The Roles of Personality and Trait Emotional Intelligence in the Active-Empathic Listening Process: Evidence from Correlational and Regression Analyses

Abstract

This study presents a multivariate individual difference model to address personality and stable trait associations with active-empathic listening. Participants (N = 394) completed a measure of active-empathic listening, as well measures of emotional intelligence and personality (EPQ). Results indicate moderate, positive associations between emotional intelligence and the AELS, and small, negative associations between psychoticism and the AELS. Regression analyses revealed that emotional intelligence is a predictor of each subscale of the AELS. The discussion section highlights how the current study adds to the growing body of literature on traits and behaviors associated with active-empathic listening.

This research was conducted by Michelle E. Pence (M.A., University of Missouri-St. Louis, 2007), a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication Studies and research fellow at The Louisiana State University, and Andrea J. Vickery (M.A., The Louisiana State University, 2012), doctoral student in the Department of Communication Studies, The Louisiana State University.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors wish to thank Dr. Graham D. Bodie of the Department of Communication Studies, The Louisiana State University, for his guidance and extensive feedback on all versions of this manuscript. The authors also wish to thank the five reviewers who provided insightful comments leading to the final draft of this piece. The first author also wishes to thank Megan M. Cunningham for her assistance in retrieving doi numbers for the references added to the final draft of the manuscript.

Notes

This research was conducted by Michelle E. Pence (M.A., University of Missouri-St. Louis, 2007), a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication Studies and research fellow at The Louisiana State University, and Andrea J. Vickery (M.A., The Louisiana State University, 2012), doctoral student in the Department of Communication Studies, The Louisiana State University.