Emotional Academic Achievement

Sternberg (1995) characterized successful intelligent people as those who are initiators who motivate themselves, learn to control their impulses and delay gratification, know how to persevere and seek to surmount personal difficulties, translate thought into action and do not procrastinate, complete tasks and follow through, are not afraid to risk failure, are independent and focus on personally meaningful goals, balance their thinking (cognitive with emotional) possess self-confidence and positive self-efficacy.

Stoever, (2002) in a research study explored academic performance as a multi determined number of contributing influences including academic factors, personality variables, family characteristics and environmental factors. Results

Parents who fostered autonomy, locus of control and self-esteem in their children resulted in positive personal adjustment.

Stottlemyer (2002) conducted a study entitled, “Assessment of Emotional Intelligence and the Implications for Education.” The study examines the role of emotional intelligence in academic achievement. The subjects of the study were 200 eleventh and twelfth graders from three school districts in South Texas. Subjects completed the assessment instrument Exploring and Developing Emotional Intelligence Skills. Academic achievement was measured by the Texas Learning Index scores in Mathematics and reading from the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills. Other variables were examined as part of the study which consisted of gender, ethnicity and socio economic status. Data analysis determined significant correlations between emotional intelligence skills and academic achievement. Results also suggested that gender differences may be influenced by emotional intelligence skills. The resilience of students to succeed despite their low socio economic

Research suggests that emotional intelligence and emotional skills are related to achievement, career success and personal well being (Low, 2000). Nelson and Low (2003) state that: Emotional Intelligence is the single most important influencing variable in personal achievement, career success, leadership, and life satisfaction. Emotional Intelligence is a learned ability requiring a systematic experience-based approach to learning. Schools and colleges do not provide a practical and systematic model to learn emotional intelligence skills. Learning emotional knowledge and skills requires an internal, active, learner-centered approach. Emotional intelligence consists of specific skills, behaviours and attitudes that can be learned, applied and modeled by students to improve personal satisfaction, achievement and career effectiveness. Thus, one can hypothesize that emotional intelligence skills are correlated to and predictive of efficiency and performance of