A Study of Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Reasoning Ability among College Students

The aim of the present study is to study the relationship between emotional intelligence and reasoning ability among college students . The study was conducted to a sample of 150 college students (75 boys and 75 girls). Emotional intelligence scale and Reasoning ability test was used to collect data. The data was analysed using t-test. The results of the study revealed that the students possessing high emotional intelligence have better reasoning ability as compared to the students who are having low emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence played a major role in facilitating reasoning ability of college students.

Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to the ability to perceive, control and evaluate emotions. Some researchers suggest that emotional intelligence can be learned and strengthened, while others claim it is an inborn characteristic. Since 1990, Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer have been the leading researchers on emotional intelligence. In their influential article "Emotional Intelligence," they defined emotional intelligence as, "the subset of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions" Emotional intelligence (EI) is the area of cognitive ability involving traits and social skills that facilitate interpersonal behavior. Intelligence can be broadly defined as the capacity for goaloriented adaptive behavior; emotional intelligence focuses on the aspects of intelligence that govern self-knowledge and social adaptation.
Goleman describes emotional intelligence as "managing feelings so that they are expressed appropriately and effectively, enabling people to work together smoothly toward their common goals." According to Goleman, the four major skills that make up emotional intelligence are self -awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management.
Reasoning may be defined as the set of mental processes used to derive inferences or conclusions from premises. Reasoning helps to generate new knowledge and to organize existing knowledge, rendering it more usable for future mental work. Reasoning is therefore central to many forms of thought such as scientific, critical, and creative thinking, argumentation, problem solving, and decision making.
Reason is the capacity for consciously making sense of things, applying logic, establishing and verifying facts, and changing or justifying practices, institutions, and beliefs based on new or existing information. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, language, mathematics, and art and is normally considered to be a definitive characteristic of human nature.
Reason or "reasoning" is associated with thinking, cognition, and intellect. Reason, like habit or intuition, is one of the ways by which thinking comes from one idea to a related idea. For example, it is the means by which rational beings understand themselves to think about cause and effect, truth and falsehood, and what is good or bad. It is also closely identified with the ability to self-consciously change beliefs, attitudes, traditions, and institutions, and therefore with the capacity for freedom and self-determination Psychologists and cognitive scientists have attempted to study and explain how people reason, e.g. which cognitive and neural processes are engaged, and how cultural and emotional factors affect reasoning ability of people.

AIM:
The aim of the present study is to study the relationship between emotional intelligence and reasoning ability among college students.

OBJECTIVES:
 To study the difference in reasoning ability of high and low emotionally intelligent students.  To study the difference in reasoning ability of high and low emotionally intelligent male students.  To study the difference in reasoning ability of high and low emotionally intelligent female students.

HYPOTHESES:
 There will be significant difference in reasoning ability of high and low emotionally intelligent students.  There will be significant difference in reasoning ability of high and low emotionally intelligent male students.
 There will be significant difference in reasoning ability of high and low emotionally intelligent female students.

METHOD:
The sample consisted of 150 students (75 boys and 75 girls). The data was collectedfrom the different colleges of Jaipur. The students in the sample were selected on random basis.

TOOLS USED:
 Emotional Intelligence Scale by Anukool Hyde, Upindher Dhar and Sanjay Pethe.  Reasoning Ability Test by Shailaja Bhagwat.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS:
T-test was used for the analysis of the data.  Table 1 reveals the mean scores of reasoning ability of high and low emotionally students. Mean of both the groups are 65.12 and 59.67 and SD is 8.46 and 8.20 respectively. The obtained tvalue of 4.74 is significant at .05 level .This means that high and low emotionally intelligent students differ significantly with respect to reasoning ability and high emotionally intelligent students are better in reasoning ability as compared to the students who are having low emotional intelligence.  Table 2 shows the mean scores of reasoning ability of high and low emotionally intelligent male students. Mean of both the groups are 63.15 and 59.33 and SD is 7.97 and 8.72 respectively. The obtained t-value of 2.38 is significant at .05 level .This means that high and low emotionally intelligent male students differ significantly with respect to reasoning ability and high emotionally intelligent male students are better in reasoning ability than their counterparts of low emotional intelligence.  Table 3 indicates the mean scores of reasoning ability of high and low emotionally intelligent female students. Mean of both the groups are 61.97 and 56.17 and SD is 7.14 and 6.57 respectively. The obtained t-value of 4.22 is significant at .05 level .This means that high and low emotionally intelligent female students differ significantly with respect to reasoning ability and high emotionally intelligent female students are better in reasoning ability than their counterparts of low emotional intelligence.

CONCLUSION:
 There is significant difference in reasoning ability of high and low emotionally intelligent students.  There is significant difference in reasoning ability of high and low emotionally intelligent male students