Social Engineering Blogs

An Aggregator for Blogs About Social Engineering and Related Fields

Emotional Intelligence: An Important Child’s Social Skill

Emotional Intelligence – the ability to manage one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions -, a term coined in 1990, is an extremely important social skill that is often either overlooked or under-recognized or both.

Have you ever wondered, How did he/she get the promotion over me (I have more education or experience)? Why do I always get the customer support person who seems rude?

Well, auburnpub.com reports that children’s social skills are critical to their happiness and success in life.  This comes from Daniel Coleman’s book Emotional Intelligence.

So what are the key elements to keep in mind when trying to raise emotionally intelligent children?  Here is an abbreviated version of the top 5 pointers.

1.  Empathize with your child.

Number 2 is a big one and I imagine a bit controversial for some parents.

2.  Don’t force toddlers to share.  Instead us the concept of taking turns.

3.  Before play dates let your child put away ‘special” toys that they do not want to share.

4. Set clear limits on physically acting out.  Teach healthy self-management

5.  Labeling emotion is the first step in managing it. Ex:  That sound is scary but your safe here in the house.

To read more about tips on emotional intelligence click here.

Infants and Credibility

The University of Concordia reports that even in infancy humans can delineate between credible and non-credible sources.  The study, published in the journal Infant Behavior and Development, examined a group of 60 infants.

“This [study] shows infants will imitate behavior from a reliable adult,” says second author Ivy Brooker, “In contrast, the same behavior performed by an unreliable adult is interpreted as irrational or inefficient, therefore not worth imitating.”

The babies were divided in two groups; with reliable or unreliable testers.  To determine the reliability of experimenters they looked into a container with a reaction of excitement.  Then the infants were invited to discover if the container actually had a toy in it or was empty.

The follow up experiment then had the experimenter use their forehead in lieu of their hands to turn on a light.  The researchers recorded whether the infants would imitate the experimenter.  The study findings, only 34% of infants of unreliable testers followed the strange assignment.

“Like older children, infants keep track of an individual’s history of being accurate or inaccurate and use this information to guide their subsequent learning,” says senior researcher Diane Poulin-Dubois.