Perceived Emotional Intelligence, Stress Reactivity, and Symptom Reports: Further Explorations Using the Trait Meta-Mood Scale

We examined the relationship between perceived emotional intelligence (PEI), measured by the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS), and psychophysiological measures of adaptive coping. The TMMS assesses perceived ability to (a) attend to moods (Attention), (b) discriminate clearly among moods (Clarity), and (c) regulate moods (Repair). Study 1 showed significant positive associations between PEI and psychological and interpersonal functioning. In Study 2, skill at mood Repair was associated with less passive coping and perceptions of repeated laboratory stressors as less threatening; Clarity was related to greater increases in negative mood, but lower cortisol release during repeated stress. In Study 3, Repair was associated with active coping and lower levels of rumination; Attention was associated with lowered cortisol and blood pressure responses to acute laboratory challenges. These findings suggest that psychophysiological responses to stress may be one potential mechanism underlying the relationship between emotional functioning and health.

[1]  E. Cherland.  The Development of Emotional Competence , 2004 .

[2]  P. Salovey,et al.  The Yale Interpersonal Stressor (YIPS): Affective, physiological, and behavioral responses to a novel interpersonal rejection paradigm , 2000, Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine.

[3]  K. Brownell,et al.  Stress and Body Shape: Stress-Induced Cortisol Secretion Is Consistently Greater Among Women With Central Fat , 2000, Psychosomatic medicine.

[4]  R. Sapolsky,et al.  How do glucocorticoids influence stress responses? Integrating permissive, suppressive, stimulatory, and preparative actions. , 2000, Endocrine reviews.

[5]  Peter Salovey,et al.  Current directions in emotional intelligence research , 2000 .

[6]  P. Salovey,et al.  Emotional intelligence meets traditional standards for an intelligence , 1999 .

[7]  J. Gross.  The Emerging Field of Emotion Regulation: An Integrative Review , 1998 .

[8]  P. Shaver,et al.  Attachment styles, emotion regulation, and adjustment in adolescence. , 1998, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[9]  B. McEwen.  Protective and damaging effects of stress mediators. , 1998, The New England journal of medicine.

[10]  M. van Eck,et al.  The Effects of Perceived Stress, Traits, Mood States, and Stressful Daily Events on Salivary Cortisol , 1996, Psychosomatic medicine.

[11]  P. Salovey,et al.  Beliefs about mood moderate the relationship of stress to illness and symptom reporting. , 1996, Journal of psychosomatic research.

[12]  A. Vingerhoets,et al.  Psychobiologic reactivity to stress and childhood respiratory illness: results of two prospective studies. , 1996, Psychosomatic medicine.

[13]  Charles S. Carver,et al.  Appraisal, Coping, Task Performance, and Cardiovascular Responses During the Evaluated Speaking Task , 1996 .

[14]  R. Parritz,et al.  Behavioral inhibition and stress reactivity: the moderating role of attachment security. , 1996, Child development.

[15]  Glenn Geher,et al.  Emotional intelligence and the identification of emotion , 1996 .

[16]  James W. Pennebaker,et al.  Emotion, Disclosure, and Health , 1995 .

[17]  T. Palfai,et al.  Emotional attention, clarity, and repair : Exploring emotional intelligence using the Trait Meta-Mood Scale , 1995 .

[18]  James W. Pennebaker,et al.  Emotion, disclosure, & health. , 1995 .

[19]  A. Coats,et al.  Accuracy of the Omron HEM 706 portable monitor for home measurement of blood pressure. , 1994, Journal of human hypertension.

[20]  S. Nolen-Hoeksema,et al.  Ruminative coping with depressed mood following loss. , 1994, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[21]  A. Stanton,et al.  Coping through emotional approach: problems of conceptualization and confounding. , 1994, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[22]  P. Salovey,et al.  The intelligence of emotional intelligence , 1993 .

[23]  C. Kirschbaum,et al.  The 'Trier Social Stress Test'--a tool for investigating psychobiological stress responses in a laboratory setting. , 1993, Neuropsychobiology.

[24]  Clemens Kirschbaum,et al.  Cortisol responses to psychological stress and correlations with personality traits , 1992 .

[25]  S. Nolen-Hoeksema,et al.  A prospective study of depression and posttraumatic stress symptoms after a natural disaster: the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. , 1991, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[26]  C. Carver,et al.  Assessing coping strategies: a theoretically based approach. , 1989, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[27]  R. Dienstbier,et al.  Arousal and physiological toughness: implications for mental and physical health. , 1989, Psychological review.

[28]  J. Mayer,et al.  The experience and meta-experience of mood. , 1988, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[29]  R. Kellner.  A symptom questionnaire. , 1987, The Journal of clinical psychiatry.

[30]  J. Pennebaker,et al.  Confronting a traumatic event: toward an understanding of inhibition and disease. , 1986, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[31]  H. Suen,et al.  A post hoc correction procedure for systematic errors in time-sampling duration estimates , 1986 .

[32]  J. Gottman,et al.  Assessing the role of emotion in marriage. , 1986 .

[33]  S. Manuck,et al.  Psychophysiologic reactivity in coronary heart disease. , 1984 .

[34]  M. Scheier,et al.  Public and private self-consciousness: Assessment and theory. , 1975 .

[35]  A. Mehrabian,et al.  A measure of emotional empathy. , 1972, Journal of personality.

[36]  D. J. Lee.  Society and the Adolescent Self-Image , 1969 .

[37]  M. Rosenberg.  Society and the adolescent self-image , 1966 .

[38]  Gary R Lichtenstein.  [Letter to the Editor] , 1996, Nature.