Seven psychosocial principles to explain terrorism

Research approaches leading to the understanding of the terrorist phenomenon are suggested. Seven principles explaining terrorism are analysed from a psychosocial approach: They could complete the explanations of terrorism focused in socio-structural and psychological variables, the latter being insufficient and often erroneous. Thus, terrorism is presented as a strategy of political influence, and the psychological attributes of terrorists are explained as the result of several influential social processes. We considered that terrorist attacks and campaigns correspond to strategic reasons, but we also assume that the rationality of the terrorists perspective is limited. As far as the organisational parameters are concerned, we propose an analogy with ordinary social movements, especially relating to their ideological frameworks of legitimisation and resource mobilization processes.     

An evaluation of matrix training to teach college students piano notes and rhythms

Twelve college students learned to tact the names of notes and rhythms and play them when presented with compound stimuli (visuals of notes and rhythms on a musical staff). In Experiment 1, we assessed generalization by presenting novel notes, rhythms, and compound stimuli not previously paired together. In the second experiment, we added a metronome that played at 60 beats per minute in all conditions for 3 out of 6 participants to ensure consistent tempo. Across both experiments, participants passed almost all posttests with the exception of tacting and playing in the presence of sound clips. Our data suggest that matrix training is an effective procedure to teach music skills to college students.     

Innovative moments and change in Career Construction Counseling

This article presents an exploratory study of the process of change during Career Construction Counseling (CCC). The Innovative Moments Coding System (IMCS) and the Return to the Problem Coding System (RPCS) were used to an intensive analysis of a career counseling case — the case of Michael. Both systems are grounded in a narrative conception of the self which suggests that narrative change results from the elaboration and development of narrative exceptions to a client's core problematic self-narrative. The IMCS identifies and tracks the occurrence of five different types of narrative change and the RPCS tracks the ambivalence present in the clients discourse throughout the therapeutic process. This is the first attempt to use these methods with a career counseling case. The results suggest that the narrative elaboration progresses from the first to the third session. We discuss these results, emphasizing the process of change in career counseling with clients in which maladaptive repetition underlies career decision-making difficulties.     

Why do Managers Engage in Trustworthy Behavior? A Multilevel Cross‐Cultural Study in 18 Countries

Drawing on theories of generalized exchange and the norm of indirect reciprocity, we conceptualize subordinates’ organizational citizenship behavior directed toward the organization (OCBO) and directed toward peers (OCBI) as antecedents of managerial trustworthy behavior and examine how managers’ affective trust in subordinates mediates this relationship. We also investigate the extent to which this mediation is moderated by the level of collectivism in a society. Data were collected from 741 managers and 2,111 subordinates in 18 countries representing all major cultural regions of the world. We find support for our hypothesized moderated mediation in that managers’ affective trust in subordinates mediates the relationships between both subordinates’ OCBO and managerial trustworthy behavior, and subordinates’ OCBI and managerial trustworthy behavior across the different countries studied. Further, managers’ affective trust in subordinates only mediates the relationships between both types of citizenship behavior and managerial trustworthy behavior when collectivism is low to medium but not when it is high. Implications for research on cross‐cultural psychology, trust, and organizational citizenship behavior are discussed.     

Rise of Pilgrims on the Camino to Santiago: Sign of Change or Religious Revival?

There is a renewed interest amongst scholars in the practice of pilgrimage. Over the past two decades, pilgrim numbers have risen significantly, whilst forms of “implicit” or “alternative” spirituality have gained visibility and now coexist with organised religions, sometimes sharing the same ritualistic space. There is probably no better place to look at the coexistence of old and new forms of ritual expression than in the Camino to Santiago. To better understand the meanings attributed to this pilgrimage, we undertook a survey with over 470 pilgrims at various locations along the Camino. The findings confirm that individuals with various, often contrasting, motivations and expectations walk side by side on this pilgrimage route. We suggest that the results cannot be read simplistically as either confirming a “post-secularisation” trend or a religious revival.     

Effects of negative content on the processing of gender information: An event-related potential study

Previous research on emotion in language has mainly concerned the impact of emotional information on several aspects of lexico-semantic analyses of single words. However, affective influences on morphosyntactic processing are less understood. In the present study, we focused on the impact of negative valence in the processing of gender agreement relations. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants read three-word phrases and performed a syntactic judgment task. Negative and neutral adjectives could agree or disagree in gender with the preceding noun. At an electrophysiological level, the amplitude of a left anterior negativity (LAN) to gender agreement mismatches decreased in negative words, relative to neutral words. The behavioral data suggested that LAN amplitudes might be indexing the processing costs associated with the detection of gender agreement errors, since the detection of gender mismatches resulted in faster and more accurate responses than did the detection of correct gender agreement relations. According to this view, it seems that negative content facilitated the processes implicated in the early detection of gender agreement mismatches. However, gender agreement violations in negative words triggered processes involved in the reanalysis and repair of the syntactic structure, as reflected in larger P600 amplitudes to incorrect than to correct phrases, irrespective of their emotional valence.     

Evaluation of a Heredofamilial Cancer Unit in Increasing Family History Collection and Genetic Counseling Referrals Among Spanish Oncologists at a University Hospital

A comprehensive family history is essential to identify patients at risk for hereditary cancer who could benefit from genetic counseling (GC). In a previous study, we observed a low occurrence of family history record (FHR) collection rate and GC referral among oncologists at our institution. The present work analyzes whether the implementation of a heredofamilial cancer unit (HFCU) would improve these parameters. We retrospectively compared the FHR rate in clinical records, National Cancer Institute (NCI) general criteria for hereditary cancer suspicion, GC referrals and FHR quality in two cohorts: cohort 1 (patients diagnosed before HFCU creation) and cohort 2 (after HFCU creation). Of 1,175 patients (590 cohort 1 and 585 cohort 2), FHRs were consigned in 27.3 % and 52.5 % of patients, respectively (p?<?0.001). The GC referral of patients with any NCI criterion was 13.6 % xin cohort 1 vs. 40.5 % in cohort 2 (p?<?0.001). FHR quality improved in terms of the total number of relatives (164 vs. 314, p?=?0.1, N.S.) and number of healthy relatives consigned (80 vs. 191, p?<?0.01). Nine mutations (6 BRCA, 1 MEN1, 2 Lynch), 4 unknown significance variants (all in BRCA) and 2 with no mutation were identified among patients referred from cohort 2. We conclude that the creation of a heredofamilial cancer unit has changed both FHR and GC referrals among oncologists at our institution, although continuous educational efforts are required.