Gender differences in trait emotional intelligence: A comparative study

Salman Shahzad,Nasreen Bagum

doi:10.54784/1990-6587.1207

Abstract

The objective of present study is to determine the difference between male and female on the variable of trait emotional intelligence. After the detailed literature review the following hypothesis was formulated; There would be a difference between males and females on the variable of trait emotional intelligence. The sample consisted of 100 university students. The entire sample divided into two groups. The sample consisted of 100 university students, recruited from University of Karachi, including 51(51%) males and 49 (49 %) females. The age range of both groups were from 18 to 30 years (Mean age =23.78 years) with males (Mean Age = 24.18 years) and female (Mean Age = 23.37 years) and minimum educational level was intermediate (12th class) and highest education was Maters (16th Class). The measures used in the research included, Personal Information Form and Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire by (Petrides & Furnham, 2003) that was administered to measure the trait emotional intelligence. ‘t’ test for independent sample was calculated to determine the difference of trait emotional intelligence between males and females in statistical terminology. The results showed a significant difference between males and females on the variable of trait emotional intelligence t(98) = 2.773, p

Highlights

Emotional intelligence is a main topic of many discussions among researchers, academicians and scholars
Keeping in mind the current study was designed to determine the possibility of gender differences on the variable of emotional intelligence in our own cultural framework by formulating a hypothesis that, “there would be differences between male and female students on the variable of trait emotional intelligence”
A letter of consent describing the research project and inviting participants was provided to heads/authorities of the departments, along with the sample of questionnaires containing items regarding Personal Information Form and trait emotional intelligence scale

Summary

Introduction

Emotional intelligence is a main topic of many discussions among researchers, academicians and scholars. Bar-On (1997) and Goleman (1995) found a differential EI profile of males and females In their researches, researchers (Mayer et al, 1999; Mayer & Geher, 1996; Mandell & Pherwani, 2003) found that women scored higher on the variable of emotional intelligence than men. Goleman (1998) conducted a research to determine the gender difference on the variable of emotional intelligence and found no difference between men and women. Studies in which self report measures were used to assess gender differences on the variable of EI do not generally find significant differences (Fernández-Berrocal, Extremera, & Ramos, 2004) or, in other cases, males scored slightly higher on intrapersonal sub domain than women (Bar-On, Brown, Kirkcaldy, & Thomé; 2000; Petrides & Furhman, 2000). Keeping in mind the current study was designed to determine the possibility of gender differences on the variable of emotional intelligence in our own cultural framework by formulating a hypothesis that, “there would be differences between male and female students on the variable of trait emotional intelligence”

Participants

Procedure

Discussion