Emotional Intelligence: Definition, Importance, and Practical Applications

To prepare for ETHICS for any competitive exam, aspirants have to know about Emotional Intelligence. It gives an idea of all the important topics for the IAS Exam and the Economy syllabus (GS-IV.). Emotional Intelligence terms are important from Ethical perspectives in the UPSC exam. IAS aspirants should thoroughly understand their meaning and application, as questions can be asked from this static portion of the IAS Syllabus in both the UPSC Prelims and the UPSC Mains exams. Even these topics are also highly linked with current affairs. Almost every question asked from them is related to current events. So, apart from standard textbooks, you should rely on newspapers and news analyses as well for these sections.

This chapter on Emotional Intelligence (EI) is important to understand our own self. In general, it helps to study self-behaviour but in particular, it helps in the day to day administration. This chapter helps you in:

• Management of Emotions
• Taking Ethical actions
• How to control our negative emotions and how to use a negative emotion constructively?
• Helps in self-motivating to bring social awareness
• Resolving conflicts

Intelligence: The Key to Social and Personal Success #

• Intelligence is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.
• Intelligence is the capacity to understand the world and resourcefulness to cope with its challenges.
• Intelligence refers to individuals ability:
  • To understand complex ideas
  • To adapt effectively to the environment
  • To learn from past experiences
  • To engage in various forms of reasoning
  • To overcome obstacle by careful thought

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Emotional Intelligence: The Foundation for Personal and Social Proficiency #

• Emotional Intelligence is defined as the ability to understand our own emotions and other’s emotions and use them constructively to guide one’s thinking and actions.
• Emotional intelligence has been defined differently by various scholars. According to Peter Salovey and John Mayer (1990s) it is defined as “the ability to monitor one’s own and other people’s emotions, to discriminate between different emotions and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior”.
• This definition was adopted by Goleman and further categorized the emotional intelligence into:
  • Self-awareness,
  • Managing emotions,
  • Motivating oneself,
  • Empathy,
  • Handling relationships.
• Emotional intelligence is one of several types of intelligence required for success in all kinds of situations.
• Expressions of emotion depend on regulation of emotion for self or others. Persons who are capable of having awareness of emotions for self or others and regulate accordingly are called emotionally intelligent. Persons who fail to do so, deviate and thereby develop abreaction of emotion, resulting in anger, frustration and conflict.

Examples of Emotional Intelligence #

• When I get first rank in the examination, I feel Joy and happiness.
• When someone annoys you, you get frustration and angry
• When you lost your wallet and money, your mood will be sad
• When you are watching a horror movie or walking midnight, may get fear
• When you are in the interview hall, you may feel excitement and nervous

Scenario 1:

Your department is facing some challenges. There is too much politics, back biting and arguments. Recently there was an outburst from one of. Your team members. Using Emotional Intelligence, you can manage destructive emotions and can manage this situation effectively.

Scenario 2:

I was in a bad mood on Monday, due to family issues. However, I kept myself motivated and happy in the office so that my work should not be hampered, neither work space.

Scenario 3:

Everyone was not happy in the office because of issues discussed in recent meeting. However our manager kept everyone motivated and inspired, this increased everyone’s efficiency and elevated mood.

• After the Industrial revolution, society drastically changed at Individual level, family level, societal level. Individual human beings leading materialistic comforts and giving least importance to human relations, the Joint Family system broke down and society became more selfish.
• Capitalistic society created an atmosphere of uncertainty and insecurity among employees where it can’t afford inefficiency. In this process life became more materialistic in nature. There is no inner motivation to do the best of our abilities.
• Leadership failed to inculcate good attitudes among his followers where themselves don’t have such attitudes. In the long run, organisations become inefficient if they don’t resolve these issues.
• If no peace of mind at individual level it will directly affect his performance at organisational level leading to losses to the organisation.
• Then, what they realised was there is a need to motivate the public, employees and others and understand their emotions and using that information one can guide to improve efficiency of an organisation. This is how the emotional intelligence concept got popularised and this is just effective management of our emotions and using them efficiently.

Emotions: Exploring the Depths of Human Experience #

• The term Emotion is often considered synonymous with the terms ‘feeling’ and ‘mood’. For example, Joy, sorrow, hope, love, excitement, anger, hate, and many such feelings are experienced in the course of the day by all of us.
• Feeling denotes the pleasure or pain dimension of emotion, which usually involves bodily functions. Feeling is the name we give to emotion and feelings could be mixed with different emotions.
• Mood is an affective state of long duration but of lesser intensity than emotion.
• Both these terms are narrower than the concept of emotion.
• Affect is a broader term, generally used to describe the experience of feeling or emotion.

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Exploring the Complexity of Emotions and Emotional Intelligence #

• Emotions are a complex pattern of arousal, subjective feeling, and cognitive interpretation.
• Emotions, as we experience them, move us internally.
• This process involves physiological as well as psychological reactions
• Emotion is a subjective feeling and the experience of emotions varies from person to person.
• Ten basic emotions are joy, surprise, anger, disgust, contempt, fear, shame, guilt, interest, and excitement with combinations of them resulting in other emotional blends. It has been noted that at least six emotions are experienced and recognised everywhere. These are: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise.
• Some of the positive – negative emotion combinations are joy-sadness, acceptance-disgust, fear-anger, and surprise-anticipation.
• Emotions vary in their intensity (high, low) and quality (happiness, sadness, fear).
• Subjective factors and situational contexts influence the experience of emotions. These factors are gender, personality, and psychopathology of certain kinds.
• Evidence indicates that:
  • Women experience all the emotions except anger more intensely than men.
  • Men are prone to experience high intensity and frequency of anger.
• This gender difference has been attributed to the social roles attached to men (competitiveness) and women (affiliation and caring).

The Significance of Emotion in Human Behavior and Society #

• Emotion derives from charity. It is emotion that has led Bill Gates, Azim Premji and others to give all their wealth for charity.
• Nationalism, respect the national symbols of India, respect constitutional ideals and institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem, cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle for freedom.
• It is emotion only that drives civil servants to dedicate himself to the nation. Dedication is commitment with passion. It has emotion attached with it.
• Empathy and Compassion, Tolerance, Forgiveness
• Sensitivity – Respect for others religious belief, humble tradition of tribal folks.
• Food donation, Blood donation, being good Samaritan
• Gandhiji’s talisman is based on emotion to understand the vulnerability of others.
• The idea of dharma is born in a heart which is full of empathy and compassion.
• In matters where doubt intervenes, the natural inclination of the heart of a good person becomes the authority or the decisive factor. – Kalidasa
• Emotion is an important component of Attitude.
• Concept of committed bureaucracy require emotion
• Charles Darwin said emotion helps in survival.
• Positive emotions lead to positive behavior – like after watching movies like Bagban one will start to respect parents even more.

Mechanism of Emotion: Understanding How Emotions Arise and Influence Behavior #

Benefits of Emotional Intelligence (EI) in Various Aspects of Life #

• Solve problems by using both logic and feelings.
• Be flexible in changing situations.
• Help other people express their needs.
• Respond calmly and thoughtfully to difficult people.
• Keep an optimistic and positive
• Express empathy, compassion, and caring for others.
• Continuously learn how to improve ourselves and the organization.
• Enhance our interactions and communications with people of other cultures.

Types of Emotions: Positive and Negative  #

Managing Negative Emotions: Strategies for Emotion Management #

• It is difficult even to imagine a life without emotions. Emotions are a part of our daily life and existence. They form the very fabric of our life and interpersonal relations. There are various intensities of an emotion that can be experienced by us. You can experience extreme elation or slight happiness, severe grief.
• However, most of us usually maintain a balance of emotions. When faced with such a conflicting situation between emotions, we will face abnormal emotional reactions such as anxiety, depression etc.

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Strategies for Managing Negative Emotions #

• Enhance self-awareness: #

  • Be aware of your own emotions and feelings.
  • Try to gain insight into the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of your feelings.

• Appraise the situation objectively: #

  • It has been proposed that emotion is preceded by evaluation of the event. If the event is experienced as disturbing, your sympathetic nervous system is activated and you feel stressed. If you do not experience the event as disturbing, then there is no stress. Hence, it is you who decides whether to feel sad and anxious or happy and relaxed.

• Self-monitoring: #

  • This involves constant or periodic evaluation of your past accomplishments, emotional and physical states, real and vicarious experiences. A positive appraisal would enhance your faith in yourself and lead to enhanced feelings of wellness and contentment.

• Engage in self-modeling: #

  • Be the ideal for yourself. Repeatedly observe the best parts of your past performance and use them as an inspiration and motivation to perform better in the future.

• Perceptual reorganisation and cognitive restructuring: #

  • Try viewing the events differently and visualize the other side of the coin. Restructure your thoughts to enhance positive and reassuring feelings and eliminate negative thoughts.

• Be creative: #

  • Find and develop an interest or a hobby. Engage in an activity that interests and amuses you.

• Develop and nurture good relationships: #

  • Choose your friends carefully. In the company of happy and cheerful friends you will feel happy in general.

• Have empathy: #

  • Try understanding others feelings too. Make your relationships meaningful and valuable. Seek as well as provide support mutually.

• Participate in community service: #

  • Help yourself by helping others. By doing community service (for example, helping an intellectually challenged child learn an adaptive skill), you will gain important insights about your own difficulties.

Strategies for Enhancing Positive Emotions #

• Our emotions have a purpose. They help us adapt to the ever-changing environment and are important for our survival and well-being.
• Though negative emotions protect us in such situations, excessive or inappropriate use of these emotions can become life threatening to us, as it can harm our immune system and have serious consequences for our health.
• Positive emotions such as hope, joy, optimism, contentment, and gratitude energize us and enhance our sense of emotional well-being. When we experience positive affect, we display a greater preference for a large variety of actions and ideas. We can think of more possibilities and options to solve whatever problems we face and thus, we become proactive.
• Positive emotions give us a greater ability to cope with adverse circumstances and quickly return to a normal state. They help us set up long-term plans and goals, and form new relationships.
• Various ways of enhancing positive emotions are given below:
  • Personality traits of optimism, hopefulness, happiness and a positive self-regard
  • Finding positive meaning in dire Having quality connections with others, and supportive network of close relationships
  • Being engaged in work and gaining mastery
  • A faith that binds social support, purpose and hope, leading a life of purpose
  • Positive interpretations of most daily events.

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Mixed Model of Emotional Intelligence #

• The mixed model was most famously described by Daniel Goleman, and is a widely accepted and used model for Emotional Intelligence. It involves a range of competencies which are broken down into skill sets and which together form the picture of a person’s level of Emotional Intelligence.
• Emotional Intelligence of emotional intelligence subsumes intrapersonal and interpersonal elements.

The Importance of Self-Awareness in Emotional Intelligence #

• It is the ability to know one’s emotions, strengths, weaknesses, drives, values, and goals and recognize their impact on others while using gut feelings to guide decisions.
• Example: One should self-aware of their own emotion
  • Seeing blood causes fear
  • When someone talking with high pitch and louder, getting angry

Utilizing Self-Awareness for Effective Decision-Making and Interaction #

• An angry Bureaucrat, being self-awareness about his anger management he can manage angry public in his official duty
• A district collector can handle Journalists smoothly when raises several questions during a media brief and criticises his administration.
• When someone cries, we get sympathetic towards them. By knowing our weakness few fake beneficiaries try to get benefits from the govt simply using weapon of CRY
• Personal life we may not give promises when we are happy. So, at the end we won’t feel regret if it’s an unworthy promise to not get fulfilled.

Self-Motivation as the Driving Force Behind Behavior #

• Motivation plays a vital role in shaping human behaviour. Behaviours are caused by an underlying motive. Behaviour is goal-driven. Goal-seeking behaviour tends to persist until the goal is achieved. For achieving their goals people plan and undertake different activities. Most of our everyday explanation of behaviour is given in terms of motives.
• Example: Why do you come to the school or college? There may be any number of reasons for this behaviour, such as you want to learn or to make friends, you need a degree to get a good job, you want to make your parents happy, and so on.

Motivation Cycle: From Need to Achievement #

A need is a lack or deficit of some necessity. The condition of need leads to driving. A drive is a state of tension or arousal produced by a need. It energises random activity. When one of the random activities leads to a goal, it reduces the drive, and the organism stops being active. The organism returns to a balanced state.

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Motivational Strategies for Self and Others #

• Be planned and organised in whatever you do
• Learn to prioritise your goals
• Set short-term targets (In a few days, a week, a month, and so on)
• Reward yourself for hitting the set targets
• Compliment yourself on being an achiever each time you hit a target (Say “Cheers! I did it”, “I am really good with that”, “I think I can do things smartly”)
• If the targets seem difficult to attain, again break them up into smaller ones and approach them one by one
• Always try to visualise or imagine the outcomes of all the hard work you have to put in to reach your set goals.

Benefits of Self-Motivation in Personal and Professional Life #

• We can finish the projects on time
• Bureaucrats implements govt schemes, policies most efficiently
• To fulfill some of the biological motives like Hunger, Thirst, Survival of species through sexual activity
• Physiological motives like Power, success
• Among kids’ curiosity develops intellectual ability
• Exploration solves many questions in this universe like universe origin, how life evolved etc.

Theory of Self-Actualization: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs #

• Abraham Maslow attempted to portray a picture of human behaviour by arranging the various needs in a hierarchy. His viewpoint about motivation is very popular because of its theoretical and applied value which is popularly known as the “Theory of Self-actualisation”.
• Maslow’s model can be conceptualised as a pyramid in which the bottom of this hierarchy represents basic physiological or biological needs which are basic to survival such as hunger, thirst, etc. Only when these needs are met, the need to be free from threatened danger arises. This refers to the safety needs of physical and psychological nature. Next comes the need to seek out other people, to love and to be loved. After these needs are fulfilled, the individual strives for esteem, i.e. the need to develop a sense of self-worth.
• The next higher need in the hierarchy reflects an individual’s motive towards the fullest development of potential, i.e. self-actualization. A self-actualised person is self-aware, socially responsive, creative, spontaneous, open to novelty, and challenge. He also has a sense of humour and capacity for deep interpersonal relationships.
• Lower level needs (physiological) in the hierarchy dominate as long as they are unsatisfied. Once they are adequately satisfied, the higher needs occupy the individual’s attention and effort. However, it must be noted that very few people reach the highest level because most people are concerned more with the lower level needs.

Developing Social Awareness #

It is the ability to take the perspective of and empathize with others, including those from diverse backgrounds and cultures and the ability to understand social and ethical norms for behavior and to recognize family, school, and community resources and support. This includes:

• Service orientation – anticipating, recognizing and meeting other people’s need.
• Developing others – Understanding the needs of people to progress and cultivating their abilities
• Understanding opportunities through diverse people.

Advantages of Social Awareness #

• Developing empathy and compassion among individuals and also they are foundational values for civil servants
• Better social relationships
• Understanding others based emotional needs
• Fewer risky behaviours
• Positive social atmosphere

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Social Competence in the Context of Emotional Intelligence #

• It is the ability to handle social relations effectively. Given the complexity of social interactions, social competence is the product of a wide range of cognitive abilities, emotional processes, behavioral skills, social awareness, and personal and cultural values related to interpersonal relationships. It depends on age to age or person to person and situation to situation it varies.
• Example:
  • To do friendship with kids we may have to behave like kids and do childish things before them
  • To inculcate different cultures, we have to learn and practice their cultural practices

Advantages: #

• To study tribal cultures and making sure of govt initiatives reach out to them
• To reach out to the civil society to make them part of administration
• To strengthen human relationships
• Coordination between different departments
• Profession and personal life balance

Developing Emotional Intelligence Skills #

• Flexibility: Emotionally intelligent people adapt to changes. They use problem-solving to develop options.
• Optimism: Emotionally intelligent people have a positive and optimistic outlook on life. Their mental attitude energizes them to work steadily towards goals despite setbacks.
• Self-Awareness: Emotionally intelligent people are aware of how they feel, what motivates and
• demotivates them, and how they affect others.
• Social Skills: Emotionally intelligent people communicate and relate well with others. They listen intently and adapt their communications to others’ unique needs, including diverse backgrounds. They show compassion.
• Emotional Control: Emotionally intelligent people handle stress evenly. They deal calmly with emotionally stressful situations, such as change and interpersonal conflicts.

Utility Of Emotional Intelligence #

• Emotional Intelligence is a desirable moral quality rather than a skill. A well-developed Emotional Intelligence is not only an instrumental tool for accomplishing goals, but has a dark side as a weapon for manipulating others by robbing them of their capacity.
• New evidence shows that when people hone their emotional skills, they become better at manipulating others. When you’re good at controlling your own emotions, you can disguise your true feelings. When you know what others’ feelings are, you can motivate them to act against their own best interests.
• Leaders who master emotions can rob us of our capacities for many reasons. If their values are out of step with our own, the results can be devastating.
• Instead of assuming that emotional intelligence is always useful, we need to think more carefully about where and when it matters.
• Example, there was no relationship between emotional intelligence and helping. Helping is driven by our motivations and values, not by our abilities to understand and manage emotions. However, emotional intelligence was consequential when examining a different behavior. Challenging the status quo by speaking up with ideas and suggestions for improvement. Here is growing recognition that emotional intelligence—like any skill—can be used for good or evil. So, if we’re going to teach emotional intelligence in schools and develop it at work, we need to consider the values that go along with it and where it’s actually useful.

Applications Of Emotional Intelligence In Administration And Governance #

Emotional Intelligence can be used in governance and administration for the appraisal of emotions arising from situations and better decision making, effective emotional management during public management activities.

• To improve Organisational relationships among peer employees
• To recruit well qualified staff to the bureaucracy who can better at managing their emotions
• To measure performance. 360-degree feedback to assess the officials of the govt
• To negotiate with corporates and NGOs to work for the govt
• To inculcate social responsibility among civil society and private companies
• Stress and anger management during public interaction
• To prevent conflict of interest.
• Be optimistic at work can build confidence and helps to meet the targets
• Impersonal detachment in the day to day administration
• Maintaining political neutrality irrespective of our personal ideology
• Requesting written communication if any higher officials or ministers appeal to you purely based on emotions.

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Advantages Of Developing Our Emotional Intelligence #

• Improved relationships
• Acting with integrity
• Reduced stress levels
• Improved career prospects
• Improved communication with others Feeling confident and positive
• Respect from others
• Better empathy skills
• Learning from mistakes
• Increased creativity
• Managing change more confidently Fewer power games at work

Emotions drive people and people drive outcomes. Investing in Emotional Intelligence can help in enhancing social, organizational, and national wellbeing and success.

Different ways to build Emotional Intelligence #

• Encouraging Debates
• Improving Emotional illiteracy
• Role modeling
• Improving Listening
• Communication Skills
• Generating empathy

Emotional Intelligence can be inculcated in administrators at following stages #

Emotional intelligence has been accepted as a very important quality for a civil servant and administrator which not only helps him in his official work but also helps in maintaining work- personal life balance.

The Effect Of Artificial Intelligence On Emotional Intelligence #

Automation and AI are bringing new opportunities and greater efficiencies to both businesses and society. This is increasing employee and organisational focus on unique human cognitive capabilities that machines simply cannot master. Emotional intelligence is one such area that AI and machines find hard to emulate, making it an essential skill set in today’s age.

Consequences: #

• AI will change the job profile of companies
• New roles will be created and many traditional roles will be occupied by automation
• Surpass Human intelligence and human emotions
• Erases the lines between tasks performed by machines and humans
• Junior and sub junior level employees suffer more with job loss
• Ethical decision making may or may not be ensured.

Benefits of Emotional Intelligence in the era of AI #

• Increase in efficiency and productivity
• Higher job satisfaction
• Better emotional and mental wellbeing
• Reduced fear of job loss
• Openness to changing attitudes
• Lower attrition
• Improved public relations through AI
• When you have a Emotional Intelligence you will be more honest and authentic in delivering your service which results in positive impact on the public offices

Ways to strengthen Human Intelligence over Emotional Intelligence #

• Only those employees or people who rate highly on Emotional Intelligence skills will have a higher chance of retaining their jobs, compared to the ones who just have their basic technical and digital skills in place
• Reskilling the workforce frequently
• Increasing the area of opportunities for employees
• The hiring, learning, and feedback programs in organizations have not been adapted to the age of the machine. Ready to change with changing attitudes of technology.

Over the years job satisfaction has been declining. To achieve synergy between man and machine, Emotional Intelligence will be the only arrow in the human hand to win against Artificial Intelligence.

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Previous Year Questions: #