Emotional Intelligence of Korean Students and Its Recent Research Trends

Abstract

In Korea, emotional intelligence is based on the concept and components proposed by John Mayer and Peter Salovey, and the model proposed by Professor Moon Yong-Rin is the most widely used. Moon Young-Rin defined the concept of emotional intelligence as the ability of mental process to evaluate and express one’s own emotions of others, to regulate emotions, and to use emotions in a socially adaptive way. 4 domain 16 factor model is the most widely used in Korea: Recognition and expression of emotions; Emotional thinking promotion; Use of emotional knowledge; and Reflective regulation of emotions. Emotional intelligence is reported to be deeply related to creative disposition and positively correlated with academic achievement. For healthy student education, the measurement, education, and training of emotional intelligence should be studied and improved continually in Korean society. Future researches to find out Koreans’ unique emotions and structure are hoped to continued.

1. Introduction

What are the essential requirements that an individual must have to grow into a healthy member of society and realize a successful career as a protagonist of a more meaningful life? Amid technological development and the flood of information, the educational foundation for talent development is overflowing with various opportunities. Nevertheless, the road to raising a healthy and happy member of society seems increasingly far and arduous.

Twenty-three years after entering the new world of the twenty-first century, we constantly look back to see if the academic almighty, which still believes that happiness is in the order of grades, is producing lonely and selfish half-talented people in the ever-changing educational system. Amid uncertain future social changes, children who should be happy are exhausted from early education and excessive prior learning. Thanks to anxious parents and marketing of private education, children’s bodies, and minds, which should be healthy, are slowly getting sick while struggling to become smart and smart. The downward trend in the age of exposure to increasing youth crime and delinquency is just one unfortunate aspect.

In modern society, where crimes caused by various mental pathologies are increasing day by day, the limitations of traditional academic supremacy education have been felt, and accordingly, the school has come to recognize the importance and necessity of character education for students. Research on emotional intelligence is being emphasized as a key component of character education [1]. In other words, as society becomes more complex and accelerated, failure to develop the ability to cope with the changes of the times can lead to depression and emotional instability of maladjustment [2]. Emotional intelligence is required to succeed and cope adaptively in the rapidly changing modern society and organizational society [3]. Therefore, it is expected that discussions on emotional intelligence will continue in the future for a happy and healthy life.

Emotional intelligence is an integrated ability to solve various problems by thinking and using emotions cognitively. It is one of the intellectual abilities that must be developed in order to realize a successful career for a healthy and happy life in the modern society’s unlimited competition system. The ability to understand one’s own and others’ emotions and to control one’s own emotions is required in order to establish desirable interpersonal relationships as a healthy member of society and to control one’s own emotions. When infancy and childhood are said to be a critical period for emotional intelligence development [4], it is very important to measure, educate, and develop emotional intelligence during this period.

On the other hand, the university student period is a preparation process for social advancement, and it is a period to learn various human relationships and acquire knowledge and skills in the major field [5]. In other words, college students must perform tasks for their future, unlike previous passive and standardized middle and high schools, and society tends to expect college students to change their roles as adults [6]. However, for university students who are not sufficiently prepared as adults, this autonomy and responsibility can cause various stresses. In other words, college students, who are in a period of independence from their parents, choosing a job and preparing for transition to the world of work, may have psychological problems such as anxiety and frustration [7].

As the end of education, entry into the work world, and economic and social independence, which are the criteria for distinguishing adolescents from young people in modern society, are being transferred to those in their late 20s or 30s, many college students still experience confusion, conflict, and stress. It has been shown to have the characteristics of experiencing adolescents [8]. In addition, many researchers reported that these conflicts and stress experienced by college students are harmful to mental health [8]. In other words, college students experience a delayed process of social maturation compared to biological maturation, and in particular, this is a prominent feature of college students in Korea [6].

2. Literature review

2.1 Conceptual background on emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence, as opposed to general intelligence, refers to the ability to control emotions and feelings. Emotional intelligence is not the ability to think, remember, calculate, or reason, but rather the emotional capacity that enables or suppresses and limits such abilities. When angry, the emotional intelligence of a person who explodes and radiates this to harm others and commits harm to himself is significantly lower than those who do not.

Imagine there are some students having homework that needs to be done by tomorrow, but do not want to do it, there are students who hesitate and cannot do it in the end, and there are students who clenched their teeth and persisted. Students who persevere in completing homework they do not want to do like this while appeasing themselves can be said to have higher emotional intelligence than students who do not [9].

The term emotional intelligence was first used in 1990 by Professor John Mayer of the University of New Hampshire and Professor Peter Salovey of Yale University, USA. Introducing EQ (Emotional Quotient), the term EQ (Emotional Quotient) spread through the mass media, and as a result, countless books were published and gained popularity [1]. In addition, the concept of emotional intelligence is used interchangeably with various terms such as emotional literacy, emotional competence, emotional quotient, and personal intelligence [10]. In Korea, EI (Emotional Intelligence) or EQ (Emotional Quotient) is used interchangeably with two name, The term of emotion or affect is a concept that has been commonly used among scholars for a relatively long time, and also, the term “emotion’ is the “characteristics” and “trait” of personality rather than the meaning of “ability” and “skill” [11].

Aristotle emphasized the importance of controlling emotions with intellect in Nicomachean Ethics and Thorndike in the 1920s specified a concept related to emotional intelligence under the name of ‘social intelligence’ [12]. Social intelligence refers to the ability to perceive one’s own and others’ internal states, motives, and behaviors, and to act appropriately based on that information. There are Epstein’s ‘constructive thinking’ and Cantor’s ‘social problem solving’ that have been proposed as sub-factors of social intelligence. Like these, it can be said that it is the ability to deal with social problems in which emotions and feelings are intervened [12].

Even after that, psychologists have been steadily studying other intelligences other than those that can be measured by IQ, and Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences is a representative example. Emotional intelligence is also a concept similar to ‘personal intelligence’ in Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. Gardner’s multiple intelligences are linguistic intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, musical intelligence, spatial intelligence, body-kinesthetic intelligence, natural intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, and intrapersonal intelligence. Among them, interpersonal intelligence and intrapersonal intelligence are combined and called ‘personal intelligence’. ‘Interpersonal intelligence’ means the ability to discriminate and recognize the moods, temperaments, motives, and desires of others and respond appropriately. And intra-individual intelligence means the ability to examine and discriminate one own’s various emotions, and to use the information obtained from this as a means of understanding and guiding one’s own behavior.

Afterwards, it was in 1990 that John Mayer, a psychology professor at the University of New Hampshire, and Peter Salovey, a professor at Yale University, began to establish a systematic theory on emotional intelligence by comprehensively considering scattered studies in various fields related to it. According to Salovey and Mayer [13], emotional intelligence is a sub-factor of social intelligence, “the ability to evaluate and express one’s own and others’ emotions, the ability to effectively regulate one’s own and others’ emotions, and the ability to use and use those emotions to plan and fulfill one’s life.”

Emotional intelligence began to attract public attention as the concept of EQ after Daniel Goleman treated his book “Emotional Intelligence” as a cover story in Time magazine (October 9, 1995). It predicts the possibility of human success by relying on cognitive abilities measured by standardized tests such as tests or SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test), criticizes the tradition that has been used as a basis for education, and introduces the concept of emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence is a concept that combines two elements: ‘emotion’ and ‘intelligence’. ‘Intelligence’ in emotional intelligence implies the meaning of ability, and this point is the same concept as the meaning of intelligence that generally spoken of. However, the difference between the meaning of intelligence in emotional intelligence and the meaning of general intelligence is the mechanism and manifestation of emotional intelligence [13].

‘Emotion’ in emotional intelligence focuses on the aspect that helps and promotes human thinking and cognitive processes. According to Salovey and Mayer [14], intense emotional response enhances the function of intelligence by interrupting ongoing information processing and allowing us to focus on important information. In other words, it is assumed that emotions activate thinking more intelligently and that these emotions contain knowledge about the relationship between people and the world. Emotion is a complex state that involves perception of a certain object or situation and accompanying physiological or behavioral changes, and is a higher level concept that includes various emotions. Emotion can function as a source of personal information, and it is believed that knowing and expressing one’s emotions accurately plays an important role in an individual’s adaptive ability [13].

2.2 Components and research of emotional intelligence

The emotional intelligence model can be divided into a competency model that considers emotional intelligence as a single ability and a mixed model that includes personality traits. The competency model views emotional intelligence as intelligence or ability related to emotions, and the mixed model is a comprehensive view that includes personality traits [1, 4, 15]. Each researcher reports the concept of emotional intelligence and various components. The definition of emotional intelligence in major preceding studies is shown in Table 1.

Researcher	Perspective	Details
Mayer and Salovey [13]	Competency model	The ability to accurately evaluate and express one’s own and others’ emotions, the ability to effectively regulate one’s own and others’ emotions, and the ability to use and utilize emotions to achieve one’s own life
Goleman [4]	Mixed model	Ability to recognize one’s own and others’ emotions, to motivate oneself, and to deal with one’s own and others’ emotions
Mayer and Salovey [14]	Competency model	The ability to accurately recognize, evaluate, and express emotions, the ability to promote thinking through emotions, the ability to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and the ability to regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth
Bar-on [15]	Mixed model	The ability to respond appropriately to the demands and pressures of the environment, including non-cognitive abilities, talents, and skills
Wong and Law [16]	Competency model	The ability to perceive, evaluate, and express one’s emotions, the ability to promote thinking through emotions, the ability to understand emotions, and the ability to control emotions for emotional and intellectual growth
Moon [17]	Competency model	The ability of mental processes to evaluate and express one’s own emotions of others, to regulate emotions, and to use emotions in a socially adaptive way

Table 1.

Definitions of emotional intelligence.

First, from the perspective of the competency model, Salovey and Mayer [13] conceptualized the term Emotional Intelligence for the first time. Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to accurately evaluate and express one’s own and others’ emotions, the ability to effectively regulate one’s own and others’ emotions, and the ability to use and utilize emotions to plan and achieve one’s life. In addition, this definition explains emotions as emotional abilities and sets up three processes that include emotional processes. Thus, the initial concept of emotional intelligence is significant in that it highlighted the aspect of emotional intelligence. However, along with criticism on issues such as discrimination from general intelligence and connectivity between components, it was also argued that the concepts of social intelligence and emotional intelligence are not very different [9, 14]. In addition, there was criticism that the concept of emotional intelligence and the ambiguity of its components were not included, as well as the thinking part for emotion [1, 9].

To compensate for these limitations, Mayer and Salovey [14] presented a clearer and more robust concept of emotional intelligence. In other words, emotional intelligence is the ability to accurately recognize, evaluate, and express emotions, the ability to promote thinking through emotions, the ability to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and the ability to regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth. It was defined as the ability to do things [7]. In addition, they proposed an emotional intelligence system consisting of four domains of emotional intelligence and four abilities in each domain.

In a similar context, from the perspective of the competency model, Wong and Law [16] defined emotional intelligence as the ability to accurately perceive, evaluate, and express one’s emotions, the ability to promote thinking through emotion, the ability to understand emotional knowledge, and emotional intelligence. · It was defined as the ability to control emotions for intellectual growth. In addition, based on the concept of emotional intelligence defined by Mayer and Salovey [14], emotional intelligence was composed of self-emotional recognition, recognition of others’ emotions, emotional regulation, and emotional utilization.

Meanwhile, from the viewpoint of the mixed model, Goleman [4] defined emotional intelligence as a concept that includes talent and personality traits. Accordingly, emotional intelligence was defined as the ability to recognize one’s own and others’ emotions, motivate oneself, and handle one’s own and others’ emotions well [4]. In addition, he consisted of self-emotional recognition, emotional recognition of others, motivation, emotional regulation, and interpersonal skills as components of emotional intelligence. Accordingly, emotional intelligence was viewed as five domains that recognize one’s own emotions and those of others, motivate oneself, and regulate emotions in relationships with others [4]. Goleman also divided emotional intelligence into personal competence and social competence. Personal competence includes self-awareness and self-emotional regulation, and social competence includes empathy and social skills [18]. This can be seen as extending emotional intelligence to motivation, other talents, or personality traits. In addition, compared to Salovey and Mayer’s [13] emotional intelligence, emotional recognition and emotional utilization are similar, but their characteristics are that they have been extended to the ability to motivate oneself for one’s own goals.

In a similar perspective, Bar-on [15] defined emotional intelligence as a set of non-cognitive abilities, talents, and skills as the ability to respond appropriately to environmental demands and pressures [15]. In addition, Bar-on integrated factors for social and practical intelligence into emotional intelligence. These concepts include intrapersonal skills, interpersonal skills, adaptability, stress management, and general mood. In addition, problem solving, flexibility, and responsibility necessary for social success are included in each subdomain. Specifically, personal skills include emotional self-awareness, self-assertion, self-realization, and independence; interpersonal skills include relationships with others, responsibility, and empathy; adaptability includes problem-solving skills, reality testing, and flexibility; and stress control includes stress Perseverance, control, and general mood consist of happiness and optimism. Therefore, even in the case of Bar-On [15], it can be seen as a mixed model that integrates various psychological factors, including intellectual ability and personality characteristics.

However, the concept definition of the mixed model, including Goleman, made the concept of emotional intelligence rather ambiguous as it failed to provide a basis for distinguishing emotional intelligence from personality traits [9]. Accordingly, Goleman [4] mixed almost all characteristics except IQ, and is evaluated as similar to personality characteristics. Also, compared to Salovey and Mayer [13], there is a difference in that the emphasis on the cognitive aspect of emotional intelligence is weak [19]. Therefore, although Goleman’s concept contributed greatly to popularization, it has been criticized for obscuring the distinction from existing psychological variables by overly interpreting emotional intelligence as motivation or personality type.

Meanwhile, research on emotional intelligence is being conducted in Korea through various scholars. Representatively, Moon [11] conducted a study to derive characteristics of emotional intelligence suitable for Koreans by examining the components of emotional intelligence based on the emotional intelligence model presented by Salovey and Mayer [14]. Based on this, it was emphasized that emotional intelligence is not a simple psychological characteristic but an ability that operates as a cognitive processing process through conceptualization through each subdomain of emotional intelligence [9]. In addition, through this study, Moon Yong-Rin [20, 21] more clearly divided the sub-domains included in the components of emotional intelligence and modeled them into 16 elements in 4 areas and 4 levels. He also asserted that she establishes hierarchies and levels between these competencies and that each component constitutes an organizational structure (see Table 2).

Field		Level
Field I	Recognition and expression of emotions	[Level 1] Understanding one’s own emotions; [Level 2] Understanding emotions outside of oneself; [Level 3] Express emotions accurately; [Level 4] Distinguishing expressed emotions
Field II	Emotional thinking promotion	[Level 1] Prioritize thinking using emotional information; [Level 2] Using emotions to judge and remember; [Level 3] Taking various perspectives using emotions; [Level 4] Utilizing emotion to facilitate problem solving
Field III	Use of emotional knowledge	[Level 1] Understanding and naming the relationship between subtle emotions; [Level 2] Interpreting the meaning contained in emotion; [Level 3] Understanding complex and complex emotions; [Level 4] Understanding the transition between emotions
Field IV	Reflective regulation of emotions	[Level 1] Accepting both positive and negative emotions; [Level 2] Keep a distance from your emotions or look reflectively; [Level 3] Reflectively look into emotions in the relationship between oneself and others; [Level 4] Control one’s own and others’ emotions

Table 2.

16-factor model of 4 domains and 4 levels of emotional intelligence.

Source: Moon [21].

Meanwhile, efforts are being made in Korea to specify the concept of emotional intelligence and prepare a theoretical framework [11, 17, 20]. Looking at the definitions of various scholars, Hwang, Lee, and Jeon [22] referred to the definitions of Mayer and Salovey [14] and found that the ability to evaluate and express one’s own and others’ emotions, the ability to effectively control one’s own and others’ emotions, It was defined as the ability to know how to use those emotions to plan and achieve one’s life.

Kang and Ha [23] defined it as the ability to understand and express one’s own emotions, to recognize and understand the emotions of others, and to efficiently utilize and control emotions. Han et al. [24] defined it as the ability to understand, control, and utilize the emotions of oneself and others in various situations based on the research of Wong and Law [16]. Based on the definition of Goleman [4], intelligence was defined as the ability to understand one’s own emotions, the ability to regulate emotions, the ability to self-motivate through emotions, the ability to understand others’ emotions, and the ability to control interpersonal relationships. It was defined as the ability to understand the emotions of oneself and others in situations, and to control and utilize one’s own emotions.

Park [25] defined it as “the ability to recognize one’s own emotions and adjust and utilize them in relationships with others and the ability to recognize the emotions of others and utilize them efficiently”, Kim and Yang [26] defined it as “the ability of a learner to control and regulate emotions through understanding their own emotions, and to express and adapt emotions well in a given situation to smoothly solve interpersonal problems.”

In a similar context, Kim [27] reviewed the concept of emotional intelligence and analyzed the application of emotional intelligence to educational situations. Through this study, Kim [27] identified emotional intelligence as the ability to perceive emotions, induce and evaluate emotions to support thinking, the ability to grasp the meaning of one’s own emotions related to general emotions, and good emotions. It was defined as the ability to regulate emotions that lead to thinking. In addition, he suggested that the study of emotional intelligence and learners’ academic achievement and social performance would be an important task in the future.

In addition, Lee and Lee [28] conceptualized four factors: emotional perception, emotional thinking promotion, emotional understanding, and emotional regulation based on the emotional intelligence system presented by Salovey and Mayer [14]. They developed an emotional intelligence scale for young children through research trends in emotional intelligence. Through this, it was found that the emotional intelligence score increased as the child’s age increased. In addition, it was emphasized that the sub-factor of emotional intelligence is emotional ability, which is different from the mixed model that approaches personality traits.

In addition, studies that conceptualized the definition of emotional intelligence based on the competency model of Salovey and Mayer [14] are as follows. First, Jung and Kim [29] conceptualized emotional intelligence as emotional evaluation and expression of oneself and others, emotional regulation, and emotional utilization. Lee and Jeong [30] defined it as the ability to understand and control the emotions of oneself and others as a positive emotional tendency possessed by humans. Park [25] viewed her ability to recognize her own emotions in her relationships with others, and to control and utilize them. In addition, Hwang and his colleagues [22], and Kim and Kim [31] defined various concepts and factors constituting it.

On the other hand, research on emotional intelligence was also conducted, focusing on the mixed model. Representatively, through the relationship between emotional intelligence and career decision-making self-efficacy, Yoo and Lee [32] confirmed the important role of emotional intelligence in career decision-making self-efficacy of college students. Based on this, they defined emotional intelligence as the ability to accurately perceive and recognize other people’s emotions and express them appropriately, the ability to effectively adjust emotions to improve one’s life, and the ability to pursue goals through motivation [32]. Through this, the sub-elements of self-emotional recognition, self-emotional regulation, self-motivation, recognition of others’ emotions, and interpersonal relationship suggested by Goleman [4] were presented.

In addition, there are studies that have analyzed the concept and components of emotional intelligence by combining the competency model and the mixed model. First, Lee and Lee [33] presented various evidence on the reliability and validity of the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS) developed by Salovey et al. [34]. Through this, they found that the sub-factors of TMMS were excellent, and through this, Salovey and Mayer’s emotional intelligence theory was valid. It was conceptualized as the degree to which one pays attention to one’s feelings, the degree to which one clearly experiences such feelings, and the degree of belief that can end a negative emotional state and sustain a positive emotional state. In addition, Kim and Kim [2] developed an emotional intelligence scale for teachers that can be used in the field of early childhood education based on the emotional intelligence of Salovey and Mayer [13] and Goleman [4]. Accordingly, they suggested six factors, including self-emotional use, others’ emotional awareness, self-emotional awareness, emotional regulation and impulse suppression, relationship with teacher, and relationship with peers, in consideration of developmental characteristics of young children.

Summarizing the above, it can be confirmed that most domestic studies conceptualize emotional intelligence based on Salovey and Mayer’s [13] emotional intelligence theory and Goleman’s [4] emotional intelligence theory. However, in the case of the mixed model applying Goleman’s [4] emotional intelligence theory, it has been consistently argued that it is difficult to distinguish the concept of emotional intelligence from other concepts, including not only emotional abilities but also other personal characteristics [1, 10, 35, 36]. This is because the cognitive aspect, a key factor, may be overlooked due to the extended interpretation of emotional intelligence [37].

2.3 Emotional intelligence’ related variables and studies

In general, emotions are known to have a positive effect on creativity [38]. Because joy, relaxation, laughter, and enthusiasm have a positive effect on creativity, stable emotions are a precursor to creativity. In particular, intrinsic motivation is important for the expression of creativity [39], and positive emotions promote divergent thinking. Therefore, emotional disorders can be an obstacle to creativity. Radford [40] said that the effectiveness of creativity depends on emotion. Creativity is a complex information processing process within a special concept. At this time, emotions effectively guide creativity by simplifying or removing certain information or inducing other intuitive information by unconsciously performing emotional reflection [41].

In addition, Radford said that when creativity, a complex information processing process, challenges the realm of perception, there is a risk of falling into reckless danger, and what can guide creativity at this time is a high level of emotional harmony. Creativity should be guided by being assimilated with emotion. Averill and Nualley [42] newly defined the term emotional creativity by linking emotion and creativity [38]. Emotional creativity, based on the perspective of social constructivism, means to refine, and express emotion in a new and unique way, away from traditional and standard methods. Therefore, emotion can be a creative result by a new and unique way of expressing oneself. Therefore, it can be seen that emotion interacts with divergent thinking and leads to innovative thinking and re-creation [43]. In addition, emotional disorders, intrinsic motivation, emotional reflection, emotional coordination, and high-level expression of emotions mentioned above are all linked to emotional intelligence [41].

In particular, Morgan, Ponticell, and Gordon [44] said that creativity education programs should be applied as emotional education programs, and emotional education means emotional intelligence. Given the many theoretical claims that emotional intelligence has a positive effect on creativity [45]. The theoretical relationship between emotional intelligence and creativity has been proven through empirical research.

Academic achievement is the degree to which educational goals have been achieved through teaching and learning. Academic achievement is made up of interactions among learners, professors, and environmental variables, but IQ has been mentioned as an important factor [46]. However, emotional intelligence has recently been identified as an important variable affecting academic achievement. Although high-intensity emotions can interfere with cognitive processes, it is generally suggested that emotion affects cognition of complex and ambiguous tasks [47] and plays a key role in neurological thinking and judgment [4]. Also, ability emotional intelligence is mentioned as having a close relationship with school dropout as well as academic outcomes. Therefore, the factor of emotional intelligence must be introduced into the curriculum, and there must be a customized program linking academic and emotional intelligence [48], and emotional intelligence in the area of academic achievement evaluation. Empirical studies are also being presented in Korea. It was suggested that Salovey and Mayer’s emotional intelligence [20] had a significant correlation with academic achievement [41].

Park et al. [49] reports that emotional intelligence is effective for school adjustment of specialized vocational high school students. Cho [50] found that the gifted students with high emotional appraisal and emotional regulation abilities felt less stress in their school lives. He also showed gifted students’ emotional appraisal and emotional utilization were important predictors for their employment of more adaptive stress coping behaviors including problem solving and seeking for support. All these results were interpreted to suggest for the need to promote for improving the aspects of emotional intelligence in order to help the gifted students get adjusted more fully to their school lives.

Jun and Jung [5] analyzed the emotional status of college students in South Korea by gender and economic life level and suggested. The mean of positive psychological factors (M = 2.83) was higher than that of negative psychological factors (M = 1.96). In positive psychological factors, self-esteem with a value of 2.95 was the highest, followed by life satisfaction with 2.85, ego-resilience with 2.84, and self-identity with 2.67. In negative psychological factors, social withdrawal with a score of 2.20 was the highest, followed by attention deficit with 2.05, depression with 1.81, and aggression with 1.78 (Table 3).

Classification	Variables	No.	Minimum score	Maximum score	Mean	SD
Positive emotions	Self-esteem	1220	1.40	4.00	2.95	.43
	Ego-resilience	1220	1.50	4.00	2.84	.38
	Self-identity	1220	1.38	4.00	2.67	.40
	Life satisfaction	1220	1.00	4.00	2.85	.55
Negative emotions	Attention deficit	1220	1.00	3.71	2.05	.50
	Aggression	1220	1.00	3.67	1.78	.51
	Depression	1220	1.00	3.70	1.81	.52
	Social withdrawal	1220	1.00	4.00	2.20	.70

Table 3.

Descriptive statistics of emotional variables of college students.

3. Discussions and conclusions

Emotional intelligence is gaining importance as a new concept for strengthening students’ character in the critical consciousness of fostering selfish talent in the Korean society where competition for entrance exams is fierce. In Korea, emotional intelligence is based on the concept and components proposed by John Mayer and Peter Salovey [14], and the model proposed by Professor Moon Yong-Rin [9]. Therefore, it can be said that in Korea, the competency and cognitive model of emotional intelligence are mostly accepted rather than the mixed model based on Goleman [4]. In the case of the mixed model applying Goleman’s [4] emotional intelligence theory, it has been consistently argued that it is difficult to distinguish the concept of emotional intelligence from other concepts, including not only emotional abilities but also other personal characteristics [36].

Most of the Korean tools for measuring emotional intelligence, as well as the concept of emotional intelligence, are translations of foreign scales. In Korea, Moon Yong-rin’s scale is most commonly used, which is also based on Peter and Salovy’s scale. Moon Yong-rin’s scale is modified and used according to the research subjects, such as infants, elementary school students, middle school students, high school students, college students, and adults, so it is necessary to develop a specialized emotional intelligence scale for each subject.

Choi Hae-yeon and Choi Jong-an [51] extracted factors of positive and negative emotions, focusing on key keywords that can express Korean emotions according to the need to understand the emotional structure of Koreans. As a result of factor analysis of emotional experience report data of 250 college students and office workers, five positive emotions “affection”, “achievement”, “amusement”, “relaxedness”, and “gratitude” were extracted, whereas negative emotion consisted of seven factors, such as “sadness”, “anger”, “anxiety”, “jealousy”, “guilty”, “boredom”, and “unclassified distress”. As such, it is hoped that studies on Korean emotions and their measurement will be conducted more actively in the future so that the unique emotional structure of Koreans can be identified and such emotional intelligence can be measured.