Quality of Life,Anxiety and Depression in Soft Tissue Sarcomas as Compared to More Common Tumours: An Observational Study

The aim of this study is to compare the quality of life and the levels of anxiety and depression in a relatively large group of subjects undergoing chemotherapy for soft tissue sarcoma and a control group of subjects undergoing chemotherapy for the most common types of cancer. 56 soft tissue sarcoma affected patients and 56 patients with common tumours, homogeneous in regards to stages of disease and sociodemographic characteristics, were enrolled in two oncological centres in Turin, Italy. Quality of life was assessed by Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General and anxiety and depression by Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. All patients had ongoing chemotherapy. The comparison between the two groups shows no difference in either quality of life or in anxiety and depression. There are instead gender differences, since females in the group of common tumours show higher levels of anxiety in comparison to those affected by sarcomas, while males show, at a lower degree, the opposite trend. This study suggest that levels of Quality of Life, anxiety and depression are similar in rare and common tumours. The majority of patients are able to cope with the disease in an adaptive manner. However, for some patients the disease poses a threat to their physical and mental integrity; psychological support of these patients may reduce the development of significant morbidity and help patients to better manage the course of the disease and the effects of the treatment.     

The Brain Is Not a Tool

Some psychologists claim that the brain is a tool. This claim can be construed either literally or figuratively. We argue that, in the former case, it is false, whereas in the latter case it has no place in scientific psychology. We also try to show why this discussion is relevant and suggest how a metaphor should behave to be of use in science.     

Receptive and Productive Recall with the Keyword Mnemonics in Bilingual Students

The efficacy of keyword mnemonics in the learning of the non-dominant language in bilingual students was assessed. Of a total of 237 Compulsory Secondary Education students who participated in the study, 102 students used keyword mnemonics and 100 students used the rote method to learn the Spanish meaning of a list of 20 Galician words (the remaining 35 students generated the keywords to be used in the study). Moreover, each participant’s image control was assessed. The recall of the meaning of words was greater in the keyword mnemonics group than in the rote learning group both in terms of receptive and productive recall. Moreover, participants with high image control had better recall than those with low image control ability.     

Family Structure and Child Adjustment in Spain

This paper presents the results of a study carried out in Spain with 214 families with children aged between 3 and 10, comparing the quality of family context and the internal and external adjustment of children living in six different types of family structure: traditional, single-parent, stepfamilies, adoptive, same-sex parent and multiple-birth. Members of the research team interviewed the families in their homes and administered the assessment instruments (Development History, HOME inventory, Parenting Stress Index and Behavior Assessment System for Children). The results indicate that although some significant differences were observed between families (children living in same-sex parent families scored higher for internal and external adjustment, and those from stepfamilies scored lowest in these same measures), these differences disappeared when the effects of sociodemographic and contextual variables were statistically controlled in a covariance analysis. It can therefore be concluded that it was not family structure itself that was related to children’s adjustment, but rather the sociodemographic and contextual variables associated with it. Thus, all the family structures analysed in the study are capable of promoting positive child development and adjustment, providing they meet the necessary conditions, such as good-quality care and a stimulating environment free from conflict and stress.     

Post‐Traumatic Symptoms Among Victims of Workplace Bullying: Exploring Gender Differences and Shattered Assumptions

The aims of the present study were twofold: assessing the prevalence and intensity of post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in victims of bullying, and exploring whether victims of bullying differ in their basic assumptions compared to a control group. A total of 183 victims of bullying and 183 control group participants took part in the research. The results showed that 42.6% of the total sample met all DSM‐IV‐TR criteria for PTSD, whereas 54.1% did not fulfill the A1 criterion. Post‐traumatic symptoms were more prevalent among women (49%), as compared to men (35.3%). Furthermore, victims showed significantly more negative beliefs about the world, the people, and themselves, compared to their non‐bullied controls. These results fit well with cognitive theory of trauma.     

Mental disorder among nonreligious adolescents

This study is the first of its kind to investigate mental disorder among nonreligious adolescents. In this paper, we report three main findings based on data from the National Comorbidity Survey of Adolescents. First, nonreligious adolescents on average have higher rates of mental disorder than adolescents who identify as religious. Second, there is variability in rates of mental disorder among the three types of nonreligious adolescents, with atheists/agnostics experiencing the highest rates, followed by those with no religion, and those with no religious preference. Indeed, after controlling for a host of sociodemographic characteristics, adolescents with no preference have levels of mental disorder that do not differ from the religiously affiliated. Third, the mental health disadvantage of nonreligiosity is strongest among nonreligious adolescents with two highly religious parents. Their rates of mental illness are almost twice that of religious adolescents raised in religious households. Moreover, neither nonreligious nor religious adolescents are negatively affected by being raised in nonreligious households.     

Visual symmetry perception in early onset monocular blindness

Symmetry detection is impaired by abnormal binocular vision development such as in amblyopia. However, the detection of symmetry has never been investigated in cases where input from one eye is profoundly compromised. Testing monocularly blind (MB) individuals represents a unique opportunity to investigate whether symmetry salience relies on a normally developed binocular visual system. In a visual symmetry detection task using dot patterns, congenitally MB showed comparable accuracy to normally sighted individuals viewing monocularly. This included better detection of vertically than horizontally symmetric patterns. However, the MB were slower than controls in detecting a symmetrical pattern. In a control target-detection task, no significant differences in performance were observed between these groups. Overall, normal developing binocular vision does not appear necessary for the visual system to detect the presence of visual symmetry. However, optimal detection mechanisms may be dependent on binocular summation or other processes dependent on input from both eyes.     

Factorial validity of the Job Expectations Questionnaire in a sample of Mexican workers

The aim of this study was to examine the factorial validity of the Job Expectations Questionnaire (Cuestionario de Expectativas Laborales CEL) in a sample of Mexican workers. Following a cross validation approach, two samples were used in the study. The first sample consisted of 380 professionals who mainly performed administrative work in the Health Services in Puebla-Mexico. The second sample comprised 400 health professionals from the Hospital de la Mujer in Puebla-Mexico. Exploratory factor analysis yielded a three-factor solution, accounting for 51.8% of the variance. The results of confirmatory factorial analysis indicate that the three-factor model provided the best fit with the data (CFI = .96, GFI = .95, NNFI = .95, RMSEA = .04), maintaining the structure with 12 items. The reliability of the questionnaire and the diverse subscales showed high internal consistency. Significant correlations were found between job expectations and autonomy, vigor, dedication, and absorption, providing evidence of its construct validity. The evaluation of the psychometric qualities confirms this questionnaire as a valid and specific instrument to measure job expectations.     

Validity of the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form in a sample of Spanish fathers

The purpose of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form in a sample of 115 fathers of infants aged between ten and thirty-nine months old. The exploratory factor analysis revealed three reasonably distinct factors, as in the original version of the instrument. The three extracted factors: Parental Distress, Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interaction and Difficult Child accounted for 47.48 % of the variance. The internal consistency coefficients were high in each factor or subscale. These results provided empirical evidence in favour of the reliability and validity of the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form in Spanish fathers, and can be useful to elucidate the mechanisms through which stress impacts parenting and permitting to develop more targeted interventions for infants and their families.     

Not your mother's view: the dynamics of toddler visual experience

Human toddlers learn about objects through second-by-second, minute-by-minute sensory-motor interactions. In an effort to understand how toddlers' bodily actions structure the visual learning environment, mini-video cameras were placed low on the foreheads of toddlers, and for comparison also on the foreheads of their parents, as they jointly played with toys. Analyses of the head camera views indicate visual experiences with profoundly different dynamic structures. The toddler view often consists of a single dominating object that is close to the sensors and thus that blocks the view of other objects such that individual objects go in and out of view. The adult view, in contrast, is broad and stable, with all potential targets continually in view. These differences may arise for several developmentally relevant reasons, including the small visuo-motor workspace of the toddler (short arms) and the engagement of the whole body when actively handling objects.