Adaptation of the revised schutte emotional intelligence scale into Turkish and examination of its psychometric properties

Adaptation of the revised schutte emotional intelligence scale into Turkish and examination of its psychometric properties Objective: Although emotional intelligence is not a new term, as a conceptual framework it is relatively new and the tools to measure (tare rather few, a situation that is also reflected in Turkish literature. Therefore, in this study we aimed to adapt the Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale, developed by Schutte, Malouff, Hall, Haggerty, Cooper, Golden, Dornheim, (1998) (33 item) and revised by Austin, Saklofske, Huang, McKenney, (2004) (41 item), into Turkish. Method: After the translation of the scale into Turkish, 1022 females (58.6%) and 721 males (41.4%), a total of 1743 subjects, ranging in age from 17 to 78 years, completed the Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale. Results: The examination of the three-factor structure of the scale by explanatory and confirmatory factor analyses showed that the results were consistent with those reported by Austin et al. (2004). The Cronbach-Alfa internal consistency coefficient for the entire scale was 0.82 and for the subscales was 0.75, 0.39 and 0.76. Test- retest reliability for the entire scale within one week was found to be r=0.49 (n=88), and within two weeks it was r=0.56 (n=85). To examine the scale's discriminant validity, the Five Factor Personality Inventory was administered to 100 subjects in addition to the Emotional Intelligence Scale. The results indicated that there were significant correlations between the Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale and the personality traits ranging from -0.29 to 0.34. Emotional intelligence scores for the entire scale were compared in terms of gender, age, and educational levels. The results showed that females had significantly higher emotional intelligence scores than males and as the level of education increased so too did the scores of emotional intelligence. Conclusion:The results indicate that the Schutte Emotional Intelligence scale can be a reliable and valid instrument to be used for the Turkish population. However, further studies are needed to examine the factor structure of the scale.