JPBS. Fatemeh Barakat 1*, Dr. Ali Pakizeh 2. Boushehr, Iran 2 Assistant Professor of Persian Gulf University, Iran

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1 The Relationship Between Components of Emotional Intelligence and Social, Emotional, and Personal Adjustment of Female Students of Second High School Level In Bushehr City, In 2015 JPBS JOURNAL OF Vol 4(3): ISSN: Copyright 2016 PSYCHOLOGY & BEHAVIORAL STUDIES Fatemeh Barakat 1*, Dr. Ali Pakizeh 2 1 PhD students of Psychology in Boushehr Azad University, Boushehr, Iran 2 Assistant Professor of Persian Gulf University, Iran * Corresponding Author fateme.barakat@gmail.com ABSTRACT This study aimed at investigating the relationship between components of emotional intelligence and social, emotional, and personal adjustment of female students of second high school level in Bushehr city, in The study population included all female high school students in Bushehr city, among them 150 samples were selected using multi-stage cluster random sampling. This research used descriptive, correlational design. To investigate the relationship between components of emotional intelligence and social, emotional, and personal adjustment of students, Bell adjustment questionnaire and Petrides and Farnham Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (2002) were used. The data were analyzed using multiple regression analysis, and results showed that components of emotional intelligence, including optimism, emotional perception, emotional control and social skills have a significant relationship with students' social and emotional adjustment. The findings also showed that there is no significant relationship between optimism and students social adjustment, and also between personal adjustment and emotional perception and students social skills. KEYWORDS Emotional Intelligence, Social Adjustment, Emotional Adjustment, Personal Adjustment. 107

2 INTRODUCTION Since the emergence of emotional intelligence in psychology literature, the impact of these components in various fields has been discussed. One of these areas is the impact of these factors on increasing individuals social, emotional, and personal adjustment. According to Goleman, emotional intelligence is the ability to cope with stress and shocks, handle the psychological trauma and inhibition of mental confusion. Emotional intelligence plays an important role in human health, and reduces stress and psychological pressure in facing difficult situations. Results of previous studies show that the components of emotional intelligence raise people's resistance against existing anxiety and thus increase their adjustment in different situations. Emotional intelligence increases person s ability to manage his emotions and raises his perception skills. People with higher emotional intelligence express their feelings and desires more than other people, and therefore provide wider social networks and higher social support for themselves. Having social support, in turn promotes mental health and protects person against stress, and increases his adjustment (Lotfi, 2006). Adjustment is a relationship between individual and his environment, in particular social environment that lets him respond to his needs and motivations. When a person benefits from adjustment that makes a healthy relationship between himself and his social environment, and satisfies his motives, otherwise we consider him inconsistent. In fact, adjustment with environment is a skill that must be learned, and its quality depends on person s interest and attempts to learn like any other learning (Behzadi & Rohani, 2010). Adolescents Adjustment is one of the most important issues that recently have attracted the attention of many sociologists, psychologists and educators, because, adolescence is a critical period and adolescents social adjustment in this period is under intense emotional, physical and mental changes and has not yet fully developed. For this reason, emotional maturity in adolescence period may be causes serious difficulties in interpersonal relationships and creates social challenges. In addition, social development is one of the most important aspects of personal growth, and measuring criterion of every one social development is his adjustment with others. Social adjustment is a continuous quantity, like physical, emotional and educational development, and gradually reaches perfection, and comes naturally in life and in dealing with experiences. By passing of childhood and entering into adolescence, psycho-social development changes from simple development into profound and qualitative one, and adolescents find themselves among the social interaction and communication with their peers and adults and become socially acceptable. One of social adjustment sign is having social skills. Development of social skills for social adjustment in interpersonal relationships requires emotional and mental health and emotional intelligence. Social skills are learned and socially acceptable behaviors, by which an individual interact with others in such a way that evokes positive responses and avoids negative ones, and leads to person's social adaptation (Naderi, 2009). One of the patterns that may be associated with social-affective adjustment is emotional intelligence that this study tries to explain it. Emotional intelligence is the ability to review feelings and emotions of oneself and others, distinguishing between emotions, and using emotional information in a healthy way for problem solving and behavior regulation. In fact, emotional intelligence is basically a set of capacities, abilities and non-cognitive skills that increases an individual's ability to deal successfully with environmental demands and pressures. Research Background Today we live in a world in which we require flexibility or in the other word social and emotional adjustment more than ever. Undoubtedly, social, emotional and personal adjustment has an important role in improvement of life. Slomowski and Dunn (1996) consider adjustment as a process that enables people to understand and predict others 108

3 behavior, to control their behavior and regulate their social interactions. A person has adjustment when he can establish a healthy relationship between himself and his social environment, and satisfy his motives, otherwise, he would be considered as incompatible (Razavian ShadT 2005). Iwata et al (2000) in a comprehensive overview divided effective factors of personal, social and emotional adjustment into six major categories; each of them is divided into smaller elements. These factors include physical deprivation, psycho- social factors, educational factors, incompatible family structure, the pressures of modern industrial life, and genetic and hereditary factors, all of which can provide grounds for criminal behaviors and social maladjustment. Kharghadani (2004) in his research concluded that in general, intelligence causes environmental adjustment, and provides ways to deal with problems. Razavian Shad (2005) in his study found a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and social adjustment and academic achievement of students. Aynglbrg (2000, quoted by Razavian Shad, 2005) in a research as emotional intelligence, affect and social adjustment showed that there is a direct correlation between successful social adjustment and emotions. He emphasized on this hypothesis that emotions may be effective in social adjustment level. Sokhandan (2001) quoted by Rezvani Shad, 2005) in his research concluded that training social skills has significantly reduced behavioral and emotional problems in school children. In another study, Elliott et al. (2003) (quoted by Mahin Torabi et al. 2011) demonstrated that social skill training helps developing social skills and social adjustment in young people. Siverz (2008) by investigating the impact of training of social skills on students social skill development and their behavior, revealed that using strategies of social skill training such as modeling, role playing, positive reinforcement and repetition and practice, helps students in developing and expanding positive social relationships with others, and effective conformity with their situations and expectations (Siverz, quated by Naderi, 2009). Kaplex (2005) (quoted by Hajari, 2005) in his research showed that social skill training was effective in the progress of interpersonal relationships of 6 to 14 years students. In a study by Buzan et al (2001) it was revealed that subjects, who had happy and positive mood, made more relationship, used more nonverbal behaviors in their interactions, talked more with their friends, spoke clearly and unequivocally about themselves, and it seemed they behave in an effective, satisfying, subtle and more balanced manner. On the contrary, participants with sad and negative mood had less friendly and reassuring relationships. The results of the Safavi and Lotfi (2008) showed that there is a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and emotional - social adjustment. In fact, affects not only influence on people's thoughts and judgments, but also on their social interactions in real life. And the results show that having a positive mood, really help people to be better, act better, and achieve more success and more brilliant results. Considering the importance of the emotional intelligence components in stress change and behavioral adjustment, we decided to investigate the correlation of emotional intelligence and social, affective, and personal adjustment in female students of second high school level. Hypothesis 1- There is a significant relationship between components of emotional intelligence and social adjustment of students. 2- There is a significant relationship between and emotional adjustment of students. 3- There is a significant relationship between components of emotional intelligence and personal adjustment (in-house) of students. 109

4 MATERILAS AND METHODS The population, sampling, and sampling method: This research used descriptive, correlational design. The study population included all female high school students in Bushehr city that according to the estimation of data volume and research method which was descriptive and correlational, 150 students were selected by multistage cluster random sampling. That is, at first all high schools in Bushehr were selected. Then the second grade classes of these high schools, and the number of students in these classes were determined at later stage. And eventually 150 students were randomly selected. Measuring tools: In this study, two measuring tools were used which we will introduce them in this section. A: Bell adjustment questionnaire: This questionnaire was developed in 1961 by Professor Bell. He has provided two questionnaires about adjustment, one for students and one for adults. In this study, students form is used which measures five levels of adjustment: personal adjustment, health adjustment, emotional adjustment, and job adjustment. In this study, only social, personal and emotional tests of this questionnaire were used, which has totally 80 questions and answers are in the form of Yes or No. The validity of this test in Iran was evaluated by Dr.Ali Delavar using Cronbach's alpha, which was calculated for total adjustments equal to Also, this test was validated by Bahrami, Ehsan (1992), that for all parts alpha coefficient was equal to B: Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire of Petrides and Farnham: To measure emotional intelligence Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire of Petrides and Farnham (2002) was used. This questionnaire has 30 questions and any material has dedicated grades from 1 to 7 (strongly disagree to strongly agree). In a survey by Marani (2003) about the validation of this questionnaire in the population of students in Isfahan, reliability through internal consistency of questions, using Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 81.0, indicating that this questionnaire has a good reliability. Petrides and Farnham (2002) have calculated complete internal consistency of this questionnaire as By investigating the relationship between each question with questionnaire it was revealed that this tool has a high validity. The factor analysis with orthogonal rotation of Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire showed that this questionnaire has four factors: optimism, understanding emotions of oneself and others, evaluating emotional and social skills. RESULTS The first hypothesis: There is a significant relationship between components of emotional intelligence and social adjustment of students. Table 1. The results of multiple regression relative contribution of each of the components of emotional intelligence to social adjustment of students. Emotional intelligence components Nonstandar d SD Regression t Determining coefficient optimism Understandin g emotions Emotional control Social skills Sig. 110

5 According to the results presented in table 1, three components of emotional intelligence including emotional perception, emotional control and social skills have an impact on the social adjustment of students and only optimism has a slight effect on this variable. According to the results of this table, we can generally conclude that when emotional intelligence is more developed in people, their social adjustment will be more likely to increase. The second hypothesis: There is a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and emotional adjustment of students. Table 2. The results of multiple regression relative contribution of each components of emotional intelligence on students' emotional adjustment. Emotional intelligence components Nonstandard SD Regression t Determining coefficient optimism Understandin g emotions Emotional control Social skills According to the results presented in table 2, all components of emotional intelligence including optimism, emotional perception, emotional control and social skills have an impact on the emotional adjustment of students, so emotional intelligence has an impact on emotional adjustment of students. The third hypothesis: There is a significant relationship between components of emotional intelligence and personal adjustment (in-house) of students. Emotional intelligence components Nonstandar d SD Regression t Determining coefficient optimism Understanding emotions Emotional control Social skills As you can see in table 3, from four components of emotional intelligence, two components of emotional control and optimism have an impact on personal adjustment of students, and two other components of emotional perception and social skills don t affect the personal adjustment of students. Thus, according to the results of this table, we can conclude that personal adjustment of students is under the effect of emotional intelligence. When these two components are more likely to develop in students, their personal adjustment is more. Sig. Sig. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence and social, emotional and personal adjustment. The results showed that three components of emotional intelligence including emotional perception, emotional control and social skills have an impact on social adjustment of students. These findings suggest that the higher the level of emotional intelligence, the more successful person s 111

6 relationship with others. In fact, by increasing emotional intelligence, person s social functioning would be improved and social acceptance and adjustment would be provided. In cross by reducing the amount of emotional intelligence, social acceptance and communication is reduced, and as a result, more social adjustment problems occur. These results are consistent with research findings of Safavi (2008), Jane Veparoit (2006), Holley and Benin (2006), Levin (2000), Elmer and friedman, 2003), Razavian Shad (2005), Saundra and Hughey (2003), Elkins (2004), Schludrman et al (2001), Poorshahriar et al (2008), Kharghdani (2004) and Naderi (2009). These studies have shown that components of emotional intelligence have a positive correlation with mental health, identifying emotional content, the ability to empathize with others, selfawareness, social and emotional adjustment, emotional well-being and life satisfaction. Findings also showed that optimism, emotional perception, emotional control and social skills have an impact on the emotional adjustment of students. The results of other studies have confirmed this finding. The study of Saundra and Hughey (2003) about the relationship between emotional intelligence components and incompatible behaviors showed that there is a significant relationship between these two variables. Also, the most powerful relationship was between stress management and interpersonal relationships. Based on research findings of Elmer and Friedman (2003) about emotional intelligence and social functioning in people with schizophrenia, these people are extremely vulnerable in emotional intelligence and its components, including perception of emotions, understanding emotions and the ability to manage them. Also, these people are vulnerable in three areas of social functioning including relationship with peers, and family members, and academic functions. This finding reflects the relationship between these two factors together. Of course, social adjustment consisted of a series of personal and interpersonal factors, this fact that we get attracted toward someone or not, depends on many factors, most notably the proximity, familiarity, similarity and physical attractiveness. Certainly, among the myriad of individual, family and environmental factors, personality and mood which are related with emotions, also play an important role. In total, this talent is called emotional intelligence. Researches in the field of emotional intelligence, have linked the ability of this structure, including emotional perception, emotional regulation, and emotional facilitation with psychological adjustment (Salovey and Mager, 1990, Mager & Salovey, 1995), and have introduced emotional intelligence as a better predictor for success and social adjustment compared to traditional construct of IQ (Elkins, 2004). According to the researches, cognitive intelligence cannot fully predict success, achieving the goals, life satisfaction and social adjustment. But emotional intelligence pays more attention to these issues and better predicts them. In general, we can say that social - emotional adjustment of students is the result of development of their social skills, personality, and the ability to communicate with others, person s mood, and the ability to have a safe and beneficial emotional exchange with others. Thus, with a successful communication with others, individual will be socially accepted and social adjustment will be provided. In fact, it can be said that high emotional capacity allows person to use positive mood and demanded level of tolerance in dealing with others, to be able to have the best reaction and behavior to achieve the desired adjustment, because he knows that people have different emotional capacities and desires that may be different from desires and demands of him. Also, emotional intelligence can help person's social adjustment using social skills and in this regard uses behaviors such as cooperation, responsibility, empathy, self-restraint and self-reliance. People with a positive adjustment are able to adapt effectively to the needs of life, but those with a negative adjustment have inadequate strategies or are lack of the necessary adaptive skills. Emotional intelligence improves positive communicational outcomes such as peer acceptance, friendship and emotional adjustment. Having proper affection is considered as a useful and even vital component of adaptive responses against social situations. Affects influence both the thinking process (how to deal with 112

7 social information) and the content of thought, judgment and behavior (what we think and we act). Social interactions essentially are unpredictable, and require an open mind and constructive thinking. Positive affect primarily brings more positive thoughts and ideas to the mind, and leads to the formation of more optimistic expectations, and adoption of more coherent and cooperative strategies. In contrast, negative affect brings more pessimistic thoughts and memories to the mind, and leads to less cooperation and limited interaction (Buzan, 2001). Thus, as shown by analysis of theoretical perspectives and diagnostic strategies, emotional intelligence about self-regulatory guarantees effective solutions to practical problems. Emotional intelligence as a means of self-control in emotional situations helps person to respond and behave appropriately, unlike social intelligence which is only responsible for social adjustment. In general, people who have low emotional intelligence have poor adjustment in dealing with life stresses, thus struggle more with depression, disappointment and other negative consequences. Conversely, people who have high emotional intelligence, arrange their lifestyle in such a way that experience fewer negative consequences. They also are skilled at creating and maintaining high quality relationships. Students with higher emotional intelligence experience fewer failures in school, home, workplace and relationship with their friends compared to those with lower social intelligence (Schludrman et al., 2001). According to the research findings, it seems holding programs of emotional intelligence and social skills training during academic years, provide an effective approach to reduce behavior problems and emotional distress, and at the same time, and an opportunity to increase social adjustment and school learning of students. Therefore, due to the significant relationship between emotional intelligence and social-emotional adjustment, the arrangement of components of emotional intelligence to enhance the capacity of problem-solving and effective adjustment with others is a key factor for students. Conflict of interest The authors declare no conflict of interest REFERENCE Behzadi, Rohani, Investigating the relationship between adjustment and emotional maturity of students of Islamic Azad University of Shiraz, Master thesis. Shiraz. Iran. Buzan t, The power of spiritual intelcigence as A wamess of word and your place in it. Canin M, Puronit P, spiritual intelligence: A contemporary concern with regard to living status of the senior citizens Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology. Elkins M. R, Cavendish Developing a plan for pediatric spiritual care, Holistic Narsing practice. 18 (4). Elmer L, mac Donald D, Friedman H, Transfersonal psychology, physical health. and mental health: theory. research and practice. Humanistic psychology ist. 31: Hajari S, Investigating the effectiveness of group training of problem-solving on the social adjustment of women with bipolar disorder in Isfahan city, Master Thesis of Psychology. University of Isfahan. Isfahan. Iran. Holley P, yabiku S.T, Benin M, The Relations hip between intelligence and Divorce. Journal of family Issues. 27 (12):

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