Copyright Joe Hasley, 20071 EI@work Presented by: Joe Hasley [email protected]

copyright Joe Hasley, 2007 1

EI@work

Presented by: Joe [email protected]


Goals of this class

• Be able to identify your own emotions, cognitions.

• Better identify and understand the emotions, cognitions of others.

• Increase your cognitive effectiveness.

• Increase your interpersonal effectiveness.


What this class is not

• Therapy

• Dale Carnegie, Tonny Robbins, Zig Zigler

• Stress reduction class

• EI is not just being nice, getting along with others, or getting what you want out of people.


Emotion Defined

• Impulses to act, an instant plan for handling life.

Rooted in the Amygdala, part of the “reptilian core” of the brain.

Emotion is very much a physiological response.


Emotion in the Brain

Emotion is processed in many parts of the brain, but a key emotional-processing center is the Amygdala (from the Greek word for Almond).


Emotion in the Brain


Senses are processed in more than one part of the brain.

• LeDoux- Destroyed the audio cortex of rats, then exposed the rats to a tone paired with an electrical shock. The rats quickly learned to fear the sound, even though they didn’t know they were hearing it. What happened???


Senses are processed in more than one part of the brain.

• Rats “heard” the sound in their amygdala, even though they didn’t know they heard it. If the rats could talk, and you had asked them “did you just hear a tone”, they would have said, “No.”

• The rats heard the sound emotionally, not cognitively. (Goleman, 1995 p. 18)

• This could be interpreted as scientific proof of the “sixth sense”. (jph)


Emotion and judgment

• Damasio (University of Iowa) – Patient, a lawyer, had the pathway from the amygdala to the prefrontal lobe cut during surgery to remove a tumor.

• Patient did not suffer task impairment- he could still perform complex cognitive tasks. However, he lost his judgment. He could do calculus, but he couldn’t figure out when to schedule his next appointment. He couldn’t figure out, “Should I go to the football game, or should I go to the Sports Column (a sports bar)?

• He couldn’t use emotion to weigh options.


Your emotions hear better than your ears

• Senses are actually many impulses of on/off.• In any given nerve synapse, the stimulation

must reach a limen (Latin word for “Threshold”) to pass along the stimulus to the next nerve cell.

• If the signal is not strong enough, it does not “turn on” the next cell.

• However…

Stimulation level

Synapse

Off

Limon

On


You emotions hear better than your ears

Stimulation level

Synapse

Off

Limen

On

• Research reveals that humans are equipped to respond to sub-limen (subliminal) perceptions.

• Individual sensitivity may differ, based on fatigue and conditioning.


The sixth sense

• One of the main jobs of your nervous system is to filter stimulus- otherwise, you would become overwhelmed.

• This is why you don’t notice your toosh until it’s been in the chair too long.

• Just b/c you filter it doesn’t mean it’s not processed- you’re just not aware of it being processed.


Anti-EI

• Research insinuates that psychopaths have something wrong with their amygdalas.

• When hooked up to a shock machine and other machines to measure the physiological signs of stress (perspiration, heart rate) and told they would receive a shock, psychopaths acknowledge that it was going to hurt, but showed no sign of distress. They knew it was going to hurt, but they didn’t care.


The bottom line

• “Just as there is a stream of thought, there is a parallel stream of feeling. The notion that there is “pure thought,” rationality devoid of feeling, is fiction, an illusion based on inattention to the subtle moods that follow us through the day. We have feelings about everything we do, think about, imagine, remember. Thought and feelings are inextricably woven together.”– Goleman 1998, p. 52


“A view of human nature that ignores emotions is sadly short-sighted.”

• When you try to go into Spock mode, you ignore the scientific facts.

• Emotion is just as important as logic when it comes to making decisions. In fact, in many ways, emotion is the most important part of logic. (two things to consider during a decision- attribute values and attribute weights)

• Reason is a powerful tool, but an inadequate master.

• Emotions are what we use when the decision is too important to rely on logic alone.


EI – The goal

• The goal is balance, not emotional suppression. What is wanted is the appropriate emotion- feeling proportionate and complementary to circumstance.


Intelligence

• There is a lot more to intelligence than just reading and math (but that’s usually all they want to test).

• Howard Gardner’s dimensions of intelligence:– Verbal logic– Math logic– Spacial capacity– Kinesthetics– Musical– Interpersonal skills– Intraspychic (intrapersonal skills)


Question???

• Why do we only test reading and math skills in school?

• “We should spend less time ranking our children and more time helping them identify their natural competencies and gifts, and cultivating those.” – Howard Gardner, Ph.D.


EI defined

• Intrapersonal intelligence– Recognizing and controlling one’s own

emotions as they occur. (Self-awareness)– The right emotion at the right time expressed

in the right way. (Self-control)

• Interpersonal intelligence– The ability to recognize and cope with the

emotions of others. (Empathy)– The skills to effectively deal with the emotions

of ourselves and others. (Social intelligence)


Why does EI matter?

• At best, IQ accounts for about 20% of success. Some estimates say as low as 4%.

• Emotional Intelligence, or “EQ”, is much more predictive of where you’ll go in life.


Marshmallow test

• Starting in the 60’s, Stanford psychologist Walter Mischel

• Sat pre-schoolers at a table. Put 1 marshmallow in front of them. Told them “I’m going to leave the room. You can eat the marshmallow at any time and you won’t be penalized, but if you can wait until I return, I’ll give you another marshmallow when I come back.”


Marshmallow test – 14 years later

• The kids who could not resist impulse– Were more likely to be involved with drugs– Were less likely to finish high school– Were less likely to go to college– Were more likely to have been incarcerated– Less happy, less socially adapted


Marshmallow test - later life

• The results of the marshmallow test were a better predictor of grades in college than were IQ, SAT, ACT, or ANY other standardized score the children were given.

• Later still, the impulsive children were more likely to be divorced and fired from their jobs.

WHY?


Case Study: Phineas Gage

• “The classic case of earlier studies of prefrontal cortex function involved a railroad supervisor of construction—one Phineas Gage—who in 1848, despite a metal rod piercing his left cheek and exiting the top of his head, survived the incident and healed. After the event he had normal memory and abilities to walk and talk, but because of the prefrontal injury could no longer behave correctly, often getting into fights or acting shockingly. The remainder of his life was a tragedy of knowing what was right and wrong, but never choosing the right and instead always picking what sounded pleasurable and easy.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage


Impulse control• “Subsequent studies on patients with prefrontal injuries have shown

that, in testing, they verbalize what the most appropriate social responses would be under certain circumstances, yet when actually performing, they will still pursue behavior which is aimed at immediate gratification even if they know the longer term results will be self-defeating.”

• “This data indicates that not only are skills of comparison and understanding of eventual outcomes harbored in the prefrontal cortex, but that the prefrontal cortex (when functioning correctly) controls the mental option to delay immediate gratification for a better or more rewarding longer term gratification result. This ability to wait for a reward is one of the key pieces that defines optimal executive function of the human brain.”– Wikipedia

They know cognitively that it’s wrong, but they do it anyway.


The Bottom Line

• “To the degree that our emotions get in the way of or enhance our ability to think and plan, to pursue training for a distinct goal, to solve problems and the like, they define the limits of our capacity to use our innate mental abilities, and so determine how we do in life. It is in this sense that emotional intelligence is the master aptitude, a capacity that profoundly affects all other abilities; either facilitating or interfering with them.” - Goleman, 1995


Don’t get me wrong…

• EQ is not going to substitute for intelligence: Al Gore is very emotionally intelligent, but he will never be as smart as Bill Clinton.

• Then again, he will probably never have to explain his inappropriate behavior to the nation on national television!

• Once you’re in college, grad school, upper management, EVERYbody is talented and smart. What will differentiate these individuals is their EQ.


Basic Dimensions of EI

• Self-awareness: Awareness of your own emotions; the ability to “step outside yourself”; if you’ve ever had the thought, “I shouldn’t feel this way,” that’s an example of self-awareness.

• Self-awareness is the foundation of EI.• Meta mood: thoughts and feelings about

your feelings.


Self awareness

• The ability to – 1) Identify– 2) Critically examine

cognitions and emotions.

• Example: What is your “go-to” emotion? How do you react when surprised?

• What’s your strongest prejudice?


Activity

• “I’d like you all to pick up your pen or pencil… and I’d like you to take note of what went through your head when I said that.” Anybody want to share?

• Note your emotion. All I said was “I’d like you to pick up your pen or pencil.” I didn’t say you had to do it. I didn’t say you were going to do anything with it. Just notice your feelings, and the stories that you told yourself.

• Discuss: what was your reaction? Anybody’s rictor scale go off?


Identifying emotions

• For the next few minutes, we’re going to work in the context of stress.

• Stress = Any circumstance that threatens or is perceived to threaten one’s well-being and thereby tax one’s coping abilities. The threat may be to physical safety, security, self-esteem, reputation, peace of mind. It may be real or imagined.


Stress• Stress is cumulative. Routine stresses add up.

Circumstances that are not individually stressful can combine to be stressfull – parenthood = ok – career = ok – parenthood + career = overload

• Kanner et al., 1981 found that minor hassles were more related to subjects’ mental health than were catastrophic stressors.


The Effects of Stress

• A little bit of stress can be a positive thing– It can motivate us – It can put us “in the zone”. Great athletes,

great dancers.

“The thing that I admire the most about you humans is that you are at your best when things are at their worst.” – Starman

However, stress can also have severe negative consequences...


The Effects of Stress

• Cognitive effects - Stress saps the prefrontal cortex of resources – attention, memory, judgment, concentration.

• Stressed out people don’t learn.• A big part of the military academy system

(and all military training) is learning how to learn and function under extreme stress.

• Both short-term and long-term stress can have SEVERE physiological effects!


The Effects of Stress: RIP

• While the opiates (adrenaline, corisol, and prolactin) that are released during stress surge through the body, the immune cells are hampered in their function. Conclusion: stress suppresses immune resistance, at least temporarily, presumably in a conservation of energy.



• The old idea that a hurried, high-pressure Type-A personality is at great risk from heart disease has not held up. Rather, it is hostility that puts us at risk.

• Dr. Redford Williams at Duke found that those physicians who had the highest scores on a test of hostility while still in medical school were seven times as likely to have died by the age of 50 as were those with low hostility scores. Being prone to anger was a stronger predictor of dying young than were smoking, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.



• Anger adds an additional stress to the heart by increasing heart rate and blood pressure, which can cause micro tears in the blood vessel, where plaque develops. The net effect is to make anger particularly lethal in those who already have heart disease.

• In one study, while patients recounted incidents that made them mad, the pumping efficiency of the heart dropped by an average of 5%. The drop in pumping efficiency was not seen with other distressing feelings, such as anxiety, nor during physical exertion; anger seems to be the one emotion that does the most harm to the heart.



• Anger

• Hostility (Agression)

• Fear– These are negative coping strategies that

result from stress.



http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1780239

Article is from the March 20, 2004 program “Weekend Edition Saturday”

This article, and the other listed on the page that are highly related, areinteresting and worth listening to in their entirety.

For our purposes, listen to the section from 8:00 minutes to 10:44 minutes.




Stress – Nailing it down

• 4 types of stress– Frustration: Any situation in which a goal is thwarted

(failure and loss are common types of frustration).– Conflict: Occurs when 2 or more incompatible

impulses compete for behavior (cognitive dissonance).

– Change: Alterations that require adjustment. (Even positive, welcome change can cause stress. New job, new spouse, new digs.)

– Pressure: Involves expectation or demands that we behave a certain way. (Usually we must perform or conform).


Diffusing stress

• The most common coping skills are– Decrease the stress stimulus (drop a class)– Increase stress tolerance (quit staying up til 2)

• Generally, the more familiar you are with the stressor, the less likely you are to be threatened.

• In general, people prefer predictable stress over surprise packages.


Stress – a final note

• Three groups were placed in a room and asked to take a test:– Control group had no noise.– Group2 was exposed to period, annoying noise.– Group3 wes exposed to period, annoying noise, but

were given a button and told, “We’re running some other tests that may be noisy. If the noise is distracting you from your test, push this button, and we will stop the other tests, but only push the button if the noise if bothering you.”



• Overwhelmingly-– The group with the button did not push the

button.– The group with no control over the noise did

significantly worse than the no-noise control group, but the group with control of the noise scored the same as the control group.



• In another study of new residents at a nursing home:– One group was told “We’ve arranged your room in a

way we think you’d like it. If you don’t like it, tell us, and we’ll be glad to re-arrange it for you.”

– The second group was told, “YOU can arrange your room any way you want. If you want to make a change that you can’t do by yourself, just ask for help.”

– Those in the second group lived significantly longer than individuals in the first group.


Self-talk: What to say when you talk to yourself

• Self efficacy: If you want to know how a student will perform academically in college, all you have to do is ask.

• Students expectations of performance are consistently better predictors of grades than SAT, ACT, or any other standardized test score.


Self-efficacy: A foundation for cognitive dissonance?

• Cognitive dissonance: “the perception of incompatibility between two cognitions, where "cognition" is defined as any element of knowledge, including attitude, emotion, belief, or behavior”

• If you believe that you’ll be a good student, going to the bars when you have homework to do will create cognitive dissonance.


Optimism and Locus of Control

• Optimism: how you explain future outcomes.• Locus of control: how you explain past outcomes.

(Internal, external)• Optimists and internal locus of control are more likely to

persist, less likely to react to adversity by lowering goals. • Internals prefer games of skill, externals prefer games of

chance/luck.• Internals are better able to resist coercion and tolerate

ambiguity better.• Very strong link between external LOC and depression.


Explanatory style

• Indicates how people explain to themselves why they experience a particular event.– Personal. People experiencing events may see

themselves as the cause; that is, they have internalized the cause for the event. Example: "I always forget to make that turn" (internal) as opposed to "That turn can sure sneak up on you" (external).

– Permanent. People may see the situation as unchangeable, e.g., "I always lose my keys" or "I never forget a face".

– Pervasive. People may see the situation as affecting all aspects of life, e.g., "I can't do anything right" or "Everything I touch seems to turn to gold".


Victim vs. Responsible

• We are all victimized. Very bad things happen to very good people.

• Responsibility = Response + Ability

• Being responsible means choosing to be response able. Choosing your response.


Circle of influence

Inside your circle of influence

Outside your circle of influence

Highly effective people expandtheir circle of influence byrocusing on the thingsthat are in their circle.

The circles of influence of greatleaders influnce theworld even whenthat leader isgone.

MLKGhandi

(Covey, 1989)


Cognitive distortions (Burns, 1999)

• *All-or-nothing thinking: You see things in black and white categories. If your performance falls short of perfect, you see yourself as a total failure.

• Overgeneralization: You pick out a single negative detail and dwell on it exclusively.

• Disqualifying the positive: You reject positive experiences and insist they “don’t count”.

• Jumping to conclusions: You make negative interpretations even though no facts support you.


Cognitive Distortions (Burns, 1999)

• *Magnification or Minimization: You exaggerate the importance of things (being late for an appointment) or you inappropriately shrink things.

• Emotional reasoning: You assume that your negative emotions necessarily reflect the way things really are.


Cognitive Distortions (Burns, 1999)

• *Should statements: The emotional consequence is guild. When you direct should statements towards others, you feel anger, frustration, resentment.

• *Labeling and mislabeling: Instead of describing an error, you attach a negative label. “I’m a loser.” Mislabeling involves describing an event with language that is highly colored and emotionally loaded.

• Personalization: You see yourself as the cause of a negative event you are really not responsible for.


Activity

• At the beginning of class, I asked you to write down something that made you upset or stressed.

• For the next 4 minutes, identify– The emotions you have based on the situation

you described.– The cognitive distortions that might be

occurring when you recall the situation.


Activity

• During your break, think of a new cognitive distortion of your own. Where does this show up in your life?

• Write it down. (It helps if it’s one that we can discuss!)


Cognitive Distortions (jph)

• Not mentioned in textbooks, but..

• “What is shouldn’t be.” (Resistance, denial)• “The rules don’t apply to me.”

– “Man cannot break the law, he can only break himself against the law.”

• People as verbs (fundamental attribution error).• “That’s just how I am”.• All or none.• Cooperation || competition.• Dependence, Independence, Interdependence.• Right or wrong.


• Empathy (≠ Sympathy)

• Sympathy = Actually feeling another person’s emotions

• Empathy = Recognizing the emotions of another person at a cognitive level. “How would I feel if I were that person?”

• Fundamental skill of relationships.



Empathy

• Larry Adler, M.D., at the Denver VA, uses brain scanning technology to examine what happens when people listen to stimuli.

• Experimental subjects put on headphones and are exposed to two clicks approx. 20 ms. apart.

• Normal subjects look like this:


First Click

Second Click

Brain Activity

Time

0ms 50ms 55ms

Normal Subject: Click Test


First Click

Second Click

Brain Activity

Time

0ms 50ms 55ms

Schizophrenic Subject: Click Test

Schizophrenic

Normal


Empathy

• Adler demonstrated that some schizophrenic patients had deficient P50 auditory filters. This is a fancy way of saying that they didn’t filter sound the way that you and I do. So, instead of filtering background noise (blowing fans, music, other conversations, traffic), some schizophrenics hear EVERYTHING coming at them. (This would make about anybody crazy if they weren’t already!)


Empathy

• Amazingly, when Adler allowed the schizophrenic subjects to go outside and smoke a cigarette, when they repeated the click test, those subjects’ P50 auditory filters began working- their brain activity displayed much more normal activity.


Reflection

• When I first read the Adler results, I immediately realized:– If I were not filtering sound, I might be willing

to try smoking (or a lot of other drugs) if it gave me relief.

– Maybe not everyone who is an addict is a loser- maybe they are trying to self-medicate.


Empathy

Source: http://www.psy.pdx.edu/PsiCafe/Overheads/BellCurve.htm


Empathy

• Aproximately 4% of the population has an IQ of 73 or lower.

• Individuals with an IQ of 73– eg: Have trouble with time. They know time, but it’s

hard for them to describe how long something will take (walking to work, getting dressed).

– How frustrating would it be if you didn’t know if you had to set the alarm for 5AM or 6:30AM because you didn’t know how much time to allow yourself?

– It’s easy to get down on people- until you’ve walked in their shoes.


Empathy

Korean WarVietnam War

Source: Wikipedia



• Self-Motivation• Ability to set goals• Ability to stay motivated and pursue goals in the face of

adversity, ambiguity, and setbacks.• Ability to persist in the face of obstacles.• Studies of Olympic athletes, world class musicians, and

chess grand masters find that their unifying trait is the ability to motivate themselves to pursue relentless training routines.

• Study at violin school- tope students had performed on average twice as many lifetime hours as the next tier of students.



• Resilience -> Planning, Flexibility, Resourcefulness, Critical thinking/insight, Forgiveness


Resiliency

• “Protective factors make a more profound impact on the life course of children who grow up under adverse conditions than do specific risk factors or stressful life events.” (Benard, 2004, p. 8)


Resiliency

• Resilient people ask questions; they re-analyze situations to ask, “What should I do differently next time?”

• They take the time to learn how to learn.

• They are flexible, they don’t get stuck on a plan, they change direction nimbly, they don’t judge course corrections (certain politicians?)


Resiliency

• Resilient people are resourceful- they don’t mind asking for help, and they care more about the outcome than the method.

• “If you only work with people you like, you won’t get much work done.” –Harvey MacKay

• They are not governed by process. Willows, not oaks. They are willing to abandon old ideas when better ones come along.


Interpersonal Skills

• Coordinating groups – essential skills of the leader, CEO, director, military officer.

• Negotiation – skill of mediator, parents, spouses, families.

• Empathizers – Good friends, counselors, team-players.

• Good leaders are all 3, as the situation demands!


Traits of EI Individuals

• Emotionally Intelligent people understand how they impact those around them and actively manage this effect.

• They understand that emotions are contagious. They send out a good vibe, even when times are tough.



• They take initiative.• They see challenges as games, not obstacles.

(Results in less stress, which means more cognitive resources, less physical reactions, more creativity and options.)

• Focus is on cooperation, not competition.• They see failure as a temporary circumstance.

Hence, they are not afraid of it. They are confident they will eventually succeed.

• They are persistent. They don’t take setbacks personally.



• They realize the importance of synergy and cultivate it. • They are social creatures. They are team players, team

builders. • They focus on the strengths of others and work to

capitalize on those strengths. They bring out the best in others.

• They set others at ease. They empower those around them.

• They are good at reading the “emotional landscape.”• They have the ability to assert themselves w/o offending.• Special forces, West Point: “The Rambo’s are the first to

wash out. Loners are dangerous- they can’t communicate or synergize.”


Further Reading• Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman (1994)• Working With Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman (1998)• The Survivor Personality, Al Siebert (1996)• Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why, Laurence Ganzales

(2004)• The Relaxation Response, Herbert Benson and Miriam Z. Klipper

(1976)• Learned Optimism, Martin E. Seligman (1992)• Feeling Good, David D. Burns (1999)• Resiliency: What We Have Learned (Benard, 2004)• Psychology Applied to Modern Life (Weiten, Lloyd, 2000)• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Covey, 1989)

Documents

Copyright Joe Hasley, 20071 EI@work Presented by: Joe Hasley [email protected]