A Study of Emotional Intelligence of Scheduled Caste Students In Relation to Academic Achievement at Secondary Level

We all know that there are great number of people who are academically very sound or artistically talented but unsuccessful in their social life, whether in school or outside it. They fail to handle interpersonal relationships in an effective manner. They cannot manage their own emotions nor can they recognize and manage the emotions of others. They have problems in schools and on the job as well. According to some psychologists, the source of the difficulties may be due to lack of emotional intelligence. It was Daniel Goleman (2000) who popularized the idea of emotional intelligence (E-IQ or EQ) in his bestselling book entitled "Emotional Intelligence". This book was based on the work of Peter Salovey and John Mayer who were the psychologists at Yale University. Salovey and Mayer (1990) defined the term emotional intelligence as the ability to process emotional information accurately and efficiently. At the center of emotional intelligence are four broad abilities: perceiving, integrating, understanding and managing emotions. (Mayer and Cobb, 2005). 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.

Simpson et al. (2009) have studied : The emotional expression content of human resources jobs and how the content varies by gender. On the basis of findings, it appeared that women more often confirm to faminie display rules, which require the suppression of negative emotions and the simulation of positive emotions. In contrast, men more often adopted masculine display rules, which require the suppression of positive emotions and the simulation of negative ones. For both men and women, emotional dissonance generated by a feminine dissonance and gender only in that women who adopted the masculine display rule pattern reported feeling the least personally inauthentic of all. Bennett et al., (2010) have studied: Antecedents of emotion knowledge: Predictors of individual differences in young children. Results indicated that cognitively skilled children who resided in relatively low risk environment with verbally intelligent mothers possessed greater emotional knowledge. 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. Bennett et al., (2010) have studied: Antecedents of emotion knowledge: Predictors of individual differences in young children. Results indicated that cognitively skilled children who resided in relatively low risk environment with verbally intelligent mothers possessed greater emotional knowledge. 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. PaulOdourd (2011) found no relationship between emotional intelligence and psychological wellbeing as well as social problem solving. His findings indicate positive association between emotional intelligence and feelings of being rewarded in a particular crucial role

The population for the present study has been defined as the scheduled caste students studying in arts and science streams in class XI in the intermediate colleges situated in Meerut region. There are about 124 intermediate colleges in this region. Hence, the finding of our study will apply to the above mentioned population only.

sampling technique. There are 124 intermediate colleges for boys and girls in Meerut region.

It will be inferred from table 1 that the mean value for the male scheduled caste students of arts stream at secondary level having high emotional intelligence was 330. The mean value for the male students of the same caste and same grade but having low emotional intelligence was 298. The null hypothesis being that there is no significant difference between the mean scores of these two groups of scheduled caste students and that any difference between the sample means was the result of chance variation. The value of 't' was found to be 3.66. This value was significant at 0.01 level. Thus the null hypothesis was rejected. It may be stated that there is a significant difference between mean achievement scores of the male scheduled caste students having high and low emotional intelligence. The result appears to be reasonable. The reasons why a scheduled caste male students of high EI of arts stream at secondary level is likely to get higher marks in high school than his counterpart of low EI are not very difficult to understand. It is worth noting at the center of emotional intelligence there are four broad abilities: Perceiving, integrating, Understanding and managing emotions. The students who can perceive, integrate, understand and manage the emotions of his own and as well as of others can allay the nagging worries that assail him, he will concentrate on his studies while in the classroom or outside it. These

It will be inferred from table 2 that the mean value for the female scheduled caste students of arts stream at secondary level having high emotional intelligence was 336. The mean value for the female students of the same caste and same grade but having low emotional intelligence was 319. The null hypothesis being that there is no significant difference between the mean scores of these two groups of scheduled caste students and that any difference between the sample means was the result of chance variation. The value of 't' was found to be 1.84. This value was insignificant. Thus the null hypothesis was retained. It may be stated that there is no significant difference between intelligence, in general, are academically equal to their Counterparts.

It will be inferred from table 3 that the mean value for the male scheduled caste students of Science stream at secondary level having high emotional intelligence was 350. The mean value for the male students of the same caste and same grade but having low emotional intelligence was 310. The null hypothesis being that there is no significant difference between the mean scores of these two groups of scheduled caste students and that any difference between the sample means was the result of chance variation. The value of 't' was found to be 4.29. This value was significant at .01 level. Thus the null hypothesis was rejected. It may be stated that there is a significant difference between mean achievement scores of the male scheduled caste students having high and low emotional intelligence. The students having high emotional intelligence, in general, are academically superior to their counterparts. The above result seems to be quite tenable. The explanation given above in case of male scheduled caste students of arts stream hold good for the science stream students too like male scheduled caste secondary level students of arts stream having high emotional intelligence, the students of science stream of high emotional intelligence make full use of their potentialities to accomplish high attainment to accomplish high attainment scores in the examinations. They set immediate, intermediate and of the same grade and same stream but of low emotional intelligence, by Contrast, neither have specific goals before them nor do they have energy and serenity necessary to outshine other students in the examination. Consequently, such students get very poor marks in the examinations as compared to the scheduled caste student of the same caste and same grade having high emotional intelligence.

It will be inferred from table 4 that the mean value for the female scheduled caste students of Science stream at secondary level having high emotional intelligence was 346. The mean value for the female students of the same caste and same grade but having low emotional intelligence was 312. The null hypothesis being that there is no significant difference between the mean scores of these two groups of scheduled caste students and that any difference between the sample means was the result of chance variation. The value of 't' was found to be 3.80. This value was significant at .01 level. Thus the null hypothesis was rejected. It may be stated that there is a significant difference between mean achievement scores of the male scheduled caste students having high and low emotional intelligence. The students having high emotional intelligence, in general, are academically superior to their counterparts.

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 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.

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