Rebecca M. Warner

Emotional intelligence and its relation to everyday behaviour

This study assessed the discriminant, criterion and incremental validity of an ability measure of emotional intelligence (EI). College students (N=330) took an ability test of EI, a measure of the Big Five personality traits, and provided information on Life Space scales that assessed an array of self-care behaviours, leisure pursuits, academic activities, and interpersonal relations. Women scored significantly higher in EI than men. EI, however, was more predictive of the Life Space criteria for men than for women. Lower EI in males, principally the inability to perceive emotions and to use emotion to facilitate thought, was associated with negative outcomes, including illegal drug and alcohol use, deviant behaviour, and poor relations with friends. The findings remained significant even after statistically controlling for scores on the Big Five and academic achievement. In this sample, EI was significantly associated with maladjustment and negative behaviours for college-aged males, but not for females. # 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Rhythmic organization of social interaction and observer ratings of positive affect and involvement

Many investigators have speculated that a high degree of rhythmic patterning of social interaction and close coupling between the activity rhythms of partners are associated with positive affect, attachment, and interpersonal attraction. Others suggest that predictable or rhythmic patterning is an indication of inflexibility, and that close linkages between the physiological arousal of partners are associated with negative affect. In the present study, spectral and cross spectral analyses were applied to vocal activity and heart rates recorded during 12 conversations. Indexes of rhythmicity and strength of coupling were derived and used as predictors of observer ratings of pleasantness of affect and degree of involvement. There was a curvilinear relationship between affect and rhythmicity of vocal activity, such that moderately rhythmic social interactions were evaluated most positively. This relationship remained statistically significant even when other variables (such as mean and standard deviation of amount of vocal activity) were statistically controlled. Strength of coupling between partner vocal activity patterns and strength of coupling between the vocal activity and heart rate within speaker were not statistically significant predictors of ratings of pleasantness. Results suggest that there may be an optimum degree of rhythmicity in social interaction, with moderately rhythmic interactions evaluated most positively.

Now let me tell you in my own words: narratives of acute and chronic low back pain

Purpose. In the past, qualitative studies have focused on chronic low back pain (LBP), yet 90% of LBP is acute and episodic. The purpose of this study was to examine the broader experience (acute as well chronic) of LBP in the community. Methods. This study was part of a Personal Project Analysis of adaptation to LBP. Participants answered an open-ended question that invited them to tell researchers about their LBP. The narratives were analysed using thematic content analysis and structure was analysed using the narrative types described in ‘The Wounded Storyteller’ (Frank A. The Wounded Story Teller: Body, Illness and Ethics. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press; 1995). Findings. Two themes were identified: 1) the challenges to the authenticity of LBP and 2) the consequences of living with LBP, which had two threads: the disruption of life due to physical limitations, and the emotional distress incurred. The narratives were solely told as chaos narratives. Conclusions. The emotional and behavioural responses of individuals with LBP and the tensions that exist between the individual and others, especially healthcare providers, is explained in the context of LBP as a moral event. Understanding the narratives as chaos narratives provides insight into ways to improve the quality of the interactions between patients and health care providers.

Parental reports of children’s sleep and wakefulness: longitudinal associations with cognitive and language outcomes

Abstract Associations between parental reports (N = 62) of children’s sleep and wakefulness at 7, 19, and 31 months and cognitive and language outcomes were examined. Periodogram analysis was used to estimate the proportion of variance in children’s sleep and wakefulness that was explained by a 24-hr cycle (i.e., circadian sleep regulation). Controlling for characteristics of children and mothers, circadian sleep regulation at 7 and 19 months was positively associated with mental development scores at 24 months and language development scores at 36 months. In addition, rate of growth in circadian sleep regulation from 7 to 31 months was positively associated with mental development scores at 24 months. These results are consistent with theoretical models that posit a hierarchical arrangement of self-regulatory processes.

Cardiovascular reactivity and positive/negative affect during conversations

Systolic and diastolic blood pressures (SBP, DBP) were measured for 70 college students before, during and after informal dyadic conversations. Participants rated the positive and negative affect they experienced during conversation. SBP and DBP increased significantly from baseline to conversation. Increases in SBP and DBP were associated with more positive affect and unrelated to negative affect. Blood pressure measures taken one week later provided a more useful assessment of resting levels than measures taken before the conversation. Relationships between BP reactivity and positive affect remained significant after controlling for resting levels of BP, amount of talk during conversation, and sex of speaker in hierarchical regression. Blood pressure elevation during social interaction may be associated with involvement or enthusiasm, rather than emotional distress; this association is not simply an artifact of talkativeness. We suggest that cardiovascular reactivity in healthy young adults engaged in nonthreatening conversations may be a widespread phenomenon and not necessarily pathological.

Reducing Student Prejudice in Diversity-Infused Core Psychology Classes

The current quasi-experimental study compared two sections of a course, one that included diversity content and one that did not. The authors obtained pretest and posttest data on students’ attitudes toward a number of different minority groups and on their levels of course content knowledge. The authors also examined two questions: first, whether exposure to diversity would reduce prejudice, and second, whether inclusion of diversity content would reduce the amount of core course content learned by students. At posttest, significant differences were found in terms of positive attitude change; infusing diversity into course content did not affect content knowledge.

Dimensions of social interaction tempo: A factor analytic study of time and frequency domain indexes of interaction structure

On-off vocal activity in 130 getting-acquainted conversations between strangers was analyzed using four types of statistics including vocalization, pause and interruption durations, basic descriptive statistics, time series regression, and frequency domain analysis. The resulting 14 indexes of interaction structure were factor-analysed; four dimensions were obtained. These factors were labeled partner coordination, within-speaker predictability, interruptions/pauses, and talkativeness. Results highlight the equivalence between time and frequency domain analysis. The autoregressive R2 predicting speaker activity from speakers own past behavior in time series regression was highly correlated with a rhythm index derived from frequency domain analysis. These statistics can both be interpreted as indications of the strength of “internal determinants” of behavior described by Jones and Gerard (1967). On the other hand, the coordination factor represents a collection of statistics that assess “social determinants” of behavior. The information provided by these two sets of variables (predictability and coordination) is distinct from the information provided by the mean durations of vocalizations, pauses, and interruptions. It may be useful to include variables that represent all four of these dimensions in future research.

Individual differences in vocal activity rhythm: Fourier analysis of cyclicity in amount of talk

Speakers in informal conversations tend to alternate regularly between lower and higher amounts of talking; the periods of these low/high activity cycles are on the order of 3, 6, and 15 minutes. Statistically significant periodicities occurred in 55% of the conversations studied. The periodograms that describe the partition of variance among periodic components whow consistent individual differences in the cyclic patterning of vocal activity. Discriminant analysis used the amount of variance accounted for by each of the 12 lowest-frequency periodic components as discriminating variables to see whether speakers could be identified on the basis of the cyclic patterns in vocal activity. Speakers were discriminated and classified at levels well above chance. This suggests that there are consistent individual differences among speakers in the length of cycles in amount of talk.

The green crab Carcinus maenas in two New Hampshire estuaries. Part 1: spatial and temporal distribution, sex ratio, average size, and mass

The spatial and temporal distribution of the green crab, Carcinus maenas (Linnaeus, 1758) was studied in two New Hampshire estuaries, NW Atlantic, over a one-year period from November 2009 to October 2010 using baited traps. Green crab catch peaked in December and March in the Great Bay Estuary (GBE), and in November and April in the Hampton-Seabrook Estuary (HSE). Catch per unit effort was higher in the HSE than in the GBE, and more than 14 times as many green crabs were captured in the HSE (n = 35 788) than in the GBE (n = 2337). Catch of green crabs generally rose with increasing distance up-estuary in the HSE, while in the GBE, catch peaked mid-estuary. Quantity and species diversity of by-catch was greater in the GBE than in the HSE. In the HSE, sex ratios were skewed toward females in summer and female catch was maximized in salinities 30-31 ppt. In both estuaries, sex ratios favored male crabs most in the spring (March-April). Male and female green crabs in the GBE were larger (carapace size, weight), on average, than those in the HSE. This is the first study to compare seasonal green crab populations throughout and between NH estuaries.

Rhythms of dialogue in infancy: comments on Jaffe, Beebe, Feldstein, Crown, and Jasnow (2001).

Analysis of coordinated interpersonal timing has become an important tool for the study of infant-adult, peer, and marital interactions. Past research suggests that social coordination is informative about the quality of the caregiver-child social relationship. Does infant experience of certain types of coordination and pattern in early social interactions with caregivers predict better cognitive and social developmental outcomes? The recent monograph “Rhythms of dialogue in infancy” (Jaffe, Beebe, Feldstein, Crown, & Jasnow, 2001) provides the strongest evidence to date that it does. Moderately coordinated social interactions in early infancy predicted the most favorable developmental outcomes, and degree of coordination was influenced by contextual factors such as setting and nature of the relationship between the infant and its social interaction partner. This study provides a model for future research in this area and points toward important questions for future research on infant-caregiver social interactions.