Emotional intelligence and personality in major depression: Trait versus state effects

Abstract

Several studies have explored the link between depression and personality with classical personality questionnaires like the Revised NEO Personality Inventory and the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). However, no studies have been conducted with the revised form of the TCI (TCI-R). Moreover, since a few studies conducted on normal subjects suggest that Emotional Intelligence (EI) would be lower in depression, but that the concept has not been explicitly measured in patients with major depressive disorder, EI was assessed here with the modified version of Schutte's scale among a group of depressive patients. In addition, both personality and EI measures were carried out during the clinical state of depression and after the remission to assess the state versus trait aspect. The study was conducted on 54 major depressive inpatients (20 in remission) and 54 matched controls. As expected, depressive patients exhibited higher score on harm avoidance (HA), and lower scores on persistence (P), self-directedness (SD), cooperativeness (C), optimism/emotional regulation subscore, and total EI score as compared with controls. In the period of remission, patients again had elevated scores on HA, and lower scores on SD. In contrast, the total EI score did not differ between controls and depressive patients in remission. The results confirm that some personality dimensions are dependent on both state and trait aspects of depression, and suggest that EI only seems to be affected during the clinical state.

Impairments of social cognition and depressions

“…Изучение нарушений социального познания у больных депрессиями ведется в рамках нескольких подходов: концепции эмоционального и социаль-ного интеллекта [1,4], осознанности [8], «модели психического» [5], а также в рамках специфических психотерапевтических подходов [9,10].…”

“…С одной стороны, дефицитарность способности к обработке эмоцио-нальных стимулов считается одной из обязательных черт пациентов с депрессией. С другой стороны, в эмпирических данных корреляционные связи пере-менных (эмоционального интеллекта и депрессии) надежны, но не высоки [1]. Это свидетельствует о наличии дополнительных факторов и объясняет многочисленность и не снижающуюся актуальность исследований в этой области.…”

“…При этом модели иссле-дования социального познания разнообразны и многочисленны. Такие понятия, как эмоциональ-ный интеллект, эмпатия [1], ментализация [2], со-циальные навыки [3], социальный интеллект [4], «модель психического» [5], отражают круг сходных явлений: способности человека к построению, ос-мыслению, исправлению внутренних репрезента-ций психических состояний как своих, так и другого человека [6].…”

Clinical Perspectives in Emotional Intelligence

“…Such study could investigate the impact of EI on depressive severity and to assess whether EI in depression is state or/and trait dependent. Hansenne and Bianchi (2009) investigated EI in a group of depressive inpatients at the beginning of the hospitalization and among a subsample of these patients when t h e y w e r e i n a p e r i o d o f r e m i s s i o n . Remission was defined by clinical assessment and by a score lower than 7 on the 17-item of the Hamilton Depressive Rating Scale (HDRS), and a score lower than 2 on item 1.…”

“…Since optimism/emotional regulation is the core dimension found in depression, therapeutic strategies based on EI construct could be useful as an important part of the psychological treatment. However, since the score of this dimension is only affected by the clinical state, one cannot conclude that optimism/emotional regulation is an enduring emotional deficit in remitted depression, and in consequence that this dimension couldn't be considered as a vulnerability factor as some dimensions of personality (e.g., the dimension of harm avoidance, Hansenne & Bianchi, 2009). Nevertheless, the introduction of a therapeutic strategy designed to enhance the ability to maintain a positive mood and to reduce a negative one could be very important during the depressive episode, as suggested by Palmer et al (2002).…”