Self-reported and performance-based emotional intelligence and its associations with psychopathological dimensions and insight dimensions in psychosis

Background and objectives

Individuals with psychotic disorders may display over the illness course a wide range of core deficits in clinical and cognitive domains, including social cognition (SC). One of the main domains of SC is emotional processing, a key component of emotional intelligence (EI). However, the extent to which EI, as self-perceived or performance-based, is related to psychopathological domains has been scarcely studied. This study aimed to examine the relationships between self-reported EI and performance-based EI with psychopathological and insight dimensions as well as to explore the correspondence between both types of EI assessments.

Methods

Seventy patients with psychotic disorders who were consecutively admitted to a psychiatric hospitalization unit were included. Psychotic, affective, and insight dimensions, as well as EI, were evaluated once psychopathological stability had been achieved.

Results

Manic symptoms were associated with greater emotional clarity (r = 0.25, p < 0.05) and regulation (r = 0.30, p < 0.05), whereas depressive symptoms were associated with lower emotional regulation (r=-0.25, p < 0.05). No significant relationships were found between the EI measures and psychotic dimensions. Lack of feeling sick and lack of insight were related to worse performance-based EI (emotional management, r=-0.29 and r=-0.25, p < 0.05) and self-reported EI (emotional attention, r=-0.24, p < 0.05 and r=-0.31, p < 0.01), and the former was also related to better emotional regulation (r = 0.26, p < 0.05).

Conclusion

The discrepancy between self-reported and performance-based EI regarding their associations with psychopathological domains might be due to the different sources of assessment but may also add evidence to the need to integrate patient-reported outcome measures in the assessment of social cognition.