Abstract
Emotional intelligence (EI) has attracted increasing attention in organizational psychology. The aim of this study was to test the applicability of two performance-based emotional intelligence tests developed in western countries, namely, the brief versions of the Situational Test of Emotional Understanding (STEU-B) and the Situational Test of Emotional Management (STEM-B), in a sample of 904 Chinese employees. Specifically, item response theory (IRT) analyses were conducted. The item parameters along with the item and test information functions of the Chinese versions of the STEU-B and STEM-B were estimated. Moreover, the associations between the STEU-B and STEM-B scores and several work-related variables were examined. The results showed that the STEU-B and STEM-B had acceptable internal consistencies, and similar mean proportions of correct responses, item parameters, item information functions, and test information functions in China, as reported in previous studies. Furthermore, the scores were found to be related to the employees’ psychological strain, job-related affect, job satisfaction, and supervisor-rated job performance in a theoretically hypothesized manner. These findings suggested that the STEU-B and STEM-B might be useful measurements in future EI studies in the Chinese organizational context.
Highlights
There is a growing interest in emotional intelligence (EI) in social and organizational psychology, and an increasing number of empirical studies have focused on the criterion validity of EI in predicting real-life outcomes
This study examined the psychometric properties of situational test of emotional understanding (STEU)-B and situational test of emotional management (STEM)-B using the item response theory (IRT) method and their criterion validity in a sample of 904 Chinese employees
The results demonstrated that the STEM-B score had positive relationships with both the high-activation pleasant affect (HAPA) and low-activation pleasant affect (LAPA), and negative relationships with both the high-activation unpleasant affect (HAUA) and low-activation unpleasant affect (LAUA) at work, whereas the STEUB score was only weakly associated with LAPA and LAUA
Summary
There is a growing interest in emotional intelligence (EI) in social and organizational psychology, and an increasing number of empirical studies have focused on the criterion validity of EI in predicting real-life outcomes. Trait EI refers to self-perceived emotionality and emotional efficacy that is located within the personality domain (Kafetsios and Zampetakis, 2008). There is evidence of the criterion validity of both ability and trait EI. Ability and trait EI have been found to play important roles in stress management and adaptive coping (Ciarrochi et al, 2002; Oginska-Bulik, 2005), interpersonal relationships and social networks (Brackett et al, 2006; Gallagher and Vella-Brodrick, 2008), intimate relationships (Brackett et al, 2005), and academic achievement (Van Rooy and Viswesvaran, 2004).
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