Scales used included a general intelligence scale, measures of psychological adjustment-maladjustment (anxiety, emotional thinking, depression, optimism, self-esteem, trait pleasure, self-actualization), measures of achieving tendency and four additional scales relating to achieving tendency (delay of gratification, patience, impulsivity, procrastination), measures of prosocial orientation (affiliative tendency or sociability and emotional empathy), general measures of dominance-submissiveness (or internal-external control) and of trait arousability (i.e., emotional reactivity), and measures of integrity, adaptive coping (i.e., realistic and direct coping with problems of life), social competence, and functional flexibility (i.e., ability to adopt varying emotional and behavioral postures in social situations). Participant gender and age (ranging from 17 to 46 years) were recorded and overall participant physical attractiveness was scored independently by two observers.
Factor analyses identified four factors of which two were used in data analyses. Factor 1 (Relaxed Temperament) included: two Trait Pleasure-Displeasure (general indexes of psychological adjustment-maladjustment), Abbreviated Anxiety, Abbreviated Depression, two Optimism, two Self-Esteem, Covert Index of Employee Productivity and Reliability, and Functional Flexibility scales. Negatively loading scales in Factor 1 were Abbreviated Anxiety, Abbreviated Depression, and Functional Flexibility.
The four highest loading scales on Factor 3 (Disciplined Goal Orientation) were Delay of Gratification (+), Patience (+), Impulsivity (-), and Procrastination (-). Scales of Integrity, Adaptive Coping, and Intelligence also loaded on Factor 3, but were treated individually in data analyses. Also, both scales of Achieving Tendency (a full-length scale and an abbreviated scale), although loading on Factor 4, correlated .39 with Disciplined Goal Orientation and, together with the latter factor, formed an important group of scales dealing with achievement and success.
Factor 1 (Relaxed Temperament) was by far the strongest and most consistent positive correlate of all six success measures (r = .57 with Overall Success). Analysis of Factor 1 in terms of the PAD Temperament Model (e.g., Mehrabian, 1996c) showed it to include pleasant, dominant, and unarousable temperament characteristics, listed in order of importance, and explained the label used for this factor.
Factor 3 (Disciplined Goal Orientation) and the two related Achieving Tendency scales also exhibited consistent positive correlations with all six success measures (r = .34 with Overall Success for Disciplined Goal Orientation; r = .38 with Overall Success for Achieving Tendency; r = .39 with Overall Success for Abbreviated Achieving Tendency). Comparison of results for this achievement-related group of scales with those for Factor 1 (Relaxed Temperament) showed that Factor 1 was the most effective predictor of Emotional Success, Relationship Success, Physical Success, and Overall Success, whereas Factor 3 and the two Achieving Tendency scales were most effective predictors of Work Success and Career and Financial Success.
The Emotional Thinking Scale dealt with negative influences of high emotionality on thought processes (e.g., biased, distorted, and maladaptive cognitions of people and situations). Thus, it represented a variant of maladjustment and correlated negatively and significantly with Factor 1 or Relaxed Temperament (r = -.42). Nevertheless, for the following success measures, Emotional Thinking accounted for variance beyond that accounted by Factor 1: Physical Success, Work Success, Career and Financial Success, Overall Success. Also, Emotional Thinking correlated significantly and negatively with all success measures (r = -.34 with Overall Success). In short, Emotional Thinking was an important and distinctive predictor of life success.
For Emotional Success and Work Success, Integrity was found to explain additional variance beyond variance explained by Factor 1. Excepting Physical Success, Integrity correlated positively with all remaining success measures (e.g., r = .27 with Overall Success and r = .42 with Work Success). Emotional Empathy also accounted for variance, beyond that accounted for by other scales and factors, in Relationship Success and Overall Success. Excepting Physical Success and Work Success, Emotional Empathy correlated positively and significantly with all remaining four success measures (in particular, r = .25 with Relationship Success and r = .23 with Overall Success).
Intelligence was a positive and significant correlate of all six success measures (r = .27 for Overall Success). However, when analyzed along with personality and trait scales, it failed to account for additional variance in any of the success measures; that is, when considered along with personality and temperament scales, intelligence was not a distinctive source of information about life success.
Physical attractiveness also had been hypothesized to be a positive correlate of all success measures. Overall Physical Attractiveness of participants was scored independently by two observers and the two sets of ratings intercorrelated highly (r = .84). Although it did not relate to Emotional Success, Overall Physical Attractiveness was a positive correlate of all remaining five success scales (r = .31 with Overall Success).
The Covert Index of Employee Productivity and Reliability was a statistically computed index derived from 16 subscales in the Individual Success Potential Inventory (Mehrabian, 1999a). It exhibited moderate to high positive and significant correlations with all six criterion measures of success. Strengths of its relations with criterion measures were comparable to those of Factor 1 (Relaxed Temperament). However, compared with Factor 1, the Covert Index had a stronger relation with Career and Financial Success (r = .49 vs. r = .38) (Table 10). Thus, the Covert Index appeared to be promising for general assessment of success potential and, in particular, for assessment of work and career success potential.
In sum, listed in order of importance, individual-difference correlates of life success were as follows: (a) Positive relations with success of psychological adjustment-maladjustment as assessed with the combination of traits in Factor 1 (Relaxed Temperament), (b) positive relations with success of the Covert Index of Employee Productivity and Reliability, (c) positive relations with success of a group of achievement-related traits, including Factor 3 (Disciplined Goal Orientation) and two scales dealing specifically with Achieving Tendency, (d) negative relations with success of Emotional Thinking, (e) positive relations with success of Integrity and Emotional Empathy, (f) positive relations with success of Overall Physical Attractiveness and Intelligence. These findings provided an alternative, new perspective on conceptualization and measurement of "emotional intelligence."
The PAD temperament scales (Trait Pleasure, Trait Arousability, Trait Dominance) were used to analyze the temperament composition of all scales, factors, and success measures in the study (Table 20). Pleasant, unarousable, and dominant temperament characteristics, listed in order of importance, were positive correlates of life success. These findings, in combination with available evidence on the PAD emotional impact of a large variety of stimuli, can be used to develop interventions designed to enhance life success of individuals.
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