The Repercussions of Emotional Abuse and Parenting Styles on Self-Esteem,Subjective Well-Being: A Retrospective Study with University Students in Brazil

This study verified the differences in the incidence of memory of emotional abuse among the different parenting styles in students from 18 to 30 years of age at a university in southern Brazil. The relationship between memory of emotional abuse and self-esteem, and subjective well-being was also examined. Students (n = 293) completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, published scales measuring self-esteem, life satisfaction, parenting styles, and self-report questionnaires. Negative correlations were found between emotional abuse and self-esteem, positive affect, and life satisfaction. Positive correlations were found between emotional abuse, age, and negative affect. Memories of emotional abuse were significantly more frequent in students who reported being raised under negligent and authoritarian parenting styles than in those who were raised under the other parenting styles.     

Impact of Family Efficacy Beliefs on Quality of Family Functioning and Satisfaction with Family Life

The present study tested with 142 families a structural model of the interplay of perceived dyadic and collective forms of efficacy within the interdependent family system, and how these different forms of efficacy are structurally related to quality of family functioning and satisfaction with family life. Dyadic parent–child efficacy, dyadic spousal efficacy, and filial efficacy were linked to family satisfaction through the mediating impact of collective family efficacy. A high sense of collective family efficacy was accompanied by open family communication and candid disclosure by adolescents of their activities outside the home. Collective family efficacy contributed to parents' and adolescents' satisfaction with their family life both directly and through its impact on quality of family functioning. An alternative structural model in which quality of family functioning affects the different forms of perceived family efficacy and family satisfaction provided a poorer fit to the data.     

Line bisection and cognitive plasticity of unilateral neglect of space

Patients with neglect of the left half of space were asked to bisect lines of different lengths. The leftmost points of the represented lines, determined on the basis of the midpoints set by the patients on the objective lines, were the dependent variable. It was thus possible to recognize diverse patterns of behavior which were conceivably averaged away in earlier investigations. In discussing the results, the question is raised of whether unilateral neglect of space may be altered by cognitive processes.     

Authenticity as an aim of Psychoanalysis

This paper will present a series of predominantly clinical observations concerning the lengthy work a patient carries out, with the help of the analyst, in order to achieve greater personal authenticity. When this work is drawing to a close and the patient has gained a degree of authenticity, this authenticity remains within him, almost without his realizing it. The power of authenticity is instead revealed through the patient's most intimate and important relationships. In the long term, the patient's authenticity also alters his perception of himself and of his role in the world. He feels more alive and less overcome by a sense of futility, if earlier this had been the case.     

Teacher-initiated Motivational Climate in Physical Education Questionnaire in an Italian sample

The purpose of the study was to translate and adapt in the Italian language a questionnaire that could effectively assess perceived motivational climate in physical education. An Italian version of the Teacher-initiated Motivational Climate in Physical Education Questionnaire proposed by Papaioannou (1998) was administered to 1,681 young students, 840 girls and 841 boys, ages 11 to 14 years. Data were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis to assess the goodness of fit of the expected two-factor solution constituted by a Mastery Climate scale (six items) and a Performance Climate scale (six items). A good fit was indicated between the observed data and theoretical model and supported the two-dimensional structure of the test. In the total sample, the Mastery factor accounted for 33.6% of the variance and the Performance factor accounted for 15.4%. Cronbach alpha of the Mastery and Performance scales were .79 and .70, respectively.     

Value tradeoffs propel and inhibit behavior: Validating the 19 refined values in four countries

We assess the predictive and discriminant validity of the basic values in the refined Schwartz value theory by examining how value tradeoffs predict behavior in Italy, Poland, Russia, and the USA. One thousand eight hundred and fifty‐seven respondents reported their values and rated their own and a partner's behavior. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis supported the distinctiveness of the 19 values and the 19 self‐rated and other‐rated behaviors. Multidimensional scaling analyses supported the circular motivational order of the 19 values. Findings affirmed the theorizing that behavior depends upon tradeoffs between values that propel and values that inhibit it. Across four countries, value importance, behavior frequency, and gender failed to moderate the strength of value–behavior relations. This raises the question of the conditions under which the widely cited assumption that normative pressure weakens value–behavior relations holds.     

The role of nucleus accumbens and dorsolateral striatal D2 receptors in active avoidance conditioning

The role of dopamine (DA) in rewarding motivated actions is well established but its role in learning how to avoid aversive events is still controversial. Here we tested the role of D2-like DA receptors in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and the dorsolateral striatum (DLS) of rats in the learning and performance of conditioned avoidance responses (CAR). Adult male Wistar rats received systemic, intra-NAc or intra-DLS (pre- or post-training) administration of a D2-like receptor agonist (quinpirole) or antagonist ((−)sulpiride) and were given two sessions in the two-way active avoidance task. The main effects observed were: (i) sulpiride and lower (likely pre-synaptic) doses of quinpirole decreased the number of CARs and increased the number of escape failures; (ii) higher doses of quinpirole (likely post-synaptic) increased inter-trial crossings and failures; (iii) pre-training administration of sulpiride decreased the number of CARs in both training and test sessions when infused into the NAc, but this effect was observed only in the test session when it was infused into the DLS; (iv) post-training administration of sulpiride decreased CARs in the test session when infused into the NAc but not DLS. These findings suggest that activation of D2 receptors in the NAc is critical for fast adaptation to responding to unconditioned and conditioned aversive stimuli while activation of these receptors in the DLS is needed for a slower learning of how to respond to the same stimuli based on previous experiences.     

Gene flow by selective emigration as a possible cause for personality differences between small islands and mainland populations

Whether personality differences exist between populations is a controversial question. Even though such differences can be measured, it is still not clear whether they are due to individual phenotypic responses to the environment or whether they have a genetic influence. In a population survey we compared the personality traits of inhabitants of an Italian archipelago (the three Egadi islands; N = 622) with those of the closest mainland population (Trapani area; N = 106) and we found that personality differences between small populations can be detected. Islanders scored significantly lower on the personality traits of openness to experience and extraversion and higher on conscientiousness. We suggest that these personality trait differences could be an adaptive response to a confined socio‐environmental niche, genetically produced by a strong, non‐random gene flow in the last 20–25 generations, rather than the flexible response of islanders to environmental variables. To test this hypothesis, we compared subsets of the islander population classified by ancestry, birthplace, immigration and emigration and found that differences in extraversion can be accounted for by gene flow, while openness to experience and conscientiousness can also be accounted for by some gene–environment interactions. We propose a Personality Gene Flow hypothesis suggesting that, in small isolated communities, whenever there is strong, non‐random emigration, paired with weak and random immigration, we can expect rapid genetic personality change within the population. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Automatic knowledge learning and case adaptation with a hybrid committee approach

When Case Based Reasoning systems are applied to real-world problems, the retrieved solutions usually require adaptations in order to be used on new contexts. Therefore, case adaptation is a desirable capability. However, case adaptation is still a challenge for this research area. In general, the acquisition of knowledge for case adaptation is harder than the acquisition of cases. This paper explores the automatic learning of adaptation knowledge and explores the use of a hybrid committee approach for automatic case adaptation.