Spirituality in Clinical Practice: The Perspective of Brazilian Medical Students

Journal of Religion and Health - The purpose of this study was to evaluate the beliefs, opinions, and experiences of medical students from a Catholic confessional university concerning spirituality...     

May the odds be ever in your favor: The Hunger Games and the fight for a more equal society. (Negative) Media vicarious contact and collective action

Various studies have found that reading books about positive interactions between ingroup and outgroup characters, known as media vicarious contact, can reduce prejudice. Focusing on the fantasy saga of The Hunger Games, we examined the effects of negative vicarious contact on collective action across two studies. Specifically, we tested whether reading about fantasy characters living in a postapocalyptic conflictual society with large social disparities between advantaged and disadvantaged groups leads advantaged group members to display greater willingness to engage in collective action on behalf of the disadvantaged group. Results from Study 1 (correlational survey in the United Kingdom and United States) and Study 2 (experimental intervention in Italy) revealed that reading The Hunger Games is indirectly associated with greater collective action intentions via increased anger toward injustice. In both studies social dominance orientation (SDO) acted as a moderator, but in opposite directions: mediation was significant for low-SDOs in Study 1, and for high-SDOs in Study 2. Results are discussed in relation to the importance of media vicarious contact via book reading for social change, and to the need to identify the contextual conditions allowing to anticipate the specific moderation pattern that is more likely to emerge.     

Will you confess to what I did? Close relationships and in-group membership facilitate voluntary blame-taking

To learn more about why people falsely confess without external pressure, we examined voluntary blame-taking in three experiments. Drawing from theories of prosocial behavior and social identity, we investigated whether participants' blame-taking is influenced by (a) their relationship with the guilty person (Experiment 1) and (b) the group membership of the person asking to take the blame (Experiments 2a and 2b). In Experiment 1, participants (N = 130) considered whether they would take the blame for a small traffic violation for their best friend and a stranger in a vignette-scenario. As expected, intended blame-taking rates were higher for their best friend (60.8%) than for a stranger (8.5%). Reported reasons for taking the blame included reciprocity and empathy. In Experiments 2a and 2b (Ns = 60; 89), we tested actual blame-taking behavior in two field experiments, using a new experimental paradigm. An experimenter approached participants and asked them to commit insurance fraud for a broken camera. Participants who shared the same group as the person in need were more willing to take the blame (47%-48%) than participants who were from a different group (21%-23%). The most frequently listed reason for taking the blame was empathy. Implications for the occurrence of voluntary blame-taking behavior to protect someone else are discussed.     

Examining the psychometric properties of the burnout clinical subtype questionnaire (BCSQ-12) in secondary school teachers

Current Psychology - Based on Farber’s burnout proposal, the first aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the short version of the Burnout Clinical Subtype...     

Measuring structural model invariance across internet-recruited and hospital-recruited IBD patients: Experiential avoidance’s effect on psychopathological symptoms

Current Psychology - Research has questioned whether it is feasible to assess psychosocial variables through web-based recruitment methods. Previous literature on IBD focused exclusively on testing...     

A Prospective Study of Maternal Exposure to Smoking during Pregnancy and Behavioral Development in the Child

Prenatal smoke exposure (PSE) is a risk factor for adverse outcomes in the offspring, including those affecting psychological development. However, it is uncertain whether these associations are the direct result of PSE or other confounding factors. The aim of this study was to examine the possible relationship between PSE and behavioral development in children at 7.5 years of age, considering several prenatal, neonatal and postnatal covariates. A cohort of 266 mother-child pairs was followed from the first trimester of pregnancy until the children reached 7.5 years of age. PSE was assessed using a questionnaire from prenatal clinical records and corroborated by plasma cotinine determinations in the first and second trimesters and in the cord. Mother-child pairs were classified into one of four groups: unexposed, exposed to passive smoking, first trimester active smoking only and active smoking throughout pregnancy. Child behavior was assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist for ages 6–18 and the Childhood Autism Spectrum Test. In multiple linear regression models, smoking during pregnancy was associated with higher scores in affective problems (β?=?0.298; p?=?0.004). No significant associations were found between smoking during pregnancy and externalizing problems. Findings indicate that PSE is negatively associated with behavioral development in childhood.

     

Associations between burnout and personal and professional characteristics: a study of Portuguese teachers

Social Psychology of Education - Recent research has suggested that teachers’ burnout is growing and, consequently, affecting their overall satisfaction with life and professional...     

Navigating in a challenging semiarid environment: the use of a route-based mental map by a small-bodied neotropical primate

To increase efficiency in the search for resources, many animals rely on their spatial abilities. Specifically, primates have been reported to use mostly topological and rarely Euclidean maps when navigating in large-scale space. Here, we aimed to investigate if the navigation of wild common marmosets inhabiting a semiarid environment is consistent with a topological representation and how environmental factors affect navigation. We collected 497 h of direct behavioral and GPS information on a group of marmosets using a 2-min instantaneous focal animal sampling technique. We found that our study group reused not only long-route segments (mean of 1007 m) but entire daily routes, a pattern that is not commonly seen in primates. The most frequently reused route segments were the ones closer to feeding sites, distant to resting sites, and in areas sparse in tree vegetation. We also identified a total of 56 clustered direction change points indicating that the group modified their direction of travel. These changes in direction were influenced by their close proximity to resting and feeding sites. Despite our small sample size, the obtained results are important and consistent with the contention that common marmosets navigate using a topological map that seems to benefit these animals in response to the exploitation of clustered exudate trees. Based on our findings, we hypothesize that the Caatinga landscape imposes physical restrictions in our group’s navigation such as gaps in vegetation, small trees and xerophytic plants. This study, based on preliminary evidence, raises the question of whether navigation patterns are an intrinsic characteristic of a species or are ecologically dependent and change according to the environment.

     

亲子间科技干扰与青少年网络人际关系成瘾：有调节的中介模型

对1353名高中生进行问卷调查,探究亲子间科技干扰与青少年网络人际关系成瘾之间的关系,相对剥夺感的中介作用及内在觉知的调节作用,结果表明：（1）亲子间科技干扰正向预测青少年网络人际关系成瘾;（2）相对剥夺感是亲子间科技干扰与网络人际关系成瘾之间的中介变量;（3）亲子间科技干扰与网络人际关系成瘾的间接效应前半段受到内在觉知的调节。因此,亲子间科技干扰和网络人际关系成瘾之间存在有调节的中介效应。