Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Emotional Intelligence Quotient

The Power of Minds at Work

People keep changing inline with the movement of the living era. And so as the life style and needs to acquire the fruits of success, also keep changing too with respect to the trends and colours of the behaviour. Talking about behaviourial studies, what came across in mind is the word of EIQ which precisely relates to the determination of emotional intelligence and organisational behaviour. How much degree of benefits can EIQ bring to us as in the majority of the society in its form of application? Hoping some facts and points of my previous readings that I'm willing to share here with those my friend and colleage out there who fond in dropping by visiting my blog for the favour of reading my write ups, may it can be commonly shared among us all with some good purposes outcome.
As the society became more complex, intellectual competences had became more sophisticated. This competence is known as social intelligence and can be defined as the intelligence that lies behind group interactions and behaviours. This type of intelligence as we can see, is closely related to cognition and emotional intelligence, and can also be seen as a first level in developing systems intelligence. Social intelligence in other words is actually "the ability to understand and manage men and women, boys and girls, to act wisely in human relations". It is equivalent to interpersonal intelligence and closely related to Emotional intelligence.

What is Emotional Intelligence (EI)?
Emotional Intelligence in facts explains why, despite equal intellectual capacity, training, or experience, which some people excel while others of the same caliber lag behind. Certain competencies are found repeatedly in high performers at all levels, even from customer service representatives to CEOs. Therefore, we must find ways to build these talents labeled EQ (emotional intelligence quotient) in order to climb ourselves into the pathway of success.


And what is Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EQ)?Emotional Intelligence (EI), often measured as an Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EQ), describes an ability, capacity, skill or (in the case of the trait EI model) a self-perceived ability, to identify, assess, and manage the emotions of one's self, of others, and of groups. It is a relatively new area of psychological research.

Defining emotional intelligence
One attempt toward a definition, it was precisely defined EI as “the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions. Despite this early definition, there has been confusion regarding the exact meaning of this construct. The definitions are so varied, and the field is growing so rapidly, that up to the present day, there are three main models of EI:
· Ability-based EI models
The ability based model views emotions as useful sources of information that help one to make sense of and navigate the social environment. The model proposes that individuals vary in their ability to process information of an emotional nature and in their ability to relate emotional processing to a wider cognition. This ability is seen to manifest itself in certain adaptive behaviors. The model proposes that EI includes 4 types of abilities. They are:
1. Perceiving emotions — the ability to detect and decipher emotions in faces, pictures, voices, and cultural artifacts- including the ability to identify one’s own emotions. Perceiving emotions represents a basic aspect of emotional intelligence, as it makes all other processing of emotional information possible.
2. Using emotions — the ability to harness emotions to facilitate various cognitive activities, such as thinking and problem solving. The emotionally intelligent person can capitalize fully upon his or her changing moods in order to best fit the task at hand.
3. Understanding emotions — the ability to comprehend emotion language and to appreciate complicated relationships among emotions. For example, understanding emotions encompasses the ability to be sensitive to slight variations between emotions, and the ability to recognize and describe how emotions evolve over time.
4. Managing emotions — the ability to regulate emotions in both ourselves and in others. Therefore, the emotionally intelligent person can harness emotions, even negative ones, and manage them to achieve intended goals.
· Mixed models of EIThe EI model focuses on EI as a wide array of competencies and skills that drive leadership performance. The model which outlines the four of main EI constructs:
1. Self-awareness — the ability to read one's emotions and recognize their impact while using gut feelings to guide decisions.
2. Self-management — involves controlling one's emotions and impulses and adapting to changing circumstances.
3. Social awareness — the ability to sense, understand, and react to other's emotions while comprehending social networks.
4. Relationship management — the ability to inspire, influence, and develop others while managing conflict.

A set of emotional competencies within each construct of EI were included. Emotional competencies are not identified only as innate talents, but rather learned capabilities that must be worked on and developed to achieve outstanding performance. It is known that individuals are born with a general emotional intelligence which determines their potential for learning emotional competencies.


. Trait EI model
Trait EI is "a constellation of emotion-related self-perceptions located at the lower levels of personality". In lay terms, trait EI refers to an individual's self-perceptions of their emotional abilities. This definition of EI encompasses behavioral dispositions and self perceived abilities and is measured by self report, as opposed to the ability based model which refers to actual abilities, which have proven highly resistant to scientific measurement. Trait EI should be investigated within a personality framework. An alternative label for the same construct is trait emotional self-efficacy.

The conceptualization of EI as a personality trait leads to a construct that lies outside the taxonomy of human cognitive ability. This is an important distinction in as much as it bears directly on the operationalization of the construct and the theories and hypotheses that are formulated about it.


EI, IQ and job performanceBased on some research results of EI and job performance indication, it has shown that results are found mixed: a positive relation has been found in some of the studies, in others there was no relation or an inconsistent one. This led to the offer a compensatory model between EI and IQ, which posits the association between EI and job performance becomes more positive as cognitive intelligence decreases. The results of their study show that this kind of compensatory model does exist: employees with low IQ get higher task performance and organizational citizenship behavior directed at the organization, the higher their EI.
Another definition of emotional intelligence proposes four broad domains of EQ which consist of 19 competencies:
Self-Awareness· Emotional self-awareness: Reading one's own emotions and recognizing their impact
· Accurate self-assessment; knowing one's strengths and limits
· Self-confidence; a sound sense of one's self-worth and capabilities
Self-Management
· Emotional self-control: Keeping disruptive emotions and impulses under control
· Transparency: Displaying honesty and integrity; trustworthiness
· Adaptability: Flexibility in adapting to changing situations or overcoming obstacles
· Achievement: The drive to improve performance to meet inner standards of excellence
· Initiative: Readiness to act and seize opportunities
· Optimism: Seeing the upside in events
Social Awareness · Empathy: Sensing others' emotions, understanding their perspective, and taking active interest in their concerns
· Organizational awareness: Reading the currents, decision networks, and politics at the organizational level
· Service: Recognizing and meeting follower, client, or customer needs Relationship Management
· Inspirational leadership: Guiding and motivating with a compelling vision
· Influence: Wielding a range of tactics for persuasion
· Developing others: Bolstering others' abilities through feedback and guidance
· Change catalyst: Initiating, managing, and leading in a new direction
· Conflict management: Resolving disagreements
· Building bonds: Cultivating and maintaining a web of relationships
· Teamwork and collaboration: Cooperation and team building


There is general agreement that the factors have identified are indeed emerging as a key element of workplace success. This is because the way that most organizations work has changed in the last 20 years. There are now fewer levels of management than there were and management styles tend to be less autocratic. In addition, the move towards more knowledge based, team working and customer focused jobs means that individuals generally have more autonomy, even at fairly low levels within organizations.


Points from this "lessons" are:
• Technology is only a small part of the success of a project, the community is crucial
• Avoid anonymity to reduce the negative side effects of the collective intelligence (the "freeriders")
• Computers are not the best interface devices, but are needed in the background
• User interfaces need to be extremely simple
• Need to take care of public/private boundaries (conflicts of interest)
• Social tagging works very well even for less computer-literate groups • The reasons for tagging are quite different
-- Tags are 'representations' for community members, to themselves
-- Vehicles for social capital
-- Means of communication with others threatening the commons
• Face to face communication is still important for tagging in order to generate effective communication skill and good networking..
Practical applications of these positive psychology include helping individuals and organizations correctly identify their strengths and use them to increase and sustain their respective levels of well-being.


MotivationMotivation is the reason or reasons for engaging in a particular behavior, especially human behavior as studied in philosophy, conflict, economics, psychology, and neuropsychology. These reasons may include basic needs such as food or a desired object, hobbies, goal, state of being, or ideal. The motivation for a behavior may also be attributed to less-apparent reasons such as altruism or morality. Motivation refers to the initiation, direction, intensity and persistence of human behavior.



Psychological Mindedness
Psychological Mindedness (PM) is determining a concept which refers to an individual's capacity for self-examination, self-observation, introspection and personal insight. It also includes an ability to recognize and see the links between current problems within self and with others, and the ability to insight one's past particularly for its impact on present attitudes and functioning. Psychologically minded people have average and above average intelligence and generally have some insight into their problems even before they enter therapy. Psychological mindedness is distinct from intellectualizations and obsessional rumination about one's inner problems. Psychological mindedness be speaks a capacity to tolerate psychological conflict and stress intrapsychically rather than by regressive means of conflict management or resolution. Conceptual definitions of PM have included variant, but related descriptions. Some definitions relate solely to the self, “a person’s ability to see relationships among thoughts, feelings, and actions with the goal of learning the meanings and causes of his experiences and behaviors”.It can also be extended as the concept beyond self-focus, as involving “... both self-understanding and an interest in the motivation and behavior of others”.
· It can reflect on (i.e. observe and experience at the same time) a full range of own and others' feelings or experiences (including subtle variations in feelings). It can also reflect both in the present and with reference to a longer-term view of self, values, and goals. More over, it can reflect on multiple relationships between feelings and experiences, across the full range of age-expected experiences in the context of new challenges.
· It can reflect on feelings or experiences of self and others both in the present and with reference to a longer-term view of a sense of self, values, and goals for some age-expected experiences, but not others. Cannot be reflective in this way when feelings are strong.
· It also can reflect on moment-to-moment experiences, but not with reference to a longer-term sense of self and experiences, values, and goals.
· And unable to reflect genuinely on feelings or experiences, even in the present. Self-awareness consists often of polarized feeling states or simple basic feelings without an appreciation of subtle variations in feelings. Self-awareness is lacking, and there may be a tendency toward fragmentation.



Character Strengths and Virtues (CSV)

The Character Strengths and Virtues (CSV) represents the first attempt to identify and classify the positive psychological traits of human beings. Much like the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) of general psychology, the CSV provides a theoretical framework to assist in developing practical applications for positive psychology. It identifies six classes of virtue (i.e. "core virtues") which made up of twenty-four measurable character strengths.
Positive psychology
The introduction of Character Strengths and Virtues (CSV) suggests that these six virtues are considered good by the vast majority of cultures and throughout history and that these traits lead to increased happiness when practiced. The organization of these virtues and strengths is as follows:
1. Wisdom and Knowledge: creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, love of learning, perspective
2. Courage: bravery, persistence, integrity, vitality
3. Humanity: love, kindness, social intelligence
4. Justice: citizenship, fairness, leadership
5. Temperance: forgiveness and mercy, humility, prudence, self control
6. Transcendence: appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, spirituality


The today criteria for success at work are now changing. We are being judged by a new yardstick: not just by how smart we are, or by our training and expertise, but also by how well we handle ourselves and each other. This yardstick is increasingly applied in choosing who will be hired and who will not, who will be let go and who retained, who will be past over and who will be promoted…


Has it occur to us how much better the world could be if we can communicate well & understand each other emotionally?
So lets make this happen and put our best EIQ in practise.
Lets strive for our success together.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Surviving Depression

Are you depressed?
What makes you so depressed?

Causes of depression

Ø The High Price of a Broken Heart
Ø Postpartum Depression
Ø Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
Ø Up All Night, Down All Day

What is depression? Depression is an illness that causes a person to feel sad and hopeless much of the time. It is different from normal feelings of sadness, grief, or low energy. Anyone can have depression. It often runs in families. But it can also happen to someone who doesn't have a family history of depression. You can have depression one time or many times.

What Happens
From health wise, depression may begin with symptoms of anxiety (such as excessive worrying) or symptoms such as sadness or lack of energy that last for days or months before the onset of full-blown depression. You may have trouble concentrating or remembering, experience a loss of pleasure in things you used to enjoy, feel hopeless, and have low energy and changes in sleeping and eating patterns. You may withdraw socially from others and lose interest in sexual activity.

The cause of depression varies from one person to another. You might have mild or severe symptoms of depression for a long time, or you may have them for a brief time. A small number of people feel depressed for most of their lives and require ongoing treatment. Most people who have depression can be treated successfully with medication, professional counseling, or a combination of the two.

Depressive disorders are classified according to their severity and duration. Depression may be mild, moderate, or severe. It may start suddenly (acute) or be long-lasting (chronic). Dysthymic disorder, for example, is chronic mild depression. Some people may experience an episode of major depression on top of dysthymic disorder (double depression).

For severe depression, you may need to be admitted to a hospital for a short time, especially if you are having thoughts of suicide. Because depression puts you at a higher risk for attempting suicide, you should seek immediate treatment if you are having self-destructive thoughts.

Recurring illness
Depression often recurs. If you have one episode of depression, you are more likely to become depressed again at some point in your life than someone who has never been depressed. The risk of having another episode of depression increases with each additional episode.

Related illness Depressed people who have a chronic illness such as diabetes or coronary artery disease suffer more from symptoms of their illnesses, are less able to function, have a decreased quality of life, and pay more in medical costs. People with depression are less likely to take good care of themselves, and this may make their health worse.
Sometimes episodes of depression are preceded or followed by periods of high energy (mania). If you cycle between depression and mania, you may have a condition called bipolar disorder. If you have depression only during certain seasons of the year, such as seasonal time of the months, you may have Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

SymptomsFrom health wise, if you also have a depression, you may feel hopeless and sad or stop feeling pleasure from almost everything you do. You may feel down in the dumps, tearful, or discouraged. You may also be irritable or anxious or have low energy levels. The symptoms of depression are often subtle at first. It can be hard to recognize that symptoms may be connected and that you might have depression.

The two most significant symptoms of depression are:
> Sadness or hopelessness.
> Loss of interest in or pleasure from most daily activities.

Other symptoms include:
> Losing or gaining weight because of changes in appetite.
> Sleeping too much or not enough.
> Feeling restless and unable to sit still, or feeling that moving takes a great effort.
> Feeling tired all the time.
> Feeling unworthy or guilty without an obvious reason.
> Having problems concentrating, remembering, or making decisions.
> Thinking often about death or suicide.


If you have at least five of these symptoms for 2 weeks or longer, and one of the symptoms is either sadness or loss of interest, you may be diagnosed with major depression that needs treatment. Even if you have fewer than five symptoms, you may still be depressed and need treatment. If you have 2 to 4 symptoms for a period of at least 2 years (1 year for a child), you may have a long-term form of depression called dysthymic disorder (dysthymia).

Many women experience mood changes before menstruation. Physical and emotional premenstrual symptoms that interfere with relationships or responsibilities are known as premenstrual syndrome (PMS). However, women who have emotional and physical premenstrual symptoms that seriously interfere with daily life may have a type of depression known as premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). Many health professionals see people with general symptoms that may be difficult to link to depression. These symptoms, which commonly occur with depression, include:

. Having headaches and other body aches and pains.
. Having digestive problems, including constipation or diarrhea.
. Losing interest in sex or being unable to perform sexually.
. Feeling anxious or worried without an obvious reason.
. Blaming yourself or others for your depression.
. Not moving or talking for hours.

Other symptoms of depression may include:
. Overeating and weight gain (rather than loss of appetite).
. Oversleeping (rather than insomnia).
. Increased tearfulness, anger, and generally not feeling well, along with anxiety and tension.
. Sometimes, a feeling of heaviness in the arms and legs.
. Sensitivity to rejection.

Depression is a serious problem for people of any age, and older adults with symptoms of depression should seek treatment right away. Depression in older adults can cause confusion or forgetfulness (although some medications can cause these symptoms as well). Depression has also been identified as a significant risk factor for death in older adults with heart problems. It is important to recognize the early warning signs of depression so that you can get treatment.

Interactive Tool: Are You Depressed?The symptoms of depression are often hard to notice at first. It can be hard to recognize that symptoms may be connected and that you might have depression. Symptoms of depression in children and teens are sometimes different from adult symptoms, which can make their depression more difficult to diagnose and treat.

Depression can lead to suicide? The warning signs of suicide change with age. Warning signs of suicide in children and teens may include preoccupation with death or suicide or a recent breakup of a relationship. Warning signs of suicide in adults may include alcohol or substance abuse, recent job loss, or divorce. Warning signs of suicide in older adults may include the recent death of a partner or diagnosis of a life-limiting illness.

What Makes Us Happy?
What makes us truly happy? While some evidence suggests that happiness may be linked, in part, to relative wealth, how we’re doing compared to those around us, overall the old adage that money doesn’t buy happiness seems to hold true. If we can ever notice, we are materially so much better off than we were 50 years ago, but we’re not one much happier. Some may say that happiness is as more closely correlated with people rather than things. Its because we humans have a deep need to belong, to connect with others in close, supportive, intimate, caring relationships. People who have such close relationships are more likely to report themselves ‘very happy. Seems like there is list of eight factors that influence rates of happiness and depression. Many of these factors vary from city to city and region to region. Here’s your chance to see how your city compares.

Happily Married
Unhappy marriage may also become a disaster and may further lead to highly tense depression. So, is getting married one of the keys to a happy life? Interestingly enough, the happy halo that shines over married couples isn’t the result of having kids, those with children were just as likely to be happy as those without. Rather, there seems to be something about marriage itself that boosts both men’s and women’s feelings of well-being in life. Recent research may suggests that people become less depressed and less lonely after they get married, After all, it’s harder to be lonely when you’ve got a loved one to come home to every night. Men usually benefit even more than women from having a life-long companion. Women will talk to everyone, but most men tend to rely on their wives as their main confidant. In addition, women are typically the social planners in a relationship and ensure that the men stay connected to family and friends, another source of happiness. And what about all that nagging that wives are so famous for? Turns out it pays off. Men who are married drink less, smoke less, eat better, get more sleep, and engage in less risky behavior than their unmarried peers. The end result: Married men are healthier, and since health is linked to happiness, they’re happier too.
Live a happy and healthy life. Avoid depression. Get yourself tangled with those surround you and rest your soul to the Main Creator. Every one always needs a someone. No matter he/she is to you, always appreciate his/her company and time shared with you for those great sweet time or moments shared with you will carry some spark of hapiness and joy in you. Life is great and full of colours. Enjoy life at its best and appreciate what best God made for you. Its the entire world.

I thank God for this heal.
The fall and the strugle I have inside..
And the faith in the power of the Great Creator...that He never turns His back on me..the blessing He puts on me....
I thank Him for making me see.... the right way and granted me to stand strong on my own two feet again....
Those surrounds you.... how many who could UNDERSTAND you?
For what have you been through...