Investigating the Impact of Emotional Intelligence on Academic Performance of Engineering Students: An Exploratory Study in Pakistan
Abstract
Emotional intelligence (EI) has become one of the leading predictors of human success in professional, personal and academic life. This study investigates the influence of emotional intelligence and its four domains (self-awareness, self-management, social-awareness and social-management) on academic performance (AP) of engineering students. The data for this research have been collected through a structured questionnaire from 350 students of public and private sector engineering universities of northern Punjab Pakistan. The results from analysis of variance (ANOVA) and correlation statistics support the developed hypotheses by indicating positive influence of emotional intelligence on academic performance. Furthermore, senior students are found to be more emotionally intelligent than junior students. Also, the public sector engineering universities provide better environment for the promotion of emotional intelligence as compared to private universities. However, the level of emotional intelligence both at public and private universities needs to be improved. This study also provides a framework for improving emotional intelligence of the students.
References
E.L. Thorndike, "Intelligence and its uses", Harper's Magazine, 1920.
C.-K. Cheung, H.Y. Cheung and M.-T. Hue, "Emotional intelligence as a basis for self-esteem in young adults", J. Psychol., vol. 149, no. 1, pp. 63-84, 2015.
G. Der, G.D. Batty and I.J. Deary, "The association between IQ in adolescence and a range of health outcomes at 40 in the 1979
US National Longitudinal Study of Youth", Intelligence, vol. 37, no. 6, pp. 573-580, 2009.
I. Urquijo, N. Extremera and A. Villa, "Emotional Intelligence, Life Satisfaction and Psychological Well-Being in Graduates: The Mediating Effect of Perceived Stress", Appl. Res. Qual. Life, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 1241-1252, 2016.
J.L. Zagorsky, "Do you have to be smart to be rich? The impact of IQ on wealth, income and financial distress", Intelligence, vol. 35, no. 5, pp. 489-501, 2007.
K. Brooks and F. Muyia Nafukho, "Human resource development, social capital, emotional intelligence: Any link to productivity", J. Eur. Ind. Train., vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 117-128, 2006.
A. Di Fabio and L. Palazzeschi, "Emotional intelligence, personality traits and career decision difficulties", Int. J. Educ. Vocat. Guid., vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 135-146, 2009,
R.E. Boyatzis, "Competencies as a behavioral approach to emotional intelligence", J. Manag. Dev., vol.28, no. 9, pp. 749-770, 2009.
M.A. Brackett, S.E. Rivers and P. Salovey, "Emotional intelligence: Implications for personal, social, academic, and workplace success", Soc. Personal. Psychol., vol. 5, no.1, pp. 88-103, 2011.
D. Adeyemo, "Moderating influence of emotional intelligence on the link between academic self-efficacy and achievement of university students", Psychol. Dev. Soc., vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 199-213, 2007.
A. Gharetepeh, Y. Safari, T. Pashaei, M. Razaei and M.B. Kajbaf, "Emotional intelligence as a predictor of self-efficacy among students with different levels of academic achievement at Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences", J. Adv. Med. Educ. Prof, vol. 3, no. 2, p. 50, 2015.
J.D. Parker, L.J. Summerfeldt, M.J. Hogan and S.A. Majeski, "Emotional intelligence and academic success: Examining the transition from high school to university", Pers. Individ. Differ., vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 163-172, 2004.
M.A.M. Mohzan, N. Hassan and N.A. Halil, "The influence of emotional intelligence on academic achievement", Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci., vol. 90, pp. 303-312, 2013.
J.A. Sloboda, "Combating examination stress among university students: Action research in an institutional context", Brit. J. Guid. Couns., vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 124-136, 1990.
H. Elias, W.S. Ping and M.C. Abdullah, "Stress and academic achievement among undergraduate students in University Putra Malaysia", Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci., vol. 29, pp. 646-655, 2011.
S. Acharya, "Factors affecting stress among Indian dental students", J. Dent. Educ., vol. 67, no. 10, pp. 1140-1148, 2003.
K. Rajandran, T.C. Hee, S. Kanawarthy, L.K. Soon, H. Kamaludin and D. Khezrimotlagh, "Factors affecting first year undergraduate students academic performance", Sch. J. Econ. Bus. Manag., vol. 2, pp. 54-60, 2015.
B.H. Chew, A.M. Zain and F. Hassan, "Emotional intelligence and academic performance in first and final year medical students: a cross-sectional study", BMC Med. Educ., vol. 13, no. 1, p. 44, 2013.
S.S. Sansgiry, M. Bhosle and K. Sail, "Factors that affect academic performance among pharmacy students", Am. J. Pharm. Educ., vol. 70, no. 5, p. 104, 2006.
K. Magnuson, "Maternal education and children's academic achievement during middle childhood", Dev. Psychol, vol. 43, no. 6, pp. 1497, 2007.
K.Y.-H. Liao and M. Wei, "Academic stress and positive affect: Asian value and self-worth contingency as moderators among Chinese international students", Cult. Divers. Ethn. Minor. Psychol., vol. 20, no. 1, p. 107, 2014.
M.L. Casado and V. Lapuerta, "Socio-Emotional Competencies in Engineering Education", Int. J. Eng. Educ., vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 1660-1678, 2016.
M. Davis, "In Praise of Emotion in Engineering in Philosophy and Engineering", Springer, pp. 181-194, 2017.
M.V. Kosti, R. Feldt and L. Angelis, "Personality, emotional intelligence and work preferences in software engineering: An empirical study", Inform. Software Tech., vol. 56, no. 8, pp. 973-990, 2014.
I.H. Naqvi, M. Iqbal and S.N. Akhtar, "The relationship between emotional intelligence and performance of secondary school teachers", J. Educ. Res., vol. 38, no. 1, 2016.
I. Mushtaq and S.N. Khan, "Factors affecting students academic performance", Global Journal of Management and Business Research (GJMBR), vol. 12, no. 9, 2012.
I.A. Tatlah, T.M. Aslam, Z. Ali and M. Iqbal, "Role of intelligence and creativity in the academic achievement of students", Int. J. Phys. Sci., vol. 2, no. 7, pp. 1-10, 2012.
W. Kamran and I. Fatima, "Emotional intelligence, anxiety and procrastination in intermediate science students", Pakistan Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology (PJSCP), vol. 11, no. 2, p. 3, 2013.
A.A. Chaudhry, F. Ali, F. Jan, M. Sajjad and S. Ali, "Emotional intelligence and students: A Pakistani perspective", World Appl. Sci. J., vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 319-325, 2013.
M.S. Farooq, A.H. Chaudhry, M. Shafiq and G. Berhanu, "Factors affecting students’ quality of academic performance: A case of secondary school level", J. Qual. Technol., vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 1-14, 2011.
S. Saifi and T. Mehmood, "Effects of socioeconomic status on students achievement", Int. J. Soc. Sci. Educ., vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 119-128, 2011.
H. Kaur, V. Singh and P. Singh, "Emotional intelligence: Significance of psychology and spirituality", Pakistan Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology (PJSCP), vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 32-36, 2012.
F. Noor, "The role of emotional intelligence in mediating the relationship between emerging adulthood and academic achievement", Malaysian Journal of Learning and Instruction (MJLI), vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 145-168, 2019.
J. Walther, S.E. Miller and N.W. Sochacka, "A model of empathy in engineering as a core skill, practice orientation and professional way of being", J. Eng. Educ., vol. 106, no. 1, pp. 123-148, 2017.
T. Nemoto and D. Beglar, "Likert-scale questionnaires", Japan Association for Language Teaching, Conference Proceedings, 2014.
K.V. Petrides, "Technical manual for the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue)", London: London Psychometric Laboratory, 2009.
S. Santoso, “Menguasai Statistik dengan SPSS 24”. Elex Media Komputindo, (2017).
A. Cooper and K.V. Petrides, "A psychometric analysis of the trait emotional intelligence questionnaire-short form using item response theory", J. Pers. Assess., vol. 92, no. 5, pp. 449-457, 2010.
N.S. Schutte, J.M. Malouff, L.E. Hall, D.J. Haggerty, J.T. Cooper, C.J. Golden and L. Dornheim, "Development and validation of a measure of emotional intelligence", Pers. Indiv. Differ., vol. 25,
no. 2, pp. 167-177, 1998.
M. Tapia, "Measuring emotional intelligence", Psychological Reports, vol. 88, no. 2, pp. 353-364, 2001.
C.O. Skipper and S. Brandenburg, "Emotional intelligence and academic performance of engineering students", Eng. Proj. Organ. J., vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 13-21, 2013.
N. Extremera, P. Fernández-Berrocal and P. Salovey, "Spanish version of the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). Version 2.0: reliabilities, age and gender differences", Psicothema, vol. 18, pp. 42-48, 2006.
A. Maraichelvi and S. Rajan, "The relationship between emotional intelligence and the academic performance among final year under graduates", Univers. J. Psychol., vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 41-45, 2013.
W. Maulding, A. Townsend, E. Leonard and L. Sparkman, "The relationship between emotional intelligence of principals and student performance in Mississippi public schools", Academic Leadership: The Online Journal, vol. 8, no. 4, p. 73, 2010.
