Emotional Intelligence

Chapter 1The history of emotional intelligence

The term ‘emotional intelligence’ was coined by psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer in their 1990 article published in the journal Imagination, Cognition and Personality titled ‘Emotional intelligence’.

Their definition reads:

Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth.

This was the first time the words ‘emotional intelligence’ appeared in a publication. However, references to how we get along with the people around us existed as concepts as early as 1920 through the work of Edward Thorndike, although at that time they were labelled ‘social intelligence’. Emotional intelligence was yet to be referenced.

It wasn't until 1995, when Daniel Goleman published his book Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ, that the concept of EI really became a popular and more well‐known term.

In his book, Goleman talks about the five components of EI as:

1. self‐awareness
2. self‐regulation
3. internal motivation
4. empathy
5. social skills.

Today, this remains one of the most common explanations of EI, but for many people, it can be confusing.

For example, what do self‐awareness and self‐regulation consist of? What's the difference between empathy and sympathy? We require a certain level of emotional intelligence to understand ...