Kim Barchard's Research Areas
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Kim Barchard's Research Areas
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I define Emotional Intelligence (EI) as the ability to understand and manage one's own and other's emotions. However, some researchers define EI as a combination of cognitive abilities and personality traits. Therefore, my research in this area spans both Emotional Intelligence and personality traits related to emotions.
Emotional Intelligence Research
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Cognitive Ability or Personality Dimension |
In my dissertation, I tried to determine which aspects of EI are cognitive abilities and which are personality traits, using the results from a large number of different analyses. Using factor analyses and multiple regression, I found that only some aspects of Emotional Intelligence appear to be measuring cognitive abilities. Specifically, Emotional Understanding and Emotion Perception may be measuring cognitive abilities. As well, self-report measures appear to measure personality dimensions, not cognitive abilities. |
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Predicting Academic Success |
Many writers claim that Emotional Intelligence will predict success at school. I have now finished the first stage of a five-year study to examine the relationship of different aspects of EI to academic success at university. Using students at the University of British Columbia, in Canada, as participants, I demonstrated that only some aspects of Emotional Intelligence predict academic success. The aspects of Emotional Intelligence that were most likely to predict academic success were Emotional Understanding and Social Insight. In addition, I showed that some aspects of Emotional Intelligence are associated with LOWER levels of academic success, in some circumstances. I am now replicating this research with students from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. |
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Predicting Other Types of Success |
Researchers and other writers often claim that Emotional Intelligence will predict success in many different domains: at work, in personal relationships, and in terms of physical and mental health. I have collected some data on the relation of some aspects of Emotional Intelligence to physical and mental health, and I am currently collecting data on the relation of Emotional Intelligence to relationship success. |
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Revised Instructions for the LEAS |
The Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS; Lane et al., 1990) asks subjects how they would feel in 20 different emotionally-evocative interpersonal situations, and was designed as a measure of emotional understanding. My preliminary analyses indicate that scores may be influenced by subjects' Emotional Expressivity; therefore, I have revised the instructions and am currently collecting data to examine the reliability and validity studies for the revised instrument. |
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Short-forms of the O'Sullivan and Guilford Social Intelligence Tests |
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Development of Maximal-Performance Measures of Emotional Intelligence |
While working in the general area of EI, I have been developing ideas for new tests. At this point, my ideas do not cover the full range of cognitive abilities that might fall in the EI domain. This is an on-going research project that I will be working on more in the future. |
Personality Traits Related to Emotions
| Positive and Negative Expressivity | Most measures of Emotional Expressivity do not distinguish between Positive Expressivity (the tendency to express positive emotions) and Negative Expressivity, and confound both with the tendency to experience positive and negative emotions and with the intensity of these experiences. I have developed two new scales, so these constructs can be clearly distinguished from each other and from other aspects of the emotional experience. I have collected data to examine how these scales are related to the Big Five dimensions of personality, to mental and physical health outcomes, and to relationship success. |
| The Empathic Personality | Some aspects of empathy may be personality characteristics. I have created public-domain measures of the tendency to be influenced by others' positive emotions (Responsive Joy) and negative emotions (Responsive Distress) and to be concerned about others (Empathic Concern). I will examine the relation of these to the Big Five and to mental and physical health outcomes. |
Conference Presentations
Barchard, K.A. (2001). The Levels of Awareness Scale and Emotional Expressivity.
Poster presented at the May 2001 convention of the Western Psychological Association,
Hawaii.
Barchard, K.A. (2001). The Relation of Emotional Intelligence to Academic
Success. Poster presented at the May 2001 convention of the Western Psychological
Association, Hawaii.
Barchard, K.A. (2001). Positive Expressivity Scale and Negative Expressivity
Scale: Initial Psychometric Characteristics. Poster presented at the May
2001 convention of the Western Psychological Association, Hawaii.
Barchard, K.A. & Hakstian, A.R. (2001). The Relation of Emotional Intelligence
to Traditional Cognitive and Personality Variables. Paper presented the
June 2001 Annual Convention of the Canadian Psychological Association, Ste-Foy,
Quebec.
Coefficient Alpha is the most commonly used measure of internal consistency reliability. Several inferential procedures exist for coefficient alpha. For example, one can test whether coefficient alpha is equal to 0, and one can set confidence intervals for coefficient alpha. These inferential techniques have restrictive statistical assumptions. One of these assumptions is that the items on your test all have the same variance. When these assumptions are violated, the inferential techniques perform poorly. In a series of three articles, I examined the performance of inferential techniques for coefficient alpha, and developed a modification of an existing method of forming confidence intervals.
Publications
Barchard, K.A. & Hakstian, A.R. (1997). The robustness of
confidence intervals for coefficient alpha under violation of the assumption
of essential parallelism. Multivariate Behavioural Research, 32(2), 169-191.
Barchard, K.A. & Hakstian, A.R. (1997). The effects of sampling model on
inference with coefficient alpha. Educational and Psychological Measurement,
57(6), 893-905.
Hakstian, A.R. & Barchard, K.A. (2000). Toward more robust inferential procedures
for coefficient alpha under sampling of both subjects and conditions. Multivariate
Behavioral Research, 35, 427-456.
Conference Presentations
Barchard, K.A. & Hakstian, A.R. (1995). An examination
of the robustness to assumption violation of confidence interval procedures
for coefficient alpha. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society
of Multivariate Experimental Psychology, Blaine Washington.
Barchard, K.A. & Hakstian, A.R. (1998). Refining inferential procedures
for coefficient alpha: Increasing their versatility. Poster presented the
June 1998 Conference of the Canadian Psychological Association, Edmonton, Alberta.
Barchard, K.A. & Hakstian A.R. (2000). The challenge of Type 12 sampling
to inference with coefficient alpha. Paper presented at the July 2000 Annual
Meeting of the Psychometric Society, Vancouver, B.C.
I need research assistants to help me with all aspects of my research. My research
assistants prepare testing materials, administer testing sessions, score tests,
and enter data into the computer. If you work as a research assistant for me,
you will gain valuable experience in all aspects of psychological research.
This may help clarify your career goals, and will help prepare you for graduate
school.
There are three types of research assistants
Volunteer Research Assistants have the advantage that they are able to start or end their research involvement at any time, are able to take time off when they are busy, and are not obligated to do a certain minimum number of hours of work each week. Directed Readings and Directed Research Students have the advantage that they receive course credits and grades for their work. All three types of Research Assistants are directly involved in my research. Your other activities would depend upon the type of Research Assistant you were:
You may wish to spend one or more semesters as either a Volunteer Research Assistant or as a Directed Readings Student before taking a Directed Research course. This would allow you to design your own research question, and conduct your own study. This combination of courses would be excellent preparation for graduate school.
Workload Expectations for Directed Readings and Directed Research Students: Approximately 3 or 4 hours per week for each credit hour. For example, a 2 credit course would involve 6 - 8 hours of work per week. Between 4 and 6 of these would be spent in the lab assisting in on-going research. In my lab, students may sign-up for 2 - 5 credits in either Directed Readings or Directed Research.
Requirements for Directed Readings and Directed Research Students: Students must have completed PSY 210 prior to taking a Directed Readings or Directed Research course with me.