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Creativity, Emotional Intelligence and Narcissism in Medical Practitioners and
Educators.
Paromita Mitra Bhaumik*, Rajeswaree Basu** and Urja Sen***
Abstract
Helping professions necessitate a certain extent of emotional intelligence and creativity which
have previously been linked with narcissism. Our study aims to illustrate a comparison
between medical practitioners and educators aged between 28-65 years, with respect to
creativity, emotional intelligence and narcissism. The Kaufman’s Domains of Creativity,
Schutte’s Emotional Intelligence and Narcissistic Personality Inventory have been used to
measure the aforementioned variables. Independent samples t-test computed using SPSS
software, revealed minor difference in creativity and non-significant difference in emotional
intelligence and narcissism of medical practitioners and educators. Medical practitioners’
emotional intelligence and narcissism (p<0.01) showed strong positive correlation and
educators’ creativity positively correlated with emotional intelligence narcissism (p<0.01 and
p<0.01, respectively) as per Pearson’s r correlation on SPSS software.
Keywords: medical practitioners; educators; creativity; emotional intelligence; narcissism.
The study focuses on medical practitioners and
teachers, categorized under helping professions,
which by definition focus at providing services
pertaining to health and education to the community
(APA, 2020). Helping professions call for prosocial
behaviour which in turn demands certain
characteristics idiosyncratic of the professional at
work. The duties of a helping professional are
providing solutions to personal, physical,
psychological or intellectual dilemmas and ultimately
promoting growth in a holistic manner which
indicates the existence of an altruistic motive.
Nurturing is a critical aspect in these professions. A
helping professional is also expected to be creative
and an impressive problem solver so that he or she
can cater to the needs of the community at hand. To
identify and build strategies for providing the service
requires prominent problem-solving skills and
creativity. Such characteristics requires scholars to
investigate into creativity in the context of helping
professions and its detailed impact. Interaction
between client and worker becomes an important
aspect in providing service as helping professionals.
Therefore, variables that affect interaction and
communication are to be identified and worked upon
accordingly. For effective communication, the worker
in such occupations should be emotionally intelligent
and empathetic enough, making emotional
intelligence an important variable of study relevant to
the helping professional population. A plethora of
studies have been conducted on this dimension for
effective assistance as a helping professional. To be a
service provider in this sector of work, one should
display dedication and commitment towards the
group that they are working with. This may always
not be the case, as nowadays, it is observed that there
is an intention of accomplishment and status in these
occupations. Previous studies have established the
fact that there is a link with narcissism and self-
reported prosocial behaviour. The possibility of these
negative consequences of personal motives and
intentions makes it more crucial to study the trait
narcissism in helping professions.
In these professions, the entire personality of the
worker comes into action, which can be assumed to
be empathetic, client oriented, credible, responsible,
sociable, creative, tolerant and flexible. Nonetheless,
there’s a high probability of negative consequences to
appear in the form of aversive personality traits
(Copkova, 2020). The population of interest in this
study are medical practitioners and educators of two
age groups.
The qualities of a doctor have been investigated for a
long time, revealing certain basic characteristics apart
from medical competence and being ethical. These
are interpersonal qualities for effective patient-doctor
relationship and communication; organizational skills
required within the hospital; openness to experience
and new information for instance (Hoffbauer,
Shcrank and Holzinger, 2018). A physician, hence
may be said, is expected to have certain virtues that
makes him optimum, effective, creative and
dependable. Compassion has been found to be
playing a pivotal role in a doctor’s behaviour
(Aramesh, 2017). Furthermore altruism (Feldman,
2017), humility (DuBois, et al., 2013; Jeffrey, 2020),
and practical wisdom (Bain, 2018) are some of the
idiosyncrasies expected from doctors. All these
qualities can be observed in physicians with adequate
emotional quotient.
Teaching has always been considered as one of the
most respected and noblest professions. The role of
an educator or a teacher is unparallel considering the
impact this service has on building the future
generations. The teacher’s leadership (Öqvist
Malmström 2017) and teaching quality (Burroughs et
al., 2019) have been made apparent as the key
determinants of surpassing quality education. The
work of an educator brings in a strong sense of duty
and responsibility towards his or her pupils. There is
a status value attached to the position of teacher as
the impact of this profession is by and large
foundational by nature. The teacher contributes to the
mental health of the pupils and thus the teacher’s
socio-personal, physical and psychological balance is
of extreme importance. A well-balanced teacher or
Indian Journal of Psychology and Education
July, 2022, Vol. 12, No.2, pp 73-81
*HOD The Department of Clinical Psychology, The Gayatri Chetna Foundation in association with George College (MAKAUT)Email:
**Assistant Professor, The Department of Clinical Psychology, The Gayatri Chetna Foundation in association with George College
(MAKAUT),Email:
***Research Assistant, The Department of Clinical Psychology, The Gayatri Chetna Foundation in association with George College
(MAKAUT),Email:
74
educator happens to guide his or her students with
absolute efficiency. Therefore, it is inevitable that a
teacher has an ideal image. Likewise, a teacher or an
educator is known to be having certain traits typical
of him or her. Teachers were voted to be ideal if they
were motivating the students, as shown by a study
where 67% students voted in favour of such a trait. In
the same study, 28.7% of the students regarded being
a ‘good listener’ as a typical trait of educators, as it
allows pupils to place their queries (Jalal and Haider,
2018). Such definitions of a pedagogue make the
assessment of emotional intelligence a vital
proceeding prior to recruitment.
Clement and Rencewigg (2020), listed a few
subsidiaries of the former feature- being informative,
ability to provide novel information on recent trends
related to subject, practical knowledge of the subject,
class control, not being boastful, the ability to adopt
different method teaching as per the topic and being
meticulous. Consequently, creativity and problem
solving is a pivotal cognitive system and should be
assessed in educators for effective teaching. As much
as positive attributes are taken into consideration for
identifying an effective teacher, students had also
disapproved of features that should not exist in an
educator. Aggression and arrogance were chosen as
some of the detrimental characteristics of teachers.
These disconcerting characteristics of may result
from innate narcissism. Narcissistic teacher craves for
attention and admiration from his pupils which may
result in students either feeling insufficient and
depressed or them learning and implementing the
same negative behaviour.
Creativity
Long after its origin in Greece, Guilford in 1957 gave
a new turn to creativity in the field of psychology by
defining creativity as divergent thinking, a process in
creating something novel. Creativity is most certainly
based on innovations, divergence in thinking,
expansive ways to look at a problem and offer
unconventional solutions. Creativity is also a
continuous process that has its impact on practically
all fields of work more or less.
The components of creativity include knowledge,
intellectual ability, preferred thinking style,
personality traits, motivation, and environment.
Research has taken into account that creativity is the
most positive and essential component in human
experience for complete personal development.
(Richards, 2007).
Investigation suggests that creativity is related to
general cognitive abilities and control (Benedek, Jauk,
et al., 2014) and recent evidence points towards the
possibility of statistically significant relationships
between creativity and emotional intelligence (Geher,
Betancourt & Jewell, 2017).
Creativity can be defined as the ability or the power
to create or to produce in the most pragmatic way. It
is characterized by originality, expressiveness, and
imagination. Creativity is seen to be required in
medical specialties and is particularly strongly
required in the surgical fields. It is hence expected,
that the desire to help one’s patient with the process
of creating solutions (and modernization) is one of
the basic factors that brings the physician’s creativity
to action. Although the concept of creativity is still, in
many ways, brought up heavily in connection to the
arts, the physician’s scientific approach may arise the
desire to create like an artist. Especially for the
surgeon, creativity is usually based on the
identification of prerequisites, leading to hypothesis
formulation and estimation of possible solutions and
taking actions accordingly to eventually ending up
with an invention (Gauderer, 2009)
Creativity is especially important for educators in
strengthening the youth’s mind as it is the primary
goal of educators, contributing to the progress of a
nation. Through awareness of one’s own strength and
self-esteem. It leads to optimal functioning through
awareness of one’s own strength and self-esteem
(Zaki, 2016,). Maslow explained that creativity is the
orientation inherent in all, but diminishes in
maximum population due to inappropriate and rigid
influence of education, upbringing and society
(Maslow, 1943; 1968; 1971). Therefore, it may be
suggested that the teacher’s ability to cultivate
effective classroom discourse depends on creative
skill development. One of the newest studies in Israel
have shown that general subject teachers rated
themselves above average on perceived creativity
measurements when compared to special educators
(Kasirer and Shnitzer-Meirovich, 2021). At the same
time several studies on the Indian teachers have
revealed an overall lack of creative skills
characterized by traditional creative teaching methods
as well as insignificant encouragement of creative
expression of students. In one such study, it was
made apparent that teacher’s creativity is confined in
the bounds of teaching models and methods
indicating the dearth of awareness of other
components of creativity (Sharan, 2020).
Emotional Intelligence
Salovey and Mayer (1990, p.189) described
emotional intelligence as the ability to monitor one’s
own and others’ feeling and emotions, to discriminate
among them and to use this information to guide
one’s thinking and actions. The model presented by
the former consists of four branches namely,
Perception of Emotions (the ability to identify one’s
emotions accurately along with others’ on the basis of
various contextual cues), Using Emotions to
Facilitate Thinking (the ability to use emotions and
moods to support and guide intellectual processing),
Understanding emotions (typically to comprehend
and label the plethora of emotions), Managing
Emotions (the capacity to scrutinize and alter own
emotions for enculturing emotional and intellectual
growth. Emotional Intelligence has also been
discussed as a trait or a mix of traits itself. Petrides
and Furnham (2000) identified different perspectives
Paromita Mitra Bhaumik, Rajeswaree Basu and Urja Sen
75
towards emotional intelligence for the purpose of
measuring emotional intelligence, subjectively, as the
capacity to act effectively in various life situations. It
has been shown that sincere emotional skills is partly
associated to perception of one’s “emotional
effectiveness” (Van der Linden et al., 2017). Such
emotional skills are very crucial and required in a
medical practitioner intrinsically because of the
crucial patient-doctor interpersonal communication.
A physician should not only be able to perceive and
comprehend the patient’s mental situation when
diagnosed with a condition but also discuss upon
morbidity and critical scenarios. Such sensitive
information can only be disclosed if the doctor is
emotionally intelligent and has strong social skills. In
one study it was established that the doctors rated
their emotional intelligence lesser than what was
measured from feedback by their patients, eventually
making emotional intelligence as a core component in
patient-doctor relationship (Waheed and Siddiqui,
2020).
Previous literature has explored teacher’s emotional
intelligence in various statistical associations with
variables of personality, teaching attitudes, classroom
performance and students’ performance for example
and the results have emphasised the importance of
emotional intelligence in education (Petrides et al.,
2018; MacCann et al., 2020; Naqvi et al., 2016). It is
expected that to resolve any conflicts between
educators and the pupil, the teacher is required to be
emotionally capable, hence building an effective
student-teacher relationship. A teacher therefore
needs to develop emotionality in herself/himself
before interacting with his or her pupils. An
emotionally intelligent instructor will not only be
self-aware but also demonstrate understanding and
empathy towards learners, parents, peers, etc. Such
teachers will also manage classrooms efficiently and
deal with each students’ issues individually according
to its extent.
Narcissism
Narcissism, the term, has been given meaning to by
Ellis in 1898, inspired from the Greek narrative of
Narcissisus getting romantically attached to his own
reflection ultimately to transmute into a flower. He
explained that narcissism directs at the sexual
perversion where the ‘self’ is considered as prime
sexual object. Freud (1914) justified narcissism as
being completely absorbed in the self where all facets
of thinking lead to complete sexual gratification from
the whole self.
Jones (1951) discussed narcissism as a personality
trait which is equivalent to “God complex”. People
high on this trait come off as very charming, crave for
power and are standoffish because of the sense of
superiority them. Horney (1939) differentiated self-
esteem from narcissistic self-esteem by underpinning
the realistic fundamental of ‘self-esteem’, indicating
that narcissists view themselves too highly (as cited
by Thomaes et al., 2016).
Narcissists happen to have a heightened and distorted
self-image whose roots lie in vulnerable self-concept
(Steiner et al., 2021). To deal with this vulnerability
their ego drives them to diminish others and at the
same time validate their sense of worth. Their
dependence on society, for validation, interferes with
their personal as well as professional life. The term
narcissistic personality was brought into light by
Walder (1925) where he characterized these
individuals to be unempathetic, displaying
condescending social behaviors based on superiority
feelings and an obsession with self-respect.
“Narcissistic mode of thought”, as explained by
Walder, is classified by conceptual thinking,
overestimating own’s intellect, and reasoning just for
the sake it. (Kostyanya, 2019). Grandiosity,
entitlement, attractiveness, sense of being unique and
extreme attention seeking are the essentials in a
narcissistic personality disorder, as explained in the
DSM-V
Medical practitioners in many instances have been
described as arrogant, untrustworthy and self-
absorbed with a covetous intent, estimated to be
arising from their skills and perceived social status. In
one such study physicians had rated themselves
higher on narcissism in all three traits of the ‘dark
triad’ (Bucknall et al., 2015). Leon and his colleagues
(2018) introduced the term “disruptive physicians”
who were identified as having an inflated and
distorted self-image in addition to haughtiness which
would compromise the functioning of the medical
organization. These professionals tend to manipulate
people with a severe lack of empathy. This narcissism
in the physicians, emerging from friable self-esteem,
gives way to aggression and defensive acts.
Studies on narcissism in teachers or educators have
clarified that when an educator is narcissistic, they act
defensive and have a demeaning attitude towards
their students. Their classroom behaviour is complete
with egoistic attitude towards the students with
discrimination against those who do not fall into their
set of criteria of their ideal student image. Such
teachers prefer students within their comfort zone and
set expectations. Not only is their teaching objective,
but also, in lack of empathy required for essential
student teacher relationship establishment. When one
study explored narcissism in prospective and
secondary level teachers, it was evident that teachers
rating high as well as moderate on trait narcissism
had poor socio-personal adjustment and majority of
the sample fell in the moderate range of narcissism.
(Mol, 2020). In another a Slovakian study, narcissism
was found to be an insignificant dark triad trait in
teachers (Copkova, 2020)
Narcissism is known to pathological (Ansell et al.,
2015; Ellison et al., 2013, Dashineau et al., 2019),
nonetheless, psychoanalysts had recognized certain
limited amounts of narcissism to be necessary in self-
preservation and in roles of headship (Freud,
1914,1918; Federn, 1928). This emphasises upon the
Creativity, Emotional Intelligence and Narcissism in Medical Practitioners and Educators
76
notion of ‘healthy narcissism’ required in helping
professions to deal with the society’s needs. Kernberg
(1975) and Heinz Kohut (1978) were the first to
elaborate theories on healthy narcissism. Although
Kernberg (1975) spoke on normal narcissism being
an essential from of ‘self-love’, Kohut (1978)
defended that healthy narcissism is manifested
through humour, empathy and forms of creative
expression. In helping professions like teaching and
healthcare the individual holding power has to
influence their juniors’ behaviour and guide them in
the process whereas doctors also need to be
empathetic enough for patient and family. Healthy
narcissism is hence observed to be a motivator in
taking up helping professions.
Associations between creativity and emotional
intelligence has been studied earlier where positive
correlations have been discovered between self-
reported creativity and emotional intelligence (Tu et
al., 2018) and that certain elements of emotional
intelligence have predicted creativity (Geher et al.,
2017). In studies of teacher population, creative
abilities have shown positive correlation with
emotional intelligence (Duman et al., 2014).
Studies have shown that creativity and narcissism
have direct correlations (Martinsen et al., 2019) and
self-estimated creativity also showed high positive
correlation with narcissism (Wassenberg et al., 2016).
Narcissists also pretend to be the good person by
opting positive creative options (Kapoor, 2015).
Trait emotional intelligence has been found to be
positively related to grandiose and vulnerable
narcissism (Szabo et al., 2017; Zajenkowski et al.,
2018) and that, these grandiose narcissists have a
tendency to emotionally manipulate when they score
high on trait emotional intelligence (Casale et al.,
2019). In one study insignificant association was
proven between trait emotional intelligence and
narcissism (Miao et al., 2018)
Method
The purpose of this non-experimental quantitative
research is to assess the levels of creativity, emotional
intelligence (EI) and narcissism in medical
practitioners and educators in the age range of 28-
65years. The study further aims to identify if there
exists any significant relationship(s) between
creativity, emotional intelligence and narcissism in
medical professionals and educators, respectively.
Study Group 1- Medical Practitioners aged
between 28-65 years
Study Group 2- Educators aged between 28-65
years.
Objectives
1. To assess the level of creativity, emotional
intelligence and narcissism of medical practitioners.
2. To assess the level of creativity, emotional
intelligence and narcissism of educators.
3. Toassess the correlation between creativity,
emotional intelligence and narcissism among medical
practitioners and educators.
Hypotheses
1. There is no significant difference between medical
practitioners and educators with respect to creativity.
2. There is no significant difference between medical
practitioners and educators with respect to emotional
intelligence.
3. There is no significant difference between medical
practitioners and educators with respect to narcissism.
4. There is no significant relationship between
creativity and emotional intelligence of medical
practitioners.
5. There is no significant relationship between the
creativity and narcissism of medical practitioners.
6. There is no significant relationship between
emotional intelligence and narcissism of medical
practitioners.
7. There is no significant relationship between
creativity and emotional intelligence of educators.
8. There is no significant relationship between the
creativity and narcissism of educators.
9. No significant relationship exists between
educators’ narcissism and emotional intelligence.
Purposive sampling technique has been followed in
generating the sample. Data collection was conducted
online through Google Forms as well as on-site in
questionnaire format. Collected data was scored,
tabulated and analysed using SPSS v.16.0 software.
Tools
In this research the following tools were utilized to
assess creativity, emotional intelligence and
narcissism in the sample of medical practitioners and
educators.
Schutte’s Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Scale
(1998)
The Self Report Emotional Intelligence Scale is a 33-
item self-report inventory that gives an assessment of
trait emotional intelligence where respondents rate
accordingly on a five- point Likert type scale. Scores
range from 33 to 165, with higher scores representing
better developed emotional intelligence. The internal
consistency, measured through Cronbach’s alpha, for
the complete scale was found to be 0.90(Schutte et
al., 1988) during pilot investigation. The internal
consistency of the subscales Perception of Emotion;
Managing Own Emotions; Managing Others’
Emotions; and Utilisation of Emotion was computed
to be 0.80, 0.78, 0.66 and 0.55, respectively
(Ciarrochi et al., 2002). A two-week test-retest
reliability revealed 0.78 for total scale scores (Schutte
et al., 1998) disclosing the test to be valid and reliable
for use.
Kaufman Domains of Creativity Scale (2012)
The Kaufman’s Domains of Creativity (KDOCS) a
self-report questionnaire consisting of 50 items,has
been used to assess creativity of the sample where the
respondents have to report their level of creative
potential for certain activities as described by each of
the statements. The internal consistency reliability of
the full scale has been found to be sufficient as per
the value of 0.86 Cronbach’s alpha co-efficient. Test-
Paromita Mitra Bhaumik, Rajeswaree Basu and Urja Sen
77
Table 1- Mean, SD and t-scores
Variable
Sample
N
Mean
Standard
deviation
T-score
Creativity
Medical practitioners
30
170.13
33.23
1.41
Educators
30
158.67
29.58
1.41
Emotional
Intelligence
Medical practitioners
30
123.83
12.27
0.084
EDUCATORS
30
123.50
17.93
0.084
Narcissism
Medical practitioners
30
12.20
6.72
0.542
Educators
30
13.13
6.62
0.542
TABLE 2.1 CORRELATION MATRIX OF MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS
Creativity
Emotional intelligence
Narcissism
Creativity
1
0.197
P=0.297
0.334
P= 0.072
Emotional intelligence
0.197
P=0.297
1
0.627**
P=.000
Narcissism
0.334
P= 0.072
1
Table 2.2 correlation matrix ofeducators
Creativity
Emotional intelligence
Narcissism
Creativity
1
0.498**
P=0.005
0.487**
P=0.006
Emotional intelligence
0.498**
P=0.005
1
0.294
0.115
Narcissism
0.294
0.115
1
retest reliability scores of the entire scale and the
subscales Scholarly, Self/Everyday, Performance,
Artisticand Mechanic/Scientific, was computed to
reveal 0.84, 0.77, 0.81, 0.87, 0.78, and 0.77
respectively, suggesting adequate internal validity.
Narcissistic Personality Inventory (1984)
The construct validity was found to be adequate for
the seven scales at p<0.001(Raskin &Terry, 1988).
The scale comprises of bilateral statements, one of
them indicating narcissistic actions and the
respondent has to choose the statements subjectively.
Higher scores on the scale direct at higher subclinical
narcissism. Test-retest reliability co-efficient for the
full scale has been assessed to be 0.81 alpha, pointing
at strong internal consistency of the scale (Rosario &
White, 2005). The Cronbach’s alpha score of 0.84
confirms the Reliability of NPI-40 as seen in a study
assessing nonclinical narcissism (Nguyen & Shaw,
2020).
Results
Above tables show scores of medical practitioners
and educators of West Bengal, India on creativity,
emotional intelligence and narcissism. Table 1 shows
mean, standard deviations and t-scores of perceived
creativity, emotional intelligence and narcissism of
both medical practitioners and educators. The
computation was done by summing up all the scores
for the 30 medical practitioners and 30 educators.
Scores reveal that the mean creativity for medical
practitioners are 170.13 and 158.67 for educators,
indicating that sample falls in the average range on
the K-DOCS. The S.D. for creativity of medical
practitioners and educators of the sample was found
to be 33.23 and 21.58 respectively. Although the t-
scores stand for no significant difference, medical
practitioners have scored slightly higher than
educators on the dimension of perceived creativity.
Hypothesis 1 is therefore accepted.
The mean scores for trait emotional intelligence are
123.83 and 123.50 for medical practitioners and
educators, respectively. Standard deviations of the
scores of the two groups are found to be 12.27 and
17.93 respectively for medical practitioners and
educators. T-scores suggest no significant difference
between the two groups on the variable of emotional
intelligence, hence hypothesis 2 is accepted.
The mean scores on trait narcissism are 12.20 and
13.13 for medical practitioners and educators
respectively with standard deviations of 6.72 and 6.62
respectively. The scores indicate negligible difference
between the traits among medical practitioners and
educators. Thus, Hypothesis 3 is accepted.
Zero-order correlations, as assessed by the Pearson r,
from table 2.1 reveal that there is no significant
relationship existing between the variables of
creativity and emotional intelligence as well as
creativity and narcissism, allowing us to accept
hypothesis 4 and 5. There is however, a highly
significant positive correlation between trait EI and
narcissism in the group of medical practitioners in the
study (r=0.627**), hence hypothesis 6 is nullified.
Creativity, Emotional Intelligence and Narcissism in Medical Practitioners and Educators
78
For the sample of educators, Pearson r zero-order
correlations have exhibited positive significant
correlation between the variables of creativity and
emotional intelligence (r=0.498*) as well as a strong
positive correlation between creativity and narcissism
(r=.487**). Hence hypothesis 7 and 8 are nullified.
However, no such statistical relationship has been
found between emotional intelligence and narcissism
in educators, hence Hypothesis 9 is accepted.
Discussion
The results in the current study have been both
contradictory and in line with the body of literature
review presented here. Creativity as assessed by the
Kaufman’s domains of creativity gives a measure on
perceived creativity on an array of daily life activities
including artistic, technical and mechanical tasks. In
our study, it is observed that medical practitioners
have scored higher on this perceived creativity as
compared to educators. This difference may be
attributed to the need of quick problem solving and
divergent thinking in the medical professional. In a
medical organization high, appropriate and prompt
functioning is required at every level of the
organization. To attend and perceive to every
stimulus calling for immediate response a medical
practitioner has to be alert and aware. After gaining
clarity on the situation the physician must respond to
the threat as immediately and accurately as possible,
which requires adequate creative problem solving in
contrast to that of an educator. An educator needs to
promote creativity among students as well as perform
an effective classroom discourse. Yet, the scope for
creative thinking is limited for an educator as they
have to follow the rigid curriculum and there is a lack
of space for out of the box thinking and
experimentation. However, a medical practitioner
needs to think of innovative ways to cater to different
patients/ clients with varied needs and also actively
look for new research on creating innovative
treatment procedures and medical developments.
Hence, it can be noted that sufficient creative ability
is therefore vital for both the professions, but not in
equivalence to the immediate call of an emergency
room in the hospital that needs to be attended by the
medical professional. Both medical practitioners and
educators have scored moderate on perceived
creativity which confirms the findings of previous
studies where helping professionals have scored well
on creative abilities. It is expected of teachers to have
high perception of creativity to identify and recognize
students’ potential and optimization of abilities.
Hence it is essential that teacher training in India
should put specific emphasis upon creative
development that would enhance teaching- learning
process.
As discussed earlier, emotional intelligence has been
accepted to be of foundational significance in helping
professions. Nurture and care are unreasonable
without adequate emotional capacities and empathy.
The present study reveals adequate trait emotional
intelligence of medical practitioners and educators in
West Bengal. These scores make it evident that the
sample is effective at dealing competently with
patients and students in their respective fields. Having
adequate Emotional intelligence indicates that both
medical professional and educators have adequate
self- awareness and can manage their own emotion
which in turn enhances their social awareness and
relationship management. Thus, they are capable of
crisis management in any situation and can cope with
stressful situations efficiently. They are good at
emotional expressions and emotional management
which helps to empathize with others and engage in
effective communication with others. This also refers
to adequate emotional management of others and
hence it helps in providing service and generate more
involvement, productivity and better performance
from others which could enhance the recovery of
patients and also amplify performance of students.
Literature on Narcissism has disclosed varying effects
and views on the topic. In the current study, medical
practitioners and educators have scored moderate on
the NPI-40 which explains that they possess a
recognizable amount of narcissism. The trait has been
seen mostly as a part of the “dark triad” or
psychopathology. Findings have made it apparent that
the present sample portrays considerable arrogance
and grandiose beliefs about the self. It may arise from
their social status and the ability to influence the
society with their skills. The awareness of the power
that they hold, owing to their profession, inflates their
self-esteem. It is to be noted that this level of
narcissistic traits does not interfere with their
functioning on the professional and personal front.
Instead, there is a chance that they gain confidence in
dealing with critical situations, especially in case of
physicians. Educators are also required to deal with
controversial classroom situations, conflicting
students and guardians’ expectations. To manage
these professional demands, an educator should be
able to efficiently respond to these ego threats and
preserve their ‘self’. These demands are permissible
with controlled narcissistic manifestation.
On analyzing correlation values, the medical
practitioners from the sample exhibit positive
correlations between emotional intelligence and
narcissism. Forgoing research has confirmed links
between trait emotional intelligence and grandiose
narcissism or dark triad narcissism. Perhaps, this
finding is due the dark side of physicians’ emotional
intelligence. As emotional intelligence increases it
enhances the ability to understand and regulate others’
emotions hence it leads to feelings of grandiosity and
high self-esteem which brings about a feeling of
narcissism. This inflated sense of self-esteem
demands excessive need for admiration and
recognition which tends to diminish scope for
empathy. The positive correlation hence suggests that
with increasing emotional intelligence of medical
practitioners, there will be a tendency to manipulate
Paromita Mitra Bhaumik, Rajeswaree Basu and Urja Sen
79
other’s emotions and feelings instead of empathizing.
Such tendencies can be problematic at the cost of
healthcare as patient-doctor relationship shall be
heavily compromised along with conflicts with
colleagues. This calls for attention to assessment of
personality traits and emotional intelligence of
physicians before being a professional.
Correlational analysis of educator’s creativity,
emotional intelligence and narcissism have
demonstrated positive association between creativity
and emotional intelligence making it apparent that
creative perception necessitates intrapersonal
emotional intelligence. In other words, with
increasing ability to understand emotions, perception
of creativity shall be more developed and
sophisticated, which in fact promotes competence as
an educator. Similar correlation has been found
between creativity and narcissism of educators,
indicating a possibility of creative self-belief to give
way to confidence and magnified perception of the
self. Or even narcissism may aggravate, creative
potential within educators. The causation has not
been established for any of the correlations found in
the study and this may be undertaken as potential
hypotheses for future research.
Limitations&implications
A larger sample size could suffice more
generalizability from the findings. Other
professionals could be included for more in-depth
analysis of the profiles.
The present research highlights traits of narcissism,
which if increases will interfere with their
interpersonal and intrapersonal functioning.
Assistance can be provided to both the groups on
techniques to regulate their emotions and enhance
creative expression for stable emotional dynamics
and well-being.
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