Upregulating Positive Affectivity in the Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders: A Randomized Pilot Study

Transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral therapy for emotional disorders (ED) has proven to be effective. However, current transdiagnostic treatment protocols address only the regulation of negative affectivity, and they do not include treatment components to more directly target the regulation of positive affectivity. In this study, we propose to evaluate the preliminary efficacy and acceptability of a transdiagnostic treatment protocol for ED that includes, as an innovative feature, a specific treatment component to directly upregulate positive affectivity based on positive psychology interventions. A total of 24 participants were randomized to either a transdiagnostic treatment protocol (n = 12) or a transdiagnostic treatment protocol with an additional component designed to regulate positive affectivity (n = 12). Participants completed measures of anxiety, depression, positive and negative affectivity, and quality of life, as well as treatment acceptability at pre- and posttreatment and at the 3-month follow-up. Both interventions led to improvements in all measures at posttreatment, and these outcomes were maintained at the 3-month follow-up, with large effect sizes for all measures. The effect sizes for positive affect were larger in the condition that included the component to upregulate positive affectivity. Attrition rate was low, and both treatment protocols were well accepted by participants. The results obtained in this study indicate the feasibility of testing the treatment protocol in a larger, randomized, controlled trial, and they suggest the potential of including treatment components for directly upregulating positive affectivity in future research on transdiagnostic treatment protocols for ED

La evaluación de la inteligencia emocional: ¿autoinformes o pruebas de habilidad?

XVI Jornades de Foment de la Investigació (Any 2011)Gran parte de la investigación actual en Inteligencia Emocional (IE) se basa en la polémica relativa a qué forma de evaluar este constructo resulta más adecuada, si medir la IE a través de pruebas de auto-informe o si hacerlo a través de pruebas de habilidad. Las razones de esta polémica son que cada tipo de instrumento presenta una serie de ventajas e inconvenientes, lo que hace a cada uno de estos instrumentos apropiado para objetivos específicos. El objetivo principal de este trabajo es comparar algunas características psicométricas de dos de los instrumentos más utilizados en la evaluación de la IE. Para el presente estudio se ha utilizado una muestra compuesta por 71 empleados (52 mujeres y 19 hombres) provenientes de distintos departamentos de un hospital. Con objeto de preservar el anonimato, la edad se registró estableciendo cinco rangos, de manera que los sujetos únicamente debían señalar a cuál de dichos rangos pertenecían. El grupo más numeroso fue el de edades comprendidas entre los 41 y los 50 años (n=39). Los instrumentos elegidos para la evaluación de la IE fueron el autoinforme TMMS-24 (Fernández-Berrocal, Extremera y Ramos, 2004) y la adaptación española de la prueba de habilidad MSCEIT (Berrocal y Extremera, 2009). Mediante el programa SPSS Statistics (19.0) se realizaron análisis descriptivos y de fiabilidad, así como análisis de correlaciones entre las distintas dimensiones que conforman ambos instrumentos. Los resultados obtenidos mostraron una adecuada consistencia interna de las distintas dimensiones del TMMS-24, así como correlaciones significativas entre las diferentes dimensiones del MSCEIT y correlaciones no significativas entre el TMMS-24 y el MSCEIT. Estos datos están en la línea de los trabajos que concluyen que los auto-informes y las pruebas de habilidad no evalúan el mismo constructo o que evalúan aspectos distintos de la IE. Por tanto, se sugiere la necesidad de continuar investigando esta problemática para arrojar luz sobre el controvertido tema de la evaluación de la IE.Current research on the Emotional Intelligence (EI) focuses on the controversy about which is the best way for assessing this construct properly. In this vein, different self-report scales and ability tests have been developed in order to evaluate EI. That controversy is due to the fact that each type of survey has a number of advantages and disadvantages, thus, each one is more or less appropriate depending on several circumstances. The main objective of this study was to compare some psychometric characteristics of two of the most used surveys used in the assessment of IE (one self-report and one ability test). A sample of 71 employees (52 women and 19 men) from different departments of a hospital was used. In order to preserve anonymity, we established five age ranges. The largest group was aged between 41 and 50 years (n = 39). The instruments chosen for the evaluation of EI were the TMMS-24 (Fernandez-Berrocal, Extremera and Ramos, 2004) and the Spanish adaptation of the MSCEIT test of skill (Extremera and Fernandez-Berrocal, 2009). Using SPSS (19.0), descriptive analysis, reliability, and analysis of correlations between the different dimensions were performed. Results showed adequate internal consistency of the different dimensions of TMMS-24 and significant correlations between the different dimensions of the MSCEIT and non-significant correlations between the TMMS-24 and the MSCEIT. These data are in line with previous research and support that self-reports and ability tests do not assess the same construct or evaluate different aspects of the IE. Therefore, it suggests the need to further research in order to clarify the controversial of the evaluation of EI

DSM-5: avances en la clasificación y el diagnóstico de los trastornos mentales

Uno de los aspectos más relevantes en Psicopatología es la clasificación de los trastornos mentales. La caracterización de los distintos problemas psicopatológicos en manuales diagnósticos estandarizados como los DSM publicados por la Asociación de Psiquiatría Americana (APA) o las Clasificaciones Internacionales de las Enfermedades (CIE) publicadas por la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) tiene una influencia fundamental en aspectos relevantes en la psiquiatría y la psicología clínica como el diagnóstico, el pronóstico, el tratamiento o la investigación. La publicación del DSM-5 va a suponer uno de los hitos más importantes en el ámbito de la salud mental en los últimos años. La revisión del DSM-IV ha puesto en cuestión diferentes aspectos fundamentales de las clasificaciones psiquiátricas vigentes (p. ej., estructura de la clasificación, enfoque prototípico, cuestiones relacionadas con la etiología, etc.). Fruto de esta revisión se han producido importantes modificaciones en algunos de estos aspectos. El objetivo de este trabajo es llevar a cabo una revisión general de los cambios que implica la sustitución del DSM-IV por el nuevo DSM-5. Estos cambios han sido especialmente sustanciales en la clasificación de los trastornos de personalidad (TP). Por ello, a fin de ejemplificar las modificaciones sufridas por el DSM, nos centramos en este grupo de trastornos. Finalizamos el artículo con una reflexión acerca de las repercusiones de la publicación del DSM-5One of the most important topics in Psychopatology is the classification of mental disorders. The description of different psychopathological problems in standardized diagnostic manuals such as the DSM, published by the American Psyquiatric Association (APA), or the icd, published by the World Health Organization (WHO), strongly affects central aspects related to psychology and psychiatry, such as diagnosis, prognosis, treatment and research. The next publication of DSM-5 is expected to become an important milestone in mental health. The review has questioned several major aspects of current psychiatric classifications (e.g. classification framework, prototypical approach, different questions about etiology, etc.). As a result, important changes in some of these aspects have been done. The aim of this paper is to carry out a general review of the modifications that involves the replacement of DSM-IV by the new DSM-5. These changes have been especially important in the classification of personality disorders. For this reason, as an example, we will focus on the changes undergone by personality disorders. As a conclusion, we end our article with a reflection about the implications of the publication of DSM-5

Emotional intelligence and hot and cool working memory capacity

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the ability to perceive, use, understand and manage our emotions and the emotions of others. EI, measured through performance-based ability models, seems to favour performance on hot tasks. The aim of the present study is to analyse the relationship between EI, measured through its three main models, and performance on a hot (emotional) and cool (non-emotional) working memory task. 203 undergraduate students of psychology took part in the experiment. They completed an EI test for each of its three main models (performance-based ability model, self-report ability model and self-report mixed model) and a hot and cool working memory task. We found a better performance for higher EI participants, measured through the performance-based ability model instrument (but not with self-report instruments), in the hot working memory task. This result was obtained for the managing branch of the EI instrument. Similar evidence was not found when using the cool working memory task. Our study takes a step forward in the conceptualization of the EI construct within the domain of cognitive processes. They show that, at least when using hot stimuli, the managing branch of the performance-based ability model of EI is a better determinant measure for the working memory capacity than the self-report models.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Are psychopaths emotionally intelligent?

Psychopathy is a serious personality disorder, characterized by proneness to low anxiety, egocentricity, failure to form close emotional bonds, superficial charm and dishonesty, that has very negative consequences for society as aggression, delinquency and even crime. Therefore, its control and treatment are of great importance. Psychopathy has been related to important emotional deficits as such as a lack of impulse, low empathy and deficits in moral expressions. These findings have led to a growing interest in exploring if psychopathic traits are associated with emotional intelligence (EI) or to the ability to perceive, use, understand, and regulate emotions in one’s self and others. However, the literature exploring this association has revealed conflicting results. The aim of the present study was to provide a reliable estimate of the relationship between psychopathy traits and EI (measured as performance-based ability) through meta-analysis. A quantitative and systematic review of the literature using Scopus, Medline, Pubmed, and PsicINFO and for both Spanish and English studies that included measures of EI and psychopathy, showed a total of 13 studies meeting inclusion criteria with a combined sample of 2401 participants. The meta-analysis revealed a significant negative relationship between both constructs, showing that higher psychopathic trait scores are related to lower EI levels. We propose several future research lines to clarify possible gaps and ambiguities in the current literature and a set of interesting clinical implications for the prevention, evaluation, and treatment of psychopathy by including EI factors in traditional models of psychopathy.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Pain Online Emotional Therapy (POET) aplicado en el tratamiento de pacientes con dolor lumbar (DL)

El dolor lumbar crónico afecta a un gran número de personas y constituye un grave problema de salud pública pues en muchos casos no están del todo claros ni las causas ni el adecuado tratamiento para estos pacientes. Asociado a este problema, se encuentran diversos factores psicológicos que hacen que el problema se agrave. Por otra parte, es habitual encontrar problemas en el mantenimiento de las estrategias aprendidas en terapia y por ello, el grupo Labpsitec ha creado la plataforma POET que permite seguir trabajando los contenidos aprendidos desde casa una vez terminadas las sesiones de terapia. El objetivo de este trabajo es describir el programa POET y presentar datos preliminares de la aceptación por parte de uno de los primeros pacientes con dolor lumbar crónico que lo han utilizado, cuya valoración del sistema ha sido muy positiva tanto en satisfacción como en utilidad. Estos datos nos ayudan a seguir con la validación de esta herramienta para que los pacientes continúen en contacto con lo aprendido en terapia y puedan ponerlo en práctica en su día a día con el fin de mejorar su calidad de vida.Chronic back pain affects a large number of people and constitutes a serious public health problem because in a lot of cases the causes and the appropriate treatment for these patients are not clear. Related with this, there are several psychological factors that make the problem worse. Moreover, it is common to find problems in maintaining the strategies learned in therapy and therefore, the group Labpsitec has created POET, a system that allows working from home the contents learned in the therapy sessions. The aim of this study is to describe POET and show preliminary data from the acceptance of one of the first patients with chronic low back pain who used it. The patient reported a positive opinion about the system. This data helps us to continue with the validation of this tool in order to provide patients with a system that could help them to maintain the treatment outcomes in their daily lives with the final aim of improving their quality of life

Terapia emocional on line (TEO) en el tratamiento de la fibromialgia

La fibromialgia (FM) y otros síndromes de dolor crónico constituyen un importante problema de salud por el deterioro de la actividad y la calidad de vida que producen. Estos problemas requieren un abordaje multidisciplinar, sin embargo, el tratamiento actual todavía es insuficiente. Una forma de mejorar las intervenciones podría ser el uso de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TIC). El grupo de investigación Labpsitec ha creado TEO (Terapia Emocional On Line), un sistema abierto y autoaplicado que permite recoger datos del paciente en tiempo real en su ambiente natural, crear sesiones de tratamiento personalizadas y enviarlas a los pacientes mediante Internet. Con esta herramienta pretendemos trabajar el mantenimiento de las estrategias aprendidas por los pacientes ya que, en ocasiones, dejan de practicarlas a medio o largo plazo una vez finalizados los tratamientos. El objetivo de este trabajo es describir el programa TEO-FM y presentar datos preliminares de la aceptación del mismo por parte de tres pacientes (edad media de 57,33 años [dt = 0,577]), con diagnóstico de síndromes de dolor crónico. Las tres utilizaron TEO de forma autoaplicada durante 4 semanas tras finalizar un tratamiento presencial. Todas manifestaron un alto grado de satisfacción y una opinión muy positiva de la herramienta. Estos resultados preliminares ayudan a continuar con la validación de TEO como una herramienta para que los pacientes consoliden lo aprendido en las sesiones, contribuyendo a su calidad de vida y su bienestar.Fibromyalgia (FM) and other chronic pain syndromes are a major health problem due to the decline in activity and quality of life they produce. These problems require a multidisciplinary approach; however, the current interventions present still limitation that could be improved. A way to progress in this line is to include the support of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The research group Labpsitec has created TEO (Emotional Therapy On-Line), an open and self-applied system that allows collecting patient data in real time in their natural environment, to create custom treatment sessions and to send them to patients via Internet. With this tool we try to obtain the maintenance of the strategies learned by patients because sometimes they stop practicing them at mid-and long-term once the treatment is over. The aim of this paper is to describe the program and present data of TEO-FM preliminary acceptance by three patients (mean age 57.33 years [SD = 0.577]), with a diagnosis of chronic pain syndromes. These three patients used TEO in a self administered mode for 4 weeks after finishing a face-to-face treatment program. All reported a high degree of satisfaction and a very positive opinion about the tool. These preliminary results help to continue the validation of TEO as a tool for patients to consolidate what has been learned in the sessions, contributing to their quality of life and welfare

Spanish version of the survey of pain attitudes (SOPA-B) in patients with fibromyalgia. Preliminary data

Introduction: Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic musculoskeletal pain condition of unknown etiology, often accompanied by fatigue, sleep disturbance and depressed mood. It is a complex syndrome involving biological, psychological and social factors which causes a negative impact in the patient´s quality of life. Biopsychosocial models of pain hypothesize that patient attitudes and beliefs about pain play a key role in the adjustment to chronic pain. For that reason, a number of self-report instruments have been developed to assess those constructs. The Survey of Pain Attitudes (SOPA) is one of the most commonly used measures of pain beliefs having shown good psychometric properties. For this study, we used the SOPA-B (brief version) to preliminary test its validity in a sample of Spanish women diagnosed with FM. Aim: To develop a Spanish adaptation of the SOPA-B and examine its factor structure preliminarily Methods: 258 female patients with FM (ACR, 1990) were administered the SOPA-B. Results: Factor analyses supported a six-factor structure: Solicitude, Emotion, Disability, Harm, Control and Medical Procedures, consisting of 28 items. The Spanish-SOPA-B showed to be a reliable measure as demonstrated by the scales Cronbach’s alpha (ranging from 0.83 to 0.60). Conclusions: The adaptation and translation process of the SOPA, led to the confirmation of five of the original scales of this questionnaire in a different cultural group. These findings are promising and indicate that the Spanish-SOPA-B has good reliability and validity properties. Further studies are needed to confirm these preliminary findingsIntroducción: La fibromialgia (FM) es una condición de dolor musculoesquelético crónico de etiología desconocida, a menudo acompañado de fatiga, alteraciones del sueño y estado de ánimo depresivo. Es un síndrome complejo que involucra factores biológicos, psicológicos y sociales que provoca un impacto negativo en la calidad de vida del paciente. Modelos biopsicosociales del dolor tienen la hipótesis de que las actitudes del paciente y sus creencias acerca del dolor juegan un papel clave en la adaptación al dolor crónico. Por esa razón, una serie de instrumentos de autoinforme se han desarrollado para evaluar aquellos constructos. El Cuestionario de Actitudes hacia el Dolor (SOPA) es una de las medidas más utilizadas para evaluar las creencias hacia el dolor y ha demostrado tener buenas propiedades psicométricas. Para este estudio, se utilizó la versión breve del SOPA-B para evaluar su validez en una muestra de mujeres españolas con diagnóstico de FM. Objetivo: Desarrollar una adaptación española del cuestionario SOPA-B y examinar su estructura factorial de manera preliminar. Método: A 258 mujeres con FM (ACR, 1990) se les administró el cuestionario SOPA-B. Resultados: Los análisis factoriales dieron como resultado una estructura de seis factores: Solicitud, Emoción, Discapacidad, Daño, Control y Procedimientos Médicos, que consta de 28 ítems. La versión española del SOPA-B demostró ser una medida fiable como lo demuestran las escalasalfa de Cronbach (que van desde 0,83 hasta 0,60). Conclusiones: El proceso de adaptación y traducción del cuestionario SOPA confirmó cinco de las escalas originales de este cuestionario en un grupo cultural diferente. Estos hallazgos son prometedores e indican que la versión en español del SOPA-B es un instrumento fiable y válido. Se necesitan más estudios para confirmar estos hallazgos preliminares

La aceptabilidad de un protocolo de tratamiento transdiagnóstico autoaplicado a través de internet: datos preliminares

Introducción: En los últimos años ha habido un interés creciente en abordar el trata-miento de los trastornos emocionales (te) desde una perspectiva transdiagnóstica. Los protocolos transdiagnósticos enfatizan los procesos esenciales subyacentes a los distintos te, son adecuados para el tratamiento de distintos trastornos psicológicos y permiten un abordaje más adecuado de la comorbilidad entre este tipo de trastornos. Por otra parte, el uso de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (tic) puede ayudar a que los tratamientos psicológicos lleguen a un mayor número de personas, contribuyendo de esta manera a mejorar su eficiencia. La mayoría de tra-bajos sobre protocolos de tratamiento online se centran en el estudio de su eficacia, sin embargo es importante también estudiar la aceptabilidad de este tipo de interven-ciones. Nuestro grupo de investigación ha desarrollado un protocolo de tratamiento transdiagnóstico para los te, y lo ha adaptado para que pueda ser aplicado a través de Internet. En este trabajo se describe este protocolo y se presentan datos prelimi-nares sobre su aceptabilidad. metodología: 12 participantes (edad media = 28,58, d. t. = 5,35) de una muestra clínica con un diagnóstico de te que recibieron un pro-tocolo de tratamiento transdiagnóstico combinado (terapia presencial + protocolo de tratamiento online). Se obtuvieron datos acerca de las expectativas y opinión de los participantes evaluadas con la escala de expectativas sobre el tratamiento y la esca-la de opinión sobre el tratamiento. resultados: Las puntuaciones obtenidas fueron elevadas en ambas variables relacionadas con la aceptación (expectativas y opi-nión). discusión: El estudio de la aceptabilidad por parte de los pacientes hacia estos programas es importante, ya que puede influir en la decisión acerca de iniciar y/o seguir este tipo de tratamientos. Contar con esta información puede ayudarnos en el desarrollo y mejora de los tratamientos psicológicos autoaplicados a través de Internet.Introduction: In recent years there has been great interest in addressing the treatment of ed from a transdiagnostic perspective. Transdiagnostic treatment protocols empha-size the essential underlying processes that are common to ed and are conceived of for the treatment of several mental disorders. Also, comorbidity among these disorders can be more adequately addressed from this perspective. In addition, Information and Communication Technologies (icts) can facilitate access by people for whom traditional therapy is not available thereby contributing to an improvement in its cost-effectiveness. Most of the articles about online treatment protocols are efficacy studies, nevertheless it is also important to analyze the acceptability of these types of interventions. Our re-search group has developed a transdiagnostic treatment protocol for the treatment of ed that has been adapted to be applied online over the Internet. The aim of this article is to describe the treatment protocol and to present data about its acceptability. me-thodology: 12 participants (mean age = 28.58, d. t. = 5.35) from a clinical sample with a diagnosis of ed which received a blended transdiagnostic protocol treatment (face-to-face therapy plus online treatment protocol). Scores of expectancies and opinion of treatment were assessed with the Expectancies Treatment Scale and the Opinion Treatment Scale. results: High scores in both variables related to acceptability (expec-tations and opinion of treatment) were obtained. discussion: The study of the accep-tability towards this kind of programs is important, since it may influence the participant’s decision to initiate and/or follow this kind of treatments. Counting on this information can help us in the development and improvement of Internet-based treatment proto-cols

Heritage Building Information Modeling (H-BIM) Applied to A Stone Bridge

Certain historical works of civil engineering should be preserved as heritage monuments and when possible should continue serving the function they were designed for. Old stone bridges could be sustainably maintained but their conservation requires accurate documentation. In this study, we have scanned Ízbor bridge (1860) in Spain, and to facilitate conservation, we have modeled the ancient bridge using BIM (building information modeling). We propose a method and a model for this kind of bridge to be used as a reference for similar heritage monuments. Ízbor bridge modeled in this way will be useful for government planning and conservation agencies