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Do you play nice with others?. Emotional Intelligence predicts individual differences in social exchange reasoning Reis, D., et al . (2007) Presented by Fred Lam. Background literature. Study was conducted at Yale University
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Do you play nice with others? Emotional Intelligence predicts individual differences in social exchange reasoning Reis, D., et al. (2007) Presented by Fred Lam
Background literature • Study was conducted at Yale University • Direction of the study was guided by years of research done at Yale by: • Marc Brackett • Involved in over 80 scholarly articles relating EI to measures of: • Social Interaction • Academic Performance • Interpersonal social competence • …etc. • Peter Salovey • Developed the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT)—a widely accepted evaluator of EI
Overview • Explores the relationship between Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Social Exchange Reasoning (SER) via 2 studies: • Behavioural: • Tested response time and error rate solving 3 different types of problems: abstract, social exchange, and precautionary • Hypothesis: High emotional intelligence will predict better performance in social exchange problems. • fMRI: • Tested for specific brain site activation of subjects that were solving problems of social exchange vs. precaution
What is Emotional Intelligence? • Emotional Intelligence (EI) refers to the general ability to monitor the emotional information (self & others) and to use that information to relate the information to thoughts and actions. • Perception • Use • Understanding • Management of emotion Retrievedfrom (March 12, 2012): http://digitaljournal.com/img/9/0/1/2/2/1/i/4/6/0/o/Angry_baby.jpg
Social Exchange Theory • Is the theory that explains human social interaction in the forms of cost-benefit analysis • Social exchange reasoning is the set of cognitive processes that allow problem solving of this nature Retrieved from (March 12, 2012): http://www.offthemark.com/cartoons/barter
MSCEIT • The aforementioned four branches (perception, use, understanding, and management) are tested via a series of emotion-based problem-solving items. • The test is modeled on ability-based IQ tests • Scores reflect proximity of reasoning to social norms • Higher scores indicate overlap of an individual’s answer to a worldwide sample of responses Retrieved from (March 12, 2012): http://www.eiskills.com/msceitexamples.html
Wason Card Selection Task Which card(s) must be turned over to test the idea that if a card shows an even number on one face, then its opposite face is red? Which card(s) must be turned over to test the idea that if a card shows an even number on one face, then its opposite face is red? Retrieved from (March 12, 2012): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wason_selection_task
…with a social twist Cola Beer 16 22 If a person is drinking beer, then the person is over 19-years-old.
The Participants • Behavioural Study: • - Yale undergraduate students from a introductory psychology course (N=48, mean age not given) Neuroimaging Follow-up Study: - Random, healthy, right-handed participants responding to an advertisement (N=16, mean age = 21.7)
Results (Behav.) • a.) • X-axis: Emotional Intelligence (MSCEIT) • Y-axis: Response Time (RT) to Social exchange problems • Correlation: pr(42)=-0.39, p=0.008 • b.) • X-axis: Harm Avoidance (TCI*) • Y-axis: RT to precautionary problems • Correlation: pr(42)=-0.32, p=0.036 • Note: EI and HA were not related, r(46)=-0.02
Results (fMRI) • SE vs. Precautionary problem solving • BA 10 • Left frontal polar cortex • BA 20 • Temporal Cortex
Results (fMRI) cont’d • The test was run: social exchange vs. precautionary • Part of the reason was because the baseline abstract problems were much more difficult and the behavioural study had shown the “exceptionally well-matched” difficulty level of the SE vs. precautionary problems • Negative correlation between MSCEIT score and BA 10 and 20 activation
Summary • Using the Wason Card Task and problems in social, precautionary, or abstract contexts: • Behavioural study: • Emotional Intelligence and Harm Avoidance are independent “personality variables” • EI predicts capacity in solving social exchange problems (RT and error rate) • HA predicts capacity in solving precautionary problems (RT and error rate) • fMRI study: • EI predicts brain activation at BA 10 and 20
??? • Things glanced over: • Method • Wason Card Task Solution • Why is this study important?
Why is this important? • (a.) Provides strong evidence that social exchange reasoning is at least a partially isolated from general problem solving • (b.) Controversy: Emotional intelligence =/= intelligence (t/f) • Despite correlation between EI and areas such as: • Academic performance • Effective communication • Interpersonal social competence • Correlation =/= causation • The demonstrated relationship between EI and social exchange reasoning (a) provides a new angle for future research (b)