Health state, emotional intelligence, and behavior strategy: I. The development of emotional intelligence and the variability of behavior strategies in older preschool children with different levels of habitual physical activity

Abstract

On the basis of the concept of the typological variability of human physiological individuality, we have determined the systemic correlation between the indicators of cognitive activity and the parameters and development of emotional intelligence (EI) and the formation of typical behavior strategies in older preschool children of three functional types (FT-1, FT-2, and FT-3), including subjects with low (LHPA), medium (MHPA), and high (HHPA) levels of habitual physical activity. We revealed the EI features typical of each functional group of children and observed a strong negative correlation between the indicator of HPA and the total EI score. The typical manifestation of EI is closely related to other psychological parameters of cognitive and emotional–volitional activity (logical and imaginative thinking, state anxiety, and attention), which allowed us to establish the constitutional features of the behavior strategy on the basis of the integrated assessment of all the obtained data. In different conflict situations, children with HHPA (FT-3) made decisions more rapidly and by themselves; their decisions were active and aimed at achieving a specific goal on the basis of domination (individual problem solving). In contrast, children with LHPA (FT-1) solved the problems on the basis of the emotional state of other people and preferred to explain the situation to their parents or educators and ask for help (cooperative problem solving). Up to 10% of children with LHPA preferred not to solve the problem.