Intelligence - Emotional or Cognitive; Which Needs More Attention in Children? - A Short Term Study

Introduction: It is rightly said that A High IQ will get you through school, A High EQ will get you through life. IQ which has often been used to measure intelligence, attempts to tap ones cognitive capacity and functioning. Emotional intelligence (EI) involves the ability to carry out accurate reasoning about emotions and ability to use emotions and emotional knowledge to enhance thoughts. It expands the ability to evaluate ones general or overall intelligence.1 Emotion awareness consists of individual differences in the way people differentiate, express, analyze, and pay attention to their own and others emotions. Emotion awareness appears as an important feature of emotional Intelligence.2 Behaviour is always a function of a person and the situation. The characteristics of an individuals behaviour always occur in a situational context, the perception of which is in turn dependent on the emotional intelligence, which has invaluable applications in Pediatric dentistry.3 In this study the self awareness aspect i. e. ability to recognize& understand personal moods& emotions& drives, self regulation i. e. ability to control/ redirect disruptive impulses and moods, to think before acting is considered. Aim: The aim of the study was to evaluate the two components of emotional intelligence self awareness and self management of emotions along with the related intelligence quotient. Materials& Method: It was a questionnaire based study and the various sets of questionnaires were divided into following: 1. Questionnaire for self awareness of Emotions5 (Translated Version from English to Hindi) 2. Questionnaire for Self management of Emotions5 (Translated Version from English to Hindi) 3. Ravens colour Progressive matrices test 4 CONCLUSION: Children of younger age group (8-10 years) with high IQ have better awareness of their emotions& hence establishing a communication will be easier in Pediatric dental office. With increasing age children with below average IQ ; learn to manage their emotions more effectively may be because of learning behavioural skills& hence communication& behaviour management may be easier in pediatric dental office.