EMOTION AND THE MIND: FROM EARLY PSYCHOLOGY TO EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

D. BIHUNOV

doi:10.37203/kibit.2025.53(2).16

D. BIHUNOV Hryhorii Skovoroda University in Pereiaslav https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6100-7765

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37203/kibit.2025.53(2).16

Keywords: emotional intelligence, early 20th-century psychology, structuralism, psychoanalysis, emotional thinking, cognition, empathy.

Abstract

This article explores early 20th-century intellectual developments that prepared the ground for what would later be known as emotional intelligence. Moving beyond the view that emotional intelligence appeared in isolation, the study traces its evolution through thinkers who redefined the relationship between emotion and cognition. The analysis highlights the shift from structuralist reductionism to holistic and affective models of mind in the works of E. Titchener, W. Wundt, S. Freud, and H. Maier. Contributions by C. Jung, H. Bergson, M. Scheler, and W. McDougall further illustrate how philosophical and psychological traditions converged in viewing emotion as a moral and cognitive force. The article argues that emotional intelligence reflects a long transformation in the human sciences – from analyzing emotion as mere reaction to recognizing it as the foundation of self-awareness, empathy, and adaptive reasoning.

Author Biography

D. BIHUNOV, Hryhorii Skovoroda University in Pereiaslav

PhD (Phychol.), Associate Professor,

Doctoral Candidate

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