Understanding Emotional Intelligence

What is Emotional Intelligence

“The ability to perceive and express emotion, assimilate emotion in thought, understand and reason with emotion, and regulate emotion in the self and others.” (Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 2000, p. 396)

Social Connections

As we touched on in the last section, social connection is a primary contributor to our well-being. How we get along with and work with others also affects our success across multiple domains of our life, including:

• Professional relationships
• Social relationships
• Family relationships

Emotional Intelligence and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

Emotional intelligence is related to the field of social and emotional learning (SEL).

SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to develop healthy identities, manage emotions, achieve personal and collective goals, feel empathy and show it for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions. Source: Collaborative for Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL)

Making Connections

The fields of emotional intelligence (EI) and SEL are vast! For the purposes of this course, we are focussing on introducing the big picture of EI and making connections among the concepts of:

• The Brain, Attention, and Stress
• Mindfulness
• Positive Psychology