Construction and validation of the Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS): A Comprehensive Study among Undergraduate Students

Abstract

Emotional Intelligence is a critical factor influencing personal and professional success, particularly in educational and organizational settings. This study aimed to develop and validate a questionnaire to measure emotional intelligence, named the emotional intelligence scale (EIS). The EIS was based on Goleman’s emotional intelligence framework encompassing four factors: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. The preliminary draft of the questionnaire consisted of 50 statements on a five Likert scale. After ensuring content and face validity through expert review and removing items with CVR scores below 0.49, the scale was refined to 40 items. A pilot study with 30 participants identified ambiguities in some items, leading to the finalization of a 24-item scale. The finalized questionnaire was administered to a sample of 300 undergraduate students from 10 departments at KFUEIT, selected through multi-stage clustered sampling. Data were analyzed using smart PLS version 4 to establish the scale’s reliability, validity and model fit. The results indicated that Cronbach’s alpha value for self-awareness, self-management social awareness and relationship management were 0.945,0.719,0.813, and 0.822, respectively, all meeting the threshold of >0.7. Composite reliability values ranged from 0.811 to 0.957, and average variance extracted (AVE) values for three factors exceeded 0.5, ensuring construct validity. The Fornell-Larcker criterion values and Heterotrait-Monotrait ratios (HTMT) fell within acceptable limits, hence reinforcing discriminant validity. The variance inflation factor (VIF) measurements demonstrated an absence of multicollinearity concerns. The Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS) had strong psychometric qualities, establishing it as a dependable and effective instrument for evaluating emotional intelligence in undergraduate students. The results endorse the application of EIS in academic and research environments to further investigate emotional intelligence and its ramifications.