The dimensional structure of the emotional self‐efficacy scale (ESES)

This study aims to investigate the underlying dimensionality of the emotional self‐efficacy scale (ESES) and determine its relationship with measures of ability emotional intelligence (EI) (Mayer–Salovey–Caruso EI Test), trait EI (Trait EI Questionnaire), personality, and cognitive ability. Participants included 822 undergraduate students and 263 graduates already in the workplace. Analyses of the data suggested a multidimensional factor structure for the ESES. The measure was found to correlate with trait EI and showed expected correlations with personality. It did not correlate with ability EI or cognitive ability. These findings are discussed and are interpreted as offering support for the use of the ESES as a reliable measure of emotional self‐efficacy.     

Trait emotional intelligence and its links to university performance: An examination

This study aimed at investigating the relationships between academic performance (AP) and cognitive ability, personality traits, and trait emotional intelligence (trait EI or trait emotional self-efficacy) in a sample of 323 (113 female) university students in Cyprus. The study also explored differences across university majors (i.e., computer sciences, business and management, electrical engineering, tourism and marketing, law and accounting, and psychology) in trait EI profiles. Trait EI predicted AP over and above cognitive ability and established personality traits. In addition, there were differences across university majors in trait EI scores; psychology students scored higher on trait EI than computer science, electrical engineering, and business and management students. Implications for studying trait EI in the context of higher education are discussed.     

Emotional intelligence, personality and the decoding of non-verbal expressions of emotion

Previous research has highlighted theoretical and empirical links between measures of both personality and trait emotional intelligence (EI), and the ability to decode facial expressions of emotion. Research has also found that the posed, static characteristics of the photographic stimuli used to explore these links affects the decoding process and differentiates them from the natural expressions they represent. This undermines the ecological validity of established trait-emotion decoding relationships.This study addresses these methodological shortcomings by testing relationships between the reliability of participant ratings of dynamic, spontaneously elicited expressions of emotion with personality and trait EI. Fifty participants completed personality and self-report EI questionnaires, and used a computer-logging program to continuously rate change in emotional intensity expressed in video clips. Each clip was rated twice to obtain an intra-rater reliability score. The results provide limited support for links between both trait EI and personality variables and how reliably we decode natural expressions of emotion. Limitations and future directions are discussed.     

Associations of Trait Emotional Intelligence with Social Support,Work Engagement,and Creativity in Japanese Eldercare Nurses

Work‐related resources can be positive antecedents of employee work engagement (WE) and creativity. Although trait emotional intelligence (EI) and social support may be crucial resources in nursing, their relationships with WE and creativity remain unclear. Hence, with special focus on the role of trait EI, we examined this relationship by applying the job demands‐resources (JD‐R) model. The participants were 489 eldercare nurses in Japan (female: n = 401; male: n = 88; age = 39.5 ± 11.0 years). The results showed positive associations between EI and the other studied variables. Furthermore, moderated mediation analyses revealed that higher trait EI enhanced the positive association among the triad of social support, WE, and creativity. The findings provide additional evidence that, in nurses, trait EI may be a noteworthy personal resource for creativity in the relationship between social support and WE.     

Sense of humor, emotional intelligence, and social competence

Associations among sense of humor, emotional intelligence (EI), and social competence were examined in 111 undergraduate students using measures of humor styles, trait cheerfulness, social competence, and an ability test of EI. Emotional management ability was positively correlated with self-enhancing humor and trait cheerfulness, and negatively correlated with trait bad mood. Ability to accurately perceive emotions was negatively related to aggressive and self-defeating humor. Positive humor styles and trait cheerfulness were positively correlated with various domains of social competence, whereas negative humor styles and trait bad mood were negatively correlated with social competence. Finally, the emotional management facet of EI was positively correlated with several social competence domains.     

The location of trait emotional intelligence in personality factor space

The construct of trait emotional intelligence (trait EI or trait emotional self‐efficacy) provides a comprehensive operationalization of emotion‐related self‐perceptions and dispositions. In the first part of the present study (N = 274, 92 males), we performed two joint factor analyses to determine the location of trait EI in Eysenckian and Big Five factor space. The results showed that trait EI is a compound personality construct located at the lower levels of the two taxonomies. In the second part of the study, we performed six two‐step hierarchical regressions to investigate the incremental validity of trait EI in predicting, over and above the Giant Three and Big Five personality dimensions, six distinct criteria (life satisfaction, rumination, two adaptive and two maladaptive coping styles). Trait EI incrementally predicted four criteria over the Giant Three and five criteria over the Big Five. The discussion addresses common questions about the operationalization of emotional intelligence as a personality trait.     

A behavioral genetic study of trait emotional intelligence

Numerous models of emotional intelligence (EI) have proposed the existence of hitherto undiscovered mental abilities, competencies, and skills. The theory of trait emotional intelligence suggests that the content domains of these models invariably contain permutations of personality traits. The two studies in this article examine the heritability of trait EI scores with a view to demonstrating empirically that the construct has a similar level of genetic influence as other personality traits. Study 1 was a family design of 133 high-school students and their parents. Regressions of offspring on midparent scores suggested median upper-limit heritability estimates of .18 at facet level, .25 at factor level, and .32 at the global trait EI level. Study 2 was a twin design (213 pairs of monozygotic [MZ] twins and 103 pairs of dizygotic [DZ] twins). It yielded median heritabilities of .42 for the facets, .44 for the factors, and .42 for global trait EI. Overall, our findings are in accordance with studies of the major personality dimensions and provide further empirical support for the conceptualization of EI as a personality trait.     

Investigating the relationship between trait and ability emotional intelligence and theory of mind

Theoretical links between emotional knowledge and theory of mind (ToM) have previously been proposed. This study investigates this relationship using measures of both ability and trait emotional intelligence (EI). Our sample comprised 194 children, divided into two age groups (5–7 years and 8–10 years). Children participated in measures of false belief understanding, advanced tests of ToM, ability EI and trait EI, and a standardized language assessment. For both age groups, we found that only ability EI was related to false belief understanding. Furthermore, regression analyses revealed that the understanding and managing branches of ability EI predicted unique variance in false belief understanding once controlling for age, language, and the other ability EI branches. Trait EI failed to display any association with false belief understanding. Ability and trait EI were associated with more advanced ToM tasks undertaken only by the older sample. These results offer support for previous research that has found a relationship between emotion perception and labelling and ToM. They also provide new knowledge: (1) higher order emotional knowledge, measured by ability EI, is associated with advanced ToM; and (2) emotional self efficacy, as measured by trait EI, is also important in advanced ToM. Furthermore, they provide the first account of associations between standardized EI measures and ToM.     

How Emotional Intelligence Might Get You the Job: The Relationship Between Trait Emotional Intelligence and Faking on Personality Tests

This study examined trait emotional intelligence (EI) in relation to the ability to fake on personality tests. Undergraduate students (N = 129) were first instructed to fill out a personality inventory honestly, and subsequently in such a way as to maximize their chances of obtaining two distinctive job positions (lawyer and file clerk). Participants were able to change their scores in line with the hypothesized job profiles. Regression analyses showed that EI statistically predicted faking ability to an equal degree in both job scenarios. Finally, EI showed incremental validity over general mental ability and the Big Five personality traits in predicting the ability to fake. Possible implications of the results for the predictive validity of personality tests are discussed.     

Emotional intelligence and emotional creativity

Three studies examined the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and emotional creativity (EC) and whether each construct was predictive of creative behavior. It was hypothesized that the relationship between EI and EC corresponds to the relationship between cognitive intelligence and creative ability. Therefore, EI and EC were expected to be two distinct sets of abilities. Intercorrelations and confirmatory factor analyses supported the hypothesis. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that EC, but not EI, would correlate with behavioral creativity. Self-report measures of EC significantly correlated with laboratory and self-reported creativity measures in both studies, while ability measures of EC only correlated with self-reported artistic activity. EI was uncorrelated with creative behavior.     

Developmental correlates of emotional intelligence: Temperament,family environment and childhood trauma

This study examined temperament, environmental factors (family environment and childhood trauma), and the interaction between them as developmental correlates of ability and trait emotional intelligence (EI). Using 97 university students, correlational analyses revealed that temperament characteristics were related to trait but not ability EI. Components of family environment and childhood trauma were not significantly related to ability or trait EI. Multiple regression analyses confirmed the importance of temperament in predicting trait EI, but provided little support for the role of environmental factors or their interactions with temperament in predicting either type of EI.     

Gender-linked personality and mental health: The role of trait emotional intelligence

The present study examined the role of the emotion-related personality dimension, or trait emotional intelligence (EI), in the relationship between gender-linked personality (GLP) traits and internalizing mental health difficulties (IMHDs). GLP traits were measured as Agency and Communion, due to conceptual advantages over other semantic representations (e.g., masculinity, femininity) in the literature. IMHDs as the outcome variable were conceptualized as a latent composite of anxiety, stress, and emotion-oriented coping. A moderate relationship between Agency and IMHDs was fully mediated by trait EI. Trait EI also divided an overall non-significant effect of Communion on IMHDs into an indirect, protective effect via trait EI and a direct, adverse effect. The results suggest that Agency and Communion subsume different sets of trait EI facets, which may account for much of the differential protective effects of these GLP traits on IMHDs. Discussion focuses on implications of the results for sex differences in mental health.     

Artistic and Scientific Creative Behavior: Openness and the Mediating Role of Interests

The arts and sciences have been identified as two specific domains that are dependent upon the creative process. A total of 369 undergraduate students served as research participants in two separate studies. In the first study, participants (N = 238) completed a measure of Openness to Experience (NEO‐PI; McCrae & Costa, 1999) and a questionnaire assessing artistic and scientific creativity (ASAS; Guastello & Shissler, 1994). Results from study 1 indicated that the Aesthetics and Actions personality traits were significantly related to artistic creativity, while the Ideas trait was the only lower level personality trait to significantly correlate with scientific creativity. In the second study, participants (N = 131) completed a measure of Openness to Experience (NEO‐PI), Vocational Interests (Holland, 1985), and an artistic and scientific creativity questionnaire (Guastello & Shissler, 1994). Findings from study 1 were largely replicated in study 2. Namely, Aesthetics and Ideas were significantly related with artistic and scientific creativity, respectively. Results from partial correlation computations were used to identify specific personality traits that were used in a series of regression models testing the second goal of the second study. Specifically, vocational interests were observed to mediate the relationship between personality dispositions and creativity. Results suggest the ability of lower level personality traits of Openness to differentiate between artistic and scientific creativity. In addition, results lend support for the motivational aspect of vocational interests.     

Divine Emotions: On the Link Between Emotional Intelligence and Religious Belief

There have been only few attempts to explore the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and religiosity. However, none of them included measures of ability EI. In two studies, we investigated the potential associations between various aspects of religious belief and ability and trait EI. In Study 1 (N = 240), we found that ability EI was positively associated with general level of religious belief. Study 2, conducted among Polish Christians (N = 159), replicated the previous result on the connection between ability EI and religion. Moreover, both trait and ability EI were negatively correlated with extrinsic religious orientation and negative religious coping. Additional analysis showed that extrinsic orientation mediated the relationship between ability EI and religiosity.     

Trait emotional intelligence: behavioural validation in two studies of emotion recognition and reactivity to mood induction

This paper presents two experiments concerning trait emotional intelligence (‘trait EI’). In study 1, ten high and ten low trait EI individuals were selected from a sample of 85 persons to participate in a computerized experiment involving the recognition of morphed emotional expressions. As hypothesized, high trait EI participants were faster at identifying the expressions than their low trait EI counterparts. In study 2, trait EI scores from 102 persons were residualized on the Big Five and subsequently 15 high and 15 low trait EI individuals were selected to participate in a mood induction experiment. As hypothesized, high trait EI participants exhibited greater sensitivity to the mood induction procedure than their low trait EI counterparts. The findings are discussed in terms of the construct validity of trait EI, with particular emphasis on the issue of incremental validity vis‐à‐vis broad personality traits. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Emotional intelligence, teamwork effectiveness, and job performance: the moderating role of job context

We advance understanding of the role of ability-based emotional intelligence (EI) and its subdimensions in the workplace by examining the mechanisms and context-based boundary conditions of the EI-performance relationship. Using a trait activation framework, we theorize that employees with higher overall EI and emotional perception ability exhibit higher teamwork effectiveness (and subsequent job performance) when working in job contexts characterized by high managerial work demands because such contexts contain salient emotion-based cues that activate employees' emotional capabilities. A sample of 212 professionals from various organizations and industries indicated support for the salutary effect of EI, above and beyond the influence of personality, cognitive ability, emotional labor job demands, job complexity, and demographic control variables. Theoretical and practical implications of the potential value of EI for workplace outcomes under contexts involving managerial complexity are discussed.     

Exploring the relationships between trait emotional intelligence and objective socio‐emotional outcomes in childhood

Background Trait emotional intelligence (trait EI or trait emotional self‐efficacy) is a constellation of emotion‐related self‐perceptions and dispositions located at the lower levels of personality hierarchies. This paper examines the validity of this construct, as operationalized by the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire‐Child Form (TEIQue‐CF), in primary schoolchildren. Aims The main aim was to examine the construct validity of trait EI in middle and late childhood by exploring its relationships with cognitive ability, emotion perception, and social behaviour. Sample The sample comprised 140 children aged between 8 and 12 years (M = 9.26 years, SD = 1.00 year; 63 girls) from two English state primary schools. Method Pupils completed the TEIQue‐CF, the standard progressive matrices (SPM), the guess who peer assessment, the social skills training (SST) test, and the assessment of children's emotion skills (ACES) during formal class periods. The procedure took approximately two hours with a short break between assessments. Results Trait EI scores were positively related both to peer‐rated prosocial behaviour and to overall peer competence. They also predicted emotion perception accuracy beyond overall peer competence. As hypothesized in trait EI theory, the construct was unrelated to IQ (Raven's matrices) and academic performance. Conclusions Trait EI is successfully operationalized through the TEIQue‐CF and has important and multifaceted implications for the socialization of primary schoolchildren.     

Trait emotional intelligence as a predictor of socioemotional outcomes in early adolescence

Trait emotional intelligence (EI) refers to a constellation of emotional self-perceptions located at the lower levels of personality hierarchies. This study investigated the predictive and incremental validity of this construct in a sample of 1140 pupils aged 11-13 years. Trait EI showed strong concurrent and predictive validity in relation to three measures of socioemotional competence: self-reported psychopathology as assessed by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, a sociometric measure of peer relations, and a peer-assessed measure of social behavior. Socioemotional measures were taken twice over a period of seven months. Structural equation modeling revealed trait EI and IQ effects on socioemotional competence (SEC), the former being stronger than the latter. Hierarchical regression analyses suggested an association also of trait with level of change in SEC (controlling for both IQ and SEC at time 1). The findings corroborate an important role for trait emotional intelligence in peer relations and socioemotional competence.     

How self-transcendence via individualised moral foundations predict emotional and social enhancement

In this article we focus on explaining personality trait self-transcendence (ST) in relation to social and emotional competence, and suggest that ST through differences in moral foundations can partially predict social and emotional competence. A sample of 195 university students was used to test hypotheses regarding several paths between ST, trait emotional intelligence (EI), universalism and moral foundations. Consistent with the hypotheses, ST was found to predict social and emotional competence via individualised moral foundations (IMF). Results have implications for our understanding of the relationship between ST, moral foundations, social and emotional competence.     

Development and validation of a self-report measure of emotional intelligence as a multidimensional trait domain

Psychometric review of 33 peer-reviewed studies of six self-report emotional intelligence (EI) measures supports a multidimensional conceptualization of EI. The nature and number of EI facets, however, and their distinctiveness from more established trait domains is unclear. Building on earlier efforts, three studies were undertaken (Ns = 138, 163, 152) to develop self-report measures of 10 facets of EI proposed by Salovey and Mayer (1990). Results support the reliability (internal consistency, test-retest) and validity (content, criterion, construct, structural) of the proposed scales and their distinctiveness among themselves and with respect to more established trait domains (e.g., personality). Specifically, three satisfaction and four cross-cultural adaptability facets were predicted uniquely by 9 of the 10 proposed subscales, controlling for social desirability, the Big Five, positive and negative affect, and self-monitoring. All told, results confirm that trait-EI can be measured using self-report and conceptualized as a distinct multidimensional domain.