View clinical trials related to Emotional Intelligence.
Filter by:The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether an intervention based on the social and emotional competence development improves the healthy lifestyles adoption in young children.
Emotional Intelligence (EI) is defined as the ability to accurately perceive and identify emotions in oneself and others, understand and use emotions to enhance cognitive processes, and effectively manage one's own emotions as well as those of others. Two major approaches to the construct of emotional intelligence have emerged. These two approaches can be broadly defined as the Trait and Ability Approaches. The Trait Approach, which is typically assessed via self-report measures such as that Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory, appears to be strongly related to existing models of personality and coping. The other major approach to EI follows an Ability Model, assuming that EI is similar to but distinct from other types of cognitive intelligence, and involves measurement of a variety of skills and abilities related to emotional processing. An understanding of the neurobiological substrate of emotional intelligence is beginning to emerge. One influential theory that is particularly relevant to the neurobiology of emotional intelligence is the "somatic marker hypothesis," yet there still remains a limited understanding of the neurobiological basis of EI. The proposed investigation will attempt to provide the most comprehensive study to date examining the behavioral, psychological, functional, and brain structural correlates of EI. The proposed study will use neuroimaging techniques to examine the relationship between current measures of EI, behavioral expression of emotionally competent capacities, brain functional responses, and structural cerebral organization. The specific questions to be addressed and their associated hypotheses are: 1. The two major approaches to EI (i.e., Trait vs. Ability) will show only modest, though significant positive correlations with one another. 2. EI Trait measures will be highly correlated with measures of personality but weakly correlated with specific skills such as facial affect identification, emotional decision-making, and affectively based judgments, whereas EI Ability measures will correlate more highly with specific emotional skill measures. 3. During functional MRI affective challenge tasks, EI scores will be negatively correlated with activity within the Somatic Marker Circuitry suggested by Damasio and colleagues (i.e., ventromedial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, insular cortex), as suggested by the neural efficiency hypothesis.
Objective: Social Cognition and Emotional Intelligence have been shown to be deficient in patients with schizophrenia and these are not remediated by antipsychotic medications or psychosocial interventions. Social cognition is associated with functional outcome, an important step in striving for recovery in this population. The hormone and neurotransmitter, oxytocin, which has been associated with social bonding and trust has been shown to improve measures of some aspects of social cognition in humans. The study will assess the effect of acute administration of intranasal oxytocin on measures of social cognition and functioning as well as on emotional intelligence and symptoms. Study population: The study population will include patients with a DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder who have been on a stable medication regimen for 6 weeks. We will enroll a total of 30 subjects (N=15 placebo and N=15 oxytocin groups). Experimental design and methods: After a one week lead in phase, participants will undergo 3 weeks of oxytocin (20 IU BID) or placebo administration (double blind) in addition to their existing medication regimen. Outcome measures will be administered during the lead in phase, and at the end of the study drug administration phase (under the acute effect of OT). The primary outcome measure will be the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) and the Maryland Assessment of Social Competence (MASC). Secondary measures include rating from the domains of social cognition (emotion perception, attributional style, theory of mind and social perception), symptom rating and measures of social anxiety and quality of life. Side effects and symptoms will be measured weekly.