Alexithymia and experimentally induced emotion recognition in people with somatizations

This study is part of an investigation aimed at assessing the cognitive-emotional process of emotional recognition in somatizing patients. The specific objective was to verify whether there were differences in the self-assessment of emotional reaction among patients with somatization and non-clinical controls. To obtain the self-assessment of their emotional reaction in the affective dimensions of valence and activation in clinical and control participants, we resorted to a procedure that minimizes the use of verbal skills and comprehension. Participants were 119 people, 47 patients and 72 non-clinical participants. The prevalence of alexithymia in the clinical group was 42.55%, whereas in non-clinical controls, it was 30.55%. Results showed the existence of a deficit in the clinical group's self-assessment of activation in response to the corresponding images with high levels of the affective dimension of activation and high valence images, associated with the clinical condition but not with alexithymia. Alexithymia has a modulatory effect on the clinical participants' and controls' evaluation of the valence of the unpleasant images or of low valence pictures.     

Reciprocal teaching and self-monitoring of strategy use: effects on reading comprehension

Reciprocal teaching (RT) is an instructional procedure to teach students cognitive strategies that might lead to improved reading comprehension. However, self-monitoring (SM) strategy use can optimize instruction of comprehension. Thus, the present study analyzed: (a) the efficacy of RT in regular classes and (b) the efficacy of RT + SM of strategy use. A sample of 59 students in the fourth year of primary education was selected: 19 children were selected as an RT condition, 18 as an RT + SM condition, while the remaining 22 made up the comparison group. Two types of comprehension measures were used: tasks of specific effects (getting the main idea, writing a summary, comprehension-monitoring test) and transfer effect measures (standardised tests, word meaning inference, and free recall). Thus, the results show that both the RT condition and the RT + SM condition benefited from the instruction, performing better than the comparison group in measures of specific effects and in some of the transfer effect measures. This result shows that SM is not a necessary component in the instruction of reading comprehension with RT.     

Loneliness and mental health in a representative sample of community-dwelling Spanish older adults

Research seems to support loneliness as a risk factor for mental health problems in the elderly. Most studies analyzing the effects of loneliness on older adults' mental health have relied on convenience samples. In this study, the prevalence and predictors of feelings of loneliness were studied in a representative sample of 272 community-dwelling Spanish older adults. The potential of feelings of loneliness to significantly contribute to the explanation of mental health of the elderly was also explored. The percentage of people reporting feelings of loneliness was 23.1%. Being a woman, being older, living alone, having fewer economic resources, having lower perceived health, and being dissatisfied with the frequency of contact with relatives and friends were found to be significant predictors of feelings of loneliness. Loneliness contributed significantly to the explanation of mental health, even when other significant variables were statistically controlled. The results of this study suggest that loneliness is a relevant factor for the analysis and understanding of mental health in the elderly.     

Social support and happiness in immigrant women in Spain

The association between perceived social support and happiness was investigated in women who are members of various associations in Malaga (Spain) that work with immigrant women. Based on the Social Convoy model, the association between sources of support, frequency of support, satisfaction with support, and happiness reported by women were examined. The main social support predictor of happiness was satisfaction with the support received. Thus, the best predictors of happiness were emotional support from the family and instrumental support from the indigenous population and associations. The best predictor of frequency of support was the frequency of informational support received from social services. These results may prove useful for developing lines of action or interventions centred on the social network and the functions that social support can fulfil among immigrant women.     

A Case Study of Liberation Among Latino Immigrant Families Who Have Children with Disabilities

Latino immigrant families with children with disabilities experience multiple sources of oppression during their settlement process in the United States. Unfair social structures and dominant cultural values and norms and the way they influence the immigrants' personal life stories generate a cycle of oppression very difficult to break. This paper presents a case study of how a group of Latino parents carried out a process of liberation fueled by the generation of empowering community narratives (critical awareness leading to transformative action) that resulted from a community-university partnership. Participants initiated a process that led them to discover their own stories of oppression and create new stories; to deconstruct the dominant cultural narratives and modify existing ones; and to understand contexts for power sharing. This joint reflection and increased awareness propelled group members to take action by founding a grassroots organization to redress some of the injustices that were partly responsible for their oppression, thus generating shifts at the personal, relational, and collective levels. In light of the theory of liberation, we discuss the participants' development of critical awareness that led them to take action to address their unmet needs.     

Priming of abstract letter representations may be universal: The case of Arabic

Recent research on the Roman alphabet has demonstrated that the magnitudes of masked repetition priming are equivalent for letter pairs that have similar visual features across cases (e.g., c-C) and for letter pairs with dissimilar features (e.g., g-G). Here, we examined whether priming of abstract letter representations occurs in an orthographic system, Arabic, in which the letters show an intricate number of contextual forms. Arabic does not have a lowercase/uppercase distinction, but the letters exhibit different forms that depend on their position (initial, medial, final, or isolated) and their connectivity. Importantly, some letters look quite different across positions (e.g., (symbol in text) and (symbol in text), which correspond to the letter 'ayn), whereas others look very similar (e.g. (symbol in text), and (symbol in text), which correspond to the letter fā'). We employed a masked priming same-different task, in which native speakers of Arabic decided whether a target letter was the same as or different from a reference letter presented in a different position (middle vs. isolated). The results showed masked repetition priming effects of the same magnitude for letter pairs with similar and with dissimilar visual features across letter positions. These data support the view that priming of abstract letter representations is a universal phenomenon.     

An SEM approach to continuous time modeling of panel data: relating authoritarianism and anomia

Panel studies, in which the same subjects are repeatedly observed at multiple time points, are among the most popular longitudinal designs in psychology. Meanwhile, there exists a wide range of different methods to analyze such data, with autoregressive and cross-lagged models being 2 of the most well known representatives. Unfortunately, in these models time is only considered implicitly, making it difficult to account for unequally spaced measurement occasions or to compare parameter estimates across studies that are based on different time intervals. Stochastic differential equations offer a solution to this problem by relating the discrete time model to its underlying model in continuous time. It is the goal of the present article to introduce this approach to a broader psychological audience. A step-by-step review of the relationship between discrete and continuous time modeling is provided, and we demonstrate how continuous time parameters can be obtained via structural equation modeling. An empirical example on the relationship between authoritarianism and anomia is used to illustrate the approach.     

"An SEM approach to continuous time modeling of panel data: Relating authoritarianism and anomia": Correction to Voelkle, Oud, Davidov, and Schmidt (2012)

Reports an error in "An SEM approach to continuous time modeling of panel data: Relating authoritarianism and anomia" by Manuel C. Voelkle, Johan H. L. Oud, Eldad Davidov and Peter Schmidt (Psychological Methods, 2012[Jun], Vol 17[2], 176-192). The supplemental materials link was missing. All versions of this article have been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2012-09124-001.) Panel studies, in which the same subjects are repeatedly observed at multiple time points, are among the most popular longitudinal designs in psychology. Meanwhile, there exists a wide range of different methods to analyze such data, with autoregressive and cross-lagged models being 2 of the most well known representatives. Unfortunately, in these models time is only considered implicitly, making it difficult to account for unequally spaced measurement occasions or to compare parameter estimates across studies that are based on different time intervals. Stochastic differential equations offer a solution to this problem by relating the discrete time model to its underlying model in continuous time. It is the goal of the present article to introduce this approach to a broader psychological audience. A step-by-step review of the relationship between discrete and continuous time modeling is provided, and we demonstrate how continuous time parameters can be obtained via structural equation modeling. An empirical example on the relationship between authoritarianism and anomia is used to illustrate the approach. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).