No, How are YOU Feeling?

The purpose of this study was to explore emotional intelligence at the School of Social Work at the University of Iowa. Emotional intelligence can be described as understanding, regulating, and recognizing emotions. Social workers have emotionally tolling, stressful jobs where emotional intelligence would be utilized. There is not much research about emotional intelligence in the social work field, so this study looks at emotional intelligence scores of those enrolled at the School of Social Work at the University of Iowa. It was hypothesized that (1) participants would have higher emotional intelligence than the general population; (2) MSW students would score higher on emotional intelligence than BASW students; and (3) the majority of students would request more content in the curriculum on emotional intelligence. A brief survey that included the Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test emotional intelligence scale was distributed to all students in Fall of 2016. The first hypothesis was supported while the second hypothesis was not. The third hypothesis, was partially supported as a half of the students were interested in more training on emotional intelligence in social work practice. Going forward, it is recommended that emotional intelligence in the social work field be researched in greater depth with larger samples, a pre-test/post-test design, and more geographic locations. Finally, implications for practice are to give social work students more space for emotions and emotional intelligence through curriculum and trainings.