| Several selection criteria have traditionally been examined in the admissions process for graduate study in psychology, including Graduate Record Examination General and Advanced Psychology test scores (GRE-G and GRE-Adv, respectively), undergraduate grade point average (UGPA), letters of recommendation, personal statements, admissions interviews, and extent of applicant's previous research experience (American Psychological Association, 2005). Although these factors have been demonstrated to predict some academic outcome criteria of importance (e.g., GPA in graduate students' first year), their ability to predict psychologists' clinical competence appears to be limited (Sternberg & Williams, 1997). One factor that may add predictive power to the graduate admissions process in applied psychology programs is emotional intelligence (EI). This construct has been defined as the ability to perceive emotions in others, use emotions to facilitate thought, understand emotions, and manage emotions (Mayer, Salovey, Caruso, & Sitarenios, 2001). In particular, emotion perception (EP) is hypothesized to be a relevant predictor of clinical competence.; The predictive utility of academic indices as well as EI and EP were investigated by assessing clinical competence and academic performance for subsets of 89 graduate students in school and school/clinical psychology programs in three northeastern universities. School psychologists' clinical competence was assessed via supervisor and peer ratings of proficiency in three broad skill domains considered essential in school psychology (i.e., psychoeducational assessment, therapy/counseling, and consultation; Fagan & Wise, 2000). Emotional Intelligence was measured using the Mayer Salovey Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). Emotion Perception was measured via the perceiving emotions branch of the MSCEIT and the faces and paralanguage subtests of the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy, Second Edition (DANVA 2).; Ultimately, neither EI nor EP provided a statistically significant prediction of supervisor or peer ratings of school psychologists' clinical competence when compared with more traditional predictors (i.e., UGPA and GRE scores). However, these factors demonstrated significant relationships with graduate GPA and performance on a comprehensive examination. The traditionally examined predictors (i.e., UGPA, GRE-G, and GRE-Adv) also failed to account for a statistically significant amount of variance in clinical competence, but they were predictive of graduate GPA and performance on a comprehensive examination. |
