HISTORICAL RECONSTRUCTION AND FUNDAMENTAL CATEGORIES OF A NEW PARADIGM: EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

In 1983, in an interesting book, H. Gardner seriously questioned the classical model of rationalintelligence, measured as “intelligence quotient” (IQ) and expressed in terms of intellectual ability. Thismodel dominated the fields of diagnosis and personnel selection during practically all the past centuryof psychology. This model was largely responsible for the development of modern scientific psychology,but it had one defect which scientists have been attempting to correct over the last decade: the failure tostudy the impact of affective/emotional processes on behaviour.It wasn’t until the last decade of the 20th century that scientific interest in emotional intelligence actuallyemerged. In this respect, credit is due to recent neuropsychological research based on cerebral imagingtechniques. LeDoux, Damasio and others have demonstrated how the brain’s “computer” fails tosolve complex personal and serial problems because it never has sufficient data and it needs the emotionalfactor in order to operate.