God,the Future,and the Fundamentum of History in Wolfhart Pannenberg

The aim of this article is to examine the relationship between Wolfhart Pannenberg's idea of God and his conception of history, with the intention of determining the precise nature of the link that, in his view, connects both philosophical and the theological reflection on the meaning of history. We shall first analyze Pannenberg's response to the traditional criticism of Christianity as an anthropomorphic projection of the human being. Then we shall pay attention to the features of any possible fundamentum of history. We will show that, according to Pannenberg, a transition from a philosophical into a theological consideration of history is needed in order to provide a rationally acceptable foundation for both the unity and the meaning of universal history.     

Factores psicosociales y cáncer: una revisión crítica

Resumen

Se presenta en este artículo una introducción al campo de estudio de las relaciones entre factores psicosociales y neoplasia, enmarcándolo dentro de la medicina conductual y desde un enfoque interdisciplinar. A continuación se discute el papel que pueden desempeñar las variables psicosociales (estrés) en la vulnerabilidad del ser humano a la enfermedad en general a través de su acción sobre el sistema inmune. En el apartado III se realiza una revisión crítica en la investigación en la que se ha intentado delimitar la influencia de factores psicosociales en la aparición y pronóstico del cáncer, en animales (cáncer experimental) y en el ser humano. Se discute por último el papel de los mediadores biológicos propuestos como más importantes hasta el momento en la literatura del área (sistemas neuroendocrino e inmune). De esta revisión se desprende que los resultados de la investigación, aunque su- gerentes no son definitivos, ni tampoco están claros los mecanismos biológicos a través de los cuales se puede producir la influencia. Después de analizar algunas de las deficiencias metodológicas más importantes de los trabajos realizados, creemos que en enfoque más adecuado para poner a prueba la hipótesis de que los factores psicosociales afectan al desarrollo del cáncer debería ser longitudinal, utilizando grandes muestras y estudiando variables psicosociales y biomédicas conjuntamente.     

Spanish adaptation of the Psychological Well-Being Scales (PWBS)

The aim of this paper is to adapt to Spanish the D. van Direndonck version of Carol Ryff's Psychological Well-Being Scales, and to analyse its consistency and factorial validity. All the scales exhibited good internal reliabilities, with Cronbach alpha's ranging from 0.83 (Self-acceptance) to 0.68 (Personal growth). However, confirmatory factor analyses didn't corroborate the six-factor model (Self-acceptance, Positive relations, Autonomy, Environmental mastery, Purpose in life, and Personal growth) with a second order factor called Psychological Well-Being . To improve the psychometric properties, a new reduced version was proposed that indeed will facilitate the application. The scales of the new version maintain and raise its internal consistency (Cronbach alpha's 0.84 to 0.70). Furthermore, the scales shown an excellent fit to the theoretical model proposed by D. van Dierendonck.     

Direct versus Indirect Well-Being Measures: Using Partially Structured Stimuli to Evaluate Well-Being

Given the important limitations of direct (explicit) measures, the study of indirect (implicit) measures of psychological constructs has received increased attention of social researchers. However, in the field of well-being the measures that have traditionally been used have tried to capture people’s well-being in an explicit and direct way, with some exceptions that are based mainly on adaptations of the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Given the critics that the IAT has received, the first aim of the present research was to develop a new life satisfaction measure using partially structured stimuli (PSWBS). The second goal was to examine the relation between direct and indirect well-being measures. In the first study, PSWBS showed good internal consistency, test–retest reliability and construct validity. Factorial analyses indicated that this measure acted as an indirect measure. In addition, direct and indirect well-being showed a significant but weak relation. To explain this result, in a second study we analyzed the moderating role of social comparison orientation on the relation between direct and indirect well-being measures. As expected, more social comparison tendency implied a stronger relation. In a third study we analyzed the criterion validity of both kind of measures. The PSWBS, the Personal Wellbeing Index-Adults and the Satisfaction With Life Scale significantly correlated with a criterion validity coefficient in terms of a semi-structured interview made by an external experimenter. Finally, in a fourth experiment we analyzed the influence of social desirability on direct and indirect measures of well-being. In contexts of high desirability, partially structured stimuli seemed to be more resistant to response factors (e.g., control of impressions) than traditional direct measures.

     

Longitudinal Effects of Latino Parent Cultural Stress,Depressive Symptoms,and Family Functioning on Youth Emotional Well‐Being and Health Risk Behaviors

U.S. Latino parents can face cultural stressors in the form of acculturative stress, perceived discrimination, and a negative context of reception. It stands to reason that these cultural stressors may negatively impact Latino youth's emotional well‐being and health risk behaviors by increasing parents' depressive symptoms and compromising the overall functioning of the family. To test this possibility, we analyzed data from a six‐wave longitudinal study with 302 recently immigrated (<5 years in the United States) Latino parents (74% mothers, M_age = 41.09 years) and their adolescent children (47% female, M_age = 14.51 years). Results of a cross‐lagged analysis indicated that parent cultural stress predicted greater parent depressive symptoms (and not vice versa). Both parent cultural stress and depressive symptoms, in turn, predicted lower parent‐reported family functioning, which mediated the links from parent cultural stress and depressive symptoms to youth alcohol and cigarette use. Parent cultural stress also predicted lower youth‐reported family functioning, which mediated the link from parent cultural stress to youth self‐esteem. Finally, mediation analyses indicated that parent cultural stress predicted youth alcohol use by a way of parent depressive symptoms and parent‐reported family functioning. Our findings point to parent depressive symptoms and family functioning as key mediators in the links from parent cultural stress to youth emotional well‐being and health risk behaviors. We discuss implications for research and preventive interventions.     

Risk factors associated with eating disorders in Mexican preadolescents with normal weight

This study aimed to identify the differences in body self-esteem, general self-esteem and eating attitudes in a representative sample of children, aged 9-12 years, attending school in México DF. The logistic regression model incorporated the variables of sex, general self-esteem, BMI, age and discrepancy between the perceived image and the ideal image. Participants with an increased risk of eating disorders were girls: a) with less general self-esteem; b) BMI at the upper range of normal weight; c) greater negative discrepancy between perceived and ideal image; d) aged 11-12 years. Higher general self-esteem would act as a protector for eating disorders, while the desire for a thinner ideal body would be a risk factor.     

Contingency is used to prepare for outcomes: Implications for a functional analysis of learning

It is generally assumed that the function of contingency learning is to predict the occurrence of important events in order to prepare for them. This assumption, however, has scarcely been tested. Moreover, the little evidence that is available suggests just the opposite result. People do not use contingency to prepare for outcomes, nor to predict their occurrence, although they do use it to infer the causal and predictive value of cues. By using both judgmental and behavioral data, we designed the present experiments as a further test for this assumption. The results show that—at least under certain conditions—people do use contingency to prepare for outcomes, even though they would still not use it to predict their occurrence. The functional and adaptive aspects of these results are discussed in the present article.     

11-M Victims 3 Years After Madrid Terrorist Attacks: Looking for Health Beyond Trauma

Although there is a growing body of evidence that health is the presence of well-being and not just the absence of a disease, research related to victims of terrorists attacks is mostly focused on the presence/absence of pathology (e.g. PTSD). The present study aims to apply the Complete State Model of Health to evaluate the mental health status of 69 direct victims of 11-M terrorist attack three years after the event. The results of Horn’s Parallel Analysis and CFA confirmed that the measures of positive mental health (well-being indicators) and illness (PTSD) loaded on separate but correlated factors. This is to say, the absence of PTSD in our sample was not equivalent to the presence of health. However, although positive health and illness indicators should be considered as two different factors, they were closely related. In fact, three well-being indicators were strongly associated with PTSD: positive affect, self-acceptance and positive relations. These findings suggest the need to work to ensure victims’ positive health.     

Electrophysiological correlates of emotional crossmodal processing in binge drinking

Emotional crossmodal integration (i.e., multisensorial decoding of emotions) is a crucial process that ensures adaptive social behaviors and responses to the environment. Recent evidence suggests that in binge drinking—an excessive alcohol consumption pattern associated with psychological and cerebral deficits—crossmodal integration is preserved at the behavioral level. Although some studies have suggested brain modifications during affective processing in binge drinking, nothing is known about the cerebral correlates of crossmodal integration. In the current study, we asked 53 university students (17 binge drinkers, 17 moderate drinkers, 19 nondrinkers) to perform an emotional crossmodal task while their behavioral and neurophysiological responses were recorded. Participants had to identify happiness and anger in three conditions (unimodal, crossmodal congruent, crossmodal incongruent) and two modalities (face and/or voice). Binge drinkers did not significantly differ from moderate drinkers and nondrinkers at the behavioral level. However, widespread cerebral modifications were found at perceptual (N100) and mainly at decisional (P3b) stages in binge drinkers, indexed by slower brain processing and stronger activity. These cerebral modifications were mostly related to anger processing and crossmodal integration. This study highlights higher electrophysiological activity in the absence of behavioral deficits, which could index a potential compensation process in binge drinkers. In line with results found in severe alcohol-use disorders, these electrophysiological findings show modified anger processing, which might have a deleterious impact on social functioning. Moreover, this study suggests impaired crossmodal integration at early stages of alcohol-related disorders.