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Emotional intelligence in psychiatrists and surgeons: issue of gender bias?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

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Abstract

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Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2011

Stanton et al Reference Stanton, Sethi, Dale, Phelan, Laban and Eliahoo1 present an interesting paper looking at the comparative analysis of emotional intelligence between psychiatrists and surgeons, but what I really want to know is whether there was any evidence of a difference in constituents (subscales) of emotional intelligence between genders? The reason I am raising this question is because there are gender differences found for the main factors that comprise emotional intelligence. Reference Sánchez-Núñez, Fernández-Berrocal, Montañés and Latorre2 More specifically, women are more aware of their emotions, show more empathy, relate better interpersonally, and act in a more socially responsible manner than men. On the other hand, men appear to have better self-regard, are more independent, solve problems better, are more flexible, and cope better with stress. 3

This is of great relevance seeing that there was a clear evidence of imbalance of gender distribution in Stanton et al’s study: there were more female psychiatrists (39%) as compared with female surgeons (17%). This raises the possibility of a bias in relation to differences detected among psychiatrists and surgeons in the component factors that make up the total emotional intelligence. It is possible that a proportion of these differences detected among the two groups could be accounted for by gender imbalance. Future studies are needed to address this issue.

References

1 Stanton, C, Sethi, FN, Dale, O, Phelan, M, Laban, JT, Eliahoo, J. Comparison of emotional intelligence between psychiatrists and surgeons. Psychiatrist 2011; 35: 124–9.Google Scholar
2 Sánchez-Núñez, MT, Fernández-Berrocal, P, Montañés, J, Latorre, JM. Does emotional intelligence depend on gender? The socialization of emotional competencies in men and women and its implications. Electr J Res Educ Psychol 2008; 15: 455–74 (http://www.investigacion-psicopedagogica.org/revista/new/english/ContadorArticulo.php?253).Google Scholar
3 Mission: Possible. Emotional Intelligence – Tactical Tips (http://www.missionpossibleinc.com/emotional_intelligence.htm).Google Scholar
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