PURSUIT OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE (EI): THE ROLE OF IMPLICIT THEORIES AND FEEDBACK FRAMINGS ON TRAINING EXPERIENCE AND RESPONSES TO CHALLENGE IN AN EI-RELATED TASK

Abstract

Implicit theories suggest that differing beliefs on whether attributes are malleable can have profound consequences on one’s motivation and response to challenges. While emotional intelligence (EI) is increasingly seen as a key competency, few studies have explored the role of implicit theories in the domain of EI. Drawing upon regulatory fit theory, the present study examined the combined effects of implicit theories (incremental vs entity) and feedback framings (to-go vs to-date) on participants’ training experience and response to challenge in an EI-related task. Undergraduate students from the National University of Singapore (n =151) were tasked to complete a multilevel emotion-recognition training program and a challenging assessment. Consistent with our hypothesis, incremental theorists were more satisfied under to-go feedback than to-date feedback. However, entity theorists did not differ in satisfaction based on feedback. Interestingly, entity theorists chose more difficult levels than incremental theorists during training but were also found to attribute their failure to their lack of ability significantly more so than incremental theorists post-challenge. The findings underscore the importance of regulatory fit between one’s implicit theories of EI and feedback framing received in improving training satisfaction. Implications for future research on implicit theories in the EI domain are discussed.