Appendix: Comprehensive Framework of Emotional Skills
This appendix retains the full master framework in the original Figure 4 order rather than the explanatory prose order used in the main article. Intrinsic Goals is used here to emphasise that these are goals of mental organisation and attainment, not ordinary life ambitions.
| Intrinsic Goals | |||
| A1 | Mental integration | To integrate the many facets of the mind so that it maintains coherence and balance. | |
| A2 | Self-knowing | A settled understanding of one’s values, motives, strengths, vulnerabilities and recurring emotional patterns. | 1 |
| A3 | Personal emotional understanding | The need to understand one’s own emotional life sufficiently to make sense of what one is feeling and why. | |
| A4 | Give meaning to life | The need to make sense of one’s experiences, place events into meaning, and organise life around coherent purposes. | |
| A5 | Self-actualisation | A higher-order human need concerned with the fuller realisation of one’s capacities and potential. | 1,2 |
| A6 | Establishing self-worth | The mind’s goal of establishing a viable sense of self-worth that can be lived from and sustained. | |
| A7 | Independence / self-reliance | The power to be independent in planning and making important decisions and the ability to take responsibility for oneself. | 1,2 |
| A8 | Motivation | The capacity to focus and maintain drives, desires and energies. | 5,6,9 |
| A9 | Effectiveness / constructiveness | Capacity to generate positive results and seek constructive ends. | 5 |
| A10 | Creation and preservation of healthy relationships | The intrinsic aim of forming, sustaining and protecting relationships that are emotionally healthy and mutually viable. | 1,5 |
| A11 | Stress oversight | The intrinsic goal of monitoring and keeping stress within sustainable bounds so energy is not chronically over-expended. | |
| A12 | Quality of life and wellbeing | Capacity to be content from living life well, feeling good about oneself and functioning. | 5 |
| A13 | A healthy concept of normal and usual | Having and striving towards a familiarity that is healthy. | |
| A14 | Maintaining physical well-being | The mind–body system’s role in preserving bodily functioning and using physical signals as information about strain, distress, recovery and need. | |
| External perceptions | |||
| B1 | Environmental and social awareness | Including the prevailing hopes, concerns, attitudes, customs and moods of the population. | 9 |
| B2 | Emotional perception of others | Interpretation of facial expressions, body language and tone of voice of others. | 4,6 |
| B3 | Empathy | Feeling what others are feeling. | 1,2,3,4,5,6,9 |
| B4 | Relationship dynamics perceptions | Perceiving the emotional quality, movement and pattern of a relationship itself. | 1,2,5,6,9 |
| B5 | Recognising and accepting an apology | Recognising genuine remorse shown after someone else has wronged you. | |
| B6 | Recognising and accepting forgiveness | Recognising genuine forgiveness from the person you feel you have wronged. | |
| Internal perceptions | |||
| C1 | Emotional self-awareness | To be aware of one's own deeper feelings and emotions. | 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 |
| C2 | Recognising emotions | To accurately recognise and identify feelings and emotions as they occur. | 3,5,7,8 |
| C3 | Holding intense feeling | To be able to hold an intense feeling without immediate action to minimise it. | |
| C4 | Feeling more than one emotion simultaneously | To be aware of more than one emotion occurring at the same time. | 5 |
| C5 | Cognitive dissonance awareness | Awareness of the discomfort or inner tension that arises when beliefs, values, emotions and actions do not fit together. | |
| Internal processing | |||
| D1 | Emotional auto-analysing | Analysing one’s own emotions, motives and reactions so that feeling can be understood and used intelligently in judgement. | 4,9 |
| D2 | Learning from emotional experience | Drawing learning from emotional experience so that feelings become a source of growth, understanding and wiser future response. | 9 |
| D3 | Reality distortion awareness | Recognising when fear, anger, shame, desire or other feelings are biasing perception. | 1,2 |
| D4 | Reality testing | Comparing perceptions and beliefs against external evidence. | 2 |
| D5 | Cognitive challenge of emotions | Questioning, reappraising and improving the interpretations attached to emotional reactions so they become more reality-based and healthy. | 1,4 |
| D6 | Problem solving | Defining problems accurately and selecting constructive responses despite emotional pressure. | 2 |
| D7 | Consequential thinking | Anticipating likely emotional, interpersonal and practical consequences before acting. | 3 |
| D8 | Adaptability / flexibility | Responding in different ways according to the demands of a given situation. | 1,2,3,6,9 |
| D9 | Managing own emotions | Monitoring and directing one’s emotional state so it remains proportionate, useful and under one’s own guidance. | 5,6,7,8 |
| D10 | Managing stress | Remaining effective, balanced and clear-thinking under pressure by actively managing one’s stress load and response. | 2,6 |
| D11 | Emotional suppression | Containing emotion internally when temporary restraint is needed while deciding what it means or what to do with it. | 1,5 |
| D13 | Meditation / self-hypnosis | Using focused attention or guided relaxation to calm arousal and improve self-regulation. | 1 |
| D14 | Utilising positive role models | Learning emotional conduct and coping strategies from constructive role models. | 1 |
| D15 | Self-forgiveness | Accepting one’s mistakes with honesty and compassion while still taking responsibility. | |
| Attitudes | |||
| E1 | Preserving a positive self-worth | Holding a stable positive sense of one’s worth without letting setbacks define the whole self. | 2,4 |
| E2 | Humility | Remaining grounded in who one is and not allowing success, status or praise to become self-inflating. | |
| E3 | Utilising emotions | Using feelings as useful information and energy to guide attention and action. | 1,3 |
| E4 | Straightforwardness / authenticity | A disposition towards honesty, genuineness and congruence between inner feeling and outward communication. | 1,5,9 |
| E5 | Self-confidence | Confidence in one’s judgement, capacities and right to act, speak and decide. | 4,5,9 |
| E6 | Optimism | A hopeful and constructive stance that expects setbacks can be worked through. | 2,3,4 |
| E7 | Goal / achievement oriented | An attitude of directing effort towards worthwhile aims and persisting in pursuit of meaningful achievement. | 3,4,5 |
| E8 | Incremental successes | Valuing small, cumulative achievements as meaningful steps that build confidence and progress. | 3,4 |
| E9 | Taking responsibility for own actions | Accepting accountability for one’s own behaviour and choices. | |
| E10 | Looking after ourselves but not at the expense of others | Maintaining self-care and personal wellbeing whilst ensuring our actions or words do not harm or disadvantage others. | |
| E11 | Respecting the needs of others without undermining own needs | Recognising and valuing the needs of others while not exceeding our own boundaries. | |
| E12 | Believing our own senses above what others tell us | Trusting our direct experiences and observations over external opinions when appropriate. | |
| E13 | Have a value system and a moral framework | Holding clear principles and ethical guidelines that govern decisions and behaviour. | |
| Internal expression | |||
| F1 | Emotional expression | Giving suitable form to what one feels within so it can be processed. | |
| F2 | Catharsis | Releasing pent-up emotional tension in a way that brings relief and sometimes clarity. | |
| F3 | Processing losses | Undertaking the work required to accept loss and adapt to life in its absence. | |
| F4 | Impulse control | Pausing between urge and action so immediate impulses do not govern behaviour. | 9 |
| F5 | Delaying gratification | Resisting immediate reward for the sake of a better later outcome. | |
| External expression | |||
| G1 | Social responsibility | Acting with consideration for the welfare of others, the group and the wider community. | 2 |
| G2 | Relationship dynamics expressions | Communicating and behaving in ways that build, strengthen and repair the relational dynamic between people. | 1,2,5,9 |
| G3 | Conflict management | Addressing disagreement directly, calmly and fairly. | 5 |
| G4 | Managing others’ emotions | Calming, encouraging or steadying another person in a constructive and ethical way. | 1,5 |
| G5 | Having a positive influence | Affecting others’ thinking, feeling or behaviour in constructive ways through communication and relational skill. | 5,9 |
| G6 | Assertiveness / saying no | Stating one’s views, needs and limits clearly and respectfully, including the ability to decline requests and set boundaries. | 2,4 |
| G7 | Apologising sincerely | Acknowledging harm, accepting responsibility and offering a sincere apology that aims at repair. | 1 |
| G8 | Forgiving sincerely | Releasing justified resentment where appropriate and allowing repair or moral release without denying reality or needed boundaries. | 1 |
| G9 | Connecting daily choices with the life plan | Linking everyday decisions and actions with one’s broader purpose, values and direction in life. | 3 |
Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations. (2022). Emotional Intelligence Measures. Accessed 11th June 2026. The numbers are listed in the references.
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