Assessment Information Brief: REVELIAN EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE ASSESSMENT (MSCEIT) Prepared by: Revelian Psychology Team E: psych@revelian.com P: (AU) or +61 7 3552 www.revelian.com 1
www.revelian.com 2
ABOUT REVELIAN Revelian is Australia s leading provider of employment assessments. Founded in 1999, Revelian s goal is to provide a more effective and economical way to recruit and develop talented people for your business. Revelian s products and services deliver significant benefits such as: Providing a highly automated and objective recruitment process Delivering better quality hires who are likely to be safer, smarter and more reliable Ensuring improved retention and higher morale. The end result is lower recruitment costs, faster time to hire and finding better people. Some of the key attributes that distinguish Revelian include: Full range of recruitment and development tests Unrivalled 7 days per week client and candidate support Australian assessments, Australian normative data Immediate results for both candidates and clients Australian based psychology and development teams Quality endorsed company (AS/NZ ISO9001) www.revelian.com 3
REVELIAN EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE ASSESSMENT (MSCEIT) Assesses Candidate levels of emotional intelligence Predicts Interpersonal, team and leadership effectiveness Number of questions 141 Time to complete 40 minutes (untimed) Context for use Recruitment version and Development version available WHAT IS EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE? The Mayer Salovey Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, or MSCEIT for short, is an ability- based measure of emotional intelligence that assesses a person s capacity to effectively reason about emotions and to use emotions to enhance thought and to solve problems. Being an ability-based measure, opposed to a selfreport measure, it presents individuals with a series of tasks that require an individual to identify, process, understand and effectively use emotional information to achieve particular outcomes. WHY USE THE MSCEIT WHEN SELECTING STAFF? Individuals with high scores on the MSCEIT are generally better able to perceive, identify and manage emotions in themselves and others, making them more effective at achieving goals where emotional based information is important. This includes activities that involve working as part of a team, dealing with others on a one-on-one basis, and displaying leadership behaviours. The MSCEIT conceptualises and measures emotional intelligence, also commonly referred to as EI, as comprising of a set of four key competencies. These competencies include an individual s ability to: Recognise their own and others emotions, Generate and use emotions in problem solving, Understand emotions and how emotions may change, and Manage their own and others emotions. The MSCEIT measures these abilities in both a direct and indirect manner. Consequently, in some instances items may appear unrelated to the job or role requirements and the questions may seem strange and unusual. One considerable advantage of this, however, is that the MSCIET is highly resistant to faking and is rarely affected by response biases such as attempting to present oneself in an overly positive way. The MSCEIT yields a range of scores of a person s emotion intelligence related abilities and competencies. Scores are provided for the individual s overall Emotional Intelligence, two area scores, four branch scores and eight task scores. www.revelian.com 4
Total EI Overall index of Emotional Intelligence related skills and abilities Experiential EI Ability to perceive emotional information, relate it to other sensations, and use it to facilitate thought Strategic EI Ability to understand emotional information and use it strategically for planning and selfmanagement Perceiving Emotions Ability to accurately identify emotions in oneself and others Facilitating Thought Ability to effectively use emotions to improve thinking Understanding Emotions Awareness and understanding of the complexities of emotional meaning transitions and situations Emotional Management Ability to effectively and strategically manage emotions in oneself and others Faces Task Ability to accurately identify emotions expressed in pictures of faces Pictures Task Ability to identify the level of emotion suggested by photographs of landscapes and abstract artistic designs Sensations Task Ability to match tactile, taste and colour terms to specific emotions Facilitated Task Ability to indicate how moods and emotions affect thinking processes (eg. reasoning, problem solving, creativity, etc) Blends Task Ability to identify emotions that may encompass more complex feeling states Changes Task Awareness of how feelings and emotions progress or transition from one state to another Relations Task Ability to estimate the likely consequences of various emotional strategies for emotional reaction involving others Management Task Ability to estimate the effectiveness of various strategies that could modify a person s feelings in various situations www.revelian.com 5
MSCEIT BRANCH DESCRIPTIONS PERCEIVING EMOTIONS The Perceiving Emotions branch is concerned with the candidate's capacity to accurately recognise her own emotions and the emotions of others around her. Emotional perception involves paying attention to and accurately decoding emotional signals in facial expressions, tone of voice and artistic expression. Although the MSCEIT measures the appraisal of emotions in others and in images, evidence suggests that such appraisal is also related to accurate perceptions of emotions in oneself. FACILITATING THOUGHT The Facilitating Thought branch is focused on the candidate's ability to employ feeling to enhance cognitive thought and, as a result, harness more effective problem-solving, reasoning, decision making and creative ability. Emotions can assist in prioritising tasks by identifying those tasks of greater importance. Emotions also influence the way we think (e.g., positive thoughts are generated when one is happy). Differing emotions therefore encourage a variety of perspectives while also fostering creative thinking. UNDERSTANDING EMOTIONS The Understanding Emotions branch reflects the candidate's capacity to define and label emotions and reason with them effectively. Understanding what leads to various emotions is a critical component of emotional intelligence as knowledge of how emotions combine and change over time is important in interactions with others. MANAGING EMOTIONS The Managing Emotions branch assesses the candidate's ability to manage emotions successfully. This entails remaining open to emotional information at important times, and closed to emotions when they may not be relevant. Managing emotions also refers to using emotions in a considered and rational manner, rather than choosing to act without the appropriate degree of thought. www.revelian.com 6
EXAMPLE QUESTIONS NORMATIVE GROUP When a candidate completes the MSCEIT their responses are analysed and their emotional intelligence score is calculated. This score is meaningless until you contrast it with scores achieved previously by a specific group of people. The group that you contrast the score against is important for the subsequent interpretation you make. In other words, the closer the relevance of the comparison group to the position, the more confidence you can place in the interpretation. The general consensus comparison group is made up of more than 5000 individuals who have taken the MSCEIT previously and was chosen for use as it more closely matches the candidate population in which the test is being used. www.revelian.com 7
REPORTING RESULTS As discussed above, the MSCEIT is scored by comparing an individual s responses to the responses of a comparison group. For example, if an individual chose the response option of 3 for the question in the example below, they would be given a score of 0.24. This is because 24% of the comparison group endorsed the response option of 3 for this item. If an individual chose the response option of 5 they would be given a score of 0.15 and so on. Note that closer an individual s response matches the response provided by the majority of the comparison group, the higher his or her score for that item. Based on how a person s respective score compares to that of the comparison group, the scores are placed into one of five performance classifications and ranges from Far Below Average to Far Above Average. The example below illustrates the overall Emotional Intelligence of a candidate as compared to the General Comparison group. Additional reporting breakdowns are provided to indicate strengths and weaknesses with regard to Area Scores, Branch Scores and Task Scores. Examples of these are provided below. www.revelian.com 8
www.revelian.com 9
VALIDITY SCALES SCATTER SCORE The MSCEIT Scatter score provides an indication of the amount of fluctuation among a candidate's task scores. High Scatter scores (above 115) indicate large discrepancies in the results for the different tasks. Such scores may indicate a large degree of variation in skill across different elements of emotional intelligence. Moderate Scatter scores (85-115) show a typical amount of variation in task results. Low Scatter scores (below 85) indicate very consistent scores across the tasks. POSITIVE-NEGATIVE BIAS SCORE The Positive-Negative Bias score provides an indication of a candidate's tendency to respond to pictorial stimuli with either positive or negative emotions. High Bias scores (above 115) indicate a more than typical tendency to respond positively to the picture items. Moderate Bias scores (85-115) indicate a typical amount of positive and negative responding. Low Bias scores (below 85) indicate a more than typical amount of negative responding to picture items. www.revelian.com 10
MSCEIT FOR DEVELOPMENT WHY USE THE MSCEIT FOR STAFF DEVELOPMENT? In addition to the benefits of using the MSCEIT when selecting new employees, the MSCEIT can also be used with current employees who may benefit from a greater understanding of their capacity to understand their own and others emotions. The Mayer Salovey Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test-Development (MSCEIT-D) is designed to provide guidance to individuals and their managers with regard to particular strengths or weaknesses identified by the MSCEIT-D. The MSCEIT-D report is suitable to be shared with the employee and their manager and indicates areas of strength as well as areas that may require some development, with suggested strategies for improvement also provided. REPORTING RESULTS In addition The MSCEIT-D produces a normative result using a comparison group to provide meaning to an individual s score. Based on how an individual s score compares to that of the comparison group, the score is placed into one of four categories ranging from Consider Developing to Expert. The example below illustrates the overall Emotional Intelligence of an individual as compared to the comparison group. In this example, the individual s overall score fell within the Skilled range. This score suggests that the individual s overall capacity to understand their own and others emotions is an area of particular skill and ability. Additional reporting breakdowns are also provided to indicate areas of strength and weakness with regard to Area, Branch and Task Scores. An example of the Area Scores is provided below. In this example, the individual s Experiential score fell within the Skilled range and suggests that their ability to identify emotions and to generate and use emotions in problem solving is significantly developed. The www.revelian.com 11
individual s Strategic score fell within the Competent range and suggests that their understanding of emotions, how they may develop and change over time and how they may be best managed effectively, is sufficiently developed. An individual s emotional intelligence score can also be further understood by examining it at the branch and task level. Examples of these are provided below. VALIDITY SCALES As with the recruitment version of the MSCEIT, the development version includes the two validity checks discussed earlier Scatter and Positive-Negative Bias scores. www.revelian.com 12
ONLINE SECURITY Like all Revelian assessments, the MSCEIT can be completed remotely over the internet under unsupervised conditions. This provides a high level of flexibility and convenience for the candidate. When testing is conducted under unsupervised conditions, however, it is possible that the candidate may have had assistance in completing the assessment, and it is essential to protect the security of the assessments. Revelian adopts the following best practice strategies to ensure on-line security, and reduce the likelihood of cheating. MOTIVATING CANDIDATES TO COMPLETE HONESTLY Prior to completing the Revelian assessments, all candidates are required to electronically endorse a short statement, indicating that they: Will not receive help from others when answering assessment questions; and Will be honest, accurate and perform at the best of their ability. SECURE ASSESSMENT DELIVERY Our online testing engine is delivered using secure web technology, which allows us to ensure that assessment security and integrity is maintained and that assessment time is tracked accurately. DETAILED ASSESSMENT SESSION LOGGING From the moment the candidate logs on to the Revelian website, to the moment they finish their assessments, Revelian creates detailed test logs of the candidates testing session, including time spent answering questions, and internet connectivity. Should the candidate indicate that their internet connection dropped out, or that they were disturbed while completing the assessment, then assessment logs can be consulted to verify the candidate s claims. CANDIDATES CAN ONLY COMPLETE THE ASSESSMENT ONCE WITHIN A 12 MONTH PERIOD Candidates can get better at specific assessments through practice. In order to ensure that all candidates can be compared against one another fairly, Revelian restricts candidates to one assessment within a 12 month period. To facilitate this, we gather identification details from candidates at a number of stages of the application and assessment process, so that new candidates can be compared against candidates in our database. If a candidate has been tested within the previous 12 months, then they are not able to sit the assessment again. Rather, they are provided with the opportunity to release their previous results to the www.revelian.com 13
new employer. This strategy eliminates candidate practice effects, resulting in fairer and more accurate assessment scores. VALIDATION OF THE MSCEIT Validation studies have demonstrated the strong psychometric properties of the MSCEIT. Full-scale internal consistency of 0.93 (p<.05). A test-retest reliability of 0.86 (p<.05; N=62). This indicates that an individual s score on the MSCEIT is very stable over time. Someone who sits the assessment twice is likely to achieve a very similar score on both occasions. Strong construct validity. The results of a confirmatory factor analysis revealed good fit indices for the one, two and four factor models of emotional intelligence. Studies have indicated strong discriminate validity. A correlation of r=.21 (p<.05) has been reported with self-report measures of Emotional Intelligence (ie., EQ-i). Correlations between r=0.0 0.4 (p<.05) have been found with cognitive ability tests. Both personality measures and self-report optimism and empathy scales have been found to correlate between r=0.0-0.35 (p<.05) with the MSCEIT. These findings indicate that emotional intelligence, as measured by the MSCEIT, assesses a unique construct, rather than something already assessed by existing psychological tools. Predictive validity. The MSCEIT has been found to predict performance (r=.28, p<.05), customer satisfaction (r=.46, p<.05), and aspects of effective leadership (r=.23, p<.05). Additional details regarding the validation studies are available upon enquiry to Revelian. www.revelian.com 14
REVELIAN S RANGE OF ASSESSMENTS Revelian has a number of psychometric assessments designed to reliably and validly measure key candidate characteristics. These assessments are summarised below. REVELIAN COGNITIVE ABILITY TEST (RCAT) Predicts a candidate s future work performance. The Revelian Cognitive Ability Test measures the candidate s level of general mental ability. This is an indication of the candidate s capacity to acquire, integrate, recall and apply new information. An analysis of 85 years of employee selection has shown that general mental ability is one of the best predictors of performance in a wide range of roles. 51 items 20 minute time-limit The test can be completed either remotely or under supervised conditions Is a predictor of the candidate s potential work performance REVELIAN THEME PARK HERO (RTPH) Predicts a candidate s abilities in the workplace. Revelian s Theme Park Hero measures a candidate s level of ability in the workplace, including aspects related to general reasoning and problem solving, how quickly candidates can learn rules and tasks, and undertaking numerical tasks. 4 mini-games (producing a single overall score) Each game has its own time limit Predictor of important workplace abilities COGNIFY Predicts a candidate s abilities in the workplace. Revelian s Cognify measures a candidate s level of ability in the workplace, including aspects related to general reasoning and problem solving, how quickly candidates can learn rules and tasks, and undertaking numerical and verbal reasoning tasks. Up to 7 mini-games (producing a single overall score) Each game has its own time limit (up to 22 minutes in total) Predictor of important workplace abilities www.revelian.com 15
REVELIAN VERBAL REASONING TEST (RVRT) Predicts verbal reasoning element of future work performance. The Revelian Verbal Reasoning Test measures the candidate s level of verbal reasoning. This is an indication of the candidate s capacity to understand relationships and concepts framed in words, and solve problems using that information. Research has indicated verbal reasoning as a predictor of future job performance, particularly for roles that require the ability to comprehend and analyse written information. 35 items, 10 minute time limit Can be completed either remotely or under supervised conditions Is a predictor of the candidate s work performance, particularly for roles involving the use of verbal reasoning ability REVELIAN NUMERICAL REASONING TEST (RNRT) Predicts a candidate s numerical reasoning element of future work performance. The Revelian Numerical Reasoning Test measures the candidate s level of numerical reasoning. This is an indication of the candidate s capacity to understand numerical relationships and concepts and problem solve using that information. Research has indicated numerical reasoning as a predictor of future job performance, particularly for roles that require individuals to process large amounts of data, such as complex technical and managerial roles. 25 items, 12 minute time limit The test can be completed either remotely or under supervised conditions Is a predictor of the candidate s work performance, particularly for roles involving the use of numerical reasoning ability REVELIAN ABSTRACT REASONING TEST (RART) Predicts abstract reasoning element of future work performance. The Revelian Abstract Reasoning Test measures the candidate s level of abstract reasoning. This is an indication of the candidate s capacity to solve conceptual problems by identifying relationships and analysing patterns. Research has indicated abstract reasoning as a predictor of future job performance, particularly for roles that require the ability to learn new skills quickly, problem solve and or develop strategies/solutions. 32 items, 10 minute time limit Can be completed either remotely or under supervised conditions Is a predictor of the candidate s abstract work performance, particularly for roles involving the use of abstract reasoning ability www.revelian.com 16
REVELIAN VALUES INVENTORY (RVI) Match the candidate to the organisation. The Revelian Values Inventory predicts potential cohesion between company values and a candidate s personal values; linked to organisation commitment. Un-timed (approximately 5-10 minutes, candidate can sit the test remotely or supervised) Matches candidate s values to organisational values EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE ASSESSMENT (MSCEIT) Identifies candidates most likely to have greater career success. The MSCEIT assesses an individual s ability to understand their own emotions, the emotions of others and to use emotions to enhance thought. Un-timed (approximately 45 minutes, candidate can sit the test remotely or supervised) Also available in a development version for use amongst existing staff REVELIAN 16 PERSONALITY FACTOR QUESTIONNAIRE (16PF ) Measures core personality traits influencing behaviour. The 16PF Questionnaire (16PF ) is a widely recognised personality test and measures core personality traits that influence behaviour. Un-timed (approximately 30-minutes, candidate can sit the test remotely or supervised) Predicts work behaviour, communication style and performance REVELIAN WORK PREFERENCE PROFILE (RWPP) Matches a candidate's preference to the job. Work Preference Profiling predicts potential job satisfaction by matching the candidate's preference to the task requirements of the job. This type of assessment is linked to predicting job satisfaction. Un-timed (approximately 10-15 minutes, candidate can sit the test remotely or supervised) Matches a candidate s preference to the job profile Supervisor or incumbent completes a Position Analysis prior to the candidates being compared to the role Predicts future job satisfaction www.revelian.com 17
REVELIAN BEHAVIOURAL PROFILE (RBP) Measures workplace behaviour. Individual behaviour relates to communication, team cohesion, performance and effectiveness. The Revelian Behavioural Profile looks at the work style behaviours of the individual. Un-timed (approximately 15 minutes, candidate can sit the test remotely or supervised) The assessment measures how people are likely to respond to challenges, the amount of interpersonal interaction they require, how they will adapt to the pace of a work environment, and how compliant they will be As personal self- awareness of behaviour increases, so does productivity and performance Also available in a development version for use amongst existing staff REVELIAN WORK SAFETY ASSESSMENT (RWSA) Measures a candidate s workplace safety behaviour. The Workplace Safety Assessment identifies those most likely to embrace safe work practices and less likely to exhibit counterproductive safety behaviour. Un-timed (approximately 10-15 minutes, candidate can sit the test remotely or supervised) Linked to lower absenteeism, lower compensation costs, and a more trustworthy team Measures factors such as: o Safety Control o Risk Aversion o Stress Management o Drug Aversion o Attitudes towards Violence Also available in a development version for use amongst existing staff REVELIAN WORK RELIABILITY SCALE (RWRS) Measures a candidate s level of workplace integrity. The Work Reliability Scale measures attitudes towards workplace theft and dishonesty. These have been shown to link with counterproductive behaviours such as theft, absenteeism, and property damage. Un-timed (approximately 10 minutes, candidate can sit the test remotely or supervised) Identifies candidates who have the potential to steal, be dishonest, take unwarranted sick days or be uncooperative with their team Linked to fraudulent behaviour, shrinkage, sick leave and unexplained losses www.revelian.com 18