Measurement of Quality of Life in Spanish Regions

Applied Research in Quality of Life - The present paper measures quality of life through a set of dimensions included in the following partial indicators of objective well-being: demography,...     

Is depression the past tense of anxiety? An empirical study of the temporal distinction

It has long been recognised that depression and anxiety share a common core of negative affect, but research on similarities and differences between these two emotions is growing. The focus of the current study was on whether the timing of a triggering event can determine whether the dominant emotional reaction is depression or anxiety. It was hypothesised that aversive events in the past would elicit more depression than anxiety, whereas the same aversive events in the future would elicit more anxiety than depression. We created temporally varied versions of vignettes describing aversive events occurring at either time, and asked participants to rate the extent to which the events would elicit feelings of depression or anxiety. Results indicated that adverse past events elicited much higher ratings of anticipated depression and adverse future events elicited much higher ratings of anticipated anxiety. Implications for understanding these two emotions and depressive and anxiety disorders are discussed.     

Verbal irony processing: How do contrast and humour correlate?

Verbal irony relies on contrast, that is, incongruity between the situational context and the ironic assertion. But is the degree of contrast related to the perceived humorousness of ironic comments? We answered this question by conducting two experiments. In the first experiment, participants were asked to read a list of sentence pairs (ironic or control) and judge the extent to which the meaning of the first sentence contrasted with that of the second. In the second experiment, participants were invited to rate the humorousness of ironic comments compared with their literal counterparts. Results showed that ironic remarks were rated as more contrasting and more humorous than their literal counterparts, but that humour only emerged from a moderate contrast.     

Strategic Issues in the Psychotherapy of Patients with Narcissistic Pathology

Narcissistic personality disorder is a relatively uncommon diagnosis in clinical settings; however, these patients are frequently in need of and referred for long-term psychotherapy. Such patients may not seek therapy willingly but do so at a time when they experience sufficient vulnerability to accept therapy. Given these and other characteristics, the narcissistic patient can be challenging for therapists. This paper suggests some strategic approaches that may be employed with patients with narcissistic pathology. Partly, these approaches incorporate more contemporary understandings of narcissistic pathology such as appreciating that these patients can present both the grandiose and vulnerable elements of narcissistic pathology and that a gender focus using theories of masculinity may enlighten our approach to these patients. Specifically the strategies reviewed are: starting therapy by assessing for the patient’s vulnerable characteristics and offering some gratification for their need for acknowledgement; monitoring and managing the risk of suicide and comorbid disorder in patients with narcissistic pathology and in the working through phase of therapy, recognizing the need for patients to developed increased self-cohesion and the importance of supervision/consultation in the working through process of therapy.     

Living the high life: social status influences real estate decision making

Social status is associated with the vertical spatial dimension, with people conceptualizing higher social status with higher vertical positions. Two experiments tested whether this association influences relatively real‐world decisions about others by asking participants to act as real estate agents, aiding in the relocation of clients who explicitly or implicitly varied in social status. Across experiments, higher status clients were placed into higher elevation housing options. This influence of social status persisted when strategy‐aware participants were removed from analysis, and was not influenced by individual differences in social dominance or locus of control. Abstract concepts of social status are understood through associations with vertical space, and these mapping of abstract concepts to concrete percepts prove influential in guiding daily decisions.     

A General and Maladaptive Personality Perspective on Youth Obsessive–Compulsive Symptoms

Based on Krueger's (2005) conceptual model of the personality-psychopathology relationship, this study examines how personality predicts different youth obsessive–compulsive symptoms, comparing the relative contribution of general and maladaptive personality traits. Three-hundred forty-four adolescents provided self-reports on an obsessive–compulsive scale, and their mothers rated their child's general and maladaptive personality. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that personality differentially predicts obsessive–compulsive symptomatology, and that the relative significance of general versus maladaptive personality predictors differs across various forms of obsessive–compulsive pathology. The results are discussed in terms of the value of including both general and maladaptive personality measures in the assessment of early obsessive–compulsive difficulties.     

Validity and Reliability of the French Versions of the Body Shape Questionnaire

The validity of the 34-item and shortened versions of the Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ) has been evaluated in various languages. To date, only the validity of the 34-item French BSQ scale has been tested in a nonclinical sample. This study assessed the reliability and validity of the 34-item French BSQ and 7 shortened versions in clinical and nonclinical samples. The 34-item French BSQ was administered to 159 obese women with and without binge eating disorders and to 1,169 female undergraduate students. The results suggested that the BSQ–8B was the best French BSQ to use in nonclinical and clinical samples.