Association of Personality Traits with Emotional Intelligence of College Going Boys and Girls

Abstract

Personality can be explained as the distinctive and characteristic patterns of thought, emotion and behavior that make up an individual's personal style of interacting with the physical and social environment. As we see young people often face difficulty in managing day to day challenges at home, college and also in their relationships which make them unable to manage their emotions, behavior and ultimately seriously impact their personality. Having healthy emotional intelligence creates positive outcome in relationships with others and oneself and leads to sound personality and is considered as key to success in life. Therefore, the present study was conducted to identify the personality traits and emotional Intelligence of adolescent. Association between personality and emotional intelligence was also measured along with gender difference between college going boys and girls regarding personality traits. A sample of 200 students from four colleges of Chandigarh in the age range of 18-24 years was selected for the study. Scales administered were Big Five Personality Test and Emotional Intelligence Test. The data were collected and frequency and percentages were calculated and data were analyzed using appropriate statistical tools. Results revealed that majority of the students scored higher in agreeableness trait of personality followed by extra version. Significant and positive correlation was found between personality and emotional intelligence. Majority of boys and girls showed average emotional intelligence (63 % and 77 %) respectively. On the other hand, significant gender differences were found between boys and girls with regards to personality. HIGHLIGHTSm College goers both boys and girls scored high in agreeableness trait of personality. m A significant and positive correlation between extra version, openness to experience with emotional intelligence was found. m Neuroticism trait of personality was significant and negative correlated with managing emotions domain of emotional intelligence. m There were significant gender differences found in extra version, agreeableness and neuroticism traits of personality where boys scored higher than girls except agreeableness trait.