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Helen Terekhova
IQ and EQ – Intelligence for Life [1] - 22.01.2025
The Renowned IQAs easy as ABC
I bet you know a lot about Intelligence Quotient, better known like IQ – hundreds of jokes, stories, TV shows, advertisements and Internet pages are dazzling us with these two letters, letting them in our brains, invading our minds and … not surprising us at all. IQ tests have become so widespread that they don’t mean anything more than a number of questions for testing the intellectual abilities like logical reasoning, word knowledge, math skills and other concepts from the related fields.
The term IQ appeared thanks to researches of French and German psychiatrists. The first modern intelligence quotient test was developed by Alfred Binet in the early 20th century. At first the test was dedicated to mentally retarded children, but the idea soon became popular, the test was regenerated and used for examining normal people.
And what about EQ?
Causing a flutter
It happened at the end of the 20th century. It was a new term, a new idea and a controversial point to study, and its name was Emotional Quotient, or EQ.
Not everything was clear with IQ from the very beginning. Some said that the high level of IQ didn’t guarantee success in career and life. Many specialists asserted that it was impossible to explain all the achievements of people only by the high results, shown by the logical intellect. And soon several researches showed the bitter truth: the success of managers depended on IQ only for 15-20 %. And what were the other 80% determined by?
The term Emotional Quotient was first developed in the 1980’s by John Mayer and Peter Salovey. They published a book “The intelligence of emotional intelligence”, where the concept of emotional intellect was proved. The main idea of their work was that though emotions and intellect were usually opposed, in fact, they were closely interrelated and interacted with each other.
"Emotional intelligence refers to the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships," says Daniel Goleman in his book "Working with Emotional Intelligence" (1999).
Goleman distinguishes 4 main components of EQ. They are:
Self- awareness
It is the main constituent of the emotional intellect. A person with the high level of self-awareness knows his strong and weak points and is able to realize his emotions.
Self-management
It follows self-awareness. To direct emotions means not to repress them, but make them serve you. It is to be able to regulate outbursts, to block negative feelings, to be able to stop them in getting you down.
Empathy
Empathy is the ability to sympathize. It allows to share feelings with the others and to take from them, to be a good listener who takes into account various points of view.
Relationship skills
They conjecture optimism, abilities to find a compromise in a conflict, adaptability in the society.
Most scientists agree that any person can improve his EQ. But you should be ready for this job to turn out a complicated one, requiring moral strength, power and everyday trainings. We should not expect ringing the bells keeping our feet up.
IQ and EQ Tests
A catch question
Some educators and psychologists feel that neither EQ nor IQ testing presents the full picture of a human being. As well, standardized testing may oversimplify emotional intelligence and response.
Emotional and intelligence quotient tests may be able to make some statements about an individual, but they are too general to really sum up a person’s potential.
This does not, however, discourage employers from using emotional quotient tests to make decisions regarding candidates for jobs in their companies.
Emotional Intelligence Training
Just try!
Psychologists suggest an interesting scheme for emotional intelligence trainings, particularly empathy and relationship skills. Its name is the so-called Emotional Account. It’s very similar to a financial bill: you can make contributions, maintaining your inter-confidence, or take the deposits back, lowering the confidence. If the income is more than the expenses, your communication is free and outspoken.
Your Emotional Account
Expenses
Impolite sayings, humiliation or rude actions towards the others
No wish to apologize or insincere apologies
Nonfulfillment of promises
Too much sensitivity, spitefulness, endless reproaches and discontent
Income
Kindness and tactful behaviour
Apologies
Fulfillment of promises
Forgiveness
A person with the high EQ is more successful, takes the life optimistically and life turns much better to him.
However, you have an opportunity to decide whether you want to improve your IQ and EQ or not. You choose your lifestyle yourself. And you always have great power to create the splendid world in harmony with your Personality.
Helen Terekhova
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