Is ability-based emotional intelligence impervious to the Flynn effect?

Autor(en)
Jakob Pietschnig, Georg Gittler
Abstrakt

Generational IQ test score changes (i.e., the Flynn effect) have been shown to affect most measures of cognitive ability, although certain domains appear to be impervious. Because IQ test score changes have been found to differ between domains, evidence for specific domains is warranted to explain the nature, meaning, and causes of the Flynn effect. In the present cross-temporal meta-analysis, we investigated potential test score changes over time for ability emotional intelligence as assessed with a widely-used measure (i.e., the MSCEIT V2.0) based on data from 160 samples (N = 16,738) from English-speaking countries over a time-span of 15 years (2001–2015). We found no evidence for substantial generational test score changes in overall or branch (i.e., subscale) ability emotional IQ scores. Consistent with our expectations, test performance was substantially higher for women in most measures. Contrary to our expectations though, average performance of our participants was considerably lower than the performance of normative samples on all scales, thus raising concerns about the appropriateness of the current norms. In all, we argue that ability emotional IQ as measured with the MSCEIT V2.0 is largely unaffected by typical causes that have been proposed as responsible for the Flynn effect. This may be due to the close association of this construct with psychometric g (associations of MSCEIT V2.0 scores with cognitive task performance were modest in our data) on one hand and personality traits on the other hand, both of which have been shown not to be associated with test score gains.

Organisation(en)
Institut für Klinische und Gesundheitspsychologie
Journal
Intelligence: a multidisciplinary journal
Band
61
Seiten
37-45
Anzahl der Seiten
9
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2016.12.006
Publikationsdatum
03-2017
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
501004 Differentielle Psychologie
Schlagwörter
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
Link zum Portal
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/is-abilitybased-emotional-intelligence-impervious-to-the-flynn-effect(b11b0be7-2f98-4654-9836-293ca4e615d1).html