How do you know if you are High Emotional Potential (HPE)?

If we hear more and more about the high intellectual potential (HPI), the high emotional potential remains less known. This term corresponds to high emotional intelligence, characterized by highly developed emotional skills. A form of giftedness which is also very important.

Gifted, zebra, precocious … all these names, not always very correct, refer to the same peculiarity present in some people: the high potential. In vogue for several years in the media, people with high potential even become fictional characters who inspire filmmakers and writers, as in the HPI series broadcast on TF1. But beware, this “fashion effect” which sometimes means that we say everything and its opposite does not however call into question the existence of this concept that has existed since Antiquity. Numerous scientific studies show that it is indeed a reality which would concern approximately 5% of the general population (if one refers to the criteria of the intelligence quotient (IQ)). But there is another form of intelligence, emotional intelligence (EQ) which is just as important. We tell you all about High Emotional Potential (HPE).

What does high potential mean?

The term high potential describes an aptitude above standards. It often designates “intellectual precocity” or “giftedness” (the fact of being gifted). But individuals endowed with a high potential, that is to say endowed with above-average aptitudes, meet in several areas of skill: intellectual, creative, emotional … Even if their requirements do not always allow them to recognize themselves as “gifted”.

There are different types of high potential. In addition to the high intellectual potential, one can develop a high emotional or even creative potential. If we speak mainly of HPI, it is because the intellect has long been a reference to giftedness for many practitioners and in the collective unconscious. Indeed, until the 1980s, only cognitive intelligence (IQ) was taken into account. However, the high emotional potential is also very important.

What is a person with high emotional potential?

“High emotional potential (HPE) is an expression that has been used to model that of HPI, and which concerns the emotional domain. This term refers to particularly high emotional skills. We measure them through performance, by tests that assess emotional skills: emotional intelligence tests ”, explains Nathalie Clobert, psychologist specializing in high potential and hypersensitivity. These emotional skills include the ability to perceive emotions in oneself and others, the ability to use this information to understand emotional situations and respond to them appropriately.

Indeed, the concept of emotional intelligence (EI) was proposed and defined in 1990 by the psychologists Salovey and Mayer then revised in 1997. The latter describe it as “The ability to perceive and express emotions, to integrate them to facilitate thought, to understand and reason with emotions, as well as to regulate emotions in oneself and in others”.

High intellectual and emotional potential: what are the differences?

  • The high intellectual potential: “This is a form of high potential which concerns intellectual skills. HPI starts from an IQ greater than or equal to 130 when measured by an intelligence test ”, details Nathalie Clobert. “HPI individuals provide very high performance in the intellectual domain (analysis, speed, etc.)”.
  • The high emotional potential: “The high emotional potential, on the other hand, concerns more the emotional register: knowing how to identify emotions, understand them, know how to express them, manage them and finally use them”, specifies the specialist.

“It is not necessarily linked but some people can present both”, she notes.

What are the characteristics of HPE people?

“You will find more or less serious characteristics on the internet, which are sometimes amalgamated between psychological suffering and a more rewarding label”, notes Nathalie Clobert. Indeed, no list can claim to define the whole of this population. However, the specialist gives us some characteristics that come up often:

  • You have a good knowledge of yourself, a good self-awareness
  • You have a fairly developed and not overwhelming empathy
  • You have important human skills
  • You know how to assert your emotions, express them in an appropriate way while respecting their needs but also others
  • You use the right words to talk about your feelings and those of others
  • You understand the message your emotions send you

Are people with high emotional potential hypersensitive?

“There is a form of confusion between hypersensitivity and HPE”, remarks the psychologist. “Hypersensitivity refers to a significantly higher sensitivity to stimulation and a higher emotional reactivity. If you manage it well, it can result in very high emotional skills. On the other hand, if the hypersensitivity gives a hard time and you have trouble managing your relationships, then that does not give rise to better emotional skills ”, she explains. A hypersensitive person is not necessarily HPE. And the opposite ? “It’s a little more complicated”, admits the specialist. Keen emotional sensitivity and hypersensitivity is often found in people with HPE.

What does being high emotional potential change?

How to live with a high emotional potential? For Nathalie Clobert, it is possible to make this particularity a strength. “An HPE mostly provides resources and benefits, but it all depends on the environment. In some cases, this can be uncomfortable: With a person uncomfortable with their emotions, the HPE is not going to go through this emotional lockdown very well. However, he will have more skill to manage this type of profile ”. Being high potential doesn’t fully define you. “For me, it’s a resource if you are in an environment that favors its expression. We must succeed in appropriating these high skills so that they are at the service of our happiness and self-development ”, recalls the psychologist.

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Marion Dos Santos Clara

Lifestyle journalist, Marion writes on topics related to psychology, love and sexuality, from a societal perspective. From sexualities to new love codes, she deciphers the …