emotional intelligence

Emotional Intelligence and Its Significance in Forensic Accounting

Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions of oneself or of groups. Researchers such as Peter Salvoey and John D. Mayer define it as “the subset of intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions” (Feeley& Driscoll CPA, 2014). In this paper, I will identify the role emotional intelligence plays in the critical thinking skills used by the forensic accountant during various stages of the investigative services of the engagement.

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify, use, and understand emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, efficiently communicate, empathize with others, overcome challenges, and to defuse conflict. By harnessing emotional intelligence, we can modify our own behavior and our interaction with other people. By utilizing high emotional intelligence, we are able to recognize our won emotional state and the emotional states of others, and engage with others in a way that draws them nearer to you (Cherry, 2015).

The ability to express and control our own emotions is vital for our survival in society and the work place but so is our ability to understand, interpret, and respond to the emotions of others. Salovey and Mayer proposed a model that identified four different factors of emotional intelligence (Cherry, 2015).

1. Perceiving Emotions- the first step in understanding emotions is to accurately perceive them. This involves understanding nonverbal signals such as body language and facial expression.

2. Reasoning with Emo...

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... lack of remorse, peer or financial pressure, rationalization, and all showed a lack of remorse. The motivation behind fraud varies but is predictible when identifying the type of characteristic and personality of fraudster prior to their employment and to remain alert to the behaviors commonly exhibted before a casastrophic event occurs (Wells, 2012).

Conclusion

Good people do bad things and the job of the Forensic Accountant is to understand the why and how this occurs. Through the understanding of emotional intelligence and the tools of critical thinking a hypothesis is created and an investigation is conducted. The Forensic accountant is tasked with identifying the crime, seeking answers to the questions and laying the groundwork to the solution. Most importantly he or she must understand the reasons and emotions driving the criminal to committee the act.