What is the process by which an individual evaluates his or her thoughts feelings behaviors and abilities in relation to others?

In this article, we take a more detailed look at Cognitive Behaviour Therapy or CBT which is used to help with depression.

We’re often not aware of the impact our feelings and behaviours have on each other, and because of this relationship, changing our behaviours can have a very big effect on our emotions. We can often tackle depression by changing key behaviours, and for many young people this is the most direct way to help them improve their mood.

So where do thoughts fit in? When we talk about thoughts we’re referring to a lot of different mental activities, including wishes, hopes, plans, predictions, judgments and memories. Thoughts often include words but sometimes they can include pictures, speech, or even smells.

Most of the time we don’t notice our thoughts – they go on in the background, helping us make decisions and carry out many tasks automatically. Sometimes, we become aware of our thoughts – for example when we try to work out a puzzle, or remember a specific event, or do a specific task, like write a letter to a friend or learn a new language.

Thoughts

Daniel Kahnmann, described automatic (fast) thinking as ‘System 1’ and deliberate (slow) thinking as ‘System 2’. He has also written a very successful book ‘Thinking fast and slow’ showing how fast or automatic thinking can lead us to make many mistakes in everyday life. Automatic thinking (‘thinking fast’) means that we can get on with life for most of the time without too much effort. Automatic thinking helps us make decisions quickly, recognise patterns, fill in gaps in information, and carry out well-rehearsed behaviours.

Psychologists have also noticed that automatic thoughts can have a direct and really immediate impact on our feelings or emotions, and on our behaviours. If you find this hard to imagine try this exercise:

Imagine yourself walking home, or to your car, one dark evening. You’re alone, wondering about what to have for dinner. Your thoughts are disturbed by a quiet, rustling noise off to your left. What is it?

Thought 1 – “It’s a cat”

What is the effect on your emotions? What do you do differently?

“Ok, it’s a cat. You can relax and carry on walking to your car. What is it you’re having for tea?”

Thought 2 – “It’s a mugger”

What is the effect on your emotions? What do you do differently?

Ok, so this is probably making you feel something quite different. You may feel tense, anxious, or fearful. You might feel sensations in your body – your hands sweat, your heart beats faster, your stomach churns.

And what do you do? Perhaps you walk a bit faster, or look for somewhere to run or somewhere to hide.

Then a cat walks out from behind a wall and you relax.

This simple example shows us just a thought (not a fact), changes how we feel, and what we do.

The link between our thoughts, our emotions or feelings, and our behaviours was highlighted by an American psychiatrist Dr Aaron T. Beck. In his clinical practice, Beck worked with individuals with depression and noticed that negative thinking was a core aspect of depression. He proposed that negative thinking both made people feel depressed and made it hard to recover from depression.

Just as we’ve seen above, Beck proposed that the relationship between thoughts, feelings and behaviours was inter-linked – changing one of the parts would have an effect on any of the others.

As a result, Beck developed a new form of psychotherapy for depression. Rather than focusing on the past, he aimed to use psychotherapy to help tackle depression by changing people’s cognitions (or thoughts) and their behaviours. By changing one, or both, of their cognitions or behaviours, Beck proposed that this would also change their emotions, and improve depression. The new therapy was therefore called Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, or CBT.

CBT has since become one of the most widely researched and used types of psychotherapy. It’s been developed to treat a wide range of physical and mental health problems, and adapted for use with people of different ages. You can find out more about CBT for anxiety and depression in our other FutureLearn course Understanding Anxiety, Depression and CBT. There are also many books based on CBT that have been developed to help adults and teenagers help themselves. You can find a list of these at the end of the course.

Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to the ability to perceive, control, and evaluate emotions. Some researchers suggest that emotional intelligence can be learned and strengthened, while others claim it's an inborn characteristic.

The ability to express and control emotions is essential, but so is the ability to understand, interpret, and respond to the emotions of others. Imagine a world in which you could not understand when a friend was feeling sad or when a co-worker was angry. Psychologists refer to this ability as emotional intelligence, and some experts even suggest that it can be more important than IQ in your overall success in life.

A number of different assessments have emerged to measure levels of emotional intelligence. Such tests generally fall into one of two types: self-report tests and ability tests.

Self-report tests are the most common because they are the easiest to administer and score. On such tests, respondents respond to questions or statements by rating their own behaviors. For example, on a statement such as "I often feel that I understand how others are feeling," a test-taker might describe the statement as disagree, somewhat disagree, agree, or strongly agree.

Ability tests, on the other hand, involve having people respond to situations and then assessing their skills. Such tests often require people to demonstrate their abilities, which are then rated by a third party.

If you are taking an emotional intelligence test administered by a mental health professional, here are two measures that might be used:

• Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) is an ability-based test that measures the four branches of Mayer and Salovey's EI model. Test-takers perform tasks designed to assess their ability to perceive, identify, understand, and manage emotions.
• Emotional and Social Competence Inventory (ESCI) is based on an older instrument known as the Self-Assessment Questionnaire and involves having people who know the individual offer ratings of that person’s abilities in several different emotional competencies. The test is designed to evaluate the social and emotional abilities that help distinguish people as strong leaders.

There are also plenty of more informal online resources, many of them free, to investigate your emotional intelligence.

Researchers suggest that there are four different levels of emotional intelligence including emotional perception, the ability to reason using emotions, the ability to understand emotions, and the ability to manage emotions.

1. Perceiving emotions: The first step in understanding emotions is to perceive them accurately. In many cases, this might involve understanding nonverbal signals such as body language and facial expressions.
2. Reasoning with emotions: The next step involves using emotions to promote thinking and cognitive activity. Emotions help prioritize what we pay attention and react to; we respond emotionally to things that garner our attention.
3. Understanding emotions: The emotions that we perceive can carry a wide variety of meanings. If someone is expressing angry emotions, the observer must interpret the cause of the person's anger and what it could mean. For example, if your boss is acting angry, it might mean that they are dissatisfied with your work, or it could be because they got a speeding ticket on their way to work that morning or that they've been fighting with their partner.
4. Managing emotions: The ability to manage emotions effectively is a crucial part of emotional intelligence and the highest level. Regulating emotions and responding appropriately as well as responding to the emotions of others are all important aspects of emotional management.

The four branches of this model are arranged by complexity with the more basic processes at the lower levels and the more advanced processes at the higher levels. For example, the lowest levels involve perceiving and expressing emotion, while higher levels require greater conscious involvement and involve regulating emotions.

Interest in teaching and learning social and emotional intelligence has grown in recent years. Social and emotional learning (SEL) programs have become a standard part of the curriculum for many schools.

The goal of these initiatives is not only to improve health and well-being but also to help students succeed academically and prevent bullying. There are many examples of how emotional intelligence can play a role in daily life.

Emotionally intelligent people know that emotions can be powerful, but also temporary. When a highly charged emotional event happens, such as becoming angry with a co-worker, the emotionally intelligent response would be to take some time before responding. This allows everyone to calm their emotions and think more rationally about all the factors surrounding the argument.

Emotionally intelligent people are not only good at thinking about how other people might feel but they are also adept at understanding their own feelings. Self-awareness allows people to consider the many different factors that contribute to their emotions.

A large part of emotional intelligence is being able to think about and empathize with how other people are feeling. This often involves considering how you would respond if you were in the same situation.

People who have strong emotional intelligence are able to consider the perspectives, experiences, and emotions of other people and use this information to explain why people behave the way that they do.

Emotional intelligence can be used in many different ways in your daily life. Some different ways to practice emotional intelligence include:

• Being able to accept criticism and responsibility
• Being able to move on after making a mistake
• Being able to say no when you need to
• Being able to share your feelings with others
• Being able to solve problems in ways that work for everyone
• Having empathy for other people
• Having great listening skills
• Knowing why you do the things you do
• Not being judgemental of others

Emotional intelligence is essential for good interpersonal communication. Some experts believe that this ability is more important in determining life success than IQ alone. Fortunately, there are things that you can do to strengthen your own social and emotional intelligence.

Understanding emotions can be the key to better relationships, improved well-being, and stronger communication skills. 

Hosted by Editor-in-Chief and therapist Amy Morin, LCSW, this episode of The Verywell Mind Podcast, shares how you can learn to be less judgmental. Click below to listen now.

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Being emotionally intelligent is important, but what steps can you take to improve your own social and emotional skills? Here are some tips.

If you want to understand what other people are feeling, the first step is to pay attention. Take the time to listen to what people are trying to tell you, both verbally and non-verbally. Body language can carry a great deal of meaning. When you sense that someone is feeling a certain way, consider the different factors that might be contributing to that emotion.

Picking up on emotions is critical, but you also need to be able to put yourself into someone else's shoes in order to truly understand their point of view. Practice empathizing with other people. Imagine how you would feel in their situation. Such activities can help you build an emotional understanding of a specific situation as well as develop stronger emotional skills in the long-term.

The ability to reason with emotions is an important part of emotional intelligence. Consider how your own emotions influence your decisions and behaviors. When you are thinking about how other people respond, assess the role that their emotions play.

Why is this person feeling this way? Are there any unseen factors that might be contributing to these feelings? How to your emotions differ from theirs? As you explore such questions, you may find that it becomes easier to understand the role that emotions play in how people think and behave.

Having lower emotional intelligence skills can lead to a number of potential pitfalls that can affect multiple areas of life including work and relationships.

People who have fewer emotional skills tend to get in more arguments, have lower quality relationships, and have poor emotional coping skills.

Being low on emotional intelligence can have a number of drawbacks, but having a very high level of emotional skills can also come with challenges. For example:

• Research suggests that people with high emotional intelligence may actually be less creative and innovative.
• Highly emotionally intelligent people may have a hard time delivering negative feedback for fear of hurting other people's feelings.
• Research has found that high EQ can sometimes be used for manipulative and deceptive purposes.

Emotional intelligence as a term didn't come into our vernacular until around 1990. Despite being a relatively new term, interest in the concept has grown tremendously since then.

As early as the 1930s, the psychologist Edward Thorndike described the concept of "social intelligence" as the ability to get along with other people. During the 1940s, psychologist David Wechsler proposed that different effective components of intelligence could play an important role in how successful people are in life.

The 1950s saw the rise of the school of thought known as humanistic psychology, and thinkers such as Abraham Maslow focused greater attention on the different ways that people could build emotional strength.

Another important concept to emerge in the development of emotional intelligence was the notion of multiple intelligences. This concept was put forth in the mid-1970s by Howard Gardner, introducing the idea that intelligence was more than just a single, general ability.

It was not until 1985 that the term "emotional intelligence" was first used by in a doctoral dissertation by Wayne Payne. In 1987, an article published in Mensa Magazine, Keith Beasley uses the term "emotional quotient."

In 1990, psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer published their landmark article, "Emotional Intelligence," in the journal Imagination, Cognition, and Personality. They defined emotional intelligence 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."

In 1995, the concept of emotional intelligence was popularized after the publication of Daniel Goleman’s book "Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ."

The topic of emotional intelligence has continued to capture the public interest since and has become important in fields outside of psychology including education and business.