How Emotional Intelligence Can Inform Positive Computing
Fig. 1: David R. Caruso, Yale University and EI Skills Group
David R. Caruso, Yale University and EI Skills Group
How you feel influences how you think and what you think about. Our decisions can be informed by our emotions and feelings, and they can also be derailed by them. Knowing how we feel, employing these feelings to assist our thinking, understanding the reasons we have these feelings, and successfully managing our feelings are the four key components of a theory proposed by Peter Salovey and Jack Mayer in 1990 called the “ability model of emotional intelligence (EI).”
Although there are many popular conceptions of EI (sometimes referred to as Emotional Quotient or “EQ”), in the ability model EI is a form of intelligence related to analytical intelligence (IQ), but also different enough to be considered unique. Just like IQ, EI can be measured in an objective manner, and it shows individual differences: some people are more emotionally intelligent than others.
This approach to EI posits that emotions are data, communicate meaning, and have various, predictable trajectories. Although we are often told that emotions can highjack us and derail us, emotions are adaptive. They help us survive, grow, and develop. A rich experience of emotions is essential to quality relationships. Although all emotions can be adaptive—including anger, fear, and disgust—EI defined and measured as an ability can inform positive computing.
The first ability in this model is perceiving emotions accurately. Positive-computing applications that help people better perceive their own emotions and the emotions of others would greatly benefit people who tend to misperceive emotions. Misunderstandings can be avoided through emotion recognition.
The second ability is complex and includes the ability to generate emotions to help you feel what others feel, to connect with them, and to develop emotional empathy for others. It also allows us to use our emotions deliberatively in order to enter into a mood state that alters the way we think. For example, a sad mood may facilitate the detection of errors. A happy mood may inspire us to generate a large number of new ideas.
Understanding the causes of our emotions and predicting how they might change based on various actions represents the third ability. Although emotions can often seem chaotic, they have rules. We are happy when we gain something of value, and we are sad when we lose something of value. What we value, of course, varies from person to person, but the underlying rules of emotions are fairly universal.
Finally, if we perceive emotions of others, feel what they feel, understand how they might react to an event, what do we do with these emotions? Without the ability to manage emotions, we might be easily overwhelmed. The last and perhaps most important ability is managing our own and others’ emotions.
Identifying that we are on a trajectory toward sadness or disappointment and understanding that such emotions will not facilitate the task at hand, we can be given suggestions on how to alter the emotions, prevent unwanted emotions, maintain our emotions, or enhance our emotions. In essence, positive-computing systems can help us develop our EI capabilities.
