New strategies in the assessment of psychological factors affecting medical conditions

In this article, we examine research that may lead to a better assessment of psychological factors affecting medical conditions. We performed a review of the psychosomatic literature using both Medline and manual searches. We selected papers that were judged to be relevant to new strategies of assessment, with particular reference to the use of the Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research. We assessed 8 areas concerned with the assessment of psychological factors in the setting of medical disease: hypochondriasis, disease phobia, persistent somatization, conversion symptoms, illness denial, demoralization, irritable mood, and Type A behavior. A new subclassification of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed. [DSM-V]; not yet published) category of psychological factors affecting physical conditions appears to be feasible and may provide the clinician with better tools for identifying psychological distress.     

Internet addiction disorder: an Italian study.

The Italian version of the Young's Internet Addiction Test (IAT) was administered online to a sample of Italian chatters (n = 236) who were different in terms of gender, age, and occupation. Results revealed that young users are more at-risk subjects for Internet addiction than adults, perceiving a compromised social and individual quality of their life that led them to make a compensatory usage of the Internet. Similarly, employed users perceive their social and individual quality of life as more compromised by the Internet than students. Moreover, subjects who declared spending much time online obtained IAT scores higher than others in all the IAT subscales. Finally, nightly users are more at-risk subjects for developing an Internet addiction disorder, diminishing their individual quality of life and disabling their time control.     

Yawning frequency and distribution in preterm and near term infants assessed throughout 24-h recordings

Yawning has been observed in foetuses and preterm infants. The aim of this study was to assess the frequency and the 24 h distribution of yawning in preterm infants.Twelve low-risk infants between 31 and 40 weeks of post-conceptional age (PCA) were continuously video-recorded for 24 h in their incubator. Spontaneous yawning was defined as opening of the mouth to its full extension in a dramatic stretch movement.The results showed that the rate of yawning across the 24-h period was 1.10/h. The highest incidence of yawns was in the waking motility pattern when compared to active sleep or quiet sleep motility patterns.Between 31 and 40 weeks, yawn incidence significantly decreased mainly during the day. The marked decrease in yawn frequency with age may be related to the development of circadian and homeostatic control of sleep and wake.     

Psychopathological profile of battered women according to age

In this paper, differential psychopathological consequences in battered women according to age were analysed in a sample of 148 victims seeking psychological treatment in a Family Violence Centre. The younger victims exposed to intimate partner violence suffered more often from physical violence and were at higher risk for their lives than the older ones. The prevalence rate of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was higher (42%) in the younger victims than in the older ones (27%). Likewise, younger victims were affected by more depressive symptoms and lower self-esteem than the older ones. The severity of PTSD in the younger victims was related to the presence of forced sexual relationship but in the older ones, it was related to the perceived threat to their lives. Implications of this study for clinical practice and future research in this field are commented upon.     

Lexical decomposition of complex Kanji characters in Japanese readers

Summary The study investigates the question whether during recognition of a complex Kanji character readers also access the meaning of opaque components of the character. The experiment used a speeded semantic-categorization task of two characters, in which readers were requested to decide whether two characters represented words related in meaning or not. The control pairs consisted of (a) graphically similar, but semantically unrelated, characters, and (b) a simple character and a complex character, of which the simple character was a component (part-whole relation), the two characters being again semantically unrelated. The critical pairs consisted of two characters unrelated in meaning, one of which contained an opaque component element related in meaning to the other character. A corresponding trial with English and its alphabetic system would be to ask a subject to decide whether boycott is related in meaning to girl or not. In this condition the subject is expected to give a No response, but if the pseudocomponent boy is activated, interference could occur. (If boy is recovered during recognition of the pseudocompound boycott, the appropriate No response for boycott-girl could become more difficult to take.) The result of the experiment indicated interference in all three conditions (graphically similar characters, part-whole related characters, and opaque-component related characters. Thus, in an analogous task with alphabetic material, it would be more difficult to say No about the existence of a semantic relation between (a) tree and free, (b) boy and boycott, and (c) boycott and girl. The last result can be interpreted as offering evidence for the activation of the opaque component upon recognition of the complex character.This account is somewhat oversimplified. It is not always easy to determine which is a radical in a complex character. A higher radical can in fact be a combination of a lower radical with the addition of one or more strokes.     

Language as a cultural vessel in online servicescapes: Its impact on consumers' perceived risk,attitudes, and behavioural intentions

Globalisation and the broader use of the Internet have led both academia and professionals to dedicate a great deal of attention to the analysis of the cultural differences that exist within a market and between different markets. Language emerges as a relevant issue in current marketing and communication management environments, especially in online servicescape. Following this premise, the current paper examines the role of language as a vessel of cultural values, namely, individualism and uncertainty avoidance, and its impact on consumer's perceived risk, attitudes, and behavioural intentions in online servicescape. To address this objective, an experimental design was performed. The sample comprised 491 Internet users from 2 different national cultures (British and Spanish). Users were asked to browse an experimental website in their native or first language, whereas the other half of the sample browsed in their second language (British subjects browsing in Spanish and vice versa). The unique contribution of this study lies in demonstrating that online information processing is moderated by the language by which users elaborate information and their cultural values in terms of the dimensions of individualism and uncertainty avoidance. The findings provide valuable insights into the role of language in international marketing strategies, as well as in multicultural and cross‐cultural integrated marketing communications. In this regard, marketers must acknowledge the symbolic cues of language and the competitive advantage that might derive from a strategic language choice to evoke emotions and forge attitudes that are consistent with brand and corporate values.