Many years ago a book introduced a concept new to me: EQ.

Emotional intelligence is something most, if not all, people learn to value, especially in relationships. How we react to life’s challenges, to one another’s differences, to competing needs or simply to the inevitable change that defines human lives — that determines whether we’re successes or failures, happy or miserable, and whether we burden or uplift others.

Is EQ — the emotional quotient — more important than IQ?

Some would say yes. Raw computing power is a great asset, but without the other mental skills to best determine what to do with the input, to use it to advantage and for good, being smart isn’t much use.

Some would simply call that wisdom. Others, mental health. Either way, popular understanding of the sub-branches of useful intelligence is growing. And EQ is just the beginning.

According to psychologists, there are at least four types of intelligence:

1. Intelligence Quotient (IQ): This measures the levels of understanding. Think math, the complexities of systems, memorization and recall. Some folks “see” complex things quickly and almost intuitively; others can do it, but more slowly. Still others are more limited in what they can achieve. In all cases, we generally grow our IQs with age, education and experience, up to a point.
2. Emotional Quotient (EQ): Examples are keeping calm in the face of strong feelings; being able to converse civilly when disagreeing; to think before reacting and acting; the ability to maintain relationships, be considerate, or keep peace with others; self-control and responsibility.
3. Social Quotient (SQ): Measures the ability to build and maintain friendships, intimate relationships and working relationships.
4. Adversity (or adaptability) Quotient (AQ): Tough times are part of every life. Serious illness, unemployment, the loss of loved ones, crime, war or other societal instabilities. The ability to get through rough patches and cope with long-term challenges without “losing it,” giving up or creating reactive harm is essentially AQ.

Beyond psychology, self-improvement books and popular culture, add a few more “Q”s to the mix which denote other life skills or elements of happiness, such as the Spirituality Quotient and Curiosity Quotient. That list keeps growing.

Obviously, people can have higher levels of one type of intelligence and lower levels of another. Less obvious but interesting to note is that those with high IQ but lower EQ and SQ don’t typically have better lives than people with the opposite. High EQ, SQ and AQ tend to correlate with better overall success and happiness than does a high IQ alone.

Yet through most of human history, traditional education and work culture have focused on IQ alone. In some workplaces, the other aspects of intelligence are woven into training, advancement and office culture, but it’s not common. Yet.

In recent years, most elementary schools have incorporated character traits such as honesty, integrity, compassion, respect and so on into the curriculum, but by middle and high school these are left to be taught at home.

Some homes emulate traits which foster EQ, SQ and AQ, but of course this depends on the parents’ and families’ levels of such aspects of intelligence and their practical function in each household, as well as the efforts to pass them on in our busier, more disjointed lives. Could that be part of the reason for our SQ backsliding as a culture?

Breaking down the elements of an optimally functioning mind like this is probably a helpful exercise. Focusing on them, giving them names and thinking about the ways they impact the life experience create conscious opportunities to enhance self-awareness, strengthen and grow.

All good things.

Yet this growing list of Qs is nothing new. There’s an old term that seems to be out of favor which encompasses the lot, albeit perhaps less specifically: Well-rounded. A well-rounded person is one fully developed in all aspects; balanced.

Ideally, they will all blend into one well-rounded life experience.

“Power isn’t controlling everything that happens to us. No one can do that, not even the richest man alive. Power is perfect control of how we react to what happens to us.” — Dr. Salma Farook

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Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Email Sholeh@cdapress.com