A concern with the delimitation of the emotional intelligence construct was the main reason of the present study, that has investigated the convergent and discriminant validity of a measure of emotional intelligence (MSCEIT) with respect to measures of personality (16PF) and intelligence (BPR-5). Data was collected with 107 participants with ages ranging from 17 to 60 (M=29.8; SD=9.9), employees of various enterprises located outside São Paulo State downtown area. An exploratory factor analysis has led to the extraction of six orthogonal factors (varimax rotation) that were interpreted as: intelligence, neuroticism, strategic area of emotional intelligence, extroversion, experiential area of emotional intelligence and an active-aggressive orientation. Data analysis has led to the conclusion that emotional intelligence measures turned out to be distinct of traditional measures of intelligence and personality, referring to the specific capacity of cognitive processing embedded with emotional information.
Intelligence assessment; Psychometric properties; Factor analysis; Emotion; Cognition; Psychological testing
