Emotional quotient test

EQ, emotional quotient, emotional intelligence

They are the same idea under three names. Emotional intelligence is the term used in the research literature. EQ and emotional quotient are popular coinages, built by analogy with IQ, the intelligence quotient. What the idea itself covers is mapped at what emotional intelligence is; this page is about the names and the number.

The analogy is where the trouble starts, so it is worth being precise about it.

What a quotient is, strictly

IQ is a quotient in a specific technical sense: a score placed on a scale with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, calibrated against a large representative sample. That is what makes "IQ 115" mean something exact, namely one standard deviation above the mean of the norming population.

There is no equivalent scale for emotional intelligence. Different instruments report on entirely different scales: one uses 0 to 100 with a mean near 75, another uses a 100/15 scale of its own, another a 1 to 7 scale. A number from one does not convert to a number from another, and none of them is "the" EQ scale.

So we do not report one

We could easily print a number with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. It would look authoritative and it would borrow credibility from IQ testing that this measurement has not earned. If you hold a score on that scale from another test, the score-interpretation pages explain what each region of it can claim.

Instead you get each facet as a percentage of the maximum, labelled as such, with a margin of about 9 points on it, plus a separately scored situational section. That is less tidy and it is what the measurement will support. The reasoning is set out in full on the method page.

What the test involves

40 questions about how often you do things, 12 written situations where you choose a response, and 2 checks that you are reading. About twelve minutes, free to take, and your band and the shape of your profile are free to read.

Take the test

The five facets

• Self-Insight: noticing, naming and tracing your own emotions.
• Composure: staying functional under emotional load, and how quickly you recover.
• Attunement: reading other people accurately from words, tone and behaviour.
• Repair: cooling a conflict down and putting a relationship back together after it.
• Drive: using emotion to get yourself moving, and keeping it out of decisions where it does not belong.