The Dark Triad (DT) is composed of three closely related personality traits: psychopathy, Machiavellianism and narcissism. These traits have been linked to emotional deficits. The aim of the present study was to analyze the relationship between the DT traits, including sub-dimensions, and depressive symptoms in order to identify those factors most strongly associated with the development of depression in individuals scoring high on DT. For these purposes, a total of 791 adults (M = 35.76 years; 24.91% males) completed a questionnaire battery including DT traits and depression measures. A positive significant correlation was found between psychopathy and Machiavellianism traits (total score and all sub-dimensions) and depressive symptoms. For narcissism, the direction of the correlation was dependent on the sub-dimension assessed. A model explaining 26.2% of the depressive symptoms scores was composed of the callous affect and criminal tendencies sub-dimensions of psychopathy, cynical view of human nature, which is a sub-dimension of Machiavellianism, and entitlement and self-sufficiency, which are sub-dimensions of narcissism. In addition, some of the relationships found between DT sub-dimensions and depressive symptoms appeared to depend on gender. Our results could have implications for detection and intervention programs aimed at decreasing the negative emotional consequences suffered by individuals with high DT scores. Limitations and future lines of research are discussed.

It has long been thought that emotional intelligence (EI) involves skillful emotion regulation, but surprisingly little is known about the precise links between EI and emotion regulation. To address this gap in the literature, we examined the relation between EI—operationalised as an ability—and the use of two common emotion regulation strategies—cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. Seven hundred and twelve participants from a community sample in Spain were assessed on ability EI (using the MSCEIT) and emotion regulation (using the ERQ). Findings revealed that EI ability was positively associated with cognitive reappraisal and negatively associated with expressive suppression. These relationships were moderated by gender and age. The strength of the association between EI and cognitive reappraisal increased with age for men, while this strength decreased with age for women. Conversely, the strength of the association between EI and suppression decreased with age for men, but increased with age for women. These findings confirm the expectation that EI is associated with greater use of generally adaptive forms of emotion regulation (reappraisal), and lesser use of generally maladaptive forms of emotion regulation (suppression), although effect sizes were quite modest. Observed differences in the strength of associations between EI and emotion regulation may be the result of gender differences in the development of emotional skills along with cultural changes in emotional education and social norms.

ObjectiveImpulsivity and difficulties in regulating emotions are considered to be transdiagnostic characteristics of patients with eating disorders (EDs). The study aimed to investigate trait impulsivity and inhibitory components of impulsivity, related or unrelated to emotions in patients with EDs.MethodA total of 17 patients with anorexia nervosa (AN), 16 patients with bulimic‐spectrum EDs (BSD) and 20 healthy control (HC) participants completed an impulsivity scale (UPPS‐P) before performing an emotional inhibitory control task during electroencephalography (EEG) acquisition.ResultsHigher trait impulsivity in EDs than HC (with higher scores among BSD patients) was observed. However, no differences in behavioural measures or neural indexes [event‐related potential (ERP)] of emotional and non‐emotional inhibitory control were observed between patients and HC.ConclusionThe present results highlighted negative urgency, an impulsive personality trait related to emotions, as a common feature of AN and BSD. Lack of perseverance, a trait which is less related to emotions, specifically characterises patients with BSD. On the other hand, behavioural and ERP data did not show altered inhibitory control in EDs, for either general or emotional‐related response inhibition.

Introduction Emotional intelligence (EI) is a psychological protective factor that can improve subjective well‐being (WB) in adolescents. This study aims to establish the overall relationship between different EI models (performance‐based ability model, self‐report ability model, and self‐report mixed model) and subjective WB in adolescents, analyze the affective WB and cognitive WB components, and examine the moderating effect of EI models on both types of subjective WB. Method We searched PsycINFO and WOS databases. Eligible studies reported an association between EI and subjective WB in adolescents aged 10–19 years using instruments that directly measure subjective WB. In addition, two meta‐analyses were conducted, one for the relationship between EI and affective WB and the other for EI and cognitive WB. Results A total of 41 studies were included, of which 37 were pooled in the meta‐analyses. We found a significant positive relationship between EI and affective WB (estimated effect size = 0.35) and between EI and cognitive WB (estimated effect size = 0.27). Regarding EI models, self‐report ability showed an estimated effect size of 0.33 for affective WB and 0.27 for cognitive WB. For the self‐report mixed model, we obtained an estimated effect size of 0.42 for affective WB and 0.37 for cognitive WB. Conclusions Establishing a quantitative relationship between EI and subjective WB makes it possible to implement clinical and educational prevention measures. Introducing EI training in educational and clinical settings can increase subjective WB, significantly impacting the prevention of emotional disorders in adolescents.

Adolescent aggression is a global public health with long-lasting and costly emotional, social, and economic consequences, and it is of vital importance to identify those variables that can reduce these behaviors in this population. Therefore, there is a need to establish the protective factors of aggressive behavior in adolescence. While some research has demonstrated the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and various aggressive responses in adolescence, indicating that EI—or the ability to perceive, use, understand, and regulate emotions—could be considered a protective factor for the development of aggressive behavior in adolescence, the strength of this effect is not clear. The aim of the present study was to conduct a systematic review of the literature concerning the relationship between aggressive behavior and EI in adolescents and provide a reliable estimate of the relationship between both constructs through a meta-analysis. For this purpose, we searched for relevant articles in English and Spanish in Medline, PsycINFO, and Scopus, obtaining 17 selectable articles based on the search terms used in research in the adolescent population. These studies provide scientific evidence of the relationship between the level of EI assessed from the three theoretical models of EI (performance-based ability model, self-report ability model, and self-report mixed model) and various aggressive responses, showing that adolescents with higher levels of EI show less aggressive behavior. Implications for interventions and guidelines for future research are discussed.

The COVID-19 global pandemic has had psychological consequences worldwide. The aim of the present study was to analyze the effect of concerns about contagion on negative affect (NA) according to resilience, gender and age by using a longitudinal methodology that evaluated the participants 4 months before the COVID-19 outbreak and during the resulting lockdown situation imposed by the Spanish government. About 102 participants from a community sample were assessed. The results revealed higher levels of NA during the lockdown, as well as a positive relationship between age and the increase in NA. In addition, we found that a positive relationship between contagion concern and increase in NA was only observed in women with low resilience.

The study of aggression plays a prominent role in psychology and public health, because of the important adverse consequences of such behavior for victims, aggressors, and society in general. The General Aggression Model (GAM) provides a general conceptual framework for understanding the aggressive as a result of three stages: (a) inputs: personal and situational factors; (b) present internal states: affect, cognition, and arousal; and (c) outcomes: decision processes with a (non)aggressive result. The main objective of this research was to study the personal protective and risk factors most strongly associated with aggressive behavior acting at the first stage of the GAM model. A total of 282 young adult participants took part in this study. Participants were assessed for aggression levels and a set of the most relevant variables that have been associated with aggressive behavior in the previous literature. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that levels of aggression were mainly associated (73.2% of the explained variance) with the following protective factors: the ability to manage emotions as a component of emotional intelligence (EI), and perspective-taking and personal distress as components of empathy, and with the following risk factors: negative and positive urgency as a component of impulsivity, fantasy as a component of empathy, negative affect, and expressive suppression of emotions. These findings provide a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying aggressive behavior and provide greater empirical value to the current theoretical models. In addition, this research can help to inform the design of more successful programs for the prevention, control, and treatment of aggressive behavior. Limitations and future lines of research are discussed.

The ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes' test (Eyes Test) has been widely used to measure theory of mind (ToM) or the ability to recognize the thoughts and feelings of others. Although previous studies have analysed its relationship with the ability to perceive emotions, the potential links with more complex emotional abilities remain unclear. The aim of the present research was to analyse the relationship between the Eyes Test and each of the emotional intelligence (EI) branches: perceiving, facilitating, understanding and managing emotions. In addition, we were interested in studying these relationships as a function of the Eyes Test difficulty. Eight hundred and seventy-four participants completed the Eyes Test and the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test. A stepwise multiple regression analysis for the total score on the Eyes Test revealed that the best fitting model included the understanding, perceiving and managing emotion branches, with the understanding branch being the one most strongly associated with performance on the Eyes Test. Interestingly, stepwise multiple regression analysis for the easiest items of the Eyes Test revealed the same predictors, but, in the case of the most difficult items only the understanding branch was a predictor. These outcomes were not moderated by the influence of gender. Our findings support the notion that the Eyes Test can be used as a ToM task and that it is associated with complex EI abilities. Limitations and future lines of investigation are discussed.