Impairments in social interactions are considered core symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Given recent findings demonstrating a relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and social outcomes, this research examined the EI of adolescents with ASD to generate novel information for addressing their social deficits. Twenty-five adolescents with ASD and 25 typical adolescents (13 -17 years) completed a battery of tests examining their intellect, EI, and social skills. Their parents also provided information regarding their social skills. The findings revealed that aspects of both trait and ability EI were significantly weaker in adolescents with ASD. In addition, while the ability EI model did not predict the social outcomes of this group, the trait EI model was able to predict 32% of self-reported interpersonal skills and 30% of parent-reported social skills. Implications for the development of social skill interventions for this group and future research are discussed. / October 2015

The purpose of the study was to determine the current trends of FBAs and BIPs in a large school district in Arizona. The FBA and BIP components determined best practice by previous literature (Van Acker, et al., 2005; Blood & Neel, 2007) were used to analyze FBAs and BIPs of elementary age students grades Kindergarten through fifth grade serviced in a self-contained classroom designed for students with Emotional Disabilities. BASC-2 composite scores were reviewed and compared to students in the typical population as a means of determining a standard for self-contained placement for the participants. In addition, demographic data were examined including: sex, ethnicity, age, grade, grade of ED eligibility if applicable, and age of ED self-contained placement. This study investigated the FBA/BIPs to determine if they contained the necessary components determined to be best practice by previous researchers (Blood & Neel, 2007; Van Acker et al., 2005) and to answer specific questions about the plans. The major findings of the study with regard to the investigation of the specific FBA/BIP components include: 1) none of the participants had identified and detailed antecedent events in which the problem behavior was least likely to occur 2) the majority of the FBAs did not have an operational definition for the identified target behavior 3) nearly none of the FBAs identified the function of the target behavior 4) the majority of the FBAs had insufficient data regarding the frequency, intensity, and duration of the target behavior 5) none of the BIPs had an identified hypothesis that was considered sufficient. These findings answer the posed questions regarding the antecedent events, behavioral aspects, and consequences/interventions addressed on the FBA as well as the behavioral aspects and consequences/interventions addressed on the BIP. The implications of these findings and areas for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to examine how respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is affected across paced breathing, attention, inhibition, and emotion-eliciting tasks and how those relationships may be mediated by emotion regulation strategies in children with different levels of externalizing and internalizing behaviors between the ages of 8 and 12 years. The first aim was to determine whether externalizing and internalizing symptoms during a paced breathing or natural breathing task better predicted RSA levels. The hypothesis was that internalizing and externalizing behaviors would be more predictive of RSA baseline levels when utilizing a paced-breathing method of measuring RSA. The second aim was to determine how RSA levels across an attention, inhibition, sad, and anger task are predicted by internalizing and externalizing symptoms after controlling for baseline RSA levels. There were four hypotheses: (1) as levels of externalizing behaviors increase, levels of baseline RSA would decrease, (2) as levels of internalizing behaviors increase, levels of baseline RSA will decrease, (3) there will be significantly smaller changes in RSA reactivity) as the level of externalizing behaviors increases, and (4) as levels of internalizing symptoms increase, there will be significantly larger changes in RSA levels relative to RSA baseline levels (RSA reactivity).The results showed that externalizing and internalizing behaviors did not predict RSA levels during a paced or natural breathing task. Additionally, there was very little difference in the outcomes when used either a natural or paced breathing method of RSA as a control variable except when predicting RSA levels during a sad emotion-eliciting task. Although RSA levels during three experimental tasks (attention, inhibition, and sad) were not significant, there were moderate effect sizes for externalizing and/or internalizing symptoms predicting various RSA reactivity (i.e., RSA levels after controlling for baseline) across these conditions. One model was significant in predicting the level of variance of RSA reactivity during an anger emotion-eliciting task, with internalizing and hyperactivity/inattention symptoms contributing the most variation in the model. Findings point towards understanding how internalizing and externalizing symptoms may impact an individual's physiological response during a task.

The non-profit sector is growing, where NPOs compete for scarce resources. Meanwhile, innovation in communication technology requires resources and creativity. Can social media work as an efficient tool for communicating organizational goals and values and how does it enhance trust in NPOs relationship with donors? How do NPOs use ICT and social media in communication to donors and how do they implement functional and emotional communication online?  The research area is approached through a deductive, qualitative, and constructivist perspective. Interviews with two leading NPOs were held, as well as a number of interviews with potential donors. The theoretical framework builds upon Morgan and Hunts and MacMillan et al’s models of trust and commitment. Functional and emotional communication was developed through various theories on online communication. The main findings of this thesis are that Swedish NPOs mainly focus on emotional communication in order to obtain emotional commitment before further developing trust, which is created from functional communication. The investigated NPOs use functional communication to a very little extent.

Nurses' working environment, together with their patient relationships, can elicit emotions which they will need to manage in order to perform successfully in their daily work activities. It is for this reason that it is crucial that sound emotional intelligence measures should be developed which hospitals can utilise to identify emotionally intelligent individuals for emotionally laden jobs or even to identify their developmental needs within the area of emotional intelligence. The objective of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS) developed by Schutte and colleagues in 1998 within a nursing environment. A convenience random sample of 5 11 nurses was taken from hospitals located in the areas of Klerksdorp, Potchefstroom, Krugersdorp, Johannesburg and Pretoria. The EIS was used as a measuring instrument. Cronbach alpha coefficients, Pearson-product correlation coefficients and MANOVAS were used to analyse the data. The results showed a 5-factor solution for the EIS, which explained 50,04% of the total variance. All of the five dimensions had adequate internal consistencies, except for the Negative Emotions dimension. Lastly, group differences were identified between personnel area and emotional intelligence, as well as between race and emotional intelligence levels. Recommendations were made for future research. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

Nurses of today have many more responsibilities and duties they must cope with. With the HIV and AIDS numbers rising in South Africa it is important that the morale of nurses be kept healthy. The strain of their work environment can be hard to cope with, so it is necessary that nurses learn how to manage their emotions when working in order to avoid burnout and disengagement from happening. and to make better use of job resources. The objective of this research is to determine the relationship between emotional intelligence, job characteristics. burnout and engagement within the nursing environment in South Africa. A cross-sectional survey design was used. A non-probability convenience sample was taken from 511 nurses in hospitals and clinics in the Gauteng- and North-West Provinces. The Emotional Intelligence Scale, Maslach Burnout Inventory) - Human Services Survey, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and Work Evaluation Scale were used as measuring instruments. Cronbach alpha coefficients. Pearson-product correlation coefficients and Spearman-product correlation coefficients were used to analyse the data. The results showed that positive state is positively related to vigour/dedication, professional efficacy. own emotions: emotions: other and emotional management. Own emotions and emotional management also correlated positively with professional efficacy and emotions: other. Workload and communication demands are positively related to payment, emotional labour, work environment and emotional exhaustion. The results also identified emotional exhaustion and mental exhaustion to be negatively related to vigour/dedication. while emotional exhaustion is positively related to mental exhaustion, job security, and staff support. Payment correlates positively with staff support, while emotional labour and overtime are positively related to work environment. The proposed structural model show that there are clear paths between job demands and job resources; job demands. emotional intelligence and work wellness; job resources, emotional intelligence and work wellness: job demands and burnout; and job resources and work wellness. Recommendations were made for the nursing profession and for future research purposes. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

As result of economic uncertainty, rapid technological developments and continuous change, effective organisational transformation is required to ensure a competitive advantage. Transformational leadership is characterised by the ability to bring about significant organisational change. Transformational leadership is visionary-orientated and based on deeply fundamental values. This intrinsic value system which is a dimension of spirituality forms a spiritual foundation that guides and directs leaders' behaviour. Recognising leadership as the manifestation of a leader's spiritual core has emerged from recent research, but no research studies could be found to confirm the relationship empirically speaking between transformational leadership and spiritual intelligence. Subsequently the aim of this research is to determine the relationship between transformational leadership and spiritual intelligence and how it is manifested in managers of a utility company. A literature study was undertaken to analyse the concepts of transformational leadership, spiritual intelligence and the key dimensions that described them. It leads to the conclusion that spiritual intelligence implies the "capacity to think with one's soul", bringing with it self development that may pre-dispose leaders to use transformational behaviour. In the empirical study with a group of 56 managers from a utility company, their transformational leadership behaviour and spiritual intelligence levels were assessed by means of self-evaluation via the following measuring instruments: Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) (Kouzes & Posner, 1998) and a Spiritual Intelligence questionnaire developed by Minnaar (2005). Feedback from 97% of the managers of the utility company yields the following results: good reliability indices for measuring instruments, and that a significant meaningful correlation exists between transformational leadership and spiritual intelligence. The results of this study prove a relationship between transformational leadership and spiritual intelligence as manifested amongst managers of a utility company. The contribution of this study is to be found in that research was done on the relationship between two leadership elements, which had not previously been researched. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006

Over recent years, the service sector has grown at a dramatic rate, and with it has come significant challenges for the operators in this field. Not least of these has been the desire of these operators to create real competitive advantage by offering levels of service that call upon the servers in the interaction to engage in an emotional way with their customers, in addition to offering transactional efficiency and cost containment. The focus of this study is to examine the emotional dimension of the service experience from the perspective of the key stakeholders in the encounter, the customer, the service employee and the outlet manager. This study is carried out in the pub restaurant sector, with the brand leader in the full-service restaurant business. The research focuses on the role that emotions play in the performance outputs of outlet management in particular using the concept of emotional intelligence and the use of the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory (Eqi) as a measurement instrument to explore the relationships between emotions and performance. The study then focuses on the server population who interact with the customers everyday, using measures of emotional intelligence and emotional labour to understand their relationship to the performance outputs of the servers, essentially the service quality offered to their customers. Finally the responses of the customer are measured from an emotional perspective, gathering their emotional response to a range of service cues. This customer data forms the basis of the relationships explored between server emotional competence and their delivery of service quality. The research reveals significant relationships between the emotional competencies of the managerial group and their business performance achievements in the areas of customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, employee turnover and outlet profit growth. It demonstrates relationships between the emotional make-up of service personnel and aspects of emotional labour. The study also demonstrates the level of emotional response of customers to a range of service stimulants and finally the research reveals the extent to which a range of interactive service stimulants can create positive emotional expression in customers. The study culminates in the presentation of two models that are designed to guide service organisations to developing and then maintaining an integrated approach to emotional service development in their own market sector. These models build on the findings in the research that demonstrate a high level of inter-relationship between the different components that contribute to the overall service experience. The study ultimately argues that to ignore or isolate the consideration of the emotions right across the service chain, from brand proposition through to recruitment, development and measurement of the overall service quality at best leaves the service organisation exposed to sub-optimising its service offering. Conversely the value of adopting a fully integrated approach to the development of the service organisation could lead to a level of loyalty from both employees and customers that would provide sustainable competitive advantage in the service market.

Millions of children participate in sport and through their participation come into contact with coaches who are there to guide and support them. However, it has been observed that not all children’s relationships with their coaches have been positive ones, and concerns have been raised about the nature of the child-athlete relationship within the sports context. This research sought to use theory from child maltreatment research and apply it within a sports context to investigate perceived child athlete experiences. The research used both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to investigate retrospectively athletes’ perceptions of, and emotional responses to their coach’s behaviour. The initial study used qualitative method to establish if key theoretical frameworks from outside sport had a resonance and relevance within a sports context. Twelve elite athletes, all of whom had been identified as ‘elite’ when children reported that they had experienced negative coaching behaviour on a frequent basis they also reported negative emotional responses to this behaviour, and emotional problems as a consequence of how they were coached when they were children. Study Two (n=229), focused on broadening the research to access a larger population of athletes in order to examine their perceptions and experiences of being coached. In order to achieve this aim a new questionnaire, the Sport Emotional Response Questionnaire (SER-Q), was developed. The SER-Q was grounded in the real-life experiences of those athletes in Study One, and as such represented their expert opinions of their coaches’ behaviour. Through factor analysis, a 22-item questionnaire was established which measured frequency of negative (i.e. emotionally abusive) coach behaviour, athletes’ emotional response and perceived effect on performance. Results from this study showed that frequency of negative coach behaviour and emotional response were significantly and negatively correlated such that, as the frequency increased so did the negative emotional response. Study Three (n=314), was a confirmatory study, and found similar results to Study Two. Study Four (n=543), sought to investigate, through the SER-Q, specific questions in relation to: competitive level, athlete gender, and type of sport (either team or individual) and gender of the coach. Results revealed that there were no significant differences between athlete gender, type of sport and coach gender. However, significant results were found in relation to competitive level. Elite athletes (international-level and national-level) reported experiencing significantly more frequent negative coach behaviour: they also reported a greater negative emotional response to it than any of the non-elite (recreational-level, club-level and regional-level) groups. Finally, Study Five examined the perceived performance effect, and found a significant negative relationship with frequency, such that has the frequency increased so did the perceived negative performance effect; and a significant positive relationship with emotional response. Further results from this Study Five also found that there were only significant differences in relation to competitive level. Again elite athletes reported significantly greater detriments to their perceived performance resulting from their coach’s behaviour than did non-elite athletes. A consistent finding across all the studies was that when athletes reported ‘never’ having experienced emotionally abusive behaviour from their coach, they always reported ‘no emotional response’, and no effect on their performance. Therefore, the SER-Q was able to discriminate between these two populations of athletes. Overall, the findings from these studies have contributed to the development of a theoretical model that describes the process of emotional abuse from a child athlete perspective. Secondly, the findings reveal that elite athletes report different experiences of being coached when children than non-elite athletes. Furthermore, these studies found that theories anchored in family settings can be used to explore issues within a sports setting, and thus the child maltreatment perspective has relevance in developing sports specific theory in relation to the coach-child athlete relationship. A consistent finding across all the studies was that when athletes reported ‘never’ having experienced emotionally abusive behaviour from their coach, they always reported ‘no emotional response’, and no effect on their performance. Therefore, the SER-Q was able to discriminate between these two populations of athletes. Overall, the findings from these studies have contributed to the development of a theoretical model that describes the process of emotional abuse from a child athlete perspective. Secondly, the findings reveal that elite athletes report different experiences of being coached when children than non-elite athletes. Furthermore, these studies found that theories anchored in family settings can be used to explore issues within a sports setting, and thus the child maltreatment perspective has relevance in developing sports specific theory in relation to the coach-child athlete relationship.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a relatively new concept in the field of psychology, introduced by Salovey and Mayer in 1990. Research on EI has found associations among EI and social network size, health and well-being, and job performance.(Austin, Saklofske, & Egan, 2003; Brackett, Mayer, & Warner, 2003; Petrides & Furnham, 2003; Saklofske, Austin, & Minski, 2001). Two different types of EI, trait EI and ability EI, have been identified in the literature. Trait EI was identified by Petrides and Furnham, and is a non-cognitive ability which allows an individual to regulate his/her mood, recognize and make the most of emotions, and utilize social skills, and is measured by self report. Ability EI is the ability of an individual to understand, generate, and manage emotions. Ability EI is measured using a performance measure which assesses the capacity of an individual to perceive emotions in him/herself, others, and the environment. Emotional intelligence has been linked to aspects of well-being, such as social network quality. In order to examine how EI related to social networks, both trait and ability EI were measured along with the Big Five factors of personality and social network quality and size. A study of 268 participants investigated the relationships amongst trait EI, personality, and social network quality and size. The Big Five factors of personality were all significantly positively correlated with EI (p< .01), and were also significantly correlated with social network quality and size. EI was significantly related to social network quality and size. When controlling for personality, EI was no longer significantly correlated with any of the social network quality or size variables. A subset of participants (n=78) completed an ability measure of EI, the Mayer Salovey Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). There were no significant correlations between MSCEIT scores and any of the other variables. A follow-up study was then carried out looking at the relationship of the original study variables with ability EI (MSCEIT), life stress, measured using the Uplifts and Hassles scale, and depression, measured using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), in the original participants. The results from this study indicated that emotional stability was significantly correlated with the Uplifts portion of the life stress scale, but not with Hassles. Conscientiousness was significantly negatively correlated with both the Hassle subscale of life stress and the BDI score. Emotional stability was also significantly negatively correlated with the BDI score. The total ability EI score measured by the MSCEIT did not show significant relationships with any other variables. Given that EI has been linked to social network quality and size, and one of the facets of EI is the capacity of an individual to recognize emotions in others, it would seem that individuals who are high in EI should have larger and better quality social networks as they are theoretically able to recognize and appropriately respond to the emotions of others. In order to test this, a social perception inspection time task was carried out in which participants were required to identify if a face was happy, sad, or angry. The faces used were both Caucasian and Far-East Asian, the hypothesis being that a person high in EI would recognize the facially expressed emotions regardless of whether the face shown was of their own race or not. Results from this study indicated that EI was not related to correctly identifying facial expressions. The results of these studies are discussed along with suggestions for future research in this area.