The bullied who bullies: the reciprocal relationship between victim and aggressor in workplace bullying situations

The aim of this study was to explore longitudinal relationships between organizational factors (workload and procedural justice) and targets and perpetrators of workplace bullying. We compared several causal models (baseline or stability, normal, reversed and reciprocal models). The sample comprised 286 employees from two companies in Madrid, and we used a time-lag of one year. Results of structural equation modeling analyses showed that reciprocal model fit the data the best. We found that T1 workload was related positively to T2 target of bullying, and T1 procedural justice was related negatively to T2 target of bullying. There was a significant reverse effect of T1 target of bullying on T2 workload. Furthermore, we found a reciprocal relationship between being the target and the perpetrator of bullying. Overall, these findings emphasize the need to extend the traditional causal models of workplace bullying to more dynamic approaches.     

Lessons learned from studies of psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder via video teleconferencing

This article summarizes two ongoing randomized controlled trials that compare individual in-person psychotherapy with psychotherapy provided using video teleconferencing for military veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder. We describe training methods, populations, technology, challenges, successes, and lessons learned so far during the trials.     

Music,identity, and musical ethnocentrism of young people in six Asian,Latin American,and Western cultures

Ethnomusicologists and sociologists have extensively discussed the symbolic role of music in the creation, maintenance, and expression of cultural and national identity, while the underlying social psychological processes remain unexplored. We elaborate psychological mechanisms of identity construction and identity expression through culture‐specific music preferences. We propose and test a model linking music preferences to national identity via musical ethnocentrism in six student samples from Brazil, Germany, Hong Kong, Mexico, New Zealand, and the Philippines. In each context, culture‐specific music styles were related to national identity of its listeners and musical ethnocentrism mediated these effects. This paper bridges culture‐specific and universal perspectives on music and identity by examining the underlying psychological processes in Asian, Latin, and Western cultures.     

School context and health in adolescence: The role of sense of coherence

The aim of this study was to examine the role of school variables and sense of coherence (SOC) in the explanation of health. For this purpose, data were collected from a representative sample of adolescents, aged 13 to 18 years, selected for the Health Behavior in School‐aged Children survey in Spain. Using Structural Equation Modelling, three nested models were tested that represented different hypothesized models of the relationships among school factors, SOC and health. According to goodness‐of‐fit indices, in the best model, school‐related stress and SOC mediated the influence of support from classmates and teachers on health, and SOC had a direct effect on stress. The results supported the idea that a supportive school climate and SOC are relevant to adolescents' health. Furthermore, SOC was the most influential variable; apart from its direct positive effect on health, SOC seemed to condition the degree to which students perceived school demands to be stressful. Specifically, students with a high SOC were less likely to suffer from high levels of school‐related stress.     

Do Phonological Constraints on the Spoken Word Affect Visual Lexical Decision?

Reading a word may involve the spoken language in two ways: in the conversion of letters to phonemes according to the conventions of the language’s writing system and the assimilation of phonemes according to the language’s constraints on speaking. If so, then words that require assimilation when uttered would require a change in the phonemes produced by grapheme-phoneme conversion when read. In two experiments, each involving 40 fluent readers, we compared visual lexical decision on Korean orthographic forms that would require such a change (C stimuli) or not (NC stimuli). We found that NC words were accepted faster than C words, and C nonwords were rejected faster than NC nonwords. The results suggest that phoneme-to-phoneme transformations involved in uttering a word may also be involved in visually identifying the word.     

Structural model of acculturation attitudes and related psychosocial variables: Empirical evidence in native Spaniards

This work falls within the framework of the study of acculturation processes of natives and immigrants. Its goal is to test an explanatory multi‐group model of natives' acculturation attitudes as a function of diverse psychosocial variables: Prejudice and natives' appraisal of their own culture (in a direct way) and inter‐group contact and perceived inter‐group similarity (in an indirect way). Participants were 499 Spaniards surveyed for their attitude towards Romanian immigrants and 493 towards Ecuadorian immigrants. The indicators used took into account three socio‐cultural spheres: peripheral, intermediate and central areas. This multi‐group model shows an adequate fit to the data.     

The effects of age and emotional valence on recognition memory: An ex‐Gaussian components analysis

The aim of this work was to study the effects of valence and age on visual image recognition memory. The International Affective Picture System (IAPS) battery was used, and response time data were analyzed using analysis of variance, as well as an ex‐Gaussian fit method. Older participants were slower and more variable in their reaction times. Response times were longer for negative valence pictures, however this was statistically significant only for young participants. This suggests that negative emotional valence has a strong effect on recognition memory in young but not in old participants. The τ parameter, often related to attention in the literature, was smaller for young than old participants in an ex‐Gaussian fit. Differences on the τ parameter might suggest poorer attentional performance in old participants.