Emotional Intelligence of Elementary School

Abstract

Emotional intelligence is an umbrella concept that encompasses many phenomena such as perception, assimilation, understanding and management of emotions. It includes five domains like – knowing one’s emotions, managing emotions, motivating one self, recognizing emotion in others and handling relations. Emotional intelligence is important especially during elementary school age because the cognitive development develops at a faster rate during this period. To study the emotional intelligence of elementary school children the following study was conducted. The samples were 180 adolescents (90 boys and 90 girls) from local elementary school, who were selected using stratified random sampling technique. Tools used for the study were General information schedule and Emotional Intelligence questionnaire developed by the investigator. The results revealed that boys and girls did not differ significantly in the emotional intelligence scores. As the age increases emotional intelligence scores also increased. There is a positive correlation for age and emotional intelligence. As the age increases children attain more emotional stability which might bincreases emotional intelligence. Elementary school age which extends from 6years to 10years coincides with the concrete operational stages of Piaget’s cognitive development. Concrete operational stage is a crucial stage in the development of logical and organized thought. Children exhibit intelligence in different ways. Though, some children have average intelligence, they have excellent ability to act wisely in social situations. Goleman (1998), defined this intelligence which includes perceiving emotions, expressing emotions appropriately, manage one’s own and other’s feelings to facilitate thinking and social interaction as “Emotional Intelligence”. Emotional intelligence is an umbrella concept that encompasses many phenomena being explored by numerous prominent psychologists in a variety of research fields. According to Salovey and Sluyter(2000), emotional intelligence involves – the ability to perceive emotions, access and generate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth. Mayer and Salovey (1993), identified four branches of emotional intelligence, viz., 1. Perception of emotions. 2. Emotional facilitation of thinking. 3. Understanding and analyzing emotions, employing emotional knowledge, 4. Reflective regulation of emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth. Emotional intelligence is a type of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and other’s emotions to discriminate among them and to use the information to guide one’s thinking and actions. Steps involved in achieving academic and emotional intelligence were: positive learning climate, surface specific feed back regarding content and feelings, natural knowledge, emotional and academic success. Assessment of emotional intelligence helps to guide children to provide experiences that meet social and emotional needs, and to improve their adjustments.