A Comparative Study of Emotional Intelligence Among Sighted and Visually Impaired School Students

Abstract

Emotional intelligence (EQ) plays a vital role in psychological and social adjustment of individuals. Present study was designed to make a comparative analysis of the facet of EQ in context of sighted and visually impaired (VI) school students. The main objectives of this study were to measure EQ level of sighted and visually impaired students, to make a comparison between EQ of sighted and VI students and to investigate the role of students’ demographic variations of gender, age, grade, family socioeconomic status and parental qualification in determining their index of EQ. Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale (SEIS) developed by Nicola Schutte was used to measure the EQ, it has 33 items and 7 subscales named as Appraisal of Emotions in Self, Appraisal of Emotions in Others, Emotional Expression, Emotional Regulation of others, Utilization of Emotions in Problem Solving and Uncategorized. A stratified random sample of 200 students was taken from sighted and visually impaired schools going secondary and elementary level students. Among them 110 were male and 90 were female, whose’ aged ranged from 14 to 19 years. Findings revealed that sighted school students have higher EQ as compared to visually impaired school students. It was also revealed that male VI students have higher EQ as compared to VI female school students. Moreover, sighted learners from higher income families have higher emotional intelligence as compared to VI school students from low income families. Finding of the study will be useful for the VI and sighted students and their teachers. Findings also provide opportunities to psychologist and school counsellor as s devise some strategy that can boost the EQ level of VI students which ultimately helps VI students in psychological and social adjustment.