Sweeney, Tina (2009) An Investigation of the Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and Academic Achievement. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of emotional intelligence (EI) on academic achievement; and to investigate the effects of gender on EI. The archival data used for this study was collected by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), from a sample of 726 American tertiary students in 2008. Ability-based EI was assessed using the Meyer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test Version-2 (MSCEIT) objective measure (Meyer, Salovey, & Caruso, 2002b). Trait EI was assessed using the short version of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQ) self-report measure (Petrides & Furnham, 2006). High-school grade point average (GPA) and ACT scores provided measures of academic achievement. The Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS) provided a measure of life satisfaction (Huebner, 1991b). As hypothesised, EI positively correlated with academic achievement; and this relationship emerged most strongly when objective, as opposed to self-report, measures were used. Given a high level of communality across the ACT subscales, it was not possible to test the second hypothesis as planned (i.e., EI would be more strongly correlated with humanities, as opposed to mathematics/science-based, subjects). Despite this limitation correlation analyses revealed that EI was positively (albeit weakly) associated with english, reading, science, and mathematics subjects, but not with writing. Consistent with expectations, females scored higher than males on overall measures of EI; and on the perceiving, facilitating, and understanding dimensions of EI. Unexpectedly, females also scored higher than males on the managing emotion dimension. An exploratory analysis revealed a statistically significant positive association between EI and life satisfaction. Interestingly, self-report measures proved to have a stronger relationship with life satisfaction than objective measures did. Overall, self-report and objective measures of EI were found to yield very different results, which might suggest the methods measure distinctly different things. Consequently, this is an area for further investigation. Given the positive association between EI and academic achievement, it stands to reason that enhancing EI should improve academic performance. To this end, emotional competency programmes should be incorporated into the school/college curriculum in order to help students reach their full emotional as well as academic potential. To aid in the development of appropriate EI programmes, researchers must gain a better understanding of the nature, mechanisms, determinants and measures of EI. Moreover, to guide discourse and future research, it is important that experts agree upon a concise operational definition of emotional intelligence.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Sciences - Department of Psychology (Up to 30 Jun 2013) |
| Supervisors: | Fogarty, Gerry |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) (Psychology) |
| Date Deposited: | 16 Mar 2026 02:20 |
| Last Modified: | 16 Mar 2026 02:20 |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52800 |
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