Terrorists and victims. Infrahumanization of Moroccans after 11-M

Infrahumanization studies have verified that most people attribute more secondary emotions to the ingroup than to the outgroup. However, these results may vary with changing contexts. The main objective of this study was to investigate the infrahumanization of Moroccans, depending on the context, after the 11-M attacks and seven years later. For this purpose, variations that occur in the allocation of essential human qualities--secondary emotions--were analyzed by activating images of outgroup members in two opposite contexts: Guilty of the terrorist attack or its victim. The results show that the infrahumanization of the Moroccans in the perpetrator context does not change significantly with regard to the control group. However, infrahumanization does not take place when Moroccans are associated with a victim context, though only immediately after the terrorist attack, because seven years later, this effect disappears.     

Measurement of Affect Regulation Styles (MARS) expanded

An expanded Spanish version of the Measure of Affect Regulation Styles (MARS), was applied to episodes of anger and sadness, in a sample of 355 graduate students from Chile, Spain, and Mexico. The study examines the association between affective regulation, adaptation to episodes and dispositional coping and emotional regulation, and psychological well-being. With regard to perceived improvement of adaptive goals, the following adaptive affect regulation strategies were confirmed: Instrumental coping, seeking social support, positive reappraisal, distraction, rumination, self-comfort, self-control, and emotional expression were functional; whereas inhibition and suppression were dysfunctional. Adaptive strategies were positively associated with psychological well-being, reappraisal and humor as a coping strategy. Negative associations were found between adaptive strategies and suppression and alexithymia. Maladaptive strategies show the opposite profile. Confrontation, instrumental coping, social support as well as social isolation were more frequently found in anger, an approach emotion.     

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.     

Childhood sexual behavior as an indicator of sexual abuse: professionals' criteria and biases

Some sexual behaviors are related to child sexual abuse experiences, but none unequivocally. Therefore, professionals might use non-empirical-based criteria and be biased when detecting and reporting victims. To check this hypothesis, we presented 974 Spanish and Latin American professionals from different fields (Psychology, Education, Health, Social Services, Justice, and Police Force) with hypothetical situations of child sexual behavior (varying the sex, age and behavior) by using an experimental vignette method based on Factorial Survey. Participants were asked to indicate whether such behaviors are a sign of abuse and whether they would report them. We also measured demographic, academic, professional and attitude factors. According to the analysis, professionals' suspicion of abuse is more affected by personal factors, whereas their reporting intention depends more on situational factors. The main criterion adopted is the type of sexual behavior, with professionals being more likely to suspect and report in response to aggressive sexual behavior and precocious sexual knowledge. Professionals' attitudes to sexuality seem to generate biases, as those who are erotophobic are more likely to suspect abuse. None of the sexual behaviors was seen as evidence of abuse.     

Psychometric properties of the Basic Family Relations Inventory (BFRI)

The aim of this study was to analyze the factor structure and internal consistency of the Basic Family Relations Inventory (BFRI) in a non-probabilistic convenience sample of 442 participants (221 couples). Exploratory factor analysis resulted in three components. In a second-order factor analysis, the three components were grouped into two factors: the Conjugal factor, which refers to how the people who exercise the parental role interact with each other (generally, the parental couple), and the Parenting factor, which represents the way in which the parental couple treat their children. Both first- and second-order factors had high reliability indices. It was concluded that the 25-item BFRI is a valid instrument to evaluate the two-dimensional model of the basic family relations theory.     

Phenotypic expression of schizotypal traits in an adolescent population

The main goal of the present study was to examine the influence of gender and age in the phenotypic expression of schizotypal traits in a community sample of adolescents. The sample was composed of a total of 1,618 participants, 776 (48%) males, with a mean age of 15.9 years (SD = 1.2). The ESQUIZO-Q: Oviedo Schizotypy Assessment Questionnaire was used for the assessment of schizotypal traits, a measure specifically developed for its use in adolescents. The results showed that gender and age were two sociodemographical variables that influenced the expression of schizotypal features. The males in the study obtained higher mean scores than the females in the Negative dimension (Physical and Social Anhedonia); however, the females obtained higher mean scores in Magical Thinking, Lack of Close Friends, and Social Disorganization. With regard to age, the younger adolescents had lower scores in Odd Thinking and Language, Lack of Close Friends, Excessive Social Anxiety, and Social Disorganization compared to the older adolescents. This differential pattern is similar to the one found in patients with schizophrenia and in nonclinical young adults, and these findings improve our understanding about the phenotypic expression of schizotypy during adolescence.     

Semantic dementia without surface dyslexia in Spanish: unimpaired reading with impaired semantics

Surface dyslexia has been attributed to an overreliance on the sub-lexical route for reading. Typically, surface dyslexic patients commit regularisation errors when reading irregular words. Also, semantic dementia has often been associated with surface dyslexia, leading to some explanations of the reading impairment that stress the role of semantics in irregular word reading. Nevertheless, some patients have been reported with unimpaired ability to read irregular words, even though they show severe comprehension impairment. We present the case of M.B., the first Spanish-speaking semantic dementia patient to be reported who shows unimpaired reading of non-words, regular words, and - most strikingly - irregular loan words. M.B. has severely impaired comprehension of the same words he reads correctly (whether regular or irregular). We argue that M.B.'s pattern of performance shows that irregular words can be correctly read even with impaired semantic knowledge corresponding to those words.     

Risk assessment behaviors associated with corticosterone trigger the defense reaction to social isolation in rats: role of the anterior cingulate cortex

The extent to which the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is activated by short-term and long-term consequences of stress is still open to investigation. This study aimed to determine (i) the correlation between plasma corticosterone and exploratory behavior exhibited by rats subjected to the elevated plus maze (EPM) following different periods of social isolation, (ii) the effects of the corticosterone synthesis blocker, metyrapone, on the behavioral consequences of isolation, and (iii) whether corticosterone produces its effects through an action on the anterior cingulate cortex, area 1 (Cg1). Rats were subjected to 30-min, 2-h, 24-h, or 7-day isolation periods before EPM exposure and plasma corticosterone assessments. Isolation for longer periods of time produced greater anxiogenic-like effects on the EPM. However, stretched attend posture (SAP) and plasma corticosterone concentrations were increased significantly after 30?min of isolation. Among all of the behavioral categories measured in the EPM, only SAP positively correlated with plasma corticosterone. Metyrapone injected prior to the 24?h isolation period reversed the anxiogenic effects of isolation. Moreover, corticosterone injected into the Cg1 produced a selective increase in SAP. These findings indicate that risk assessment behavior induced by the action of corticosterone on Cg1 neurons initiates a cascade of defensive responses during exposure to stressors.     

On the discrepant results in synchrony judgment and temporal-order judgment tasks: a quantitative model

Research on the perception of temporal order uses either temporal-order judgment (TOJ) tasks or synchrony judgment (SJ) tasks, in both of which two stimuli are presented with some temporal delay and observers must judge the order of presentation. Results generally differ across tasks, raising concerns about whether they measure the same processes. We present a model including sensory and decisional parameters that places these tasks in a common framework that allows studying their implications on observed performance. TOJ tasks imply specific decisional components that explain the discrepancy of results obtained with TOJ and SJ tasks. The model is also tested against published data on audiovisual temporal-order judgments, and the fit is satisfactory, although model parameters are more accurately estimated with SJ tasks. Measures of latent point of subjective simultaneity and latent sensitivity are defined that are invariant across tasks by isolating the sensory parameters governing observed performance, whereas decisional parameters vary across tasks and account for observed differences across them. Our analyses concur with other evidence advising against the use of TOJ tasks in research on perception of temporal order.     

Clinical features of tic-related obsessive-compulsive disorder: results from a large multicenter study

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical features of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients with comorbid tic disorders (TD) in a large, multicenter, clinical sample.MethodA cross-sectional study was conducted that included 813 consecutive OCD outpatients from the Brazilian OCD Research Consortium and used several instruments of assessment, including the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale, the Dimensional Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale, the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS), the USP Sensory Phenomena Scale, and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders. RESULTS: The sample mean current age was 34.9 years old (SE 0.54), and the mean age at obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS) onset was 12.8 years old (SE 0.27). Sensory phenomena were reported by 585 individuals (72% of the sample). The general lifetime prevalence of TD was 29.0% (n = 236), with 8.9% (n = 72) presenting Tourette syndrome, 17.3% (n = 141) chronic motor tic disorder, and 2.8% (n = 23) chronic vocal tic disorder. The mean tic severity score, according to the YGTSS, was 27.2 (SE 1.4) in the OCD + TD group. Compared to OCD patients without comorbid TD, those with TD (OCD + TD group, n = 236) were more likely to be males (49.2% vs. 38.5%, p < .005) and to present sensory phenomena and comorbidity with anxiety disorders in general: separation anxiety disorder, social phobia, specific phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, impulse control disorders in general, and skin picking. Also, the "aggressive," "sexual/religious," and "hoarding" symptom dimensions were more severe in the OCD + TD group.ConclusionTic-related OCD may constitute a particular subgroup of the disorder with specific phenotypical characteristics, but its neurobiological underpinnings remain to be fully disentangled.