Reconsidering Life Domains that Contribute to Subjective Well-Being Among Adolescents with Data from Three Countries

Several theoretical models and testing procedures are presented with the aim of identifying the most relevant items and domains to include in a model for evaluating adolescents’ subjective well-being, above and beyond those usually included in adults’ scales. Data were collected in three countries based on a list of 30 items regarding adolescents’ satisfaction with different domains or facets of life. Responses to these 30 items (including Personal Well-Being Index and Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale items) have been analysed by means of Confirmatory Factor Analysis using different Structural Equation Models (SEM) on a pooled sample comprising 5,316 twelve to sixteen-year-olds from Spain, Brazil and Chile. Several models have shown good enough fit statistics. A model using 14 items shows excellent fit statistics and is conceptually coherent. However, the inclusion or non-inclusion of items related to satisfaction with religion or spirituality results in both advantages and disadvantages when comparing the alternative models analysed. The relevance of including these items may therefore depend on the socio-cultural context where data are collected and their inclusion makes cross-country comparison more statistically challenging. The 14-item model has also been tested using multigroup SEM in order to check comparability of data among the three countries. All things considered, multigroup models have shown good fit with constrained loadings, but not with constrained loadings and intercepts, suggesting we can compare correlations and regressions among countries, but not means. Additional multigroup SEM with the five age groups available from the pooled sample have demonstrated that responses—and means—are comparable across different age groups during early adolescence.     

The shapes associated with approach/avoidance words

People prefer curved and symmetrical shapes to their angular and asymmetrical counterparts. While it is known that stimulus valence is central to approach and avoidance motivation, the exact nature of the relationship between curvature/symmetry and approach/avoidance motivation still needs to be clarified. Experiment 1 was designed to investigate whether simple shapes are associated with approach and avoidance words. Participants found it easier to match more symmetrical shapes with approach words. In Experiment 2, symmetry was differentially associated with approach words and was rated significantly higher on the approach dimension than asymmetry. Next, we assessed whether object valence and object curvature (Experiment 3) or symmetry (Experiment 4) would lead to different associations to approach and avoidance words. Only object valence had a significant influence on participants’ ratings, with the positively-valenced objects being more closely associated with approach words than their negatively-valenced counterparts. These results highlight the complex relation between visual properties of objects, their valence, and appetitive and aversive categories.     

Testimonial Engagement: Undocumented Latina Mothers Navigating a Gendered Deportation Regime

This community-based qualitative study investigated the real or threatened impact of immigration enforcement on undocumented mothers as they navigate a “gendered deportation regime.” We analyzed seven interviews with undocumented mothers who have experienced the deportation of someone close to them and live under the constant threat of deportation. Based on an inductive, team-based analysis process, we present case examples of four themes that illustrate how undocumented mothers describe their experience negotiating the aftermath and threat of deportation: quality of life, material possibilities, balancing the social, and engaging with advocacy networks. Findings expand on previous research emphasizing the impact of “deportability” on the everyday lives of undocumented immigrants by attending to gendered aspects of immigration enforcement. As a collaborative research team composed of social work faculty, graduate students, and immigrant rights activists, we also critically engage with our attempts to meld research and community organizing in order to illustrate challenges that scholars and social service practitioners face when working with undocumented populations.     

Do Pro-environmental Behaviors and Awareness Contribute to Improve Subjective Well-being?

In this paper, we study the influence of both environmental awareness and behaviors on subjective well-being (SWB). By using ordered logit techniques in a sample from Granada, a city in southern Spain, we find that concern about the environment and voluntary work actions to preserve it are relevant for SWB. When both are combined, namely when a person is concerned and volunteers, the influence on SWB is greater. These results introduce the SWB dimension in the knowledge-concern-action paradox, which states that even if the individual is concerned about the environment, this concern does not always translate into personal action to preserve it. Actions such as habits related to water saving inside the household are not significant in explaining SWB, but using devices that save water increases it. In summary, our results suggest that actions and awareness have either a positive or no significant influence on SWB, but never a negative influence.     

The Incomplete Tyranny of Dynamic Stimuli: Gaze Similarity Predicts Response Similarity in Screen-Captured Instructional Videos

Although eye tracking has been used extensively to assess cognitions for static stimuli, recent research suggests that the link between gaze and cognition may be more tenuous for dynamic stimuli such as videos. Part of the difficulty in convincingly linking gaze with cognition is that in dynamic stimuli, gaze position is strongly influenced by exogenous cues such as object motion. However, tests of the gaze-cognition link in dynamic stimuli have been done on only a limited range of stimuli often characterized by highly organized motion. Also, analyses of cognitive contrasts between participants have been mostly been limited to categorical contrasts among small numbers of participants that may have limited the power to observe more subtle influences. We, therefore, tested for cognitive influences on gaze for screen-captured instructional videos, the contents of which participants were tested on. Between-participant scanpath similarity predicted between-participant similarity in responses on test questions, but with imperfect consistency across videos. We also observed that basic gaze parameters and measures of attention to centers of interest only inconsistently predicted learning, and that correlations between gaze and centers of interest defined by other-participant gaze and cursor movement did not predict learning. It, therefore, appears that the search for eye movement indices of cognition during dynamic naturalistic stimuli may be fruitful, but we also agree that the tyranny of dynamic stimuli is real, and that links between eye movements and cognition are highly dependent on task and stimulus properties.     

Communication of Information about Genetic Risks: Putting Families at the Center

Genetic information is a family affair. With the expansion of genomic technologies, many new causal genes and variants have been established and the potential for molecular diagnoses increased, with implications not only for patients but also their relatives. The need for genetic counseling and intrafamilial circulation of information on genetic risks grew accordingly. Also, the amount and, particularly, the complexity of the information to convey multiplied. Sharing information about genetic risks with family members, however, has never been an easy matter and often becomes a source of personal and familial conflicts and distress. Ethical requisites generally prevent healthcare professionals from directly contacting their consultands' relatives (affected or still at risk), who often feel unsupported throughout that process. We discuss here the communication of genetic risks to family members. We first consider genomic testing as a basis for family‐centered health care, as opposed to a predominant focus on the individual. We reviewed the literature on sharing genetic risk information with family members, and the associated ethical issues for professionals. Some clinical cases are presented and discussed, and key issues for meeting the needs of individuals and families are addressed. We argue that genetic information is inextricably linked to the family and that communicating about genetic risks is a process grounded within the broader milieu of family relationships and functioning. We conclude for the need for a more family‐centered approach and interventions that can promote sensitive attitudes to the provision of genetic information to and within the family, as well as its inclusion in educational and training programmes for genetic healthcare professionals.     

Modulator effect of socio-emotional variables on training in elaboration strategies in Compulsory Secondary Education (CSE): paraphrase and applications

The purpose of this work is to verify the modulation of motivation, self-concept, and causal attributions in the efficacy of a training program of strategies to elaborate information in the stage of Compulsory Secondary Education (CSE). We selected 328 students from CSE, 179 from second grade and 149 from fourth grade, and three measurement moments: pretest, posttest, and follow-up. The results indicate greater use of learning strategies by students with higher intrinsic motivation, in contrast to students with higher extrinsic motivation, who use learning strategies less frequently. With regard to self-concept, the results differ as a function of the course. In second grade, we found modulation of the variable Academic self-concept, whereas in fourth grade, such modulation is produced by General self-concept and Private self-concept. In general, there is a tendency towards more enduring significant improvements in students with medium and high self-concept, especially in their perception of the use of strategies or in complex tasks that involve relating the contents to be learned with experiences from their daily life. However, students with low self-concept significantly improve strategies associated with learning how to perform specific tasks.     

Role of TRPV1 in consolidation of fear memories depends on the averseness of the conditioning procedure

Despite the fact that TRPV1 receptors are widely expressed in brain structures such as the hippocampus, its functions remain largely unknown. In the present study, we have investigated the possible modulatory role of the hippocampal endovanilloid system upon memory consolidation of two different behavioral tasks in rats. Post-training infusion of the TRPV1 antagonist capsazepine disrupted memory consolidation with a strong training protocol, but not with a weak one in the contextual fear conditioning or in the step-down inhibitory avoidance task. These results provide evidence that the modulation of the hippocampal memory consolidation through TRPV1 receptors takes place only in presence of a strong emotional experience, suggesting that a certain aversiveness level is required in order to recruit endovanilloids to exert this function. A possible synergic role of hippocampal endovanilloid and endocannabinoid system on memory consolidation is discussed.     

Homing in rocky intertidal fish. Are Lipophrys pholis L. able to perform true navigation?

Although navigation is common in many animals, only a few perform true navigation, meaning that they have the ability to return to a given place by relying on indirect cues obtained at the release site (i.e., by relying on information from a “map and compass” mechanism). The common intertidal fish, Lipophrys pholis, is thought to have homing abilities through a mechanism that primarily makes use of familiar landmarks (i.e., piloting). Anecdotal reports that individuals return to their home pools after release at unfamiliar sites suggest that L. pholis might use cues collected at the release site to find their way back (i.e., they might use map and compass information). Using a completely artificial setup, we tested the homing abilities of L. pholis as a function of age, sex, and familiarity with the release site. The findings showed that motivation for homing is present only in the adult phase and is independent of sex and/or familiarity with the release site. Moreover, adults released at a completely unfamiliar place oriented themselves in a direction roughly similar to that of their home pools. The fact that L. pholis were tested in a complete artificial environment means that hydrodynamic cues can be excluded as playing a role in this process and restricts the candidate options (e.g., magnetic cues). The ability to perform navigation based on a “map and compass” mechanism raises many interesting questions about the learning process, once these individuals have restricted home ranges during their lives. In vertebrate navigation, the cues used during the navigation process are a question of debate, and L. pholis offers an outstanding model to test hypotheses and ultimately provide answers.     

Psycholinguistic variables involved in concept recall from the successive presentation of features / Variables psicolingüísticas involucradas en la evocación de conceptos a partir de la presentación de atributos sucesivos

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyse the psycholinguistic variables of the attributes and concepts involved in the recall of a concept. One hundred and twenty adults (18–40 years old) participated. A lexical recall task was administered by presenting a successive list of defining attributes. Forty concepts from different semantic categories were used. The attributes were obtained empirically from local Semantic Features Production Norms. The influence of the characteristics and attributes of the concepts on the number of participants who accessed the name of the concept and the correct guess trend was analysed. Significant values for Age of Acquisition, Presence of Distinctive Attributes and Presence of Taxonomic Attributes were observed. Results show that concepts which are acquired earliest are more easily recalled; presenting taxonomic categories narrows the search and the presence of distinctive attributes allow differentiating between such concepts within a category.