Emotional Intelligence in the Collection of Debt

Two studies are reported which compare more and less successful account officers (debt collectors) in terms of their emotional intelligence, measured using the BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory. The findings support the view that higher levels of emotional intelligence lead to enhanced job performance. Implications for selection are considered in the conclusion.     

Developmental Changes in Content of Movement Responses

This study examines the relationship between Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) measured personality characteristics and marital distress and provides empirical validation for using the MMPI-2 with a marital therapy population. Studied were 150 couples in marital therapy and 841 normal couples who participated in the MMPI-2 restandardization study. The MMPI-2, a biographical form, a partner rating form, and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) were administered to all couples. The marital counseling group resembled previous marital counseling samples studied with the MMPI and scored significantly higher than the normative sample on several MMPI-2 scales. Relationships between the DAS and MMPI-2 clinical and content scale scores are reported. The Psychopathic Deviate (Pd) clinical scale and Family Problems (FAM) content scale were the most powerful group discriminators and strongest correlates of the DAS; their use as indices of marital distress is tested. The meaning of Pd as an index in assessing personality factors in marital distress is explored.     

The association between adolescents' attitudes toward suicide and their psychosocial background and suicidal tendencies.

The present study examined the relationship between adolescents' attitudes toward suicide and their psychosocial background. It also evaluated the association between attitudes toward suicide and the subjects' own suicidal tendencies. A questionnaire assessing these issues was administered to 525 Israeli adolescents. Results indicated that significantly more females, nonreligious adolescents, those exposed to suicidal behavior, and those with increased suicidal risk held more accepting attitudes. Ethnic origin, socioeconomic status, and living in intact/nonintact families were not associated with adolescents' attitudes toward suicide.     

When symptom is symbol: some comments on Rosemary Gordon's, ‘Masochism: the shadow side of the archetypal need to venerate and worship’

This paper is a commentary on Rosemary Gordon's paper, ‘Masochism: the shadow side of the archetypal need to venerate and worship’, with a suggestion for an alternative interpretation of masochism as a part of a sado‐masochistic couple. Gordon postulates an archetypal need to venerate and worship that can be hidden in the shadow and distorted in such practices as sexual masochism. Her paper also offers several avenues of exploration for further studies in connection with the phenomenon of masochism, including sexual perversion (‘paraphilia’), chronic psychological victimhood, PTSD and traumatology, religious extremist behaviour such as self‐flagellation, transformation in the individuation process and numinous experience. An extension of her hypothesis to include religious problems of modernity is suggested.     

Psychological individuation and spiritual enlightenment: some comparisons and points of contact

In his writings on individuation Jung often references Eastern religions and philosophies such as Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism. This essay discusses differences and similarities between analytical psychology's concept of individuation, especially in its advanced stages, and enlightenment as expressed in such texts as Zen (Chan) Buddhism's Ten Ox‐Herding Pictures. I advance the argument that important common features can be found while cultural differences must also be respected. There is here a convergence between West and East that can foster dialogue and mutuality.     

Eye contact facilitates awareness of faces during interocular suppression

Eye contact captures attention and receives prioritized visual processing. Here we asked whether eye contact might be processed outside conscious awareness. Faces with direct and averted gaze were rendered invisible using interocular suppression. In two experiments we found that faces with direct gaze overcame such suppression more rapidly than faces with averted gaze. Control experiments ruled out the influence of low-level stimulus differences and differential response criteria. These results indicate an enhanced unconscious representation of direct gaze, enabling the automatic and rapid detection of other individuals making eye contact with the observer.     

Gender variation in developmental trajectories of educational and occupational expectations and attainment from adolescence to adulthood

Adolescents' future expectations are a potentially important precursor of adult attainment and may illuminate how males and females vary in schooling and work. Thus, this longitudinal study examined gender variation in developmental trajectories of educational and occupational expectations from adolescence to adulthood and in connection to corresponding adult attainment. National data (NELS:88) including individuals aged 14 to 26 and hierarchical linear modeling analyses yielded several findings: Males and females had similar developmental trajectories of educational expectations from adolescence to adulthood with the sample average expecting to attend college. Probabilities of expecting a professional occupation were lower for males than females. Adolescent educational and occupational expectations predicted corresponding attainment in adulthood, although the relationship varied by gender. Males who reported high occupational expectations in adolescence had higher occupational attainment in adulthood compared to males with low occupational expectations, whereas females' adult occupational attainment did not vary by their adolescent occupational expectations. Gender variation in expectations and attainment is discussed in light of historical changes, and future directions of research are proposed.