Emotional Intelligence Tests
Emotional Intelligence Tests
Emotional intelligence (EI) is defined as a type of social competence involving the
ability to monitor one's own and others' emotions, to discriminate among them,
and to use the information to guide one's thinking and actions. EI is a fairly
specific ability that connects a person's knowledge processes to his or her
emotional processes. As such, EI is different from emotions, emotional styles,
emotional traits, and traditional measures of intelligence based on general
mental or cognitive ability (i.e., IQ). EI involves a set of skills or
abilities that may be categorized into five domains:
- Self-awareness: Observing yourself and recognizing a feeling as
it happens.
- Managing emotions: Handling feelings so they are
appropriate; realizing what is behind a feeling; finding ways to handle fears
and anxieties, anger, and sadness.
- Motivating oneself: Channeling emotions in the service of a
goal; emotional self-control; delaying gratification and stifling impulses.
- Empathy: Sensitivity to others' feelings and concerns and taking
their perspective; appreciating the differences in how people feel about
things.
- Handling relationships: Managing emotions in others; social
competence and social skills.
The typical approach to measuring EI ability involves
administering a set of questions to applicants and scoring the correctness of
those responses based on expert judgment (expert scoring) or consensus among a
large number of people (consensus scoring). For example, one EI ability test
requires the applicant to view a series of faces and report how much of each of
six emotions is present, answer questions about emotional scenarios and
responses (e.g., predict how an anxious employee will react to a significantly
increased workload), and solve emotional problems (e.g., decide what response
is appropriate when a friend calls you upset over losing his or her job).
Some tests of EI use a self-report method. Self-report
questionnaires are commonly used to measure personality traits (e.g.,
extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness). Self-report assessments have
been around for decades and serve a very useful purpose. As a way to measure
EI abilities, they have some drawbacks. Using a self-report approach has been
compared to estimating typing skill by asking applicants a series of questions
about how quickly and accurately they can type. Does this mean self-report
measures of emotional intelligence should not be used? If the objective is to
measure a person's self-perceived competence or self-image, then this may be
the preferred approach. If the objective is to measure EI as a set of
abilities, skills, or emotional competencies, then self-report may not be the
best method to use. To the extent employers are concerned with fakability of
self-reports, ability models of EI will be more acceptable.
Considerations:
- Validity — Ability-based
tests of emotional intelligence have been shown to contribute to the
prediction of job performance, particularly when the maintenance of
positive interpersonal relations is important to job success
- Face
Validity/Applicant Reactions — Test items appearing to measure
social skill generally have good face validity (e.g., identifying emotions
expressed in a photograph of a person's face); Applicants may have a
difficult time determining the best answer on some of the items; Some
items may not appear to be directly work-related
- Administration Method — Can be
administered via paper and pencil or electronically
- Subgroup Differences — There
is some evidence women tend to score better than men on tests of emotional
intelligence, which is consistent with other research showing women are
more skilled at reading facial expressions of emotions than are men
- Development Costs — Cost of
purchasing an emotional intelligence test is typically far less expensive
than developing a customized test
- Administration Costs —
Generally inexpensive, requires few resources for administration, and does
not require skilled administrators
- Utility/ROI — High return on
investment if applicants are needed who possess strong interpersonal
skills
- Common Uses — Used with
occupations requiring high levels of social interaction, cooperation, and
teamwork
References:
(See Section VI for a summary of each article)
Brackett, M. A.,
Rivers, S. E., Shiffman, S., Lerner, N., & Salovey, P. (2006). Relating
emotional abilities to social functioning: A comparison of self-report and
performance measures of emotional intelligence. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 91, 780-795.
Frost, D. E.
(2004). The psychological assessment of emotional intelligence. In J. C. Thomas
& M. Hersen (Eds.), Comprehensive handbook of psychological assessment,
Volume 4: Industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 203-215). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., & Caruso, D. R. (2004). Emotional
intelligence: Theory, findings, and implications. Psychological Inquiry, 15,
197-215.
Salovey, P.,
& Mayer, J. D. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition,
and Personality, 9, 185-211.