Article

Personality in Extreme Situations: Thinking (or Not) under Acute Stress

September 2001
Journal of Research in Personality 35(3):388-399

DOI:10.1006/jrpe.2001.2321

Authors:

University of Texas at San Antonio

To investigate the role of emotional experience and understanding in acute stress situations, the relations between three individual difference variables (clarity, attention, and intensity) and cognitive difficulties under acute stress were examined. Fifty-nine firefighter trainees completed personality measures several weeks before engaging in a series of four live-fire exercises. Individuals who were typically clear about their emotions (high clarity) reported fewer instances of cognitive difficulties, such as “blanking out” and being unable to think clearly during the exercises. Emotional intensity and attention to emotion were unrelated to reports of these symptoms.

Modelling environmental and cognitive factors to predict performance in a stressful training scenario on a naval ship simulator

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2015

Professionals working in risky or emergency situations have to make very accurate decisions, while the quality of the decisions might be affected by the stress that these situations bring about. Integrating task feedback and biofeedback into computer-based training environments could improve trainees’ stress-coping behaviour. This paper presents and assesses a refined version of the cognitive performance and error (COPE) model that describes the effects of stressful events on decisions as a foundation for such a support tool. Within a high-fidelity simulator of a ship’s bridge at the Royal Netherlands Naval College, students of the naval college (n = 10) were observed while completing a 2-h-long shadowing and boarding operation combined with a search-and-rescue operation. For every action, variables were measured: objective and subjective task demand, challenge and threat appraisal, and arousal based on heart rate and heart rate variability. The data supported the COPE model and were used to create predictive models. The variables could provide minute-by-minute predictions of performance that can be divided into performance rated by experts and errors. The predictions for performance rated by experts correlated with the observed data (r = 0.77), and 68.3 % of the predicted errors were correct. The error predictions concern the chances of making specific errors of communication, planning, speed, and task allocation. These models will be implemented into a real-time feedback system for trainees performing in stressful simulated training tasks.

A REVIEW OF TRAIT META-MOOD RESEARCH

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2008

Reflective experience of mood provides insight to individuals about their knowledge of themselves and their environment, allowing in some cases emotions to run their course, or, when necessary, to be suppressed. According to this affective approach, moods convey valid and useful information for the individual, but people differ in the use, abuse or misuse of this affective information. The experience of mood and the evaluation of our thoughts about the mood has become a growing area in individual differences research. In fact, studies on meta-mood have increased enormously in the last two decades thanks to the resurgence of the interest in emotions as important cues to successful decision making or valid evaluative judgment. Besides, this approach attempts to account for individual behaviour and emotional well-being, assuming that mood conveys important information about oneself and our social context which influences our cognitions and actions. From this perspective, the way people attend to moods and regulate emotions helps to determine coping behaviours and is essential for adaptive coping with stress over their life span. Currently, two different lines of investigation can be found in meta-mood research. The first one is focused on reflective meta-experience of mood as state. Much of this research is interested in analyzing how a person’s thoughts may be affected by his/her mood state, and in understanding the various types of conscious mood regulation. For this purpose, Mayer and Stevens (1994) developed the Meta-Regulation Scale (MRS). The second line is interested in more stable affective capacities that people routinely use to experience their feelings and moods. This approach is denominated trait-meta mood research for which Salovey, Mayer, Goldman, Turvey, and Palfai (1995) developed the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS). In this chapter we focused on this latter approach. A brief description of the TMMS, its three dimensions (Attention, Clarity, and Repair), and its different translations in diverse countries is given. We begin by discussing the influence of meta-mood abilities on cognition and behaviour, and continue outlining the basic aspects by which the meta-mood experience of mood is important for how people cope with and adapt to stressful situations and contributes to psychological adjustment. Also, the available literature on trait-meta mood research is reviewed (all papers published in peer review journals since 1995) emphasizing its connection with the recent field of Emotional Intelligence (EI). Findings about its role in experimental, clinical, applied, and cross-cultural studies are presented. In the last section, the dimensions that compose the instrument and their role as predictors of social adjustment and individual well-being are examined. Finally, we discuss potential improvements on the scale, practical implications, and further studies on trait meta-mood research.

Coping under acute stress: The role of person characteristics

Thesis

Full-text available

Jan 2010

Roos Delahaij

Inteligencia emocional percibida y diferencias individuales en el meta-conocimiento de los estados emocionales: Una revisión de los estudios con el TMMS

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2005

In this article, we revised the empirical articles carried out with the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (Salovey, Mayer, Goldman, Turvey, & Palfai, 1995), the first self-report measure to evaluate emotional intelligence (EI) based on Salovey and Mayer's model of emotional intelligence (1990; Mayer & Salovey, 1997). In short, a brief description of the measure and its Spanish adaptation is done. Moreover, the published findings since its development in 1995 from applied, clinical, experimental, and cross-cultural studies are reported. Furthermore, each dimension that composes the instrument along with its differential pattern as predictors of individual well-being is examined. Findings showed that individuals who pay medium-low attention to their own emotions, and score higher on emotional clarity and repair show better emotional adjustment on reviewed studies. Finally, we discuss potential improvements of the scale, further research, and the implications from the use of the instrument.

Why do some people ruminate more or less than others? The role of Emotional Intelligence ability

Article

May 2010

Emotional Intelligence (EI) has been defined as an ability to evaluate, perceive and express emotions, use emotions to facilitate thought, analyse and understand emotions, and manage and regulate emotions. The emotional elaboration ability is considered a crucial skill for EI, because of its role on the individual well-being. Individuals differ in adopting more or less successful emotion elaboration strategies. Among the many strategies, mental rumination is conceptualized as being characterized by persistent thoughts which intrude into the consciousness in a repetitive way. As a consequence, individual differences in mental rumination may be related to differences in EI abilities. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between mental rumination and EI abilities. More specifically, Study 1 (N = 150) investigated this association with respect to the emotional valence of an emotionally inducing event (positive vs. negative). Study 2 (N = 88) explored the impact of EI on the mental rumination processes both immediately after an emotional event and over time. Results, jointly considered, supported the idea that people with a higher level of managing emotions ability had reduced frequency of mental rumination, independent of the valence of the emotional event and retention delay.

Perceived emotional intelligence and life satisfaction: Predictive and incremental validity using the Trait Meta-Mood Scale

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2005
PERS INDIV DIFFER

This study investigated the association between Perceived Emotional Intelligence (PEI), measured by the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS), and life satisfaction in Spanish undergraduate university students. Specially, the predictive and incremental validity of this self-report measure of emotional intelligence was examined. The authors investigated whether PEI would account for variance in satisfaction with life beyond the level attributable to mood states and personality traits. Correlation analysis showed significant associations between Clarity and Repair and higher life satisfaction. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis confirmed these findings and indicated that Clarity accounted further variance in life satisfaction not accounted for by mood states and personality traits. These findings extend previous studies and provide additional support for the incremental validity of the TMMS suggesting that Clarity contribute to life satisfaction independently from well-known mood states constructs and personality traits.

Positive Schizotypy and Emotion Processing

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2005

John G. Kerns

This study examined whether emotion processing traits and task performance are associated with positive schizotypy. Positive schizotypy individuals (n=34, assessed with the Magical Ideation and Perceptual Aberration Scales) reported greater attention to emotions but less emotional clarity than controls (n=56). Moreover, a significantly larger percentage of the schizotypy group was classified as emotionally overwhelmed. Positive schizotypy individuals also exhibited absent affective priming and increased incongruent errors at a short stimulus onset asynchrony and an absence of an effect of emotion on recognition memory, but an increased memory response bias for negative words. Results could not be accounted for by level of neuroticism or current mood. These results suggest that positive schizotypy is associated with the processing of emotional information.

Affective dynamics in daily life are differentially expressed in positive, negative, and disorganized schizotypy

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2022

Schizotypy and schizophrenia are associated with disruptions in the experience of affect. Temporal patterns of affect, or affective dynamics, offer unique information about the expression of multidimensional schizophrenia-spectrum psychopathology. The present study employed experience sampling methodology to examine affective intensity, inertia, variability, reactivity, and instability in positive, negative, and disorganized schizotypy in nonclinically ascertained young adults (n = 275). As hypothesized, disorganized schizotypy demonstrated the most robust associations with affective dynamics and was characterized by elevated intensity, reactivity, and variability of negative affect. Disorganized schizotypy was also associated with instability of negative affect, but this relation was better accounted for by mean negative affect, which was elevated in disorganized schizotypy. Negative schizotypy was characterized by diminished intensity and variability of positive affect as expected, but was unassociated with affective inertia. Finally, as hypothesized, positive schizotypy was associated with elevated intensity and variability of negative affect at the bivariate level, but was unassociated with affective dynamics when including disorganized schizotypy in the model. These findings indicate that the schizotypy dimensions are differentiated by both mean levels and dynamics of affect, and that affective dynamics convey unique information about multidimensional schizotypy beyond mean levels of affect. The findings provide further support for the multidimensional model of schizotypy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Analysis of the Characteristics of a Team Working in Conditions of Exposure (Hospice Environment)

Article

Sep 2020
OMEGA-J DEATH DYING

Elżbieta Trylinska-Tekielska

Background: The aim of the study was to examine the functioning of the team, working in conditions of exposure and finding reasons for which a specific group takes actions in conditions of life threatening others or own. The population being studied is a hospice team (N = 229). Methods: Logistic regression analysis and multidimensional correspondence analysis were used in the research. Results: The level of personal religiosity was regulated in a different way in the respective surveyed professional groups. In the group of hospice volunteers we managed to build 2 models, in the hospice employees - 4 models, in the group of volunteers - 5 models. Conclusion: There are different types of motivation and a sense of identity. The highest level of guilt is declared by a group of hospice volunteers. In the group of volunteers of the hospice: the thanatological anxiety and mood stimulate the growth of personal religiousness.

Dyadic cognitive problem solving of old couples : introducing new paradigms

Article

Jan 2009

Ursula Maria Colberg

The aim of the present thesis was to introduce two new, complex paradigms that fulfill the required criteria for testing old couples’ cognitive problem solving abilities. The first complex problem solving paradigm, a computerized paradigm, was used in a between dyads and within dyads design when examining the problem solving performance of older couples. Here the focus was: (1) to determine the practicability of this new paradigm, and (2) to evaluate if older couples outperform the individuals within the couples when solving complex cognitive problems within an experimental setting when using this new paradigm. Further, couples with a special knowledge (in this case the capability of playing Bridge) were tested with the same paradigm and compared to couples without that special knowledge in order to examine possible differences in their capability and behavior. The second new paradigm called WCTC (Word Combination Test for Couples) was constructed on a verbal basis and focused especially on the dyadic collaborative memory performance and behavior of old couples. Here the aim was: (1) to determine the practicability of this new dyadic collaborative memory paradigm when using its simple and advanced form, and (2) to evaluate if old couples use combined collaborative memory at all, and how they perform and behave when tested with the simple and advanced form of this paradigm. The results indicate that both new paradigms were quite practicable for testing old couples’ abilities when cognitive problem solving was tested in experimental settings. When using the computerized paradigm the results showed that couples always outscored the weakest individual of the couple, including the Bridge- and Non-Bridge players. However, Bridge playing couples did not score significantly better than Non-Bridge playing couples but their behavior differed from that of Non-Bridge playing couples. When using the two WCTC paradigms, the results indicate that old couples not only do use dyadic collaborative memory but also are able to adjust their dyadic collaborative memory task to levels of more difficulty. In summary, this thesis demonstrated the two newly introduced paradigms are highly suitable when testing dyadic cognitive problem solving of old couples in experimental settings. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit war, zwei neue, komplexe Paradigmen vorzustellen, die die notwendigen Kriterien erfüllen um die kognitive Problemlösefähigkeit alter Paare zu untersuchen. Das erste Paradigma, das in etwa die Form eines Computerspieles aufweist, wurde zwischen Dyaden und in Dyaden eingesetzt um die kognitive Problemlösefähigkeit alter Paare zu prüfen. Zwei Aspekte standen dabei im Vordergrund: (1) Die Anwendbarkeit des neuen Paradigmas zu testen und (2) heraus zu finden ob Paare besser oder schlechter als die Einzelpersonen in den Paaren abschneiden, wenn komplexes, kognitives Problemlösen in einer Versuchsreihe mit diesem neuen Paradigma geprüft wird. Auch Paare mit einem Spezialwissen (hier Bridgespielen) wurden mit dem selben Paradigma geprüft und mit Paaren, die nicht des Bridgespielens kundig waren verglichen, um mögliche Unterschiede in Problemlösefähigkeit und Verhalten aufzudecken. Das zweite, neue Paradigma, das im verbalen Bereich erarbeitet wurde und den Namen WCTC (Word Combination Test for Couples) trägt, richtet sich besonders auf die in der Dyade gemeinsam erarbeitete Erinnerung und der daraus folgenden Gedächtnisleistung, einmal unter einfachen und dann unter schwierigeren Verhältnissen. Hier war das Ziel (1) die Anwendbarkeit des Paradigmas zu prüfen und (2) herauszufinden ob alte Paare überhaupt gemeinsam erarbeitete Erinnerungen benutzen, und falls dies der Fall ist, wie sie abschneiden und sich verhalten, wenn dieses Paradigma, im Rahmen der kognitiven Problemlösefähigkeit von alten Paaren, angewendet wird. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass beide neuen Paradigmen gut anwendbar sind, wenn die kognitive Problemlösefähigkeit von alten Paaren untersucht werden soll. Bei Einsetzung des computerisierten Paradigmas zeigte sich, dass die Paare immer besser abschlossen als die schwächste Einzelperson des jeweiligen Paares. Das gilt auch für die Bridge- und Nicht- Bridge spielenden Paare. Bridge spielende Paare schnitten nicht signifikant besser ab als Nicht-Bridge spielende Paare, jedoch war ihr Verhalten anders. Beim Einsatz des WCTC Paradigmas zeigte sich, dass alte Paare nicht nur die gemeinsam erarbeitete Erinnerung mit der daraus folgenden Gedächtnisleistung benutzen, sondern sie auch fähig sind, diese Fähigkeiten einem schwierigeren Prüfungsgrad anzupassen. Abschliessend lässt sich sagen, dass beide hier vorgestellten Paradigmen sich gut eignen um dyadische, kognitive Problemlösefähigkeit bei alten Paaren zu untersuchen.

Emotional intelligence and frequency of alcohol use and during adolescence

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2019

Introduction: Emotional intelligence has proven to be a relevant construct during adolescence and includes three components: attention to feelings, clarity of feelings, and mood repair. Within this age group, alcohol consumption is a central problem. Objective: The aim of this work is to study the relation between emotional intelligence and frequency of alcohol consumption in adolescents that attendant a high school from the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Methodology: The TMMS-21 was administered to assess emotional intelligence, and an ad hoc questionnaire was administered to assess alcohol consumption. We performed comparisons between age groups and between genders, and we studied the predictive power of emotional intelligence through a lineal regression. Results: Attention to feelings was lower in those adolescents with frequent alcohol consumption. Moreover, results showed that attention to feelings was a predictor of alcohol consumption frequency in women, while age was a predictor of frequency of alcohol consumption for both genders. Conclusion: These findings suggest that alcohol consumption could function as a way of coping with the emotions that are not being attended to.

Association of Positive, Negative, and Disorganized Schizotypy Dimensions with Affective Symptoms and Experiences

Article

Oct 2018
PSYCHIAT RES

Schizotypy offers a useful construct for investigating the etiology, development, and expression of schizophrenia-spectrum psychopathology, as well as the comorbid expression of mood and anxiety disorders across the schizophrenia spectrum. The present study examined the associations of positive, negative, and disorganized schizotypy with affective symptoms and experiences in a sample of MTurk workers and college students (n = 575). Participants completed the Multidimensional Schizotypy Scale (MSS) and measures of depression, anxiety, social phobia, hypomanic traits, and state affect. As expected, positive schizotypy was significantly associated with hypomanic traits, whereas negative schizotypy was associated with reduced positive affect and reduced hypomanic traits. Although prior research has emphasized the association of positive schizotypy with depression and anxiety, the current results demonstrate that disorganized schizotypy is more strongly associated with elevated negative affect (over-and-above positive schizotypy). As such, these findings highlight the importance of examining disorganization of affect, in addition to the cognitive-behavioral deficits traditionally associated with disorganized schizotypy. Finally, the MSS and MSS-Brief demonstrated closely comparable findings. The present results provide further support for the construct validity of the MSS and the three-factor model of schizotypy.

The impact of emotional intelligence on effective leadership in the military production factories (MPF) in Egypt

Article

Jul 2018

Safaa Shaban

Emotional intelligence is one of the most important personal trait linking to leadership in a way of assisting and developing the desired skills needed for those leaders applying effective leadership. There is a lack in the research literature related to leadership style in the Military Production Factories (MPFs) sector in Egypt. There is great attention and initiative to the reform in governmental sector in Egypt. This study considered as a baseline study for identifying the dominant leadership style in MPF. Military production industry sector includes 20 factories and companies lead by the Ministry of Military production (MOMP). The factories produced Military and non-military production. The sector includes 33546 employees. The selected organisation (MPF) works under the authority and supervision of the Ministry of military production (MOMP) in Egypt, however the majority of worker, including top, and middle line management are civilian. This study investigates the style of leadership mainly transformation and transactional leadership. The scale of the questionnaire was developed based on two sources and references to measure this relationship between the independent variable emotional intelligence and dependent variable leadership style. This study uses statistical tools SPSS including regression, correlation, Cronbach's alpha. The result on the level of Leadership, First, -study shows that female employee of the MOMP have a tendency towards a high level of transformational leadership style behavior more than male managers in the MOMP. Confirmed by Mandell and Pherwani, 2003). Second, Males' leadership style more oriented to the style of transactional style of leadership (confirmed by Strickland, 2008). On the level, emotional intelligence females scored higher than male in emotional intelligence. Furthermore, the dimensions of emotional intelligence (emotion attention, emotional clarity and Emotional repair (women scoring higher in emotional repair the most).

Implicit Personality and Leadership in Stressful and Dangerous Situations: A First Step

Preprint

Full-text available

May 2012

Daniel Smith

Leadership in stressful and dangerous situations is vitally important in terms of lives, property, and national strategic objectives. But our understanding of effective leadership in these and other contexts is limited. Part of the problem is that interactionist theoretical perspectives are not reflected in contemporary leadership thinking. In addition, the impact of individual differences on leadership is often misrepresented or hidden by linear correlations and regressions conducted on continuous scores. This study employed new, innovative, indirect conditional reasoning measures to assess the personalities of 627 leaders entering the military’s most challenging and stressful combat leader development course (the US Army Ranger School). These innovative measures predicted compelling differences in leadership, attrition, and in the peer evaluations made during the training. Analyses conducted on the continuous personality scores demonstrate that these findings are misrepresented or hidden by linear correlations and regressions. As an alternative, I present a configural scoring scheme, couched in a poker analogy, to explain how these individual differences combine to predict the odds of success for each of the 18 personality types studied.

Training for Crisis Decision-Making: Psychological Issues and Computer-Based Solutions

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2002

Patrick Wadlington

Crises demand swift and effective decision-making; yet there are many problems in training personnel on the skills necessary to achieve the goals of crisis management. This paper has three objectives concerning training for crisis management. First we integrate diverse literatures and present a framework for an understanding of the unique challenges in crisis management training, and the role of training systems with capabilities for simulation, immersion, and critiquing. Second, we describe an example of a trainer for ship damage control, called DC-Train, which addresses these challenges. This system consists of a first-principles simulator that generates large numbers of realistic scenarios, an immersive multimedia interface that helps elicit psychological processes involved in actual crisis management, and a critiquing expert system that provides real-time and post-session feedback on human decision-making performance. Finally, we present an empirical method for evaluating the effectiveness of such a system for crisis management training. Results of evaluation experiments with participants in a ship damage control training program indicate that the described computer-based trainer has psychological realism and improves decision-making performance.

Effects of different real-time feedback types on human performance in high-demanding work conditions

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2016

Experiencing stress during training is a way to prepare professionals for real-life crises. With the help of feedback tools, professionals can train to recognize and overcome negative effects of stress on task performances. This paper reports two studies that empirically examined the effect of such a feedback system. The system, based on the COgnitive Performance and Error (COPE) model, provides its users with physiological, predicted performance and predicted error-chance feedback. The first experiment focussed on creating stressful scenarios and establishing the parameters for the predictive models for the feedback system. Participants (n=9) performed fire-extinguishing tasks on a virtual ship. By altering time pressure, information uncertainty and consequences of performance, stress was induced. COPE variables were measured and models were established that predicted performance and the chances on specific errors. In the second experiment a new group of participants (n=29) carried out the same tasks while receiving eight different combinations of the three feedback types in a counterbalanced order. Performance scores improved when feedback was provided during the task. The number of errors made did not decrease. The usability score for the system with physiological feedback was significantly higher than a system without physiological feedback, unless combined with error feedback.

Emotional intelligence and sense of humor as predictive variables of subjective well-being

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2012
BEHAV PSYCHOL

The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Sense of Humor (SH) and their predictive ability on two dimensions of subjective well-being: Psychological Subjective Well-being (PSW) and Material Subjective Well-being (MSW). Previous studies have noted a relationship between these constructs and emotional intelligence but separately. A total of 113 participants between 18 and 27 years (M= 19.6, SD= 3.9), have completed an ability measure of EI, a questionnaire about SH and a subjective well-being scale. Our results show that the creating humor, appreciation of humor and use of humor in coping with problems predict the PSW, whereas the appreciation of humor and emotion management predicted the MSW. Our study contributes to knowledge in two important aspects: first, we found that the SH and EI have an impact on the subjective well-being, and secondly, it also provides empirical evidence about the differential effect of the components of the SH and the IE on the PSW and the MSW.

Implicit Personality and Leadership in Stressful and Dangerous Situations: A First Step

Article

Jan 2012

Daniel R Smith

The circadian typology is related to differences in emotional intelligence in healthy adults

Article

Apr 2014
PERS INDIV DIFFER

Several aspects related to health, such as satisfaction with life, perceived well-being, and psychopathological symptomatology have been associated with circadian typology and with emotional intelligence. Nevertheless, the relationships between circadian typology and emotional intelligence have not been explored yet. The purpose of the present study is to examine the relationships between circadian typology and emotional intelligence, taking into account the possible interactions between sex and physical exercise, and controlling for age. A sample of 1011 participants (649 women), aged between 18 and 50 yrs (26.92 AE 6.53) completed the reduced Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (rMEQ) and the Trait Meta-Mood Scale-24 (TMMS-24). The TMMS-24 considers three dimensions of emotional intelligence: emotional attention, emotional clarity, and emotional repair. Women showed higher values for emotional attention, whereas men showed higher values for emotional repair (p50.035, in both cases). Subjects who do physical exercise weekly showed higher values for emotional repair (p ¼ 0.001) regardless of circadian typology or sex. Circadian typology presents differences in all scores of emotional intelligence dimensions. Morning-type had lower emotional attention than evening-and neither-type; neither-type had lower emotional repair than morning-type, and lower emotional clarity than both evening-and morning-type (p50.046, in all cases). Moreover, circadian typology modulated the sex differences in emotional attention, and only morning-type men showed a low emotional attention score. From the results of emotional intelligence we can conclude that morning typology may be a protective factor in terms of general health, whereas we should be aware that the neither-type may present a possible vulnerability to develop psychological problems.

HEROES AT RISK: An Overview of How Emotional Intelligence Can Reduce Death and Injury for Firefighters

Conference Paper

Full-text available

Nov 2013

Contrary to popular belief, the leading cause of death for firefighters is heart attack, not physical injury. Even more startling is the fact that most deaths do not happen during an active call. Over 47% of firefighter deaths are due to cardiac arrest (USFA-FEMA, 2013). Although various prevention methods have been defined and put into place, deaths have not decreased over the years, fire ground injury rates have held steady, and stress levels are increasing (Carlisle, 1999). This lack of improvement confirms the need for new strategies that promote wellness, awareness, and effective personal reactions to incident-related stress (Brennan, 2002; Duncan, et al., 2013). While the number of fatal heart attacks has held steady, the attempts to reduce these statistics have centered on increasing physical exercise, better diet, reducing smoking and alcohol, more training in standard operating procedures, weight loss, and getting enough sleep (FEMA, 2002). The efforts that address fatality issues suggest improving physical health, but few define psychological or emotional programs to deal with the hidden effects of stress, and reduce the related results of injury and death. Exercise does help with overall health, but such programs have not reduced the deaths caused by cardiac arrest. Thus, other prevention factors must be considered. This retrospective study and exploratory paper investigates statistical facts regarding firefighter death and injury, describes current methods that try to deal with these, and defines an entirely new approach to help rescue our rescuers through increasing their emotional intelligence skills.

Psychophysiological Responses of Firefighters to Emergencies: A Review

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2014
Open Sports Sci J

Firefighters perform strenuous muscular works in hazardous environments and chaotic conditions, under time pressure and psychological stress. Various studies have shown high values of oxygen uptake, heart rate, blood lactate concentrations and salivary cortisol and A-Amylase in laboratory test, in real-life and simulated interventions of firefighters. These high values have been attributed to the combined effect of the metabolically active muscle, thermoregulatory strain and fatigue resulting from the protective gear and a self-contained breathing apparatus in addition to further supplementary overweight (i.e., lifting weights, rescuing victims). In order to protect health and safety of firefighters and victims during emergencies, high levels of cardiovascular endurance and strength in firefighters are strongly recommended. In fact, high levels of physical fitness showed to increase firefighters’ work ability, safety and decreased risk of injury

Circadian Typology and Emotional Intelligence in Healthy Adults

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2013
CHRONOBIOL INT

Several aspects related to health, such as satisfaction with life, perceived well-being, and psychopathological symptomatology have been associated with circadian typology and with emotional intelligence. Nevertheless, the relationships between circadian typology and emotional intelligence have not been explored yet. The purpose of the present study is to examine the relationships between circadian typology and emotional intelligence, taking into account the possible interactions between sex and physical exercise, and controlling for age. A sample of 1011 participants (649 women), aged between 18 and 50 yrs (26.92 ± 6.53) completed the reduced Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (rMEQ) and the Trait Meta-Mood Scale-24 (TMMS-24). The TMMS-24 considers three dimensions of emotional intelligence: emotional attention, emotional clarity, and emotional repair. Women showed higher values for emotional attention, whereas men showed higher values for emotional repair (p < 0.035, in both cases). Subjects who do physical exercise weekly showed higher values for emotional repair (p = 0.001) regardless of circadian typology or sex. Circadian typology presents differences in all scores of emotional intelligence dimensions. Morning-type had lower emotional attention than evening- and neither-type; neither-type had lower emotional repair than morning-type, and lower emotional clarity than both evening- and morning-type (p < 0.046, in all cases). Moreover, circadian typology modulated the sex differences in emotional attention, and only morning-type men showed a low emotional attention score. From the results of emotional intelligence we can conclude that morning typology may be a protective factor in terms of general health, whereas we should be aware that the neither-type may present a possible vulnerability to develop psychological problems.

Investigating the "Rescue Personality"

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2009

Mitchell and Bray use the term rescue personality as a way of describing characteristics of individuals who serve in the emergency services and describe emergency service workers as inner-directed, action oriented, obsessed with high standards of performance, traditional, socially conservative, easily bored, and highly dedicated.This rescue personality has provided an important foundation for the controversial Critical Incident Stress Management model; however, little empirical evidence is available demonstrating its existence.Previous literature has primarily considered emergency service personality characteristics as predictors of posttraumatic symptoms and/or effective job performance. Consequently, a gap in the literature exists with respect to research investigating the existence of a particular personality type for emergency service workers, as compared with those working in nonemergency occupations. The present project compared a group of paid professional firefighters (n = 94) with a comparison group (n = 91) who worked in nonemergency occupations. The hypotheses were guided by Mitchell’s description of the rescue personality.That is, according to Mitchell’s description, firefighters were expected to self-report lower levels of the characteristic openness to experience, higher levels of the characteristic conscientiousness, higher self-reported Type A behavior, and higher self-reported tolerance for risk-taking behavior. None of these hypotheses were supported; however, firefighters reported the characteristic of extraversion at significantly higher rates than did comparison participants.

La inteligencia emocional y el sentido del humor como variables predictoras del bienestar subjetivo

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2012
BEHAV PSYCHOL

El objetivo de este trabajo ha sido analizar la relación y la capacidad predictiva de la inteligencia emocional (IE) y el sentido del humor (SH) sobre dos dimensiones del bienestar subjetivo: el bienestar psicológico subjetivo (BPS) y el bienestar material subjetivo (BMS). Los estudios previos han observado una relación entre estos constructos y la inteligencia emocional pero de manera separada. Un total de 113 participantes entre 18 y 27 años (M= 19,6; DT= 3,9), han completado una medida de habilidad de IE, un cuestionario de SH y una escala de bienestar subjetivo. Nuestros resultados muestran que la creación de humor, la apreciación de humor y el uso del humor en el afrontamiento de problemas predicen el BPS y que la apreciación de humor y el manejo emocional predicen el BMS. Este estudio mostró que el SH y la IE influyen en el bienestar subjetivo y aportó pruebas empíricas acerca del efecto diferencial de los componentes del SH y de la IE en el BPS y en el BMS.

Emotion and Evolving Treatments for Adult Psychopathology

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2007

Clinical psychology has historically underplayed the importance of emotions in conceptualizing and treating adult psychopathology. However, there has been a recent convergence among numerous theoretical orientations in drawing from investigations of emotions within basic affective sciences, which highlight the survival and societal functions of emotions, the involvement of multiple biological systems in emotion generation, and a dynamic model for regulatory aspects of emotions. These characterizations of emotion suggest a number of ways that current treatments may benefit from explicit incorporation of interventions targeting emotions, particularly for resistant forms of adult psychopathology. Specifically, emotion-related skills training and broadening the role of emotions in meaning change may be important areas for expansion within the treatment of adult psychopathology.

Does Perceived Emotional Intelligence and Optimism/pessimism Predict Psychological Well-being?

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2011

In this study we examined the associations between perceived emotional intelligence, dispositional optimism/pessimism and psychological well-being. In addition to correlational analyses, we examined a model by structural equation modeling (SEM). The study of psychological well-being in the field of positive psychology from the paradigmatic approach to happiness developed by Ryff and Singer (Psychother Psychosomat 65(1):14–23, 1998) is very important and essential, due in part to the lack of studies analyzing the predictors of Ryff’s PWB model by contemplating emotional and cognitive factors. In this framework, our study examines the possible role of optimism and PEI as possible predictors of the psychological well-being dimensions proposed by Ryff, with a specific pattern of relationships as a model. Our results show positive relationships between clarity and emotional regulation and the psychological well-being components. With regard to dispositional optimism versus pessimism, positive relationships were found between optimism and psychological well-being dimensions and negative relationships between pessimism and dimensions of psychological well-being. Our model also includes some relationships, not initially raised, between the dimensions of perceived emotional intelligence and some dimensions of psychological well-being. Our results suggest relationships between emotional attention and purpose in life as well as with personal growth dimensions of psychological well-being. Implications and limitations are discussed. KeywordsPerceived emotional intelligence–Dispositional optimism/pessimism–Psychological well-being

Training for Crisis Decision-Making: Psychological Issues and Computer-Based Solutions.

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2002

Perceived emotional intelligence facilitates cognitive-emotional processes of adaptation to an acute stressor

Article

Jun 2007

This study examined the influence of perceived emotional intelligence (PEI) and intrusive thoughts on emotional responses following a stressful event. PEI was assessed on 144 participants using the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS). The TMMS assesses perceived ability to: (1) attend to moods (Attention); (2) discriminate clearly among moods (Clarity); and (3) regulate moods (Repair). The main purpose of this paper was to examine the relationship between PEI, intrusive thoughts, and adjustment to an acute stressor induced experimentally in the laboratory, on two separate days. Finally, we examined the relationship between PEI, Inhibition, and Empathy. Results indicated that Clarity influences emotional responses on Day 1, and Repair affects emotional responses on Day 2 indirectly via intrusive thoughts, which act as a mediator. Significant associations were obtained between the three factors of the TMMS with Empathy and Inhibition. These findings suggest that individuals with higher emotional Clarity and Repair will experience less negative emotional responses and intrusive thoughts after an acute stressor, which enables them to adapt more readily to the experience.

Phased Training for High-Reliability Occupations: Live-Fire Exercises for Civilian Firefighters

Article

Oct 2011

The aim of this study was to assess whether the stress reduction effects of phased training culminating in repeated exposure to a stressful scenario generalize to new scenarios. High-reliability occupations require personnel to operate in stressful situations involving complex environments, high degrees of uncertainty and time pressure, and severe consequences for mistakes. One method of training for such environments culminates in practice in high-fidelity, highly stressful simulations. For some domains, realism necessitates large-scale, difficult-to-modify physical simulations. This necessity often results in repeated exposure to one or very few scenarios. The literature gives reason to question whether the stress reduction effects of such exposure transfer to new scenarios. Anxiety and cognitive difficulties were measured among firefighter trainees during three live-fire drills. For each trainee, two drills involved the same scenario, and the other involved a new scenario that was structurally similar to the repeated scenario. As predicted, anxiety and cognitive difficulties decreased across repetitions of the same scenario. However, the reduction did not generalize to a new scenario, and a nontrivial portion of the sample showed signs of negative transfer. Repeated exposure to the same stressful scenario as the final phase of training has limited practical value for stress reduction. Methods for expanding the range of scenarios to which trainees are exposed or for increasing the value of the exposure are recommended. The findings could help improve design of training programs for high-reliability occupations.

El papel de la IEP y del Optimismo/Pesimismo disposicional en la resolución de problemas sociales: Un estudio con alumnos de trabajo social

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2008

Introducción. El presente estudio analiza la validez predictiva de la inteligencia emocional percibida y del optimismo/pesimismo disposicional en la resolución de problemas sociales en estudiantes de trabajo social.Método. Un total de 122 estudiantes de segundo curso de la Diplomatura de Trabajo Social de la Universidad de Jaén (España) completaron las siguientes escalas en su versión castellana: TMMS, LOT-R y SPSI-R.Resultados. Los análisis de correlaciones han mostrado relaciones significativas entre las escalas del TMMS y LOT-R con las sub-escalas del SPSI-R. Los análisis de regresión jerárquica han encontrado que el factor de IEP denominado Claridad emocional predice parte de la varianza de las sub-escalas del SPSI-R denominadas Orientación positiva hacia los problemas, Resolución racional de problemas y Estilo de evitación. Por otra parte, el factor Atención a las emociones explicó parte de la varianza de la sub-escala Orientación negativa hacia el problema. Así mismo el LOT-R predice parte de la varianza de las sub-escalas del SPSI-R.Discusión y Conclusión. Estos resultados apuntan que los futuros trabajadores sociales con alta claridad emocional y que muestran actitudes optimistas, están en mejores condiciones de afrontar y solucionar problemas sociales.

Self-Esteem and Affect as Information

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2005

Kent D Harber

This research tests whether people with high self-esteem are more informed by their emotions than are people with low self-esteem. In Study 1, participants listened to a series of disturbing baby cries, rated how much distress these cries conveyed, and reported their own emotional reactions to the cries. As predicted, the relation between participants' emotional reactions and their cry ratings was strongest at higher levels of self-esteem. In Study 2, self-esteem again determined how strongly participants' own emotional reactions influenced their baby cry ratings, even though esteem was measured weeks before the experiment and even after controlling for social desirability. Study 3 manipulated self-regard and showed that the correlation between participants' emotional reactions and their cry ratings was strong for high-regard participants, moderate for control participants, and weak for low-regard participants. These results suggest that self-esteem serves to validate the informational value of feelings.

Schizotypy Facets, Cognitive Control, and Emotion

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2006

John G. Kerns

This research examined whether facets of schizotypy were differentially related to cognitive control and emotion-processing traits. In a confirmatory factor analysis (N = 261), a 3-factor model of schizotypy exhibited good fit and fit significantly better than a 2-factor model. In addition, only disorganized schizotypy was associated with poor cognitive control (specifically, prepotent inhibition). Moreover, disorganized but not positive schizotypy was associated with increased emotional confusion and increased emotionality. In contrast, negative schizotypy was associated with increased emotional confusion but decreased emotionality. These results suggest that disorganized schizotypy is related to dysregulation of both cognition and emotion and that negative schizotypy might reflect deficits in the experience and processing of emotion and not just in emotional expression.

Exploring the relationship between perceived emotional intelligence, coping, social support and mental health in nursing students

Article

May 2007

Studies conducted with nurses or nursing students have shown that emotional intelligence is a skill that minimizes the negative stress consequences. The present work examines the role of perceived emotional intelligence (PEI) measured by the Trait Meta-Mood Scale, in the use of stress-coping strategies, in the quantity and quality of social support and in the mental health of nursing students. The results indicated positive correlations between clarity and social support, social support and repair, and social support and mental health. Hierarchy regression analysis pointed out that clarity and emotional repair are predictors of social support, and emotional repair is the main predictor of mental health. These results show the importance of PEI in stress coping within the nursing framework.

Delineating Components of Emotion and its Dysregulation in Anxiety and Mood Psychopathology

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2007
BEHAV THER

Two studies sought to elucidate the components of emotion and its dysregulation and examine their role in both the overlap and distinctness of the symptoms of 3 highly comorbid anxiety and mood disorders (i.e., generalized anxiety disorder, major depression, and social anxiety disorder). In Study 1, exploratory factor analyses demonstrated that 4 factors--heightened intensity of emotions, poor understanding of emotions, negative reactivity to emotions, and maladaptive management of emotions--best reflected the structure of 4 commonly used measures of emotion function and dysregulation. In Study 2, a separate sample provided support for this 4-factor model of emotion dysregulation. Poor understanding, negative reactivity, and maladaptive management were found to relate to a latent factor of emotion dysregulation. In contrast, heightened intensity of emotions was better characterized separately, suggesting it may relate more strongly to dispositional emotion generation or emotionality. Finally, the 4 components demonstrated both common and specific relationships to self-reported symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder, major depression, and social anxiety disorder.

role of trait meta-mood scale on academic achievement among adolescents

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2022

Although emotional intelligence is related to psychological and social adjustment, currently there is not any tool that enables valid and reliable measurement of such construct in the adolescent population. The TMMS is a well-established assessment tool of perceived emotional intelligence in adolescence that measures peoples beliefs and attitudes about their own emotional experience. We examined the psychometric properties of TMMS in a sample of 300 participants (ages ranging between 12 to 16 years). The results corroborated the three – factor structure of the scale (Attention to feelings, Clarity of feelings, and Mood repair). Moreover, these dimensions showed adequate internal consistency and temporal stability and correlated among themselves in the expected direction. In the Pre-test finding, the impact of TMMS on Academic achievement of adolescents was studied. Those adolescents who were found low in TMMS in Pre-test were given intervention and after that its impact w.r.t academic achievement was studied. We found that intervention have positive impact on academic achievement.

Meta-Analysis of the Associations Among Constructs of Intrapersonal Emotion Knowledge

Article

Jan 2022

To better define the boundaries of conceptually overlapping constructs of intrapersonal emotion knowledge (EK), we examined meta-analytic correlations among five intrapersonal EK-related constructs (affect labelling, alexithymia, emotional awareness, emotional clarity, emotion differentiation) and attention to emotion. Affect labelling, alexithymia, and emotional clarity were strongly associated, and they were moderately associated with attention to emotion. Alexithymia and emotional awareness were weakly associated, and emotion differentiation was unrelated with emotional clarity. Sample characteristics and measures moderated some of the associations. Publication bias was not found, except for the alexithymia-emotional awareness association. This study helped to clarify the extent to which similarly defined constructs overlap or are distinct, which can inform our decision to adequately label important constructs and employ corresponding measures.

Personality and individual characteristics as indicators of lifetime climbing success among Everest mountaineers

Article

Aug 2020
PERS INDIV DIFFER

To measure the importance of personality and individual characteristics in such extreme environments as high-altitude mountaineering, this study investigated how physical, physiological, and/or hormonal markers provide insights into individual predilections for competitive and risk-taking behaviours. Because climbing outcomes depend on the ability to overcome adverse environmental conditions, avoid unnecessary risks, and exert sufficient self-regulation to handle extreme physiological and psychological stressors, it focused particularly on the relation between the successful scaling among Mount Everest climbers and risk attitudes, personality factors (from the Big Five Inventory) or traits associated with prenatal androgen exposure (2D:4D ratio). The results indicate not only that the 2D:4D ratio positively predicts lifetime mountaineering success but that the more risk averse open-minded and emotionally stable the climbers, the more active and successful compared to their peers. These findings, in addition to suggesting that human biological and psychological traits substantially influence success and long-term performance in extreme situations, offer valuable insights into how humans with different tendencies are likely to behave under such stressful conditions.

Emotions, time, and strategy: The effects of happiness and sadness on strategic decision-making under time constraints

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2019
LONG RANGE PLANN

Managers often have limited available time to make high-quality strategic decisions that are both original and feasible. This joint objective is important but difficult to achieve because under time constraints, managers must combine different cognitive processes that are often influenced by emotional states. However, research investigating how time constraints and emotions interact and impact the quality of strategic decisions is scarce. Building upon the affect infusion model and information processing perspective, our experimental study involving 174 managers shows that the impact of time constraints and emotions varies across the two decision-making tasks of strategic idea generation and strategic choice. In particular, compared to the managers in a neutral emotional state under low time constraints, the happy managers under high time constraints seemed to generate fewer original and fewer feasible strategic ideas and appeared to make worse original strategic choices, while compared to the managers in a neutral emotional state under low time constraints, the sad managers under high time constraints made better original strategic choices. Our study contributes novel insight into behavioral strategy research by showing how time constraints and emotions causally and jointly influence different quality dimensions in various tasks involving strategic decision-making.

Emotions in the Fire Service: Decision-Making, Risk, and Coping

Chapter

Full-text available

May 2019

Thomas Rhys Evans

This chapter presents a literature review to explore the importance of emotions within the work conducted by Fire Service personnel. Drawing from Emotional Intelligence theory, the intense demands placed upon Fire Service personnel are discussed alongside the benefits and risks associated with the emotions experienced and the strategies used to manage them. Key findings within the literature are synthesised and demonstrate the fundamental role of emotion for effective coping and decision-making, securing meaningful work and ensuring team cohesion. Whilst some consensuses emerge from the field, there is much left to do to encourage acknowledgement of the role of emotions at all levels of the Fire Service and thus recommendations for conducting Job Analyses are provided.

Creative responses to imminent threats: The role of threat direction and perceived effectiveness

Article

Jan 2018

Previous work on the threat-creativity link has mainly used paradigms in which participants had ample time to generate ideas. However, people under imminent threats have limited time to think of, and select, the single best response for actual implementation. In three studies, we examined the effect of imminent threats on the generation and selection of threat responses. Participants facing self-directed or other-directed threats were asked to select one out of two alternative responses that differed on either originality or usefulness to deal with the displayed situation (Studies 1 and 2) or think of and decide on, a fitting response themselves (Study 3). They did so under high or low time pressure (Studies 1–3) and reported their perceived effectiveness of each alternative response in managing the threats (Study 2). Participants selected and generated useful rather than original responses. Whereas time pressure did not moderate this effect, threat direction impacted the selection and generation of imminent threat responses: Self-directed rather than other-directed threats increased the selection and generation of original and creative responses because original responses were seen as more effective.

Stress, Cognition, and Human Performance

Data

Jul 2017

Osama Mohammed Elmardi Suleiman Khayal

Stress, Cognition, and Human Performance

The "rescue personality": Fact or fiction?

Article

Jan 2005

S.L. Wagner

Emergency response work is known to be an especially difficult and emotional profession. Given the emotional nature of this work, an intervention called the Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) has been developed as a method of diffusing the stress related to the experience of a critical incident. One of the fundamental tenets for the use of the CISD is a homogenous group of participants. Specifically, within the emergency services this homogeneity is, in part, reflected in what has been termed a "rescue personality"; a personality that is assumed to characterize the type of individual who chooses rescue-related work. Currently, there is little evidence for a distinct personality type that is reflective of emergency service workers as a whole.

Depressive symptoms, perceived emotional intelligence and ways of coping among pregnant women

Article

Jan 2011

The purpose of this research is to analyze the relationship between PEI levels (perceived emotional intelligence), ways of coping and depressive symptoms during pregnancy. For this purpose, we used the Trait Meta-Mood Scale-24 which evaluates perceived emotional intelligence (Salovey, Mayer, Goldman, Turvey & Palafai, 1995), the Ways of Coping Scale (Ruiz, Hernández & Hernández, 2004), and adapted version of Edimburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (Cox, Holden & Sagovsky, 1987) in 668 pregnant women. Our results show that excessive emotional attention increases depressive symptoms, desiderative thoughts, resignation and self-blame. Increasing emotional Clarity and Repair reduces depressive symptoms and enables the use of more adaptative ways of coping during pregnancy.

Psychosocial Hazards and Risks

Chapter

Jan 2016

The non-physical hazards of firefighting may be easily overlooked given the clearly more obvious physical risks these workers face. Less obvious, but no less deleterious, are issues such as stress, fatigue, and psychological trauma. In fact, it has been suggested that job-related deaths in this occupational group are more often caused by psychosocial hazards (e.g., stress and stress-related medical issues 33 %) than by direct exposure to the risk of injury. Psychosocial risk factors include shiftwork, sleep deprivation, multiple and urgent cognitive demands, critical incidents, lack of equipment or poorly designed/maintained equipment, changing environments, tedium, interpersonal conflict, interactions with the public/victims, lack of autonomy, poor supervision/support, role conflicts, and work-family balance. Collectively, these have been referred to as psychosocial hazards, which for the purpose of this chapter, will be defined as work-related psychosocial factors that cause distress, and have a negative influence on workers’ health and their abilities to perform successfully. These hazards are influenced by factors such as personality (e.g., extraversion) and culture (e.g., the brotherhood). Firefighting represent the extremes of frequently identified psychosocial hazards: job content, workload and work pace, work schedules, control, environment and equipment, organizational culture and function, interpersonal relationships, organizational role, career development and home-work interface include dysfunctional behavior, predisposition to injuries, and mental illness. Interventions can mitigate the effects of psychosocial hazards in firefighting.

Emotional Intelligence in Physical and Mental Health Emotional Intelligence in Physical and Mental Health

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2010

During the last decade, interest in the study of Emotional Intelligence and its relationship with health has increased considerably. This article aims to display the results of relevant studies linking Emotional Intelligence, as a trait, and physical and mental health condictions. Results indicate that high levels of emotional intelligence are significantly associated with a good mental health, while low levels of emotional intelligence are related with certain psychological disorders. Similarly, Emotional Intelligence seems to play a moderating role on the symptoms and medical conditions. Future studies should deepen knowledge of the relationship between emotional intelligence and psychological variables (i.e., personality, prosocial behavior, etc.), Emotional Intelligence and medical conditions (i.e., chronic pain, cancer, etc.).

Stress, Cognition, and Human Performance: A Literature Review and Conceptual Framework

Article

Nov 2003

Mark A. Staal

The Effect of Stress on Visual Selective Attention Regarding Conscientiousness

Article

Objectives: The aim of this research was to investigate the effect of stress on visual selective (focused) attention regarding the moderating effect of personality factor of conscientiousness. Method: 60 subjects were chosen by multi-stage random sampling method with respect to personality and neuropsychological criteria of the research and were placed in three equal groups (two experimental groups and one control group; each group consisted of 20 subjects). Cognitive stressor tasks were first administered to the subjects in both experimental groups, and their visual selective attention was assessed subsequently. The control group's visual selective attention was assessed without administrating any cognitive stressor tasks. Two indexes were used to assess the visual selective attention: counting error and classification error. The research data were analyzed by t-test for two independent samples. Results: The results showed that stress significantly increases the rate of both counting error and classification error (p<0.0001). It was also shown that conscien-tiousness contributes in stress effect and causes additional significant increase in both counting and classification errors (p<0.0001). Conclusion: The research results revealed that stress significantly reduces visual selective (focused) attention to neutral stimuli and conscien-tiousness accentuates this negative effect.

Can Firefighters’ Mental Health Be Predicted by Emotional Intelligence and Proactive Coping?

Article

Jan 2012
J LOSS TRAUMA

The present study explores emotional intelligence and proactive coping as possible protective factors for both a group of paid-professional firefighters (n = 94) and a group of similar comparison participants (n = 91). Each respondent completed the Impact of Events Scale-Revised, Symptom Checklist 90-Revised, Emotional Intelligence Scale, and Proactive Coping Scale. Using an exploratory/liberal Type 1 error rate (α ≤ .10), our results suggested that for firefighters emotional intelligence negatively predicted self-reported traumatic stress (β = −.198), while proactive coping negatively predicted several other mental health symptoms (obsessive-compulsive β = −.192, depression β = −.220, anxiety β = −.295). For the comparison participants, the pattern of results was substantially different from the firefighters in that emotional intelligence negatively predicted several mental health symptoms (interpersonal sensitivity β = − .465, depression β = − .239, anxiety β = −.269, hostility β = −.349) and proactive coping only predicted a lack of psychoticism (β = −.216).

Emotion and the Acceptance-Based Approaches to the Anxiety Disorders

Chapter

Jan 2005

Douglas Mennin

Recent years have seen an eruption of interest and subsequent research on what are now being termed, acceptance-based behavioral treatments (Orsillo, Roemer, & Holowka, 2005). Approaches such as dialectical behavior therapy (DBT; Linehan, 1993a), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT; S. C. Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999), and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT; Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2002) have expanded the boundaries of the cognitive-behavioral paradigm considerably. These approaches have offered novel solutions to vexing problems (e.g., relapse, poor outcome in functionality, and life satisfaction) in personality disorders (Linehan, 1993a), depression (Segal et al. 2002), and, particularly, anxiety disorders (Eifert & Forsyth, 2005; S. C. Hayes et al., 1999; Roemer & Orsillo, 2005). Cognitive-behavioral approaches to the anxiety disorders have historically demonstrated considerable efficacy (see Chambless & Gillis, 1993), but it has become increasingly clear that for more complex, chronic, and refractory presentations of these conditions, further intervention may be required to instill a lasting sense of change, functionality, and life satisfaction (Newman, 2000).

Perceptions of Various Cartographic Representations Under Specific Conditions

Chapter

Jan 2010

Maps are usually better abstractions of reality than other media and allow easier perception of included spatial information. This fact makes maps convenient for several specialised societal purposes, including emergency management and transportation, among others. It is very important to understand the processes of reading and understanding map representations during a variety of situations. There are significant differences in map use by various users. Differences can be caused by variations in cartographic method or lack of time. Therefore, specific situations need specific map representations. This article addresses the problem of testing the practice of reading and understanding maps. The evaluation emphasises the externality of the testing process, meaning that results cannot be based only on subjective opinions of tested participants. Results of the testing will be used for construction of suitable maps for various situations as well as the development of a software tool that will enable creation of standardised testing sets. Additionally, standardised research methodology will be developed to enhance exploration of cognitive map reading processes. Results are validated by statistical analysis tools using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. Fundamentally, this work provides insights into the processes of perception by different groups of users, allowing increased map information transmission efficiency, especially important during crisis situations.

Cognitive and emotional components of anxiety: Literature review and a revised worry–emotionality scale

Article

Full-text available

Aug 1981

Reviews the literature generated by R. M. Liebert and L. W. Morris's (1967) 2-component conceptualization of anxiety, specifically test anxiety, and other related theoretical and research programs. It is concluded (a) that the inverse relationship between anxiety and various performance variables under appropriate conditions is attributable primarily to the worry–performance relationship, supporting a cognitive–attentional view of performance deficits; (b) that the 2 components are probably aroused and maintained by different aspects of stressful situations; certainly worry may or may not be accompanied by the emotional component; and (c) that efforts to apply the distinction to the development of more effective treatment techniques have been productive. Recent advances in assessment are noted, and a revised worry–emotionality questionnaire is presented, along with the factor-analytic evidence on which it is based. A social learning position is used to provide further theoretical perspective. (2½ p ref)

Individual Differences in Emotional Experience: Mapping Available Scales to Processes

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2000
Pers Soc Psychol Bull

Increasing interest in individual differences related to emotion is evident in the recent appearance of a large number of self-report instruments designed to assess aspects of the feeling experience. In this article, the authors review a sample of 18 of these scales and report technical information on each (e.g., length, format, reliability, construct validity, and correlates). They propose that this domain of individual differences can be usefully structured into five conceptual categories, including measures of absorption, attention, clarity, intensity, and expression. The measures were administered to a sample of individuals, and the coherence of the proposed categories was examined through hierarchical cluster analyses. The results confirmed the proposed structure of this domain of individual difference measures. The authors argue for the usefulness of an individual differences approach to theory testing and specify some of the information-processing roles that might be played by the categories of individual differences found in the data.

The Measurement and Conceptualization of Mood Awareness: Monitoring and Labeling One's Mood States

Article

Full-text available

Sep 1995
Pers Soc Psychol Bull

The construct of mood awareness is presented as a form of attention directed toward one's mood states. Two dimensions of mood awareness were investigated through the development and validation of the Mood Awareness Scale. Mood monitoring refers to a tendency to scrutinize and focus on one's moods, whereas mood labeling refers to the ability to identify and categorize one's moods. The role of these two dimensions in self-reported affective experience was explored in four studies using various measures of personality, affect, and mood regulation. Mood monitoring predicted the experience of negative affect, neuroticism, intense affective reactions, and greater rumination on negative mood. Mood labeling predicted the experience of positive affect, extraversion, high self-esteem, and greater satisfaction with social support. The usefulness of these dimensions for predicting affective outcomes is discussed.

The Logic of Failure: Discussion

Article

Full-text available

Apr 1990
PHILOS T R SOC B

Unlike other living creatures, humans can adapt to uncertainty. They can form hypotheses about situations marked by uncertainty and can anticipate their actions by planning. They can expect the unexpected and take precautions against it. In numerous experiments, we have investigated the manner in which humans deal with these demands. In these experiments, we used computer simulated scenarios representing, for example, a small town, ecological or economic systems or political systems such as a Third World country. Within these computer-simulated scenarios, the subjects had to look for information, plan actions, form hypotheses, etc.

The harassed decision maker: Time pressures, distractions, and the use of evidence

Article

Full-text available

Oct 1974

Peter Wright

Investigated dominant simplifying strategies people use in adapting to different information processing environments. It was hypothesized that judges operating under either time pressure or distraction would systematically place greater weight on negative evidence than would their counterparts under less strainful conditions. 6 groups of male undergraduates (N = 210) were presented 5 pieces of information to assimilate in evaluating cars as purchase options. 3 groups operated under varying time pressure conditions, while 3 groups operated under varying levels of distraction. Data usage models assuming disproportionately heavy weighting of negative evidence provided best fits to a signficantly higher number of Ss in the high time pressure and moderate distraction conditions. Ss attended to fewer data dimensions in these conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Ackerman, P.L.: Motivation and Cognitive Abilities: An Integrative/Aptitude-Treatment Interaction Approach to Skill Acquisition. Journal of Applied Psychology 74, 657-690

Article

Full-text available

Aug 1989

Two central constructs of applied psychology, motivation and cognitive ability, were integrated within an information-processing (IPR) framework. This framework simultaneously considers individual differences in cognitive abilities, self-regulatory processes of motivation, and IPR demands. Evidence for the framework is provided in the context of skill acquisition, in which IPR and ability demands change as a function of practice, training paradigm, and timing of goal setting (GS). Three field-based lab experiments were conducted with 1,010 US Air Force trainees. Exp 1 evaluated the basic ability–performance parameters of the air traffic controller task and GS effects early in practice. Exp 2 evaluated GS later in practice. Exp 3 investigated the simultaneous effects of training content, GS and ability–performance interactions. Results support the theoretical framework and have implications for notions of ability–motivation interactions and design of training and motivation programs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Emotional intensity: Measurement and theoretical implications

Article

Full-text available

Aug 1994
PERS INDIV DIFFER

The individual difference construct of emotional intensity has received substantial theoretical and empirical attention. However, the principal measure used to measure emotional intensity appears to confound frequency with intensity in the response format. We developed the Emotional Intensity Scale (EIS) to make available a measure of emotional intensity independent of frequency. The EIS demonstrated strong internal reliability and temporal stability. Some of the theoretical implications of the correlations that were obtained among positive affect, negative affect, Extraversion, and Neuroticism are described.

The Logic of Failure

Article

Full-text available

May 1990

Dietrich Dörner

Reappraisal of the relationship between noise and human performance by means of a subsidiary task measure

Article

Full-text available

Jun 1970

Investigated the notion that where demands imposed by the task and concurrent environmental stress are within the operator's total information-handling capacity, the task can be performed substantially without errors. For performance degradation to occur, the operator's channel capacity must be exceeded. It was assumed that unpredictable noise in combination with multiple task performance would result in such an overload, whereas the introduction of predictable noise would not have such an effect. Ss were 23 undergraduates. A subsidiary task method consisting of the delayed recall of randomly presented digits was used to measure overload. As expected, the use of unpredictable, as opposed to predictable noise resulted in performance degradation on the subsidiary task. Performance on the primary task was unaffected by either type of noise. It is concluded that results reflect a reduction in spare mental capacity as a function of the aversiveness of the noise stressor.

Differential effect of noise on tasks of varying complexity

Article

Full-text available

Apr 1968

SIMULTANEOUS TASKS WERE USED TO TEST THE HYPOTHESIS THAT THE DELETERIOUS EFFECT OF NOISE ON PERFORMANCE VARIES AS A FUNCTION OF TASK COMPLEXITY. 48 COLLEGE STUDENTS PERFORMED ON 1 OF 2 COMPLEXITY LEVELS OF A 4 CHOICE RT TASK WHILE PERFORMING A SECONDARY AUDITORY MONITORING TASK. ALL SS PERFORMED IN BOTH QUIET AND NOISE. PERFORMANCE INDEXES WERE RT AND SECONDARY TASK ERRORS. NOISE PRODUCED A SIGNIFICANTLY GREATER INCREASE IN SECONDARY TASK ERRORS WHEN THE SECONDARY TASK WAS PAIRED WITH THE COMPLEX PRIMARY TASK. SECONDARY TASK PERFORMANCE PROVIDED A MORE SENSITIVE MEASURE OF BOTH TASK COMPLEXITY AND THE EFFECT OF NOISE THAN DID RT. (25 REF.)

Self-evaluation, stress, and performance: A model of decision making under acute stress.

Chapter

Jan 2001

The study of stress and human performance

Article

Jan 1996

Models of Emotional Intelligence.

Chapter

Jan 2000

Introduction: The Study of Stress and Human Performance

Article

Worry and emotionality in test anxiety

Chapter

Jan 1980

J. L. Deffenbacher

Cognitive-attentional theory of test anxiety

Chapter

Jan 1980

J. D. Wine

A Cognitive Model of Panic

Article

Jan 1986
BEHAV RES THER

David M Clark

proposed that panic attacks result from the catastrophic misinterpretation of certain bodily sensations . . . involved in normal anxiety responses (e.g., palpitations, breathlessness and dizziness) perceiving these sensations as much more dangerous than they really are / indicative of an immediate, impending disaster types of panic attack / nonconscious processes / state or trait characteristic / fear of fear / hypochondriasis review the literature on panic to determine the extent to which it is consistent with the proposed model / ideational components / perceived sequence of events / role of hyperventilation / lactate-induced / biological factors / pharmacological treatment (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Affect Intensity as an Individual Difference Characteristic: A Review

Article

Mar 1987

Affect intensity is a stable individual difference characteristic defined in terms of the typical strength of an individual's responsiveness. Evidence is reviewed suggesting that the intensity of an individual's affective responsiveness generalizes across specific emotion categories, implying a general temperament dimension of emotional reactivity and variability. Two methods of assessing affect intensity are evaluated and found to exhibit desirable psychometric properties. Substantive research on the validity of the affect intensity construct is reviewed. Affect intensity is related to a variety of specific personality characteristics, has identifiable antecedents in childhood behavior, and relates to a broad range of cognitive, affective, and health-related consequences. An arousal regulation theory is proposed to account for individual differences in affective response intensity. Other plausible theories are mentioned, and directions for future research are discussed.

The role of attribution in the experience of crowding

Article

Jan 1979

The theory that the subjective experience of crowding results from an attribution of arousal process was examined. Specifically, it was predicted that subjects who were aroused by having their personal space violated would experience less crowding if they were led to believe that some other environmental factor was responsible for the arousal. Groups of subjects were placed in a room in which their personal space was either violated or not violated. Some subjects were told that either an arousing or a relaxing subliminal noise would be played into the room. (Actually there was no noise.) Other subjects were told nothing about subliminal noise. The subjects worked on a number of tasks and were then asked to report how crowded they felt. The noise manipulation had no effect on subjects' performance nor on feelings of crowdedness when their personal space was not being violated. However, when there was a violation of personal space, subjects who felt the noise would arouse them reported being less crowded and performed better than subjects in the relaxing noise or no explanation conditions. It was suggested that subjects attributed their arousal to the “arousing noise” and hence felt less crowded.

A Critical Evaluation of the Emotional Intelligence Construct

Article

Nov 2000
PERS INDIV DIFFER

This study critically evaluated the Emotional Intelligence (EI) construct (the ability to perceive, understand, and manage emotions), as measured by the Multi-factor Emotional Intelligence Scale (MEIS in press). We administered the MEIS to Australian undergraduates along with a battery of IQ, personality, and other theoretically relevant criterion measures, including life satisfaction and relationship quality. We also induced moods in the students and examined whether people high in EI were better than others at managing their moods and preventing their moods from biasing their social judgments. Analyses revealed that EI was not related to IQ but was related, as expected, to specific personality measures (e.g., empathy) and to other criterion measures (e.g., life satisfaction) even after controlling for IQ and personality traits. EI was also related to people's ability to manage their moods, but not to their ability to prevent moods from biasing their judgments. IQ was surprisingly related to both these mood processes. The results suggest that the EI construct is distinctive and useful, but that traditional IQ may also be important in understanding emotional processes.

The Development of a Six-Item Short-Form of the State Scale of the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)

Article

Oct 1992

Two studies are reported describing the development of a short-form of the state scale of the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) for use in circumstances where the full-form is inappropriate. Using item-remainder correlations, the most highly correlated anxiety-present and anxiety-absent items were combined, and correlated with scores obtained using the full-form of the STAI. Correlation coefficients greater than .90 were obtained using four and six items from the STAI. Acceptable reliability and validity were obtained using six items. The use of this six-item short-form produced scores similar to those obtained using the full-form. This was so for several groups of subjects manifesting a range of anxiety levels. This short-form of the STAI is therefore sensitive to fluctuations in state anxiety. When compared with the full-form of the STAI, the six-item version offers a briefer and just as acceptable scale for subjects while maintaining results that are comparable to those obtained using the full-form of the STAI.

Decision Making Under Stress: Scanning of Alternatives Under Controllable and Uncontrollable Threats

Article

Apr 1987

Giora Keinan

This study tested the proposition that deficient decision making under stress is due, to a significant extent, to the individual's failure to fulfill adequately an elementary requirement of the decision-making process, that is, the systematic consideration of all relevant alternatives. One hundred one undergraduate students (59 women and 42 men), aged 20-40, served as subjects in this experiment. They were requested to solve decision problems, using an interactive computer paradigm, while being exposed to controllable stress, uncontrollable stress, or no stress at all. There was no time constraint for the performance of the task. The controllability of the stressor was found to have no effect on the participants' performance. However, those who were exposed to either controllable or uncontrollable stress showed a significantly stronger tendency to offer solutions before all available alternatives had been considered and to scan their alternatives in a nonsystematic fashion than did participants who were not exposed to stress. In addition, patterns of alternative scanning were found to be correlated with the correctness of solutions to decision problems.

Cognitive and emotional components of anxiety: Literature review and a revised worry-emotionality scale

Article

Sep 1981

Unpublished raw data Individual differences in emotional experience: Moderators of mood and cognition. Doctoral dissertation Individual differences in emotional experience: Mapping available scales to processes

Jan 1996
679-697

C L Gohm
C L Gohm

Gohm, C. L. (1996). [class on research in personality]. Unpublished raw data. Gohm, C. L. (1998). Individual differences in emotional experience: Moderators of mood and cognition. Doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, 1998. Dissertation Abstracts International, 9904467. Gohm, C. L., & Clore, G. L. (2000). Individual differences in emotional experience: Mapping available scales to processes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 679–697.

Models of emotional intelligence Handbook of intelligence Cognitive and emotional components of anxiety: Literature review and a revised worry-emotionality scale

Jan 1981
396-420

J D Mayer
P Salovey
D Caruso

Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., & Caruso, D. (2000). Models of emotional intelligence. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of intelligence (2nd ed., pp. 396–420). New York: Cambridge Univ. Press. Morris, L. W., Davis, M. A., & Hutchings, C. H. (1981). Cognitive and emotional components of anxiety: Literature review and a revised worry-emotionality scale. Journal of Educa-tional Psychology, 73(4), 541–555.

Emotional attention, clarity, and repair: Exploring emotional intelligence using the trait meta-mood scale

Jan 1995

P Salovey
J D Mayer
S L Goldman
C Turvey
T P Palfai

Salovey, P., Mayer, J. D., Goldman, S. L., Turvey, C., & Palfai, T. P. (1995). Emotional attention, clarity, and repair: Exploring emotional intelligence using the trait meta-mood scale. In J. Pennebaker (Ed.), Emotion, disclosure, and health. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Individual differences in emotional experience: Moderators of mood and cognition. Doctoral dissertation

C L Gohm

Gohm, C. L. (1998). Individual differences in emotional experience: Moderators of mood and cognition. Doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, 1998. Dissertation Abstracts International, 9904467.

Cognitive activities and anxiety in a high stress decision-making task. Paper presented at the Fourth Conference on Naturalistic Decision Making

Apr 1998

M R Baumann
C A Buerkle
J A Sniezek

Baumann, M. R., Buerkle, C. A., & Sniezek, J. A. (May 1998). Cognitive activities and anxiety in a high stress decision-making task. Paper presented at the Fourth Conference on Naturalistic Decision Making, Warrenton, VA.

Can ''thinking positive'' help performance? Cognitive resource allocation on a complex task under time pressure

Apr 1998

M R Baumann
M A Donovan
J A Sniezek

Baumann, M. R., Donovan, M. A., & Sniezek, J. A. (April 1998). Can ''thinking positive'' help performance? Cognitive resource allocation on a complex task under time pressure. Paper presented at the 70th annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago.

Self-evaluation, stress, and performance: A model of decision making under acute stress

Jan 2001
141-160

M R Baumann
J A Sniezek
C A Buerkle

Baumann, M. R., Sniezek, J. A., & Buerkle, C. A. (2001). Self-evaluation, stress, and performance: A model of decision making under acute stress. In E. Salas & G. Klein (Eds.), Linking expertise and naturalistic decision making (pp. 141-160). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Cognitive activities and anxiety in a high stress decision-making task

May 1998

M R Baumann
C A Buerkle
J A Sniezek

Emotional attention, clarity, and repair: Exploring emotional intelligence using the trait meta-mood scale

Jan 1995

Salovey

Personality in Extreme Situations: Thinking (or Not) under Acute Stress

Abstract

No full-text available

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