Europe’s Journal of Psychology (PsychOpen)
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Subjective stress in female elite athletes and non-athletes: Evidence from cortisol analyses
No full textStress response can be considered a consequence of psychological or physiological threats to the human organism. Elevated cortisol secretion represents a biological indicator of subjective stress. The extent of subjectively experienced stress depends on individual coping strategies or self-regulation skills. Because of their experience with competitive pressure, athletes might show less pronounced biological stress responses during stressful events compared to non-athletes. In the present study, the short version of the Berlin Intelligence Structure Test, a paper-pencil intelligence test, was used as an experimental stressor. Cortisol responses of 26 female Swiss elite athletes and 26 female non-athlete controls were compared. Salivary free cortisol responses were measured 15 minutes prior to, as well as immediately before and after psychometric testing. In both groups, a significant effect of time was found: High cortisol levels prior to testing decreased significantly during the testing session. Furthermore, athletes exhibited reliably lower cortisol levels than non-athlete controls. No significant interaction effects could be observed. The overall pattern of results supports the idea that elite athletes show a less pronounced cortisol-related stress response due to more efficient coping strategies
Kicking the can of stigma down the road
No full textAs I strolled through the vestibule of memories past, I witnessed the unfolding of hell’s fire. The caterwauling of the desperate and disarmed provided the shadowy overcast as a young man of stealthy step and demoniacal eyes lay hold of a 45 caliber pistol, and with superior marksmanship, picked off the pristine, one by one. What bedeviled such a man that he could, without compassion or bereft of charity, take aim at his own, and with calculated thievery, deprive a man/woman of his last breath
Developmental dyslexics and unimpaired children’s reading and memory for words in a transparent orthography
No full textWord reading and short-term memory performance of forty two developmental dyslexics (mean age 10.1 years, SD = .7) and thirty three unimpaired reading age matched (mean age of 8.5, SD = .5) and thirty six unimpaired chronological age matched children (mean age of 10.6, SD = .7) was investigated in transparent Polish orthography. Fifty of the children were instructed that they were expected to recall the list of (12 high frequency mainly concrete) words after reading them aloud (Condition A), whilst others had no such instructions (Condition B). Word reading was tested by recording the time taken to read aloud the list of words in seconds and by taking into account errors in pronunciation. Overall, word reading was significantly slower for developmental dyslexics compared to reading age (RA) and chronological age (CA) controls. However, developmental dyslexics’ recall of words was comparable to CA and significantly superior to RA both in conditions A and B of the experiment. The implications of these results in relation to the impact of spelling transparency on memory performance of impaired and unimpaired readers are discussed
The Message of the Medium: Distributing academic knowledge in the Digital Age
No full textTechnology supporting the production of academic knowledge has come a long way and Europe’s Journal of Psychology is at the forefront of a new phase in the dissemination and discussion of knowledge. Before the advent of writing, knowledge was spread by word of mouth often through poems to aid memory. Writing was obviously a breakthrough, but it has taken millennia to refine. Unwieldy scrolls became books with pages allowing easy access to each part of the text. The printing press, which made the reproduction of information easy and cheap, was obviously a major breakthrough. But many micro-inventions were required for this medium to mature. Introducing spaces between words greatly increased readability, as did paragraph breaks. Page numbers, chapters, chapter titles, and indexes improved accessibility (Chartier, 1995). Journal articles developed their own conventions of titles, abstracts, keywords, and predictable organisation. The technologies of The Age of Print are not only found within printed books and journal articles. Institutions grew up around printed material supporting the creation, distribution, archiving, and searching of the material. In libraries across the world, books were catalogued and shelved, journal articles were abstracted, keywords parsed, and massive index systems compiled
Why do some people ruminate more or less than others? The role of Emotional Intelligence ability
No full textEmotional Intelligence (EI) has been defined as an ability to evaluate, perceive and express emotions, use emotions to facilitate thought, analyse and understand emotions, and manage and regulate emotions. The emotional elaboration ability is considered a crucial skill for EI, because of its role on the individual well-being. Individuals differ in adopting more or less successful emotion elaboration strategies. Among the many strategies, mental rumination is conceptualized as being characterized by persistent thoughts which intrude into the consciousness in a repetitive way. As a consequence, individual differences in mental rumination may be related to differences in EI abilities. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between mental rumination and EI abilities. More specifically, Study 1 (N = 150) investigated this association with respect to the emotional valence of an emotionally inducing event (positive vs. negative). Study 2 (N = 88) explored the impact of EI on the mental rumination processes both immediately after an emotional event and over time. Results, jointly considered, supported the idea that people with a higher level of managing emotions ability had reduced frequency of mental rumination, independent of the valence of the emotional event and retention delay
Dimensions of students’ psychosocial well-being and their measurement: Validation of a students’ Psychosocial Well Being Inventory
No full textThis paper presents findings from a validation study of a measurement instrument for the dimensions of students’ psychosocial well-being. Researches to date suggest many separate but related dimensions of psychosocial well-being. In the current study, psychosocial well-being is considered to have four dimensions: subjective well-being related to every day’s events, subjective well-being related to faculty events, psychological well-being and social well-being. Diener’s (1985) and Seligman’s (2002) models of subjective well-being and Ryff’s (1995) and Keyes’ (1998) models of psychological and social well-being served as the conceptual basis for the development of this instrument. The sample for the validation study consisted of 449 university students at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Bucharest, Romania. Participants completed seven self-report questionnaires that related to the individual’s positive functioning in personal life and in society, including the Psychosocial Well Being Inventory (PSWBI). The validation study consisted of establishing the psychometric properties, factorial structure of the construct, and convergent and divergent validity of the instrument. Results show that PSWBI is a valid instrument, performing at least as well as popular measures of overall well-being but also specifying its dimensions
Applying decision making theory to clinical judgements in violence risk assessment
No full textA considerable proportion of research in the field of violence risk assessment has focused on the accuracy of clinical judgements of offender dangerousness. This has largely been determined through research which compares the accuracy of clinical predictions of offender dangerousness or future violence to mathematical predictions. What has been less researched is the influence of decision making heuristics and biases on clinical judgements of violence risk assessment. The current paper discusses decision making heuristics and biases and applies the theory to clinical judgements in a violence risk assessment context. Based on the current review, it is suggested that in order to improve the effectiveness clinical judgements in violence risk assessment, a greater level of empirical research specifically examining the effects of the heuristics and biases in this context must be conducted, with the possibility of incorporating debiasing training into clinical practice
Does Humor Benefit Health In Retirement? Exploring Humor as a Moderator
No full textThis research assessed the extent to which humor moderates the relationship between retirement stress, including hassles, and health. Two hundred sixty-five retirees over the age of 55 years responded to an on-line survey, completing the RAND 36-Item Health Survey and the Humor Styles Questionnaire. Stress was measured using the Self Perceived Stress in Retirement Scale and The Hassles Scale. The stress moderating effect of humor was examined via regression analyses. Contrary to expectation, and the assumed nature of humor styles, results suggest that the adaptiveness of humor styles depends on the level of stress or hassles one perceives, as well as gender. This is a first indication that whether specific humor styles are adaptive or maladaptive may depend on specific circumstances or person variables
5th International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences
No full textUniversity of Cambridge 2-5 August 2010 The Conference will address interdisciplinary practices across the social sciences, and between the social sciences and the natural sciences, applied sciences and the professions. Plenary speakers will include some of the world’s leading thinkers in the social sciences, as well as numerous paper, colloquium and workshop presentations. All are encouraged to register and attend this significant and timely Conference
Sex, Sexuality and Therapeutic Practice: A Manual for Therapists and Trainers
No full textEdited by: Catherine Butler, Amanda O’Donovan, Elizabeth Shaw Routledge, 2010 Sex and sexuality are undoubtedly fashionable topics in our post-modern (Western) culture. They are ubiquitous in mass-media communication, popular culture, and everyday life conversations. “Sex sells”. And yet, it might be that because of this intoxication with sexual stories and images that constantly tell us how sex is and should be we lose our own, personal sense, of what sex and sexuality are or should be for us. Not only because sex is such a fundamental part of our human nature, but also because we are faced with this “societal” avalanche of beliefs, norms, recommendations, impositions, and interdictions about sex and sexuality, that these topics tend to and need to occupy a central place in clinical and therapeutic practice. And it is in this context that manuals addressing sex and sexuality are a real necessity for therapists, health professionals and the general public at large