Joseph Ciarrochi

A critical evaluation of the emotional intelligence construct

Abstract 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.

Young people's help-seeking for mental health problems

Abstract This paper summarises an ambitious research agenda aiming to uncover the factors that affect help-seeking among young people for mental health problems. The research set out to consider why young people, and particularly young males, do not seek help when they are in psychological distress or suicidal; how professional services be made more accessible and attractive to young people; the factors that inhibit and facilitate help-seeking; and how community gatekeepers can support young people to access services to help with personal and emotional problems. A range of studies was undertaken in New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT, using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Data from a total of 2721 young people aged 14–24 years were gathered, as well as information from some of the community gatekeepers to young people’s mental health care. Help-seeking was measured in all the studies using the General Help Seeking Questionnaire (Wilson, Deane, Ciarrochi & Rickwood, 2005), which measures future help-seeking intentions and, through supplementary questions, can also assess prior help-seeking experience. Many of the studies also measured recent help-seeking behaviour using the Actual Help Seeking Questionnaire. The types of mental health problems examined varied across the studies and included depressive symptoms, personal-emotional problems, and suicidal thoughts. The help-seeking process was conceptualised using a framework developed during the research program. This framework maintains that help-seeking is a process of translating the very personal domain of psychological distress to the interpersonal domain of seeking help. Factors that were expected to facilitate or inhibit this translation process were investigated. These included factors that determine awareness of the personal domain of psychological distress and that affect the ability to articulate or express this personal domain to others, as well as willingness to disclose mental health issues to other people. The results are reported in terms of: patterns of help-seeking across adolescence and young adulthood; the relationship of help-seeking intentions to behaviour; barriers to seeking help—lack of emotional competence, the help-negation effect related to suicidal thoughts, negative attitudes and beliefs about help-seeking and fear of stigma; and facilitators of seeking help—emotional competence, positive past experience, mental health literacy, and supportive social influences. The paper considers the implications of the findings for the development of interventions to encourage young people to seek help for their mental health problems, and concludes by identifying gaps in the help-seeking research and literature and suggesting future directions.

Measuring emotional intelligence in adolescents

Abstract Can emotional intelligence (EI) be reliably and validly measured in adolescents? One-hundred and thirty-one students (aged 13 to 15) completed a self-report measure of emotional intelligence (SEI) [Schutte, N., Malouff, J., Hall, L., Haggerty, D., Cooper, J., Golden, C., & Dornheim, L. (1998). Development and validation of a measure of emotional intelligence. Personality and Individual Differences , 25 , 167–177.] and a number of other, theoretically relevant measures. They were then induced into either a positive, negative, or neutral mood and asked to complete a task that assessed mood management behaviour. We found that EI was reliably measured in adolescents, was higher for females than males, and was positively associated with skill at identifying emotional expressions, amount of social support, extent of satisfaction with social support, and mood management behaviour. These relationships held even after controlling for two constructs that potentially overlap with EI, namely self-esteem and trait anxiety. This study offers evidence that the SEI is a distinctive and useful measure.

Learned Resourcefulness Moderates the Relationship Between Academic Stress and Academic Performance

People high in learned resourcefulness are purported to be better than others at controlling their negative emotions and managing stressful tasks. We hypothesised that highly resourceful students would be more effective than others at protecting themselves from the adverse effects of academic stress, and not allowing that stress to impact their grades. A sample of 141 first-year undergraduate students completed measures of academic stress and learned resourcefulness. Their first-year grade point averages were obtained from university records. Analyses revealed that academic stress was negatively associated with academic performance. As expected, this negative association was moderated by learned resourcefulness. High academic stress adversely impacted the grades of low resourceful students but had no effect on high resourceful students. We discuss the implications of these findings for improving academic performance.

Images in International Relations: An Experimental Test of Cognitive Schemata

We build on the tradition of studying images in international relations by developing a theory of perceived relationships and their associated images. The psychological theory is connected to a set of assumptions drawn from international relations theory that suggest perceived strategic relationships can be conceived of as a function of perceived relative power, perceived culture, and the perceived threat or perceived opportunity that a subject believes another actor represents. We hypothesize that perceived relationships evoke both cognitive and affective processes that lead to at least four ideal typical images. We further hypothesize that enemy, ally, colony, and degenerate images have identifiable and interrelated components. We test to see if the component parts of these images are related to each other, if the overall image affects the processing and interpretation of new information, and if strategic foreign policy choices follow from the cognitive and affective aspects of the image. The findings indicate that three of the four images are unified schemata, used even by inexperienced analysts. We find further that affect in combination with cognition does predict policy choice in the case of the enemy image. We suggest that image theory is a promising means by which foreign policy and international relations may be fruitfully studied.

Relations between social and emotional competence and mental health: a construct validation study

Researchers working fairly independently of each other have created numerous measures of social and emotional competence (SEC). These measures tend to correlate (sometimes highly) with each other and with measures of stressful events, suggesting potential redundancy. We evaluated which, if any, SEC variables predicted unique variance in social and mental health after controlling for other SEC variables in the study and the impact of stressful events. Three-hundred and thirty-one university students participated in an anonymous, cross-sectional study. We measured stressful events, and a wide variety of SECs, including: social problem solving skill (effective problem orientation, automatic processing, and problem solving), alexithymia (difficulty identifying and describing emotions; minimising emotions), effective emotional control (low rumination, high impulse control, high aggression control, low defensive inhibiting of emotions), and level of emotional awareness. We also assessed a variety of aspects of social and mental health (e.g. depression, anxiety, hopelessness, suicidal ideation, life satisfaction, social support). Covariance analyses revealed that all SEC measures except minimising emotions had significant incremental value over the other measures and over stressful events in predicting social and mental health. The optimal set of predictors differed depending upon the type of health predicted. These findings have important implications for the design of social and emotional intervention programs.

Adolescents who need help the most are the least likely to seek it: The relationship between low emotional competence and low intention to seek help

It has been found that university students who were the least skilled at managing their emotions also had the lowest intention of seeking help from a variety of nonprofessional sources (e.g. family and friends). The present study sought to extend these findings by focusing on adolescents, examining a larger number of emotional competencies, and exploring the possibility that social support explains the relationship between emotional competence and help-seeking. A total of 137 adolescents (aged 16-18) completed an anonymous survey that assessed social support, emotional competencies, and intention to seek help from a variety of professional and nonprofessional sources. As expected, adolescents who were low in emotional awareness, and who were poor at identifying, describing, and managing their emotions, were the least likely to seek help from nonprofessional sources and had the highest intention of refusing help from everyone. However, low emotional competence was not related to intention to seek help from professional sources (e.g. mental health professionals). The significant results involving nonprofessional sources were only partially explained by social support, suggesting that even adolescents who had high quality support were less likely to make use of that support if they were low in emotional competence.

The link between emotional competence and well-being: a longitudinal study

ABSTRACT What aspects of emotional competence help protect people from stress, anxiety, and depression, and help to promote positive affect? A total of 163 university students completed a two wave study that involved measuring emotional competence and emotional well-being at 1-year intervals. As expected, Time 1 measures of emotional competence predicted Time 2 measures of well-being, after controlling for Time 1 measures of well-being. Specifically, ineffective problem orientation predicted increases in anxiety and stress, and decreases in positive affect. Difficulty identifying and describing emotions predicted increases in anxiety and decreases in positive affect. Finally, an aspect of difficulty managing emotions (i.e. rumination) predicted decreases in positive affect. Each emotional competence variable predicted unique variance after controlling for other significant variables. We discuss the implications of these findings for counselling practice.

Do difficulties with emotions inhibit help-seeking in adolescence? The role of age and emotional competence in predicting help-seeking intentions

We examined whether adolescents who are poor at identifying, describing, and managing their emotions (emotional competence) have lower intentions to seek help for their personal-emotional problems and suicidal ideation, as observed in adult studies. We also examined whether age moderated the relationship between competence and help-seeking. Two hundred and seventeen adolescents completed measures of emotional competence, help-seeking, hopelessness, and social support. Results indicated that adolescents who were low in emotional competence had the lowest intentions to seek help from informal sources (i.e., family and friends) and from some formal sources (e.g., mental health professionals), and the highest intentions to seek help from no-one. There was one important age-related qualification: difficulty in identifying and describing emotions was associated with higher help-seeking intentions amongst young adolescents but lower intentions among older adolescents. Social support, hopelessness, and sex could not entirely explain these relationships. Thus, even those who had high quality social support had less intention to use it if they were low in emotional competence.

Psychological acceptance and quality of life in the elderly

Many changes occur as people enter old age (e.g., declining productivity), and these changes may at times decrease quality of life. Do some people maintain high subjective quality of life despite these changes? This study investigated the influence of psychological acceptance (PA) on quality of life in a sample of 187 elderly from a home nursing service, a retirement village and various community groups. Average age was 78 years old with a range from 65 to 96. We administered a measure of psychological acceptance and The Comprehensive Quality of Life Scale (COMQol). As hypothesised, people higher in PA also had higher quality of life in the areas of health, safety, community participation and emotional well-being. In addition, individuals high in PA had less adverse psychological reactions to decreasing productivity. Interventions that increase PA may lead to improved quality of life and resilience amongst the elderly.