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Emotional Intelligence and Aggression among

University Students of Pakistan: A Correlational
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A. Bibi, A. Saleem, M. Adnan Khalid & N. Shafique

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JOURNAL OF AGGRESSION, MALTREATMENT & TRAUMA
https://doi.org/10.1080/10926771.2019.1709592

Emotional Intelligence and Aggression among University

Students of Pakistan: A Correlational Study
A. Bibia,b, A. Saleema, M. Adnan Khalidc, and N. Shafiqued
a
Department of Psychology, National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, Pakistan; bMental
Health Research and Treatment Center, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum,
Germany; cInstitute for Sport Sciences and Psychology, Westfälische Wilhelm Universitat, Munster,
Germany; dDepartment of Psychology, Foundation University, Islamabad, Pakistan

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

The present study aims at examining the relationship between Received 11 August 2018
emotional intelligence and aggression and investigating gender Revised 8 October 2019
differences for both variables. A sample of 100 University students Accepted 14 December 2019
(50 males and 50 females) were recruited from two adjacent cities KEYWORDS
of Pakistan. Emotional Intelligence (EI) of participants was mea- Emotional intelligence;
sured by the Emotional Intelligence Scale, whereas Aggression aggression; gender
Scale was used to measure aggression level. Results indicated differences; university
a negative association between emotional intelligence and aggres- students; Pakistan
sion (r = − 0.34, p < .001) specifically with hostility and anger
subscale of aggression (p < .001). Moreover, no significant gender
differences were observed for emotional intelligence (p > .001) and
aggression except for the physical aggression subscale on which
male students scored higher as compared to female students
(p < .05). Results suggest that emotional intelligence could be
a protective factor against specific aspects of aggression.
Therefore, appropriate management programs should be devel-
oped to enhance the different dimensions of emotional intelli-
gence inhibiting aggressive behavior.

Mental health problems pose a significant challenge for university students of

Pakistan. Previous studies have suggested higher prevalence of mental dis-
orders, bullying, and suicide among Pakistani students in comparison to
other countries (Bibi, Blackwell, & Margraf, 2019; Saleem, Mahmood, &
Naz, 2013), due to different challenging situations such as academic stress,
relationship problems, financial issues, political turmoil, and uncertain career
goals. Among several kinds of psychological difficulties experienced by uni-
versity students, one of the significant experiential challenges is aggressive
behavior.
World Health Organization (WHO | First Ever Global Report on Violence
and Health Released, 2010) reported that aggressive behavior causes the
death of 1.6 million people around the globe. Every year people aged
15–44 years die as a result of being victims of aggression worldwide,

CONTACT A. Bibi saher.psychologist@gmail.com Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Faculty of
Psychology, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Massenbergstraße 9-13, Bochum 44787, Germany
© 2019 Taylor & Francis
2 A. BIBI ET AL.

accounting for 14% of deaths among males and 7% of deaths among females.
Aggression is any form of behavior which aimed at injuring or harming other
individuals (Anderson & Bushman, 2002) and it can be direct or indirect.
Direct aggression can be physical as well as verbal and intend to have
a straight adverse influence on others. Indirect aggression implicitly harms
others, such as spreading rumors, gossips, rejecting the target from social
networks (Björkqvist, 2001). Subsequently, it has a damaging influence on
the mental and physical health of the victim as well as of the aggressors.
Individuals with higher levels of aggression are more likely to experience
emotional instability (Moffitt, 2006; Ostrov & Godleski, 2009; Piquero,
Daigle, Gibson, Piquero, & Tibbetts, 2007), difficulty in sleeping, initiating
the work (Cava, Buelga, Musitu, & Murgui, 2010; Crick & Bigbee, 1998;
O’Moore & Kirkham, 2001) and experiencing joblessness and poor marital
satisfaction (Alsaker & Olweus, 2002; Coccaro, Noblett, & McCloskey, 2009).
Strong effects of aggression on mental health and psychosocial adjustment
stressed on the need to identify the factors that can enhance or reduce
aggressive behavior.
To prevent and manage aggressive behaviors, understanding and recogniz-
ing of the causal and protective factors is very crucial. Emotional Intelligence
(EI) has appeared as a viably related concept (Brackett, Mayer, & Warner,
2004), which includes several abilities mostly understanding, analyzing and
regulating emotions (Mayer & Salovey, 1997). Despite the evidence of EI
association between aggression and psychological variables such as empathy,
personality traits and bullying (Buck, Leenaars, Emmelkamp, & van Marle,
2012; Grieve & Panebianco, 2013), only few studies have investigated the
relation of EI with aggression (Anderson & Bushman, 2002; Wilson & Lipsey,
2007). EI has been conceptualized mainly from two theoretical approaches,
i.e., mental ability or a trait ability. Mental ability supports the adaptive use of
emotions as part of our reasoning processes and is assessed in the form of
maximum performance (Mayer, Salovey, Caruso, & Sitarenios, 2003).
On the other hand, trait EI is defined as a personality trait which is character-
ized by the ability to manage one’s emotions and is also assessed by self-reported
inventories. Higher levels of EI supports the individual’s learning, academic
achievements, accomplishments, and well-being (Wong, Wong, & Chau, 2001),
whereas lower EI is a factor that can increase the likelihood of aggression
(García-Sancho, Salguero, & Fernández-Berrocal, 2014). Individuals who exhibit
different forms of aggressive behaviors conceivably lack the ability to regulate
their negative emotions and are more likely to experience aggression (Peled &
Moretti, 2007). This ability is associated with emotional intelligence that affects
the progress of competent social behaviors (Mayer, Roberts, & Barsade, 2008).
Mayer and Salovey (1997) considered EI as a kind of intelligence enable indivi-
duals in coping with problems and successful adjustment with the environment.
 JOURNAL OF AGGRESSION, MALTREATMENT & TRAUMA 3

Thus, it is evident that people who are better able to understand, perceive, and
manage their own emotions as well as of others are possibly better adjusted
(Mayer et al., 2008), have useful social functions, and quality of social relations.
On the other hand, the lower level of EI is negatively associated with conflicted
social relationships and negative interactions (Brackett, Rivers, & Salovey, 2011).
Several studies indicated strong evidence of a negative association
between EI and aggression irrespective of ages, indicators, and populations
in the sample of adults as well as adolescents (Denson, 2013; Denson,
Pedersen, Friese, Hahm, & Roberts, 2011; García-Sancho et al., 2014;
García-Sancho, Salguero, & Fernández-Berrocal, 2015, 2016; Liau, Liau,
Teoh, & Liau, 2003). García-Sancho et al. (2014) identified 19 related studies
in a systematic review; among these eighteen studies reported that people
with low EI display hostile and aggressive behavior in all the cultures such as
United Kingdom, United States, Spain, Malaysia, Canada, Australia, and
China . Similarly, in an experiment by Cohn, Jakupcak, Seibert,
Hildebrandt, and Zeichner (2010), it was also found that emotional dysre-
gulation (specifically less emotional awareness and clarity) was positively
correlated with verbal aggression. Moreover, Sullivan, Helms, Kliewer, and
Goodman (2010) also reported that difficulty in managing sadness and anger
is related to the use of relational and physical aggression respectively
(Lemerise & Arsenio, 2000).
Gender roles may also play a crucial part in the development of EI and
aggression mechanisms. Generally, males are assumed to display more
aggressive behavior than females (Hughes, 2015; Kruttschnitt, 1994).
Evolutionary researchers reported that young women less frequently exhibit
injurious aggression in comparison to young males, even in highly compe-
titive situations (Campbell, 2013). Björkqvist (2018) investigated gender
differences in aggression and reported that girls exhibit more indirect aggres-
sion, whereas boys show more physical aggression, but both are equally
verbally aggressive. Mental illness and gender norms are also tied mainly to
poor emotional regulation resulted into psychological as well as physical
problems. Previous studies have shown very inconsistent results regarding
gender differences in EI among male and female students. In line with it,
Karim and Weisz (2010) compared the EI of French and Pakistani students
and found that female students significantly scored higher on the EI as
compared to male students within each sample. Likewise, girls are more
emotionally intelligent as compared to boys (Das & Tripathy, 2015; Katyal
& Awasthi, 2005; Liang & Dunn, 2002), and have higher abilities of empathy,
interpersonal relationships and social responsibilities in comparison to boys.
Thus, culture has enormous impact in the understanding of the emotional
processing and manifestation of aggression (Bergeron & Schneider, 2005;
Bond, 2004; Forbes, Zhang, Doroszewicz, & Haas, 2009). It significantly
moderates the relationship between EI and mental illness, such as depression
4 A. BIBI ET AL.

(Fernández-Berrocal, Salovey, Vera, Extremera, & Ramos, 2005). In addition,

most of the researches have been done in western cultures, and very few
studies have investigated the association between EI and aggression in east-
ern countries specifically in the cultural context of Pakistan which is
a collectivistic society. Where male dominance is considered a symbol of
power and female tend to suppress. Due to gender-specific roles, the woman
should be more considerate, compromising, and obedient members of the
family in all aspects of their lives. On the other hand, males are expected to
be more aggressive and abusive as it indicates their supremacy and mascu-
linity. Thus, the current study significantly highlight the association of EI and
aggression among the Pakistani student population.
Despite the increase of aggression tendencies in student’s population
alarmingly (Lochman, Powell, Clanton, & McElroy, 2006), it has been rarely
investigated in the educational setup of Pakistan. Previous studies have
investigated the relationship between EI and self-esteem (Bibi, Saqlain, &
Mussawar, 2016), religious orientation, and mental health (Butt, 2014)
among university students. To our best knowledge, only one study has
examined the relationship between EI and aggression among Pakistani col-
lege students aged 18 to 24 years (Masum & Khan, 2014) and reported
a negative association between EI and aggression. Keeping in view the
cultural background of Pakistan, and rapidly increasing aggression among
university students, we attempted to investigate the association between EI
and aggression and inspected gender differences. Accordingly, we hypothe-
sized that (a) EI is negatively correlated with aggression among university
students in Pakistan (b) Age, gender, education, and EI predict aggression
among university students in Pakistan (c) There are significant gender
differences with respect to EI and aggression among Pakistani university
students.

Method
Participants
In the current study, a non-probability convenience sampling technique was
applied for data collection. One hundred university students 50 males, and 50
females were recruited from different universities of Rawalpindi and
Islamabad, because we attempted to have comparable groups in terms of
a number of males and females students to investigate gender differences in
aggression and EI. Inclusion criteria included informed consent, age ranged
between 18 to 35 years and had no previous psychiatric history. Due to
limited resources, we could not improve the sample size. Participants were
selected irrespective of their semester, discipline, and marital status.
Demographic characteristics of participants presented in Table 1.
 JOURNAL OF AGGRESSION, MALTREATMENT & TRAUMA 5

Table 1. Demographic variables of participants.

Variables Frequency (n) Percentage (%)
Age(Years)
18–21 47 45.6%
22–25 53 51.5%
Range (18–50)
Gender
Male 50 48.5%
Female 50 48.5%
Marital Status
Single 89 86.4%
Married 11 10.7%
Education
Bachelor 50 48.5%
Masters 50 48.5%

Instruments
Both scales applied in the current study have validated English versions.
English is an official language in Pakistan as well as medium of instruction
is also English in Pakistani Universities; therefore, language was not assumed
to be a problem. In the current study, the following scales were used to
collect data.

Demographic Data
Demographic data was collected in terms of gender, age, education, and
marital status.

Emotional Intelligence Scale (Schutte et al., 1998)

motional intelligence scale was applied to assess the EI of participants such
as; Perception of Emotion (e.g., I find it hard to understand the non-verbal
messages of other people), Managing Own Emotions (e.g., “When I am faced
with obstacles, I remember times I faced similar obstacles and overcame
them”), Managing Others’ Emotions (e.g., “I know when to speak about
personal problems to others”), and Utilization of Emotion (e.g., Some of
the major events of my life have led me to reevaluate what is important and
not necessary). It consists of 33 items rated on five-point Likert scale ranging
from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Higher scores indicate higher
EI. In our sample, the internal consistency of EI scale was 0.74 (Acceptable).

Aggression Scale (Buss & Perry, 1992)

Aggression level of the participants was assessed by using Aggression scale. It
has four dimensions, for instance, Physical aggression (“If I have to resort to
violence to protect my rights, I will”), Verbal aggression (“I tell my friends
openly when I disagree with them”), Anger (“Some of my friends think I am
a hothead”) and Hostility (“When people are especially nice to me, I wonder
6 A. BIBI ET AL.

what they want”). It consists of 29 items, which are rated on 7-point Likert
scale ranging from 1 (extremely uncharacteristic of me) to 7(extremely char-
acteristics of me). Higher scores indicate a higher level of aggression. In our
sample, the internal consistency of the aggression scale was 0.75
(Acceptable).

Procedure
The ethical approval was sorted from the Ethical Committee of National
University of Modern Languages Islamabad, Pakistan (NUML). Permission
was granted from higher authorities of universities to allow their students to
participate in the study. Fifty males and fifty female students were selected for
the study. Students were approached in their free time. Participants were told
about informed consent, volunteerism, and anonymity of data. Nature of the
study was explained to them. After taking permission, they were presented with
questionnaires and encouraged to ask questions in case of any ambiguity.

Data analysis
Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24 was applied for the
analysis of the current study. Descriptive characteristics were tabulated for
study variables. Spearman’s Rank-order correlation used to investigate the
relationship between EI and aggression. Multiple linear regression was used
to predict aggressiveness as a dependent variable and age, gender, EI as
independent variables. MANOVA was used to investigate gender differences
in EI and aggression among university students.

Results
There were no missing data. The total score of measure of EI scale was
obtained by adding all 33 items, while for aggression subscales, the items of
each subscale scored individually.

Descriptive analyses
Analysis of skewness and kurtosis showed that all investigated variables have
a normal distribution. None of them showed higher values than cutoff values.
The internal consistency for both the scales was also acceptable. However, the
reliability of subscales of aggression was unacceptable ranging from .42 to .56
(see Table 2).
 JOURNAL OF AGGRESSION, MALTREATMENT & TRAUMA 7

Table 2. Descriptive statistics mean, standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis, and reliability of
emotional intelligence, aggression, physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger, and hostility.
Mean SD Minimum Maximum Skewness Kurtosis Alpha
Emotional Intelligence 119.54 16.15 85.00 165.00 .302 .146 .744
Aggression 109.89 19.96 59.00 180.00 .212 1.446 .753
Physical Aggression 34.34 7.80 19.00 54.00 .127 −.280 .514
Verbal Aggression 20.75 5.57 9.00 35.00 −.067 −.560 .424
Anger 26.35 7.35 11.00 44.00 .274 −.154 .558
Hostility 28.4500 7.11433 12.00 48.00 .141 1.074 .532
N = 100; M = Mean; SD = Standard Deviation; Min = Minimum; Max = Maximum; Skew = Skewness,
Kurt = Kurtosis, α = Cronbach’s.

Correlation
Results indicated a negative association between EI and aggression (r = − 0.34,
p < .001), specifically Hostility and Anger subscales of aggression (p < .001),
whereas there was no significant association between EI and Physical and Verbal
aggression among university students (see Table 3).

Multiple linear regression

Before the multilinear regression analysis assumption of the regression ana-
lysis was assessed. The statistical analysis related to collinearity and multi-
variate outliers were evaluated by examining the Tolerance/variance Inflation
factors, Cook’s D values and residual plots (Clark-Carter, 2009; Fox, 2015),
indicating no violation of the assumption for multiple regression analysis.
Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that higher levels of EI predict
lower levels of aggression R2 = .15, F (4, 95) = 4.015, p < .001 (see Table 4),
whereas demographic variables such as age, education, marital status did not
predict aggression.

Gender differences
The assumptions of the MANOVA analysis, such as equality of variance and
univariate outliers, were assessed by testing the Box’s M test and
Mahalanobis Distances (Cohen, 2008; McLachlan, 2004), indicating no viola-
tion of assumptions of MANOVA analysis. MANOVA was applied to

Table 3. Correlations between emotional intelligence and aggression.

Aggression Physical Aggression Verbal Aggression Anger Hostility
Emotional Intelligence −.342** .188 .124 −.263** −.386**
Aggression .756** .562** .801** .710**
Physical Aggression .318** .488** .273**
Verbal Aggression .221* .217*
Anger .506**
Hostility
N = 100, **p < .001.
8 A. BIBI ET AL.

Table 4. Multiple linear regression analyzes with age, gender, education, and emotional intelli-
gence as independent variables and aggression as dependent variables.
R2 ß Std. Error 95%Cl p
Aggression .15
Age .097 4.571 [−1.142;12.461] .398
Gender −.063 4.523 [−4.986;-8.616] .582
Education −.208 4.835 [1.684;15.997] .091
Emotional Intelligence −.367 .127 [.116;.405] .001
N = 100, ß = standardized coefficient beta; CI = confidence interval.

Table 5. Gender comparisons of emotional intelligence, aggression among male and female
uuniversity students.
Male Female
M SD M SD F P
Emotional Intelligence 122.44 14.494 116.64 17.31 3.300 .072
Aggression 111.12 17.66 108.66 22.14 .377 .540
Physical Aggression 35.96 7.47 32.72 7.86 4.468 .037
Verbal Aggression 19.92 5.48 21.58 5.59 2.252 .137
Anger 26.40 6.81 26.30 7.93 .005 .946
Hostility 28.84 7.05 28.06 7.22 .298 .586
N = 100; N = 1323; MANOVA = multivariate analysis of variance; M= Mean; sd = Standard Deviation;
p = significance.

examine whether male and female university students differ on EI and

aggression. We performed Wilks’ Lambda test which showed significant
results F (5, 94) = 2.99, p < .05. A significant effect of gender was found on
physical aggression, indicating that male university students experience more
physical aggression than female students (see Table 5).

Discussion
The current study aimed at investigating the association between EI and
aggression among young Pakistani adults. Results indicated that EI is nega-
tively associated with the anger and hostility subscales of aggression
(García-Sancho et al., 2014; Liau et al., 2003; Masum & Khan, 2014). There
is a possible explanation that individuals who are unable to understand the
other’s emotions, erroneously attribute the hostility to others expressions and
are more likely to react angrily due to their maladaptive emotional percep-
tion. Failure to regulate strong emotions possibly makes individuals annoyed
during the evaluation of psychological conditions or decision making. Under
such circumstances, their adaptive reactions get inadequate, and they are
more likely to respond aggressively and angrily (Defoe, 2016).
Existing literature has established an association between maladaptive emo-
tional control and aggressive behavior in addition to challenging control of
anger (Cohn et al., 2010; Sullivan et al., 2010). People with higher EI are more
 JOURNAL OF AGGRESSION, MALTREATMENT & TRAUMA 9

likely to control their feelings (Lopes et al., 2004) and negative emotions
effectively as compared to people with a lower level of EI due to their ability to
understand their feelings as well as of others. On the contrary, individuals with
a low level of EI are more likely to experience different kinds of aggressive
behaviors such as shouting, pushes, and offensive humor, physical, and sexual
abuse. It is essential to realize that the negative association between EI and
aggressive behavior not only exist in normal population but also exist in
imprisoned people for illicit aggression (García-Sancho et al., 2014).
In contrast to previous studies, no significant association were observed
between EI, physical and verbal aspects of aggression in the current study
(Moriarty, Stough, Tidmarsh, Eger, & Dennison, 2001; Petrides, Sangareau,
Furnham, & Frederickson, 2006; Siu, 2009). It indicates that Pakistani stu-
dents experience physical and verbal aggression irrespective of their ability of
emotional regulation. Though previous studies have established an associa-
tion between EI, physical and verbal aggression (García-Sancho et al., 2014),
but the precise underlying mechanism of this association is unidentified.
Future studies should investigate this mechanism in detail. EI and aggression
are equally multidimensional concepts that cover various dimensions.
A thorough understanding of these mechanisms would help in designing
prevention and intervention programs for controlling the aggression.
We also investigated whether gender, age, education, and EI predicts
aggression among university students. Results indicated that EI significantly
predicted aggression, whereas demographic variables, age, gender, and edu-
cation did not significantly predict aggression. It shows that EI significantly
influences aggression, however, students experience aggression regardless of
their age, gender and education, indicating university students of all age
groups, of both genders and educational level experience the same level of
aggression. Consistent with our results, Abdoli, Rezaie, and Sani (2008)
examined the “predictive effect of EI on anger and aggressiveness” of soccer
players in Iran. They reported that EI significantly predicts aggression and
confirmed the negative association between EI and aggression. Although our
results are not consistent with the study conducted by Perepjolkina and
Reņģe (2011), they reported that age, being male and annual mileage predict
aggressiveness among car drivers.
Moreover, we also investigated gender differences in aggression and EI.
Consistent with previous studies, no gender differences were observed in both
variables (Björkqvist, 2018; Das & Tripathy, 2015; Khan, Iqbal, Tariq, & Zedah,
2006). It could be because male and female university students are attaining
education equally in higher institutions and have equal approach to different
opportunities. Therefore, they have no differences in emotional regulation as
well as in the expressions of aggression. However, physical aggression was
found to be higher among male university students in comparison to female
students. It could be due to cultural and social setup of Pakistan, where females
10 A. BIBI ET AL.

are not expected to display aggression in physical form, instead expected to

express aggression in more indirect and socially acceptable ways like hostility
and rumors (Björkqvist, 2018; Das & Tripathy, 2015).
Similarly, Pakistani girls are expected to be politer, compassionate and
unreceptive in comparison to male gender (Bibi, Kalim, & Khalid, 2018).
On the other hand, boys are encouraged to be more aggressive as consid-
ered necessary for their masculine image. However, both genders equally
express their aggression verbally. The findings of the current study dis-
cussed in the light of the cultural background of Pakistan; therefore these
results should be interpreted with caution. The Theory of EI argue that
people with higher EI have positive social interaction and can adjust in
environment successfully (Brackett et al., 2011; Mayer et al., 2008); conse-
quently, they are less likely to experience aggressive behavior. The role of
emotional regulation in aggression across various cultures is evident in
existing literature (Denson, 2013; Denson et al., 2011; García-Sancho
et al., 2014, 2015, 2016; Liau et al., 2003). In line with previous studies,
the current study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by indicat-
ing gender differences in EI and aggression among the student population
of Pakistan.
These findings can significantly help mental health professionals to
develop the youth anger management plans. The integration of EI in these
anger management plans could bring noteworthy benefits to the social and
quality of life of university students. EI programs aim at enhancing emotional
skills, i.e., recognizing, understanding, communicating, and handling emo-
tions, and both intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships. The sessions of
EI programs include brief lectures, role-playing, mini-group work, and dis-
cussions, etc. Precisely, training programs on emotional regulations might
help the students in regulating their emotions concerning interpersonal
relationships by reducing their angry feelings. Yilmaz (2009) utilized the EI
program with three months follow up and found significant reduction in
anger. According to Gross, assertiveness, communication skills and inter-
personal emotion regulation strategies were used through role modeling and
real examples were significant for men. While, analyzing the antecendent of
anger and to confront the situation through distraction is most useful to
manage the psychological effects of anger among women. Thus, the anger
management plan is to think alternative ways of interpreting the situation,
and response modulation encourage the person to talk about the problems
with his social network.
Despite strengths, this study also has some limitations. Firstly, the cross-
sectional research design used in this study did not allow to establish a causal
association between EI and aggression; therefore, future studies should use
longitudinal research design to confirm current findings. Secondly, the sample
size was small and recruited from a few cities of Pakistan which reduces its
 JOURNAL OF AGGRESSION, MALTREATMENT & TRAUMA 11

generalization; therefore future studies should use a bigger sample size for
generalization of findings. Given the small sample size, the results of the current
study should be interpretative cautiously. Thirdly, we collected data by using
self-report instruments, which may lead to desirable responses. Future studies
should conduct experiments and use qualitative research design for an in-depth
evaluation of EI and aggression. Thirdly, we did not measure other variables
that may have contributed to the association between EI and aggression such as
coping strategies, personality traits and parenting styles should also be taken
into consideration. Inspite of these limitations, our study contributed signifi-
cantly to the understanding of the association between EI and aggression
among university students of a nonwestern cultural of Pakistan and thus have
implications for the management of aggression in educational settings.

Conclusion
EI was found to be associated with hostility and anger aspects of aggression.
Besides, we did not find gender differences except for physical aggression.
Results highlight the significance of EI and psychosocial consequences of
aggression. Increased awareness of variables that are associated with aggression
leads to a better understanding of this mechanism, planning prevention and
intervention plans. The purpose would be to work on such characteristics
which enhance the emotional regulation and inhibit the aggressive tendencies
of individuals (Castillo, Salguero, Fernández-Berrocal, & Balluerka, 2013).

Acknowledgments
Special thanks to our students of International Islamic University, Pakistan, and the National
University of Modern Language Islamabad for all the support and motivation.

Disclosure of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical standards and informed consent

Permission from the Institute Ethics Committee of NUML Islamabad was obtained before
this study.

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