Emotional Intelligence
According to Goleman (1995), one’s IQ contributes only 20% to the factors that are responsible for success in life. Goleman suggests that emotional intelligence may be as important as or even more important to a person’s success than the more familiar IQ. He considers emotional intelligence to be composed of five components:
- Awareness of one’s feelings and the ability to use that knowledge in decision making;
- Ability to manage one’s feelings to prevent distress from blocking thought processes;
- Ability to motivate oneself despite setbacks, remaining positive and hopeful and delaying gratification;
- Ability to empathize with others; and
- Ability to develop rapport and cooperate with others and to handle feelings in relationships.
These abilities show high correlation with success in careers, good relationships, good health, and lower rates of delinquency, violence, and drug use in children. According to Goleman, better performance on achievement tests is also a result of improving emotional skills.
Excerpted From:
Excerpt from Growing Up Gifted: Developing the Potential of Children at Home and at School, by B. Clark, 2008 edition, p. 217.
© 2008, Merrill, an imprint of Pearson Education Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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