Emotional intelligence scales at a glance
Only facts that were read at their source are in this table; where a source did not state a detail, the cell says so rather than guessing. Check the publisher’s or developer’s own page for permission terms before you adopt any of them.
| Scale | Authors and year | Type | What is established | Fits when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS) | Hyde, Pethe and Dhar, 2001 | Self-rated trait measure | 34 questions; available in English and Hindi; identified in a systematic review of Indian teacher studies as the most commonly used scale in those studies | Your participants may answer in English or Hindi and your examiners expect an Indian instrument |
| Mangal and Mangal inventory (named in the review as the Teacher’s Emotional Intelligence Inventory) | Mangal and Mangal; take the year from the edition of the manual you use | Trait measure | The second most commonly used scale in the review of Indian teacher studies; items and dimensions not stated in the pages read | Your sample is Indian teachers or teacher trainees and your guide already uses it |
| Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT) | Schutte, Malouff, Hall and colleagues, 1998, Personality and Individual Differences, 25(2), 167–177 | Self-report trait measure | Described as a more general approach suitable for different populations; item count not confirmed from the pages read | You need an internationally cited scale to compare with foreign studies |
| Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue) | Petrides | Trait measure | 15 subscales organised under four factors: well-being, self-control, emotionality and sociability; obtained through the London Psychometric Laboratory | You want facet-level results and can secure access |
The short answer: for an Indian M.Ed or psychology dissertation with English or Hindi respondents, the Hyde, Pethe and Dhar scale is the practical first choice because it is bilingual and widely used in Indian studies; choose the Schutte scale if your guide wants international comparability, and the TEIQue only if you need subscale-level analysis and can obtain access. The rest of this guide explains why, and how to write the construct itself into your chapters.
What emotional intelligence is, in one sentence you can cite
The framework behind most definitions is Salovey and Mayer’s (1990) in Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 9(3), 185–211: a set of skills hypothesised to contribute to the accurate appraisal and expression of emotion in oneself and others, the effective regulation of emotion in self and others, and the use of feelings to motivate, plan and achieve in one’s life. Write that as your conceptual definition, with the citation, and then give an operational definition that names your scale and scoring, as shown in our guide to definition of terms for a psychology dissertation.
Ability, trait and mixed approaches: why the choice matters
Measures of emotional intelligence fall into groups, and a dissertation should say which one it uses. Ability measures, such as the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, ask people to perform tasks that are scored for correctness. Trait measures ask people to rate themselves, which is why they are classed as measuring trait emotional intelligence. Mixed measures, such as the Bar-On EQ-i, combine abilities with personality traits and other attributes. The systematic review of Indian teacher studies (Pandey and Sharma, F1000Research) noted that almost all of the studies it covered used a trait measure. If you use a self-report scale, say so plainly in your limitations: it captures how people perceive their emotional competence, not how they perform in an emotional task.
The four scales in more detail
Hyde, Pethe and Dhar Emotional Intelligence Scale
The review reports this as a self-rated test of 34 questions, first published in 2001, available in both English and Hindi, and the scale used most often in the Indian teacher studies it covered. It has been used in published Indian work with teachers; for example, Bala (2017) used it alongside a teacher effectiveness scale in a study of 200 secondary school teachers, reported in the International Journal of Indian Psychology. Because it is a published test, obtain it from its publisher or through your department’s test library; do not photocopy items from another thesis.
Mangal and Mangal inventory
The review of Indian teacher studies places the inventory by Mangal and Mangal second in frequency after the Hyde scale, used in seven of the studies it covered; one of them, Surana and Rawat (2014), used it with 477 teacher trainees. The review does not state its number of items, its dimensions or its year, so take all three from the manual of the edition you obtain before you describe the tool in Chapter 3.
Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test
Schutte and colleagues published the measure in 1998 and it is a self-report trait scale widely used in international research, which makes it useful when your Chapter 2 reviews foreign studies and you want comparable measurement. Confirm the item count, the dimensional structure you intend to report and the permission terms from the original paper and the author’s own pages before use.
TEIQue
Petrides developed the TEIQue to operationalise his trait emotional intelligence model, and it covers 15 subscales organised under four factors: well-being, self-control, emotionality and sociability. That structure lets you test hypotheses about particular facets rather than a single total. Access is through the London Psychometric Laboratory, so read their current instructions for research use before you plan around it.
How to choose between them
- Participants’ language. If they will answer in Hindi, a scale with a published Hindi version spares you the translation procedure described in our guide to translating and validating a scale.
- Your literature. If the studies in your review used one scale, using the same lets you compare your findings with theirs. Our guide to the review of related literature shows how to tabulate the tools used.
- Dimension you need. A total score suits a simple correlational study; subscales suit a study that asks which facet matters.
- Access. A scale you cannot obtain legitimately is not an option. Put the permission in your appendix.
- Your guide. Departments often have a preferred instrument and an approved list. Ask before you commit.
How to design a dissertation around emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence is usually a predictor or a correlate. Typical designs in Indian M.Ed and psychology dissertations pair it with teacher effectiveness, academic achievement, stress, job performance or adjustment, and compare groups by gender, school type or level. Each pairing needs its own second instrument, as set out in our guide to standardised tools for an M.Ed dissertation, and each hypothesis needs a test chosen from your data. Ten starting titles, to be filled with your own population:
- Emotional intelligence and teacher effectiveness among [secondary school teachers] in [district]
- Emotional intelligence and academic achievement among [higher secondary students] in [city]
- Gender differences in emotional intelligence among [B.Ed trainees]
- Emotional intelligence and perceived stress among [postgraduate students]
- Emotional intelligence of [government and private school] teachers: a comparison
- Emotional intelligence as a predictor of [adjustment] in [first-year undergraduates]
- Emotional intelligence and job performance among [nurses or bank employees]
- Emotional intelligence and [resilience] in [adolescents]
- Effect of [a training programme] on the emotional intelligence of [participants]
- Emotional intelligence and [leadership style] among [school principals]
Hypotheses an emotional intelligence study can test
The following templates show the range of questions a dissertation on this construct can ask. Replace the bracketed items with your own variables, and choose the test after you have examined your data.
| Objective | Null hypothesis | Likely test |
|---|---|---|
| To describe the level of emotional intelligence of [group] | None needed for a descriptive objective | Mean, standard deviation and band distribution |
| To compare emotional intelligence between [male and female participants] | H0: There is no significant difference in emotional intelligence between [male and female participants] | Independent-samples t-test, or Mann-Whitney U |
| To compare emotional intelligence across [school types or levels] | H0: There is no significant difference in emotional intelligence across [categories] | One-way ANOVA, or Kruskal-Wallis |
| To study the relationship between emotional intelligence and [second variable] | H0: There is no significant relationship between emotional intelligence and [second variable] | Pearson or Spearman correlation |
| To assess whether emotional intelligence predicts [outcome] | H0: Emotional intelligence does not significantly predict [outcome] | Simple or multiple regression |
If a trait scale gives you a total and subscale scores, decide in advance which you will test; testing every subscale against every outcome produces a long list of comparisons and a weak chapter. Choose between the parametric and non-parametric versions only after you have checked the distribution of your scores.
Consent and administration
An emotional intelligence scale asks people about themselves, so participants must know that their answers are voluntary and confidential, and that individual scores will not be shown to their school, employer or guide. Administer the scale in one sitting, away from the people who supervise the participants, and read out only the standard instructions from the manual. If your participants are students under a head of institution, obtain the institution’s written permission as well as individual consent.
What to report about the scale in Chapter 3
State the scale’s name, authors, year and publisher; the number of items and response format as given in the manual; how it is scored and whether any items are reversed; what a high score means; the language administered; and the reliability you obtained in your own sample. For the figures that count as acceptable, see our guide to the acceptable Cronbach’s alpha for a thesis. If none of these scales fits your sample, building your own tool is possible but needs its own validation evidence. For the wider comparison of psychology instruments, see validated scales for a psychology dissertation in India.
Four mistakes to avoid
- Quoting item counts from memory. Take them from the manual or the original paper.
- Using the scale without permission. Published tests have owners.
- Calling a self-report score an ability. Say “perceived emotional intelligence” or “trait emotional intelligence”.
- Using the original paper’s reliability. Report your own.
Getting the tools section written
The tools section has to name the scale, justify it and report its evidence in your sample. Tesify helps you structure the section and assists you as you write your own wording. More than 9,000 students have used it, it has supported 15,000+ chapters, and every word of your dissertation stays 100% written by you.
Start your dissertation in Tesify
Frequently asked questions
Which emotional intelligence scale is used most in Indian research?
A systematic review of Indian teacher studies found the Hyde, Pethe and Dhar scale to be the most commonly used in the studies it covered, followed by the inventory by Mangal and Mangal.
How many items does the Hyde, Pethe and Dhar scale have?
The review reports it as a self-rated test comprising 34 questions, available in English and Hindi. Confirm from the manual before you describe it in your dissertation.
Is the Mangal and Mangal inventory suitable for my sample?
In the review it was used with teachers and teacher trainees, for example by Surana and Rawat (2014) with 477 trainees. Check the manual for the intended population and the item and dimension details.
What is the difference between trait and ability emotional intelligence?
Trait measures are self-ratings of perceived emotional competence; ability measures score performance on emotional tasks. Almost all of the Indian studies in the review used trait measures.
Can I use the Schutte scale in a Hindi-speaking sample?
Only with a validated Hindi version or after a documented translation and validation process, with permission from the owner. See our guide to translating and validating a scale.
Do I need permission to use these scales?
Yes. They are published instruments with authors or publishers. Obtain permission or the published test through legitimate channels and put the evidence in your appendix.
How do I define emotional intelligence in my dissertation?
Cite a conceptual definition such as Salovey and Mayer (1990), then give an operational definition naming your scale, scoring and any cut-offs.
Which statistics suit an emotional intelligence study?
Correlation or regression for relationships and t-tests or ANOVA for group comparisons, or their non-parametric equivalents, chosen after checking your score distributions.
What sample size do I need?
It depends on your design and tests. Calculate it from your analysis plan and state the method in Chapter 3.
What should I say about the limitations of a self-report scale?
That it measures perceived emotional intelligence, may reflect social desirability, and cannot show how participants perform in real emotional situations.