Emotional Intelligence of Distance Learners at the School of Distance Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia

Adult learners encounter various barriers causing them emotional challenges. Meanwhile, proponents of Emotional Intelligence (EI) suggest that individuals with higher EI cope more successfully. This article reports the findings of a study with the purpose of exploring the EI of distance learners at the School of Distance Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia (SDE, USM). Two hundred and ninety four students completed a self-report questionnaire survey. The survey comprised the Schutte’s Self-Report Inventory (1998) to obtain the EI scores of the students and demographic details. The results depicted that 66.3% of the sample at the SDE, USM showed MidEI scores ranging between 117 and 143 scored on the SSRI. Whereas, 17.9% of the sample scored in the HighEI range with scores above 143 on the SSRI and 15.8% of the sample obtained scores below 117 on the SSRI. It appears that most of the sample at SDE USM had EI scores which can be deemed to be above average and these scores indicate that they should be able to deal with the challenges that they will face in their academic pursuit as distance learners. The findings also showed that the students demonstrated a variety of emotionally attributes such as knowing when to speak about their personal problems to others, having control over their emotions, being able to easily recognise their emotions as they experience them as well as motivating themselves by imagining a good outcome to the tasks they take on. However, there were a few students who had low EI scores. Based on the argument that EI is important in predicting success, it is therefore suggested that EI training might help students persevere in facing the challenges they encounter as adult learners in the distance education programme. Having emotional intelligence enables an individual to identify emotional information and appreciate its value in the person’s life. This allows the individual to use the information to make judgements of competing goals and choices as well as to think of alternatives to achieve long-term goals for the attainment of emotional well-being for oneself and others.