Walt Disney and Emotional Intelligence.

Abstract

Purpose of this study is to determine the longitudinal effect of Walt Disney animated films on Emotional Intelligence of the youth. Study examined the difference of Emotional Intelligence in Regular DisneyWatchers and Non-Disney Watchers among the university students of Karachi. It was ypothesized that Regular Disney Watchers would have higher Emotional Intelligence scores than Non-Disney atchers. The study further sought to determine the gender differences in Emotional Intelligence scores of the young adults (only Disney Watchers) of Karachi. To measure the Emotional Intelligence of thesample the Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSREIT) was used. The sample consisted of 212 students (107 males and 85 females) from the second year of different universities. Among these, only 20 males and 13 females (a total of 33 out of 212 young adults) were Non-Disney Watchers. Because of very high popularity of Walt Disney animated movies, their watchers were found in great numbers and non-Disney watchers were very hard to be found among students, so, for a balanced comparison between the Emotional Intelligence scores of Disney Watchers and Non-Disney Watchers, only the Most Regular Watchers (who have watched 30 or more movies from the checklist provided) of Walt Disney animated movies were taken to be compared with Non-Disney watchers (who have not watched even a single Disney animated film). The data was statistically analyzed by using the SPSS software package and t-test was used to calculate the results. Results reveal that Most Regular Disney Watchers (N=34) of Karachi scored higher on Emotional Intelligence than the Non-Disney Watchers (N=33) (Significance level 0.05). Gender comparison was done within the Disney Watchers (N=179). No significant difference was noted in total Emotional Intelligence scores of Male Disney Watchers (n=87) and Female Disney Watchers (n=92). Same was the result for all subcomponents except for the scale of Managing Others Emotions, in which a significant difference was noted between the scores of Male Disney Watchers and Female Disney Watchers (Significance level