Measuring and Validating Emotional Intelligence as Performance or Self-Report

This is a study of emotional intelligence (EI). EI was measured by performance and self-report tasks. Data were also obtained on basic values, some standard personality dimensions such as those specified in the five-factor model, social adjustment and several scales of impression management. Criteria were loneliness, work-family life balance and Internet addiction, and also measures of emotional and value deviance. Participants were college students in a business education program who participated anonymously in the extensive test session, which took about six hours to complete. It was found that EI measures - both self-report and performance - intercorrelated as expected, and that EI was strongly related as expected to criteria. People high in EI reported less loneliness, less Internet addiction and better work/studies - leisure/family balance. Impression management was more strongly related to self-report data than to performance. Self-report data were to a large extent accounted for by measures of personality according to the five-factor model, but performance measures were not. Finally, the extent of faking was measured and controlled for.