The understanding and self-reported use of emotional display rules in children with autism spectrum disorders

Two studies examined the understanding and self-reported use of rules for the expressive display of emotions in children with high functioning autism spectrum disorders (HFASD) and in typically developing children. In Study 1, children from the two groups reported display rules equally often when presented with hypothetical situations that provided clear motives for using display rules, although emotion-masking displays were more commonly identified for vignettes with prosocial rather than self-protective motives. In Study 2, children were interviewed about display rule use in real life. Children with HFASD reported display rules less often, included more prototypical examples, and referred less often to prosocial motives than typically developing children. Children with HFASD appear to be aware of display rules, but are less adept at identifying the interpersonal functions of such rules than their typically developing peers.     

Emotional intelligence: A meta-analytic investigation of predictive validity and nomological net

This study used meta-analytic techniques to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and performance outcomes. A total of 69 independent studies were located that reported correlations between EI and performance or other variables such as general mental ability (GMA) and the Big Five factors of personality. Results indicated that, across criteria, EI had an operational validity of .23 (k=59, N=9522). Various moderating influences such as the EI measure used, dimensions of EI, scoring method and criterion were evaluated. EI correlated .22 with general mental ability (k=19, N=4158) and .23 (Agreeableness and Openness to Experience; k=14, N=3306) to .34 (Extraversion; k=19, N=3718) with the Big Five factors of personality. Results of various subgroup analyses are presented and implications and future directions are provided.     

Emotional reactivity and regulation in preschool-age children who stutter

Purpose.

This study experimentally investigated behavioral correlates of emotional reactivity and emotion regulation and their relation to speech (dis)fluency in preschool-age children who do (CWS) and do not (CWNS) stutter during emotion-eliciting conditions.

Method.

Participants (18 CWS, 14 boys; 18 CWNS, 14 boys) completed two experimental tasks (1) a neutral (“apples and leaves in a transparent box,” ALTB) and (2) a frustrating (“attractive toy in a transparent box,” ATTB) task, both of which were followed by a narrative task. Dependent measures were emotional reactivity (positive affect, negative affect), emotion regulation (self-speech, distraction) exhibited during the ALTB and the ATTB tasks, percentage of stuttered disfluencies (SDs) and percentage of non-stuttered disfluencies (NSDs) produced during the narratives.

Results.

Results indicated that preschool-age CWS exhibited significantly more negative emotion and more self-speech than preschool-age CWNS. For CWS only, emotion regulation behaviors (i.e., distraction, self-speech) during the experimental tasks were predictive of stuttered disfluencies during the subsequent narrative tasks. Furthermore, for CWS there was no relation between emotional processes and non-stuttered disfluencies, but CWNS's negative affect was significantly related to nonstuttered disfluencies.

Conclusions.

In general, present findings support the notion that emotional processes are associated with childhood stuttering. Specifically, findings are consistent with the notion that preschool-age CWS are more emotionally reactive than CWNS and that their self-speech regulatory attempts may be less than effective in modulating their emotions.Educational objectives. The reader will be able to: (a) communicate the relevance of studying the role of emotion in developmental stuttering close to the onset of stuttering and (b) describe the main findings of the present study in relation to previous studies that have used different methodologies to investigate the role of emotion in developmental stuttering of young children who stutter.     

Over‐imitation in children with autism and Down syndrome

Typically developing children have been shown to imitate the specific means used by an adult to achieve an object‐directed outcome, even if a more efficient method is available. It has been argued that this behaviour can be attributed to social and communicative motivations. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), relative to children with Down syndrome (DS), show a reduced tendency to copy the exact means used by an adult to produce a novel outcome. To achieve this a sample of 34 children (22 with ASD and 12 with DS) were given a test of object‐directed imitation. Contrary to expectation, children in both groups imitated the specific method of the model to the same high extent. This finding is in line with suggestions that object‐directed imitation is relatively spared in children with autism but is surprising given arguments linking such imitation to socially based motivations. Nevertheless, children's ability to successfully copy the model was associated with their communicative ability, providing some support for the link between imitation and communication.     

Early processing of emotional faces in children with autism: An event-related potential study

Social deficits are one of the most striking manifestations of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Among these social deficits, the recognition and understanding of emotional facial expressions has been widely reported to be affected in ASDs. We investigated emotional face processing in children with and without autism using event-related potentials (ERPs). High-functioning children with autism (n = 15, mean age = 10.5 ± 3.3 years) completed an implicit emotional task while visual ERPs were recorded. Two groups of typically developing children (chronological age-matched and verbal equivalent age-matched [both ns = 15, mean age = 7.7 ± 3.8 years]) also participated in this study. The early ERP responses to faces (P1 and N170) were delayed, and the P1 was smaller in children with autism than in typically developing children of the same chronological age, revealing that the first stages of emotional face processing are affected in autism. However, when matched by verbal equivalent age, only P1 amplitude remained affected in autism. Our results suggest that the emotional and facial processing difficulties in autism could start from atypicalities in visual perceptual processes involving rapid feedback to primary visual areas and subsequent holistic processing.     

Emotional reactivity and cognitive regulation in anxious children

Recent models of anxiety disorders emphasize abnormalities in emotional reactivity and regulation. However, the empirical basis for this view is limited, particularly in children and adolescents. The present study examined whether anxious children suffer both negative emotional hyper-reactivity and deficits in cognitive emotion regulation. Participants were 49 children aged 10-17 with generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety, or separation anxiety disorder as their primary diagnosis, as well as 42 age- and gender-matched non-anxious controls. After completing a diagnostic interview and self-report questionnaires, participants were presented with pictures of threatening scenes with the instructions either to simply view them or to use reappraisal, a cognitive emotion regulation strategy, to decrease their negative emotional response. Emotion ratings, content analysis of reappraisal responses, and reports of everyday use of reappraisal were used to assess negative emotional reactivity, reappraisal ability, efficacy and frequency. Relative to controls, children with anxiety disorders (1) experienced greater negative emotional responses to the images, (2) were less successful at applying reappraisals, but (3) showed intact ability to reduce their negative emotions following reappraisal. They also (4) reported less frequent use of reappraisal in everyday life. Implications for the assessment and treatment of childhood anxiety disorders are discussed.     

Methods and measures in developmental emotions research: some assembly required

The remarkable contributors to this special issue highlight the importance of developmental research on emotion and its regulation, as well as its conceptual and methodological challenges. This commentary offers some additional thoughts, especially concerning alternative views of the convergence of multiple measures of emotional responding, the conceptualization of emotion and emotion regulation, and future directions for work in this field. In the end, in light of the complex construction of emotion and its development, we may learn from studying the divergence among multiple components of emotional responding as we do from expectations of their convergence. In each case, some assembly is required.     

Attention to low- and high-spatial frequencies in categorizing facial identities, emotions and gender in children with autism

This study was aimed at investigating face categorization strategies in children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD). Performance of 17 children with ASD was compared to that of 17 control children in a face-matching task, including hybrid faces (composed of two overlapping faces of different spatial bandwidths) and either low- or high-pass filtered faces. Participants were asked to match faces on the basis of identity, emotion or gender. Results revealed that children with ASD used the same strategies as controls when matching faces by gender. By contrast, in the identity and the emotion conditions, children with ASD showed a high-pass bias (i.e., preference for local information), contrary to controls. Consistent with previous studies on autism, these findings suggest that children with ASD do use atypical (local-oriented) strategies to process faces.     

Emotional Intelligence and resilience in mental health professionals caring for patients with serious mental illness

Emotional Intelligence (EI) and resilience may be considered as prerequisites for mental health professionals caring for patients with serious mental illness (SMI), since they are often exposed to severe emotional stress during daily work. Accordingly, this cross-sectional study assessed both EI and resilience and their interrelationship in 61 individuals belonging to an assertive outreach team for patients suffering from SMI compared 61 control subjects without healthcare-related working conditions. EI was assessed by means of the German version of the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso-Emotional-Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), resilience was assessed using the German version of the Resilience Scale. Both groups showed an average level of EI in all categories of the MSCEIT and indicated high levels of resilience. They did not differ significantly from each other, neither in terms of EI nor resilience. Correlation analysis revealed a positive association between EI and resilience, albeit small in magnitude. Our results suggest that mental health professionals are not more resilient and therefore not more ‘protected’ from stressors than the general population. Though this finding warrants cautious interpretation, the positive correlation between EI and resilience suggests that EI may be a potential target for education and training in order to strengthen resilience even in healthy individuals and vice versa.     

Emotional expression and vocabulary learning in adults and children

A great deal of what we know about the world has not been learned via first-hand observation but thanks to others' testimony. A crucial issue is to know which kind of cues people use to evaluate information provided by others. In this context, recent studies in adults and children underline that informants' facial expressions could play an essential role. To test the importance of the other's emotions in vocabulary learning, we used two avatars expressing happiness, anger or neutral emotions when proposing different verbal labels for an unknown object. Experiment 1 revealed that adult participants were significantly more likely than chance to choose the label suggested by the avatar displaying a happy face over the label suggested by the avatar displaying an angry face. Experiment 2 extended these results by showing that both adults and children as young as 3 years old showed this effect. These data suggest that decision making concerning newly acquired information depends on informant's expressions of emotions, a finding that is consistent with the idea that behavioural intents have facial signatures that can be used to detect another's intention to cooperate.     

Emotional Intelligence of Foreign and Local University Students in Singapore: Implications for Managers

Does intelligence alone explain our achievement at work or in life? Contrary to our belief that academic achievement matters very much in the success we have in working life, Chen et al. (1998) has shown that close to 90% of success in leadership positions is attributable to Emotional Intelligence (EI). Considering that EI can be a potential determinant of our achievement in working life, this study aims to determine if there is any significant difference in the EI of local and foreign undergraduates studying in universities in Singapore. The “Emotional IQ Test” was administered to 100 undergraduates from various fields of studies from the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University, of which 31 had foreign education background. This study showed that foreign undergraduates have a higher EI score than those with local education background. In addition, by examining the relationships between variables such as age, gender, year of study and EI, it was found that males have higher EI scores than that of females. The implication for managers is that staff should be evaluated on their own merits such as their EI rather than on academic results.     

EQ-nomics: Understanding the relationship between individual differences in Trait Emotional Intelligence and entrepreneurship

Past studies highlight the importance of Trait Emotional Intelligence (EI) in the prediction of career success. Given the evidence that trait EI predicts job performance and job satisfaction, it is reasonable to expect this construct to also predict other forms of career success. In this study, we examine whether EI predicts entrepreneurship; that is, whether higher trait EI is linked to entrepreneurial behaviours and entrepreneurial success, and whether any effects of trait EI on entrepreneurship are independent of the personality trait of Core Self-Evaluations, demographic variables, and individual differences in entrepreneurial personality. Results show that trait EI predicts only some entrepreneurial outcomes beyond other variables examined, and with small effect sizes. This suggests that individual differences in entrepreneurship result only in part from inter-personal differences in trait EI. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

PEAK关系训练系统：孤独症语言障碍康复的新方法

PEAK (Promoting the Emergence of Advanced Knowledge, 促进高阶知识涌现)关系训练系统是全球首个同时整合了斯金纳的《言语行为》和后斯金纳主义的“关系框架理论”, 促进孤独症谱系障碍(Autism spectrum disorders, ASD)患者的语言、学习、社交等核心技能发展的语言行为评估训练系统。截至2018年底, PEAK关系训练系统由以下4个模块组成：直接训练模块、泛化模块、等价关系模块、功能转化模块。每一模块依据难易程度分别设置了184个目标能力的评估方法及训练课程。已发表的多项实证研究表明, PEAK关系训练系统打破了《语言行为里程碑评估及安置程序》(Verbal Behavior Milestones and Placement Program, VB-MAPP) 对ASD患者进行里程碑评估时出现的“天花板效应”, 有望比VB-MAPP提供更全面、高阶的语言行为评估体系。此外, PEAK关系训练系统表现出的评估工具的信效度良好、多项效果研究显著、实践中易操作等特性, 使其不仅适用于专业人员教学, 未来在ASD患者家庭干预模式中也有潜在的应用价值。     

Current knowledge on motor disorders in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

Motor symptomatology in autism is currently poorly understood, and still not included in the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnostic criteria, although some studies suggest the presence of motor disturbances in this syndrome. We provide here a literature review on early motor symptoms in autism, focusing on studies on psychomotor issues (tone, postural control, manual dexterity, handedness, praxis). The approach adopted in research to study altered motor behaviors is generally global and there is no detailed semiology of the motor or neuromotor disorders observed in people with ASD. This global approach does not enable understanding of the neuro-developmental mechanisms involved in ASD. Identification of clinical neuro-psychomotor profiles in reference to a standard would help to better understand the origin and the nature of the disorders encountered in ASD, and would thus give new directions for treatment.     

Metacognition of agency and theory of mind in adults with high functioning autism

We investigated metacognition of agency in adults with high functioning autism or Asperger Syndrome (HFA/AS) using a computer task in which participants moved the mouse to get the cursor to touch the downward moving X’s and avoid the O’s. They were then asked to make judgments of performance and judgments of agency. Objective control was either undistorted, or distorted by adding turbulence (i.e., random noise) or a time Lag between the mouse and cursor movements. Participants with HFA/AS used sensorimotor cues available in the turbulence and lag conditions to a lesser extent than control participants in making their judgments of agency. Furthermore, the failure to use these internal diagnostic cues to their own agency was correlated with decrements in a theory of mind task. These findings suggest that a reduced sensitivity to veridical internal cues about the sense of agency is related to mentalizing impairments in autism.     

Emotional true and false memories in children with callous-unemotional traits

Several studies have found that children with callous-unemotional (CU) traits have a deficit in processing emotionally negative material. The present study examined whether this deficit also affects emotional memory. Twenty-two children with low CU traits and 24 children with high CU traits between 8 and 12 years of age were selected from a community sample and presented with neutral and negative emotional words, using the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm. On true recall, there was no difference between the groups. Both groups had higher true recall rates for the neutral word lists than for the negative lists. However, on false recall, although there were no group differences for neutral word lists, the high CU group recalled significantly fewer critical lures on the negative word lists than the low CU group. Furthermore, the high CU group had significantly less false recall on the negative word lists compared to the neutral word lists, while the low CU group showed no difference in false recall between the word lists. These results indicate that children with high CU traits have no deficiencies in true memory performance, yet are less susceptible to developing false memories concerning emotionally negative material.     

Visual perspective taking impairment in children with autistic spectrum disorder

Evidence from typical development and neuroimaging studies suggests that level 2 visual perspective taking - the knowledge that different people may see the same thing differently at the same time - is a mentalising task. Thus, we would expect children with autism, who fail typical mentalising tasks like false belief, to perform poorly on level 2 visual perspective taking as well. However, prior data on this issue are inconclusive. We re-examined this question, testing a group of 23 young autistic children, aged around 8 years with a verbal mental age of around 4 years and three groups of typical children (n = 60) ranging in age from 4 to 8 years on a level 2 visual perspective task and a closely matched mental rotation task. The results demonstrate that autistic children have difficulty with visual perspective taking compared to a task requiring mental rotation, relative to typical children. Furthermore, performance on the level 2 visual perspective taking task correlated with theory of mind performance. These findings resolve discrepancies in previous studies of visual perspective taking in autism, and demonstrate that level 2 visual perspective taking is a mentalising task.     

The intervening role of Agreeableness in the relationship between Trait Emotional Intelligence and Machiavellianism: Reassessing the potential dark side of EI

Previous research into the potential ‘dark’ side of trait emotional intelligence (EI) has repeatedly demonstrated that trait EI is negatively associated with Machiavellianism. In this study, we reassess the potential dark side of trait EI, by testing whether Agreeableness mediates and/or moderates the relationship between trait EI and Machiavellianism. Hypothesized mediation and moderation effects were tested using a large sample of 884 workers who completed several self-report questionnaires. Results provide support for both hypotheses; Agreeableness was found to mediate and moderate the relationship between trait EI and Machiavellianism. Overall, results indicate that individuals high in trait EI tend to have low levels of Machiavellianism because they generally have a positive nature (i.e. are agreeable) and not because they are emotionally competent per se. Results also indicate that individuals high in ‘perceived emotional competence’ have the potential to be high in Machiavellianism, particularly when they are low in Agreeableness.     

Cybervictimization and body esteem: Experiences of Swedish children and adolescents

This study investigates the relationship between cybervictimization and body esteem among 1076 pupils, ages 10–15. More specifically we investigated if being the victim of cyberbullying was related to body esteem, and if there were any grade and gender differences in these relationships. Additionally, we examined how often pupils' believed that cyberbullying was directed at the victims' appearance, and if this view was more common when girls were cybervictims compared to when boys were cybervictims. Pupils in fourth grade (10-year-olds), sixth grade (12-year-olds) and ninth grade (15-year-olds), from 21 different schools in Gothenburg were surveyed. The main finding was that victims of cyberbullying reported poorer body esteem than non-cybervictims. The results also showed that pupils believed that cyberbullying was directed at the victims' appearance, especially when girls were victims. This study provides unique data concerning the links between being exposed to cyberbullying and body esteem.