on how we handle ourselves and the relationships we have with others in four distinct ways: self-awareness, self-management, empathy and how well we accomplish these as whole.
Being able to self-mange is possibly the most important concept in regards to emotional intelligence. We all have moments in our life where we want to lash out on others because we are either angry, tired, overwhelmed and self-absorbed. Goleman explains, “out-of-control emotions can make smart people stupid” (22). A person at the top of their class with the highest test score may appear as if they are the smartest person in the room but if they don’t manage their feelings properly in social situations, those test scores are irrelevant. When something upsets and overcomes us it is normal to want to lash out on others because of the way you are feeling, but the person that manages those emotions and chooses not to lash out on others is by far more emotionally intelligent. “The notion of emotional self-control does not mean denying or repressing true feelings” (81). You can still feel that anger, but by recognizing it and using that anger for good is what makes us a better person for not only ourselves but society.
Source:
Goleman, Daniel. Emotional Intelligence. New York, Bantam Dell, 2006.
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