87,368 research outputs found
Burnout, reasons for living and dehumanisation among Italian penitentiary police officers
No full textThe literature on burnout syndrome among Penitentiary Police Officers (PPOs) is still
rather scarce, and there are no analyses on the protective factors that can prevent these workers
from the dangerous effect of burnout, with respect to the weakening of the reasons for living and
de-humanization. This study aimed to examine the relationships between burnout, protective factors
against weakening of the reasons for living and not desiring to die and the role of de-humanisation,
utilising the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI); the Reasons for Living Inventory (RFL); the Testoni
Death Representation Scale (TDRS); and the Human Traits Attribution Scale (HTAS), involving 86
PPOs in a North Italy prison. Results showed the presence of a high level of burnout in the group of
participants. In addition, dehumanization of prisoners, which is considered a factor that could help
in managing other health professional stress situations, does not reduce the level of burnout
L’uomo e la morte in Occidente: una prospettiva psicologica
No full textLa prospettiva socio-cognitivisa stabilisce che la diminuzione della mortality salience permette di ridurre l’angoscia facilitando la vita, ma questo è vero solo nella misura in cui la morte si lascia nascondere e poiché invece stiamo parlando dell’evidenza suprema possiamo dire che non è tanto la morte che occultiamo quanto il “significato” di cui che essa è manifestazione. Ogni settore di ricerca in psicologia rispetta determinati paradigmi epistemologici, generalmente rispondenti alla prospettiva darwinista secondo cui il presente è esito della selezione e quindi l’uomo è un animale dotato di un’intelligenza che gli permette di dominare la natura. In tal senso i “significati” relativi alla trascendenza vengono considerati dispositivi vincenti per l’adattamento e non indicazioni di realtà. Il socio-costruzionismo è però pronto a dichiarare che anche i “significati” scientifici sono esito di una costruzione sociale che perciò non indicano alcuna realtà dato che la sua definizione è storicamente e culturalmente determinata. Purtroppo l’invalidazione dell’idea di realtà produce esiti talvolta realmente nefasti, esponendo gli ingenui alla violenza esercitata dalla seduzione di chi sa manovrare pragmaticamente le situazioni in vista dei propri interessi. È forse per questo che nel panorama internazionale sta risorgendo l’esigenza di discutere concretamente di ciò che è reale e di ciò che è finzione. Ma pare che in questa intrapresa non si sia capaci di oltrepassare le prospettive rigorose del neopositivismo e dei riduzionismi fisicalisti che stabiliscono che è reale solo ciò che resiste all’osservazione scientifica e quindi alle tecniche di verificazione/falsificazione che mostrano in che cosa consista esistere, ovvero essere oggetto di osservazione.
Il problema è superabile solo se ci si rende conto che il key-concept che permette di sciogliere il nodo gordiano non è il “significato” attribuito alla “realtà” ma quello di “verità”. Abbiamo considerato in questo contesto dedicato alle riflessioni psicologiche sulla morte in Occidente le prospettive corrispondenti al darwinismo evoluto nel neopositivismo (comportamentismo e cognitivismo cui corrispondono in parte la psicoanalisi e totalmente il socio-cognitivismo) insieme a quelle del post-strutturalismo (prospettive socio-costruzioniste) e nessuna delle due riesce a oltrepassare il limite della questione relativa alla realtà. In psicologia è però possibile corrispondere anche ad altri tipi di fondazione e in particolare a una che pone la questione della verità come centrale. Si tratta dell’indicazione di Emanuele Severino, che assume interamente e sviluppa integralmente quanto è stato solo abbozzato dagli studi socio-cognitivisti relativi al pensiero occidentale (Masuda, Nisbett, 2001, 2006; Nisbett, 2003; Nisbett et al., 2001). Questa indicazione fonda una epistemologia in grado di superare i limiti della metafisica e la sua confutazione da parte del pensiero scientifico. In questo campo di discussione, l’analisi di come si sviluppino le rappresentazioni della morte e che cosa significhi “nichilismo” sembra offrire notevoli opportunità di sviluppo (Testoni, 2007
Feelings and words to say it. an experience of death education with teenagers in Brescia
No full textEach individual is called by nature to come into contact with
the end; this inevitable bond has always brought people to put in
place a series of collective attitudes and behaviors in order to act
before death. In contemporary society human being, taken from
the hustle and bustle of work and constantly engaged in pursuing
material well-being, doesn’t take time to think about death. Not
only he personally distances himself from death but he also doesn’t
even want to hear about it. But even if confined and avoided,
death rises everywhere and always shows itself in all its dramatic
relentlessness. Contemporary society is inclined towards a purely
rational thought which tries to give an explanation to everything
around us and rejects the possibility of not being able to have an
answer to all the questions. In this context death becomes a taboo.
The life-death dichotomy that characterizes the Western way of
thinking inspires fear and worsens anxiety for an event which
undeniably will hit everyone. This climate doesn’t help people.
Especially in adolescence it is difficult to accept the death of the
Other as a possible condition and it is rather seen as something to
dismiss from our minds. Denouncing this taboo means to give
breath to pain, to give it a meaning and to allow adolescents
not only to express their fears, but also to give voice to their
ability to go trough life. This experimental research is aimed at
teenagers attending different high schools in the city of Brescia.
The TDRS scale (Testoni Death Representation Scale) was used
to assess the representation of death, the presence of alexithymia
was investigated with the TAS-20, the Collett-Lester fear of death
was used to detect anxiety that emerges in relation to the thought
of death and finally the WHOQOL-SRPB questionnaire was used
to investigate the satisfaction of quality of life in relation to the
presence of a spiritual dimension. In order to obtain informations
to confirm the quantitative data, it was decided to carry out a
qualitative analysis through the Atlas.ti software, analyzing the
material produced by the teenagers during the Death Education
path and a final question in which they had to express what it
meant for them. The sample consists of 315 students between
16 and 19 years old, divided into experimental (143) and control
group (172). The obtained data indicate that a path of Death
Education is useful to act on death representation directing it
towards a vision of transition, while the qualitative analysis
shows greater awareness on the theme of death and loss. In
addition, a similar educational path has been proved effective
to decrease anxiety that emerges in relation to the theme of
Finiteness and at the same time it improved the difficulty of
identifying and describing emotions as well as of communicating
them to others. These data are confirmed by qualitative analysis
which shows that at the beginning of the path the emotions
expressed were mainly negative, towards the conclusion there
was a prevalence of positive emotions. Emotional activation,
within this context, shows itself in a variety of facets that
are in a continuum where on one hand there are anger and
pain and, on the other, there are hope and joy. With regard to
spirituality an increase of hope, which affects the perception of
their quality of life, is detected. These data support the conclusion
that an intervention of Death Education is effective and important
because it encourages reflections on death, but also on life and
its value. Moreover it allows people to express their feelings and
fears, putting them in a frame of meaning. In addition Death
Education encourages every person to increase his own spiritual
dimension which helps to take awareness on what it means to
live knowing that we will die. Creating a context in which it is
possible to speak of death allows people to become aware about
the finiteness of life, giving them the means to face the fear of
death, fear that is listened to, accepted and reworked
Artificial Intelligence Versus Natural Intelligence
No full textThis book centers around a dialogue between Roger Penrose and Emanuele Severino about one of most intriguing topics of our times, the comparison of artificial intelligence and natural intelligence, as well as its extension to the notions of human and machine consciousness. Additional insightful essays by Mauro D’Ariano, Federico Faggin, Ines Testoni, Giuseppe Vitiello and an introduction of Fabio Scardigli complete the book and illuminate different aspects of the debate. Although from completely different points of view, all the authors seem to converge on the idea that it is almost impossible to have real “intelligence” without a form of “consciousness”. In fact, consciousness, often conceived as an enigmatic “mirror” of reality (but is it really a mirror?), is a phenomenon under intense investigation by science and technology, particularly in recent decades. Where does this phenomenon originate from (in humans, and perhaps also in animals)? Is it reproducible on some “device”? Do we ..
The central role of palliative psychology in the different relational contexts of helping people to die|IL RUOLO CENTRALE DELLA PSICOLOGIA PALLIATIVA NEI DIVERSI CONTESTI RELAZIONALI DELL'AIUTO A MORIRE
No full textThe article analyses some emerging aspects for contemporary psychology: the relationship between palliative care, the care plan shared with patients with an inauspicious prognosis, respect for the dignity of the dying person and his or her wishes, and the management of the request to die with the help of the doctor. The Italian regulatory horizon is therefore considered in relation to each of these nodes, and that which sanctions the role of the psychologist as an elective figure with respect to the management of each step. Since the founding ethical framework of palliative care excludes the possibility of considering a request for medically assisted voluntary death while, on the contrary, the bill on euthanasia currently at a standstill in the Senate assumes that such a request involves a prior palliative course on the part of the patient, the article reflects on the possibility for palliative psychology to consider the therapeutic continuity between the two polarities, proposing to use the alternative terms, proposed by the perspective of Un Diritto Gentile to which the law 219/17 is already owed, to indicate this continuity, with the indication of the shift from helping «in» dying to helping «at» dying. Deontological and methodological issues are finally considered, emphasising the importance of palliative psychology in adopting the integrated approach required in this field of intervention, as a function of respect for the principles of dignity and self-determination of patients. It is also highlighted how, in the field of death and dying, it is not possible to disregard the recognition of the psychological and social dynamics on which the meaning and value attributed to the finiteness of life are established
From psychological super-skills to training psychologists to respond to the will to die|DALLE SUPER-COMPETENZE PSICOLOGICHE ALLA FORMAZIONE DEGLI PSICOLOGI PER RISPONDERE ALLA VOLONTÀ DI MORIRE. RISPOSTE AI COMMENTI
No full textA correct reflection on psychological intervention referred to medically assisted voluntary death (MVMA) and its relationship with palliative care requires addressing some critical points. These include habeas corpus, understood as a constitutive element of everyone’s own and inalienable identity from which no norm, authentically based on respect for Universal Human Rights and the Italian Constitution, can derogate, in contrast to the rhetoric of the «slippery slope argument». The role of trust as social capital that individuals can rely on to make choices and act in care relationships is also considered, with particular reference to those in which the lack of a lexicon of grief produces as an outcome in one direction the self-isolation of the sufferer and in the other direction dynamics characterising it in relation to the terror of death. The authors also delve deeper into how spirituality and religiosity intervene in these horizons of reflection. Special prominence is given to the topic of the palliative psychologist’s competencies and the pathways that ensure their acquisition
In dyspeptic patients without gastric phase III of the migrating motor complex, Helicobacter pylori eradication produces no short-term changes in interdigestive motility pattern
No full textELECTROMECHANICAL ANALYSIS OF THE ITER ION CYCLOTRON ANTENNA STRUCTURE AND COMPONENTS
No full text3D finite-element models of the ITER ion cyclotron RF antenna assembly have been implemented in order to perform electromagnetic and stress analyses and to calculate the applied electromagnetic loads, torques and forces on the antenna structure during plasma disruption events. The electromagnetic analysis has been carried out as follows: first the antenna outer structure is analyzed (support structure, neutron shield and Faraday shield), the magnetic field variation penetrating the outer structure is then computed and applied as forcing field to the antenna inner structure (four port junction, coaxial lines and straps). The stress analysis is carried out, for both the inner and outer structure, by computing in any element the cross product of the eddy current distribution with the local static magnetic field and by deriving stresses and deformations. Results of the analyses have shown that mechanical stresses are below the allowable limits in all the components of the antenna except the Faraday shield which needs some design improvements because of the very large displacements and stresses
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