Abstract
The quiet ego refers to a self-identity that is balanced and growth-oriented in its stance toward the self and others. As a relatively new construct, its validity has been examined in domains related to balance, compassion, and self-control, it has not been examined in other domains that appear to have conceptual overlap such as emotional intelligence (EI), a construct entailing both ability EI (construed as cognitive ability) and trait EI (construed as self-perception). This pre-registered study (N = 300) first examined the quiet ego’s construct validity in the domain of EI using a confirmatory factor analysis approach, and then investigated its associations with subjective well-being and psychological stress from the angle of EI using path models. Results showed that the quiet ego was positively associated with both ability and trait EI, thereby establishing its validity in this domain. Mediation analyses revealed trait EI mediated the relationship between the quiet ego and increased subjective well-being and decreased stress. Serial mediation analyses further revealed that the link between the quiet ego and trait EI was mediated by mindfulness such that the quiet ego transmitted its effects to subjective well-being and stress first via mindfulness and then trait EI. In contrast, there was no evidence that ability EI mediated the relationship between the quiet ego and subjective well-being or stress.
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Notes
We examined the quiet ego’s correlations with the other variables after removing the 3 mindfulness items from the scale (items 2, 6, 10). The reduced quiet ego scale had very similar correlations with the other variables including mindfulness, suggesting the quiet ego’s relationship with mindfulness was not solely driven by the original mindfulness items, but rather that it relates to mindfulness as a whole. The correlation table can be found in the supplemental material.
For example, Schutte and Malouff (2011) found that trait EI mediated the relationship between mindfulness and life satisfaction such that mindfulness had a positive influence on life satisfaction via its positive association with trait EI. In Bao et al.’s (2015) investigation of the relationships between mindfulness, trait EI, and perceived stress, mindfulness was negatively associated with perceived stress. This association was mediated by trait EI such that higher levels of mindfulness were associated with higher levels of trait EI, which ultimately resulted in lower levels of perceived stress.
The attention check asked participants to select a number from four number options.
We used McDonald’s omega instead of Cronbach’s alpha as it’s a more accurate reliability index (Dunn et al 2014; Hayes and Coutts 2020). We used the MBESS package in R to compute omega (Kelley 2007). For multidimensional scales, we first computed omega for each subscale and then averaged them to yield the omega for the construct.
We did not treat subjective well-being (SWB) as one latent variable because its structural conceptualization is not clear with respect to how life satisfaction, positive, and negative affect constitute or combine to generate the theoretical construct SWB (Busseri 2015).
Error correlations for the ability EI model.
1
2
3
4
1. Life satisfaction
–
2. Positive affect
.43***
–
3. Negative affect
− .42***
.00ns
–
4. Stress
− .58***
− .42***
.76***
–
Completely standardized direct effect: c′cs = SDX (c′)/SDY, It expresses direct effects in terms of the difference in standard deviations in the dependent variable (Y) between two cases that differ by one standard deviation in the independent variable (X) (Hayes 2018).
Error correlations for the trait EI model.
1
2
3
4
1. Life satisfaction
–
2. Positive affect
.18*
–
3. Negative affect
− .11ns
.39***
–
4. Stress
− .23*
− .07 ns
.63***
–
Completely standardized indirect effect: abcs = SDX (ab)/SDY. It expresses indirect effects in terms of the difference in standard deviations in the dependent variable (Y) between two cases that differ by one standard deviation in the independent variable (X) (Hayes 2018).
We probed the suppression effects with regard to negative affect and stress by conducting indirect effects analyses with each of the four quiet ego components as exogenous variable. Results are presented in detail in the article’s supplemental materials.
Error correlations for the serial indirect effects model.
1
2
3
4
1. Life satisfaction
–
2. Positive affect
.14ns
–
3. Negative affect
− .17ns
.37***
–
4. Stress
− .26*
− .08ns
.61***
–
Completely standardized effect of serial indirect effects: adb cs = SDX (adb)/SDY (Hayes 2018).
We again probed the suppression effects by conducting serial indirect effects analyses with each of the four quiet ego components as exogenous variable. Detailed results are presented in the article’s supplemental materials.
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Liu, G., Isbell, L.M. & Leidner, B. Quiet Ego and Subjective Well-Being: The Role of Emotional Intelligence and Mindfulness. J Happiness Stud 22, 2599–2619 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-020-00331-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-020-00331-8