Prominence of Emotional Intelligence over Intelligence for Adolescents' Adjustment: An Empirical Verification

In recent years, the concept of emotional intelligence (EI) has received a great amount of interest both within and outside the field of psychology (Goleman 1995, 1998; Matthews, Zeidner,&Roberts, 2007). Researchers across various disciplines have expected that EI might predict one's life adjustment and success over and above traditional cognitive intelligence (Goleman, 1995; Saarni, 1999, Schulte et al. 2001). Although there is increasing evidence for the importance of emotional Intelligence over intelligence but there is still a need for more research oriented towards the validation of the claims made for emotional intelligence as important for adjustment in all sphere of life other than only intelligence (cognitive). With reference to aforesaid the present study made its' effort to stabilized an empirical verification for the same. In present investigation, an attempt was made to compare the adolescents' intelligence and emotional intelligence in relation to their adjustment criteria. The sample was comprised of 120 higher secondary school students with equal number of male and female from Udaipur city of Rajasthan. The whole sample constituted with two sub groups namely high intelligent group (30 male and 30 female) and high emotional intelligent group (30 male and 30 female). To assign the subjects in both groups they were administrated on Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) by Raven (1988) and Emotional Intelligence Scale [EIS] by Hyde, Peth and Dhar (2001). The data were collected with the help of Bell's Adjustment Inventory; Hindi Adaptation which was prepared in 1964 by R.K. ojha and one of his scholar. The obtained data were analysed with the help oft test. Except for health adjustment analysis revealed eminence role of emotional intelligence over intelligence for adolescents' overall as well as for all area of adjustment namely home, social and emotional.