Emotional intelligence: an exploration of the construct in adolescents

Abstract

Emotional intelligence is an emerging psychological construct with varying definitions, measures, and applications. According to the ability model of emotional intelligence, the construct can be defined as the set of abilities that explain how we perceive, understand, and express our emotions and those of others. Research with adults shows preliminary evidence for the discriminant validity of the construct from general intelligence, personality, and well-being and positive affect, but little research has been conducted which critically examines the construct amongst adolescents. This study explored the construct with adolescents by testing the discriminant validity of emotional intelligence scores with general intelligence, personality and well-being. The study involved adolescent students (N = 29) from a regional Australian high school aged 12 – 17 years (M = 14.5, SD = 1.2). The Shipley Institute of Living Scale (a measure of IQ), a new performance-based measure of emotional intelligence – the Mayer Salovey Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test: Youth Version (MSCEIT:YV), a 50-item pool of personality items related to the Big-Five Personality Factors as found on the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) on the IPIP website, and, the Personal Wellbeing Index – School Children (PWI-SC) were administered in the above order. Surprisingly, no significant results were found for the multiple correlations between emotional intelligence and general intelligence, personality and well-being. However, the study had low power (Power = .38), and so the results should be interpreted with caution. To conclude, it would appear that emotional intelligence, as measured by the MSCEIT:YV, is independent and distinct from general intelligence, personality and well-being, which is in contrast to the adult research which shows a slight but definite overlap with these constructs and emotional intelligence.