Emotional Intelligence and Perceived Quality of Life: Comparative study in university students of Buenos Aires, Argentina¨

MIKULIC ISABEL MARÍA; CRESPI MELINA

Opatija

Congreso; 3rd International Congress on Emotional Intelligence; 2011

University of Rijeka

Emotional Intelligence can be understood as ¨ a constellation of behavioral dispositions and self-perceptions concerning one´s ability to recognize, process, and utilize emotion-load information¨ (Petrides y Furham, 2001:427). This construct is being a focus of research in education in the last ten years by recognizing its importance when studying well-being, quality of life, interpersonal management, motivation and academic success of students (Extremera and Fernandez Berrocal, 2004). This study  presents preliminary results obtained assessing the relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Perceived Quality of Life in higher education students from different disciplines. When comparing Emotional Intelligence Trait among university students of Psychology, Geography and Environmental Sciences; it has been possible toidentify statistically significant differences (F (2)=30,56, p < 0,001). Psychology students show highest level in Trait Emotional Intelligence (M=83,62; SD=6,9), regarding Geography students (M=76,47; SD=11,3) and Environmental Sciences students (M=77,9; SD=9,7). Three groups differ, also, in the four factors analyzed: Psychological Wellbeing (F (2)=12, p < 0,001), Emotional Skills (F (2)=16,41, p < 0,001), Selfcontrol (F (2)=26,84, p < 0,001) and Social Skills (F (2)=28,53, p < 0,001). Psychology students show highest scores in each factor, comparing groups; and our findings suggest that participants with high levels of emotional intelligence are more satisfied with their perceived quality of life, in particular, regarding those areas related to Self-Esteem, Health, Study, and Interpersonal Relations. A current challenge is to examine deeply EI structure and to extend samples and compare different students, from public and private universities, in order to be able to generalize conclusions.