Emotional Intelligence Quiz

--Original published at Rickster's Psychology Blog

I took the Greater Good Intelligence Quiz. I got an 18/20 on the quiz. The test had 20 pictures of people making different facial expressions. I had to choose which emotion these people were expressing.

The 2 emotions I had problems with were anger and pain. I think I mixed them both up because most of the time, I feel like people are angry because they got hurt physically like if they stubbed their toe or hit their head off the kitchen counter. Both facial expressions looked similar because both emotions have similar micro-expressions occurring at the same time. Every other emotion was very easy to answer.

The test isn’t very credible. I feel like every interpretation of someone’s emotions requires more situational awareness. There were no audio cues so you couldn’t tell the tone of the person’s voice. You couldn’t see what their hands or body were doing except for the embarrassment emotion.

I already use this information in daily life. This might have been useful 15 years ago. I have 2 Tiger Parents so I need to know exactly how their feeling so I know when or if I can engage them about something. I can tell how their feeling by the sound of them opening a door or how they go up stairs.

I see emotional intelligence being more important than normal IQ. You can be the smartest person in the room, but if you don’t know how to properly communicate with people or express your emotions properly, then how successful could you ever be?

Chapter 10 First Impression

--Original published at Noah'sPSY105blog

To start off chapter 10 I decided to take the emotional intelligence quiz. I received a 14 out of 20 on the quiz, which was quite a bit worse than I had expected to receive initially. I usually find that I am able to read other’s moods fairly easily and is why this score came as somewhat of a surprise to me. I believe that the test is fairly credible, but it seems as if the individuals who organized the material for the test tried to purposefully throw some of the test takers off by including several emotions that looked so similar, many individuals would not be able to tell that they were different emotions based solely on the very small differences.

Throughout the test, there were several emotions that stood out compared to the rest which were outlined in the test. Two of the emotions that stood out the most for me were disgust and happiness. However, as I had stated previously there were quite a few pictures that were almost identical which made identifying the emotion they were representing very difficult. These photos were mainly comprised of emotions of affection.

I can use the information I received from this test almost every day whilst I am working. Whilst at work, I converse with numerous customers and being able read someone’s body language and facial expression to gauge what type of mood they are in is crucial. Taking this test has further solidified my ability to read facial expressions and accurately assess what emotions a person, or people are experiencing at a given time.

Chapter 10 First Impression

--Original published at Courtney's College Blog

For this assignment, I watched Dan Gilbert’s Ted Talk, “The Surprising Science of Happiness.” He described how our psychological immune system allows us to be happy, even if the situation does not seem favorable. For example, he described how people that won the lottery and people that became paraplegic are equally as happy one year after the events. This was surprising to me. I had always thought that people’s happiness are mostly controlled by their situations. The presentation encourages me to have an optimistic outlook on life. The speaker was Dan Gilbert. He is a Harvard psychologist and the author of “Stumbling on Happiness.” Gilbert is credible because he is a scholar at a top institution. The talk was also credible because of the research that supported his point. Gilbert analyzed the lives of Jim Wright, Moreese Bickham, and Harry S. Langerman. Jim Wright was a powerful Democrat that ended up losing his money and support once a secret was leaked. Moreese Bickham was imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. Harry S. Langerman almost invested in McDonalds before it became famous, but missed out on gaining large sums of money. All of these men were happy with their situations. Bickham even described his experience in prison as “glorious.” It did not matter how unfortunate their situations were, they were able to generate their own happiness. There was a study done which allowed participants to rank which Monet print they liked the best. Then, they were given the choice to keep one of the two middle rankings. After some time, the painting they chose was ranked higher, and the painting they chose against was ranked lower than before, when the participants did the test again. This shows how people become delighted with what they have, even if it did not seem favorable at the beginning. Another study was done at Harvard during a photography class. There were two groups: one got to pick which one of two photos to keep, the other had no choice of which one to keep. After some time, the students that had no choice were more satisfied with their photo. People become content with what they have when not given a choice. The message is reasonable because it is backed by data and is easily applicable to life. After watching the video, I realized that happiness is not determined by situations that happen in life. If people in terrible situations can be just as happy as those in great ones, I should not focus getting what I want, but instead make synthetic happiness. This can me done through acknowledging that you will be happy with either outcome, so you should not stress about the decision or situation. This will allow you go through life without worry.

Chapter 10 First Impression Prompt

--Original published at Phil's College Blog

The speaker during the Ted Talk made me think about my idea of happiness. The talk made me realize that what made me happy was completely dependent on myself. This synthetic happiness is real. At first, when I watched the video I did not believe that something such as synthetic happiness could be achieved. Synthetic happiness is when your mind makes you believe that something that you have is greater than what you do not have. Even though the item or thing in your possession is not as good as the other options. However, once the speaker explained the idea with his experiments, I understood where he was coming from because I was able to connect it to my own life. For instance, I look as at my car as being better than the options that I do not have however everyone tells me that my car is not as nice as I perceive it to be.

Secondly, I believe that the speaker is credible because he has written a book on happiness and he also is a Harvard Psychologist. The school will back any research he has done. This makes him credible because Harvard would not endorse something if they thought the information was faulty.

Thirdly, I do think this message is reasonable because I found myself placing people and items from my life into his examples. If I could not do that easily, I would not believe that the message was reasonable but since the reason is as transparent to my life and the speakers examples. I do believe firmly that his idea is truthful and realistic.

Finally, I can incorporate synthetic happiness into my life by appreciating what I have rather then what I do not. I also could use this in my relationship with my friends. I should see the value of someone even though they might not always be there. Even though they are there about 90 percent of the time. I should just focus on what they are not but what they are giving to me.

Emotion : Option 2

--Original published at Bogo's Blog

At first sight, I thought the facial recognition test was going to be a walk in the park. After getting the first two pictures wrong I had an idea what I had gotten myself into. For the six I got wrong, it was mostly due to me second guessing myself and changing my original answer because I thought it was too obvious. I scored around what I assumed I would because I knew petty mistakes would drag my scores down in a test like this, despite my ability to read emotions very well.

I thought some options being put together made it harder than it should have been. For example, on one of the photos, the options included embarrassment and shame which are very similar in definition. This made it harder since I struggled to decide which of the two it was. If they avoided trickery like this the test would have been a lot easier. The test definitely opened my eyes to minor expressions made for certain emotions that I had never noticed in the past.

Emotion

--Original published at Zach Nawrocki's Blog

One thing that everyone strives for in their life is to be happy. One way that many people try to achieve happiness is by setting goals (either long term or short-term goals) and by achieving these goals people feel happy with themselves. Nevertheless, if you don’t achieve those goals many people tell themselves that it wasn’t meant to be, or they will try it later and produce happiness that way. On the other hand, even if people reach their goals they will be happy for a short period of time until they set new goals. People are always chasing happiness which is a never-ending cycle.

In the Ted talk Dan Gilbert talks about how we sabotage ourselves by saying “it wasn’t meant to happy” or “I don’t care” which produces synthetic happiness unlike if we get what we want it produces natural happiness. This way of thinking can make many people second guess themselves which then makes them less happy. He explained an experiment in his talk were a group of students had to give up one of two pictures they took, however half the group was given time to think about switching the picture they give up while the other half did not have an option to switch. He found that the group of students that had a chance to switch which picture was given up got unhappier over time with the picture they kept while it was the opposite for the other group of students. I find this amazing but at the same time if I think back on experiences in my life it is very true. I believe that Dan Gilbert is a very credible source considering he is a Psychologist at Harvard and the experiments he explained seem very well planned out and conducted well.

I can incorporate more synthetic happiness into my life if I reduce the amount that I overthink on a daily bases or comparing myself to others. I always find myself overthinking or second guessing myself about assignments that I did for class or general activities that I do throughout the day. When I look back on experiences I have had throughout life I always feel happier when I make a decision and don’t have a chance to switch it or overthink it and accept it and appreciate it.

Chapter 10 First Impression

--Original published at Ally'sCollegeBlog

I was surprised at my results for the reading facial expressions test because of how high my score was. I received a 13/20 and I seriously believed I would get not more than a 10/20. Secondly, I have never been a social person, which I had concluded being the reason I would have gotten a low score. Which is confusing now because I got a slightly over average score, so where does the social aspect of my life work into that? I think I need to just trust my gut. Try not to overthink and analyze as I usually do. I can apply this information to my life with trusting myself to not just understand people, but in other aspects of my life. For example, if I get B for more than two answers in a row, I go back because I do not trust my answers.

Although this quiz gives you some insight into your ability to recognize emotions, but I do not find it very credible. It uses actors to recreate the emotions, which is not realistic. I also believe that a lot of those emotions pictured could have been multiple emotions. Say embarrassment could also be sadness. This quiz is very informative and helpful, but not the most credible, or academic way to measure someone’s ability to interpret facial expressions.

Ch 10 First Impression: Option 3

--Original published at MaddieHinson

I chose to analyze the song Wannabe by the Spice Girls. When I was a kid, my sister and I used to listen to this all the time, but I never really thought about the lyrics until recent year. The song starts off by saying “I’ll tell you what I want, what I really really want”. This seems to be a good thing, because all anyone ever wants to know is what someone else wants when it comes to a relationship. Going into the first verse, the line is, “If you want my future, forget my past.” This makes sense, because you can’t really fault somebody for what they did before you met them. Then the song to gets slightly concerning, when they get to the chorus, “If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends”. I can one hundred percent guarantee that no, if you like someone, do not try to “get with their friends”, it’s not what they want.

Also, in the bridge section, it talks about “Easy V” which after doing some research was they Spice Girls reference to ecstasy. Obviously, ecstasy probably isn’t the best thing to be doing, especially when trying to figure out a relationship with someone. Even though the song may have some sketchy meanings behind it, I still think it’s fun to listen to.

Ch 10- Emotion

--Original published at Maddy Vingom's PSY105 Blog

In Dan Gilbert’s TED Talk he discusses the idea of happiness. We are able to create happiness within our minds, as opposed to finding happiness as we tend to believe. He called this synthetic happiness, it allows us to feel happy with the outcome of an event even when things don’t go as planned. Psychological studies have shown that three months after a positive or negative experience all people have the same level of happiness. I found this to be very interesting, because once I think about this I do it all the time. For example, at the time doing poorly on an exam seems like the worst thing in the world, but even just a month later it is not a huge deal. In addition, Gilbert stated often times we build up these expectations for something in our minds and the actual event does not live up to what we hoped. Knowing about synthetic happiness will allow me to reduce my stress levels, because I now understand that these seemingly important events won’t matter in a few weeks. It will also reduce the amount of time I spend building things up in my mind only to be disappointed by the actual event.

Gilbert spoke with confidence and appeared to know what he was talking about by using data from past experiments that he conducted. To ensure that he is a credible source I read about him on the TED website. I learned that he is a Harvard psychologist who studies happiness, making him an even more credible as the source for this information.

Reading Emotions

--Original published at Olivia's College Blog

Our interactions and relationships with others are largely influenced by how we interpret their emotional expressions. Non-verbal communication is a huge part of connecting with others by picking up visual cues that are indicative of mood or emotion. I could parallel the importance of reading facial expressions to body language. In my social psychology class, I learned that body posture and facial expressions give us a lot of hints to how an individual is feeling. For example, crossed arms or an outward leaning posture may mean that someone is uncomfortable, and they separate them self by creating distance. Someone with averted eyes with their head tilted downward may be feeling shame. These are both examples of how picking up small non-verbal cues can be very useful in communication.

Before taking the Emotional Intelligence test, I hoped to correctly match most of the expressions with their respective emotions. I scored 15/20 and hard expected to do well. I am a very compassionate person and find it gratifying to help people through problems and give advice, so understanding these social cues is necessary. Additionally, my career aspirations as a clinical psychologist revolve around non-verbal communication. I think the test is a valuable tool; it would help me be more effective in reading emotions. I believe people should be concerned about their ability to discern emotional expressions, as it facilitates healthy communication. I can vouch for this in an example we all can relate to. Texting has a reputation for producing miscommunication. I believe the source of this miscommunication comes from the lack of face-to-face contact. The crucial difference is that text messages don’t supply us with the necessary non-verbal cues to help us read emotions.

The emotions that were the most difficult to tell apart were fear and embarrassment. I incorrectly guessed embarrassment when it was fear. I misinterpreted her appearance of an open mouth and pulled-up eyebrows as fear. The test is fairly credible in that it gives a general score of how accurate I was in discerning the 20 facial expressions. I don’t think any one quiz is enough of an indicator to tell you concretely how well you read emotions. Other variables must be taken into account, like the atmosphere and overall tone of the conversation, which are absent from the quiz.