Programa de rehabilitación neurocognitiva para pacientes con trastorno mental grave

Introducción: El deterioro cognitivo es un síntoma central en trastornos mentales graves como la esquizofrenia y el trastorno bipolar, con un impacto negativo en el funcionamiento psicosocial. En la literatura científica reciente se destaca la importancia de encontrar un método no farmacológico que mejore estas funciones. El objetivo del presente estudio es dar un primer apoyo empírico a la eficacia del programa de rehabilitación cognitiva, «Pon en forma tus neuronas», desarrollado para tratar las alteraciones cognitivas en pacientes con trastorno mental grave. Método: La muestra está formada por 6 hombres y 2 mujeres, con una edad media de 35,9 años (dt = 8,47). Los diagnósticos son de esquizofrenia en 6 casos, 1 síndrome de Asperger y otro trastorno esquizoafectivo. Se administró una batería de pruebas neuropsicológicas antes y después del tratamiento neurocognitivo. Se calcularon correlaciones, pruebas T y las des de Cohen entre las puntuaciones obtenidas en las pruebas antes y después del tratamiento. Resultados: Los resultados mostraron correlaciones significativas y en la dirección esperada entre la evaluación pre- y el postratamiento en avlt, Figura de Rey, y Clave de números y Dígitos del wais-iii. Además, encontramos tamaños del efecto moderados para el avlt a largo plazo (0,73) y tamaños del efecto elevados en Figuras Incompletas del wais (0,92). Conclusiones: Aunque se trata de un estudio piloto con una muestra muy pequeña, los resultados indican que el tratamiento neurocognitivo mejora las funciones de percepción y memoria (de trabajo, visual y verbal) en personas con trastorno mental grave.Introduction: Cognitive impairment is a core symptom in severe mental disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorders, with a significant impact on psychosocial function. Recent scientific literature on this topic points out the importance of discovering a nonpharmacological treatment to improve these functions. The objective of the present study is to bring empirical evidence on the efficacy of a cognitive remediation program, «Pon en forma tus neuronas», developed to treat cognitive impairment in patients suffering from a severe mental disorder. Method: The sample was formed by six men and two women with a median age of 35,9 years old (SD= 8,47). Six of them suffer from Schizophrenia, whereas one suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome and another one from Schizoaffective Disorder. They were administered various neuropsychological tests pre» and post» treatment. The difference between the baseline and post treatment measures was evaluated by correlation analysis and Cohen’s «ds». Results: Baseline and post-treatment results correlated significantly in the expected direction in avlt, Rey Figure Test, Numbers key and wais-iii Numbers. Moreover, moderate effect size was found for long term avlt (0.73) and for «Incomplete figures» (0.92). Conclusion: Although we stay in front of a pilot study, with a diminished sample, the results seem to indicate that neurocognitive treatment improves cognitive functions like perception, working, visual and verbal memory in patients with severe mental disorders

The Role of Self-Conscious Emotions in Everyday Creativity: A Daily Diary Study

Everyday creativity refers to the mundane and ubiquitous expressions of originality and meaningfulness that occupy people’s time on a daily basis. A prevalent view in the literature has been that mood, affect, and emotions are potential predictors of everyday creativity (Baas, De Dreu, & Nijstad, 2008; Davis, 2009). However, when it comes to self-conscious emotions, little research has investigated their link with creativity in general, and, more specifically, the link with everyday creativity. In the current study, I investigated the relationship between self-conscious emotions and everyday creativity across time by employing a daily diary design. For this, I recruited N = 154 participants from the student population at the University of Houston via the SONA system. Participants first completed a baseline questionnaire assessing demographics, creativity, and personality traits. Then, participants completed online daily diaries assessing self-conscious emotions and creativity over a 14-day period. I employed a hierarchical level analysis, in which days (level 1, assessing within-person factors) were nested within persons (level 2, assessing between-person factors). The results showed that authentic pride, hubristic pride, guilt, and nostalgia were positively associated with everyday creativity. Shame was negatively associated with everyday creativity. Theoretical implications regarding the motivational function of self-conscious emotions are discussed. Moreover, I present the applied implications of the findings for organizational creativity

Sixteen Going on Sixty-Six: A Longitudinal Study of Personality Stability and Change across 50 Years

How much do people’s personalities change or remain stable from high-school to retirement? To address these questions, we used a large US sample (N = 1,795) that assessed people’s personality traits in adolescence and 50 years later. We also used two independent samples, one cross-sectional and one short-term longitudinal (N = 3,934 and N = 38, respectively), to validate the personality scales and estimate measurement error. This was the first study to test personality stability/change over a 50-year time span in which the same data source was tapped (i.e., self-report). This allowed us to use four different methods (rank-order stability, mean-level change, individual-level change, and profile stability) answering different developmental questions. We also systematically tested gender differences. We found that the average rank-order stability was .31 (corrected for measurement error) and .23 (uncorrected). The average mean-level change was half of a standard deviation across personality traits, and the pattern of change showed maturation. Individual-level change also supported maturation, with 20-60% of the people showing reliable change within each trait. We tested three aspects of personality profile stability, and found that overall personality profile stability was .37, distinctive profile stability was .17, and profile normativeness was .51 at baseline and .62 at the follow-up. Gender played little role in personality development across the lifespan. Our findings suggest that personality has a stable component across the lifespan, both at the trait level and at the profile level, and that personality is also malleable and people mature as they age

Study 2

(2) Which aspect of openness to experience (intellect vs. openness) predicts humor

Study 1

(1) Does the trait openness to experience predict humor production ability above and beyond intelligence and demographics

Humor Production and Openness to Experience

Across two preregistered studies we addressed the following questions: (1) Does the trait openness to experience predict humor production ability above and beyond intelligence and demographics? (2) Which aspect of openness to experience (intellect vs. openness) predicts humor? In Study 1 (N = 489), participants self-reported on demographics, socio-economic status (SES), and personality, and were tested on intelligence and humor production. SEM analyses showed that openness to experience (β = .28, 95% CI [.14, .42]) predicted humor production ability above and beyond intelligence, demographics, SES and other personality traits. Study 2 (N= 414) replicated and extended Study 1. Specifically, we found that openness to experience predicted humor production ability above and beyond the other predictors (β =.21, 95% CI [.03, .28]), and that, of the two aspects of openness to experience, openness (but not intellect) drove the association between personality and humor production ability