About Aristotle Emotional Intelligence Programs
Arising from unique partnerships with schools around the world, our work focuses on a whole school approach to Emotional Intelligence. This approach extends to all school children, parents, teachers and staff within our partner schools.
Aristotle EI follows the seminal four branch model of
emotional intelligence by Salovey and Mayer.
Adhering to this model, over the last decade Swinburne has been
Ways to measures emotional intelligence in children, adolescents,
teachers and school staff.
Programs to develop emotional intelligence in children, adolescents,
teachers and school staff.
What is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional Intelligence can be defined as a series of abilities relating to how we understand emotions, how we make decisions based on emotions and how we manage our emotions. Emotions are neither good nor bad but are important pieces of information that tell us about our current situation. Sometimes some emotions (particularly negative emotions) become maladaptive for us and many people have difficulties in understanding emotions.
Emotional Intelligence is not about becoming more emotional rather it is about the intelligent use of emotions. Emotionally intelligent children are self-aware, empathic, and are able to manage their negative emotions so that they experience happiness and well-being. Children do develop capacity and increase their ability to understand, effectively express and manage emotions as they get older, although there is great variability from child to child or adolescent to adolescent in these abilities.
At Aristotle EI we partner schools to measure and develop the following four dimensions of Emotional Intelligence in both primary school and secondary school children.
1. Emotional Recognition and Expression
2. Understanding Other’s Emotions
3. Emotional Reasoning
4. Emotional Management and Control
These abilities which manifest in behaviours have been shown in our research with our partner schools to predict a wide range of important variables:
– Scholastic performance
– Bullying and Victimization
– Coping mechanisms
– Sporting performance
Emotional Recognition and Expression
This branch of the model focuses on how well you perceive your own emotions and how effectively you express your feelings to friends, family members and teachers. This ability contributes to how effectively you can respond to your own emotions; communicate your feelings to others to get your message across. The more accurately you can express your feelings, the more effectively others can respond.
Understanding Other’s Emotions
This branch of the model focuses on the extent to which you perceive and understand the emotions of others. Specifically, it assesses; how well you ‘read’ the emotions that others express; your understanding of the contexts in which they arise; and your understanding of the appropriateness of others’ emotional responses and behaviours. This ability also includes an understanding of how emotions influence relationships and group dynamics.
Emotional Reasoning reflects the extent to which you consider how you feel about different options when making decisions and how different choices might affect both yourself and others emotionally. Emotions provide another source of information to consider when making decisions and have been shown to contribute to flexible planning, creative thinking and the adoption of social values in decision-making. Emotional Reasoning abilities can be context specific as certain roles or situations require very analytical and technical decision-making, whilst others require more intuitive and creative decision-making.
Emotional Management and Control
Emotional Management and Control reflects the extent to which you are able to repair negative moods and emotions as well as maintain beneficial positive moods and emotions, both within yourself and others. The ability to foster positive moods and emotions in oneself and others is an important underlying attribute of effective stress management and adaptability. This dimension also involves the ability to control strong emotions experienced, such as feelings of frustration, anger, sadness or hostility.
Developing an emotional toolkit.
Emotional Intelligence is a set of skills that help to navigate our world – identifying, expressing,using and managing our emotions for success.
Foster psychological wellbeing
EI can assist school staff to identify students who may be in need of additional support
EI abilities may help to protect against the incidence of common mental health issues
Stress management, effective coping and resilience
Contributes to fostering trust and quality relationships
Proactive bullying intervention
Related to reduced absenteeism
EI can support students to reach their full academic potential
Understanding EI strengths assists subject selection
Motivation / focus
Creativity and problem solving
PROF. CON STOUGH
Prof Stough is a Professor of Cognitive
Neuroscience and Professor of Psychology at
Swinburne University. With more than 200
peer reviewed publications to his name, he has
supervised to completion more than 30 PhD
students and has held grants from industry and
government sources for more than a decade.
Prof Stough was a past member of the
Psychology panel of the World Economic
Forum, was on the scientific advisory board
for the International Society for Intelligence
Research as well as the editorial board for more
than a dozen academic journals. Prof Stough
was instrumental in establishing Swinburne
University’s research on emotional intelligence;
first with several key industry partners for the
workplace in Australia and then more recently
with Aristotle-EI school partners.
Prof Stough is a passionate believer in the
importance of high emotional intelligence and
has given hundreds of talk to schools regarding
the relevance of EI in educational settings, how
to assess EI in students and develop emotional
intelligence competencies. He believes that
there is no more important work than in the
development of emotional intelligence in young
people in our society.
EI Programs Coordinator
Justine Lomas is the coordinator of the Emotional Intelligence Research Unit at Swinburne University. In this role she is responsible for the development of research based, theoretically driven programs aimed at improving emotional intelligence competencies in children and adolescents at every stage of their education. Justine works closely with Aristotle EI partner schools to ensure a whole school approach to EI is achieved, supporting staff in the implementation of the associated curriculum, assisting in staff personal development as well as measuring a range of classroom and student outcomes.
Beginning her academic research career in 2010, Justine is responsible for the planning and implementation of research studies investigating the higher order outcomes of emotional intelligence development in primary and secondary school students.
She oversees all data collection on emotional intelligence with Aristotle EI partner schools both nationally and internationally and assists in the supervision of many honours and PhD student projects investigating EI. Justine is currently completing her own PhD candidature, which will examine the outcomes of EI development programs in the secondary school setting.
Justine has published in the area of emotional intelligence and academic achievement in primary and secondary school students, adolescent bullying behaviours and peer victimisation. This work has fostered Justine’s passion to develop EI in all schools as a powerful tool to bring positive and proactive change to a range of educational and real world outcomes.
Chantelle Schokman is a registered Psychologist with the Psychology board of Australia and a member of the Australian Psychological Society. Chantelle completed her Postgraduate Diploma of Psychology at Swinburne University of Technology before going on to attain a Masters of Educational Psychology from The University of Melbourne. She began working with Aristotle in 2013 after completing her thesis on the topic of Emotional Intelligence and attitudes towards bullying amongst school going adolescents. She has since then been involved in Aristotle Emotional Intelligence development programs for local and overseas partnered schools.
When she is not working with Aristotle, Chantelle is a Psychologist with Nirodah, providing school based counselling services to schools in Melbourne. She is interested in working with children and young adults around issues related to behavioural and learning difficulties, developmental delays, anxiety and stress. Chantelle has worked in a range of educational settings including early intervention, primary, secondary and tertiary education.
DR. LUKE DOWNEY
Senior Research Fellow
Dr Luke Downey has been working in the area of Emotional Intelligence research for over 10 years. This program of research has included the development of assessments of EI (e.g., Luebbers, et al, 2007) and their use in pre-adolescents (e.g., Billings et al., 2014), adolescents (e.g., Downey, et al, 2010), clinical populations (e.g., Downey, et al, 2008) and in the adult workforce (e.g., Downey, et al, 2011). Luke’s research concerning the role of Emotional Intelligence began in 2004 with the research aim of identifying how the expression, understanding, management and usage of emotional information by adults and adolescents influence important life outcomes. This program of research initially focused on developing reliable and valid measures to assess Emotional Intelligence in adults and adolescents, and then utilising these measures to examine the role of Emotional Intelligence in predicting such outcomes as; scholastic achievement, bullying, stress coping strategies, and recruitment consultant revenue. Luke’s PhD included multiple assessments of Emotional Intelligence in elite sportsmen.
The thesis was entitled, ‘The Psychological Determinants of Rugby Union Player Performance’, which examined psychological indices that contributed to professional rugby union players’ seasonal performance over the course of two full Super 12 seasons. This study utilised qualitative and quantitative data collection methods and provided a unique insight into the psychological profiles of elite athletes. This study reflected the first attempt to assess psychological indices related to ‘elite’ rugby union player performance and involved repeated assessment of Emotional Intelligence.
Currently, Luke is a Senior Research Fellow at Swinburne University, and is part of a leading internationally recognised team focused on the assessment and application of emotionally intelligent behaviours. Luke is currently leading research projects aimed at examining the relationship between Emotional Intelligence and adolescent outcomes including; resilience, stress coping strategies, scholastic performance and cyber-bullying.
EI Schools Consultant
Maryanne works with Aristotle-EI partner schools to achieve a whole school approach to EI development. This involves working closely with staff to implement the EI curriculum, facilitating training workshops and measuring classroom and student outcomes.
Maryanne is a registered Psychologist with the Psychology Board of Australia and a member of the Australian Psychological Society.
She has worked with students in primary and secondary school based settings and has also worked in community based organisations supporting adolescents and families. Maryanne has a strong interest in EI and through her work in schools understands the importance of building EI competencies in students to promote positive outcomes. She is committed to working collaboratively with schools to integrate EI throughout the school community.