Workplace mobbing and effects on workers' health

In this work, we analyze various consequences of the phenomenon of mobbing on the health of a work sector with special characteristics: the agro fruit sector. For this purpose, we collected data from a sample of 396 workers (61 men and 331 women) belonging to this sector in the Region of Murcia (Spain). A questionnaire with the following measurement instruments was administered: a Spanish adaptation of the revised Negative Acts Questionnaire (Sáez, García, & Llor, 2003), the Psychosomatic Problems Questionnaire (Hock, 1988), and a measure of absenteeism. The results revealed a significant and positive relation between workplace mobbing and psychosomatic symptoms, but not with absenteeism. The implications of the results for future research are discussed.     

Psychometric properties of the Death Anxiety Scale (DAS) among HIV/AIDS patients

AIDS patients and HIV carriers who are aware of their condition are under multiple kinds of stress with adverse effects on their emotional state and personal and social activity. This paper reports the psychometric properties of the DAS (Death Anxiety Scale) using the Spanish version in the clinical setting. The sample is made up of 148 HIV/AIDS patients (109 men and 39 women). The internal consistency of the scale was .72 and its test-retest reliability was .70. Principal components analysis extracted five factors that jointly accounted for 56.5% of the total variance. As, on the whole, these results are very similar to those reported by other authors, it is concluded that the Spanish DAS is a valid instrument for the assessment of death anxiety in Spanish HIV/AIDS patients.     

Psychometric properties of the Escala de Autoeficacia para el Afrontamiento del Estrés (EAEAE)

This paper presents the theoretical construct of and an instrument for its assessment, the Escala de Autoeficacia para el Afrontamiento del Estrés (EAEAE; in English, Coping with Stress Self-Efficacy Scale), as well as the results obtained concerning its psychometric properties from an adult population. 812 individuals, aged 18 to 64 years old ( M = 26.46, SD = 9.93, 62.6% females and 37.4% males), recruited from various contexts, participated in this study. Participants completed the EAEAE along with other measures of constructs theoretically related to this specific self-efficacy. The EAEAE shows appropriate reliability in its complete form as well as in its two subscales of Efficacy Expectations and Outcome Expectations, and adequate factorial construct validity (which reveals the bi-dimensionality of the instrument), and convergent validity with the remaining measures. The characteristics of brevity and ease of application of the scale, in addition to its adequate psychometric properties, indicate that the EAEAE is an appropriate tool to assess and investigate coping with stress self-efficacy in research as well as clinical settings.     

Cynicism: a differential coping strategy as a function of gender

The main objective of the present study is to analyse the role of cynicism as a coping strategy in the process of burnout, considering gender as a key variable in this process. The sample comprised 555 teachers from Spanish primary and secondary schools. A two-wave panel study was carried out: data were gathered during the first term and again during the third and last term of the academic year. Several t-tests for independent samples and moderated hierarchical regression analysis were carried out. Results showed that women have a higher level of exhaustion than men, whereas men have a higher level of cynicism than women. Furthermore, cynicism has a direct and positive effect on exhaustion for women. In the case of men, cynicism is not an effective coping strategy but it has some buffering effect on exhaustion. Thus, a high level of cynicism seems to lead to a lower increase of exhaustion. Results, contributions, and limitations of the present study are discussed.     

Classification statistical techniques: an applied and comparative study

The aim of this article is to assess and compare three classification statistical techniques--logistic regression, discriminant analysis and classification trees--to identify the personality characteristics associated with the risk of suffering from ischemic cardiovascular acute episodes (ICAE). The sample comprised 313 participants, men and women, aged from 36 to 80. Participants were divided into two groups: a clinical group of patients (n = 143) who were diagnosed as suffering from ICAE, and a control group (n = 170). Both groups were equated in gender, age, socio-economic and educational level. In view of the comparative study of the analytical procedures, we recommend classification trees as the best choice, as it was the most accurate for the individuals in the clinical group, a simple data analysis and a meaningful clinical interpretation. The predictive validity analysis of the MCMI-II allowed the construction of a reduced version made up of 9 personality scales from the 22 scales in the original version. Thus, we could identify the patients with a higher probability of suffering from ICAE, and additionally, generate an empirical model comprising seven and five personality profiles associated, respectively, with the increase and the decrease of the probability of suffering from ICAE.     

Life stressors, emotional avoidance and breast cancer

Two groups of women were assessed in psychological aspects considered by some authors of interest for personal well-being. The sample consisted of 118 women, 58 diagnosed with breast cancer and 60 healthy women, of similar ages and personal circumstances. The purpose of the study was: (a) to explore the existence of stressful life events in the women's history and their degree of subjective distress and (b) to determine whether or not there is an emotional avoidance style in the group of women with breast cancer. The following assessment instruments were employed: the "Cuestionario de Formas de Afrontamiento" (CEA), the Five-Factor Inventory NEO-PI-R, and the State-Trait Anger Inventory (STAXI). The results revealed more stressful vital events in the last two years in the group of women with breast cancer and significant differences in the degree of current distress. They also obtained higher scores in current anger, resignation, and neuroticism.     

Quality of Life and General Health Perception in Women with Obesity

The purpose of this study was to determine the differences in general health status and quality of life between patients who present “non-normative eating behaviours” (namely, binge eating disorder, night eating syndrome, sweet /fat food cravings and continuous nibbling) and patients without these eating behaviour characteristics. A cohort of 168 women with obesity, all candidates to bariatric surgery, aged between 15 and 65 (M = 39.04; SD = 10.86), with a body mass index ranging between 30.37 and 80.65 (M = 48.79; SD = 8.37), was studied. Participants answered to a clinical interview, to SF-36 and to ORWELL-97, after their informed consent. Results suggest that women with obesity reporting binge eating disorder, night eating syndrome and continuous nibbling show poorer general health status and worst quality of life than those who do not present these “non-normative eating behaviours”. Moreover, the general health status and the quality of life of patients with sweet/fat food cravings do not differ from those who do not report this eating behaviour. Nevertheless, patients reporting the eating behaviours studied do not differ from the others regarding their body mass index.     

A process analysis of linguistic change

In this paper a process analysis of linguistic change is shown through the methodology of task analysis. From the linguistic therapy of evaluation will be shown the relevance of an intensional orientation for human evaluation problems and the relevance of an extensional orientation for more proper evaluations, along with some other therapeutic operations which represent how human beings use language and how language's use is modified with one of the main techniques of the linguistic therapy of evaluation: the abstraction orders. Also the relevance for the evolvement of cognitive psychotherapy of following a process research methodology will be discussed and addressed. The state of the art of cognitive psychotherapy will be greatly influenced by process research methodology which helps us to delineate the process of change and that combined with outcome research will improve our cognitive theories and methods.