A Study of the Relationship of Personality Types and Emotional Intelligence: A Case Study of the Undergraduates of University of Sri Jayewardenepura

Abstract

Area of the Study The current research is focused on the relationship of the big five personality types and emotional intelligence of the university of Sri Jayewardenepura. Even though, there has been a plenty of international studies focusing on this research area, in the context of Sri Lanka there is little evidence to be found. Therefore this study is filling the empirical gap of the respective study area Problem of the Study The main objective of the research is to find out whether there is a relation between personality and emotional intelligence. Thus the problem statement of this study is, “Is there a strong relationship between personality and emotional intelligence with regard to the university undergraduates in Sri Lanka? Method of the Study To collect data for this study 77 item questionnaire was used and it was consisted with 5 point Likert scale. Data was analyzed using correlation and regression analysis with the SPSS (16.0 versions). The data were collected from 172 management undergraduates. Findings of the Study It was found that the overall big five personality has a positive relationship with the emotional intelligence of the university undergraduates. Conclusion of the Study It was found that the overall big five personality dimensions positively correlated with the emotional intelligence except neuroticism. The results of the multiple regression analysis showed that the big five personality model can predict the variance of emotional intelligence by nearly 41%. Keywords: Big Five Personality, Emotional Intelligence, Sri Lankan Undergraduates, Big Five Inventory