Comparison on Emotional Intelligence and Global adjustment among Rural and Urban College Students
Monica M1, C.N. Ram Gopal2*
1Counseling Psychology, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Chettinad Academy of Research and Education, (CARE), Kelambakkam, Chengalpattu District, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
2Professor, Counseling Psychology, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Chettinad Academy of Research and Education (CARE), Kelambakkam, Chengalpattu District, Chennai, Tamil
Nadu, India
*Corresponding Author:
Dr. C. N. Ram Gopal, Professor,
Counseling Psychology, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences,
Chettinad Academy of Research and Education (CARE), Kelambakkam, Chengalpattu District,
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
E Mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT
Introduction: The present study is to understand the difference between emotional intelligence and global adjustment of rural and urban students. Emotional Intelligence is the ability to understand one‟s own emotions and others emotions. Emotional intelligence will help to identify the emotions effectively to control ones thinking and actions in any situation.
Global Adjustment refers to the overall adjustment of how people interact and adapt to any situations. The adjustment may also be referred to as the adequacy of the personal and interpersonal processes that we use to adapt or tackle to any environment. Methods: For this purpose, the total sample collected was 310 (Young adult) between the age of 18-24 years.
Emotional Intelligence Scale by Singh (2004) and the Global Adjustment Scale GAS-S by Sanjay Vohra (1994) was used for data collection. A purposive sampling technique was used for the study. The obtained data were analyzed using independent sample t-test and Descriptive statistics such as Mean (M), Standard Deviation (SD) by SPSS version 20.
Result: The result of the study shows that there is no significant difference between urban and rural students on emotional intelligence. There is no significant difference between urban and rural students on global adjustment. But out of six dimensions, two dimensions are found to have significant differences, namely college and sex adjustments of urban and rural students. Conclusion: The finding of the study will be useful to understand the difference between urban and rural emotional intelligence and global adjustment.
KEYWORDS: Emotional intelligence, Adjustment, Young Adults
Introduction: Emotional intelligence in the simplest words refers to the ability to recognize and regulate emotions in ourselves and others to make effective decisions. EI may be a relatively new term, not more than 25 years old but the roots of EI can be found in The Bhagavad-Gita, 5000 years ago where Krishna‟s Sthithapragnya (emotionally stable person) is very close to Mayer and Salovey‟s Emotionally Intelligent person and also the work of Plato, 2000 years ago where he stated, “All learning has an emotional base”. Since then, researchers, scientists, educators and philosophers have worked to prove or disprove the importance of feelings and emotions in day to day life.
Adjustment: Adjustment means trying to fit into the new environment or the ability to become familiar with a new situation. Adjustment is required and maintained by each and every individual in every circumstance. In every stage of life, adjustments come along with it.
It can be social settings, family, personal, relationship, occupation, environment, sex, health etc. Everyone requires adjustment to survive and maintain our life cycles. What we required is how to take place our own adjustment in any situations or circumstances and how to live successfully.
Global adjustment: It is an overall opinion or adjustment of the individuals. Adjustment includes emotional, family, health, school/colleges, sexual and social adjustment.
Urban & rural definition: The term urban simply refers to the region or area which is densely populated and possess the characteristics of the man-made surroundings. The people residing in such area are engaged in trade, commerce or services. Life in urban areas is fast and complicated. People who are born in this area are considered as urban students.
The term rural is a region located on the outskirts. It refers to the small settlement, which is outside the boundaries of a city, commercial or industrial areas, villages where there are natural vegetation and open spaces. The life of the rural is simple and relaxed. People who born in this area consider as rural students.
Chen, Lin & Tu (2006) conducted a study on emotional intelligence and life adjustment among senior high school students in Taiwan and Anhui. Tools used are Emotional Intelligence Inventory (EII) and Life Adjustment Inventory (LII). The sample size is 1060 by using random cluster techniques. The results show that there is a positive correlation between emotional intelligence and life adjustment for students in both Taiwan and Anhui.
Gumit Singh (2015) conducted a study to investigate the relationship of adjustment with emotional intelligence and mental health of senior secondary school students. The sample size was 600 students. The result shows that there is a significant positive relationship between adjustment and emotional intelligence and also found a positive relationship between adjustment and mental health.
Mohit Dexit (2015) conducted a study to find out the emotional intelligence and adjustment in B.ED students in Punjab. Tools used are Emotional Intelligence Scale developed by Hyde, Pethe and Dhar (1971). And Revised Adjustment Inventory developed and standardized by
Pramod Kumar (1999), sample size 200 by using a descriptive survey method. The result shows that the factors like locality and gender of the students influence emotional intelligence and adjustment.
Neha Das (2018) conducted a comparative study on emotional intelligence of adolescents in urban and rural settings. The tools used were the Emotional Intelligence Test by Dr. S.
Mathur. The sample size was 300 (150 urban) (150 rural) using a random sampling method.
Results of the study show that there is a significant difference between the intelligence of urban and rural adolescents.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
To find the difference between emotional intelligence and global adjustment of rural and urban students.
HYPOTHESES
1. There would be a significant difference between rural and urban students on global adjustment.
2. There will be no significant difference between rural and urban students on emotional intelligence.
VARIABLES OF THE STUDY
The variables measured within the study area are emotional intelligence, global adjustment and demographic determinants namely, age, gender and birthplace. Emotional intelligence is taken as Independent variable and Global Adjustment is taken as Dependent variables.
DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDY
An ex-post facto research design was used to collect and analyse data for the present study.
The sampling technique used for the study was purposive sampling. The researcher collected the data from the sample directly from the students of various colleges inside Chennai from undergraduate students. In this study, 310 samples were selected out of 350. The samples age group vary from 18-24 years.
TOOLS USED
Emotional intelligence scale by Singh (2004). The questionnaire consists of 60 statements with 5 dimensions namely social skills, social awareness, self-awareness, self- regulation and motivation. A higher score indicates a high level of emotional intelligence.
Global Adjustment Scale by Sanjay Vohra (1994). The questionnaire consists of 120 statements with 6 dimensions namely family, health, sex, college, social and emotional adjustment. Scoring is given according to the score obtained by converting raw scores to sten scores by the procedure mentioned in the norm tables.
DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE
The questionnaire was given in person to young adults who falls in the category of urban and rural students. All the collected responses were valid and were included in the study. In the end, all the participants were thanked for their time and cooperation.
DATA ANALYSIS
The obtained data were analyzed using „t‟ test and Descriptive Statistics such as Mean (M), Standard Deviation (SD) by SPSS-20.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Table 1. Difference between urban and rural students on global adjustment.
Variables Groups N Mean S.D t P
Emotional Adjustment
Urban 155 20.53 5.74
-.663 .508
Rural 155 20.95 5.57
Family Adjustment
Urban 155 15.37 7.23
.540 .590
Rural 155 14.95 6.64
Health Adjustment
Urban 155 13.27 6.00
-.766 .444
Rural 155 13.77 5.40
College Adjustment
Urban 155 15.37 6.53
-2.69 .008*
Rural 155 17.32 6.22
Sex Adjustment
Urban 155 13.81 5.32
-5.33 .000*
Rural 155 16.92 4.95
Social Adjustment
Urban 155 21.81 6.10
.009 .993
Rural 155 21.80 6.38
P<0.01 * t value is significant at 0.01
Table 1 shows the difference between urban and rural global adjustment. From the table, we can see that there is no significant difference between urban and rural students on global adjustment among students except for college adjustment and sex adjustment. Hypothesis 1 (There will be no significant difference between urban and rural global adjustment) was partially accepted. This is also presented in the Bar graph as figure 1.
Fig 1: Bar diagram of urban and rural students on global adjustment
It is to be noted that higher scores indicate poor adjustment for the students. Hence, the results from the table show that the Rural and Urban students adjustment differ significantly in college and sex adjustment at the significance level of 0.01.
This could be because the rural students are unable to adapt to the changes such as new rules, and environment of the college. Sometimes they develop personal difficulties & stress to follow the norms of their college.
They might be facing difficulties such as language problems, new people with different cultures, new rules and also academic pressures. Urban students can adapt to college life easily because they come from an educated, sophisticated family background and exposed to all facilities in the urban set-up.
Similarly, there is a significant difference between urban and rural college students in Sex Adjustment. Rural students might feel uncomfortable talking to the opposite sex and feel insecure towards them. This may be the reason that students lack a proper understanding of opposite gender because of lack of education of their parents, different family background and beliefs.
Lack of information and understanding about sex & gender issues can lead to poor adjustment. As students who join college are usually young adults who are likely to undergo rapid physical changes and rural students may find it difficult to accept such changes in them.
This may be due to lack of proper education given by the family to the individuals about the changes they are going through.
Urban students tend to adapt to it because they get better parental guidance in these matters.
Hence, based on the results we can see that there is a significant difference in college adjustment and sex adjustment among rural and urban college students.
Table 2 : Difference between urban and rural student on emotional intelligence
Variables Groups N Mean S.D T P
Self-Awareness Urban 155 45.30 6.99 1.381 .168NS
21%
15% 13% 15% 14%
21% 22%
15% 13%
17% 17%
22%
Emotional Family Health College Sex Social
Global Adjustment
Urban Rural
Rural 155 44.17 7.40 Self-Regulation Urban 155 44.21 7.42
1.128 .260NS
Rural 155 43.28 7.07
Motivation Urban 155 44.59 6.96
.866 .387NS
Rural 155 43.92 6.54
Social Awareness Urban 155 44.90 7.55
1.732 .084NS
Rural 155 43.50 6.73
Social Skills Urban 155 42.50 8.55
-.166 .869NS
Rural 155 42.65 7.18
N.S- Not significant
Table 2. shows the difference between urban and rural college students on emotional intelligence which includes variables such as self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, social awareness and social skills. According to the analysis, there is no significant difference between urban and rural emotional intelligence. Hypothesis 2 (There would be a significant difference between urban and rural emotional intelligence) was not accepted. This also presented in a bar graph in figure 2.
Fig 2. Bar diagram of urban and rural college students on emotional intelligence Bar diagram shows the mean difference in self-awareness, self-regulation, social-awareness where rural students got less than the urban students. In this case, it can be the reason why individuals tend to act according to the situations. Also, another reason can be parenting guidance. Where urban students have educated parents and mostly they are working employees and so they have more advanced setup and different parenting style. But in rural students, they may not have proper parental guidance because most of the rural parents tend to be uneducated. But now college training, awareness and teaching method can be improved differently in urban and rural students. In social skills, rural students got better than urban students. This can be the reason that rural students can build rapport because they are open- minded and down to earth.
Most often the rural family are a joint family and stay with grandparents and have enough time to spend with them. But in urban students, most of them are alone and stay separately even though they have grandparents because of their work and time schedule. They didn‟t have enough time to spend with their parents. The results of the study show that emotional intelligence is high among urban and rural students. This can be the reason that the present study is done among young adults.
Young adults tend to be more aware of the ethics of emotions in their colleges and awareness should be given in colleges to make them learn and understand the changes in emotions. But based on the previous study conducted among senior high school students and there is a significant difference in emotional intelligence and adjustment. It can be the reason that school students tend to find it hard to understand the emotions themselves and it is based on family background during these stages of life (Chen, Lin & Tu 2006).
Based on the other studies conducted to study the significance relationship of adjustment with emotional intelligence and mental health of senior secondary students (govt school), which shows a significant difference in emotional intelligence and adjustment. And also significant difference in adjustment and mental health. It can be the reason that students from government school are not aware of it and lack of understanding the concept . It is very necessary to be taught about the importance of mental health, emotional intelligence and how to learn adjustment. (Gumit Singh 2015).
Similarly, a study on emotional intelligence and adjustment among B.Ed. students in Punjab found out that there is a significant difference between urban and rural students. This tends to be the reason that teaching emotional intelligence is important in colleges and make the students learn the adjustment. (Mohit Dexit, 2015).
SUMMARY
The present study was conducted to assess the emotional intelligence and global adjustment among urban and rural college students. An attempt was also made to find out whether there was any difference between rural & urban students on these variables. Emotional intelligence was used as independent variable and global adjustment was used as dependent variable for the study. A standardized scale developed by Singh (2004) was used to measure emotional intelligence. And another standardized scale developed by Sanjay Vohra (1994) was used to measure global adjustment for the students. Demographic variables namely, age, gender and birthplace was used for the study. An ex-post facto research design was used to collect data for the present study. The sample of the study consists of 310 samples from, Chennai. In the present study the results of the study has analysed using Statistics Package of Social Science (SPSS-Version 20), statistics such as t-test has been used with graphical representation.
CONCLUSIONS
The study found that there is no significant difference between emotional intelligence &
global adjustment of urban and rural students.
The results show that there is no significant difference between urban and rural students on emotional intelligence.
The results of the study show that there is no significant difference between urban and rural students on global adjustment with 4 dimensions namely emotional adjustment, family adjustment, health adjustment & social adjustment..
The results show that in global adjustment out of six dimensions, two dimensions namely college adjustment & sex adjustment were found to have significant differences between urban and rural college students.
LIMITATIONS
More samples can be collected from outside Chennai.
The sample size was small to generalize the findings.
Gender differences of the students were not taken into accounts in the present study due to uneven gender sample distribution.
Religion differences of the students were not taken into accounts in the present study.
SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER STUDY
Similar kind of research can be done on larger scale to understand the comparison on emotional intelligence and global adjustment in urban and rural settings.
Selection of the sample can be done from their permanent areas rather than temporary areas of the rural students.
Study can also be done comparing gender difference of students in addition to urban and rural students.
Different tools can be used for emotional intelligence.
IMPLICATIONS OF THE STUDY
This study brings out the difficulties of the students on their adjustment which is very important to make good academic progress.
This study stresses the importance of Sex Education to improve the sex adjustments of college students.
The study will help students to cope up with their college demands & academic pressures and how to tackle the new college environment.
The study stresses the importance of giving extra-curricular activities to the students which will improve their college & social adjustments.
REFERENCES
1. Chen,F.S, Lin,Y.M, & Tu, C.A.(2007). A study of the emotional intelligence and life adjustment of senior high school students. World Transactions on Engineering and Technology Education, Vol 5, Issues 3
2. Das N, (2019) A comparative study of emotional intelligence of adolescents in urban and rural setting. International Journal of Basic and Applied Research. Vol 9, Issues 6, May 2019, ISSN 2249-3352 (P) 2278-0505 (E) Impact Factor-5.960
3. Dhani, P.,& Sharma, T.(2016) Emotional Intelligence: History, Models and Measures.
International Journal of Science Technology and Management. Vol 5 Issue 07,July 2016. ISSN 2394-1537
4. Dixit, M., & Singh. V (2015) Study of emotional intelligence of B.Ed. Students in relation to their adjustment. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development. Vol 2 Issue 11 Nov 2015, 200-203 (Online) ISSN: 2349-4182 (Print) ISSN: 2349-5979
5. Sanjay Vohra (1994) Global Adjustment Scale (GAS) (Student Form) (PSY.COM Services) Manual.
6. Singh, G.(2015) Adjustment among senior secondary school students in relation to emotional intelligence and mental health. International Journal of Recent Scientific Research. Vol 6, Issues 12, Dec 2015,pp- 7978-7981
7. Singh, S (2004).Development of a measure of emotional intelligence. Psychological Studies- University Of Calicut,vol 49, nos. 2-3, 136-141
