With Great Sensitivity Comes Great Management: How Emotional Hypersensitivity Can Be the Superpower of Emotional Intelligence.

With the goal of furthering the understanding and investigation of emotional intelligence (EI), the present paper aims to address some of the characteristics that make EI a useful skill and, ultimately, a predictor of important life outcomes. Recently, the construct of hypersensitivity has been presented as one such necessary function, suggesting that high-EI individuals are more sensitive to emotions and emotional information than low-EI individuals. In this contribution, we aim to shift the perception of hypersensitivity, which is mostly seen with a negative connotation in the literature, to the perspective that hypersensitivity has the capacity to result in both negative and positive outcomes. We advance this possibility by discussing the characteristics that distinguish hypersensitive individuals who are also emotionally intelligent from those who are not. Based on an emotion information processing approach, we posit that emotional intelligence stems from the ability to manage one's level of hypersensitivity: high-EI individuals are those who are better able to use hypersensitivity as an adaptive rather than a disabling feature. Ultimately, we propose that hypersensitivity can represent a sort of "superpower" that, when paired with regulatory processes that balance this hypersensitivity, characterizes the functioning of high-EI individuals and accounts for the positive outcomes reported in the literature.

Emotional Intelligence and Emotional Hypersensitivity in Gifted Individuals.

The goal of the present study was to investigate the associations between high intelligence, emotional intelligence (EI), and emotional hypersensitivity in a sample of 304 Mensa members. In addition, we aimed to shed light on how highly intelligent individuals process emotional information. In a previous study, we found that individuals with high EI in the general population are characterized by an attentional bias toward emotional information. We tested whether this effect holds for highly intelligent individuals by drawing on the same procedure: participants (N = 124 Mensa members) had to report a letter appearing behind a picture of a face with emotional or a neutral facial expression, and their reaction time to provide an answer was recorded. Comparing the results from the general population to those of Mensa members, we found that Mensa members did not show the attentional bias toward emotional information found in the general population. Mensa members were equally fast to evaluate letters replacing emotional and neutral expressions, and this result was not influenced by EI level. Possible explanations include the role of inhibitory processes (a factor related to intelligence), which might have contributed to treating emotional information as purely cognitive.

Emotional intelligence and emotion information processing: Proof of concept of a test measuring accuracy in discriminating emotions.

Emotion information processing (EIP) has been recently introduced as a new component of emotional intelligence. We present a task aiming at measuring a type of emotion information processing related to fine-grained discrimination of emotional expressions. We modified an existing task presenting morphed faces created from a blend of two prototypical emotional expressions. Participants' (N = 154) ability-EI, in particular emotion recognition, understanding and management, as well as intelligence were evaluated. Results show that all facets of EI independently predicted accuracy in the discrimination task and that emotion recognition was the strongest predictor. When controlling for emotion recognition level, we found that emotion understanding still predicted accuracy for less difficult stimuli. Results support the idea that individuals high in EI have higher emotion processing skills at the emotion perception stage of information processing and suggest that the task employed in the current study might measure more spontaneous processing of emotional expressions. Implications regarding the use of the current task as a new measure of the EIP component are discussed.

Creativity is associated with higher well-being and more positive COVID-19 experience.

We investigated whether creativity is associated with higher well-being and more positive COVID-19 experience. Participants (N = 252) filled out a creativity measure during the COVID-19 pandemic, they rated their positive affect and stress experience in the last month, their satisfaction with life, and indicated the extent to which they perceived COVID-19 as a positive experience. More creative individuals were more satisfied with their lives after controlling for perceived stress and personality. Results of a serial mediation showed that creativity fostered more positive emotions, which lowered perceived stress, which then led to a more positive COVID-19 experience. Findings add to the literature showing the beneficial effects of creativity on well-being, and point to the utility of introducing interventions that would promote creative thinking to improve quality of life and resilience to life adversities.

On the rocky road to efficient behavior management: Can emotional competencies signal the better way?

Self-efficacy beliefs in behavior management (SEBiBM) is a key issue for teachers, while emotional competence is a major contributor to professional success and sustainability in this profession. The investigation of the multifaceted nature of these two constructs may be important in order to take a step toward understanding which emotional competence could foster specific aspects of SEBiBM. To explore this issue, elementary school teachers (N = 121, 1st-4th grades) answered the Profile of Emotional Competence, which comprises 12 scores of emotional competencies, and a four-dimensional self-efficacy scale for behavior management in the classroom. Results indicate that intrapersonal emotional competencies, as compared to interpersonal competencies, play a major role regarding self-efficacy beliefs. In particular, multiple regression analyses revealed that higher identification and understanding of personal emotions were associated with better perceived self-efficacy on two aspects of SEBiBM. In addition, using other's emotions predicted proactive involvement of the pupil's parent or caregiver. Results are discussed in terms of their contribution to research in educational sciences and in teacher education, particularly with respect to teachers' sustainability in the profession.

Initial Evidence for the Hypersensitivity Hypothesis: Emotional Intelligence as a Magnifier of Emotional Experience.

In this article, we provide preliminary evidence for the 'hypersensitivity hypothesis', according to which Emotional Intelligence (EI) functions as a magnifier of emotional experience, enhancing the effect of emotion and emotion information on thinking and social perception. Measuring ability EI, and in particular Emotion Understanding, we describe an experiment designed to determine whether, relative to those low in EI, individuals high in EI were more affected by the valence of a scenario describing a target when making an affective social judgment. Employing a sample of individuals from the general population, high EI participants were found to provide more extreme (positive or negative) impressions of the target as a function of the scenario valence: positive information about the target increased high EI participants' positive impressions more than it increased low EI participants' impressions, and negative information increased their negative impressions more. In addition, EI affected the amount of recalled information and this led high EI individuals to intensify their affective ratings of the target. These initial results show that individuals high on EI may be particularly sensitive to emotions and emotion information, and they suggest that this hypersensitivity might account for both the beneficial and detrimental effects of EI documented in the literature. Implications are discussed.

Needle revision outcomes after glaucoma filtering surgery: survival analysis and predictive factors.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of needle revision and examine factors predictive of failure. METHODS: In total, 157 eyes of 131 patients that underwent needle revision augmented with either 5-fluorouracil or betamethasone for trabeculectomy failure were included in this retrospective study. Complete failure was defined as additional glaucoma surgery, ciliodestructive procedures, loss of light perception, sight-threatening complications, hypotony maculopathy, and surgical bleb revision. Success was defined as intraocular pressure ⩽ 18 (criterion A), ⩽15 (criterion B), and ⩽12 mmHg (criterion C) reached with (qualified) or without (complete) medications, and absence of any criteria of complete failure. RESULTS: The median (interquartile range) follow-up was 25.0 (41.0) months. Complete failure rates were 19%, 26%, and 31% at 1, 2, and 3 years, respectively. For criterion A, qualified and complete success rates were, respectively, 77% and 69% at 1 year, 66% and 51% at 2 years, and 60% and 47% at 3 years. For criterion B, qualified and complete success rates were, respectively, 67% and 61% at 1 year, 48% and 42% at 2 years, and 44% and 39% at 3 years. For criterion C, qualified and complete success rates were, respectively, 43% and 41% at 1 year, 27% and 25% at 2 years, and 24% and 23% at 3 years. High baseline intraocular pressure and primary surgery were associated with higher and lower risks of complete failure, respectively. CONCLUSION: Needle revision is an effective and safe procedure to rescue failing trabeculectomy postponing or avoiding further glaucoma surgery. Eyes with low target intraocular pressure may have poor long-term outcomes.

Enhancing the Prediction of Emotionally Intelligent Behavior: The PAT Integrated Framework Involving Trait EI, Ability EI, and Emotion Information Processing.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) has been conceptualized in the literature either as a dispositional tendency, in line with a personality trait (trait EI; Petrides and Furnham, 2001), or as an ability, moderately correlated with general intelligence (ability EI; Mayer and Salovey, 1997). Surprisingly, there have been few empirical attempts conceptualizing how the different EI approaches should be related to each other. However, understanding how the different approaches of EI may be interwoven and/or complementary is of primary importance for clarifying the conceptualization of EI and organizing the literature around it. We introduce a theoretical framework explaining how trait EI, ability EI, and emotion information processing - a novel component related to EI recently introduced in the literature (e.g., Fiori and Vesely Maillefer, 2018) - may contribute to effective emotion-related performance and provide initial evidence supporting its usefulness in predicting EI-related outcomes. More specifically, we show that performance in a task in which participants had to infer the mental and emotional states of others, namely a Theory of Mind task, was predicted jointly (e.g., interaction effects) by trait EI, ability EI, and emotion information processing, after controlling for personality and IQ (N = 323). Our results argue for the importance of investigating the joint contribution of different aspects of EI in explaining variability in emotionally laden outcomes.

22q11.2 microduplication syndrome and juvenile glaucoma.

BACKGROUND: 22q11.2 microduplication is a relatively recently recognized syndrome. Findings in affected individuals range from apparent normality to a wide variety of systemic and ocular conditions. We describe the association between 22q11.2 microduplication and juvenile glaucoma in two brothers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed ophthalmological, genetic, and hematological medical records of two patients and their unaffected mother. RESULTS: A 2.07 Mb interstitial duplication in 22q11.21 and a smaller 182 kb duplication in 22q11.23 were identified in both subjects. Patient 1 showed an initial intraocular pressure (IOP) of 15 mmHg in right eye (RE) and 32 mmHg in left eye (LE) under maximum medical treatment. Deep sclerectomy surgery in LE was converted to trabeculectomy due to a macroperforation of the trabeculo-descemetic membrane. Postoperatively, the patient developed persistent hypotony with retinal folds, while IOP in RE increased to 28 mmHg. Trabeculectomy in RE was also complicated by persistent hypotony. Autologous blood injection was performed, resulting in an increase in both visual acuity and IOP. Patient 2 presented with an IOP of 29 mmHg in RE and 33 mmHg in LE. We planned an elective trabeculectomy and added orally administered acetazolamide. The patient developed bilinear cytopenia that contraindicated the surgical procedure. After hematologic normalization, the patient underwent trabeculectomy in LE, causing persistent hypotony. We performed deep sclerectomy surgery in RE, without any significant intra- or post-operative complications. CONCLUSIONS: 22q11.2 microduplication syndrome can be associated with juvenile glaucoma. Trabeculectomy may be complicated by persistent hypotony. Deep sclerectomy appears to be a better surgical option, although the presence of a thin sclera may result in conversion to trabeculectomy.

The Joint Contribution of Activation and Inhibition in Moderating Carryover Effects of Anger on Social Judgment.

Carryover effects of emotions that lead to biases in social judgments are commonly observed. We suggest that such effects may be influenced by the ability to engage or disengage attention from emotional stimuli. We assessed the ability to activate and inhibit attention to anger stimuli, experimentally induced anger in a demanding task, and measured social judgment toward an ambiguous target. Results show that higher activation and higher inhibition of anger-related information predicted more biased evaluations of the ambiguous target when individuals were experiencing anger, but not in an emotionally neutral condition. Interestingly, the effect of activation and inhibition in the anger condition emerged only when such variables were entered simultaneously in the regression model, indicating that they had an additive effect in predicting carryover effects of anger on social judgement. Results are consistent with a cooperative suppression effect (Conger, 1974) of activation and inhibition and may be explained by either an increased accessibility of anger-related cues leading to more biased social judgments, or by an instance in which being good at engaging in and disengaging attention from emotional cues might have depleted participants' resources making carryover effects of anger more likely to occur. Ultimately, the finding highlight that individual differences in attentional processes are important moderators for carryover effects of emotions.

Nd:Yag laser goniopuncture for deep sclerectomy: efficacy and outcomes.

PURPOSE: To report on the safety and efficacy of Nd: YAG laser goniopuncture (LGP) for postsurgical intraocular pressure increase after deep sclerectomy (DS) in a consecutive cohort of open-angle glaucoma patients. METHODS: This case series included 56 eyes from 49 consecutive patients who underwent LGP between November 2008 and March 2015. Prior to LGP, patients had undergone DS augmented with mitomycin C and injectable cross-linked hyaluronic acid implant between October 2008 and May 2014. Demographic variables, type of glaucoma, prior phacoemulsification, intraocular pressure (IOP), best-corrected visual acuity, execution of post-LGP maneuvres, and post-LGP complications were analyzed. The success rate of the procedure was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier survival curve. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed using the Cox proportional hazard regression model in order to highlight variables associated with a failure to achieve surgical success. RESULTS: Mean IOP was 23.0 mmHg prior to LGP, and 12.5, 11.8, and 10.5 mmHg at 6, 12, and 24 months after LGP respectively. Post-laser IOP was significantly lower than pre-laser IOP at every time point. For an IOP ≤ 15 mmHg, success rates were 85 % at 6 months, 76 % at 1 year, and 62 % at 2 years. Thirty-eight eyes underwent prophylactic iridotomy and iridoplasty prior to LGP. Iris prolapse into the trabeculo-descemetic window following LGP occurred in 6/18 eyes (33.3 %) of the non-pretreated and in 1/38 eyes (2.6 %) of the pretreated group. One case of choroidal detachment and one delayed suprachoroidal hemorrhage occurred after LGP execution in two non-pretreated eyes. CONCLUSIONS: LGP is a relatively safe and effective complementary adjunct to deep sclerectomy that makes it possible to further lower IOP and avoid additional filtering surgery. Prophylactic iridotomy and localized iridoplasty may permit the frequency of post-LGP complications to be reduced.

Deep Sclerectomy With Mitomycin C and Injectable Cross-linked Hyaluronic Acid Implant: Long-term Results.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the long-term efficacy and safety of deep sclerectomy (DS) augmented with mitomycin C (MMC) and injectable cross-linked hyaluronic acid implant (Healaflow) in medically refractory glaucoma patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Our study included 96 eyes of 83 consecutive patients with open-angle glaucoma undergoing MMC-DS with injectable cross-linked hyaluronic acid implant. Mean follow-up was 28.6±20.0 months. Variables analyzed were: intraocular pressure (IOP), best-corrected visual acuity, mean number of antiglaucomatous drugs, execution of postoperative maneuvres (goniopuncture, bleb needling, and laser lysis of scleral flap sutures). Tonometric success was defined by 2 different thresholds, specifically IOP≤21 mm Hg (criterion A) and ≤15 mm Hg (criterion B). The procedure was defined as a qualified success if reached with medication and as a complete success if reached without. RESULTS: For criterion A, qualified and complete success rates were 96% and 94%, respectively, at 12 months, 95% and 92% at 24 months, and 92% and 89% at 36 months. For criterion B, qualified and complete success rates were 75% and 75%, respectively, at 12 months, 62% and 60% at 24 months, and 59% and 58% at 36 months. Goniopuncture was performed in 56 eyes (58%), bleb needling with 5-fluorouracil injection in 4 eyes (5.1%), and laser release of scleral flap sutures in 4 eyes (4%). Six eyes required additional filtering surgery. CONCLUSION: DS with Healaflow and MMC seems to be an effective and safe technique to lower IOP in patients affected by open-angle glaucoma, with few postoperative complications.

Delayed suprachoroidal hemorrhage following Nd:YAG laser goniopuncture: a case report.

PURPOSE: To report a delayed suprachoroidal hemorrhage following Nd:YAG laser goniopuncture (LGP) in an eye with a previous deep sclerectomy. METHODS: Case report. RESULTS: A 75-year-old woman with advanced primary open-angle glaucoma underwent LGP due to unsatisfactory intraocular pressure (IOP) in her left eye, 1 month after undergoing deep sclerectomy in the same eye. Delayed suprachoroidal hemorrhage occurred the day after LGP execution. CONCLUSIONS: Nd:YAG laser goniopuncture is often performed to enhance IOP control following deep sclerectomy. Although LGP is usually effective and safe, severe complications, such as delayed suprachoroidal hemorrhage, may occur after its execution.

What is the Ability Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) good for? An evaluation using item response theory.

The ability approach has been indicated as promising for advancing research in emotional intelligence (EI). However, there is scarcity of tests measuring EI as a form of intelligence. The Mayer Salovey Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, or MSCEIT, is among the few available and the most widespread measure of EI as an ability. This implies that conclusions about the value of EI as a meaningful construct and about its utility in predicting various outcomes mainly rely on the properties of this test. We tested whether individuals who have the highest probability of choosing the most correct response on any item of the test are also those who have the strongest EI ability. Results showed that this is not the case for most items: The answer indicated by experts as the most correct in several cases was not associated with the highest ability; furthermore, items appeared too easy to challenge individuals high in EI. Overall results suggest that the MSCEIT is best suited to discriminate persons at the low end of the trait. Results are discussed in light of applied and theoretical considerations.

A new look at emotional intelligence: a dual-process framework.

In this article, the author provides a framework to guide research in emotional intelligence. Studies conducted up to the present bear on a conception of emotional intelligence as pertaining to the domain of consciousness and investigate the construct with a correlational approach. As an alternative, the author explores processes underlying emotional intelligence, introducing the distinction between conscious and automatic processing as a potential source of variability in emotionally intelligent behavior. Empirical literature is reviewed to support the central hypothesis that individual differences in emotional intelligence may be best understood by considering the way individuals automatically process emotional stimuli. Providing directions for research, the author encourages the integration of experimental investigation of processes underlying emotional intelligence with correlational analysis of individual differences and fosters the exploration of the automaticity component of emotional intelligence.

What underlies appraisals? Experimentally testing a Knowledge-and-Appraisal Model of Personality Architecture among smokers contemplating high-risk situations.

We tested a theoretical model of personality structures underlying patterns of intra-individual variability in contextualized appraisals. The KAPA (Knowledge-and-Appraisal Personality Architecture) model was tested experimentally among smokers appraising their efficacy to resist the urge to smoke in high-risk situations. In a novel design, we assessed self-knowledge and situational beliefs idiographically and employed cognitive priming to manipulate the accessibility of self-knowledge experimentally. The results confirmed the unique KAPA-model prediction that priming would affect appraisals in a contextualized manner. Priming positively valenced self-knowledge enhanced self-efficacy appraisals specifically within that subset of situations that were relevant to the primed knowledge. The results were consistent with the hypothesis that systems of self- and situational knowledge underlie consistency and variability in appraisals.

Associations of psychosocial and individual factors with three different categories of back disorder among nursing staff.

Although back disorders are a major occupational problem for nursing staff, few studies distinguish different types. By means of a structured questionnaire, we performed a cross-sectional study on the prevalence of diagnosed lumbar disc hernia, chronic low-back pain (LBP) (at least 90 d in the preceding 12 months) and acute LBP (intense pain for at least 1 d) with respect to physical, individual and psychosocial factors among female nurses (n=587), nursing aides (n=228) and head-nurses (n=43) working in a university hospital (95% of the female workforce). Almost all respondents reported known high-risk occupational activities. Overall prevalence of reported back disorders was 44% (acute LBP 19%, chronic LBP 17%, lumbar hernia 8%). On multinomial logistic regression analysis, scoliosis and commonly stress-related psychosomatic symptoms were associated with all three types of back disorder; trauma/fractures of the spine, pelvis and/or legs and a global work-environment/job-satisfaction score with acute LBP; increasing age with lumbar disc hernia. While confirming the relevance of considering different definitions of back disorder, our data indicate items for investigation in cohort studies. These include: identification of specific risk factors for lumbar hernia; avoidance of possible work-environment risk factors such as hurried execution of different tasks at the same time; and influence on job suitability of underlying spinal pathologies such as scoliosis.