Personality Characteristics and Emotional Intelligence Levels of Millenials: A Study in Turkish Context

Abstract

IntroductionEmotions can be explained by psysiological changes in the body, cognitions, learning processes, personality, social relations, experiences, psychological conditions, cultural practices, and are grounded in daily life (Strongman, 2003). Emotional intelligence is described as monitoring and evaluating one's own emotions, monitoring and evaluating emotions of others, regulating and using them (Hartel, et al. 2005). Whereas, cognitive intelligence is associated with the factual information about people, things, events, time, and place, emotional intelligence deals with the antecedents and mutual relations between these aspects of life (Terrell & Hughes, 2008). Personality can be defined as distinctive and stable ways of behavior (Ewen, 2010). Emotions and personality are known to be intertwined with each other. Some researches in the field (e.g. Caruso et al., 2002; Ghiabi & Besharat, 2011) have revealed that, there are significant relations between personality dimensions and emotional intelligence dimensions. This study aims to search this relation on millenials. Twenge (2009) discussed that the generation a person belongs to, can be slightly more influence on the person than his/her family. She added that it is essential to recognize the own realities of each and every generation within various contexts (Twenge, 2009). Millenials in Istanbul, Turkey are subjects of this research. However; the findings may be relevant in other cultures's generations within the limitations of specific historical, social, and economic conditions.Theoretical BackgroundAssesment of PersonalityPersonality has been studied thoroughly throughout the years and researchers have stated theories about personality. The psychodynamic perspective explains the effect of the unconscious, below the surface on the structure and development of personality, whereas the humanistic perspective underlines the positive human nature and self-actualizing capability on the structure and development of personality. The trait approach emphasizes the effect of conscious, above the surface and behavior patterns on the structure and development of personality, whereas the behaviorist theory focuses on the effect of environment and learning in shaping personality. Cognitive approach emphasizes the effect of mental processes on the structure and development of personality (Ewen, 2010). Although these approaches have some commonalities in themes such as unconscious, psychopathology, etc., they explain these themes and personality in different ways which may complement each other. In this study the contribution of trait approach to personality and Roger's, one of the well known names of humanistic approach, with his Q-sort test, and the contribution of behaviorist approach with its emphasis of the environment on human behavior, specifically from the cohort's effect on personality characteristics of millenials can be understood. However, the contributions of psychodynamic perspective and cognitive perspective are not excluded in the sense that although they can not be measured in this research, they implicitly exist.Related with trait approach, many researchers in the field have searched for the personality factors and their measures. Especially the measure of Big Five that is composed of five factors, namely, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness is accepted as valid and reliable in various cultures (McCrea and Costa, 1997). Personality dimensions show disposition to coherent patterns of thoughts, feelings, and actions (McCrae, 2002). Revised Neo Personality Inventory assesses six specific lower level traits (facets) for each of the five function spheres or combinations of subset of attributes (domains), has been widely used (Costa & McCrae, 1995). Extraversion refers to being highly active, social and having positive feelings. Openness to experience represents the tendency to develop oneself in intellectual ways and to experience new ideas, things, people, etc. …