EQ? Don't you mean IQ?

We consume information with our eyes and ears, which relay that information to our spinal cords as electrical signals. Those signals must ultimately reach our frontal lobes for analysis, but they must first pass through the limbic system, which has many functions including controlling our emotional responses. When those signals reach our frontal lobes, reasoning, judgment, and impulse control are applied. Unfortunately, too many times, we react emotionally before we’ve analyzed the information. “The communication between your emotional and rational ‘brains’ is the physical source of emotional intelligence. (Read more in the first chapter of "Emotional Intelligence 2.0.”)

Daniel Goleman, one of the leaders in the field of emotional intelligence, purports that the human brain has evolved from the bottom up. Primitive man fully developed the sensory perceptions to prevent touching something hot and incurring burns or eating something bitter and perhaps poisonous. Early man’s brains developed emotional responses to external stimuli and reliance on those emotions, such as fear, as signals that increased his survival. Modern man relies on sensory input and emotional responses for survival too but also relies on intelligence and reasoning for survival in a world that runs on complex tools, economies, and concepts. (Read more in “Evolution of the human brain and emotional intelligence” at HubPages. )

Our brains have not evolved to where analyzing information before reacting emotionally comes to us as a reflex. For most of us it is an adaptation we must learn. In “Emotional Intelligence 2.0", the authors tell us that out of the 500,000 study participants, “only 36 percent of the people we tested are able to accurately identify their emotions as they happen.” These results indicate that “two thirds of us are typically controlled by our emotions and are not yet skilled at spotting them and using them to our benefit.” Authors Bradberry and Greaves define emotional intelligence as the ability to both 

• recognize and understand emotions in self and others and
• apply this understanding to behavior.

Who you are is a combination of your EQ, your IQ, and your personality. Scientists agree that IQ is a constant that is set for life at birth and cannot be altered. They apply the same view to personality, the combination of preferences, attitudes, and inclinations that we develop early in life that remain constant. Psychologists have found no relationship between IQ and EQ, or between personality and EQ; although, according to Bradberry and Greaves, one can leverage their personality traits when developing EQ.

Daniel Goleman found that IQ is a factor for 20% of a person’s success in life. He showed how it can predict things like academic success and job types.  He presented the idea that emotional intelligence is another factor that predicts, in part, the other 80% of our success in life. It is not known what percentage, out of the mysterious 80%, EQ accounts for, but Bradberry and Greaves found that 90% of high performers have high EQ scores and that people with high EQ scores annually earn $29,000 than those with lower scores. Statistically significant evidence has shown that EQ has a significant influence on our lives, including our decision-making and our relationships.

Goleman, and Bradberry and Greaves built their theories upon works from the twentieth century. Wayne Payne’s 1985 doctoral thesis titled “A study of Emotion: Developing Emotional Intelligence” is cited by several resources as the first usage of the term “emotional intelligence.” However, many sources, including a Wikipedia article, give that honor to  Leuner , who used it in an German publication in 1966. In 1990, the first work on the theory to garner broad attention is the article titled, “Emotional Intelligence,” written by Peter Salovey and John Mayer. Salovey and Mayer were the first to propose that EQ was scientifically measurable, similar to IQ. In 1995, Daniel Goleman's bestseller,  “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ,” was brought to the masses in an October, 1995 TIME Magazine article, “What’s your EQ?”


Listen to Goleman speak about EQ in this brief interview:

In the decades since Goleman's first book was published, he's written several more and other authors have followed his lead. Numerous training programs and consulting practices have also been developed around emotional intelligence assessments and training. While some of those companies market their EQ tools as the single most critical factor in your success, the truth is that EQ is one of many factors and is only a portion of the 80% not accounted for by IQ. Still, statics that proving EQ’s implications on our success have led educational institutions, corporations, and individuals to invest in these services.