Facets of Emotional Clarity and Suspiciousness

Mediating effect of social interaction anxiety between emotional intelligence and life satisfaction in physical education students: post-COVID-19 study

The aim of this research is to analyze the effect of social interaction anxiety on satisfaction with life mediated by emotional intelligence. The research design was descriptive, cross-sectional, and non-randomized. In total, 1,164 Mexican physical education students participated (Mage = 21.21; SD = 3.26; 30.0% female; 69.6% male; 0.4% other). The scales used were the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale, Trait Meta-Mood Scale and Satisfaction with Life and a structural equation analysis with latent variables was conducted. The results highlight that it can be asserted that emotional clarity and repair had a mediating effect between social interaction anxiety and satisfaction with life, as they did decrease the negative effects of social interaction anxiety on satisfaction with life. In addition, social interaction anxiety had a direct and positive effect on emotional attention and a negative effect on emotional clarity and repair.

The Relations of Attention to and Clarity of Feelings With Facial Affect Perception

Attention to emotions and emotional clarity are core dimensions of individual differences in emotion awareness. Findings from prior research based on self-report indicate that attention to and recognition of one's own emotions are related to attention to and recognition of other people's emotions. In the present experimental study, we examined the relations of attention to and clarity of emotions with the efficiency of facial affect perception. Moreover, it was explored whether attention to and clarity of emotions are linked to negative interpretations of facial expressions. A perception of facial expressions (PFE) task based on schematic faces with neutral, ambiguous, or unambiguous emotional expressions and a gender decision task were administered to healthy individuals along with measures of emotion awareness, state and trait anxiety, depression, and verbal intelligence. Participants had to decide how much the faces express six basic affects. Evaluative ratings and decision latencies were analyzed. Attention to feelings was negatively correlated with evaluative decision latency, whereas clarity of feelings was not related to decision latency in the PFE task. Attention to feelings was positively correlated with the perception of negative affects in ambiguous faces. Attention to feelings and emotional clarity were not related to gender decision latency. According to our results, dispositional attention to feelings goes along with an enhanced efficiency of facial affect perception. Habitually paying attention to one's own emotions may facilitate processing of external emotional information. Preliminary evidence was obtained suggesting a relationship of dispositional attention to feelings with negative interpretations of facial expressions.

Meta-Analysis of the Associations Among Constructs of Intrapersonal Emotion Knowledge

To better define the boundaries of conceptually overlapping constructs of intrapersonal emotion knowledge (EK), we examined meta-analytic correlations among five intrapersonal EK-related constructs (affect labelling, alexithymia, emotional awareness, emotional clarity, emotion differentiation) and attention to emotion. Affect labelling, alexithymia, and emotional clarity were strongly associated, and they were moderately associated with attention to emotion. Alexithymia and emotional awareness were weakly associated, and emotion differentiation was unrelated with emotional clarity. Sample characteristics and measures moderated some of the associations. Publication bias was not found, except for the alexithymia-emotional awareness association. This study helped to clarify the extent to which similarly defined constructs overlap or are distinct, which can inform our decision to adequately label important constructs and employ corresponding measures.

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Association Between Complexity of Emotion Experience and Behavioral Adaptation

This article systematically reviews studies investigating the effect of three operationalizations of complexity in emotion experience (i.e., differentiation, covariation, and variability) on situational behavioral adaptation (i.e., physiological, cognitive, and overt action responses), and quantifies the results with meta-analyses. Twenty-seven studies of emotion complexity were identified and divided into four categories: (a) trait and (b) state studies within clinical samples, and (c) trait and (d) state studies within nonclinical samples. Most studies investigated trait emotion differentiation, revealing negligible to small effects ( r range: .06 to .15). Only 4 studies in total assessed indicators of state emotion complexity. The theoretical assumptions behind the indicators of emotion complexity as well as the conceptualization of behavioral adaptiveness are critically discussed, and a number of future avenues for this type of research are proposed.

The Intricate Relationship between Psychotic-Like Experiences and Associated Subclinical Symptoms in Healthy Individuals

The interplay between subclinical psychotic, negative, and affective symptoms has gained increased attention regarding the etiology of psychosis spectrum and other mental disorders. Importantly, research has tended to not differentiate between different subtypes of psychotic-like experiences (PLE) although they may not have the same significance for mental health. In order to gain information on the subclinical interplay between specific PLE and other symptoms as well as the significance of PLE for mental health, we investigated their specific associations in 206 healthy individuals (20-60 years, 73 females) using correlational and linear regression analyses. PLE were assessed with the Magical Ideation Questionnaire, the revised Exceptional Experiences Questionnaire, and subscales of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). The revised Symptom Checklist 90, the SPQ, and the Physical Anhedonia Scale were used to measure subclinical negative symptoms, affective symptoms, and other symptoms such as, emotional instability. As hypothesized, we found that (1) most affective symptoms and all other subclinical symptoms correlated positively with all PLE, whereas we found only partial associations between negative symptoms and PLE. Notably, (2) magical ideation and paranormal beliefs correlated negatively with physical anhedonia. In the regression analyses we found (3) similar patterns of specific positive associations between PLE and other subclinical symptoms: Suspiciousness was a specific predictor of negative-like symptoms, whereas ideas of reference, unusual perceptual experiences, and dissociative anomalous perceptions specifically predicted anxiety symptoms. Interestingly, (4) ideas of reference negatively predicted physical anhedonia. Similarly, paranormal beliefs were negatively associated with constricted affect. Moreover, odd beliefs were a negative predictor of depression, emotional instability, and unspecific symptoms. Our findings indicated that subtypes of PLE are differentially implicated in psychological functioning and should therefore not be categorized homogeneously. Moreover, paranormal beliefs, odd beliefs, and partly ideas of reference might also contribute to subjective well being in healthy individuals. Our results might serve as a starting point for longitudinal studies investigating the interplay of subtypes of subclinical symptoms along a psychopathological trajectory leading to mental disorders. Importantly, this research might help to improve therapeutic strategies for psychosis prevention.

Meta-Analysis of the Association Between Emotional Clarity and Attention to Emotions

Emotional clarity and attention to emotions represent the extent to which people understand and attend to their own emotions, respectively, and are broad facets of emotional awareness, alexithymia, and emotional intelligence. To examine the extent to which these two constructs are associated, we conducted a meta-analysis of studies including well-validated self-report measures of trait clarity and attention to emotion. Clarity and attention were moderately, positively associated. Assessment instrument, but not sample gender or age, moderated the association between clarity and attention. Analyses of between-study heterogeneity and publication bias suggested that results were valid and generalizable. We discuss potential causes of the association between clarity and attention, and elaborate on the implications of our results for emotion regulation, well-being, and psychopathology.

Sources of variation in emotional awareness: Age, gender, and socioeconomic status

The present study examined associations between emotional awareness facets (type clarity, source clarity, negative emotion differentiation, voluntary attention, involuntary attention) and sociodemographic characteristics (age, gender, and socioeconomic status (SES)) in a large US sample (N = 919). Path analyses-controlling for variance shared between sociodemographic variables and allowing emotional awareness facets to correlate-demonstrated that (a) age was positively associated with type clarity and source clarity, and inversely associated with involuntary attention; (b) gender was associated with all facets but type clarity, with higher source clarity, negative emotion differentiation, voluntary attention, and involuntary attention reported by women then men; and (c) SES was positively associated with type clarity with a very small effect. These findings extend our understanding of emotional awareness and identify future directions for research to elucidate the causes and consequences of individual differences in emotional awareness.

The interactive effects of emotional clarity and cognitive reappraisal on problematic cannabis use among medical cannabis users

This study examined whether emotional clarity (i.e., the extent to which one can identify and understand the type and source of emotions one experiences) and cognitive reappraisal (i.e., altering how potentially emotion-eliciting situations are construed to change their emotional impact) would individually or jointly be associated with problematic cannabis use among individuals receiving cannabis for medical reasons (n=153). Findings indicated that problematic cannabis use was predicted by the interaction between emotional clarity and cognitive reappraisal. In particular, low levels of emotional clarity combined with high levels of cognitive reappraisal predicted problematic cannabis use. The current study is the first to demonstrate the interactive effects of emotional clarity and the use of cognitive reappraisal in predicting substance use disorder outcomes. Such findings are important given the lack of empirical data demonstrating for whom and for which conditions cannabis is either beneficial or detrimental.

Social anxiety and emotion knowledge: a meta-analysis

It has been proposed that social anxiety is associated with poor emotion knowledge (EK), although studies have revealed mixed results. The aim of the present paper was to systematically investigate the association between EK and both non-clinical and clinical social anxiety by means of meta-analyses. Systematic, electronic database literature searches were performed, and meta-analyses were conducted on 43 included studies. Results showed that social anxiety was negatively associated with EK. The strongest association was found between clinical levels of social anxiety and the ability to understand one's own emotions (intrapersonal EK). Regarding interpersonal EK, a subgroup analysis showed that social anxiety was more strongly associated with a decreased ability to understand complex emotions than to recognize basic emotions. No differences were found between patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and patients with other anxiety disorders. Although a large between study heterogeneity and differing methodologies may prevent any firm conclusions from being reached, the results indicate that poor EK may play an important role in SAD, and that it could be beneficial to target EK in the treatment of SAD.