Design Characteristics of the Short Version Ei-Darl-V1 Of Original Emotional Intelligence Measurement Technique

Abstract

Research background and hypothesis. In the absence of unanimous definition of emotional intelligence (EI), it is reasonable to integrate various concepts of this construct when constructing the new original EI research methodology. Therefore, a decision was made to provide the tasks in various ways, i. e. not only in the form of items, but also providing face mimic identification and emotional-social and interpersonal situation solution assignments, which would cover a larger part of the research phenomenon. Research aim was to present the short version of the created EI measurement technique – EI-DARL-V1 – based on the best practices of foreign scientists by identifying the problems of the construction methodology and providing psychometric characteristics. Research methods. While constructing EI measurement technique, the two following blocks of tasks were prepared: 1) the block of tasks that defines EI as a personality trait; 2) the block of tasks that define EI as a cognitive (ability) characteristic. 119 items were generated for the version EI-DARL-V1. The study data were collected in 2012–2013 from 1430 subjects (experimental group consisted of 1400 subjects and control-contrast (i. e. older age) group consisted of 30 subjects) in different regions in Lithuania. Subjects’ age of the main (experimental) sample was 19.7 years (SD = 3.29). Research results. The created EI measurement technique EI–DARL has two forms – the short (EI-DARL-V1) and the long (EI-DARL-V2) ones. The short version, presented in this article, consists of five scales (“Understanding your emotions”, “Your emotional control”, “Understanding emotions of the other person”, “Control of other emotions”, “Manipulations”), a 73-item questionnaire, where subjects reveal their degree of agreement with the items. Discussion and conclusions. The psychometric quality characteristics of the measurement technique subscales meet the requirements: Cronbach’s alpha coefficient values fluctuate from 0.73 to 0.89; the average inter-correlation among the measurement technique items is from 0.29 to 0.49; i/tt (resolution) indicators often exceed 0.5; the instrument has only those items, the factorial loadings exceed 0.3; factor’s overall explained dispersion ranges from 22 to 46%; KMO values range from 0.88 to 0.94. EI-DARL-V1 validity and reliability conditions are met.Keywords: emotional intelligence, psychometrics, validity, reliability.