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.     

Psychological contract breach and outcomes: Combining meta-analysis and structural equation models

In this study, meta-analytic procedures were used to examine the relationships between psychological contract perceived breach and certain outcome variables, such as organizational commitment, job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviours (OCB). Our review of the literature generated 41 independent samples in which perceived breach was used as a predictor of these personal and organizational outcomes. A medium effect size (ES) for desirable outcomes (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational trust, OCB and performance) was obtained (r=-.35). For undesirable outcomes (neglect in role duties and intention to leave), ES were also medium (r=.31). When comparing attitudinal (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational trust) and behavioural outcomes (OCB, neglect in role duties and performance), a stronger ES was found for attitudinal (r=-.24) than for behavioural outcomes (r=-.11). Potential moderator variables were examined, and it was found that they explained only a percentage of variability of primary studies. Structural equation analysis of the pooled meta-analytical correlation matrix indicated that the relationships of perceived breach with satisfaction, OCB, intention to leave and performance are fully mediated by organizational trust and commitment. Results are discussed in order to suggest theoretical and empirical implications.     

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.     

Sensitivity to pain, self-regulation, coping and personality in healthy adult women

The goals of this study were to investigate the relation between sensitivity to pain and subjectively perceived intensity of pain, and to establish which psychological variables affect lesser or greater objective sensitivity to experimental pain. The study sample consisted of 74 adult women without regular pain symptoms. Experimental pain was induced by means of the Portable Electronic Dolorimeter (DEP). Intensity of induced pain was evaluated using a Visual Analogic Scale (VAS). Psychological characteristics studied were self-government, stress-coping strategies, sensitivity to anxiety and the five personality dimensions evaluated by the BFQ of Caprara, Barbaranelli and Borgogni (1995). Results revealed a positive relation between sensitivity to pain and subjective intensity of pain. An analysis of variance also revealed statistically significant differences between groups with low and high sensitivity to pain in the following variables: self-motivation, focalization in problem-solving, positive reappraisal of stressful events, energy and mental openness. The importance of the study lies in the identification of specific psychological factors for intervention in the psychological treatment of pain.     

From residential care to school: peer relationships at school of minors in residential care

In this study, peer relationships of minors in residential care in a school context are analysed, both from the perspective of the peers and the teachers. Using a sociometric test and an evaluation protocol for teachers in 50 classrooms, a sample of 60 minors in care is compared to a normative sample of 843 minors. The results show that minors in residential care have a higher rate of rejection by their classmates in academic activities, but not for leisure ones. Furthermore, in comparison with the normative sample, they are more frequently described with negative adjectives. There is a high level of agreement between the peer evaluation and that of the teachers in the most visible aspects in the classroom. The implications of these results for the improvement of the adjustment of this group are discussed.     

Effects of Tradislexia videogame on phonological awareness and word recognition in dyslexic children

The purpose of this research was to analyze the effects of multimedia training on phonological awareness and word recognition in dyslexic children. We used a control pretest-posttest design, and a sample of 62 children (26 male, 36 female) was selected from Primary Education. Children were selected and classified into two different groups: (1) an experimental group (N=32), and (2) a control group (N=30). The average range age was 9 and 12 years (M=126.7, SD=11.7). We administered phonological awareness tasks, which include different types of syllabic structure from the Sicole-R Multimedia Battery for assessment of cognitive processes in reading. We analyzed whether the Tradislexia videogame affected phonological awareness, considering separately the complexity of syllable structure and type of phonological awareness task. We also analyzed whether the gains in phonological processes were related to training based on type of task or type of syllable structure. The results showed that when we controlled the position of phoneme, the multimedia treatment in segmentation and blending with words that include CV syllables is a better predictor to explain improvement of word decoding processes.     

Evaluation of three sensitivity measures in magnitude estimation tasks

Taking into account the studies about the measure of sensitivity in magnitude estimation tasks, we analyze the three most common measures used in this topic: Pearson's product-moment correlation between the logarithm of the stimulus and the logarithm of the response (R), the exponent of Stevens' power function (K), and the measure "M" proposed by Garriga-Trillo. Using a sample of participants greater than usual in psychophysical studies (180 participants), we designed an experiment with two sets of stimuli with different stimulus ranges. In each of these sets, we used two kinds of stimuli (line segments and squares). Our conclusions were: (1) we rejected the use of K as a sensitivity measure because the results provided by this index were the opposite of those expected when we compared the two stimulus ranges. (2) We also rejected the use of M because this measure is a linear transformation of Kendall's coefficient of concordance. (3) Lastly, we suggest the mathematical transformation proposed by Fisher to achieve a normal distribution, and recommend this transformation as the best sensitivity measure.     

Quality of life in transplant patients, compared to other stressful health situations in pulmonary patients

Transplantation may imply severe biopsychosocial impairments. In order to know the quality of life of patients one year after transplantation, 58 subjects were compared to three different groups of patients (stabilized and acute COPD patients, and lung cancer patients in a surgery unit). Patients filled in two questionnaires: EORTC QLQ-C30 (quality of life) and HAD (anxiety and depression). The quality of life dimensions with inter-group differences were physical, role, emotional and cognitive functioning, global health status, and a number of symptoms (fatigue, dyspnea, insomnia and appetite loss). There were differences in depression, and but not in anxiety. Transplant and surgical patients showed better quality of life and affective status than chronic pulmonary patients. Discriminant analysis showed that the transplant group was the best described group. We conclude that patients, one year after transplantation, show similar quality of life as asymptomatic hospitalised patients, somewhat better than chronic patients in a stabilized stage of the disease, and much better than severe chronic patients.