Relationship between attachment styles and components of emotional intelligence among the students of Sharif University of Technology

The purpose of the present investigation was to study the relationship between attachment styles and components of emotional intelligence. The research method was practical in terms of objective and correlational-descriptive in terms of data collection. The population consisted of all students of Sharif University of Technology in the academic year of 2013–2014. The statistical sample size consisted of 280 individuals (150 women and 130 men), which were chosen using stage cluster sampling method. Data collection was carried out through attachment styles questionnaire of Collins and Read (1990) and emotional intelligence questionnaire of Bar-On (1997). The reliability of the questionnaires of attachment styles and emotional intelligence were obtained equal to 0.76 and 0.76, respectively. Moreover, content validity was used in order to test the validity of the questionnaires, which the questionnaires were approved by the related specialists. The analysis of the data obtained from the implementation of the questionnaires were performed using SPSS software in two phases of descriptive (frequency distribution tables, average, variance and standard deviation) and inferential (Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis). The findings demonstrated that there is a significant and positive relationship between secure attachment and emotional intelligence, and there is a negative and significant relationship between ambivalent and avoidant attachments and emotional intelligence. In addition, the results of regression analysis indicated that attachment styles are capable of predicting 22.53% of emotional intelligence variance, 17.75% of intrapersonal relationship variance, 19.29% of interpersonal relationship variance, 16.52% of adaptability variance, 12.76% of stress management variance and 17.39% of general creation variance at 0.95 confidence level.