THE IMPACT OF AN EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE INTERVENTION PROGRAM ON FRESHMEN AT A SOUTH TEXAS HIGHER EDU

1
THE IMPACT OF AN EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
INTERVENTION PROGRAM ON FRESHMEN AT A SOUTH TEXAS
HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION

• A Dissertation
• by
• George R. Potter

2
Defense

• I. Purpose of Study
• II. Research questions guiding the study
• III. Significance of the study
• IV. Review of Literature
• V. Research study conduct
• VI. Findings
• VII. Recommendations

3
Purpose of Study

• The purpose of this study was to examine the
  impact of an emotional intelligence intervention
  program on freshmen students enrolled in higher
  education.

4
Research Questions

• Quantitative
• Is there a significant difference between
  pre-test and post-test EI skill scores of
  students receiving an EI intervention
  (intervention group)?
• Is there a significant difference between
  pre-test and post-test EI skill scores of
  students receiving non-intervention (control
  group)?

5
Research Questions (cont.)

• Quantitative
• Is there a significant difference in post-test EI
  skill scores between the control group and the
  intervention group when controlling for pre-test
  score differences?

6
Research Question

• Qualitative
• What value does the Javelina Emotional
  Intelligence intervention program as an academic
  success model provide, as perceived by students
  and instructors?

7
Significance of the study

• Results of the study increased an
  understanding of factors involved with at-risk
  students and evaluated the impact of an emotional
  intervention program

8
Significance of the study

• Given the fact that educators spend millions
  of dollars on resources, the factors related to
  student success are poorly understood. Therefore,
  a more complete understanding of student
  successes might lead to better resource
  allocation.

9
Review of Literature

• Neuropsychology
• Robert Orstein (1997) - Two major aspects based
  on his findings relative to academic success
• First, there are two divisions of the brain, the
  old and the new.
• Second, there are significantly different roles
  played by the right and the left hemispheres.

10
Review of Literature

• Neuropsychology
• LeDoux (2002) - . A portion of the brain that
  detects danger, an emotional sensation, and
  engages its reactions
• This certain perceptions of danger, failure,
  shame, or other emotional responses by students,
  especially during test taking situations, would
  explain poor test scores by otherwise successful
  students.

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Review of Literature

• Intellectual Intelligence
• Kincheloe, Steinburg, Gresson (1996) -believe
  that this type of testing ( I.Q.) is an unfair
  way of selecting values, cultures, and beliefs,
  and has little actual value.

12
Review of Literature

• Intellectual Intelligence
• Williams (2004) States that Intelligence
  Quotient evaluations are used as placement in
  different programs, and to track students into
  academic or vocational paths.

13
Review of Literature

• Emotional Intelligence
• Goldman (1998)
• Given the emphasis placed on I.Q. by schools,
  governments and business, it may be a myth that
  I.Q. predicts achievement in life, work, or
  academics
• He found that in the fields of law, medicine,
  teaching, and business, IQ resulted in a zero or
  negative correlation with their eventual career
  success.

14
Review of Literature

• Emotional Intelligence
• Sternberg (1996)
• defines emotional intelligence in terms of
  successful intelligence
• identifies three types of emotional intelligence
  highly related to success Analytical
  Intelligence, Creative Intelligence, and
  Practical Intelligence.

15
Review of Literature

• Emotional Intelligence
• Seymour Epstein (1998)
• Defines Emotional Intelligence in terms of
  Constructive Thinking or the Experiential Mind.
• Experiential or emotional intelligence can be
  measured and defined by an assessment called the
  Constructive Thinking Inventory (CTI).

16
Review of Literature

• Emotional Intelligence
• Nelson and Low (2003)
• They present that emotional intelligence is
  critical in the success of students, and is the
  single most important factor in personal
  achievement, school success, leadership, and
  satisfaction in living.

17
Review of Literature

• Emotional Intelligence
• Nelson and Low (2003)
• Emotional Intelligence as a set of specific
  skills and concepts that are measurable,
  learnable, and once acquired can be utilized for
  success not only in academics but other aspects
  of life

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Summary of Literature Review

• A review of the literature indicates that
  Emotional Intelligence skills are an important
  aspect of success and should be considered in the
  development of curriculum or implementation of
  intervention programs at primary and secondary
  levels and institutions of higher education.
  Nelson Low (2003) suggest that the development
  of emotional intelligence skills requires a
  positive approach that is focused on
  self-discovery and behavioral changes.

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Summary of Literature Review

• Goleman (1998) states that new rules within the
  business arena are being used to select new
  employees and to determine candidacy for
  promotion based on emotional intelligence skills
  that focus on personal qualities (p.3).
  Sternberg (1996) views successful individuals as
  those who defy negative expectations even if
  these expectations are based on standardized
  intellectual intelligence assessments.

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Research Design

• The study was descriptive and inferential and
  applies a quasi-experimental, nonequivalent
  control group as a quantitative design.
• A deductive logical approach was used and the
  theoretical concept of Emotional Intelligence was
  narrowed to three hypotheses that are tested
  using data collection (Trochim, 2002).
• Quantitative information and data were collected
  by means of an emotional intelligence assessment
  and records from a secure database from the
  computer services of Texas AM University-Kingsvil
  le.
• The purpose of the study was to evaluate
  statistically the impact of this intervention
  program.

21
Research Design

• Personal interviews were used to construct
  alternative realities that might emerge. The
  blending of these two research methods provides
  numeric and human data to the study.

22
Research Design

• Total EI scores and ten subtest were
  statistically analysis to determine the impact of
  the intervention program.
• The within analysis was used to determine
  differences if any between the intervention group
  pre-test and post-test, non-intervention pre-test
  and post-test, and between analysis for
  differences in the intervention and
  non-intervention groups.

23
Research Design

• Quantitative
• The purpose of the study was to determine what
  impact, if any, the Emotional Intelligence
  Intervention Program has on entering freshmen at
  a South Texas institution of higher learning.
• Ten scales of the Exploring and Developing
  Emotional Intelligence Skills were used as a
  pre-test and post-test to compare outcomes of the
  intervention.
• A control group was given the same
  self-administered pre-test and post-test
  assessment for comparative results. A brief
  description of the assessment and the
  intervention program is provided.

24
Research Design

• Quantitative
• Emotional Intelligence was narrowed to three
  hypotheses that were tested using data
  collection.
• Quantitative information and data was collected
  by means of an emotional intelligence assessment
  and records from a secure database

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Research Design

• Qualitative
• The qualitative portion of the study employed
  data collected through the use of naturalistic
  inquiry and open-ended questions was used to draw
  convergent conclusions from divergent data
  (Erlandson, 1993).

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Instrumentation

• Nelson Lows (1999) Exploring and Developing
  Emotional Intelligence Skills was be used to
  assess student success. The instrument was
  selected because of its self-evident content
  validity and its administration as a group test.

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Instrumentation

• Qualitative
• Five question informant interview
• Personal interviews

28
Data Collection Procedures

• Pre-test consisted of permission being obtained
  from all participating students.
• University personnel for the Javelina Emotional
  Intelligence intervention program collected study
  data.

29
Data Collection Procedures

• Students were given an explanation and directions
  for assessment prior to administration and
  distribution of the assessment.
• Assessments were given to both control and
  treatment groups and collected by the individual
  instructors

30
Data Collection Procedures

• Qualitative
• Respondents were asked to respond to the 5
  open-ended questions.
• Each interview session began with a statement to
  the respondents about the motives and the purpose
  of the interview.

31
Data Collection Procedures

• Qualitative
• Additionally, the respondents were told the
  expected length of session, number of sessions,
  and who has final say over the content of the
  interview.
• Observations as well as responses to questions
  and probes were recorded as data.

32
Data Analysis

• Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics,
  repeated-measures Analysis of Variance and
  Analysis of Covariance.

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Summary of Methodology

• Quantitative
• Analysis of Covariance was employed because a
  criticism of the nonequivalent control-group
  design is the threat to internal validity posed
  by potential differences in groups (Gall, Borg,
  Gall, 2003).
• Ten dependent variables, the subscales of the
  Emotional Intelligence assessment, and two
  individual factors (group assignment and time)
  are examined. Statistical procedures of
  within-group analyses were also performed on
  these factors with regard to the ten subscales of
  the Exploring and Developing Emotional
  Intelligence Skills (Nelson Low 1999).

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Summary of Methodology

• Quantitative
• Descriptive statistical procedures described the
  sample of the study. Statistics included mean,
  standard deviations and distributions, which were
  graphically presented.
• Descriptive data were presented for each of the
  demographic values and the ten subscale values
  for the Exploring and Developing Emotional
  Intelligence Skills (Nelson Low, 1999).

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Summary of Methodology

• Quantitative
• The three null hypotheses were accepted or
  rejected at the .05 alpha level. The results of
  the tests were based on of the p-values from the
  repeated measures ANOVA and ANCOVA.
• Statistical analysis was used to assess the
  effect the Emotional Intelligence Intervention
  Program had with regard to the post-test
  sub-skills.

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Summary of Methodology

• The current study was conducted to consider the
  impact of the Emotional Intelligence Intervention
  Program using a pre-test followed by the
  Intervention Program and a follow-up post-test.
• A control group was used for comparative data.
  The study applied a quasi-experimental NEGD
  design and relied on descriptive and inferential
  statistical procedures to study the phenomena of
  emotional intelligence and its potential impact
  when used in an intervention program.

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Findings

• The students who received the intervention showed
  significant improvement in their scores between
  the first and second administration of the EI
  skill scores.
• The non-intervention group demonstrated no
  significant change in EI scores between the first
  and second administration of the instrument

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Findings

• The results of the ANCOVA demonstrated
  significant difference in the adjusted means
  between the post-test scores of the intervention
  and non-intervention group for the commitment
  ethics scale
• Qualitative results supported quantitative
  finding that time management had impact and was
  reported as a central theme in all interviews.

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Recommendations

• The results of this and other studies on
  emotional intelligence should provide the basis
  for a conceptual shift in learning and student
  success.
• An implementation of a program designed to
  provide students skills of emotional intelligence
  would appear to be beneficial.

40
Recommendations

• Emotional intelligence skills should be
  incorporated into the curriculum at primary
  grades.
• Secondary levels should develop appropriate
  intervention programs to benefit their students
  as well as prepare for success at educational
  institutions of higher learning

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Conclusions

• Emotional intelligence as an intervention
  program appears to have short term and long term
  impact on student behavior
• The within analysis conducted with the
  intervention group demonstrated significant
  changes in the time between pretest and posttest
  for the total scale scores.

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Conclusions

• The same within group analysis did not
  demonstrate significant changes between the time
  of the pretest and posttest for the
  non-intervention group.
• The logical assumption is that the EI
  intervention program helped participants make
  positive changes in attitudes, conception and
  behaviors that are related to student success.

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THE IMPACT OF AN EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
INTERVENTION PROGRAM ON FRESHMEN AT A SOUTH TEXAS
HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION

• A Dissertation
• by
• George R. Potter