What Is Emotional Competence?
Emotional competence describes the ability a person has to express his or her own emotions with complete freedom, and it is derived from emotional intelligence, which is the ability to identify emotions. Competence is the level of skill with which someone interacts constructively with other people.
This personal emotional competence is based on a person’s recognition of individual emotions and how emotions affect other people, and it is also based on the ability to maintain emotional control and adapt. We must keep in mind that a person has to be capable of understanding their personal emotions before they evaluate the emotions of other people.
Social competence
Another individual aspect of emotional competence is social competence, which refers to empathy towards others. It encompasses the skills we need to be successful in a work atmosphere and in relationships. It is very important to use effective communication and to know how to manage conflicts.
Through emotional competence, human beings have the ability to react to their personal emotions and those experienced by other people. An individual can respond correctly when someone experiences emotions like anger, fear, and pain.
Recognizing one’s own emotions opens up the possibility of responding properly to the emotions that other people experience. Without knowing one’s own emotions, it is difficult to help or feel empathy for another.
Health problems related to emotional competence
It has been shown that internalizing emotions can lead to a deterioration of the physical and mental health. This can include an increase in stress levels, which can cause dangerous conditions like hypertension, a rapid increase or loss in weight, or fatigue.
Suppressing emotions can lead to depression and relationships with other people can suffer to due emotional incompetence. Although there are many kinds of emotional problems that can cause difficulties with emotional competence, emotional intelligence plays a significant role in the ability that a person has to learn these skills.
For those people who suffer from mental illnesses or problems that interfere with their skills, it is important as an initial step to develop emotional intelligence. When a person is capable of distinguishing between one set of emotions and another, they can start to learn how to apply these emotions to their daily life.