4.1 POP Attitudes and Emotions in Organizations (FSWP40021A)
Institution
Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (EUR)
A comprehensive summary of the fourth problem of the first course "Attitudes and Emotions in Organizations" at the Master Positive Organizational Psychology / Work and Organizational Psychology at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Most articles are summarized in one or maximal two pages and in bull...
Emotional Intelligence (EI)
- Initial Ideas: EI as consisting of a group of related mental abilities overly broad
- External Factors: Books, magazine, & newspaper articles claiming stuff
- Mixed models of EI: mixing in of related and unrelated attributes of EI in various models
The Four-Branch Model of EI
- Intelligences can be divided in different ways, e.g. into verbal/propositional &
perceptual/organizational areas could be complemented by EI
- Emotions as signals
o Some differences exist in expressing & reading emotions across cultures
o Many emotion meanings are in large part universal aid understanding
- Emotional abilities as falling along a continuum from lower to more complex:
a) Perceive emotions in oneself and others accurately,
b) Use emotions to facilitate thinking,
c) Understand emotions, emotional language, and the signals conveyed by emotions, and
d) Manage emotions so as to attain specific goals
Measuring EI
- Ability measures of
o Individual differences exist in each of these four processes can be measured
o Mayer- Salovey-Caruso EI Test (MSCEIT): 8 tasks, 2 per branch
Responses are scored according to their correctness = correspondence with
answers provided by emotions experts or a normative sample
- Theory of the measurement:
o Reasons why only clearly focused, ability-based approach can best measure EI:
1. Intelligences most generally defined as mental abilities
2. Theoretical analyses of response processes can provide evidence concerning the
fit between the construct and the detailed nature of performance or response
o Self-judgment-based response processes not highly correlated with measured abilities
of perceiving, using, understanding, and/or managing emotions
o Other scales possess considerable construct- irrelevant variance (e.g. with big 5)
- Key findings concerning EI and other psychological traits
o EI correlates about .35 with verbal intelligence, lower with perceptual/organizational
IQ, .25 with Openness & .28 with Agreeableness
o Mixed-model scales’ high overlap with Big 5 indicates construct-irrelevant variance
o MSCEIT: Split-half reliability = .91 BUT convergent validity with other ability
measures of specific EI skills is low
The Significance of EI
Measurement evidence tends to favor ability-based EI approach over alternatives
- Valid approaches to EI can be divided into as:
o Specific-ability approaches, such as the study of accurate emotional perception,
o Integrative models: e.g. four-branch model & MSCEIT
- High EI appears to promote better attention to physical & mental processes relevant to clinical
outcomes (e.g. detecting variations in own heartbeat)
- High EI lower reports of symptoms on Positive Symptom Total (e.g. fewer headaches
&less trouble concentrating) & Symptom Distress Index which measures symptom intensity
- High EI more socially competent, better quality relationships, & viewed more
interpersonally sensitive (lower EI predicts interpersonal conflict & maladjustment)
- High EI correlates with better relationships in business settings as well
- Recommendations:
o Cite the research literature rather than journalistic renderings of scientific concepts
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, #4 Attitudes and Emotion
Vignette 1: Emotional Intelligence (EI)
o Limit EI to abilities involving reasoning about & using emotions to enhance reasoning
Joseph & Newman (2010) – EI: Meta-Analysis & Cascading Model
- Popular construct models available which to define EI:
a) Ability model: EI as type of intelligence should overlap with cognitive ability
o EI as “the ability to carry out accurate reasoning about emotions and the ability to use
emotions and emotional knowledge to enhance thought
b) Mixed (traits with abilities) model: EI as a combi of intellect & personality & affect
o EI as “an array of noncognitive capabilities, competencies, and skills that influence
one’s ability to succeed in coping with environmental demands and pressures
- A Cascading Model of EI: in which 3/4 EI subdimensions are related to job performance
o Emotion facilitation facet excluded due to its increasingly well-known conceptual
redundancy with other EI dimensions and its lack of empirical support
o Emotion regulation (ER) as “processes by which individuals influence which
emotions they have, when they have them, & how they experience and express them”
Results:
- Emotion regulation ability is positively related to job performance (H1)
- Emotion understanding will fully mediate the effect of emotion perception on emotion
regulation (H2X) Not completely mediated but much!
- Conscientiousness is positively related to emotion perception ability (H3)
- Cognitive ability is positively related to emotion-understanding ability (H4)
- Emotional Stability is positively related to emotion regulation ability (H5)
- EI construct–method pairings will exhibit evidence of (aX) convergent validity (strong
relationship of self-report
ability EI with performance-
based ability EI), (b)
discriminant validity (weak
relationship of ability EI with
mixed EI), and (c???)
incremental validity (of ability
EI and mixed EI over each
other) in predicting job
performance. (H6)
- Measures of ability EI (self-
report and performance- based) will exhibit significant incremental validity over measures
of Big Five personality (H7)
- Measures of mixed EI will exhibit incremental validity over cognitive ability and Big
Five personality (H8)
- Women will score higher on EI measures than will men (H9)
o For ability but not self-report & mixed
Discussion:
- Good fit with cascading model, although ER–job performance connection inconsistent
- Question of EI as precursor to job performance EL as an important moderator of the EI–
performance relationship, across all EI construct–method pairings & in cascading model!
- Correlations among EI construct–method pairings (mixed, performance- ability, and self-
report ability) do not suggest these measures are reflecting the same construct
- Mixed EI exhibits significant overlap with Big Five personality traits
- Self-reports of ability EI are yet to show what set of constructs are being measured
- Only construct– method pairing appearing to be appropriate is performance-based EI model
- EI positive effect on job performance when EL high but negative effect when EL is low
- Implications: Caution when choosing a measure of EI
o Ability model of EI: strong theory from decades of research BUT exhibited criterion
validity only in localized settings (i.e. did not predict job performance across all jobs)
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