Anuario de Psicologia最新文献

Previous studies suggest that there are individual differences that affect the way that people fake their responses on personality measures to varying degrees. These factors should be taken into account to obtain more accurate information regarding faking behavior. This study demonstrated an analysis technique that can accommodate individual differences in an experimentally induced faking study. This mixed-design experiment used two randomized groups (honest vs. faking condition), who each completed a five-factor personality measure twice. This study analyzed data using the generalized ANCOVA (g-ANCOVA) as an alternative to the traditional ANCOVA, since the g-ANCOVA can accommodate both individual differences in prior manipulation (covariates) and interaction, estimating the effects of inducement to fake. We also demonstrated the use of EffectLite, a program for the univariate and multivariate analysis of unconditional, conditional, and average mean differences between groups, and which supported the present study by providing analysis using g-ANCOVA.

Introduction

The autistic spectrum and the schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders concur more frequently than would be expected by chance alone. This article analyzes the evidence related to convergent and divergent risk factors at a genetic, neuroanatomical and environmental level that could explain this greater co-occurrence between both conditions.

Development

The high number of deletions and shared CNV duplications, including the genes NRXN1, CNTNAP2, 22q11.2, 1q21.1 and 15q13.3, mutations Shank3 and 7q11.23, among others, definitively calls into question the assumption that the spectrum of the schizophrenia and autism are 2 etiologically totally differentiated conditions. The epigenetic effects contribute to brain cytoarchitecture anomalies in both spectra related to the volume of gray matter, reduced values of fractional anisotropy, hypoactivation patterns of certain cerebral structures, alterations in brain connectivity and neurochemicals among others. Autism and the spectrum of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders also share environmental risk factors, many of them related above all with obstetric complications and paternal age.

Conclusion

There is a genotypic overlap between the spectrum of autism and the spectrum of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders that supports the hypothesis that both conditions may emerge from common shared pathogenic mechanisms. These mechanisms, together with environmental risk factors, would explain some of the neurobiological similarities. It is important to clarify that phenotypically remain 2 clearly differentiated conditions and that the possible appearance of psychotic symptoms in a subgroup of people with autism does not necessarily imply the development of schizophrenia.

Objectives

Anxiety appears frequently in short-term breast cancer survivors. There is no information, however, about the existence of a specific pattern of response in this group of patients.

Method

Ten breast cancer survivors whose time from the end of treatment was between 1 and 5 years and a control group from the general population, carried out the Inventory of Situations and Responses of Anxiety and a socio-demographic questionnaire designed ad hoc.

Results

Survivors group obtained higher scores than the control group in anxiety systems (cognitive, physiological and motor) but with no significant differences. In survivors group a particular pattern was observed in which there were no differences between the systems, while in the control group there were differences between cognitive-physiological and cognitive-motor systems but no differences were observed between physiological and motor systems.

Conclusions

In breast cancer survivors whose time from the end of treatment do not exceed 5 years, a particular anxiety response pattern is obtained with higher scores in physiological and motor anxiety.

This article reports an analysis of the therapeutic alliance in two contrasting couple therapy cases for depression with different outcome in terms of depressive symptoms. The System for Observing Family Therapy Alliances (SOFTA-o) was used to analyze the therapeutic alliance established by all the participants, including clients but also therapists, during the first, sixth and last sessions of the treatment. The alliance is best assessed using micro-process analysis, allowing it to provide valuable information to the therapist on what is happening in treatment when a partner is suffering from depression. A collaborative alliance between both members is necessary in order for the therapist to establish a context of mutual support in which the couple is seen working collaboratively. Finally, there is discussion of the importance that the therapeutic alliance can make in couple therapy for depression, with mention also of the implications for research and for clinical practice.

We present a single-case study on the potential clinical relevance of a new altered auditory feedback (AAF) device (Forbrain^®) in stuttering. One adult who stutter was tested in an appropriately-controlled single-case time-series (A-B-A) study. On each of six consecutive working days, the stuttering adult was instructed to read aloud during three different experimental phases: Baseline, Test and Post-test, while wearing a Forbrain^® headset. During the Test phase the device was turned on, whereas it was off during Baseline and Post-test phases. This way the transient effects of Forbrain^® could be analyzed. Six quantitative measures of voice quality were retrieved from the participant's voice recordings during his readings over each phase of the experiment. Data was statistically analyzed through the single-case d-statistic. A clear transient effect of Forbrain^®, when turned on, was observed on voice quality, supported by significant differences between Baseline and Test, and Test and Post-test in the tilt of the trendline of the long term average spectrum (tLTAS) of the voice. The present single-case study support the effectiveness of Forbrain^® in modifying the voice during stuttering, supporting its role as an AAF device.

Introduction

The situation of kids from the street is similar to a form of abuse and severe chronic stress. This impact can imply delays in their neurodevelopment. In this context we present the results of an investigation where it was compared the performance in different cognitive functions between children in a social context of street and a group of kids that come from a socioeconomically structured family.

Subjects and method

Forty kids, 20 of them came from the street of the metropolitan zone of Guadalajara (Mexico) and 20 kids came from a socioeconomically structured family.

Results

We have found that the cognitive performance of kids in social context of street was in general below their peers. The differences are concentrated in the executive functions of planning and inhibitory control, processing speed and memory, same verbal as visual, but they don’t present a worse neurocognitive development.

Conclusions

The kids from the street don’t present impairment in their neurocognitive development, although they are deficient in some functions. They perform a mistake of meta memory in a way of false positives; it means that they tend to overrate their possibilities of success and achievement; nevertheless paradoxically they perform in a correct way the false negatives, which are referred to their possibilities of failure. It could be that it constitutes a cognitive defense mechanism facing the harshness of their context. The level of development from the social cognition evaluated through the empathy is different in both groups.

Background

Russian physiologists and psychologists posed the questions of the levels of psychic regulation of the temperament, character and personality (Anan’ev, 1980, Nebylitsin, 1966, Pavlov, 1951, Teplov, 1963). The aim of our study was to observe the differences due to both – cultural nature and individual changes in personality – relevant to adjustment mechanisms in Arabic migrants in Spain.

Method

Proprioceptive Diagnostics of Temperament and Character (DP-TC, Tous Ral et al., 2012) was used to obtain observations in fine motor performance in two groups: immigrants from Morocco to Spain and Spaniards. The DP-TC of individual and personality differences is based on fine motor precision tasks and allows comparing performances of participants from different cultures with no bias of linguistic interpretation.

Results

The significant differences in fine motor performance (proprioceptive condition) were found in average group's results. The consequent interpretation of their personality and individual behavioural differences was realised as per the DP-TC test dimensions. The results are discussed in terms of the interplay between possible cultural and individual differences concerning changes, related to the adjustment in migration processes.

Conclusion

The assertiveness’-related temperament-features in migrants were found low together with cultural differences in variability of behaviour and attention style.

This study was designed to check the psychometric properties of an online Catalan version of the Type D Personality Scale-14 (DS14). Participants were 600 subjects including university professors, service and administrative personnel (n = 419) and students (n = 181); in total 196 men (32.7%) and 404 women (67.3%) with a mean age of 36.99 (SD = 12.76). The sample was randomly split in two groups: calibration and validation. The structural validity was analyzed in the calibration group (n = 311) using exploratory factor analysis with oblique and orthogonal rotation procedures, showing two robust factor structure, corresponding to Negative Affectivity (NA) and Social Inhibition (SI). No differences were found comparing the two rotation methods. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed in the validation group (n = 289) and the two factor model was replicated, showing satisfactory goodness-of-fit indices as χ²/df = 2.40, RMSEA = 0.07, SRMR = 0.06, GFI = 0.92, TLI = 0.93, CFI = 0.93 and IFI = 0.94. The re-specified model correlating the error terms of four pairs of items mildly improved goodness-of-fit indexes. The Catalan DS14 obtained a satisfactory internal consistency for its two subscales NA and SI (Cronbach's alpha = 0.85/0.88), and demonstrates good psychometric properties, being a suitable instrument for use in research in the Catalan population.

Observational studies that use a combination of complementary methods can provide key insights into everyday behavior in natural settings. Many elements of human behavior are perfectly perceivable –and hence observable– in a multitude of everyday activities and settings, ranging from low-intervention programs to interactive studies analyzing different aspects of family life, social relations, performance in sport or at school, etc. Human behavior, however, also has elements that are only partially perceivable but that can be captured through indirect observation and subsequent analysis of oral behavior or written text or graphics. In this article, we present a schematic overview of the main steps involved in an observational study. The aim is to provide authors interested in embarking on such a study with some practical insights and guidelines that we hope will provide them with the knowledge and motivation to delve further into this field and ultimately design their own observational study.