Part V: creating the EQ-i 2.0 and EQ 360 2.0

North American Professional Norms

Overview

Introduction

The release of the North American Professional Norms provides users with increased flexibility in the use of the EQ-i 2.0 and EQ 360 2.0, with the ability to score their clients against data collected from a sample of professionals in North America. This new feature was created based on rigorous science and with customer needs in mind. General Population norms have the widest scope and allow for comparisons to norms reflecting the average person in the North American population. Professional norms allow consultants the option of using a norm that is more relevant to the people they work with every day: working professionals. This chapter describes how these new norm groups were created to provide consultants with additional options to enrich their work, and provides normative and psychometric information particular to the professional population in North America. The EQ-i 2.0 and EQ 360 2.0 assessments remain unchanged, but additional normative samples are now available (the original North American normative samples are described in detail in Standardization, Reliability, and Validity; information about normative data from other countries is available in Additional Norms).

This chapter describes the development of the EQ-i 2.0 and EQ 360 2.0 North American Professional Norms. For information on the EQ-i 2.0, including administration, interpretation, and development of the North American Norms, please refer to Parts I–V of the EQ-i 2.0 User’s Handbook.

The first section of this chapter is devoted to the development, standardization, reliability, and validity of the North American EQ-i 2.0 Professional Norms. The second section describes the same properties for the North American EQ 360 2.0 Professional Norms.

The EQ-i 2.0 Professional Norm data were collected from 1,400 individuals, evenly proportioned by gender in each of five age intervals. Several small effects of gender and age were observed, leading to the creation of both overall norms, as well as age and gender specific norms. The Professional Norm sample scored higher than the General Population Norm sample across all scales. EQ-i 2.0 scores were found to be highly reliable in the North American Professional Norm sample, and the original EQ-i 2.0 factor structure was replicated with the North American EQ-i 2.0 Professional Norm data.

The EQ 360 2.0 Professional Norm data were collected from 2,400 raters, with an equal number of men and women in each of three age ranges (i.e., 18–39, 40–49, and 50+), for each of four rater types (i.e., manager, direct report, work peer, and family/friend/other). Respondents (“the raters”) were required to rate an individual (“the ratee”) on the EQ 360 2.0. Similar to results from other EQ 360 2.0 standardizations (i.e., North America General Population, Australia, United Kingdom, Ireland, and South Africa), negligible effects were found for ratee gender, age, and rater type. As a result, one overall norm group was created that collapses across all of these variables. The Professional ratees tended to be rated more highly than General Population ratees across all of the EQ 360 2.0 scales. Finally, EQ 360 2.0 scores were found to be highly reliable in the North American Professional Norm sample, and the original EQ 360 2.0 factor structure was replicated with the North American EQ 360 2.0 Professional Norm data.