Emotional Intelligence, Article Critique Example

Article Source:

Mayer, J.D; Salovey, P.; Caruso, D. (2004). Emotional Intelligence: Theory, Findings, and Implications. Psychological Inquiry. Vol. 15, No. 3,197-215.

Main Topic

Emotional Intelligence is currently considered as one of the most important factors that identify human behaviour and how that element of human nature affects the being as well as the performance of an individual when it comes to completing job tasks and responsibilities. There have been several points of EI tests that have been developed however their validity and reliability are not yet completely defined and results from using these tests are still not completely considered efficient enough in showing the real definition of one’s EI level. Relatively, this article intends to show a more practical way of defining one’s EI level through behavioural observation.

Definitions

Emotional Intelligence: Defined as the level of emotional capabilities one has that he is able to use to make constructive decisions that affect his personal behaviour as well as the ways by which he handles his responsibilities at work and as an individual having his own personal roles in life.

Emotional Quotient: Considered to be the capability of one to balance out emotional and intellectual rationality as he faces the different situations in life especially involving complicated issues regarding life, work and personal being. One’s level of emotional quotient often becomes evident in the face of dealing with complicated pressures in life.

Emotional Knowledge: the aspect of knowing how much one is able to control emotional bearings due to personal understanding of one’s self. In a more organizational perspective, this indicates how administrators intend to make a distinctive use on how to mandate the motivation of a person through knowing his emotional capacities.

Organizational Behaviour: the manner by which one responds to responsibilities, pressures and appreciations while in the job or while being enjoined in an organization.

Hypotheses

• Emotional Intelligence is abstract and has no specific measure but have components that could indicate its existence and impact in a person.
• Emotional intelligence is measurable through testing procedures that involve written conditions that allow participants to respond to particular issues through written tests.
• The abstract condition of EI insists on the fact that it could only be measured through direct observation of individuals being evaluated.

Sample

A part of the study is to evaluate the validity and reliability of several EI testing methods. In doing so, the authors also presented their own version of the testing process which insisted on the aspects of EI that they impose to be most important in noting the levels of a person’s response to certain situations.

Measures and Methodology

The comparison between the validity and reliability between MEIS and MSCEIT has been established in relation to the methodology taken into consideration within this research. Upon observation, the results of the tests which yielded the functional role of tests which is to simply scale the utilization of EI based on a person’s response to the evaluation procedures. However, accurately inferring on the level of EI through these tests has been considered by the authors inadequate. To set a comparison, the authors also cited notable testing procedures such as the Bar-On EQ-i; the Scale of Emotional Intelligence, the Occupational Personality Questionnaire and the Emotional Intelligence Scale. All of which were deemed important and yet not completely reliable as desired. As for a fact, in correlation with MSCEIT, based on the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale, this tests were noted to have r=.15 which indicates a weak overlap between the ability-based tests and the self-report tests meaning the results do not correlatively define EI which makes each test specifically insufficient.

In this regard, the authors then suggest a development of a test that would involve actual behavioural observation on personnel enjoined in an organization. This is expected to yield a more definite result that would reflect the EI capabilities of each employee based on recorded behavioural responses to particular situations observed based on actuality reports.

Findings and Discussions

Although the authors have also formulated their own testing process, it could be understood how they seem to take into consideration that the abstract being of “emotions” and the irregularity of how one responds to particular situations make it almost impossible to develop an accurate and straight-to-the-point conditional testing that would show the actual level of one’s EI capacity. Hence, as a result, the authors agreed on the fact that behavioural observation and recording is still one of the most comprehensive ways in actually noting down how much one is able to use his EI capacity as an individual.

Comments

This study has been nothing but unbiased from the point of its beginning towards its conclusion. The authors were careful enough to make sure that they are able to present both the pros and cons of their arguments as well as the positive and negative site of the existing EI test methods including that of their own. Endorsing behavioural observation to be the most effective process of evaluating emotional intelligence in a person specifically creates a definition that supports the thought that Emotional Intelligence does lay on the more abstract aspect of the matter rather than on its solid foundation of human-nature. In this case, organizations and their administrators ought to understand that considering their personnel’s EI is an important aspect of knowing how to motivate them to perform better, and they could better do this if they know their workers better through direct observation.