THE ROLE OF PERCEIVED STRESS AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN ANGER

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between perceived stress, emotional intelligence and anger among university students and to compare emotional intelligence across gender. The sample comprised of 150 undergraduate students studying in various disciplines of university of Peshawar. On a convenience sample three scales were applied for data collection, namely Brief Emotional Intelligence Scale (BEIS-10; Davies et al., 2010), Clinical Anger Scale (CAS; Snell, 1995), and Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983). The results revealed a significant positive correlation between perceived stress and anger but non-significant relation of emotional intelligence with anger. Gender differences also were in line with the assumption, that is females scored higher on emotional intelligence. The research highlights the possible influence of perceived stress among university students that might cause aggressive behaviours on campus and females showing less such incidents due to their high emotional intelligence compared to male students.