Child Victimization and Poly-Victimization in a Community Sample of Adolescents in Northern Chile

The aim of this article is to report the prevalence of youth victimization and poly-victimization in northern Chile. Using the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire, a sample of 706 adolescents ages 12 to 17 were surveyed. The results indicated that 89% of the participants had experienced victimization at least once in their lives and 76.8% had experienced at least 1 experience of victimization in the past year. The most frequent forms were conventional crimes (70% and 54.7%), witnessing and indirect victimization (63.2% and 45.2%), and peer and sibling victimization (50.0% and 34.6%), for the lifetime and the past year, respectively. Sexual victimization was less common for both time periods, but still relevant (15.9% lifetime and 9.9% past year). Older females and younger adolescents presented a higher risk of victimization particularly in conventional crimes and victimization by caregivers. As for poly-victimization, 21% of the adolescents presented between 4 and 6 different forms of victimization (the low poly-victimization group) and 16% reported seven or more (the high poly-victimization group) in the last year. The results showed that child and adolescent victimization is a significant problem in Chile. Percentages of victimization in Chilean adolescents were higher than those found in Europe or North America. Results from the group of poly-victims reinforces the need to evaluate the multiple forms of victimization that affect adolescents in Chile and to prioritize it in the design of the treatment of the consequences of violence, taking into account differences in gender and age.     

Psychological Change in Everyday Life: An Exploratory Study

The innovative moments model was used in a pilot study that aimed to explore the change processes involved in everyday change outside psychotherapy. According to this model, the emergence and development of innovative moments (IMs) as exceptions to a problematic pattern are closely associated with psychological change. A longitudinal design covering 4 months of interviews was implemented with 13 adults who were coping with significant personal problems without clinical psychopathological complaints. Semistructured interviews were used to explore participants' personal accounts of their problems, and change was assessed using a scaling task at the end of the study. A total of 114 interviews were analyzed using the innovative moments coding system. A general linear model showed that higher levels of change were associated with higher proportions of complex IMs over time. Moreover, lower levels of change were associated with an increase in elementary IMs. These results support the idea that successful psychological change in everyday life shares similarities with the change pattern found in psychotherapy using the innovative moments model.     

A critical review of the literature on academic self-handicapping: theory,manifestations, prevention and measurement

Academic self-handicapping is a very popular subject of research in educational psychology, in which a growing number of related findings are reported. However, apart from a recent meta-analysis (Schwinger et al. in J Educ Psychol 106(3):744–761, 2014), the last comprehensive review of the subject was published 17 years ago (Urdan and Midgley in Educ Psychol Rev 13(2):115–138, 2001). This paper integrates relevant findings accumulated since then, which are discussed in a coherent interpretive framework. The first part of the paper discusses the definition and theoretical grounds of academic self-handicapping, then its manifestations in an academic context are enumerated. The second part of the study focuses on the self-protective function of stereotypes based on self-handicapping as well as on the impressions self-handicapping students may make on others at school. A summary of the contributions of goal orientation theory is provided in relation to self-handicapping, and the effects of various goal orientations and goal structures on academic performance are analysed. Based on an analysis of interactions between self-handicapping and academic performance, the authors argue for the importance of prevention and suggest possible ways to prevent self-handicapping. In conclusion, measurement issues of academic self-handicapping and the methodological paradox inherent in questionnaire measures are discussed.     

To be a Fan is to be Happier: Using the Eudaimonic Spectator Questionnaire to Measure Eudaimonic Motivations in Spanish Fans

Many studies have linked audiovisual entertainment to hedonia. Recently, also to eudaimonic happiness. The Eudaimonic Spectator Questionnaire is proposed as a new tool to explore eudaimonic motivations that are linked to the consumption of audiovisual entertainment. The new questionnaire groups these eudaimonic motivations into two factors: the cultivation of cognitive–intellectual growth and social–emotional growth. Once the consistency and reliability of the questionnaire was tested, we observed statistically significant differences between fans and non-fan spectators; these differences were observed in both factors. The results indicated that being a fan is associated with the cultivation of human virtues and character strengths.     

Interspecies transmission of emotional information via chemosignals: from humans to dogs (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Canis lupus familiaris</Emphasis>)

We report a study examining interspecies emotion transfer via body odors (chemosignals). Do human body odors (chemosignals) produced under emotional conditions of happiness and fear provide information that is detectable by pet dogs (Labrador and Golden retrievers)? The odor samples were collected from the axilla of male donors not involved in the main experiment. The experimental setup involved the co-presence of the dog’s owner, a stranger and the odor dispenser in a space where the dogs could move freely. There were three odor conditions [fear, happiness, and control (no sweat)] to which the dogs were assigned randomly. The dependent variables were the relevant behaviors of the dogs (e.g., approaching, interacting and gazing) directed to the three targets (owner, stranger, sweat dispenser) aside from the dogs’ stress and heart rate indicators. The results indicated with high accuracy that the dogs manifested the predicted behaviors in the three conditions. There were fewer and shorter owner directed behaviors and more stranger directed behaviors when they were in the “happy odor condition” compared to the fear odor and control conditions. In the fear odor condition, they displayed more stressful behaviors. The heart rate data in the control and happy conditions were significantly lower than in the fear condition. Our findings suggest that interspecies emotional communication is facilitated by chemosignals.     

Ocular signatures of proactive versus reactive cognitive control in young adults

During the execution of a cognitive task, the brain maintains contextual information to guide behavior and achieve desired goals. The AX-Continuous Performance Task is used to study proactive versus reactive cognitive control. Young adults tend to behave proactively in standard testing conditions. However, it remains unclear how interindividual variability (e.g., in cognitive and motivational factors) may drive people into more reactive or proactive control under the same task demands. We investigated the use of control strategies in a large population of healthy young adults. We computed the proactive behavioral index and consequently divided participants into proactive, reactive, and intermediate groups. We found that reactive participants were generally slower, presented lower context sensitivity, and larger response variability. Pupillary changes and blink rate index cognitive effort allocation. We measured, concomitantly to the task, the pupil size and frequency of blinks associated with the cue maintenance and response intervals. During the cue period, nonfrequent, nontarget cues led to increased pupil dilation and number of blinks in all participants. During the response interval, we found more errors and increased pupil dilation to the probe when all participants had to overcome a response bias generated by the frequent cue. Only reactive participants showed larger response-related pupil when they had to overcome a response bias related to the frequent probe. Contrary to expectations, groups did not differ in ocular measures in the cue period. In conclusion, interindividual differences in cognitive control between healthy adults can be mapped onto different patterns of effort allocation indexed by the pupil.