DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF SELF-REPORT MEASURE OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE FOR HEART PATIENTS AND HEALTHY INDIVIDUALS

Abstract

Emotional Intelligence is emerging as an important area of inquiry for researchers in psychology. The construct is characterized as understanding and managing emotions in oneself and in others. This newly introduced concept of Emotional Intelligence is considered to have an influence on an individual’s success and health. The purpose of the present research was to create a valid instrument in order to measure the levels of emotional intelligence in heart patients and in healthy population. The study was conducted in three parts, the development of the scale, the validation study, the administration of the newly developed instrument on cardiac patients and healthy population and exploring difference between the two groups. The purpose of the first part of the research was the development of measure named as Self Report Measure of Emotional Intelligence (SRMEI). The non availability of an indigenous instrument to measure emotional intelligence specific to Pakistani cultural context provided a rational for the development of Self-Report Measure of Emotional Intelligence. The Part II of the research comprised a validation study which served to determine the convergent and discriminant validation of the scale. BarOn’s EQ-i and personality Mini Markers were used to determine convergent validity and Beck Depression Inventory was used to determine discriminant validity of SRMEI. The study also focused to explore the difference on emotional intelligence in respect of some of the demographic variables. In Part III of the research main study was conducted with (N = 400) individuals. The sample comprised of two independent groups. The group one included patients suffering from ischemic heart diseases (IHD), (N = 200), and the second group included healthy individuals (N = 200). In this part of the research emotional intelligence was studied with the help of newly developed research instrument of SRMEI to see the difference between the two groups on emotional intelligence. Consistent with our predictions the research showed that IHD patients may have emotional intelligence deficit as compared to healthy individuals. The difference was computed with the help of t- test and ANOVA. We expected to find that IHD patients will show lower levels of emotional intelligence than healthy individuals. The findings confirm our hypothesis, as the patients displayed significant deficit in the abilities of emotional self-regulation and emotional self-awareness. This research may contribute to a better understanding of emotional intelligence competencies which may have positive or negative impact on cardiac health. People suffering from ischemic heart diseases may lack some emotional competencies as compared to healthy individuals. Furthermore, this study would be helpful in highlighting the areas of emotional relearning in heart patients to improve their cardiac health conditions and for healthy individuals to identify their emotional intelligence deficiencies and strengths.