Emotional Intelligence Scale: Assessing its Psychometric Characteristics in Bangladeshi Culture

Abstract

After the publication of Goleman’s (1995) best-selling book ‘Emotional Intelligence’ the term drew attention scholars (Algera, 2011) in terms of ensuring social and universal unity and for study. Due to development of technology, increasing social unrest and  competition  social relationships have been declining and individualism has been arising in parallel with the rapid emotional understanding and control has arisen in order to each individual accepts and works in cooperation with an individual from another culture. But there is no valid scientific tool for measuring this important emotional intelligence behavior in Bangladesh culture. So, considering the significance of the tool, the purpose of the present study was to translate the instrument into Bangla and validate in Bangladeshi culture. A grand total of 1000 participants (491 males and 509 females) participated in the study. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) which was administered on sample 1 (n = 500) identified a seven-factor of the Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS) with 33 items. The seven factors explained 56.60% of the total variance. When analyzed the data for sample 2 (n = 500) in Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), it revealed that the seven-factor model with 33 items is an acceptable fit [χ 2 (469) = 1325.99, RMSEA = .06, RMR = .08, CFI = .87, GFI = .86] model to the data. Moreover, the EIS showed good internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = .93 for the 1st sample, .92 for the 2nd , and combined sample), strong convergent, and discriminant validity. Thus, the Bangla version EIS appears to be valid and reliable and may be used in further research on emotional intelligence behavior in the country.