Leehu Zysberg

Emotional Intelligence in Applicant Selection for Care-Related Academic Programs

Two studies describe the development of the Audiovisual Test of Emotional Intelligence (AVEI), aimed at candidate selection in educational settings. Study I depicts the construction of the test and the preliminary examination of its psychometric properties in a sample of 92 college students. Item analysis allowed the modification of problem items, resulting in acceptable reliability (intraclass correlation = .67) and moderate to good discrimination indices. Study II examined criterion-related validity of the AVEI based on a sample of 102 nursing students in a large university in northern Israel. The results suggest that the AVEI correlated with students’ performance in field practice and in human relations training courses better than with any other relevant variable (e.g., GMA, GPA). Associations remained in the .45 to .60 range, even after controlling for factors such as academic ability, GPA, and gender. These results suggest that the AVEI may be a valid instrument in student selection for care-related programs.

Sense of coherence and socio-demographic characteristics predicting posttraumatic stress symptoms and recovery in the aftermath of the Second Lebanon War

Abstract This study investigated the role of sense of coherence (SOC) as a mediator between demographic attributes of individuals (gender, age, economic situation, and exposure to traumatic events during the war) and two war outcomes (postwar stress symptoms and perceived posttraumatic recovery). The participants were 870 adults (ages ranged between 20 and 85), who were affected by the Second Lebanon War and were evacuated from their home town. They were administered the research questionnaire approximately one year after this war. Path analysis indicated the following: gender, age, economic situation, and exposure were significantly associated with level of symptoms as well as perceived recovery. However, three of these connections (age, economic, and exposure) were partially mediated by SOC which was linked with lower levels of stress symptoms and higher levels of perceived posttraumatic recovery. Unlike our hypothesis, exposure by age interaction was not significantly associated with SOC and the two war outcomes. Results supported the hypotheses that SOC mediates between demographic characteristics and negative (symptoms) as well as positive (perceived recovery) war outcomes.

Emotional Intelligence and Emotional Eating Patterns: A New Insight into the Antecedents of Eating Disorders?.

OBJECTIVE To examine the association between emotional intelligence (EI) and emotional eating. The authors hypothesized that EI will negatively associate with emotional eating. METHODS A correlational study, conducted in a convenience sample. The researchers personally approached working adults in their workplaces. Ninety Israelis, selected to approximate the general working population, filled out EI and emotional eating standard measures, the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale and the Praeger questionnaire. Also gathered were data regarding sex, age, and education. Pearson correlations followed by hierarchical regressions were used to examine the associations between the core measures, controlling for background factors. RESULTS Findings supported the hypothesis (r = .72; P < .001). Controlling for background factors, the partial correlation was r = .66 (P < .001). Higher scores in the Praeger measure reflect less emotional eating. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS The authors propose that the present findings may serve future research as well as practitioners interested in identification of at-risk populations or seeking screening measures for the above issue.

Loneliness and Emotional Intelligence

ABSTRACT The possible associations of loneliness with Emotional Intelligence (EI), 2 of its correlates (life satisfaction and a sense of meaning), and several background variables were tested on a sample of 134 young adults attending college in northern Israel. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis provided support for the model, suggesting that the presence of meaning, EI, and size and availability of an individuals social network are the strongest correlates of loneliness. EI therefore emerges as a potentially important factor in our understanding of loneliness, and the model provides a framework for future studies. The results are discussed vis-à-vis existing findings in the literature and possible directions for approaching loneliness as a theoretical concept and a social phenomenon.

Elderly People Coping With the Aftermath of War: Resilience Versus Vulnerability

OBJECTIVES The present study compares coping of elderly people and two younger groups 1 year after a war. Coping was determined by stress symptoms and posttraumatic recovery and two levels of resiliency. DESIGN AND SETTING Thirty-six streets (covering most of the city streets) were sampled randomly from the map of Kiryat Shemona (a town next to the Lebanese border) about a year after the end of the Second Lebanon War. PARTICIPANTS The sample constituted 870 adult residents of the town. Participants were divided into three age groups: elderly (age 65 years and older, N = 108), adults (age 46-64 years, N = 252) and young adults (age 20-45 years, N = 462). MEASUREMENTS 1) Stress symptoms measured by short version of Brief Symptom Inventory; 2) Individual resilience measured by Sense of Coherence Inventory; 3) Posttraumatic Recovery Inventory (PTR); and 4) Public Resilience Scale (included a scale for community and national resilience). RESULTS The results indicated 1) The elderly group reported significantly higher levels of stress symptoms and lower levels of PTR; 2) Females in the three age groups reported higher levels of stress symptoms and lower levels of PTR and individual resilience than males; 3) Individual and public resilience negatively predicted stress symptoms and positively predicted posttraumatic recovery across three age groups; and 4) Public resilience has a differential effect on stress symptoms in each of the three age groups but not on PTR. CONCLUSION Results question the division of older people into a vulnerable or inoculated group, indicating that the participants responded concurrently in a more vulnerable and a more resilient manner. Older people were characterized by higher levels of postwar stress symptoms, as well as a higher sense of coherence.

Sense of Danger and Family Support as Mediators of Adolescents' Distress and Recovery in the Aftermath of War

Posttraumatic stress and recovery were investigated among 820 adolescents living on the Israeli-Lebanese border 1 year after the Second Lebanon War of 2006. It was hypothesized that most adolescents would not report serious symptoms, whereas a minority would complain about high-level prolonged postwar symptoms. Another minority would indicate posttraumatic recovery. It was also hypothesized that associations of age, gender, and exposure to war distress with postwar stress symptoms as well as posttraumatic recovery would be mediated by family support and subjective sense of danger. Results generally supported these contentions.

Neural correlates of emotional intelligence in a visual emotional oddball task: an ERP study.

The present study was aimed at identifying potential behavioral and neural correlates of Emotional Intelligence (EI) by using scalp-recorded Event-Related Potentials (ERPs). EI levels were defined according to both self-report questionnaire and a performance-based ability test. We identified ERP correlates of emotional processing by using a visual-emotional oddball paradigm, in which subjects were confronted with one frequent standard stimulus (a neutral face) and two deviant stimuli (a happy and an angry face). The effects of these faces were then compared across groups with low and high EI levels. The ERP results indicate that participants with high EI exhibited significantly greater mean amplitudes of the P1, P2, N2, and P3 ERP components in response to emotional and neutral faces, at frontal, posterior-parietal and occipital scalp locations. P1, P2 and N2 are considered indexes of attention-related processes and have been associated with early attention to emotional stimuli. The later P3 component has been thought to reflect more elaborative, top-down, emotional information processing including emotional evaluation and memory encoding and formation. These results may suggest greater recruitment of resources to process all emotional and non-emotional faces at early and late processing stages among individuals with higher EI. The present study underscores the usefulness of ERP methodology as a sensitive measure for the study of emotional stimuli processing in the research field of EI.

Trait routinization, functional and cognitive status in older adults

This study examined the associations between trait routinization and functional and cognitive as well as demographic indicators. A sample of American older adults living independently in a retirement community (n = 80) were assessed regarding their functional status, cognitive status, and preference for routine. Robust associations between functional status and trait routinization were found, as well as correlations between education, age, and routinization. No association between routinization and cognitive status was found. The results suggest that trait routinization is linked with various aspects of well-being in older age. Various explanations regarding the role of trait routinization and its validity are presented.

Creativity, Religiosity, and Political Attitudes.

Although theoretically proposed in the literature, the direct associations between political attitudes, religion, and creativity have been scarcely explored. A convenience sample of 123 adults working in Israel filled out questionnaires assessing political-social attitudes, religiosity, and background factors (e.g., age, gender, education, and parents’ education) associated with the aforementioned. The How Do You Think test was used to assess creativity in various life areas. Regressions and SEM analysis revealed associations between religiosity, political, and social attitudes, mothers and fathers education, and creativity. A preliminary discussion of the result patterns as well as direction for future research follow.

Emotional Intelligence, Perceived Control, and Eating Disorders

Studies on Emotional Intelligence (EI) have demonstrated the concept’s potential in accounting for a broad range of health-related outcomes. Preliminary evidence associates measures of EI with disordered eating and other related behaviors. This study proposed a mediation effect of perceived control in the above association. We hypothesized that (a) EI will positively associate with perceived control and (b) perceived control will associate positively with Anorexia and negatively with Bulimia symptomatology. One hundred and thirty young adults residing in Israel filled out measures assessing Anorexia (drive for thinness), Bulimia, perceived control, and EI (two measures). The results lent only partial support to the hypotheses: EI showed a nonlinear association with control, which in turn showed nonlinear association with Anorexia scores, and contrary to our hypothesis, positive association with Bulimia scores. A Sobel test supported the mediation models for both eating disorder measures. The results are discussed and future research is proposed to further examine this hypothesized mechanism.