The Effect of Emotional Intelligence on the Critical Thinking of Librarians in the National Library of Iran

Background and Aim: Thinking is an active, purposeful, organized cognitive process which is used to mean the world. Successful thinking will solve the problems that we face with them constantly, make clever decisions, and achieve the goals we determin in our lives. Critical thinking is a process in which we examine our thoughts and opinions, and get a better understanding. Asking, analyzing and meaning are three processes that we examine our own thoughts and others, and, based on that, we make the best decisions that are in the subcategory of critical thinking, and there are several factors that can be applied to it. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of emotional intelligence on the critical thinking of librarians in the National Library of Iran. Methods: 229 librarians from the National Library of Iran were selected by simple random sampling method and included the standard questionnaire of California's Contemporary Thinking Skills (1990) and the emotional intelligence of Nokia and Ayazo (2009). Results: Data were analyzed by two-variable linear regression and Friedman tests. The results showed that emotional intelligence and its dimensions on the critical thinking of librarians from the National Library of Iran had a significant effect (p<0.01). The results also showed that among the effective dimensions of emotional intelligence, management of relations (with a mean score of = 3.05) in the first rank, self-awareness (with an average rating = 2.79), self-management (with a mean of = 2.12) ranked fourth in the third place and social awareness (with an average rating of = 2.04). Conclusion: To mprove critical thinking Natioal Library staff require to enhance their emotional intelligence and social awareness factors.