Date of Submission

Fall 2021

Academic Program

Psychology

Project Advisor 1

Thomas Hutcheon

Abstract/Artist's Statement

College is an important time for growth and self-discovery, as many prospective students have spent their entire childhood living at home with their parents and siblings. Choosing a major can be a daunting task, especially for those who have not given themselves the time and space to consider what academic and career areas interest them. The present study investigates whether emotional intelligence is associated with major identification and major satisfaction. Additionally, I investigated whether the “acting with awareness” subscale from the Five-Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) explains the relationship between trait emotional intelligence and major satisfaction as well as the extent to which one identifies with one’s major. Participants were current college students who completed a survey on Qualtrics assessing trait EI, “acting with awareness,” major satisfaction, and major identification, as well as demographic characteristics. As hypothesized, levels of emotional intelligence positively correlated with higher levels of major satisfaction and identification with the major, along with other key variables measured in the study. Though strong correlations are observed between acting with awareness and emotional intelligence in the sample, the tendency to act according to one’s mindful awareness did not account for the relationships between emotional intelligence and major satisfaction nor identification with one’s major. I discuss the implications of these findings, and how to foster mindful and emotional awareness of academic potential.

Open Access Agreement

Open Access

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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