tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2304269645366413372.post5154509502309499539..comments2023-12-01T11:49:46.831+11:00Comments on Eye on Psych: Assessing “emotional intelligence” will not help us understand psychopathyScott McGrealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13757633582829269183noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2304269645366413372.post-48011646670894067602012-08-29T13:53:07.741+10:002012-08-29T13:53:07.741+10:00No, there is no evidence that psychopaths are more...No, there is no evidence that psychopaths are more "emotionally intelligent" than other people. On the contrary, studies have found that they score lower on these tests than others. My argument though is that current tests of EI, particularly the "managing emotions" subtest, are measuring conformity to social norms rather than true ability to manage emotions. Psychopaths are not interested in conforming to social rules, so the fact they obtain low scores on these tests does not really tell us anything very interesting in my opinion. Regarding their ability to manipulate others, this is something difficult to measure and certainly EI tests do not focus on antisocial uses of emotion, so they do not assess manipulation. Some researchers argue that psychopaths' facility with manipulation is due mainly to strong motivation, rather than a particular form of intelligence. That is, they spend a lot of time focusing on how to manipulate people so they become good at it, whereas most people don't do this because they feel it is morally wrong. Psychopaths do appear to lack the usual responses to emotional stimuli, e.g. they are unmoved by images of human suffering. I think that research focusing on their lack of emotional response will be more likely to increase our understanding of psychopathy than the use of currently existing EI measures. I hope this makes things clearer.Scott McGrealhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13757633582829269183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2304269645366413372.post-44830651218434186642012-08-29T12:06:40.137+10:002012-08-29T12:06:40.137+10:00I am new at this blogging thing, I am trying to un...I am new at this blogging thing, I am trying to understand it all still. So what this is saying is that psychopaths are more emotionally intelligent than anyone else? Hhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12301745955449579319noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2304269645366413372.post-16250280963985903842012-07-29T13:02:38.123+10:002012-07-29T13:02:38.123+10:00I've worried for a while now that the "em...I've worried for a while now that the "emotional intelligence" world, which aims to improve the world and spread more empathy and compassion, is not paying adequate attention to the serious disorders like psychopathy and NPD that are relevant to that mission. Ideas like emotional and character training in schools may have some merit, for example. But if they don't make any distinction between the normal child and the child with different genetics and/or wiring when it comes to empathy, how can they really succeed?<br /><br />Also, it makes sense that psychopaths would not necessarily be identified just by asking for emotional recognition. They are fantastic manipulators, so it would seem they are actually often quite adept and recognizing emotions. It's what they experience in response and how they then behave that distinguishes them.PsychSThttp://www.systemsthinker.com/interests/mind/psychopathy.shtmlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2304269645366413372.post-30200087250524235492012-07-28T17:32:49.425+10:002012-07-28T17:32:49.425+10:00In the EI literature there has for some time been ...In the EI literature there has for some time been a distinction between "trait" EI (self-report) and "ability" EI which is considered to be a performance measure. Trait EI measures are strongly correlated with personality traits, such as extraversion, neuroticism and so on, whereas ability-based measures are more independent of personality. The measure I discussed in my post, the MSCEIT, is an ability measure. If I recall correctly, the STEU and STEM use fairly similar assessment methods to the MSCEIT and were developed as non-copyrighted alternatives. As I alluded to in my post, there is a problem with the scoring of these ability measures, because unlike IQ tests they have no objectively correct answers. Hence researchers have resorted to "consensus" or "expert" scoring, which I believe have serious problems. For example, what qualifies someone as an emotional expert? It's possible researchers might develop better ways of assessing emotion-related abilities, such as assessing how people solve interpersonal problems in realistic settings, that would yield more useful information in relation to psychopathy. Also, the particular motivations of psychopaths would need to be taken into account to determine if their performance is related to real emotional deficits or their self-centred motives. Thanks for taking an interest!Scott McGrealhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13757633582829269183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2304269645366413372.post-78396554564481522012-07-28T16:47:18.095+10:002012-07-28T16:47:18.095+10:00Nice post, I was reading this paper recently which...Nice post, I was reading <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22823103" rel="nofollow">this paper recently</a> which I found interesting, about how self-report "measures" of EI do not measure the same thing as more objective "performance" EI tests. I wonder if these performance tests (Situational Test of Emotional Understanding (STEU) and the Situational Test of Emotion Management (STEM).) would shed light on psychopathy?Neuroskeptichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06647064768789308157noreply@blogger.com