A Study of Emotional Intelligence and its Impact on Perceived Stress and Choice of Stress Coping Techniques

Abstract

Emotional intelligence has emerged as a significant construct that influence individual s newlineabilities to perceive, understand and manage emotions effectively. In today s rapidly changing newlineand demanding world, stress has become a prevalent concern affecting every individual s wellbeing and performance. The role of emotional intelligence in influencing how individuals newlineperceive, experience and respond to stress has garnered significant attention in the recent years. newlineOur fast-paced lifestyles and complex socio-professional environment, necessitate emotional newlineintelligence. This thesis investigates the intricate relationship between emotional intelligence, newlinestress and stress coping. newlineThe thesis explores the impact that emotional intelligence might have on our perception of newlinestress and our ways of dealing with stress. The analysis of the existing literature presented that newlinewhile several studies have been conducted in the field of emotional intelligence, most of these newlinestudies focus on industries with higher emotional labour. Also, the three variables have seldom newlinebeen studied together. This research aims at providing a comprehensive understanding of how newlineemotional intelligence skill can have an impact on reducing the stress we experience in life or newlineif it can aid in choosing more constructive ways of coping with the said stress. The research newlinesample comprised of 666 individuals from the state of Gujarat. Data was collected from these newlineindividuals with the use of a 63 item Likert scale questionnaire tool. newlineThe statistical tests conducted provide enough support to establish a significant impact of newlineemotional intelligence on perceived stress as well as the choice of stress coping techniques newlineused by the respondents. The thesis concludes that those with higher emotional intelligence newlineexperience lower levels of perceived stress. It was also established that such individuals more newlineoften than not choose to make use of constructive coping techniques as opposed to newlineunfavourable and detrimental coping techniques.