Within this framework, the Assessor considers the youth’s scores on the three pursuits: Know Yourself, Choose Yourself, and Give Yourself. While higher scores are often desirable, balance is crucial. Just as very low scores can represent an area of challenge, very high scores can as well; these are areas where the youth is significantly different from most of her/his peers. Particularly when the three pursuits are out of balance (i.e., variation of one standard deviation or more), one should be aware of potential risk. With that in mind, the following table provides a starting point for developing a hypothesis to explore strengths and possible areas of concern:
Area | Low Scores | High Scores |
K Know Yourself | Risk: May be unaware of emotions and choices Benefit: May be pragmatic | Risk: May be overly self-analytical Benefit: May be gaining key insight from self-awareness |
C Choose Yourself | Risk: May be impulsive or reactive Benefit: May be spontaneous | Risk: May be pushy or rigid Benefit: May be careful and accountable |
G Give Yourself | Risk: May be lost or isolated Benefit: May be dispassionate | Risk: May be impractical Benefit: May have a strong compassion and moral compass |
Exploring the Eight EQ Components
Following is a guide to the eight EQ components. For each EQ component, a definition is included, followed by an explanation of its importance, and the potential meaning of low and high scores.
Know Yourself
Enhance Emotional Literacy (EEL): learning to accurately identify and
appropriately express feelings.
This skill helps us to sort our complex emotions, name our feelings, and begin to understand their causes and effects. Emotional Literacy requires both recognizing feelings (which occurs at a non-analytic level) and cognitively understanding them.
Extremely Low: Concrete | Extremely High: Emotional | ||||
Unlikely to notice and name his/her own feelings. May find feelings overwhelming and irrational. | May have strong emotional vocabulary, which creates sense of insight. Likely to be able to express emotional ideas. |
Recognize Patterns (RCP): consciously identifying our own habitual reactions.
The brain establishes and follows neural pathways to create efficiency; these patterns are a link between thoughts, feelings, and actions. Left unaware, patterns can cause us to react in negative ways.
Extremely Low: Unaware | Extremely High: Analytical |
Unlikely to notice own behaviors and reactions. May get stuck repeating same mistakes. | Probably insightful into own behavior. May quickly and accurately notice (but not necessarily change) recurring reactions. May overanalyze. |
Choose Yourself
Apply Consequential Thinking (ACT): evaluating (emotionally as well as
practically) the short and long term costs and benefits of our choices.
Every action, every choice, has an effect. This skill lets us examine the consequences of our choices. It is key to managing our impulses and acting intentionally (rather than reacting).
Extremely Low: Reactive | Extremely High: Paralyzed | ||||
Unlikely to pause and consider impact of choices (may not even recognize s/he is making choices). Likely to be impulsive. | Probably considers implications carefully (short and long term, self and others). May become overly risk- adverse or evidence “analysis paralysis.” |
Navigate Emotions (NVE): transforming and generating feelings to move forward in a productive way.
This EQ component allows us to shift between emotions and generate feelings in a productive way. The word “navigate” implies a process for forward movement through challenges.
Extremely Low: Volatile | Extremely High: Placid |
May either avoid feelings (suppress, minimize, fix, ignore) or over-indulge in them. Unlikely to skillfully create productive emotions for self or others. | Likely to experience feelings without being “stuck” in one or another. Probably gains positive insight and energy from emotions and generates useful feelings. May become unable to choose a feeling state, continually moving from one to another. |
Choose Yourself (continued)
Engage Intrinsic Motivation (EIM): gaining energy from personal values and
commitments versus being driven by others.
People who require external reinforcement to be motivated are always at the mercy of others. This skill helps us discover and engage a powerful inner motivation that prompts us to change and grow. This skill allows choice, which builds an internal sense of efficacy.
Extremely low: Passive | Extremely high: Driven |
May not be highly motivated, or motivated by outside forces (such as bribes/praise or fear/punishment). Likely to be easily swayed by others. | Likely to be self-assured, self-reliant, and self-motivated. May be impatient with things that s/he doesn’t see as important. May need to listen more to others’ thoughts and feelings. |
Exercise Optimism (EOP): taking a perspective of choice and opportunity.
Optimism allows us to see beyond the present and take ownership of the future. This skill blends thinking and feeling to shift beliefs and attitudes to a more proactive stance. An optimistic approach creates options and opportunities and helps us overcome setbacks and adversities.
Extremely low: Victim | Extremely high: Overconfident |
When faced with challenge, likely to blame others or circumstance rather than taking ownership. May overly emphasize problems and see her/himself as powerless. | Likely to take responsibility and find multiple solutions to challenges. Tends to persevere and gains energy to fix what’s wrong. Sees opportunities but may not consider the consequences for self or others. |
Give Yourself
Increase Empathy (ICE): recognizing and appropriately responding to others
emotions.
Empathy includes a cognitive EQ component (understanding), an emotional EQ component (connecting), and an active EQ component (responding). Empathy is key to understanding others, forming enduring and trusting relationships, and ensuring we consider and care for other people.
Extremely low: Distant | Extremely high: Entangled |
Is likely to minimize or ignore others’ feelings or misunderstand them. May create distrustful or distant relationships. May feel that others don’t understand them. | Probably will connect deeply with others to understand them, help them feel supported, and build trust. May become too caught up in other people’s emotions and needs. |
Pursue Noble Goals (PNG): connecting daily choices with a deep sense of purpose.
This EQ component provides a sense of direction, a ‘north star,’ which can be used on a day-to-day basis to be clear about what’s most important. It helps us recognize that we have efficacy and a role in the world. This clear sense of purpose creates the courage and conviction to handle difficult situations.
Extremely low: Aimless | Extremely high: Impelled |
Probably focused on short-term and self. May lead to being easily distracted or swayed by momentary interests or seeking comfort. | Can create a strong sense of personal power and leadership. May be able to use purpose as a catalyst to transform feelings (own and others) and put them in service of this vision. May “run-over” others if not combined with empathy. |
EQ Component Combinations
The next step for interpretation is to explore the inter-relationships between various scales. The art in interpreting a SEI-YV profile is to analyze not just the individual scores, but also the balance within sections and the combination within competencies.
Balance between the three “Pursuits” of Know Yourself, Choose Yourself, Give Yourself is important for optimal functioning. Here are some possible implications of imbalances.
Combination | This person could be... |
Low Know and High Give | Self-sacrificing, lacks confidence, easily persuaded. |
High Choose and Low Give | Missing long-range goals; good self-management but focused more on self than others. |
Low Know and High Choose | Taking action without sufficient data; not solving the important issues for her/himself. |
These combinations are helpful for the Assessor to make a hypothesis; they are not to be used to diagnose clinical issues. All possible outcomes of these combinations of competencies need to be carefully and respectfully explored, as appropriate for a given youth and context.
Next, look at the eight competencies. Here are a few examples:
Combination | People with this combination... |
Low RCP, Low ACT | Might struggle with impulsivity; may be perceived as overactive or a behavior problem; may not be able to look ahead or anticipate. |
High EEL Low ICE | May take analytic approach to emotions; may be very articulate, but lack social problem-solving behaviors; may be perceived as aloof. |
High EIM, Low PNG | May be motivated only in the short term. |
Low NVE, High ICE | May become overwhelmed by others’ feelings; might depend on others to make emotional decisions or have difficulty leading others. |
High EEL and ACT, Low ICE | May take an analytic approach to people; may be overly cautious and may come across as distant; may need to find softer way of expressing concerns. |
| High NVE, High ICE, High PNG | May be a leader; may be service oriented. |
| Low EOP, High ACT | May over-evaluate risks. May take a pessimistic orientation; may see the problems before the opportunities. May be more rigid / less flexible. |
| High EOP, Low ACT | Might under-evaluate risks. May have a playful orientation; may always think there is a way out. Might be a flexible problem-solver but may fail to evaluate realistically. |
| High ACT, Low EEL/ICE | Might over analyze; may always want more data; may become overly concerned about items/people. Could freeze in an emotionally charged situation; may be unable to move forward quickly and efficiently. |
| High RCP, Low ACT/EIM | Might recognize habits, but may have difficulty changing and/or be aware of why to change. |
| High PNG, Low ICE, | May run over people in pursuit of purpose. May see the goal as more important than feelings; might be perceived as selfish even when goals are worthy. May be well intentioned but not careful with others. |
| Low EIM, Low EOP | May be passive, disengaged, fatalistic. May have developed learned helplessness. |
| Low ICE, High EIM/ACT | May want to be always right about decisions. Might be determined on his/her course but be inflexibly ethical (“my way or the highway”); may have difficulty seeing multiple perspectives. |
| High EIM, High EOP | May often self-initiate. May be seen as a self-starter and problem solver, often creative with solutions. |
Again, these combinations are intended as a started point for the Assessor’s exploration and should be not treated as a “diagnosis.”
It is also helpful to consider the Life Barometers, discussed earlier, together with selected competencies. The Assessor may ask him or herself how a particular competency might impact a high or low barometer. For example, if a young person’s health barometer is low, and his or her score in consequential thinking is low, it stands to reason that he or she could use help in making more careful evaluation of health choices. Examine the young person’s high and low barometers and related high or low competencies to explore complex patterns. The combinations of Life Barometers and EQ scores can also be explored through the EQ Yardstick.