Imagine feeling “cold, slow and sharp” – OK, got that it in your head … now tell me how much you relate that feeling to being challenged, isolated or surprised.
How about “loud, large, delicate and bright green”. Think about it – how strongly do you relate that to being excited, jealous or afraid.
What about this image below – how much of the feelings of being happy, disgusted, jealous or sad are expressed in that image?
These were just three of 141 question that I was bombarded with as I completed a 45 minute MSCEIT test today to assess my emotional intelligence.
Worryingly, not one of the questions seemed to make any sense to me at all.
They survey included pictures of faces which I had to rank for how strongly I saw emotions like anger, frustration, sadness, happiness and envy … I saw nothing.
They showed me pictures of waves crashing on cliffs and trees dying in deserts and asked me how I related them to different emotions … I just thought they were pretty, which of course wasn’t an option.
They gave me complex emotional scenarios, and then asked me to assess how good different responses would be in resolving them … thank god for multiple choice questions.
They asked things like “Fear, joy, surprise and embarrassment are all parts of …” and no “a stupid MSCEIT survey” wasn’t one of the five options they offered as potential answers.
For the first time in my life I walked away from a test having no idea what it was all about …it was like sitting an exam for a subject which you’ve never actually studied.
When it comes to emotional intelligence, I think I’m expecting an F.
Thankfully that won’t be a surprise. I am looking forward to the results though.
I felt exactly the same, (found your blog googling this test) – how'd you end up going?
I clearly remember those stupid questions! How did you go? I got 46%