Emotional Intelligence Vocabulary Study Guide

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the key neurobiological, psychological, and social concepts of Emotional Intelligence as defined by Daniel Goleman.

Aristotle's Challenge

The rare skill to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way.

Emotional Intelligence

Abilities such as being able to motivate oneself and persist in the face of frustrations, to control impulse and delay gratification, to regulate one's moods, and to empathize.

Neural Hijacking

An emotional explosion where a center in the limbic brain proclaims an emergency, recruiting the rest of the brain to its urgent agenda before the thinking brain has had a chance to fully glimpse what is happening.

Amygdala

An almond-shaped cluster of interconnected structures that acts as a specialist for emotional matters and a storehouse of emotional memory.

Hippocampus

A limbic structure involved in providing a keen memory of context and registering dry facts, distinct from the amygdala's role in retaining emotional flavor.

Neocortex

The 'thinking brain' or seat of thought that contains centers for putting together and comprehending what the senses perceive, allowing for nuance and feelings about ideas.

Limbic System

The neural territory that added emotions proper to the brain's repertoire, refining learning and memory to allow for smart choices for survival.

Working Memory

The capacity of attention that holds in mind the facts essential for completing a task, which can be sabotaged by signals of strong emotion from the limbic brain.

Self-awareness

The keystone of emotional intelligence, defined as an ongoing attention to one's internal states and recognizing a feeling as it happens.

Alexithymia

A condition characterized by a lack of words for feelings and difficulty discriminating between emotions and bodily sensations.

Somatic Markers

Limbic-driven surges from the viscera, or 'gut feelings,' that steer an individual away from choices experience warns against or alert them to opportunities.

Flow

A state of effortless excellence and blissful absorption in the moment where emotions are positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand.

Empathy

A fundamental 'people skill' that builds on self-awareness, allowing one to know how another feels by reading nonverbal channels like tone of voice or gesture.

Display Rules

The social consensus about which feelings can be properly shown in certain situations, learned early through both explicit instruction and modeling.

Emotional Contagion

The subtle process where individuals unconsciously imitate the emotions of others, resulting in the transmission of moods from one person to another.

Flooding

A self-perpetuating emotional hijacking where a person is so overwhelmed by a partner's negativity that they cannot hear without distortion or think clearly.

Stonewalling

A defensive social move where a person goes blank, effectively withdrawing from a conversation through silence and a stony facial expression.

Group IQ

The sum total of the talents and skills of a group, which is determined not by the average IQ but by the level of social harmony.

Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)

The medical science that explores the biological pathways through which the mind, the emotions, and the body are intimately entwined.

Attunement

The process where a parent lets an infant know they have a sense of what the infant is feeling, forming the basis for emotional connection.

PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)

A limbic disorder representing a perilous lowering of the neural setpoint for alarm, leaving a person to react to life's moments as though they were emergencies.

Pruning

A process where the brain loses less-used neuronal connections and forms strong connections in synaptic circuits used the most, sculpting the brain during childhood.

Emotional Literacy

The ability to understand, manage, and express emotions effectively; a skill taught in courses like 'Self Science' to improve social and academic competence.

Dyssemia

A term for a learning disability in the realm of nonverbal messages, such as standing too close or misinterpreting body language.