Emotional Intelligence among College Students with Special Reference to Kerala

Volume 118 No. 20 2018, 4583-4589 ISSN: 1314-3395 (on-line version) url: http://www.ijpam.eu ijpam.eu Emotional Intelligence among College Students with Special Reference to Kerala Jayashree S, Vimal Ram S, Arun M Das Department of Commerce & Management, Amrita School of Arts and Sciences Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri Campus, Kollam {jayashreesharath, vimalrams2, arunmdas97}@gmail.com Abstract - Emotional Intelligence (EI) or Emotional Quotient (EQ) is relatively a modern concept. It refers to the ability of an individual to recognize his own emotions and those of others, distinguish and differentiate between them and classify them appropriately so as to manage their emotions as required to achieve their desired objective. The study focuses on understanding the EI among college students. The statistical population of the study focuses on mainly three cities in Kerala comprising of 150 college students to represent Kerala as a whole. The analysis used includes percentage analysis, Chi-Square Test and Correlation Test. After various analysis and interpretation of the results of the study, that the students have extremely high EI, it may be viewed that Emotional Intelligence is of utmost importance to a person in order to have success in work as well as in life. Keywords: Emotional Intelligence (EI), Emotional Quotient (EQ), teenagers, college students, youth I. INTRODUCTION The relevance of Emotional Intelligence (EI) as a new way to asses an individual is increasing rapidly since its introduction in 1990s. Persons with high EI are said to have a clear idea about themselves, their needs, strengths, downfalls, and is able to form good and healthy relationships by managing all those emotions according to the situation and the environment, both in their personal and work life.wherever there is a human component involved, there is also EI in action. Man being a social animal with thinking capabilities, is driven by emotions such as happiness, hatred, affection etc. which differentiate us from others. Considerable contributions to the study of EI has been made by Goleman and Mayer &Salovi.The Goleman [4] model of EQ consists of 25 capabilities in five different dimensions self-awareness, selfregulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. According to him, EI is a skill which helps a person to be control of his life by making right decisions through emotional awareness of the self as well as the others and managing them with clear perception of the repercussions of his actions. In the view of Mayer and Salovi (2007) EI consists of mainly three parts which includes emotional perception, emotional facilitation and emotional understanding. Both the aforesaid models relate to the identification, recognition, expression, utilization, management of emotions with additional factors such as empathy, concern etc. On a similar study of EI in students by UrskaDobersek& Denise L. Arellano [1] it was found that student non-athletes have better EI than the student-athletes. Although extensive study is being conducted in the EI and related topics, there hasn t been significant attempt to relate students EI with their cocurricular activities such as sports, music, dance, art, photography etc. These activities have impacts on a person s behavior, perception, abilities etc.hence, attempts have been made in this study to establish and relate between EI of students with co-curricular activities and without it. Hypothesis set for this study are: H 0 There is no relation between the co-curricular activities of students and their EQ. H 1 Females have higher EI than males Study by PriyamDhania, TanuSharmab[2] states that female IT employees have higher EI than male IT employees. This study also intends to find any similar findings between EI of male and female population. EI is a study which is being done in all age groups in the society. The quality of our life can be enriched if Emotional Intelligence is used as in the way it is supposed to. College is a place where students with different backgrounds, customs and emotions collide. Hence it is a perfect area for the study of EI. Life of a student in college helps him/her to shape their character, emotional behavior and with social adjustment. However, to have good relationships, an individual must understand and control his own emotions and also getmotivated by understanding the emotions of others and manage those relationships 4583

properlyto maintain them. In college,most of the students are engaged in one or more co-curricular activities. Co-curricular activities express their behavior andtaste towards a certain field.students tend to show what they are, through a co-curricular activity. Kerala has high literacy rate comparing to the other states in India. The increasing competition for a job over the recent years clearly states that there are numerous prospective candidates with the almost equal knowledge and skillset. This has made the employers to look beyond the traditional Intelligence Quotient (IQ). Studies in EI has proved that persons with high EI have a better chance of being selected or getting a promotion compared to a person having below average EI. This study mainly focuses on the EI of college students in Kerala, how their EI and co-curricular activities are related, if so by how much. A. Objectives of the study To understand and evaluate the different scales of Emotional Intelligence (EI) among college students in Kerala and how each component of EI affects the total EI. To learn the relationship between co-curricular activities and the students Emotional Intelligence (EI). To find whether there is difference in Emotional Intelligence (EI) between male and female college students. To assess the level of Emotional Intelligence (EI) among the three selected regions in Kerala. II. METHOD The primary data was collected with the aid of a structured questionnaire circulated among 180 college students. Of which only 150 could be analyzed due to clarity. Descriptive study was adopted in this paper. A. Study Group The statistical population of the study consisted of 150 college students(88 males and 62 females) in Kerala of age group between 19 to 23, mainly from districts such ascalicut, Kollam and Ernakulam belonging to various branches of Under Graduate and Post Graduate education such as engineering, arts, science, commerce, medicine etc. during the year 2018-19. B. Data Collection Tool The Emotional Quotient Test developed by Dr. Dalip Sing and Dr. NK Chandha, which has a test-retest of 0.94, split-half reliability of 0.89 and validity of 0.89 was used as the data collection tool. The test measures three psychological dimensions such as emotional sensitivity, emotional maturity and emotional competency with 22 different situation based questions. There were four options with preset values ranging from 5 to 20 in multiples of 5. Higher the total score, more likely that the person has high EI. The questions were set in such a way making it possible it asses the three dimensions separately. C. Data Analysis IBM SPSS Statistics 25 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) was used to analyze the data. Percentage test, chi square test and correlation test were used to establish and assess relationship between the variables. III. DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION Range of score (%) TABLE I: INTERPRETING THE DIFFERENT SCALES OF EQ Extremely Moderate EQ High EQ (%) Low EQ (%) high EQ (%) (%) Extremely low EQ (%) 70 100 61-70 45 61 29 45 < 29 Percentage of average EQ of 150 college students were found to be 78.12%. 4584

79.50% 79.00% 78.50% 78.00% 77.50% 77.00% 76.50% 76.00% % of Average EQ Male Female Fig. 1 Difference of EQ among males & females Among the given sample, 41.3% were females & 58.7% were males. From the above table it can be understood that, of females, 85.5% have extremely high EQ, 9.7% have high EQ and 4.8% have moderate EQ. From the total male respondents, 80.7% have extremely high EQ, 11.4% have high EQ and 8% have moderate EQ. The average EI of females is 79.3% and males is 77.35%. Value Pearson Chi-Square 0.728 a 2 Likelihood Ratio 0.749 2 0.688 N Valid Cases 150 TABLE II: CHI-SQUARE TESTS - EI DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MALES & FEMALES Chi-Square Test of different scales of EQ with gender of students shows an Asymptotic Significance of 0.695 with Likelihood Ratio of 0.688. df Asymptotic Significance (2-sided) 0.695 Extremely high EQ High EQ Moderate EQ Fig. 2 Chart: Different scales of EQ among the total sample From the above pie chart, it can be noted that 82.7% respondents have extremely high EQ, 10.7% have high EQ and 6.7% have moderate EQ. 80.00% 79.00% 78.00% 77.00% 76.00% 75.00% 74.00% % of Average EQ Kollam Calicut Ernakulam 4585

Fig.3 Difference of EQ among Kollam, Calicut &Ernakulam Above bar diagram depicts that the Calicut region has average EQ of 79.17%, Kollam with 78.46% and Ernakulam with 76.32%. TABLE III: CO-CURRICULARS * EQ CROSSTABULATION Co-curricular Extremely high EQ (%) High EQ (%) Moderate EQ (%) Total (%) Participating (%) 62.7 0.7 0 63.3 Non-Participating (%) 20 10 6.7 36.7 Total (%) 82.7 10.7 6.7 100 From the above table, it is identifiable that among the sample population 36.7% are non-participating in any of the co-curricular activities and 63.3% are participating in one or more co-curricular activity. TABLE IV: CHI-SQUARE TEST Value df Asymptotic Significance (2-sided) Pearson Chi-Square 48.031 a 2 0.000 Likelihood Ratio 52.447 2 0.000 No Valid Cases 150 Chi-Square Test of different scales of EQ with participation of students in co-curricular activities shows an Asymptotic Significance of 0.000. 82.00% 80.00% 78.00% 76.00% 74.00% 72.00% 70.00% 68.00% 66.00% % of Average EQ Participating Non- Participating Fig. 4 Difference of EQ among students participating & not-participating in co-curricular activities The above graph depicts that, students with co-curricular activities have an average EQ of 80.03% and students without co-curricular have an average EQ of 71.62%. TABLE V: CORRELATION BETWEEN CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES AND THE STUDENTS EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE (EI) Co-curricular EQ (Score) Pearson Correlation 1 0.604 ** Co-curricular Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 N 150 150 EQ (score) Pearson Correlation 0.604 ** 1 Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 4586

N 150 150 The above Pearson s Correlation analysis shows a value 0.604 ** implying that there is a positive correlation between co-curricular activities of students and their EQ. TABLE VI: CORRELATION BETWEEN EI AND ITS THREE COMPONENTS Sensitivity Maturity Competency EQ Pearson 1 0.346 ** 0.409 ** 0.749 ** Correlation Sensitivity Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.000 0.000 N 150 150 150 150 Pearson 0.346 ** 1 0.269 ** 0.667 ** Correlation Maturity Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.001 0.000 N 150 150 150 150 Pearson 0.409 ** 0.269 ** 1 0.779 ** Correlation Competency Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.001 0.000 N 150 150 150 150 Pearson 0.749 ** 0.667 ** 0.779 ** 1 Correlation EQ Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.000 0.000 N 150 150 150 150 The above table shows that emotional competency has a positive correlation of 0.779 ** with EQ, followed by emotional sensitivity with positive correlation of 0.749 ** and emotional maturity with a positive correlation of 0.667 **. IV. FINDINGS With reference to the interpretation of the data (TABLE I) it was found that the total sample of students have extremely high EQ (78.12%). Also it was found that within EQ emotional competency has the highest positive correlation, among the three components, with EQ (TABLE VI). In order to test the first hypothesis H 0 that there is no relationship between co-curricular & EI of students, Chi-Square test (TABLE IV) was used, which showed an asymptotic significance 0.000. This nullifies the hypothesis H 0 stating that there is relationship between co-curricular & EI of students. The correlation analysis (TABLE V) further clarified that there is a positive correlation between co-curricular & EI of students. Interpretation of the TABLE II showed that the asymptotic significance.695 which is greater than 0.50. Therefore, the second hypothesis H 1 can be justified that female students have higher EI than male students. It can be noted from Fig. 3 that the respondents of Calicut region have the highest average EQ of 79.17% among the selected three regions, followed by Kollam with 78.46% and Ernakulam with 76.32%. V. CONCLUSION This paper mainly focused on the study of EI among the college students in Kerala. Efforts were also made in finding & establishing relationship between co-curricular activities and the EQ of students, which showed a positive relation. It could be viewed that females have higher EQ than males. Future studies can be done to find relations among EQ, academic performance and EI and finding the cause for the higher EI of females than males. Emotional competency has greater impact on EQ than emotional sensitivity and emotional maturity. Calicut was found to have the highest EI than the other two regions within Kerala. We can conclude that, education with added advantage of participation in co-curricular activities are the major factors which have contributed to the extremely high EQ among the students of our study. 4587

VI. REFERENCE 1. UrskaDobersek& Denise L. Arellano, Investigating the Relationship between Emotional Intelligence, Involvement in Collegiate Sport, and Academic Performance.(2017) 2. PriyamDhania, TanuSharmab Effect of Emotional Intelligence on Job Performance of IT employees: A gender study.elsevier (2017) 3. AysegulOzdemirTopaloglu, The study of college students emotional intelligence qualities.elsevier (2014) 4. Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More Than IQ, (1995) 5. Howard E. Book and Steven J. Stein, The EQ Edge: Emotional Intelligence and Your Success(2000) 6. Travis Bradberry, Emotional Intelligence 2.0(2009) 7. Dr. DestiKannaiah, (Senior Lecturer, James Cook University, Singapore), Dr. R. Shanthi (Assistant Professor, Department of Commerce, University of Madras), A Study on Emotional Intelligence At Work Place, European Journal of Business and ManagementVol.7, No.24,(2015) 8. Yvonne Stys& Shelley L. Brown, A Review of the Emotional Intelligence Literature and Implications for Corrections, Research Branch Correctional Service of Canada(March 2004) 9. Muhammad Asrar-ul-Haq, SadiaAnwar, MisbahHassan, Impact ofemotionalintelligenceonteacher'sperformanceinhighereducation institutionsofpakistan, Elsevier (2017) 10. Sandeep Singh, Dr.Tanu Sharma, Affectof Adversity Quotient on the Occupational Stress of ITManagers in India, Elsevier (2017) 11. Najafi, Mohammad, Studying the Effect of Emotional Quotient on Employee s Job Satisfaction, Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, Vol. 4, No. 2, (June 2012) 12. Mohammad EbrahimMadahi, NasirudinJavidi, Mona Samadzadeh, The relationship between emotional intelligence and marital statusin sample of college students, Elsevier (2013) 13. Jacob. W; Prof. Sheela Pavithran,Correlational Study on Emotional Intelligence and Academic Performance of Nursing Students in a Selected College of Nursing, International Journal of Pharmaceutical Science and Health Care, Volume 4, Issue 5 (2015)http://www.rspublication.com/ijphc/index.html 4588

4589

4590