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1 EMOTIONAL ATTENTION FOST THE DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE Michael B. Kitchens 1, Erin Pruett, Brittany Graby, Katelyn Mackey, Lindsay Chaffier, & Jamielyn Samper LEBANON VALLEY COLLEGE The purpose of this work was to determine whether trait variance in emotional attention fosters the development of emotional intelligence. We propose a model in which emotional attention intensifies emotional experiences, and as such, promotes the acquisition of emotion knowledge. In Study 1, we found that emotional attention was related to greater emotional intensity, but not related to general environmental or emotional sensitivity. In Study 2, we found that greater attention to emotion predicted emotional intelligence after taking a course on emotion and controlling for pre-measures of emotional intelligence and emotional intensity. In Study 3, we found that attending to emotion improved emotion perception accuracy. Together, these studies provide preliminary evidence that emotional attention produces greater emotional intensity and emotional intelligence. intelligence is a broad construct that describe people s ability to manage, perceive, understand, and use emotion (Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, ). Gohm ( ) showed that several emotional traits underlie differences in some of these emotion skills. The purpose of this line of research was to examine whether one of these traits emotional attention fosters the development of emotional intelligence. Recent work shows that attention to emotion predicts experiencing intense emotions (Thompson et al., ). Given this heightened attention to emotion that enhances the experience of emotion, we reasoned that individuals should be particularly vigilant to emotion experiences, providing unique opportunities to develop emotion skills and abilities. As support of this, research has demonstrated that life skills are acquired through experience, rather than inborn talent (see Howe, Davidson, & Sloboda, ). In regards to emotion, John and Gross ( ) have argued that emotion skills are not a stable trait; rather, emotion skills can change and evolve to more mature forms. For example, Gross, et al. ( ) demonstrated that elderly individuals typically use more effective emotion management strategies than young individuals. 1 Michael B. Kitchens, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology, Lebanon Valley College, , kitchens@lvc.edu, personal-pages.lvc.edu/kitchens 2 Mayer, J. D., Saolvey, P., & Caruso, D. R. (2004). intelligence: Theory, findings, and implications. Psychological Inquiry, 15, Gohm, C. L. (2003). Mood regulation and emotional intelligence: Individual differences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, Thompson, R. J., Mata, J., Jaeggi, S. M., Buschkuehl, M. B., Jonides, J., & Gotlib, I. H. (2011). Concurrent and prospective reltions between attention to emotion and affect intensity: An experience sampling study. Emotion, 11, Howe, M. J. A., Davidson, J. W., & Sloboda, J. A. (1999). Innate talents: Reality or myth? In S. J. Ceci & W. M. Williams (Eds.), The nature-nurture debate: The essential readings ( ). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, Inc. 6 Gross, J. J., & John, O. P. (2002). Wise emotion regulation. In L. F. Barrett & P. Salovey (Eds.), The wisdom in feeling: Psychological processes in emotional intelligence (pp ). New York: The Guildford Press. 7 Gross, J. J., Carstensen, L. L., Pasupathi, M., Tsai, J., Skorpen, C. G., & Hsu, A. Y. C. (1997). Emotion and aging: Experience, expression, and control. Psychology and Aging, 12, Page 1 of 5

2 In summary, our model proposes that attention to emotion intensifies the experience of emotion, which produces a unique emotional experience that highlights the features of emotion. As such, a series of such experiences should facilitate skills in emotional intelligence (see Figure 1). To examine this model, we conducted three studies to test various aspects of this model. Figure 1: Model for Attention to Emotion Fostering Intelligence Skills Attention to Emotion Trait Intense Experiences Attention to Intense Emotion Experiences Development of Intelligence Skills STUDY 1 The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between attention to emotion and emotional intensity. We expected that attention to emotion would intensify the experience of emotion and increase the sensitivity to the environment, such that these processes would help to foster emotional intelligence skills. To test this, participants completed several measures in counterbalanced order. Specifically, participants completed a measure of attention to emotion (Salovey et al., ). Participants also completed measures of emotional intensity: the emotional intensity scale (EIS 9 ), the affect intensity measure (AIM), and the emotional reactivity scale ( 10 : with a subscale of emotional intensity). Finally, participants completed a measure of general sensitivity to the environment (HSP 11 ). We had anticipated individual difference in emotional attention would be related to sensory processing sensitivity (see Aron et al., ), which underlies a number of individual differences, including emotional reactivity (see also Aron & Aron, ). The results showed that emotional attention was significantly and consistently related to measures of emotional intensity (see Table 1). There were no significant correlations between 8 Salovey, P., Mayer, J. D., Goldman, S. L., & Palfai, T. P. (1995). attention, clarity, and repair: Exploring emotional intelligence using the trait meta-mood scale. In J. Pennebaker (Ed.), Emotion, disclosure, and health. Washington DC: American Psychological Association. 9 Bachorowski, J., & Braaten, E. B. (1994). intensity: Measurement and theoretical implications. Personality and Individual Differences, 17, Nock, M. K., Wedig, M. M, Holmberg, E. B., & Hooley, J. M. (2008). The emotional reactivity scale: Development, evaluation, and relation to self-injurious thoughts and behaviors. Behavior Therapy, 39, Aron, E. N., & Aron, A. (1997). Sensory-processing sensitivity and its relation to introversion and emotionality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, Aron, E. N., Aron, A., & Jagiellowicz, J. (2012). Sensory processing sensitivity: A review in the light of evolution of biological responsivity. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 16, Aron, E. N., & Aron, A. (1997). Sensory-processing sensitivity and its relation to introversion and emotionality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, Page 2 of 5

3 attention to emotion and general sensitivity or emotional reactivity. Moreover, this pattern is distinct from emotional clarity and emotional repair, which are often associated with emotional intelligence. In summary, these data show that attention is uniquely related to intensity, but unrelated to general- or emotional- sensitivity. Table 1: Pearson correlations between individual differences in emotion and emotional intensity and emotional sensitivity. Emo. Attention --- Experience Measures Intensity Measures Sensitivity Measures Emo. Emo. Emo. EIS AIM Attention Clarity Repair (intensity) (sensitivity) (overall) HSP Emo. Clarity.34* --- Emo. Repair.42**.48** --- EIS.46** AIM.48** ** --- (intensity).33* **.66** --- (sensitivity) * -.42**.54**.57**.84** --- (overall) *.61**.64**.93**.97** --- HSP * **.45**.43**.46**.49** = p.05 * = p.01 ** p.001 STUDY 2 The purpose of this study was to assess whether attention to emotion fosters emotional intelligence across time. To test this, students (N = 43) taking a course on the science of emotion completed measures of emotional intensity (EIS), emotional intelligence 14 (Time 1), and a measure of emotional attention early in the semester (before the first exam). Then, participants completed the same measure of emotional intelligence (Time 2) at the end of the semester. A hierarchical regression was performed on the Time-2 emotional intelligence scores (i.e., those collected at the end of the semester). The original emotional intelligence scores and emotional intensity scores were entered in the first step; attention to emotion as entered at the second step. The results showed that a significant amount of variance was accounted for in the first step, R 2 =.55, ΔF(2, 40), = 24.08, p <.001. Moreover, attention to emotion predicted emotional intelligence, after controlling for emotional intensity and Time-1 emotional intelligence, ΔR 2 =.04, ΔF(1, 39) = 3.83, p =.058 (see Table 2). 14 Schutte, N. S., Malouff, J. M., Hall, L. E., Haggerty, D. J., Cooper, J. T., Golden, C. J., & Dornheim, L. (1998). Development and validation of a measure of emotional intelligence. Personality and Individual Differences, 25, Page 3 of 5

4 Table 2: Attention Predicted Time-2 Intelligence After Controlling for Time-1 Intelligence and Intensity B SE β t p-value Step 1 Step 2 Intelligence (Time 1) <.001 Intensity Intelligence (Time 1) <.001 Intensity Attention STUDY 3 As a more direct test of our model, we tested whether attention to emotion would cause greater accuracy at an emotionally intelligent task. To test this, participants were randomly assigned to write a story about an event that made them sad, negative or upset or assigned to write a story about their typical day. Next participants were presented with 12 emotion scenarios. EXAMPLE SCENARIOS Amber got a phone call from her best friend s mother during class but she was not able to answer it. After her class was over, she saw there was a voic and started to listen to it. Her friend s mom was calling to inform Amber that Jess, her best friend, was killed in a car accident. Alexa and Mark have been dating for two years and are in a serious relationship. Thursday evening, Alexa received multiple text messages stating that Mark was cheating on her with Rose and there were pictures to prove these allegations. For each scenario, participants identified the extent to which the protagonist in the story experienced several emotions (i.e., sad, anxious, embarrassed, guilty, angry, disgusted, and scared) on a scale from 1 (very weak) to 5 (very strong). Participants were instructed to either use their analytic skills or their emotional, gut-feeling when making these judgments. The accuracy of these judgments was determined by the difference in judgments from the modal answers. A 2 Mood (negative vs. Mood) х 2 Focus (emotional vs. analytic) ANOVA was conducted on this error score. The results showed no significant effect of Mood, F(1, 148) = 2.18, p =.142. There was a main effect of Focus, F(1, 148) = 11.35, p =.001, showing that participants made more accurate judgments (less error) using the analytic strategy (M = 1.12, SD = 0.34) than the emotional strategy (M = 1.32, SD = 0.40). This was qualified by a significant interaction, F(1, 148) = 3.96, p =.049 (see Figure 2). This showed that there was no difference in accuracy when using the analytic strategy, but Page 4 of 5

5 Emotion Perception Error The SELF participants were more accurate (less error) when they attended to experienced emotion than when attending to no emotion. Figure 2: Mood х Focus (Judgment Strategy) Interaction on Emotion Perception Error p =.015 p <.001 p =.322 p = Negative Neutral Focus Condition Analytical Together, these data provide initial support for our model. We found across three studies that attention to emotion was associated with more intense experiences of emotion (Study 1), attention to emotion fosters the development of emotional intelligence (Study 2), and attending to felt emotion increased accuracy at an emotional intelligence skill (Study 3). Page 5 of 5