Experiments in Education
Vol. XXXVIII No.1 January, 2010
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS IN ERITREA
Dr(Mrs).J. Nirmala Assistant Professor
Stella Matituna College of Education
Chennai 600 083
Abstract
Emotional Intelligence (EI) is considered to be the most important determinant of success in professional and personal life among human beings. EI includes components like self-awareness, ability to manage moods, motivation, empathy and social skills such as cooperation and leadership (Goleman, 1998). Earlier studies indicate that there are no significant differences on emotional and social intelligence between various ethnic groups. Gender related findings on emotional Intelligence are mixed. The review of literature on Emotional Intelligence, throws light on the conspicuous absence of research on this topic among ethnic groups living in Africa. This survey attempts to study Emotional Intelligence among a sample of 116 college students in Eritrea - a northeast African country. It was found that the sample had ‘average’ score on Emotional Intelligence –in the aggregate as well as components-wise. There was gender difference in emotional intelligence on the motivation and empathy components.
Introduction
“To feel good about oneself, experience one’s emotions directly, and grow emotionally”, to be the most urgent need of mankind (Herman, 1992) . Emotion refers to a feeling with its distinctive thoughts, psychological and biological states and ranges, and propensity to act. Emotion, an important factor for cognitive functioning has been ignored by the cognitive psychologists in the early stages; it was believed that its inclusion would unnecessarily complicate the cognitive scientific enterprise, (Gardner, 1985). Later, it was recognized that ‘emotion’ and ‘cognition’ are integral and inseparable parts of each other and, though it is useful to use different names for different aspects of mentation, the parts are no more separable than are waves from the water on which they occur.” (Power and Dalgleish, 1997). LeDoux (1992, 1996), has shown the existence of a fast, non-conscious emotion circuit and a slow, cortical emotion circuit. There is experimental support to believe memory is best when the learner perceives that his or her mood state has been caused by the learning material (Eich, Metcalfe, 1989).
Some researchers (e.g., Smith & Lazarus, 1993) have studied the effects of cognition on emotion, claimed that some cognitive processing is an essential prerequisite for an effective reaction to a stimulus to occur. Cognitive appraisal underlies and is an integral feature of all emotional stages (Lazarus,1982). In short, there is reasonable support for the claims that emotional processing depends interactively on personality and mood states (Power & Dalgleish,T,1997; Rusting, C.L.,1998). Convincing evidences from the research findings of cognitive psychologists who were studying the relationship between cognition and emotion have led to development of a novel concept ‘Emotional Intelligence’.
Emotional intelligence has been a source of concern and research towards the end of the 20th century. It refers to the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves and for managing emotions well in our selves and in our relationships (Daniel Goleman, 1998). According to the proponents of emotional intelligence (EI), a person’s emotional make-up largely determines his or her professional success. They believe that EI is the most important determinant of the extent of professional and personal success in life. According to Goleman, (1998), 80% of a person’s success in life depends on a person’s emotional intelligence, and only about 20% depends on IQ.
“Emotional Intelligence involves the ability to perceive accurately, appraise, and express emotion; the ability to access and / or generate feelings when they facilitate thought; the ability to understand emotion and emotional knowledge; and the ability to regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth” Mayer and Salovey (1997). According to Herrnstein and Murray (1994), people are normally distributed in intelligence; poverty and unemployment, to some extent, is the effect of low general intelligence, and, affluence is associated with high general intelligence. Daniel Goleman (1995) countered this impression by introducing the concept ‘Emotional intelligence’ and stated that “it (EI)can be as powerful, and at times more powerful, than IQ” .
EI includes components like self-awareness, ability to manage moods, motivation, empathy and social skills such as cooperation and leadership (Goleman, 1998 ). When it comes to emotional intelligence neither women are ‘smarter’ nor men are 'superior’. Men and women are equal in their ability to increase emotional intelligence; while women tend to be strong in competencies based on empathy and social skills, men do better in those based on self regulation (Goleman, 1998). Whether these findings can be generalized to people of Africa remains an open question. An examination of the North American sample did not reveal significant differences on emotional and social intelligence between the various ethnic groups that were compared, (Suzuki & Valencia, 1997).
It is in this background that the current study, a survey of Emotional Intelligencee among college students in Eritrea, a North East African country was conceived. Eritrea is situated in the Horn of Africa. It is a land of contrast with land rising from below sea level to 3,000 meters above sea level. Christianity and Islam are the two major religions prevalent. . Regardless of differences in the religious faith the society shares common cultural practices. No population census has ever been carried out in Eritrea (Eritrea DHS, 2002) and so is case with research on any psychological aspects of the population. Higher education in Eritrea is totally supported by foreign aid. The highest level of education possible under prevailing condition is completion of a graduate program. Motivation for education in general and higher education in particular is not very salient among the common people of Eritrea. It is a matrilineal society: the contributions of women warriors are well acknowledged in its history, but when it comes to education gender difference is deeper and women are poorer. At the root of the belief system of most Eritrean lays the conviction that the world is what it is because God made it that way and there is nothing one could do-or should try to do – to change it. (Dan Connel, 2000). Perhaps the emotional makeup of Eritreans is influenced mostly by this conviction.
This survey attempts to measure Emotional Intelligence of Eritrean college students. The sub skills such as Self-awareness, Self-regulation, Motivation, Empathy, and Social skill are independently studied with special focus on gender impact. The Emotional Intelligence Test developed by Dr. N.K. Chadha - a psychologist at the University of Delhi, India- was used. The test has been standardized on Indian managers, businessmen, bureaucrats and industrial workers.
Objectives
1. To find out the level of emotional intelligence of a sample of college students in Eritrea.
2. To find out the of level of emotional intelligence with respect to the components:
Self-awareness
Self-regulation
Motivation
Empathy
Social skill
3. To find out whether there is gender difference in emotional intelligence.
4. To find out gender difference, if any, in the components of Emotional Intelligence:
Self-awareness
Self-regulation
Motivation
Empathy
Social skill
HYPOTHESES
Ho1 There is no significance difference in the EI mean scores between the males and the females in this sample.
Ho2 There is no significance difference in the mean scores on components of EI sub-skills between the males and the females in this sample
SAMPLE
Samples were drawn from the fourth year student population of Eritrean institute technology (EIT) Mai Nefhi, Eritrea. The student population in this institute includes students from all the six zobas(zones), nine ethnic groups and varied religions which make up the Eritrean total population. A total of 116 male and female students aged 21 to 37 years were selected from different courses offered at EIT (for sample distribution see Appendix II). At fourth year level there were only 37 female students. Hence all the female students were covered in this study. The male students were selected through random sampling.
TOOL
The Emotional Intelligence (EI) Test developed by Dr. N.K. Chadha (a psychologist at the university of Delhi, India) was used. The test consists of fifteen emotional contexts with four near emotionally intelligent responses. The fifteen situations categorized into five emotional sub skills such as ‘self awareness’, ‘self regulation’, ‘motivation’, ‘empathy’ and ‘social skill’ are listed in Appendix-I. The highly emotional intelligent subject would get a score of 20 and the lower brackets are scores of 10, 5 and 0. The situations are designed to assess one’s ability to succeed in coping with environmental demands and pressures. The sum of the scores on the responses to the entire range of fifteen situations will be interpreted as ‘extremely high’ (285 and above), ‘high’ (from 250 to 284), ‘average’ (from 176 to 249), ‘below average’ (from141 to 175).
DESCRIPTIONS OF THE COMPONENTS OF EI
Self-awareness: the ability to recognize and understand ones’ moods, emotions and drives, as well as their effect on others.
Self-regulation: the ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods. Self-regulation is also the propensity to suspend judgment, to think before acting.
Motivation: a passion to work for reasons that go beyond money or status. It is a propensity to pursue goals with energy and persistence
Empathy: the ability to understand the emotional makeup of other people and skill in treating people according to their emotional reactions.
Social skill: proficiency in managing relationships and building networks and ability to find common ground and build rapport.
Data Analyses
The responses are analyzed, interpreted and presented in table-1-4
Table-1
ABLE 1
LEVEL-WISE DISTRIBUTION OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCELevel / Male
Subsample / Female
Subsample / Total
1 / 2 / 3 / 4
Extremely High / 0 / 0 / 0
High / 0 / 1 / 1
Average / 35 / 26 / 61
Below Average / 44 / 10 / 54
Total No. of subjects / 79 / 37 / 116
Table 1 indicates that sparing one female subject all the subjects in this sample fall either under ‘average’ or ‘below average’ category. 61 subjects (53%) with the split up of 35 male (44%) and 26 female (70%) fall in ‘average’ category; and 54 subjects (47%) with the break up of 44 male (56%) and 10 female (27%) subjects fall in the ‘below average’ category.
TABLE 2GENDER-WISE DISTRIBUTION OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Gender / Number of subjects / Mean EI score / SD / SE / ‘t’ / ‘t’
Critical value two-tail at 5%level
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7
Male / 79 / 180.38 / 26.98 / 3.04 / -3.46 / 1.97
Female / 37 / 198.51 / 24.77 / 4.07
Total / 116 / 186.16 / 27.53 / 2.56 / -- / --
The mean EI score of this sample (186.16) indicates that it falls in the category of ‘average’ (as per the norm given by Dr. N.K. Chada). The gender based EI scores also describe both the male and female in this sample as “emotionally average”. The coefficient of variation discloses higher consistency in the response of the female (13%) than in the male (15%) in this sample. However, the difference of 18.13 in the mean score between males and females is found to be statistically significant. The calculated‘t’ value 3.46 is greater than the critical value 1.99 at 5 % level of significance. It is inferred that the females evince higher emotional competency compared to the males..
Components of Emotional Intelligence
The scores for each of the components vary from 0 to 60 with an interval of 5. Ranges of scores for assessing each component has been defined as follows: high 60 – 46.25, average: 46.24 – 18.76 and below average: 18.75 -5. Table 3 presents the level-wise distribution of the components of Emotional Intelligence:
TABLE 3GENDER-WISE DISTRBUTION OF THE SCORES ON THE COMPONENTS OF EI
Gender
Emotional Sub-skills / Male / Female / Total
Mean / SD / Mean / SD / Mean / SD
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7
Self-awareness / 39.37 / 13.50 / 42.57 / 12.78 / 40.39 / 13.30
Self-regulation / 26.84 / 10.92 / 27.70 / 11.94 / 27.11 / 11.21
Motivation / 42.91 / 12.13 / 48.65 / 9.98 / 44.74 / 11.76
Empathy / 32.34 / 13.70 / 39.86 / 9.68 / 34.74 / 13.00
Social skill / 38.92 / 12.52 / 39.73 / 15.77 / 39.18 / 13.58
Total / 180.38 / 26.98 / 198.51 / 24.77 / 186.16 / 27.53
Table 3 reveals that in all the five components the Eritrean students fall under “average’ category. The component ‘motivation’ ranks first with a mean score of 44.74 and ‘Self-regulation’ ranks last with a mean score of 27.11. The females in this sample show lead over the males in all the five components.
Statistical significance of the differences in the mean scores between male and female with respect to each of the components of EI is given below.
TABLE 4GENDER DIFFERENCE IN EI COMPONENTS
Emotional Component / Gender difference in the mean score / ‘t’ value at 5%level of significance for two tail test
(Critical Value of t=1.97)
Self-awareness / -3.20 / -1.21
Self-regulation / -0.87 / -0.39
Motivation / -5.74 / -2.51
Empathy / -7.52 / -3.00
Social Skill / -0.81 / -0.30
Column 3 of the table above indicates that the mean difference between males and females of in ‘Motivation’ and ‘Empathy’ are statistically significant at 5% level of significance since the calculated ‘t’ values of 2.51, and 3.00 are respectively greater than the table value of 1.97. Statistically significant differences are not noticed in other components namely, ‘self-awareness’, ‘self-regulation’, and ‘social skill’. .