Gustavo Gauer

Alexithymia and its impact on quality of life in a group of Brazilian women with migraine without aura.

BackgroundMigraine is a type of primary headache widely known for its impact on quality of life of patients. Although the psychological aspects of the disease are receiving increasing attention in current research, some of them, as alexithymia, are still seldom explored. This study aimed to provide evidence on the relationships between markers of depression, anxiety, alexithymia, self-reflection, insight and quality of life in migraine.MethodsForty female outpatients from a Brazilian specialized headache hospital service and a paired control group were compared.ResultsThe results revealed that women with migraine had higher levels of depression, anxiety and alexithymia, and lower levels of quality of life, self-reflection and insight, compared to controls. Quality of life in women with migraine was predicted by levels of depression and one alexithymia factor (ability to express emotions and fantasies). A binary regression analysis between clinical and control groups revealed the migraine group to comprise individuals with high anxiety, low quality of life in the physical domain and the presence of a concrete thinking style.ConclusionsThe results highlight the relevance of considering psychological variables in the routine healthcare practices for migraine patients in general, while keeping steady attention to individual case features.

Recordação de eventos pessoais: memória autobiográfica, consciência e julgamento

The recollection of remarkable autobiographical events is accompanied by judgments about the recovered event (reflexive) and about the act of recollecting itself (heuristic). This study aimed at exploring relations and distinctions between these kinds of judgments in the process of conveying personal relevance to autobiographical events. For such, 208 college students (170 women) were required to recollect a remarkable event of their lives and to fill a 16-item Autobiographical Memory Questionnaire. Based on a main components analysis, the first grouped 10 variables related to phenomenal qualities and imagery modalities. A second component comprised six variables related to reflexive judgments. The rated importance of the event was more closely related to reflexive judgments by which an individual retroactively ascribes properties to the event than to phenomenal qualities of the immediate recollection experience.

Publicações em psicologia do desenvolvimento em dois periódicos nacionais na década de 1990

The present paper aimed to assess the growth of developmental psychology as a research field in Brazil. Forty papers, published by two leading Brazilian psychology journals between 1991 and 2000, were analyzed. This analysis consisted of an examination of authorship, methodological aspects, and the use of references. The results indicated the prevalence of empirical papers, studies with children and adolescents, and the use of descriptive statistical techniques. Most of the research was conducted in the state of Sao Paulo and by researchers from federal and state universities. A comparison of the first and second halves of the decade showed a significant increase in the proportion of recent references as well as references to books and chapters. The results are discussed within the Brazilian context of the advances in research in the field of developmental psychology.

Stressful events in autobiographical memory processing: Brazilian version of the centrality of event scale

A stressful or traumatic event may become a central reference point in the organization of long-term memory, influencing the meaning of other experiences. The Centrality of Event Scale (CES) is an instrument in which participants recall the most traumatic event of their life and endorse 20 items. The CES was translated, adapted and validated for the Brazilian context in a sample of 195 undergraduates (75.8% women). The version obtained good internal consistency and significant correlation with a screening measure of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms. New hypotheses on the cognitive processing of traumatic events are explored in the light of a factor analysis of the CES. Opportunities for CES use include monitoring cognitive patterns and therapeutic effectiveness in situations related to trauma.

O curso da reforma: ensino de psicologia na Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (1971-1979)

Psychology teaching in Brazil was substantially modified when the profession was officially regulated in 1962, and, in the same decade, when the reform of higher education reorganized universities in departments. Through the collection of both documented data and accounts from people who took part in the focused events, this study describes the history of Psychology teaching in UFRGS, from the installation of the Department of Psychology in 1971, to the legal admission of its undergraduate program, in 1979. The study of Psychology in the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) started in the 1940´s, within Philosophy courses. Nevertheless, an undergraduate career for psychologists in that university was not created until 1973. The history here reported reflects the legal and bureaucratic conditions that ruled the Department and its related organs, and the changes in the faculty which occurred in the period. Therefore, the cycle wich began in the cathedrae era had a new chapter, oriented by integration of research and teaching in Psychology. That set of conditions determined the history of Psychology in UFRGS, as well as in virtually all higher education establishments across the country.

Psychometric Properties of the Child Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory in a Sample of Brazilian Children

Cognitive models of trauma propose that maladaptive cognitions in children and adolescents are causally implicated in the unfolding and maintenance of posttraumatic response. The objective of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Child Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory (CPTCI). The sample included 131 children and adolescents. The psychometric properties of the CPTCI were examined, including reliability and convergent validity. The results showed high internal consistency for both CPTCI total scale (α = .90) and its subscales (CPTCI–PC α = .88 and CPTCI–SW α = .79) and a 2-component solution explaining 37.63% of the variance of CPTCI. Convergent validity evidence was obtained through correlations with the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children and Children’s Depression Inventory. Findings suggest that CPTCI instruments are reliable and had adequate evidence of validity.

Translation and adaptation of the Child Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory (cPTCI) to Brazilian Portuguese

INTRODUCTION Experiencing a traumatic event is a risk factor for the development of mental illness, especially posttraumatic stress disorder. A childs appraisals of a traumatic event may play a prominent role in the development or maintenance of the disorder. Therefore, subjective responses should be evaluated to understand the impact of a traumatic event on a childs life. This study translated and adapted the Child Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory (cPTCI) for use in linguistic and cultural contexts in Brazil. METHODS The process included translation, back-translation, language expert evaluation and expert committees evaluation. RESULTS Content validity index scores were good for all dimensions after evaluation by two judges and one reformulation. The back-translation of the final version also showed that the cPTCI items in Brazilian Portuguese maintained the same meanings of the original in English. This version was tested in a sample of the target population, and all the items were above the cut-off point (minimum = 3.6; maximum = 4.0). CONCLUSIONS This study was successful in producing a Brazilian version of the cPTCI. Further studies are underway to examine the reliability and the factorial and concurrent validity of cPTCI subscales.

Considerações sobre a história editorial recente da revista

The merits of Psicologia: Ciencia e Profissao (PCP) have been recognized by Campos and Bernardes (2005) in their historical record of the journal´s first 25 years. For the authors, the journal has provided a unique space for the dissemination of Brazilian psychological studies, and contributed significantly to the development of Psychology in Brazil. The present study extends the analysis to a more recent period and attempts a brief comparison with two similar journals from other regions: American Psychologist and European Psychologist. The article concludes that in recent periods, PCP gets growingly close to its foreign counterparts in terms of an agenda and potential functions as a platform for the international airing of scientific and professional advances obtained by Brazilian psychologists.

Music-induced emotion effects on decision-making

This qualitative systematic review aimed to examine music-induced emotion effects on decision-making. Empirical articles published from 2006 to 2016 were searched for in PubMed and PsycInfo. Through the main search, 634 records were identified and 15 articles were included and analyzed according to the following categories: aims of the study, participants, study design, type of music, type of emotion, decision-making tasks, and study results. The included studies aimed to investigate the effects of music on prosociality and aggression, risk-taking, and other decision-making processes. All studies used experimental designs and most of them used pre-selected music and stimulation through music listening. Different decision-making tasks were used, such as a gambling task, helping behavior tasks, and even assessment of aggressive behavior through adding hot chili sauce to food. Results showed that music is a powerful and engaging stimulus that influences decision-making processes and risk-taking, promotes prosociality, and affects customers’ behavioral choices. Different underlying processes in the interaction between music, mood, and decision-making are discussed. This review contributes to promoting research on the use of background music as an arousal and mood inducer in different contexts, as well as music-based interventions to foster prosociality and decrease aggressive behaviors.

Ensaio de usabilidade de uma intervenção psicoeducacional computadorizada sobre transtorno obsessivo-compulsivo

This study aimed at evaluating usability, functionality and initial effects of a computerized psychoeducational intervention directed at Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), through a usability