Emotional intelligence and job performance: The role of enactment and focus on others’ emotions

The link between emotional intelligence (EI) and job performance was examined focusing on the interplay between self- and other-focused EI dimensions. Two diary studies were conducted among divorce lawyers and salespersons. We adopted a two-level perspective including individual differences in EI (person-level EI) and within-person fluctuations in the usage of EI (enacted EI). It was hypothesized that a focus on others’ emotions predicts job performance in social jobs. Multilevel analyses showed that others-emotion appraisal contributed more to subjective (Studies 1 and 2) and objective (Study 2) job performance than other EI dimensions. This link was more apparent in person-level EI in Study 1 and in enacted EI in Study 2. Furthermore, EI dimensions interacted with regard to job performance, such that appraising the emotions of one person was more effective than appraising the emotions of two persons (other and self), and appraising others’ emotions was more effective when one’s own emotions were also used or regulated.     

The future of Catholic health care: observations from an Orthodox Christian perspective.

The author reflects on the future of Catholic health care by looking at the essays in this volume by Dennis Brodeur, Clarke E. Cochran, and Christopher J. Kauffman. The author argues that (1) Roman Catholic teaching on the Trinity is defective, yielding an inadequate model of society, (2) Roman Catholic teaching on the Incarnation is defective, yielding an impoverished understanding of the "sacramental," and (3) the institutional orientation of Roman Catholicism combined with the lack of true sacramental vision makes it nearly impossible for Roman Catholic theory to criticize the current structure of health care financing.     

Recurrent criminal behavior and executive dysfunction

OBJECTIVE: To experimentally test the hypothesis that people who repeatedly participate in forms of non-violent crime exhibit an executive deficit detected in tests of high ecological validity, having changes in prefrontal functioning as neurophysiologic basis. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: A batteiy to assess executive dysfunction was administered--the Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome (BADS)--to an experimental group of 30 inmates convicted of crimes against property (mean age = 39.3, SD = 9.98), and a control group of 30 (mean age = 32.7, SD = 11.8), all male. RESULTS: The group of recurrent inmates performed significantly worse than the control group in their global scores on the battery, as well as in the majority of subscales. CONCLUSION: Without removing from consideration the fact that sample size was not very large and, primarily, alerting ourselves to the dangerous hypothesis of a "frontal criminogenesis," the authors interpret criminal recurrence and resistance to penal measures in terms of the scarcity of control that individuals from the experimental group have over their behavior and its respective consequences.     

Mental fatigue and the control of cognitive processes: effects on perseveration and planning

We tested whether behavioural manifestations of mental fatigue may be linked to compromised executive control, which refers to the ability to regulate perceptual and motor processes for goal-directed behaviour. In complex tasks, compromised executive control may become manifest as decreased flexibility and sub-optimal planning. In the study we use the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and the Tower of London (TOL), which respectively measure flexibility (e.g., perseverative errors) and planning. A simple memory task was used as a control measure. Fatigue was induced through working for 2 h on cognitively demanding tasks. The results showed that compared to a non-fatigued group, fatigued participants displayed more perseveration on the WCST and showed prolonged planning time on the TOL. Fatigue did not affect performance on the simple memory task. These findings indicate compromised executive control under fatigue, which may explain the typical errors and sub-optimal performance that are often found in fatigued people.     

Psychometric testing and applications of the Body Attitudes Questionnaire translated into Portuguese

Although many body attitudes scales have been developed, none have been translated into Portuguese. This study aimed to translate the Ben-Tovim and Walker Body Attitudes Questionnaire and assess validity and reliability for a Brazilian sample. Women with (n = 39) and without (n = 57) eating disorders completed the scale, to assess discriminant validity. Convergent validity was assessed by the correlations between the scores and a measure of body dissatisfaction. The questionnaire was applied twice to controls after 1 mo. to evaluate reliability. Eating-disordered women had significantly higher mean scores on Feeling Fat, Disparagement, Salience and Lower Body Fatness, and lower scores on Attractiveness. No mean difference on Strength and Fitness was found. Most subscales were significantly correlated with the body-dissatisfaction measure. Test-retest coefficients ranged from .57 to .85. The translated version of the Body Attitudes Questionnaire seems to be a valid and reliable measure of body attitudes.     

Parenting stress and marital relationship as determinants of mothers' and fathers' parenting

Using the actor–partner interdependence model, we explore how various sources of stress and support experienced by fathers and mothers influence their own parenting styles and the parenting styles of the partner. Data from 227 couples were analyzed, with mothers and fathers rating their parenting stress and marital relationship and children rating the parenting styles of both mothers and fathers. Structural equation models revealed actor effects of parenting stress on demanding and responsive parenting styles, as well as partner effects between positive aspects of marital relationship and responsive parenting style. The results further indicate that the strength of these pathways is similar for both mothers and fathers and do not support the hypothesis that the parenting of fathers is more vulnerable than the parenting of mothers.     

Gait and risk of falls associated with frontal cognitive functions at different stages of Alzheimer's disease

ABSTRACT

The decline in frontal cognitive functions contributes to alterations of gait and increases the risk of falls in patients with dementia, a category which included Alzheimer's disease (AD). The objective of the present study was to compare the gait parameters and the risk of falls among patients at different stages of AD, and to relate these variables with cognitive functions. This is a cross-sectional study with 23 patients with mild and moderate AD. The Clinical Dementia Rating was used to classify the dementia severity. The kinematic parameters of gait (cadence, stride length, and stride speed) were analyzed under two conditions: (a) single task (free gait) and (b) dual task (walking and counting down). The risk of falls was evaluated using the Timed Up-and-Go test. The frontal cognitive functions were evaluated using the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB), the Clock Drawing Test (CDT) and the Symbol Search Subtest. The patients who were at the moderate stage suffered reduced performance in their stride length and stride speed in the single task and had made more counting errors in the dual task and still had a higher fall risk. Both the mild and the moderate patients exhibited significant decreases in stride length, stride speed and cadence in the dual task. Was detected a significant correlation between CDT, FAB, and stride speed in the dual task condition. We also found a significant correlation between subtest Similarities, FAB and cadence in the dual task condition. The dual task produced changes in the kinematic parameters of gait for the mild and moderate AD patients and the gait alterations are related to frontal cognitive functions, particularly executive functions.     

Predicting Sales Performance Criteria With Personality Measures: The Use of the General Factor of Personality,the Big Five and Narrow Traits

The present study investigated the predictive validities of different hierarchical levels of personality for sales performance. The General Factor of Personality was expected to be most effective at predicting general sales performance, whereas the Big Five factors and its underlying narrow traits were expected to be most effective at predicting the specific sales performance criteria to which they are conceptually aligned. Six different sales performance measures were used in an international study involving 405 sales employees. The results suggest that General Factor of Personality is a valid predictor of general job performance but that some of the aligned narrow personality traits predict specific sales performance above and beyond the Big Five factors. The narrow trait Social Boldness has a negative relation with rated sales performance and sales results.     

On psychic reality and neutrality: Empathy and the work of construction in countertransference

Abstract

The clinical challenges faced in encountering patients who do not fit the standard treatment of Oedipus conflicts clearly show the limitations of the interpretative method, thus making indispensable the study of clinical concepts and techniques as a way to broaden the psychoanalytic horizons. In order to analyse the different psychopathological problems resistant to traditional clinical approaches, it is necessary to reorganise the technique on the basis of a better understanding of the ways in which subjectivity is rooted in early psychic constitution. In this way, empathy becomes important as a clinical tool. The use of empathy must be understood as a decisive factor in handling clinical cases and situations in which the treatment encounters obstacles that restrict the power of the analyst's verbal interventions.In this case, can we say that the use of empathy interferes directly with and changes the position of the concept of psychic reality? Moreover, as we use empathy, can we also say that the concept of neutrality is transformed, without being abandoned? The intention of this paper is to discuss these questions using clinical material taken from the analysis of borderline clinical cases and situations.