【正文】 s are necessary before any firm conclusion can be drawn about the status of selfreport EImeasures. The present study The present study attempts to reduce the limitations of EI measures that have been outlined above, and makes efforts towards an improvement of the knowledge of the empirical status of both objective and selfreport indices of intrapersonal and interpersonal emotional abilities. The limitation of existing performance scales regarding the assessment of an individual’s actual emotional management ability will be addressed by using and evaluating an alternative measurement approach purporting to assess the effectiveness or adequacy of emotionrelated behaviors more directly. Accordingly, the effectiveness of emotionrelated behaviors is operational zed by measuring the individual’s behavioral preferences in various emotional settings and evaluating those behaviors against predetermined scoringcriteria. To remedy the weaknesses of selfreport EImeasures of EI (see above) a recently selfdeveloped questionnaire, which involves only items that focus directly on selfassessments of emotionrelated abilities, was administered. The first research aim is to finalize the development of psychometrically sound performance measures for the assessment of intrapersonal as well as interpersonal emotional abilities that are related to an individual’s behavior in emotional settings. Here, quite promising pilot studies have already been performed by diploma students. Within these studies, numerous items have been developed for the assessment of the abilities of (1) behaving adequately in emotionally laden social interactions, (2) managing one’s own emotions effectively, and (3) managing the emotions of others effectively. To assess the construct validity of the developed performance scales, their relations to selfreport measures of respective emotional abilities shall be determined. The final research aim refers to the evaluation of the convergent and discriminant validities of the performance and selfreports EImeasures. For this purpose, we will examine their relations to cognitive abilities and personality traits. 2 Method Participants 277 participants (106 males, 171 females) were recruited through local newspaper advertisements offering the opportunity to obtain information about their strengths and weaknesses concerning specific cognitive and emotional abilities. The vast majority of the participants were either employees or undergraduate students. Their ages ranged from 17 to 79 years (M = , SD = ). Measures Performance measures of emotional abilities 59 German items which have been designed in a series of pilot studies to measure the abilities of behaving adequately in emotional situations (23 items), of regulating/managing one’s own emotions effectively (18 items), and of regulating/managing the emotions of others effectively (18 items) were administered. In all three cases, emotionally laden scenarios were given and the subject had to choose among four behavioral alternatives. To assess the adequacy or effectiveness of the subjects’ behaviors more directly than is the case for the related MEIS or MSCEIT subscales, participants were explicitly instructed to choose the alternative that would best describe their actual behaviors in the given situation. The correctness of answers was predetermined by a panel of 10 experts in the field of emotions (psychologists, psychotherapists) who had to rate the adequacy/effectiveness of the four response alternatives (from 4 to 1) for each item respectively. Based on those judgments, the best (most adequate) response was scored “4”, the secondbest “3”, the thirdbest “2”, and the fourthbest “1”. All administered items met the criterion of a sufficient expertagreement concerning the correct solution (., the adequacy/effectiveness of each alternative had to be rated equally by at least 50% of the experts). The items were constructed/selected according to the following procedures: regarding the assessment of the ability of behaving adequately in emotional settings short verbal descriptions of emotionally laden interpersonal situation were constructed (., “You want to celebrate your birthday with some friends. But they tell you that they have other plans.”). In one of the pilot studies, these scenarios had been given to subjects who had to create their reactions in an open response format (cf. Bleikolb, 1999). The final multiple choice items which always involved four different alternatives of more or less adequate emotionrelated behaviors, have been derived from this study. With respect to the aforementioned itemexample, one response alternative read as follows: “Even though I am disappointed, I am going to do something else.” A number of positive and negative emotional scenarios have been constructed for the assessment of the ability to regulate the own emotions effectively (., “You are looking for a job and have to go to some interviews in the next few days. You feel excited.”). In another pilot study, the subjects’ task was to create strategies of emotional regulation which had to be specified in an open response format (cf. Egger, 2000). These strategies had been reduced to a number of four response alternatives for each item. One response alternative concerning the aforementioned itemexample read as follows: “I am going to develop and use a certain strategy.” The same procedure using other emotional scenarios had been applied for the construction of items concerning the measurement of the ability to regulate the emotions of others (cf. Kohl, 2000). For example, one item instructed the subjects to imagine the following situation: “Your father is very scared of a plicated operation which is absolutely necessary.” The participants had to choose among four response alternatives, ., “To calm him down I advise him to talk to the doctor once more.” Selfreport measures of emotional abilities The only