A STUDY OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE COMPETENCIES POSSESSED BY THE YOUTH

Abstract

Emotional Intelligence Competencies amongst undergraduate university youth at a Higher Education Institution is one of the areas less ventured upon. Gardner (1983; 1991) reported that business-related graduate programmes focused primarily on indicators of individual competence such as logical and linguistic intelligence, with less attention being given to spatial, interpersonal and naturalist forms of intelligence. Later research reported increased calls from industry to make curricula more relevant to `today's global workplace' through improved instruction in communication, leadership, as well as intrapersonal and interpersonal skills (Cherniss 1999; Doria, Rozanski and Cohen, 2003; Jaeger 2003; Myers and Tucker 2005). Lately, Daniel Goleman's research on emotional intelligence as a predictor of work performance has emerged (Goleman 1998, 2000; Weisinger, 1998) and continues to be highly influential. The traditional approach by educationists, however, has been to focus on logical and linguistic intelligence. This view have been challenged by many studies recently where researchers are beginning to argue that interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies and Emotional Intelligence (EQ) may be more important for success. Educational institutions have traditionally focussed primarily on logical and linguistic intelligence, with less attention given to other types of intelligence. Yet many researchers are beginning to argue that intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies, or emotional intelligence, may be more important for success in life than logical or linguistic intelligence (Tucker, Sojka, Barone & McCarthy, 2000). Though the concept of emotional intelligence was first introduced in organizations, its relevance made the concept an inevitable concept of consideration in the educational sector too. Developing emotional intelligence skills amongst youth is very important because it can positively affect academic achievement not only during the session they are taught, but in subsequent years as well (Elias, Brune, Butler, Blum & Schumler, 1997). According to Caruso, Mayer and Salovey (2002), emotional intelligence skills and knowledge can be developed and learned and it matters most in times of change. Emotional intelligence is an ability to recognize one„s own feeling and those of others, for motivating self as well as one„s relationship with others. Studies (e.g. Ediger, 1997; Parker, Summerfeldt, Hogan & Majeski 2004)) have shown that the acquisition of emotional intelligence skills can significantly contribute to positive thinking in students and increase their ability to concentrate for a long time. The present research was thereby undertaken with the main aim of investigating the emotional intelligence competencies by the youth. Descriptive research design was taken up with questionnaire as a tool for the present