A study on the relationship between emotional intelligence and academic achievement in students of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences

Abstract

Introduction: Emotional intelligence has nowadays been dealt with as a new factor in many fields, particularly management and education and its relationship with other variables has been investigated. This study was designed to determine the correlation between emotional intelligence (EQ) and educational academic achievement. Materials and Methods: This study was an analytical, cross-sectional study on Shiraz medical students. The study population included all students at Shiraz Medical School from whom 100 were randomly selected. The Bradberry’s EQ questionnaire was used in this study for data collection. The validity and reliability of this questionnaire were determined by Ganji. The indicator for academic achievement was the students’ grade point averages (GPA). The data were analyzed, using SPSS software, version 14.Results: The mean score for emotional intelligence for medical students was 16.37+1.04 with the range of 1-103. There was no statistically significant relationship between emotional intelligence and academic achievement (P=0.949).Conclusion: This study showed that emotional intelligence was not high in medical student. The lack of a significant relationship between the emotional intelligence and the academic achievement may be due to the type of test student take which are basically based on what the students have memorized but not in-depth learning.