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

Individuals with psychotic disorders may display over the illness course a wide range of core deficits in clinical and cognitive domains, including social cognition (SC). One of the main domains of SC is emotional processing, a key component of emotional intelligence (EI). However, the extent to which EI, as self-perceived or performance-based, is related to psychopathological domains has been scarcely studied. This study aimed to examine the relationships between self-reported EI and performance-based EI with psychopathological and insight dimensions as well as to explore the correspondence between both types of EI assessments. Seventy patients with psychotic disorders who were consecutively admitted to a psychiatric hospitalization unit were included. Psychotic, affective, and insight dimensions, as well as EI, were evaluated once psychopathological stability had been achieved. Manic symptoms were associated with greater emotional clarity ( r = 0.25, p < 0.05) and regulation ( r = 0.30, p < 0.05), whereas depressive symptoms were associated with lower emotional regulation ( r =-0.25, p < 0.05). No significant relationships were found between the EI measures and psychotic dimensions. Lack of feeling sick and lack of insight were related to worse performance-based EI (emotional management, r =-0.29 and r =-0.25, p < 0.05) and self-reported EI (emotional attention, r =-0.24, p < 0.05 and r =-0.31, p < 0.01), and the former was also related to better emotional regulation ( r = 0.26, p < 0.05). The discrepancy between self-reported and performance-based EI regarding their associations with psychopathological domains might be due to the different sources of assessment but may also add evidence to the need to integrate patient-reported outcome measures in the assessment of social cognition.