Diagnostic value of the Dominic Interactive Assessment with children exposed to intimate partner violence

This article reports on the diagnostic validity of the Dominic Interactive Assessment (DIA) in a sample of Spanish children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV). The study participants included 55 children aged between 6 and 11 years whose mothers visited an IPV counselling centre. Psychopathology and functional impairment were used as the main criteria for assessing predictive and discriminative accuracy, as well as incremental validity, of DIA. The results indicate that DIA permits obtaining useful information from children. This information improves the prediction and validity of the process of clinical assessment of children exposed to IPV. Children's self-reports could prove effective in identifying cases in this high-risk population when developmentally adequate instruments and functional criteria are used.     

Evidence against the myth of adjustment problems of people with high intellectual abilities

Personal and social adjustment of high-ability children and adolescents is a very important issue in the specialized literature. The differences found between data for and against appropriate adjustment in gifted children and adolescents could be explained by conceptual or methodological biases. In this work, the relation between adjustment and high abilities are contrasted in a sample of teenagers from the Canary Islands, using a screening procedure based on their scores in intelligence tests. Results show that, although gifted adolescents differ significantly from their peers in the control group in socio-economic variables and academic performance, there are no differences in personal, social and educational adjustment. We conclude that adjustment problems and high ability are independent variables, and there is no evidence to support that gifted individuals have adjustment problems.     

Differentiating intolerance of uncertainty from three related but distinct constructs

Individual differences in uncertainty have been associated with heightened anxiety, stress and approach-oriented coping. Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is a trait characteristic that arises from negative beliefs about uncertainty and its consequences. Researchers have established the central role of IU in the development of problematic worry and maladaptive coping, highlighting the importance of this construct to anxiety disorders. However, there is a need to improve our understanding of the phenomenology of IU. The goal of this paper was to present hypotheses regarding the similarities and differences between IU and three related constructs – intolerance of ambiguity, uncertainty orientation, and need for cognitive closure – and to call for future empirical studies to substantiate these hypotheses. To assist with achieving this goal, we conducted a systematic review of the literature, which also served to identify current gaps in knowledge. This paper differentiates these constructs by outlining each definition and general approaches to assessment, reviewing the existing empirical relations, and proposing theoretical similarities and distinctions. Findings may assist researchers in selecting the appropriate construct to address their research questions. Future research directions for the application of these constructs, particularly within the field of clinical and health psychology, are discussed.     

Evaluation of Affect in Mexico and Spain: Psychometric Properties and Usefulness of an Abbreviated Version of the Day Reconstruction Method

The aims of the present study were to assess the psychometric properties of the Spanish-language version of the abbreviated Day Reconstruction Method (DRM), and to investigate differences in affective experience in Mexico and Spain. A total of 2,629 adults from Mexico and 4,583 from Spain were interviewed. Information was obtained using an abbreviated version of the DRM, which had been translated into Spanish. Reliability, validity, and the structure of affect were assessed and compared between countries. The diurnal variation of affect, the changes in affect along the life span, time use, and the relationship between affect and socio-demographic characteristics were also analysed. Adequate psychometric properties for the Spanish-language version of the abbreviated DRM were found in both the Mexican and the Spanish samples, and affect tended to improve along the life span in both countries. However, net affect did not have the same distribution function (Kolmogorov–Smirnov statistic = 0.25, p < 0.001) in both countries, being higher in Spain. Moreover, both samples showed opposite patterns in the diurnal variation of affect. The results showed that the Spanish-language version of the DRM is a feasible and valid method to measure affect, its diurnal rhythms, and time use in large-scale surveys.     

At the core of cyberaggression: A group-based explanation

In this study, prototypicality of the aggressor was tested as a group-level factor predicting social media users’ active participation in cyberaggression. Participants were exposed to a fictitious conversation, in which either a prototypical versus non-prototypical user posted an aggressive comment as a reply to a provocative comment. In line with self-categorization theory, we hypothesized that bystander participants would post an aggressive comment and rate the aggression as acceptable to a greater extent in the prototypical than in the non-prototypical condition. Furthermore, we predicted that perceived normativity of aggression would mediate the effect of prototypicality. Results supported these predictions and showed that prototypical members affect the extent to which collective aggressive behaviors in online interactions are approved and enacted. These findings highlight the importance of group-level factors in the study of cyberaggression and provide important information for understanding the psychological underpinnings of collective forms of online aggression.     

Review of: Svetlana Klimova: Russian Intelligentsia in Search of an Identity (Between Dostoevsky’s Oppositions and Tolstoy’s Holism), Leiden,Brill, 2020, Hardcover,ISBN 978-90-04-44060-9, $ 82,80

Studies in East European Thought -     

Liveability Versus Sustainability in Spanish Cities: First Evidences Using Synthetic Indicators

The aim of liveable, sustainable cities has become one of the major challenges for urban planning. However, achieving both goals at the same time is no easy task, particularly when liveability and sustainability may be defined by certain elements that tend to be in conflict. The main goal of this work is to analyse the relationship between liveability and environmental sustainability within the context of Spanish urban spaces. To this end, we propose two synthetic indicators: one for liveability and the other for urban environmental sustainability. Each of these indicators is constructed using a technique based on goal programming. A bivariate analysis is carried out using these indicators, which allows us to compare the extent to which Spanish cities are liveable and sustainable. This analysis should be useful for urban planners when taking and implementing policy decisions. By comparing cities with similar profiles using a benchmarking system, it becomes possible to judge the margin for improvement in one attribute without detriment to the other. This benchmarking system also allows us to reveal the specific dimensions of liveability or sustainability for which there is the greatest opportunity for improvement.

     

Color Selectivity of the Spatial Congruency Effect: Evidence from the Focused Attention Paradigm

The multisensory response enhancement (MRE), occurring when the response to a visual target integrated with a spatially congruent sound is stronger than the response to the visual target alone, is believed to be mediated by the superior colliculus (SC) (Stein & Meredith, 1993). Here, we used a focused attention paradigm to show that the spatial congruency effect occurs with red (SC-effective) but not blue (SC-ineffective) visual stimuli, when presented with spatially congruent sounds. To isolate the chromatic component of SC-ineffective targets and to demonstrate the selectivity of the spatial congruency effect we used the random luminance modulation technique (Experiment 1) and the tritanopic technique (Experiment 2). Our results indicate that the spatial congruency effect does not require the distribution of attention over different sensory modalities and provide correlational evidence that the SC mediates the effect.     

Not just playing around: Infants’ behaviors with objects reflect ability,constraints, and object properties

This study describes infants’ behaviors with objects in relation to age, body position, and object properties. Object behaviors were assessed longitudinally in 22 healthy infants supine, prone, and sitting from birth through 2 years. Results reveal: (1) infants learn to become intense and sophisticated explorers within the first 6 months of life; (2) young infants dynamically and rapidly shift among a variety of behavioral combinations to gather information; (3) behaviors on objects develop along different trajectories so that behavioral profiles vary across time; (4) object behaviors are generally similar in supine and sitting but diminished in prone; and (5) infants begin matching certain behaviors to object properties as newborns. These data demonstrate how infants learn to match their emerging behaviors with changing positional constraints and object affordances.     

Linguodidactic Profiling in Teaching Russian as a Foreign Language to Labour Migrants

The main purpose of this exploratory study is to work out and describe the labour migrant’s linguodidactic profile, to verify its didactic capacity of an instrument of pedagogic measurement of social, cognitive, ethnocultural, educational and other significant characteristics of migrants affecting the efficiency of the Russian language training courses. The interdisciplinary methodology of the research integrates principles and approaches of methods for teaching Russian as a foreign language, interdidactics, migration sociolology, culturology, anthropology and cognitive science. The Russian language training courses have a strong potential for linguocultural adaptation and integration of labour migrants because the language functions as a depository and translator of the hosting nation’s moral norms and values. The effectiveness of the Russian language training course depends upon the strict consideration of all significant characteristics of its addressees, i.e. labour migrants. These characteristics were identified and then integrated into the linguodidactic profile which was taken as a basis for the language training course. The didactic capacity of the linguodidactic profile was proved on the example of language teaching and testing of migrants from the Republic of Tajikistan, since foreigners from this country form the majority (47%) of labour immigration flows to the Russian Federation. The role and capacity of the linguodidactic profile in teaching Russian as a foreign language have been verified experimentally. The analyses and comparisons of the final examination results proved the efficiency of the training course worked out with consideration for the labour migrant’s typical linguodidactic profile and, consequently, its high didactic capacity.