Emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to
identify, assess, and control the emotions of oneself, of others, and of
groups. Various models and definitions have been proposed of which the ability
and trait EI models are the most widely accepted in the scientific literature.
Criticisms have centered on whether the construct is a real intelligence and whether it has
incremental validity over IQ and the Big Five personality dimensions.
Definitions
Substantial
disagreement exists regarding the definition of EI, with respect to both
terminology and operationalizations. Currently,
there are three main models of EI:
Different
models of EI have led to the development of various instruments for the assessment of the construct. While some of these measures may overlap, most
researchers agree that they tap different constructs.
Ability model
Salovey
and Mayer's conception of EI strives to define EI within the confines of the
standard criteria for a new intelligence. Following their continuing research, their initial definition of EI was
revised to "The ability to perceive emotion, integrate emotion to
facilitate thought, understand emotions and to regulate emotions to promote
personal growth."
The
ability-based model views emotions as useful sources of information that help
one to make sense of and navigate the social environment] The model proposes that individuals vary in their ability to process
information of an emotional nature and in their ability to relate emotional
processing to a wider cognition. This ability is seen to manifest itself in
certain adaptive behaviors. The model claims that EI includes four types of
abilities:
- Perceiving emotions – the ability to detect and decipher emotions in faces, pictures, voices, and cultural artifacts—including the ability to identify one's own emotions. Perceiving emotions represents a basic aspect of emotional intelligence, as it makes all other processing of emotional information possible.
- Using emotions – the ability to harness emotions to facilitate various cognitive activities, such as thinking and problem solving. The emotionally intelligent person can capitalize fully upon his or her changing moods in order to best fit the task at hand.
- Understanding emotions – the ability to comprehend emotion language and to appreciate complicated relationships among emotions. For example, understanding emotions encompasses the ability to be sensitive to slight variations between emotions, and the ability to recognize and describe how emotions evolve over time.
- Managing emotions – the ability to regulate emotions in both ourselves and in others. Therefore, the emotionally intelligent person can harness emotions, even negative ones, and manage them to achieve intended goals.
The
ability EI model has been criticized in the research for lacking face and
predictive validity in the workplace.
Measurement of the ability model
The
current measure of Mayer and Salovey's model of EI, the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso
Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) is based on a series of emotion-based problem-solving
items.Consistent with the model's claim of EI as a type of intelligence, the
test is modeled on ability-based IQ
tests. By
testing a person's abilities on each of the four branches of emotional
intelligence, it generates scores for each of the branches as well as a total
score.
Central
to the four-branch model is the idea that EI requires attunement to social norms. Therefore, the MSCEIT is scored in a consensus fashion, with higher scores
indicating higher overlap between an individual's answers and those provided by
a worldwide sample of respondents. The MSCEIT can also be expert-scored, so
that the amount of overlap is calculated between an individual's answers and
those provided by a group of 21 emotion
researchers.
Although
promoted as an ability test, the MSCEIT is unlike standard IQ tests in that its
items do not have objectively correct responses. Among other challenges, the consensus
scoring criterion means that it is impossible to create items (questions) that
only a minority of respondents can solve, because, by definition, responses are
deemed emotionally "intelligent" only if the majority of the sample
has endorsed them. This and other similar problems have led some cognitive
ability experts to question the definition of EI as a genuine intelligence.
In a
study by Føllesdal, the MSCEIT test results of 111 business leaders were compared with how
their employees described their leader. It was found that there were no
correlations between a leader's test results and how he or she was rated by the
employees, with regard to empathy, ability to motivate, and leader
effectiveness. Føllesdal also criticized the Canadian company Multi-Health
Systems, which administers the MSCEIT test. The test contains 141 questions but
it was found after publishing the test that 19 of these did not give the expected
answers. This has led Multi-Health Systems to remove answers to these 19
questions before scoring, but without stating this officially.
What about your emotioal intelligence ?
