Mediational role of parenting styles in emotional intelligence of parents and aggression among adolescents

The present study was designed to examine the relationship between parents' emotional intelligence and adolescents' aggression, through the mediation of parenting styles. Two hundred and twenty five undergraduate students (113 boys & 112 girls; age 17–18 years), from four universities in Pakistan, participated with their parents. The Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (Robinson, Mandleco, Olsen, & Hart, 1995), and the Scale of Emotional Intelligence (Batool & Khalid, 2011) were completed by parents. The Aggression Questionnaire (Buss & Perry, 1992) was completed by their adolescent offspring. Mediational path analysis supported our hypothesised model. Results indicate that emotional intelligence of parents indirectly links to aggression among offspring, through parenting styles. It was concluded that emotional intelligence training will help parents to improve their parenting styles, and it will lower the risk of aggression in their children.     

Job characteristics and burnout: The moderating roles of emotional intelligence,motivation and pay among bank employees

This study investigated the prediction of burnout from job characteristics, emotional intelligence, motivation and pay among bank employees. It also examined the interactions of emotional intelligence, motivation, pay and job characteristics in the prediction of burnout. Data obtained from 230 (Males = 127, Females = 103) bank employees were analysed using Pearson's Product Moment Correlation and multiple regression analysis. Results showed that theses variables jointly and separately negatively predicted burnout components. The results further indicated that emotional intelligence, motivation and pay separately interacted with some job characteristic components to negatively predict some burnout components. The findings imply that emotional intelligence, motivation and pay could be considered by counsellors when designing interventions to reduce burnout among bank employees.     

Speed of emotional information processing and emotional intelligence

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between the speed of emotional information processing and emotional intelligence (EI). To evaluate individual differences in the speed of emotional information processing, a recognition memory task consisted of two subtests similar in design but differing in the emotionality of the stimuli. The first subtest required judgment about whether an emotional facial expression in the test face was identical to one of the four emotional expressions of the same individual previously presented. The second subtest required deciding whether the test face with a neutral emotional expression was identical to one of the four neutral faces of different individuals previously presented. Mean response latencies were calculated for “Yes” and “No” responses. All latencies were correlated with other measures of processing speed such as discrimination time and time of figure recognition. However, the emotional expression recognition subtest was hypothesized to require the processing of emotional information in addition to that of facial identity. Latencies in this subtest were longer than those in the face recognition subtest. To obtain a measure of the additional processing that was called for by the emotionality of the stimuli, a subtraction method and regression analysis were employed. In both cases, measures calculated for “No” responses were related to ability EI, as assessed via a self‐report questionnaire. According to structural equation modeling, there was a moderately negative association between latent EI and the latency of “No” responses in the subtest with emotional stimuli. These relationships were not observed for “Yes” responses in the same subtest or for responses in the subtest with neutral face stimuli. Although the differences between “Yes” and “No” responses in their associations with EI require further investigation, the results suggest that, in general, individuals with higher EI are also more efficient in the processing of emotional information.     

Sex differences in estimating multiple intelligences in self and others: A replication in Russia

This was a crosscultural study that focused on sex differences in self‐ and other‐estimates of multiple intelligences (including 10 that were specified by Gardner, 1999 and three by Sternberg, 1988) as well as in an overall general intelligence estimate. It was one of a programmatic series of studies done in over 30 countries that has demonstrated the female “humility” and male “hubris” effect in self‐estimated and other‐estimated intelligence. Two hundred and thirty Russian university students estimated their own and their parents’ overall intelligence and “multiple intelligences.” Results revealed no sex difference in estimates of overall intelligence for both self and parents, but men rated themselves higher on spatial intelligence. This contradicted many previous findings in the area which have shown that men rate their own overall intelligence and mathematical intelligence significantly higher than do women. Regressions indicated that estimates of verbal, logical, and spatial intelligences were the best predictors of estimates of overall intelligence, which is a consistent finding over many studies. Regressions also showed that participants’ openness to experience and self‐respect were good predictors of intelligence estimates. A comparison with a British sample showed that Russians gave higher mother estimates, and were less likely to believe that IQ tests measure intelligence. Results were discussed in relation to the influence of gender role stereotypes on lay conception of intelligence across cultures.     

Validity evidence for the situational judgment test paradigm in emotional intelligence measurement

To date, various measurement approaches have been proposed to assess emotional intelligence (EI). Recently, two new EI tests have been developed based on the situational judgment test (SJT) paradigm: the Situational Test of Emotional Understanding (STEU) and the Situational Test of Emotion Management (STEM). Initial attempts have been made to examine the construct‐related validity of these new tests; we extend these findings by placing the tests in a broad nomological network. To this end, 850 undergraduate students completed a personality inventory, a cognitive ability test, a self‐report EI test, a performance‐based EI measure, the STEU, and the STEM. The SJT‐based EI tests were not strongly correlated with personality and fluid cognitive ability. Regarding their relation with existing EI measures, the tests did not capture the same construct as self‐report EI measures, but corresponded rather to performance‐based EI measures. Overall, these results lend support for the SJT paradigm for measuring EI as an ability.     

Emotional intelligence: A promise unfulfilled?

Emotional intelligence (EI) is a relatively new construct in differential psychology. Proponents of EI have made strong claims for its importance in basic and applied psychology. This article considers whether the promise of EI has been fulfilled. We examine various fundamental challenges to establishing EI as a major individual differences factor, including cross‐cultural issues. We then examine strategies for assessing EI as a personal quality distinct from general intelligence and personality, and evaluate leading tests and scales for EI. Various sources of validity evidence demonstrate the value of research on EI, but we also identify various weaknesses of existing instruments. It appears that there is no strong, over‐arching general factor of EI that shapes human emotional functioning across a range of diverse contexts. Instead, we advocate a “multipolar” conception of EI that discriminates temperament, information‐processing, emotion‐regulation and acquired skills. Focusing research on more narrowly defined but conceptually coherent research domains may be a more productive strategy than seeking to define an all‐embracing general EI.     

Effects of three types of noncontingent auditory stimulation on vocal stereotypy in children with autism

We evaluated the effects of 3 types of noncontingent auditory stimulation (music, white noise, recordings of vocal stereotypy) on 2 children with autism who engaged in high rates of vocal stereotypy. For both participants, the music condition was the most effective in decreasing vocal stereotypy to near-zero levels, resulted in the highest parent social validity ratings, and was selected as most preferred in treatment preference evaluations.     

Multicultural Personality Dispositions and Trait Emotional Intelligence: An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT

This study examined the relationship between multicultural personality dispositions and trait emotional intelligence. The sample included 152 graduate education students enrolled at a university in a large northeastern city of the United States. The multicultural personality dispositions of Cultural Empathy and Social Initiative predicted variance in trait emotional intelligence above and beyond the variance accounted for by gender and potential socially desirable responding. Study limitations are highlighted, and suggestions for follow-up quantitative and qualitative research are presented.     

Disruption of writing processes by the semanticity of background speech

Previous studies have noted that writing processes are impaired by task-irrelevant background sound. However, what makes sound distracting to writing processes has remained unaddressed. The experiment reported here investigated whether the semanticity of irrelevant speech contributes to disruption of writing processes beyond the acoustic properties of the sound. The participants wrote stories against a background of normal speech, spectrally-rotated speech (i.e., a meaningless sound with marked acoustic resemblance to speech) or silence. Normal speech impaired quantitative (e.g., number of characters produced) and qualitative/semantic (e.g., uncorrected typing errors, proposition generation) aspects of the written material, in comparison with the other two sound conditions, and it increased the duration of pauses between words. No difference was found between the silent and the rotated-speech condition. These results suggest that writing is susceptible to disruption from the semanticity of speech but not especially susceptible to disruption from the acoustic properties of speech.