Emotional Intelligence Cheat Sheet

The core ideas of Emotional Intelligence distilled into a single, scannable reference — perfect for review or quick lookup.

PiqCue — piqcue.com/emotional-intelligence/cheatsheet

Quick Reference

Self-Awareness

The foundational EQ competency involving the ability to recognize and understand your own emotions, strengths, weaknesses, values, and motivations, and to understand how they affect others.

Self-Regulation

The ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods, and the propensity to suspend judgment and think before acting. It includes managing emotional reactions to maintain composure under pressure.

Empathy

The ability to understand and share the feelings of another person by recognizing their emotional state, taking their perspective, and responding with appropriate care and concern.

Social Skills

The proficiency in managing relationships and building networks. It includes the ability to find common ground, build rapport, communicate clearly, inspire and influence others, and manage conflict.

Intrinsic Motivation

A passion to work for internal reasons beyond money or status, characterized by a strong drive to achieve, optimism even in the face of failure, and organizational commitment driven by purpose.

Emotional Hijacking (Amygdala Hijack)

A term coined by Daniel Goleman describing when the amygdala triggers an intense emotional response before the rational prefrontal cortex can process the situation, leading to impulsive reactions disproportionate to the stimulus.

Emotional Literacy

The ability to identify, name, and articulate specific emotions with precision and nuance, moving beyond basic labels like 'good' or 'bad' to distinguish between emotions like frustration, disappointment, and resentment.

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

An educational framework through which children and adults acquire and apply knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions, achieve goals, feel and show empathy, maintain relationships, and make responsible decisions.

Psychological Safety

A shared belief held by members of a team that the group is safe for interpersonal risk-taking, such as speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes without fear of punishment or humiliation.

Emotional Contagion

The phenomenon in which one person's emotions and related behaviors directly trigger similar emotions and behaviors in others, spreading through groups in a process that is often unconscious and automatic.

Key Terms at a Glance

Active Listening:A communication technique involving full attention, understanding, and thoughtful response to what is being said.

Affective Empathy:The capacity to share or feel the emotions of another person, also called emotional empathy.

Alexithymia:A personality trait marked by difficulty identifying, describing, and expressing one's own emotions.

Amygdala:An almond-shaped brain structure involved in emotional processing, fear responses, and emotional memory.

Amygdala Hijack:An intense emotional reaction triggered by the amygdala before the rational brain can respond.

Cognitive Empathy:The ability to understand another person's perspective and mental state without necessarily sharing their feelings.

Cognitive Reappraisal:An emotion regulation strategy that involves reinterpreting the meaning of a situation to alter its emotional impact.

Compassion Fatigue:Emotional and physical exhaustion from prolonged exposure to others' suffering, common in helping professions.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT):A therapeutic approach that teaches emotional regulation, distress tolerance, mindfulness, and interpersonal effectiveness.

Emotional Contagion:The unconscious spread of emotions from one person to others through facial expressions, voice, and body language.

Emotional Granularity:The ability to make fine-grained distinctions between similar emotional states.

Emotional Intelligence (EQ):The ability to recognize, understand, manage, and effectively use emotions in oneself and others.

Emotional Literacy:The ability to identify and articulate specific emotions with precision and nuance.

Emotional Regulation:The process of monitoring, evaluating, and modifying emotional reactions to serve one's goals.

Empathy:The ability to understand and share the feelings of another person.

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