Obsessive and harmonious passion in physically active Spanish and Hungarian men and women: A brief report on cultural and gender differences

Increased research on passion in exercise calls for direct examination of possible moderating variables, such as culture and gender, that could influence the interpretation of the research results. This study using a nation by gender between‐participants design, examined differences in obsessive‐ and harmonious passion in Spanish and Hungarian physically active individuals. Participants (n = 1002) completed the Passion Scale, reported their gender, age and weekly hours of physical activity. Multivariate analysis of covariance revealed that the experiencing of physical activity‐related obsessive‐ and harmonious passion differed between the 2 countries and Hungarian women scored significantly higher on harmonious and obsessive passion than Spanish women. However, Hungarian men only scored significantly higher on obsessive passion, but not harmonious passion compared to Spanish men. These results suggest that gender and cultural differences are likely to affect the interpretation and generalisation of research on passion and exercise.     

Vanda Shrenger Weiss – the Croatian pioneer between two worlds: Her role in the birth of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society (SPI)

In this paper the author sheds light on Vanda Shrenger Weiss, a forgotten pioneer of the international psychoanalytic movement. Vanda Shrenger was born into a large Jewish family in Croatia (1892), and her life was thoroughly intertwined with the great tragedies of European history: the First World War, the anti‐Semitic persecution within Eastern Europe, which entailed the decimation of her extended family in Croatia. Finally, the introduction of fascist laws in Italy led to her and her husband – Edoardo Weiss, the founder of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society – seeking refuge in the United States of America. During her time spent in Italy (1919–39), Vanda Shrenger, doctor and paediatrician, dedicated herself to psychoanalysis. She played a crucial part in the reconstruction of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society (SPI), whilst also being a founding member of the Rivista Italiana di Psicoanalisi (Rome, 1932). Vanda was the first woman to be a member of the SPI as well as to present a paper for it. This insightful and extensive analysis relating to this pioneer of the psychoanalytic world, has been meticulously accomplished by use of a combination of original archival materials, along with access to previously unpublished documents and personal details, kindly made available to the author by Marianna, the daughter of Vanda and Edoardo Weiss, who still lives in the United States today.     

A microswitch‐based program for promoting initial ambulation responses: An evaluation with two girls with multiple disabilities

We assessed the use of a microswitch‐based program for promoting ambulation responses by two children with multiple disabilities. The goals of the study were to: (a) evaluate the importance of the contingency between the target behavior (forward step) and the programmed consequence (preferred stimuli), (b) measure effects of the intervention on indices of happiness, and (c) assess the social validation of the procedure using 20 physiotherapists as external raters. The intervention involved the automatic delivery of preferred stimuli contingent on forward steps. Results showed that both participants improved their performance (forward steps and indices of happiness) during contingent reinforcement phases compared to baseline and noncontingent reinforcement phases. Moreover, physiotherapists rated the intervention as socially valid.     

Motor Improvement Using Motion Sensing Game Devices for Cerebral Palsy Rehabilitation

The authors aimed to investigate the effects of an intervention based on interactive game set with the movement sensor Kinect on children with cerebral palsy (CP). Twenty-eight participants were recruited. Their age was between 3 and 12 years old, and rated as level I, II, or III on the Gross Motor Function Classification System. They played two games from the Xbox 360 Kinect system and were evaluated using the Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM) after a period of 8 weeks. The intervention led to significant motor function improvement as increase of the global scores on the GMFM (p < .001). Rehabilitation interventions using the Xbox 360 Kinect interactive games may represent useful tools for children with CP.     

Refugee Trauma: Culturally Responsive Counseling Interventions

This article presents the Multiphase Model of Psychotherapy, Counseling, Social Justice, and Human Rights as a culturally responsive intervention model for working with refugee trauma. The model specifically addresses unique challenges in working with refugees with trauma, taking into account premigration displacement and postmigration adjustment and adaptation brought about by the increased number of global refugees with high rates of posttraumatic stress and psychopathology due to war and conflict.     

Randomized controlled trial of an intervention to change cardiac misconceptions in myocardial infarction patients

There is converging evidence that changing beliefs about an illness leads to positive recovery outcomes. However, cardiac misconceptions interventions have been investigated mainly in Angina or Coronary Heart Disease patients, and less in patients following Myocardial Infarction (MI). In these patients, cardiac misconceptions may play a role in the adjustment or lifestyle changes. This article reports a randomized controlled trial of an intervention designed to reduce the strength of misconceptions in patients after a first MI. The primary outcome was the degree of change in misconceptions and the secondary outcomes were: exercise, smoking status, return to work and mood (anxiety and depression). Patients in the intervention condition (n = 60) were compared with a control group (n = 67) receiving usual care. Both groups were evaluated at baseline and 4, 8 and 12 months after hospital discharge. There was a significant time-by-group interaction for the total score of cardiac misconceptions. Patients in the intervention group significantly decreased their total score of cardiac misconceptions at 4 months compared with the control group and this difference was sustained over time. Patients in the intervention group were also more likely to exercise at the follow-up period after MI than the control group. This intervention was effective in reducing the strength of cardiac misconceptions in MI patients and had a positive impact on health behaviour outcomes. These results support the importance of misconceptions in health behaviours and the utility of belief change interventions in promoting health in patients with Myocardial Infarction.     

Forecasting the influence of customer-related micro-events on employees’ emotional,attitudinal and physiological responses

The affective events theory proposes that daily events elicit affective reactions on workers that, over time, influence affective and judgement-driven behaviours. It also suggests that this relation is moderated by dispositions and appraisals. On the other hand, the social interaction model argues that the impact of emotions is moderated by how individuals regulate them. This study aimed to: (1) investigate what customer-related events elicit affect; (2) test the moderating role of workers’ susceptibility for emotional contagion on the relation events-affect; and (3) explore whether affective states influence cardiovascular efficiency and turnover intentions. We conducted a longitudinal study in an inbound call centre by following 48 workers during 10 working days, gathering 267 events and 1,232 affective reactions. We combined diaries, questionnaires and physiological data. Data was analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. We extracted 13 event categories and, using artificial neural networks (ANN), found support for the moderating role of emotional contagion. At daily level, fear was the stronger predictor of cardiovascular efficiency, whereas anger was the stronger predictor of turnover. ANN models showed satisfactory predictive values (R²_Turnover = .51, p < .01; R²_{Cardiovascular efficiency} = .32, p < .01). The importance of results for theory and practice is discussed.     

A preliminary look at loneliness as a moderator of the link between perfectionism and depressive and anxious symptoms in college students: does being lonely make perfectionistic strivings more distressing?

An integrative model involving perfectionism [Hewitt, P. L., & Flett, G. L. (1991). Perfectionism in the self and social contexts: Conceptualization, assessment, and association with psychopathology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 456-470] and loneliness as predictors of depressive and anxious symptoms was proposed and tested in 383 college students. Beyond the expected additive influences of the two predictors in the prediction of symptoms, loneliness was also hypothesized to moderate the link between perfectionism and symptoms. Results indicated that other-oriented perfectionism predicted anxious symptoms, whereas socially prescribed perfectionism predicted both depressive and anxious symptoms. Loneliness was found to add incremental validity to these predictions. Moreover, the Perfectionism x Loneliness interaction was found to further augment the prediction of depressive and anxious symptoms. These findings are taken to offer support for a more contextual model of perfectionism. Some implications of the present findings are discussed.