Analysis of Emotional Intelligence of Scheduled Caste Students In Relation to Home Environment at Secondary Level

At the center of emotional intelligence are four broad abilities: perceiving, integrating, understanding and managing emotions. The persons who can perceive, integrate, understand and manage the emotions of their own and of others as well are more successful in schools, colleges and in working with other people. People who can manage their emotions particularly negative emotions, perform better in schools, colleges and on their jobs also than the persons who suppress them or are overwhelmed by them. In the last decade, the subject of emotional intelligence and competency has become a topic of increasing interest to educators as they interact with students affected by stresses and challenges of the complex world. Some research suggests that programmes that help students build their emotional competencies have beneficial effects on them. Their anti-social activities like the use of slurs and bullying have been reduced considerably and they have become more cooperative, empathic, and serene. These traits not only enhance the academic achievement of the students, in schools and colleges but also prepare them for life outside the classroom. There is a common belief lurking in the minds of a good number of social-scientists in the country and the common run of people that the scheduled caste students lack in emotional intelligence and their relations with other students in the school and on the jobs after words are not very congenial in the real sense of the word and they do not lead rich and happier life due to lack of emotional intelligence. The investigator, therefore, thought it proper to make a systematic study of the emotional intelligence in relationship of three seemingly important factors namely academic achievement & home environment.

Abraham (2004) have founded that higher levels of EQ predict higher levels of job satisfaction and stronger connections with co-workers and supervisors. The interpersonal skills associated with team work and the ability to provide constructive feedback serve as resources for individuals to deal effectively with others. Fox et al. (2005) have studied : The correlations between general intelligence and various measures of emotional intelligence, the first three of which comprises Salovey Mayer, Goleman, Turvey and Palfai's Trait meta-mood Scale : r = 0.30, with mood repair : r = 0.15, with clarity of mood : r = 0.07, with attention to mood : r = 0.07, with perspective taking : r = 0.06, with empathic concern and r = - 0.34 with personal distress. Only one of these correlation (r = 0.30 with mood repair) statistically significant at the 0.05 level, another (r = -0.34 with personal distress) is even more significant 9P < 0.001 in the opposite direction. Individuals with greater general intelligence are significantly less able to experience distress and discomfort in response to extreme distress in other people. A study was conducted by Sipsma (2005) He found that the role of emotional intelligence in determining team effectiveness in a population of postgraduate students required to work in self-managed work teams for their programme of study at the Wits and total team effectiveness were found to be significantly correlated. Emotional intelligence predicted approximately 40% of the variance in team effectiveness. Bastian (2010) has studied : The 246 predominantly first year tertiary students investigated relationship between EI and a number of life skills (academic achievement, life satisfaction, anxiety, problem solving and coping). Correlations between EI and academic achievement were small and not statistically significant although higher EI was co-related with higher life satisfaction, better perceived problem solving and coping ability and lower anxiety. However, after controlling for the influence of personality and cognitive abilities shared variance between EI and Life skills was 6% or less. Van Rooy et al., (2010) have studied : A common measure of emotional intelligence (EI) was administered to 275 participants (216 female) to examine how different groups score on a test of EI. Differences were compared for gender, ethnicity and age. Results indicated that females scored slightly higher than males and EI scores tended to increases with age group differences existed for ethnicity but favoured minority groups, mitigating potential adverse impact concerns. A study was conducted by Kanne (2013) observed the relationship between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership among 30 senior pastors who participated in a feedback-intensive leadership development experience called LEAD. Mayor-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (2006) and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5X developed by Bass and Avolio (2000) were used to collect the data. A link was found between emotional intelligence and 'individualized consideration', idealized influence-attributed' and 'idealized influence-behavioural' dimension of transformational leadership.

It will be inferred from table 1 that the mean value on the dimension of control for the male scheduled caste students of arts stream at secondary level having high emotional intelligence was 20.72. The mean value for the male students of the same caste and same grade but having low emotional intelligence was 26.23. The null hypothesis formulated was that there is no significant difference between the mean scores of these two groups of male scheduled caste students and that any difference was due to simply to sampling errors. The value of 't' was found to be 5.34. This value was significant at .01 level. Thus the null hypothesis was rejected. It may be stated that there is significant difference between male scheduled caste students having high and low emotional intelligence with regard to their control dimension. The male scheduled caste students having low emotional intelligence perceive more control in their home environment than for the male students of the same caste and same grade but having high emotional intelligence.

It will be inferred from table 2 that the mean value on the dimension of Control for the female scheduled caste students of arts stream at secondary level

was 21.81. The null hypothesis formulated was that there is no significant difference between the mean scores of these two groups of male scheduled caste students and that any difference was due to simply to sampling errors. The value of 't' was found to be 1.30. This value was insignificant. Thus the null hypothesis was retained. It may be stated that there is no significant difference between female scheduled caste students having high and low emotional intelligence with regard to their control dimension. The female scheduled caste students having high and low emotional intelligence perceive equal amount of control in their home environment.

It will be inferred from table 3 that the mean value on the dimension of control for the male scheduled caste students of science stream at secondary level having high emotional intelligence was 19.77. The mean value for the male students of the same caste and same grade but having low emotional intelligence was 22.67. The null hypothesis formulated was that there is no significant difference between the mean scores of these two groups of male scheduled caste students and that any difference was due to simply to sampling errors. The value of 't' was found to be 3.34. This value was significant at .01 level. Thus the null hypothesis was rejected. It may be stated that there is significant difference between male scheduled caste students having high and low emotional intelligence with regard to their control dimension. The male scheduled caste students having low emotional intelligence perceive more control in their home environment than for the male student of same caste and same grade but having high emotional intelligence.

It will be inferred from table 4 that the mean value on the dimension of control for the female scheduled caste students of science stream at secondary level having high emotional intelligence was 20.69. The mean value for the female students of the same caste and same grade but having low emotional intelligence was 21.84. The null hypothesis formulated was that there is no significant difference between the mean scores of these two groups of female scheduled caste students and that any difference was due to simply to sampling errors. The value of 't' was found to be 1.30. This value was insignificant. Thus the null hypothesis was retained. It may be stated that there is no significant difference between female scheduled caste students having high and low emotional intelligence with regard to their control dimension. The female scheduled caste students having high and low emotional intelligence perceive equal amount of control in their home environment.

This study suffers from some limitations because of various difficulties. One of the limitations is that the finding of this study can be generalized only to scheduled caste male and female students at secondary level. The findings of this study cannot be automatically generalized to upper caste and backward caste students. The contributory factors considered to be important for the emotional intelligence of the scheduled caste male and female students at secondary level may be quite different from those found significant for their counterparts among other caste students and at other levels of education. Similar studies can be conducted at primary and university levels on scheduled caste factors such as home environment.

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