Development of students' emotional intelligence in a university setting

Abstract

This article describes a personal experience of using art therapy methods in developing students’ personality in a technical university. Our brief bibliographic analysis in 2022 and 2024 underscored the relevance of art therapy methods to professional education. Universities use art therapy to solve educational and training objectives, such as building an active, professional life position and communicative competence; maintaining intercultural communication in the course of studies and psychological and pedagogical support; fostering educational and professional motivation; and boosting academic success. Its effectiveness tends to be explained by its mild but strong effect on the deep structures of personality. Art therapy acteristic psychological and physical stresses, as well as institutional relationships. In 2022–2025, we conducted a study into student personality development at Dmitry Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia, which involved students in different years of study. Our research was based on an -developed model of student personality development, presented in our earlier publications. The model consists of four blocks: targeted, technological, procedural-substantive, and criterion-evaluative. We set out a rationale for using art therapy methods in the procedural-substantive block, providing specific examples and uncovering the possibilities of art therapy in relation to the criterion-evaluative block. The application of art therapy methods to teaching various psychological and pedagogical disciplines confirmed our assumption about its effectiveness in the development of reflexive abilities. Meanwhile, reflexivity is considered as a basis for building professionally important personality traits. It is reflexive abilities that enable individuals to smoothly go through all stages of professional development after completing their university studies, from adaptation to proficiency in one’s profession.