Impact of Age on Emotional Intelligence and Its Components

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume I, Issue I, January 2017 | ISSN 2454-6186

Impact of Age on Emotional Intelligence and Its Components

Deeksha Sharma

 Senior Research Fellow Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India

Abstract: The present study involves the analysis of Emotional Intelligence(EI) for different age-groups ranging from 17-60 years. The age taken as continuous statistic for every respondent and clustered as:Young-Adulthood(17-23 years), Middle-age(24-34 years) and Mature-age(35-60) for analysis. EI and its components:Emotional-Competency, EmotionalSensitivity and Emotional-Maturity were measured for 186 respondents. The results indicated significant impact of age on the EI and its components. Total EI increased with age. Emotional-Competency decreased from young adulthood to middle age and then increased for mature age. Maturity was maximum for mature age, whereas competency and sensitivity were maximum for middle age.

Keywords: Emotional Intelligence (EI), Emotional Competency, Emotional Sensitivity, Emotional Maturity, Age

I. INTRODUCTION

“It is very important to understand that emotional intelligence is not the opposite of intelligence, it is not the triumph of heart over head — it is the unique intersection of both.” — David Caruso

Emotions have a significant role in defining the activities and behaviour of an individual on personal and professional front. And Emotional intelligence (EI) defines the ability of the individual to sense, access, control and manage emotions of oneself and others. EI is the construct that “involves the ability to perceive accurately, appraise, and express emotion; the ability to access and/or generate feelings when they facilitate thought; the ability to understand emotion and emotional knowledge; and the ability to regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth” (Mayer & Salovey, 1997). EI was defined as an aptitude by Mayer and Salovey (1997) and as mix of skills and traits (Bar-On, 1996; Goleman, 1995; Schutte et al., 1998; Petrides, 2004).

The Emotional Intelligence is the key factor ability which can be developed (Emmerling & Goleman, 2003) and learned (Shapiro 1997; Goleman, 1998) at all ages as per most of the EI theories. EI is neither developed at early childhood age nor is hereditary.

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