Convergent, Discriminant, and Incremental Validity of Competing Measures of Emotional Intelligence

TLDR

The study examined the convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity of the MSCEIT ability test and two self‑report EI measures, the EQ‑i and SREIT. Validity was assessed by correlating each EI measure with personality, well‑being, and outcome variables, and by testing predictive relationships while controlling for personality and verbal intelligence. Results showed the MSCEIT was largely unrelated to the self‑report tests, discriminated from personality and well‑being, and predicted social deviance; the EQ‑i correlated with personality and predicted alcohol use; the SREIT correlated with personality and negatively predicted academic achievement, indicating ability and self‑report EI are weakly related and capture distinct constructs.

Abstract

This study investigated the convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity of one ability test of emotional intelligence (EI)--the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso-Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT)--and two self-report measures of EI--the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i) and the self-report EI test (SREIT). The MSCEIT showed minimal relations to the EQ-i and SREIT, whereas the latter two measures were moderately interrelated. Among EI measures, the MSCEIT was discriminable from well-studied personality and well-being measures, whereas the EQ-i and SREIT shared considerable variance with these measures. After personality and verbal intelligence were held constant, the MSCEIT was predictive of social deviance, the EQ-i was predictive of alcohol use, and the SREIT was inversely related to academic achievement. In general, results showed that ability EI and self-report EI are weakly related and yield different measurements of the same person.