Understanding Cancer Patients’ Narratives: Meaning-Making Process,Temporality, and Modal Articulation

Temporality is a fundamental dimension of each narrative process of meaning making. In fact, the narration constructs and organizes temporal frames that connect one's own experiences. From this point of view, oncological illness is experienced as a traumatic experience that interrupts the sense of continuity of one's own life, resulting in the configuration of different temporal frames, which are not always able to support the processes of elaboration of this experience. The aim of this article is to explore the way the modal verbal predicates (must, can, will, know) are organized and work in relation to the representation of time in narrations of cancer patients. The modal verbal predicates—introducing the meanings of possibility, knowledge, will, desire, duty, need, or ability—allow us to organize the relationship between the subject, action, and context. Six narrations of cancer experience were analyzed—one for each time frame (linear, circular, fragmentary, static, cyclic, and spiral) proposed by Brockmeier (2000)—by means of quali-quantitative analysis of the use of modal verbs. Narrations show specific modal positioning: dispersion, plasticity, focusing, rigidity, and poverty. It is possible organize them along a continuum from plasticity to rigidity. The modal plasticity is the capacity to reconfigure a new temporal relation between subject and context, whereas modal rigidity shows a repetition of a specific and same modality in connecting subject and context. This preliminary research allows us to reflect about some possible clinical implications to support and foster processes of meaning making of cancer conditions.     

Persistence of Traumatic Symptoms After Seven Years: Evidence from Young Individuals Exposed to the L’Aquila Earthquake

In this article, we investigated the presence of trauma-induced sequelae in a sample of 41 young individuals exposed to the L’Aquila earthquake who did not seek mental help in the aftermath of the disaster or in the ensuing months. We compared this group with 43 individuals, matched for age and education, who had not experienced an earthquake but had moved to and lived in L’Aquila after the earthquake and thus experienced the challenges of living in an earthquake-struck city. This study aimed to show that earthquake-exposed individuals scored significantly higher than nonexposed persons on certain scales of the Trauma Symptom Inventory (TSI) seven years after the event. Our results indicated that exposed individuals exhibited higher scores on the dissociation, intrusive experience, and defensive avoidance scales. Furthermore, a correlational analysis between specific conditions detected by the Earthquake Checklist L’Aquila (ECLA) and the TSI identified the influences of specific conditions, such as being trapped or injured under rubble during the earthquake, experiencing a persistent fear of aftershocks or a life-threatening feeling, and witnessing the death of a loved one. All of these experiences resulted in the persistence of trauma-related symptoms. Dissociative experiences during the trauma, cognitive and behavioral avoidance and reexperiencing were associated with negative effects and may hinder the natural process of recovery in trauma-exposed individuals. Knowledge of mid- and long-term psychological difficulties following a traumatic event may be useful for promoting interventions in mental health across exposed populations.     

Associations Among Psychologically Controlling Parenting,Autonomy, Relatedness,and Problem Behaviors During Emerging Adulthood

The present study aimed to investigate the relations among perceived parental psychological control (PPC), autonomy and relatedness, and negative outcomes during emerging adulthood in two cultural contexts: Italy and the USA. More specifically, we explored the mechanisms through which dependency-oriented PPC (DPPC) and achievement-oriented PPC (APPC) are associated with both internalizing and externalizing difficulties, focusing on the mediating role of autonomy and relatedness. Participants were 418 European-American and 359 Italian college students. Results indicated that the expressions of PPC with regard to dependency and achievement were related to emerging adults’ negative outcomes through different pathways, and these effects were moderated by the cultural group. The implications of the findings for future related empirical investigations and clinical interventions were discussed.     

Effects of spatial food distribution on search behavior in rats (Rattus norvegicus)

To analyze how search strategies are adapted according to the geometric distribution of food sources, the authors submitted rats to a search task in which they had to explore 9 food trays in an open field and avoid visiting already-depleted trays. Trays were spatially arranged in 4 independent configurations: a cross, a 3 x 3 matrix, 3 clusters of 3 trays each, and a random configuration. Rats exhibited differential search efficiency as a specific effect of the susceptibility of the configurations to being explored in a principled way: crosses were first, matrices or clusters were in the middle, and random configurations were last. Although no exhaustive searches or highly principled patterns were observed in any of the configurations, performances improved as the sessions went by. Thus, structural affordances of the environment influence the construction not only of search strategies but also of information linked to where the reward is.     

Affective interactions using virtual reality: the link between presence and emotions.

Many studies showed the ability of movies and imagery techniques to elicit emotions. Nevertheless, it is less clear how to manipulate the content of interactive media to induce specific emotional responses. In particular, this is true for the emerging medium virtual reality (VR), whose main feature is the ability to induce a feeling of "presence" in the computer-generated world experienced by the user. The main goal of this study was to analyze the possible use of VR as an affective medium. Within this general goal, the study also analyzed the relationship between presence and emotions. The results confirmed the efficacy of VR as affective medium: the interaction with "anxious" and "relaxing" virtual environments produced anxiety and relaxation. The data also showed a circular interaction between presence and emotions: on one side, the feeling of presence was greater in the "emotional" environments; on the other side, the emotional state was influenced by the level of presence. The significance of these results for the assessment of affective interaction is discussed.     

Bodily expressions,feelings, and the direct perception account of social cognition

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences - In this paper, I will argue in favor of a direct perception account of social cognition (DP), focusing on the idea that we can directly grasp at least...     

Adolescents’ Body Shame and Social Networking Sites: The Mediating Effect of Body Image Control in Photos

Adolescents’ social networking site (SNS) use has dramatically grown in the past few years and has increasingly become focused on pictures and visual self-presentation. Attention directed toward online physical appearance appears to trigger some body-related behaviors (e.g., body image monitoring) which potentially are related to self-objectification and problematic SNS use. Indeed, the use of social media platforms (including the active creation of content and peer interactions) provides a highly accessible medium for socializing with self-objectification. The present study evaluated the previously unexplored predictive role of body shame on SNS use, testing the mediating effect of body image control in photos on SNS. A total of 693 Italian adolescents (45% male; M_age?=?16 years, range?=?13–19 years) participated in the study. Results only partially confirmed the direct effect of body shame on problematic SNS use. However, body shame strongly predicted body image control in SNS photos, leading indirectly to both male and female adolescents’ problematic social media use. The study demonstrated novel findings in the field of self-objectification research and contributes toward the ongoing debate on possible predictors of problematic SNS use.