João Viseu

Depression and sleep quality in older adults: a meta-analysis

Abstract The literature emphasizes depression and poor sleep quality as problems that affect many elderly individuals. However, these problems have been related in few studies and there is no meta-analysis performed so far on this relationship. The present research reviewed the studies performed on the subjective sleep quality in order to understand how it relates to depression in older adults. The review was conducted in January 2016 and comprised publications between 2005 and 2015. Based on the electronic databases Web of Science and EBSCO, we used the keywords ‘sleep quality’, ‘depression’, and ‘older’ to identify the empirical studies performed. After assessing the collected studies, we selected those that presented the elderly as participants, resulting in nine papers (N = 3069). A random-effects method was used to evaluate the relationship between depression and sleep. We found that an older person’s lack of good sleep quality is significantly related with depression. The main limitation of this study was the difficulty in collecting a greater number of studies. Future research should consider the importance of additional variables (e.g. moderators) in order to understand and investigate viable interventions for prevention and health promotion in the elderly.

Motivação docente: estudo bibliométrico da relação com variáveis individuais, organizacionais e atitudes laborais

Resumo A motivacao dos professores e essencial para o sucesso das politicas educativas. Ao estudar-se a motivacao docente e necessario examinar caracteristicas da escola e do professor. Devido a importância deste tema, torna-se fulcral analisar as investigacoes efetuadas sobre o mesmo, levando em conta variaveis organizacionais, dado que a escola e uma organizacao, mas tambem o capital psicologico positivo e a satisfacao no trabalho. Assim, recorreu-se a um estudo bibliometrico utilizando-se a base de dados Web of Science (WoS), onde se definiu o periodo de pesquisa para os anos 2000–2013 e se consideraram unicamente os trabalhos pertencentes a area da psicologia. No total, 33 documentos cumpriram os criterios de inclusao, verificando-se que: (a) 2012 foi o ano com mais publicacoes; (b) a satisfacao no trabalho foi o construto mais estudado com a motivacao docente; (c) a categoria psicologia educacional registou mais documentos; e (d) o ingles foi a lingua dominante nestes trabalhos. Os Estados Unidos da America e o Canada obtiveram os valores mais elevados nos indicadores bibliometricos numero de documentos (Ndoc) e numero de investigadores (Nres), apresentando Israel uma produtividade (Prod) superior a dos restantes paises. Estes resultados sao discutidos, bem como as principais implicacoes dos mesmos.

Intervention Program on Adolescent's Creativity Representations and Academic Motivation

Creativity and its promotion are widespread concerns in education. However, few efforts have been made to implement intervention programs designed to promote creativity and other related aspects (e.g., academic motivation). The Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI), aimed for training creativity representations and creative problem solving skills in young people, has been one of the most implemented programs. This interventions materials and activities were adapted for Portuguese students, and a longitudinal study was conducted. The program was implemented during four months, in weekly sessions, by thirteen teachers. Teachers received previous training for the program and during the programs implementation. Intervention participants included 77 Basic and Secondary Education students, and control participants included 78 equivalent students. Pretest-posttest measures of academic motivation and creativity representations were collected. Results suggest a significant increase, in the intervention group, in motivation and the appropriate representations of creativity. Practical implications and future research perspectives are presented.

Depression and quality of life in older adults: Mediation effect of sleep quality

Background/Objective: Sleep insufficiency, which affects more than 45% of the worlds population, has a great importance when considering older adults. Thus, this research tested a mediation hypothesis, through a path analysis, which explains how depression relates to the quality of life considering the effects of sleep quality in older adults. Method: A sample of 187 community-dwelling Portuguese older adults answered questionnaires about sociodemographic status (age, gender, highest level of education completed, family status, sports activities, health, and retirement status), quality of life, sleep quality, and depression. Descriptive and path analysis statistics were performed considering the results of the normality test. Results: The sample has health characteristics and presents adequate sleep duration. Sleep quality acted as a mediator between depression and the quality of life in older adults, considering the variation of gender and health. This suggests that it is important to establish self-care practices, namely sleep quality, to intervene in the ageing process. Conclusions: It is important to consider sleep quality associated with depression for older adults and to test interventions to minimize health impacts. Also, more researches are needed about the primary prevention in sleep quality relating to depression.

The Influence of Planning and Response Inhibition on Cognitive Functioning of Non-Psychotic Unipolar Depressed Suicide Attempters

Depression is one of the main risk factors for suicide. However, little is known about the intricate relationships among depressive symptomatology in unipolar depression, suicide risk, and the characteristics of executive dysfunction in depressed patients. We compared 20 non-psychotic unipolar depressed suicide attempters to 20 matching depressed non-attempters and to 20 healthy controls to further investigate the possible differences in neuropsychological performance. Depressed subjects were controlled for current suicidal ideation, and their neuropsychological profile was assessed using a range of measures of executive functioning, attention, verbal memory, processing speed, and psychomotor speed. Depressed groups were outperformed by healthy controls. Depressed attempters presented more cognitive impairment than depressed non-attempters on a simple Go/No-go response inhibition task and performed better than non-attempters on the Tower of London planning task. Depressed attempters were clearly distinguished by a deficit in response inhibition (Go/No-go commission errors). The normative planning performance (Tower of London extra moves) of the suicide attempters was unexpected, and this unanticipated finding calls for further research. Normative planning may indicate an increased risk of suicidal behavior.

Relationship BetweenTeacher Motivation and Organizational Variables: ALiterature Review

A motivacao docente ocupa um papel central na area da educacao, especialmente pelo seu impacto na motivacao dos alunos. Revisoes anteriores sobre este tema focaram-se, maioritariamente, em variaveis individuais e indicadores de psicopatologia. Todavia, e importante analisar as variaveis organizacionais associadas a motivacao docente, uma vez que estas salientam a importância do contexto onde o docente esta inserido (i.e., a escola). Desta forma, a presente revisao da literatura procurou efetuar um levantamento dos estudos, publicados entre 1990-2014 e disponiveis em varias bases de dados eletronicas, que relacionam a motivacao docente e um conjunto pre-definido de variaveis organizacionais. Os resultados obtidos demonstraram que a cultura organizacional foi a variavel mais estudada em conjunto com a motivacao docente, a maioria dos estudos foi publicado entre 2010-2014 e que existiu um dominio de metodologias quantitativas. Sao apresentadas as implicacoes teorico-praticas dos resultados obtidos, bem como se indicam sugestoes para futuras investigacoes.