Emotional Intelligence

About Emotional Intelligence (EI)

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the ability to understand your own emotions and the emotions of others and to use your emotions effectively to guide thinking and action. EI is not fixed; rather, we can develop and strengthen our EI skills throughout our lifetime. Research strongly supports the connection between EI and wellness – both physical and emotional – and the college years are an integral time for strengthening EI skills.

We offer single and multi-session workshops for students interested in building EI skills. These discussion-based, experiential sessions are designed to offer opportunities to build capacities for self-awareness, emotion regulation, and communication across difference.

To learn more about our EI workshops, email Student Wellness.

History of EI at Dartmouth

In 2015, the Student Wellness Center began working with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence to develop and test an EI skill-building curriculum for college students, building on the RULER framework.

RULER, which stands for Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing, and Regulating emotions, is an evidence-based approach for cultivating and strengthening the skills of Emotional Intelligence.

Benefits of EI

Many of the outcomes associated with EI are critically important during the college years: physical and emotional health, cognitive and social functioning, psychological wellbeing, and academic performance.

Looking beyond the college years, higher EI is also associated with effective performance in groups and strong leadership skills. In contrast, lower EI is associated with unhealthy relationships, chronic stress, and emotional and intellectual burnout— as well as maladaptive lifestyle choices including high-risk alcohol and drug use.