MRR2: INSIGHTS ON EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE PAPER

WORD COUNT: 486 WORDS

BRUM, NICOLAS G.

B72-GED101 (UNDERSTANDING THE SELF)

1. What are the three (3) things that you significantly learned from the reading?

Please start by saying “Before reading the article, I used to think that (insert

thought). After reading the article, I now think that (insert thought).”

Before reading the article, I used to think that emotional intelligence simply

involves the ability to comprehend, use, and control one's own emotions in

constructive ways to reduce stress, communicate effectively, empathize with

others, overcome problems, and diffuse conflict. After reading the article, I now

think that emotional intelligence could assist me in developing stronger

connections, succeeding in school and at work, and achieving my professional

and personal goals. I also learned from the article that emotional intelligence

could be framed according to the different ways of utilizing emotions:

managing emotion, understanding emotion, using emotion, and perceiving

emotion. I realized that each of these subsets could be variously used in different

life situations. Finally, I was enlightened with the perception of emotional

intelligence as a factor in improving our mental health in ways that will alleviate

stress and anxiety that may be induced from difficult life situations.

2. What three (3) things about the reading are unclear to you?
 I found the more academic parts of the article about emotional intelligence

slightly taxing in terms of my comprehension abilities, as the points that were

raised were linguistically and methodically sophisticated. In particular, the Mayer

and Salovey Model of Emotional Intelligence involves four branches that are

peculiarly interconnected to each other, which personally caused a less firm

understanding based on my deep analytical thinking. The part tackling emotional

intelligence’s relation to cognitive abilities and initial conception of initial

intelligence were also difficult to deeply understand in layman’s perspective,

precisely due to the unfamiliar psychology terminologies that came with the topic.

3. What three (3) questions that you want to ask about the reading?

I personally believe that one’s socioeconomic upbringing does affect the

scope of a person’s emotional intelligence and understanding of their

environment in multifaceted ways. Thus, it is personally important for me to

prompt such hypothesis using the existing research methods and related

literature available. I also wanted to further expound my understanding on the

connection of emotional intelligence to academic performance on account of

the ambiguities on the recent findings from research as stated by the article.

Knowing the existing patterns may not be enough to truly solve learning gaps

from students with such lacking emotional intelligence, as they may have deeper

reasons for being put into the unfortunate situation that they were in. Finally,

knowing the exact steps on measuring emotional intelligence is an interesting

thought exercise in the context of academic discourse on understanding the

complex ambiguities of a man, precisely for the fact that the subject matter may

tend to become opinionated and problematic when it isn’t discussed delicately

due to the increasing polarized worldviews that we have in our society today.