The Effects of Emotional Intelligence, Marginalization, and Gender on Social Justice Orientation
Nicholas A. Frangella
Monmouth University
Dr. Ciaracco
Table of Contents
The Effects of Emotional Intelligence, Marginalization, and Gender on Social Justice Orientation 3
Marginalization 4
Spirituality & Emotional Intelligence 4
Parenting Styles and Emotional Intelligence. 4
References 7
The Effects of Emotional Intelligence, Marginalization, and Gender on Social Justice Orientation
Social justice orientation is an important quality for an individual to have. With all the social justice threats and injustices going on around the world it is important that these orientations and actions in support of social justice don’t stop or slow down. If anything, it is essential, for the good of society, that they grow and become more of the norm in society. This study specifically examines the effects of certain factors such as: emotional intelligence, levels of marginalization, and gender of individuals and how those factors affect their social justice orientations. The factors that affect social justice orientation must be identified and studied because they are truly the key to sparking an essential change in our society. If the motivations for participating in social justice activities are identified and utilized conditions could improve for everyone around the world suffering from injustices.
Marginalization
Whether or not an individual identifies or belongs to a marginalized group could be an important aspect of social justice orientation. In a recent study on social justice orientation, Akiva, Carey, Cross, Delale-O’Connor, and Brown (2017) found that youth in higher poverty areas valued sanctuary found specifically in social justice-oriented groups more than those in less impoverished areas. Showing that those who are marginalized and more likely to be affected by social injustices are more motivated to act to resolve them. Therefore, those already belonging to or identifying with marginalized groups are more likely to pursue social justice and participate in positive programs than those who grew up “in a bubble.”
Spirituality & Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence could be an important trait to possess when it comes to capacity for social justice orientations. In their study on spirituality early in life and its link to social justice-oriented career aspirations/ emotional intelligence later in life, Chenot and Kim (2017) found helpful data. An increase in spirituality, especially one developed at a young age helps to increase one’s sense of empathy and also leads to an increase in social work specifically targeted at social justice later in life. This means that participating in some sort of religion or having been instilled some sort of spirituality could be an extremely useful step in improving society’s overall levels of emotional intelligence and social justice orientations.
Parenting Styles and Emotional Intelligence
In Wischert, Mulvaney, Brackett, and Perkins (2016) study on the effects of permissive parenting on personal growth, they found that children raised with permissive parenting styles are more likely to have low levels of emotional intelligence later in life. Low levels of responsibility early in life could potentially lead to selfishness and a lack of care for other human’s problems that may not affect them. That means that these individuals with low emotional intelligence are less likely to develop a strong social justice orientation and participate in the addition of positivity to the world.
Age/Gender and Emotional Intelligence.
In a recent study on age/gender differences in emotional intelligence levels later in life (Cabello, Sorrel,, Fernandez-Pinto, Extremera,& Fernandez-Berrocal 2016), it was found that the women participating in their cross sectional study had a significantly higher emotional intelligence compared to the men in the sample. That means that at least according to their research, women have a natural predisposition to increased emotional intelligence that men do not. When analyzing age, it was found that those extremely younger and older have higher emotional intelligence levels than those in the middle age range (Cabello et al. 2016). That means that those early, and at the end of their lives are more empathetic and open to considering the struggles and injustices effecting others besides themselves.
The Present Study.
Based on the previous research, it is clear that those who have experienced social injustices first hand are more likely to have higher levels of social justice orientation than those who have not (Akiva, Carey, Cross, Delale-O’Connor, & Brown 2017). Obviously, it would not be a viable solution to just take all non-marginalized of unaffected individuals and make them in some way experience social injustices firsthand to make them more empathetic, because among plenty of issues that would simply be unethical. Therefore, it is essential to identify certain factors such as emotional intelligence that lead to an increased social justice orientation and then dig even further to find what could be used to elicit said factors. While the previous research is helpful, it is still limited in terms of assessing the big picture of emotional intelligence and social justice orientations. The smaller factors explored such as: age, gender, spirituality, marginalization, and parenting styles along with the large factor of emotional intelligence do not necessarily have direct positive correlations or sufficient explanations in their favor. In the following study, the previously explored ideas will be further investigated and built on to improve our understanding of the topics. For example, more research will be done on emotional intelligence and its potential correlation with social justice orientation. I predict that there is a strong positive correlation between emotional intelligence and social justice orientation, and in order to prove it I intend to draw from a more representative sample and further expand the research in a way that supports or refutes correlation. Next, I will investigate the validity of marginalized groups having stronger social justice orientations, specifically by working to identify why exactly that is. My prediction is that a marginalized group will have a higher social justice orientation than the non-marginalized, but the difference will be identifying the reasons why that is instead of simply relying on the numbers. For example, it could be an effect of emotional intelligence that marginalized individuals have higher levels of or something along those lines. Finally, the one study examined supported females having higher social justice orientations than men but failed to identify why that was (Cabello, Sorrel,, Fernandez-Pinto, Extremera,& Fernandez-Berrocal 2016). I do predict that women will have a higher social justice orientation when compared to men, but what I intend to discover is the exact reason why. Do women have higher social justice orientations because as a group they are more marginalized and suffer more injustices? That is one of the many questions that will be explored.
References
Akiva, T., Carey, R. L., Cross, A. B., Delale-O’Connor, L & Brown, M. R. (2017). Reasons youth engage in activisim programs: Social justice or sancturary? Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 53, 20-30. doi. 10.1016/j.appdev.2017.08.005.
Cabello, R., Sorrel, M. A., Fernández-Pinto, I., Extremera, N., & Fernández-Berrocal, P. (2016). Age and gender differences in ability emotional intelligence in adults: A cross-sectional study. Developmental Psychology, 52(9), 1486–1492. doi 10.1037/dev0000191
Chenot, D., Kim, H. (2017). Spirituality, religion, social justice Orientation, and the career aspirations of young adults. Journal of Social Work Education, 53(4), 699-713. doi. 10.1080/10437797.2017.1283267
Wischerth, G. A., Mulvaney, M. K., Brackett, M. A., & Perkins, D. (2016). The adverserse influence of permissive parenting on personal growth and the mediating role of emotional intelligence. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 177(5), 185-189. doi 10.1080/00221325.2016.1224223