MHS

Below is my page on MHS, the company that got my site shut down for two days. Below I explain this more.

MHS is the company which is promoting and selling both Reuven Bar-On's product, the BarOn EQi, and the Mayer Salovey Caruso product, the MSCEIT. Both are promoted as tests of emotional intelligence. I believe MHS, and the company president, Steven Stein, are deliberately misleading people by calling these products tests of emotional intelligence.

This page is under construction but I wanted to post something since I don't know when I will have it finished. The more I find out about MHS, Stein and their relationship with Reuven Bar-On, the more strongly I feel obligated to tell people what has been going on and how they have been misleading people for years.

Here is what the first page of the “technical manual” for the test looks like:

From this page it is clear that MHS started calling the Bar-On test a "measure of emotional intelligence" as early as 1997. They got away with this for several years and now people all around the world are still calling the Bar-On test a test of emotional intelligence. Yet MHS is being a lot more careful in how they promote it now. To me they are just plain being sneaky now and they are still misleading people, just less blatantly.

Here is one example of how they are more carefully wording their marketing material now. On of their websites, emotionalintelligencemhs.com, they say that Bar-On's EQi test is:

"the premier scientific measure of self-report social emotional intelligence"

First, notice how they say "social emotional intelligence". They don't actually just say "emotional intelligence" as they did in 1997. But what is "social emotional" intelligence? Well, my answer to this question is: Who knows!?! The academic people can't even agree on what emotional intelligence is. And there is even less agreement on what "social intelligence" might be.

Second, notice also that MHS slips in the term "self-report". But what does "self-report" mean?

I expect that a lot of people don't know what MHS is talking about when they say "self report" and even if they do, they don't think about it much or worry about it. But is it fair to call something a test of any kind of intelligence when we are just asking people what they think about themselves?

Third, calling it "premier" is nothing but a marketing term. What do they really mean by "premier"? Do they mean it is the first? Do they mean it is the best? If they mean it is the first, then so what? Who cares if it is the first but it is no good? And likewise, if they are trying to claim it is the "best", who is to say what is really best? And it what way is it the best? Are we to believe the marketing people at MHS? Do they deserve credibility? I say no.

Fourth, calling it "scientific" is simply to make it sound more credible. Again this is nothing but marketing hype to me.

For MHS to say the BarOn EQi is a test of "social emotional intelligence" is, to me, a direct attempt to mislead people into thinking it is a test of emotional intelligence.

Something else to think about: How does MHS define social emotional intelligence? In other words, what exactly do they think they are measuring? And who agrees with their definition besides the people making money from their test?

Here is something else I found once on the MHS website on a page promoting the MSCEIT test. (Remember that MHS also markets the MSCEIT.)

In this section of their propaganda the marketing people at MHS didn't mention that the Bar-On test is a self-report test and therefore makes it easy for "respondents to 'fake' a good performance". But obviously the people at MHS are well aware of this. Yet this doesn't stop them from selling the Bar-On test and making a lot of money from it. If I recall, I read somewhere that over a million copies of the test have now been sold. If we estimate that MHS and Bar-On both make at least one dollar per test it means that Bar-On is a millionaire now and MHS, which probably makes more than Bar-On on each test if they are like most marketing companies, is doing pretty well.

At any rate, MHS saying things like the EQi is the "premier scientific measure of self-report social emotional intelligence" has led to the test being promoted all over the Internet as a test of emotional intelligence.

This is not the same thing as a test of emotional intelligence, and Reuven Bar-On and Steven Stein, the President of MHS, must surely know this.

See more discussion of the BarOn EQi test and the decision to call it a test of emotional intelligence.

I believe the first EQi tests marketed by MHS, and the first technical manual which goes with the EQi, were published in 1997. If this is true, then from the cover of the manual we see that beginning in that year Bar-On and Steven Stein, the president of Multi-Health Systems (MHS), claimed very directly that the BarOn EQi is a “measure of emotional intelligence.” The 1997 date is important because Goleman’s first book came out in 1995 and it was after this, according to Stein himself, that Stein and Bar-On met. (note)

Prior to that, it would appear that BarOn had been using an earlier version of his "EQi" test in his job as a psychologist with the Israeli military, a position he held for about 10 years, according to what BarOn says in his technical manual. But back then it seems he was calling his test a test of "well being."

Here is some of the evidence which supports that idea. In the EQi technical manual there is a quote by someone named Daniel Gomez Dupertois, who was then a psychology professor in South America. The quote is supposed to be a testimonial for the EQi "emotional intelligence" test. But in the quote Dupertois calls Bar-On's test a test of "well-being". He never refers to it as a test of emotional intelligence. I assume this is either because he made the statement before he found out that Stein and Bar-On planned to market the test as a test of EI or because he has some integrity and didn't feel right about calling Bar-On's test a test of emotional intelligence.

From this and the fact that I can find no evidence that BarOn was calling his test a test of emotional intelligence prior to 1997, it would appear that it was after Goleman's book became popular in 1995 that Stein and BarOn came up with the idea of re-naming Reuven's test and calling it a test of "emotional intelligence" and then marketing it around the world as such.

As I understand it, BarOn started to develop a psychology "well being" test in his graduate work in Rhodes University in South Africa in the 80's. (See the Reuven page for more history) It seems he kept working on the test during his time with the Israeli military until he had developed it to the point it would help predict which soldiers were cabable of handling the stress and pain of war, fighting and killing and which ones would make good leaders in the military. This is the basis of his test which he and MHS now call a test of emotional intelligence.

While in Peru I had a chance to see copies, in English, of the BarOn EQi technical manual and Stein's book, "The EQ Edge". Here are a few notes from that day. That was in July, 2006.

Notes from my first look at the EQi technical manual and "The EQ Edge"

Besides seeing Reuven’s manual I also had a chance to read some of Steven Stein’s book that he co-wrote with someone else. The book is called “The EQ Edge.” I learned a little more about Stein from the first few pages of that book. I learned, for example, who some of his friends are and what kind of people he spends time with.

His book starts with pages that are numbered with Roman numerals. On pages ix and x he thanks some of friends who helped him collect data on the BarOn test. First, he thanks some people in the US military. Then he thanks Larry Tennenebaum, who is “co-owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs”. In case you don’t know, the Toronto Maple Leafs is a hockey team. And in case you don’t know, hockey is one of the most violent games in sports. And I think it goes without saying that people in the military are involved in the most deadly types of competition known to the human species. But let me show you a direct quote from Stein’s book. This is what he says on page x

We were pleasantly surprised at how open these hockey professionals were to the importance of emotional intelligence in the development of their young hockey players.

I could be wrong, but I am guessing that Stein has a lot of friends in the military in both the USA and Canada. And I am guessing that he also has friends in the Israeli military. I learned from my reading that day that Bar-On was in the Israeli military for something like 11 years, serving as a psychologist, according to Bar-On. And I learned that Stein and Bar-On met at some dinner conference in Israel in around 1995 or 1996. Stein did not tell us the exact date. I suspect this is because he doesn’t want people like me to figure out even more about how he and Bar-On took advantage of the popularity of Goleman’s book and rushed out a test which they called a “measure of emotional intelligence” and made a lot of money from. I also found out that the BarOn EQi costs 25 dollars per test. And I found out that if you want to use it for research you have to buy a minimum of 50 at a price of 5 dollars each. So if my math is correct, that is 250 dollars. That is a lot of money in a lot of countries for a lot of psychology students.

I will speculate some more about Stein. I will guess that he likes to go to hockey games. And I will guess that he probably sits in the VIP boxes with the Larry Tannebaum. And I will guess that both Stein and Tannebaum are Jewish. And I am sure that Bar-On is Jewish because Stein even says that Bar-On is an “American born Israeli” in his EQ Edge book. (I am not sure how you can be an “American-born Israeli”, but I will take Stein’s word for it.)

Now I am afraid you will think that I am some kind of racist and I don’t like anyone who was born into the Jewish culture since I have mentioned that Bar-On, Stein and Tannebaum are (or probably are) Jewish. But Jack Mayer, who I have a great deal of respect for, is also Jewish and this doesn’t really bother me. I would not discredit someone’s work just because they are Jewish. But Israel's track record of peacefully resolving conflicts leaves something to be desired and the reputation Jewish businessmen have is know around the world, so these are not just my own opinions.

The reason I point out all these things on my site is because I want people to be a bit more informed and to think carefully before supporting or purchasing the products of BarOn and MHS. And I want people to think about what is really important to these people.

Is truth important, for example? Is peace important? Is non-violence important? Are people’s feelings important?

Or are money, military power and winning wars and hockey games important?

Here is what one psychology professor from the University of Toronto, Eyal Reingold, says about Reuven's test. He says it quite well when he says that:

Notice that he says that Reuven believes his test measures these things. But he doesn't say that anyone else believes it! And to be fair, we can't even be sure that Reuven believes it. He could just be telling us this to make money and a name for himself. And in this sense we can probably call him successful since almost no one had heard of him before he started claiming he came up with the term EQ and that his test was a test of emotional intelligence, then somehow convinced MHS to market it as such, or maybe Steven Stein had the idea. We will never know just how the two came up with their plan to market Reuven's test as a test of EI.

Anyhow, I want to remind people of the difference between a personality trait and an intelligence, even though I can't explain it very well myself right now! But the psychologists seem to agree that optimism is one example of a personality trait.

As Robert McCrae, a respected academic, says "One can be optimistic simply because one has a cheerful disposition (which requires no intelligence of any kind)..." (Reference)

www.mhs.com

MHS Inc.
908 Niagara Falls Blvd.
North Tonawanda, NY
14120-2060

TEL: 1-800-456-3003
FAX: (416) 492-3343 or (888) 540-4484

E-mail: customerservice@mhs.com

I don't have much time to write now, so for now I will just copy what I posted on my personal site. This will help you understand what happened.

I just did a few google searches. I didn't find much when I typed in MHS, so I tried mhs, steven stein and found my page criticizing MHS and Stein is number one.

Who knows what Stein's motivations are. All I can tell you is that he never contacted me before he went to my hosting service. I will probably try to write him but I don't expect an answer. If he happens to read this in the meantime, I invite him to write to me. But I might add that if he wants to write to me he should do it while my site is active, because while it is suspended I can't get to my mail. I resent him for that. I could be sarcastic and say "So thanks for that." But I will be emotionally honest and say I resent it. I feel offended by what he is doing with his company, with his money and with how he treated me.

Of course there is also the obvious motivation that he didn't like my criticism of the MSCEIT and the BarOn tests. I suppose I am costing Stein some money. Sorry about that, Steven. But my suggestion is to call the tests something else, not tests of emotional intelligence. Be a little more honest in other words. Or try to market some other products that are more helpful to people. I know this isn't always the quickest way to make money, but if you'd like me to stop criticizing you, then those are my suggestions.

Also checked MHS Inc., the name Stein uses in the USA. My page on MHS was number 19 today.

I had to laugh when I saw MHS telling people to "Ask about our Star Performer Program". I guess they liked the term "Star Performer", which Dan Goleman used so many times. They liked it so much they decided to try to make some money from it.

I would copy a bit from the link but I am afraid Stein will try to shut my site down again. Next time you don't like something, Steve, please write to me and threaten me a bit at least before you shut down my site. I won't feel so resentful then. I'd have more respect for you though if you wrote to me and explained why you believe the products you market deserve to be called tests of emotional intelligence. And if you told me why you disagree with my criticism of they MSCEIT, if you do, of course. Maybe you don't disagree with it and that is what scares you so much that you didn't want people to see copies of the questions.

Oh, and for another laugh, look at the bottom left hand corner of the page. It has little graphic that says "ROE Return on Emotions.".

If this isn't a blatant enough example of how people like Stein, BarOn and Goleman are trying to profit from the term emotional intelligence, I'm not sure what is! Just in case you don't get the joke, the business people are always talking about ROI, Return on Investment. It's a very old accounting and finance term. I was a business major.

I just looked at a page on the MHS site. To order a catalogue you have to fill out a long form.

First, you have to give them an organization name to get the catalogue! Even worse, you have to give them a title! lol

Then they ask for "county" two times. I am pretty sure one of them should be "country". But why would they need your county?! Some countries don't even use this term. In fact, I'd say most don't. It is a page from their UK site, but still... is all of that really necessary just to get a catalogue!

In 1997 Daniel Gomez Dupertuis was a psychology professor at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Bar-On or Stein or someone got him to write a testimonial for the EQi technical manual. Here is part of what Gomez Dupertuis said:

Notice that Gomez Dupertuis talks about “psychological well-being” not emotional intelligence. I would guess that Bar-On wanted him to say “emotional intelligence” but Gomez Dupertuis’ conscience would not allow him to lie and say that Bar-On was working on a test of emotional intelligence when the two met. So if Bar-On was calling his test a measure of “psychological well-being” in 1991, then when did he decide to start calling it a measure of “emotional intelligence”? I would guess that he decided to do this somewhere between 1995 and 1996, after he saw how popular Goleman’s book was. More specifically I would guess that he and Stein came up with the idea together.

Unfortunately I don't have the specific citation, but I read this in the technical manual or in Stein's own book, "The EQ Edge." I reviewed them both on the same day and had hoped to have a chance to spend more time on them, but as yet have not had the chance since I am now living in Argentina and I saw the books while in Peru. If anyone can let me know in which one it is, I would appreciate them writing me. Steve