Scipedia: Collection of Psychological Research Records

Usando Instrucción Programada por Computadora para el Entrenamiento de Diseños de Sistema Orientados a Metas

Scipedia content — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 15:51:54 +0200

The purpose of this study was to evaluate two versions of a programmed instruction training program designed to teach undergraduate college students a goal-directed systems approach to analyzing organizational systems (Malott & Garcia, 1987). The first version was a paper-based programmed instruction module that had previously been shown to be effective at training the basic knowledge of the concepts, however was ineffective at training the application of these concepts. A computer-based programmed instruction (CBPI) version was created to improve the application of these concepts, which was tested through a series of three open-ended posttests with increasingly explicit prompts for each successive test. The results of the study showed higher performance results for the CBPI versions across all three dependent variables. The results of a nonparametric global test showed a standardized effect size of .86 and a p-value of <.001.>

Inclusion and exclusion parameters in happiness and life satisfaction outliners in Mexico

Scipedia content — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 15:51:51 +0200

The present analysis is made about the National Survey Well-being (BIARE, for its acronym in Spanish) constructed by National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) for obtain subjective indicators well-being and happiness. The objective its to know the characteristics and differences between the people who report the lowest well-being and the highest well-being perception. The happiness indicator was selected from the questions: «How satisfied are you? » and «How many happy are you?», which have a ten-point responding scale, happy people was selected from point 10 (totally satisfied). People unhappy was selected from point 0 = «Nothing satisfied» and point 1 = «A little satisfied». Descriptive statistics and hypothesis test was performed for evaluate group differences using chi-square and U Mann-Whitney test. The conclusion its that the unhappy people, compared with the happy people, perceive unhappiness during long time, obtained achievements and recognition were lowest for unhappy people, more presence of diseases, few economic resources, few social contact with family and friends, lower capacity to give support to people and a lower perception of coping capacities.

Exploratory analysis of the scale of Sternberg love in university Peruvian students

Scipedia content — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 15:51:48 +0200

The article describes the properties psicométricas of the Triangular Scale of the Love of Sternberg (1986) (ETAS). The scale was administered to 455 university students of Metropolitan Lima, 145 males and 310 women, whose ages ranged between 16 to 51 years. The results reveal a reliability, by means of Cronbachs alfa, for the total scale of .964. The factors intimidate, commitment and passion present indexes of reliability of .947.922 and.848 respectively. All the coefficients of reliability are considered to be excellent. The analysis factorial exploratorio suggested that they are three factors those that sublie to the articles, though there is evidence of the existence of an alone factor. One concludes that the ETAS presents suitable properties psicométrica, an analysis being recommended to realize factorial confirmatory in order to check the internal structure.

Evaluation of a Treatment Program to Stop Drinking

Scipedia content — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 15:51:45 +0200

The aim of the study was to evaluate the results of the treatment program for people who have problems with their drinking developed at Centros de Integración Juvenil, institute dedicated to treat, prevent and investigate addictions in Mexico. The evaluation was made by a cuanticualitative, transversal, comparative, ex post facto design. The first estimate was carried out with a purposive sample of 170 people (133 men and 37 women) who were participating in the treatment program. To do this, was design the test of Program Evaluation for Drinkers (CEPROBE ) to examine the emotional and health state, social integration, criminal behavior, assertiveness to confront the offer of alcohol, habit changes attributed to alcohol program and to assess service quality standards. For the second analysis, 24 Psychologists and 1 Physician (18 men and 7 women) were interviewed it means at an open questionnaire that explores the experience of the therapist in the course of the program. Overall, 47.3% of the patients decreased de use of alcohol, while 48.5% were able to quit it. With the Kruskal-Wallis test, the results suggest significant differences in the socio-emotional status mentioned and alcohol use of the subjects. Under the perception of patients and therapist, the program fulfilled adequately quality standards.

Construct and Psychometric Validation of the Dwelling’s Privacy Scale

Scipedia content — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 15:51:42 +0200

The main objective of this research was to generate a reliable and valid scale that assessed dwelling privacy in Mexico City’s population. A scale was developed specifically for this purpose. The scale included 20 items with five options for answers (Never, few times, sometimes, frequently and always). The scale was applied to a sample of 200 Mexico City’s inhabitants in order to obtain its psychometrical validation. The distribution of the participants was as follow: age between 14 to 75, 110 women and 90 men: diverse occupations and school levels. A proper analysis took place in order to learn about the items discriminative power, reliability and valid factorial structure. The final scale was conformed by 11 items organized by three factors as follow: 1) Information Access Control, 2) Person Access Control and 3) Intimacy it explains 68% of variance and has a reliability of Cronbach Alpha =0.89. Afterwards a Confirmatory Factor Analysis was conducted to verify if the structure obtained from the Principal Component Analysis was correct, and a good fit was achieved (df=39, x2= 48.07, p = .151, CFI= .987, RMSEA= .032).

Redefiniendo la felicidad: frecuencia versus intensidad

Scipedia content — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 15:51:39 +0200

Mexico is consistently portrayed as a happy country. Research endeavors, both national and international, show that Mexicos levels of happiness are favorable, although little has been done regarding specific measurement underpinnings. There is a constant debate on whether happiness should be measured in terms of frequency or intensity of positive affect over negative affect (Diener, Sandvik, & Pavot, 2009), although some consensus points toward frequencys superiority over intensity of emotions. Some authors insist that frequency can me more easily and accurately measured than intensity, allowing for cross-person metric comparisons. This research put to test the frequency-intensity debate by providing several conceptual frameworsk that accentuated one over the other, allowing people to decide how they defined their own happiness. Two independent samples (n1 = 158, n2 = 583) of Mexican men and women provided insights on whether happiness in Mexico is defined in terms of frequency or intensity. Once it was defined, happiness levels were compared between two groups showing that those who define happiness as “frequency” present higher levels of joy. This research supports the premise that happiness could be defined as the sum of frequent events, congruent with bottom-up approaches to happiness and wellbeing.

The influence of the couple in coping with heart disease

Scipedia content — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 15:51:36 +0200

The main aim of our study is to analyze the influence of social support on cardiac illness adjustment and on health recommendations adherence. The sample was 109 patients and their partners, all of them included in the Cardiac Rehabilitation Program of the Ramon y Cajal Hospital in Madrid. Our results show that partner support has not a significant impact on patientś adjustment (received support [P = .46] and satisfaction with received support [P = .041]). However, partner support has a significant effect on adherence to health recommendations (food, physical exercise, smoking, etc), most of all in the 8 and 12 months’ follow-up (P

Dimensionality of the Brief Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire in Mexico

Scipedia content — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 15:51:33 +0200

Recent models emphasized the importance in research of beliefs and its appraisal in the etiology and maintenance of OCD. The aim of the present study is the development and validation of a short form of the Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire (OBQ, Belloch et al. 2003) in Mexican population. This topic was addressed through two different studies. Study 1: Exploratory factor analysis of the short version (200 non clinical subjects). The results show a different factor solution. Study 2: Testing for the equivalence of latent mean structures in multi-group analyses (200 and 202 non clinical subjects). A three-factor, 20 items, model emerged as the best factorial solution with similar psychometric properties to those of an English version (OBQ, Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire, 2003). Given its consistency and repeatability, the Mexican version of the OBQ is a suitable instrument for the assessment of dysfunctional beliefs, although studies with clinical samples are needed.

Nostalgia for the couple

Scipedia content — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 15:51:30 +0200

The objective of the present investigation was to describe the nostalgic experience for a previous partner, who is considered as someone important. We worked based on a non-probabilistic intentional sampling, composed by 200 young college students equally divided by sex, from 18 to 25 years old in the city of Toluca, México. We used a questionnaire validated by experts judges with a level of agreement higher than 85%, composed by six open questions. The applications were individual, in an approximately 20 minutes, in academic areas of the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México. According to the obtained results, it was found that most of participants have had an important partner in their lifetime and what they liked the most about that partner was their personality, good treatment, physical appearance, favorable interaction and material benefits. Both sexes have frequent memories of that partner, been the men who report them most. Practically, all the participants agree that they miss the afective area. Men yearn the favorable interaction, while women miss more the share-time with the partner. The factors that motivates them to keep their actual relationship are the positive affection, comprehension, support and trust, personality, company, physical appearance and material benefits. Finally, most of participants declared that they do not consider as a posibility the get back together with their yearned partner, despite missing the animic status that they set up in the moment.

Causes That Take To Infidelity: An Analysis By Sex

Scipedia content — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 15:51:27 +0200

The aim was to detect the causes that lead more often to men and women to present the behavior of infidelity. To do this, it worked with a nonrandom sample of intentional type, consisting of 75 couples married and 75 couples in a dating relationship, residents of Toluca city, on condition of having committed an infidelity to their own partner. After obtaining the consent of each participant, applications were held individually at the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México. The results show that infidelity had its origin in the lack. That is, in the absence of some satisfactions that they do not get with that couple. Also found that men committed an infidelity because they were feeling bored, uncomfortable, by a sexual need, for lack of variety and because they were confused in the relationship, compared with women who did it because they felt alone and misunderstood in the relationship. It was interesting to find that people who returned with the couple to whom they were infidel, they argued their decision because they found stability and love, that supposedly tried to get into the relationship of infidelity.

Occupational Burnout Syndrome and its Relationship to Health and Psychosocial Risk in Public Officials who Administer Justice in Mexico City

Scipedia content — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 15:51:24 +0200

The purposes of this study were to determine the prevalence of psychosocial risk in major public officials who administer justice in Mexico City, and to identify the relationship between socio-demographic variables, occupational wear (burnout) and psychosomatic disorders. Information of 75 workers who administer justice was obtained in Mexico, DF (n = 75) by the Occupational Scale Wear of Uribe-Prado (2010). The results showed that burnout is the best variable to predict psychosomatic disorders in terms of psychosocial factors at work, analyzes of this study are discussed in terms of the importance of understanding the effects of psychosocial risk prevention, diagnosis and intervention from the response to chronic stress. Correlations, analysis of variance, regressions and a structural model to adjust the variables used in structural terms. Cronbach’s alpha for the evaluated variables was located between .63 and .83 reliability. The importance of secretaries, judges and magistrates to administer justice undertake their work in terms of occupational health is emphasized.

Explanatory Models of Condom Use in Coital Sex of Adolescents

Scipedia content — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 15:51:21 +0200

The purpose of this study was to systematically investigate the attitudinal and interpersonal factors that influence condom use in coital sex between high school students and to develop structural models that show the interrelationships and the direct and indirect effects of these factors on frequency of condom use. Participants were 527 adolescents who reported having consensual sex at least once in life. For this matter a questionnaire measuring frequency of sex and condom use during sexual encounters was used, also 80 ordinal questions divided into five factors: 1) sexual assertiveness, 2) sexual submission, 3) low sexual risk perception, 4) infatuation and 5) acceptance of condom use. Using structural equations trajectories and frequency of condom use were drawn. Structural models for men and women show acceptable levels of fitness to the data as well as significant direct effects between all the variables, specifically direct effect of variables acceptance on condom use and sexual assertiveness on the frequency of preservative use. These results extend the possibilities of explanation and psychosocial intervention on sexual risk behavior among adolescents.

Worldviews, authoritarianism and dominance in different kinds of prejudice

Scipedia content — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 15:51:17 +0200

Worldviews are cognitive schemas available for individuals through the socialization process that generates stable social worldviews. The dangerous worldview (DW) and the competitive jungle worldview (CW) have been widely studied. Both are related to different social attitudes: DW relates to the right wing authoritarianism (RWA) and CW relates with social dominance orientation (SDO). Meanwhile, RWA and SDO are two social attitudes that predict different forms of prejudice. The main objective of this study was to adapt and validate the worldviews scale (WV) to the local context, and then to test two paths analysis with relationships between variables proposed in the background. Participants were 376 university students with an age range between 18 and 42 years (M = 24.29, SD = 3.3). Main results indicate adequate psychometric properties for the bi-dimensional worldviews model. Furthermore, it was also noted that the path analysis between DW-RWA-Prejudice was adequate, while the other including CW-SDO-Prejudice has metric problems.

Entendiendo la violencia en el Islam

Scipedia content — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 15:51:15 +0200

In the context of reduced violence world-wide, as documented by Pinker (2011), Islam is an exception, i.e., it is more violent than other cultures. Can contemporary cultural psychology explain aspects of this difference? It is hypothesized that violence is more frequent in cultures that are vertical collectivist than in cultures that are horizontal individualist. The paper reviews data that are generally consistent with this hypothesis. Furthermore, most Muslims are not violent, but perhaps 1 percent do engage in jihad. What personality aspects might explain this difference? It is argued that self-deception is very common among humans and the jihadists are especially susceptible to self-deception. Religion provides important benefits but it is also often related to violence. One way to reduce aspects of Islamic violence is for the West to ridicule Islam less. The paper also provides Islam with a more realistic model of its religion.

Auto-engaño: Una introducción

Scipedia content — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 15:51:12 +0200

Self-deception has been studied by philosophers and psychologists for some time. Frenkel-Brunswik (1939) published the first psychology paper. In Triandis (2009 p. ix) there are references to 24 papers by philosophers and psychologists that examined this concept. All humans have self-deceptions, some more frequently than others. That is, they see the world the way they would like to be rather than the way it is. As I thought about the concept over the years I believe that the most important point for understanding self-deception is to examine what percentage of the information that humans use when constructing (Taylor, 1998b) the way they see the world comes from inside their body or from outside their body. If most of it comes from inside their body there is a high probability that they have a self-deception. The information from inside the body consists of emotions (e.g., hopes), needs (e.g., hunger pangs), desires (e.g., imagined attractive objects), cognitive systems (e.g., prejudices, stereotypes, in-group preferences), memories (e.g., we are descendents of heroes), theories, ideologies, and elements of subjective culture acquired during socialization. The information from the outside the body is reality, and captures aspects of the ecology. Geography, climate, the actions of others, occupations, and events in the environment, are all relevant. For example, when a wild animal is attacking we focus on outside information. But when making judgments about philosophy, economics, religion, education, politics, terrorism, aesthetics and the like we often use inside information to shape our perceptions. The Buddha had the insight that we use information from both outside the body (reality, truth) and inside our body (emotions, ideology) when he said “Where self is, truth is not, where truth is, self is not.” (Spencer-Rogers, Williams, & Pang, 2010). In this paper I will start with some examples of self-deception. Then I will discuss some of the characteristics of self-deception—it is often linked to cognitive simplicity, megalomania, and if we have no self-deceptions we might be depressed, but if we have large self-deceptions we might be mentally ill. Then I will discuss how self-deception is implicated in many of the controversial issues of our times. I will end with some suggestions for further research linking culture and self-deception.

Do methods modulate the relation among delay, probability and social discounting?

Scipedia content — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 15:51:09 +0200

Delay, probability and social discounting refer to the decrease in the subjective value of a reward as a function of its delay of delivery, probability or social distance, respectively. One question in the area is whether the three types of discounting share the same process or whether they are held by different processes. This question has been investigated by looking at the correlations between the three types of discounting. Moreover, it has been suggested that the method used to obtain the indifference points could modulate the discounting rates. However, the search of a common process underlying the three types of discounting should not be influenced by the method used to obtain the indifference points. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine whether the method used to obtain the indifference points contributes to the correlation between the three types of discounting. Forty-four college students responded tasks of delay, probability and social discounting —which used a hypothetical monetary reward— with two different methods: Binary choice and adjusting amount. We found significant correlations between binary-choice and adjusting-amount methods for the three types of discounting. Albeit, a significantly higher delay discounting rate was found with the adjusting-amount method rather than with the binary-choice method, but there were no significant differences between the probability and social discounting rates obtained with both methods. In addition to the previous results, with the binary-choice method it was found that social discounting correlated with delay and probability discounting, but the last two did not correlate between them. In contrast, with the adjusting-amount method, it was only found a correlation between delay and probability discounting. The latter result suggests that the method used to obtain the indifference points contributes to the search of a common process between the three types of discounting. Actually a common decision-making process underlying the three types of discounting could depend on the context in which the choice is made.

Processing Speed as a Predictor of Vocabulary in the Second Year of Life

Scipedia content — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 15:51:06 +0200

The aim of this study was to determine if processing speed, measured as visual reaction time (RT), of 10 month-olds obtained through an IPLP (Intermodal Preferential Looking Paradigm) in a word learning task, can be an indicator of communicative abilities such as productive vocabulary, during the second year of life. Participants were 13 infants of 9-12 months of age (X=10.15) at the beginning of the study, whose native language was Spanish and without visual or auditory problems reported by parents. The same group of infants was evaluated when they were between 24 and 30 months of age. Infants’ RTs were obtained at the age of 10 months in a word learning task, and related to communicative abilities measured with the Inventario de Habilidades Comunicativas MacArthur Versión II (CDI-II) when the infants were between 24 and 30 months of age (X=27.10). A linear regression analysis was performed using the RT from the experimental task as a predictor and the CDI-II vocabulary score as dependent variable. It was found that RT measured at 10 months of age can be used as a predictor of the vocabulary size in the same infants 18 months later. The results presented here imply that infants who take longer in processing a novel object associated with a novel word, are the ones who will have more words in their productive vocabulary during the second year of life, as reported by parents. The measures of processing speed in this study, demonstrates the length of time it takes a child to process non-familiar information in real time. The results obtained, support the study of processing speed at early ages in tasks that measure cognitive abilities other than word recognition. It suggests taking into account the analysis of individual differences, either processing speed or vocabulary, to better understand the relationship between these two variables in the first years of life. Furthermore, the results obtained in this paper highlight the importance of the study of RT in early ages and give information about the effects of slower or faster information processing over different linguistic abilities in infants.

Las Ciencias de Aprendizaje, Instrucción y Evaluación como Cimientos de la Instrucción Generativa del Modelo Morningside

Scipedia content — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 15:51:02 +0200

This paper focuses on a subset of the practices that have created the powerful learning technology developed and disseminated by Morningside Academy in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. We briefly describe this technology, known as the Morningside Model of Generative Instruction, and tell how it builds on the selectionist approach of B. F. Skinner and the pragmatic approach of John Dewey. We also describe the critical role Precision Teaching plays at Morningside Academy and its dependence on findings from the science of learning and the science of instruction, including placement of learners, task analysis, content analysis, instructional protocols, and principles of instructional design. Last, we acknowledge the symbiotic relation between effective Direct Instruction programs that teach skills to accuracy levels and Precision Teaching, which takes these accurate repertoires and systematically turns them into high frequency performances that take on the character of fluent repertoires. Over time, using Precision Teaching across multiple and successive repertoires also creates more agile learners.

Working Memory and Fluid Intelligence. A Review of its Relations

Scipedia content — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 15:50:59 +0200

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the relationship between working memory and fluid intelligence. A search was conducted in PubMed and Google Scholar database using a combination of the Spanish and English terms working memory (memoria de trabajo) and fluid intelligence (inteligencia fluida). The review indicates that attention control and the ability to retrieve information from long-term memory would be the processes through which working memory and fluid intelligence are related. However, there are conflicting results regarding the role of retention of information and information processing capacity in this relationship. We concluded by pointing out some methodological aspects that would enhance the understanding of the relationship between working memory and fluid intelligence.

Related Factors to Maternal Intake Control Practices in Preschoolers

Scipedia content — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 15:50:56 +0200

Parenting practices during the first years of life are crucial for the development of food preferences, self-regulation of intake and for establishing habits. The role of mothers is essential in the monitoring of their children´s feeding, and their practices may be influenced by several factors. In this study the relationship between mothers’ attitudes towards eating, the importance given to their own weight and that of their children, and intake control exerted over them was evaluated. 82 mothers of preschoolers participated. They were administered the Child Feeding Questionnaire, the Intake Control Exercised on the Children Questionnaire, and the Questionnaire of Emotions and Beliefs to Eating and Weight. Results indicate that concerns about the own weight and the children´s, the attitudes towards eating and the importance given to weight control, are related to the control exerted on children´s intake. This could generate thoughts and behaviors that could be constituted as risk or protective factors in the development of eating habits.