When to cooperate and when to compete: Emotional intelligence in interpersonal decision-making

From self-awareness to social savvy: how intrapersonal skills shape interpersonal competence in university students

Introduction

The extant study was conducted over a cross-sectional period and aimed to assess the effect of intrapersonal on the interpersonal dimensions of Emotional Intelligence among University Students.

Methods

A literature survey was carried out, and the study's hypotheses were framed. Utilising a standardised Emotional Intelligence Scale, a widely accepted and validated measurement tool in the field, for measurement, the survey was disseminated in digital and physical formats. The researchers employed the snowball sampling technique to distribute the questionnaires and recruit volunteers for the study. The data collection period spanned from August 2023 through September 2023. The demographic information of the individuals was described using the SPSS 25 software, while the dataset for the personal and social competencies was analysed using the SmartPLS software.

Results and discussion

The research reveals a statistically significant association between the variables under investigation. Specifically, there exists a negative correlation between Motivation and Social Skills, as well as between Self-regulation and Social Awareness. These findings open up exciting opportunities for future research, inspiring further exploration into the development of intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies among students.

Support Needs of Labor and Delivery Nurses After Traumatic Experiences

OBJECTIVE

To examine the effect of psychological distress, overall distress, and institutional support following a traumatic workplace event on absenteeism, turnover intention, and resilience among labor and delivery nurses.

DESIGN

A quantitative cross-sectional survey.

SETTING

Online distribution from January 13, 2021, to February 2, 2021.

PARTICIPANTS

A nationwide convenience sample of labor and delivery nurses recruited from the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (N = 171).

METHODS

Participants completed a survey that included the Second Victim Experience and Support Tool-Revised and the Second Victim Support Desirability survey. We compared available versus desired support options using descriptive analyses. We examined levels of psychological distress and lack of institutional support in relation to turnover intention, absenteeism, and resilience using multiple regression analyses.

RESULTS

Participants identified and described various traumatic experiences in the workplace, including neonatal and maternal death, complicated births, and workplace violence. Participants indicated that the available support services did not meet their needs. Psychological distress, overall distress, and lack of institutional support were associated with absenteeism and turnover, whereas only institutional support was associated with resilience.

CONCLUSION

Labor and delivery nurses encounter various traumatic events in the workplace, and the support services provided after an event do not meet their needs. Additional research is needed to understand the scope of the problem and investigate best practices to assist labor and delivery nurses following traumatic events.

Relationships between somatic anxiety, cognitive anxiety, self-efficacy, and emotional intelligence levels in university physical education students

One of the most studied topics nowadays, from psychology in general, and from sport psychology, is anxiety. In fact, research on anxiety has been approached from various theoretical perspectives ranging from psychoanalysis, behaviorism, or more recently, those theories that take into consideration the importance of affective, rational, and emotional processes. The aim of this study is to analyze the levels of anxiety and emotional intelligence, and their relationship. The sample is composed of 165 university physical education students with a mean age of 20.33 years (SD = 3.44), (70.9% male and 27.9% female). We used the CSAI-2 questionnaire (to measure cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety, and self-confidence), and the TMMS-24 (to measure emotional intelligence). The main findings of this research highlighted the presence of significant correlations between emotional clarity and emotional regulation, self-confidence, cognitive anxiety, and somatic anxiety. Therefore, we conclude that sporting performance is influenced by various variables of different kinds, including emotions, and highlight the importance of the incorporation of the emotional component in the field of sport.

Responsibilities and capabilities of health engagement professionals (HEPs): Perspectives from HEPs and health consumers in Australia

Background

In Australia, the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards (2012) stipulates that partnering with health consumers to improve health‐care experiences is one of the criteria health‐care organizations are assessed and accredited against. This standard has given rise to a role: health engagement professionals (HEPs). While there are no standard requirements for recruitment into this role, this study contributes to much needed research into understanding their responsibilities and capabilities, and their contributions to engagement outcomes.

Methods

Using a qualitative, interpretive approach, 16 HEPs and 15 health consumer representatives (who have experiences of interacting with HEPs) participated in an in‐depth phone interview in December 2019. We explored (a) the purposes of the role, (b) the responsibilities and work activities and (c) the capabilities required to carry out the responsibilities.

Results

Health engagement professionals are specialists in designing engagement mechanisms for health‐care organizations to co‐design health services with health consumers. They facilitate partnerships between health‐care organizations and health consumers. They play significant roles in listening to, facilitating understanding amongst different stakeholder groups (eg hospital management, health‐care workers and health consumers) and navigating the bureaucratic structures to influence outcomes. Four major responsibilities (advocacy, education, facilitation and administration) and four categories of capabilities (relational, communication, professional and personal) were identified.

Conclusion

A list of job responsibilities and desired capabilities of HEPs is provided to help health‐care organizations better understand the requirements for the role. This would help them decide how applicants to these roles would meet the requirements (eg experience of navigating bureaucratic systems).

Effects of Farmers’ Facial Expression on Consumers’ Responses in Print Advertising of Local Food: The Moderating Role of Emotional Intelligence

In the context of ethical consumption, we examine the effects of farmers’ facial expression in print advertising on consumers’ responses to local food. Furthermore, we try to verify the moderating role of emotional intelligence (EI) on consumers’ responses to the advertising message strategy. The advertising message strategy that connects farmers and consumers is expected to create more favorable responses among consumers toward local food and its retailers. This study examines consumers’ responses (perceived product quality, trust, and a positive attitude toward the local food retailer) to three conditions of farmers’ facial expression in the advertisement (neutral facial expression, positive facial expression, and product only, with no portrait) across two levels of EI (low and high). We find that farmers’ positive facial expressions in the advertisements have the greatest positive effects on consumers’ perceived product quality, trust, and attitude toward the local food retailer under a high level of EI. Therefore, individuals with a high level of EI were more influenced by facial expressions in print advertising, whereas those with a low level of EI were less influenced by facial expressions in print advertising, and their responses were indifferent to whether the local food farmer had a neutral or a positive facial expression in print advertising. Our findings suggest that marketing practitioners consider personal characteristics such as EI in persuading local food consumers in target markets to implement strategies to promote local food purchase and consumption.

The HR decision-maker’s emotional intelligence and SME performance

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the influence of the emotional intelligence (EI) of the human resources (HR) decision-maker on firm performance in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as the possible mediating role of the use of a system of HR practices in that relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

The research involves a sample of 157 managers responsible for HR in SMEs. SMEs are examined because in these firms, decisions are not usually adopted on a collegiate basis. It makes these firms an ideal context for studying the relationship between HR decision-maker’s EI and firm performance.

Findings

Results show that the HR decision-maker’s EI determines firm performance in terms of generation of valuable HR and financial outcomes. They also confirm the mediating role of the system of HR practices in that relationship.

Research limitations/implications

This research suggests that an adequate understanding of the importance of EI can guide efforts to boost SMEs competitiveness. Thus, as SMEs are an important part of the business fabric in the majority of developed economies, the implications of this study are significant.

Originality/value

Findings in this research suggest that the workplace is not managed exclusively on a cognitive basis since emotional competences may play an important role in the HR management and SMEs’ performance.

Cognitive Control and Emotional Intelligence: Effect of the Emotional Content of the Task. Brief Reports

Emotional intelligence (EI) constitutes a unique form of intelligence and, from performance-based ability models, is conceptualized as the integration of several abilities: use, manage, understand, and regulate emotions. The relation between cognitive processes and EI has been less researched. Recent studies show that EI, when measured by performance-based ability models, plays a relevant role in cognitive processes when emotion is implicated in the tasks. The aim of this study was to examine the execution on hot (emotional) and cool (neutral) cognitive tasks in two groups: one high and one low on EI, in order to determine the role of EI on cognitive processes. The results showed that high and low EI groups did not differ on cool task performance, while the high EI group was better at carrying out the hot task. We discuss these results in relation to recent literature that considers the role of EI in cognitive processes.

Spared emotional perception in patients with Alzheimer's disease is associated with negative caregiver outcomes

OBJECTIVES

Caregivers (CGs) for patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) often experience negative mental health and relationship outcomes. Additionally, emotional perception abilities are often compromised in early AD; the relationships between these deficits and CG outcomes are unclear. The present study investigated the relationship between emotional perception abilities in AD participants and CG well-being.

METHODS

Participants included 28 individuals with AD, their spousal CGs, and 30 older controls (OCs). Patients and controls completed the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and Advanced Clinical Solutions: Social Perception subtest. CGs completed questionnaires related to relationship satisfaction, burden, depression, and patient neuropsychiatric symptoms and activities of daily living.

RESULTS

The patient group performed significantly worse than OCs on measures of cognition and emotional perception. Several significant relationships emerged between AD participant emotional perception and CG outcomes. Higher CG depression was associated with greater overall emotional perception abilities (r = .39, p = .041). Caregiver burden was positively correlated with AD participants' ability to label the emotional tones of voices (r = .47, p = .015). Relationship satisfaction was not significantly correlated with emotional perception.

DISCUSSION

This study replicated earlier findings of impaired emotional perception abilities in AD participants. However, preserved abilities in emotional perception were associated greater CG depression and burden. Interestingly, the CGs satisfaction with the marital relationship did not appear to be influenced by changes in emotional perception. Higher emotional engagement among couples in which one spouse has cognitive impairment may contribute to increased negative interactions and in turn a greater sense of burden and depression, while leaving the marital relationship preserved.

The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Cool and Hot Cognitive Processes: A Systematic Review

Although emotion and cognition were considered to be separate aspects of the psyche in the past, researchers today have demonstrated the existence of an interplay between the two processes. Emotional intelligence (EI), or the ability to perceive, use, understand, and regulate emotions, is a relatively young concept that attempts to connect both emotion and cognition. While EI has been demonstrated to be positively related to well-being, mental and physical health, and non-aggressive behaviors, little is known about its underlying cognitive processes. The aim of the present study was to systematically review available evidence about the relationship between EI and cognitive processes as measured through "cool" (i.e., not emotionally laden) and "hot" (i.e., emotionally laden) laboratory tasks. We searched Scopus and Medline to find relevant articles in Spanish and English, and divided the studies following two variables: cognitive processes (hot vs. cool) and EI instruments used (performance-based ability test, self-report ability test, and self-report mixed test). We identified 26 eligible studies. The results provide a fair amount of evidence that performance-based ability EI (but not self-report EI tests) is positively related with efficiency in hot cognitive tasks. EI, however, does not appear to be related with cool cognitive tasks: neither through self-reporting nor through performance-based ability instruments. These findings suggest that performance-based ability EI could improve individuals' emotional information processing abilities.

The Role of Intelligence Quotient and Emotional Intelligence in Cognitive Control Processes

The relationship between intelligence quotient (IQ) and cognitive control processes has been extensively established. Several studies have shown that IQ correlates with cognitive control abilities, such as interference suppression, as measured with experimental tasks like the Stroop and Flanker tasks. By contrast, there is a debate about the role of Emotional Intelligence (EI) in individuals' cognitive control abilities. The aim of this study is to examine the relation between IQ and EI, and cognitive control abilities evaluated by a typical laboratory control cognitive task, the Stroop task. Results show a negative correlation between IQ and the interference suppression index, the ability to inhibit processing of irrelevant information. However, the Managing Emotions dimension of EI measured by the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), but not self-reported of EI, negatively correlates with the impulsivity index, the premature execution of the response. These results suggest that not only is IQ crucial, but also competences related to EI are essential to human cognitive control processes. Limitations and implications of these results are also discussed.