Emotional Intelligence: Putting Yourself In Another Person’s Shoes
Traditionally, emotional intelligence has been linked to cognitive abilities such as memory or problem solving in everyday life. However, it has been more easily related to aspects such as empathy, motivation, the state of mind… Thus, there are several studies carried out in the field of psychology to better understand this intelligence.
The studies carried out point in one direction: emotional intelligence not only builds human beings, but also conditions them in a very important way, and is related to their level of well-being. The first to directly research this intelligence and its repercussions were: John D. Mayer and Peter Salovey.
We find an earlier indirect precedent in the figure of Thorndike who, in 1920, used the term social intelligence to describe the ability to understand and motivate other people. Like him, David Wechsler , in 1940, described the influence of non-intellectual factors on intelligent behavior and argued further that our models of intelligence would not be complete until they could adequately describe these new capabilities. Their studies have indicated that often a person’s intellectual performance is not the factor most closely associated with their success or failure.
During the 1980s, Mayer and Salovey contributed their research, considering that the translational models were insufficient, as they did not include the multiple skills and abilities of human intelligence. It was then that they first adopted the term “emotional intelligence”.
Many years later, as early as 1995, Daniel Goleman made this concept popular through his periodic columns. After being publicized by the press, it published the famous book “Emotional Intelligence”, in which it produced a compendium of existing research and approaches, expanding the definition with new traits and qualities that brought new models.
Defining Emotional Intelligence
What is emotional intelligence really? What is it for? Is it one of our most potent abilities?
One of its definitions is: the ability to understand emotions and balance them in such a way that they can be used to guide our conduct and our thought processes, in order to obtain better results.
However, I believe emotional intelligence is something else; a much deeper capacity that allows you to connect with others in a special way. I believe that this type of intelligence acts in a superior way to the others since, without it, the others would not work with the same agility.
They say feeling is an extra art. However, anyone can feel; anyone can burn and feel pain, anyone can be sensitive to any kind of temperature change. But what about putting yourself in the other’s shoes? That’s another five hundred.
But precisely thanks to emotional intelligence, we are able to identify our emotions and those of others. Thanks to it, we are able to put ourselves in the other’s shoes and share their joy or grief, thanks to this innate and human capacity we are able to tune in to the most intimate part of the other human being.
If, in the world, these intelligences were more exercised, things would probably be different.
