Gender differences in remembering and inferring spatial distances

The abilities of males and females to make spatial inferences were compared. Spatial inference is concerned with the ability to work out new spatial information from memory. In two experiments, participants had to study line drawings depicting shapes linked either by straight or meandering lines. Afterwards, they had to remember the straight-line distances or to infer the straight-line distances. Several spatial abilities were also assessed: perceptual discrimination, mental rotation, and visuo-spatial working memory span. The results showed that males outperformed females in spatial inference and mental rotation. Experiment 2 extended the study to old people. The results replicated and clarified those obtained in Experiment 1. Spatial inference and mental rotation showed age-related and gender-related differences; in addition, age reduced the visuo-spatial memory span. Overall, the findings suggest that gender differences favouring males are maximised with tasks requiring active processing and strategic control of metric information.     

Exercise motivation in university community members: a behavioural intervention

The purpose of this study was to examine how exercise level, exercise motives, and barriers changed from the baseline phase to the follow-up phase after a behavioural and cognitive intervention aimed at increasing exercise. Seventy-five members of our university community (43 subjects in the control group and 32 in the experimental group), all of whom received cognitive feedback, agreed to complete the baseline phase. Only the experimental group received behavioural feedback and a free-access gym ticket with personal training in order to facilitate their adherence to exercise. The results suggest that a combination of behavioural and psychological techniques is an efficient strategy for increasing exercise level. In addition, the results showed that extrinsic motivation predominates the early stages of change-of-exercise behaviour, and that intrinsic motivation is important for progression towards maintenance. Subjects who decreased their exercise level increased their extrinsic exercise motivation and subjects who increased their exercise level decreased the barriers related to intrinsic motivation. These findings indicate that, in order to facilitate exercise adherence, feedback about motives for undertaking exercise is needed, combined with advice about how to improve physical condition. This combination could help eliminate certain barriers that hinder engaging in an active and healthy life-style.     

Contributions and novelties from Functional Analytic Psychotherapy

Functional Analytic Psychotherapy is based on the principles of radical behaviourism. It emphasises the impact of events occurring during therapeutic sessions, the therapist-client interaction context, functional equivalence of environments, natural reinforcement, and shaping by the therapist. Functional Analytic Psychotherapy makes use of both the basic principles of behaviour analysis: individual functional assessment and application of in vivo treatment. This paper analyses novelties and new contributions of this therapy. New contributions are classified in various categories: integration with other psychotherapies, improvement of therapeutic skills, methods for evaluation and data recording in therapy, its application to several clinical problems, and studies of its efficacy.     

Preparing for retirement: how self-efficacy and resource threats contribute to retirees’ satisfaction,depression, and losses

The resource-based dynamic perspective has been applied in this study to explore retirees’ satisfaction, depression, and actual loss of resources. A three-wave design with Spanish workers who were in transition to retirement (N = 286) was used with the aim of investigating correlations between pre-retirement variables and post-retirement well-being. Participants were working at Time 1 and Time 2 but at Time 3, they had retired in the past year. Individual attributes (age), access to resources (life satisfaction and depression), situational characteristics (job stress, job tenure, and retirement transition quality), and psychological disposition (general self-efficacy and positive retirement expectations) at the first wave, correlated with the threat of loss at the second wave. Moreover, these predictors explained how people adjust to retirement at the third wave, assessed both directly (actual loss of resources) and indirectly (satisfaction with retirement and depression), via their effects on Time 2 variables. The results revealed that threat of loss had a positive relationship on loss of resources after retirement, and also both on retirement satisfaction and depression after retirement. Hence, this suggested several avenues for intervention targeting expectations and, in turn, increasing retirees’ well-being, which are discussed.     

Parent and Teacher Ratings of Temperamental Disposition to Social Anxiety: The BIS 3–6

Behavioral inhibition (BI) discourages children from interacting, predisposing them to isolation, social anxiety, and depression. We have created the Behavioral Inhibition Scale for Children Aged 3 to 6 (BIS 3–6) to detect this trait early. Parents and teachers of 365 preschoolers completed different versions of the BIS 3–6 and provided measures of psychopathology. Both versions are structured into 1 factor that explains over 40% of total variability and displays excellent internal consistency (α = .95). The moderate correlations with measures of internalizing symptoms (r = .50) and nonexistent correlations with externalizing measures suggest adequate convergent and discriminant validity. A new scoring system is proposed.     

Gender differences in remembering and inferring spatial distances

The abilities of males and females to make spatial inferences were compared. Spatial inference is concerned with the ability to work out new spatial information from memory. In two experiments, participants had to study line drawings depicting shapes linked either by straight or meandering lines. Afterwards, they had to remember the straight-line distances or to infer the straight-line distances. Several spatial abilities were also assessed: perceptual discrimination, mental rotation, and visuo-spatial working memory span. The results showed that males outperformed females in spatial inference and mental rotation. Experiment 2 extended the study to old people. The results replicated and clarified those obtained in Experiment 1. Spatial inference and mental rotation showed age-related and gender-related differences; in addition, age reduced the visuo-spatial memory span. Overall, the findings suggest that gender differences favouring males are maximised with tasks requiring active processing and strategic control of metric information.     

Peer harassment in primary school: the role of peers and its relationship with sociometric status

During the last decade, there has been a change in peer harassment research from a focus on the characteristics of the Aggressor-Victim dyad to the recognition of peer harassment as a whole group process, with most of children playing some kind of role. This study uses a shortened adaptation of the Participant-Role Questionnaire approach to identify these roles in 2,050 Spanish children aged 8 to 13 years. These Participant Roles were related to belonging to one of the five sociometric status groups. Factor analysis revealed four different roles, indicating that the adapted scale remains a reliable way of distinguishing the Aggressor, Victim, Defender of the victim, and Outsider roles. Boys played the roles of Aggressor and Victim significantly more frequently. The children's Participant Role was found to be related to their sociometric status. Progress in the measurement of peer harassment as a group process and the success of intervention strategies may depend on finding clearer distinctions among the different peer roles, mobilizing peer pressure, and isolating aggressors from their social support.