The Relationship between Personality and Emotional Intelligence: An Exploratory Case of Brunei Student Teachers

The exploratory case study investigated the relationship between personality and emotional intelligence using a random sample of Brunei student teachers (N = 61) with 52 females and 12 males. Data were collected by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the BarOn Emotional Intelligence (EI) scale – Youth Version. Two of the 16 MBTI personality types were not represented in the participants. Personality preferences and emotional intelligence domains were not highly related dispositions. Low and high scoring MBTI personality types on the six subscales of the EI measure were identified and mean scores interpreted. Different MBTI personality types used different kinds of emotional intelligence. The most common form of EI strategy used by the majority of the personality types (8) was general mood followed by adaptability (5 types). Overall, each EI variable was used highly by at least three different MBTI personality types. Further large-scale research was recommended to gain additional insights.