Study of educational psychologists’ emotional competence development

Abstract

© 2015 by the authors. The article presents the essential characteristics of the concept “emotional competence” as a component of the educational psychologist’s professional competence. The article explains the importance of the emotional abilities (empathy, reflection, self-regulation and control feelings and emotions of other people) in the personal structure of the educational psychologist. Specificity of educational psychologist’s professional activity is that he must confront his professional challenges and manage his emotional state. The foreign analogue of the concept “emotional competence” is “emotional intelligence”. Based on the analysis of conjugate concepts of “emotional ability”, “emotional intelligence” there is provided a definition of “emotional competence”. The article reveals various scientific approaches to this concept, highlighting their structural components. As part of emotional competence there are four basic components and their functions: self-regulation (impulse control and management of emotions, expression of emotions, blocking negative emotional states); regulation of relationships (social skills, ability to build relationships with others); reflection (self-awareness, rational understanding of emotions, and identifying one’s own motivation); empathy (emotional and cognitive decentering). The article presents the results of ascertaining and controlling stages of research in experimental and control groups. The qualitative interpretation of the results obtained with the use of statistical methods of data processing is given.