A new approach to assessing emotional understanding

This article describes (a) the origins of, (b) rationale underlying, and (c) preliminary validity evidence for, a new ability measure of emotional understanding (EU), a major component of emotional intelligence. A novel conceptual approach-the empathic agent paradigm (EAP)-provided the theoretical foundation. The EAP results in a veridical, logically defensible scoring key, a major development for the assessment of EI, which otherwise has relied on less defensible approaches. Validity evidence for test score interpretations of the Empathic Agent Paradigm Test (EAPT) was subsequently obtained in two studies. In Study 1, participants (N = 321) completed the EAPT (α = .72 at testlet level), along with measures of classical intelligence, the Big Five personality traits, and a situational judgment measure of EU. This study provides factorial, convergent, and discriminant validity evidence for EAPT test score interpretations. In Study 2 (N = 158), an important assumption about the response processes in the EAPT was verified experimentally, in the process providing further validity evidence for test score interpretations. In sum, findings suggest that the EAPT is a promising new maximum performance measure for the assessment of EU. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).