Emotional intelligence: Further contributions for validating a measurement instrument

Abstract

The paper provides further empirical evidence for validating the instrument for measuring Emotional Intelligence suggested by Rego and Fernandes. The individuals of the first sample were invited to answer to the questionnaire suggested by those researchers and to report their physical health. The individuals of the second sample, after describing their IE, were invited to report their satisfaction with life. The findings suggest a six-factor model: (1) understanding of emotions in self; (2) self-control before criticisms; (3) self-encouragement; (4) emotional self-control; (5) empathy; (6) understanding of emotions in others. These dimensions explain 14% of the variance of physical health and 26% of the variance of the satisfaction with life. Although this dimensional structure is similar to the one by Rego and Fernandes, it has some advantages. For example, the semantic contents of the items comprised in each factor are now closer to the meaning of each dimension.

DOI: DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17575/rpsicol.v19i1/2.401