Amalio Blanco

La estructura del bienestar: el encuentro empírico de tres tradiciones

Resumen El estudio del bienestar constituye hoy en día uno de los capítulos de mayor relevancia y futuro más prometedor en el campo de la Psicología. Con la ayuda de dos estudios hemos analizado las relaciones existentes entre los constructos más empleados para su medición: el bienestar subjetivo (BS), el bienestar psicológico (BP), y el bienestar social (BSo). Los resultados de los análisis factoriales exploratorios indicaron una estrecha relación entre el BS y el BP, mientras que los confirmatorios nos señalaron que un modelo compuesto por dos factores oblicuos denominados bienestar personal (que incluye el BS y el BP) y bienestar social fue el que mejor se ajusta a los datos. Los resultados del segundo estudio, empleando análisis de ecuaciones estructurales, confirmaron la naturaleza relacionada pero distinta del bienestar social y la necesidad de emplear modelos que lo incluyan para aumentar su capacidad predictiva sobre variables sociales relevantes como la acción social o la anomia.

The eudaimonic component of satisfaction with life and psychological well-being in Spanish cultures

BACKGROUND In the study of well-being there are two partially overlapping traditions that have been developed in parallel. Subjective well-being (SWB) has been associated with the hedonistic approach of well-being, and psychological well-being (PWB) with the eudaimonistic one. However, satisfaction with life, the most common SWB indicator, is not strictly a hedonic concept and contains many eudaimonic components. The objective of this research is to examine whether a Eudaimonic Well-being G-Factor of Satisfaction with Life (SWLS) and Psychological Well-being Scales (PWBS) emerges. METHOD 400 people from the general population of Colombia (Study 1) and 401 from Spain (Study 2), recruited via advertisement, voluntarily participated and filled in a booklet containing, in order of appearance, the PWBS and the SWLS. RESULTS According to our hypothesis, parallel analysis, eigenvalues, scree plot graphs and exploratory factor analysis (Study 1) suggested the existence of a one-factor structure. Confirmatory factor analysis (Study 2) indicated that this one-factor model provided excellent data fit. Results of a multi-group confirmatory factor analysis confirmed cross-cultural factor invariance. CONCLUSIONS These results question the view that the satisfaction with life indicator is uniquely hedonic and point to the need for a greater integration between hedonic and eudaimonic traditions.

Social (dis)order and psychosocial trauma: Look earlier, look outside, and look beyond the persons.

The most common and extreme suffering humankind has ever experienced comes from interpersonal and collective intentional violence. In dealing with traumatic outcomes psychology must overcome the mutually constitutive interaction between the (dis)order of a given macro or microsocial context and the mental health of the persons living in it. Social psychologist Ignacio Martín-Baró addressed in a preferential way the study of civil war in El Salvador in terms of intergroup hostility and polarization. He also approached the aftereffects of war by means of a theoretical core assumption: that traumatic experience rooted in collective violence (a human-made stressor) should be understood bearing in mind its social roots (pretraumatic situation), its personal and collective harm (collective injury), and the destruction of the social fabric. These are the arguments for his conceptualization of psychosocial trauma. Twenty-six years after the violent murder of Martín-Baró, along with 5 Jesuit priests, a housekeeper, and his teenage daughter, the current authors have adopted his general framework. Based on new theoretical insights and supporting data, the authors propose an expanded 4-dimension theoretical argument on psychosocial trauma: (a) pretrauma conditions based on social distress, (b) shared network of fear leading to breakdown of core social assumptions, (c) the outgroup as a target of negative emotions, and (d) destruction of family ties and community networks.

Development of an Implicit Overall Well-Being Measure Using the Implicit Association Test

Usually, well-being has been measured by means of questionnaires or scales. Although most of these methods have a high level of reliability and validity, they present some limitations. In order to try to improve well-being assessment, in the present work, the authors propose a new complementary instrument: The Implicit Overall Well-Being Measure (IOWBM). The Implicit Association Test (IAT) was adapted to measure wellbeing by assessing associations of the self with well-being-related words. In the first study, the IOWBM showed good internal consistency and adequate temporal reliability. In the second study, it presented weak correlations with explicit well-being measures. The third study examined the validity of the measure, analyzing the effect of traumatic memories on implicit well-being. The results showed that people who remember a traumatic event presented low levels of implicit well-being compared with people in the control condition.

Recovering the context in posttraumatic stress disorder: The psychosocial trauma in victims of political violence and terrorism

Abstract Throughout history, humans have frequently carried out harmful actions against one another. Often, these actions result in intensive and long lasting pain and suffering. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis has been the theoretical tool used mostly by psychologists to understand the physical, emotional and behavioural symptoms following a traumatic experience. Due to its clinical and medical roots, PTSD diagnosis represents man in a social vacuum, a man without context, and a model of health closely tied to illness. The aim of the paper is to reintroduce the social context of human beings into trauma diagnosis, and to develop a health model that is more focused on well-being than on illness. Both points of view help us to seek a theoretical way for better understanding the psychosocial trauma that result from political violence and terrorism. Psychosocial trauma has definite roots, and destroys our inner world—the world of our most valuable meanings—infects our minds with hate against others, and breaks the social fabric we belong to.

New Evidence of Construct Validity Problems for Pettigrew and Meertens’ (1995) Blatant and Subtle Prejudice Scale

Given the current debate over the distinction between subtle and blatant prejudice, this study provides new evidence regarding problems with the construct validity of the Pettigrew and Meertens’ Blatant and Subtle Prejudice Scale. To assess these issues, an existing data sample of 896 Chilean participants collected in 2010 was reanalyzed. The main analysis method used was a confirmatory factor analysis. The model that best represented the original theory (a model of two correlated second-order factors) had an improper solution due to the unidentified model. The scale has substantial psychometric problems, and it was not possible to distinguish between subtle and blatant prejudice.

Representación e influencia de los nuevos movimientos sociales (el Movimiento Antiglobalización)

Resumen Se presenta un estudio de las representaciones sociales que tiene una muestra de profesionales sobre el movimiento antiglobalización. Para el análisis de dichas representaciones se ha utilizado un método de asociación libre de palabras a un conjunto de estímulos, y un cuestionario de imagen del movimiento (similar a un diferencial semántico). Los resultados son analizados por medio de métodos multivariados (análisis de conglomerados jerárquico, escalamiento multidimensional y análisis de correspondencias múltiple). Se analiza la representación social y se discute sobre sus posibles conexiones con la teoría de la influencia minoritaria.

Quality of Life and Health in Displaced Communities Affected by the Armed Conflict in Colombia

This chapter examines the factors that affect the quality of life (QoL) of displaced people in Colombia. First, previous studies on the factors that affect QoL of displaced persons including, inter alia, individual factors, traumatic events, situations of escape, and the adaptation of the refugee to host communities and new places of residence are reviewed. Second, the results of three studies carried out in the Atlantic Department (Northern Colombia) are summarized, with quantitative and qualitative data on the process of restoration and adaptation of displaced communities. The first study analyzes the impact of political violence on mental health and social networks on 49 displaced and 50 not displaced young people living in Barranquilla (Palacio and Sabatier in Impacto psicologico de la violencia politica en las familias: Salud mental y redes sociales en los desplazados. Ediciones Uninorte, Barranquilla, 2002). The second study explores the social identity construction of families displaced by collective violence that participated in a project of self-construction of housing for food in urban area of Cartagena (Revivir de los Campanos). In this project, which promoted social integration, 100 displaced families worked together to build their own homes. These families were supported both by different governmental institutions and nongovernmental organizations (Correa et al. in Desplazamiento interno forzado, restablecimiento urbano e identidad social. Ediciones Uninorte, Barranquilla, 2009). The third study analyzes the relationship between social networks and QoL of 19 individuals displaced by violence (Palacio and Madariaga in Investigacion y Desarrollo 14(1): 86–119, 2006) that live in a suburb of Barranquilla (Pinar del Rio). In the conclusion section two main issues are discussed: the dilemma for the restoration and reconstruction of a new life plan (between returning to the place of origin or resettling in a host community), and the need to integrate displaced persons and demobilized armed, with host communities.

Sobre la resistencia a la Psicología Social

Resumen La Psicología Social no se ha traducido en un progreso sustantivo del bienestar y las relaciones humanas, ni tampoco parece haber contribuido a producir los cambios sociales y políticos que se podría esperar de una disciplina dedicada al estudio científico de la conducta social humana. En el presente trabajo se analizan algunas de las barreras con las que se encuentran los psicólogos sociales (entendidos como emisores persuasivos) para transmitir sus conocimientos (la Psicología Social como mensaje persuasivo) a distintos receptores (vistos como agentes activos en la búsqueda, recepción, procesamiento y aceptación de información). Una vez examinados algunos de estos obstáculos y resistencias desde el marco del cambio de actitudes, se sugieren algunas recomendaciones prácticas para comunicar influyendo de forma mas efectiva.

El artificio de la violencia. Fundamentos y obstáculos para el diseño de una cultura de paz y de derechos humanos

Resumen La concepción tradicional sobre la causas de la violencia y de los conflictos violentos se corresponde con un paradigma explicativo que podemos denominar psicobiológico. No obstante, desde el punto de vista de la apuesta por una cultura de paz, este paradigma resulta manifiestamente inapropiado, tanto por razones de hecho como por motivos más pragmáticos. Este artículo describe y propugna la transición desde este primer concepto de la violencia a un segundo paradigma explicativo que destaque el carácter socio-culturalmente mediado de la agresividad humana. Al precisar los principales supuestos y argumentos que desde las diversas ciencias sociales respaldan este enfoque socio-cultural, se enumeran también los obstáculos que actualmente se plantean al diseño de una cultura de paz y de los derechos humanos.