How to Improve Emotional Intelligence and Social Skills among Adolescents: The Development and Test of a New Microexpressions Training

This study focused on the development of emotion recognition of adolescents through the use of a microexpression training. The results showed that the new microexpression training developed for adolescents significantly affected the adolescents’ ability to detect microexpressions, however, it did not change their overall emotional intelligence and social skills. It was also found that girls had a better ability of detecting microexpressions, before and after the training. Emotion recognition is an essential element of emotional intelligence, therefore, the present study makes an important contribution by developing, and showing effectiveness of a new microexpression training designed for adolescents.

Effects of the duration of expressions on the recognition of microexpressions

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the duration of expressions on the recognition of microexpressions, which are closely related to deception. Methods: In two experiments, participants were briefly (from 20 to 300 ms) shown one of six basic expressions and then were asked to identify the expression. Results: The results showed that the participants' performance in recognition of microexpressions increased with the duration of the expressions, reaching a turning point at 200 ms before levelling off. The results also indicated that practice could improve the participants' performance. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that the proper upper limit of the duration of microexpressions might be around 1/5 of a second and confirmed that the ability to recognize microexpressions can be enhanced with practice.

Personalized treatment-which interaction ingredients should be focused to capture the unconscious

A recent meta-analysis revealed that mental health and baseline psychological impairment affect the quality of life and outcomes in different chronic conditions.Implementing mental health care in physical care services is still insufficient.Thus,interdisciplinary communication across treatment providers is essential.The standardized language provided by the diagnostic statistical manual favors a clear conceptualization.However,this approach might not focus on the individual,as thinking in categories might impede recognizing the continuum from healthy to diseased.Psychoanalytic theory is concerned with an individual’s unconscious conflictual wishes and motivations,manifested through enactments like psychic symptoms or(maladaptive)behavior with long-term consequences if not considered.Such modifiable internal and external factors often are inadequately treated.However,together with the physical chronic condition constraints,these factors determine degrees of freedom for a self-determined existence.The effect of therapeutic interventions,and especially therapy adherence,relies on a solid therapeutic relationship.Outcome and process research still investigates the mechanism of change in psychotherapeutic treatments with psychanalysis’s focus on attachment problems.This article examines existing knowledge about the mechanism of change in psychoanalysis under the consideration of current trends emerging from psychotherapy research.A clinical example is discussed.Additionally,further directions for research are given.The theoretical frame in psychoanalytic therapies is the affect-cognitive interface.Subliminal affect-perception is enabled via awareness of subjective meanings in oneself and the other;shaping this awareness is the main intervention point.The interactional ingredients,the patient’s inherent bioenvironmental history meeting the clinician,are relevant variables.Several intrinsic,subliminal parameters relevant for changing behavior are observed.Therapeutic interventions aim at supporting the internalization of the superego’s functions and at making this ability available in moments of self-reflection.By supporting mentalization abilities,a better understanding of oneself and higher selfregulation(including emotional regulation)can lead to better judgments(application of formal logic and abstract thinking).Thus,this facilitates enduring behavior change with presumably positive effects on mental and physical health.