Entrevista con Julián de Ajuriaguerra

RESUMEN

En esta entrevista Julián de Ajuriaguerra describe su historia científica desde que era interno en hospitales psiquiátricos y alumno de Thomas y Lhermitte, comentando los trabajos que realizó con adultos, ancianos y dementes aunque su interés estuviese desde un principio en los niños. Responde, entre otras, a cuestiones tales como si lo biológico se complementa con lo social en el desarrollo, cómo son los vínculos de los padres con el niño, cuál es su posición respecto al psicoanálisis, si es necesaria la interdisciplinariedad para hacer psicología o qué opina del problema de los estadios. También realiza un balance del estado actual de la psicomotricidad, ejemplifica qué entiende por “diálogo tónico” y explica las diferencias entre los juegos de niños y niñas de siete, ocho y nueve años, admitiendo la distinta organización tónica de los sexos. Por último el autor se centra en el trabajo clínico, ofreciendo sugerencias para aquéllos que empiezan a llevarlo a cabo en España. Los comentarios que Ana María Pardo y Ángel Rivière realizan del autor y su obra introducen esta entrevista.     

The Short Nicotine Dependence Syndrome Scale (NDSS-S) in Spanish smokers

We present a brief scale derived from the Nicotine Dependence Syndrome Scale (NDSS). We used a sample of 1.061 daily smokers, which was obtained from five Primary Care Health Centers, a Unit of Alcoholism, and a Smoking Cessation Unit. All smokers were evaluated with the NDSS and the SCID to assess nicotine dependence according to DSM-IV criteria. The results indicate the existence of a general factor of nicotine dependence according to the NDSS. We selected the items with a higher factor loading (>.50), obtaining a short scale of 6 items. With this brief scale, we obtained results similar to those of the total scale in the diverse variables (sociodemographic and smoking) of the study. Scale reliability is satisfactory (a= .79), the correlation between the short and the total scale is very high (r=.95, p<.001) and the short scale discriminates the smokers in terms of cigarette consumption and nicotine dependence, as assessed with the SCID. The operation under the ROC curve is excellent (area under the curve .84). The data indicate the usefulness of this brief scale (NDSS-S) to assess nicotine dependence in smokers.     

Functioning of integration in Secondary School according to the teachers' perception

The main purpose of this article is to analyse integration in Compulsory Secondary School and the variables that teachers perceive as its indicators. More specifically, we wished to determine teachers' experience, their perceptions of integration students' achievement, participation, acceptance and involvement, and their appraisal of various measures in order to improve integration. Various preferred means of schooling and teachers' perception of the functioning of integration are analysed with a Likert-scaled questionnaire made up of 114 items. The sample comprised 242 secondary education teachers. The results show that the most poorly integrated group of students had behavioural problems and that a significant percentage of the teachers would prefer not to have these students in their classrooms. According to the teachers, integration does not work effectively with some groups of students, mainly due to the lack of resources and adequate strategies.     

Computerized hypertextual strategy and personal construction of meaning

The aim of this study is to provide information about the effects of strategic training in the area of social sciences (1) on the real level, as well as perceived competence in terms of the students' skills to select, organise and produce information; and (2) on their attitude and motivation towards working in this area of the curriculum. 107 students took part in this study, 57 of whom were the control group and 50 the experimental one. They were all enrolled in the third year of secondary school (9th year). The teachers and students who took part in this experience followed an on-line course to manage the strategy for approximately three months. Subsequently, the teacher introduced the tool in class, applying it both from a conceptual and a procedural point of view. The results show that the strategic training implemented in this study greatly improved written understanding procedures (both literal and inferential), increased perceived competence to manage internal information (selection, organization, and elaboration), and generated positive changes in terms of students' attitude and motivation towards working in the area of social sciences.     

Visual short-term memory operates more efficiently on boundary features than on surface features

A change detection task was used to estimate the visual short-term memory storage capacity for either the orientation or the size of objects. On each trial, several,objects were briefly presented, followed by a blank interval and then by a second display of objects that either was identical to the first display or had a single object that was different (the object changed either orientation or size, in separate experiments). The task was to indicate whether the two displays were the same or different, and the number of objects remembered was estimated from the percent correct on this task. Storage capacity for a feature was nearly twice as large when that feature was defined by the object boundary, rather than by the surface texture of the object. This dramatic difference in storage capacity suggests that a particular feature (e.g., right tilted or small) is not stored in memory with an invariant abstract code. Instead, there appear to be different codes for the boundary and surface features of objects, and memory operates on boundary features more efficiently than it operates on surface features.     

Dialectical behaviour therapy skills training compared to standard group therapy in borderline personality disorder: A 3-month randomised controlled clinical trial

Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) has proven to be an effective treatment in borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, the effectiveness in BPD of DBT skills training (DBT-ST) alone is not known. This study aimed at comparing the efficacy of DBT-ST and standard group therapy (SGT) for outpatients with BPD. Sixty patients meeting the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for BPD, as assessed by two semi-structured diagnostic interviews, were included in a 3-month, single-blind randomised controlled trial. A total of 13 weekly group psychotherapy sessions of 120 min of either SGT or DBT-ST were conducted. Assessments were carried out every 2 weeks by two blinded evaluators. Observer-rater, self-report scales and behavioural reports were used as outcome measures. DBT-ST was associated with lower dropout rates, 34.5% compared to 63.4% with SGT. It was superior to SGT in improving several mood and emotion areas, such as: depression, anxiety, irritability, anger and affect instability. A reduction in general psychiatric symptoms was also observed. Three-months weekly DBT-ST proved useful. This therapy was associated with greater clinical improvements and lower dropout rates than SGT. DBT-ST seems to play a role in the overall improvement of BPD seen with standard DBT intervention. It allows straightforward implementation in a wide range of mental health settings and provides the additional advantage that it is cost effective.     

Gender differences in visual attention to television form and content

Formal features (i.e., rapid action, dialogue, and animation) and content variables (i.e., violence, theme, and sex of characters) were analyzed as possible determinants of gender differences in children's television viewing. Two studies are reported. In Study 1, 5- and 7-year-old boys' and girls' visual attention was observed during four animated programs representing four combinations of high and low action with high and low violence. Boys' visual attention was greater than girls'. Attention was higher to high violence than to low violence. Boys' attention did not vary across treatments, but girls attended more to programs with low action than with high action. In Study 2, nine earlier laboratory studies, each with an independent sample, were subjected to a secondary analysis. The procedures were similar to Study 1; the samples ranged from 3 to 11 years old. Across experiments, boys attended significantly more than girls. The secondary analysis was designed to identify program form and content variables that might account for gender differences. Most content and form attributes failed to account for the pattern of gender differences in attention across or within studies. There was weak support for the notion that violent content and animation appeals more to boys than girls. Boys' greater visual attention was not associated with greater comprehension relative to girls'. It was proposed that girls focus more on the verbal auditory content of television, and boys focus more on the visual content.     

Twenty‐two years of psychological science in Psychological Science

The journal Psychological Science (PS) has undergone various changes over 22 years since its birth in 1990. Analysis of Web of Science's records shows that the publication has increased in volume and collaborations between authors, and has become more international. Keyword analysis suggests the new role of neuroscience in contemporary psychology and indicates that the PS of today is more oriented than in the 1990s towards psychosocial and emotional issues as well as natural situations in our daily lives (ecological validity).