Cognitive mapping the topic of emotional intelligence (EI)

Cognitive mapping the topic of emotional intelligence (EI)

Joseph Kim-keung Ho

Independent Trainer

Hong Kong, China

Abstract: The topic of emotional intelligence (EI)  in the subject of Social Sciences is complex. By making use of the cognitive mapping technique to conduct a brief literature review on the emotional intelligence topic, the writer renders a systemic image on the topic of emotional intelligence. The result of the study, in the form of a cognitive map on emotional intelligence, should be useful to those who are interested in the topics of cognitive mapping, literature review and emotional intelligence.

Key words: Emotional intelligence (EI), cognitive mapping, literature review

Introduction

As a topic in Social Sciences, emotional intelligence (EI) is complex. It is thus useful to employ some learning tool to conduct its study, notably for literature review purpose. For a teacher in research methods, systems thinking and management, the writer is specifically interested in finding out how the cognitive mapping technique can be employed to go through a literature review on  emotional intelligence. This literature review exercise is taken up and reported in this article.

On the cognitive mapping exercise for literature review

Literature review is an important intellectual learning exercise, and not just for doing final year dissertation projects for tertiary education students. On these two topics of intellectual learning and literature review, the writer has compiled some e-learning resources. They are the Managerial intellectual learning Facebook page and the Literature on literature review Facebook page. Conducting literature review with the cognitive mapping technique is not novel in the cognitive mapping literature, see Eden and Simpson (1989), Eden, Jones and Sims (1983), Open University (n.d) and the Literature on cognitive mapping Facebook page. In this article, the specific steps involved in the cognitive mapping exercise are as follows:

Step 1: gather some main points from a number of academic journal articles on emotional intelligence. This result in the production of a table (Table 1) with the main points and associated references.

Step 2: consolidate  the main points from Table 1 to come up with a table listing the cognitive map variables (re: Table 2).

Step 3: link up the cognitive  map variables in a plausible way to produce a cognitive map (re: Figure 1) on the topic under review.

The next section applies these three steps to produce a cognitive map on emotional intelligence.

Descriptions of cognitive map variables on the emotional intelligence (EI) topic

From the reading of some academic articles on emotional intelligence, a number of main points (e.g., viewpoints, concepts and empirical findings) were gathered by the  writer. They are shown in Table 1 with explicit referencing on the points.

Table 1: Main points from the emotional intelligence literature and referencing

Main points from the emotional intelligence literature	Referencing
Point 1: Emotional intelligence can make difference "in the critical success factors in a career and organization", e.g., decision-making, leadership, customer loyalty, and creativity and innovation, etc.	Cooper, R.K. and A. Sawaf. 1997. Executive EQ: Emotional Intelligence in Leadership & Organizations, Grosset/ Putnam, New York.
Point 2: "Emotional intelligence is the ability to sense, understand, and effectively apply the power and acumen of emotions as a source of human energy, information, connection, and influence".	Cooper, R.K. and A. Sawaf. 1997. Executive EQ: Emotional Intelligence in Leadership & Organizations, Grosset/ Putnam, New York.
Point 3: Emotional literacy "builds a locus of personal  efficacy and confidence through emotional honesty, energy, awareness, feedback, intuition, responsibility, and connection."	Cooper, R.K. and A. Sawaf. 1997. Executive EQ: Emotional Intelligence in Leadership & Organizations, Grosset/ Putnam, New York.
Point 4: Emotional fitness "builds your authenticity, believability,  and resilience, expanding your circle of trust and your capacity for listening, managing conflict, and making the most of constructive  discontent".	Cooper, R.K. and A. Sawaf. 1997. Executive EQ: Emotional Intelligence in Leadership & Organizations, Grosset/ Putnam, New York.
Point 5: Emotional depth is about you exploring "ways to align your life and work with your unique potential and purpose, and to back this with integrity, commitment, and accountability, which, in turn, increase your influence without authority".	Cooper, R.K. and A. Sawaf. 1997. Executive EQ: Emotional Intelligence in Leadership & Organizations, Grosset/ Putnam, New York.
Point 6: Emotional alchemy is the means "through which you extend your creative instincts and capacity to flow with problems and pressures and to compete for the future by building your capabilities to sense more readily - and access - the widest range of hidden solutions and emerging opportunities".	Cooper, R.K. and A. Sawaf. 1997. Executive EQ: Emotional Intelligence in Leadership & Organizations, Grosset/ Putnam, New York.
Point 7: "Research  on emotional intelligence is gaining momentum.... and becoming one of the most topical areas in organizational research. To some extent, this recent emphasis on emotional intelligence arises from the renewed interest in personality research".	Van Rooy, D.L. and C. Viswesvaran. 2004. "Emotional intelligence: A meta-analytic investigation of predictive validity and nomological net" Journal of Vocational Behavior 65, Elsevier: 71-95.
Point 8: "The EI concept is typically credited  to Salovey and Mayer (1990) who coined the term emotional intelligence but Thorndike (1920) first proposed the idea of social intelligence that some consider akin to EI.... In actuality, EI can best be thought of as a subset of social intelligence".	Van Rooy, D.L. and C. Viswesvaran. 2004. "Emotional intelligence: A meta-analytic investigation of predictive validity and nomological net" Journal of Vocational Behavior 65, Elsevier: 71-95.
Point  9: "The differing names given to emotional intelligence are part of the reason that it has been difficult for researchers to agree on an all-encompassing definition. Emotional intelligence has also been referred to as emotional literacy, the emotional quotient, personal intelligence, social intelligence, and interpersonal intelligence....  researchers are constantly amending even their own definitions of the construct".	Van Rooy, D.L. and C. Viswesvaran. 2004. "Emotional intelligence: A meta-analytic investigation of predictive validity and nomological net" Journal of Vocational Behavior 65, Elsevier: 71-95.
Point 10: "The emotional intelligence concept is generally divided  into  four dimensions....: the perception of emotions, the integration and assimilation of emotion, knowledge about emotions, and management of emotions....   The four dimensions of emotional intelligence have been proposed  as a sequential set of steps with the perception  of emotion occurring at the first step and the other three then following in order they are listed above".	Van Rooy, D.L. and C. Viswesvaran. 2004. "Emotional intelligence: A meta-analytic investigation of predictive validity and nomological net" Journal of Vocational Behavior 65, Elsevier: 71-95.
Point 11: "Emotional intelligence is appealing not only because of our general fascination with the way people feel but, more importantly, because the traditional cognitive predictors have a considerable amount of variance unexplained....  The appeal of EI therefore lies in the possibility of tapping into and explaining another  portion of the remaining variance".	Van Rooy, D.L. and C. Viswesvaran. 2004. "Emotional intelligence: A meta-analytic investigation of predictive validity and nomological net" Journal of Vocational Behavior 65, Elsevier: 71-95.
Point  12: "... the concept of emotional intelligence had real impact. The only problem is that so far emotional intelligence has been viewed only as an individual competency.  when the reality is that most work  in organizations is done by teams".	Druskat, V.U. and S.B. Wolff, 2001. "Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups" Harvard Business Review March: 81-90.
Point 13: "To be most effective, the team needs to create emotionally intelligent norms - the attitudes and behaviors that eventually become habits - that support behaviors for building trust, group identity, and group efficacy. The outcome is complete engagement in tasks".	Druskat, V.U. and S.B. Wolff, 2001. "Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups" Harvard Business Review March: 81-90.
Point  14: "...creating an upward, self-reinforcing spirit of trust, group identity, and group efficacy requires more than a few members who exhibit emotionally intelligent behavior. It requires a team atmosphere in which the norms  build emotional capacity (the ability  to respond constructively in emotionally uncomfortable situations) and influence emotions in constructive ways".	Druskat, V.U. and S.B. Wolff, 2001. "Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups" Harvard Business Review March: 81-90.
Point 15: "Emotional intelligence brings together the fields of emotions and intelligence by viewing emotions as useful sources of information that help one to make sense of and navigate the social environment".	Salvoney, P. and D. Grewal. 2005. "The Science of Emotional Intelligence" Current Directions in Psychological Science 14(6) December: 281-285.
Point 16: "...emotional intelligence  is a set of interrelated skills that allows people to process emotionally relevant information efficiently and accurately... Whether these skills as a whole operate similarly in every social context is a question requiring further research".	Salvoney, P. and D. Grewal. 2005. "The Science of Emotional Intelligence" Current Directions in Psychological Science 14(6) December: 281-285.
Point 17: "The  first tests of emotional intelligence consisted of self-reported scale, which ask people to rate  themselves on a number of characteristics (e.g., displaying patience, having good relationships, tolerating stress well) that the authors of such tests believe represent  emotional intelligence".	Salvoney, P. and D. Grewal. 2005. "The Science of Emotional Intelligence" Current Directions in Psychological Science 14(6) December: 281-285.
Point 18: "While existing studies detail  what leaders are like, what they do, and how they make decisions, the effects of leaders' feelings or their moods  and emotions and, more generally, the role of emotions in the leadership process, are often not explicitly considered in the leadership literature, with the notable exception of work on charisma".	George, J.M. 2000. "Emotions and leadership: The role of emotional intelligence" Human Relations 53(8), Sage: 1027-1055.
Point 19: "A growing body of literature suggests that moods and emotions play a central  role in cognitive processes and behavior.  What distinguishes  moods from emotions is their intensity. Moods are pervasive and generalized feeling states that are not tied to the events or circumstances which may have caused the mood in the first place.... Moods are relatively low intensity feelings which do not interrupt ongoing activities.... Emotions are high intensity feelings that are triggered  by specific stimuli (either internal or external to the individual), demand attention, and interrupt cognitive processes and behavior".	George, J.M. 2000. "Emotions and leadership: The role of emotional intelligence" Human Relations 53(8), Sage: 1027-1055.
Point 20: "There are several theories of emotional intelligence. Gardner's (1993) theory of multiple intelligences encompasses intrapersonal intelligence, including knowledge of one's own emotions and thoughts. Averill and Nunley's (1992) emotional creativity theory focuses on the value of emotional fulfillment through emotional creativity. Saarni's (1999) theory  of emotional competence is similar to other theories of emotional intelligence but places an additional emphasis on the social contexts  of emotional functioning and on emotional self-efficacy".	Schutte, N.S., J.M. Malouff, C. Bobik, T.D. Coston,  C. Greeson, C. Jedlicka,  E. Rhodes and G. Wendorf. 2001. "Emotional Intelligence and Interpersonal  Relations" The Journal of Social Psychology  14(4): 523-536.
Point 21: "Goleman (1995) hypothesized that emotional intelligence plays a role in establishing and maintaining relationships, and Saarni (1999) posited that the related construct of emotional competence is a crucial component of social development and contributes to the quality of interpersonal relationships. However, researchers have not empirically examined the connections between emotional intelligence and relationships ".	Schutte, N.S., J.M. Malouff, C. Bobik, T.D. Coston,  C. Greeson, C. Jedlicka,  E. Rhodes and G. Wendorf. 2001. "Emotional Intelligence and Interpersonal  Relations" The Journal of Social Psychology  14(4): 523-536.

With a set of main points collected, the writer produces a set of cognitive map variables. These variables are informed by the set of main points from Table 1. These variables are presented in Table 2.

Table 2: Cognitive map variables based on Table 1

Cognitive map variables	Literature review points
Variable 1: Factors that promote interest in emotional intelligence	Point 7: "Research  on emotional intelligence is gaining momentum.... and becoming one of the most topical areas in organizational research. To some extent, this recent emphasis on emotional intelligence arises from the renewed interest in personality research".
Variable 2: More intellectual knowledge on emotional intelligence	Point 2: "Emotional intelligence is the ability to sense, understand, and effectively apply the power and acumen of emotions as a source of human energy, information, connection, and influence". Point 3: Emotional literacy "builds a locus of personal  efficacy and confidence through emotional honesty, energy, awareness, feedback, intuition, responsibility, and connection." Point 4: Emotional fitness "builds your authenticity, believability,  and resilience, expanding your circle of trust and your capacity for listening, managing conflict, and making the most of constructive  discontent". Point 5: Emotional depth is about you exploring "ways to align your life and work with your unique potential and purpose, and to back this with integrity, commitment, and accountability, which, in turn, increase your influence without authority". Point 6: Emotional alchemy is the means "through which you extend your creative instincts and capacity to flow with problems and pressures and to compete for the future by building your capabilities to sense more readily - and access - the widest range of hidden solutions and emerging opportunities". Point 8: "The EI concept is typically credited  to Salovey and Mayer (1990) who coined the term emotional intelligence but Thorndike (1920) first proposed the idea of social intelligence that some consider akin to EI.... In actuality, EI can best be thought of as a subset of social intelligence". Point  9: "The differing names given to emotional intelligence are part of the reason that it has been difficult for researchers to agree on an all-encompassing definition. Emotional intelligence has also been referred to as emotional literacy, the emotional quotient, personal intelligence, social intelligence, and interpersonal intelligence....  researchers are constantly amending even their own definitions of the construct". Point 15: "Emotional intelligence brings together the fields of emotions and intelligence by viewing emotions as useful sources of information that help one to make sense of and navigate the social environment". Point 19: "A growing body of literature suggests that moods and emotions play a central  role in cognitive processes and behavior.  What distinguishes  moods from emotions is their intensity. Moods are pervasive and generalized feeling states that are not tied to the events or circumstances which may have caused the mood in the first place.... Moods are relatively low intensity feelings which do not interrupt ongoing activities.... Emotions are high intensity feelings that are triggered  by specific stimuli (either internal or external to the individual), demand attention, and interrupt cognitive processes and behavior".
Variable 3: Effective emotional intelligence practices	Point 10: "The emotional intelligence concept is generally divided  into  four dimensions....: the perception of emotions, the integration and assimilation of emotion, knowledge about emotions, and management of emotions....   The four dimensions of emotional intelligence have been proposed  as a sequential set of steps with the perception  of emotion occurring at the first step and the other three then following in order they are listed above". Point  12: "... the concept of emotional intelligence had real impact. The only problem is that so far emotional intelligence has been viewed only as an individual competency.  when the reality is that most work  in organizations is done by teams". Point 13: "To be most effective, the team needs to create emotionally intelligent norms - the attitudes and behaviors that eventually become habits - that support behaviors for building trust, group identity, and group efficacy. The outcome is complete engagement in tasks". Point  14: "...creating an upward, self-reinforcing spirit of trust, group identity, and group efficacy requires more than a few members who exhibit emotionally intelligent behavior. It requires a team atmosphere in which the norms  build emotional capacity (the ability  to respond constructively in emotionally uncomfortable situations) and influence emotions in constructive ways". Point 16: "...emotional intelligence  is a set of interrelated skills that allows people to process emotionally relevant information efficiently and accurately... Whether these skills as a whole operate similarly in every social context is a question requiring further research". Point 20: "There are several theories of emotional intelligence. Gardner's (1993) theory of multiple intelligences encompasses intrapersonal intelligence, including knowledge of one's own emotions and thoughts. Averill and Nunley's (1992) emotional creativity theory focuses on the value of emotional fulfillment through emotional creativity. Saarni's (1999) theory  of emotional competence is similar to other theories of emotional intelligence but places an additional emphasis on the social contexts  of emotional functioning and on emotional self-efficacy".
Variable 4: Positive outcomes of emotional intelligence practices	Point 1: Emotional intelligence can make difference "in the critical success factors in a career and organization", e.g., decision-making, leadership, customer loyalty, and creativity and innovation, etc. Point 11: "Emotional intelligence is appealing not only because of our general fascination with the way people feel but, more importantly, because the traditional cognitive predictors have a considerable amount of variance unexplained....  The appeal of EI therefore lies in the possibility of tapping into and explaining another  portion of the remaining variance". Point 21: "Goleman (1995) hypothesized that emotional intelligence plays a role in establishing and maintaining relationships, and Saarni (1999) posited that the related construct of emotional competence is a crucial component of social development and contributes to the quality of interpersonal relationships. However, researchers have not empirically examined the connections between emotional intelligence and relationships ".
Variable 5: Learn from emotional intelligence practices	Point 17: "The  first tests of emotional intelligence consisted of self-reported scale, which ask people to rate  themselves on a number of characteristics (e.g., displaying patience, having good relationships, tolerating stress well) that the authors of such tests believe represent  emotional intelligence". Point 18: "While existing studies detail  what leaders are like, what they do, and how they make decisions, the effects of leaders' feelings or their moods  and emotions and, more generally, the role of emotions in the leadership process, are often not explicitly considered in the leadership literature, with the notable exception of work on charisma".

The next step is to relate the cognitive map variables to make up a cognitive map on emotional intelligence. The cognitive map and its explanation are presented in the next section.

A cognitive map on emotional intelligence and its interpretation

By relating the five variables identified in Table 2, the writer comes up with a cognitive map on emotional intelligence, as shown in Figure 1.

These cognitive  map variables, five of them altogether, are related to constitute a systemic image of emotional intelligence. The links in the cognitive map (re: Figure 1) indicate direction of influences between variables. The + sign shows that an increase in one variable leads to an increase in another variable while a -ve sign tells us that in increase in one variable leads to a decrease in another variable.  If there no signs shown on the arrows, that means the influences can be positive or negative. Readers are referred to the Literature on emotional intelligence Facebook page for more  information on the topic.

Concluding remarks

The cognitive mapping exercise captures in one diagram some of the main variables involved in emotional intelligence. The resultant cognitive map promotes an exploratory way to study emotional intelligence in a holistic tone. The experience of the cognitive mapping exercise is that it can be a quick, efficient and entertaining way to explore a complex topic such as emotional intelligence in Social Sciences. Finally, readers who are interested in cognitive mapping should also find the article informative on this mapping topic.

Bibliography

1.      Eden, C. and P. Simpson. 1989. "SODA and cognitive mapping in practice", pp. 43-70, in Rosenhead, J. (editor) Rational Analysis for a Problematic World, Wiley, Chichester.

2.      Eden, C., C. Jones and D. Sims. 1983. Messing about in Problems: An informal structured approach to their identification and management, Pergamon Press, Oxford.

3.      Literature on cognitive mapping Facebook page, maintained by Joseph, K.K. Ho (url address: https://www.facebook.com/Literature-on-cognitive-mapping-800894476751355/).

4.      Literature on literature review Facebook page, maintained by Joseph, K.K. Ho (url address: https://www.facebook.com/literature.literaturereview/).

5.      Literature on emotional intelligence Facebook page, maintained by Joseph, K.K. Ho (url address: https://www.facebook.com/Literature-on-emotional-intelligence-1832089253783935/).

6.      Managerial intellectual learning Facebook page, maintained by Joseph, K.K. Ho (url address: https://www.facebook.com/managerial.intellectual.learning/).

7.      Open University. n.d. "Sign graph" Systems Thinking and Practice (T552): Diagramming, Open University, U.K. (url address: http://systems.open.ac.uk/materials/T552/) [visited at April 10, 2017].

8.      Cooper, R.K. and A. Sawaf. 1997. Executive EQ: Emotional Intelligence in Leadership & Organizations, Grosset/ Putnam, New York.

9.      Van Rooy, D.L. and C. Viswesvaran. 2004. "Emotional intelligence: A meta-analytic investigation of predictive validity and nomological net" Journal of Vocational Behavior 65, Elsevier: 71-95.

10. Druskat, V.U. and S.B. Wolff, 2001. "Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups" Harvard Business Review March: 81-90.

11. Salvoney, P. and D. Grewal. 2005. "The Science of Emotional Intelligence" Current Directions in Psychological Science 14(6) December: 281-285.

12. George, J.M. 2000. "Emotions and leadership: The role of emotional intelligence" Human Relations 53(8), Sage: 1027-1055.

13. Schutte, N.S., J.M. Malouff, C. Bobik, T.D. Coston,  C. Greeson, C. Jedlicka,  E. Rhodes and G. Wendorf. 2001. "Emotional Intelligence and Interpersonal  Relations" The Journal of Social Psychology  14(4): 523-536.