The purpose of this research is to examine issues surrounding the concepts of IQ, or the theory of intelligence quotient, and EQ, a theory of emotional intelligence or emotion quotient. The plan of the research will be to set forth the theoretical and cultural context in which IQ and EQ have emerged as conceptual phenomena that can be compared and contrasted, and then to discuss evidence and professional discourse on the subjects in a way that appropriately positions them for understanding and further research.
The popular American culture of the 1990s--indeed popular culture more generally--has been so overwhelmed by ready access to catchphrases and scientific-sounding terminology that it may be tempting for many nonscientists and nonprofessionals to believe that having a general idea of what a piece of jargon means is the same as understanding it in whole, in part, or in partial nuance. Especially since World War II, owing to extraordinary mass-communications development, the line of demarcation between knowledge and insight of the professional disciplines on one hand and of the great mass of persons on the other has become blurred, so that whether one understands or agrees with a scientific theory or not, it may have a significant impact on the scientific and nonscientific communities like.
Intelligence research, which has been a significant preoccupation in the clinical scientific community in the modern period, bears out this dynamic. In his historiography of the scientific method, Kuhn explains that scientific paradigms represent a view of the world that is widely shared and that illustrates a "constellation of group commitments," or, more broadly, a presumption of the validity of the paradigm across scientific disciplines (Kuhn 181, et passim). But the importance of a scientific paradigm outside the realm of science can assume interpretative power beyond (and sometimes in contradiction to) the evidence of science, as seems...