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.     

Coping orientation and psychological distress in healthcare professionals: The utility of appraising coping acceptability

The purpose of this study was to examine interaction effects of healthcare professionals' coping orientation (i.e., engagement versus disengagement) and appraisal of coping acceptability (ACA) on psychological distress, taking into account the individuals' job specificity and the psychological climate in their work environment. A cross‐sectional survey was conducted, and Japanese healthcare professionals (N = 189; 117 female; mean age: 40.1 ± 11.2 years) reported the coping strategies that they employed for task‐related or interpersonal stressors, their cognitive appraisal of the stressors, their ACA, and the psychological distress evoked by the stressors. The results showed that adding consideration of the ACA to the variable of coping orientation significantly improved predictions of psychological distress for both task and interpersonal stressors. There was no significant interaction between the coping orientation and the use of coping strategies that incorporated the ACA. These results suggest that considering the ACA, in addition to the coping orientation, would be useful for understanding individual differences in the mediators of healthcare professionals' coping in stressful situations.     

Assessment of Anger Terms in Hebrew: A Gender Comparison

Appraisal of anger terms is based on past experience recollections, social norms, and gender roles. The objectives of this study were to find combinations of emotional components presented by a new composite variable that will exhibit differences between genders and differentiate between anger terms in Hebrew. The sample was comprised of forty students, Hebrew native speakers who participated in a web based study. Participants were asked to rate eight anger terms in Hebrew on a number of features that comprised five emotional components: subjective feelings states body reactions, expressions, action tendencies, and cognitive evaluations. A two-factor between-subjects multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted. A simplified multivariate composite, defined as subjective experience minus regulation, explained 10% of the gender difference. Another simplified composite, which combines the additive effect of the subjective experience and the actions that accompany this emotional state, explained 14% of difference between the anger terms. The findings are discussed with respect to appraisal theory and social constructivist conceptualization.     

On the power of autobiographical memories: from threat and challenge appraisals to actual behaviour

Autobiographical memories are a major feature of mental life in humans. However, research on the influence of autobiographical recall on actual behaviour is scarce. We predicted and found that general memories of failure and specific memories of success resulted in worse performance than general memories of success and specific memories of failure. This performance pattern was mediated by task appraisal, suggesting that autobiographical memories (of failure and success) impact performance by shaping the perception of the upcoming task. Combined with the fact that these effects occurred even when the content of autobiographical memories was unrelated to the upcoming task, the present research represents an important step forward in understanding how autobiographical recall influences actual behaviour.     

Threats to communion and agency mediate associations between stressor type and daily coping

Background and Objectives: Basic human values have been categorized into two dimensions: those that are self or agentically focused, and those that are other or communally focused. We apply this model to cognitive appraisals of stress and argue that threat appraisals also fall into these two dimensions. The mediating roles of communal and agentic threats in linking stressors with coping responses were examined. Design: A daily process methodology was used. Methods: Three-hundred and fifty undergraduate students were followed midday and evening over one week, completing structured electronic diaries regarding their experiences of the past half-day. Participants described stressors in open-ended format, which were then coded into social stress, achievement stress, and other stress categories. They also completed scales measuring stress appraisals and coping. Results: Communal threat mediated links between social stressors and empathic responding, support seeking, and confrontation. Agentic threat mediated links between achievement stressors and empathic responding, support seeking, confrontation, and problem solving. Conclusions: Individuals tend to cope in ways that maintain communion when they perceive communion to be threatened; they tend to cope in ways that maintain agency when they perceive agency to be threatened.     

Concept Appraisal

This paper reports the first empirical investigation of the hypothesis that epistemic appraisals form part of the structure of concepts. To date, studies of concepts have focused on the way concepts encode properties of objects and the way those features are used in categorization and in other cognitive tasks. Philosophical considerations show the importance of also considering how a thinker assesses the epistemic value of beliefs and other cognitive resources and, in particular, concepts. We demonstrate that there are multiple, reliably judged, dimensions of epistemic appraisal of concepts. Four of these dimensions are accounted for by a common underlying factor capturing how well people believe they understand a concept. Further studies show how dimensions of concept appraisal relate to other aspects of concepts. First, they relate directly to the hierarchical organization of concepts, reflecting the increase in specificity from superordinate to basic and subordinate levels. Second, they predict inductive choices in category-based induction. Our results suggest that epistemic appraisals of concepts form a psychologically important yet previously overlooked aspect of the structure of concepts. These findings will be important in understanding why individuals sometimes abandon and replace certain concepts; why social groups do so, for example, during a “scientific revolution”; and how we can facilitate such changes when we engage in deliberate “conceptual engineering” for epistemic, social, and political purposes.     

4~8岁儿童认知风格的发展及其对问题解决的影响

认知风格是个体获取和加工信息的一贯模式,影响诸多认知活动。本研究测量了98名4-8岁儿童的认知风格和积木拼图中的问题解决行为,主要发现:（1）4-8岁儿童总体上表现为整体型认知风格,但分析型认知风格随着年龄增长在逐渐发展;（2）认知风格影响问题解决策略：越偏整体型认知风格的儿童越多使用主体参照策略（即先拼主体图形再补充其他部分）,并且越少使用线索推断策略（按照行/列的线索顺序依次拼图）和局部定位策略（根据某一局部图案的具体位置摆放积木）。本实验首次探索了低龄儿童认知风格的年龄差异,发现认知风格在发展早期就已影响问题解决行为。研究结果有助于理解儿童认知风格的发展及其作用,为儿童问题解决能力的培养实践提供一定的理论依据。     

The role of appraisal in dysphoric affect reactivity to positive laboratory films and daily life events in depression

Hedonic deficits are linked to protracted dysphoric affect (DA) in depression, a disorder characterised by emotion context insensitivity (ECI). Recent findings from daily life studies contradict the ECI view. This study longitudinally investigated DA across laboratory and daily life contexts and the conditions associated with discrepancies in DA reactivity. Thirty-three healthy controls and 41 adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) provided responses to neutral and positive (a) films viewed in the laboratory and (b) daily events recorded over the course of three days using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methodology. The current study reports on participants’ appraisals of films and events and their subsequent DA, both rated individually after each task and daily event. Despite large group similarities in appraisals of the positive film and life events, MDDs appraised the neutral film and neutral life events as less important (film: d?=?.58; event: η²?=?.07) and less pleasant (film: d?=?.56; event: η²?=?.18) relative to controls. While MDDs reported higher DA both in the laboratory and in daily life, they experienced larger decreases in DA during positive life events (B?=??.77, SE?=?.28, t(73)?=??2.70, p?=?.009), but not in response to the positive film relative to controls. Results indicate that higher pleasantness appraisals in daily life predicted larger decreases in DA among MDDs than controls (B?=??.24, SE?=?.06, t(73)?=??4.10, p?B?=?1.28, SE?=?.46, t(73)?=?2.77, p?=?.006). The implications of valence and relevance of context for DA reactivity and mood repair are discussed.