Key Ingredients for Fostering Emotional Intelligence in Children

History

While the publication of Daniel Goleman’s best-selling book, Emotional Intelligence in 1995 strongly popularized the construct of emotional intelligence, intelligence has been an evolving concept with multiple definitions and different subtypes. Thorndike (1920) identified three categorizations of intelligence: abstract, mechanical, and social. Abstract intelligence is related to one’s verbal abilities, mechanical intelligence is related to one’s visual and spatial abilities, and social intelligence is related to one’s ability to interact with others. Thorndike (1937) continued to build on the concept of social intelligence and further defined it as the ability to understand your own mental state, motives, and behaviors and the ability to use that understanding as a basis for decision-making. Additionally, social intelligence also includes the ability to understand and manage relationships with other individuals. In the 1940s, David Wechsler, of the renowned Wechsler Intelligence Tests, suggested that affective or emotional components of intelligence may be critical to success in life. In the 1950s, Humanistic Psychologists, like Abraham Maslow, who proposed the famous Hierarchy of Needs, discussed how individuals can build their own emotional strength. In 1975, Howard Gardner introduced the concept of Multiple Intelligence Theory in his text, The Shattered Mind, which introduced Intrapersonal (self-awareness) and Interpersonal (social relationship) skills.” In 1981, Sternberg, Conway, Ketron, and Bernstein conducted a study wherein participants were asked to describe an intelligent person. Many of the responses included characteristics related to social abilities such as being able to admit to mistakes, to accept others, and to display interest in the world. Research continued on the topic of social intelligence and the theory continued to develop into what we refer to today as emotional intelligence. In 1985, Wayne Payne introduced the term “emotional intelligence” in his doctoral dissertation entitled, “A Study of Emotion: Developing Emotional Intelligence; Self-integration; Relating to Fear, Pain, and Desire.” In 1987, Keith Beasley & Reuven Bar-On utilized the term “emotional quotient (EQ).” Beasley discussed the term in an issue of Mensa Magazine while Bar-On mentioned the term in the unpublished version of his graduate thesis. In 1990, Yale researchers, Peter Salovey and John Mayer published their landmark article, “Emotional Intelligence” in the Journal, Imagination, Cognition, and Personality. As aforementioned, in 1995 Daniel Goleman wrote his best-selling Emotional Intelligence text and described why Emotional Intelligence (EI) can matter more than one’s Intelligence Quotient (IQ) in predicting future life success. Finally, in 1996, The Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations conducted research to identify emotional and social factors that are integral to later job success (Cory, 2019).