Untitled - Springer Publishing

More documents

Recommendations

Info

INTRODUCTION what is emotionally intelligent depends on the context—and laboratory studies may not adequately capture the social and emotional contexts of real life. At the same time, we see limited prospects for a scientific account of EI arising from idiographic methods, which requires a systematic comparison of both test scores and emotional functioning across individuals (Zeidner, Roberts, & Matthews, 2004). We may also note that artists may possess a rather special type of EI. Whatever their gifts in understanding and communicating emotion, artists and writers tend to show elevated levels of abnormal personality traits (Batey & Furnham, 2006). Strategies for Theory Building We have spent some time talking about the measurement of EI and the obstacles that occur because of its fundamental importance. We will take rather less space to discuss theoretical issues, because there is a lack of theory-driven research on EI. The imbalance in research effort in part reflects the recency of EI as a topic area, and, naturally enough, researchers have been more preoccupied with how to assess this new construct than with finer points of theory. However, psychological testing is of limited use in the absence of a theoretical understanding of what the test scores actually mean. Here, we will briefly set out some of the directions for future theories of EI. We need first to get a rough sense of what a theory of EI would look like. We need to be clear that descriptive schemes of the types set out in Tables 1.1 and 1.2 are not theories. A theory sets out to explain or account for observed phenomena, frequently by specifying cause-and-effect relationships, for example, how an abnormality of the neurons within a brain system for emotion produces unusual behaviors in an emotional situation. Lists of qualities or functions are theoretically ambiguous—that is, there are a variety of ways in which we could explain individual differences in emotional functioning. For example, what makes a person good at “emotion perception”? 23 Matthews_PTR_Ch 01_12-10-11_1-42.indd 23 10/12/2011 10:46:54 AM
CHAPTER 1 There are various possible answers from theory (see Figure 1.6). There are brain circuits that are attuned to expressions of facial emotion, for example, in the amygdala. Perhaps, in some individuals, these circuits are especially finely attuned to facial stimuli. Encoding any kind of stimulus requires attention. An alternative hypothesis is that there are some persons who are especially good at attending to emotional stimuli, while ignoring other irrelevant ones. Reading the emotions of another is also easier if we know something about the person and their circumstances. Perhaps excellence in emotion perception resides in using background knowledge to make sense of clues to emotion, or in reasoning what the person is probably feeling given their recent experiences. The general point is that simply listing “emotion perception” as a facet of EI does not tell us anything about the differences in processing emotional stimuli that determine the Sensitive subcortical circuits for emotion Attending to cues that indicate emotion Superior emotion perception Reasoning what the person should feel Familiarity with the person FIGURE 1.6 Multiple influences on emotion perception ability, in a real-life context. 24 Matthews_PTR_Ch 01_12-10-11_1-42.indd 24 10/12/2011 10:46:54 AM
Page 2 and 3: The Psych 101 series James C. Kaufm
Page 4 and 5: Emotional Intelligence 101 Gerald M
Page 6 and 7: To the new generation of emotional
Page 8 and 9: Contents 2 Chapter 1 Introduction 1
Page 10 and 11: PREFACE Preface Not long ago, psych
Page 12 and 13: PREFACE ramifications. But the stro
Page 14 and 15: PREFACE the extent to which researc
Page 16 and 17: Creativity 101 James C. Kaufman, Ph
Page 18 and 19: Emotional Intelligence 101 Matthews
Page 20 and 21: 1 Introduction Science must begin w
Page 22 and 23: INTRODUCTION FIGURE 1.1 Portrait of
Page 24 and 25: INTRODUCTION play a role in crime,
Page 26 and 27: INTRODUCTION fellow humans, could b
Page 28 and 29: INTRODUCTION key aptitudes, compete
Page 30 and 31: INTRODUCTION Emotional intelligence
Page 32 and 33: INTRODUCTION TABLE 1.2 THE ADULT SA
Page 34 and 35: INTRODUCTION mind has a tendency to
Page 36 and 37: INTRODUCTION Is EI Really an Intell
Page 38 and 39: INTRODUCTION TABLE 1.3 CAPSULE DESC
Page 40 and 41: INTRODUCTION FIGURE 1.5 Théodore G
Page 44 and 45: INTRODUCTION individual’s compete
Page 46 and 47: INTRODUCTION Basic Processes in EI.
Page 48 and 49: INTRODUCTION plan for negotiating i
Page 50 and 51: INTRODUCTION Third, as with measure
Page 52 and 53: INTRODUCTION More recently, this me
Page 54 and 55: INTRODUCTION challenges that arise.
Page 56 and 57: INTRODUCTION distressing emotional
Page 58 and 59: INTRODUCTION concerns with the chil
Page 60 and 61: INTRODUCTION emotional functioning.

Untitled - Springer Publishing

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?