Teach your children well?and early, Goleman says

The key to emotional intelligence lies in the way our brain is programmed in childhood.

By Patrick A. McGuire
Monitor staff

The emotional intelligence of our children is in decline, warned author Daniel Goleman, PhD, in his keynote address at APA?s 1998 Annual Convention in San Francisco. The one hope, he said, is that psychology will intervene to help young children learn 'the right emotional habits.'

Goleman, who formerly covered psychological issues for The New York Times, has written a best-selling book about emotional intelligence?generally people?s ability to understand and handle their emotions and relationships. His new book,'Working with Emotional Intelligence,' will be published this month by Bantam Books. He was recognized for his work with a special citation by Martin E.P. Seligman, PhD, APA?s president.

Goleman?s address offered an overview of how emotional stimuli can, in some people, override the brain?s normal regulatory safeguards of the mind to produce undesirable behavior. But it?s possible, he said, to essentially recalibrate a brain that tends to overreact at emotional moments, by exposing a person to positive experiences that help them learn better responses.

Citing alarming statistics of youth homicide, suicide and depression, he said, 'I think it?s the deficiency in basic emotional intelligence that accounts for the alarming kinds of signs we see in young people today.'

The ?fight or flight? response

The answer, he said, lies in the almond-shaped part of the brain known as the amygdala, which serves as the brain?s emotional center, he said. Its responses are quick, developed during the age when raw emotional responses to danger moved early man to fight or flight. Since those times, a more rational brain has developed around the amygdala, which filters emotional commands.

'The amygdala is very childlike,' said Goleman. 'It learns most of its emotional repertoire in childhood. So the amygdala might have a reaction, like, ?This guy is making me so mad I would like to slug him.? That childish impulse goes up to the executive center in the prefrontal area where additional information is added, like, ?Oh, but this is your boss.?' In some people the amygdala is overly sensitive to emotional stimuli, often overwhelming the upper brain with rash commands for inappropriate behavior. That means the short-term working memory of the brain is flooded with intrusive thoughts, said Goleman. Attention spans in classrooms, for example, become disrupted, and a child becomes highly impulsive.

Scientific data, he said, show that boys with such habits are more prone to end up with a criminal record or being violent; girls don?t get violent, he said. Instead, they get pregnant at about three times the rate of other less impulsive girls.

Children with these and similar behavioral problems have trouble, he said, with the five components of emotional intelligence?being aware of their own feelings, handling distressing emotions, motivating themselves toward achievement, understanding emotions in others and possessing basic social skills.

'They?re likely to be the schoolyard bullies or the schoolyard rejects,' he said.

Early intervention

Citing Seligman?s research in the field of optimism, Goleman argued that emotional intelligence can be learned, but should be learned as young as possible.

'Childhood is a fabulous opportunity for giving kids the right emotional habits,' he said. 'If we were to give children the optimal set of experiences, we could help them have the skills that they need for life. The data here are very telling.'