Compliance and Problem-Solving Competence in Girls and Boys

The problem-solving abilities of 4- and 5-year old children (N = 208) were assessed to test the hypothesis that high levels of compliance are negatively related to problem solving. Problem-solving competence was examined with a task-specific measure and a standardized measure of general problem-solving performance. Low compliant children performed better on both measures. The role of compliance in the cognitive development of girls and boys is discussed.     

Spiritual Evolution of Bereavement Counselors: An Exploratory Qualitative Study

This article draws from a phenomenological study on the experience of being a bereavement counselor. Ten bereavement counselors shared their experiences in bereavement counseling. Spiritual and emotional aspects of bereavement counseling with grieving and dying persons are discussed as well as the spiritual effects on and growth processes of the bereavement counselors. Participants also describe their self‐care strategies pertaining to their bereavement counseling work.     

Burnout in Spanish physiotherapists

Diverse works on health sciences emphasise the importance of burnout in specific jobs. However, there is a lack of research about the presence of this syndrome in Spanish physiotherapists. The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of burnout among physiotherapists and the relationship with work-related factors. 462 questionnaires were sent to health-centres. The questionnaire of work-related factors was administered, as well as the Maslach burnout inventory (MBI). 258 responses were received (55.8% response rate) from Murcia and Valencia. Regarding results 10 (4%) physiotherapists showed severe burnout. In relation to work-related factors, significant differences were observed. Although the percentage of physiotherapists with severe burnout was relatively low, it is important take into account that the syndrome requires the combined presence of three dimensions, which implies a very relevant situation of mental deterioration.     

Design and power analysis: n and confidence intervals of means

In this study, we analyzed the validity of the conventional 80% power. The minimal sample size and power needed to guarantee non-overlapping (1-alpha)% confidence intervals for population means were calculated. Several simulations indicate that the minimal power for two means (m = 2) to have non-overlapping CIs is .80, for (1-alpha) set to 95%. The minimal power becomes .86 for 99% CIs and .75 for 90% CIs. When multiple means are considered, the required minimal power increases considerably. This increase is even higher when the population means do not increase monotonically. Therefore, the often adopted criterion of a minimal power equal to .80 is not always adequate. Hence, to guarantee that the limits of the CIs do not overlap, most situations require a direct calculation of the minimum number of observations that should enter in a study.     

The easy-to-hard effect in human (Homo sapiens) and rat (Rattus norvegicus) auditory identification

The authors examined whether progressively training humans and rats to perform a difficult auditory identification task led to larger improvements than extensive training with highly similar sounds (the easy-to-hard effect). Practice improved humans' ability to distinguish sounds regardless of the training regimen. However, progressively trained subjects were more accurate and showed more generalization, despite significantly less training with the stimuli that were the most difficult to distinguish. Rats showed less capacity to improve with practice but still benefited from progressive training. These findings indicate that transitioning from an easier to a more difficult task during training can facilitate, and in some cases may be essential for, auditory perceptual learning. The results are not predicted by an explanation that assumes interaction of generalized excitation and inhibition but are consistent with a hierarchical account of perceptual learning in which the representational precision required to distinguish stimuli determines the mechanisms engaged during learning.     

Inventory of Overburden in Alzheimer's Patient Family Caregivers with no Specialized Training

Background/Objective: Alzheimer-type dementia is one of the most frequent causes of dependence in an aging population, which combines with a considerable demand for care. Furthermore, when the caregiver is a family member or person without specialized training, such care impacts on that person's health. The Inventory of Overburden in Alzheimer's Patient Family Caregivers with no Specialized Training (IPSO-CA24) was designed to find out the needs of these caregivers and evaluate the caregiver's burden or distress. Method: The psychometric properties of the questionnaire were analyzed (in a reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory analysis) based on the responses of 255 caregivers. Results: The factor analyses showed a six-factor structure (Reaction to diagnosis, Physical health, Psychological symptomatology (caretaker), Behavioral symptomatology (patient), Knowledge of the illness, and Level of dependence) explaining 66.52% of the total variance with a reliability of .75 to .93. Support was also found for its convergent validity. Conclusions: The IPSO-CA24 responds to the need for an instrument enabling multidimensional evaluation of the burden on the family caregiver without specialized training.     

Implicit and explicit self-esteem discrepancies in paranoia and depression

The main purpose of the present study was to examine implicit and explicit self-esteem (SE) in patients with persecutory delusions. In samples of paranoid patients, depressed patients, and healthy controls, implicit SE was assessed using the experimental go/no-go association task, whereas explicit SE was measured using 2 self-reporting questionnaires: the self-worth subscale of the World Assumption Scale (Janoff-Bulman, 1989) and the self-acceptance subscale of the Scales of Psychological Well-Being (Ryff & Keyes, 1995). Our analysis revealed that depressed patients showed lower explicit SE than did paranoid and healthy control participants. However, participants with persecutory delusions had significantly lower implicit SE scores than did healthy controls. We interpret the discrepancies observed between overt and covert measures in the paranoid group as psychological defense mechanisms. The present study stresses the clinical and theoretical importance of the use of implicit measures in psychopathology.