Nine Layer Pyramid Model Questionnaire for Emotional Intelligence

—Emotional intelligence is significant, and it is an integral key to successful intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships. High emotional intelligence strengthens individuals with additional abilities and skills necessary in personal and working life. This study aims to develop Nine Layer Pyramid Model Questionnaire, a reliable and valid measurement instrument of emotional intelligence, based on the theoretical nine-layer pyramid model of emotional intelligence which illustrates hierarchically the abilities and skills that people need to possess to reach the top of emotional intelligence. Models of emotional intelligence and literature on it were investigated, and tool with 81 items was developed. The question items were in full correlation with the levels of the pyramid model. Data were collected through self-reports from 520 teachers from primary and secondary school grade. Results via statistical analysis indicated that the scale is a reliable and valid instrument in measuring emotional intelligence and showing which level they have achieved better and at which level improvements are needed.

Despite its higher impact, there is much debate about the content of this concept, its competencies, and its best way to measure it. Emotional intelligence is not a new term, and many researchers have tried to reformulate older and more recent theories to better approach it. Furthermore, multiple models of EQ and measurements of it have been advocated. Despite the different perspectives, emotional intelligence seems to offer useful insights into the convoluted and complex inner worlds of human beings.

Nine Layer Pyramid Model Questionnaire of Emotional Intelligence: Creation, Competencies, and Objectives
In Drigas & Papoutsi (2018) a thoroughly presentation was made of the pyramid of Emotional Intelligence as an attempt to create a new layer model based on emotional, cognitive, and metacognitive skills [27].
The idea was stemmed from the previous important theories of emotional intelligence. The model of emotional intelligence has been created with a distinct classification. Each level includes specific skills that the individual must have acquired to possess that level of emotional intelligence and then be able to ascend to the next higher level. It is a methodology for the further development and evolution of the individuals. We analyzed the levels of our pyramid step by step, their characteristics, and the course of their development to conquer the upper levels, transcendence, and emotional unity, as well as pointing out the significance of EI in our life.
Most of the emotional intelligence abilities and skills that are layered in the pyramid model have their origins in the three distinct and basic categories of models (Ability model, Mixed models, Trait model). Some more abilities, skills were added to be prioritized according to their contribution to the best stratification of all levels. If we were allowed an approach to the concept of emotional intelligence from our perspective, it would be the followed: "Emotional intelligence is a set of abilities and skills that a person must train and develop gradually and hierarchically to reach emotional selfrealization. It is the response to emotional stimuli, the recognition -expression of emotions, the full awareness and management of our own emotions but also the emotions of others, the social skills for better intrapersonal, interpersonal and working relationships, the empathy and compassion, the accurate discrimination of emotions with the ultimate aim of the emotional development of our potential, self -actualization, transcendence and finally the unity of emotions because humans are part of a united world". The development of emotional intelligence is not a static process, but a continuous effort to evolve to reach higher levels for better balance with ourselves and those around us, better mental and physical health, and more success. In summary, the nine stages of the pyramid of emotional intelligence are the following [27]: Emotional stimuli: The emotional stimuli constitute the base of the pyramid where people can classify each emotional stimulus with accuracy to rapidly assess the emotional situation, to produce emotional changes [28] and connected to conscious awareness, even if it is an early stage [29,30].
Emotion Recognition, Perception-Expression of Emotions: The expression of emotions is a daily [31] and desirable condition for our own emotional state, but also for the emotional state of others. Furthermore, the ability to perceive and recognize emotions, verbally or not verbally, is critical, with research showing that vital information can be inferred from facial expressions [32][33][34].
Self-Awareness: The third level of the model of EI, the self-awareness one, is a holistic approach to ourselves for better development at all levels, social, professional, [35,36] interpersonal, intrapersonal. It is a psychological state in which oneself becomes the focus of attention.
Self-Management: In the level of self-management, the more you learn to manage your emotions and have self-control, the greater your ability will be to articulate them in a productive way [37]. Mischel et al., (2014) refer to emotional self-management as an intrapsychic process and an attempt to inhibit impulsive emotional reactions to achieve future goals [38].
Social-Awareness, Empathy, Discrimination of Emotions: Social awareness refers to the awareness of others' emotions, needs, and concerns [18]. Moreover, with empathy, one can understand the feelings and thoughts of others taking their perspective [39]. Discrimination of emotions is also an ability to discriminate with accuracy and in detail between different emotions, to label them appropriately, to select among various emotionally charged situations for better choices and decisions [40].
Social Skills, Expertise in Emotions: Social skills are a prerequisite for socialization, and individualization, because these skills help gaining more knowledge about ourselves and others, which contributes to better social interactions and to the configuration of self-concept [41] Expertise in emotions could be characterized as the ability to increase sensitivity to emotional parameters and strategically expose one's own emotions and respond to emotions stemming from others [42].
Universality of Emotions, Self-Actualization: Self-Actualization is to realize and achieve your potential capacities [43], and to reach self-fulfillment in the most creative and effective way. Various authors have defined self-actualization as a life-long process [44], a way of living [45] and a challenge [46]. Self-actualization leads to the universality of emotions by understanding the difference of emotions and their meanings in other cultures too even though sometimes emotions are culturally dependent [47].
Transcendence: In the level of Transcendence, one helps others to self-actualize, find self-fulfillment, and realize their potential [48,49]. Stellar et al. (2017) propose a taxonomy of self-transcendent positive emotions which are classified into three broader branches: the emotion of awe and relevant emotions of moral elevation, inspiration, and admiration; compassion and related emotions of sympathy, love, and pity; and gratitude and the related emotion of appreciation [50].
Emotional Unity: Emotional unity is the final level in the pyramid of emotional intelligence. Emotions have an outstanding place in our lives because they influence them, they make changes, they formulate situations [51]. The most important thing is to perceive that we are all interconnected with other people, with the nature and the whole planet. Researchers of emotions are explaining the unity or oneness of emotion [52].

Materials and Methods
In this present study, the Nine Layer Pyramid Model Questionnaire of Emotional Intelligence was constructed to measure emotional intelligence and assess the possession of each level of the pyramid model through self-report. The questionnaire was based on the model of the emotional intelligence pyramid and all the questions are related to the nine levels. It was designed taking account of existing abilities and skills through known models of EI with detailed examination of them (Ability model, Bar-On model, Goleman model, Trait model) and with the addition of some more competencies.
Τhe Nine Layer Pyramid Model Questionnaire of Emotional Intelligence was developed for adults. Specifically, in the research it was granted to teachers of primary and secondary education to detect their overall emotional intelligence, and in which of the nine levels of the pyramid model a bigger or smaller percentage is observed. The educational field was chosen so that there is uniformity in the sample and because it is important for teachers to have emotional intelligence since they are surrounded by pure child souls. Access to the questionnaire was anonymous to encourage honest responses and none of the questions identified the respondents in any way.
Aim of the research: This study aims to quantify the emotional intelligence and investigate its dependency with the demographic characteristics of the participants. The goal was to develop a valid and reliable instrument tapping multidimensional construct of EI.
Research hypotheses: For the inferential part of the analysis, the following six hypotheses were tested: 1. Gender plays an important role in the levels of Emotional Intelligence. 2. Years of experience as a teacher are correlated positively with Emotional Intelligence. 3. Age is correlated positively with Emotional Intelligence. 4. There are no significant differences on Emotional intelligence based on educational level or training in special needs education. 5. There are no significant differences on Emotional intelligence based on the school grade the teachers are responsible for. 6. Special Education Relevance has an important role in the levels of Emotional Intelligence.

Research tool:
The research tool (Nine Layer Pyramid Model Questionnaire of Emotional Intelligence) is consisted of 81 questions measuring different layers of Emotional Intelligence pyramid model. Answers were given on a 5-point Likert scale (1-Totally Disagree, 2-Disagree, 3-Neutral, 4-Agree, 5-Totally Agree) with higher average values representing higher emotional intelligence. The questionnaire was divided in 9 dimensions (9 questions each) each representing an Emotional intelligence layer. Cronbach's Alpha were acceptable for all subscales except for Emotional Recognition where the results were borderline. The Cronbach's Alpha for the 9 subscales is presented below in Table 1. Sample: Sample demographics are presented in Table 2. The sample consists of 520 participants, 129 males (24.8%) and 391 females (75.2%). Most of the respondents were between 45 and 54 years old (43.5%) and between 34 and 44 years old (20.6%). Regarding education most participants had a master's degree (48.3%), followed by those with a Bachelor's degree (47.1%) and a minority with PhD titles (4.6%). Furthermore, participants were mainly elementary school teachers (46.2%). Regarding working experience, 41.3% were working for longer than 20 years in education. A total of 107 (20.6%) participants had degrees which are relevant with special needs education, with most of those degrees being Master's degrees (70.1%).

Statistical methods:
To investigate the six hypotheses of this study, a series of inductive tests were applied to the date. More specifically, for the 1 st , 4 th , 5 th and 6 th hypothesis, the parametric T-tests and one-way ANOVA were conducted. The choice of tests was based on Central limit theorem in regard to the sufficiently large sample size. T-tests were used where the grouping factor was dichotomous and one-way ANOVA when it had 3 or more values. For the 2 nd and 3 rd hypothesis the Pearson's Correlation coefficient test was conducted since age and years of experience were ordinal. The Pearson correlation coefficient measures linear relationships between variables.

Results
Emotional Intelligence Scale: In order to present the emotional intelligence scale, a total of 10 new variables were created by averaging the questions in each dimension. Additionally, a discrete score measuring the entire Emotional Intelligence scale deriving from all 81 questions. Some of the statements were reverse coded where it was appropriate, to create interpretable scores. Table 3 presents the means, standard deviations, as well as the Cronbach's Alpha for each dimension. The highest scores on average were reported for Universality of Emotions (M = 4.34), while the lowest were reported for Self-Management (M = 3.55). There were no missing data as the structure of the questionnaire did not allow submission without full completion. It was subsequently tested whether the first and second highest scores for each group of school grade were similar. For teachers of kindergarten Universality of emotions and Social-Awareness were the 2 highest dimensions, while for elementary teachers as well as teachers of secondary education, Universality of emotions and Emotional Unity were the two highest layers of EI.
Continuing, a factor analysis using varimax rotation was conducted, to extract the factor loadings of the questionnaire. The loadings of each variable are presented below in Table 11.  Completing the research, to ensure the reliability of the questionnaire measuring the emotional intelligence, an iterative algorithm was used. This algorithm, through a random sampling process, collected 1000 different subsamples from the initial dataset (520 participants), consisted of 100 participants each. Next, for every case the Cronbach's Alpha was calculated for the 9 subscales and the whole emotional intelligence scale. The results were remarkable considering that Cronbach's Alpha as an indicator is overly sensitive to the sample's size. The Table 10 below shows the minimum and maximum value of the Cronbach's index from the 1000 repetitions, while also through the means and standard deviations of the reliability values it seems that in total, the 1000 samples also had similarly high reliability as the initial sample. The consistency between each subsample's reliability can be presented as a strong indicator that the studied questionnaire measures emotional intelligence accurately and reliably.

Discussion and Conclusion
This study aimed to quantify the emotional intelligence and investigate its dependency with the demographic characteristics of the participants. The sample consists of 520 participants, most of them females. The majority of respondents were between 45 and 54 years old and regarding education, most of the participants had a master's degree. Furthermore, participants were mainly elementary school teachers working for longer than 20 years in education, with Master's degrees relevant to special needs education.
The inductive statistics revealed significant effect of gender upon Emotional Stimuli, Emotion Recognition, Universality of Emotions, Transcendence, and the total Emotional Intelligence, in which female teachers always reported higher scores compared to males.
Age had Significant correlations with Self-Awareness, Self-Management, and the total Emotional Intelligence, indicating that as age increases, so does Emotional intelligence. Furthermore, the years of teaching experience had significant correlations with Self-Awareness and Self-Management, indicating that more experience teachers tend to have higher Emotional intelligence.
As for differences on EI between teachers with special needs degree relevance, and those without, 4 significant results were revealed. More specifically, Special needs degree relevance affects significantly Emotional Stimuli, Emotion Recognition, Self-Awareness, and the total Emotional Intelligence. In all cases, teachers with training in Special needs education reported higher EI scores.
Additionally, the tests between Emotional Intelligence among the different educational levels of teachers, revealed 7 significant differences. There was a significant effect of Educational level upon Emotional Stimuli, Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Skills, Transcendence, Emotional Unity, and total Emotional Intelligence. For all significant results, participants with PhD reported the highest Emotional intelligence levels, followed by those with a Master's Degree and lastly those with a Bachelor's degree that had the lowest scores, indicating that EI is higher in people with higher educational levels.
Investigating the differences on Emotional Intelligence between the different school grades the teachers are responsible for, it was revealed that only Emotion Recognition was affected. More specifically, Kindergarten teachers appear to have a higher score of Emotional Recognition, followed by the elementary teachers, while the secondary teachers had the lowest score.
Continuing, a significant effect of Special Education Relevance upon Emotional Stimuli, Emotion Recognition, Self-Awareness, and the totality of Emotional Intelligence was revealed, with teachers with a special education relevance having a higher score.
Additionally, the 9 scales of emotional intelligence were positively correlated with each other, concluding that as one of the scales increased, so do all the others, with the most intense dependency, being between universality and transcendence.
Completing the research, to ensure the reliability of the questionnaire measuring the emotional intelligence, an iterative algorithm was used. This algorithm, through a random sampling process, collected 1000 different subsamples from the initial dataset (521 participants), consisted of 100 participants each. Next, for every case the Cronbach's Alpha was calculated for the 9 subscales and the whole emotional intelligence scale. The consistency between each subsample's reliability can be presented as a strong indicator that the studied questionnaire measures emotional intelligence accurately and reliably.
It was observed that the group of teachers possesses better some levels of emotional intelligence of the pyramid compared to some other levels which possesses them, but to a lesser extent. Overall, their level of emotional intelligence is quite good. Based on these results, various strategies can be made to develop and to improve the levels where the amount of possession is lower. Also, the demographic factors we set, seem to affect the dimensions of emotional intelligence but not all of them. The purpose of the construction of the emotional intelligence pyramid is to show the hierarchical levels of which it is composed. The purpose of the Nine Layer Pyramid Model Questionnaire for Emotional Intelligence is to measure emotional intelligence and to examine how well each person holds each level. The results can show the lowest acquisitions to intervene to increase the specific abilities / skills.
Although it is difficult to provide all the psychometric evidence for a new measure in one study, the results of the present research are encouraging. A remarkable attempt was made for the items of the questionnaire to choose the right words carefully after many changes to convey the desired meaning precisely and for the questionnaire to be readable. The research activity should be continued with multiple studies with different and larger samples and a variety of theoretically relevant criteria. Something else that should be taken seriously in the results through self-reports is the tendency sometimes of the participants to give socially desirable responses, to agree with statements, even have a false insight about their social and emotional skill in depth and not be quite objective and accurate in assessing those skills [53,54]. In the specific measurement some of the measurements showed that teachers possess more some levels of emotional intelligence pyramid model that are high in the hierarchy and less some others that are lower in the pyramid. The specific result as well as the objectivity of the answers on the part of the respondents, should be examined in future measurements.
The Nine Layer Pyramid Model Questionnaire for Emotional Intelligence can be used to evaluate the EI and monitor the development of the nine levels of the pyramid. Moreover, prospective studies whose purpose is to test its reliability and validity on bigger and diverse samples can be carried out and investigate correlation between the EI and other variables, to reveal EI's impacts on them. The Nine Layer Pyramid Model Questionnaire for Emotional Intelligence has been developed as an alternative measure of emotional intelligence of adults to use for scientific and practical purposes in many sectors.