EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AS PREDICTOR OF SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN EBONYI STATE, NIGERIA.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE i
APPROVAL PAGE ii
CERTIFICATION iii
DEDICATION iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT v
TABLE OF CONTENTS vi
LIST OF TABLES vii
LIST OF FIGURES x
ABSTRACT xi
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study 1
Statement of the Problem 10
Purpose of the Study 11
Significance of the Study 12
Scope of the Study 13
Research Questions 13
Research Hypotheses 14
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE 15
Conceptual Framework 16
Concept of Emotion 16
Concept of Intelligence 20
Concept of Emotional Intelligence 21
Concept of Achievement 24
Concepts of Academic Achievements 24
Concept of Gender 25
Diagrammatic Representation of Conceptual Framework 26
Theoretical Framework 27
Salovey and Mayor Model of Emotional Intelligence 28
Goleman’s Model of Emotional Intelligence 30
Baron’s Model of Emotional Intelligence 33
Empirical Studies 35
Studies on Emotional Intelligence & Academic Achievement 35
Studies on gender relationship with emotional intelligence 39
Studies of students’ location and influence on emotional intelligence 42
Summary of Literature Review 43
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHOD 46
Design of the Study 46
Area of the Study 46
Population of the Study 47
Sample and Sampling Techniques 47
Instrument for Data Collection 47
Validation of the Instrument 49
Reliability of the Instrument 49
Method of Data Collection 49
Method of Data Analysis 50
CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION OF RESULTS 51
Research Question One 51
Hypothesis one 52
Research Question Two 52
Hypothesis Two 53
Research Question Three 53
Hypothesis Three 54
Research Question Four 55
Hypothesis Four 56
Research Question Five 56
Hypothesis Five 57
Research Question Six 58
Hypothesis Six 59
Research Question Seven 60
Hypothesis Seven 61
Summary of the findings 63
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS, DISCUSSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS 64
Discussion of the findings 64
Conclusions 70
Educational implication of the findings 71
Recommendations 72
Limitations of the Study 73
Suggestions for further Studies 73
Summary of the Study 74
References 79
Appendices 82
APPENDIX A: Students’ Emotional Intelligence Rating Scale 82
APPENDIX B: Statistical data of students Sample 85
APPENDIX C: Request for Validation of Instrument 86
APPENDIX D: Ebonyi State Students Enrolment Schedule 87
APPENDIX E: Reliability Analysis 88
APPENDIX F: Result of Data Analysis 89
List of Tables
- Pearson’s Product moment Correlation Analysis of Mood
Regulation and Academic Achievement 53
- Regression Analysis of Mood regulation and academic achievement. 54
- Pearson’s Product moment Correlation Analysis of Inter-personal
skill and Academic Achievement. 54
- Regression Analysis of Interpersonal skill and academic achievement. 55
- Pearson’s Product moment Correlation Analysis of Internal
motivation and Academic Achievement. 56
- Regression Analysis of Internal motivation and academic achievement. 56
- Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Analysis of self awareness
and Academic Achievement 57
- Regression Analysis of self awareness and academic achievement. 58
- Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Analysis of Empathy
Response and Academic Achievement 58
- Regression Analysis of Empathy response and academic achievement. 59
- Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Analysis of Students’
Emotional intelligence and academic achievement based on gender. 60
- Regression Analysis of Students’ Emotional intelligence and academic
achievement based on gender. 61
- Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Analysis of Students’
Emotional intelligence and academic achievement based on school
location. 62
- Regression Analysis of Students’ Emotional intelligence and academic
achievement based on school location. 63
List of Figures
- The interaction of cognitive, emotional and school environment to produce
Students’ achievement 28
- The five domains of the emotional intelligence according to Goleman’s Model. 35
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to investigate the predictive ability of emotional intelligence on the academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Ebonyi state; Nigeria. The population for the study was 21,000 seniour secondary school students of the state. Through stratified random sampling 3 schools were selected from each of the three educational zones, giving nine schools. Using systematic random sampling, 1,200 students were sampled from the schools comprising of 630 females and 570 males. Correlation Survey Design was used in the study. Seven research questions and seven hypotheses were raised to guide the study. Instrument titled Students’ Emotional Intelligence Rating Scale (SEIRS) was used in collecting data for the study. The instrument was validated by three professionals from the faculty of Education of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The reliability index was 0.87. A self delivery technique was used in administering the instrument on the students directly by the researcher. The data collected were analyzed using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) to provide answers to the research questions, while Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA) was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The response format used in analyzing the data was a 4- point – modified Likert rating scale of Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A), Disagree (D) and Strongly Disagree (SD) with values of 4,3,2,1 respectively. The result of the study revealed that emotional intelligence predicted academic achievement of senior secondary school students. The five emotional competences: empathy response, mood regulation, interpersonal skills, internal motivation and self awareness have significant correlation with the academic achievement of senior secondary students in Ebonyi state. It was also found that males have relatively more emotional abilities that influence their academic performance than the female counterpart. The result showed that the correlation coefficients obtained for males and females were 0.49 and 0.48 respectively. Students in schools located in the rural areas were found to have more emotional competences than students in the urban areas. The correlation coefficients obtained for urban and rural students were 0.47 and 0.51 respectively. It was concluded that emotional intelligence is very crucial in students’ academic achievement and when students are trained on the skills, it will significantly improve the performance of students in the schools. Among other educational implications of the study is that, basing students education on the training of the cognitive domain alone is not comprehensive enough for the total development of their intelligence. It was therefore recommended that the study of emotional intelligence and the skills should be introduced in the school system so that students will be trained on how to develop, manage and control emotions for better academic performance in Ebonyi state schools and Nigeria in general.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
The concept of intelligence is one of the prized possessions a person can have. It is a fundamental concept that has become a convenient evaluative expression covering a wide variety of domains (Davey, 2004). Over the years the concept has passed through the laboratories of many psychologists trying to find a definition and explanation for the term. For example, singers are described as having intelligent voices, footballers as having intelligent feet, horses as running intelligent races (Davey, 2004)
Many people use the term in their daily language in a way that suggest that there is agreement about what intelligence is, but psychologist cannot agree at all. According to Santrock (2009) even the most intelligent people have not been able to agree on how to define the concept of intelligence. Some experts describe it as the capacity to adapt and learn from experiences. Some still argue that intelligence includes characteristics such as creativity and interpersonal skills (Santrock, 2009). In general term, some psychologists see intelligence as being a single aptitude while others see it as representing a cluster of aptitudes or mental skills (Davey, 2004)
No common definition, interpretation, understanding and conceptualization of intelligence have been found because of the differences in social and cultural definition of what an intellectual behaviour is. The term is socially constructed, that is, different cultures and people group see it as being whatever attribute that brings success within that group (Sternberg and Kaufman, 1998). . A working definition that would encompass both academic and non-academic definition of intelligence and applies to people of all social and cultural background is what is searched for.
Since 1916, when Binet came out with the first ability test till now, the discussion on intelligence has produced various dimensions of intelligence. Modern scholars of intelligence consider the question of whether intelligence is a single mental ability. (You are either intelligent or not) or whether a number of specific abilities make up the overall intellectual ability. If intelligence comprises a number of abilities, there is also the question of what these specific abilities might be (Plutchik, 1980))
In addressing these issues contemporary research on intelligence has opened new dimensions of the concept of intelligence that makes the definition of intelligence more comprehensive. Sternberg and Defferman (1986) as reported by Davey (2004), asserted that intelligence comprises of learning and adaptive abilities; ability to understand and control oneself; practical problem solving ability; verbal and social competences. It is the ability to learn from experience; apply knowledge to solve problems and to adapt and survive in different environment. Sternberg (2008) and Gardener (1983) argue that the concept of intelligence should be expanded to encompass a greater variety of abilities. Sternberg (2001) proposes what he called Triarchic intelligence in which he propounded that intelligence consists of three forms- the contextual, which specifies behaviors considered to be intelligence in a particular culture; the experiential, which specifies how experience affects intelligence and how intelligence affects a person’s experience; the componential, which specifies the cognitive processes that underlie all intelligent behaviours.
Sternberg believes that the cognitive processes that contribute to intelligence fall into three groups;
- Meta component, which controls, monitors and evaluate cognitive processing
- Knowledge acquisition component which encodes, combines and compare information and
- Performance component which executes strategies assembled by meta component.
According to Him (2009) all the above mentioned components contribute to three aspect of intelligence namely, analytical intelligence which has to do with abstract reasoning, evaluation and judgment. This is the type of intelligence that is crucial to most academic work and that is assessed by conventional Intelligence Quotient (IQ) test; Creative Intelligence, which involves the ability to generate new ideas and to be innovative in dealing with new problems; Practical Intelligence which involves the ability to deal effectively with the kind of problems that people encounter in everyday life, on the job or at home.
For Sternberg, creative and practical intelligence move beyond what the IQ measures and enter into the realm of what Wechsler (1940) called non-intellectual intelligence. That is intelligence applied not by mental or cognitive ability. This is also related to what Gardner (2002) called personal intelligence. In Gardner’s view, there is nothing as a single intelligence; rather he argued that there are at least eight intelligences namely, Verbal skill, Mathematical skill, Spatial skill, Bodily kinestic skill, Musical skills, Interpersonal skills, Intrapersonal skills and Naturalist skills.
In their view, intelligence include for instance, interpersonal and intrapersonal capacities to discern and respond appropriately to the feelings, moods, temperament, motivation and the desires of other people. It also has to do with the ability to access one’s emotion and to discriminate among them and draw upon them to guide behaviours, knowledge of ones strength and weaknesses.