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Spencer Crane
Professor Julia Intawiwat
UWRT 1102
19 November 2015
On Emotional Intelligence and Decision Making
Think back on all of the decisions you have made. Do you think that every conclusion
you reached was the correct conclusion? Has rage or envy ever swayed you from one resolve to
an entirely different one? Emotions play a factor in all of the decisions we make covering menial
tasks like as choosing what to wear and extending to predicaments of greater importance such as
deciding what to do with your life. The level that each individual can identify, understand, use
and manage the emotions everyone feels in positive ways to reach decisions, overcome
challenges, empathize with others, communicate effectively and defuse conflict is considered
their level of emotional intelligence.
In my past I have made mistakes, as everyone has, and undoubtingly I wish to learn from
these to provide a better outcome the next time a problem presents itself. By analyzing how
emotional intelligence has affected the decisions of others, I will use the results of this analysis to
see the possible impact improving ones own emotional intelligence has on our life. The
particular decision I will be analyzing is Chris McCandlesss decision to embark on a journey to
Alaska documented by Jon Krakauers Into the Wild. To see how his level of emotional
intelligence impacted the decision of Chris. I need to first determine the goal Chris had in mind
when leaving and if he reached his goal. Then I must examine if his emotional and psychological

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state of mind impeded with the accomplishment of his goal, what level of emotional intelligence
Chris has, and if the outcome would have been different were his emotional intelligence higher.
Finally after this has been done I can compare the difference in possible outcomes to see if
raising the level of emotional intelligence is significant in providing a better outcome for each
decision we make, or if it comes with a small enough impact that it doesnt need to be focused
on.
So what exactly was the goal Chris had in mind when he left for his journey? Chris was
unhappy with the way his life had been going. His father was abusive, he believed his parents
love to be conditional, while at college he felt restricted by the rules of society, and he had
always yearned for the romantic type of adventures one of his favorite authors Jack London had
described. To quote Chris, he believed that So many people live within unhappy circumstances
and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation The very basic core of a man's
living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new
experiences and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for
each day to have a new and different sun. (Krakauer, 57) and leaving to Alaska was simply him
taking the initiative to change his unhappy circumstances and find the adventure he had
discovered to be the source of joy and happiness. So to summarize, the goal of Chris was to
change his unhappy conditions and find joy and happiness.
To determine if Chris had reached his goal of happiness we need to take a glance at a few
of his last words. The final thing Chris had etched out as he lay dying was I have had a happy
life and thank the lord. Goodbye and may god bless all!(Krakauer, 199). So it can be assumed
that Chris had found happiness in between his departure and death rendering his goal complete.
But was his dream adventure in Alaska the source of this happiness? If we explore the other

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notes Chris had written prior to his death it becomes apparent that the adventure indeed was not
the source. The death of Chris was not sudden and was riddled with the pain of starvation and
loneliness. At one point while Chris was in Alaska, he had left the bus, the location he had set up
camp during the Alaskan escapade, in an attempt to gather berries. Before he had left he taped a
note on the door of the bus, in it he had written down I am all alone, this is NO JOKE.
(Krakauer, 12). Also before his death he had etched another note saying it turned out that only a
life similar to the life of those around us, merging with it without a ripple, is genuine life, and
that an unshared happiness is not happiness.... And this was most vexing of all, he noted,
HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED. (Krakauer, 189). These two notes indicate that
during his time in Alaska he had an epiphany where he realizes that throughout this journey filled
with adventure Chris had experienced, his happiness was at its peak when he shared it with other
people and not during the time he had surviving in Alaska which was filled with desperation and
fear.
To begin examining the actual decision Chris made after college to donate his entire
savings of 24,000 dollars to charity and leave society with a destination of Alaska, a closer look
at his psychological and emotional state are in order to see if they affected his decision. As far as
his emotional state we know that Chris had deeply oppressed negative emotions regarding his
parents. He told his sister Carine that he was going to let them think they are right... that our
relationship is stabilizing. And then, once the time is right, with one abrupt, swift action Im
going to completely knock them out of my life.(Krakauer, 64). He had built up so much hatred
for his father because he was physically abusive, because he discovered he was conceived while
his father was married to a women other than his mother and they decided to hide it from him,
because of the hypocrisy of his parents lifestyle, the tyranny of their conditional

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love.(Krakauer, 64). He wished to leave just to smite them and make them feel the pain they
have caused him over the years. We also know that he was filled with the hope and excitement
for a better future with adventure and joy. As for is psychological state, there is evidence that
Chris had developed secondary psychopathy (sociopathy) over time. At the University of
Southern California Tasha Poppa and Dr. Antoine Bechara wrote an online journal concerning
primary and secondary psychopathy, the differences between them, and the causes for each. The
cause of secondary psychopathy as an acquired disturbance of affective processing is due to
abusive developmental environments (17). Chris certainly has the required abusive past to cause
secondary psychopathy but does he present the symptoms?
Psychopathy is a clinical disorder defined by a lack of moral sense and detachment
from the social fabric.(16) Most people who knew Chris, not limited to but including his sister,
stated that Chris has good morals and cares for people. However a distinct feature of secondary
psychopathy (sociopathy) is although well aware of the nature of their transgressions, they are
unburdened by the weight of the consequences that their actions impose on others.(16) And
Chris certainly did not give much thought as to how this journey of adventure and freedom
would affect the people he met along the way. His parents and sister were in pain with every day
they did not know his whereabouts, and after hearing that Chris had died Ronald Franz, a man
Chris met during his journey, had forsaken god, become an atheist, and returned to alcoholism
which eventually leaded to his death. An argument someone might make for Chris is that along
the way he helped people, however; the times he had helped people, their needs were in line with
his own. He also didnt really focus on neither the healing nor the pain he had delivered along his
journey. On top of this evidence he was completely detached from the social fabric, he actually
hated the social fabric, and when he was forced to rejoin society and go to Los Angeles to get

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an ID and a job he felt extremely uncomfortable in society and must return to road
immediately.(Krakauer, 37). With this partially sociopathic state of mind it can be determined
that this skewed his decision to abandon society and his family and embark on a journey to
Alaska.
To see what level of emotional intelligence Chris had we can compare it to the definition
of person whose level is regarded as high. The high EI individual, most centrally, can better
perceive emotions, use them in thought, understand their meanings, and manage emotions, than
others.(Mayer). Chris was unable to understand the meaning and source of happiness until the
end of his journey. He was unable to manage his emotions towards his parents and instead of
communicating his feelings effectively he bottled them up until he couldnt take it anymore.
With only this information available we cannot simply assume his level was low, but we can say
that he did not have a level that is regarded as high.
If Chris had a better knowledge of how to communicate with others effectively, it is
possible he may have confronted his parents directly with all of the pent up emotions he had held
onto, which in turn could have led to him defusing the conflict between himself and his parents
and never wanting to smite them. It is also possible that if he had a better understanding of the
meanings and causes of emotions, he may have realized that happiness is only real when shared
prior to his arrival at Alaska which have spared his life. It can also be said that because the level
of emotional intelligence directly correlates with the possibility of mental disease as reported by
Dr. Enrique Abascal and Dr. Maria Martin-Diaz in the study of how emotional intelligence
relates to physical and mental health, that Chris may have reached a different conclusion other
than needing to leave for Alaska with the acknowledgement that this journey would hurt his
family and each person he left behind as the journey continued.

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With all of these possibilities in mind, it is easy to say that had Chris been more attentive
to his own and others emotions there would have been a different outcome to his ventures. One
that did not have the fatally wasted time in Alaska where he was searching for something he had
already found. One that ended with his family together with a hope that their relationship could
be mended in the future. One that was still filled with adventure and wonder but not the
foolishness to go into the wild ill-equipped. Just knowing that there is a possibility even if it is
small that the outcome could have turned out better, makes emotional intelligence something to
be studied. Knowing that there is a possibility that it could change that one boys life so
drastically, makes the knowledge to read and manage your own emotions, the knowledge to
understand and empathize with other peoples emotions, knowledge that under no circumstances
should be ignored.