- Emotional intelligence, or EQ, is a general scientific term, not a brand name; it was first defined in a 1990 academic paper by Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer.
- There are 3 well-documented models of EQ: the Salovey-Mayer-Caruso ability model, Daniel Goleman's mixed model, and Reuven Bar-On's mixed model.
- The most rigorously researched real EQ test, the MSCEIT, has 141 items, takes 30 to 45 minutes, and costs about $200 or more for a full report.
- Some real EQ measures are free, including the 33-item Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test and the 48-item Trait Meta-Mood Scale.
- Even free, informal EQ quizzes found online are explicitly described in the research field as having no known psychometric validation; this page's own test belongs to that same honest category.
- Real, named emotion-regulation strategies, such as choosing your situation in advance or reappraising a situation's meaning, are generally more effective the earlier they're used, before an emotion has fully taken hold.
What is emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence (EQ) is a general term for the ability to notice, use, understand and manage emotion, in yourself and in others. It's a scientific and popular term, free to use, the same way "IQ" is.
It was first defined academically in 1990 by the psychologists Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer. It became widely known in the mid-1990s after the psychologist Daniel Goleman published his popular book "Emotional Intelligence," which introduced the idea to a much wider audience than the original academic paper had reached.
There are 3 well-documented models today, and they don't fully agree with each other: Salovey, Mayer and David Caruso's ability model, Goleman's mixed model, and Reuven Bar-On's mixed model.
The three leading models of emotional intelligence
The ability model, developed by Salovey, Mayer and Caruso, defines EQ as four trainable abilities: perceiving and expressing emotion, using emotion to facilitate thought, understanding and reasoning with emotion, and regulating emotion in yourself and others. In factor-analytic studies, the second ability (using emotion) is statistically the weakest and often merges with the others.
Goleman's mixed model, from his 1995 book, describes five domains: knowing your own emotions, managing your own emotions, motivating yourself, recognising others' emotions, and managing relationships. A widely repeated claim from that book, that IQ contributes only about 20% to life success, was an oversimplification that later media coverage exaggerated further; Goleman addressed the confusion in a later edition.
Bar-On's mixed model, from 1997, defines EQ more broadly and explicitly includes personality traits alongside abilities: intrapersonal skills, interpersonal skills, adaptability, stress management, and general mood.
How is emotional intelligence actually measured
Real EQ tests are surveys, scored using the statistics of psychometrics; a good one reports numbers such as Cronbach's alpha (internal consistency, ideally 0.7 or higher) and test-retest reliability (how closely your score matches if you take it again).
| Test | Items | Based on | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSCEIT | 141, 8 tasks | Ability model | 30–45 min; scored like an IQ test; about $200+ for a full report; sold by Multi-Health Systems; factor analysis fully supports only 3 of its 4 branches |
| EQ-i / EQ-i 2.0 | 133 | Bar-On's mixed model | 5 areas; also sold by Multi-Health Systems; criticised for overlapping heavily with standard personality measures |
| ESCI | 68, 12 competencies | Goleman's mixed model | A 360° tool, filled out by you and by people around you; paid |
| SSEIT (Schutte) | 33 | Overlaps with the ability model | Free for research and clinical use; the original paper with the scale is public |
| TMMS | 48 | Attitudes about your own moods | Free; gives 3 subscale scores, not one overall EQ number |
Free, informal online EQ quizzes exist too, and the field itself is upfront about them: a commonly cited 15-item free quiz based loosely on Goleman's competencies is explicitly described as having no known psychometric validation. It can still be useful to prompt self-reflection; it just isn't a scientific measurement.
Why this test is not the MSCEIT, the EQ-i or any other named instrument
This page's test is an original tool, written for this site: 12 scenarios, none of them copied from the MSCEIT, the EQ-i, the ESCI or the SSEIT, none of their exact items reproduced. It belongs to the same category as the free, informal quiz mentioned above: useful for reflection, not a validated psychometric score.
Concretely, that means: it has not been checked for reliability or validity the way a real instrument is, it gives you a rough, descriptive result rather than a norm-referenced score like the MSCEIT's IQ-style scale, and it should never be read as equivalent to, or a substitute for, any of the named tests above.
The four abilities this test's scenarios are organised around
The 12 scenarios are grouped 3 to each of the four abilities from the ability model: perceiving emotion (noticing emotional signals accurately, in yourself and others), using emotion (recognising when a feeling can be put to constructive use, not just endured), understanding emotion (identifying an emotion's real cause, separate from a person's character), and managing emotion (choosing a regulation strategy that actually fits the moment).
Which emotion-regulation strategies actually work, and when
Research on emotion regulation places strategies along a sequence: situation, attention, appraisal, response. Strategies used earlier in that sequence tend to be more effective than ones used after an emotion has already fully arisen.
Situation selection (choosing to approach or avoid a person, place or situation in advance) and situation modification (changing a situation you're already in) act earliest. Attentional deployment, including simple distraction, comes next. Cognitive reappraisal, changing how you interpret a situation's meaning (the ABCD model: activating event, belief, consequence, disputing the belief, is a concrete version of this), acts in the middle of the sequence. Response modulation, acting on the emotion after it has already arisen, such as suppression, is generally the least effective, though one specific technique from dialectical behaviour therapy, "opposite action" (deliberately doing the physical opposite of what the emotion urges, such as relaxing your posture when angry), has real support even at this late stage.
How the test on this page works
You answer 12 scenarios, one at a time. Each answer is scored from 1 to 4. Your result shows a total score and a separate score for each of the four abilities, with a short note on what a low, moderate or high score in that ability tends to look like, and one concrete thing to try.
Everything is calculated in your browser as you answer; nothing is sent anywhere or stored.
Can emotional intelligence be improved
In the ability model, the four abilities are explicitly defined as skills that can be trained, not fixed traits, which is part of why that model is used in workplace and school training programmes.
Improvement in any single area, such as noticing a subtle body-language cue or choosing an earlier regulation strategy, is a specific, practicable skill, not a vague personal trait you either have or don't.
Questions people ask
Is emotional intelligence a real, scientifically recognised concept?
Yes. It was first defined academically in a 1990 paper by Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer, and there are several well-documented models and real, validated tests, such as the MSCEIT.
Is this test the same as the MSCEIT or EQ-i?
No. Those are commercial, licensed, psychometrically validated instruments sold by Multi-Health Systems. This page's test is an original, free self-reflection tool inspired by published research, not a validated psychometric measure.
How much does a real emotional intelligence test cost?
The MSCEIT costs about $200 or more for a full report. Some real measures, such as the Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test and the Trait Meta-Mood Scale, are free.
What are the four abilities of emotional intelligence?
Perceiving and expressing emotion, using emotion to facilitate thought, understanding emotion, and managing or regulating emotion, in yourself and in others.
Can you actually improve your emotional intelligence?
The ability model treats EQ's four components as trainable skills rather than fixed traits, which is why workplace and school programmes are built around it.
What is the best strategy for managing a strong emotion in the moment?
Strategies used earlier, such as choosing or changing your situation in advance, tend to work better than strategies used after the emotion has already fully arisen, though dialectical behaviour therapy's "opposite action" technique has real support even late in the process.
Does my data get saved when I take this test?
No. Everything is calculated in your browser as you answer; nothing is sent anywhere or stored.
Where can I find a free, real emotional intelligence measure?
The Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (33 items) and the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (48 items) are both free and were developed for research and clinical use; their original papers are publicly available.
- Salovey P., Mayer J. D. Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 1990, 9 (3), 185–211.
- Mayer J. D., Salovey P., Caruso D. R. The Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), Version 2.0. Multi-Health Systems, 2002.
- Goleman D. Emotional Intelligence. Bantam Books, 1995.
- Bar-On R. The Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i): technical manual. Multi-Health Systems, 1997.
- Schutte N. S., Malouff J. M., Hall L. E., et al. Development and validation of a measure of emotional intelligence. Personality and Individual Differences, 1998, 25 (2), 167–177.
- Gross J. J., John O. P. Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2003, 85 (2), 348–362.
The 12 scenarios are original, written for this site and organised 3 to each of the four abilities of the Salovey-Mayer-Caruso ability model. Each answer scores 1 to 4; your total and per-ability scores are calculated in your browser as you answer, with no data sent or stored anywhere.