Ability Versus Mixed Emotional Intelligence

Ability Versus Mixed Emotional Intelligence

Reviewed by Faisal Zaidi

The split between measuring emotional intelligence as an ability and measuring it as a blend of traits.

What it is

Mayer, Salovey and Caruso (2008) describe one group of researchers who study emotional intelligence as a distinct set of mental abilities and another who study a broader mix of positive traits such as happiness, self-esteem and optimism. A 2015 meta-analysis of self-report measures found strong overlap with self-efficacy, conscientiousness, emotional stability, extraversion and general mental ability, and a negligible link to supervisor-rated performance once that overlap was accounted for.

In effect

In the article on emotional intelligence, it explains why a performance test and a questionnaire cannot be compared directly.

What it does not say

It does not say that either approach is wrong; the two measure different things and their results are read separately.

Sources

  1. Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., & Caruso, D. R. (2008). Emotional intelligence: New ability or eclectic traits? American Psychologist, 63(6), 503-517.
  2. Joseph, D. L., Jin, J., Newman, D. A., & O'Boyle, E. H. (2015). Why does self-reported emotional intelligence predict job performance? A meta-analytic investigation of mixed EI. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(2), 298-342.