The association of emotional intelligence with personality traits, anxiety in undergraduate medical students

Abstract

Background: The capacity to recognize, regulate, and manage both our own and other people’s emotions is known as emotional intelligence (EI). Individual differences in EI are based on a person’s traits and actions, which define their personality. A time of transition should be present so that the students must adjust to their new social and personal duties as well as they meet their scholastic demands. Aims and Objectives: The study assesses the EI, personality traits, anxiety and to determine the association of EI with personality traits, anxiety in the medical students. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on medical students who are pursuing 3rd–4th years of Narayana Medical College, Andhra Pradesh. One hundred and fifty participants were taken after obtaining written informed consent. A questionnaire consisting of sociodemographic data, the Schutte EI scale, ten-item personality inventory scale was administered. The means and proportions were calculated. Kruskal–Wallis test was used to test significance. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The mean age of subjects was 21.54 ± 1.17 years. Seventy-seven (51.3%) were males. 128 (85.3%) had satisfaction with career choice. Seventy-seven (51.3%) of students had high EI and 72 (48.3%) of students had moderate EI. A positive relationship (0.032) is present between EI and personality traits. Mild anxiety symptoms are seen with higher EI. Conclusion: The study states that personality traits and EI are related to one another. Conscientiousness emerged as the stronger relationship of EI and the students with higher EI have mild anxiety symptoms.

Keywords

• anxiety
• emotional intelligence
• medical students
• personality traits