The Relationship between Big Five Personality Traits and Trait Emotional Intelligence in Emerging Adults

Abstract

Emerging adults is a transition period where individuals explore different aspects of their life such as love, work and world views and tend to arrive at enduring choices. It is important to understand the psychological factors that underlie this period of transition and selfexploration. Personality of an individual influences how an individual understands his emotional states and that of others which is crucial during self-exploration. Research on emerging adults is limited and has yielded varying results, considering that it is a phase where individuals experience a series of developmental changes or challenges. The present study aims to understand the correlation between trait emotional intelligence and Big Five Personality traits in emerging adults thereby enriching Indian literature. Pearson’s correlation was used to understand the relationship between the two variables. Digital media was used to collect a sample of 246 individuals (122 males and 124 females). Results indicated that extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, conscientiousness was positively correlated with trait emotional intelligence and neuroticism was negatively correlated with trait emotional intelligence. Based on the results, training model and interventions can be designed to increase the emotional intelligence of emerging adults and thereby facilitate adaptive coping strategies.