Emotional Intelligence and Coping With Health Problems

Abstract

Large amounts of information, constant changes and innovations, nonstop work in highly competi¬tive environments have become the everyday life of modern man. Against a background of unhealthy diet and lack of physical activity the human brain is under constant pressure, which also reduces its resistance to stress. Coping in the psychological literature is defined as an individual response mecha-nism that involves «the constant changing of cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the person» (Moshe Zeidner, Norman S. Endler, 1996). While successful coping results in less distress, unsuccessful coping results in increased distress.
In this article we want to examine emotional intelligence and coping in relation to health problems. And the purpose of the current research is aimed at exploring and clarifying possible relationships be-tween emotional intelligence and coping with health problems. Participants consist of 95 Kazakhstani adults, 18-20 years old. Methods of our research are EQ test by Luysin D.V. (2006), Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS, Endler & Parker, 1990) and Four Dimensional Symptom Questionnaire 4DSQ (Terluin et al, 2004). SPSS-23 was used for statistical analysis of the data obtained. As a result of our study we revealed positive correlations of emotional oriented coping with somatization, distress and depression. In contrast, these scales (distress and depression) negatively correlate with problem oriented coping and all emotional intelligence scales. We can conclude that our coping style in stressful situations and emotional intelligence level determine the quality of our physical and psychological health. Inadap¬tive emotional reaction to stress leads to distress, depression and somatization problems. Only adaptive problem oriented coping can prevent somatization and other health problems on psychological level.

Key words: emotional intelligence, health problems, coping, somatization, distress, depression.