Emotional Intelligence (EI)

Daniel Goleman, a New York Times science reporter, is largely credited with developing the concept of emotional intelligence. In 1990, he found the phrase in an academic journal article written by two psychologists and subsequently wrote a book about the topic. As stated by Ronda Muir in her book, Beyond Smart: Lawyering with Emotional Intelligence, since 1990 emotional intelligence has been more broadly defined as having four critical components: emotional perception, emotional empathy, emotional understanding, and emotional regulations. Muir’s book is about emotional intelligence in the practice of law, generally, but she makes a strong case for the advantages emotional intelligence brings to the practice of law. In fact, in one study, “…lawyers who score higher in emotional intelligence, as well as in other attributes that indicate EI, are more successful practitioners that their colleagues with lower EI.” (See Muir, Beyond Smart, at 81-82.)

This month’s library book display is devoted to resources on emotional intelligence. See the display in the library and its companion guide online at https://lawguides.rwu.edu/emotionalintelligence.

For a short, free emotional intelligence assessment, see McGraw Hill Education’s EI quiz and see IHHP’s EQ Quiz. Both of these assessments are mentioned and Muir’s book some free apps related to emotional intelligence like Yale’s Mood Meter and Insight Timer. 

Finally, if you don’t have time to read a whole book, here is an article called 5 TED Talks to Increase Your Emotional Intelligence.