The Unconventional Wisdom of Emotional Intelligence

Presents information on the ninth annual Convention of the American Psychological Society. Overview of the keynote address of Daniel Kahneman, Doctor of Philosophy, regarding colonoscopy; Concept of emotional intelligence; Predictors of depression.

By Marian M. Jones, published on September 01, 1997 - last reviewed on August 04, 2009

A REPORT FROM THE NINTH ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THEAMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY

WHEN IS IT BETTER TO PROLONG A PAINFUL PROCEDURE? Daniel Kahneman, Ph.D., was about to explain during his keynote address at this year's American Psychological Society convention, when an animal rights activist burst into the hall and accused a convention honoree of being a monkey torturer. After a brief commotion--one that might have been painfully prolonged had a group of seemingly septuagenarian researchers not quickly dragged the activist away--the Princeton psychologist returned to the question at hand. A colonoscopy, Kahneman explained, seems less painful to a patient in retrospect if the physician leaves the colonoscopy tube in the bowels for a few extra minutes after viewing the colon. Leaving the tube in does hurt, but it's less painful than the first part of the procedure, Kahneman noted. And it's this relative reduction in pain that the patient remembers, rather than the total amount of discomfort he or she experienced.

This memorable beginning, however, didn't overshadow the presentations that followed. Here are some of the meeting's other highlights:

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE: IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK

Emotional quotient, or EQ--supposedly a measure of a person's ability to identify and use emotions effectively--is hot. Some companies now require prospective employees to take EQ tests, and more than 700 school districts in the U.S. are considering programs they hope will raise children's emotional quotients. The problem is, we don't yet have a clear idea of what EQ is, Yale psychologist Peter Salovey, Ph.D., told the convention.

Salovey ought to know. He invented the concept of emotional intelligence (EI), together with University of New Hampshire psychologist John Mayer, Ph.D., in 1990. But their theories languished in obscurity until psychologist/journalist Daniel Goleman, Ph.D., popularized them two years ago in his world-wide bestseller Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. {For more on Goleman, see page 88.} Although Salovey acknowledges that Goleman's book is scientifically accurate (it never mentions the term EQ), he believes its original concepts have been lost in all of the media hype about measuring emotional intelligence. "I'm disappointed that the response to Goleman's book is that the world needs more tests," he says. "Why repeat the problems we've had with IQ as a measure of intelligence?"

Even if we want to measure EQ, Salovey notes, we first need to agree on what it is. His and Mayer's original definition of emotional intelligence encompassed the abilities to identify, understand, use, and regulate emotions in life. But since these skills may be independent of one another, it makes little sense for a test to lump them together into a single measurement. "Someone who is good at reading another person's facial expressions might be bad at regulating their own feelings," Salovey explains.

What's more, EI has been erroneously equated with optimism, good character, and tenacity in the popular press, Salovey reports. For example, a July article in London's Financial Times insisted that emotional intelligence was "previously known as character or disposition," and in 1995 the Los Angeles Times said that emotional intelligence involves using one's feelings in "good decisions," "motivating oneself despite persistent setbacks," and "staying hopeful"--all fine virtues, but not part of Salovey and Mayer's original concept. Furthermore, the connection between emotional intelligence and career success is not as well-established as recent articles and management books would have you believe. Salovey and Mayer estimate that it accounts for as little as 5 percent of an average person's occupational achievement.

No wonder Salovey worries where misconceptions about emotional intelligence are leading educators. While American school districts are clamoring to implement special emotional intelligence programs, "the whole idea of EI was to integrate emotion with other forms of intelligence. I'd rather see math teachers teach about frustration when kids are learning long division, or see reading teachers teach about emotions when a character in a story has emotions, or hear that science teachers teach about Thomas Edison and his passion for invention." In addition, these emotional intelligence programs overlook the disparate ways different cultures deal with emotions, and risk overwhelming children from families where emotional communication is skewed, Salovey warns in the introduction to a new book he co-edited, Emotional Development and Emotional Intelligence (BasicBooks). Instead, he encourages schools to teach basic social skills, such as conflict resolution, which avoid telling students the best or right ways to feel.

Ironically, Salovey and Mayer have just come out with a CD-ROM entitled "Emotional IQ Test" (Virtual Entertainment). The multimedia exam includes four subtests on identifying, using, understanding, and regulating emotions. Each part asks users about their emotional responses to specific situations--for example, what feelings they might have if their dog were run over by a car, as well as the feelings of the driver. At the end of each subtest, the CD gives a score for that skill. When asked about the apparent contradiction between his objection to measuring EQ and his contribution to the CD-ROM, Salovey defends the disc as a "product for entertainment." Its purpose, he says, is "to help people learn something about themselves, not to be a scientific tool."

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