Development and preliminary validation of an emotional self-efficacy scale Beverley A. Kirk, Nicola S. Schutte * , Donald W. Hine Psychology, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia article info Article history: Received 21 August 2007 Received in revised form 9 June 2008 Accepted 10 June 2008 Available online 30 June 2008 Keywords: Self-efficacy Emotional intelligence Emotional self-efficacy abstract Building on research in the areas of emotional intelligence and self-efficacy, a measure of emotional self- efficacy was developed and validated. Two hundred and seven participants rated their self-efficacy for adaptive emotional functioning as operationalized by the facets of Mayer and Salovey’s (1997) and Mayer, Salovey and Caruso’s (2004) model of emotional intelligence and completed measures of con- structs expected to be related to emotional self-efficacy. Items grouped into a one-component solution, and the internal consistency of the scale based on this solution was .96. Two week test–retest reliability was .85. High emotional self-efficacy was associated with greater dispositional emotional intelligence, greater performance emotional intelligence, higher positive mood and lower negative mood. Emotional self-efficacy showed evidence of incremental predictive validity in that it remained associated with posi- tive and negative mood after dispositional emotional intelligence was controlled and with positive mood after performance emotional intelligence was controlled. Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Higher self-efficacy for a behavioral realm is associated with better functioning in that realm. This beneficial effect of self-effi- cacy has been found for a variety of outcomes, including overcom- ing eating problems (Terence, Fairburn, Agras, Walsh, & Kraemer, 2002), counseling effectiveness (Larson & Daniels, 1998), coping with trauma (Benight & Bandura, 2004), and academic perfor- mance (Bandura, 1997). Self-efficacy consists of ‘‘beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce a given attainment” (Bandura, 1997, p. 3). As self-effi- cacy is an important predictor of realm-specific functioning, self- efficacy for emotional functioning may influence actual emotional processes as well as the outcomes associated with adaptive or mal- adaptive emotional functioning. Emotional intelligence is a term used to describe adaptive emo- tional functioning. A meta-analysis (Van Rooy & Viswesvaran, 2004) of research done with 59 samples of participants found that higher emotional intelligence was associated with a variety of bet- ter outcomes, including employment and academic performance. A meta-analysis (Schutte, Malouff, Thorsteinsson, Bhullar, & Rooke, 2007) focusing on the relationship between emotional intelligence and health examined 44 effect sizes from 35 samples of partici- pants and found that higher emotional intelligence was associated with better mental and physical health. The four-branch model of emotional intelligence (Mayer et al., 2004) holds that emotional intelligence consists of the interrelated functions of (a) accurately perceiving emotion in the self and others; (b) using emotion to assist thinking, including decision making; (c) understanding emotion in the self and others; and (d) effectively managing emotion in the self and others. These pro- cesses are components of emotional information processing and are interrelated such that more integrated processes, such as understanding emotion, build on more basic processes, such as perception of emotion. Some research indicates that as well as forming separate factors, the functions described by the model group into an overall adaptive ability factor and both the subfac- tors and overall factors have some evidence of validity (Mayer, Salovey, Caruso, & Sitarenios, 2003). We believe that ability as well as trait operationalizations (Neubauer & Freudenthaler, 2005; Petrides & Furnham, 2001, 2003) can fit within this four-branch model of emotional intelligence (Mayer et al., 2004). Using cogni- tive intelligence as an analogy, functions such as memory and word fluency can be both an ability, generally assessed through performance tests, and can be typically manifested in daily living. In the case of emotional intelligence, an individual may have, for example, the ability to assist others regulate emotions, but not typically use this ability for motivational or other reasons. Mayer et al. (2004) argued that emotional intelligence is best conceived of as an ability. In line with this conceptualization they recommended assessing emotional intelligence through perfor- mance tests that assess maximum performance. Petrides and Furnham (2003) posited that emotional intelligence can also use- fully be conceptualized as a trait or as typical functioning. Self- report is the most usual assessment method of trait emotional intelligence, just as self-report is the most common method of assessing other trait constructs. Neubauer and Freudenthaler 0191-8869/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2008.06.010 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 2 6773 3779. E-mail address: nschutte@une.edu.au (N.S. Schutte). Personality and Individual Differences 45 (2008) 432–436 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Personality and Individual Differences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid