Correlation between Emotional Intelligence and Extroversion

Abstract

Objectives. The purpose of the present empirical study is to reveal correlation of components of emotional intelligence (EI) of young people and expression of extroversion/introversion of personality. There are relatively few studies of the correlation between orientation of personality into self/environment and different abilities to process emotional information. The majority of researchers present statistically valid conclusions that extroversion should be related to higher EI, to more exact assessment and more efficient regulation of own and others’ emotions. Method. In the study EI-DARL (R. Lekaviciene, D. Antiniene, 2015) test and original personality extroversion/introversion scales were used. Altogether 1,430 subjects aged 17 to 27 from various regions of Lithuania were surveyed. Results. It has been established that individuals with strongly expressed attributes of introversion are less capable to understand and control emotions of other people, i.e. it is presumptive that their overall EI level is lower. And conversely, higher EI while understanding other people and being able to influence their behavior is demonstrated by extroverted individuals. Conclusion. It is plausible that better abilities of extroverts may be explained by the fact that information of emotional type stimulates them while abundant emotional information has an opposite effect on introverts – it disorganizes thinking, unbalances decisions, etc. The obtained data may be useful in making psychological intervention more efficient.