Difference Between Emotional Intelligence And IQ

Intelligence is a term that is difficult to define, and it can mean many different things to different people. Intelligence is often defined as the general mental ability to learn and apply knowledge to manipulate your environment, as well as the ability to reason and have abstract thought. In education, Intelligence is defined as the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or challenging situations. In psychology, it is the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one’s environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria; for example IQ test. It is thought from deriving a combination of inherited characteristics and environmental such as developmental and social factors. General intelligence is often said to comprise various specific abilities like verbal ability, ability to apply logic in solving problems. There are two types of intelligence: emotional and intelligence quotient. Emotional intelligence is defined as ability or capacity to perceive, assess, and manage the emotions of one’s self, and of others.  Intelligence quotient is the score of an intelligence test that is a number derived from standardized psychological tests of an individual’s capacity to learn.

Emotional intelligence is one of the best predictors of success. In fact, many studies show that emotional intelligence is a better indicator to success than a higher IQ (intelligence quotient).

There are several reasons. But the main reason why emotional intelligence is a better indicator is because it shows how much a person can manage and change his daily actions in everyday life. IQ tests don’t test that, they just test how fast you can solve a problem on paper. EQ can measure how a person will cope in a real life situation.

Another big difference between emotional intelligence (EQ) and IQ is that it measures how you manage and react with other people. To lead or create a successful business, you need to be able to have effective and efficient workers to do your work. To do this effectively, you have to get people working together harmoniously and this requires you to manage many people’s emotions. A high emotional intelligent person can manage this efficiently compared to a low EQ person. IQ test cannot test this.

Also, people who can manage other people’s emotions well, they generally have better relationships socially and romantically. People who have high IQ’s tend to be anti-social or socially abnormal. People with high emotional intelligence tend to be more socially accepted and more accepted in society.

EQ is better than higher IQ. Just because you have a low IQ, doesn’t mean that you are not smarter. Another component determining EQ is empathy, which is the capability to share and understand another’s emotion and feelings. If we say that someone cannot relate to other people , it simply means that the person has never been in such condition and has never experienced such feelings, hence difficult for him to show empathy towards the person who has actually gone through those experiences and feelings.

IQ is a number that signifies the relative intelligence of a person; the ratio multiplied by 100 of the mental age as reported on a standardized test to the chronological age. IQ is primarily used to measure one’s cognitive abilities, such as the ability to learn or understand new situations; how to reason through a given problem/scenario; the ability to apply knowledge to one’s current situations. It involves primarily the neo cortex or top portion of the brain.

Over 140 – Genius or almost genius

120 – 140 – Very superior intelligence (Gifted)

110 – 119 – Superior intelligence

90 – 109 – Average or normal intelligence

80 – 89 – Dullness

70 – 79 – Borderline deficiency in intelligence

Under 70 – Feeble-mindedness

Intelligence Quotient or IQ is a number or a count of the intelligence of a person. In a standard IQ test, a person’s quotient of intelligence is compared and determined on the basis of the scores of other on the same test. These days more and more people are relying on IQ tests for a lot of reasons. IQ tests have become a parameter for educational institutes and corporate offices in conjunction with personality tests. Intelligence Quotients are used by people to find out a person’s mental age, which is the persons understanding levels and performance capabilities at a particular age. A Standard IQ test would consist of tasks that involve the use of mental ability and vary on their difficulty levels. The test includes gauging of memory, reasoning power, numerical capability, definitions and scope of recalling data. Psychologists have determined a given age at which people can correctly answer questions in an IQ test.

EQ is a measure of one’s emotional intelligence, as defined by the ability to use both emotional and cognitive thought. Emotional intelligence skills include but are not limited to empathy, intuition, creativity, flexibility, resilience, stress management, leadership, integrity, authenticity, intrapersonal skills and interpersonal skills. It involves the lower and central sections of the brain, called the limbic system. It also primarily involves the amygdala, which has the ability to scan everything that’s happening to us moment to moment to see if it is a threat.

EQ a relatively recent behavioural model, rising to prominence with Daniel Goleman’s 1995 Book called ‘Emotional Intelligence’. The early Emotional Intelligence theory was originally developed during the 1970s and 80s by the work and writings of psychologists Howard Gardner (Harvard), Peter Salovey (Yale) and John ‘Jack’ Mayer (New Hampshire). Emotional Intelligence is increasingly relevant to organizational development and developing people, because the EQ principles provide a new way to understand and assess people’s behaviours, management styles, attitudes, interpersonal skills, and potential. Emotional Intelligence is an important consideration in human resources planning, job profiling, recruitment interviewing and selection, management development, customer relations and customer service, and more.

Emotional Intelligence links strongly with concepts of love and spirituality: bringing compassion and humanity to work, and also to ‘Multiple Intelligence’ theory which illustrates and measures the range of capabilities people possess, and the fact that everybody has a value.

Emotional Intelligence

Intelligence quotient

Ability to feel

Ability to think

Is the heart

Is the brain

Is dynamic and can be learned or increased

Reliable measure of cognitive capacity

Gets through life

Gets you through school

Appealing to reason and emotions to convince someone

Trying to convince someone by facts alone

Using your emotions as well as your cognitive abilities to function more effectively

Relying solely on your cognitive skills

Knowing how and why

Knowing what

Knowing how to motivate each person

Treating everyone as they operated the same way which they don’t

Managing emotions and using them for good results

Being at the mercy of emotions because you don’t understand them or know how to work with them.

Measures his personal skills and power to use to emotions.

refers to the analytical, mathematical and logical reasoning capabilities of a person

More relevant to success and happiness in life.

Determines whether you have the innate abilities for it.

Decides whether you are a team player or how well you will respond to a crisis.

decides your individual capacities and intelligence

Emotions, as most of know, are a powerful tool in motivating actions. When someone does something that we don’t quite understand, they might tell us to ‘walk a mile in my shoes.’ This is because emotion very often overrides reason and causes outsiders to think that one is acting in irrational ways. A person with adequate emotional intelligence takes into account the existence and power of emotions and sees the necessity in situations that others may find unreasonable.

Emotional intelligence refers to the effectiveness of an individual’s response to his or her own feelings or emotions and to those of others. A person with high emotional intelligence is very adept at understanding and properly responding in an appropriate way to the nuances of social situations. An emotionally intelligent person can use his or her understanding of emotion in harmony with good reasoning skills to make reasonable decisions while maintaining good relationships.

A person with low emotional intelligence will likely misinterpret, deny or disregard the impact of human emotion that is present in virtually every social situation. A person with alexithymia, a severe state of low emotional intelligence, lacks the verbal ability to express emotion or to describe emotions in others. Those who struggle with alexithymia report to psychologists feeling no emotion at all, as well as a lack of dreaming, fantasizing and creative imagining.

Emotional intelligence, like other aspects of intelligence, lies on a broad spectrum, with a large margin for normal levels of emotional intelligence. Similar to a test for a person’s intelligence quotient (IQ), the level or score of emotional intelligence can be determined and analyzed for individual people. These tests aim to show how a person responds to the feelings of others, as well as how he understands his own, how he deals with social situations and the appropriateness of his response through a series of questions that mimic real life circumstances. Unlike other forms of intelligence, some researchers believe that emotional intelligence can be taught or trained. They believe that with practice, a person can replace former low intelligent behaviours with more appropriate ones and thus improve her interactions with others as well as her own quality of life.