In-Depth Relationships between Emotional Intelligence and Personality Traits in Meditation Practitioners.
Soo-Hee Choi, Seung Chan An, Ul Soon Lee, Je-Yeon Yun, Joon Hwan Jang, Do‐hyung Kang
Clinical Psychopharmacology and Neuroscience November 1, 2018 DOI: 10.9758/cpn.2018.16.4.391 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Cross-sectional comparative study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 134 |
| Population | 72 long-term practitioners of mind-body training and 62 healthy comparison individuals |
| Measures | emotional intelligence questionnaire, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Personality Intuition Emotional intelligence Mind-body training |
| Key findings | Long-term mind-body training practitioners scored higher than comparison participants on all five emotional intelligence factors and on the MBTI intuitive perceiving and feeling judging functions. Only among practitioners was higher emotional intelligence related to higher intuition scores, which the authors interpret as evidence that emotional intelligence in meditators is linked to particular personality traits. |
Abstract
Objective: Meditation can elicit trait-like changes in psychological and social styles, as well as enhancement of emotional regulatory capacity. We investigated the relation between personality traits and emotional intelligence in meditation practitioners.
Methods: Seventy-two long-term practitioners of mind-body training (MBT) and 62 healthy comparative individuals participated in the study. The participants completed emotional intelligence questionnaires and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).
Results: The MBT group revealed higher scores on all five emotional intelligence factors than did those in the control group, such as emotional awareness and expression, empathy, emotional thinking, emotional application, and emotional regulation (all p≤0.001). MBT practitioners also had higher scores on the intuition of perceiving function (t =-2.635, p =0.010) and on the feeling of the judging function (t =-3.340, p =0.001) of the MBTI compared with those in the control group. Only the MBT group showed a robust relationship with every factor of emotional intelligence and MBTI-defined intuitive styles, indicating that higher scores of emotional intelligence were related to higher scores for intuition.
Conclusion: Emotional intelligence of meditation practitioners showed notable relationships with some features of personality trait. In-depth associations between emotional intelligence and personality traits would help to foster psychological functions in meditation practitioners.
Comparable studies
Other cross-sectional and survey studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construct Validity of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire in Meditating and Nonmeditating Samples Experienced meditators and nonmeditating comparison groups | 2008 | Cross-sectional study | |
| Neural Correlates of Dispositional Mindfulness During Affect Labeling Adult participants | 2007 | Observational cross-sectional | n = 27 |
| Assessing mindfulness in children and adolescents: Development and validation of the Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure (CAMM). School-aged children and adolescents | 2011 | Cross-sectional validation study | n = 1,413 |
| Mindfulness and self-compassion as predictors of psychological wellbeing in long-term meditators and matched nonmeditators Experienced meditators and demographically matched nonmeditators | 2012 | Cross-sectional study | n = 152 |
| Mechanisms of Action in the Inverse Relationship Between Mindfulness and Psychological Distress Undergraduates | 2008 | Cross-sectional, correlational |
Citations in the library
Cited by 2
- A cross‐sectional study on the relationship between meditation training and emotional intelligence in women Nursing Open November 27, 2020
- Three months-longitudinal changes in relative telomere length, blood chemistries, and self-report questionnaires in meditation practitioners compared to novice individuals during midlife Medicine October 14, 2022
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