Gender differences in emotional intelligence. Assessment and training results from a cross-cultural study

The paper focuses on gender-related differences obtained in a multidisciplinary cross-national research project (funded by the Leonardo Da Vinci Community Programme) to develop innovative methods for assessing and training career starters' interpersonal-skills (ISs) that tested, among others, skills relevant for interpersonal relationships and interpersonal perception and communication in daily life and in work settings (e.g., Kafetsios et al., 2004). More specifically, tested skills involved different facets of emotional intelligence (EI) abilities. The study method was a pre-post experimental design. Control and experimental subjects were assessed twice, at time 0 and time 1 (2 months later); experimental subjects also completed a self-administered EI training in the time 0-time 1 interval. Both the assessment and the training instruments were developed specifically for this project (Zammuner & Kafetsios, 2005). The results showed that gender differences were frequently present, typically in the hypothsized direction: females showed a greater interpersonal-emotional orientation, and related, skills than males - including greater Team Orientation, Interpersonal Orientation at work, Initiative capacity, Expressive Transparency, and Awareness of other's Emotions. On the other hand, the size of differences was typically very small. In sum, on the one hand males need to work somewhat harder than females at their interpersonal skills if they want ‘to fit’ better their life settings, on the other hand two sexes are more similar than different in their emotional competence, a result that leaves us the opportunity to tailor future training packages so that they suit the different needs of males and females.