EXPLORING THE LINK AMONG EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE, LATERALITY AND REACTION TIME

Abstract

The present study aims to understand the relationship between emotions and brain laterality. The study empirically investigate the potential link between emotional intelligence, laterality quotient, reaction time, and self-efficacy levels with sex of participant, age of participant, valence of emotion in stimuli, and sex of stimuli as moderators. Brain lateralization was assessed in the study using laterality quotient and reaction time. Further, the relationship between emotional intelligence, its components and brain lateralization with moderators under observation is explored. The validity of hemispheric hypotheses- right hemisphere hypothesis and valence hypothesis is also evaluated. The study determines the pattern of laterality quotient and the reaction time (index for behavioural processing of facial emotion). The linkage of reaction time with emotional intelligence and laterality quotient is also explored. The relation of self-efficacy with laterality and emotion is analysed. Since processing of perception of emotional expression is a highly lateralized process, a free vision chimeric face test is conducted for lateralization of brain (left and right hemisphere dominance) with respect to emotions. The chimeric face test by Levy, Heller, Banich and Burton (1983) which measures lateralization in processing positive facial emotions by presenting vertically split chimeric faces, formed with one half showing a neutral expression and the other half showing a positive expression, has been used as the basic platform to build a novel software for the present study. A software for facial expression test is developed in this study using APACHE 2.4 platform in PHP 5.2 based application in i-7, 5th generation Intel core. The lateralization of brain is measured using a facial expression test with the use of designed software application, which had male and female faces reflecting four emotions- happy, sad, anger and fear- used as stimuli in the present study. The study thus relied on four facial emotions as experimental tool with designed software using the logic of Levy et al. (1983) stimuli for perception of emotions. The emotional intelligence score is measured using Genos Emotional Intelligence test by Palmer, Stough, Harmer and Gignac (2009) and the significance of the brain lateralization on emotions and its impact on employee at a workplace is observed. Also, self-efficacy level is measured using general self-efficacy test by Schwarzer and Jerusalem (2004), a revised version of Schwarzer and Jerusalem (1995). The sample data on 323 adult employees at managerial and technical level is collected in the laboratory settings from laterality experiment using designed software, and the questionnaire is filled by the participants. The preliminary analysis of responses is done using descriptive and significance testing, and links between different aspects are investigated using binomial-logistic, multinomial-logistic, multivariate and ordinary least ii square regression analysis. The key findings of the study reveal that higher emotional intelligence displays stronger right hemisphere dominance. Further, males tend to be more lateralized than females with right hemisphere advantage, and validate the existence of the right hemisphere hypothesis in the sampled participants. The laterality quotient displays influence due to the valence of emotion in stimuli, but not due to age of the participants. It is observed that the emotions ‘happy’, ‘anger’, and ‘fear’ displayed right hemisphere dominance and ‘sad’ exhibited left hemisphere dominance. The study thus indicates the relationship between emotional intelligence and brain laterality. Further, the results suggest that emotional intelligence explains reaction time in processing emotions significantly, with lesser reaction time required in perceiving positive emotions in stimuli than negative emotions, faster processing for same sex stimuli (stimuli and participants), and for younger participants perceiving emotions faster than older participants. Finally, emotional intelligence impacts selfefficacy level of the participant positively. On the whole, the brain lateralization among Indian employees exhibited different patterns with respect to observed variables and moderators, stating the presence of specialization of hemisphere of the brain, and hemispheric dominance in perception of emotions. With certain limitations to the present study, the potential links are found between emotional intelligence, laterality quotient, reaction time and self-efficacy levels. The findings of the study provides a platform for the studies intersecting between these variables, and tries to depict the interdependence and links among different behavioural constructs to understand the human behaviour holistically.