Emotional Intelligence and Its Relation with the Social Skills and Religious Behaviour of Female Students at Dammam University in the Light of Some Variables

The study has examined the correlation between emotional intelligence, social skills, and religious behavior among university female students, since it had been noticed that there was escalation in the frequency of some behavioral and emotional problems such as vandalism, aggression, social withdrawal, weakness of social relations, patterns of friendship between female students, lack of positive social attributes, indifference and carelessness towards lectures, and frequent absence. The study has followed the quantitative research approach by the emotional intelligence criterion, social skills criterion and religious behavior criterion. The study sample consisted of 338 female students of the university students selected by the purposive sample method from both Islamic Studies and Arabic Language Departments. The study revealed that the average grade for the emotional intelligence among the female university students the Faculty of Arts in Hafar Al-Batin/University of Dammam is high–the arithmetic average on the criterion as a whole reached 3.611. The average grade for the religious behavior among the female university students the Faculty of Arts in Hafar Al-Batin of University of Dammam is high–the arithmetic average on the criterion as a whole reached 4.605.


Introduction
The emotional intelligence received great importance in the educational, psychological and social studies and research that have addressed it during the past two decades.The actual interest in this concept started in 1990 at the hands of Mayer & Salovey in their book Imagination, Cognition, and Personality and the publishing in 1995 of Daniel Goleman's well-known book Emotional Intelligence, which contributed to the elaboration of this concept and its spread.
The historical roots of this concept are traced back to the psychological theories such as the social intelligence which was defined by Thorndike as 'the ability to understand the individuals and deal with them within the human relations ' (1920); and in David Wechsler's 1943 publication who sees that emotional capacity is necessary to predict the individual's ability for success in life, and in 1983 the theories of multiple intelligences appeared in Howard Gardner's book Frames of Mind, in which he mentioned various intelligence types, and among them, the emotional intelligence and two other intelligences that intersect with it: interpersonal intelligence and intrapersonal intelligence (Marzouq, 2005, p. 22).
Mayor and Salovey see that the origin of the emotional intelligence goes back to the 18 th century when psychologists divided the mind into three parts: Cognition, Affect, and Motivation.Cognition includes mental processes responsible for the acquisition, storing, and retrieving of information and this comprises memory, deduction, thought, problem solving and decision making.Cognition is related to intelligence while affection refers to reactions, attitude and the rest of feelings such as happiness, sadness, joy, anger, fear and worry.The researchers see that not all that connect cognition with emotion is emotional intelligence.They defined emotion as responses with positive or negative meanings to an internal or external occurrence.Goleman (1995) defined emotion as a state of feelings that transfers information and thoughts to the others, while intelligence is a set of capacities that show how the individual collects and learns information, and deduces from it (Elwan, 2011, p. 126).
From what has been cited above, it can be seen that emotional intelligence is still a new concept in the fields of psychology, that it is still subject for studying and researching, and that it hasn't yet been precisely defined so as to be widely accepted by the majority of the psychologists; however, some of these definitions from the most famous writers and researchers of this topic can be reviewed.Goleman described it as a set of emotional skills enjoyed by the individual and necessary for success in professional interactions and various life situations.(Goleman, 1995, p. 27).Bar-On defined it as a scheme of interrelated non-cognitive competencies, qualifications and skills that affect the individual's capacity of success and coping with the daily demands and stresses of the environment (Bar-On, 1997, p. 14).Abraham defined it as a set of skills to which precision, reforming self-feelings, discovering the emotional features of the others and using them for motivation and achievement in the individual's life are attributed.(Abraham, 2000, p. 169).George sees it as the capacity to perceive feelings through thought, understanding emotional cognition and organizing the feelings, so that the individual can influence the feelings of the others (George, 2000(George, , p. 1033)).
According to Salovey's theory (Goleman, 2000, pp. 68-69), Emotional Intelligence is based on the following principles: • Self-awareness: Self-awareness and the recognition of the feeling at the time of its occurrence is the corner stone in the emotional intelligence, and that possession of the capacity to monitor the feelings from one instance to another is considered a crucial factor in understanding the self; and that the inability to understand the true feelings, results in putting the individual at their mercy.The individuals who possess this capacity are confident in themselves and the decisions they make.
• Emotion Handling: This is based on self-awareness and dealing with the feelings to be appropriate with the current situations through the capacity of self-calming, getting rid of rampant anxiety, and fast arousal.
And that who lacks this capacity stays with continual struggle with the feeling of depression, whereas that who possesses this capacity rises of the pitfalls and vitality of life much more quickly.
• Self-motivation: Directing the emotions to serve a certain goal.This is an important thing to alert the self and motivate it to excellence and creativity.Since controlling emotions and postponing saturation are important starting points for each achievement, and that who possesses this emotional skill has efficiency in whatever tasks assigned to him/her.
• Knowing the Emotions of the Others or 'Empathy': It is a capacity based on awareness of emotions, where empathy motivates the human being, where empathy results in the individual giving preference and care to the well-being of the other rather than to him/herself.Those who possess this capacity are more capable of detecting the signals that indicate there is somebody who is in need for them.
• Social Skills: This refers to directing human relations or social skills by managing and adapting the others' emotions and the capacity for effective leadership and influence on the others through their feelings.
The researchers, Mayor and Salovey introduced a model in emotional intelligence, known as "Ability Model", which defines the emotional intelligence as a set of mental capacities that contribute to logical thinking, and that emotions support thinking (Johnson, 2008), and they concluded that there are four dimensions for emotional intelligence: • Perceiving Emotions: This indicates the capacity to identify the emotions in the thoughts, language, voices and behaviour of other individuals; and it includes the capacity of differentiation between accuracy and inaccuracy, and dishonesty in expressing emotions (Mayor & Salovey, 1997)

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Using Emotions: This refers to the way in which the thought of the individual, as well as, the other intellectual activities, form through the individual's emotional experiences.It includes activating thinking by directing the attention to the important information.It is the capacity to find and use the emotions necessary to communicate the feelings or employ them in other intellectual operations (Johnson, 2008).
• Understanding and Analyzing Emotions: This includes the capacity to classify emotions into compound emotions such as the individual's feeling of love and hatred toward the same person at the same time; and successive and consequential emotions such as the individual learning that emotions tend to happen in a certain series or order.For example, anger grows to fury.This dimension includes the capacity to understand the implications that these emotions express.

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Managing Emotions: This includes the capacity to manage the personal feelings and the others' feelings and controlling emotions and negative feelings, and increasing the pleasant feelings without inhibition or extravagance.This includes the capacity of openness on the feelings, observing and organizing them wholly to encourage emotional and intellectual growth.However, (Bar-On, 2000) reviewed the literature of psychology related to personality characteristics which may explain why some people are more successful than others, and he presented an intelligence model, known as the (Mixed Model), in which emotional intelligence consists of 15 skills and capacities spread over five components in the personal, social and emotional aspects related to success of the individuals.Bar-On, 2000;Awad, 2009;Al-Elwan, 2011).
Emotional intelligence plays a big role in helping the individuals acquiring the social skills which, in turn, enable them to deal with the social situations.This kind of competence includes the capacity to appropriately respond to all emergency social situations (Mayer & Salovey, 1997).Goleman (2000) pointed out that emotional intelligence is more important to the individual's success in life in comparison with intellectual intelligence, since it plays an important role in success at work, at study, and in social life.He also sees that the students with emotional intelligence are more popular and well-liked by their friends, and they have high social skills, they are less aggressive, and they are more alert in learning situations.At the home level they are more effective in their life.And at the work level they enhance the team work by helping the others to learn because those students have the capacity of seeing things from the others' points of view and they encourage cooperation during carrying out the educational tasks (Al- Elwan, 2011).Elias (1997) sees that the success of team work requires teaching the students the social skills, which affects their capacities in organizing their emotions and solving their problems quietly.This helps them to face difficulties and adapt to different constraints.And this helps them to grow in a healthy way and consequently succeed at the interpersonal and the professional levels in the future.Some studies show that social skills in the classroom result in improvement at the students' academic level (Gottman, 2001), reduce behavioral problems, and improve the students' relations with their classmates (Maite, 2006).Elias (1997) assures that academic and professional successes can't be achieved without the individual acquiring the social skills.Other studies pin pointed that the parents' behaviour and trends are important factors in acquiring the social skills by the students (Park & Cheah, 2005), and that lack of social skills is correlated with noticeable difficulties in the students, which are related with their future behaviours and emotional development.Also, social skills result in the students giving more attention to their educational tasks and reduce behavioural problems, while insufficient social skills prophesizes great difficulties in the future life of individuals, also, social skills are correlated with better intellectual processing (Al-Elwan, 2011).
Yoder (2005) sees that it is important that the teachers encourage the students to acquire some social skills in the classrooms through simple conversations that make them aware of their changing emotions, since the students' performance is in its ideal form when the classroom atmosphere is secure, affectionate, and open for communication, in addition to developing good communications skills and building personal relations.Also, they learn how to manage and motivate themselves.And that the students' awareness of their strong and weak points allows them to correct their work and reform their behaviours to become more effective (Jordan & Ashkanasy, 2006).Social skills are considered among the important factors that determine the nature of the daily interactions between the individual and those around him/her in the different contexts and which are considered, when characterized with competency, among the psychological compatibility supports on both the personal and the social levels.
It is clear, from what has been said, that though the success of the individual depends on various cultural, religious, social, health and psychological factors, emotions are considered a major factor.Yoder (2005) defined social skills as an acquired, acceptable behaviour that makes the individual capable of interacting with the others in a way that enables him/her of showing positive responses that help him/her to avoid negative responses the others towards him/her.Goleman (2000), on the other hand, defined them as the strong positive influence in the others through managing their emotions and treating them in a decent manner.Goleman (2000) sees that both the intellectual and the emotional intelligence are not in contradiction but they are separated, and that each individual has a certain amount of each; furthermore, it is rarely found that a person has a high degree of one and a low degree of the other.He also noticed that, in the best conditions, intelligence quotient (IQ) contributes about 20% to the success-determining factors in life, which leaves 80% to the other factors.Although there are differences in the points of view regarding the relation between the emotional and the intellectual intelligences, it is certain that both types of intelligence are required for academic success and high achievement.
Finally, it can be said that weakness in emotional intelligence skills impedes, partially or completely, the performance of the mind such as the incapability to understand and control emotions like fear, worry, and anger; while holding the reins of power, understanding and controlling self-emotions, positive communication, self-control, capacity of problem solving, and optimism regardless of constraints are all things that facilitate the mind's performance and allow it to work with its maximum creative power (Rezq-Allah, 2006).And, since religion is a noble basic human instinct, and it is the cornerstone in refining the person's personality and building his social values and criteria, it is one of the basic criteria in enhancing the social intelligence in individuals.And those who deeply inspect our true religion-Islam, will find that it emphasizes how important it is for the person to be social, influences people, gets influenced by them, socializes with them and tolerates their wrong doings; where the old do well to the young and the young show respect toward the old.It is amazing how many of the teachings-Hadieth and Ayat of Quran-that encourage this and which focus on the social skills, social intelligence and the Others' clairvoyance.Since religiosity enhances social intelligence through commitment to the compulsory religious and ethical values in his/her mutual dealings and relations with the others such as trustfulness, truthfulness, honesty, modesty, suppleness, empathy, and considering their feelings: also he/she recognizes their rights, sacrifice for them, be a good neighbor, and avoid what hurts them in compliance with the directions of Islam and adhere to the Sunna of the Prophet since Islam makes these ethics and behaviours duties and the provisions of legitimacy that must be adhered to.
What indicates the existence of a relation between emotional intelligence and religious behaviour is what some researchers found in their studies, such as the study of Al-Qedreh (Al-Qedreh, 2007) which aimed at finding out the social intelligence level and its relation with religiosity among the students at the Islamic University of Gaza and the recognition of the relation between emotional intelligence and each of the following variables: Faculties of Science and faculties of Arts, academic levels and the average cumulative grades.The sample of the study consisted of 528 male and female students who were subjected to the criterion of emotional intelligence and religious behaviour.The results of the study showed "the existence of a high level of emotional intelligence among the students of the Islamic University of Gaza as well as a high level of religiosity among the same students.There is also a significant statistical relation between the grades of the students on the emotional intelligence criterion and their grades on the religiosity criterion, and that there was no significant statistical relation between the average grades of the students relative to the faculty variable, academic level variable, or average cumulative grades on the criterion of the emotional intelligence and the religious behaviour with the exception of some differences between the average of grades of level one and level four on the criterion of the religious behaviour to the benefit of level four students.

Previous Studies
The two researchers traced back the previous written educational literature: in both Arab and foreign research and studies in connection with the subject of the study, among these, the study of Elwan and Al-Nawajha (2013) that aimed at identify the relationship between emotional intelligence and positiveness among the students at Al Aqsa University in the Governorates of Gaza.The sample of the study consisted of 247 male and female students, and used the criterion of emotional intelligence and the criterion of positiviness and concluded the following: the existence of an increase in the grades of emotional intelligence by 71.86% and in positiveness by 72.83%, the existence of significant differences in emotional intelligence and positivness according to the gender variable in favour of the females, the existence of significant differences in emotional intelligence and positiveness related to the variable of academic specialization in favour of the scientific disciplines.
Samawi ( 2013) conducted a study that aimed at revealing the relation between happiness on one side and emotional intelligence and religiosity on the other side among the students of the Islamic Sciences University in Amman, Jordan.The sample of the study consisted of 650 male and female students in the academic year 2011/2012 who were chosen arbitrarily, and he used the criterion of happiness, the criterion of emotional intelligence and the criterion of religiosity.The study results showed increase in the levels of religiosity and emotional intelligence while the level of happiness was moderate, a relation between happiness and each of the emotional intelligence and religiosity, no difference in the relation between happiness and emotional intelligence and religiosity according to gender, but there was a difference according to specializations between happiness and religiosity in favour of the Sharea' disciplines.
Al-Elwan ( 2011) also conducted a study that aimed at investigating the relation of the emotional intelligence with the social skills and patterns of attachment among university students.The sample of the study consisted of 475 male and female students of Al-Hussein Ben Talal University in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.To collect the data, the study used three criteria: the criterion of emotional intelligence, the criterion of social skills, and the criterion of attachment.The results of the study showed significant statistical differences in emotional intelligence between males and females in favour of the females, and significant statistical differences in emotional intelligence between students of scientific disciplines and humanitarians in favour of the students of humanitarians, and a correlation between emotional intelligence, social skills, and patterns of attachment.
Al Garaybeh ( 2011) also conducted a study that aimed at discovering the level of emotional intelligence among gifted and average students within Al Qassim region.The study used the criterion of emotional intelligence on a sample of 144 of the preparatory stage students, 72 of them were of the gifted and the rest were average students.
Among the conclusions of the study were 1) the level of emotional intelligence among the gifted was high while it was average among the average students, 2) the existence of significant differences in level of emotional intelligence between the gifted and the average students in favour of the gifted.
Ramadan ( 2010) also conducted a study that aimed at probing the degree of emotional intelligence among the teachers of the UNRWA in the Governorate of Nabulus, the West Bank.The sample consisted of 120 male and female teachers.The study used a questionnaire of 43 items spread on 5 fields: self-awareness, emotion management and self-organization, personal motivation, sympathy towards the others, and social skills.The study showed a high degree of emotional intelligence among the teachers, and sympathy towards the others took first place, and significant statistical differences in the fields of self-awareness, emotion management and self-organization, personal motivation according to the gender variable in favour of males; and there were no significant statistical differences related to the size of the school and the academic qualification on the degree of emotional intelligence.
Al-Mulli (2010) also conducted a study that aimed at revealing the relation between academic achievement and emotional intelligence among gifted and average students.The study consisted of a sample of 246 male and female students of the first secondary class students in Damascus schools, 85 of them were of the gifted and the rest were average students.The study used the Bar_On modified criterion.Among the prominent conclusions of the study were 1) there were no statistically significant relation between emotional intelligence and academic achievement among the average students both males and females; 2) there was a statistically significant relation between emotional intelligence and academic achievement among the gifted students in favour of the males.
Al-Masdar ( 2008) also conducted a study that aimed at studying the relation between emotional intelligence and a group of emotional variables represented by the controlling destination, self-esteem, and shyness.The study consisted of a sample of 219 of the third level students at the Faculty of Education in Al-Azhar University in Gaza.The results of the study showed: 1) there were statistically significant differences in the emotional intelligence related to the gender variable in favour of the males, and 2) there were statistically significant differences between those who had high emotional intelligence level and those who had low emotional intelligence level related to the controlling destination, self-esteem, and shyness.
Al-Balawi ( 2004) also conducted a study that aimed at identifying the relation between emotional intelligence, psychological compatibility and social skills.The study consisted of a sample of 290 female students at the Faculty of Education in Tabouk.The study used the criterion of emotional intelligence, the criterion of psychological compatibility, and the criterion of social skills.The results of the study showed that was a positive relation between the emotional intelligence and social skills.
Parker ( 2004) also conducted a study that aimed at examining the relation between emotional intelligence and academic achievement, where he applied the Bar-On in its brief form on a sample of 372 students at the University of Ontario in the first month of the first academic year.The academic records of the students were compared at the end of the academic year in the light of the criterion used.The results showed that academic achievement was strongly related to the dimensions of the emotional intelligence, since the students whose cumulative average grades exceeded 80% gave higher indicators on the items of the criterion than those whose cumulative average grades were 59% and less.
Norman, Kathy, Richardson, and Rita ( 2001) also conducted a study that aimed at examining the relation between emotional intelligence and social skills among a sample of the secondary stage teachers in Western Illinois, USA.The sample consisted of 220 teachers (120 males and 100 females).The study reached a bundle of conclusions among the prominent results were 1) there was a statistically significant relation between emotional intelligence and social skills among the members of the study sample.
Reviewing the previous studies, one can conclude the following: 1) The existence of a positive relation between emotional intelligence, social skills, religious behaviour, and academic achievement in general.
2) The objectives that the previous studies aimed at varied.Some aimed at studying the correlation between emotional intelligence and social skills such as those of Al-Elwan (2011), Ramadan (2010), Al-Bawaenah (2004) and Norman & Richardson (2001), while some like the study of Elwan and Al-Nawajha (2013) addressed the correlation between emotional intelligence and positiveness, still some like the study of Al-Mulli (2010) and Parker (2004) aimed at academic achievement.However none of them aimed at exploring the correlation between emotional intelligence and religious behaviour, with the exception of the studies of Samawi (2013) and Al-Qedreh (2007).
3) The study samples in some of these studies consisted of university students, as it is in the present study, while they consisted of school students like the studies of Al-Gharaibeh ( 2011) and Al-Mulli (2010), and they consisted of male and female teachers in the studies of Ramadan ( 2010) and of Norman & Richardson (2001).
4) Most of the previous studies used the descriptive analytical approach, as it is the case in the present study, through using the questionnaire as a tool for measuring emotional intelligence, social skills, and religious behaviour.
5) The present study benefitted from the previous studies in formulating the theoretical frame, in designing the materials and tools of the study, and in the statistical processing.However, it differed from some in using the religious behaviour criterion which was built by the researchers.Also, the present study connected the emotional intelligence, the social skills, and the religious behaviour, which the previous studies did not do.
In addition, the environment where the present study was applied was different from those of the previous studies.

The Issue of the Study and Its Questions
The issue of the study is revealing the correlation between emotional intelligence, social skills, and religious behaviour among university female students, since it had been noticed that there was escalation in the frequency of some behavioural and emotional problems such as vandalism, aggression, social withdrawal, weakness of social relations, patterns of friendship between female students, lack of positive social attributes, indifference and carelessness towards lectures, and frequent absence, which affected the general behaviour of the female students and created problems to them in the educational institutions and hampered their social adaptation, which gave the searchers the idea of conducting such a study.
The subject issue of the study has specifically been limited to answering the following questions: 1) What level of emotional intelligence do the female university students have?
2) What level of religious behaviour do the female university students have?
3) Are there statistically significant differences in the level of emotional intelligence among the female students of University of Dammam that can be attributed to the student's specialization, the academic level, or the interaction between them?
4) Is it possible to predict the level of emotional intelligence among the female students of the university using their social skills and religious behaviour?

The Significance of the Study
The significance of the study can be classified into 1) theoretical significance and 2) implementation significance: The theoretical significance of the study appears in the fact that it addresses an important educational topic: revealing the correlation between emotional intelligence, social skills, and religious behaviour among university female students of University of Dammam, a topic that concerns educators in light of the scarcity of previous studies in this field, as far as the researcher knows, at the Kingdom level.
For the practical implementation significance of the study, it appears in benefitting from its conclusions in serving all parties of the officials at University of Dammam who are connected with the study, which will help the decision makers in education to set up policies and measurements to improve the reality in light of their knowledge of the factors associated with the emotional intelligence among the female students and provide appropriate educational environment that enhances these factors in them.The study also paves the way to conduct further research and different studies in this topic and with various other variables.

Procedural Definitions
Emotional intelligence: It refers in this study to the capacity of the individual's awareness of his/her emotional status and the emotions of the others, organizing his/her emotional and the emotions of the others, sympathy, and social communication with other individuals around him/her.It is measured by the grades gained by the female student on the emotional intelligence criterion in this study.
Social skills: It is the individual's capacity to positively interact with his/her peers and appropriate expression of positive and negative emotions, controlling his/her emotions in the social interaction with his/her peers, recognizing their emotions and hints, and appropriately behaving to suit the situation.It is measured by the grades gained by the female student on the social skills criterion in this study.
Religious behaviour: It refers in this study to the capacity of the individual to understand the provisions of Islam that are related to the relation between the individual and God, himself/herself, and the others; and formulating this understanding into actual behaviours that he practices daily whether with himself/herself, the family, or the society.It is measured by the grades gained by the female student on the religious behaviour criterion in this study.
The Domain of the Study: The study was conducted on a sample of female students at the branch of University of Dammam in Hafar Al-Batin District, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia who were enrolled for the second semester of the academic year 2012/2013.Therefore, the generalization from the conclusions will be limited to the society of study and similar societies.

The Study Society
The study society consisted of all the regular female students of the BSc.stage at University of Dammam enrolled for the second semester of the academic year 2012/2013 whose total number was 3254 female students according to the Admission and Registration Department records.

The Study Sample
The study sample consisted of 338 female students of the university students selected by the purposive sample method from both Islamic Studies and Arabic Language Departments.Four of the discipline classes which the college presented in the second semester of the academic year 2012/2013 were chosen: two of them of the Islamic Studies (one from the level of the second year and the other from the level of the fourth year) and two from the Arabic Language (one from the level of the second year and the other from the level of the fourth year), which represent all the female students of these levels who study in this semester.Table 1 shows the distribution of the study sample according to the variables of specialization and academic level.

The Study Tools
The study used the following tools: Firstly, emotional intelligence criterion: The researchers reviewed various previous studies that used emotional intelligence criteria, among the most prominent of these studies were (Elwan, 2011;Awad, 2009;Al-Qedreh, 2007;Mayer, Caruso, & Salovey, 1997).The emotional intelligence criterion was modified to suit university female students in the district of Hafar Al-Batin in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the special environment in the Kingdom.The criterion which was prepared in its final form consisted of 43 items.
And for each one of the criterion items, there is answer scale that consists of 5 grades: 'always' given 5 grades, 'usually' given 4 grades, 'sometimes' given 3 grades, 'rarely' given 2 grades, and 'never' given 1 grade.And to decide the covariance that indicate the emotional intelligence level, a committee of arbitrators were asked to determine these covariance taking in consideration that the grade for each item varied between 1 and 5.The covariance were determined to have the following levels: 3.5-5 high, 2.5-3.49average, and 1-2.49low.
To confirm the validity of the tool, the researchers showed the criterion in its prototype form of 45 items to ten of the teaching staff at University of Dammam specialized in educational and psychological sciences to determine its face validity, and then they applied the modification that some of the arbitrators saw important.The arbitrators agreed on the criterion items after rewriting some and eliminating two items for the criterion to end up with 43 items.The reliability of the criterion was then confirmed using the test-retest immediate method.The test was first conducted on 42 female students from outside the study sample on the 5th, December 2013, and re-conducted on the same group four weeks later.The reliability coefficient (stability) was calculated and found to be 0.987, a number that indicated a high reliability of the criterion.Also the internal consistency reliability for the criterion with its fields was estimated using Cronbach's α (alpha) formula.Table 2 shows the coefficients of the criterion and its fields calculated at 0.93.Secondly, social skills criterion: The researchers reviewed various previous studies that used social skills criteria, among The most prominent of these studies were (Elwan, 2011;Awad, 2009;Mayer, Caruso, & Salovey, 1997).
The social skills criterion was modified to suit university female students in the district of Hafar Al-Batin in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the special environment in the Kingdom.The criterion which was prepared in its final form consisted of 20 items.
And for each one of the criterion items, there is answer scale that consists of 5 grades: 'always' given 5 grades, 'usually' given 4 grades, 'sometimes' given 3 grades, 'rarely' given 2 grades, and 'never' given 1 grade.To confirm the validity of the tool, the researchers showed the criterion in its prototype form of 22 items to six of the teaching staff at University of Dammam specialized in educational and psychological sciences to determine its face validity, and then they applied the modification that some of the arbitrators saw important.The arbitrators agreed on the criterion items after rewriting some and eliminating two items for the criterion to end up with 20 items.
The reliability of the criterion was then confirmed using the test-retest immediate method.The test was first conducted on 42 female students from outside the study sample on the 5th, December 2013, and re-conducted on the same group four weeks later.The reliability coefficient (stability) was calculated between the two sessions and found to be 0.925, a number that indicated a high reliability of the criterion.Also the internal consistency reliability for the criterion with its fields was estimated using Cronbach's α (alpha) formula.Table 3 shows the coefficients of the criterion and its fields calculated at 0.88.Thirdly, religious behaviour criterion: The researchers reviewed various previous studies that used religious behaviour criteria, among the most prominent of these studies were (Al-Qedreh, 2007).The religious behaviour criterion was modified to suit university female students in the district of Hafar Al-Batin in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the conservative and religion-committed environment in the Kingdom.The criterion which was prepared in its final form consisted of 24 items.
And for each one of the criterion items, there is answer scale that consists of 5 grades: 'always' given 5 grades, 'usually' given 4 grades, 'sometimes' given 3 grades, 'rarely' given 2 grades, and 'never' given 1 grade.To confirm the validity of the tool, the researchers showed the criterion in its prototype form of 24 items to ten of the teaching staff at University of Dammam specialized in educational and psychological sciences to determine its face validity, then they applied the modification that some of the arbitrators saw important.The arbitrators agreed on the criterion items after rewriting some and eliminating two items for the criterion to end up with 22 items.
The reliability of the criterion was then confirmed using the test-retest immediate method.The test was first conducted on 42 female students from outside the study sample on the 5th, December 2013, and re-conducted on the same group four weeks later.The reliability coefficient (stability) between the two sessions was calculated and found to be 0.895, a number that indicated a high reliability of the criterion.Also the Internal consistency reliability for the criterion with its fields was estimated using Cronbach's α (alpha) formula.Table 4 shows the coefficients of the criterion and its fields calculated at 0.83.

The Study Procedures
After preparing the three criteria necessary for data collection, the members of the sample were precisely chosen, the criteria were applied by the researcher herself to the whole study sample which consisted of 438 female students during the second semester of the academic year 2012/2013.After they were collected, the answers were then tabulated and entered into the computer and the results were analyzed using the statistical program SPSS according to the questions of the study.

The Study Variables
In the primary statistical analyses (variance analysis), the study included one dependent variable-emotional intelligence-and two independent variables-specialization (the Islamic Studies Department and the Arabic Language Department) and academic level (second year and fourth year).However, in the succeeding analyses (regression analysis), they included one dependent variable (predictable), that was the emotional intelligence, and two predicted variables: social skills and religious behaviour.

Conclusions of the Study
The first question: "What is the level of emotional intelligence among female university students?" To answer this question, the arithmetic averages and standard deviations for the emotional intelligence as a whole and each one of the dimensions of the criterion were calculated separately.The criterion as a whole 3.611 0.3724 high Looking at Table 5, we notice that the average grade for the emotional intelligence among the female university students the Faculty of Arts in Hafar Al-Batin/University of Dammam is high-the arithmetic average on the criterion as a whole reached 3.611, also we notice that the field of sympathy took first position among the fields with the arithmetic average of 3.990 followed in the second position by the field of organization of emotions with the arithmetic average of 3.607.in the third position came the field of emotional knowledge with the arithmetic average of 3.523, and finally in the last and fourth position came the field of social communication with the arithmetic average of 3.417 and grade of "moderate".
The second question: "What is the level of religious behaviour among female university students?" To answer this question, the arithmetic averages and standard deviations for the religious behaviour as a whole and each one of the dimensions of the criterion were calculated separately.The third question: "Are there statistically significant differences in the level of emotional intelligence among female students at University of Dammam that can be attributed to the student's specialization, academic level , or the interaction between both?" To answer this question, the arithmetic averages and standard deviations for the grades of the sample members on the emotional intelligence as a whole were calculated.7 that there are face differences in the level of the grades of emotional intelligence between the female students in the Islamic Studies Department and the female students in the Arabic Language Department at the Faculty of Arts in Hafar Al-Batin/University of Dammam: While the arithmetic average of the grades of the female students in the Islamic Studies Department reached 3.553, the arithmetic average of the grades of the female students in the Arabic Language Department reached 3.689.Also, as it is apparent from table 7, there are face differences in the level of the grades on the criterion of emotional intelligence between the female students in the second year and the female students in the fourth year: While the arithmetic average of the grades of the female students in the second year reached 3.589, the arithmetic average of the grades of the female students in the fourth year reached 3.633.And to find out whether these face differences in the arithmetic averages were of statistical significance and are attributed to specialization and academic level, two-way analysis of the type x22 was conducted on the emotional intelligence criterion as it is clear in Table 8.It is apparent from Table 8 that there is a statistically indicating difference at significance level (a= 0.05) in the level of the emotional intelligence that can be attributed to the specialization variable, where the (f) value reached 10.793 and this value is a statistically indicating value at significance level (a= 0.00).And the lack of statistically indicating differences at significance level (a= 0.05) in the level of the emotional intelligence that can be attributed to the academic level and to the interaction between specialization and the academic level.
And to determine the values of differences in the arithmetic averages of the female students on the emotional intelligence criterion, the modified arithmetic averages were calculated, and the results are shown in Table 9.  9 that these differences came in favour of the female students of the Arabic Language Department, since the average of their grades was 3.685, higher than the average of the female students of the Islamic Studies Department at 3.552.
The fourth question: "Is it possible to predict the level of emotional intelligence among female university students through their social skills and religious behaviour?" To answer this question, the Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient between the emotional intelligence criterion as a whole with all its different fields on one side and each of the social skills criterion and the religious behaviour criterion with all their different fields on the other side was calculated.Table 10 explains the values of the correlation coefficients.It is apparent from Table 10 that the correlation coefficient between emotional intelligence and the fields of the social skills criterion is positive, since all correlation coefficients between the fields of emotional intelligence and the social skills criterion are statistically indicating at significance level (a= 0.01).It is also apparent from table 10 that the correlation coefficient between emotional intelligence and the fields of the religious behaviour criterion is positive, since all correlation coefficients between the fields of emotional intelligence and the social skills criterion are statistically indicating at significance level (a= 0.01) with the exception of the domain of social communication and its relation with the relation between the individual and himself/herself, which is not statistically indicating.And the domain of social communication and its relation with the relation between the individual and God and the relation between the individual and the others -they are statistically indicating at significance level (a= 0.05).
To determine the correlation coefficients between the level of the social skills and the religious behaviour among the university female students, the Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient between the social skills criterion with all its different fields and the religious behaviour criterion with all its different fields as well.Table 11 explains the values of the correlation coefficients.It is apparent from Table 11 that the correlation coefficient between the fields of the social skills criterion and the fields of the religious behaviour criterion is positive, that is, all correlation coefficients between the fields of the social skills criterion and the fields of the religious behaviour criterion are statistically indicating at significance level (a= 0.01).
To determine the extent of contribution of each of the social skills variable and the religious behaviour variable in predicting the emotional intelligence among the university female students, the multi-regression analysis was used, and Table 12 shows the results of the analysis.It is apparent from Table 12 that the variable of the social skills contributed with statistically indicating percentage in predicting the emotional intelligence among University of Dammam female students in Hafar Al-Batin, since the variable explained a proportion of 0.427 of the variance in the level of emotional intelligence; while the variable of the religious behaviour was not of any statistically indicating significance, and that the partial correlation coefficient between it and emotional intelligence was so weak, so it did not contribute to explaining the variance.

Discussing the Results Related to the First Question
The study result showed that the level of emotional intelligence among the female students in the Departments of Arts in the Faculty of Education at University of Dammam/Hafar Al-Batin branch was high-the arithmetic average reached 3.611.This result can be attributed to the fact that the female students had reached an advanced stage of maturity and the capacity to understand themselves, control their feelings and rein them positively, and understand the feelings of the others and sympathize with them.It can also be attributed to the nature of the interrelations among the female students within the university environment which are based on mutual respect, understanding the feeling of the others and not hurting them, in addition to the academic level the female students had reached which reflected the information that is provided by the curricula, which enhanced the social ties among the female students, increased their social capacity in understanding the others and establishing positive relations with them; add to this, the society expectations from this class of female students, which may encourage them to behave with sobriety, as expected from them, empathy, and giving help and assistance when necessary.Also, university students are considered among the educated and enlightened social class, capable of facing the problems of life, solving them, endure and control emotions since they enjoy intellectual flexibility that make their relations and behaviours acceptable and organized to reach satisfaction with the self and with life through their knowledge of emotion organization methods to achieve their goals in life.Those who have the skills of emotional intelligence are capable of meeting life needs and adapting with them, which brings them satisfaction with the self and with life.
The field of emotion organization occupied the first position among all fields, while emotional communication occupied the fourth, and last, position.This can be explained saying that the female students in the Departments of Arts in the Faculty of Education at University of Dammam/Hafar Al-Batin branch had reached the age and social stage that gave them the capacity to organize their emotions and control them, but the nature of the Saudi society contributed slightly to the capacity of social communication since this society insists on avoiding extending social relations widely and insists on communicating more with relatives of the same district.The results of this study agree with the results of the studies by Elwan and Nawajha (2013); Samawi (2013); El- Elwan (2011) andAl-Masdar (2007), all of which pointed out the high level of emotional intelligence among university students.

Discussing the Results Related to the Second Question
The study result showed that the level of religious behaviour among the female students in the Departments of Arts in the Faculty of Education at University of Dammam/Hafar Al-Batin was high-the arithmetic average reached 4.605.This result can be attributed to the fact that the Saudi Society is a religiously committed society.This is connected to many factord: 1) the family and society education, where the curricula of Islamic Education are taught to all stages and specializations at the rate of four subjects (Tawheed, Fiqh, Hadith, and Tafseer), which leaves great impact in the personality, culture and behaviour of the student, which in turn reflects positively on his/her actions, 2) the family education is based on Islamic fundamentals, and the society is committed to the traditions and society norms which are based on the life of the Prophet Mohammad (saws), 3) what the government and private agencies do by opening Al Quran Al Kareem memorization centres and holding competitions and variety of religious activities, 4) the role of university curricula in enhancing and strengthening religious awareness among female students.
The field of the relation between the individual and God occupied first position among all fields, while organization of the relation between the individual and the others occupied the third, and last, position.This can be explained saying that the female students had acquired the feeling of self-observation considering what the curricula provide-as we previously mentioned-of regulations, legislations and instilling of Aqeedah (belief in God and the following teachings in Islam) in the selves, for they concentrate on the principles of Aqeedah and the associated regulations; for this they provided an independent textbook for Aqeedah, Al-Tawheed, which reflected positively on the female students' behaviours and their relation with God, specially that we know that Aqeedah is the base on which all the other topics (Fiqh, Tafseer, and Hadith) are based and from which they are derived.It can also be explained saying that at this age stage female students do not carry any financial responsibilities, on the contrary, very little of it, since most of them are still students under their fathers, guardianship.The results of this study agree with the results of the studies by Samawi (2013) and Al-Qedreh (2007), both of which pointed out the high level religiosity and religious behaviour among university students.

Discussing the Results Related to the Third Question
The study result showed statistically significant differences at significance level (a=0.05) in emotional intelligence level between the female students of the Islamic Studies Department and the Arabic Language Department in the Faculty of Education at University of Dammam/Hafar Al-Batin in favour of the female students of the Arabic Language Department.This result can be explained referring to the fact that the minimum average for admission in the Arabic Department is higher than the minimum average for admission in the Islamic Studies Department, and this reflected consequently on the emotional intelligence level among them.Also taking this specialization enhances the capacities of the female students in communication with the others and generates in them self-confidence and self-control since the Arabic Language curricula provides diversity and variety in its subjects: poetry, rhetoric, grammar, a variety of literary texts; which provided the female students with the capacity of social communication, empathy, awareness of the feelings and emotions of the others.Also such literary texts may generate in them the capacity to express their emotions and contain the stress feelings that come in their way and probe deep in the personalities of the others, and easily understand their emotions.This can also be attributed to other factors connected with the teaching methods followed in this specialization and the way female educators treat female students.The result of this study agrees with the result of the study by Al-Elwan (2011), which pointed out that the students of specializations in the Arts Department top the students of specializations in the scientific Departments in emotional intelligence, but this contradicts the result of the study by Al-Qedreh (2007) which showed that there were no statistically significant differences attributed to the academic specialization.
The study results showed also that there were no statistically significant differences at significance level (a=0.05) in emotional intelligence level attributed to the variable of academic level and the interaction between specialization and academic level.These results may be attributed to the similarities in the environments of the female students, since most of the teaching staff teaches the same female students in the different levels, and sometimes in the different specializations.Also, These results may be attributed to the fact that there are originally no statistically significant differences between the female students of the second year and the female students of the fourth year, which means there is no interaction between specialization and academic level; the results of this study contradicts somehow the results of the study by Al-Elwan (2011).It is possible that the reason behind this is environmental and social factors, since both studies were conducted in an environment different from the present study environment, and it contradicts the results of the study by Al-Qedreh (2007) which showed the presence of statistically significant differences according to academic level variable in favour of the fourth year students.

Discussing the Results Related to the Fourth Question
The study results showed the existence of positive correlation between emotional intelligence and social skills.Therefore, it can be said the emotional intelligence is influenced by personality features of the female student, such as her social skills.Since it enables the female students to recognize and be aware of her emotions, and to organize them in a good way.Also acquiring social skills in the classroom through holding simple conversations makes them aware of their changing emotions, since the students' performance is at its best when the classroom atmosphere is secure, affectionate and open for communication.In addition to that they develop good communication skills, establish personal relations, and learn how to manage and motivate themselves.The awareness of the students of their strength and weakness allows them to correct their actions, change their behaviours to become more efficient, enables them to express both their positive and negative feelings with poise, and control their emotions in social interaction situations -these are basic dimensions in emotional intelligence.This also enables the individual to behave properly and feel self-efficiency, which makes him/her participate in the activities of the others in such a way that gives him/her enjoyment in life and consequently the enjoyment of good psychological health; since social skills include emotional skills that facilitate establishing friendly relations with the others, managing interaction with them, getting close to them, and better-knowing them.The result of this study agrees with the result of the study by Al-Elwan (2011), Al-Bawaenah (2004), and Norman and Richardson (2001), which showed the existence of correlative relation between emotional intelligence and social skills.
The result of the study showed that there is no correlative relation between emotional intelligence and religious behaviour.This result can be attributed to the fact that the female students have the same religious behaviour experiences because of what distinguishes the Saudi society of maintaining religious commitment for all classes of people, in addition to the religious education that the students receive in all specializations and at all levels; it is the same for all, which leaves a similar impact on female students regardless of specializations and levels.Also, female students in all specializations belong to the same society, live in the same social conditions, commit to the same traditions and norms, and participate in all social activities, regardless.The result of the present study contradicts the results of the studies by Samawi (2013) and Al-Qedreh (2007) which showed the presence of correlative relation between emotional intelligence and religious behaviour.
The study results showed the presence of positive correlation coefficient between the social skills and the religious behaviour.The reason behind that could be that religiously committed people usually enjoy high social skills because of the nature of the Islamic education which imposes the Muslim to treat the others well, feel with them, and help them; and considers this of the religious obligations that pay and reward.Also those people usually enjoy the confidence of the others and their acceptance, since they consider helping, assisting, and supporting the others among the good deeds that bring them the blessings of God, so they are characterized by the capacity of understanding the feelings of the others, communicating with them, solving their problems and assisting them.For all this those religiously committed people are characterized by high social skills as a result of following the educational Quranic directions and the purified Sunnah.

Recommendations
In the light of the findings of the present study, the researchers recommend the following: 1) Preparing some activities and programs that help increasing emotional intelligence among the female students in the departments of Arts in the Faculty of Education at University of Dammam /Hafar Al-Batin.
2) Benefitting from the high levels of emotional intelligence and religiosity among the university female students in serving the university and the society.
3) Providing the female students with some social skills through syllabuses that have interest in the collective aspects, encouraging the collective academic projects, and holding collective activities by the Students' Affairs Deanship at the universities.
the average grade for the religious behaviour among the female university students the Faculty of Arts in Hafar Al-Batin of University of Dammam is high-the arithmetic average on the criterion as a whole reached 4.605, also we notice that the field of organizing the relation of the individual and God took first position among the fields with the arithmetic average of 4.246 followed in the second position by the field of organizing the relation of the individual and himself/herself with the arithmetic average of 4.197.In the third and last position came the field of organizing the relation of the individual and the others with the arithmetic average of 3.523, and finally in the fourth position came the field of social communication with the arithmetic average of 3.452 and grade of "moderate".

Table 1 .
The distribution of the study sample according to the variables of specialization and academic level

Table 2 .
The coefficients of the internal consistency reliability for the criterion fields and its overall reliability using Cronbach's α

Table 3 .
The coefficients of the internal consistency reliability for the criterion fields and its overall reliability using Cronbach's α

Table 4 .
The coefficients of the internal consistency reliability for the criterion fields and its overall reliability using Cronbach's α

Table 5 .
Table 5 explains this.The arithmetic averages and standard deviations for the responses of the sample members on the criterion of religious behaviour and its three dimensions

Table 6 .
Table 6 explains this.The arithmetic averages and standard deviations for the responses of the sample members on the criterion of emotional intelligence and its four dimensions

Table 7 .
Table7explains this.The arithmetic averages and standard deviations for the grades of the sample members on the criterion of emotional intelligence according to the variables of the student's specialization and academic level

Table 8 .
Two-way analysis of the type x22 for the emotional intelligence criterion

Table 9 .
Both modified arithmetic averages of the grades of the female students on the emotional intelligence criterion

Table 10 .
The correlation coefficients between the emotional intelligence criterion and the social skills criterion and the religious behaviour criterion with all their different fields * Statistically indicating at significance level (a= 0.05).

Table 11 .
The values of the correlation coefficients between the social skills criterion with all its different fields and the religious behaviour criterion with all its different fields

Table 12 .
The results of the multi-regression analysis in predicting the extent of contribution of each of the social skills and the religious behaviour to the emotional intelligence among the university students