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THE EFFECTS OF INSTRUCTION
ON EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AS MEASURED BY THE EMOTIONAL COMPETENCE INVENTORY,
PERCEIVED STRESS SCALE AND SYMPTOMS OF STRESS CHECKLIST
Timothy Dolan
and
Jennifer Joss Bradley
Southern Oregon University, Oregon, U. S. A.
ABSTRACT
"Emotional
intelligence" is a psychological concept, associated with the multiple
intelligences school of thought, with broad application in a variety of social
and organizational contexts. This study
is the outcome of a quasi-experimental study of the effects of instruction in a
ten-week course on emotional intelligence and managerial excellence taught by
Dr. Jennifer Joss Bradley, co-author of this paper, using three independent,
but related measures of emotional competence and perceived levels of
stress. T-test results showed significant
change from pre-test scores between experimental and control groups on the ECI
dimensions of Self-Management as well as the Symptoms of Stress Checklist.
INTRODUCTION
Emotional Intelligence In Context.
The purpose of this study was to
measure the effects of participation in an emotional intelligence curriculum,
developed by Dr. Jennifer Joss Bradley, co-author of this paper, at Southern
Oregon University. We used course participant and control group scores derived
from three instruments designed to measure emotional intelligence, stress, and
its attendant symptoms. Respectively: the Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI),
Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and the Symptoms of Stress Checklist (SOSC). While the study hypothesizes an indirect
relationship between emotional competence and self-reported stress/symptoms of
stress, this cannot yet be concluded and will be the subject of another
paper. Including the data from these
measures in the current study on the effects of instruction on emotional competence
is, however, consistent with Goleman's (2001) thesis that the emotionally
competent individual will encounter significantly less personal stress than the
emotionally incompetent. Therefore, we consider the stress-related assessments as an
indirect measure of emotional competence. By using three independent survey
instruments overall study validity and confidence in the findings is
enhanced.
The concept of "emotional intelligence" is
an extension of the "multiple intelligences" school primarily
associated with Dr. Howard Gardner at the Harvard Graduate School of
Education. He is credited with
introducing the theory of multiple intelligences in 1983 (Gardner, 1983). Essentially his theory challenges the then conventional
notion of a single dimension to intelligence, offering instead an array of
traits and talents that vary between individuals and make more complex the
notion of what it is to be "intelligent".
While there is still some debate about how
"Emotional Intelligence" should be defined the course was built on
the applied model of EI offered by Daniel Goleman and colleagues. Daniel
Goleman (1998) defines, “emotional competence”, as, “a learned capability based
on emotional intelligence that results in outstanding performance at
work”. The current model of Emotional
Intelligence (EI) offered by Goleman and colleagues breaks down EI into four
dimensions: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship
management (See Footnote 3). It is
these four dimensions that the Emotional Competence Inventory measures, which along
with the Symptoms of Stress Checklist and Perceived Stress Scale are the
primary survey instruments, used here.
Recent emergence
of EI and the development of emotional competence as an important contributing
component to effective management practice brought with it the question of just
how it relates to our conventional understanding of intelligence as a nearly
invariant trait among individuals.
Specifically, can emotional intelligence be influenced by its cognition
as a concept, and subsequent instructional activities meant to enhance
emotionally intelligent responses to emotionally challenging stimuli? If so, then a curriculum on emotional
intelligence applied to managers would be a useful means to extend their
personal and organizational development.
The possibility of enhancing EI
through a course specifically designed for this purpose became a testable
project in the process of developing an elective course offering in the Master
in Management Program at Southern Oregon University in 2001. The co-author proposed teaching such a
course to the program's advisory board at the beginning of the 2001 academic
year. Upon review of the proposed
curriculum the board approved the development and delivery of the course for
the Spring term. The researchers
contacted the Hay Group and were granted permission to use the research version
of the Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI) developed by Richard Boyatzis and
Daniel Goleman, (Boyatzis, 1999) on
condition that they field test it and report the results back to them.
STUDY DESIGN
ECI, PSS and SOSC instruments
were administered in three offerings of the course entitled, "Beyond IQ:
Emotional Intelligence & Development of Managerial Excellence", at
Southern Oregon University between April 2001 and October of 2002. The pretest was administered at their first
class meeting, and the post-test, at their final regular class meeting. A control group of sixteen graduate and
undergraduate students similarly received their ECI and related evaluation
materials during their first session of class in public management-related
courses between April 2001 and October of 2002.
The content of the course was a
critical element to the proposition that emotional intelligence can be enhanced
through instruction. The course
syllabus reflected the effort to integrate the central thesis of Goleman and
others involved in describing and working on one's EQ. A number of techniques designed to raise EQ
were integrated into the course. These
techniques of self-reflection, journal keeping and action planning are not
particularly exotic, especially in the field of Interpersonal Psychology. The co-author encouraged a safe environment
for participants to share insights confidentially. The subsequent evaluations of the course by the participants
indicated that they felt the course did yield these intended results.
FINDINGS
The pretest between experimental and control groups yielded surprising
variances with mean scores on the four ECI dimensions being higher for the
control than for the experimental groups particularly on the social awareness,
social skills dimensions. See Table 1.
The mean for the PSS was also slightly higher. Only the Symptoms of Stress Checklist had mean scores higher for
the experimental group. This difference
on the SOSC may be due to the mean age being higher for the experimental
group. This was the only significant
difference between them besides their respective mix of major areas of study. The reasons for the variance on the ECI are
speculative, but might involve the fact that the control group was comprised of
participants in a series of courses in public policy and public
management. This group might have a
relatively higher level of social awareness and social skills given the fact
that they opted to take advanced courses in a social science discipline. The experimental group, on the other hand,
was almost exclusively comprised of Master in Management participants and
Psychology students.
This pattern of higher control group mean
scores might be explained by their being younger on average and thus possibly
less reflective and more self-confident in their responses, thereby slightly
but consistently inflating their scores (See Footnote 1). The significant difference on the dimension
of social skills is somewhat more difficult to explain though it might be
attributed to the control group's being mostly Political Science majors. This anomaly should not affect the overall
validity of the study, however, as the study focus is on mean rates of change between
the groups' baseline pretests and post-tests.
The second round of assessments were
given in the final regular meeting of the classes at the end of their
respective terms nine weeks after the initial assessments were administered
(See Footnote 2). The post-treatment
scores between the experimental and control groups are in the Table 2.
Mean post-test scores
between the two groups were essentially flat.
Significance levels between the EI course participants and the control
group ranged from .94 (Symptoms of Stress Checklist) to .07 (Social Skills)
(See Footnote 3). Though the means of
the EI course group rose in proportion to the control group, the directionality
reversed on the Self-Management dimension and on the Perceived Stress
Scale. This change did not meet the
threshold of statistical significance, however, even though scores did rise
between the pre-and post treatment assessments as shown in Table 3.
There was
significant post-course improvement for the EI course participants on the Self
Management dimension. This result lends
weight to the hypothesis that instruction can shift at least this aspect of
emotional intelligence in that self-management was specifically emphasized in
the course. Their scores on the
Symptoms of Stress Checklist also indicated greatly reduced levels of stress
(See Footnote 4). This finding supports
further research in the possible link between stress and emotional
intelligence.
The pre and
post-test results for the control group are in Table 4.
As expected pre and
post-test means for the control group were flat across all assessment
dimensions thereby eliminating other external factors such as beginning or end
of term stressors or instructor influences on the results.
Because of the
anomalous nature of the higher control group pretest means a measure of
magnitude of relative change between and within the groups seemed called
for. The tool most suited for this was
the "Effect Size" statistic used primarily in the field of education
to measure the magnitude of improvement after exposure to various
curricula. The statistic essentially
measures the change in terms of proportion standard deviation. The formula itself is:
Mean of experimental – mean of control / standard
deviation of the control.
When used in its conventional
form it verifies the t-test results calculated above. However, when understood as a means of measuring change in
standard deviation increments, it can be modified to measure within-group
shifts as well. The modified formula is
thus+ Mean of post-test – mean of pretest / standard deviation of the pretest.
The improvement
of post-test scores for the experimental group over the pre-test scores is in
Table 5.
Note that these values are in
standard deviations, and that the larger the number the greater the magnitude
of change from the initial mean value.
In the case of "self management" for instance, the effect size
of .73 means a .73 SD improvement over the pre-test placing them somewhere around
the 75 percentile. This is considered a
large effect size.
CONCLUSION
There are numerous methodological
shortcomings on this study. The sample
size was small, particularly for the control group. The intervals between assessments may have been too short as
well, for it is not just change, but the persistence of change after
instruction that must be verified if emotional competency is to be validated as
a key managerial competency. This was
the first time that this course was taught by this instructor. Further refinements in the course, which will
be taught annually, are ongoing. While
the statistical results gauged changes in EI indicators that were largely below
significance levels, the anecdotal evidence from the course participants was
quite positive. Comments from the
course evaluations and individual conversations about the course consistently
reported beneficial outcomes particularly in self-understanding. Presumably the insights gained from
exploring the linkages between emotional competence and indicators of stress
will manifest behavioral changes that will benefit participants in their
professional and personal lives.
This work is still very
preliminary, but is does appear that, at least to some degree, instruction in
emotional intelligence can yield changes in one's EQ. The possible link between stress-related conditions and EQ also
shows promise suggesting that training in EQ can indeed lower stress levels in
individuals.
REFERENCES
Boyatzis, Goleman & HayGroup. (1999). Emotional Competence
Inventory (ECI), Rating Booklet – Research version.
Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind, Basic Books.
Goleman, D. (2001). An EI-based theory of performance, edited by
Cherniss, Cary and Daniel Goleman. The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace,
Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations
(www.ciconsortium.org).
Goleman, D. (1998). Working
with Emotional Intellignence.
Bantam Books, New York
READINGS
Cohen, S., Kamarck, T. Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of
perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24(3), 385-396.
Footnotes:
1. Unfortunately
the survey did not include basic demographic indicators such as the
respondents’ age.
2. The
Oregon University System of which Southern Oregon University is a component
institution runs its academic calendar on a quarter system of 10-week term as
opposed to the conventional semester term of 15 weeks.
3. Two-tailed
test with 42 degrees of freedom.
4. Two-tailed
test with 50 degrees of freedom.
