Construct Development and Scale Creation
Construct
Emotional Intelligence.
Operational Definition
Emotional intelligence forms a very important foundation through which researchers examine various aspects of social intelligence involving human relations relative to the criterion of assessment. Furthermore, it is certain that various personality attributes including perceiving emotions, facilitating thought, understanding emotions, managing emotions, self-motivation, and self-esteem influence emotional intelligence in different ways. Here, the Emotional Intelligence Test/Questionnaire will be used to measure and observe the influence of various personality characteristics on the participants’ emotional intelligence levels (Mikolajczak et al., 2007, p. 338; Brackett et al., 2006, p. 780; Petrides & Furnham, 2003, p. 39).
Items used to sample the domain
The five major items that will be used to observe and measure emotional intelligence include;
- Self-awareness
- Managing emotions
- Motivating oneself
- Empathy
- Handling relationships
The appropriate method of Scaling the domain
The methodology that will be used to measure emotional intelligence entails a one-dimensional test/questionnaire similar to the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue) proposed by the consortium for research on emotional intelligence in organizations. This particular test, which will be referred to as the Emotional Intelligence Test, is the most appropriate and more accurate in measuring the construct considering that it is one-dimensional, and thus, the results will be based on the favorability of each item relative to the construct. Furthermore, the test allows the participants to stretch the appropriate answers to the extremes of agreement or disagreement, and in some case, the participants may choose to remain neutral. Overall, the test ensures the validity and reliability of the measured construct (Trochim, 2006).
Emotional Intelligence Test for Adult Workers: Self-report Evaluation
Name of the organization: …………………………………..
Employee’s Age: ……………………………..
Current Residency: ……………………………..
Number of Years of service: ………………………………
Work Category: …………………………………………….
Duties/Responsibilities: ……………………………………..
- Self-awareness
- I possess the ability to observe and recognize my feelings as they unfold
- strongly agree
- agree
- neither agree or disagree
- disagree
- strongly disagree
- I am very clear about my own feelings and other people’s feelings
- strongly agree
- agree
- neither agree or disagree
- disagree
- strongly disagree
- Managing emotions
- I am capable of influencing feelings in other people
- strongly agree
- agree
- neither agree or disagree
- disagree
- strongly disagree
- I can handle my own feelings to make them appropriate and realize the factors underlying these feelings besides resolving my fears, anxieties, sadness, and anger
- strongly agree
- agree
- neither agree or disagree
- disagree
- strongly disagree
- Motivating oneself
- I can channel most of my emotions to serving the common goal while observing emotional self-control and delaying gratification
- strongly agree
- agree
- neither agree or disagree
- disagree
- strongly disagree
- I am driven by self-motivation and unlikely to give in to adversity
- strongly agree
- agree
- neither agree or disagree
- disagree
- strongly disagree
- Empathy
- I am capable of seeing certain things through the eyes of someone else
- strongly agree
- agree
- neither agree or disagree
- disagree
- strongly disagree
- I demonstrate high sensitivity to someone else’s feelings and concerns
- strongly agree
- agree
- neither agree or disagree
- disagree
- strongly disagree
- Handling relationships
- I possess the ability to handle emotions in other people besides showing high standards of social competence and skills
- strongly agree
- agree
- neither agree or disagree
- disagree
- strongly disagree
- I have fulfilling personal relationships with my co-workers
- strongly agree
- agree
- neither agree or disagree
- disagree
- strongly disagree
Analysis and Justification
Before the term emotional intelligence (E.I.) was discovered, most researchers had already devised ways of measuring various aspects related to this psychological construct including social skills and interpersonal competence. Accordingly, different schools have developed appropriate curricular for students with the aim of raising their skills in social development, personal intelligence, and emotional competence. Conversely, the contribution of emotional intelligence in the workplace cannot be overstated. Here, studies show evidence of the link between emotional intelligence and leadership, group performance, managing change, individual performance, interpersonal relationships, and performance evaluations in different organizations (Mikolajczak et al., 2007, pp. 338-353; Brackett et al., 2006, pp. 780-795). In this essay, the method of scaling for emotional intelligence in the workplace is discussed in greater detail through demonstrating the purpose of the Emotional Intelligence Test in gauging the workers’ leadership abilities/competencies, individual performance, group performance, and interpersonal relationships/interactions.
The Emotional Intelligence Test is designed in such a way that workers holding different positions in any department of an organization can take it with a lot of easy to facilitate effective individual assessment. The first step in developing the test entails defining the construct of interest relative to the five dimensions underlying it. Subsequently, to avoid different problems associated with measurement, a 10-item questionnaire was designed in such a way that it covers the five major dimensions of emotional intelligence to facilitate data acquisition. Furthermore, the reliability of the test is pegged on the fact that it demonstrates approximate content validity, internal consistency, and criterion-related validity in that the questions are framed in such a way that the answers correlate to the overall score. That is, the questions seem to answer almost the same thing, the level of emotional intelligence in the respondent (Trochim, 2006).
To further measure the reliability of the test, selected workers within an organization will be allowed to take the test with a specified time frame that allows each person to complete the self-report instrument satisfactorily. Moreover, if need be, trained persons will be required to assist in officiating the test administration in different organizations drawn from various regions both urban and rural in order to determine the impact of location, social status, and organizational environments on various personality characteristics underlying emotional intelligence. Averagely, 2000-2500 workers in each organization within a particular region will be required to take the test. Here, various aspects including respondent’s dispositions, work category, department, race, responsibilities, and current residency will also be given adequate consideration (Trochim, 2006; Petrides & Furnham, 2003, pp. 39-57).
Subsequently, the respondent selection criteria will be based on various characteristics such as age and gender. Here, gender issues will be given consideration by selecting the participants in a one to one ratio, and considering that each person experiences different aspects of emotional intelligence relative to individual ages, the selection procedure will be limited to persons aged between 24-55 years. In addition, the selection criteria will include the physically challenged workers in order to get correct insights into the contribution of various physical challenges in one’s emotional behavior and characteristics relative to other categories of workers. Other characteristics that will be given consideration include the respondent’s current residency, financial status, salary category, and family size (Trochim, 2006). Here, the test will be administered on workers drawn from rural and urban areas in order to assess the effect of the varying working environments and opportunities on the workers emotional competencies. On the other hand, the test will be generalized to workers drawn from the top-management of different organizations including owners and other stakeholders because the assumption is that this group of workers are not exposed to as many conditions, which require the highest standards of emotional competence as their junior workers.
To establish validity with the Emotional Intelligence Test, the research study will be designed in such a way that it provides the approximate results that will enable one to conclude that the operationalization reflects the subject construct. Thus, only the conclusions reached using the test will be regarded to as being reliable and valid. Moreover, construct validity relates the test to various underlying characteristics to be assessed. Therefore, considering the questions framed in the test described above, it is certain that the test achieves complete and exclusive measurement of the construct. Besides, considering that measurements of emotional intelligence are not necessarily based on factual data, one possibility is that the results will reflect perception of the truth among the respondents because most respondents will be responding to feelings triggered by the message in the test without evaluating the accuracy of the statements. Therefore, it is advisable to generalize some statements relative to the emotional needs of the respondents. And to further achieve validity with the test, the number of choices are chosen in a way that both the positive and negative statements are at bar. This ensures that the respondents are limited and more likely to “agree” or “disagree” because inconsistencies will be evident in responses that are one-sided (Brackett et al., 2006, pp. 780-795; Trochim, 2006).
On the other hand, survey research will form the basis of item selection whereby a series of questionnaires will be used to assess the target population and its accessibility relative to the possibility of itemizing the population, the level of population literacy, population cooperation, and other geographical restraints. Furthermore, issues concerning data availability, availability of respondents, and their response rates should also form the basis of item selection. Further, when framing test questions, it is advisable to consider question complexity and the length of responses to avoid fatigue and inconsistencies among the respondents (Trochim, 2006). Having considered these factors in item selection, the items selected can be evaluated through organizing, descriptive analysis, and inferential analysis. Here, organizing the items entails checking their accuracy and feeding the information into a data support system such as a computer. Under descriptive analyses, the underlying features in the evaluation process are adequately described to summarize the properties of the items and their intended measures. Finally, under inferential analyses, the test questions are analyzed to deduce the behavior of the entire population using the sample data. Furthermore, inferential analysis allows researchers to make assumptions regarding different test measures.
Overall, it is worth noting that emotional intelligence is a paramount psychological construct that should be measured in any organization with the aim of instilling leadership qualities and emotional stability and competency in workers. Conversely, determining the factors influencing the personality characteristics of workers relative to different dimensions of emotional intelligence allows scientists and psychologists to recommend appropriate measures that should be undertaken by the client organization in order to ensure that emotional stability and competency prevails across the entire organization. Thus, the emotional intelligence test/questionnaire forms the basis for future studies entailing emotional intelligence in organizations, and there is the need to make significant improvements on the same to ensure reliability and validity of the future measurements.
References
Brackett, M.A., Rivers, S.E., Shiffman, S., Lerner, N., & Salovey, P. (2006). Relating emotional abilities to social functioning: A comparison of self-report and performance measures of emotional intelligence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 780-795.
Mikolajczak, M., Luminet, O., Leroy, C., & Roy, E. (2007). Psychometric properties of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire. Journal of Personality Assessment, 88, 338-353.
Petrides, K. V., & Furnham, A. (2003). Trait emotional intelligence: Behavioural validation in two studies of emotion recognition and reactivity to mood induction. European Journal of Personality, 17, 39-57.
Trochim, W. (2006). Research Methods Knowledge Base: Scaling. Web.