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The location of trait emotional intelligence in personality factor space
Author(s) -
Petrides K. V.,
Pita Ria,
Kokkinaki Flora
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1348/000712606x120618
Subject(s) - psychology , trait , operationalization , personality , emotional intelligence , big five personality traits , construct (python library) , confirmatory factor analysis , social psychology , coping (psychology) , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , structural equation modeling , statistics , philosophy , mathematics , epistemology , computer science , programming language
The construct of trait emotional intelligence (trait EI or trait emotional self‐efficacy) provides a comprehensive operationalization of emotion‐related self‐perceptions and dispositions. In the first part of the present study ( N = 274, 92 males), we performed two joint factor analyses to determine the location of trait EI in Eysenckian and Big Five factor space. The results showed that trait EI is a compound personality construct located at the lower levels of the two taxonomies. In the second part of the study, we performed six two‐step hierarchical regressions to investigate the incremental validity of trait EI in predicting, over and above the Giant Three and Big Five personality dimensions, six distinct criteria (life satisfaction, rumination, two adaptive and two maladaptive coping styles). Trait EI incrementally predicted four criteria over the Giant Three and five criteria over the Big Five. The discussion addresses common questions about the operationalization of emotional intelligence as a personality trait.