The Managing the Emotions of Others Scale (MEOS): Cross-validation of a new emotional intelligence measure with links to personality and well-being.

Abstract

The Managing the Emotions of Others Scale (MEOS) is a new measure of the prosocial and non-prosocial aspects of interpersonal emotion regulation (ER) within the emotional intelligence (EI) domain. The present study sought to cross-validate the MEOS with another interpersonal ER measure, the Emotion Regulation of Others and Self (EROS) scale, and to examine personality and well-being correlates of the MEOS. 299 participants completed a web survey which included the MEOS, the HEXACO-60 personality inventory, the EROS, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and measures of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Correlations of the MEOS were explored and regression models were used to examine incremental validity of the MEOS in predicting well-being. In terms of cross-validity, the MEOS showed stronger associations with the EROS extrinsic subscales than with intrinsic subscales or the ERQ. Additionally, the MEOS prosocial pair correlated with the EROS extrinsic affect-improving subscale while the non-prosocial pair correlated with the extrinsic affect-worsening subscale. These findings supported construct validity of the MEOS. In terms of personality, honesty-humility and agreeableness correlated negatively with the non-prosocial pair while agreeableness correlated positively with the prosocial pair. This indicated that individuals who endorsed non-prosocial strategies were likely to be lower in honesty-humility and agreeableness, while agreeableness was linked to the tendency to endorse prosocial strategies. Although well-being was associated with several MEOS factors, well-being correlated more strongly with aspects of intrapersonal ER and personality. Additionally, the MEOS showed little incremental validity in predicting well-being in a regression model controlling for personality. Overall, results provided support for the construct validity of the MEOS as an interpersonal ER measure and extended findings on the relationship between the MEOS, personality and well-being.