هوش هیجانی خود متمرکز و دیگر متمرکز: توسعه مقیاس هوش هیجانی روتردام Self- and other-focused emotional intelligence: Development and validation of the Rotterdam Emotional Intelligence Scale (REIS)

Scientific interest in the role of emotional intelligence (EI) in different life domains is flourishing (Joseph & Newman, 2010; Martins, Ramalho, & Morin, 2010). EI can be broadly defined as the knowledge and/or competencies to effectively deal with emotions to regulate social and emotional behaviors (Petrides, 2011; Salovey & Mayer, 1990; Zeidner, Roberts, & Matthews, 2008). In previous studies, EI has been associated with both intrapersonal (i.e., health) and interpersonal (i.e., being social) benefits. Specifically, EI was positively associated with mental and physical health, work performance, and the quality of social interactions (Joseph & Newman, 2010; Lopes et al., 2004; Martins et al., 2010). As the field is moving forward, researchers are becoming interested in the processes that underlie the positive effects of EI (e.g., Lievens & Chan, 2010). Accordingly, an important question is whether dealing with one’s own emotions or the emotions of other individuals are of equal importance for the prediction of criteria (Brasseur, Grégoire, Bourdu, & Mikolajczak, 2013; Zeidner et al., 2008). We propose that both EI dimensions (i.e., dealing with one’s own emotions and dealing with others’ emotions) may have a positive impact; however, this impact may occur in different life domains. To illustrate, effectively dealing with the emotions of the self presumably plays a major role in staying (mentally and physically) healthy, whereas effectively dealing with the emotions of others may be more important to facilitate smooth social interactions. As the positive effects of EI may thus reflect different processes, it may be relevant to differentiate self- from otherfocused EI. The rise of EI to a prominent research topic has stimulated the development of various EI instruments. Although there has been substantial debate on the format of these instruments (i.e., ability tests or self-reported questionnaires; Roberts, Matthews, & Zeidner, 2010), to date, the question of whether they should involve both self- and otherfocused EI dimensions has received relatively little attention. Accordingly, most EI instruments do not explicitly distinguish self- from otherfocused EI. Therefore, it remains largely unclear which EI dimension contributes to which criterion. We consider this a limitation in the field because self-focused EI dimensions may not always reconcile with their other-focused counterparts (Niven, Totterdell, Stride, & Holman, 2011) and may have differential effects. In the related, yet somewhat separate, research field of emotion regulation, the distinction between dealing with one’s own emotions or the emotions of others is well acknowledged. Instruments have been developed that measure both self and other-focused emotion regulation (e.g., Emotion Regulation of Others and Self Scale; Niven et al., 2011) or one of these factors (e.g., Managing the Emotions of Others Scale; Austin & O’Donnell, 2013).