The assessment of trait emotional intelligence: psychometric characteristics of the TEIQue-full form in a large Italian adult sample

Trait Emotional Intelligence (or trait emotional self-efficacy) is a constellation of emotional perceptions assessed through questionnaires and rating scales (Petrides et al., 2007b). This paper examined the psychometric features of the Trait Emotional Questionnaire Full Form (TEIQue-FF; Petrides, 2009b) in the Italian context. Incremental validity in the prediction of depression and anxiety was also tested with respect to the Big Five. Participants were 1343 individuals balanced for gender (690 females and 653 males) whose mean age was 29.65 years (SD = 13.64, range 17-74 years). They completed a questionnaire battery containing the TEIQue and measures of the Big Five, depression, and anxiety (both trait and state). Results indicated that the performance of the TEIQue-FF in the Italian context was comparable to the original United Kingdom version as regards its reliability and factor structure. Moreover, the instrument showed incremental validity in the prediction of depression and state-trait anxiety after controlling for the Big Five

The Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale: Adaptation and Validation for Young Adolescents

Emotional self-efficacy (ESE) is an important aspect of emotional functioning, with current measures for children and adolescents focused on the measurement of self-beliefs in relation to the management of emotions. In the present study, we report the psychometric properties of the first adaptation of the Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale for youth (Youth-ESES) that measures additional aspects of ESE, such as perceiving and understanding emotions and helping others modulate their emotions. Participants were 192 young adolescents aged 11 to 13 years from a U.K. state school. They completed the Youth-ESES and measures of ability emotional intelligence (EI) and cognitive ability. Results support the same four-factor structure that has been previously documented using the adult version of the ESES, with the four subscales being largely independent from cognitive ability and only moderately related to ability EI. However, the four subscales were less differentiated in the present study compared with adult data previously published, suggesting that there is a strong general factor underlying young adolescents’ ESE scores. Overall, the results suggest that the adapted Youth-ESES can be reliably used with youth, and that confidence in how a young person feels about his or her emotional functioning remains distinct from emotional skill

Thinking about feeling: using trait emotional intelligence in understanding the associations between early maladaptive schemas and coping styles

Objectives: Maladaptive interpersonal schemas can trigger distressing emotions and drive dysfunctional behaviour that leads to difficulties in interpersonal relationships and perpetuates the original maladaptive schemas. This study sought to identify patterns of association between trait emotional intelligence (TEI), early maladaptive schemas (EMS), and coping styles in a non‐clinical sample. Emotionality profiles were hypothesized to be associated with EMS severity and poorer coping, as early experiences can shape an individual's self‐perceptions through reinforcement by maladaptive responses. Design: Cross‐sectional study with 142 undergraduate students. Methods: We obtained self‐reports of TEI, coping styles, and EMS. Results: Disengagement coping was strongly correlated with EMS severity (r = .565, p < .01). TEI was negatively correlated with EMS (r = −.660, p < .01) and Disengagement (r = −.405, p < .01). Emotionality, Impaired Autonomy, and Overvigilance partially mediated the relationship between Disconnection and Emotion‐Focused Disengagement. Self‐Control fully mediated the relationship between Impaired Limits and Problem‐Focused Disengagement. Conclusions: The findings suggest that lower TEI is associated with the likelihood for maladaptive coping in response to EMS. The preference for certain coping styles associated with a particular domain of EMS may be explained by an individual's perceived metacognitive ability to regulate their stress and emotions. When individuals’ needs for love, safety, and acceptance from others are not met, there might be poorer perceived self‐efficacies in Emotionality and the tendency to cope through emotional avoidance. Individuals with difficulties establishing internal limits are more likely to respond with problem avoidance, possibly due to deficient distress tolerance. Longitudinal studies with a clinical population are warranted to replicate these findings

The Network Architecture of Cortical Processing in Visuo-spatial Reasoning

Reasoning processes have been closely associated with prefrontal cortex (PFC), but specifically emerge from interactions among networks of brain regions. Yet it remains a challenge to integrate these brain-wide interactions in identifying the flow of processing emerging from sensory brain regions to abstract processing regions, particularly within PFC. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were collected while participants performed a visuo-spatial reasoning task. We found increasing involvement of occipital and parietal regions together with caudal-rostral recruitment of PFC as stimulus dimensions increased. Brain-wide connectivity analysis revealed that interactions between primary visual and parietal regions predominantly influenced activity in frontal lobes. Caudal-to-rostral influences were found within left-PFC. Right-PFC showed evidence of rostral-to-caudal connectivity in addition to relatively independent influences from occipito-parietal cortices. In the context of hierarchical views of PFC organization, our results suggest that a caudal-to-rostral flow of processing may emerge within PFC in reasoning tasks with minimal top-down deductive requirements

The Cross-Cultural Moderators of the Influence of Emotional Intelligence on Organizational Citizenship Behavior and Counterproductive Work Behavior

This meta‐analysis found that the emotional intelligence–organizational citizenship behavior relationship is stronger in long‐term oriented and restraint cultures. However, this relationship does not differ between individualistic and collectivistic cultures, masculine and feminine cultures, high uncertainty avoidance and low uncertainty avoidance cultures, and high power distance and low power distance cultures. The emotional intelligence–counterproductive work behavior relationship is stronger in collectivistic, feminine, high uncertainty avoidance, high power distance, long‐term oriented, and restraint cultures. Emotional intelligence–organizational citizenship behavior/counterproductive work behavior relationships are mediated by both state positive affect and state negative affect. Human resource development professionals from cultures where the effects of emotional intelligence are stronger are especially recommended to hire emotionally intelligent employees and/or provide emotional intelligence training to stimulate organizational citizenship behavior and to restrain counterproductive work behavior. Although there are important cross‐cultural differences, emotional intelligence universally encourages organizational citizenship behavior and almost universally diminishes counterproductive work behavior across cultures

A Multilevel Model of Teachers’ Job Performance: Understanding the Effects of Trait Emotional Intelligence, Job Satisfaction, and Organizational Trust

Research on the role of trait emotional intelligence (trait EI; Petrides, 2001) relating to teaching performance has emerged as an important topic. The present study proposes a multilevel model of teachers’ trait EI in relation to their job performance, which simultaneously addresses the mediating role of job satisfaction and the influences of school-level factors (i.e., organizational trust and principals’ trait EI). Results from a sample of 881 teachers and 37 principals in Chinese primary schools showed that job satisfaction partially mediated the positive relationship between teachers’ trait EI and their job performance. In addition, the findings demonstrated a cross-level moderated mediating effect, with the indirect effect of teachers’ trait EI on job performance (via job satisfaction) becoming stronger for teachers working in schools with lower levels of organizational trust. The hypothesized role of principals’ trait EI on teachers’ job performance was not supported. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed