華人對情緒智能與人情世故的認知：性別與世代的差異

Cognitive Representation of Emotional Intelligence: Similarity and Difference between Genders and Cohorts

研究者經由質性研究發現華人工作者對情緒智能的認知與北美學者的概念有部分相異之處，並根據訪談與開放問卷資料編製了包含華人與北美社會重視的情緒智能向度的情緒智能量表以及反映傳統人際情緒管理能力的人情世故量表。在本研究中，研究者以上述量表施測於不同世代的公職工作者，以驗證華人對情緒智能的認知是否反映文化與社會變遷的影響。實徵調查結果顯示：年長世代與中間世代工作者比年輕世代工作者重視情緒智能中「修身同理」因素以及人情世故中的「守禮體恤」因素；中間與年輕世代比年長世代重視「積極正向」因素；中間世代也比年長世代重視人情世故中的「寬容分享」因素。女性比較重視「積極正向」因素，中間職級者比年輕世代重視「修身同理」因素。根據研究結果，研究者推論：工作者對情緒智能的認知可能受到社會文化變遷的影響，也可能受到他們直接工作場域與性別社會化歷程的影響。

The concept of emotional intelligence has been introduced into Taiwan for more than 10 years. However, Taiwanese managers and government officers still construe ‘emotional intelligence’ differently from North American scholars. An emotional intelligence scale with western and indigenous factors and a Reng-qing Shi-ku scale were developed based on interview data. Authors assumed that social economic and cultural changes would make younger cohorts more likely to express their emotion and less likely to endorse traditional harmony oriented emotion management concept. Both scales were administered on three cohort government officers. Results partly support our predictions. In comparison to younger cohorts, elder workers emphasized more on the importance of traditional emotion management concept, ‘self-cultivation and consideration’, and on ‘social exchange rituals and consideration’ of Ren-qing Shi-ku. Young workers were more likely to endorse ‘exhibit and maintain positive emotions’ than elders. Female workers were also more likely to emphasize ‘exhibit and maintain positive emotions’ than male workers. In comparison to higher level officers, those who worked on basic service units emphasized more on traditional self-cultivation and consideration aspect of emotional intelligence. The results suggest that both socio-economic change and direct working environment may influence their cognitive schema of emotional intelligence.