emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, psychological well-being and ...

European Journal of Educational Studies 2(3), 2010
Participants
The participants were 242 students (male =140 (57.85%), female = 102 (42.15%)) randomly selected from a college
of education in Kwara State, Nigeria. The mean of age the sample was 27.30 years (S.D. = 6.35).
Measures
Trait Emotional Intelligence Scale by Law, Wong and Song (2004) known as Wong and Law EI Scale (WLEIS).The
WLEIS is a 16-item scale consisting of 4 sections: Self emotions appraisal, others emotions appraisal, Use of
emotions and regulations of emotions. It adopted a 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree= 1, to
strongly agree= 5. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the sections range from .72 to .89 for this study.
Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES) developed by Schwarzer and Jerusalem (1995). The GSES is a 10-item
scale that assessed self-efficacy based on personality disposition. It is measured on a 4-item Likert scale ranging
from 1= Not at all true to 4= Exactly true. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of GSES range from 75 to 90 for this
study.
Life satisfaction: Life satisfaction was measured by means of life satisfaction scale by Khramtsova et al. (2007). It
consists of 24 items that asked participants to rate their satisfaction with various aspects of their life (e.g. material
well-being, family, having a purpose in life etc). On a 5-pointa Likert scale ranging from 0= not satisfied to 4=
completely satisfied. The items formed a composite measure of life satisfaction with a Cronbach’s alpha of .92. For
this study, the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was .90.
Depression: Depressive symptoms were assessed with a 20-item Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale
(CES-D; Radloff, 1977). The items of the CES-D scale asked about the ways the respondents have felt or behaved
during the past week (e.g. I felt bothered by things that usually don’t bother me). CES-D adopted a four –point
Likert-type scale that ranged between 0= None of the time to 3= All of the time. Higher scores indicate greater
reported symptoms of depression. For this study, the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was .87.
Happiness: The Lyubomirsky’s Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS, Lymbomirsky & Lepper, 1999) is a 4-item scale
of global or enduring happiness. It measures global Oren during happiness using a seven-point scale ranging from 1
= not at all to 7= a great deal. For this study, the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.82.
Student Behaviours and Attitudes: Student Behaviours and Attitudes Scale consist of 15 items that measure basic
classroom behaviours and attitudes. It uses a seven-point scale that ranged from 1= absolutely disagree to 7=
absolutely agree. The scale was based on Illiina’s Motivation for Learning Instrument published by Illiin (2000).
Students were asked how much they agreed or disagreed with the statements about their attitudes toward classes and
about common behaviours. The scale consists of three variables named intrinsic motivation (6 items) with factor
loading ranging from .43 to .74; self-discipline (4 items), with factor loadings ranging from .65 to .74; and respect
for college professors (2 items) with factor loading ranging from .81 to .82. For this study, the Cronbach’s alpha
coefficient for the whole scale was 0.83.
Procedure
The participants were administered the questionnaires which consisted of the measures described above in their
college. Informed consents of the students and the college authorities were obtained. Of the 300 questionnaires, 250
were returned and 242 were properly filled and were used for data analysis.
250