Dealing constructively with negatively evaluated emotional situations: the key to understanding the different reactions of teachers with high and low levels of emotional intelligence

Recent work on the distinctive features of emotions appraised as either negative or positive has links to the investigation of differences in levels of emotional intelligence. In a study with experienced teachers as participants, it was found that emotional reactions to positive or negative situations was moderated by level of emotional intelligence. The reactions to positively charged emotional situations involving students and peers were similar for teachers with high and low levels of emotional intelligence, although the low level group showed somewhat lower likelihood of making an “emotionally intelligent” response compared to the high level group. A much sharper contrast in response likelihood was found for negatively charged emotional situations involving students and peers. Teachers with high levels of emotional intelligence responded quite differently to those with low levels of emotional intelligence. The results indicate the prospect of clarifying a neglected area of exploration of differences in the likely behaviour of teachers differing in levels of emotional intelligence.     

Recognition and evaluation of emotional prosody in individuals with generalized social phobia: a pilot study

Studies using facial emotional expressions as stimuli partially support the assumption of biased processing of social signals in social phobia. This pilot study explored for the first time whether individuals with social phobia display a processing bias towards emotional prosody. Fifteen individuals with generalized social phobia and fifteen healthy controls (HC) matched for gender, age, and education completed a recognition test consisting of meaningless utterances spoken in a neutral, angry, sad, fearful, disgusted or happy tone of voice. Participants also evaluated the stimuli with regard to valence and arousal. While these ratings did not differ significantly between groups, analysis of the recognition test revealed enhanced identification of sad and fearful voices and decreased identification of happy voices in individuals with social phobia compared with HC. The two groups did not differ in their processing of neutral, disgust, and anger prosody.     

Feeling guilty as a source of information about threat and performance

OCD patients experience increased feelings of guilt, threat and uncertainty about harm prevention. As to the relation between these phenomena, it was hypothesised that the experience of guilt acts as "information" that increases the sense of threat and decreases the sense that preventive action is effective. We tested whether state guilt is used as information about risk and prevention effects and whether people high in trait guilt do so more than others. Participants high and low in trait guilt were included. Three types of affect were experimentally induced: guilt, anxiety and a neutral affect. Then, participants estimated the likelihood and severity of a negative outcome, and the dissatisfaction with preventive performances in two OCD relevant scenarios. Relative to low-trait guilt participants, people high in trait guilt had higher ratings of risk after induction of state guilt. With regards to dissatisfaction with preventive performance, there was only a trend for high-trait guilt participants to respond stronger to state guilt. The results suggest that people with a general inclination to feel guilty use temporary feelings of guilt as information about the threat content of a situation and do so even if the source of state guilt is unrelated to the situation. Implications for the understanding of OCD are discussed.     

The mood-enhancement function of autobiographical memories: Comparisons with other functions in terms of emotional valence

In two studies, we examined the emotional valence of memories used for mood-enhancement in relation to memories serving self, social and directive functions. Our sample included a total of 263 participants aged between 45 and 82 years. In Study 1, participants recalled memories in response to 51 cue words. In Study 2, participants recalled 32 memories that served the four functions (eight memories per function). We used multilevel modeling to take into consideration the hierarchical nature of our datasets (memories nested within individuals). Study 1 showed that emotional valence was positively associated with mood-enhancement and social functions, whereas negatively related to self and directive functions. This relation was strongest for the mood-enhancement function. In Study 2, mood-enhancing memories were rated as more positive than self, social and directive memories. We discussed results in terms of the tripartite model of memory functions and proposed that mood-enhancement should represent a distinct function.     

“Piensa” twice: On the foreign language effect in decision making

In this article, we assess to what extent decision making is affected by the language in which a given problem is presented (native vs. foreign). In particular, we aim to ask whether the impact of various heuristic biases in decision making is diminished when the problems are presented in a foreign language. To this end, we report four main studies in which more than 700 participants were tested on different types of individual decision making problems. In the first study, we replicated Keysar et al.’s (2012) recent observation regarding the foreign language effect on framing effects related to loss aversion. In the second section, we assessed whether the foreign language effect is present in other types of framing problems that involve psychological accounting biases rather than gain/loss dichotomies. In the third section, we studied the foreign language effect in several key aspects of the theory of decision making under risk and uncertainty. In the fourth study, we assessed the presence of a foreign language effect in the cognitive reflection test, a test that includes logical problems that do not carry emotional connotations. The absence of such an effect in this test suggests that foreign language leads to a reduction of heuristic biases in decision making across a range of decision making situations and provide also some evidence about the boundaries of the phenomenon. We explore several potential factors that may underlie the foreign language effect in decision making.     

An Updated Feminist View of Intimate Partner Violence

In this article, we explore intimate partner violence (IPV) from an intersectional, feminist perspective. We describe how an updated feminist view guides us to a perspective on IPV that is more strongly grounded in an antioppressive, nonviolent, socially just feminist stance than a second‐wave gender‐essential feminist stance that suggests that patriarchy is the cause of IPV. At the time we began to work together it seemed that a researcher had to be identified as a “family violence” researcher or a “feminist” researcher of violence against women, and that it wasn't possible to be a feminist researcher who looked beyond patriarchy as the cause of IPV. We advocate critically thinking about essentialist practices in clinical work so that we can maintain an antioppressive, socially just, nonviolent approach to working with clients who experience IPV.     

Infant shy temperament predicts preschoolers Theory of Mind

The aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate the relation between infant temperament at 18 months and early Theory of Mind (ToM) abilities at 3 years of age. Temperament was assessed with the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire (ECBQ) and ToM by assessing children's understanding of divergent desires and beliefs, and of knowledge access. Our results are in line with a social-emotional reactivity perspective postulating more sophisticated ToM abilities for children with less reactive more observant temperament. Children with shy temperament at 18 months and at 3 years were better in reasoning about others’ mental states at age 3. Language, siblings and parental education had no effect on ToM. Findings indicate that temperament is related to ToM earlier in development than previously found, and that this relation is thus not unique to false-belief understanding.     

Personality,counterfactual thinking,and negative emotional reactivity

ObjectivesPeople differ substantially in their emotional responses to negative stimuli. Separate lines of research have reported that individual differences and mental simulations contribute to emotional symptoms. Here, we explore the independent and interrelated contribution of personality traits and counterfactual thoughts to the intensity, duration, and overproduction of negative emotions.MethodA sample of mixed-level athletes (n = 243) completed questionnaire assessments in relation to their most recent unsuccessful competition.ResultsWe found that personality dimensions (extraversion, neuroticism, and openness) relate to the direction and magnitude of person counterfactuals. We also found that personality dimensions (neuroticism, extraversion, openness, and agreeableness) and the direction of counterfactual thoughts (upward or downward) relate to the intensity, duration, and/or overproduction of negative emotions. Lastly, we found that personality and counterfactual thoughts had independent rather than interrelated contributions to the experience of unpleasant emotions.ConclusionsThese findings carry important theoretical and practical implications with regard to identifying individuals susceptible to experiencing elevated emotional symptoms in response to short-term stressors.     

Validity of the trait emotional intelligence questionnaire in sports and its links with performance satisfaction

ObjectiveThis research project consisted of two studies aimed at validating the trait emotional intelligence questionnaire (TEIQue) in a sports sample.DesignStudy 1 used a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to investigate if the original 4-factor structure of the TEIQue could be replicated in a sample of athletes. In addition, we explored the relationship between trait emotional intelligence (trait EI) and the demographic variables age, sex, type of sport (individual vs. team), expertise, and years of training. Study 2 used a path analysis approach to explore if trait EI is related to performance satisfaction through stress appraisal and coping behaviors.MethodIn Study 1, 973 athletes completed the TEIQue and a demographic questionnaire. In Study 2, 291 athletes completed the TEIQue. Moreover, with a recent competition in mind, they completed the Coping Inventory for Competitive Sports, as well as items on perceived intensity of stress, perceived controllability of stress, challenge and threat appraisals, coping effectiveness, and performance satisfaction.ResultsStudy 1 showed with a CFA that the original 4-factor structure of the TEIQue could be replicated in a sports sample. Of the demographic variables, only age showed a significant positive relationship with trait EI. Study 2 showed that trait EI was related to performance satisfaction through stress appraisal and coping variables.ConclusionsThis research showed that the TEIQue can be used with athletes and that trait EI is useful for understanding certain aspects of sports performance satisfaction.