Emotional Intelligence
An Introduction
It was over a decade ago that the world of psychology focussed its attention on a seemingly new aspect of psychology, building on years of scientific work to form what became known as ‘Emotional Intelligence' (EI). With EI being taken up in many forms in many areas as it was flagged as “twice as important in contributing to excellence as pure intellect and expertise” (Goleman 1998, p.31). Some have claimed that there exists a “considerable body of research” showing that EI provides for competencies important “in almost any job” (Cherniss 2000, p.10).
The rapid rise of EI in western society could be argued to be contributed by contemporary cultural trends and orientations, as it began to attribute personal importance to emotions in modern life. It is argued that information relating to emotions can be learnt and that a person's EI can be improved. As a consequence EI offered a more egalitarian view of personal difference than IQ, which has often been seen as biologically determined. Proponents of EI soon began to argue that educational reform can finally reach its full potential across primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of education, and EI began to be used to formulate education policy and in the training of staff.
However, what EI is, what it does and whether it can be developed are not necessarily questions which have a simple answer and there remains a strong debate among those in the field around all of these issues.
In this section
