Clinical Psychopharmacology and Neuroscience

Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology (대한정신약물학회)
권호 표지
DOI QR코드

DOI QR Code

In-Depth Relationships between Emotional Intelligence and Personality Traits in Meditation Practitioners

  • Choi, Soo-Hee (Department of Psychiatry, Seoul National University Hospital) ;
  • An, Seung Chan (Korea Institute of Brain Science) ;
  • Lee, Ul Soon (Department of Brain Education, Global Cyber University) ;
  • Yun, Je-Yeon (Department of Psychiatry, Seoul National University Hospital) ;
  • Jang, Joon Hwan (Department of Psychiatry, Seoul National University Hospital) ;
  • Kang, Do-Hyung (Department of Psychiatry, Seoul National University Hospital)
  • Received : 2017.03.31
  • Accepted : 2017.05.08
  • Published : 2018.11.30
⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

Objective: Meditation can elicit trait-like changes in psychological and social styles, as well as enhancement of emotional regulatory capacity. We investigated the relation between personality traits and emotional intelligence in meditation practitioners. Methods: Seventy-two long-term practitioners of mind-body training (MBT) and 62 healthy comparative individuals participated in the study. The participants completed emotional intelligence questionnaires and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Results: The MBT group revealed higher scores on all five emotional intelligence factors than did those in the control group, such as emotional awareness and expression, empathy, emotional thinking, emotional application, and emotional regulation (all $p{\leq}0.001$). MBT practitioners also had higher scores on the intuition of perceiving function (t=-2.635, p=0.010) and on the feeling of the judging function (t=-3.340, p=0.001) of the MBTI compared with those in the control group. Only the MBT group showed a robust relationship with every factor of emotional intelligence and MBTI-defined intuitive styles, indicating that higher scores of emotional intelligence were related to higher scores for intuition. Conclusion: Emotional intelligence of meditation practitioners showed notable relationships with some features of personality trait. In-depth associations between emotional intelligence and personality traits would help to foster psychological functions in meditation practitioners.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

Supported by : National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF)

References

  1. Lutz A, Slagter HA, Dunne JD, Davidson RJ. Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation. Trends Cogn Sci 2008;12:163-169. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2008.01.005
  2. Tang YY, Holzel BK, Posner MI. The neuroscience of mindfulness meditation. Nat Rev Neurosci 2015;16:213-225.
  3. Ospina MB, Bond K, Karkhaneh M, Tjosvold L, Vandermeer B, Liang Y, et al. Meditation practices for health: state of the research. Evid Rep Technol Assess (Full Rep) 2007;(155):1-263.
  4. Goldin PR, Gross JJ. Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on emotion regulation in social anxiety disorder. Emotion 2010;10:83-91. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018441
  5. Lane JD, Seskevich JE, Pieper CF. Brief meditation training can improve perceived stress and negative mood. Altern Ther Health Med 2007;13:38-44.
  6. Jung YH, Ha TM, Oh CY, Lee US, Jang JH, Kim J, et al. The effects of an online mind-body training program on stress, coping strategies, emotional intelligence, resilience and psychological state. PLoS One 2016;11:e0159841. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0159841
  7. Tang YY, Ma Y, Fan Y, Feng H, Wang J, Feng S, et al. Central and autonomic nervous system interaction is altered by short-term meditation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2009;106:8865-8870. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0904031106
  8. Cahn BR, Polich J. Meditation states and traits: EEG, ERP, and neuroimaging studies. Psychol Bull 2006;132:180-211. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.2.180
  9. Lutz A, Brefczynski-Lewis J, Johnstone T, Davidson RJ. Regulation of the neural circuitry of emotion by compassion meditation: effects of meditative expertise. PLoS One 2008;3:e1897. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001897
  10. Lutz A, Greischar LL, Rawlings NB, Ricard M, Davidson RJ. Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2004;101:16369-16373. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0407401101
  11. Jung YH, Lee US, Jang JH, Kang DH. Effects of mind-body training on personality and behavioral activation and inhibition system according to BDNF Val66Met polymorphism. Psychiatry Investig 2016;13:333-340. https://doi.org/10.4306/pi.2016.13.3.333
  12. Jang JH, Jung WH, Kang DH, Byun MS, Kwon SJ, Choi CH, et al. Increased default mode network connectivity associated with meditation. Neurosci Lett 2011;487:358-362. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2010.10.056
  13. Jung YH, Kang DH, Jang JH, Park HY, Byun MS, Kwon SJ, et al. The effects of mind-body training on stress reduction, positive affect, and plasma catecholamines. Neurosci Lett 2010;479:138-142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2010.05.048
  14. Jung YH, Kang DH, Byun MS, Shim G, Kwon SJ, Jang GE, et al. Influence of brain-derived neurotrophic factor and catechol O-methyl transferase polymorphisms on effects of meditation on plasma catecholamines and stress. Stress 2012;15:97-104. https://doi.org/10.3109/10253890.2011.592880
  15. Lee DH, Park HY, Lee US, Lee KJ, Noh EC, Jang JH, et al. The effects of brain wave vibration on oxidative stress response and psychological symptoms. Compr Psychiatry 2015;60:99-104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2015.03.003
  16. Kang DH, Jo HJ, Jung WH, Kim SH, Jung YH, Choi CH, et al. The effect of meditation on brain structure: cortical thickness mapping and diffusion tensor imaging. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2013;8:27-33. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nss056
  17. Mayer JD, Roberts RD, Barsade SG. Human abilities: emotional intelligence. Annu Rev Psychol 2008;59:507-536. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093646
  18. Bhullar N, Schutte NS, Malouff JM. The nature of well-being: the roles of hedonic and eudaimonic processes and trait emotional intelligence. J Psychol 2013;147:1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2012.667016
  19. Moon Y. Report of the Saehan Media EQ test. Seoul:Saehan Media;1999.
  20. Mayer JD, Salovey P. What is emotional intelligence? In: Salovey P, Sluyter D, editors. Emotional development and emotional intelligence: educational implications. New York: Basic Books;1997. p.3-34.
  21. Jung CG. Psychological types: volume 6 of the collected works of CG Jung. Princeton, NJ:Princeton University Press;1971. p.169-170.
  22. Dunn BD, Dalgleish T, Lawrence AD. The somatic marker hypothesis: a critical evaluation. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2006;30:239-271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.07.001
  23. Harrington R, Loffredo DA. The relationship between life satisfaction, self-consciousness, and the Myers-Briggs type inventory dimensions. J Psychol 2001;135:439-450. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980109603710
  24. Alter AL, Oppenheimer DM, Epley N, Eyre RN. Overcoming intuition: metacognitive difficulty activates analytic reasoning. J Exp Psychol Gen 2007;136:569-576. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.136.4.569
  25. Kuo WJ, Sjostrom T, Chen YP, Wang YH, Huang CY. Intuition and deliberation: two systems for strategizing in the brain. Science 2009;324:519-522. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1165598
  26. Wan X, Takano D, Asamizuya T, Suzuki C, Ueno K, Cheng K, et al. Developing intuition: neural correlates of cognitive-skill learning in caudate nucleus. J Neurosci 2012;32:17492-17501. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2312-12.2012
  27. Wan X, Nakatani H, Ueno K, Asamizuya T, Cheng K, Tanaka K. The neural basis of intuitive best next-move generation in board game experts. Science 2011;331:341-346. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1194732
  28. Kjaer TW, Bertelsen C, Piccini P, Brooks D, Alving J, Lou HC. Increased dopamine tone during meditation-induced change of consciousness. Brain Res Cogn Brain Res 2002;13:255-259. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0926-6410(01)00106-9
  29. Frank MJ, O'Reilly RC, Curran T. When memory fails, intuition reigns: midazolam enhances implicit inference in humans. Psychol Sci 2006;17:700-707. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01769.x
  30. Janowsky DS, Hong E, Morter S, Howe L. Myers Briggs Type indicator personality profiles in unipolar depressed patients. World J Biol Psychiatry 2002;3:207-215. https://doi.org/10.3109/15622970209150623
  31. Nelis D, Kotsou I, Quoidbach J, Hansenne M, Weytens F, Dupuis P, et al. Increasing emotional competence improves psychological and physical well-being, social relationships, and employability. Emotion 2011;11:354-366. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021554
  32. Delmonte MM. Personality correlates of meditation practice frequency and dropout in an outpatient population. J Behav Med 1988;11:593-597. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00844908
  33. Di Fabio A, Kenny ME. Promoting well-being: the contribution of emotional intelligence. Front Psychol 2016;7:1182.
  34. Janowsky DS, Morter S, Hong L. Relationship of Myers Briggs type indicator personality characteristics to suicidality in affective disorder patients. J Psychiatr Res 2002;36:33-39. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-3956(01)00043-7
  35. Ludwig DS, Kabat-Zinn J. Mindfulness in medicine. JAMA 2008;300:1350-1352. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.300.11.1350

Cited by

  1. Yoga Nidra Practice Enhances Emotional Intelligence in University Students vol.26, pp.5, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1089/act.2020.29294.tsg
  2. Are Personality-Based Intellectual Styles Culture Specific or Universal? vol.12, pp.None, 2018, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.717670
  3. A cross‐sectional study on the relationship between meditation training and emotional intelligence in women vol.8, pp.3, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.715