Development and validation of an inventory to measure satisfaction of users of family medicine clinics in Mexico.

The object of this study was to construct and validate an inventory to measure the satisfaction of users of Family Medicine Clinics. The satisfaction construct was theoretically developed, then the semantic network technique was applied to write 45 items with a dichotomized response. The scale was validated for 4,134 users. Cronbach coefficient alpha was .78. In a factor analysis, 8 factors were obtained, which explained 43.3% of the variance. The content of the first factor referred to the Family Physician dimension, Factors 3, 4, and 5 to the Family Medicine Clinic, and Factors 2, 6, 7, and 8 to Other Services of the Clinic. The questionnaire is being integrated to the Quality of Care Evaluation System to assess satisfaction of users. It may be useful in other venues to assess cultural and organizational aspects of satisfaction with health care.     

MPROB: Computation of multinomial probabilities

An algorithm for computing exact multinomial probabilities is presented that uses the fewest number of operations that are possible without symbolic simplification of the multinomial coefficient and performs them in a sequence that minimizes the potential for overflow or underflow errors. Multinomial probabilities computed with this algorithm are accurate to machine precision, unlike those based on logarithmic transformations and/or the evaluation of factorials, using Stirling’s approximation.     

Visual-word identification thresholds for the 260 fragmented words of the Snodgrass and Vanderwart pictures in Spanish

Word difficulty varies from language to language; therefore, normative data of verbal stimuli cannot be imported directly from another language. We present mean identification thresholds for the 260 screen-fragmented words corresponding to the total set of Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980) pictures. Individual words were fragmented in eight levels using Turbo Pascal, and the resulting program was implemented on a PC microcomputer. The words were presented individually to a group of 40 Spanish observers, using a controlled time procedure. An unspecific learning effect was found showing that performance improved due to practice with the task. Finally, of the 11 psycholinguistic variables that previous researchers have shown to affect word identification, only imagery accounted for a significant amount of variance in the threshold values.     

Group communication and decision-making strategies

In daily life, people frequently make inferences about current and future states of the world. Most of these inferences are not made individually, but by exchanging information about which strategies could be used with other people. In an experiment, we analyzed whether exchanging information socially increased the probability of selecting the most adaptive strategy. In our experiment, take-the-best (TTB; Gigerenzer & Goldstein, 1996), a simple heuristic that employs one-reason decision making, achieved the highest payoff. Results showed that the fit of TTB increased substantially across trial blocks when participants were allowed to exchange information with other group members. In contrast, when participants made inferences individually, they did not select the most adaptive strategy even after seven trial blocks. Overall, our results support the hypothesis that group communication increases the likelihood that participants select the most adaptive strategy for making inferences.     

Personality variables, psychopathological alterations and personality disorders in alcohol-dependent patients according to Cloninger's typology of alcohol abuse

In this paper, an evaluation of Cloninger's typology of alcohol abuse in personality, psychopathology and personality disorders is carried out. The sample consisted of 158 alcoholics in treatment (56 Type I alcohol-dependent patients and 102 Type II alcohol-dependent patients). All subjects were assessed with diverse assessment tools related to personality (Impulsiveness Scale, Sensation Seeking Scale and STAI), psychopathology (SCL-90-R, BDI and Inadaptation Scale) and personality disorders (IPDE). The main findings were that Type II alcohol-dependent patients were more impulsive and sensation-seeking and they displayed more hostility and emotional distress than Type I alcohol-dependent patients. Personality disorders were not so prevalent in the case of Type I alcohol-dependent patients. The most specific personality disorders for Type II alcohol-dependent patients were narcissistic and paranoid. The implications of this study for further research are commented on.     

Gender Differences in Psychological Distress Among Latin American Immigrants to the Canary Islands

We compared gender differences in rates and correlates of psychological distress among Latin American immigrants to the Canary Islands, Spain. Immigrant men (n?=?150) and women (n?=?150) completed questionnaires about demographic and migration characteristics, immigration demands, and psychological distress. Women reported more distress and immigration demands related to loss and occupation than men. For women, not being employed full time and immigration demands related to loss, novelty, occupation, and language were significantly related to distress. For men, living with children/grandchildren and immigration demands related to novelty and not feeling at home were significantly related to distress. Study findings suggest that women are at higher risk for psychological distress and that sources of psychological distress are gender specific.     

Believing literally versus symbolically: values and personality correlates among Spanish students

Values and personality correlates of general religiousness may be specific and even different when one distinguishes between Exclusion versus Inclusion of Transcendence and Literal versus Symbolic thinking on religious issues. In the present study, 133 Spanish students were administered the Schwartz Value Survey, the NEO‐PI‐R and the Post‐Critical Belief scale. Exclusion versus Inclusion of Transcendence reflected the conflict between openness to change (and hedonism) and conservation values; it was positively related to agreeableness and conscientiousness, and negatively to universalism and openness to experience. Literal versus Symbolic thinking reflected the conflict between self‐enhancement and self‐transcendence values, and was associated with high openness to experience. Results partially replicated previous studies in Belgium, with some differences that were rather in line with previous meta‐analyses. The discussion also points out cultural and contextual specifics.     

Domain-specific learning of grammatical structure in musical and phonological sequences

Artificial grammar learning depends on acquisition of abstract structural representations rather than domain-specific representational constraints, or so many studies tell us. Using an artificial grammar task, we compared learning performance in two stimulus domains in which respondents have differing tacit prior knowledge. We found that despite grammatically identical sequence structures, learning was better for harmonically related chord sequences than for letter name sequences or harmonically unrelated chord sequences. We also found transfer effects within the musical and letter name tasks, but not across the domains. We conclude that knowledge acquired in implicit learning depends not only on abstract features of structured stimuli, but that the learning of regularities is in some respects domain-specific and strongly linked to particular features of the stimulus domain.