The users of an online psychological advice service: a sociodemographic analysis

Although online psychological services and research based on them are increasing rapidly, it is not that easy to find investigations that focus on the kind of people that demand them. To know their profile could help to improve the online psychological services that are offered to them. For this purpose, we analysed the sociodemographic characteristics of 1052 participants, all of them having posed a psychological question to our online advice service. The relations between sociodemographics and variables related to the psychological consultation are analysed herein. Features such as age distribution, a high proportion of long-term problems, the large quantity of questions from Latin America, or the under representation of the lowest socioeconomic and educational levels could lead to clinical, social and legal implications that we comment on in this work.     

Therapists' verbal behavior category system

This paper presents the theoretical and methodological basis of a therapist's verbal behavior category system that allows us to study clinical psychologists' language from a functional-analytic framework and with a rigorous observation method. The procedure to develop the coding system is explained in detail from a very early stage of exploratory observation, to the systematic observation through the use of The Observer XT software. An analysis of intra- and inter-rater reliability using the kappa coefficient and taking into account the factors that affect the values of Cohen's index was carried out. Results show high levels of observer accuracy (between approximately 87% and 93%) that justify the application of this category system to study therapists' verbal behavior in session.     

Resistance and vulnerability to trauma: the moderator effect of personality variables on secondary traumatic stress

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of several personality variables (empathy, comprehensibility, challenge and sense of humour) as moderators of the relationship of job demands (traumatic task and overload) with secondary traumatic stress. 175 emergency professionals of the Community of Madrid completed the Secondary Traumatic Stress Measure (STSM). The results of the hierarchical multiple regression analysis provide evidence for the moderator role of personality variables in the secondary traumatic stress process. Lastly, the discussion emphasises the need to focus on the interaction between personality and job demand variables in order to advance our understanding of the process of trauma in emergency professionals.     

Social valuation and punishment assignment in transgressions of environment protection laws

The of breaches of environmental law is not always evident. This characteristic contributes to making the study of people's evaluation of anti-ecological behaviour of special interest for the understanding of environmental law compliance. In this study, 573 participants evaluated seven transgressions of environmental law, on seven scales. The results show that participants differentially evaluate the transgressions; that Indignation and the Severity of the consequences are the scales that best predict the punishment that participants think should be assigned to these transgressions; that women are stricter in evaluating; and that there are marginal differences related to area of residence and age.     

Absence of effect of the change of food context in the activity-based anorexia phenomenon in rats

The goal of this study was to analyse how the context in which animals remain during the period of access to food modulates the development of activity-based anorexia in rats. For this purpose, the effect of changing the context of the activity period and the eating period was measured in terms of body weight loss, reduction in food intake and increase in physical activity. A 2 yen 2 factorial design was implemented, by having or not having access to a running wheel, and by being exposed or not exposed to a context change. Results showed that exposure to different contexts for the wheel and for the food did not affect weight loss, food intake or activity levels. These results are in line with the theoretical position of Epling and Pierce (1992) that activity is induced by the food restriction regime.     

Comparison of single- and double-stage designs in the prevalence estimation of eating disorders in community samples

The aim of this research was to compare two different case-identification designs: (a) a one-stage anonymous design using the Eating Disorders Examination-Questionnaire (EDE-Q; Fairburn & Beglin, 1994) as diagnostic instrument and (b) a two-stage-non-anonymous design using the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT; Garner & Garfinkel, 1979) and the EDE-Q as screening instruments and the clinical interview Eating Disorders Examination (EDE; Fairbumrn & Cooper, 1993) as diagnostic instrument, in the estimation of eating disorders prevalence in community samples. Both epidemiological designs were compared in: eating disorders prevalence, population at risk, and weekly frequency of associated symptomatology (binge eating episodes, self-vomiting) within a sample of 559 scholars (14 to 18 year-old males and females) studying in the region of Madrid. Eating disorders prevalence estimation using single-stage design was 6.2%, and 3% using the two-stage design; however, these differences were not significant (p = .067). No significant differences between the two procedures were found either in population at risk or in weekly frequency of reported self-vomiting. Reported binge eating episodes were higher in the one-stage design. The use of a two-stage procedure with clinical interview (vs. questionnaire) leads to a better understanding of the items (specially the most ambiguous ones) and thus, to a more accurate prevalence estimation.     

Influence of articulation rate on two memory tasks in young and older adults

This study investigated the relation between phonological loop functioning and age. Phonological loop is a time-based subsystem of the Working Memory Model of Baddeley and Wilson, which uses rehearsal of information as an active process to avoid phonological decay. Performance differences were examined between young and older adults in two speech-based memory tasks, such as the immediate serial recall of words and the Digit Ordering Task. Analysis showed that performance on both tasks was lower for the older group. Articulation rate was also measured to test the hypothesis that the impairment of some cognitive functions in adults can be associated to their slowness or the greater time needed by older adults for the rehearsal process. A significant negative correlation was found for articulation rate with age. When the effect of articulation rate on Serial Recall and Digit Ordering Tasks was partialled out, the difference between the two groups was eliminated.     

The job involvement modulating role in the relationship between stress and job satisfaction

This paper analyzes the modulator role of job involvement in the relationship between stress and job satisfaction, using the OSI (Occupational Stress Indicator) model. For this purpose, we analyzed: six sources of stress, the OSI job satisfaction results, and a job involvement scale. The sample consisted of 779 professional soldiers from the Spanish Army. The results show that when the levels of the two dimensions job involvement (psychological identification and job-related feelings of duty-obligation are high, stress due to achievements and career development and social relationships will have no influence on job satisfaction. However, we found higher job satisfaction, even when stress is high, in those situations where psychological identification is low and job-related feelings of duty-obligation are high.     

Psychosocial risk factors at work as predictors of mobbing

This work analyses the way in which various psychosocial risk indicators may predict mobbing. A sample of 638 workers, 168 men and 470 women, from the fruit-and-vegetable sector was evaluated. An anonymous questionnaire was administered to all employees who were present on the evaluation days in the companies comprising the study. After analysing the data obtained with the mobbing questionnaire NAQ-RE (Sáez, García-Izquierdo, and Llor, 2003) and with the psychosocial risk factors evaluation method of the INSHT (Martín and Pérez, 1997), using canonical regression, we found that several psychosocial factors such as role definition, mental workload, interest in the workers, and supervision / participation predict two types of mobbing: personal mobbing and work-performance-related mobbing.