Emotional intelligence and the importance of its formation

 Nowadays, the problems of the connection of feelings and mind, their interaction and influence are becoming more and more interesting. Emotional intelligence is a phenomenon that combines the ability to distinguish and understand emotions, manage their own emotional states and the emotions of their communication «partners. The field of study of emotional intelligence is relatively young and has a little over one decade. Today, however, this problem is dealt with by experts all over the world.

For the first time the term “emotional intelligence” was used in 1990 by J. Meyer and P.Saloy. One of the definitions of emotional intelligence formulated by these authors as “the ability to carefully comprehend, evaluate, and express emotions; ability to understand emotions and emotional knowledge; as well as the ability to control emotions, which contributes to the emotional and intellectual growth of the personality. The importance of development the emotional intelligence acquires at preschool and younger school age, because during these periods that children are actively becoming emotional, their self-consciousness, their ability to reflect and decentralize (ability to take a partner’s position, take into account their needs and feelings) are formed.

Educators and psychologists may have a fair question: why is it so important to develop emotional intelligence? The answer is given by numerous researches of scientists testifying that a low level of emotional intelligence can lead to the consolidation of a complex of qualities called alexithymia. Alexithymia — difficulty in understanding and determining one’s own emotions — increases the risk of psychosomatic diseases in children and adults. Thus, the ability to understand your own feelings and manage them is a personal factor that strengthens the psychological and somatic health of a child.

In addition, the researchers found that about 80% of success in the social and personal spheres of life determines the level of development of emotional intelligence, and only 20% — the well-known IQ — the intelligence quotient, which measures the degree of human mental abilities. In the mid-90s of the 20th century, this conclusion of scientists turned views on the nature of personal success and the development of human abilities. It turns out that improving the logical thinking and outlook of the child is not yet a guarantee of his future success in life. It is much more important for a child to master the capabilities of emotional intelligence, namely:

• the ability to control their feelings so that they do not “overflow”;
• the ability to consciously influence to their emotions;
• the ability to define one’s feelings and accept them;
• the ability to use your emotions for the benefit of yourself and others;
• the ability to communicate effectively with other people, to find common points of

contact with them;

• the ability to recognize and recognize the feelings of others, to present themselves in the correct way

Foreign researchers of emotional intelligence revealed some age-related features of the development of this quality. Emotional intelligence increases with the acquisition of life experience, increasing in the period of adolescence and maturity. This means that a child’s level of emotional intelligence is obviously lower than that of an adult, and cannot be equal to him. But this does not mean that the formation of emotional abilities is inappropriate in childhood. On the contrary, there is evidence that special educational programs significantly increase the children’ level of emotional competence.

There are two possible approaches to the development of emotional intelligence: you can work with it directly, and indirectly, through the development of related qualities. Today, it has been proven that the development of emotional intelligence is influenced by the development of such personal qualities as emotional stability, a positive attitude towards oneself, an internal focus of control (a willingness to see the cause of the events in oneself and not in surrounding people and random factors) and empathy (ability to empathy). Thus, by developing these qualities, we as teachers can increase their level of emotional intelligence. The interest in EI is largely associated with numerous loud statements about its practical importance in various fields. It is argued that EI is crucial for success in legal, medical, educational and engineering professions. Below we will analyze the possibility of using the concept of EI in two applied areas: in education and in psychology. However, measuring EI will only make sense if it provides additional information that cannot be obtained using existing methods, i.e., teachers should be able to use methods for measuring EI like criterion, prognostic, and incremental validity. It means that enthusiasm for EI is explained by the need to find abilities that seem necessary for an effective professional activity that requires good emotional regulation, empathy, and motivation management.

It is argued that the school needs to conduct training aimed at the development of emotional competence. Such “emotional education” can be carried out through direct education, the creation of a specific psychological climate, and the involvement of students, teachers, and even parents to the group activities. It is assumed that, like other skills, EI may develop as a result of systematic training. Therefore, teachers are very interested in the concept of EI. In addition, it is of interest to use EI as a predictor of educational achievements. It is argued that high EI leads to an increase in the productivity of learning activities and to high academic performance:
Studies have shown that emotional and academic intelligence are independent characteristics and that emotional intelligence better predicts success in school. In addition, it is argued that research has rediscovered what is already known to good teachers and parents: understanding themselves and others and the ability to use this knowledge to solve problems are the basis of successful learning. Thus, it is unclear whether these programs contribute to the development of EI. It is very likely that they simply contribute to the development of communication skills and improve the psychological climate in the school.

In recent years, there has been some progress in shaping the scientific basis of EI, but many serious difficulties remain. First of all, it concerns the definition of the very concept of EI. The points of view of different authors in this regard overlap only partially, much is not clearly formulated, sometimes the concept of EI is interpreted too broadly. The existence of two types of EI models — mixed and capacity models — leads to different approaches to its measurement, and these approaches produce results that do not agree with each other. Measurement of EI using questionnaires is fairly reliable and has acceptable criteria validity. However, the results of such questionnaires are difficult to distinguish from the results of personal questionnaires, which acutely poses the problem of their incremental validity. Measuring EI with the help of tests seems to be more preferable from a theoretical point of view, but its criteria validity is not high enough. It is possible that the EI tests measure not so much a specific ability as the conformity of the subject’s ideas about emotions to cultural norms. Creating a holistic psychological theory of EI is still to come. It remains unclear on which neural and cognitive processes EI is based and what role it plays in the adaptation of man to the world around him. The enthusiasm regarding the importance of the concept of EI for practice seems excessive and premature. Organizational psychology has not collected enough data to assume that EI is associated with professional success. However, it seems obvious that this construct is extremely important for some professions related to communication. Similarly, there is no convincing empirical evidence of the importance of EI in training, but it seems necessary and productive to continue the search in this area.

The first wave of EI research allowed us to identify some abilities that may add something new to the set of abilities and personal characteristics that are already described in scientific psychology and began to be used in practical work. Research is now needed to identify the components of EI and link them to mental processes that determine individual differences in understanding and managing emotions. This works in this sphere will make it possible to develop more valid methods for measuring EI, to make this construct more reasonable from a theoretical point of view and to find ways of its most adequate application in practice.

Kokambayeva Ainur Bekenovna

Almaty city Comprehensive school #76

           Teacher of English language