From aesthetics to ethics: Testing the link between an emotional experience of awe and the motive of quixoteism on (un)ethical behavior

Motivation and Emotion - According to the awe-quixoteism hypothesis, one experience of awe may lead to the engagement in challenging actions aimed at increasing the welfare of the world. However,...     

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.     

Justification and Cognitive Algorithms

In this paper, we offer an alternative interpretation for the claim that ‘S is justified in believing that φ’. First, we present what seems to be a common way of interpreting this claim: as an attribution of propositional justification. According to this interpretation, being justified is just a matter of having confirming evidence. We present a type of case that does not fit well with the standard concept, where considerations about cognition are made relevant. The concept of cognitive algorithm is presented and explained. Finally, the new reading of ‘S is justified in believing that φ’ is fleshed out. According to this interpretation, being justified in believing that φ is not just a matter of having evidence in favor of φ, but also of having a cognitive algorithm available such that it allows one to form belief in φ on the basis of the relevant evidence.     

Forms and Functions of Aggression in Adolescents: Validation of the Portuguese Version of the Peer Conflict Scale

Aggression in adolescence may assume different forms and functions, and is often associated with maladjustment. To adequately assess aggression in adolescence, instruments need to evaluate both its forms and its functions, as is the case with the Peer Conflict Scale. This research presents and evaluates the Portuguese version of this instrument, and evaluates levels of aggression in an adolescent community sample (n?=?785; 63.6 % female, mean age of 15.97 years old). The four factor structure originally proposed for the instrument (i.e. proactive overt, reactive overt, proactive relational and reactive relational aggression) represented a satisfactory solution for the data, and for both girls and boys. Results also have shown adequate reliability. Regarding levels of aggression, boys reported being overall more aggressive than girls. When aggression is impulsive/ reactive, both boys and girls practice its overt form. It is only when the aggression is pondered upon (proactive) that boys and girls chose to use different forms of aggression. Accurately evaluating different forms and functions of aggression has implications for designing, implementing and evaluating adequate and tailored interventions.     

Alcohol and Quality of Life Among Social Groups for the Elderly in São José dos Campos,Brazil

This study aims to investigate alcohol consumption within social groups for the elderly in São José dos Campos-Brazil, and to check for a correlation between alcohol consumption and quality of life. A sample of 500 individuals participating on social groups for the elderly were interviewed by using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) to verify alcohol consumption; the Medical Outcomes Study 36 Item Short Form (SF-36), for evaluating quality of life; and the Oral Health Impact Profile short form (OHIP-14), for evaluating oral health-related quality of life. The average alcohol consumption was very low (1.48), being higher in men (2.23) than women (1.09). The SF-36 average score for the domain of physical function was 70.5; for role-physical function 64.9; for bodily pain,68.3; for general health 73.8; for vitality,72.4; for social function 82.8; for role-emotional function 72.3 and for mental health 75.0. The OHIP-14 average score was 3.87. AUDIT did not correlate with SF-36 domains, or with OHIP-14. However, there was a negative correlation between OHIP 14 and all SF-36 domains. This elderly sample has a very low consumption of alcohol, and no correlation was found between alcohol consumption and oral and medical quality of life.     

Segmented Paths? Mexican Generational Differences in the Transition to First-Time Homeownership in the United States

Homeownership represents an important indicator of immigrant incorporation and assimilation. This study is a longitudinal analysis of the transition to first-time homeownership among a cohort of youths followed from 1979 to 2009 using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY, 1979). In particular, I examine Mexican generational group differences in the transition to first-time homeownership over an observation period that spans 30 years while evaluating theories of straight-line and segmented assimilation. I find that Mexican homeownership rates do not increase in a linear fashion across generations, relative to native, non-Hispanic whites, even after controlling for various social, demographic, and economic characteristics. Furthermore, analyses limited to Mexicans reveal that first- and second-generation respondents exhibit more success in the transition to first-time homeownership than their third-generation counterparts. Contrary to observing linear gains in homeownership across generations, I find that Mexicans are experiencing segmented paths towards homeownership and achieving upward mobility across generations.     

The future is now: the impact of present fluency in judgments about the future

Recent research has emphasised the role of episodic memory in both remembering past events and in envisaging future events. On the other hand, it has been repeatedly shown that judgments about past events are affected by the fluency with which retrieval cues are processed. In this paper we investigate whether perceptual fluency also plays a role in judgments about future events. For this purpose we conducted four experiments. The first experiment replicated recent findings showing that stimuli that are processed fluently tend to be wrongly recognised as having been encountered in the past outside the laboratory walls [Brown, A. S., & Marsh, E. J. (2009). Creating illusions of past encounter through brief exposure. Psychological Science, 20, 534–538. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02337.x]. Two follow-up experiments using Brown and Marsh’s [(2009). Creating illusions of past encounter through brief exposure. Psychological Science, 20, 534–538. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02337] task tested the influence of perceptual fluency on future judgments. The fourth and last experiment was designed to rule out a potential confounding factor in the two previous experiments. Across experiments, we found that people rely on fluency when making judgments about events that are yet to come. These results suggest that fluency is an equally valid cue for past and future judgments.     

My Life as a Psychoanalyst in Spain

This article attempts to explain, in a necessarily brief way, the reasons underlying my choice of the psychiatry specialty: why I chose the psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy, the authors and theories that have influenced me the most, and my current professional situation, making some allusion to my hobbies.     

Psychic Truth and the In-Session Work of the Analyst

I seek to address one of the issues most affected by the postmodern culture, such as the crisis of rationality and truth, and try to reformulate its place within the psychoanalytic clinic using the contributions of Freud and Ferenczi, who drew the matrix of a passionate dialogue about the truth and the analyst work that has nurtured many contemporary theoretical developments. Essentially, the major influences of postmodern thought in psychoanalysis are to emphasize the importance of the patient–analyst interaction, the role played by the analyst in the patient’s transference and the rejection of the model of the analyst as a distant observer who interprets without having anything to do with whatever happens within the mind of the patient. Consequently, because both postmodernism and psychoanalysis are concerned with human subjectivity and love for truth, although indeed understanding them from different perspectives, both schools of thought become easily interrelated. I conclude that psychoanalysis, committed as it is with the search for truth, cannot ignore the influence of postmodern thought, as well as the postmodernist movement should not disregard all theoretical consistency provided by psychoanalytic theory and metapsychology.