Validity and Reliability of the French Versions of the Body Shape Questionnaire

The validity of the 34-item and shortened versions of the Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ) has been evaluated in various languages. To date, only the validity of the 34-item French BSQ scale has been tested in a nonclinical sample. This study assessed the reliability and validity of the 34-item French BSQ and 7 shortened versions in clinical and nonclinical samples. The 34-item French BSQ was administered to 159 obese women with and without binge eating disorders and to 1,169 female undergraduate students. The results suggested that the BSQ–8B was the best French BSQ to use in nonclinical and clinical samples.     

Dual Equivalent Two-valued Under-determined and Over-determined Interpretations for Łukasiewicz’s 3-valued Logic Ł3

?ukasiewicz three-valued logic ?3 is often understood as the set of all 3-valued valid formulas according to ?ukasiewicz’s 3-valued matrices. Following Wojcicki, in addition, we shall consider two alternative interpretations of ?3: “well-determined” ?3a and “truth-preserving” ?3b defined by two different consequence relations on the 3-valued matrices. The aim of this paper is to provide (by using Dunn semantics) dual equivalent two-valued under-determined and over-determined interpretations for ?3, ?3a and ?3b. The logic ?3 is axiomatized as an extension of Routley and Meyer’s basic positive logic following Brady’s strategy for axiomatizing many-valued logics by employing two-valued under-determined or over-determined interpretations. Finally, it is proved that “well determined” ?ukasiewicz logics are paraconsistent.     

Religious Beliefs or Physicians’ Behavior: What Makes a Patient More Prone to Accept a Physician to Address His/Her Spiritual Issues?

The present study aims to understand the relation between religious beliefs, physicians’ behavior and patients’ opinions regarding “Spirituality, religiosity and health (S/R)” issues, and what makes a patient more prone to accept a physician to address his/her spiritual issues. A cross-sectional study was carried out in outpatients from a tertiary hospital, and a path analysis was used to examine the direct and indirect relationships between the variables. For the final analysis, 300 outpatients were evaluated. Most patients would like their doctors to address S/R issues but did not feel comfortable to ask them. In contrast, they reported most doctors have never addressed S/R issues, and they believe doctors are not prepared to address these issues. The path analysis revealed that patients’ previous experiences with their doctors may be as important as their religious/spiritual beliefs in proneness to accept a physician to address his/her spiritual issues.     

Acculturation Preference Profiles of Spaniards and Romanian Immigrants: The Role of Prejudice and Public and Private Acculturation Areas

The main goal of this study was to identify acculturation preference profiles using cluster analysis in public and private areas of culture in the host and immigrant populations, and to find out the relationship between these profiles and prejudice levels. Four hundred and ninety-nine Spaniards and 500 Romanians participated in a survey. The sampling of Spaniards was multistage random and the sampling of Romanians was by quota. The results confirm our predictions. Romanians who are less prejudiced against Spaniards prefer assimilation in public areas and integration in private areas. Romanians who are more prejudiced against Spaniards prefer integration in public areas and separation in private areas. Spaniards who are less prejudiced against Romanians prefer integration in both public and private areas. Spaniards who are more prejudiced against Romanians prefer assimilation in both areas.     

Imitation,Impersonation, and Transformation: Using Male Role Models in Films to Promote Maturity

Becoming a man is developmental. Boys model after men in their lives as well as figures they see in the media. When role models are positive, appropriate, and present, boys grow into constructive adults who contribute to society. This article examines how counselors can intentionally help young men mature into well‐grounded and prosocial individuals through the use of models in films. It provides a list of some movies that counselors can use in the process.     

Psychodynamische Kurzzeittherapie bei dependenter und vermeidender Persönlichkeitsstörung

Although dependent and avoidant personality disorders are frequent in patient populations, there are only few studies in which the efficacy of psychotherapeutic interventions for these two personality disorders was reviewed. The purpose of this study was to examine whether psychodynamic short-term therapy based on the model of the cyclic maladaptive pattern (CMP) is effective for reducing the mental impairment of patients diagnosed with a dependent or an avoidant personality disorder. Data were collected via a self-report scale (Symptom-Checklist, SCL) and expert ratings by therapists [Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) Scale and Severity of Impairment-Score (Beeinträchtigungsschwere-Score, BSS)]. In the study 20 patients received 25 sessions of outpatient therapy. Mental impairment decreased significantly from the beginning to the end of the therapy; moreover this decrease remained stable over a 2-year period following completion of the therapy. The findings show that psychodynamic short-term therapy can lead to an enduring improvement in the mental health of patients with a dependent or an avoidant personality disorder.     

Neuroticism and extraversion are associated with amygdala resting-state functional connectivity

The personality traits neuroticism and extraversion are differentially related to socioemotional functioning and susceptibility to affective disorders. However, the neurobiology underlying this differential relationship is still poorly understood. This discrepancy could perhaps best be studied by adopting a brain connectivity approach. Whereas the amygdala has repeatedly been linked to neuroticism and extraversion, no study has yet focused on the intrinsic functional architecture of amygdala-centered networks in relation to both traits. To this end, seed-based correlation analysis was employed to reveal amygdala resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) and its associations with neuroticism and extraversion in 50 healthy participants. Higher neuroticism scores were associated with increased amygdala RSFC with the precuneus, and decreased amygdala RSFC with the temporal poles, insula, and superior temporal gyrus (p < .05, cluster corrected). Conversely, higher extraversion scores were associated with increased amygdala RSFC with the putamen, temporal pole, insula, and several regions of the occipital cortex (p < .05, cluster corrected). The shifts in amygdala RSFC associated with neuroticism may relate to the less-adaptive perception and processing of self-relevant and socioemotional information that is frequently seen in neurotic individuals, whereas the amygdala RSFC pattern associated with extraversion may relate to the heightened reward sensitivity and enhanced socioemotional functioning in extraverts. We hypothesize that the variability in amygdala RSFC observed in the present study could potentially link neuroticism and extraversion to the neurobiology underlying increased susceptibility or resilience to affective disorders.     

The nature of hemispheric specialization for prosody perception

Recent evidence suggests a relative right-hemispheric specialization for emotional prosody perception, whereas linguistic prosody perception is under bilateral control. It is still unknown, however, how the hemispheric specialization for prosody perception might arise. Two main hypotheses have been put forward. Cue-dependent hypotheses, on the one hand, propose that hemispheric specialization is driven by specialization for the non-prosody-specific processing of acoustic cues. The functional lateralization hypothesis, on the other hand, proposes that hemispheric specialization is dependent on the communicative function of prosody, with emotional and linguistic prosody processing being lateralized to the right and left hemispheres, respectively. In the present study, the functional lateralization hypothesis of prosody perception was systematically tested by instructing one group of participants to evaluate the emotional prosody, and another group the linguistic prosody dimension of bidimensional prosodic stimuli in a dichotic-listening paradigm, while event-related potentials were recorded. The results showed that the right-ear advantage was associated with decreased latencies for an early negativity in the contralateral hemisphere. No evidence was found for functional lateralization. These findings suggest that functional lateralization effects for prosody perception are small and support the structural model of dichotic listening.