European Journal of Dental Education ISSN 1396-5883

Emotional intelligence of Pedodontics and Preventive

Dentistry postgraduate students in India
D. J. Bhaskar1, D. S. Aruna2, G. Rajesh3, M. Suganna4 and M. Suvarna5
1
Department of Public Health Dentistry, Teerthankar Mahaveer Dental College & Research Centre, Moradabad
2
I.T.S Dental College, Hospital and Research Centre, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh,
3
Department of Public Health Dentistry, Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal University, Mangalore, Karnataka
4
Department of Prosthodontics, Vananchal Dental College & Hospital, Garhwa, Jharkhand
5
Department of Education, St. Chavra BED College, Ballarpur, Maharashtra, India

Keywords Abstract
emotional intelligence; Indian context;
Paedodontics and Preventive dentistry
postgraduate dental students. Introduction: Whilst the corporate world seems to have embraced the concept of
emotional intelligence (EI) as a predictor of worker success, its role in the dental pro-
Correspondence fession needs to be explored; this study provides an Indian context. Hence, the EI of
D. S. Aruna postgraduate (PG) students of Paedodontics and Preventive Dentistry was assessed.
Department of Public Health Dentistry
I.T.S. Dental College, Hospital and Research
Centre
Aims: To measure EI amongst Paedodontics PG students in India, to assess any gen-
47, Knowledge Park-3 der differences in EI and associated dimensions amongst them.
Greater Noida-201308
Uttar Pradesh Materials and methods: A total of 300 PG students from various dental institutions
India across India participating in their specialty national conference at I.T.S. Centre for
Tel: +91 96327 68311
Dental Studies and Research, Muradnagar, were included. EI was measured by the
E-mail: arunads_samay@yahoo.com
inventory developed by Singh (2004), based on Goleman’s model (1998).

Accepted: 6 March 2012
doi:10.1111/j.1600-0579.2012.00750.x
Results: Overall, 240 questionnaires (80% response rate) were completed by 142 male
and 98 female PG students and analysed. Results showed that 19% and 58% of the
respondents had very high and high EI scores, respectively. None of the students had
poor or very poor scores. Results indicated that both males and females had high EI
scores of 230.4 (±10.38) and 222.6 (±12.04), respectively. However, males had higher
scores for dimensions of self-awareness (P < 0.01), social awareness (P < 0.01) and
social skills (P < 0.001) than their female counterparts.

Conclusions: Both male and female paedodontic postgraduate students in India had
high EI scores. This study provides valuable baseline information on EI in an Indian
context.

school of emotional learning, although society might play a sig-

Introduction
India is a classical Asian country known for its diversity in cul-
ture, language and income. The value that communities place
on relationship is an important factor that unifies this diverse
nation. Indians, as a part of collective society, call for the con-
stant presence of loved ones, especially in extended families
with greater emotional dependence. Communities learn to
interpret emotions as an intellectual exercise, rather than an
emotional response (1). Family is considered to be the first
nificant role in shaping emotions amongst Indians (2).
The roots of emotional intelligence (EI) can be traced back
to Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences (3) and Thorn-
dike’s theory of social intelligence (4). The concept of EI was
further defined in the mid-90s by Mayer and Salovey (5, 6).
Goleman popularised the concept of EI and generated great
interest worldwide with his books, published in 1995 and 1998
(2, 7). Goleman’s main premise that EI predicts life success
gained further momentum in global organisations and paved

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Emotional intelligence in postgraduates
the way for investigations on the possible role of emotions as
an intra-personal catalyst.
EI has been described as ‘reasoning which takes emotions
into account’ (6). It has been defined as, ‘A form of intelligence
that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feel-
ings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this
information to guide one’s thinking and actions’ (5). EI is cur-
rently viewed as a form of pure intelligence of cognitive ability.
This concept of EI suggests that people can reason about emo-
tions and can use emotions to assist reasoning (7). Healthcare
professionals including dentists, hospital staff and patients all
bring important emotions to the work place. EI might signifi-
cantly determine whether those emotions enhance the practice
or lead to interpersonal conflicts.
Dentistry has been acknowledged as being one of the most
challenging, demanding and stressful fields of study. Dental stu-
dents are expected to acquire academic, clinical and interper-
sonal skills (8, 9). A study conducted by Pau and Croucher
(10) amongst dental undergraduates in the UK indicated that
students with higher EI scores had lower perceived stress scores.
Further research is required to explore the relationship between
EI, perceived stress and outcome measures such as improved
academic performance and patient satisfaction.
Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry is one of the disci-
plines in dentistry, which deals with various aspects related to
the oral health of children. Successful performance of quality
dental treatment safely and efficiently and fostering positive
dental attitudes in the child entails appropriate use of emo-
tional skills in addition to technical skills. Higher EI amongst
postgraduate students in Paedodontics and Preventive Dentistry
would enable them to use their emotional skills appropriately
to build and nurture powerful relationships within the dental
team and also with the child and their parents. The potential
role of EI amongst dental professionals in behaviour guidance
of the child patient, ensuring trust, alleviating fear and anxiety
needs to be explored further.
Studies have shown that students with low EI scores
reported higher perceived stress and were more likely to
engage in health-damaging behaviours such as smoking and
social withdrawal (10, 11). In India, dental students are nei-
ther assessed for their EI before their admission to dental
school nor do they undergo any specific education in this per-
spective. Thus, unidentified dental students with low EI and
their inability to cope with standards of dental education may
be a cause of concern regarding the quality of future dental
workforce.
Besides being relevant to the Indian context, EI may be
developed and improved over time, along with the conven-
tional set of skills amongst dental professionals. This highlights
the need for baseline assessment of EI amongst dental students.
The opportunity to obtain a maximum representative sample
of Paedodontics and Preventive Dentistry postgraduate students
from various dental institutes across India at their National
Conference venue directed us to conduct this study.
Aims
To measure the EI of postgraduate students in Paedodontics
and Preventive Dentistry.
2 ª 2012 John Wiley & Sons A/S
Bhaskar et al.
To assess any gender differences in EI and its associated dimen-
sions amongst the study group.
Materials and methods
A cross-sectional, self-completed, closed-ended questionnaire
survey in English was conducted to assess EI on a convenience
sample of Paedodontics and Preventive Dentistry postgraduate
student participants registered for their 3-day specialty National
conference. The study was conducted in November 2009. The
postgraduate students from the full 3-year Master of Dental
Surgery programme were included. Approval from institutional
ethics committees was obtained to conduct the study. PG stu-
dents were approached whilst they were registering for the con-
ference at the conference venue. A researcher explained to the
students the purpose of the survey and assured them of confi-
dentiality. Respondents were administered a questionnaire in a
separate hall at the conference venue during free periods
between scientific sessions to avoid contamination of the study
results.
The Emotional Intelligence Inventory developed by Shailen-
dra Singh (2004), which is based on Goleman’s (1998) model
of EI, was employed (12). This inventory has a total of 60
questions and includes only positively worded items measured
on five-point rating scale, strongly agree (SA), agree (A), uncer-
tain (U), disagree (DA) and strongly disagree (SDA). The EI
Inventory attempts to measure five core dimensions of EI
namely self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, social aware-
ness (empathy) and social skills (7) and contains 12 items for
each of these domains. The dimension of self-awareness was
assessed by items ‘I am able to identify my feelings’, ‘I have
learned a lot about myself through my feelings and emotions’
and ‘I understand the reason for my moods’. Those that assess
self-regulation included ‘When I have a problem that creates
undue tension, I try to relax and gain a feeling of tranquillity
so that I can re-evaluate things’ and ‘When I face a problem I
focus on what I can do to solve it’. Items pertaining to motiva-
tion included ‘I constantly try to improve my performance’
and ‘I set challenging goals for myself and strive to achieve
them’. Social awareness or empathy was assessed by items
‘People don’t have to tell me what they feel, I can sense it’ and
‘I listen to the feelings of people whilst they are talking’. Social
skills were evaluated by items ‘I am able to read the needs of
the hour and influence people through my initiative’ and ‘I am
able to put across my message effectively’.
For each core dimension, the highest response score would
be 60. EI totals were derived by summing up the item
responses in each of the five core dimensions. The possible
range of scores for total EI scores was 60–300. Based on the
range of calculated scores, the study subjects were categorised
having very poor EI for total EI scores of 60–109, poor EI for
110–158, average EI for 159–207, high EI for 208–256 and very
high EI for 257–300. Demographic questions included gender,
age, place and name of the dental school/institute of the
respondents.
The results were subjected to statistical analysis by applying
descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. Means and
standard deviations were determined for EI scores of individu-
als for each dimensions of EI and were used to compare with
Bhaskar et al. Emotional intelligence in postgraduates

the gender. Student’s (unpaired) t-test was used for two group TABLE 2. Comparison of emotional intelligence scores among men and
comparisons like gender difference in mean EI scores and in women in the study population
each of five dimensions of EI. The level of significance was
Number of
fixed at 5%. All the data analysis was performed on intercooled
Gender study subjects Mean SD ‘t’ P-value
STATA 9.2 (StataCorp LP, College Station, Texas, USA).
Male 142 230.4 10.38 5.3573 0.0000*
Female 98 222.6 12.04
Results
A total of 240 completely filled and returned questionnaires *Significant at 0.1% level of significance.
were included for analysis, equivalent to an 80% response rate.
The age of the study population ranged from 24 to 34 years TABLE 3. Comparison of five dimensions of emotional intelligence (EI)
and comprised of 142 men (59%) and 98 women (41%). according to gender
Table 1 shows the categorisation of study subjects as those with Females (98)
very high, high, average, poor and very poor EI, based on their Males (142)
EI scores. Results of this study indicate that the EI total scores Dimensions
of the study subjects ranged from average to very high, with of EI Mean SD Mean SD ‘t ’ P-value
majority of 58% of the respondents having high EI scores, fol-
Self-awareness 50 7.7 47.4 5.7 2.8467 0.0048*
lowed by 23% having average EI and 19% having very high EI.
Self-regulation 53 6.5 53 4.8 0.0519 0.9586
Gender-wise analysis shown in Table 2 indicates that both
Motivation 42 7.8 44 8.2 )1.9119 0.0571
males and females had high EI scores. Intergroup analysis Social 45 6.5 42 8 3.1952 0.0016*
revealed that mean EI score of men (230.4) was significantly awareness
higher than that of women (222.6) at P = 0.0000. Table 3 sum- Social skills 40 8.3 36.02 8.4 3.6335 0.0003**
marises comparison of scores on each of the five dimensions of
EI according to gender. The unpaired t-test showed statistically *Significant at 1% level of significance.
significant difference between male and female study group. **Significant at 0.1% level of significance.
Men were superior to women on self-awareness (P < 0.01),
social awareness (P < 0.01) and social skills (P < 0.001) dimen- Dentistry has become an increasingly popular career option
sions of EI. for women. This is revealed in this study (comprising of 41%
female participants). The expansion of the number of women
in dentistry has been one of the major dental workforce trends
Discussion
of recent decades (13). Any gender differences in EI might be
Postgraduate students in Paedodontics and Preventive Dentistry reflected in the provision of oral health care in India. Diener
engage in education pertaining to the behavioural aspects of and Lucas’s Universalist approach to emotions assumes that
children with special needs, besides use of advanced oral emotional experience is a basic human characteristic that does
healthcare techniques. They also learn to make their child not vary substantially across cultures (14). However, Ghorbani
patients feel comfortable, thus ensuring that they have a pleas- et al. (15) reported that not all emotions are seen as desirable
ant experience at the dental clinic. This might entail under- across cultures; very often emotions determine individual
standing the emotions of patients and their parents, which behaviour, decision-making styles and even relationships being
might be reflected in the construct termed EI. inseparable from individuals.
The findings from a follow-up study by Pau and Croucher Petrides et al. (16) have reported higher EI scores amongst
(11) indicate that students with higher EI were more likely to men, whilst Austin et al. (17) have reported that women had
adopt reflection and appraisal, social and intra-personal, orga- higher EI scores. The results of the present study indicate that
nizational and time management skills, which are crucial for a both men and women had high EI scores. This indicates that
successful career. Similar inferences may hold good for a overall, female respondents were as emotionally intelligent as
majority of 58% of the respondents with high EI and the 19% their male counterparts in this study population. Common
who showed very high EI. However, further studies are related background characteristics like cultural values and
required to substantiate the same. norms, similar upbringing, experiences during their formative

TABLE 1 Description of categories of emotional

intelligence in the study population Range of Number
Sl No Description of categories scores of students %

1 Very high emotional intelligence 257–300 45 19

2 High emotional intelligence 208–256 140 58
3 Average emotional intelligence 159–207 55 23
4 Poor emotional intelligence 110–158 – –
5 Very poor emotional intelligence 60–109 – –
Total 240 100

ª 2012 John Wiley & Sons A/S 3

Emotional intelligence in postgraduates
years might have contributed considerably to this finding. It is
also interesting to note that men had higher scores for dimen-
sions of self-awareness, social awareness and social skills. This
may indicate that they may have slightly different EI capabilities
as compared to that of the women in this study population.
Further studies are essential to shed more light on this finding.
Prior research on gender difference in EI based on self-
reported Emotion Quotient Inventory (EQ-i) Bar-On has
shown that men and women do not seem to differ in their
overall EI scores. However, there is evidence that women and
men may differ in specific competences (18). Several hypothe-
ses have been put forward to account for gender differences in
EI scores. Researchers have indicated that biological variations
and differences in early childhood socialisation in same sex
playgroups, including fulfilment of culturally prescribed gender
role expectations might be the primary reasons. According to
Cross and Madson (19), the differences in interpersonal pro-
cesses and motives of men and women may also be related to
types of self-outlines (e.g. independent vs. interdependent) that
tend to be held by men and women as a group.
The five dimensions of EI based on Goleman’s (7) model of
EI are compared and discussed for their relevance in dentistry
apart from gender differences in the study group. Bar-On
reported that men and women differed on specific competenc-
es, like women did score significantly higher on empathy, inter-
personal relationships and social responsibility, whilst men
scored higher on self-actualisation, assertiveness, stress toler-
ance, impulse control and adaptability (18). Male students had
higher scores on self-awareness dimension, which indicates that
they were better able to recognise their internal states and per-
sonal abilities than their female counterparts.
There were no differences in the dimensions of self-regula-
tion and motivation amongst the two genders. Male and female
postgraduate students had similar competences like impulse
control, stress tolerance, adaptability and creativity. Pankey’s
study of EQ on dentists demonstrated that dentists with good
reality testing skills can recognise staff conflict for what it is
and are positioned to develop a strategic response conducive
towards harmonious environment in the dental office (20).
Motivation refers to emotional factors that help one to reach
their goals. Male and female students in our study had similar
key competences like achievement drive, commitment, taking
initiative and being optimistic. This would help them to see
possibilities of hope that pessimists miss more often in today’s
competitive world.
Social awareness/empathy refers to awareness of the feelings
and needs of others. Key competences in this dimension of EI
are the ability to understand and empathise with others, devel-
oping other related competences, having a service orientation,
leveraging diversity and being politically aware. Leveraging
diversity refers to cultivating opportunities through different
kinds of people, to understand, respect diverse rules and envi-
ronment so as to feel from their point of view. This might con-
tribute significantly towards the study subjects empathising
with the feelings of individuals belonging to different socio-cul-
tural backgrounds.
Studies have shown that demonstration of empathy by den-
tists has been correlated with decreased dental fear (21, 22),
improved treatment success and cooperation in paediatric
4 ª 2012 John Wiley & Sons A/S
Bhaskar et al.
patients (23, 24), thus leading to increased patient satisfaction
(21, 25). Investigators have reported greater female representa-
tion in paediatric dentistry, for example, in Israel (26, 27). This
could be because of the traditional belief that treating a child
patient requires tenderness, empathy, caring and other related
qualities that woman are more likely to possess than men. The
results of this study are not in agreement with this particular
belief as male respondents had higher scores in empathy
dimension of EI than their female counterparts.
Social skills comprise a diverse skill set used to induce desir-
able responses in others. Skills include items relating to leader-
ship, influence, communication skill, change catalyst and team,
and collaboration. Poor communication by the dentist, despite
having sound didactic knowledge and technical skills, is the
most common cause of patient dissatisfaction in dental practice
(24, 25). On the contrary, the dentist with good social skills
can establish communication effectively with anxious patient
and influence them towards healthy behaviour, especially in
paediatric dentistry, perhaps. This in turn reduces child patient
anxiety and improves patient adherence to dental recommenda-
tions leading to improved patient and dentist satisfaction (23–
25). Results of meta-analysis conducted by Eagly and Johnson
(28) indicate that women have better social skills and can be
described as being friendlier, more pleasant and socially sensi-
tive leaders compared with men.
Tandon et al. have highlighted barriers to leadership posi-
tions for Indian women in academic dentistry. This includes
family commitments and having a career graph that is less
impressive than that of their husband’s, irrespective of their
potential to. (29).
Limitations of the study
The study group EI was assessed on a self-report scale, which
can be considered accurate only if an individual’s self-concept
is precise. Besides, they are prone to response biases, for
instance, social desirability effects, which may result in exagger-
ated responses, faking (deviation) and acquiescence biases
influencing the study results. Previous studies have revealed
that men tend to have higher self-reported EI scores compared
with their subsequent performance, whereas just the opposite
was observed amongst female respondents (30). The same may
be true for the respondents of this study as well, with men hav-
ing higher scores than women for three EI dimensions. This
limitation can be overcome by combining self-reported mea-
sures with peer assessment (31). Previous investigators have
indicated that there is a need to clearly define the origin and
nature of EI, followed by devising valid measures that measure
EI (32). There is a definite need to carry out further research
that aid in defining and measuring EI in the Indian context.
Conclusions and recommendations
This study provides valuable baseline information on EI of
Paedodontics and Preventive Dentistry postgraduate students in
India. Emotional intelligence of both males and females were in
the range of high EI scores. However, male students achieved
greater scores in terms of self-awareness, social awareness and
the social skill dimensions of EI. Instilling positive attitude
Bhaskar et al.
towards oral health in childhood by an emotionally intelligent
paediatric dentist during dental visits can be a pivotal aspect in
dental public health.
EI can contribute substantially to dental education by lower
stress and service-centred working environments, which can be
conducive for better learning. The role of EI in amalgamation
of clinical competence and a service-oriented approach is wor-
thy of further exploration.
Although this study was cross-sectional in nature, it provides
insights to future research on the role of EI in stress, outcome
measures like academic performance, habits like tobacco and
alcohol use, etc. within dental education in India. The present
study suggests an open approach regarding the implications
that EI might have on dental education and oral health care of
the individual and community.
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