Emotional intelligence as a predictor of employees' career adaptability

Emotional intelligence and career adaptability are crucial psychosocial meta-capacities for successful adaptation in various spheres of life, including the realm of careers. However, little is known about the relationship between emotional intelligence and Savickas's (2005) notion of career adaptability. The current research examines the relation of emotional intelligence to career adaptability. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with a sample of 409 early career black call center agents (Mean age = 32) employed in three of the largest outsourced financial call centers in Africa. Canonical correlation analysis and structural equation modeling confirmed the predictive validity of emotional intelligence in relation to career adaptability. The results showed that managing one's own emotions contributes the most in explaining overall emotional intelligence a n d the variance in overall career adaptability with its four domains of career concern, career control, career confidence and career curiosity. The results of the study highlight the importance of developing individuals' emotional intelligence in order to strengthen their career adaptability. The research contributed new and valuable insights that may inform career development interventions for call center agents.     

Does the two-chair dialogue intervention facilitate processing of emotions more efficiently than basic Rogerian conditions?

Processing difficult emotions is assumed to be of importance in therapeutic change. In this study, we examine whether a two-chair dialogue in Emotion-focused Therapy (EFT) is associated with a change in emotional processing, measured as changes in emotional arousal and emotional experiencing. In a multiple baseline design, 20 clients in treatment for depression or anxiety first received five, seven or nine weekly sessions of baseline treatment providing Rogerian conditions and affect attunement. In the second phase, two-chair intervention was added for the five consecutive sessions. All sessions were subdivided into 2 min segments which were rated using the Client Emotional Arousal Scale III and the Experiencing Scale. Analyses indicated a significantly higher number of high-arousal segment in the latter phase. Individual clients’ change trajectories were not significantly steeper in the second phase. Experiencing increased throughout both phases of treatment. However, after introducing the two-chair dialogue the Experiencing change trajectory was not significantly steeper than in the baseline phase. Findings suggest that both the two-chair dialogue and the Rogerian conditions with affect attunement focus are effective in facilitating emotional processing. Results are consistent with previous research, suggesting that the two-chair dialogue is an emotionally evocative intervention. Implications and limitations are discussed.     

L’affectivité positive et négative : des facteurs de protection ou de vulnérabilité à l’engagement au travail

This study examines the effects of work engagement on altruistic performance and emotional exhaustion as well as the moderating effect of the positive and negative affectivity traits. Data were collected through questionnaires among a sample of 279 employees working in a variety of industries. Results indicate that positive and negative affectivity exert distinct moderating influences on the effects of the dimensions of work engagement. Positive affectivity accentuates the positive effect of physical engagement on altruistic performance and the negative effect of emotional engagement on exhaustion. Negative affectivity acts as a moderator in the relationship between emotional engagement and exhaustion such that emotional engagement considerably reduces the risk of exhaustion among individuals with high levels of negative affectivity.     

Taxonomy of Psychological and Social Disturbances in Survivors of Group Psychological Abuse

The purpose of this study was to delimit the psychological and social disturbances that individuals who have suffered psychological abuse within a social group on an ongoing basis can experience. A comprehensive classification of these disturbances was developed based on a review of the scientific literature. Its content was revised by an international panel of 38 experts on the topic. Experts also judged the frequency and intensity with which each disturbance is commonly experienced by survivors of abusive groups. The taxonomy, which includes 20 components classified into four main categories, showed adequate content validity. The components considered the most frequent and intense were related to emotional difficulties, followed by those associated with relational and social integration difficulties, cognitive difficulties, and, finally, other specific problematic behaviors. Operationalizing and classifying the specific psychological and social disturbances commonly experienced by survivors of abusive groups contributes to a better delimitation of the phenomenon. Likewise, it contributes to the understanding of the long-term effects of psychological abuse, which is useful in both the academic and clinical settings.     

When does commitment backfire: Linking employee continuance commitment to silence behavior

IntroductionExtant studies on organizational commitment emphasize affective organizational commitment and consequently ignore the unique role of continuance organizational commitment. To determine whether high continuance commitment is beneficial, we employed conservation of resources theory to explore how continuance commitment leads to emotional exhaustion and silent behavior.ObjectiveThis study examines the mediating effect of emotional exhaustion on the relationship between continuance commitment and silence behavior, and the moderating role of age.MethodWe recruited 157 employees in China to complete a three-wave survey measuring continuance commitment, emotional exhaustion and silence behavior, respectively.ResultsOur results show that continuance commitment is positively related to emotional exhaustion and, in turn, triggers more silent behavior, especially for those old employees; the indirect effect is more significant.ConclusionAlthough employers intend to keep human resources, this study indicates that continuance commitment may bring negative consequences. Moreover, old age will magnify the effect of continuance commitment on emotional exhaustion and further strengthen silence behavior.     

An investigation of the relationship between trait emotional intelligence and emotional task performance

This study examined the relationships between trait emotional intelligence (EI) and tasks involving the recognition of facial expressions of emotion. Two facial expression recognition tasks using the inspection time (IT) paradigm assessed speed of emotional information processing. An unspeeded emotion recognition task was also included, and a symbol IT task was used to assess speed of processing of non-emotional information. It was found that scores on all three emotion-related tasks were strongly intercorrelated, as were scores on the three IT tasks. The two emotional IT scores remained significantly correlated when symbol IT performance was partialled out. This finding, together with the associations between the speeded (IT) and unspeeded face tasks suggests that the association between the emotional IT tasks is not entirely accounted for by general processing speed, and that a general emotion-processing ability also contributes to performance on these tasks. An EI subscale assessing Appraisal of Emotions was significantly correlated with performance on the emotional IT tasks, suggesting that self-reports of emotional perception ability do relate to performance measures.     

Vigilance for threat: effects of anxiety and defensiveness

Eysenck’s (1997) theory that attentional biases for threat vary as an interactive function of trait anxiety and defensiveness was tested using a visual probe task. Two stimulus exposure conditions were used to explore a secondary issue concerning attentional allocation over time. Results indicated that, among high trait anxious participants, only those with low levels of defensiveness showed vigilance for threatening faces presented for 500 ms. They also showed an attentional preference for neutral faces, relative to happy faces, irrespective of exposure condition. This pattern was reversed in high trait anxious participants with high levels of defensiveness, who showed an attentional bias towards happy faces (relative to neutral faces) under both exposure conditions. The findings are discussed in relation to their implications for (a) the significance of measures of defensiveness for the conceptualization of high trait anxious individuals, and (b) the status of anxiety-related biases at different stages of information processing.     

Moderating effect of emotional intelligence on the role of negative affect in the motivation to drink in alcohol-dependent subjects undergoing protracted withdrawal

In order to understand how emotional aspects evolve and are related to craving for alcohol, different emotion-related variables were examined in relationship to craving during a protracted withdrawal. To this end state affectivity (PANAS), emotional intelligence (EI) (TEIQue), and craving (OCDS) were assessed at the onset (T1: day 1 or 2) and at the end (T2: day 14 to 18) of three-week protracted withdrawal among alcohol-dependent inpatients (DSM-IV, N = 41). A significant decrease in craving and negative affectivity (NA) was observed from T1 to T2 while EI scores remained low. At both baseline and follow-up, there was a significant moderation effect of EI on the link between NA and craving for alcohol. Negative mood at the onset of the cure was linked to craving at the end of the withdrawal period but only among patients with low trait EI scores. The merits of using psychotherapeutic approaches were discussed in the treatment of alcohol addiction.     

Effects of handedness and saccadic bilateral eye movements on components of autobiographical recollection

The effects of handedness and saccadic bilateral eye movements on autobiographical recollection were investigated. Recall of autobiographical memories was cued by the use of neutral and emotional words. Autobiographical recollection was assessed by the autobiographical memory questionnaire. Experiment 1 found that mixed-handed (vs. right handed) individuals demonstrated greater levels of autobiographical recollection on the components of seeing, hearing, and emotion. Experiment 2 found that following 30 s of bilateral eye movements, greater levels of autobiographical recollection were demonstrated on the components of reliving, seeing, hearing, emotion, self-perspective and veridicality. The results extend previous research by showing that the recollective components of real world memories can be enhanced by either mixed-handedness or eye movements. In addition, these results provide a bridge between laboratory studies of recollection and autobiographical recollection. The findings are considered in terms of research on the cognitive neuroscience of autobiographical memory.     

The role of political skill in the stressor–outcome relationship: Differential predictions for self- and other-reports of political skill

The beneficial role of political skill in stress reactions and performance evaluations has been demonstrated in a substantial amount of empirical research. Most of the research, however, has focused on self-perceptions of political skill. This study examines the differential moderating effects of self- vs. other-rated political skill in the conflict – emotional burnout and performance relationships, using two samples including non-academic staff employees of a large university (N = 839) and a variety of office and retail employees from an automotive organization (N = 142). We argue that self-reported political skill moderates the relationship between conflict and a self-reported strain-related outcome that is important to the individual (i.e., emotional burnout), but that supervisor-rated political skill does not moderate this relationship. Further, we argue that supervisor-rated political skill moderates the relationship between conflict and an outcome important to the supervisor and the organization (i.e., job performance), but that self-reported political skill does not moderate this relationship. Findings partially support our hypotheses as both self and supervisor-rated political skill neutralized the negative effects of conflict on burnout, but only supervisor-rated political skill neutralized the negative effects of conflict on performance. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.