This study analyzed the strategy of college men who give alcohol to girls to facilitate their acceptance when pursuing sexual relationships. It also studied the role of attitudes towards sexual assaults (rape myths) in the social perception of this practice; finally, this research examined how the fact that, in some cases, college women accept taking alcohol in their interactions with college men was perceived. Participants were 349 heterosexual students (154 men and 195 women) from the University of Granada. 28% of males reported having given alcohol to females in order to have sexual contacts with them, while 44% of females acknowledged having suffered this practice. Men, compared to women, were more favourable to this practice; however, this effect was moderated by their rape myths endorsements. It was also found that males and, in general, those participants who endorsed rape myths, tended to consider that girls who accept alcohol in their interactions with boys are promiscuous.

The present study aimed to examine the levels and interactions of family burden (FB) and expressed emotion (EE) in first episode psychosis (FEP) patients and, secondly, to observe the potential change after a brief psychoeducational group intervention implemented in a real world clinical setting. Twenty-three key relatives of FEP patients received a brief psychoeducational group intervention. FB and EE were assessed before and after the intervention. EE-change and correlations between variables were examined. Half of the sample of key-relatives showed high levels of EE. No severe family burden was observed. FB and EE did not change after the intervention. Family subjective and objective burden were correlated with emotional overinvolvement, but not with criticism. Brief psychoeducational groups may not be sufficient to reduce FB and EE associated to the experience of caregiving for a family member with a first-episode psychotic disorder.

The aim of this study is twofold. First, to assess the level of agreement between radiographic damage and functional disability in older people with osteoarthritis. And second, to assess the role of coping skills and sensory pain parameters as sources of disagreement between these variables. To achieve this objective we assess, in a sample of 104 older people with osteoarthritis, the following variables: functional capacity, radiographic damage, pain coping strategies, pain intensity, pain frequency and pain duration. The results show a non-linear relationship between radiographic damage and functional disability, modified by the levels of the two variables. There was maximum agreement between low levels of radiographic damage and of functional impairment, whilst agreement decreased for moderate and high levels of radiographic damage. Certain coping strategies may help to explain this disparity.

The current investigation, framed within the emotional cognitive science field, was conducted with three patients with major depression. They participated in a therapeutic process which involved EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). Data were obtained in the clinical practice through a longitudinal one subject study design, including: emotional valence identification within affective priming experiments; and depressive emotional representation studies, the data of which was analyzed using multi-dimensional scaling. The first ones had the purpose of observing the therapeutic impact over the emotional cognitive bias mechanism regarding depresogenic words related to traumatic experiences; and the second, to analyze modifications on depressive schemata. The results showed that EMDR had a positive effect both on emotional cognitive processing and on long-term memory conceptual organization. In the discussion section, interesting remarks are made on the incorporation of emotional cognitive science tools to the EMDR clinical practice.

This study examined a gratitude intervention repeating Emmons and McCullough study (2003) in a Spanish sample. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (gratitude, hassles and any event) and kept daily records during 2 weeks of gratitude, affect, quality of relationships, physical and subjective well-being. We added design features to assess the intervention long-term impact (follow-up measures), and to improve the design control (pre-treatment measures). Following the cited authors' analysis, i.e., comparing groups only in the post-test, we replicated their results, finding differences in positive affect and gratitude between the gratitude condition and the hassles condition. However, when including both the pre and the follow-up measures in the analysis, results were replicated only partially, as the difference in gratitude disappeared. Moreover, the difference in positive affect between groups in the post-test seemed to be influenced mainly by a decrease in positive affect in the hassles group. Post-test differences between groups in positive affect disappeared in the follow-up. Gratitude interventions may have an effect on well-being, but we consider other methods to promote gratitude besides gratitude journals should be tested.

Emotional suppression has played an important role in the research on psychosocial factors related to cancer. It has been argued to be an important psychological factor predicting worse psychosocial adjustment in people with cancer and it may mediate health outcomes. The reference instrument in the research on emotional suppression is the Courtauld Emotional Control Scale (CECS). The present study analysed construct validity of a new Spanish adaptation of the CECS in a sample of 175 breast cancer patients. The results confirmed the proposal by Watson and Greer claiming that the CECS is composed of three subscales that measure different dimensions, but not independent, from emotional control. The present Spanish version of the CECS showed high internal consistency in each subscale as well as the total score. According to Derogatis (BSI-18) criteria, emotional suppression predicts clinically significant distress. In short, our results support the reliability, validity and utility of this Spanish adaptation of the CECS in clinical and research settings.

This semi-experimental study examines how Mindfulness facilitates a distress reduction in a group of health professionals. The sample comprises 29 professionals seeking stress reduction who undertook an 8 weeks psico-educative intervention, involving 28 hours of class, based on a program called Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction or MBSR. Results show a 35% reduction of distress, from percentile 75 to 45, combined with a 30% reduction in rumination and a 20% decrease in negative affect. These benefits lasted during the 3 months of the follow up period. The correlation analysis indicates that the decrease in distress is significantly related to the other two variables. These results confirm the effectiveness of MBSR to decrease distress and its applicability in training programs for health professionals.

This study was conducted in order to determine factor structure and reliability of STAXI-2-AX/EX (Spielberger, 1999) and to calculate the correlation between STAXI-2-AX/EX and the Housewives Burnout Questionnaire (CUBAC). The study sample included 226 housewives. Dimensional structure was estimated using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Factor analysis results of STAXI-2-AX/EX showed that a four related factors model had an adequate goodness of fit, eliminating three items. Regarding the CUBAC, a two related factors structure presented the best goodness of fit, which improve if five items were eliminated. Finally, as we expected, the correlation between the two scales was positive (r = .38. We suggest that this study should be replicated in other countries.

The pre-post treatment change of 112 patients in two therapeutics Spanish communities is described. The Addiction Severity Index (ASI) was used at intake and at the end of the treatment program. Results of the treatment program were evaluated by applying composite scores (CS) of the ASI, and the evolution of each patient was evaluated using the Reliable Change Index (RCI). 69.7% of the sample completed treatment, and 30.3% dropped out prematurely. At intake, the percentage of people who could improve in the different areas of the ASI ranged between 35.1% for alcohol consumption and 95.3% for family relationships. At the follow-up, the percentage of subjects who showed significant statistical improvements in the different areas varied between 7.9% in family relations and 66.7% in alcohol consumption. The percentage of patients who deteriorated was less than 10% for all variables. Implications for further research and clinical practice are commented upon.

Two studies evaluated the psychometric properties and the latent structure of the Portuguese version of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) in a large Brazilian college student sample. Results indicated that PSWQ had an adequate internal consistency. Exploratory factor analyses yielded a two-factor solution. One factor was related to the worry presence and incorporated all the non-reversed items. The other factor was associated to worry absence and incorporated all the reversed items. Confirmatory factor analysis leaded to a three-factor solution. One factor included all the PSWQ items whereas the two other factors were linked to the reversed and non-reversed worded items. Correlations coefficients of these two reversed and non-reversed factors with the total scores of the PSWQ and the trait form of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory suggest that PSWQ has a single meaningful construct.

This paper presents some preliminary results from a different approach to research on psychotherapeutic processes. As activity in psychotherapy is predominantly verbal, we propose a scientific study of therapists' verbal behavior from a behaviorist perspective. Data were obtained through observational analysis of the recordings of 16 clinical sessions involving 4 cases, all of which based on individual cognitive-behavioral therapy with adults, in the framework of private clinical practice in Spain. The analysis used a previously validated system of categories and The Observer XT software to register and code data. A descriptive analysis enabled us to identify several patterns of psychologists' verbal behavior, irrespective of the therapist and/or the case analyzed. Notable differences were also observed in clinicians' performance, which raises important questions about potential variables associated with therapeutic change. Finally, we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the present research agenda, the development of which should lead to a fuller understanding of the psychotherapeutic phenomenon.

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which the Spanish POMS assesses the same factors as the original form of the questionnaire. We started from a version with 63 items, representing seven conceptual dimensions. This version was administered to a sample of 364 adult athletes. In the whole sample, exploratory factor analytic findings suggested a more parsimonious measurement model, with 44 items and 6 first-order factors. Then the data from said sample were randomly divided into two sets, each containing about 50% of the subjects. The fit of the first sample set (n = 166) to the proposed model was adequate. Four of the main goodness-of-fit indices exhibited the following values: CFI = .95, NNFI = .95, SRMR = .083, and RMSEA = .064. We tested the same model in the second data set (n = 198), in which the fit was also acceptable, with values of .95, .94, .088, and .066 for CFI, NNFI, SRMR, and RMSEA, respectively. In addition, we used multi-group confirmatory factor analysis to provide evidence on the invariance of the model.

The aim of this study was to assess the factorial structure of the Brazilian version of CSAI-2, using several structures suggested in previous studies. Two samples consisted of Brazilian soccer players, 266 from regional level (age 22.87 ± 4.08 years; athletic experience 11.32 ± 4.15 years) and 263 from national level (age 23.16 ± 4.37 years; athletic experience 11.11 ± 4.78 years) were used. The CSAI-2 is a 27-item inventory that measures negativism, physiological activation and self-confidence in a competitive setting. The results of CFA according to the original structure showed some inadequacy of the model. The model proposed by Cox, Martens, Russell (2003), composed of three factors (17-item), demonstrated better adjustment to the regional level sample (χ2/df = 1.871, CFI = .934, GFI = .916, RMSEA = .057), while the model suggested by Coelho, Vasconcelos-Raposo, Fernandes (2007), composed of two factors (18-item), adapted better to the national level sample (χ2/df = 1.701, CFI = .924, GFI = .914, RMSEA = .052). When we analyzed the two samples together, Coelho et al. (2007) was the better model, because it displayed greater invariance. The use of this model was suggested in the assessment of intensity of negative thoughts and the subsequent confirmation of its psychometric properties is recommended.

Literature has shown that, nowadays, a multidimensional approach to decision-making has become prioritized. The Careers Factor Inventory (CFI) is, in fact, a multidimensional measurement instrument for evaluating career indecision, which may be useful in the diagnosis of adaptation behaviors in terms of career decision versus indecision. This study emerges as a follow-up to a previous study which used the CFI on a sample of university students in which this measurement instrument was found to be capable of distinguishing Low decided vs. Highly decided groups and to evaluate the discriminatory capacity of the CFI scales. It is the aim, here, to further analyse the results obtained in such study with a view to grounding the importance of the use of this Inventory as an instrument for distinguishing people who present different decision levels in relation to their careers. In this study, 494 university students from a number of higher education establishments and courses are part of the afore mentioned Low decided and Highly decided groups. The collected data were analysed by means of Discrete Discriminant Analysis models and corroborate the discriminant power of the Inventory and its use as a diagnostic instrument in the psychological intervention of career counseling and development.

The language of personality traits includes single-word trait descriptors, and longer phrases or sentences. Evidence has accumulated that abstract, semantic relationships among single words have the same underlying structure as the empirical relationships when words are applied to individuals. The present study examines whether these two kinds of structure are also isomorphic for longer trait descriptors. Empirical descriptions and judgements of semantic similarity were collected among the descriptors comprising the California Child Q-set, or CCQ, and analysed with multidimensional scaling. Canonical correlation showed the solutions to be closely related to one another, and to independent sets of ratings available for the CCQ items. Informants' similarity judgements were not affected by the context in which they were made. The dominant dimensions of the solutions reproduce dimensions found previously for the single-word personality lexicon, indicating the two trait-descriptive languages to be closely parallel.

The Wisconsin Schizotypy Scales are among the most widely used instruments for the assessment of psychosis proneness. The main goal of the present work was to study the dimensional structure underlying the Revised Physical Anhedonia Scale (RPhA), the Revised Social Anhedonia Scale (RSAS), the Magical Ideation Scale (MIS) and the Perceptual Aberration Scale (PAS). It was also explored whether the dimensions underlying these scales were invariant across gender and age. The sample was made up of 710 university students with a mean age of 19.8 years (SD = 1.9). The results showed that the dimensional structure of the Wisconsin scales was similar to that found in previous studies, displaying a Positive dimension and a Negative dimension, the Social Anhedonia Scale being related to both dimensions. Moreover, the factor structure of the schizotypy scales was found to be invariant across participants' gender and age.

Despite widespread interest in ambiguity tolerance and other informationrelated individual differences, existing measures are conceptually dispersed and psychometrically weak. This paper presents the Spanish version of MSTAT-II, a short, stimulus-oriented, and psychometrically improved measure of an individual's orientation toward ambiguous stimuli. Results obtained reveal adequate reliability, validity, and temporal stability. These results support the use of MSTAT-II as an adequate measure of ambiguity tolerance.

The availability of adequate instruments for the assessment of nicotine dependence is an important factor that is relevant in the area of tobacco addiction. In this study, we present a Spanish validation of the Nicotine Dependence Syndrome Scale (NDSS) (Shiffman, Waters, & Hickcox, 2004). The sample was composed of patients, all daily smokers, who visited their General Practitioner (GP) at five Primary Health Care Centers in different cities of Spain (N = 637). The results indicated adequate reliability for the general factor that assesses nicotine dependence (NDSS-Total) (Cronbach's α = .76). Factor analysis confirms the five factors of the original validation: Drive, Continuity, Stereotypy, Priority, and Tolerance. It must be noted that reliability is adequate for the first, and moderate or low for the rest. The NDSS-T and its scales correlate significantly with the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND), with the nicotine dependence criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM-IV) as assessed through the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID), with carbon monoxide levels in expired air (CO), and with the number of cigarettes smoked. The ROC curve indicates that the NDSS-T has a score of .79 which is under the curve (.69 for the FTND), thus the prediction of nicotine dependence is adequate. We conclude that this instrument is useful (in terms of its total score NDSS-T) for assessing nicotine dependence for Spanish smokers (in Spain), as has been found in other countries, language groups, and cultures.

The objectives of the present study were to adapt and analyze the factor structure, reliability, and validity of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C; Beidel, Turner, & Morris, 1995) in a Spanish population. The SPAI-C was applied to a sample of 1588 children and adolescents with ages ranging from 10 to 17 years. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed a four-factor structure: Public performance, Assertiveness, Fear and avoidance/escape in social encounters, and Cognitive and psychophysiological interferences. Internal consistency was high (.90) and test-retest reliability was moderate (.56). Significant differences were found in the variables sex and age, although the effect size was small in both variables and their interaction. Overall, the increase of the age value was inversely proportional to that of social anxiety measured with the SPAI-C; in participants of the same age, values were higher for girls than for boys. Results suggest that the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory For Children is a valid and reliable instrument to assess social anxiety in Spanish children and adolescents.

An important methodological concern of any research based on a person-environment (P-E) fit approach is the operationalization of the fit, which imposes some measurement requirements that are rarely empirically tested with statistical methods. Among them, the assessment of the P and E components along commensurate dimensions is possibly the most cited one. This paper proposes to test the equivalence across the P and E measures by analyzing the measurement invariance of a multi-group confirmatory factor analysis model. From a methodological point of view, the distinct aspect of this approach within the context of P-E fit research is that measurement invariance is assessed in a repeated measures design. An example illustrating the procedure in a person-organization (P-O) fit dataset is provided. Measurement invariance was tested at five different hierarchical levels: (1) configural, (2) first-order factor loadings, (3) second-order factor loadings, (4) residual variances of observed variables, and (5) disturbances of first-order factors. The results supported the measurement invariance across the P and O measures at the third level. The implications of these findings for P-E fit studies are discussed.