August Review: EI

The Brain and Emotional Intelligence: New Insights by Daniel Goleman

Recent research has shed new light on Emotional Intelligence.

1.                Opening Thoughts

2.                Table of Contents

3.                Further Reviews and Summaries

4.                Quotes from the Book

Opening Thoughts

Daniel Goleman is credited with making Emotional Intelligence (EI) a household name.  If you are looking for an in-depth explanation of EI then this is NOT your book.  This is more of an informative update on the science the EI model is built on.  If you are unsure what EI is and how it fits into your life do not begin here.  Goleman assumes that if you are reading this you already have a foundation and understanding of EI.  But with that caveat I think this short book is a wonderful addition.  It puts the science into a very succinct framework that makes it easy to tie the parts together. 

More and more I am convinced that it is critical that we grow in our understanding of how our the brain works and why it does some of the crazy things it does.  Do you know there is a negative bias in email?  When you get an email your emotions default to the negative unless you know the person well who sent it.  But with the lack of observational impact our brain simple looks to the negative.  OK, that is the kinds of things you can learn.  Again it is important that you have read some of his earlier works.  In this book he suggests referring to his book Primal Leadership first published in 2002.  

I appreciated Goleman’s honest reference to others who have been responsible for the rise of this new emphasis known as Emotional Intelligence:

“There are three dominant models of emotional intelligence, each associated with its own set of tests and measures. One comes from Peter Salovey and John Mayer, who first proposed the concept of emotional intelligence in their seminal 1990 article. Another is that of Reuven Bar-On who has been quite active in fostering research in this area. The third is my own model, which is most fully developed in Primal Leadership (the book I wrote with my colleagues Annie McKee and Richard Boyatzis). There are several other EI models by now, with more in the works – a sign of the vibrancy of the field.”

If you have a basic knowledge of EI and want to stay up with research that effects it, then this book will help you.

Table of Contents

                Aristotle's Challenge                                                            ix

Part 1     THE EMOTIONAL BRAIN             

1              What Are Emotions For?                                   3

2              Anatomy of an Emotional Hijacking             13

               

Part 2     THE NATURE OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE   

3              When Smart Is Dumb                                         33

4              Know Thyself                                                       46

5              Passion's Slaves                                                   56

6              The Master Aptitude                                           78

7              The Roots of Empathy                                         96

8              The Social Arts                                                     111

               

Part 3     EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE APPLIED  

9              Intimate Enemies                                                 129

10           Managing with Heart                                          148

11           Mind and Medicine                                             164

               

Part 4     WINDOWS OF OPPORTUNITY     

12           The Family Crucible                                           189

13           Trauma and Emotional Relearning                 200

14           Temperament Is Not Destiny                            215

               

Part 5     EMOTIONAL LITERACY               

15           The Cost Emotional Illiteracy                           33

16           Schooling the Emotions                                     33

               

Appendix A: What Is Emotion?                                                       289

Appendix B: Hallmarks of the Emotional Mind                           291

Appendix C: The Neural Circuitry of Fear                                     297

Appendix D: W. T. Grant Consortium: Active

     Ingredients of Prevention Programs                                            301

Appendix E: The Self-Science Curriculum                                     303

Appendix F: Social and Emotional Learning: Results                 305

Notes                                                                                                      311

Acknowledgments                                                                               341

Index                                                                                                     343

3.  Further Reviews and Summaries

For more information go to: http://www.eiconsortium.org/  This site has many articles that describe EI and how it works.  Want to know what EI is: Click Here

Check this site for book reports on this book  HBA

 4.  Quotes from the Book

As we go through every situation in life, the basal ganglia extracts decision rules: when I did that, that worked well; when I said this, it bombed, and so on. Our accumulated life wisdom is stored in this primitive circuitry. However, when we face a decision, it’s our verbal cortex that generates our thoughts about it. But to more fully access our life experience on the matter at hand, we need to access further inputs from that subcortical circuitry.

The two left-hand quadrants in the generic emotional intelligence model are about the self: self-awareness and self-management. These are the basis for self-mastery: awareness of our internal states, and management of those states. These domains of skill are what make someone an outstanding individual performer in any domain of performance – and in business an outstanding individual contributor, or lone star. Competencies like managing emotions, focused drive to achieve goals, adaptability and initiative are based on emotional self-management.

Self-regulation of emotion and impulse relies greatly on the interaction between the prefrontal cortex – the brain’s executive center – and the emotional centers in the midbrain, particularly circuitry converging on the amygdala.

Competencies like managing emotions, focused drive to achieve goals, adaptability and initiative are based on emotional self-management.

Self-regulation of emotion and impulse relies greatly on the interaction between the prefrontal cortex – (good boss) the brain’s executive center – and the emotional centers in the midbrain, particularly circuitry converging on the amygdala (bad boss).

The amygdala is a trigger point for emotional distress, anger, impulse, fear, and so on. When this circuitry takes over, it acts as the “bad boss,” leading us to take actions we might regret later.

The interaction between these two neural areas creates a neural highway that, when in balance, is the basis for self-mastery.

Here are the five top amygdala triggers in the workplace11:

      1.Condescension and lack of respect.

      2.Being treated unfairly.

      3.Being unappreciated.

      4.Feeling that you're not being listened to or heard.

      5.Being held to unrealistic deadlines

Studies of employee engagement find that in top-performing organizations, there are ten times more fully engaged workers than disengaged, while in average-performing outfits there are just two engaged employees for every disengaged one17. Engaged employees are more productive, give better attention to customers, and are more loyal to the organization

There are three kinds of empathy.

One is cognitive empathy: I know how you see things; I can take your perspective.

A second kind is emotional empathy: I feel with you. This is the basis for rapport and chemistry.

And the third kind is empathic concern: I sense you need some help and I spontaneously am ready to give it.