Premium
Emotional Intelligence in the Interior Design Context
Author(s) -
Webber Steven B.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of interior design
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.229
H-Index - 13
eISSN - 1939-1668
pISSN - 1071-7641
DOI - 10.1111/joid.12103
Subject(s) - internship , emotional intelligence , psychology , context (archaeology) , conversation , test (biology) , sight , burnout , applied psychology , social psychology , pedagogy , medical education , medicine , paleontology , clinical psychology , physics , communication , astronomy , biology
ABSTRACT This study seeks to initiate the emotional intelligence ( EI ) conversation within the context of interior design (ID) education and practice by expanding the body of knowledge in relation to ID students' EI and to place these observations in context with the EI of other university students. This study involved two aspects of research, an original component spanning two years that studied the EI of ID students utilizing the 33‐item self‐report Assessing Emotions Scale (Schutte, Malouff, Hall, Haggerty, Cooper, Golden, & Dornheim, 1998) and, secondly, a comparison of ID students' test scores with ten other existing studies of college students. The findings demonstrated that ID students possess a statistically higher level of EI than their university student counterparts. The possibilities for future research involving EI and ID are numerous, with significant potential impact in the areas of design thinking, design process, project and personnel management, job satisfaction, perceived job control, job commitment, entrepreneurism, stress management and burnout, internship development, and possibly gender differences. EI training could be of particular interest to both educators and practitioners alike as they seek to train the next generation of leading designers. For educators, EI could prove particularly important as they seek to prepare students for the realities of entry‐level design positions as well as set their sights on long‐term leadership positions where they will be expected to manage multiple disciplines, people, and projects simultaneously. For practitioners, understanding of EI can provide insight regarding leadership and team dynamics in addition to becoming aware of the potential differences in EI between disciplines.