Eugénia M. Fernandes

Adaptação para a língua portuguesa do Questionário de Experiências Dissociativas Peritraumáticas (QEDP) numa amostra de bombeiros

CONTEXTO: A dissociacao peritraumatica e uma resposta no momento da exposicao a uma situacao ameacadora que tem se mostrado um preditor significativo de perturbacao psicologica a longo prazo, nomeadamente perturbacao pos-estresse traumatico. OBJETIVOS: Fazer a adaptacao para portugues do Peritraumatic Dissociation Experiences Questionnaire numa populacao altamente exposta a situacoes traumaticas, como e o caso dos bombeiros. METODO: Apos a traducao e o estudo dos itens, fizeram-se a aplicacao e a analise psicometrica com uma amostra de 170 bombeiros, que relataram exposicao traumatica e que tambem preencheram uma escala de Perturbacao de Pos-Estresse Traumatico. RESULTADOS: Os dados indicam que se trata de um instrumento com uma boa consistencia interna (alfa de Cronbach = 0,87) e cuja validade de construto o torna adequado para a avaliacao das respostas dessa populacao no exercicio da sua profissao. Para alem disso, a correlacao elevada com os sintomas de perturbacao pos-estresse traumatico sugere ainda uma boa validade convergente. DISCUSSAO: Atendendo ao fato de que a dissociacao peritraumatica preve PPST, o recurso a um instrumento que revela boas capacidades psicometricas pode ajudar a identificar as pessoas que desenvolverao perturbacao apos exposicao a trauma.

When what I wish makes me worse . . . to make coherence flexible

This paper describes a psychotherapeutic constructivist intervention oriented to the resolution of implicative dilemmas, in order to promote personal change. It presents a clinical case study of a client with depression and with some dependent and obsessive functioning. The Repertory Grid Technique was administered along with symptom assessment (SCL-90-R) both at beginning and end of the psychotherapeutic process. Exploring themes emerged from Repgrid, several narratives, experiential and metaphoric strategies were used in order to explore and reconstruct meanings associated with the five implicative dilemmas found. The therapeutic process succeeds at solving dilemmas as found in the post-therapy assessment. This resolution was accompanied by symptom reduction. In conclusion, the utility of implicative dilemmas as a marker to understand the therapeutic impasse and dysfunctional system coherence is discussed, as well as the efficacy of the strategies used in this clinical case concerning its adaptation to working with implicative dilemmas that prevent therapeutic process.

Psychometric properties of the questionnaire of cognitive and affective empathy in a Portuguese sample

Empathy is an important concept in psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Despite the controversy around its definition, most researchers would agree that empathy is a multidimensional phenomenon which involves a vicarious experience of another person’s affective state and an understanding of another person’s affective experience. Self-report measures of empathy constitute an important tool for both research and clinical practice. The main goal of this study was to adapt and study the psychometric properties of the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE), a worldwide used measure of empathy, in a Portuguese community sample (N = 562). Confirmatory factor analyses supported the factor structure of the original QCAE. Results show that the Portuguese version of the QCAE has sound psychometric properties, with good structural validity and internal consistency for both scales (i.e., affective and cognitive) and respective subscales of the instrument (i.e., Emotion Contagion, Proximal Responsivity, Peripheral Responsivity, Perspective Taking and Online Simulation). We tested both a five correlated factor structure (Model 1) and a second-order model that postulates the affective and cognitive dimensions (Model 2). Our results show that while both models present acceptable goodness of fit indices, Model 1 performs slightly better. In conclusion, the Portuguese version of the QCAE may prove a useful tool for future cross-cultural assessments of empathy in both research and clinical practice.