Efficacy of an adaptation of the Best Possible Self intervention implemented through positive technology: a randomized control trial

Best possible Self (BPS) is a positive psychological intervention based on positive future thinking. It has been shown to be effective in improving well-being and depressive symptoms over short periods of time. Positive technology is a scientific approach designed to increase well-being through Information and Communication Technologies. To assess the efficacy of the BPS implemented through a positive technology application in improving optimistic thinking, affect and depressive symptoms, during a one-month period, with two follow-ups one and three months later. Randomized, single-blind control trial. Central randomization was performed by an independent researcher using computer software to generate lists allocating participants to treatments. Recruitment was carried out through advertisements at two universities. Randomized participants were 78 young adults who were assigned to the e-BPS condition (n = 38) or to a control group (n = 40). Participants were asked to visualize their BPS each day using a Positive Technology Application. The Control condition consisted of thinking and writing about daily activities, also through technologies. Affect, future expectations, and depressive symptoms were measured in different time frames. 78 participants were analyzed using intention-to-treat analyses. Results showed that BPS was effective in improving future expectations measures and reducing depressive symptoms until the post-training. However, these effects were not maintained in the three-month follow-up period. This study indicates that BPS can be effectively adapted for implementation through positive technologies. Factors such as the variety of exercises and the instructions can play a role in maintaining the changes in the long term. Trial registration clinicaltrails.gov Identifier: NCT02321605.     

A Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Test of the Low Sensitivity to Threat and Affiliative Reward (STAR) Model of Callous-Unemotional Traits Among Spanish Preschoolers

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Despite advances in the theoretical and empirical literature, a better understanding of the etiological determinants of callous-unemotional (CU)...     

On the aesthetic potential of sports and physical education

Even though there is a general presence of aesthetics in school curricula in most of western countries, both at the level of terminology and at the level of choice and definition of contents, objectives and skills to be developed, the approach to sports and physical education potential for the development of aesthetic education of students still does not seem to be a reality in the agenda of this subject. Moreover, it is not transversal in terms of its different didactic contents. In order to explore its relevance, the aim of this work was to deepen how aesthetics is internal and central to sports experience, and which elements of sports and physical education lived experiences can be relevant in the promotion and development of the aesthetic sensibility of students. We propose the deepening of the subject through an hermeneutical qualitative research approach, confronting the content collected in 19 semi-structured interviews that enabled the thematic analysis of its content, and through it, the discussion of viewpoints of representative subjects among those that are the main players in the consideration of an aesthetic education through sport, namely physical education teachers and researchers in the context of aesthetics and sports sciences. With the information gathered and after its processing, we could conclude that there are aesthetic elements of sport's experience that should be taken into account in an aesthetic educational point of view of physical education, namely: complexity, diversity, playability, tension between drama and accuracy, overcoming experience, risk and vulnerability, unpredictable storylines and uncertainty, technique and effectiveness.     

Profiles of emotional intelligence and demotivation to attend school in Chilean adolescents

The aim of this study was twofold: to identify different emotional intelligence (EI) profiles and to verify possible statistically significant differences in school refusal factors that result in a demotivation to attend school. Participants were 2362 Chilean adolescents aged from 13 to 17 (M?=?15.25; SD?=?1.33), who completed the Trait Meta-Mood Scale-24 (TMMS-24) and the School Refusal Assessment Scale-Revised (SRAS-R). Cluster analysis identified four EI profiles: high scores in repair and low in attention, high scores in attention and low in clarity and repair, low EI and high EI. Students with high scores in attention and low in repair scored higher in the first three factors of the SRAS-R, whereas in the fourth factor of the SRAS-R, students with high EI had significantly higher scores. Emotional regulation seems to be one of the determinant factors to prevent the appearance of school refusal. Based on these findings, we recommend that EI training be a part of future programs to overcome school attendance demotivation issues.     

The ‘Conditional Position Problem’ for epistemic externalism

Synthese - In this paper, I develop a problem I call the “Conditional Position Problem” that arises for Ernest Sosa’s externalist epistemology. The problem is that, due to a...     

Contextualizing Platonism and Decontextualizing Aristotelianism in the Ontology of Music

This article argues against a widespread view that links musical Platonism and Aristotelianism with opposite ways of individuating musical works. This view assumes that Platonism is bound to individuate works of music in sonicist and noncontextualist terms, while Aristotelianism is tied to instrumentalist and contextualist accounts on work-individuation. I argue that this assumption is wrong. I provide an argument that shows that the differences between musical Platonism and Aristotelianism concern the existence conditions of musical works qua types, but not their identity conditions. Assuming that the existence and individuation conditions of types are given by their associated properties, I defend that the disagreement between Platonism and Aristotelianism is about the principle of instantiation of properties, regardless if these properties are monadic (sonicism and noncontextualism) or relational (instrumentalism and contextualism).     

Colonic sensitivity in irritable bowel syndrome and normal subjects according to their hemispheric preference and cognitive style

According to our earlier results, non-painful, weak afferent visceral signals may exert a steady influence on brain processes, including cognitive functions. In the present series colonic impulses of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) subjects served as a model of chronic impact from the gut. Hemispheric preference, as well as cognitive style of information processing served as indicators of covert changes in brain functions. In twentyone IBS patients and in ten control subjects of both sexes, the thresholds of minimal colonic distension sensitivity has been measured following the determination of hemispheric preference and of advantage in verbal or spatial information processing of the subjects. In IBS patients distension thresholds proved to be higher in verbals than in spatials, whereas in healthy controls the relationship of colonic thresholds and verbal versus, spatial advantage was reversed. Among the normal controls with left hemisphere preference a significantly higher distension threshold has been observed than in those with right hemisphere preference, whereas in the IBS group such threshold-differences were not observable.     

Fighting inequalities in times of pandemic: The role of politicized identities and interdependent self-construal in coping with economic threat

During the COVID-19 pandemic, institutions encouraged social isolation and non-interaction with other people to prevent contagion. Still, the response to an impending economic crisis must be through the collective organization. In this set of pre-registered studies, we analyse two possible mechanisms of coping with collective economic threats: shared social identity and interdependent self-construction. We conducted three correlational studies during the pandemic in May–October 2020 (Study 1, N = 363; Study 2, N = 250; Study 3, N = 416). Results show that shared identity at two levels of politicization (i.e., working-class and 99% identities) and interdependent self-construal mediated the relationship between collective economic threat, intolerance towards economic inequality and collective actions to reduce it. The results highlight that the collective economic threat can reinforce the sense of community—either through the activation of a politicized collective identity, such as the working class or the 99% or through the activation of an interdependent self—which in turn can trigger greater involvement in the fight against economic inequality. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement .     

Categories We Live By: Reply to Alcoff,Butler, and Roth

The author of Categories We Live By replies to critics Linda Martín Alcoff, Judith Butler, and Abraham Sesshu Roth.