A comparison between emotional intelligence and marital satisfaction, and their structural relation among discordant and well-adjusted couples in Sari, Iran

Background and Particular attention is paid to relation between emotion and cognition and complementary aspects of them has found a new dimention in both theorethical and practical domains which introduced by a concept called "Emotional Intelligence" (EI). An important aspect of this subject is to survey the relation between EI and marital adjustment (satisfaction). The purpose of this study was to determine the levels of EI and marital satisfaction, and their correlation among discordant and well-adjusted couples. This study was a descriptive-analytical research designed to compare the levels of EI and marital satisfaction and relation between them in two groups of discordant (25) and well-adjusted (25) married couples. All subjects completed EQ-i, ENRICH, and a demographic sheet. Statistical analysis were done by ANOVA, Tukey and Pearson,s correlation coefficient (r) using SPSS-10 program. A significant difference was between EI and marital satisfaction and their component scores among discordant and well adjusted couples. Moreover, there was only a significant relation between EI and marital satisfaction of the well adjusted couples, this was also observed in well adjusted wives and husbands scores. This project demonstrated the relation between EI and marital satisfaction as well as the different levels of them in both groups of discordant and satisfied couples. Also, the study indicated that the EI competencies are a basic and efficacient construct for improving the quality of satisfied marital relationships. Therefore, considering the efficacy and role of EI in the domain of interpersonal and marital relationships, it may aid to resolve or eliminate the problems of discordant couples.