Workers’ perception that their job experience enriches their family life has been considered a mechanism that explains their positive attitudes toward the organization where they work. However, because women and men live their work and family differently, gender may condition this relationship between the work-family enrichment and workers’ attitudes. With a sample of 1885 workers from one Portuguese bank, with 802 women, the current study investigated the relationship between work-family enrichment and organizational affective commitment as well as the role of sex as a moderator of this relationship. The hypotheses were tested by using regression analysis. The results indicated that the perception held by workers that their work enriches their family is positively correlated with their affective commitment toward the organization. Furthermore, the data revealed that this relationship is stronger for women than for men. Study results have implications for management, particularly for human resource management, enhancing their knowledge about the relationship of work-family enrichment and workers’ affective commitment toward organization.

The evidence of the interrelationships between adult attachment, conflict resolution style and relationship quality in couple relationships shows some inconsistencies and it is mostly based on English-speaking adult samples, as well as on individuals’ rather than on both couple members’ reports. Therefore, the aim was to examine the associations between adult attachment, conflict resolution style and relationship quality from a dyadic approach. A sample of 405 heterosexual young couples completed online the brief version of the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised Questionnaire, the respondent version of the Conflict Resolution Styles Inventory, and a 4-item measure of relationship quality. Avoidance attachment showed a stronger negative correlation than anxiety with relationship quality. Withdrawal and conflict engagement styles were more highly correlated with avoidance and anxiety, respectively. At a dyadic level, relationship quality was negatively predicted by actor avoidance attachment and positively predicted by partner relationship quality. No actor or partner effects of conflict resolution style on relationship quality were observed. Overall, partners with higher attachment anxiety and avoidance reported more dysfunctional conflict resolution styles and less satisfaction with the relationship.

Prior studies have shown that interpersonal self-support is related to emotional symptoms. The present study explored the relationship between interpersonal self-support and attentional disengagement from emotional faces. A spatial cueing task was administrated to 21 high and 24 low interpersonal self-support Chinese undergraduate students to assess difficulty in shifting away from emotional faces. The Sidak corrected multiple pairwise tests revealed that the low interpersonal self-support group had greater response latencies on negative faces than neutral faces or positive faces in the invalid cues condition, F(2, 41) = 5.68, p < .01, η2 = .22. In addition, in the invalid cues condition, the low interpersonal self-support group responded more slowly than the high interpersonal self-support group to negative faces, F(1, 42) = 7.63, p < .01, η2 = .15, the 95% confidence interval for difference of reaction time from 16.30 to 104.70. The results support our hypotheses that low interpersonal self-support is related to difficulty disengaging from negative emotional information and suggest that interpersonal self-support may refer to emotional dispositions, especially negative emotional dispositions.

There is growing interest in the adaptation of psychological questionnaires in different countries, due to the need for cross-cultural research using the same tests adapted to diverse populations. This paper presents the standardization of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991, 2007) in Spain and Chile (both Spanish-speaking countries). The Spanish sample was made up of 940 people (461 men and 479 women), and the Chilean sample of 569 people (231 men and 338 women). Results revealed that the Chilean means were higher than those of the Spanish sample at confidence level 99.9%, although the associated effect sizes were generally small to moderate (partial eta-square between 0.008 and 0.187). Sex differences in the variables evaluated were commented on, and the importance of cross-cultural research and the influence of sex on personality and psychopathology variables were discussed.

The aim of this study is to characterize profiles of maternal care in a sample of Brazilian mothers, using a culturalbiological perspective. Participants were 315 women who had at least one child younger than six years-old. They were selected from six Brazilian states. In each state, two groups of mothers were studied, one from the capital and one from a small city. They were interviewed and answered scales on allocentrism, social support, adult attachment, and practices of childcare. Mothers' characteristics, the type of context (capital vs. small city), and reported childcare practices were used in a Tree analysis. A Correspondence analysis was performed using the four clusters obtained and mothers' answers regarding their youngest child. Univariate GLM analyses were performed to compare mothers in the four clusters in terms of their scores on the different scales. Four maternal profiles presenting distinctive patterns of association between mothers' characteristics and care practices displayed to the youngest child were identified. We conclude that maternal care is a multi-determined phenomenon and that the method employed in this study can give insights into how the combination of diverse social-biological factors can result in a set of childcare practices.

Non-specificity of fear is a core aspect of what makes anxiety disorders so impairing: Fear does not remain specific to a single stimulus paired with danger, but generalizes to a broad set of stimuli, resulting in a snowballing of threat signals. The blocking procedure can provide a valuable laboratory model for gaining insight into such threat appraisal and generalization processes. We report two experiments in which we induced selective threat appraisal by using a blocking procedure in human aversive conditioning. We subsequently assessed to what extent such selective threat appraisal is sensitive to different kinds of interference. Results illustrate that the maintenance of selective threat appraisal is not guaranteed: Stimuli present during an aversive conditioning event that are initially tagged with a low threat value, can come to be tagged with a higher threat value later on, without additional experience with these stimuli. We argue that such interference in selective threat appraisal might be one of the mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of non-specific fear.

This study examines how cognitive, behavioral and experiential avoidance differs between clinical patients (N = 100), the general population (N = 100), and undergraduate students (N = 54). For this purpose, a Spanish adaptation of the Cognitive-Behavioral Avoidance Scale (CBAS; Ottenbreit & Dobson, 2004) was made. Confirmatory factor analysis supports the four factors structure similar to the original one, yet question the value of three of the items (CFI = .929, RMSEA = .057, SRMR = .051, χ2(333) = 603.28, p < .001, χ2/df = 1.81). Effect sizes calculated using Cohen’s ƒ2 were between 0.30 and 2.57 in all cases, and only one item showed value < 0.35. The internal consistency for the total scale was .95, and adequate alpha values for the four subscales were found (α between .74 and .93). Statistical differences were found between the clinical and non-clinical groups, and also between the clinical and undergraduate groups (GLM, p < .001). The validity was verified using correlations with AAQ-II, MAAS, BDI-II and BAI. There is a correlation between cognitive-behavioral avoidance and experiential avoidance in both the clinical and control groups (rho = .382, rho = .361, p < .01). Patients with higher levels of cognitive-behavioral avoidance have higher levels of depression (rho = .36, p < .01). A score of 53 is suggested as the optimum cut-off point, because at this point, sensitivity and specificity are both 86%. The results suggest that cognitive-behavioral avoidance represents a significant factor in psychopathology. Recommendations for future studies are discussed.

Ninety-two clinic-referred and nonclinical mother-child dyads in Spain and the USA were observed in their home settings under naturalistic conditions for a total of 477 hours. Children in the clinic-referred dyads were considered troubled because of conduct problems. The observations were aimed at assessing two forms of mother-child asynchrony, either of which was expected to differentiate clinic referred from nonclinical dyads. Authoritarian asynchrony was defined as a mother's indiscriminate use of aversive reactions to her child, whereas the permissive form entailed indiscriminate positive reactions. Results showed the American mothers to generate more permissive asynchrony, whereas the Spanish mothers were inclined in the authoritarian direction. Only authoritarian asynchrony differentiated the clinical versus nonclinical dyads in each country. Discussion was centered on the greater salience of aversive as opposed to positive maternal attention, and cultural differences between countries that might have accounted for the different parenting styles.

Research into human communication has been grouped under two traditions: referential and sociolinguistic. The study of a communication behavior simultaneously from both paradigms appears to be absent. Basically, this paper analyzes the use of private and social speech, through both a referential task (Word Pairs) and a naturalistic dyadic setting (Lego-set) administered to a sample of 64 children from grades 3 and 5. All children, of 8 and 10 years of age, used speech that was not adapted to the decoder, and thus ineffective for interpersonal communication, in both referential and sociolinguistic communication. Pairs of high-skill referential encoders used significantly more task-relevant social speech, that is, cognitively more complex, than did low-skill dyads in the naturalistic context. High-skill referential encoder dyads showed a trend to produce more inaudible private speech than did low-skill ones during spontaneous communication. Gender did not affect the results.

Reflexology has been present throughout Spanish science since the last third of the nineteenth century and its importance can be seen in the works of authors such as Martín Salazar, Ramón y Cajal, Gómez Ocaña, Simarro and Turró. The most important research in Reflexology in Spain takes place a) at the Schools of Neurophysiology and Psychology in Barcelona and Madrid, b) with a group of authors specializing in pathological medicine and c) in the Military's Health Department. Pavlov's work was received in Spain with special interest. Fernández-España, who could be considered the “first Spanish Pavlovian,” emphasized Pavlov's work in a series dedicated to the study of objective psychology which was published between 1914 and 1924. Planelles was the first investigator to develop a program in Pavlovian experimentation, presenting his results in 1935. The Civil War (1936-1939) ended these and many other Spanish projects in psychology. After the war, interest in Reflexology and Pavlov's theories slowly rose again, first through psychosomatic medicine and then in the 60's because of the works of such authors as Monserrat-Esteve, Rof Carballo and Colodrón. The progressive inclusion of psychology in the Schools of Philosophy and Arts after 1968 marked the beginning of a new era.

Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is a small-vessel disease of the brain that is characterized by headache, recurring lacunar strokes, mood changes and progressive cognitive deterioration. The disease is transmitted with an autosomal dominant pattern and usually starts during midadulthood (at 30–50 years of age). Cognitive deficits in patients with CADASIL develop slowly. The dementia causes frontal-like symptoms and it typically develops after a history of recurrent stroke. We describe three patients from one Spanish family affected by this disease. All three cases underwent comprehensive clinical and neuropsychological examination, and were monitored for seven years. The results obtained in this study describe a) a significant loss of the intelligence quotient (IQ) and noticeable damage to abstract ability (g factor), b) mood and psychopathological disturbances (major depression and dysthymia), and c) a personality with neurotic features.

Mercury chloride (HgCl2) is a toxic mercury salt and a major pollutant, that can be found in soil, water and air, with influences on behavior, physiology and adaptation to the environment. In this study two experiments were designed to examine interactions and effects of HgCl2 on some behavioral patterns of Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens). In the first experiment we tested the effect of a progressive dose (five 0.04 mg) on aggressive display with exposure to a mirror, whereas in the second experiment we tested the effect of an acute dose (0.2 mg) on the aggressive display with exposure to a mirror. The experiments were performed on 5 consecutive sessions at intervals of 18 hours between sessions. Differences of performance were shown by subjects in the acute and progressive treatments when compared with a control treatment in the majority of behaviors evaluated, namely Floating, Slow Swimming, Wavy Swimming, Emerging, Bend, Square Move and Motor Display Components. Acute treatment was different from control only on Show Body, while the progressive group differed on Resting, Horizontal Display and Appropriate Display Components. Differences between Correlate Display Components and Total were also shown. Both the acute and progressive contamination with HgCl2 decrease the motor activity in the aggressive display, mirror-image test of Betta splendens, mainly on the progressive dose. This implies an impairment on feeding behavior, predator avoidance, reproductive behavior, mate choice and territoriality. These results suggest that in this fish species, the progressive dose has a greater effect on behavior in general and that both the acute and progressive contamination with mercury chloride affect many other aspects of behavior.

The aim of this article was to assess the validity of the emotional and developmental components of the Koppitz human figure drawing test. 2420 children's drawings available in a database resulting from a previous cross sectional study designed to determine the prevalence of neurological diseases in children between 0 and 12 years old in Bogota schools were evaluated. They were scored using the criteria proposed by Koppitz, and classified into 16 groups according to age, gender, and presence/absence of learning or attention problems. The overall results were then compared with the normative study to assess whether descriptive parameters of the two populations were significantly different. There were no significant differences associated with presence/absence of learning and attention disorders or school attended within the overall sample. An Interrater reliability test has been made to assure the homogeneity of scoring by the evaluator team. There were significant differences between this population and that of the original study. New scoring tables contextualized for our population based on the frequency of appearance in this sample are presented. We can conclude that various ethnic, social, and cultural factors can influence the way children draw the human figure. It is thus important to establish local reference values to adequately distinguish between normality and abnormality. The new scoring tables proposed here should be followed up with a clinical study to corroborate their validity.

Psychosis has been associated with committing violent crimes. However, it has been reported that the association is mediated by toxin consumption, personality disorders, and positive symptoms. This study will examine the relationship between different psychological disorders and sociodemographic variables, and violent crime perpetration in a sample of 472 men serving prison terms in Andalusia, Spain. A correlation-based, retrospective study was conducted and data were analyzed through logistic regression. The sample is representative of the Andalusian prison population, with a 95% level of confidence and .02% precision. Inmates were sampled and diagnosed by expert clinicians using the SCID-I and the IPDE-II. We computed bivariate correlations between the aforementioned variables and perpetration of violent crimes (murder, homicide, attempted murder, and injury) to later apply logistic regression and find adjusted odds ratios. We confirmed the association between diagnosis of functional psychoses and violent crime, with a significant adjusted odds ratio in the last model (OR = 3.71; p = .010). Other significant variables that acted like risk factors include suicide attempts (OR = 2.04; p = .046), having received care at a mental health facility in the year before imprisonment (OR = 3.83; p = .008), and more strongly than the psychosis diagnosis, low level of education (OR = 10.32; p = .029). Toxin consumption and personality disorders were not significant in the final model.

Resiliency personality factors are supposed to underlie resilience. To get evidence on this supposition, the Prince-Embury scales (PES) for adolescents were adapted to the Spanish population. Then, the relationship between the resiliency variables sense of mastery, sense of relatedness and emotional reactivity -assessed with the PES- with resilience -assessed with the Subjective Resilience Questionnaire (SRQ)- were analyzed, as well as the role of social integration within this relationship. Data from 1083 adolescents were analyzed using confirmatory techniques (CFA, PALV). CFA of PES displayed a good fit to the model (CFI: .95). Path-analysis showed that sense of mastery and emotional reactivity predict resilience as expected, but also that, contrary to expectations based on Prince-Embury’s theory, sense of relatedness and resilience are not related, either directly, or through social integration. Being related and socially integrated probably favors well-being, but it may not favor resilience unless associated to Sense of Mastery, at least in adolescence.

The main aim of this research was to investigate the decision making process in risky situations. We studied how different types of feedback on risky driving behaviors modulate risk evaluation and risk-taking. For a set of risky traffic situations, participants had to make evaluative judgments (judge the situation as risky or not) and urgent decisions (brake or not). In Experiment 1, participants received feedback with and without negative emotional content when they made risky behaviors. In Experiment 2 we investigated the independent effects of feedback and negative emotional stimuli. The results showed three important findings: First, urgent decisions were faster [F(1, 92) = 6.76, p = .01] and more cautious [F(1, 92) = 17.16, p < .001] than evaluative judgments. These results suggest that evaluative judgments of risk and actual risk-taking may not always coincide, and that they seem to be controlled by two different processing systems as proposed by dual process theories. Second, feedback made participants’ responses even faster [F(1, 111) = 71.53, p < .001], allowing greater risk sensitivity [F(1, 111) = 22.12, p < .001] and skewing towards more cautious responses [F(1, 111) = 14.09, p < .001]. Finally, emotional stimuli had an effect only when they were presented as feedback. The results of this research increase our understanding of the processes involved in risky driving behavior and suggest efficient ways to control risk taking through the use of feedback.

The main aim of this study was to confirm the relationship between executive performance and salivary alpha-amylase (SAA) activity in a sample of 64 healthy children (39 boys), and compare it to the association of SAA output and salivary flow rate (SFR). Executive functioning was assessed via fluency, trail-making, rings and inhibition tasks from the Batería de Evaluación Neuropsicológica de la Función Ejecutiva en Niños [Battery of Neuropsychological Assessment for Executive Function in Children] (ENFEN), merged into an ENFEN total score. SAA activity, output, and SFR were measured at baseline, one minute before, and one minute after the end of a neuropsychological testing session. Our results confirmed a direct, linear and significant association between SAA activity and executive functioning, r(64) = .351, p < .05, and extended it to SAA output, r(64) =.431, p < .05. The mean level of SAA output was the best predictor of executive functioning (β = .431, p < .05) and explained 18.2 % of the variance in ENFEN total score. In sum, and compared to SAA activity, measuring SAA output may be a more precise and indirect marker to assess executive functioning in children.

Several instruments have been developed to measure the human beings-nature relationship, one of which is the Love and Care for Nature Scale. Three studies were conducted with the aim of analyzing to what extent the construct of love and care for nature, responds to two empirically different dimensions, as well as conducting a psychometric study of the scale. The analysis of construct components showed a large cluster formed by two others (connectedness and well-being), considered “love for nature”, and one two-items cluster referring to “care” (Study 1, n = 51). Considering the “love” items, it was found that ten of the items present adequate psychometric properties (Study 2, n = 1071), and adequate levels of reliability and validity (Study 3, n = 151). Consequently, an appropriate measure of love of nature is established, while an interesting future research line would be to separately study the scale’s two components.

This study aimed to investigate the meaningfulness that Brazilian and French artists find in their work, considering the historic French cultural influence in the Brazilian creative industry. The specific objective was to cross-culturally validate a model of meaningfulness in work that was developed in French Canada and that includes five latent variables: learning and development, utility of work, quality of working relationships, autonomy, and moral correctness. The present study used a French Canadian measurement instrument that was developed for the health care and management occupations in Quebec. A total of 648 individuals, 280 in France and 368 in Brazil, provided online responses that were then analyzed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Multigroup Confirmatory Factor Analysis (MGCFA). The five–factor structure of the meaningfulness in work model was found to be similar for the two samples of artists—although this model was a better fit to the data for the Brazilian creative professionals than the data for their French counterparts. The analyses showed that the two groups understand the structure of the meaningfulness factors in a similar manner (configural and metric invariance). The study also showed that conceived as a social and economic core activity, work is present in the context of the arts as well as in the traditional sectors of the economy for which the model was developed.

In this paper, an overview of the evolution and current situation of professional psychology in Spain is offered. From a historical viewpoint, since the seventies, the profession of psychologist in Spain has advanced significantly in both quality and quantity. There are many different reasons for this development, although in this paper, we highlight two: the introduction of the Psychology Degree and the development of a professional identity due to the influence of an organization such as the “Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos” [COP - Official College of Psychologists, also denominated The Spanish Psychological Association]. Our description of the current situation is based on the analysis of the results of 6,765 surveys out of the approximately 28,000 that were sent to members of the professional College. In general, these results reveal a profession predominantly practiced by young women (mean age 36 years), working preferably in the clinical area, whose theoretical orientation is mainly behavioral, located for the most part in urban areas, and chiefly working in private practice. The main current professional psychology fields in our country will be analyzed in detail, according to the following criteria: type of center where the professional works, intervention areas, and training required for professional practice. Some final reflections about the defense of our profession are commented upon, proposing training and accreditation strategies as the best way to face increasing problems about the entry of unqualified people into the profession.