Assessing the predictive validity of emotional intelligence

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(99)00250-0Get rights and content

Abstract

Emotional intelligence has become a fashionable topic in the popular press, and has been heralded as an effective predictor of successful performance. However, little empirical evidence has borne out these claims. The present study was conducted in order to determine the relationship of emotional intelligence, cognitive ability, and personality with academic achievement. Emotional intelligence was assessed using the EQ-i (total EQ-i score and five EQ-i composite factor scores). Both cognitive ability and personality (in terms of extraversion and self control) were significantly associated with academic achievement. None of the EQ-i factor scores, nor the total EQ-i score, was significantly related to academic achievement.

Section snippets

The incremental validity of emotional intelligence

Goleman (1995) suggested that successful life outcomes are more a function of emotional rather than cognitive intelligence. He proposed several definitions for this construct, including “a set of abilities which include self-control, zeal and persistence, and the ability to motivate oneself” (p. xii); and the ability to “control impulse and delay gratification, to regulate one’s moods and keep distress from swamping the ability to think, to empathize, and to hope” (p. 34).

The success of

Method

Participants consisted of 180 students (118 women and 62 men) who were enroled in introductory psychology courses at a Canadian university. They were told that their participation would involve completing several personality and intelligence inventories and that they would receive bonus points for course credit. The average age of respondents was 21 years old (ranging from 17 to 56). Participants were enroled in either the Science, Arts, or Commerce faculties, and approximately one-third of the

Correlates of academic achievement

Table 1 presents the means and standard deviations for the study variables along with intercorrelations among the GPA, the Wonderlic, the five factors of the 16PF, and the EQ-i total score and its five composite factors. As expected, GPA was significantly correlated with the Wonderlic and with the Extraversion and Self-Control factors of the 16PF. That is, individuals who had higher cognitive ability, who were more introverted, and who had higher self-control, tended to have higher GPAs.

Discussion

The initial purpose of this study was to examine the incremental validity of emotional intelligence in predicting academic achievement. However, when the correlation matrix was examined, further analyses were unwarranted. These results provide no support for claims of emotional intelligence’s (as assessed by EQ-i) ability to predict academic achievement. That is, in contrast to reports in the EQ-i manual (Bar-On, 1997), neither the total EQ-i score, nor the five factors, were related with

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank two anonymous reviewers who provided constructive comments to an earlier version of this paper.

References (37)

  • M.R. Barrick et al.

    The Big Five personality dimensions and job performance: A meta-analysis

    Personnel Psychology

    (1991)
  • J. Brebner et al.

    Theoretical and empirical relationships between personality and intelligence

  • N. Cantor et al.

    Social intelligence and cognitive assessments of personality

  • R.B. Cattell et al.

    Sixteen personality factor questionnaire

    (1993)
  • S.J. Ceci

    General intelligence and life success

    Psychology, Public Policy, and Law

    (1996)
  • L.J. Cronbach

    Essential of psychological testing

    (1960)
  • M. Davies et al.

    Emotional intelligence: In search of an illusive construct

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1998)
  • Duffy, A. (1996). The test that could cost you the job. The Daily News, (15 October) p....
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text