23 entries · reviewed by the editors
The Encyclopedia
Start with What is emotional literacy? or browse by section.
01The 10P system & theory
- Coping mechanismsCoping mechanisms are strategies people use to manage stress and uncomfortable emotions. They can be constructive (breathing, journaling, talking) or destructive (substance use, compulsive buying, aggression, crime). 10P teaches people to replace destructive coping with constructive coping.
- Emotional illiteracyEmotional illiteracy is the inability to recognize, name, understand or regulate emotion in yourself and others. In 10P's Theory of Emotional Illiteracy-Based Criminality it is the root of antisocial behavior and destructive coping.
- The 10P Emotional Literacy SystemThe 10P Emotional Literacy System defines emotional literacy as a complete system with two halves: literacy (reading emotion in yourself and others) and intelligence (choosing the right tool to manage it). Developed by Samual Nathaniel Brown and the 10P Program.
- Theory of Emotional Illiteracy-Based Criminality (TEIBC)The Theory of Emotional Illiteracy-Based Criminality (TEIBC), developed by Samual Nathaniel Brown, holds that no one is born bad: people adopt criminality and other destructive coping mechanisms in response to unprocessed trauma, and emotional literacy is the path back to prosocial life.
02Foundations
- Emotional literacy and social-emotional learning (SEL)Social-emotional learning (SEL) is the school-based framework for teaching emotional and social skills, defined by CASEL's five competencies. Emotional literacy is the underlying capacity SEL builds: reading emotion and responding to it.
- Emotional literacy vs. emotional intelligenceEmotional literacy and emotional intelligence are often used interchangeably. The 10P Emotional Literacy System distinguishes them: literacy is the ability to read emotion; intelligence is the ability to choose the right tool to manage it. Emotional intelligence sits inside emotional literacy.
- What is emotional literacy?Emotional literacy is the ability to recognize, name, understand and respond to emotions in yourself and others. In the 10P Emotional Literacy System it has two halves: literacy (reading emotion) and intelligence (choosing the right tool to manage it).
03The four quadrants
- Relationship managementRelationship management is the ability to use emotional awareness to communicate, resolve conflict, repair harm and lead. It is the fourth quadrant of the 10P Emotional Literacy System.
- Self-awarenessSelf-awareness is the ability to notice, name and understand your own emotions as they happen — in the body, in thoughts and in urges. It is the first quadrant of the 10P Emotional Literacy System and the foundation of everything else.
- Self-managementSelf-management is the ability to choose the right tool for a feeling and use it — regulating intensity, tolerating discomfort and acting in line with your values. It is the second quadrant of the 10P Emotional Literacy System.
- Social awarenessSocial awareness is the ability to read emotion in other people — through faces, voices, behavior and context — and to understand what they may be experiencing. It is the third quadrant of the 10P Emotional Literacy System.
04Skills
- Emotional expressionEmotional expression is the ability to communicate feelings honestly and safely, in words and behavior, without suppressing them or using them as weapons.
- Emotional regulationEmotional regulation is the ability to influence the intensity, duration and expression of emotions so you can respond in line with your goals and values. It is a core skill of self-management in the 10P system.
- Emotional vocabularyEmotional vocabulary is the range of words a person has to describe feelings. A precise vocabulary — sometimes called emotional granularity — is linked to better regulation and is the foundation of emotional literacy.
05Where it's practiced
- Emotional literacy at workEmotional literacy at work is the ability of leaders and teams to read and respond to emotion in meetings, conflict, feedback and change. 10P trains organizations in the 10P Emotional Literacy System.
- Emotional literacy for athletesEmotional literacy for athletes means reading pressure, frustration and fear in competition and responding with composure. 10P's E.L.A. program brings the 10P system to athletes and teams.
- Emotional literacy for familiesFamily emotional literacy is the shared practice of naming, accepting and responding to feelings at home. 10P's family model brings parents, children and incarcerated loved ones into the same learning.
- Emotional literacy for kids and teensTeaching emotional literacy to children and teenagers gives them words for feelings and tools to manage them before destructive coping patterns take hold. Includes age-appropriate practices for home and school.
- Emotional literacy in prisons and reentryEmotional literacy programs in prisons teach incarcerated people to read and manage emotion as the core of rehabilitation and successful reentry. The 10P Program began this work at New Folsom in 2014, grounded in the Theory of Emotional Illiteracy-Based Criminality.
06History & research
- History of emotional literacyA history of the emotional literacy concept: Claude Steiner's coinage, the rise of emotional intelligence research, social-emotional learning in schools, and the 10P Program's redefinition of emotional literacy as a system containing emotional intelligence.
- Trauma and emotional literacyTrauma overwhelms a person's capacity to process experience. Without emotional literacy, unprocessed trauma often drives destructive coping. Emotional literacy is a path to processing it. This idea is central to 10P's Theory of Emotional Illiteracy-Based Criminality.
07People & programs
- Samual Nathaniel BrownSamual Nathaniel Brown is the founder and director of the 10P Program, author of the Theory of Emotional Illiteracy-Based Criminality, and developer of the 10P Emotional Literacy System. An autodidact and carceral scholar, he founded 10P in 2014 at New Folsom and paroled in 2021 after 24 years in California state prisons.
- THE BRAIN ProjectTHE BRAIN Project is the 10P Program's independent-study curriculum: self-paced emotional-literacy courses delivered in print or digitally to people in prison, including restrictive housing and mental-health units. It opens with Course C1, the Theory of Emotional Illiteracy-Based Criminality.
10P Program
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