Emotional Intelligence in Higher Education:A Scale Development

The paper reports on the selection and validation phase of an emotional intelligence scale. Nowadays, diverse psychometric instruments are commercialized and applied in order to select personnel or to evaluate knowledge, abilities and skills in business and educational settings (Drasgow et al., 2009). Since decisions about individuals are based on results of these tests, the validity and reliability of such instruments is of considerable importance (Kline, 2000). Statistical testing of reliability and validity of a psychological instrument helps to evaluate to which extent the predictions made on this instrument represents the latent construct aimed to be measured. The study uses the method of item analysis. It analyses the reliability and validity of a questionnaire that measures Emotional Intelligence skills of a random sample of 200 from a Multi-sector State Private University in India. The study provided that it has an acceptable reliability and validity, and the questionnaire can be used in exploring the emotional intelligence of people in higher education among sample of University population and beyond.