Perceived control and anxiety in Portuguese children

The central role of perceived control in the development of anxiety disorders is proposed by several theoretical models. The main objective of the present study was to examine the relation between perceived control and anxiety in Portuguese school-age children. To accomplish this objective we developed the Portuguese short form of the Anxiety Control Questionnaire for Children (ACQ-C, Weems, 2005; Pereira & Barros, 2010), whose psychometric studies are presented. The sample comprised 238 children, aged 8 to 15 years, from the general population attending Portuguese schools. Children completed measures of perceived control (ACQ-C) and their anxiety (Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders--Revised, SCARED-R). The psychometric studies indicate good psychometric characteristics of the Portuguese ACQ-C short form, in particular a high internal consistency (a = .85) and an adequate temporal stability (r = .60, p = .002). Results show a significant negative association between perceived control and anxiety symptomatology, providing partial support for models that assign a central role to control beliefs in explaining the development of anxiety disorders. These results also suggest the importance of considering the perception of control as a prime target for preventive actions and intervention aimed at reducing anxiety in school aged children.     

Affiliative stimuli as primers to prosocial predispositions

Affiliative stimuli are pleasant and highly biologically relevant. Affiliative cues are thought to elicit a prosocial predisposition. Here affiliative and neutral pictures were exposed prior to a reaction time task which consisted in responding to a visual target. Half the participants responded with finger-flexion, a movement frequently involved in prosocial activities. The other half responded with finger extension, a less prosocially compatible movement. Results showed that under the exposure to affiliative pictures, as compared to neutral ones, participants who used finger flexion were faster, while those using finger extension were slower. Performance benefits to the task, when flexing the finger, together with performance costs, when extending it, indicate the relevance of movement compatibility to the context. These findings put forward a possible link between affiliative primers and motor preparation to facilitate a repertoire of movements related to prosocial predispositions including finger flexion.     

Improving the Accuracy of Eyewitnesses in the Presence of Misinformation with the Plurality Option

Misinformation has negative effects in the accuracy of eyewitnesses' reports. We investigated whether those negative effects could be reduced when participants are allowed to decide how many answers to include in their answers, that is, to regulate the plurality option. Participants watched a slideshow and received misinformation through a narrative. In the recognition memory test, participants had to select, out of five alternatives, one (single) and then three alternatives (plural answer) and to indicate which one they preferred to report if they were in a courtroom. Perceived likelihood ratings were also collected. Results showed that the regulation of the plurality option increased accuracy even in the presence of misinformation and highlighted the importance of the perceived likelihood ratings in the decision to select a single or plural answer. In general, the results suggest that better testimonies could be obtained if witnesses are given some control over their answers. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Untangling the Relationship Between Income and Subjective Well-Being: The Role of Perceived Income Adequacy and Borrowing Constraints

This paper aims to untangle the relationship between income and subjective well-being. To accomplish this, we investigate how subjective well-being is affected by two financially-related determinants that have not been investigated before or scarcely so. Specifically, we research the impact on subjective well-being of how people are coping with their present income as well as of their borrowing constraints. The results indicate that both variables determine subjective well-being and that they mediate the effects of other variables, namely income, which is not directly related to well-being. Additionally, they signal that income matters to the extent to which it contributes to meeting the desired consumption needs and eases borrowing constraints. Such mediating effects thus contribute to explain how income affects subjective well-being. We also inspect differences in life satisfaction responsiveness to perceived income adequacy and borrowing constraints in certain groups of individuals, and find that the subjective well-being of individuals in a more fragile financial position is particularly responsive to the alleviation of borrowing constraints.     

Subclinical social anxiety and academic performance in adolescence: analysis of theoretical and practical implications / Ansiedad social subclínica y rendimiento académico en la adolescencia: análisis de sus implicaciones teórico-prácticas

Abstract

This study analyses the relationship between self-reported social anxiety and academic performance in a sample of 1,616 Spanish students (52.1% males) in compulsory secondary education, aged 12 to 16 years old. Social anxiety was assessed by the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI) and academic performance was measured with school grades and failing grades. Results reveal that adolescents with social anxiety show a similar academic performance to adolescents without social anxiety. Although t tests found some significant differences in academic grades and number of failing grades, the effect size analysis showed that these differences had no empirical relevance. These findings are discussed considering the gender and grade levels and their theoretical and practical implication.     

Psychoanalysis and Epistemology: The Interrelation Between Clinical Work,Culture and Metapsychology

The paradigmatic theory of modern epistemology holds psychoanalysis in its scientific statute. Even if there is no explicit epistemology in the Freudian writings, it is undeniable that the genesis of psychoanalysis has a rigorous dialetic between theorization and clinical observation. Metapsychology is an organized and consistent set of concepts, capable of explaining and coordinating the analytical experience. It is through metapsychology that clinical work encounters the possibility of universalization, while metapsychology finds the possibility of fulfillment in clinical work. Clinical experience also confirms the interrelation between psychopathology and culture. Modern times have brought about new versions for psychopathological symptoms, which, in turn, have special effects on the narcisistic personalities and the manifestations of anxiety, giving place to different neurotic configurations.     

Transformation and invariance in creative translations and analytic interpretations: A Bionian reading of Borges and Cervantes

Bion's basic theory of transformations includes the concept of invariances: those aspects that are kept unchanged in the transformation. Translations are considered transformations that include invariances that allow for the recognition of the transformation. Psychoanalytic interpretations are seen by the author of this paper as a special case of such transformations. From Borges's radically open perspective on translation, psychoanalytic interpretations can be characterized as pertaining to one of three categories: (1) interpretations that change the unfamiliar to the familiar, (2) rigid motion transformations, or (3) interpretations that are transformations towards O. These ideas are dramatized in the reading of two of Borges's fictional stories that present two different approaches to translation, Averroes' search and Pierre Menard, author of the Quixote. These stories exemplify transformations in –K and + K. Finally, Cervantes' intuition of a hybrid language that approaches O and allows for a peaceful and multilayered interpretation of reality (transformation towards O) is discussed.     

Contemporary Adolescence and the Crisis of Ideals

The end of the 20th century inaugurates the tele-techno-media dimension that gives place to subjective mutation of incalculable effects. These transformations crucially affect adolescents and youths, for this new dimension promotes a planetary enlargement of the non-family influences which act directly on idealness. Held between the illusionary temptation of the ideal-ego and the possibility of living the ego ideal, the adolescent suffers through the confrontation with this colossal identifying, fragmented and voracious mirror. The author then discusses what the psychoanalyst can do.     

Three ways of understanding Ida

This paper aims to compare the psychoanalytic understanding of three analysts, sharing a similar theoretical background, with regard to the clinical material of an autistic girl with probable organic impairment. The conclusion is that, although the three analysts' ideas about the pathogenesis of the girl's developmental disorder are somewhat divergent, a tendency towards convergence can be noted as the therapy goes on. The paper concludes that there is some common ground of understanding about autistic phenomena among psychoanalysts sharing the same affiliation, that combining the individual views of different analysts may enlarge the understanding of the case as a whole and that the technique Tustin used to treat psychogenic autistic children can also be used to treat brain-damaged autistic children.