Emotional stability promotes intelligence

Studer-Luethi, Barbara (23 October 2014). Emotional stability promotes intelligence (Unpublished). In: Brain circuits of positive emotions. Ascona, Switzerland. 19.10.-23.10.2014.

Emotional stability promotes intelligence In the research field of the relationship between intelligence and personality factors, one of the most consistent findings is that intelligence is positively correlated with emotional stability. However, few studies have considered this relationship in children, and very few have differentiated between types of intelligence as well as underlying differences in working memory capacity when explaining the relationship between intelligence scores and emotional stability. In this study, the level of emotional stability and performance in a proxy for fluid and crystallized intelligence as well as in two working memory tasks was assessed in a sample of 397 primary school children. Results reveal that emotional stability is significantly positively related to vocabulary (crystallized intelligence), moderated by high working memory performance, but unrelated to abstract reasoning (fluid intelligence). This was interpreted as indicating that the positive relationship between intelligence and emotional stability is mainly due to learning advantages starting in early age, due to high working memory performance, rather than to higher general intelligence. This bears the important implication that emotionally labile children (high level of neuroticism) should be supported to regulate their negative emotions, intrusive thoughts and anxiety as early as possible to eliminate progressive learning disadvantages. One approach to do so is by specific working memory training targeting the improvement of emotional regulation skills.

Item Type:

Conference or Workshop Item (Abstract)

Division/Institute:

07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology > Psychological and Behavioral Health
10 Strategic Research Centers > Center for Cognition, Learning and Memory (CCLM)

UniBE Contributor:

Studer, Barbara

Subjects:

100 Philosophy > 150 Psychology
600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

Language:

English

Submitter:

Anna Maria Ruprecht Künzli

Date Deposited:

22 Apr 2015 15:12

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:44

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/65414

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