A Study of the Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Personality Development of Rural Adolescents

“Adolescence” is a dynamically evolving theoretical construct informed through physiologic, psychosocial and cultural lenses. This critical developmental period is usually understood as the years between the onset of puberty and the establishment of social independence [1]. Personality development is not only about changes in traits but also about changes in other layers of the self, such as the identity layer. Forming one's identity is thought to be the key developmental task of adolescence, but profound changes in personality traits also occur in this period [2]. Emotional intelligence is a set of qualities and competencies that captures a broad group of individual skills and dispositions, usually referred to as soft skills that are outside the traditional areas of specific knowledge, general intelligence, and professional skills [3]. Emotional Intelligence plays an important role in the job performance, enthusiasm, decision making, successful management and leadership. This research examines emotional intelligence in relation to personality development of rural adolescents. The study was conducted in rural areas of Bhiwani district and Gurugram district of Haryana State. From each district sample constituted of randomly selected 120 adolescents including 60 males and 60 females of 14-16 years. Personality Development Scale by John and Srivastava [4] was used for assessing personality development. Emotional intelligence was assessed by Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS) of Hyde, Pethe and Dhar [5]. The results revealed that majority of the adolescents had average level of emotional intelligence and personality. Emotional intelligence was found to be positively and significantly correlated with personality. The collected data was classified and tabulated as per the objectives. For analysis of data a frequency, percentages, mean, standard deviation and independent sample ‘z’ test were used.