Laura J. Summerfeldt

Emotional intelligence and academic success: examining the transition from high school to university

The transition from high school to university was used as the context for examining the relationship between emotional intelligence and academic achievement. During the first month of classes 372 first-year full-time students at a small Ontario university completed the short form of the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i:Short). At the end of the academic year the EQ-i:Short data was matched with the students academic record. Predicting academic success from emotional intelligence variables produced divergent results depending on how the former variable was operationalized. When EQ-i:Short variables were compared in groups who had achieved very different levels of academic success (highly successful students who achieved a first-year university GPA of 80% or better versus relatively unsuccessful students who received a first-year GPA of 59% or less) academic success was strongly associated with several dimensions of emotional intelligence. Results are discussed in the context of the importance of emotional and social competency during the transition from high school to university.

Coping with health problems: Developing a reliable and valid multidimensional measure.

Current conceptions relating psychological variables to health recognize the key role of coping processes as mediating variables between stress and illness, yet few reliable and valid instruments exist for the assessment of coping with physical health problems. A self-report instrument, the Coping With Health Injuries and Problems Scale (CHIP) was developed identifying 4 basic coping dimensions for responding to health problems: distraction, palliative, instrumental, and emotional preoccupation coping. The CHIPs factor structure, established with a large derivation sample of adults, is cross-validated in a heterogenous group of general medical patients and a homogeneous group of patients being treated for lower back pain. Preliminary construct validity data are presented by comparing the coping behaviors of patients with chronic and acute illnesses and by comparing CHIP scores with basic coping styles.

Preliminary examination of the relationship between anxiety disorders in adults and self-reported history of teasing or bullying experiences

This preliminary study examined the relationship between anxiety disorders and self-reported history of teasing or bullying experiences, comparing individuals with social phobia, obsessive compulsive disorder, and panic disorder with or without agoraphobia. Given that aversive conditioning experiences, such as severe teasing, have been proposed to play a role in the development of social phobia and that the core feature of social phobia is a fear of social situations in which a person may be embarrassed or humiliated, we hypothesized that the social phobia group would have a higher rate of self-reported teasing history than would the obsessive compulsive disorder or panic disorder groups. Consistent with this hypothesis, a relationship between reported history of teasing and diagnosis was found. A significantly greater percentage of participants in the social phobia group (92%) reported a history of severe teasing experiences compared with the obsessive compulsive disorder (50%) and panic disorder (35%) groups. History of teasing experiences was also significantly related to an earlier age of onset for all 3 anxiety disorders, and to a greater number of self-reported additional problems in childhood. These findings suggest further directions for research in this area and highlight the significant link between perceptions of teasing in childhood and social phobia.

Impulsivity in obsessive-compulsive disorder : comparisons with other anxiety disorders and within tic-related subgroups

Abstract This study investigated the relationship between impulsivity and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) was used to examine (i) levels of impulsivity in individuals with OCD, panic disorder, and social phobia, as well as in nonclinical controls, and (ii) the relationship between tics and impulsivity in patients with OCD. Patients in all anxiety disorder groups reported higher levels of impulsiveness than controls, with no differences among clinical groups. OCD patients with tics reported higher levels of impulsiveness than those without tics, primarily due to elevations on the cognitive impulsiveness subscale—a finding that was related to increased severity of obsessions in the tic group. These findings do not support a clear relationship between impulsivity and OCD, but point to possible confusion between state versus trait impulsivity in the OCD literature, as well as threats to interpretability posed by overlapping criteria for symptoms and traits.

Consistency between self-report and clinician-administered versions of the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale.

BACKGROUND Preliminary efforts to demonstrate the utility of a self-rated version of the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) have been promising; however, earlier reports are based on small clinical samples. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the level of agreement between the clinician-administered Y-BOCS and a self-report version. METHODS Participants included 86 individuals with a principal diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). All participants were given the self-report version of the Y-BOCS to complete offsite and instructed to return it at a second assessment session (within a 2-week time frame), at which time a trained and experienced clinician administered the Y-BOCS interview. RESULTS The two versions were moderately correlated with the highest correlation observed for the Compulsions subscale. Comparison of scores for individual items revealed several inconsistencies between the two measures: level of agreement was low for resistance items, and the interview version generated higher compulsion severity ratings. CONCLUSIONS The study provided moderate support for the convergence of the self-report and clinician-administered version of the Y-BOCS, however, important difference were detected between the two assessment methods.

Examining the Evidence for Anxiety-Related Cognitive Biases in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

In light of current concerns about the diagnostic classification of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), this article critically examines recent experimental research on anxiety-related cognitive biases in OCD in order to determine whether it provides grounds for OCDs differentiation from other anxiety disorders. This small body of work is found to be fraught with defects, anomalies, and inconsistencies. These findings contrast dramatically with the robust results obtained with other clinical anxiety disorders. When biases are in evidence it tends to be with a select group of subjects, that is, those with contamination concerns. It is suggested that only this subtype of OCD, or some core characteristic underlying it, may be associated with cognitive tendencies comparable to those found in other anxiety disorders (i.e., biases at the attentional level associated with the emotional tone, or content, of information). Cognitive tendencies in other subtypes likely require different explanatory frameworks. This review provides evidence for the partial uniqueness of OCD from other anxiety disorders.

Confirmatory factor analysis of the revised NEO personality inventory

Abstract The theoretical parameters of the 5-factor personality model, which underlie the item domain of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R), were assessed by subjecting the 30 subscales that comprise this scale to confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Results from the CFA with a normative sample of 1000 adults indicated poor fit between the obtained factor structure and the hypothesized dimensions corresponding to the 5-factor model.

Examining the structure of the Internet Addiction Test in adolescents: A bifactor approach

Youngs (1998a) Internet Addiction Test (IAT) is one of the most commonly used measures of problematic Internet use. Although the instrument is being increasingly applied in research with adolescents, its measurement structure has not been systematically evaluated with pre-adult respondents. Because the results of previous factor-analytic studies with adults have been highly inconsistent, the present study applied both the traditional (simple-structure) and novel (bifactor) modeling approaches to derive the most optimal measurement structure of the IAT for adolescents. The results of exploratory and confirmatory analyses in a large Canadian sample of high-school students (N=1948) converged on a bifactor model with a dominant global IA factor and two distinct sub-dimensions, each associated with a unique gender and problem behaviour profile. The discussion focuses on the implications of this bifactor structure for scale scoring and substantive theory on the nature and sources of individual differences in Internet addiction.

Intelligence, Personality, Psychopathology, and Adjustment

What has been termed the “cognitive revolution” (Gardner, 1985) has had a profound impact throughout all areas of psychology. Though it has been suggested that much of this trend is better regarded as a “rediscovery” (Sternberg, 1990; Sternberg & Frensch, 1990), it is clear that the 1980s and 1990s have seen a surge of interest in the cognitive aspects of the three topics with which this chapter primarily concerns itself: intelligence, personality, and psychopathology. We will explore the integrative potential of a cognitive approach for the understanding of these three constructs, as revealed in both theory and research.

Emotional Intelligence and Post-Secondary Education: What Have We Learned and What Have We Missed?

The transition from high school to a post-secondary setting is a stressful period for most individuals, and difficulties with social and emotional adjustment are strong predictors of student dropout and underachievement. In this context, emotional intelligence (EI) has been studied as a possible explanatory variable for a range of post-secondary adjustment and attainment outcomes. However, the empirical evidence from two decades of research is rather mixed. In this chapter, we summarize the current state of evidence on the links between EI and post-secondary outcomes, review several mediating pathways through which EI may impact these outcomes, and point out important methodological limitations that have confounded research in this area. Using examples from our own research program, we demonstrate that careful treatment of these methodological issues yields informative and promising results. We then discuss a number of practical applications of EI in post-secondary settings, from utilizing EI assessments to improve the delivery of student services to targeted EI interventions.