Emotional intelligence in Modern Youths - Sndbox Summer Camp Philosophy or Psychology or Sociology - Task Two

The most important aspect of emotional intelligence is that which puts into an act an attitude of awareness that manifests itself by recognizing its states of mind, using them as an instrument of knowledge towards oneself and others. To understand how this condition can be explained, it is necessary to study the context in which man and society have changed over time.

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It is in this sense that we need to analyze the relational and communicative aspects that have undergone a radical change. In modern society it is no longer the man who goes to the world but vice versa because the above all iconic and multimedia communication messages travel at an exorbitant speed. The means of knowledge have been transformed, from the discovery of writing and printing that required times of application and personal elaboration, we have moved on to the culture of the image that does not require a process of critical transformation of the message. Sensory intelligence (looking, touching) refers to a broader social context that is that of flexibility which is supported by a multiplicity of experiences whose immediacy makes knowledge enormously plastic.

Horizontal thinking, progressive and sequential has been replaced by a vertical splitting of the psyche that produces multiple identities adhering to a multiplicity of situations. In this perspective, emotional intelligence turns out to be an adaptation effort that often fails to bear fruit because the social and global context does not belong to it. Taking into account Jung and his concept of feeling we see that this free personal expression represents a rational function that allows us to evaluate and to choose. But the ego evaluates a more or less differentiated memory that represents the personal baggage of experiences and relationships in its history.

In the context of modern society, unfortunately, the ability to discern and use the critical sense can often not be exercised because we face immediate and opposite options on a daily basis (statistical surveys in which it is sufficient to express one's own thoughts tout court). The multiplicity of environmental and communicative stimuli determine continuous changes and poor elaboration of the processes that determine them. From this situation, the phenomenon of conformism and aestheticization that often fill the void created by the lack of interest and personal involvement emerges in the modern society.

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According to Goleman emotional intelligence is the self-regulation of emotions, the ability to control the impulses of the moment, the instrument of global intelligence of the individual. This definition necessarily leads to observe the current landscape of youth unease that emerges in an often uncontrolled way with its more or less violent manifestations such as bullying. In the family environment emotional intelligence can be taught but parents today tend to create a sort of barrier against their deprivation around their children, thinking that renunciation or defeats are useless or even harmful. Precisely in this perspective around the years 60-70 there are changes which highlight the uselessness or even the damage caused by negative experiences. We all know, however, that emotions as such must be experienced, for better or for worse because they develop and strengthen the character and adaptability.

Emotional intelligence can not be measured as the cognitive intelligence, often the "good" students do not possess sufficient tools that make them flexible and psychically reactive to different situations outside the scholastic context. The non-recognition of one's own emotions (alexithymia) has become a feature of today's teenagers, many fail to orient their interests or to assess the weight of their actions and behaviors. Communication in modern society is essentially based on images, it does not require critical processing and transformation of messages such as writing and reading. The flexibility and multiplicity of experiences, the speed with which they are stored and then forgotten often lead the individual to change continuously without making critical and conscious choices.

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Sensory intelligence is the undisputed protagonist of the social panorama that we live and above all young people are influenced and conditioned. The theory of motivational systems explains how emotions are expressed in relation to the deeper states of mind, revealing sadness, joy, compassion, etc. Emotion has a high communicative value because it makes the subjective experience a means of comparison and reflection, a way to look beyond oneself by recognizing oneself in others. Educating in emotional intelligence also means trying to overcome the barriers of individualism because, as Vygotsky said,

"the true direction of the development of thought is not from the individual but the social ".