Description

The Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS-16) is a brief self-report instrument developed by Wong and Law (2002). It assesses how individuals perceive their abilities to identify, understand, use, and regulate emotions.

The correct name is the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale, abbreviated as WLEIS, rather than Wong’s Emotional Intelligence Scale or WEIS. The instrument is based on an ability-oriented model of emotional intelligence and is widely used in organizational, educational, and social research.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the WLEIS-16 is to assess individuals’ perceived emotional abilities. It can be used to investigate relationships between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction, leadership, performance, organizational commitment, psychological well-being, stress management, and interpersonal relationship quality.

The scale may also be used to evaluate educational or organizational interventions. However, it is neither a clinical diagnostic instrument nor an objective performance-based test of emotional intelligence.

Scale Structure

The WLEIS-16 consists of 16 statements organized into four subscales, with four items in each dimension.

Self-Emotion Appraisal

The Self-Emotion Appraisal dimension assesses an individual’s ability to identify, understand, and express their own emotions. Higher scores indicate greater perceived emotional self-awareness.

Others’ Emotion Appraisal

The Others’ Emotion Appraisal dimension concerns the ability to recognize and understand other people’s emotions through verbal and nonverbal cues. It reflects emotional sensitivity and understanding of interpersonal reactions.

Use of Emotion

The Use of Emotion dimension assesses the extent to which individuals use their emotions to enhance motivation, persistence, goal-directed behaviour, and personal effectiveness.

Regulation of Emotion

The Regulation of Emotion dimension evaluates the perceived ability to manage and modify emotional reactions. It primarily concerns maintaining emotional control and adapting to demanding situations.

The WLEIS does not contain five dimensions of self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. That five-dimensional framework is more closely associated with Goleman’s model and does not represent the official structure of the WLEIS-16.

Administration and Scoring

In the original version, responses are recorded on a seven-point Likert scale:

1 = Strongly disagree
2 = Disagree
3 = Somewhat disagree
4 = Neither agree nor disagree
5 = Somewhat agree
6 = Agree
7 = Strongly agree

Some subsequent adaptations have used a five-point response format. The selected response scale should be clearly reported and applied consistently throughout the study.

Each subscale score is calculated by summing or averaging the four relevant items. When the original seven-point format is used, the sum for each dimension ranges from 4 to 28, while the mean ranges from 1 to 7.

An overall emotional-intelligence score may also be calculated across all 16 items. Nevertheless, reporting the four subscale scores alongside the total score is recommended because they provide a more detailed profile of perceived emotional abilities.

Higher scores indicate stronger self-reported emotional intelligence. Universal diagnostic cut-off scores for classifying individuals as having low, moderate, or high emotional intelligence have not been established.

Statistical Analysis

Analysis may include means, standard deviations, and score distributions for each subscale and the overall score. Internal consistency should be examined separately for the four dimensions using Cronbach’s alpha or McDonald’s omega.

The proposed four-factor structure can be evaluated through confirmatory factor analysis. Construct validity may be examined through associations with related variables such as empathy, emotional regulation, job satisfaction, and psychological well-being, as well as through differentiation from personality traits.

Measurement invariance should be evaluated before comparing mean scores across countries, cultural groups, or occupational populations.

Reliability and Validity

The original studies supported the four-factor structure of the WLEIS and reported satisfactory to high internal consistency, with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranging approximately from 0.76 to 0.89. Subsequent studies have provided additional evidence of convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity.

Psychometric adequacy should be re-evaluated for each new linguistic or cultural adaptation. Translated versions require appropriate forward and backward translation, pilot testing, and renewed examination of the scale’s factor structure.

Applications and Limitations

The WLEIS-16 can be used in organizational psychology, education, leadership research, and studies of occupational well-being. Its brevity makes it suitable for inclusion in broader research protocols.

Because it is a self-report measure, it assesses participants’ perceptions rather than objectively demonstrated emotional-processing ability. Responses may be affected by social desirability, self-awareness, general self-esteem, and response style.

The scale should not be used as the sole criterion for recruitment, promotion, or other decisions that may substantially affect an individual’s occupational future.

References

Davies, M., Stankov, L., & Roberts, R. D. (1998). Emotional intelligence: In search of an elusive construct. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(4), 989–1015.

Kafetsios, K., & Zampetakis, L. A. (2008). Emotional intelligence and job satisfaction: Testing the mediatory role of positive and negative affect at work. Personality and Individual Differences, 44(3), 712–722.

Law, K. S., Wong, C.-S., & Song, L. J. (2004). The construct and criterion validity of emotional intelligence and its potential utility for management studies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(3), 483–496.

Mayer, J. D., & Salovey, P. (1997). What is emotional intelligence? In P. Salovey & D. J. Sluyter (Eds.), Emotional development and emotional intelligence: Educational implications (pp. 3–31). Basic Books.

Wong, C.-S., & Law, K. S. (2002). The effects of leader and follower emotional intelligence on performance and attitude: An exploratory study. The Leadership Quarterly, 13(3), 243–274.