How to Measure Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is a person's ability to process emotions and to use certain emotions to enhance thought. Emotional intelligence includes the person's ability to recognize their own emotions as well as the emotions of those around them. Some people are capable of perceiving very subtle emotional responses, whereas some are not, thus creating the difference in emotional intelligence. Discovering a person's emotional intelligence will help that person to understand how to process emotional information. There is a lot of controversy about whether or not emotional intelligence can be measured and the best way to approach that measurement.

Instructions

• 1

  Identify the person who is being measured for emotional intelligence. As a person ages their emotional intelligence increases and so this should be taken into account. If the person being measured is a child versus an adult then there are different expectations.

• 2

  Identify your own ability to recognize emotions in other people and whether you are a sympathetic person. Determine whether you are able to understand someone else's emotional response and if you can identify which emotions that person is feeling. You can do this by trying to recognize the person's emotions and then confronting that person to see if you were correct in your assessment.

• 3

  Identify your own emotions and how you cope with your emotions. Assess your ability to cope with stress or sadness. Are you someone that can stay calm in stressful situations, or are you someone that gets easily agitated? Determine whether or not you can cope with sad things by seeing how quickly you can recover from a sad experience.

• 4

  Take an emotional intelligence test, such as the MSCEIT, which is designed to tell a person what their emotional intelligence quotient is. The MSCEIT measures four skills of emotional intelligence: perceiving emotion accurately, using emotion to facilitate thought, understanding emotion and managing emotion. You can purchase and complete the MSCEIT online and receive a summary of your results.

• 5

  Consult a professional psychologist or therapist who specializes in emotions. These professionals will have access to different techniques that others may not have. They can have you perform some self-assessment types of questionnaires to determine you emotional intelligence and can interpret the results for you on the spot. They can also give you some advice on increasing your emotional intelligence if necessary.