Psycholawlogy emotional intelligence stress management articles

Emotional intelligence relates to
individual differences in how
we perceive, communicate,
regulate, and understand
emotions, both our own and
those of others. Two forms of
emotional intelligence, ability
[maximum performance] and
trait [typical performance],
combine and work in tandem to
inﬂuence psychological
adaptation. Researchers
recently investigated the
“tandem” concept, and broke
new ground in emotional
intelligence research.
Reading this post puts you on the leading edge of understanding a wide-ranging, important
topic for lawyers and other professionals whose daily work involves a rich and challenging
mixture of emotions and other psychological occupational stressors. Staying informed and
learning about emotional intelligence so that we may better use, understand, and manage
our own and others’ emotions positions us to do better work, cope with stress, and preserve
our health and well-being.
Tandem emotional intelligence, ability and trait forms combined, as these researchers show
in an adolescent subject population, provides a resource at the individual level which
enables a person to cope with stress and deal with depression. As a result of their work in
advancing the “tandem” concept, a more complete concept of an “emotionally intelligent
coping proﬁle” has emerged. This coping involves both the selection and implementation of
the strategies which deal with stress. This post will note the theoretical background, discuss
the study and results, which did not involve adult participants or lawyers, and will
extrapolate the study results and offer some take-away thoughts for lawyers and other
professional service providers about the relevance and importance of the “tandem” concept
of emotional intelligence.
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Tandem Emotional Intelligence and
Protection Against [Lawyer] Depression
by DAN DEFOE on AUGUST 28, 2014 · 1 COMMENT · in ABILITY EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE, EMOTIONAL
INTELLIGENCE, LAWYER CHARACTERISTICS, LAWYERS, TRAIT EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
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Emotional Intelligence Roles and Psychological Adaptation – Combined Selection and
Implementation Factors
This study concerns two types of emotional intelligence: ability and trait. Prior posts on
Psycholawlogy have discussed these. Those interested can access these and other
references located below.
Ability emotional intelligence, assessed via maximum performance tests, like intelligence
tests, drives coping strategies. Researchers believe that it helps us select coping strategies in
response to stress. One example relates to emotional awareness. People with superior
skills in these processes can reason more intelligently about emotion, and thereby choose
adaptive response strategies earlier in the face of stressors relative to those with lessor
ability.
Researchers describe trait emotional intelligence, a grouping of emotion-related self-
perceptions and dispositions, determined in part by personality, as “integral to coping”. In
that capacity, it influences the implementation of the coping strategies selected.
Researchers believe that it modifies the the effectiveness of the strategies selected. The
more emotionally confident person will use their superior self-believe and selectively apply
a given coping style more effectively. The authors of the article stated that their program of
research “confirmed this distinction”.
Research Question
The investigators stated their research goal as follows: “The goal of the present study is to
assess the combined influence of both TEI [trait emotional intelligence] and AEI [emotional
intelligence] on coping processes and mental health (depression and disruptive behavior) in
adolescents exposed to a range of psychological stressors (family dysfunction; negative life
events; and socioeconomic adversity).” They utilized statistical models to test both forms of
EI as potential drivers of coping selection or modifiers of coping effectiveness.
Participants, Measures, and Procedure
About 1200 adolescent students, age range 11-16 years, participated in the questionnaire
study. The researchers used a number of measures which tapped into the following
variables: coping styles (active, avoidant, and support seeking), ability emotional
intelligence (total AEI assessed by the MSCEIT (Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional
Intelligence Test – Youth Version): perception-rating faces for emotional content, use-
matching sensory experience to emotion, understanding-knowledge of emotion definitions,
and management-rating strategies for attaining a target feeling, trait emotional intelligence
(full scale of the TEIQue-Adolescent, measures sociability, emotionality, self-control, and
well-being), family dysfunction, depression and disruptive behavior, major and daily
negative life events, and socioeconomic adversity.
Results
Without discussing or analyzing the techniques used by the researchers to examine by
modeling the effects of each of the three stressors(family dysfunction, negative life events,
and socioeconomic adversity) in interactions between pathways involving ability emotional
intelligence and trait emotional intelligence, my summary of the relevant results for this
post are:
Ability emotional intelligence and trait emotional intelligence have a weak relationship
with each other, i.e. they measure distinct concepts
A less active, more avoidant coping strategy associated with lower trait emotional
intelligence and greater experience of family dysfunction and negative life events

Only when trait emotional intelligence [TEI] and ability emotional intelligence [AEI]
combined, did the combination show a detectable effect on depression via avoidant
coping
When high levels of TEI coupled with above average to high levels of AEI, the
combination showed a beneficial impact in reducing the impact of family dysfunction
on depression via avoidant coping
Discussion of Results
This initial study of how
trait emotional intelligence
and ability emotional
intelligence combine to
provide adaptive advantage
to adolescents who
experience a range of
stressors addressed a big
gap in the research about
EI. While much more
theoretical work and
empirical testing remains
for the future, this research
team showed that “TEI and
AEI work in tandem,
modifying the selection and efficacy of avoidant coping, to influence the indirect effect of
stressors on depression.” The emotional intelligences combine. In tandem, the two –
ability emotional intelligence and trait emotional intelligence – in effect share a yoke and
work as a team to provide a coping advantage against depression.
Having emotional intelligence ability, i.e. akin to your emotional intelligence “IQ”, is not
enough, when it comes to successfully navigating the stresses of life to beat the odds against
developing depression. A main take-away from this research resides in the fact shown that
the emotionally intelligent skillset, i.e. ability EI does not, by itself, suffice for successful
adaptation to depression. In addition to possessing them, a person needs confidence in his
or her emotional abilities to fit in the profile of most successful adaptive potential. The
study participants low in trait emotional intelligence failed to implement avoidant coping
strategies.
Those higher in trait emotional intelligence did implement the skillful strategies needed to
navigate around the negative emotions arising from stress. The investigators noted “. . .
better outcomes were found with increasing levels of emotional confidence and, at very
high levels of TEI, the effects of family dysfunction on depression were significantly
attenuated.” In addition to abilities, these people “crucially also possess accurate
perceptions and confidence in their skills”. Such individuals “believe that they can identify,
control, and make a positive impact on their situation”. This positive belief actually
protects against negative emotion which can arise from the cognitive and behavioral
avoidance to reduce depression, according to the authors. This internal belief, along with
personality, comprise the TEI and AEI coping profile shown by this initial empirical
examination.
Tandem EI, as described and investigated by the authors of this post’s featured article,
addresses depression more than disruptive behavior. The authors’ results – bolstered
coping processes – show the importance of boosting emotional skills in tandem with
emotional self-concept to realize advantageous outcomes in dealing with stressor health
processes in general and, more specifically, in dealing with depression.

Emotional Intelligence Assessment, Feedback, and Coaching Services – By a Lawyer for
Judges and Lawyers . . . .
Dan DeFoe, JD, MS, owner and lead blogger at Psycholawlogy and owner and lead
consultant at the organization development consulting firm, Adlitem Solutions here, is a
working lawyer with over 20 years experience in the legal trenches. For over 12 years, I
worked as an in-house corporate litigation and trial attorney personally handling and
resolving high stakes, emotionally charged litigation matters in various trial and appellate
courts. My wide-ranging experience includes two years as appellate judicial law clerk, over
5 years as a solo practitioner, and over 12 years as an in-house corporate trial attorney. I
have tried over 70 cases ranging from simple fender-bender accidents to poisoning, electric
shock, catastrophic personal injury to the very nuanced, contract-based insurance dispute
claims to jury verdict. As a result of my career experiences, in addition to high caliber
counsel, I also am very comfortable working with judges in a one-on-one relationship.
Additionally, for over 17 years I have served as a volunteer mediator and arbitrator for my
state bar’s public service program for resolving attorney-client fee disputes, have fulfilled
qualification requirements to serve as a court-appointed guardian ad litem, and am
qualified under Supreme Court rule to serve as a mediator in Missouri state courts.
I also have earned an M.S. degree in organizational development psychology. My Master of
Science degree educationally qualifies me to purchase, administer, interpret, and provide
confidential feedback about the results from leading scientifically validated emotional
intelligence assessments. These assessments include the EQ-i 2.0, the world leading self-
report assessment, and the MSCEIT, the leading ability-based emotional intelligence
assessment. Additionally, I have attended extended training and the test publishers have
certified my knowledge and competence in these assessments. I received my MSCEIT
(Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test – ability EI model) assessment
certification training at Yale University from Dr. David Caruso, see EI Skills Group here, one
of the authors of the assessment. Dr. Henry L. (“Dick”) Thompson, see High Performing
Systems, Inc. here, provided my EQ-i 2.0 (self-report EI model) certification training.
Tandem [EQi 2.0/MSCEIT] Emotional Intelligence Assessment, Interpretation, and
Feedback . . . .
As a result of my MS degree program, emotional intelligence certifications and training,
and continued study, I subscribe to and if appropriate can suggest to clients the “Tandem”
concept advanced by Dick Thompson in chapter 12, pages 267-281, contained in the
Handbook for Developing Emotional and Social Intelligence: Best Practices, Case Studies, and
Strategies here. This Tandem approach uses the EQi and the MSCEIT emotional intelligence
models and assessments. “The Tandem process provides a multi-lens approach to
assessment, interpretation, and feedback with the end result being a more robust
assessment. Each instrument unveils its own unique insights about the respondent.”
Adlitem Solutions strives to provide leading edge emotional intelligence-based knowledge,
insight, and applications for legal and other professional services providers. Through its
owner and lead consultant, Dan DeFoe JD MS, who has the knowledge, training, ability, and
experience, Adlitem Solutions in partnership with its client organizations, and their leaders
and members will endeavor to provide customized, comprehensive emotional intelligence
assessment-based solution strategies and interventions designed to help judges and lawyers
learn the boundaries of their maximum performance potential, learn their typical
behavioral patterns, and through development planning and coaching, better equip and
enable them to meet development opportunities head-on, leverage strengths, and train
judges and lawyers in emotional intelligence and emotion regulation strategies.
Engagements, each one customized, can include on-site workshops, individual or group
assessment and feedback, or in-depth coaching.

Emotional Intelligence Resource for Judges, Lawyers, Law Students, and Teachers
I strive to be the g0-to source for information and insight about emotional intelligence and
its application in the legal services and other professional services environments. I attempt
to provide useful information, insight, commentary, and thought leadership for the legal
services professionals and academics in the areas of emotions, emotion regulation,
occupationally related psychological distress, and emotional intelligence. At my thought-
leading blog called Psycholawlogy here, I author, edit, and publish blog posts frequently
which concern these topics. A small sampling includes:
The Mental Ill-Health of the Legal Profession: Overcommitment, Job Demands, and
Job Resources and Their Relationship With Lawyers’ Depression and Anxiety here
Important Notice to Lawyers: The MSCEIT Emotional Intelligence Test Will Not
Show That You Are “Crazy” here
The Importance of Emotional Intelligence as a Factor in the Success and
Professional Development of In-House Counsel here
All-Star [Lawyers] Players – The Top Five (5) EQ-i 2.0™ Attorney Emotional
Intelligence Work Success Factors here
Judges [and Lawyers], Compassion Fatigue, and Tools to Respond Effectively here
Emotional Intelligence Emotion Regulation Ability Helps You [Lawyers] Interact
With Others More Effectively here
Lawyers and Stress Relievers–When it Comes to Stress Management Resources, Do
You Know Who, What, When, Where, and How . . . . ? here
Professional Education and Development Alert: Emotional Intelligence, Effective
Communication, and Interpersonal Sensitivity–Predictions About Medical School
[Law School] Success In the Interpersonal Academic Performance Behavior
Dimension here
First Steps . . .
Judges, lawyers, law students, legal academics, court administrators, and other legal
services actors and administrators can and should learn about and implement effective
emotion regulation strategies. A suggested first step: engage a qualified emotional
intelligence practitioner who has practiced law for over 20 years. Judges and lawyers and
all the rest of you . . . . . do not leave your organization’s and your own personal and
professional development and career success to chance. . . . Contact me at
dan@adlitemsolutions.com to arrange for an initial complimentary, confidential
consultation.
Thank you
Please visit again soon. See you next time. Dan DeFoe JD MS – Adlitem Solutions |
Organization Development for Professional Services Firms and the Legal Profession: People.
Projects. Practices |www.adlitemsolutions.com|dan@adlitemsolutions.com | Blog
www.psycholawlogy.com.
Article Source: Davis, S., & Humphrey, N. (2014). Ability Versus Trait Emotional
Intelligence Journal of Individual Differences, 35 (1), 54-62 DOI: 10.1027/1614-0001/a000127.
Other Resource: To access information about trait emotional intelligence [featured in the
research discussed in this post] and the TEIQue, visit and access the abundant information
from the London Psychometric Laboratory at University College London here.
Image Credits: Tandem here / Tandem EI oxen team here /

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One Response to tandem emotional intelligence and protection
against [lawyer] depression
The Short Story of Self-Control for Lawyers - Psycholawlogy says:
September 21, 2014 at 9:46 pm
[…] My blog, Psycholawlogy, strives to be one of the premier resources about
emotional intelligence for lawyers, judges, and legal organizations see about
“Emotional Intelligence Resource” here. […]
About Latest Posts
Dan DeFoe
Owner and Lead consultant at Adlitem Solutions
I'm an attorney with 20+ years of experience and have an MS degree in organizational
development psychology. I provide normal personality and emotional intelligence assessments,
assessment interpretation and feedback, and professional development planning and training
activities for lawyers, judges, other legal services providers, and their organizations.
   

Lawyers and stress – an important
topic of concern these days for many
stakeholders. That connection seems
natural, given the heightened
competition, over-supply of providers,
and ever-increasing push to keep
clients happy and get new ones, too.
Part of legal practice management
involves knowing your resources.
Often, the best resources are right
under your nose. I am a proud
member of the Missouri Bar. Nationally, the Missouri Bar ranks very high in its service to
members, their families, the courts, and the community. Current Missouri Bar President P.
John Brady see President’s Page here has authored a piece about “Stress Relievers”. These
important and very worthy thoughts see here merit serious attention and consideration.
So, when it comes to the issue of stress, its management, and the practice of law, taking the
cue from our Bar President, all lawyers will do well to learn about them, number their
resources, and use them accordingly. Your clients, family, practice, partners, courts, and
community depend on you to carry through on this very important issue. If you have a
special story or anecdote about your stress management struggles or successes, or pointers
or pitfalls, please share.
Image Credit: Stress gauge see here.
Missouri Lawyers Assistance Program (MOLAP) link here is a professional, conﬁdential
counseling program for members of The Missouri Bar, their families, and law students.
Through a variety of free services, MOLAP helps individuals overcome personal problems
such as depression, substance abuse, stress, and burnout. (800) 688-7859 (Conﬁdential
helpline for attorneys, judges, and law students.)
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Lawyers and Stress Relievers–When it
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by DAN DEFOE on FEBRUARY 21, 2014 · 3 COMMENTS · in LAWYERS, PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT,
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3 Responses to lawyers and stress relievers–when it comes to
stress management resources, do you know who, what, when,
where, and how . . . . ?
All-Star [Lawyers] Players – The Top Five (5) EQ-i 2.0™ Attorney Emotional
Intelligence Work Success Factors - Psycholawlogy says:
May 9, 2014 at 2:34 pm
[…] it Comes to Stress Management Resources, Do You Know Who, What, When,
Where, and How . . . . ?” see here. Another post on Psycholawlogy concerns emotion-
focused coping strategies and lawyers. Take a […]
Judicial Notice: Good-Bye to Cultural Baggage & Hello to Emotion Regulation and
the New Ideal of the “[Emotionally Intelligent] Well-Regulated Judge” -
Psycholawlogy says:
July 21, 2014 at 12:36 am
[…] Lawyers and Stress Relievers–When it Comes to Stress Management Resources, Do
You Know Who, What, When, Where, and How . . . . ? here […]
Tandem Emotional Intelligence and Protection Against [Lawyer] Depression -
Psycholawlogy says:
September 7, 2014 at 10:43 pm
[…] Lawyers and Stress Relievers–When it Comes to Stress Management Resources, Do
You Know Who, What, When, Where, and How . . . . ? here […]
About Latest Posts
Dan DeFoe
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5/17/2019 Emotional Intelligence, Workplace Emotions, Coping, and [Lawyers] Getting Work Done | Psycholawlogy
https://www.psycholawlogy.com/2016/05/28/emotional-intelligence-workplace-emotions-coping-and-lawyers-getting-work-done/ 1/7
Emotions can
capture and
dominate the mind,
change information
processing channels,
and color the
perception, thinking
and decision-making
processes, and
behavior of lawyers
and other
professionals in their workplaces. Just like their counterparts in the business world and the
medical profession who already have, legal leaders and lawyers must appreciate and accept the
mounting evidence which shows that emotions and affect play an important role in organizational
life.
Emotion in the workplace “requires resource deployment in its immediate aftermath”. Denying
that power does not serve any useful personal goal or business or professional purpose. If not
perceived, used, understood, and managed, the passions and pitfalls of your emotions and those of
others will eventually shackle you despite your best efforts. Your performance at work suffers.
Compared to you, if your competitors have paid more attention to workplace emotions, and how to
manage them, they will have the advantage. Their emotional experiences will not shackle them.
This research suggests a way to unlock the cuffs.
Anger, guilt, pride, and joy, among many other emotions, can affect a wide range of workplace
attitudes and behaviors. These and all other emotions impact our energy levels, internal and
interpersonal experiences, and our work task performance. A number of studies have shown that
workplace deviance, helping behaviors, achievement and other behaviors motivated by emotions
ultimately affect an organization’s members. The variation in how well workers manage their
emotional lives at work can significantly impact the financial bottom line in organizations.
In addition to acknowledging the evidence from psychological and organizational behavioral
science, lawyers and their leaders must act. We must manage our emotions. Otherwise, our anger,
guilt, joy, and pride will manage us. This post discusses new research which shows how ability
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Work Done
by DAN DE FOE on MAY 2 8 , 2 0 1 6 · LEAVE A COMMENT · in ABI L I T Y E MOT I ONAL I NT E L L I GE NCE , ANGE R,
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emotional intelligence relates to emotion-focused coping. Lawyers can and must learn to let go of
emotion-inducing work events. This research study’s results suggest that by using emotion-focused
coping strategies, lawyers can shed the “shackle” effect of their intense emotion experiences so that
they can get their work done. We might not have the ability to deal with the problem or situation
which produces the emotion in us. But, with emotion-focused coping, aided by ability emotional
intelligence, results from recent research suggest that we can deal with the experience of the
emotion itself.
How Will Reading This Post Help You? This post discusses the research background,
experimental method and measures, and the findings by the researchers about ability emotional
intelligence, four common emotions in the workplace and their impact upon work, emotion-
focused coping strategies, and how the relationship between ability emotional intelligence and
emotion focused coping impacts work task performance in the short-term. Finally, it closes with
some tips for lawyers, other professionals, and their leaders.
Research Background. According to
the authors, their study about the use of
emotion-focused coping responses of
denial, mental and physical
disengagement, and venting fills an
important gap in the research literature.
Their study broke the tradition of
looking at coping strategies and results
between persons. They investigated the
benefits to individuals, i.e. within-
person, of resolving emotion-based
challenges via the cognitive and
behavioral strategies of emotion-
focused coping (dealing with the
emotional experience) instead of
problem-focused coping (attempting to
change the emotion-inducing event itself, not dealing with emotion).
This study considered four (4) important workplace emotions: anger, guilt, joy, and pride. The final
layer unwound by this important study considered how ability emotional intelligence affects
emotion-focused coping and how that relationship impacts a person’s ability to detach and let go of
emotion-laden work experiences and immediately get critical tasks of their work done.
Issues and Objectives – Emotions, Coping, and Ability Emotional Intelligence:
Anger, Guilt, Joy, and Pride. Emotions pervade our workplaces. Their impact reaches far and
wide. They can motivate us to get stuff done. But, if we allow it by failing to cope, they can degrade
our work task performance in a very short period of time. Coping with the immediate effects of
emotion differentiates high performers from low performers. That difference results from the
conservation of valuable cognitive resources and problem solving ability otherwise expended in
attempting to solve the problem, and that savings from handling and dealing with the emotional
experience of critical work events can positively impact your firm’s bottom line.
This study looked at four dynamic emotion phenomena. Each one can require some kind of coping
response: anger (relates to perceived insult; motivates action to correct perceived wrong; and can
relate to workplace deviance); guilt (self-blame related to displeasure from a specific action, event,
or interpersonal experience; a failure to live up to a standard; can lead to compliance and
sometimes self-reproach which can impair a person’s normal functioning in the workplace
context); joy (positive emotion which can increase heart rate and blood pressure and psychological
changes; contentment with the status quo occurs; it motivates people to remain content; can cause
a disconnect from focus on performance); and pride (self-conscious, moral emotion; the polar

opposite of anger; involves taking credit for success and a feeling of superiority; the inability to
disconnect from joy-inducing events by seeking an encore or attempting to prolong the happy state
can detract from performing work tasks).
Four Branch Model of Ability Emotional Intelligence: A Significant Individual
Difference Variable and Regulatory Resource: This post reports about ability emotional
intelligence. This model of emotional intelligence (four hierarchical branches: perceiving emotion,
using emotion to facilitate thought, understanding emotion, and managing emotion), which
explains how people reason through and manage emotion, has emerged as one of the most
important of its kind. The researchers tested several hypotheses in this study. Generally, they
investigated whether people with higher levels of ability emotional intelligence will have better
coping ability because of this regulatory resource. More specifically, since people with higher levels
of ability emotional intelligence have greater ability to reason regarding emotion information, the
authors’ research study tested their idea that those people “will be more likely to let go of emotion-
inducing work events in the short-term.”
Each of the four branches of the ability emotional intelligence model contributes sequentially to our
overall ability to deal with emotions. First, we must perceive emotions in ourselves and others
accurately. Emotion facilitation involves using that information to generate thought and reason
through that emotion information. Emotions occur in complex patterns. Emotion understanding
refers to the ability to understand those patterns, how they blend together, and also how to discern
transitions from one emotion state to another. The fourth branch, using the other abilities, involves
managing our own and others’ emotion information in ways that benefit us and help us adapt.
Ability emotional intelligence plays an important role in work and workplaces. According to the
authors, “An impressive body of research now supports the scientific standing of ABEI [ability
emotional intelligence] and its validity in predicting work outcomes.” This research study
considered how ABEI, an important individual difference variable, affects individuals and their
relationships with and dealing with certain common workplace emotions. This study looked at how
ability emotional intelligence affects individuals in a new area in the research on coping – how
emotion-focused coping impacts task performance.
Several prior posts on Psycholawlogy have discussed research studies which involved the four-
branch ability-based model of emotional intelligence. For further study about the four-branch
model, and the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso (MSCEIT) ability emotional intelligence assessment, access
this recent post, The Relationship Between Ability Emotional Intelligence, Angry Rumination, and
Aggression, and the several links to other Psycholawlogy posts and resources.
Emotion-Focused Coping (Denial & Detachment) – A Useful Strategy to Deal
Immediately With the Aftermath of Workplace Emotional Events. Emotion events at
work have long-term and short-term impact and consequences. According to the authors, problem-
focused coping, which involves cognitive and behavioural strategies to deal with the emotion-
inducing event, has the widest endorsement among scholars as the preferred mode of coping in the
longer term. But, emotion events exact an immediate toll on a person’s ability to get work done.

This effect occurs because, according to the authors, “emotion-inducing events at work almost
always occur along with pressing task demands, and the use of EFC [emotion-focused coping]
allows an individual to more fully prioritize task demands.” People who struggle to free themselves
from the experience of the emotion so they can do their work expend valuable cognitive resources.
This emotion-related cognitive resource depletion directly and negatively affects your ability to
work.
Four (4) elements comprise emotion-focused coping. This “constellation of strategies” reflects a
person’s attempts to deal with the experience of emotion itself, not the occurrence of the event. The
four elements include denial, disengagement, both mentally and behaviorally, and venting. The
authors used shorthand – “denial and detachment” – to name this process. Several past studies
have shown that these strategies, which attempt to alter the experience of the emotion-inducing
event, serve to “free individual cognitive resources that can be directed towards meeting immediate
task demands.” This denial and detachment coping skill varies between individuals. Some people
can detach from emotionally-laden work events and get their work done. Others can’t let go. Their
performance suffers. Why?
This research study constitutes the initial attempt to include emotional intelligence as a variable in
a study designed to address that question. The researchers tested their argument that ability
emotional intelligence affects a person’s ability to cope with emotionally-laden emotion-inducing
events at work. Ability emotional intelligence has been described as a “stable coping resource”.
People have different abilities when it comes to ABEI. According to the authors’ argument, this
special ability to deal with emotion information effectively should have a positive impact on a
person’s ability to “more fully prioritize task demands”. This heightened ability to detach from
emotion events at work – emotion-focused coping – might, the authors argued, help workers gain
an edge in doing their work tasks and reaching performance goals.
Method – What the Researchers Did and Questions Considered. The researchers
conducted a field study. The study participants (n=145) came from two police departments. Police
officers and civilian employees completed 5 days of diary studies and surveys during a 4 week
period. They selected their own “most critical work event” as they determined for their five days.
The subjects reconstructed their critical work event as a series of actions and in as much detail as
possible, and reported their emotions and coping in response to that event.
Other data about the most critical work event came from a task performance survey and a coping
survey. These measures captured peer and self-rated task performance survey evaluations of
various aspects of the participants getting their work done in the critical incident and coping
responses, respectively. The study also measured discrete emotions, e.g. anger, joy, guilty, and
pride, by the participants indicating the extent to which they felt certain emotion adjectives, e.g. the
participants’ indications about the words anger, rage, outrage, wrath, fury, bitterness, hate, and
ferocity measured the discrete emotion anger.
The final aspect of the study involved measuring the participants’ ability emotional intelligence.
Each participant completed the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT
v.2.0). The researchers formulated hypotheses about discrete emotions, ability emotional
intelligence, and coping in the workplace. The authors stated in pertinent part “The key notion here
is that, in any given context, higher ABEI individuals are better able to reason through the

information provided by [the emotion] and to choose coping responses that are adaptive in the
short-term . . . . ” as the “key notion” of their study.
So, for the four discrete emotions anger, guilt, joy, and pride, the authors’ study tested the
hypothesis that individuals with higher ability emotional intelligence will use that ability as a
regulatory resource. This will allow that person to choose the strategy which requires the least
amount of time and resources to cope with the circumstances and their emotional experience. Their
fifth hypothesis concerned emotion focused coping as essential to facilitating task performance in
the short-term. As such, they hypothesized that emotion focused coping should positively relate to
task performance.
Results. Without detailing the analytical
processes and techniques employed by the
research team, and the limitations noted by
the authors, this part summarizes the main
findings obtained by the interpreting the
ability emotional intelligence assessment
results and the emotion focused survey and
work task performance survey results from
the sample size of 145 critical work events
remembered and evaluated by police
department employees.
The results showed that ability emotional intelligence moderated the relationship of the emotions
anger, guilty, and joy and emotion-focused coping such that higher ability emotional intelligence
individuals had an easier time of disconnecting and letting go of the effects of those emotions.
These higher ability EI persons utilize their ability emotional intelligence to direct attentional
focus, i.e. thoughts and behaviors, towards performing the demands of their ongoing work tasks.
The emotion-focused coping shown by higher ability emotional intelligence individuals
“significantly and positively related to task performance.”
Discussion and Take-Aways for Lawyers and Other Professionals. This research study
utilized law enforcement workers, and did not involve lawyers as study participants. But, because
lawyers and many other professionals deal in high stakes, emotion-laden tasks in performing their
daily work, the results of this field study critical work event research regarding emotion-focused
coping strategies and ability emotional intelligence should prompt them and their leaders to want
to learn more and apply that learning in their daily work. Why?
The researchers showed that emotion-focused coping facilitates short-term work task performance.
The authors cautioned that their study and design and analysis were correlational in nature. But,
they described their results as “encouraging”.
The study’s findings, according to the authors, suggest that ability emotion intelligence “helps
people to decode emotion information accurately, in that they choose EFC [emotion-focused
coping] in response to three intense emotions [anger, guilt, and joy], irrespective of whether the
emotion itself is positive or negative. In “simple” terms, the authors conclude their report article by
stating, “ABEI [ability emotional intelligence] helps individuals to disengage from emotionally-
laden work events in the immediate aftermath of intense emotion-inducing events. The choice of
EFC as a coping strategy allows for better task performance to emerge.”
A prior post, Elite Performance [Legal] Organizations & Tailored Emotional Intelligence
Interventions, discussed recent research which involved elite performance organizations and their
members and how engaging in workshops about ability emotional intelligence and tailored, one-
on-one coaching can improve people, relationships, and performance. This post, and several others
on Psycholawlogy, provide legal and other professional services organization leaders the evidence

needed to go forward with emotional
intelligence workshops, trainings,
interventions, and one-on-one coaching with
a competent and qualified practitioner who
knows and cares.*
Thank You. Thank you very much. Dan
DeFoe JD MS – Adlitem Solutions |
Organization Development for Professional
Services Firms and the Legal Profession:
People. Projects. Practices |Web –
www.adlitemsolutions.com |
Email: dan@adlitemsolutions.com | Blog –
www.psycholawlogy.com | Services –
Organization Development Practitioner
combining and leveraging 25+ years of
diverse legal experience, 7+ years of allied
health training and work experience, a
Master of Science in Organizational
Development Psychology, and educationally
qualified or earned certifications in industry-leading normal (Myers-Briggs MBTI) and special
business (Hogan Assessments) personality; ability (MSCEIT) and self-report (EQi 2.0) emotional
intelligence; leadership (Certified Intentional Leadership Coach); and stress management
assessment and tools (ARSENAL best practices system for stress resilient emotional intelligence) to
partner with clients to discover needs and opportunities for growth and to design, develop, deliver,
and evaluate custom interventions for individual, team, project, or organizational solutions.
| Mission: “America’s leading resource for normal personality and emotional intelligence
assessments, and related coaching, continuing education, training, and workshops for judges,
lawyers, law schools, bar associations, healthcare, medical, and other professional services
providers and their organizations and leaders.” Please visit Adlitem Solutions and Psycholawlogy
again soon. Thank you very much.
Complimentary Assessment: Contact me via email at dan@adlitemsolutions.com to arrange
for a no obligation discussion and assessment of your firm’s interests or needs regarding emotional
intelligence workshops, training, continuing education, or coaching.
Article Source: Gooty, J., Gavin, M. B., Ashkanasy, N. M., & Thomas, J. S. (2014). The wisdom of
letting go and performance: The moderating role of emotional intelligence and discrete emotions.
Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 87(2), 392-413. DOI:10.1111/joop.12053
(copy currently available here).
Additional Sources: Ashkanasy, N. M., & Daus, C. S. (2002). Emotion in the workplace: The
new challenge for managers. The Academy of Management Executive, 16(1), 76-86 | Barsade, S. G.,
& Gibson, D. E. (2007). Why does affect matter in organizations? The Academy of Management
Perspectives, 21(1), 36-59 | Carver, C. S., Scheier, M. F., & Weintraub, J. K. (1989). Assessing
coping strategies: A theoretically based approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
56(2), 267-283 | Izard, C. E. (2002). Translating emotion theory and research into preventive
interventions. Psychological Bulletin, 128(5), 796-824 | Mayer, J. D., Roberts, R. D., & Barsade, S.
G. (2008). Human abilities: Emotional intelligence. Annu. Rev. Psychol., 59, 507-536 | Williams, L.
J., & Anderson, S. E. (1991). Job satisfaction and organizational commitment as predictors of
organizational citizenship and in-role behaviors.Journal of management, 17(3), 601-617 |
Image Credits: Shackles here | Rubber band ball here | Emotion coping here |
Methods here | Results here | *Jane here (early adopter of the emotional intelligence construct)|

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About Latest Posts
Dan DeFoe
I'm an attorney with 20+ years of experience and have an MS degree in organizational development
psychology. I provide normal personality and emotional intelligence assessments, assessment
interpretation and feedback, and professional development planning and training activities for lawyers,
judges, other legal services providers, and their organizations.
   

5/17/2019 Emotional Intelligence and Effective [Lawyer] Decision-Making Under Stress | Psycholawlogy
https://www.psycholawlogy.com/2015/08/25/emotional-intelligence-and-effective-lawyer-decision-making-under-stress/ 1/4
Decisions. Decisions. To make them
we must search for, locate, store,
retrieve, and sift through information
about alternative options, and then
make choices about next steps. This
process frequently occurs under
stressful conditions. A person’s
negative moods and emotions, i.e.
affect, can also impact those cognitive
components of the processes involved
in decision-making. We sometimes
terminate our search efforts when we
experience such negative affect and stress. This can sometimes lead us to neglect relevant and
important information.
Researchers recently investigated the potential role of emotional intelligence in supporting effective
decision-making under stress. They focused their study on the search for information cognitive
component of the decision-making process. The researchers tested their hypotheses in what they
identified as “a complex visual environment.” In this type of environment, also known as an
“operational context”, an extensive search for information about available options must occur so
that we can reach a decision. This research suggests that a particular kind of emotional intelligence
might lighten the burdens in that process.
Undergraduate psychology students participated in this study. The researchers administered the
following to the subjects: two emotional intelligence tests: an ability situational judgment test
which uses emotionally-laden scenarios and a self-report questionnaire linked to stress
vulnerability; a cognitive ability test; a stress questionnaire which assessed moods, motivations,
and cognitive states; a decision-making task which involved a “fork in the road” Antarctic rescue
decision scenario presented in two phases and in which each participant had to determine the
fastest route to reach a lost group of explorers under various time pressures and stress features,
such as obstacles, e.g. crevasse, negative feedback, or information about time costs or route
benefits. The researchers designed the decision-making task so that the participants progressively
fell behind schedule and experienced more negative than positive outcomes. At the end of the
second phase the participants learned that they failed to reach the lost explores in time. The
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researchers showed the
participants a graphic of a grave
to illustrate their failure. They
re-took the stress questionnaire
at the end of phase 2.
A brief summary of the results
follows. The manipulations of
the rescue decision-making task
created distress and performance
deficits in the decision-making
task about rescuing the lost
explores. The negative feedback
impaired the search activity and
accuracy of the route choice in
the decision-making task.
In this study, high performers on the situational judgment
ability emotional intelligence test and high scorers on the self-
report mood questionnaire did not, according to the
researchers, have any performance edge in terms of managing
negative feedback or performance failure. But, the findings of
this study confirmed the importance of information search in
decision-making.
Most attorneys want to see connections when the relevance of
emotional intelligence and the practice of law gets suggested.
This research about emotional
intelligence as a possible
moderator of stress during
information search involved
undergraduate students. It
occurred in a laboratory, and
did not have practicing
attorneys as research
participants. This research
study, however, suggests
practical relevance for attorney work. The relevance becomes apparent because like the laboratory
research situation, which required the participants to weigh relative risks and benefits from
information obtained during information search, and make choices about finding the fastest route
to rescue a group of stranded Antarctic explorers, attorneys have to make real-life decisions which
“often require extensive search to obtain information about alternative options.”
Attorneys, especially those involved in litigation, experience negative emotions, information search
stress, and decision-making issues similar to those considered by the researchers. Those who
terminate their search prematurely may not learn about all alternatives. They may neglect relevant
information. Higher emotional intelligence, as measured by the situational judgment test of
emotional abilities, confers benefits for the cognitive information search component of decision-
making. Those higher in this ability will not prematurely terminate their search. They will
continue. Additionally, this study showed that higher ability also correlated with higher accuracy.
The main take-aways for lawyers: ability-based emotional intelligence appears to have a
motivational aspect which supports a cognitive component of decision-making – information
search. Those people higher in this ability will not end their search for information about

alternative choices for next steps and final decisions prematurely. Their higher emotional
intelligence affords assurance of a more thorough effort, more exhaustive analysis, and will not
allow them to neglect information as a result of terminating decision-related information search.
Higher ability emotional intelligence also correlated positively with accuracy of the decision. For
lawyers, neglect of relevant information and decision accuracy in performance of work implicates
professional responsibility. Achieving higher ability-based emotional intelligence, therefore, has
relevance for attorneys in their work.
Thank You. Thank you very much. Dan DeFoe JD MS – Adlitem Solutions | Organization
Development for Professional Services Firms and the Legal Profession: People. Projects. Practices |
Web – www.adlitemsolutions.com | Email: dan@adlitemsolutions.com | Blog –
www.psycholawlogy.com | Combining and leveraging 25+ years legal experience, allied health
training and work experience, a Master of Science in Organizational Development Psychology, and
educationally qualified or earned certifications in industry-leading normal and special business
personality, ability and self-report emotional intelligence, leadership, and stress management
assessments and tools to partner with clients to discover, design, develop, deliver, and evaluate
custom interventions for individual, team, project, or organizational solutions. | Mission:
“America’s leading resource for emotional intelligence assessment and interpretation, coaching,
keynote addresses, training, and workshops for judges, lawyers, law schools, bar associations, and
other legal and professional services providers and their organizations and leaders.” Please visit
Adlitem Solutions and Psycholawlogy again soon. Thank you.
Article Source: Fallon, C. K., Panganiban, A. R., Wohleber, R., Matthews, G., Kustubayeva, A.
M., & Roberts, R. (2014). Emotional intelligence, cognitive ability and information search in
tactical decision-making. Personality and Individual Differences, 65, 24-29. Author advance copy
of article currently available here.
Image Credits: Lawyers and information search here | Relevance here | Fork in the road
decision here | Information pile here |
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About Latest Posts
Dan DeFoe
I'm an attorney with 20+ years of experience and have an MS degree in organizational development
psychology. I provide normal personality and emotional intelligence assessments, assessment
interpretation and feedback, and professional development planning and training activities for lawyers,
judges, other legal services providers, and their organizations.
   

#cred{display:none}

Like leaders in educational, business,
medical, and other professional
services organizations routinely do,
legal leaders should want to train and
develop their people. But, concerns
about costs and benefits and projected
return on investment in personal and
professional development activities
and programs work against and often
derail implementation of those
initiatives.
Other reasons include arguments that
training programs divert attention
from service delivery to clients, and
represent a substantial investment
and dedication of human capital, time,
effort, and money. Yes, training and development impacts the bottom line. But, failure to
train costs, too. Costs here relate in part to decreased well-being and impaired lawyers
providing less than competent service.
This post addresses such concerns about emotional intelligence, and discusses and
highlights the main findings from a recent meta-analytical study which investigated the
efficacy of emotional intelligence training. The results, published in the journal of a leading
international society of emotion researchers, directly answer two important questions as
stated here: (1) Can training increase emotional intelligence? (2) Which emotional
intelligence model training produces most the beneficial effects? This post shines a bright
light on recent scientific findings for leaders of legal and professional services
organizations, law schools, law students, lawyers and judges, and all others who work in
the legal services realm.
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Who Should Read This Post and Why? Many legal professionals know about the concept
emotional intelligence. Many probably agree with the proposition that law people need
high emotional intelligence. But, skepticism and inaction by leaders and teachers in the
legal academy, lawyers, and leaders of public and private legal organizations has had the
upper hand, it seems, for the over twenty years. This post discusses research which
addresses and should mitigate those concerns.
As a result of the research discussed here, leaders of legal services organizations, court
systems, bar associations, and legal academia, and their key stakeholders, including judges,
court administrators, lawyers, paralegals, and law students, have new evidence – “more in-
depth knowledge on the optimization of effects of EI interventions” – which provides
additional support for decisions to dedicate organizational and human capital resources for
law people to benefit from emotional intelligence training. Clients should benefit, too, by
considering this discussion.
Research Background. Little public information about any efforts by legal organizations,
e.g. courts, law schools, bar associations, law firms, legal departments, to train and develop
emotional intelligence in law people exists. While legal leaders seem either uninterested or
pretty shy and quiet about it, the authors of the addition resource article noted that leaders
and human resource practitioners of other types of organizations, e.g. athletic, business,
and education, “spend considerable resources selecting and training a more emotionally
intelligent workforce.”
But, until recently those efforts have lacked strong empirical guidance which can help
answer the question “Can training help adults become more emotionally intelligent?” The
authors of the featured article addressed that question directly, and described their meta-
analytical research as “the first extensive meta-analysis on the efficacy of EI interventions.”
In addition to their meta-analytically derived results about efficacy, they also considered the
effect of certain moderators of training adults on emotional intelligence.
What Did the Researchers
Do? A 2013 study § “yielded a
moderate overall effect size”
which showed that emotional
intelligence training for adults
worked. The recent study,
described by the authors as
“the first to investigate the
efficacy of EI interventions in
an extensive way,” aimed at
expanding those previous
findings that trainings increase
emotional intelligence. The
researchers increased the
number of studies considered
and identified the factors which contribute to the efficacy of emotional intelligence training.
The researchers systematically reviewed the literature and collected 24 studies (28 samples;
overall sample size = 1,986) published between 2006 and 2016 that fulfilled their inclusion
criteria.
Many different types of organizations, e.g. athletic, business, and education, have targeted
leaders, managers, employees, or students for programs to train and increase emotional
intelligence. Studies show that these interventions have produced beneficial outcomes in
areas including academic performance and retention, agreeableness, emotional self-

efficacy, emotional stability, employability, happiness, life satisfaction, mental health,
perceived health, quality of interpersonal relationships, self-rated mental health, social
functioning and relationships, stress reduction, subjective well-being, work morale, work
peformance, and workplace civility.
The literature reviewed by the researchers discussed above also shows that those training
interventions have involved at least four different approaches to emotional intelligence.
From the research results, the next part identifies and briefly notes the most used and most
efficient emotional intelligence intervention and training model and assessment.
Researchers’ Results and Discussion. Described as one of the “most acknowledged and
scientifically rigorous” ability models, Mayer and Salovey’s four-branch model includes
perceiving emotions, facilitating thought, understanding emotions, and managing emotions.
Of the six different models studied by the authors, trainers used their model and the
corresponding ability emotional intelligence assesment, the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso
Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), the most as the basis for the training.
The researchers reported that
their meta-analysis confirmed
the 2013 study as it showed
that emotional intelligence
training “had a moderate
effect on emotional
intelligence.” They compared
ability, mixed, and trait
emotional intelligence models.
The authors reported that
“trainings that are based on
ability EI models showed
significantly higher effects
than mixed or trait EI models.”
They also noted, “The results confirm that it is easier to develop ability EI and related
explicit knowledge than trait EI.”
The results also showed that understanding emotions dimension, i.e. “knowledge about
how emotions change over time, how they differ, and which emotions are the most
appropriate ones depending on the situation,” reflected significantly higher training effects
than the training effects for the facilitating thought branch of the four-branch ability
emotional intelligence model. The authors noted that under a cascading model of emotional
intelligence, the ability to understand emotions serves as a precursor for the ability to
regulate emotions. That ability – achieving, managing, and maintaining desired affective
states depending on the situation – requires a high level of emotional understanding.
The authors’ results enabled them to offer suggestions for future research and guidelines
for designing and delivering effective emotional intelligence interventions. Briefly
noted, those include:
the most effective interventions focus on enhancing specific emotional abilities as
conceptualized by the Mayer and Salovey four branch ability emotional intelligence
model and measured by the MSCEIT;
use a workshop approach with group discussions and interactive participation;
identify specific individual differences and situational factors which might determine
the effects of the intervention;
realize that as the length of training increases, the training effect size grows;

a fixed schedule (average 6 sessions, each with 2.5 hours duration) with defined
individual goals for participants will work best;
successful emotional intelligence interventions have in various ways used diary writing,
personal coaches, feedback/debriefing, experiential learning (role-play, reflective
writing, discussion), and theory-
based (lecture, group
discussion, story analyzing,
video analysis, case study,
workbook exercises,
tests/quizzes);
detect and consider individual
differences, e.g. openness to
experience, curiosity, and
specific situational factors and
needs of vulnerable groups, e.g.
professions, and adapt trainings
and interventions to meet needs
and enhance emotional
intelligence
Roundup: Yes, (1) Lawyers Can
Benefit From Emotional
Intelligence Training (2) Training
Based On the Ability Emotional
Intelligence Model Provides
Significantly Higher Benefits. A
recent Psycholawlogy post, My
Blue Handkerchief Case and
Emotional Intelligence
101(resources noted), provides a
good example of issues of
emotional intelligence and
lawyers. Civil or criminal or trial
or transaction work – our
profession involves emotions,
feelings, moods, and emotional labor. That means that lawyers, judges, and all other legal
professionals must deal with “hot tasks” each day. Cases, clients, colleagues, judges, and
staff, to name a few sources, present challenges or issues with heightened emotions and
emotional information. See Emotional Intelligence and Selecting Personnel [Lawyers] for
High Emotional Labor Jobs. See also Ability Emotional Intelligence, Cognitive Control, and
Improved [Lawyer] Decision-Making Performance in Emotional Contexts.
The nature of legal training and the emotional labor of the work puts legal professionals
with lower emotional intelligence abilities at risk for the effects of impaired cognitive
control. This unfortunately plays out in the effects of self-harm from poor or risky health
behaviors, stealing from clients, substance abuse or alcoholism, and even
suicide. See Statistics, Stigma, and Sanism: A Public Health Warning About the “Perfect
Storm” Heading Toward America’s Legal Profession. A leading national bar association and
legal think tank have independently linked healthy emotional functioning with lawyer well-
being and effective lawyering in service of client needs and desires with optimal emotional
functioning – emotional intelligence.§

The Psycholawlogy blog has published over 100 articles about emotional intelligence and
the legal profession. The great majority of these posts feature and translate the results of
peer-reviewed research. Lawyers and judges and other legal professionals have substantial
evidence which proves the importance and relevance of emotional intelligence, emotional
intelligence training, and the impact of emotions for legal professionals and their leaders,
law students, and the legal academy.
Simply put, the current guidebook shows definitively that emotional intelligence has
emerged and ranks as one of the most relevant, vital, and important personal well-being
and professional success factors for legal professionals, their organizations, and legal
leaders. See Emotional Intelligence, Lawyers, and Better Lawyering – Review of “Beyond
Smart: Lawyering With Emotional Intelligence” by Ronda Muir. See also Beyond the “Blue
Book” – The Three C’s of [Legal] Educators Teaching Emotional Intelligence and the linked
posts in that article.
The state of ill-health and turbulence in our profession indicates to me that we have little
currency left to support our obstinate, continued denial, delay, and neglect of such a
fundamental aspect of our lives, our profession, and our work as lawyers and judges. From
my unique 25+ years experience operating deep “in the trenches” perspective, I argue that
we have over-analyzed the state of our affairs and squandered opportunities. Our
profession, its organizations, and members, and the legal academy and its students, need
emotional intelligence education and training. We have wasted too much time. Prior posts
on Psycholawlogy have discussed how the alarm sounded more than 20 years ago. It
recently clanged again.Θ Implementation should begin now before . . . . we and all of our
clients, as mentioned in a recent Psycholawlogy post, will need blue handkerchiefs.
Conclusion. According to the extensive literature review and meta-analytical research
study about emotional intelligence training and interventions discussed in this post,
interventions and training based on four-branch ability emotional intelligence provides
“significantly higher effects” than any other emotional intelligence model. This post
suggests that legal leaders and lawyers work in a “vulnerable profession” and urges that
they proceed accordingly and engage appropriate practitioners for individualized
emotional intelligence training and intervention. The recent ABA resolutionΘ recognizes
that the issues here involve the highest stakes: lawyers’ lives, their health and well-being,
maintaining professional competency, achieving career longevity, and providing to our
clients our best efforts and optimal legal and professional service in each matter, case, and
engagement.
THANK YOU. Thank you very much. Dan DeFoe JD MS – Adlitem Solutions | Organization
Development for Professional Services Firms and the Legal Profession: People. Projects.
Practices | Web – www.adlitemsolutions.com | Email: dan@adlitemsolutions.com | Blog –
www.psycholawlogy.com | SERVICES: Organization Development Practitioner combining
and leveraging 25+ years of diverse legal experience, including an appellate clerkship, solo
practitioner and of-counsel lawyer, and senior corporate trial attorney, 7+ years of allied
health training and work experience, a Master of Science in Organizational Development
Psychology, and educationally qualified or earned certifications in industry-leading
Jungian-based (Myers-Briggs MBTI®) and special business (Hogan Assessments – HPI, HDS,
& MVPI) normal personality; ability (MSCEIT) and self-report (EQi 2.0 [derived from Bar-
On model]) emotional intelligence; leadership (Certified Intentional Leadership Coach);
and stress management (ARSENAL best practices system for stress resilient emotional
intelligence) assessments, tools, systems, and coaching to partner with client
organizations, their leaders, and member to discover needs and opportunities for growth
and to design, develop, deliver, and evaluate results from implementing custom
interventions for individual, team, project, or organizational solutions. | MISSION:

“America’s leading resource for well-being advocacy and emotional intelligence
assessments, and related coaching, continuing education programs, training, and
workshops for judges, lawyers, law schools, bar associations, healthcare, medical, and other
professional services providers and their organizations and leaders.” Please visit Adlitem
Solutions and Psycholawlogy again soon. Thank you very much.
Complimentary Assessment / Discussion About Emotional Intelligence As Ability, Self-
Report, Trait or Competency: Legal leaders, professional development staff, lawyers,
judges, law professors, law students, and any other legal professional may contact me via
email at dan@adlitemsolutions.com to arrange a mutually convenient time for a no
obligation discussion and assessment of your personal or your firm’s or firm members’
interests or needs regarding emotional intelligence workshops, keynote speeches, or
emotional intelligence assessment and customized training, continuing education, or
coaching. For information about taking first steps, see this related post
at Psycholawlogy – Emotional Intelligence Memo to Management: EI as a Buffer of
[Lawyer] Stress in the Developmental Job Experience .
Article Main Source: Hodzic, S., Scharfen, J., Ripoll, P., Holling, H., & Zenasni, F. (2018). How
efficient are emotional intelligence trainings: A meta-analysis. Emotion Review, 10(2), 138-
148 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1754073917708613 (manuscript pre-print copy
currently available here) | See also § Schutte, N. S., Malouff, J. M., & Thorsteinsson, E. B.
(2013). Increasing emotional intelligence through training: Current status and future
directions. International Journal of Emotional Education, 5(1), 56-72 (copy currently
available here)
Additional Resources: Mattingly, V., & Kraiger, K. (2018). Can emotional intelligence be
trained? A meta-analytical investigation. Human Resource Management
Review. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2018.03.002 (copy currently available here) |
See § The Path to Lawyer Well-Being: Practical Recommendations For Positive Change
(2017) here; Gerkman, Alli and Cornett, Logan, Foundations for Practice: The Whole Lawyer
and the Character Quotient (July 26, 2016). AccessLex Institute Research Paper No. 16-04.
Available at
SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2823835 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2823835; Θ ABA
Resolution 105 (August, 2018) here
Use this link to access Psycholawlogy posts on “ability emotional intelligence“. See
also The “Map, Match, Meaning, and Move” Ability EI Blueprint – Review of “A Leader’s
Guide to Solving Challenges With Emotional Intelligence” by David Caruso and Lisa
Rees and the referenced resources for additional information about the four-branch model
of ability emotional intelligence and the MSCEIT ability emotional intelligence assessment.
Images: Trained Bear here | Fighting Stallions here | Lanterns here | Trained
Stallions here | Trained seals here
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Dan DeFoe

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This post connects my continued emotional
education to what I call “My Blue Handkerchief
Case”. The professional and personal lives of
lawyers involve emotions. We experience joy,
anger, sadness, fear, disgust, and, among many
others, awe as we try to navigate the rocky
shoals of day-to-day law practice. Here, I relate
some insights about a case that I handled many
years ago. I understand more about emotions in
the practice of law now than I did then. We all
can learn more. One of the first steps involves
reflection. Hopefully, this post will prompt some
to engage.
About 20 years ago, I served as a court-appointed defense attorney in a federal criminal
case. This multiple defendant case involved serious allegations about a drug conspiracy, a
substantial amount of drugs, and other criminal activity. My client pleaded guilty. The court
accepted the plea, credited my client’s acceptance of responsibility, and imposed a
substantial sentence under the applicable mandatory guidelines.
My client, a man, got involved with the wrong people at a very low point in his life.
Struggling with the torment from the lingering aftermath of a shattered close personal
relationship and in the throes of substance abuse, he became a criminal. Also, he’d had
some fleeting thoughts of committing the ultimate self-harm. Ultimately, he crossed the line.
He entered a criminal enterprise. As a big, very muscular, strong and imposing fellow who
worked as a skilled tradesman in the construction world, ironically just across the street
from the courthouse where his case got heard, he had a somewhat scary presentation and
very intimidating appearance.
That brute on the outside, however, did not match my final evaluation of his true persona.
A star athlete in earlier years, he had never been in trouble. He came from a loving and
supporting, intact nuclear family. They all had strong convictions about right and wrong.
My client cooperated during my representation. He helped when asked, and communicated
at all times. Generally, his helpful participation made a hard job much easier.
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Trait Emotional Intelligence Training, Unmotivated Participants [Lawyers], and Encouraging Developments
My Blue Handkerchief Case and
Emotional Intelligence 101
by DAN DEFOE on JUNE 4, 2018 · LEAVE A COMMENT · in ABILITY EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE,
EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION, EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE, EMOTIONS, LAWYERS, USING EMOTIONS
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The most memorable part of this case involved the sentencing hearing. Reflecting on it
several times recently, I now better appreciate how it impacted me as a lawyer and also
personally. This post does not relate to my handkerchief. In my mind, I still see that blue
farmer’s bandana in his hand. I have a vivid memory about how he used it during the
sentencing hearing. My emotional education, I believe now, grew in substantial part as a
result of this experience and my reflection.
Acceptance of responsibility, a term of art in federal criminal sentencing law and procedure
at the time of my client’s case, generally involved the defendant confessing guilt for the
crimes at issue. The defendant also must persuade the court that he truly accepts criminal
responsibility for the acts charged and all of the conduct involved. The defendant speaks in
open court.
That time came. My client spoke directly to
the judge. The composure and authenticity
which he showed the veteran district
judge, the government agents and
attorneys, his family, and me during his
statements, answers to the court’s
questions, and pleas just flowed. I
prepared my client, but could not have
coached this presentation and how it
unfolded in the courtroom. Like floodgates
had opened, buckets of tears streamed
down his face. His body quivered.
The court’s small, wobbly old lectern
positioned between the modern counsel
tables in the new courthouse got soaked. His tears coated its top, almost from corner to
corner. Still composed mentally, the colloquy between my client and his sentencer
continued. Without pausing, the big brute of a man reached behind, and put a hand in his
back pocket. He pulled out and unfolded a crumpled blue bandana. Still talking eye-to-eye
to the judge, he sobbed as he mopped his tears and cleaned and buffed the lectern.
Emotions provide information.
I’ve recently thought about that client, his case, and the sentencing hearing. I’ve considered
them, and concluded from those personal reflections about my own and my client’s
emotions and feelings. What happened at his sentencing hearing provides a good
illustration of many of the principles of emotions.
I include and discuss certain core principles of emotional intelligence with every CLE
presentation. All law people, including lawyers and judges, who learn about emotions and
apply emotional information intelligently in their daily work stand to gain many personal,
interpersonal, and professional benefits. Clients receive better service. Cases or deals can
resolve with more ease, efficiency, and economy. Emotionally intelligent lawyering serves
the ends of justice. I note and briefly discuss those six principles of emotions – Emotional
Intelligence 101 – next.
1. Emotion is Information
We experience emotions because something has happened in our world. This
experience of change motivates us.
Emotions start automatically. They quickly generate physiological changes. Once this
real-time feedback accomplishes its purpose of signaling change, emotions dissipate
quickly.

The changes that emotions cause in our
attention and thoughts prepare us for
action. We need to pay attention so that
this process can guide us to deal with
threats or roadblocks to them and to
ultimately succeed in our goals.
Emotions concern people, social situations,
and our interactions with people and our
world. They provide information about
our feelings, what is happening to us, and
what is going on in our world.
Moods, feelings which occur for unknown
reasons, and relate, at least in part, to our
body chemistry, differ from emotions. Both
moods and emotions play an important
role in our dealing with our world, the
people in it, and our survival and success
or failure.
Emotions are not “extraneous” – they
convey information important for our survival. We make meaning out of that
information. That motivates to act towards success.
2. We Can’t Ignore Emotions
We can’t ignore them because emotions and thinking are intertwined.
Emotions play a role in rational and analytical decisions – they influence performance
in sports, at work, and in life.
Research shows that when we try to suppress emotions, we remember less information.
Emotional intelligence involves experiencing the emotion and using that as a
springboard to achieving success and meeting our goals.
3. We Can’t Hide Emotions Very Well
The concept “emotional labor” describes us when we try to put on a “happy face” and it
occurs two ways, mainly in organizations when we must follow “display rules”.
“Surface acting” means that we feel one way, but we do not show the way that we feel
because the organization requires us to show some other emotion or feeling.
In “deep acting”, we try to change our current feeling to match the feeling desired under
any applicable organization display rule,
Masking, suppressing, or acting about emotions can lead to decision-making failures or
create environments with an atmosphere of distrust.
“Your feelings and emotions will be read by some of the people most of the time and all
of the people some of the time.”
4. Effective Decision Making Requires a Range of Emotion
No decisions can occur without emotion – rational thinking cannot occur without
emotion.
The theory of separate mind from body – a “fundamental error”.
Research shows that emotions influence our thinking and that influence occurs in
different ways.
Positive emotions do more than make us feel good, under “broaden and build” theory,
they promote social bonds, and strengthen networks. They also expand our thinking,
generate new ideas, see connections and generate new solutions to problems.

Negative emotions, also as important as positive emotions, enhance our thinking in
useful and practical ways – tell us that we should change our approach, provide clearer
focus, enable us to focus on details more efficiently, and make us more efficient in
searching for errors.
Due to greater connection with survival, e.g. fear, anger, and distrust, end to experience
more strongly than positive emotions.
Our adaptation, performance effectiveness, and survival require a range of emotions –
there is a time for peace and happiness and fear and anger.
5. Emotions and Logical Patterns
Each emotion has its own story, own moves, range of intensity.
Must know the “rules” of combining and blends, e.g. annoyance can build to frustration,
anger. . . . rage.
With greater emotion understanding, i.e. know the rules better, can reduce surprise and
predict the future – better manage emotions in self and others.
6. Emotion Universals & Specifics
Universal rules for emotions and expression, e.g. happy face is “happy” all over the
world.
Specifics involve display rules, e.g. big boys don’t cry; gender, e.g. women more adept at
EI; and secondary emotions, e.g. embarrassment re. soiled pants – board room vs.
garden shop
Roundup……My blue handkerchief case
provides a good example of issues of
emotional intelligence and lawyers. Civil or
criminal or trial or transaction work – our
profession involves emotions, feelings,
moods, and emotional labor. That means
that lawyers, judges, and all other legal
professionals must deal with “hot tasks”
each day. Cases, clients, colleagues, judges,
and staff, to name a few sources, present
challenges or issues with heightened
emotions and emotional
information. See Emotional Intelligence and
Selecting Personnel [Lawyers] for High
Emotional Labor Jobs. See also Ability
Emotional Intelligence, Cognitive Control,
and Improved [Lawyer] Decision-Making
Performance in Emotional Contexts.
The nature of legal training and the emotional labor of the work puts legal professionals
with lower emotional intelligence abilities at risk for the effects of impaired cognitive
control. This unfortunately plays out in the effects of self-harm from poor or risky health
behaviors, stealing from clients, substance abuse or alcoholism, and even
suicide. See Statistics, Stigma, and Sanism: A Public Health Warning About the “Perfect
Storm” Heading Toward America’s Legal Profession.
The Psycholawlogy blog has published over 100 articles about emotional intelligence and
the legal profession. The great majority of these posts feature and translate the results of
peer-reviewed research. Lawyers and judges and other legal professionals have substantial
evidence which proves the importance and relevance of emotional intelligence, emotional

intelligence training, and the impact of emotions for legal professionals and their leaders,
law students, and the legal academy.
Simply put, the current legal guidebook shows definitively that emotional intelligence has
emerged and ranks as one of the most relevant, vital, and important personal well-being
and professional success factors for legal professionals, their organizations, and legal
leaders. See Emotional Intelligence, Lawyers, and Better Lawyering – Review of “Beyond
Smart: Lawyering With Emotional Intelligence” by Ronda Muir. See also Beyond the “Blue
Book” – The Three C’s of [Legal] Educators Teaching Emotional Intelligence and the linked
posts in that article.
The state of ill-health and turbulence in our profession indicates to me that we have little
currency left to support our obstinate, continued denial, delay, and neglect of such a
fundamental aspect of our lives, our profession, and our work as lawyers and judges. From
my 25+ years “in the trenches” perspective, I argue that we have over-analyzed the state of
our affairs and squandered opportunities. Our profession, its organizations, and members,
and the legal academy and its students, need emotional intelligence education and training.
We have wasted too much time. Implementation should begin now before . . . . we all need
blue handkerchiefs.
Thank You. Thank you very much. Dan DeFoe JD MS – Adlitem Solutions | Organization
Development for Professional Services Firms and the Legal Profession: People. Projects.
Practices | Web – www.adlitemsolutions.com | Email: dan@adlitemsolutions.com | Blog –
www.psycholawlogy.com | Services – Organization Development Practitioner combining
and leveraging 25+ years of diverse legal experience, including an appellate clerkship, solo
practitioner and of-counsel lawyer, and senior corporate trial attorney, 7+ years of allied
health training and work experience, a Master of Science in Organizational Development
Psychology, and educationally qualified or earned certifications in industry-leading
Jungian-based (Myers-Briggs MBTI®) and special business (Hogan Assessments – HPI, HDS,
& MVPI) normal personality; ability (MSCEIT) and self-report (EQi 2.0 [derived from Bar-
On model]) emotional intelligence; leadership (Certified Intentional Leadership Coach);
and stress management (ARSENAL best practices system for stress resilient emotional
intelligence) assessments, tools, systems, and coaching to partner with client
organizations, their leaders, and member to discover needs and opportunities for growth
and to design, develop, deliver, and evaluate results from implementing custom
interventions for individual, team, project, or organizational solutions. | Mission:
“America’s leading resource for normal personality and emotional intelligence assessments,
and related coaching, continuing education programs, training, and workshops for judges,
lawyers, law schools, bar associations, healthcare, medical, and other professional services
providers and their organizations and leaders.” Please visit Adlitem Solutions and
Psycholawlogy again soon. Thank you very much.
Complimentary Assessment About Emotional Intelligence As Ability, Self-Report, and
Competency: Contact me via email at dan@adlitemsolutions.com to arrange a time for a no
obligation discussion and assessment of your firm’s or firm members’ interests or needs
regarding emotional intelligence workshops, training, continuing education, or coaching.
For information about taking first steps, see this related post at Psycholawlogy –
Emotional Intelligence Memo to Management: EI as a Buffer of [Lawyer] Stress in the
Developmental Job Experience .
Six Principles Source: Caruso, D.R. & Salovey, P. (2004). The emotionally intelligent
manager: How to develop and use the four key emotional skills of leadership. John Wiley &
Sons.

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Emotional Intelligence Resources: Emotional Intelligence Overview – The Ability Model of
Emotional Intelligence here and The Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test
(MSCEIT) here, source Dr. Jack Mayer, Ph.D., Personality Laboratory, University of New
Hampshire | The EI Skills Group, David Caruso, Ph.D. here | LTR Leadership, Lisa T. Rees,
MPA, ACC here | Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence here
Additional Ability Emotional Intelligence Reources: * Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. D. (1990).
Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 9(3), 185-211 (copy currently
available here). See also Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., & Caruso, D. R. (2008). Emotional
intelligence: New ability or eclectic traits? American Psychologist, 63(6), 503-517 (copy
currently available here); Mayer, J. D., Caruso, D. R., & Salovey, P. (2016). The ability model
of emotional intelligence: Principles and updates. Emotion Review, 8(4), 290-300 (copy
currently available here) | Hodzic, S., Scharfen, J., Ripoll, P., Holling, H., & Zenasni, F. (2017).
How eﬃcient are emotional intelligence trainings: A meta-analysis. Emotion Review,
1754073917708613, see here (manuscript pre-print copy currently available here) [meta-
analysis showed trainings based on ability EI models showed signiﬁcantly higher effects
than mixed or trait EI models] | ∼ Caruso, D. R., & Salovey, P. (2004). The emotionally
intelligent manager: How to develop and use the four key emotional skills of leadership. John
Wiley & Sons (discussed on Psycholawlogy here)
Image Credits: Blue Handkerchief here |Blue Bandana here | Number six here | Emotions
and Lawyers here |
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About Latest Posts
Dan DeFoe
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Does emotional expression in response to stress
hurt us? or help us? A team of leading emotion
science researchers recently reviewed two
decades of research in an attempt to unravel
the tangled web of the body of knowledge of
emotion regulation. Their review focused on
the effects on psychological and physical health
of coping through intentional efforts of emotional expression in response to stressors.
According to the reviewers, the phrase “It depends” currently best answers the question
“When facing a stressful experience, does it help to express emotions?” A future post on
Psycholawlogy will discuss an example of the “It depends”, and will discuss recent research
about expressive writing, personal journaling, and divorce or marital separation.
No research on the general topic of effective emotion-focused coping and stressors has
speciﬁcally addressed them as a group, but extended to lawyers, the substance of the
research reviewed teaches that those who can ﬂexibly express and suppress their emotions
in response to stressful situational demands have the highest likelihood to adapt most
successfully. “Pay attention – it’s important” describes a reasonable conclusion about
emotion regulation / emotional expression coping and the legal profession. A number of the
studies noted in the review discuss how coping through emotional expression may reduce
distress, improve relationships, and enhance health.
Background: Stress, Emotions, and Coping
We attempt to manage life’s circumstances that we perceive as taxing or exceeding our
personal resources by using coping processes. Sometimes we attempt to modify the
problem (problem-focused coping). We also may attempt to regulate emotions (emotion-
focused coping). The reviewers noted that emotion-focused coping strategies can take many
forms, such as attempting to avoid feelings or attempts to express feelings, and these can
have different consequences for our well-being. Contradictory perspectives for over 30
years have viewed emotion-focused coping as sometimes effective responses to stressors
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Emotion-Focused Coping Strategies in
Response to Stress: Charting Pathways
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by DAN DEFOE on JULY 20, 2013 · LEAVE A COMMENT · in BEHAVIOR, EMOTION REGULATION,
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE, LAWYERS
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and other times as maladaptive. The reviewers set out to unravel this “knot” in order to
determine which coping strategies provide the best adaptive advantages.
Benefits of Intentional Emotional Expression in Response to Stressors
A number of cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental research studies have
examined the benefits and utility of intentional emotional expression in reaction to
stressors. These studies have considered such real-life stressors as sexual assault, breast
cancer, and infertility. The studies showed increased feelings of control, decline of stress,
protection from depressive symptoms, increased vigor, and decline in distress.
One strand of emotional expression research has established through several experiments
that persons who write about their deepest thoughts regarding a stressor have more
positive thoughts relative to those who write about a neutral topic. A recent meta-analysis
revealed that “significant improvements in psychological health, physical health, and
overall functioning among adults who had experienced trauma or medical illness” resulted
from writing about emotions in those experiments.
Moderators: What Influences the Effects of Emotional Expression Coping
Research has shown that coping through emotional expression works under particular
conditions. The characteristics of the stressor, the environment, and the coping itself,
among others, influence emotional expression coping. A listing of the moderators of effects
and points about each drawn from several studies follows:
Characteristics of the Emotional Expression – no difference in effect comparing public vs.
private expressions of stressor-related emotion; expression more helpful with recent stressors
than more distant events; manner (anger, sadness) and degree (complete lack of expression vs.
intense, unconstrained) also moderate;
Characteristics of the Stressor – emotional expression in response to uncontrollable stressors
likely more beneficial than responding to controllable stressors;
Characteristics of the Social Context – interpersonal environments perceived as more
receptive to emotional expression more positive influence than environments which constrain
expression;
Characteristics of the Individual – gender operates inconsistently; stressor-related emotional
expression coping predicts improvement for young women, but not young men; with older
samples, both sexes shown to have adaptation; individual differences can influence effectiveness
of coping strategies, such as personal disposition, goal-directedness, and confidence.
Mechanisms: How Emotional Expression Coping Works
Emotional expression operates through several pathways to influence well-being.
Professionals and individuals can harness these mechanisms to promote useful coping
strategies. Research has shown several such pathways through which emotional expression
aids effective coping with stressors, and a listing of the several “how does it work” drawn
from several studies follows:
Affect Labeling – simply labeling the emotion may dampen its disruptive effect;
describing a feeling with words can lessen subjective feeling and decrease brain
activation;
Cognitive Reappraisal – expressing emotion can stimulate understanding and
reappraisal of stressful circumstances; such expression can provide an opportunity to
associate coherence and meaning with the stressor;
Goal Clarification and Pursuit – expressing emotion in response to stressors can set in
motion cognitive and behavioral efforts to accomplish goals, i.e. direct attention towards

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