Childhood Traumas, and Personality Beliefs and Emotional Intelligence

Most of the people are faced with the facts such as more or less stressful factors or some of their wishes are not met during their childhood, and these experiences do not turn into a trauma under normal conditions. However, the severity of the stressful event experienced, the age and self-power of the traumatized individual, and the inconvenience of the family and environmental conditions can turn such experiences into a traumatic process and have psychological consequences that will affect the whole life.

Childhood trauma is defined as the exposure of children to attitudes and behaviors that hinder their physical, emotional, mental or social development and harm their health, by their parents or persons responsible for caring for and educating them, or by strangers. Child neglect and abuse is a health problem that impairs the health and well-being of children and leaves permanent scars throughout their lives.

Although structural biological factors are effective at a certain level in the formation of personality, the character dimension of the personality shaped by psychosocial effects is at least as important as the biological dimension. Among the factors that play a role in the formation of personality disorders, dysfunctional beliefs of the person also play a role. Each personality disorder has its own dysfunctional beliefs. These beliefs are shaped by personality development.

Emotional intelligence is defined as the index of personal, emotional and social competences and skills that will help the individual to cope successfully with the pressure and demands of the environment. In other words, emotional intelligence is the ability of an individual to know himself, to control and motivate himself, to postpone his wishes, to control his emotional changes, to resist obstacles, to approach other people with understanding, to sense their deepest feelings, to establish and maintain effective relationships, and learnable psychological and social skills. . Thanks to these skills, people can maximize their success and satisfaction in life.

Traumatic events experienced in childhood can also affect the personality development of the individual and his emotional reactions to the events he has experienced.

In this study, the significant differences results have been obtained in emotional intelligence levels such as avoidant, dependent-passive-aggressive, antisocial, histrionic, schizoid, paranoid and borderline personality belief levels, and intrapersonal, interpersonal, adaptability, stress management and general mood in those with childhood traumas compared to those without childhood traumas. Moderately reliable results were found between childhood traumas levels, personality beliefs, and emotional intelligence levels. Reliable results could not be obtained between obsessive personality beliefs and emotional intelligence levels.

Inclusion criteria

• Those who volunteered to participate in the study,
• Those who have no problem reading and understanding the semi-structured sociodemographic data form, Childhood Trauma scale, Personality Beliefs questionnaire, and Emotional Intelligence scale,

Exclusion criteria

• Those with any systemic disease,
• Those who took chronic medication up to two months ago,
• Those with psychiatric disorders who cannot read and fill the semi-structured sociodemographic data form, Childhood Trauma scale, Personality Beliefs questionnaire, and Emotional Intelligence scale,
• Those with chronic psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia,
• Those with comorbid psychiatric illness.