Public communication on donorcards: A comparison of persuasive styles

Due to scarcity of supply of transplantable human organs thousands of patients who definitely would benefit from an organ or tissue transplant are confronted with excessively long waiting lists, resulting in needless suffering and death. Public communication is suggested here as a possible instrument to reduce this scarcity. According to mass communication theory the nature of the persuasive appeal is the primary determinant of campaign-effectiveness, i.e. successfully influencing behaviour towards filling in donorcards. A conventional and a refutational message style are experimentally tested as to their effects. The main hypothesis, emanating from a SEU-type model of filling in donorcards is experimentally confirmed. It is therefore concluded that finally a campaign stressing both positive behavioural consequences and negative behavioural consequences by refutation is a more promising instrument in recruiting organ donors than a conventional campaign, stressing solely positive consequences.

Psicothema

Resumen tomado de la publicaciónEstrategias del terrorismo psicológico aplicado por el entramado de ETA : delimitación y clasificación. Este estudio delimita y analiza el acoso aplicado por el entramado terrorista de ETA en el País Vasco, aportando para ello una taxonomía de sus estrategias de violencia psicológica. La utilidad de la mencionada clasificación ha sido probada y contrastada mediante un análisis de contenido de 19 testimonios de personas que han sido víctimas de la violencia del entramado terrorista. La taxonomía del conjunto de estrategias de violencia psicológica está compuesta por cuatro dimensiones, que enfatizan respectivamente la acción sobre el contexto cercano del individuo, sobre sus emociones, sus cogniciones y sobre su misma conducta. Los resultados muestran la predominancia de las estrategias de tipo emocional y cognitivo. El análisis de la fiabilidad intraobservador e interobservador en la codificación mostró un coeficiente Kappa de Cohen de .92 y .87, respectivamente. La violencia psicológica analizada en este estudio refleja un tipo de terrorismo psicológico que acosa y persigue a un sector específico de la población.AsturiasUniversidad de Oviedo. Facultad de Psicología; Calle Plaza Feijoo, s. n.; 33003 Oviedo; Tel. +34985104146; Fax +34985104126;Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Asturias; Calle Ildefonso Sánchez del Río, 4-1 B; 33001 Oviedo; Tel. +34985285778; Fax +34985281374;ES

The Impact of Premature Childbirth on Parental Bonding

The development of an affectionate parent-infant bond is essential for a newborn infant's survival and development. However, from evolutionary theory it can be derived that parental bonding is not an automatic process, but dependent on infants' cues to reproductive potential and parents' access to resources. The purpose of the present study was to examine the process of bonding in a sample of Dutch mothers ( n = 200) and fathers ( n = 193) of full-term ( n = 69), moderately premature ( n = 68), and very premature infants ( n = 63). During the first month postpartum parents completed the Pictorial Representation of Attachment Measure (PRAM) and Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ). Longitudinal analyses revealed that mothers' PRAM scores decreased after moderately preterm delivery, whereas decreases in PRAM scores occurred in both parents after very preterm delivery. As lower PRAM scores represent stronger feelings of parent-infant connectedness, our findings suggest a higher degree of bonding after premature childbirth. Results of the PBQ analysis were in line with PRAM outcomes, as parents of preterm infants reported less bonding problems compared to parents of full-terms. These findings support the hypothesis that in affluent countries with adequate resources, bonding in parents of preterm infants on average may be higher than in parents of full-term infants