The experience of occupational stress has long been implicated in the development of negative outcomes for the individual employee and the employing organisation. General well-being as well as levels of job satisfaction and organisational commitment have been identified in the literature as decreasing as a result of the experience occupational stress. The intertwined relationship between occupational stress and emotion has also been proposed to play a role in the stress�outcomes relationship. Although emotions are an integral and inseparable part of everyday organisational life, they are difficult to measure and as such have generally been ignored in the organisational literature. Recent research has begun to focus on the role of emotions in the workplace and a development from this approach has been to conceptually examine the relationship between cognition and emotions. This movement has largely been attributed to new research around the construct of Emotional Intelligence (EI). Emotional Intelligence involves behaviours related to the experience of emotion; specifically EI involves expressing, recognising, understanding and managing emotions. Despite the interest in workplace EI, very little empirical research has examined the role EI may play in occupational stress. This thesis systematically examined the relationship between EI and the occupational stress process, including stressors, strains (health), and outcomes of stress (job satisfaction and organisational commitment). The first study of this thesis involved the administration of a questionnaire to 320 employees. The results of Study 1 indicate that four dimensions of EI were particularly important in the occupational stress process: Emotional Recognition and Expression, Understanding Emotions, Emotional Management and Emotional Control. It was concluded that utilising EI was related to the experience of occupational stress, and to the outcomes of occupational stress (both health and attitudes), such that employees who reported using EI were less likely to report feelings of stress, ill-health and lowered satisfaction and commitment. The results of Study 1 provided a rationale for the development of an EI training program, a program to teach employees how to utilise the dimensions of EI more effectively in the workplace and to teach them how to deal with the negative emotions that arise from the experience of occupational stress. The prevalence of occupational stress in the Australian workforce is increasing and as a consequence many stress management intervention programs have surfaced in the literature, although none with emphasis on utilising emotions more effectively. The aim of Study 2 in this thesis was to develop, implement and evaluate an EI training program which had an emphasis on stress management. Study 2 involved the development of a five-session group training program and a standardised training manual. The training program was evaluated in terms of the variables identified in Study 1 (EI, occupational stress, strains, and outcomes of stress). The sample consisted of 79 teachers (55 with complete data sets). Baseline measures were taken at two time intervals prior to participation in the EI training program. Participants were assessed immediately after participation in the program and at a five-week follow-up interval. The findings of Study 2 demonstrated the effectiveness of the EI training program in terms of improving levels of EI, decreasing feelings of stress and strain and improving the outcomes of stress. These changes were evident immediately after completion of the training program and were maintained (or improved upon) at the follow-up time period. However there were some limitations to Study 2. Specifically, the short duration of the training program, the short follow-up time interval (of only five weeks) and the use of secondary stress management prevention tools were each limitations of this training program. Further research is necessary to address these limitations and to more accurately determine the efficacy of the training program developed in this thesis. Despite the limitations of Study 2, the EI training program implemented and evaluated in this thesis illustrated that a training program focussed on the emotional experiences of employees is able to successfully engage employees and assist them in dealing with the experience of occupational stress and the consequences of stress. Furthermore, these results demonstrate that the EI training program was successful in improving the employee�s level of EI, providing support for the theory that EI can be learned and developed. Overall, the development and implementation of an EI training program, in this thesis, demonstrated that behaviours underpinning the dimensions of EI can be learned and that training programs focussed on the emotional experiences of employees in the workplace can be effective in improving employee well-being and in decreasing feelings of occupational stress. The results of this thesis therefore provide support for including EI training programs as part of stress management for employees.

Understanding and managing emotion in psychological therapy is a complex and challenging problem for practitioners and clients. The traditional emphasis on verbal language as the mediating process in therapy is expanding with the inclusion of multimodal creative arts, based on visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic perceptions, to better support the reaccessing of emotion. This can be followed recursively by the use of words to develop narrative and meaning. The main research emphasis in this thesis was on visual art. Studies of other art forms may follow. Philosophical understanding, neuroscience advances and developments in psychological therapy underpin and explain this therapeutic expansion. A qualitative research approach is taken, engaging several different actions from within that research paradigm. The thesis is written as a metaphorical journey and conveys the experience of art dialogue and the experience of researching, as parallel stories. Psychological learning journeys undertaken by its author and a colleague, some clients, therapists and teachers, are described in three encounters. The first encounter explored visual art dialogue as a process addition to a developing experiential phenomenological approach using multimodal creative arts (The MIECAT Process � Lett 2001). The objective was for the colleagues to experience a lengthy creative arts sequence, developing and undertaking the process of visual art dialogue. Multilevel actions and outcomes were recorded throughout the collegial engagement. The collegial encounter required that the co-researchers pursue their own personal psychological meanings and report on their experience of the process. Personal narrative meanings exposed in exploring visual art dialogue, are not discussed, the emphasis being on confirming how actions occurred and their effectiveness for application. Actions stopped where direct verbal therapeutic engagement might occur. Following collegial experience, visual art dialogue was used with clients and other therapists and teachers, to question its broader relevance. The second inquiry, involving three clients of the author, asked how the process would support professional actions in a therapeutic situation. The third encounter engaged other therapists and teachers to expand on questions of by whom and how, art dialogue could be used. Psychological therapy theory suggests process location within a humanistic framework, in an eclectic focus or supporting the development of an experiential, phenomenological psychology process approach based on the known functions of mind and body. The associated personal and professional aspects of the experience of process exploration constituted a step in authorial understanding and may contribute to increasing knowledge of the creative arts applied to psychological therapy.

This thesis investigated the relative importance of six emotional intelligence (EI) abilities comprising the Swinburne University Emotional Intelligence Test (SUEIT) in the prediction of (1) psychological resilience to negative life events, (2) romantic relationship adjustment and communication behaviour, and (3) employability skills. In Study 1, the strength of relationship between negative life events and distress varied across three latent classes, reflecting vulnerable, average, and resilient profiles. Graduated EI scores, in terms of emotional self-awareness, ability to express, and self-manage emotions, predicted membership to each class. Across the 414 survey respondents, these three EI abilities appeared to augment psychological resilience in the aftermath of negative life events. In Study 2, all six EI abilities were found to be weakly associated with dyadic adjustment, and moderately associated with eight relationship enhancing communication behaviours. The eight behaviours were themselves moderately to very strongly associated with adjustment. Mediation analyses revealed that each EI ability influenced dyadic adjustment through the communication behaviours it best predicted. Across the 116 romantic partners surveyed, those better able to express and self-manage emotion communicated in the most relationship enhancing ways. In Study 3, four of the six EI abilities were found to be differentially important in the prediction of seven Adaptive Performance dimensions, five Conflict Management strategies, three forms of Organizational Commitment, and seven Achievement Motivations. The abilities to think clearly under pressure, identify others' emotions, self-manage emotions, and manage others' emotions made valuable contributions, while emotional self-awareness, and the ability to express emotion, did not. Across the 105 workers surveyed, those with these four EI abilities appeared to have decidedly stronger employability skills, skills that distinguish between more and less successful workers of similar education and vocational experience, across all job families. These findings are largely consistent with EI theory, and with the small body of research to have examined similar effects in similar domains. Importantly however, the current findings offer much more specific insights into the relative importance of each EI ability in each context, and thus, the means by which emotional intelligence contributes to a psychologically healthy, intimately connected, and vocationally valuable life.

Dr. Turner investigates whether an awareness of Emotional Intelligence competencies (EC) will impact the levels of job satisfaction and general job performance of the individual project team member as a predictor of project outcome. She undertook and constructed an empirical research project based on a project team EC enrichment framework. EC Team enrichment advocates the development of emotional competencies to achieve measurable improvements in job satisfaction and performance. The research was conducted in the United States defense industry environment and surveyed the project team members of a large-scale, dynamic project. This study was experimental in nature and the research was based on a quantitative approach tailored to minimize threats to validity through the use of a control group. Additionally, it involved elements of related qualitative research to interpret findings. An empirically-based, working hypothesis was presented to the effect that, a greater potential of project success can be realized by introducing information on emotional development to enhance behavioral competencies of all project team members. The case study included three distinct phases for pretest, treatment, and post-test. Results support the concept that an introduction to the concept of emotional intelligence can have a statistically significant impact on project performance through improvement of individual ratings for job satisfaction and professional performance.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Bibliography: leaves 84-99.

Thesis (M.A. (Pastoral))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Thesis (M.A. (Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2005.

Thesis (M.A. (Human Resource Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

The current study examined the link between early language ability and literacy and behavioral outcomes in children prenatally exposed to cocaine. Prenatal exposure to cocaine places children at risk for language delays and early language problems are linked to both literacy and behavior problems in elementary school (Bandstra, 2002; Beitchman et al., 2001; Cantwell & Baker, 1977). Participants included 141 primarily African-American children from low SES backgrounds who were enrolled in a birth through three intervention program. Children were followed through first and second grade to evaluate the impact early language ability had on literacy and behavior in elementary school. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that after controlling for gender, treatment group, cognitive ability, and behavior at age three, receptive language at age three was a significant predictor of picture vocabulary in elementary school (F(4, 125)=6.76, p<.01, beta= .42, p<.01). Receptive language was also a significant predictor of Parent-reported prosocial behavior (F(7, 72) beta= 2.24, p<.05, beta =-.03 , p<.05). Contrary to previous findings, early language did not significantly predict parent reported problem behavior in elementary school in this high risk sample. Future studies should explore risk and resiliency in this sample, along with increasing sample size to allow for more advanced statistical analyses. Findings support the importance of early language experiences on both later literacy and behavioral outcomes for children.