Question

Essay on SSEIT (Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test) with citations and references

Answer 1

• The Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT) is a method of measuring general Emotional Intelligence (EI), using four sub-scales: emotion perception, utilizing emotions, managing self- relevant emotions, and managing others’ emotions.
• The SSEIT is structured off of the EI model by Salovey and Mayer (1990). The SSEIT model is closely associated with the EQ-I model of Emotional Intelligence.
• The theory of emotional intelligence proposed by Salovey and Mayer provides a new framework to investigate social and emotional adaptation. Emotional skills can be developed through learning and experience and posit four central abilities: perceiving, using, understanding, and managing emotions.
• Salovey and Mayer proposed a model that identified four different levels of emotional intelligence, including emotional perception, the ability to reason using emotions, the ability to understand emotion, and the ability to manage emotions.
• Perceiving emotions: The first step in understanding emotions is to perceive them accurately. In many cases, this might involve understanding nonverbal signals such as body language and facial expressions.
• Reasoning with emotions: The next step involves using emotions to promote thinking and cognitive activity. Emotions help prioritize what we pay attention and react to; we respond emotionally to things that garner our attention.
• Understanding emotions: The emotions that we perceive can carry a wide variety of meanings. If someone is expressing angry emotions, the observer must interpret the cause of the person's anger and what it could mean.
• Managing emotions: The ability to manage emotions effectively is a crucial part of emotional intelligence and the highest level. Regulating emotions, responding appropriately, and responding to the emotions of others are all important aspect of emotional management.
• The SSEIT includes a 33-item self-report using a 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree) scale for responses. Each sub-test score is graded and then added together to give the total score for the participant.
• Schutte and her colleges report a reliability rating of 0.90 for their emotional intelligence scale. The EI score, overall, is fairly reliable for adults and adolescents; however, the utilizing emotions sub-scale has shown poor reliability (Ciarrochi, Chan & Bajgar, 2001).
• Also, they report a mediocre correlation of the SSRI with such areas as self-estimated EI, the Big Five EI scale (0.51), and life satisfaction (Petrides and Furnham, 2000).  
• Schutte, N.S., Malouff, J.M., Hall, L.E., Haggerty, D.J., Cooper, J.T., Golden, C.J., et al. (1998). Development and validation of a measure of emotional intelligence. Personality and Individual Differences, 25, 167-177.