Contents: emotional, intelligence, empathy, test, scale, measure, measurement, siteware, computer, administration, scoring, whole, life, success, IQ, EQ, achievement, delay of gratification, social skills, adaptive coping, self-actualization.

Measures for Various Aspects of Emotional Intelligence

For definition of emotional intelligence and theoretical issues regarding its measurement, please see the section below on Theoretical Consideration.

For detailed description of a very general emotional intelligence scale, see:

The General Emotional Intelligence Scale
Emotional Empathy and Affiliative Tendency
Two positively intercorrelated measures of pro-social orientation deal with major facets of emotional intelligence and are particularly relevant to success in interpersonal relationships. The first of these tests is the Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale (BEES) and measures individual differences in the tendency to feel and vicariously experience the emotional experiences (both positive and negative) of others (Mehrabian, 1997). There is a general review article (Mehrabian, Young, & Sato, 1988) dealing with the reliability and validity of an old version of this test that was published in 1972 (the BEES is a completely new scale published in 1996). The review article provides considerable information about various traits and social skills that are correlates of emotional empathy. Use the link Emotional Empathy to obtain more information about the BEES.

The second of these tests is the Affiliative Tendency Scale (MAFF). Affiliative persons are friendly, sociable, helpful, and skillful in dealing with people, and open about their feelings. They make good companions because they are pleasant and agreeable. Others feel comfortable with them and like them. In other words, affiliative persons have superior emotional and social skills in dealing with others, derive gratification and reward from their interpersonal contacts, and tend to be a source of happiness to others. Affiliative Tendency is understandably important in achieving success in relationships and can be an asset generally in other settings (e.g., work). A general review article bearing on the Affiliative Tendency Scale (MAFF) is available and deals with the reliability and validity of that scale (Mehrabian, 1994). Use the link Affiliative Tendency to obtain more information about the MAFF.

You can use a combination of the BEES and the MAFF as follows. First, you would obtain two separate scores (one for the BEES and a second for the MAFF) for each of the participants in your study. You would correlate both these scores, separately, with any other tests or criterion measures you are employing in your study. You would also be able to test relations of both scales to your criterion measure using regression analysis, as follows:

Criterion measure = a * BEES + b * MAFF

where (a) and (b) are regression beta weights. In case you are not familiar with regression analysis, you can simply use correlations of the BEES and of the MAFF with any other measures you use in your study.

Achieving Tendency & Disciplined Goal Orientation
The Achieving Tendency Scale (Mehrabian, 1968, 1969, 1994-95) has been used for over three decades to predict individual differences in general levels of achievement, particularly achievement or success at work. In recent work, the Achieving Tendency Scale has been augmented by a related (i.e., positively correlated) scale dealing more directly with individual characteristics associated with goal setting and adherence to a coherent plan to achieve one's goals. Together, the Achieving Tendency and Disciplined Goal Orientation scales have been found to be highly relevant for predicting life success in general and, in particular, the level of success a person is likely to achieve at work and in his career and finances.

With reference to the conventional definition of emotional intelligence, these two scales relate to emotional control, impulse control, goal management, and self-motivation. In short, whether viewed primarily in terms of their relevance to life success or in terms of the conventional definition of emotional intelligence, Achieving Tendency and Disciplined Goal Orientation are deemed to be highly relevant for assessing emotional intelligence.

Emotional Thinking
Emotional Thinking refers to a generalized inability to distinguish emotions and thoughts. For some, strong emotions tend to interfere with balanced and realistic thought processes and can result in distorted views of situations and relationships. The Emotional Thinking Scale (ETS) is a completely new and improved version of the Globality-Differentiation Scale (Mehrabian, Stefl, & Mullen, 1997). Reliability and validity data on the Emotional Thinking Scale were provided by Mehrabian (2000), showing that Emotional Thinking is a highly relevant negative predictor of life success. With reference to the conventional definition of emotional intelligence, Emotional Thinking relates to low emotional control, inability to manage stress and life difficulties, inadequate communication skills due to distorted perceptions of others, and low impulse control.

Relaxed Temperament
"Relaxed Temperament" refers to a generalized emotional predisposition to be relaxed (i.e., generally to be inclined to gravitate to emotional states that combine pleasure, low arousal (or low emotional activation), and dominance (or high internal control). Within Mehrabian's (1996a, 1996b) PAD Temperament Model, a relaxed temperament is the healthiest variant of temperament (or personality) constellation, because it provides an inbuilt resilience to stress and everyday life difficulties. Relaxed temperament facilitates a person's ability to deal with (or manage) stress, to exercise control over his/her emotions, to have a positive and constructive attitude toward life, and to have accurate and realistic perceptions and expectations in various life situations.

There are two alternative approaches to the measurement of Relaxed Temperament:
In the first approach, you would use the PAD Temperament Scales, consisting of the Trait Pleasure-Displeasure, Trait Arousability, and Trait Dominance- Submissiveness scales. High emotional intelligence would be identified with high Trait Pleasure (i.e., a pleasant temperament), high Trait Dominance (i.e., high internal control), and low Trait Arousability (i.e., low general emotionality or emotional reactivity), listed in order of importance. If you need to minimize the number of tests you use, then you ideally would use a combination of the Trait Pleasure and Trait Dominance scales (or, at the very least, use the Trait Pleasure Scale). You can select "PAD Temperament Model" below to obtain more information about the Trait Pleasure-Displeasure, Trait Arousability, and Trait Dominance-Submissiveness scales.

PAD Temperament Model
In the second approach to measuring "Relaxed Temperament," you would use a constellation of five major personality scales that are moderately to highly intercorrelated. Whereas, the PAD Temperament approach identifies temperament qualities underlying relaxed temperament, this approach includes an alternative and interrelated group of five surface traits. A combined total score for the five traits is used in data analyses and is labeled the Relaxed Temperament Scale, because the total score for this scale has been shown to relate to relaxed temperament as measured by the PAD scales.

Most importantly, the Relaxed Temperament Scale is an excellent predictor of life success. It has been found to exhibit significant positive relations with a highly diverse set of life success measures (e.g., relationships, work, career).

Overview of Measures
Here are the various aspects of Emotional Intelligence as measured within Mehrabian's (2000) approach:

As an alternative, you simply can use two of the three PAD Temperament scales (Trait Pleasure-Displeasure, Trait Dominance-Submissiveness) to identify the underlying temperament characteristics that are generally associated with emotional intelligence and life success.

Here is a list of the test manuals corresponding to the above scales:

If you must limit the number of scales you can use, email me your questions to obtain suggestions regarding selection of appropriate measures for your study.

Theoretical Considerations: Rational Underlying the Concept of Emotional Intelligence & an Alternative Approach to its Measurement
Proponents of the concept of emotional intelligence have argued that IQ measures fail to account for (or explain) most of the variance in individual differences in life success. Alternative measures dealing with various aspects of an individual's emotional functioning are then offered for understanding why some persons are successful in life and others are not. Bear in mind, then, that life success (e.g., success in relationships with mates or co-workers, success at work) is the key issue here and that personality scales are needed to help us make better predictions of life success than can be achieved with IQ measures alone.

An alternative to the conventional definition and measurement of emotional intelligence deals directly with the key issue: life success. What personality and temperament characteristics exhibit sufficiently strong relations to life success so they can provide superior predictions of success when compared with IQ measures? When the question is stated in this way, experimental findings supply the following answers.

Back to Section on How to Measure Emotional Intelligence.

References
Mehrabian, A. (1968). Male and female scales of the tendency to achieve. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 28, 493-502.

Mehrabian, A. (1969). Measures of achieving tendency. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 29, 445-451.

Mehrabian, A. (1994). Evidence bearing on the Affiliative Tendency (MAFF) and Sensitivity to Rejection (MSR) Scales. Current Psychology: Developmental, Learning, Personality, Social, 13, 97-116.

Mehrabian, A. (1994-95). Individual differences in achieving tendency: Review of evidence bearing on a questionnaire measure. Current Psychology, 13, 351-364.

Mehrabian, A. (1996a). Pleasure-arousal-dominance: A general framework for describing and measuring individual differences in temperament. Current Psychology: Developmental, Learning, Personality, Social, 14, 261-292.

Mehrabian, A. (1996b). Analysis of the Big-five personality factors in terms of the PAD Temperament Model. Australian Journal of Psychology, 48, 86-92.

Mehrabian, A. (1997). Relations among personality scales of aggression, violence, and empathy: Validational evidence bearing on the Risk of Eruptive Violence scale. Aggressive Behavior, 23,433-445.

Mehrabian, A. (2000). Beyond IQ: Broad-based measurement of individual success potential or "emotional intelligence." Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 126, 133-239.

Mehrabian, A., Stefl, C.A., & Mullen, M. (1997). Emotional thinking in the adult: Individual differences in mysticism and globality- differentiation. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 16, 325-355.

Mehrabian, A., Young, A.L., & Sato, S. (1988). Emotional empathy and associated individual differences. Current Psychology: Research & Reviews, 7, 221-240.

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