Emotional intelligence of medical students of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences cross sectional study.

Abstract

Emotional intelligence is the ability of an individual to assess and control emotions in oneself and others and also use this information in ongoing coping methods. Emotional intelligence is known to have an effect on the success rate of an individual as well as job performance and satisfaction. Though contradictory, emotional intelligence is supposed to have multiple factors affecting it. The aim of this study was to investigate whether Shiraz University of Medical Sciences has an effect on the emotional intelligence of its medical students and also whether the students' emotional intelligence had a relationship with their gender, hometown, and application exam rank or cumulative grade point average. Junior and senior medical students were approached from Autumn (2016) until winter 2017 and asked if they would fill out the Persian translation of TEIQue-SF questionnaire. They were also asked to inform us about their gender, educational region, cumulative grade point average, and Konkoor rank. The data was later analyzed by SPSS ver. 22. A significant difference was found between emotional intelligence of junior and senior medical students. No significant difference was found between emotional intelligence of male and female participants and there was no relation between emotional intelligence and Konkoor rank, cumulative grade point average, and educational region. The results showed that medical education has a negative effect the emotional intelligence. Males and females in this study had the same emotional intelligence that suggests the social effects on emotional intelligence. Also, the net effect of hometown and culture was not significant enough to influence emotional intelligence. As we analyzed the relationship of emotional intelligence and cumulative grade point average, it was concluded that the academic success of the students which is based on their scores is not related to their emotional intelligence.