Measuring Emotional

Intelligence

People
Skills


Team FME

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2014

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Preface
This eBook describes the popular models of emotional intelligence and the
tools that are used to measure it in each case.

You will learn:

• To understand how emotional intelligence is modeled and

measured

• The advantages and disadvantages of self-report questionnaires,

360 degree questionnaires, and performance questionnaires

• How to select the model and measuring tool that is most

appropriate to your needs

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Table of Contents
Preface ........................................................................................ 3


Visit Our Website ....................................................................... 3


Introduction ................................................................................ 5


Emotional Intelligence (EI) Models......................................... 10


The Ability-Based Model ...................................................................... 12

The Trait Model .................................................................................... 15

ES-I Bar-On Model............................................................................... 17

Mixed Models of EI .............................................................................. 19

Group or Team EI Models.................................................................... 20

Self-development Models .................................................................... 22


Summary................................................................................... 23


Other Free Resources ............................................................. 24


References................................................................................ 25


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Introduction
Emotional intelligence is difficult to measure and some psychologists doubt
that it can be assessed at all. However, many more believe that it can be
measured but that there are obstacles to be overcome in doing so.

The easiest way to measure EQ is through what are called self-report

questionnaires, although these are probably the weakest way to do it. These
questionnaires ask you to report on your abilities, skills, and behaviors – for
example, how effective you are in recognizing emotions, understanding
emotions, etc. The flaw in this approach is that you may not accurately
report your own skills and abilities.

Most of us have a tendency to exaggerate our accomplishments and

minimize our shortcomings. The result is that self-report questionnaires
often provide an inflated picture of our skills and abilities. Even if you were
to be completely honest in your answers, you may lack the necessary
insight to give accurate ones.

Self-report
questionnaires

Performance
tests for EQ

3600 tests

Ways to
Measure EI

One solution to the problem of self-report questionnaires is the use of 360

degree tests. This involves questions about your behavior being answered
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by people who know you, for example, friends, co-workers, boss, and
subordinates.

The advantages of this approach are that other people are more likely to
give an appraisal that is not inflated, and they are also more likely to report
accurately how skilful you are in social interactions.



A third approach is to use performance tests to measure your EQ. These

tests present you with practical problems and ask you to work out the
correct answers. In other words, they ask you to actually demonstrate your
EQ skills.

These tests are not as vulnerable to the problems facing self-report and 360
degree tests but they are much more difficult and expensive to construct. If
any individual or organization can convince the business world that they
have developed and validated an emotional intelligence test that can
accurately and consistently measure EQ it will bring them considerable
status and financial reward.

There are various proprietary tests on the market at the moment but
unfortunately they all share the same lack of rigorous scientific validation
that is accepted for IQ tests.

Before we can begin to make assessments of emotional intelligence, we

need to know which personality traits specifically are involved. If we ignore
the possible existence of business-related intelligence separate from both
intellect and emotion it seems reasonable to assume that psychologists
ought to be able to identify and measure accurately the qualities that
determine job success.

These are generally agreed to be:

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• Self-awareness – Your ability to control and to understand your

own feelings

• Resilience – Your ability to work under pressure and to cope with

changing demands

• Motivation – How much energy and effort you’re prepared to put

in to achieve your goals

• Interpersonal sensitivity – Your awareness of the needs and

feelings of others and the ability to use it effectively in interactions
and decision-making

• Influence – How well you are able to persuade others to agree

with your point of view

• Decisiveness – The ability to arrive at a decision when faced with

ambiguous information

• Integrity – Your willingness to do what is right and to stick to a

course of action

The question is, should you try to measure and improve your emotional
intelligence?

Decisiveness

Integrity Resilience

Personality
traits needed
Interpersonal
Influence for success sensitivity

Self-
Motivation
awareness

The use of psychological measurement has always been rather

controversial, and the measurement of emotional intelligence is no different.

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This may be due to the view that emotions are unpredictable, irrational, and
something to be suppressed in favor of logic and reason.

Theories of emotional intelligence have helped to counter this view and

offered the promise of a more balanced analysis of what it means to be
intelligent about emotions. This has, in turn, expanded our understanding of
the role that emotions play.

The use of emotional intelligence assessment in organizations has also

been controversial. The definition of emotional competencies and the
subsequent focus on work performance and assessment has led some
critics to label the whole process as a return to an outmoded mechanistic
way to increase performance and efficacy at the expense of the well-being
of individual employees.

However, the core principles of emotional intelligence make clear that

individuals are a complex combination of emotion and reason. Without a
specific theory of emotional intelligence and the methods to assess it,
employees may be limited to vague criticism related to their ‘people skills.’

In order to improve on any emotional competence, people need to see

quantifiable measurement of their baseline abilities and any improvement
from it. In conclusion, reliable and valid measurement of specific emotional
competencies, so long as it is provided in a positive way, helps to provide
employees with insight into their strengths and areas for development.

Key Points

• Tests that attempt to measure emotional intelligence use either self-

report questionnaires, 360 degree questionnaires, or performance
questionnaires.

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• Self-report questionnaires ask you to report on your abilities, skills,

and behaviors.
• 360 degree questionnaires ask your boss, co-workers, and
subordinates about your behavior.
• Performance questionnaires ask you to provide a solution to a
practical problem.
• There is some argument as to whether or not emotional intelligence
can be measured and if so, how accurately.

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Emotional Intelligence Models

There are three types of models available to measure an individual’s level of
emotional intelligence:

• Ability

• Trait

• Mixed models.

Some are self-assessment, such as EIQ, EQ-I, MSCEIT, TEIQue, and

WEIS. Some assess groups’ or teams’ EI, such as GEC and WEIP, while
others can only be used by accredited professionals who have been trained
how to interpret and feed back the results, such as ESCI and GenosEI.

Measuring
Emotional
Intelligence MEIS MSCEIT® WEIS

ECI® Genos EI OVS™ WEIP

EIQ ESCI SEI™ TEIQue

EQ-i® EQ Map® SSEIT SSRI

Some models, such as MEIS and MSCEIT®, test the ability of the individual
rather than produce a self-report measure. When using MEIS (Multifactor
Emotional Intelligence Scale) the individual performs a series of tasks that
are designed to assess their ability to perceive, identify, understand, and
work with emotion.

The MSCEIT® (Mayer, Salovey, Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test) model

requires the individual to use their abilities with questions such as looking at

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faces in order to identify what emotions are present. This model helps you
understand the actual intelligence behind emotions.

With such a wide variety of models available it is important when you are
selecting a tool to ensure that you select one that is appropriate to your
task. Some are specifically designed for staff development, while others can
also be used for selection and recruitment. It is essential to ensure that
whichever tool you use it is empirically reliable and evaluated.

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The Ability-Based Model

This model describes four separate but interrelated abilities that together
determine your level of emotional intelligence. These are the ability to:

• Perceive emotions

• Reasoning with emotions

• Understand emotions

• Manage emotions.

By assessing the ability of an individual in each category each of these

facets can be identified, measured, and enhanced.

1. Perceiving Emotions
The first step in understanding emotions is to accurately perceive them. In
many cases, this might involve understanding nonverbal signals such as
body language and facial expressions. This is the basic skill involved in EI
because unless you can perceive emotions you cannot manage them.

2. Reasoning With Emotions

The next step involves using emotions to promote thinking and cognitive
activity. Someone with high EI can use their emotions in order to help them
think through a situation and solve problems.

Emotions help prioritize what we pay attention and react to; we respond
emotionally to things that garner our attention. Having a good system of
emotional input, therefore, should help direct thinking toward matters that
are truly important.

Secondly, a number of researchers have suggested that emotions are

important for certain kinds of creativity to emerge.

3. Understanding Emotions
Appreciating that the emotions we perceive can carry a wide variety of
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meanings helps us to understand the emotional state of the other person

and why it has occurred. If someone is expressing angry emotions, for
instance, the observer must interpret the cause of their anger and what it
might mean.

EMOTION Anger

REASONING Feel treated unfairly

POSSIBLE Peace- With-

Revenge Attack
ACTIONS making draw

Your degree of understanding of such emotions has to include your ability to

perceive the shades of emotion that exist and how different emotions
interact with each other and evolve over time. Each emotion conveys its
own pattern of possible messages, and actions associated with those
messages. For example,

• A message of anger may mean that the individual feels they have
been treated unfairly.

• This anger may be associated with a specific set of possible

actions:

• Peacemaking
• Attacking
• Retribution
• Seeking revenge
• Withdrawal to seek calmness
Understanding emotional messages and the actions associated with them is
one important aspect of this skill area.

4. Managing Emotions
The ability to manage emotions effectively is a key part of emotional
intelligence. The important aspects of emotional management include:
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• Regulating emotions

• Responding appropriately

• Responding to the emotions of others.

Someone with a high level of this ability can harness positive or negative
emotions and manage them in a way that facilitates the completion of
required tasks. A person needs to understand emotions in order to convey
information.

must to convey
An understand information
Individual emotions successfully

To the extent that it is under voluntary control, a person may want to remain
open to emotional signals as long as they are not too painful, and block out
those that are overwhelming. In between, within the person’s emotional
comfort zone, it becomes possible to regulate and manage one’s own and
others’ emotions so as to promote one’s own and others’ personal and
social goals. The means and methods for emotional self-regulation have
become a topic of increasing research in this decade.

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The Trait Model

One of the most recent models of EI was published in 2009 by Petrides and
colleagues and marks a break from the idea that EI is ability-based. Instead,
it proposes that people have, as part of their personalities, a number of
emotional self-perceptions and emotional traits.

Emotional Self-
perceptions

Part of an
Individual's
Personality

Emotional
Traits

These traits aren’t measured in the scientific sense, but are instead
measured by the respondent’s self-report. Of course, this assumes that the
respondent is able to accurately describe his or her own traits.

The TEIQue model that is available on the Consortium’s website was

developed by K.V. Petrides Ph.D. The abbreviation stands for ‘Trait
Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire.’ This model forms an integral part of
University College London’s (UCL) Psychometric Laboratory and is one
aspect of its research program. See ‘ Understanding Emotional Intelligence’
for the background information on this.

You can either complete the full TEIQue model with over 150 items or the
30 items of the short-form version questionnaire. The questionnaire covers
15 facets in the sampling domain as shown in the diagram below. To
understand how someone would score highly for each facet click on this link
http://www.eiconsortium.org/measures/teique.html.

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TEIQue Impulsiveness
Relationships Optimisim Trait
facets (low)

Emotion
Adaptability Self-esteem Happiness Trait
Regulation

Management of
Assertiveness Others' Self-motivation Empathy Trait
Emotion

Perception of
Expression of Social Stress
Emotions (Self
Emotion Awareness Management
& Others)



It’s important to note that this model of EI can only be viewed in conjunction
with a comprehensive exploration of a person’s personality. This is distinct
from the other models, which posit that EI is a brain-based ability, not an
environmental aspect of personality. It will take time to collate sufficient
evidence that can be fully examined and confirmed or rejected by the
research community at large.

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ES-I Bar-On Model

This model was developed by Reuven Bar-On to measure emotional-social
intelligence. It is considered to be one of the three major models of this
construct according to the Encyclopedia of Applied Psychology (2004).

Emotional-Social
intelligence
consists of

Facilitators Skills
(emotional & (emotional &
social) social)

Competencies (emotional
& social)

The Bar-On model provides the theoretical basis for the Emotional Quotient
Inventory (EQ-i), which was originally developed to assess various aspects
of this construct as well as to examine its conceptualization. According to
this model, emotional-social intelligence is a cross-section of interrelated
emotional and social competencies, skills, and facilitators. These attributes
determine how effectively we as individuals:

• Understand and express ourselves

• Understand others and relate with them

• Cope with daily demands.

The emotional and social competencies, skills, and facilitators referred to in

this conceptualization and the areas they assess are detailed in the table
below.

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EQ-i SCALES The EI Competencies and Skills Assessed

Self-awareness and self-expression:
Interpersonal
Accurately perceive, understand, and accept oneself
Self-regard
Be aware of and understand one’s emotions
Emotional self-
awareness
Effectively and constructively express one’s emotions and
Assertiveness
oneself
Independence
Be self-reliant and free of emotional dependency on others
Self-actualization
Strive to achieve personal goals and actualize one’s potential.

Interpersonal Social awareness and interpersonal relationships:

Empathy Be aware of and understand how others feel
Social Identify with one’s social group and cooperate with others
responsibility
Interpersonal Establish mutually satisfying relationships and relate well with
relationship others

Stress Mgement Emotional management and regulation:

Stress tolerance Effectively and constructively manage emotions
Impulse control Effectively and constructively control emotions
Change management:
Adaptability Objectively validate one’s feelings and think with external
Reality-testing reality
Flexibility Adapt and adjust one’s feelings and thinking to new situations
Problem-solving Effectively solve problems of a personal and interpersonal
nature

General Mood Self-motivation:

Optimism Be positive and look at the brighter side of life
Happiness Feel content with oneself, others, and life in general

In general, Bar-On considers emotional intelligence and cognitive

intelligence to contribute equally to a person’s general intelligence, which
then offers an indication of their potential to succeed in life. However,
doubts have been expressed about this model in the research literature (in
particular about the validity of self-report as an index of emotional
intelligence) and in scientific settings it is being replaced by the Trait
Emotional Intelligence model discussed previously.

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Mixed Models of EI
Many websites and popular books on emotional intelligence use quite
different definitions of emotional intelligence than the one used here. For
example, one well-known model by Daniel Goleman (1998) includes over 25
characteristics of emotional intelligence, including everything from emotional
self-awareness to such diverse qualities as teamwork and collaboration,
service orientation, initiative, and achievement motivation.

Mixed Models core of Emotional with a variety of

combine Intelligence (EI) Personality Traits

Such characteristics certainly are important personality traits. A crucial

question to ask, however, is whether they have anything to do either with
emotion, intelligence, or their combination.

Models that mix together emotional intelligence qualities with other

personality traits unrelated to either emotion or intelligence are often
referred to as mixed models of emotional intelligence. The term ‘mixed
model’ stems from the fact that the models mix together the core idea of
emotional intelligence with a variety of other personality traits.

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Group or Team EI Models

In recent years there have been several models developed to assess
emotional intelligence and competency within groups and organizations –
for example, GEC, WEIP, and Organizational Vital Signs™ (OVS™).

Group or Team EI models:

Group Emotional Competence (GEC) inventory

Work Group Emotional Intelligence Profile (WEIP)

Organizational Vital Signs™ (OVS)

The pioneering work of Vanessa Druskat and Steven Wolff, who have
applied the emotional competence concepts to groups, has developed the
Group Emotional Competence (GEC) inventory. This model uses the nine
areas of Group Emotional Inventory (GEI), which their research has
identified as improving group effectiveness.

As the table below shows these nine areas are divided into ‘awareness’ and
‘management’ at each of the three levels:

• Individual

• Group

• Cross-Boundary.

The feedback the inventory provides a team enables its members to

appreciate their strengths and weaknesses and identify improvement areas.

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Group Level
Individual •  AWARENESS Cross-
Level • Team self- Boundary
•  AWARENESS
awareness Level
• Interpersonal •  AWARENESS
understanding •  MANAGEMENT • Organizational
• Create resources awareness
to work with
•  MANAGEMENT emotion
• Confront members
• Create optimistic
•  MANAGEMENT
who break norms • Build external
environment
• Caring • Proactive problem relations
solving

An alternative model is the Work Group Emotional Intelligence Profile

(WEIP), which is designed to measure emotional intelligence of individuals
in teams. WEIP uses a seven-point reference format ranging from 1
(strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) for an individual to rate each item.
These items are designed to encourage the person to reflect on their own
behavior in certain situations. For example,

‘I am aware of my own feelings when working in a team.’

‘I am able to describe accurately the way others in the team are
feeling.’

If you need a model that illustrates how well people relate to each other in
the workplace then OVS™ (Organizational Vital Signs) may be your
preferred choice. This model has been designed to assess a group or an
organization to show the context in which individuals perform by measuring
six factors: accountability, adaptability, alignment, collaboration, leadership,
and trust.

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Self-development Models
Models that you can use to help to develop each of your team members are
SEI™ and ECI®. The SEI™ model concentrates on self-development, by
measuring eight fundamental skills in these three areas: Know Yourself,
Choose Yourself, and Give Yourself. It is currently the only test based on
Six Seconds’ EQ-in-action model

EI

Self-development
models

ECI® (Emotional Competence

Inventory)

SEI™ (Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence

Test)

In contrast the ECI® model (Emotional Competence Inventory) is a 360

degree appraisal tool. This is conducted by asking an individual’s
colleagues to rate him or her on 20 competencies that are believed to be
linked to emotional intelligence.

Research using this model has shown that the ratings others, whether
colleagues, customers, or suppliers, assign to an individual are generally
lower than when the person rates themselves. Experience of the 3600
appraisal tool show that those who have known the individual for one to
three years give the most accurate assessments.

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Summary

The types of models available to measure an individual’s levels of emotional

intelligence are known as Ability, Trait, and Mixed models. There are at
least 15 models of emotional intelligence, each with its own proprietary
assessment tool.

The ability-based model of emotional intelligence describes four separate

but interrelated abilities. These are the ability to perceive emotions, use
emotions, understand emotions, and manage emotions.

The trait model proposes that people have a number of emotional self-
perceptions and emotional traits that form their personality.

The Bar-On model describes emotional-social intelligence as a cross-

section of interrelated emotional and social competencies, and skills that
determine how effectively people understand and express themselves,
understand others, relate to them, and cope with daily demands and
pressures.

Mixed models combine emotional intelligence qualities with other

personality traits unrelated to either emotion or intelligence.

There are three group or team emotional intelligence models, including the
Group Emotional Competence (GEC) inventory, the Work Group Emotional
Intelligence Profile (WEIP), and the Organizational Vital Signs™ (OVS).

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References
Alder, H. and Heather, B. (2006), NLP in 21 Days. Piatkus Books Ltd.

Bar-On, R. (2006), ‘The Bar-On Model of Emotional-Social Intelligence

(ESI),’ Psicothema 18 , suppl., pp. 13–25.

Blake, R. and Mouton, J. (1985), The Managerial Grid III: The Key to
Leadership Excellence. Houston: Gulf Publishing Co.

Goleman, D. (1999), Working with Emotional Intelligence, Bloomsbury

Publishing Ltd.

Goleman, D. (2011), The Brain and Emotional Intelligence: New Insights,

More than Sound LLC.

Goleman, D. (2011), Leadership: The Power of Emotional Intelligence, More

than Sound.

Hasson, G. (2012), Brilliant Communication Skills, Pearson.

Mayer, J.D., Salovey, P., Caruso, D.L. and Sitarenios, G. (2001), ‘Emotional
Intelligence as a Standard Intelligence,’ Emotion 1, pp. 232–242.

Mayer, J.D., Salovey, P., Caruso, D.R. and Sitarenios, G. (2003),

‘Measuring Emotional Intelligence with the MSCEIT V2.0,’ Emotion 3, 97–
105.

Patterson, K., Grenny, J., McMillan, R. and Switzler, A. (2002), Crucial

Conversations, McGraw Hill.

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Patterson, K., Grenny, J., McMillan, R. and Switzler, A (2005), Crucial

Confrontations. McGraw Hill.

Pérez, J.C., Petrides, K.V. and Furnham, A. (2005), ‘Measuring Trait

Emotional Intelligence,’ in Schulze, R. and Roberts, R.D. (eds.),
International Handbook of Emotional Intelligence, Cambridge, MA: Hogrefe
& Huber, pp. 181–201.

Pickford, J. (ed.) (2003), Master People Management, Financial Times,

Prentice Hill.

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