title: Association between level of emotional intelligence and severity of anxiety in generalized social phobia.
abstract: Generalized social phobia (GSP) is characterized by a marked fear of most social situations. It is associated with an anomalous neural response to emotional stimuli, and individuals with the disorder frequently show interpretation bias in social situations. From this it might be suggested that GSP involves difficulty in accurately perceiving, using, understanding and managing emotions. Here we applied the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) to medication-free GSP (n=28) and no pathology (n=21) individuals. Patients with GSP performed within the normal range on the measure however severity of social anxiety significantly correlated with emotional intelligence (EI). Specifically, there was a negative correlation between social anxiety severity and Experiential (basic-level emotional processing) EI. In contrast, there was no significant correlation between social anxiety severity and Strategic (higher-level conscious emotional processing) EI. These results suggest that EI may index emotional processing systems that mitigate the impact of systems causally implicated in GSP.
authors.affiliation: Mood & Anxiety Program, National Institutes of Mental Health, National Institute of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Bethesda, MD, United States.
authors.forename: Madeline
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jacobs
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Snow
authors.forename: Marilla
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Geraci
authors.forename: Meena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vythilingam
authors.forename: R J R
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Blair
authors.forename: Dennis S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Charney
authors.forename: Daniel S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Pine
authors.forename: Karina S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Blair
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D032882:Comprehension; D035061:Control Groups; D004644:Emotions; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence / Q000145:classification*; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D011594:Psychometrics; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012938:Social Perception; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires