Design Characteristics of the Short Version Ei-Darl-V1 Of Original Emotional Intelligence Measurement Technique

Abstract

Research background and hypothesis. In the absence of unanimous definition of emotional intelligence (EI),
it  is  reasonable  to  integrate  various  concepts  of  this  construct  when  constructing  the  new  original  EI  research
methodology. Therefore, a decision was made to provide the tasks in various ways, i. e. not only in the form of items,
but also providing face mimic identification and emotional-social and interpersonal situation solution assignments,
which would cover a larger part of the research phenomenon.
Research aim was to present the short version of the created EI measurement technique – EI-DARL-V1 – based
on the best practices of foreign scientists by identifying the problems of the construction methodology and providing
psychometric characteristics.
Research  methods.  While  constructing  EI  measurement  technique,  the  two  following  blocks  of  tasks  were
prepared: 1) the block of tasks that defines EI as a personality trait; 2) the block of tasks that define EI as a cognitive
(ability) characteristic. 119 items were generated for the version EI-DARL-V1. The study data were collected in
2012–2013 from 1430 subjects (experimental group consisted of 1400 subjects and control-contrast (i. e. older age)
group consisted of 30 subjects) in different regions in Lithuania. Subjects’ age of the main (experimental) sample
was 19.7 years (SD = 3.29).
Research results. The created EI measurement technique EI–DARL has two forms – the short (EI-DARL-V1)
and the long (EI-DARL-V2) ones. The short version, presented in this article, consists of five scales (“Understanding
your  emotions”,  “Your  emotional  control”,  “Understanding  emotions  of  the  other  person”,  “Control  of  other
emotions”, “Manipulations”), a 73-item questionnaire, where subjects reveal their degree of agreement with the
items.
Discussion and conclusions. The psychometric quality characteristics of the measurement technique subscales
meet the requirements: Cronbach’s alpha coefficient values fluctuate from 0.73 to 0.89; the average inter-correlation
among the measurement technique items is from 0.29 to 0.49; i/tt (resolution) indicators  often exceed 0.5; the
instrument has only those items, the  factorial loadings exceed 0.3; factor’s overall explained dispersion ranges from
22 to 46%; KMO values range from 0.88 to 0.94. EI-DARL-V1 validity and reliability conditions are met.

Keywords: emotional intelligence, psychometrics, validity, reliability.