Emotional Intelligence

This video explains the concept of Emotional Intelligence (EI), its four key skills: perceiving, using, understanding, and managing emotions, and how it can be improved. It also discusses the correlation between high EI and academic and professional success, suggesting that EI should be taught in schools.

Emotional intelligence, also known as EI or EQ, is the brain's ability to anticipate feelings, understand them, and manage them effectively. People with high EI recognize their own emotions and can identify them in others. This allows them to discern between different feelings, adjust their inner states, and communicate better. Perhaps the most relevant model of emotional intelligence was developed by psychologists John Mayer and Peter Salovey. In 1990, they defined it as the sum of four skills: perceiving, using, understanding, and managing emotions. Perceiving emotions is our ability to detect them in faces, pictures, and voices, including in ourselves. It's the foundation of emotional intelligence and makes all other processing of emotional information possible. Using emotions is the ability to align our hearts with our heads. People who are emotionally intelligent can perceive their changing moods and as a result, may adjust their actions to channel their feelings effectively. Understanding emotions is our ability to comprehend the complex relationships between feelings. It involves recognizing and describing how moods evolve and change over time. Managing emotions is the ability to regulate feelings in ourselves and in others. People who are good at this can control their sentiments, manage their moods, and are able to influence the emotions of others. While some people seem to be naturally gifted with all four abilities, others have to work hard on every single one of them. The good news is most of us can improve our EI through mindfulness, exercises, therapy, and education, and it seems it's worth the effort. Higher emotional intelligence often correlates with higher academic and professional success. This is because our emotions and the way we manage them directly impact our brain's ability to listen and learn. As Peter Salovey concluded, people in good moods are better at inductive reasoning and creative problem-solving. So, what do you think? Is emotional intelligence something we can and should try to teach in schools? And if so, how? Tell us your thoughts and experiences of improving your own EI in the comments below. If you found this helpful, check out our other videos and subscribe. If you want to support our work, join us on patreon.com/Sprouts. For more information and additional content, visit sproutschools.com.