Ensuring Optimal Emotional Intelligence in Adolescents: An Empirical Perspective - Research Proposal Example

Application for Research Funding PSY3016 Affective Science & Neuropsychology Research Proposal Number Project Ensuring optimal emotional intelligence in adolescents: An empirical perspective ____characters 2. Abstract of proposed study Goals: The study aims at investigating significance of coaching and feedback as strategies for developing emotional intelligence among college students. Methods: An experimental design will be used for the study. Four first year-college classes will be identified from different colleges and members of the classes used. Coaching and feedback will be the treatment measures and absence, application independently, and integrated application will be used. Data will be collected using the Bar-On emotional Quotient Inventory before and after treatments and analysis done for significance of differences in emotional competence. Significance: The study is significant to students, educators, and researchers because it develops a basis for understanding factors to emotional empowerment among the adolescents. In identifying significance of the treatment measures, the study will help students and educators to improve emotional capacities and therefore improve stress management and performance. It will also add to existing literature on emotional intelligence. Expected results: The study anticipates significance of the treatment measures on emotional competence, and hence emotional intelligence, because of significance of the population’s cognitive potentials as well as significance of coaching and feedback on empowerment. ____characters 3. SUMMARY OF FUNDS REQUESTED YEAR 1 £ YEAR 2 £ YEAR 3 £ TOTAL £ Staff 6105 6105 Travel & Subsistence 6200 6200 Consumables 500 500 Equipment N/A N/A SUB-TOTAL 12805 12805 Indirect costs - - GRAND TOTAL 12805 12805 4. STAFF NAMES/GRADES % OF FULL TIME STARTING SALARY £ YEAR 1 £ YEAR 2 £ YEAR 3 £ TOTAL £ (i) Research staff 2500 2500 London/other allowances Combined superannuation/national insurance 275 275 Gross annual salary 2500 2500 (ii) Technical staff 1900 1900 London/other allowances Combined superannuation/national insurance 209 209 Gross annual salary 1900 1900 (iii) Other staff 1100 1100 London/other allowances Combined superannuation/national insurance 121 121 Gross annual salary 1100 1100 Total £ _____ _____ 6105 _____ _____ 6105_____ (iv) TRAVEL AND SUBSISTENCE (INCLUDING CONFERENCES AND VISITS) DESTINATION AND PURPOSE (see notes) NUMBER OF Journeys Days MODE OF TRANSPORT FARE/ MILEAGE SUBSISTENCE £ FEES £ TOTAL £ (i) Within the UK 4200 air 2000 6200 (ii) Overseas TOTAL ANNUAL COSTS (i) + (ii) YEAR 1 £ 6200 YEAR 2 £ YEAR 3 £ TOTAL £ 6200 6. CONSUMABLES Please specify with costs YEAR 1 £ YEAR 2 £ YEAR 3 £ TOTAL £ 500 500 TOTAL ANNUAL COSTS £ 500 500 7. EQUIPMENT Description of items £ Import duty £ V.A.T £ Total £ (iv) Details of equipment costing between £1,000 and £24,999 N/A N/A (ii) Details of equipment costing above £25,000 ANNUAL ESTIMATED EXPENDITURE BY GRANT YEAR YEAR 1 £ N/A YEAR 2 £ YEAR 3 £ COSTS £ N/A 8. DESCRIPTION OF THE WORK (iv) Project title Ensuring optimal emotional development in children: An empirical perspective (ii) Objectives of proposed work To develop an understanding of coaching and feedback as factors affecting emotional development among college students To facilitate awareness on strategies for optimal emotional development among college students To contribute to existing literature on emotional development among college students (iii) Justification of resources requested Staffs are needed for professional roles that the research process will entail. Research staffs are necessary because of their statistics background that will help in developing and implementing the study. Need for validity and reliability in the study’s findings and recommendations justifies this. This is because the research staffs will be individuals with knowledge on factors affecting validity and reliability of data and will ensure sufficient measures for ensuring that the study meets its objectives. Technical staff will be necessary for facilitating roles of research staff. The study will heavily rely on computer and computer software and technical staff will ensure maintenance of the systems for smooth implementation of the study. Other staff will be necessary manual roles in the research environment. Money for travel and subsistence will be necessary to facilitate movements to study locations and maintenance of personal needs for the involved personnel in the study. Travel is necessary because of the need to replicate the study in different set ups that may mean different geographical locations. Consumables expenditures are necessary to ensure that participants are in good physical and psychological health for their tasks. Required equipments are however available (iv) Programme of work – this section should be around 1500 words Literature review People need emotional maturity in as much as they need physical and cognitive developments. Emotional development is important to a child’s life and plays a more significant role in the child’s later stages of life through offering social and economic benefits. Empirical results suggest significance of Emotional Intelligence (EI) through reported role in shaping people. A study by Hayes and Reilly (2013) that investigated emotional intelligence, among other factors, identified similarity in emotional potentials between juvenile detainees and group of individuals undergoing psychiatric treatment. Emotional intelligence was however higher among individuals in the normal population and this suggests that poor emotional potential could have been a factor to the juveniles engagement in the activities that led to their detention or the bad environment could have contributed to their condition that require treatment. One of the consequences of the findings is the need to promote emotional development with the aim of controlling criminal activities. Emotional intelligence has also been associated with performance in people and job performance explains this. Emotionally intelligent people are likely to be more productive employees that those with poor emotional intelligence (Mishra and Mohapatra, 2010), a factor that could imply a positive correlation between emotional intelligence and effectiveness in other aspects of life. Promoting the intelligence among students may consequently empower them towards effective learning and academic excellence. The results could also apply to exploitation of an individual’s skills and even interpersonal relations in which the intelligence could improve outcomes. An independent study of effects of emotional intelligence on nurses’ efficiency supports this because of an identified positive correlation with patents’ safety (Teng, Chang and Hsu, 2009). An exploration benefit of emotional intelligence in entrepreneurial environment further identifies the need for facilitated emotional development among children and adolescent to empower them to the benefits. As Humphrey explains, equipping a person with emotional intelligence helps them to recover from emotional set back, a factor that can facilitate sustainability of passion for achieving set targets. The author also associates emotional intelligence with ability to manage relationships at home and work environments effectively and this could extend to other social environments such as in schools. In addition, emotional intelligence facilitates innovation and negotiation and leadership potentials (Humphrey, 2013). The relationship between emotional intelligence and occupational stress also identifies social and professional significance of the intelligence. Employers may for example use the intelligence, as an indicator of a person’s susceptibility to stress, as an employee selection criterion. This is particularly possible because employers are keen on performance and significant level of stress is a threat to this. Empowering children and adolescents to high levels of emotional intelligence will therefore improve their chances of getting employed and retaining jobs because of their lower susceptibility to stress (Satija and Khan, 2013). The hypothesis of the role of emotional intelligence in management of stress and other negative emotions also evident through self-efficacy potentials in which an increase in the potentials indicates increase in ability to manage the emotions (Caprara, Vecchione, Barbaranelli and Alessandri, 2013). Success in developing emotional intelligence nay however be dependent on many factors. Gender is an example as an empirical study on university students, which aimed at investigating improvements following a course, illustrates. In the study, fresh university students reported poor emotional intelligence and while women improved their potentials during the course, men did not (Leedy and Smith, 2012). More benefits also exists students at their current stage of life. Developed emotional intelligence will have extensive benefits on the children’s lives and people around them such as their friends and relatives. Facilitated emotional development will for example ensure high-level sensitivity, among the children, to their needs and to the needs of people around them. This will empower them to interpersonal potentials that will also enrich their lives. Emotional development will also help the students to manage their negative emotions and therefore prevent factors such as stress in their lives that could have adverse effects. Empowering the population segment to manage their emotions will also help their relationships with others to contribute to control of their lives because they will be able control possible adverse psychological effects of their environments. Emotional development also aids self-awareness and has been associated with discovery and development of personal talents. Financing resources for the project towards facilitated emotional development will therefore be a direct investment to talent development that could be an economic empowerment to an individual student and a social investment because the developed talents can be used for macro social benefits. Facilitating self-awareness through emotional intelligence also offers benefits of intrinsic motivation to promote success in a child life and even at later stages of life (Ryback, 2012). In addition, emotional intelligence is important in improving decision-making potentials through ensuring precise and objective decisions, a contribution that may help a child or an adolescent in making life decisions such as career to pursue as well as long term goals. Self-awareness that develops from emotional development is also important in interpersonal potentials towards teamwork that is necessary at any stage of life. Leadership and management positions also offer challenges that a person can only manage with a significant level of emotional maturity and therefore identifies significance of emotional development at an earlier stage of life (Liberti, 2009). Theoretical framework Lewis’ Cognitive Theory of emotional development forms the basis of the study. According to the theory, realization and expression of emotions depends on an individual’s cognitive potentials and therefore establishes reliability in measurement of emotional intelligence among college students (Comer and Gould, 2010). Significance of cognitive potentials also suggest possible use of cognitive empowerment to improve emotional competence. In addition, Premuzic (2013) notes that emotional potentials can be moderated through such factors as coaching and reliance on feedback. (iv) Programme of work (cont.) Problem statement Rich literature exists on benefits of emotional intelligence at earlier stages of life and significance of the benefits to later stages as people assume active roles in social and professional set ups. This identifies need for emotional development towards emotional intelligence, right from childhood and adolescent stages. Little research, however, exists on strategies for facilitating emotional development and this identifies the need for research on the strategies. Hypothesis HO1: Coaching is not a significant factor to emotional development HO2: Feedback is not a significant factor to emotional development Methodology Research design Quantitative research method’s experimental design will be used to investigate strategies for improving emotional potentials. University students will be the research population and a sample from four universities will be used. Stratified random sampling will be used with a class in each university as the basis for stratification. Materials Emotional intelligence quotient questionnaire will be the study’s material. Screening Previous participation, within six months from the study’s commencement date, in a research or seminar that involved measurement by the Emotional Intelligence Quotient will be an exclusion criteria in the study. Measures Emotional potentials will be the study’s measure and shall be determined by the Emotional Intelligence Quotient while the independent variables will be the treatment measures. Dependent and independent variables Emotional intelligence is the study’s dependent variable while coaching and feedback are the independent variables. Participants and sample size College students, in their first year, will form the study’s population. The sample size will however depend on sizes of selected classes that are expected to be large enough to ensure reliability. Recruitment A sample of four classes will be selected, randomly, from four schools that will also be selected at random, and members of the classes who consent to participate in the study will form the study’s sample. Each of the classes will be informed of the scope of the study but will be blind of existence of other groups and treatments to other groups. The whole class, for each of the classes, will be exposed to the treatments but data will only be collected on those who consent to participation. Data collection instrument and measurement The Bar-On emotional Quotient Inventory will be used to measure emotional competence, which will be an indicator of emotional intelligence. The instrument has been tested and approved, in previous studies, for reliability and validity. The inventory contains prompts in sentences format with responses on a categorical scale of one to five, where one “not true,” or “very seldom” and five mean “often very true.” Respondents will rate themselves from the prompts and the scales at the beginning of a semester and six weeks later. After each rating, scales will be used to compute scores and these will be used to compute individuals’ total scores. Explaining elements of the inventory to the study’s participants will facilitate application of the instrument and its reliability. This will allow the participants to understand elements of their emotional competence and to offer reliable information for the study. Use of intellectuals as research participants will also facilitate use of the instruments because of the participants’ expected competence to be independent in completing the inventory and their competence into self awareness Methods Approval will be obtained from the institution’s ethical review board and from administrations of the selected institutions for the study. Members of the identified classes will be informed of the scope of the study and potential implications of participating in the study before informed consent is sought. Participants will then be informed of how to complete the Emotional Quotient Inventory. Each of the participants, in the different classes will be given a copy of the inventory to complete in the first week of the semester. With a random identification approach, one class will receive no intervention while two classes will be exposed to mentorship and feedback respectively towards emotional empowerment. The remaining group will be exposed to both mentorship and feedback for empowerment and the treatments administered for six weeks. Data will then be collected after the six weeks and analysis conducted for differences in emotional competence scores for students’ class means before, after treatments, and between classes before and after treatment. Data analysis Test of hypothesis for differences in means, across the four classes, at the beginning of the semester and after the six months will be conducted using paired sample t-test. SPSS software will be used for the data analysis and the study will be replicated in two other, consecutive, semesters. Ethical concerns Even though an experimental design is used, the treatment does not present risks to human health. This limits legal and moral issues in the study to informed consent, autonomy, beneficence, and anonymity. Presentation of the proposal for approval, seeking informed consent, and sensitivity to research participants will however ensure preservation of the participants’ interests. (iv) Programme of work (cont.) 9. NOMINATED REFEREE(S) 10. EXPLOITATION AND DISSEMINATION OF RESULTS i) If the proposed research is likely to give rise to a commercially viable discovery give details, including an indication of the likely route for transferring technology to the market place No commercial value is anticipated. (ii) If no immediate commercial benefit is foreseen, applicants should give details of any proposed mechanisms, in addition to published papers, for ensuring that the knowledge gained from the project will be passed to the public domain Commitment will be made to publish the study’s findings and to communicate them to the institutions that will participate. A copy will also be availed online for interested stakeholders. 11. DECLARATION This is entirely my own work and has not been copied, cribbed or paraphrased from any published or unpublished material. It is written in my own words throughout, and the bibliography acknowledges all sources used in its preparation. “Signed” …………………………………………………………… Student Number …………………………………………………………… 12. REFERENCES Caprara, G., Vecchione, M., Barbaranelli, C. and Alessandri, G. (2013). Emotional stability and affective self-regulatory efficacy beliefs: Proofs of integration between Trait Theory and Social Cognitive Theory. European Journal of Personality, 27(2);145-154. Comer, R. and Gould, E. (2010). Psychology around us. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Hayes, J. and Reilly, G. (2013). Psychiatric disorder, IQ, and emotional intelligence among adolescent detainees: A comparative study. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 18(1);30-47. Humphrey, R. (2013). The benefits of emotional intelligence and empathy to entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Research Journal, 3(3); 287-294. Leedy, G. and Smith, J. (2012). Development of emotional intelligence in first-year undergraduate students in a frontier state. College Student, 46(4). Liberti, J. (2009). Coaching emotional intelligence: A foundation for HR professionals, internal coaches, consultants and trainers. Lulu.com. Mishra, P. and Mohapatra, A. (2010). Relevance of emotional intelligence for effective job performance: An empirical study. The Journal for Decision Makers, 35(1);53-61. Premuzic, T. (2013). Can you really improve your emotional intelligence? Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from: http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/05/can-you-really-improve-your-em/. Ryback, D. (2012). Putting emotional intelligence to work. New York, NY: Routledge. Satija, S. and Khan, W. (2013). Emotional intelligence as predictor of occupational stress among working professionals. Aweshkar Research Journal, 15(1);79-97. Teng, C., Chang, S. and Hsu, K. (2009). Emotional stability of nurses: Impact on patient safety. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 65(10); 2088-2096. Read More