Optimism as a mediator between resilience and affective states in older adults / El optimismo como mediador entre la resiliencia y estados afectivos en adultos mayores

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore whether resilience is associated with and a predictor of depression, anxiety, negative and positive affect, life satisfaction and subjective happiness in older adults, and whether these relationships are mediated by optimism. To analyse this, different scales were administered to a sample of 240 elderly people and correlational and mediational analysis was carried out. The results showed relationships between all the variables. Similarly, we found that optimism is a partial mediator of the relationship between resilience and the aforementioned variables. Our results evidenced that increasing resilience and optimism in elderly people could be favourable to successful ageing.     

Extraversion and positive affect: A day reconstruction study of person–environment transactions

Extraversion is robustly correlated with positive affect, but the reasons for this correlation remain unclear. One possibility is that extraverts and introverts both enjoy interacting with others, but extraverts do so more frequently. Another possibility is that extraverts enjoy social interactions more. Both hypotheses were tested using the Day Reconstruction Method. Subjects reported on interactions with others and positive affect experienced during all of the episodes from a single day. Results were consistent with the first hypothesis: the relation between extraversion and positive affect was partially mediated by extraverts’ greater social participation. The findings support a transactional approach to personality, in which traits like extraversion are seen as styles of actively engaging with the environment.     

Perceived Health: A Test of Incremental Validity in Relation to Smoking Outcome Expectancies,Motivation to Smoke and Desire to Quit Smoking

This study examined the role of perceived health in predicting theoretically‐relevant aspects of smoking behavior among 161 young adult regular smokers (67 females; mean age = 21.9 years (SD = 7.2), cigarettes per day (M) = 12.2 (SD = 5.7)) recruited from the general community. Consistent with prediction, results indicated that relative to anxiety sensitivity, gender, number of cigarettes smoked per day and nicotine dependence, perceived physical health uniquely and significantly predicted expectancies for negative affect reduction and expectancies that smoking would lead to negative personal consequences. Additionally, perceived health incrementally predicted motivation to smoke to reduce negative affect. In contrast to expectation, perceived health was unrelated to motivation to quit smoking. Results are discussed in relation to the role of perceived health as a cognitive vulnerability factor for specific types of smoking patterns.     

On the capacity to suffer one's self

Problems in the establishment of the sense of a ‘psychic’ skin, in the ways described by Bick and Meltzer for example, commonly give rise to distortions in the capacity for self‐experiences as a consequence of difficulties in relation to projective and identificatory processes. These latter may acquire a markedly adhesive character as a defence against the anxieties that arise. This makes for considerable technical difficulties in an analysis. This essay addresses the nature of these problems and considers some of the ways in which they may be approached clinically.     

The effects of choice-making on the problem behaviors of high school students with intellectual disabilities

This investigation was conducted in an effort to systematically extend the emerging data base having to do with choice-making opportunities and the behavior of students with disabilities. In particular, the current analyses examined the effects of choice-making on the problem behavior and task engagement of three high school students with intellectual disabilities as the students performed domestic and vocational activities. Multiple baseline and reversal designs demonstrated that the choice conditions reduced problem behaviors and increased task engagement for all participants. Data having to do with student affect and task productivity were less consistent. The findings on the relationship between choice making and problem behavior replicate and extend a growing literature on the desirable effects of choice-making for individuals with disabilities. The results are discussed in terms of recent developments in behavioral support, as well as the need for ongoing conceptual and applied research.