Emotional intelligence: Encyclopedia II - Emotional intelligence - Emotional quotient measures

Emotional intelligence - Emotional quotient measures

According to Mayer (2005c) there are two ways to measure emotional intelligence: criterion-based tests, and self-reported tests.

Emotional intelligence - Criterion-based test measures

Currently the MSCEIT criterion-based test measures emotional intelligence in these areas:

• Experiential Area
  1. Perceiving Emotions Branch
  2. Facilitating Thinking Branch
• Strategic Area
  1. Understanding Emotional Meaning Branch
  2. Managing Emotions Branch

For more on this topic see psychological testing and evaluation. A discussion on the strengths of criterion-based measures versus self-reported measures was written by (Ciarroch and Mayer 2005).

Emotional intelligence - Self-reported test measures

Bradberry and Greaves (2005c), based on the work of Goleman, give the following four areas as significant for measuring emotional knowledge. Their test is a self-administered, self-judgement assessment.

• Personal competence, including:
  • Self-awareness: Only when somebody is aware of their strengths and weaknesses can they maximise their potential.
  • Self-regulation: In a constantly changing business world, the ability to control your emotions is paramount. Panic and anger are understandable, but rarely produce good working relationships.
• Social competence, including:
  • Social awareness: First impressions are very powerful and can be difficult to change. The first handshake or greeting and initial facial expressions form the basis of our opinion, and begin to develop the reputation we have within an organisation.
  • Empathy: The successful manager is the one who convinces people that they are important, and is aware of the changing moods and emotions of their people.

Emotional intelligence - Nancy Gibbs on emotional intelligence

In October of 1995, Nancy Gibbs (1995) wrote an article on emotional intelligence that appeared in Time Magazine, wherein she mentioned Goleman's book, adding to the book's popularity, but misrepresented Mayer and Salovey's view. In the misquotation, "Their [Mayer and Salovey's] notion is about to bound into the national conversation, handily shortened to EQ, thanks to a new book, Emotional Intelligence (Bantam) by Daniel Goleman. . . ", Nancy Gibbs made it look like Goleman's book accurately reflected Mayer and Salovey's concept of emotional intelligence without even mentioning the main differences.

John Mayer criticized Gibb's article on his Web site (Mayer 2005c) at the University of New Hampshire. Among other things, he criticized the subtitle on the issue's cover ("It's not your IQ. Its not even a number. But emotional intelligence may be the best predictor of success in life, redefining what it means to be smart."), because the subtitle makes the reader think that emotional intelligence is not measurable and that emotional intelligence correlates with "success in life." Mayer and Salovey's view, to the contrary, states that EI is measurable, even with a psychometric test such as the MSCEIT, and makes no claim about EIs predictability for success in life.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Emotional quotient measures", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki