The moderating effect of trait emotional intelligence on mood deterioration following laboratory-induced stress 1

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1 Intenational Jounal of Clinical and Health Psychology ISSN , Vol. 9, Nº 3, pp The modeating effect of tait emotional intelligence on mood deteioation following laboatoy-induced stess 1 Moïa Mikolajczak 2 (Univesité Catholique de Louvain, Belgium), Kostantinos V. Petides (Univesity College London, United Kingdom), Nathalie Coumans (Fee Univesity of Bussels, Belgium), and Olivie Luminet (Univesité Catholique de Louvain, Belgium) ABSTRACT. A vast amount of eseach has documented an association between tait emotional intelligence (EI) and mental health. Seveal pathways could account fo this elationship. Fist, it is possible that the association between tait EI and mental health is meely an atefact of the methods and measues used (esponse bias pathway). Second, tait EI may educe the susceptibility to mental disodes via a succession of biological mechanisms (neuoendocine pathway). Thid, tait EI may educe one s susceptibility to psychological disodes by minimizing mood alteations in difficult cicumstances (affective pathway). This expeimental study aims at documenting the thid pathway. It pesents thee expeimental studies investigating the modeating ole of tait emotional intelligence (tait EI) on mood deteioation following laboatoyinduced stess. The incemental validity of tait EI to pedict mood changes ove and above social desiability, alexithymia, esilience and the five-facto model of pesonality was also examined. Multiple egessions, pefomed on the thee samples as well as on the combined sample (N = 196), showed that a) tait EI significantly modeated the 1 Pepaation of this pape was facilitated by a FSR gant fom the univesité catholique de Louvain, an FNRS post-doctoal fellowship by the Belgian National Fund fo Scientific Reseach, as well as a tavel gant to London fom the Belgian Fench-speaking Govenment (M.M.), Nuffield gant SGS/01075/G (K.V.P.), and gants and fom the Belgian National Fund fo scientific eseach (O.L.). 2 Coespondence: Univesité Catholique de Louvain. Depatment of Psychology. Reseach Unit fo Emotion Cognition and Health. Place Cadinal Mecie 10. B Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium). Moia.mikolajczak@uclouvain.be

2 456 MIKOLAJCZAK et al. Tait emotional intelligence and stess impact of the expeimental stesso on subsequent mood deteioation, b) the effect held afte contolling fo social desiability and c) tait EI had incemental validity to pedict mood deteioation ove and above the othe pedictos. KEYWORDS. Tait emotional self-efficacy. Stess. Incemental validity. TEIQue. Expeimental study. RESUMEN. Una gand cantidad de investigación ha demostado una asociación ente el asgo de inteligencia emocional (IE) y salud mental. Vaias vías pueden contibui a esta elación. Pimeo, es posible que la asociación ente el asgo de IE y la salud mental sea un meo atefacto de los métodos y medidas utilizadas (vía sesgos de espuesta). Segundo, el asgo de IE puede educi la susceptibilidad a tastonos mentales mediante la sucesión de mecanismos biológicos (vía neuoendocina). Teceo, el asgo de IE puede educi la susceptibilidad a tastonos minimizando las alteaciones del estado de ánimo en difeentes cicunstancias (vía de afecto). Este estudio expeimental tiene como objetivo documenta la tecea vía. Pesenta tes estudios expeimentales sobe el ol modeado del asgo de inteligencia emocional (IE asgo) en el deteioo del estado de ánimo después del estés inducido en el laboatoio. La validez incemental del asgo de IE paa pedeci los cambios del estado de ánimo más la deseabilidad social, alexitimia, esiliencia y el modelo de pesonalidad de los cinco factoes también fue estudiada. Regesiones múltiples sobe las tes muestas y también sobe la muesta combinada (N = 196), demostaon que a) la IE asgo modeó significativamente el impacto del esteso expeimental en el subsecuente deteioo del estado de ánimo, b) el efecto se mantuvo después de habe contolado la deseabilidad social y c) la IE asgo tuvo una validez incemental paa pedeci el deteioo del estado de ánimo sobe otos pedictoes. PALABRAS CLAVE. Autoeficacia emocional asgo. Estés. Validez incemental. TEIQue. Estudio expeimental. Though emotions ae common to all human beings, individuals makedly diffe in the extent to which they expeience, attend to, pocess, and utilize affect-laden infomation of an inta-pesonal (e.g., managing one s own emotions) o intepesonal (e.g., managing othes emotions) natue (Petides and Funham, 2003). The constuct of emotional intelligence povides a scientific famewok to this idea. Reseach on emotion-elated individual diffeences has immensely gown ove the past decade and the need has emeged to distinguish between thee levels of emotional intelligence, anging fom the most conceptual to the most applied. The fist level efes to the complexity and width of conceptual-declaative emotion knowledge (i.e., numbe of diffeentiated concepts and numbe of links in the connected web of multimodal emotion-elated concepts). The second level efes to emotion-elated abilities (i.e., ability to apply knowledge to a poblem solving situation and actually implement a given stategy). The thid level efes to emotion-elated dispositions (o taits) (i.e., popensity to behave in a cetain way in emotional situations, fequency with which one uses one s abilities).

3 MIKOLAJCZAK et al. Tait emotional intelligence and stess 457 These thee levels of emotional intelligence ae loosely connected. Namely, knowledge does not always tanslate into abilities, which, in tun, do not always tanslate into pactice (dispositions). One might well know that the best stategy befoe an exam is to eappaise the situation in a positive manne but, at the same time, being totally unable to eappaise one s own exam session positively. In the same vein, one might be capable of eappaising when asked to do so, while not using this stategy on a daily basis. The positive but athe modest coelations existing between conceptual emotion knowledge, ability Emotional Intelligence (EI), and tait EI measues (Lumley, Gustavson, Patidge, and Labouvie-Vief, 2005) suppot the idea that a distinction must be made between the thee levels of EI. As its title indicates, the pesent pape focuses on the thid level (i.e., emotion-elated dispositions), in elationship with stess and mental health. Tait EI and mental health: Empiical evidence and mediational pathways A vast amount of eseach has documented an association between tait EI and mental health. Fo instance, tait EI has been negatively associated with depession (e.g., Ciaochi, Deane, and Andeson, 2002; Saklofske, Austin, and Minski, 2003), anxiety (e.g., Ciaochi, Chan, and Bajga, 2001; Mikolajczak, Luminet, Leoy, and Roy, 2007), phobic and obsessive symptoms (Mikolajczak, Luminet, and Menil, 2006), psychopathy (Maltee, Glass, and Newman, 2008), pesonality disodes (Petides, Péez- González, and Funham, 2007) and bunout. As a matte of fact, statistics fom a longitudinal study in the wokplace suggest that people scoing high on tait EI measues ae thice as less likely to bun-out as people scoing low (Mikolajczak, Menil, and Luminet, 2007). A ecent meta-analysis by Schutte, Malouff, Thosteinsson, Bhulla, and Rooke (2007) indicated that this association between tait EI and mental health is both significant (the aggegated effect size in 27 studies was.32) and obust. That is, it concens men and women alike, adolescents and adults, as well as students and the geneal community. Although it is tempting to conclude that tait EI pevents mental disodes, these studies demonstate only a eliable association. Thee ae seveal diffeent pathways that could potentially account fo this elationship. Fistly, it is possible that the association between tait EI and mental health is meely an atifact of the methods and measues used (esponse bias pathway). In paticula, eliance on self-epots fo the assessment of both tait EI and mental health aises the possibility that a pevasive esponse disposition leads to the obseved association (e.g., social desiability could lead people to pesent themselves as moe emotionally intelligent than they ae, as well as to minimize thei psychological symptoms o instability). Secondly, tait EI may educe the susceptibility to mental disodes via a succession of biological mechanisms (neuoendocine pathway). Specifically, it has ecently been shown that tait EI was negatively associated with cotisol secetion amidst stess (Mikolajczak, Roy, Luminet, Fillée, and De Timay, 2007). Given that hypecotisolemia plays a significant pathophysiologic ole in the aetiology of depession and anxiety (via an inhibitoy feedback on seotonin and noadenalin elease), it is conceivable that high tait EI potects people fom mental disodes simply by peventing exaggeated and polonged cotisol secetion in times of stess. Thidly, tait EI may educe one s susceptibility to psychological disodes by minimizing mood alteations in difficult cicumstances (affective

4 458 MIKOLAJCZAK et al. Tait emotional intelligence and stess pathway). Specifically, high tait EI individuals would expeience a smalle incease in negative mood (anxiety, sadness, etc.) than thei pees when faced with daily challenges. This would peseve thei psychological well-being, while the accumulation of negative moods among low tait EI individuals would eventually esult in mood disodes (anxiety disodes, depession, etc.). The pesent set of studies examines this thid pathway. Although the second and thid pathways ae elated, they ae woth sepaate investigations because a) not all types of stessos ae conductive of an activation of the hypothalamic-pituitay-adenal (HPA) axis (Dickeson and Kemeny, 2004) and b) pevious eseach has shown that the vaious components of the emotional esponse ae only weakly coelated (Cacioppo, Tassinay, and Bentson, 2007; Mauss, Cook, and Goss, 2007). Thee even exist individuals in which the subjective and physiological components of the emotional esponse ae fully dissociated (e.g., epessos; e.g., Schwatz, 1990). The pesent study The fist goal of this expeimental (see Monteo and León, 2007 as well as Ramos- Alvaez, Moeno-Fenández, Valdés-Conoy and Catena, 2008 fo a eseach typology) study was to examine whethe tait EI modeates mood deteioation following an acute stesso. To this end, we allocated paticipants to eithe stess o neutal conditions and assessed the effects of these exposues on mood change. Because the pesent pape tagets the subjective component of the emotional esponse, we contolled fo social desiability in ode to exclude any potential esponse bias. A subsidiay goal of this study was to detemine the added value of t tait EI visà-vis vaious concuent pedictos. That is, we examined the incemental validity of tait EI to pedict mood deteioation ove and above the five-facto model of pesonality, alexithymia and esilience. This was deemed impotant because a) esilience and the big five (especially neuoticism) ae poweful pedictos of esistance to stess and b) tait EI shaes a high pecentage of its vaiance with all thee constucts (e.g., Mikolajczak, Luminet et al., 2007; Pake, Taylo, and Bagby, 2001; Petides and Funham, 2001; Saklofske, Austin, and Minsh 2003). Alexithymia is a multidimensional constuct encompassing fou dimensions thought to eflect deficits in the cognitive pocessing of emotions (Taylo, Bagby, and Pake, 1997). These dimensions ae a) a difficulty in identifying and distinguishing between feelings and the bodily sensations of emotional aousal; b) a difficulty in descibing feelings to othes; c) a esticted imagination, as evidenced by a paucity of fantasies; and d) a cognitive style that is liteal, utilitaian, and extenally oiented. Resilience is defined as the ability to thive in the face of advesity and to adapt flexibly to the changing demands of stessful expeiences (Block and Kemen, 1996; Tugade and Fedickson, 2004). Because this definition tagets the final outcome and not what contibutes to this outcome it leaves little oom fo pediction (Hjemdal, Fibog, Toe, Rosenvinge, and Matinussen, 2006). Theefoe, measues of esilience encompass the factos known to pomote esilience, which fall unde thee categoies: a) positive dispositional attibutes, b) a cohesive and loyal family and c) a suppotive social netwok (e.g., Wene and Smith, 2001). The moe featues a peson possesses, the moe esilient s/he is said to be. The Five-Facto Model of Pesonality (FFM) is cuently the most pominent model fo descibing pesonality.

5 MIKOLAJCZAK et al. Tait emotional intelligence and stess 459 This model posits that pesonality (viz., individual diffeences in the configuations of thoughts, emotions and behavious; McCae and Costa, 1990, p.23) can be summaized in five majo dimensions (often efeed to as the «Big 5»): Neuoticism (N), Extavesion (E), Openness to expeience (O), Ageeability (A) and Conscientiousness (C). Along with thoughts and behavious, emotions ae impotant pats of the definitions of these taits. N and E pedispose to negative and positive emotions espectively, O captues the inteest fo emotions, A eflects the hostile tiad of emotions (ange, contempt and disgust) and C efes to impulse contol (Luminet, Bagby, Wagne, Taylo, and Pake, 1999). Given the patial ovelap between alexithymia, esilience, the FFM and tait EI, it was impotant to detemine whethe tait EI pedicts mood change ove and above these vaiables. STUDY 1 Method Paticipants Sixty-seven students paticipated in the study in exchange fo a ticket fom the Belgian national lottey (the winne gets 1000 pe month fo life). Paticipants wee 41 males and 26 females. The mean age of the sample was yeas (SD = 2.01 yeas). They wee andomly assigned eithe to the neutal (n = 32) o to the stess (n = 35) condition. Measues Tait emotional intelligence was measued though the Fench vesion of the Tait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaie (TEIQue; Petides, Pita, and Konkinak 2007; fo the psychometic popeties of the Fench adaptation used in this study, see Mikolajczak, Luminet et al., 2007). The TEIQue consists of 153 items esponded to on a 7-point scale anging fom 1 (stongly disagee) to 7 (stongly agee). It povides scoes fo 15 subscales, fou factos (Well-being, Self-contol, Emotionality, and Sociability) and global tait EI. We chose the TEIQue as a measue of tait EI fo thee specific easons. Fist, it povides compehensive coveage of the tait EI sampling domain (Feudenthale, Neubaue, Gable, Schel, and Rindemann, 2008); second, it has demonstated disciminant validity in elation to pesonality (Petides, Pita, and Kokkinaki, 2007); thid, its facto stuctue is stable acoss studies and languages (Mikolajczak, Luminet et al., 2007). Positive and negative affectivity wee assessed though an abbeviated vesion of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS; Watson, Clak, and Tellegen, 1988). The PANAS is cuently the most widely used measue of affectivity. In its oiginal vesion, it consists of 20 adjectives ated along 5-point scales anging fom 1(not at all) to 5 (extemely), of which 10 measue positive affectivity (PA; e.g., inspied) and 10 measue negative affectivity (NA; e.g., guilty). Because the pesent study was pat of a lage expeiment, a shot vesion of the PANAS was ceated in which only the mood states that wee most

6 460 MIKOLAJCZAK et al. Tait emotional intelligence and stess elevant to ou manipulation wee included. The following adjectives wee included: cheeful, in good shape, enthusiastic and poud fo PA ( alive, inspied, inteested, detemined and active wee excluded) and distessed, iitated, ashamed, iitable, nevous and aggessive fo NA ( guilty, fightened, scaed and estless wee excluded). Pocedue All paticipants wee tested individually. Upon aival at the laboatoy, they wee invited to complete the TEIQue and subsequently undewent a shot elaxation pocedue (1 min; based on Schultz, 1965). Baseline positive and negative affectivity wee then assessed though the abbeviated vesion of the PANAS. Subsequently, paticipants wee andomly allocated eithe to a stess condition o to a neutal condition. Thee wee no tait EI diffeences between paticipants in the two conditions. The stess condition involved a failue expeience (Kohne, Piepe, Knoll, and Beime, 2002). Paticipants wee told they would be tested on a ecently developed test designed to pedict occupational success. They wee infomed that, as univesity students, they wee expected to have a 75% success ate (fictitious pecentage). In fact, the administeed test consisted of the 12 most difficult items fom the Raven Advanced Pogessive Matices (Raven, 1976). Futhemoe, an unealistic time constaint was imposed on paticipants to ensue unsatisfactoy pefomance. In contast, the neutal condition simply involved eading a magazine aticle on the measuement of intelligence and ating it on its eadability (a petest evealed that this task induced no paticula emotion). Following the mood induction (i.e., stess vesus neutal), paticipants wee etested on the PANAS. Results Analyses wee pefomed on post-manipulation mood (NA2 o PA2), patialling out the effect of baseline mood (NA1 o PA1). The data wee analysed though fou-step hieachical egessions in which we examined the unique and inteactive effects of condition and tait EI. Baseline mood was enteed as a covaiate in Step 1 of the egession. In Step 2, we intoduced condition (a nominal vaiable -1/1 contasting the stess vesus the neutal induction). In Step 3, we enteed the tait EI scoes (as a continuous vaiable). The two-way inteaction between condition and tait EI was enteed in Step 4. Following Aiken and West s (1991) suggestion, all pedictos wee cented aound thei mean. Finally, in line with Judd and McClelland (1989) multivaiate outlies deviating moe than 3 standad deviations fom the mean wee emoved in ode to get the most honest estimate of population paametes (see Banett and Lewis, 1994). Means, SDs, and Conbach alphas fo the vaiables unde examination ae epoted in Table 1 (fist column). Regession esults ae epoted in detail in Tables 2 and 4. The analyses yielded a main effect of condition, indicating geate mood deteioation in the stess goup than in the neutal goup (that is, the manipulation had the expected effect). The deteioation was manifested both in NA (F (1, 62) = 43.53, p.001) and in PA scoes (F (1, 64) = 19.20, p.001). Thee was also a main effect of global tait EI on NA (F (1, 61) = 13.94, p.001), wheeby paticipants with high tait EI scoes expeienced

7 MIKOLAJCZAK et al. Tait emotional intelligence and stess 461 a smalle incease in NA than those with low tait EI scoes. Moe impotant, thee was a condition x tait EI inteaction on NA (F (1, 60) = 4.96, p.05), indicating that the negative elationship between tait EI and mood deteioation was stonge in the stess than in the neutal condition (see Figue 1a, whee only the stess condition slope is significant). Tait EI global: Well-being Self-contol Emotionality Sociability TABLE 1. Means, standad deviations and Conbach alphas fo the vaiables unde investigation. Study 1 Study 2 Study 3 Means (SD) Means (SD) Means (SD) 4.64 (.48) (.50) (.59) 5.02 (.72) (.80) (.88) 4.23 (.63) (.75) (.72) 4.75 (.75) (.63) (.69) 4.63 (.77) (.62) (.82) Alexithymia (TAS-20) (9.56).81 a (10.18).80 Social desiability (4.25) (3.97).64 Pesonality Emotional stability Intovesion Openness Ageeableness Conscientiousness Resilience Pesonal competence Social competence Family coheence Social esouces Pesonal stuctue Positive Affectivity (PA) Befoe manipulation Afte manipulation Negative Affectivity (NA) Befoe manipulation Afte manipulation 3.15 (.72) b 2.72 (.89) c (.36) d 1.59 (.68) e (8.24) (8.89) (6.27) (5.58) (9.73) (.67) f 2.66 (.67) g (.57) h 1.83 (.91) i (9.20) (8.57) (6.37) (6.67) (8.54) 4.97 (.75) 4.91 (.92) 5.17 (1) 4.73 (1.27) 5.48 (.98) 4.34 (1.06) Notes. a Intenal consistencies wee unavailable fo the TAS-20 vaiables in this study because of the use of a computeized vesion of the TAS-20 that computed the scoes but did not save the answes item by item. The values epoted in the table ae fom Mikolajczak et al. (2006). b Mean PA befoe manipulation was 3.05 (.70) in the stessful condition and 3.25 (.74) in the neutal condition. c Mean PA afte manipulation was 2.37 (.87) in the stessful condition and 3.09 (.75) in the neutal condition. d Mean NA befoe manipulation was 1.33 (.38) in the stessful condition and 1.34 (.35) in the neutal condition. e Mean NA afte manipulation was 1.92 (.75) in the stessful condition and 1.22 (.31) in the neutal condition. f Mean PA befoe manipulation was 3.17 (.56) in the stessful condition and 2.68 (.70) in the neutal condition. g Mean PA afte manipulation was 2.54 (.70) in the stessful condition and 2.79 (.61) in the neutal condition. h Mean NA befoe manipulation was 1.47 (.60) in the stessful condition and 1.47 (.55) in the neutal condition. i Mean NA afte manipulation was 2.28 (.95) in the stessful condition and 1.31 (.50) in the neutal condition. j Mean PA befoe manipulation was 2.98 (.65) in the stessful condition and 2.55 (.51) in the neutal condition. k Mean PA afte manipulation was 2.93 (.84) in the stessful condition and 2.25 (.59) in the neutal condition. l Mean NA befoe manipulation was 1.23 (.028) in the stessful condition and 1.45 (.58) in the neutal condition. l Mean NA afte manipulation was 1.60 (.59) in the stessful condition and 1.28 (.38) in the neutal condition (.62) j 2.59 (.80) k (.46) l 1.44 (.52) m.88.89

8 462 MIKOLAJCZAK et al. Tait emotional intelligence and stess Discussion As hypothesized, tait EI modeated the impact of laboatoy-induced stess on mood deteioation, such that high tait EI scoes wee associated with a smalle incease in NA in the stess condition. Howeve, the findings of this study ae subject to cetain limitations. Fist, the TEIQue data wee collected in the same session as the mood induction, thus aising the issue of shaed covaiance. Second, the use of a shotened vesion of the PANAS esulted in a elatively low intenal consistency fo the baseline measuement of NA (alpha =.55), which may have affected the analysis. TABLE 2. Regession analyses pedicting change in affectivity by condition, tait EI and thei inteaction. Outlies Positive affectivity Negative affectivity Study 1 PA: NA: 37, 44 Study 2 PA: 2 NA: 2 Study 3 PA: / NA: 45 Adj. R² F change Semipatial Adj. R² F change Semipatial Affect T *** ***.51 Condition *** *** -.51 Tait EI *** -.25 Condition x Tait EI *.15 a Adj. R² F change Semipatial Adj. R² F change Semipatial Affect T *** ***.28 Condition *** *** -.54 Tait EI ** -.23 Condition x Tait EI ** -219 **, e *.22 *, b Adj. R² F change Semipatial Adj. R² F change Semipatial PA: 2, 37 NA: 2, 4, 13, 19, 20, 37, 44 Affect T ***.54 *** ***.43 *** Condition * -.17 * *** -.49 *** Tait EI l *** -.42 *** Condition x Tait EI *.19 *, c Adj. R² F change Pooledsample Semipatial Adj. R² F change Semipatial Affect T ***.69 *** ***.48 *** Condition ***.20 *** *** -.51 *** Tait EI * *** -.23 *** Condition x Tait EI ** -.13 **, f ***.17 ***, d Note. nº = case numbe of outlie paticipants. Lette supescipts in the inteaction ows link to the coesponding simple slopes data in Table 4. *** p.001; ** p.01; * p.05; p.10

9 MIKOLAJCZAK et al. Tait emotional intelligence and stess 463 STUDY 2 Study 2 was conducted to extend the findings of Study 1, with an added emphasis on the issue of incemental validity. As discussed in the geneal intoduction, we contolled fo social desiability, alexithymia, and the big five pesonality dimensions. Method Paticipants Sixty-six undegaduate psychology students paticipated in the study in exchange fo couse cedit. Paticipants wee 51 females and 15 males. The mean age of the sample was yeas (SD = 1.04 yeas). They wee andomly assigned to eithe the neutal (N = 31) o the stess (N = 35) condition. Measues Tait EI was measued with the TEIQue as descibed in Study 1. Positive and negative affectivity wee measued though the full vesion of the PANAS with an enhancement of the NA component. That is, in ode to incease the sensitivity of the instument to the manipulation, the following adjectives wee added on account of thei paticula elevance to ou investigation: disheatened, incapable, gumpy, disgusted, and tense. Social desiability was measued with the Malowe-Cowne Social Desiability Scale (Cowne and Malowe, 1960), which consists of 30 items ated on a dichotomous (tue / false) scale. Sample items ae «I am always couteous, even to people who ae disageeable,» «When I don t know something, I don t mind at all admitting it». Alexithymia was measued with the Toonto Alexithymia Scale (Bagby, Pake, and Taylo, 1994). This questionnaie consists of 20 items esponded to on a 5- point scale fom 1 (fully disagee) to 5 (fully agee), tageting thee specific dimensions: difficulty in identifying feelings («When I am upset, I do not know if I am sad, fightened o angy»), difficulty in descibing feelings («I find it had to descibe how I feel about people»), and extenally-oiented thinking («I pefe talking to people about daily activities athe than thei feelings»). Five-facto pesonality was measued with the D5D (Rolland and Mogenet, 2001), a widely used Fench pesonality inventoy based on the Five-Facto Model (Costa and McCae, 1992). It assesses the big five dimensions of emotional stability, intovesion, openness, conscientiousness, and ageeableness though 55 adjectives (e.g., nevous, eseved, cultivated, compassionate, tidy, etc.) that ae ated on a 6-point scale anging fom -3 (does not descibe me at all) to +3 (descibes me pefectly). Pocedue The pocedue was the same as in Study 1, with the exception of a time lag between the administation of the TEIQue and the stess induction in ode to emove any shaed

10 464 MIKOLAJCZAK et al. Tait emotional intelligence and stess vaiance. The expeimental session (stess induction and affectivity measues) and the questionnaie session (tait EI, alexithymia, social desiability and the five-facto model of pesonality) wee spaced up to thee weeks apat. Results Means, SDs, and Conbach alphas fo the vaiables unde examination ae epoted in Table 1 (second column). Regession esults ae epoted in detail in Tables 2 and 4. Fistly, as in Study 1, analyses yielded a significant main effect of condition, indicating geate mood change in the stess goup than in the neutal goup fo both NA (F (1, 62) = 32.27, p.001) and PA (F (1, 62) = 28.73, p.001) scoes. Thus, the manipulation had the expected effect. Secondly, thee was also a main effect of global tait EI, wheeby paticipants with high tait EI scoes expeienced a smalle incease in NA than paticipants with low tait EI scoes (F (1, 61) = 7.39, p.005). Lastly, thee was a significant condition x tait EI inteaction on both positive (F (1, 60) = 8.49, p.005) and negative mood change (F (1, 60) = 6.27, p.05) (see Figues 2a and 2b). In the stess condition, high tait EI scoes wee, as expected, associated with less mood deteioation (i.e., lesse incease in NA and lesse decease in PA). It is notewothy that, in the neutal condition, high tait EI scoes wee associated with less mood impovement (i.e., less decease in NA and less incease in PA). Complementay analyses evealed that high tait EI paticipants epoted both moe PA ( =.449, p.001) and less NA ( = -.382, p.005) than thei low tait EI countepats upon aival at the laboatoy. The fact that low tait EI individuals gained PA and lost NA in the neutal condition suggests they may have been tense upon aival, but gadually elaxed. As fa as incemental validity is concened, we analysed the data of this study togethe with the incemental data of Study 3, in ode to get a moe accuate estimate of the incement of vaiance explained. Results ae epoted in Table 5 and pesented in the Results section of Study 3. Discussion This study evealed even moe ponounced effects than Study 1 in that tait EI modeated the impact of stess on both positive and negative mood. While these findings confim the ole of tait EI as a modeato of subjective mood deteioation in stessful situations, thei genealizability might be limited. That is, the task might not be fully epesentative of eal life stessos, which ae often moe intense. Study 3 aims to investigate whethe the modeating effect of tait EI holds in the context of a stonge stesso.

11 MIKOLAJCZAK et al. Tait emotional intelligence and stess 465 TABLE 3. Regession analyses pedicting change in affectivity by condition, tait ei factos and thei inteaction (pooled-samples analyses). Outlies Positive affectivity Negative affectivity Well-being PA: 2, 37 NA: 2, 13, 19, 20, 37, 44 Self-contol PA: 2, 37 NA: 2, 13, 19, 20, 37, 44 Emotionality PA: 2, 37 NA: 2, 13, 19, 20, 37, 44 Sociability PA: 2, 37 NA: 2, 13, 19, 20, 37, 44 Adj. R² F change Semipatial Adj. R² F change Semipatial Affect T ***.62 *** ***.50 *** Condition ***.20 *** *** -.51 *** Tait EI *.11 * *** -.17 *** Condition x Tait EI ** -.13 **, k ***.17 ***, g Adj. R² F change Semipatial Adj. R² F change Semipatial Affect T *** ***.50 *** Condition *** *** -.50 *** Tait EI *** -.16 *** Condition x Tait EI , l * -.09 *, h Adj. R² F change Semipatial Adj. R² F change Semipatial Affect T ***.75 *** ***.57 *** Condition ***.19 *** *** -.50 *** Tait EI * -.11 * Condition x Tait EI * -.09 *, m *.10 *, i Adj. R² F change Semipatial Adj. R² F change Semipatial Affect T ***.72 *** ***.67 *** Condition ***.19 *** *** -.63 *** Tait EI *.10 * *** -.30 *** Condition x Tait EI * -.10 *, n ***.26 ***, j Note. = case numbe of outlie paticipants. Lette supescipts in the inteaction ows link to the coesponding simple slopes data in Table 7. *** p.001; ** p.01; * p.05; p.10

12 466 MIKOLAJCZAK et al. Tait emotional intelligence and stess TABLE 4. Decomposition of significant inteactions: Simple egession slopes by condition. Refeence Condition Intecept B Beta t a S ** ** ** ** N.985 * b S *** ** ** ** N *.226 *.225 * * c S *** *** *** *** N *** * * * d S *** -,473 *** -,408 *** *** N.713 ** e S *.247 * * N ** f S **.320 **.215 ** ** N g S *** *** *** *** N.393 * h S *** ** ** ** N i S *** * * * N.451 * j S *** *** *** *** N.474 * k S **.262 ***.255 *** *** N l S N.764 * m S N.762 * n S **.214 **.209 ** ** N Notes. Refeence lettes link to the significant inteactions in Tables 2 and 3. S = Stess condition, N = Neutal condition. *** p.001; ** p.01; * p.05; p.10 STUDY 3 Study 3 was conducted to eplicate the findings of Study 1 and 2, but in the context of a stonge stesso. The findings pesented below ae pat of a lage study aimed to investigate the modeating effect of tait EI on both subjective and endocine esponses to an acute stesso. Pat of this study has been pesented elsewhee (Mikolajczak, Roy

13 MIKOLAJCZAK et al. Tait emotional intelligence and stess 467 et al., 2007) but PA-elated data wee not epoted and NA-elated data wee analyzed diffeently. Moeove, these esults have not been discussed as this pape focused exclusively on the endocine esponse. In addition to examining the modeating effect of tait EI and its incemental effect ove and above social desiability, alexithymia and the five-factos of pesonality, we intoduced in this study a new concuent pedicto, namely the constuct of esilience. As this constuct has been especially designed to captue the factos known to pomote esistance to stess (Fibog, Hjemdal, Rosenvinge, and Matinussen, 2003), we thought that it could epesent a suitable constuct to include in the incemental validity analysis. Method Paticipants Fifty-six students ecuited though advetisements paticipated in the study in exchange fo couse cedit o emuneation. Because this study compised endocine measues, students who suffeed fom somatic o psychiatic illnesses, o who wee unde any fom of medication wee excluded. Females and those who epoted smoking behaviou wee also excluded, due to the documented effect of gende and smoking on cotisol esponses. Subjects wee andomly assigned to the contol (n = 28) o the stess (n = 28) condition. Measues Tait EI, positive and negative affectivity, social desiability, alexithymia, and the five-facto pesonality wee measued as descibed in Study 2. Resilience was measued by the Resilience Scale fo Adults (RSA; Fibog et al., 2003). The RSA consists of 41 items - esponded to on a 7-point scale: fom 1 (stongly disagee) to 7 (stongly agee) tageting 5 factos known to pomote esilience: pesonal competence («No matte what happens I always find a solution»), pesonal stuctue («I keep up my daily outine even in difficult times»), social competence («I easily adjust to new social milieus»), family coheence («In ou family, we ae loyal towads each othe») and social esouces («I have some close fiends/family membes who eally cae about me»). Note that thee is no consensus in the liteatue about the factos fo esilience. Howeve, this scale encompasses factos which have been empiically shown to pomote esilience. Pocedue Expeimental session. Because the pocedue has been descibed in detail in Mikolajczak, Roy et al. (2007), we summaize it hee afte, focusing exclusively on measues of mood. Upon aival at the laboatoy, paticipants undewent a shot elaxation pocedue and then wee left alone fo ten minutes in a comfotable oom with seveal magazines at thei disposal. Baseline positive and negative affectivity wee subsequently assessed though the PANAS. Subsequently, paticipants in the contol condition watched a neutal documentay about Mayan

14 468 MIKOLAJCZAK et al. Tait emotional intelligence and stess people (Azzaella and Boyajian, 1997, Fench vesion) wheeas paticipants in the stess condition undewent the Tie Social Stess Test (TSST; see Kischbaum, Pike, and Hellhamme, 1993 fo details on the pocedue). The TSST consists of both a public speech (5 minutes, afte 10 min pepaation peiod) and a cognitive task (5 min) in font of an audience of two people and a video camea. Afte the manipulation (neutal vs. stess), paticipants etuned to the fist oom and wee e-tested on the PANAS. Questionnaie session. The questionnaie session took place about thee weeks afte the expeimental one. This collective session lasted fo about 1 hou, duing which paticipants completed measues of the five factos of pesonality, tait EI, alexithymia, and social desiability. Results Modeating effect of tait EI on mood changes Means, SDs, and Conbach alphas fo the vaiables unde examination ae epoted in Table 1 (thid column). Regession esults fo global tait EI ae epoted in detail in Tables 2 and 4. Analyses yielded a significant main effect of condition, indicating geate mood change in the stess goup than in the neutal goup fo NA scoes (F = 14.95, p (1,.001) but not fo PA scoes (F = 4.13, p = ns). These esults suggest 52) (1, 53) that the manipulation had the expected effect because it was pimaily designed to induce a negative emotional state (i.e., stess). Thee was also a stong main effect of global tait EI, wheeby paticipants with high tait EI scoes expeienced a smalle incease in NA than paticipants with low tait EI scoes (F (1, 51) = 25.03, p.001). Lastly, thee was a significant condition x tait EI inteaction on negative mood change (F (1, 50) = 4.97, p.05), indicating that the latte effect was even stonge in the stessful condition (see Figue 3a). Incemental validity of tait EI ove and above concuent constucts Incemental analyses wee completed in two steps. Fist, we pefomed sepaate multiple egessions (condition, pedicto, and condition x pedicto) in ode to identify independently the significant pedictos of mood change. We then tested the incemental validity of tait EI ove and above significant pedictos by enteing all significant pedictos, along with the main and inteaction effects of tait EI. The betas (i.e., coefficients contolling fo all othe pedictos enteed in the model) ae given in Table 5. Incemental validity ove and above social desiability, alexithymia and the fivefacto model of pesonality. As social desiability, alexithymia and the five-facto model of pesonality wee measued in both Study 2 and Study 3, this section beas on the data of these two studies pooled togethe (n = 118). The fist step (independent analyses) evealed that seveal vaiables wee significant pedictos of NA change: tait EI, emotional stability, openness, ageeableness and social desiability had a main effect (i.e., highe scoes wee associated with less incease in NA), while tait EI, emotional stability and social desiability also

15 MIKOLAJCZAK et al. Tait emotional intelligence and stess 469 inteacted with the condition (such that thei effects wee moe ponounced in the stess condition). As can be seen in Table 5, in the second step of the egession with all significant pedictos enteed togethe in the equation, only the effects of tait EI emained significant when the othe pedictos wee patialed out. Regading PA change, the following vaiables wee found to be significant pedictos: tait EI and openness both had a main effect (i.e., highe scoes wee associated with lesse PA changes) while tait EI, difficulty identifying feelings, emotional stability, ageeableness, and social desiability inteacted with condition (such that thei effects wee moe ponounced in the stess condition). As can be seen in Table 5, none of the pedictos emained significant in the pesence of the othes, except social desiability. Incemental validity ove and above esilience. The fist step (independent analyses) indicated that among the five esilience factos (see Measues section), thee had a significant effect on NA change. Peceived competence, social competence and social suppot had a main effect (highe scoes wee associated with less incease in NA), while peceived competence also inteacted with condition (such that its effect was stonge in the stess condition). The second step (all significant pedictos enteed togethe) showed that, apat fom baseline NA and condition, only tait EI emained a significant pedicto in the pesence of the esilience factos. Analyses wee not pefomed egading PA as tait EI was not a significant pedicto of PA change in Study 3. TABLE 5. Hieachical egession analyses testing the incemental validity of tait EI ove and above concuent pedictos. Incemental validity ove and above alexithymia and its factos, the big five factos of pesonality and social desiability. Study 2 and 3 pooled togethe (n = 118) Citeion Pedicto Beta vaiable Vaiable NA_2 NA_1.31 *** Condition -.50 *** Emotional stability -.12 Ageeability.03 Openness -.10 Social desiability -.11 Tait EI -.22 * Condition x emotional stability.06 Condition x social desiability.08 Condition x tait EI -.17 * PA_2 PA_1.66 *** Condition.12 Openness.10

16 470 MIKOLAJCZAK et al. Tait emotional intelligence and stess TABLE 5. Hieachical egession analyses testing the incemental validity of tait EI ove and above concuent pedictos (cont.). Tait EI.10 Condition x difficulty identifying feelings.11 Condition x emotional stability.06 Condition x ageeability -.08 Condition x social desiability -.32 *** Condition x tait EI -.09 Incemental validity ove and above esilience Study 3 (N = 56) Citeion Pedicto Beta vaiable Vaiable NA_2 NA_1.35** Condition -.51*** Resilience Peceived competence.13 Resilience Social competence.05 Resilience Social suppot -.02 Tait EI -.65** Condition x peceived competence.25 Condition x tait EI -.04 Notes. NA = Negative affectivity, PA = Positive affectivity p 0.001; **p 0.01; *p 0.05; p 0.1. Discussion As expected, tait EI modeated the impact of laboatoy-induced stess on mood deteioation, such that highe tait EI scoes wee associated with a smalle incease in NA in the stess condition. The effect size was compaable to Study 2, suggesting that the impact of tait EI does not depend on the stength of the stesso. Moeove, the esults held up unde the successive patialing of social desiability and of vaiables that, some have claimed, ae jingle equivalents of tait EI, like alexithymia, esilience and the big five. These findings of incemental validity ae all the moe impessive because they have been obtained in an expeimental context, whee it is often difficult to detect even simple (i.e., non-incemental) pesonality effects. POOLED-SAMPLE ANALYSIS Consideed togethe, the esults of the thee sepaate studies claify the ole of tait EI as a modeato of the effects of stess on mood. To futhe enhance ou undestanding, and take advantage of the systematic natue of this eseach, we conducted a final analysis based on the pooled samples of the thee sepaate studies. The most impotant

17 MIKOLAJCZAK et al. Tait emotional intelligence and stess 471 benefit of this stategy is that the esultant sample size fa exceeds those of each individual study. This helps povide moe accuate estimates of the tait EI effects and also goes some way towads addessing the poblem of powe that is cental to modeated multiple egession analysis (Cohen, Cohen, West, and Aiken, 2003). We also examined in this pooled-sample analysis the contibution of each tait EI facto to the global effect. Finally, as gende was unequally distibuted acoss studies (the pecentage of males was 61% in Study 1, 23% in Study 2 and 100% in Study 3), the pooled-sample enabled us to test fo potential gende diffeences in the effects of tait EI. Method Paticipants The thee peviously descibed samples wee combined fo the puposes of this analysis. In total, thee wee 189 paticipants (110 females, 77 males, and 2 unepoted) with a mean age of 20 yeas (SD = 2 yeas), of whom 91 wee in the neutal condition and 98 in the stess condition. Results Main and inteaction effects of condition and tait EI Regession esults fo global tait EI ae epoted in detail in Tables 2 and 4. Analyses evealed a significant main effect of condition, indicating geate mood change in the stess goup than in the neutal goup fo both NA (F (1, 181) = 97.34, p.001) and PA (F (1, 185) = 16.44, p.001) scoes. Thee was also a main effect of tait EI, indicating that paticipants with high scoes expeienced a smalle incease in NA following the stess induction than thei pees with low scoes (F (1, 180) = 26.34, p.001). Most impotant, esults evealed a significant condition x tait EI inteaction on both PA (F (1, 183) = 8.15, p.01) and NA change (F (1, 179) = 14.50, p.001) (see Figues 4a and 4b) indicating that high tait EI scoes wee associated with less mood deteioation (i.e., less incease in NA and less decease in PA) in the stess condition. Detailed esults at the facto level ae epoted in Tables 3 and 4. In bief, all fou factos contibuted in the global effect, although not in the same popotion. As fa as the main effects ae concened, sociability had the lagest effect, followed by wellbeing, self-contol, and emotionality. These factos wee also involved in inteactions, indicating that thei effects wee stonge in the stess condition compaed to the neutal one. Gende diffeences Gende-specific egession analyses evealed that while the main effect of condition emained significant acoss gende, the main and inteaction effects of tait EI wee significant only in the male goup. Thus, fo males, the semi-patial was -.28 (p <.001) fo the main effect of tait EI and.18 (p <.005) fo the condition x tait EI inteaction, wheeas fo females, the semi-patial was -.11 (p <.10) fo the main effect and.10 (p <.15) fo the inteaction effect.

18 472 MIKOLAJCZAK et al. Tait emotional intelligence and stess FIGURE 1. Mood change as a function of condition and tait emotional intelligence. Figue 1a. NA Change as a Function of Condition and Tait EI (study 1) Figue 1b. PA change as a function of Condition and Tait EI (study 1) NA2 contolling fo NA1 0,8 0,6 0,4 0,2 0 Tait EI Stess Neutal PA2 contolling fo PA1 0,4 0,2 0-0,2-0,4-0,6 Tait EI Stess Neutal Figue 2a. NA Change as a Function of Condition and Tait EI (study 2) Figue 2b. PA change as a function of Condition and Tait EI (study 2) NA2 contolling fo NA Stess Neutal PA2 contolling fo PA1 0,8 0,6 0,4 0,2 0-0,2 Stess Neutal Tait EI Tait EI Figue 3a. Change in NA as a function of Condition and Tait EI (Study 3) Figue 3b. Change in PA as a Function of Tait EI and Condition (Study 3) NA2 contolling fo NA1 1,5 1 0,5 0 Stess Neutal PA2 contolling fo PA1 0,8 0,6 0,4 0,2 0 Stess Neutal Tait EI Tait EI Change in NA as a function of Condition and Tait EI (pooled-sample) Change in PA as a Function of Tait EI and Condition (pooled-sampeld) NA2 contolling fo NA1 1,5 1 0,5 0 Stess Neutal PA2 contolling fo PA1 0,6 0,4 0,2 0-0,2 Stess Neutal Tait EI Tait EI Note. The thee points on the X axis coespond espectively to the mean tait emotional intelligence (EI) scoe minus 1 standad deviation, the mean tait EI scoe, and the mean tait EI scoe plus 1 standad deviation. The significance levels of the main/inteaction effects can be found in Table 2, while the significance levels of the intecepts and slopes can be found in Table 4. NA = Negative affectivity, PA = Positive affectivity.

19 MIKOLAJCZAK et al. Tait emotional intelligence and stess 473 Geneal discussion This seies of studies suppots the hypothesis that tait EI modeates the impact of laboatoy-induced stess on mood change: highe tait EI scoes wee linked to significantly less mood deteioation. The discepancies in pedictive powe between the fou tait EI factos emphasise the multidimensional natue of the constuct and the fact that the diffeent dimensions may be diffeentially elevant in diffeent contexts. It is, fo instance, not supising that sociability had the lagest effect, given that stessos involved a stong social evaluation component (e.g., the Tie Social Stess Test). It was thus expected that people who wee moe assetive and moe confident in thei ability to influence othes emotions would feel less theatened by a task in which they had to make the best possible impession in font of a juy. Likewise, it is no supise that the facto emotionality, which encompasses emotion expession and the popensity to initiate and maintain fiendships, had the weakest effect hee because the natue of the stesso pevented the shaing of emotions o eliance on social suppot. Notwithstanding the dissimila weight of the fou factos, it is notewothy that the whole (i.e., global tait EI scoe) was geate than the sum of its pats (i.e., the factos) in that the slope of the global scoe in the stessful condition was steepe than the slope of the fou factos taken sepaately. With espect to gende diffeences, it was unexpected that the esults emained fully significant only in the male goup, since field studies on pedominantly female samples have evealed stong modeating effects of tait EI on stess esponses (e.g., Mikolajczak et al., 2006; Mikolajczak, Menil, and Luminet, 2007). We ae, theefoe, inclined to attibute this finding to the educed sample size esulting fom the splitting of the sample. The elationship between tait EI and mood deteioation in esponse to stess povides some insights about the mediating mechanisms linking tait EI to mental health. As we summaized in the intoduction, thee pathways can potentially account fo the elationship that has been consistently found between tait EI measues and mental health (see Schutte et al., 2007 fo a meta-analysis): a) esponse biases, b) neuoendocine alteations and c) mood alteations. Note that these pathways ae not mutually exclusive. Wheeas peliminay suppot has aleady been found fo the fist two pathways, the pesent pape povides suppot fo the thid pathway. By showing that tait EI modeates mood deteioation in esponse to acute stessos such as those used in this pape, this seies of studies complements thee othe studies showing that tait EI modeates the subjective stess expeienced in esponse to a) intemediay stessos, such as an exam session (Mikolajczak et al., 2006) and b) chonic stessos, such as those encounteed in demanding occupations (Mikolajczak, Menil and Luminet 2007; Van Kan, 2004). Taken togethe, these studies show, one the one hand, that the effects of tait EI emege not only in laboatoy settings, but also in natual conditions and, on the othe hand, that they ae evident not only in the case of acute stessos, but also in the case of intemediay and chonic ones. It is thus likely that the ecuing esilience evidenced by high EI people in esponse to life stessos potects them vis-à-vis bunout and mental disodes, wheeas the ecuing affective hype-eactivity evidenced by low tait EI individuals makes them vulneable to mood disodes.

20 474 MIKOLAJCZAK et al. Tait emotional intelligence and stess The contibution of this study is twofold. Fist, it helps explain the elationship between tait EI and mental health. Second, it shows that tait EI is a paticulaly useful constuct to captue individual diffeences in stess eactivity. The efficiency with which the TEIQue pedicts stess esistance means that the inventoy can be successfully integated into selection and development pogammes seeking to educe the isk of bunout. Ou esults suggest that sceening people on tait EI would moe efficient than sceening them on othe pesonality constucts (i.e., alexithymia, esilience and the big five factos of pesonality), because it povides a moe compehensive coveage of emotion-elated vaiables than these othe constucts. Note that this finding is conguent with a gowing body of liteatue showing that tait EI does indeed pedict a numbe of citeia bette than the Giant Thee, the Big Five, and othe cognate constucts (e.g., Chamoo-Pemuzic, Bennett, and Funham, 2007; Kluempe, 2008; Petides, Fedeickson, and Funham, 2004; Saklofske et al., 2003). Thee ae many ways in which this eseach can be extended. Fist, eseach is needed to undestand the pocesses by which individuals with highe tait EI esist bette to stess than thei countepats with lowe tait EI. Reseach has aleady investigated self-efficacy and challenge/theat appaisals (e.g., Mikolajczak and Luminet, 2008), coping (e.g., Mikolajczak, Nelis, Hansenne, and Quoidbach, 2008; Petides, Peez-Gonzalez, and Funham, 2007), attention and memoy amidst stess (e.g., Mikolajczak, Roy, Vestynge, and Luminet, in pess), help seeking (Ciaochi and Deane, 2001) but many othe pocesses emain to be examined (e.g., specificity of emotional infomation pocessing etc.). Second, it would be appopiate to conside the ole of qualitatively diffeent stessos (not only pefomance- but also loss-elated stessos, such as beeavement o sentimental beak up). Thid, it would be useful to conduct long-tem follow-ups. Indeed, paticipants in the pesent study wee young and healthy, which pemitted to avoid confounding the effects of tait EI and depession. Howeve, futue studies would geatly benefit fom investigating how tait EI levels in ealy adulthood affect mental health ove the life couse. Is thee a citical tait EI level unde which the peson is at especially high isk fo beakdown? How does tait EI inteact with the context? Ae thee any stessos that affect eveyone equally, iespective of thei tait EI levels? A thid eseach avenue concens the pat of citeion vaiance that was left unexplained by tait EI. In this case, baseline affect, condition, and tait EI explained, on aveage, 64% of the vaiance in negative affect. Thity-six pecent of the vaiance, theefoe, emains uneaccounted fo. What is the souce of this vaiance? Measuement eo? Situational factos? Othe dispositional factos? Reseach that can addess these questions is much needed. Refeences Aiken, L.S. and West, S.G. (1991). Multiple Regession: Testing and Intepeting Inteactions. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Azzaella, D. and Boyajian, A. (Poduces) (1997). Lost Kingdoms of the Maya [DVD], National Geogaphic. United States.