Psychometric Properties of the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form: A Study of Portuguese Speaking Children/Youths

The development of measures of children and adolescents’ subjective well-being is crucial to the conceptualization and evaluation of positive mental health. The aim of this study was to investigate the factorial structure and invariance of the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF—adolescents) across children and youths. Participants were from two different samples: 208 elementary school children (sample 1) and 216 middle school youths (sample 2). Results confirmed the three-dimensional structure of subjective well-being in both samples. The three sub-scales of the MHCSF yielded high internal consistency and results from the HTMT85 indicated discriminant validity. Measurement invariance testing across three different age groups (7–8, 9–10 and 11–14 years) confirmed the full metric and approximate scalar invariance of the MHC-SF. Full scalar invariance was achieved across gender. The study also compared the latent means for mental well-being in the three age groups, and found that the younger groups showed significantly higher levels of wellbeing. The present research study strongly suggests that the MHC-SF (adolescents) is an appropriate instrument to measure the positive mental health and well-being of children and pre-adolescents as multidimensional construct.     

How religiosity shapes health perceptions and behaviors of Latina immigrants: is it an enabling or prohibitive factor?

The study examines how religiosity shapes the health perceptions and health-related behaviors of 50 Latina immigrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Bolivia. Between May and August 2011, focus groups were conducted with participants representing each country of origin. Qualitative content analysis was the analytic strategy adopted in the study. The meta-theme, Religiosity Contributes to Positive Perceptions of Health and Health-Promoting Behaviors, is associated with six emerging themes: (1) Religiosity promotes a sense of personal responsibility for one’s health; (2) Religiosity promotes a holistic view of health; (3) Religiosity promotes the view that health is a priority; (4) Religiosity promotes the view that health enables one to perform necessary tasks; (5) Religiosity promotes health-seeking behavior; and (6) Religiosity provides intrinsic health benefits. Findings do not follow the clear-cut dichotomy of the health locus of control model and challenge simplified notions that Latinas hold a purely external health locus of control toward their health and health care. Latinas rely on both God and themselves in managing their health and engaging in health-promoting actions, which are prompted in large part by their religiosity. Implications for culturally appropriate health communication and interventions are discussed.     

Autopoietic enactivism,phenomenology and the deep continuity between life and mind

In their recent book Radicalizing Enactivism. Basic minds without content, Dan Hutto and Erik Myin (H&M) make two important criticisms of what they call autopoietic enactivism (AE). These two criticisms are that AE harbours tacit representationalists commitments and that it has too liberal a conception of cognition. Taking the latter claim as its main focus, this paper explores the theoretical underpinnings of AE in order to tease out how it might respond to H&M. In so doing it uncovers some reasons which not only appear to warrant H&M’s initial claims but also seem to point to further uneasy tensions within the AE framework. The paper goes beyond H&M by tracing the roots of these criticisms and apparent tensions to phenomenology and the role it plays in AE’s distinctive conception of strong life-mind continuity. It is highlighted that this phenomenological dimension of AE contains certain unexamined anthropomorphic and anthropogenic leanings which do not sit comfortably within its wider commitment to life-mind continuity. In light of this analysis it is suggested that AE will do well to rethink this role or ultimately run the risk of remaining theoretically unstable. The paper aims to contribute to the ongoing theoretical development of AE by highlighting potential internal tensions within its framework which need to be addressed in order for it to continue to evolve as a coherent paradigm.     

Work-Related Flow Dimensions differentially Predict Anxiety,Life Satisfaction,and Work Longevity among Filipino Counselors

Flow at work was associated with optimal psychological outcomes in the organizational setting. However, previous studies have concentrated on work-related flow as an outcome rather than a catalyst of positive psychological functioning. Further, the differential impact of work-related flow domains on key outcomes was still uncharted. To address this empirical gap, the current investigation examined work-related flow dimensions as differential predictors of anxiety, life satisfaction, and work longevity among 133 Filipino guidance counselors. The results of hierarchical regression analyses have shown that work enjoyment served as a robust predictor of anxiety, life satisfaction and work longevity even after controlling for the influence of relevant demographic variables. Absorption positively predicted work longevity. However, intrinsic work motivation did not predict any outcome. Discussion points revolved around the unique theoretical contributions of the current study to the foregoing work-related flow theory and concrete practical implications to emphasize the psychological benefits of work-flow especially in the field of counseling.     

When the victim is one among others: Empathy,awareness of others and motivational ambivalence

Feeling empathy for one person in need while being aware of others may increase the motivational ambivalence between the motive of helping the one and the motive of helping the others, and such motivational ambivalence may reduce the helping directed to the person in need. To test these hypotheses we carried out three studies in which participants were faced with a real case of a child in need. In Study 1, empathy, awareness of others and motivational ambivalence were allowed to occur naturally and subsequently measured. In Study 2, empathy and awareness of others were experimentally manipulated, and motivational ambivalence measured. In Study 3, we tested how empathy and motivational ambivalence influenced an actual helping decision. Taken together, the results supported our two hypotheses. The present research offers insight into processes not previously considered in the research, but which may influence decisions about assistance to others in need.     

Being Human: Experiencing and Communicating

Haye’s article Living being and speaking being highlights a confusion that the traditional cognitive science has been making between cognition and representation, reducing semantics (meaning) to the syntax (computation with symbols). This traditional view cannot fully grasp the dependence of meaning on the relational context, opening space for the need to take into account the Bakhtinian notions of responsivity and addressivity to an other as defining features of the communicational social act. Socialized signs are conceived here as central tools to our relation to the world and to the others. We pursue some of the implications of this radical dialogical commitment specifying their implications to an ontological level of human beings: relationships are the ground for the depiction of human beings and otherness as a necessary complementarity of our own existence.     

VALCOR: A program for estimating standard error, confidence intervals, and probability of corrected validity

VALCOR is a Turbo-Basic program that corrects the observed (uncorrected) validity coefficients for criterion and predictor unreliability and range restriction in the predictor. Furthermore, using the formulas for the standard error of functions of correlations derived by Bobko and Rieck (1980), the program provides an estimation of the standard error, the confidence intervals, and the probability of the corrected validity coefficients. In this way, the probability and the boundaries of the corrected validity coefficients may be reported together with the probability of the uncorrected validity coefficients. The results are presented on the computer screen and may be saved in an external file.