THE MEDIATING EFFECT OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE ON THE BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS AND THE BIG SIX VOCATIONAL INTERESTS

"A central theme in the present study is the assumption that the influence on the human behavior is mediated by different internal processes in the career choice. Emotional intelligence is defined as a variable which is a cause for the relationship between personality traits and the choice of a certain career. Three causal paths to the dependent variable were tracked – a path to the direct impact of the emotional intelligence on the career choice, a path to the influence of personality traits on the emotional intelligence as well as a path to the impact of personality traits on the career choice via the emotional intelligence. The aim of the study is to show the mediating role of emotional intelligence in the relationship between personality traits and career choice. A total of 100 Bulgarian secondary and university students (42 males and 58 females), aged 17-40 years, were included in the research. The following measures were used for the purpose of the study - Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire – Short Form (TEIQue-SF), The Big five questionnaire and the Big six method for career choices. The Bulgarian version of the emotional intelligence questionnaire was translated and adapted for Bulgarian sociocultural context by Antonina Kardasheva (Kardasheva, 2012). The Big five questionnaire and the Big six method for career choices were adapted for Bulgarian conditions by S. Karabelyova (Karabelyova, 2015). The results showed that there was a direct positive impact of the emotional intelligence on the relationship between the enterprising type and conscientiousness, the artistic type and neuroticism and a negative impact on the relationship between the conventional type and extraversion. The conclusions derived from the study could be used for further psychological research in the field, as well as for enhancing the knowledge of one’s personality."