How Emotional Intelligence Can Be Assessed


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Most people believe that being emotionally intelligent means showing compassion, understanding emotions, and controlling your anger. While those are all important pieces of emotional intelligence, there is another part that gets left out: empathy.
Empathy comes from understanding what others feel. It does not necessarily mean agreeing with their actions, but knowing how they are feeling inside.
This is why it’s difficult to be someone who has a lot of social empathetic skills. Because while you may understand how someone else feels, you might also think the person is wrong.
With too much empathy, it can even become annoying because you keep thinking about how other people are feeling. This is not a good thing if you want to enjoy yourself or sleep!
Emotions play an integral role in our daily lives. They motivate us, influence us, and help shape who we are as individuals.
Knowing how to manage your own emotions and those around you is an essential life skill. Fortunately, there are ways to assess your emotional intelligence. You don’t need to take a test, however.
The following article will discuss some simple strategies for testing your emotional intelligence.
Tools to assess emotional intelligence
There are several tools that can be used to evaluate your emotional literacy or EQ. The two most common types of tests for assessing EQ are self-report questionnaires and performance assessments.
A self-report questionnaire asks you to indicate how often you feel certain emotions in particular situations, what strategies you use to manage your emotions, and if you consider yourself to have high levels of emotion regulation.
Performance assessment tasks ask you to perform some task (for example, talking with a colleague) and then rate your success, time spent feeling stressed, etc. during the process. This is done separately from observation notes which measure how well you control your non-verbal behaviors.
This article will talk about three factors that influence our level of emotional intelligence – motivation, empathy, and understanding feelings. But before we get into more detail, let’s take a quick look at why it is important to understand your own emotions.
The EQ Test
One of the most well-known tests to assess emotional intelligence is called the “EQ test” or the “Emotional Quotient questionnaire.” This test was first developed by psychologist Peter Salovey at Yale University in 1987. Since then, it has been adapted for use with both children and adults across various cultures and languages.
The EQ Test consists of 10 questions that measure four different domains of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, motivation, empathy, and regulation. You have three minutes to complete the test, and your time starts as you begin it.
You can check out our article here for more information about this test! And now, let’s look at some examples of how emotional intelligence relates to career success.
Examples of emotional intelligence in the workplace
We all know people who are very popular at work. They are always being praised and congratulated for their achievements, and they develop strong relationships with their colleagues and superiors. These individuals seem to gain trust easily, and they are usually considered go-to people when there is a problem or an inquiry needs answering.
But what makes someone become one of these “popular” people at work?
It comes down to emotional intelligence.
Certain qualities like empathy and understanding other people make it easy to build rapport and friendship with others.
The EQ Inventory
One of the most well-known tools for assessing emotional intelligence is called the Emotional Quotient (EQ) inventory. This tool was developed by psychologist Meryl Streeter in 1989. It has been adapted by many companies to help assess someone’s level of emotional literacy or, as it is more commonly referred to, their “emotional quotient."
The EQ test was designed to evaluate three key qualities that make up your overall emotional intelligence: self-awareness, motivation, and ability to relate to others. Self-awareness looks at how you perceive yourself and your weaknesses, while motivation examines whether you are motivated towards good or bad things. Relationship skills determine if you use effective communication strategies and apply them appropriately during different situations.
Some people may feel that this tool only evaluates your empathy, which is considered one part of relationship skill. However, developing your understanding of emotions goes beyond just being able to recognize what other people are feeling and using those feelings to inform your own decisions. That is why all three parts of the EQ test were included.
The DPC EQ Scale
One of the most common ways to assess emotional intelligence is using an instrument called the DEQ (Dimensional Educational Performance Questionnaire). This questionnaire has two main scales that evaluate different aspects of emotional intelligence.
The first, the Emotion Management scale, looks at how well you are able to regulate your emotions in relation to other people. Some examples of questions from this scale include “I often have fun talking about my problems” and “It is easy for me to relate to others who share similar feelings as me.”
The second, the Relationship Quality scale, evaluates whether you use effective communication with partners or family members. Examples of questions here include “I am good at keeping conversations moving” and “ I spend a lot of time discussing things because I like having discussions.”
You can find your total score for these scales by adding up all the points obtained from each question.
The DPC Emotional Vocabulary Test
The most widely accepted way to assess emotional intelligence is using a test called the “Dimensional Psychological Competence” or DPC test. This test was created by Paul Meara, PhD, professor of psychology at Manhattan College in New York City. He developed this test while he was an assistant professor of psychology at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY.
The DPC test has you read vignettes and asked questions about what happened in the story and how you would feel as a reader. You are then given points for your answers depending upon how well you predicted your own emotions and those of the characters in the stories.
This test does not try to take into account only one area of emotional intelligence, but rather looks at all five domains — self-awareness, regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. It also does not evaluate just whether someone has high emotional quotient (EQ) levels, it evaluates whether they have low EQ levels too.
The Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test
The most well known test to measure emotional intelligence is the MSC-EI (Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso Emotional Quotient) scale. This eight-question test was created in 2002 by Drs. Daniel Mayer, Peter Salovey, and John D. Caruso. It takes around ten minutes to take the test and has been adapted for use across all age groups and languages.
The eight questions of this test assess your ability to recognize, understand, and manage your emotions. These are referred to as “intrapersonal” skills because they apply within yourself. For example, if you were trying to motivate someone to do his or her job, then being able to identify and control your own frustration would be an important factor to consider.
This test also looks at how you handle relationships, including friendships, family members, and colleagues. Being aware of your feelings towards others and changing them when needed can help promote overall happiness in your life.
The Goldman Emotional Intelligence Test
One of the most popular self-assessment tools for emotional intelligence (or EI, as it is commonly referred to) comes from Susan Goldmark, an organizational psychologist who coauthored the book _The Inner Gameof Success_. In that book, she coined the term “emotional literacy” to describe what she considered to be a more appropriate name for what we now refer to as emotional quotient or EQ.
Her latest work focused on developing a questionnaire to assess your emotional intelligence. This questionnaire was published in the form of a short test in her 2005 book titled _TheGolden Key to Happiness: Boost Your Emotional Quotient and Achieve More Joy in Life_[1].
This new tool is called the Goldman Emotional Quotient Inventory (GEQI), which is administered via online testing software. It takes about twenty minutes to complete and requires no special equipment beyond a computer. There are also paper versions available if you do not have access to internet.
There are ten questions in total, with five being asked directly after another. Each question gets progressively longer so that users can get a sense of how well they perceive their own emotions and those of others.
The Emotional Intelligence App
There are many different types of emotional intelligence tests, but none of them seem to be the “best” one. That is why you may have noticed that some companies offer an app or tool to assess your emotional quotient (EQ).
This isn’t necessarily bad, however, it seems like every company claims that their EQ test is the most accurate way to measure someone’s level of emotional intelligence.
So how do we know which ones really work?
The good news is that there is now an official test for emotional intelligence! It has been adapted from a well-known scale called the Mayer and Salazar Scale. This test was originally created in 2004, and only requires limited resources to take place.
There are also several versions of this test depending on what area of EQ people show. For example, there is a short form version as well as a long version. What matters is that everyone should be able to easily access this test and get an overall sense of their levels of emotional intelligence.
Here’s how to check out the test for yourself…
How to Check Out the Test Online
You can visit the website here to take the test for free. When you arrive at the site, you will need to create an account or log into an existing account.
After creating your account, then click the link under My Account -> Your Profile where you will find the test.