Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale scores as predictors of interactive behavior: A validation study.

Emotional awareness is a fundamental emotional ability that has been associated with increased social adaptation, social functioning, and health. Lane and Schwartz (1987) conceptualized the Levels of Emotional Awareness (LEA) model which postulated emotional awareness as a cognitive ability that undergoes five different developmental levels of structural alteration. In order to measure differences in emotional awareness, Lane and Schwartz (1992) subsequently developed the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS). The present study attempted to validate this scale by demonstrating correspondence between emotional awareness and emotional components of social interactive behavior. Based on the literature depicting associations between emotional awareness and explicit behavior in social contexts it was hypothesized that individuals scoring higher on the LEAS would receive higher ratings on such behavioral dimensions during social interaction. It was also hypothesized that females would receive higher ratings than males on the behavioral dimensions being measured as females have previously been found to score higher than males on the LEAS. Eleven psychology graduate students rated the social interactive behaviors of video encoders participating in social interactive tasks. Video encoders with higher LEAS scores received higher ratings on the behavioral dimensions of social deftness and impulse control. The female video encoders however did not receive higher ratings than males on behaviors correlated with emotional awareness which was contrary to previous research findings. The results confirm that level of emotional awareness does correspond to emotional behavior in interpersonal interaction. This confirmation adds increased validity to the LEAS as an emotion assessment tool.--P.ii.