SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS DETERMINING THE CONCEPT OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE ROLE OF EMOTIONS IN THE CONDITIONS OF THE POST-INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

Abstract

Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to understand the intentions, motivation and desires of various people, as well as the ability to recognize and manage their emotions and the emotions of others in order to solve practical problems. In our opinion, this definition formulated by Smith at the beginning of the twenty-first century clearly traces the influence of the ideas of David Wechsler, who understood intellect as the systemic ability of a person to act purposefully and rationally. In this case, rationality of thinking was considered by David Wechsler in fact only from the point of view of evaluating the effectiveness of interaction with the outside world. And the productivity of thinking was determined on the basis of the possibility of obtaining a material result and the production of material values. In other words, the concept of intelligence fits well with the philosophy of industrial society and consumer society. Charles Darwin considered in his work Expression of Emotions in People and Animals, the role of manifestations of emotions for the survival of species, as well as for their adaptation, the work of many other scientists rather spoke about the role and importance of curbing emotions and managing them in the development of ethics and culture and society as a whole. Sigmund Freud believed that the first laws and regulations of ethics, such as the «Code of Hammurabi», created in Babylon in the XVIII century BC. e., or the edict of the emperor Ashoka, can be regarded as a desire to structure and give the manifestation of emotions a civilized form. In a sense, to be cultural or even more precisely — to be inside the cultural field, from the point of view of the founder of psychoanalysis, means being able to restrain emotions. In this connection, the thought of the uselessness and unimportance of emotions has received a variety of reflections in various ideas related to the development of society. Including — in the ideas of scientific technical progress, which has taken root in the minds of many generations as the unshakable and almost the most important meaning of human existence. In connection with a similar status of scientific progress, everything that hindered or did not even help the development of science and technology could easily be declared, and often was declared, evil. In such a situation, it was rational that came to the fore. Therefore, the coefficient of intelligence, and various studies related to the factor of general intelligence took the lead. They are reflected in the development of many theories of psychometry and related tests of intelligence. However, at present, social processes have begun to take a different form. Society changes and revises its values. Therefore, IQ, based on a number of logical and arithmetic problems, the purpose of which to a greater extent is to determine a person’s ability to generalize and compare known facts, in our opinion, is no longer as accurate as it was at the beginning of the twentieth century. The importance of emotions and the need to evaluate them under modern conditions has increased significantly and, in all likelihood, will continue to grow. Emotions have the role of a new language, become a system of symbols, with which you can draw conclusions about the significance of what is happening in terms of own needs of the relevant person. Emotions have become the motivational basis of almost any activities. At present, emotions are increasingly directly connecting motives and realization of activities, perform the function of evaluating its progress and results, are the basis of organizing activities, stimulate and direct it. All of the above, in our opinion, speaks of the growing role of emotions in various public spheres, which necessitates further research in this subject area, gives the right to speak about the importance of studying the role of emotions in modern society, as well as the feasibility of further development and improvement of the corresponding methodologies for their evaluation.