ABSTRACT
This book is mainly a collection of research studies on emotional intelligence that I and my colleagues have conducted in the past. In conducting the research projects, we followed the scientifi c standards in our research area – organizational behavior and human resource management. To facilitate the reading of the research papers, some understanding of the scientifi c approach and related methods is necessary. I am not trying to make this chapter a comprehensive introduction to the scientifi c approach and methods in this area. In fact, it is out of the scope of one chapter, and some ideas introduced in this chapter may still be debatable among scientists. What I want to introduce are some basic concepts in science and quantitative research that are used and reported in the papers. I will present some of my understandings of science and the scientifi c method that have been very useful to me. I regard these understandings as basic, and whenever I have doubts, I can go back to the basics and make sure that I am on the right track in conducting the studies. I believe they should have some reference value for people who do not need to conduct scientifi c research projects as well.
