GENDER DIFFERENCES IN EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AMONG PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES OF HYDERABAD CITY

Emotional intelligence is conceptualized as the ability to understand one’s own and others feelings and respond to appropriate ways in various life situations. It is emerging as the most important and effective personal skill of the new century. The present study is an attempt to examine the differences between female and male athletes of Hyderabad city with respect to their emotional intelligence. It was assumed that female athletes would have high emotional intelligence as compared to the male athletes. For examination of this hypothesis the “Emotional Intelligence Test” developed by Dr. N. K. Chadha (1998) was applied on all of the participants of the study (i.e. 70 female and 70 male athletes). Statistical analysis by computation of “t-test” revealed a significant difference (i.e. t=3.795, p<0.01) in the emotional intelligence of female and male athletes of Hyderabad city. The results confirmed the hypothesis. In the case of gender differences in relation to emotional intelligence, findings of the current study indicate that females are more emotionally intelligent than male athletes. The higher level of emotional intelligence of female than male in Sindhi surroundings are explained in terms of traditional trends, pattern of society and social roles assigned to each gender with respect to culture in Sindh.