What is Emotional Intelligence?

The original UNH webpage about emotional intelligence was among the first online and publicly available sources of responsible information about emotional intelligence. Here, in revised form, is an introduction to the theory of emotional intelligence with additional commentary on its measurement. The following document represents a reconstruction and update of the earlier UNH Emotional Intelligence site and information that was available on it. The reconstruction includes all the major essays and e-mail exchanges with colleagues about the theory that were relevant to emotional intelligence. As we transferred the material to the present website, it was lightly edited. The edits were limited to: Ensure all links were properly updated or proplerly referenced in APA style Correct typographical and orthographical mistakes in the earlier texts. Replace tables that had been formatted originally in HTML with formatting in MS Word (from which PDFs were made). During those edits, some tables were clarified or, if overly long, shortened to focus on what was important. For example, the tables reflecting types of data in the Measuring Emotional Intelligence section were updated and, in some instances, revised into bulleted lists; also, the table that included examples of hypothetical individuals who were low in personal intelligence was shortened to include fewer examples. The multiple individual posts on the original website were combined into the PDFs below. The first-level headings in the documents generally correspond to the names of the individual pages on the original website, with small exceptions

The personality systems framework: Current theory and development

The personality systems framework is a fieldwide outline for organizing the contemporary science of personality. I examine the theoretical impact of systems thinking on the discipline and, drawing on ideas from general systems theory, argue that personality psychologists understand individuals’ personalities by studying four topics: (a) personality’s definition, (b) personality’s parts (e.g., traits, schemas, etc.), (c) its organization and (d) development. This framework draws on theories from the field to create a global view of personality including its position and major areas of function. The global view gives rise to new theories such as personal intelligence—the idea that people guide themselves with a broad intelligence they use to reason about personalities

Intelligences about things and intelligences about people

Human intelligence is redefined in light of new evidence that, in addition to general intelligence, broad mental abilities exist such as quantitative, spatial, and verbal-comprehension intelligences. Many of these broad intelligences pertain to circumscribed topics; that is, to reasoning within a broad content-area. For example, quantitative intelligence is concerned with mathematical reasoning, and spatial intelligence with reasoning about objects and their shapes and movements. Some among the broad intelligences are focused on reasoning about people: People-focused intelligences include personal intelligence (an intelligence about personality), social intelligence, and emotional intelligence. I argue for an understanding of each broad intelligence as involving a group of abilities necessary to reason about a specific subject area. To help organize the broad intelligences, a rationale is provided for categorizing them according to whether they focus mostly on things or on people

Personal intelligence

A model of personal intelligence is developed. Personal intelligence is defined as the capacity to reason about personality and to use personality and personal information to enhance one\u27s thoughts, plans, and life experience. Approaches to related concepts such as intrapersonal intelligence and psychological-mindedness are reviewed. Next, a model of personal intelligence is proposed that emphasizes the capacity to: a) recognize personally-relevant information; b) form accurate models of personality; c) guide one\u27s choices by using personality information; and d) systematize one\u27s goals, plans, and life stories. A discussion examines the possible contributions and limitations of the personal intelligence concept

Brief Mood Introspection Scale (BMIS): Scoring Instructions

The BMIS scale is an open-source mood scale consisting of 16 mood-adjectives to which a person responds (e.g., Are you happy ?). The scale can yield measures of overall pleasant-unpleasant mood, arousal-calm mood, and it also can be scored according to positive-tired and negative-calm mood

A tale of two visions: Can a new view of personality help integrate psychology?

Personality psychology studies how psychological systems work together. Consequently, the field can act as a unifying resource for the broader discipline of psychology. Yet personality\u27s current fieldwide organization promotes a fragmented view of the person, seen through such competing theories as the psychodynamic, trait, and humanistic. There exists an alternative--a systems framework for personality--that focuses on 4 topics: identifying personality, personality\u27s parts, its organization, and its development. This new framework and its view of personality are described. The framework is applied to such issues as personality measurement, psychotherapy outcome research, and education. The new framework may better organize the field of personality and help with its mission of addressing how major psychological systems interrelate

Personal intelligence expressed: A theoretical analysis

An individual\u27s cumulative life decisions help determine that person\u27s well-being. To make good decisions requires knowing something about who one is and who one wants to be. It seems plausible that personality may draw on a specifically tailored intelligence that supports its own self-understanding and contributes to such life decisions. This personal intelligence (PI) helps the individual meet his or her own personal needs and to fit in with (or stand out from) the environment. What are people high in PI actually like relative to those lower in the skills? Drawing on a 2008 theory of PI-related abilities, the author reviews several literatures to examine what features distinguish the behavior of people high in PI from those lower in such skills. The feature list sets the stage for future research in distinguishing high-PI individuals from low-PI individuals according to their life expressions

About the (Original) Emotional Intelligence Website

The original UNH webpage about emotional intelligence was among the first online and publicly available sources of responsible information about emotional intelligence. Here, in revised form, are the remaining unique posts describing the website, its homepage, contact information and the editorial policy of the original site. The following document represents a reconstruction and update of the earlier UNH Emotional Intelligence site and information that was available on it. The reconstruction includes all the major essays and e-mail exchanges with colleagues about the theory that were relevant to emotional intelligence. As we transferred the material to the present website, it was lightly edited. The edits were limited to: Ensure all links were properly updated or proplerly referenced in APA style Correct typographical and orthographical mistakes in the earlier texts. Replace tables that had been formatted originally in HTML with formatting in MS Word (from which PDFs were made). During those edits, some tables were clarified or, if overly long, shortened to focus on what was important. For example, the tables reflecting types of data in the Measuring Emotional Intelligence section were updated and, in some instances, revised into bulleted lists; also, the table that included examples of hypothetical individuals who were low in personal intelligence was shortened to include fewer examples. The multiple individual posts on the original website were combined into the PDFs below. The first-level headings in the documents generally correspond to the names of the individual pages on the original website, with small exceptions

Measuring Emotional Intelligence

The original UNH webpage about emotional intelligence was among the first online and publicly available sources of responsible information about emotional intelligence. Here, in revised form, is a central document regarding topics about emotional intelligence and focused in particular on the issues surrounding the measurement of emotional intelligence. The following document represents a reconstruction and update of the earlier UNH Emotional Intelligence site and information that was available on it. The reconstruction includes all the major essays and e-mail exchanges with colleagues about the theory that were relevant to emotional intelligence. As we transferred the material to the present website, it was lightly edited. The edits were limited to: Ensure all links were properly updated or proplerly referenced in APA style Correct typographical and orthographical mistakes in the earlier texts. Replace tables that had been formatted originally in HTML with formatting in MS Word (from which PDFs were made). During those edits, some tables were clarified or, if overly long, shortened to focus on what was important. For example, the tables reflecting types of data in the Measuring Emotional Intelligence section were updated and, in some instances, revised into bulleted lists; also, the table that included examples of hypothetical individuals who were low in personal intelligence was shortened to include fewer examples. The multiple individual posts on the original website were combined into the PDFs below. The first-level headings in the documents generally correspond to the names of the individual pages on the original website, with small exceptions

Controversies in Emotional Intelligence

The original UNH webpage about emotional intelligence was among the first online and publicly available sources of responsible information about emotional intelligence. Here, in revised form, are edited e-mail exchanges and posts about controversies concerning emotional intelligence. Although the exchanges took place in 2004, many of the controversies are still relevant to the field of EI today. The following document represents a reconstruction and update of the earlier UNH Emotional Intelligence site and information that was available on it. The reconstruction includes all the major essays and e-mail exchanges with colleagues about the theory that were relevant to emotional intelligence. As we transferred the material to the present website, it was lightly edited. The edits were limited to: Ensure all links were properly updated or proplerly referenced in APA style Correct typographical and orthographical mistakes in the earlier texts. Replace tables that had been formatted originally in HTML with formatting in MS Word (from which PDFs were made). During those edits, some tables were clarified or, if overly long, shortened to focus on what was important. For example, the tables reflecting types of data in the Measuring Emotional Intelligence section were updated and, in some instances, revised into bulleted lists; also, the table that included examples of hypothetical individuals who were low in personal intelligence was shortened to include fewer examples. The multiple individual posts on the original website were combined into the PDFs below. The first-level headings in the documents generally correspond to the names of the individual pages on the original website, with small exceptions