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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 132 (2014) 492 – 496

6th International Conference on Intercultural Education “Education and Health: From a

transcultural perspective”

Emotional intelligence and personality in student teachers

Jose L. Antoñanzasa*, Carlos Salaveraa, Pilar Teruela, Carmen Sisamona, Ana I. Gintoa,
Alfonso Anayaa, Diego Barcelonaa
a
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza 50009, Spain

Abstract

Emotional intelligence and personality traits are associated with personal satisfaction experienced by the subjects, according to
certain studies. In turn, the relationship between personality factors, emotional intelligence and teacher self-sufficiently is also
important. A study on emotional intelligence was carried out with 160 students from the Faculty of Education at the University
of Zaragoza, specialising in the areas of physical education, primary education, foreign language and special education,
measuring levels of emotional intelligence and personality traits. The results demonstrated how students with specialities that
require a more vocational profile differ from other students who are studying other specialties.
© 2014
© 2014 The
The Authors.
Authors.Published
Publishedby byElsevier
ElsevierLtd.
Ltd.Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and
Selection and peer-review
peer-reviewunder
underresponsibility
responsibilityofofHUM-665
Encarnación Soriano,
Research Christine
Group Sleeter
“Research andand María Antonia
Evaluation Casanova.
in Intercultural Education”.

Keywords: Emotional intelligence, personality, teaching.Introduction

1. Introduction

In recent times, both teachers and educators in general have used so-called emotional intelligence in their classes
and in their daily work as a learning objective for their students. This term was first used by researchers in the
1920s as in the case of Thorndike, and later by researchers such as Weschler in the 1940s, up to the eighties with
Gardner and Sternberg, key representatives from that time. However, it was Solevey, Meyer & Carusso (2000) who
devised a broader definition of the construct. For these authors, EI can be understood in three ways- on the one
hand, it mentions the disposition and facility to engage with other people, and the ability to regulate individual
emotions. On the other hand, it refers to control over all personality factors that contribute to command of the
situation and success; and finally, regulation and management over not only one’s emotions, but also those of
others.

* Corresponding author. Tel: +34-97676100

E-mail address: Jlantona@unizar.es

1877-0428 © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of HUM-665 Research Group “Research and Evaluation in Intercultural Education”.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.04.342
 Jose L. Antoñanzas et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 132 (2014) 492 – 496 493

The relationship between emotional intelligence and education is a proven fact. Greater awareness by the
teacher about the emotional development of their students allows them to possess very valuable information in
order to find out the state of their wellbeing. The Solevey and Mayer scale, TMMS, has demonstrated that
depressive students differ from normal ones, obtaining a lower score on the scale of clarity of emotions, with all
that this implies for subsequent academic performance (Extremera & Fernandez-Berrocal, 2003). Studies have also
been carried out showing how university students with higher levels of emotional intelligence are less anxious,
have greater levels of self-esteem and tend to use more strategies to solve problems (Salovey, Stroud, Woolery, &
Epel, 2002). In Spain, emotional education has been shown to lead to an improved classroom atmosphere, greater
academic achievement, and more enhanced interpersonal relationships (Teruel, 2000).
Emotional intelligence plays a fundamental role in teaching training and while it must included in academic
training, it is also necessary in a social and emotional context. The more emotionally skilled a prospective teacher
is, the greater control he/she has within the school context. Isenbarger and Zembylas (2006) stressed that emotional
work is an important aspect of the reality of teaching and has an impact on teachers' commitment, satisfaction and
self-esteem. Emotional competence of teachers is essential to guarantee quality education and to properly educate
students. Recent studies carried out in Japan show how high-quality teachers used their emotional skills effectively
in their teaching (Hosotani & Imai-Matsumura, 2011)
Other authors support the claim that emotional intelligence is beneficial for teachers, as it contributes to their
psychological well-being, and may also have a protective effect on teachers when they engage in emotional work in
the classroom. The natural expression of emotions may be the most adaptive strategy that teachers use to carry out
effective emotional work within the school context (Yin, Lee, Zhang & Jin, 2013). It generally appears that
teachers’ emotional skills can influence how students behave, their commitment and attachment to the school as
well as their academic performance (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011, Zins, Bloodworth,
Weissberg, & Walberg, 2007).
However, on the other hand, there are a number of authors who question the relationship between emotional
intelligence and academic performance of students, due to the fact that there is a lack of data on whether the levels
of future teachers are associated with their teaching performance. According to these studies, no association was
found between the three variables of emotional intelligence and teacher performance. All this raises serious
questions for our understanding of emotions and teaching (Corcoran & Tormey, 2013).
Personality factors have also been associated with emotional intelligence. It should be noted that certain authors
such as Elliot & Thrash (2002), who found that certain personality traits such as extraversion, combined with
positive emotionality, are associated with a type of approach temperament. In contrast, people who have more
neurotic features and negative emotionality possess an avoidance temperament. Mayer, Salovey & Caruso, (2004)
also found correlations between emotional intelligence and personality factors such as agreeableness, openness to
experience and responsibility, among others. Other authors have found a relationship being the ability to manage
one's emotions with traits such as extraversion (Lops, Salovey & Straus, 2003). A link between personality traits
and academic success has also been found over time (Catell & Butcher, 1968; Eysenck & Eysenck,1985). Studies
have shown how extroversion is related to academic success (Haeven et al., 2002). (Neuroticism is also associated
with lower success rates, especially at university level, where those students scoring high in neuroticism
experiencing verbal ability difficulties. This also occurs with the case of psychoticism where students who obtained
high scores in this area tended to possess less motivation and fewer oral expression skills. However, students who
score low in psychoticism have a high level of numerical ability and a good academic performance (Di Fabio &
Palazzeschi, 2009). On the other hand, authors such as Bucur (2012) have highlighted the psychological differences
between pre-school and primary teachers, namely stress and personal satisfaction. Evidence has also been provided
to show how personal rather than teaching skills are much more effective in the process of developing positive
attitudes (Gurses, Çarniroglu, Açıkyıldıza & Doğarb, 2012).

2. Method

We selected 160 students from the faculty of education at the University of Zaragoza (2013). These students
belonged to four teaching specialties- 24 from foreign languages, 45 from primary education, 56 from physical
494 Jose L. Antoñanzas et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 132 (2014) 492 – 496

education and 35 from special education. The mean age was 19.91 with a standard deviation of 2.45 where ages
ranged from 17 to 33. There is a clear difference, of gender distribution, with the number of women far exceeding
that of males (N = 107.67% vs. N = 53. 33%). The Faculty of Education has recorded a greater number of women
than men enrolled in most specialties, with the exception of physical education, where the number of males is
higher. All of them were given the TMMS-24 questionnaire on Emotional intelligence and the EPQ-R
questionnaire on personality. 60 minutes was assigned for its completion and it was applied in one week, students
providing their responses outside of teaching hours. The X2 test and the Pearson correlation statistical test were
obtained, to see if there were differences between the different specialities.

3. Instruments

We used the EPQ-R (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985) to measure personality traits. The EPQ-R measures three basic
dimensions of personality: Extraversion, the E scale, emotionality, neuroticism or the N scale , and hardness, P or
Psychoticism scale and a scale of dissimulation / conformity (L scale ), consisting of 48 items in their abbreviated
form. The TMMS-24 (Salovey & Mayer, 1990) was used to measure emotional intelligence. The TMMS-24 has
been adapted by Fernandez-Berrocal, Extremera and Ramos (2004), containing three key dimensions of EI with 8
items each: emotional attention, clarity of feelings and emotional repair.

4. Results

It is noteworthy that in the emotional care variable in relation to Emotional Intelligence, there are no differences
recorded between the groups of educational specialties. However, we see significant differences in the emotional
clarity variable (X2 =22.41***) (see Table 1). Students of Primary Education and foreign language have an
excellent understanding of emotions (35.60% and 33.30%) compared to students of Physical Education and Special
Education (12.50% and 2.90%). The same applies to the emotional regulation variable, where here we see
significant differences (X2 =32.93***) (see Table 2) once again, with students of Special Education and Physical
Education possessing an acceptable level of regulation (57% and 66 %) compared to students of Foreign Language
and Primary Education, which indicates a lack of control over their emotions (87% and 75%).

Table 1.Emotional Clarity

Deficient Adequate Excellent
Foreign language 25.0% 41.70% 33.30%
Primary Education 15.60% 48.90% 35.60%
Physical Education 32.10% 55.40% 12.50%
Special education 48.60% 48.60% 2.90%

Table 2.Emotional Intelligence

Deficient Adequate Excellent
Foreign language 87.50% 12.50%
Primary Education 75.60% 24.40%
Physical Education 32.10% 66.10% 0.02 %
Special education 42.90% 57.10%

In regards the personality questionnaire, while there are no differences in the psychoticism and neuroticism
traits, these do exist in the extraversion factor (X2 =13.59*). Students of foreign language and special education
tend to have greater levels of extroversion (54.20% and 51.40%) (see Table 3).
 Jose L. Antoñanzas et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 132 (2014) 492 – 496 495

Table 3. Extroversion
Low Normal High
Foreign language 33.30% 12.50% 54.20%
Primary Education 48.90% 17.80% 33.30%
Physical Education 58.90% 17.90% 23.20%
Special education 45.70% 2.90% 51.40%

5. Discussion

Students of special education and physical education are shown to have better levels of emotion regulation. It is
important to bear in mind that their specialties are a little more vocational, and how they perform in their teaching
work, both owing to the type of work itself and the type of students, requires a higher level of control, if possible,
over their emotions. Students of special education and foreign language have shown a higher level in terms of
personality traits in this case. This seems to be consistent with studies carried out by Lops, Salovey, & Straus
(2003), in terms of students of special education, since it links extraversion with better management over their
emotions. It was also stated that there was a relationship between personal skills and specialities, as echoed by
Bucur (2012). It can be generally seen that students of special and physical education possess different personality
traits and emotional intelligence to students from the rest of the teaching specialities, based on the fact that their
attitudes appear to be more positive as has also been stated by Gurses, Çarniroglu, Açıkyıldıza & Doğarb, (2012).
Our study would have benefited from a larger sample and a longitudinal study in order to establish relationships
between emotional intelligence and personality factors. We should have also added other variables such as
academic achievement and personal satisfaction levels to complete the study.
Greater understanding of the personality traits of the teachers along with increased emotional control will allow
for a better adaptation of these to the education sphere.

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