Emotional Competence and Altruism Among Young Adults in India

Abstract

Emotional intelligence has been studied extensively in the social sciences for the past 25 years. The technique straddles the line between academic and non-academic research. Despite the fact that the majority of research touts the benefits of emotional intelligence, one piece of the puzzle is missing: the concept of emotional competence. Emotional intelligence is a necessity for personal development, but it is not enough on its own. Emotional competence includes the ability to express and experience a wide range of well-modulated emotions, regulate emotional experience and expression when too much or too little emotional experience, or expression of emotions, interferes with one's intra or interpersonal goals, and understand one's own and others' emotions. On the other hand, when an individual acts to enhance the well-being of others, even at a risk or cost to themselves, they are said to be altruistic. The present study investigates the relationship between emotional competence and altruism among young adults. A sample of 100 young adults (34 males and 66 females) within the age group of 18-30 were included in the study by employing convenience sampling method. Short Profile of Emotional Competence (SPEC) was used to measure emotional competency, whereas Rushton's Altruistic Personality Scale was used to measure altruism. Data were analyzed using Pearson’s correlation, independent samples t-test and linear regression analysis. Results indicated that there was a significant positive correlation between emotional competence and altruism, r (98) = .302, p = .002. at .01 level of significance. Moreover, it was revealed that there was no significant difference between male and female young adults with respect to emotional competence, t (98) = .594, p = .554, despite males (M = 62.97, SD = 16.449) attaining slightly higher scores compared to females. (M = 61.0, SD = 14.562). It was also found that there was no significant difference between the level of altruism of males and females among young adults, t (98) = .549, p = .584 despite males (M = 68.5, SD = 7.123) scoring moderately higher than females (M = 67.45, SD = 9.836). Lastly, results suggested that Emotional competence significantly predicted altruism at .05 level of significance (β = .302, p = .002). Hence, the study concludes that a statistically significant relationship exists between emotional competence and altruism among young adults.