3A Lesson - What’s Important to Know About It?
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This lesson highlights the fact that more has been learned in the past 25 years about this two-and-a-half-pound mass in our heads than in all previous history. This knowledge is initiating a revolutionary change in the way people view themselves, as well as their relationships with others and the world. Research findings indicate that the most important frontier in the universe to further explore may be right behind our very own eyes!
Understanding Stimulates Healthier Mind Development
Understanding our minds better contributes significantly toward healthier mind development. It helps us more accurately measure meaningful assessments in order to develop a better sense of healthy and unhealthy choices in our decision-making process. It helps us define our priorities more healthfully. Understanding our minds better ultimately helps us to get the best out of life and build a behaviorally safer world.
The more we understand about this two-and-a-half-pound mass in our heads, the more it enhances the most valuable assets we have as individuals—namely, our emotional stability, security, physical health and overall intelligence, as well as our ability to treat other people and things in healthier, more meaningful ways. What a phenomenal difference this particular understanding can make in our everyday lives!
Research Helps us Understand Many Things Better
What we now know about the human mind can be attributed to a vast amount of research. When we stop to think about it, research has improved our understanding in almost every realm of life. It has been the driving force behind industrial and technological advancements, as well as our knowledge of every subject imaginable.
Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb and Joseph M.Williams, authors of The Craft of Research, tell us that “research is the source of most of what we all believe … and the most critical catalyst in the development of new ideas and better understanding in almost every realm of life.” The Craft of Research tells us that “research is the world’s biggest and perhaps most important industry.” Research has enabled us to live more knowledgeable, secure and comfortable lives; now it is challenging us to develop healthier minds and build a behaviorally safer world.
For centuries, scientists and scholars have been fascinated yet baffled by the human organ that is physiologically known as the “brain” and psychologically and mentally referred to as the “mind”. Remarkably, during the past 25 years, more has been learned about this extraordinarily complex human organ than in all previous history. This has been due to tremendous technological advancements and increased research.
In order to stimulate more widespread interest and advances in brain research, the last decade of the 20th Century was declared “The Decade of the Brain” in 1989 by President George H. W. Bush and Congress. Respectfully following the president’s lead, this first decade of the 21st Century (2000 – 2010) was named “The Decade of Behavior” in 1999 by the American Psychological Association (APA).
According to the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego, the human brain is now considered to be the most complex object in our known universe. This complexity may make it impossible for researchers to ever fully understand all of the physiological and psychological obscurities involved. Yet what they have discovered thus far is already enough to initiate a revolutionary change in the way we view ourselves, as well as our relationships with others and the world. Research findings indicate that the most important frontier in the universe to further explore may be right behind our very eyes!
Recent Discoveries About Healthy Brain/Mind Function
Researchers are now much more familiar with the intricate circuitry, function and dysfunction of this fascinating human computing tool. They have been able to identify and validate a vast number of psychological factors that both stimulate and prevent healthier mind development. Additionally, more is known about how nutrition affects the brain.
Poor nutrition can adversely impact our energy level and moods, our thoughts and decisions, and other mental and psychological criteria that direct our lives. The more we learn about nutrition and the brain, the more we can improve the health of this extremely empowering organ—just as such knowledge helped us to eat better and exercise more to develop healthier bones, hearts, lungs and digestive systems, and prevent serious related diseases.
Turning to psychological research during the 20th Century, behavioral scientists defined numerous emotional diseases and disorders, as well as maladaptive and dysfunctional behaviors that have plagued humanity for centuries. Through such research, healthful treatments have been defined and cures have been discovered.
We’ve learned how important it is for us to continue to exercise our minds to reduce the risk of early deterioration and dementia in our older years. For those at risk, the University of Southern California is developing a silicon chip brain prosthesis designed to store memories for Alzheimer’s and brain tumor patients who have memory difficulty. The brain/mind similarity to modern computers has undoubtedly also helped researchers understand it better.
Emotional Intelligence Gains Importance
A major step forward occurred in the fields of behavioral and social sciences in 1990, when psychologists Peter Salovey of Yale University and John D. Mayer of the University of New Hampshire named the concept “emotional intelligence.” Mayer and Salovey defined emotional intelligence as:
“the ability to perceive accurately, appraise and express emotions; the ability to access and/or generate feelings when they facilitate thought; the ability to understand emotions and emotional knowledge; and the ability to regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual behavior.”
During Mayer and Salovey’s study of the emotional dynamics of the mind, they confirmed that emotional growth occurs through our intellect. They explain that certain dynamics are necessary to promote higher standards of emotional and intellectual behavior. Their findings distinguish the importance of identifying, understanding and managing emotions. Although there has been some controversy about where the term emotional intelligence originated, it was through Mayer and Salovey’s work that psychologist Daniel Goleman found use of the term for his groundbreaking book titled Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ.
Goleman’s book stimulated public discussion about this simple yet profound concept. It sparked an emotional intelligence movement that continues to pave an empowering path toward better understanding and healthier mind development. According to Harvard University psychology professor Howard Gardner, in less than a decade, Goleman’s groundbreaking work became the most widely read social science book in the world. By 2002, more than 5 million copies had been published in 34 languages and distributed in more than 50 countries. There is, indeed, robust interest in improving the emotional state of the world.
Stanley I. Greenspan, MD, one of the authors of The Growth of the Mind says that “refining what we mean by intelligence is a most important issue . . . Intelligence reflects the mind doing its most important work . . .” He further states that “Our definition of intelligence should focus on the general process whereby individuals reason, reflect and understand the world . . . Emotions, not cognitive stimulation, serve as the mind’s primary architect.”
Before research such as Goleman’s and Greenspan’s, conventional education was unknowingly over-emphasizing cognitive stimulation as a way of building young minds and underrating its important emotional structure.
The Role of Emotional Literacy in Everyday Life
Understanding more about our minds (especially our emotions) can have a greater impact on our health and well being — and our relationship with the world — than we may have ever imagined.
According to Goleman, researchers now know that emotional literacy can help prevent and solve myriad problems that we experience in our personal and professional lives. Increasing society’s psychological understanding of the mind can result in a less behaviorally stressed world. What a purposeful pursuit for this “Decade of Behavior,” as well as throughout the 21st Century!
This is not meant to imply that intelligent emotional conduct has been totally neglected. Over the centuries, various cultural philosophies and religions have had major influences on emotional intelligence. Many have long recognized intelligent emotional conduct as important and honorable, and have helped people become more emotionally literate. Generation after generation has shared such wisdom and guidelines about this subject—historically referred to as ethics, morals, manners, virtues and religious precepts. So, what’s new and different about the modern-day study of emotional intelligence?
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It puts the purpose and criteria for emotional intelligence in an extremely meaningful perspective for everyone, regardless of spiritual or philosophical background. |
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It provides us with more comprehensive insight into the scope and depth of such wisdom and guidelines. |
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It emphasizes more clearly that through our own intellect we can outwit damagingemotional sensations that adversely affect us. |
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It helps us to recognize that we can learn (and need to know) much more about our minds, particularly our emotions, than has traditionally been possible to learn in the past or even thought necessary. |
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Thus, the study of emotional intelligence teaches us with greater understanding and
clarity about healthier and safer ways to apply our minds.
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