On the dimensional structure of emotional intelligence

The psychometric properties of the self-report emotional intelligence (EI) measured by Schutte et al. (1998) [Schutte, N. S., Malouff, J. M., Hall, L. E., Haggerty, D. J., Cooper, J. T., Golden, C. J., & Dornheim, L. (1998). Development and validation of a measure of emotional intelligence. Personality and Individual Differences, 25, 167–177] are scrutinized and several weaknesses are identified. It is argued that by virtue of the construction strategy adopted by Schutte et al. (1998) the test cannot be measuring a general EI factor and furthermore that it has not been successfully mapped onto Salovey and Mayerʹs (1990) [Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. D. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 9, 185–211] EI model. It is also shown via confirmatory factor analysis that the test is not unifactorial. A theoretical distinction between trait and information-processing EI is proposed. Trait EI appertains to the greater personality realm whereas information-processing EI is an attempt to chart new territory in the field of human mental ability.