Maria Pietronilla Penna

Does Social Desirability Confound the Assessment of Self-Reported Measures of Well-Being and Metacognitive Efficiency in Young and Older Adults?

Social desirability is a multicomponent personality trait referring to the tendency of individuals to regulate their answers to establish a positive impression, avoid criticism, or satisfy a need for social approval (Johnson & Fendrich, 2002; Paulhus, 1984). This study investigated the role played by the socially desirable response style assessed with the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (Crowne & Marlowe, 1960) on self-rated measures of affect (i.e., Center of Epidemiological Studies of Depression Scale; Radloff, 1977), metacognitive efficiency (i.e., Sensitivity to Memory Questionnaire; Cornoldi & De Beni, 2003; and Cognitive Failures Questionnaire; Borella, Carretti, Cornoldi, & DeBeni, 2007), and self-perceived psychological wellness (Psychological Wellness and Aging Questionnaire; De Beni, Borella, Carretti, Marigo, & Nava, 2007) in a sample composed of young (M = 24.6 years), old (M = 69.4 years), and very old (M = 81.9 years) adults counterbalanced by gender and education (i.e., ≤ 8 years versus > 8 years). Results revealed that social desirability alone predicted measures of affect and emotional competencies and contributed to predicting personal satisfaction, general perceived wellness, and self-rated cognitive efficiency. Overall, the present outcomes suggest clinical psychologists should pay attention to the crucial interference of social desirability in assessing wellness even in late adulthood, that is, in a developmental phase thought to be mainly characterized by reduced control of physical and psychological functions.

Thermodynamical and logical openness in general systems

In this paper we propose a theory of logically open systems. These latter coincide with systems in metastable equilibrium with the environment, in which the system-environment interaction cannot be described, as a principle, without taking into account the inner state of the systems themselves. We introduce a particular hierarchy of these systems and we prove some results relative to the limitations encountered when dealing with them. We derive an undescribability principle which applies to logically open systems at the top of this hierarchy. Besides, we suggest a strategy for coping with these limitations and we sketch some possible applications of our theory to concrete cases.

The failure of e-learning: why should we use a learner centred design

Why do many e-learning courses fail? Distance learning is generating remarkable changes both in learning and teaching due to knowledge commercialisation and freedom from both spatial and temporal constraints. In spite of this success the educational software and environments did not help students to learn more and better than in traditional training contexts. Studies on human learning process via cognitive models are few; and this results in a more diffi cult investigation on how human-machine interface features adversely infl uence cognitive factors in the educational process. Namely several forces act in the complex scenario of the new formative settings, where the users try to simultaneously control the attention both for the lesson and for the interface manipulation. We claim that we must resort to Learner Centred Design principles, which establish a bridge between usability, accessibility and distance learning tools: if the user is involved in every phase of design, this will help to learn and to apply the Human Computer Interaction principles and reduce the evaluation costs. The aim of this contribution is to highlight a specifi c strategy that could guarantee a good web-based educational design, based on the utmost importance of learner centred design, while helping to solve the problem of assessment of educational process.

Perceived Well-Being and Metacognitive Efficiency in Life Course A Developmental Perspective

The main purpose of current research was to investigate the impact of self-rated metacognitive measures and depressive symptoms in predicting psychological well-being in different aged healthy adults. A further goal was to explore the effect of genre and age on metacognition and depression scores. Ninety-six healthy adults were, respectively, assigned to young (i.e., 20–30 years), old (i.e., 65–74 years), very old (i.e., 75–84 years), and oldest old (i.e., >85 years) groups. Participants were administered self-referent social desirability, cognitive efficiency, subjective wellness, and psychological distress questionnaires. It was found that social desirability, depression, cognitive functioning, and metamnestic scores represent the best predictors of well-being. Moreover, a significant main effect of age and genre was found on measures of depression and metamemory. Finally, personal satisfaction, coping strategies, emotional control, and general well-being levels of the very old group did not reach critical cutoff for the Italian octogenarian population.

Psychological well-being and metacognition in the fourth age: an explorative study in an Italian oldest old sample.

Objectives: The research largely aimed at exploring the impact of marital status, cognitive efficiency, gender, physical health and sociocultural context on self-rated emotional competence, depression, memory and cognitive measures.Method: Ninety-four healthy adults aged 75–99 were recruited in the Sardinian province of Ogliastra, where a collectivistic culture prevails, and in northern Italy, which in turn is characterized by the prevalence of individualistic cultural traits. Participants were administered self-referent metacognitive efficiency, subjective wellness and depression measures.Results: Sardinian elders self-rated lower levels of depression and cognitive failures and had greater levels of emotional competence.Conclusions: Perceived psychological well-being, metacognitive efficiency and depression seem to be affected by sociocultural context.

Do self-referent metacognition and residential context predict depressive symptoms across late-life span? A developmental study in an Italian sample

Objectives: There is controversial evidence concerning the variables favoring depression in community-dwelling elderly individuals. This study mainly investigates the impact of lifestyle, residential environment, cognitive efficiency and social desirability in predicting self-assessed depressive signs in late adult span. Method: One hundred forty-nine elders were recruited in Northern Italy and Sardinia – an Italian island characterized by the longevity of people living in the inner areas. Participants were presented a battery of questionnaires assessing cognitive efficiency and self-referent measures of depression, metacognition and social desirability. Results: A hierarchical regression analysis showed that residential environment was the most effective predictor of depressive symptoms, along with gardening and spending time for hobbies. In contrast, social desirability and metacognitive scores played a minor role in predicting mental health. An analysis of variance showed that Sardinian elders showed fewer signs of depression than age-matched elders residing in Northern Italy. Conclusion: The Sardinian residential environment is a strong predictor of preserved mental health in late adulthood. In contrast, self-rated metacognitive efficiency and social desirability play a very marginal role in predicting depression among the elderly.

Event-related potentials in musically sophisticated and unsophisticated subjects: A study on hemispheric specialization

Abstract Event-related potentials (ERPs) to tone pips were elicited while 14 musically sophisticated and 37 unsophisticated women were engaged in the several conditions. Subjects were asked to detect a series of low-tone pips, “key” words, and musical themes during Noise, Verbal and Music conditions, respectively. ERPs were recorded from T3, T4, T5 and T6 temporal scalp sites, referred to linked mastoids. ERPs were elicited in response to the second of a pair of task-irrelevant tone pips under each condition. In the Verbal condition both groups of subjects showed smaller N2 peak amplitude in the left posterior-temporal recordings with respect to the right. In the Music condition, naive subjects exhibited the opposite hemispheric trends, while sophisticated subjects did not. For sophisticated subjects the P2 peak latency was longer in the left hemisphere during Verbal condition, and in the right during Music condition; for unsophisticated subjects P2 peak latency was not different in the two hemispheres. The anterior scalp recordings did not show hemispheric asymmetries. The data support the assumption that N2 amplitude may reflect hemispheric asymmetry for naive subjects. For sophisticated subjects this variable showed a left hemispheric engagement in the Verbal condition and no hemispheric differences in the others. This lacking result was attributed to the lower task difficulty experienced by these subjects in the processing of musical material.

Does social desirability influence psychological well-being: perceived physical health and religiosity of Italian elders? A developmental approach

Objective: This study was mainly aimed at exploring the relationship between psychological well-being and lifestyle, religion, perceived physical health and social desirability of Italian elders. Methods: Four hundred and six cognitively healthy 65–99 years old participants were recruited from the Italian isle of Sardinia, where a high prevalence of centenarians is registered. Participants were presented with several tools assessing psychological well-being, lifestyle, social desirability, religiosity and subjective physical health. Results: A hierarchical regression analysis revealed that the social desirability measure is the best predictor of general subjective well-being, whereas further predictors are age, perceived physical health and gardening. A significant but moderate relationship was also found between psychological well-being, subjective physical health and religiosity, while controlling for social desirability. Conclusions: Social desirability seems to contaminate the self-rating of psychological well-being in late adulthood. Moreover, from a developmental perspective, age-related factors, life style and perceived physical health are strictly related to and therefore influence the perception of life quality in the third and fourth age.

Opinions on computers, and efficacy of a computer-based learning: A pilot study

It is commonly believed that positive opinions of students and teachers on the possibilities entailed by computer use would increase the efficacy of computer-based educational processes. In turn, this amounts to postulate a relationship between measures of such opinions and well-defined patterns of interaction with computer-based educational tools. In this regard, this paper reports on an investigation performed in a primary school, designed to test whether expectations and opinions on computers, both of students and teachers, detected through suitable questionnaires, might be related to the effectiveness of computer use within a particular educational context. Our findings, contrarily to what expected, do not appear to support the hypothesis that a positive opinion on computers can lead per se to higher learning efficacy in a computer-based educational environment, as compared with a traditional educational setting.

P03-06 - The role of social desirability in the assessment of mnestic and metacognitive efficiencies in adulthood: a preliminary study

Ageing is part of a continuum which is characterized by developmental and emotional changes as well as cognitive losses and gains. There is evidence that the perception of life quality in the elders is influenced by the level of efficiency of cognitive functions and personal beliefs on the senescence (e.g., De Beni, 2009). Indeed, when the early cognitive decline is negatively perceived, the late adults tend to show low self-esteem, social retirement, depression, low general life satisfaction. Overall, in geriatric studies scales designed to detect subjective psychological well-being are usually administrated ignoring the disturbing effect of several factors, such as the socially desirable responding, a construct referring to the attitude to project favorable images of themselves on questionnaires or during social interaction (e.g., Knauper et al., 2004). The present study was aimed to investigate whether social desirability is related to several measures of memory and metacognitive efficiencies. Forty-eight young (i.e., 20–30 years old) and old (i.e., 65–74 years aged) participants recruited in Ogliastra (e.g., an area in Sardinia known for the high prevalence of centenarians) were individually administrated a battery of tests including the Italian version of the Crowne-Marlowe Social Desirability Scale (Saggino and Perfetti, 2003) together with a measure of subjective mnestic efficiency for daily life facts (Questionnaire on Cognitive Failures, De Beni et al., 2008) and a self-report memory beliefs questionnaire (Cornoldi and De Beni, 2003). The results show that the measurement of the perceived mnestic and metacognitive efficiencies are susceptible to socially desirable responding.