STUDY OF DEFENSE MECHANISMS AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE OF TEACHER TRAINEES IN RELATION TO THEIR LOCALE (URBAN AND RURAL)

The present study was carried out to explore the relationship between defense Mechanisms and Emotional Intelligence used by B,Ed. Teacher Trainees The aim of the study was to ascertain relationship between Emotional Intelligence and five categories of defense mechanisms i. e. turning against object (TAO),projection (PRO), turning against self (TAS), principalisation (PRN) and reversal (REV). The study also aimed at finding differences between the level of Emotional Intelligence and defense mechanisms of B,Ed. Teacher Trainees residing in urban and rural locations.The sample included total 500 teacher trainees out of which 260 belong to urban locale while 240 belong to rural locale selected randomly from six districts of Punjab, India. Defense mechanism Inventory by Dr. N. R. Mrinal and Dr. Uma Mrinal was used for data collection of defense mechanism, while Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS) by Anukool Hyde, Sanjyot Pethe and Upinder Dhar (2002) was used to collect data for their Emotional Intelligence Scores.. Data analysis revealed a significant difference in the usage of turning against object, projection and principalization defenses by rural and urban teacher trainees. No significant difference has been found in the scores of rural and urban teacher trainees with respect to their emotional intelligence scores. Study showed a significant and negative correlation (r = -0.133) between turning against object and emotional intelligence, while a significantly positive relation (r = 0.103) was obtained between principalization defenses and emotional intelligence. While with projection, turning against self and reversal defense categories, no significant correlations of emotional intelligence were found