Using the Social Skills Inventory in the Diagnosis of Social Anxiety Disorder

This study aimed to assess the relationship between clinical and behavioral manifestations of the Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) and verify the discriminative validity of the Social Skills Inventory (SSI-Del-Prette) in the diagnosis of this disorder. The participants were 1,006 undergraduates, aged between 17 and 35 years old, both genders. Subsequently, 86 participants were randomly selected from the initial sample and grouped as SAD cases and non-SAD cases through systematic clinical evaluation. The results indicated that the more elaborate the repertoire of social skills of an individual is, the lower his/her likelihood of meeting the screening criteria of diagnostic indicators for SAD. Furthermore, the SSI-Del-Prette has demonstrated to significantly distinguish individuals with and without SAD, evidencing, thus, its discriminative validity.

Utiliza����o do Invent��rio de Habilidades sociais no diagn��stico do Transtorno de Ansiedade Social

Este estudo objetivou verificar as associa����es entre as manifesta����es cl��nicas e comportamentais do Transtorno de Ansiedade Social (TAS) e aferir a validade discriminativa do Invent��rio de Habilidades Sociais (IHS-Del-Prette) no diagn��stico deste transtorno. Participaram 1006 estudantes universit��rios, na faixa et��ria entre 17 e 35 anos, de ambos os g��neros. Posteriormente, 86 participantes foram randomicamente selecionados desta amostra inicial e agrupados como casos e n��o-casos de TAS por meio de avalia����o cl��nica sistem��tica. Os resultados obtidos indicaram que quanto mais elaborado for o repert��rio de habilidades sociais de um indiv��duo, menor ser�� a sua probabilidade de satisfazer os crit��rios de rastreamento de indicadores diagn��sticos para o TAS. Al��m disso, o IHS-Del-Prette demonstrou distinguir significativamente indiv��duos com e sem TAS, evidenciando-se a sua validade discriminativa.

Contribui����es da Psicologia Hist��rico-Cultural para a forma����o e atua����o do psic��logo em contexto de Educa����o Inclusiva

Este texto objetiva discutir contribui����es da Psicologia Hist��rico-Cultural para a forma����o e a atua����o do psic��logo junto �� educa����o, num contexto de Educa����o Inclusiva. Destacam-se os fundamentos e princ��pios da educa����o para pessoas com defici��ncia, bem como postulados da teoria de Vigotski referentes �� forma����o e �� atua����o dos psic��logos. Considera-se que a perspectiva te��rica elaborada pelo autor sovi��tico contribui por: destacar a transitoriedade dos eventos e fen��menos; atrelar o mundo das ideias, valores e representa����es �� vida objetiva e �� pr��tica social; relacionar propostas educacionais a um dado projeto de sociedade; defender a possibilidade do desvendamento da constitui����o social do psiquismo e da poss��vel interven����o sobre a mesma; requisitar uma condi����o de desenvolvimento humano sobre o patamar do homem cultural e livre. Por fim, destaca-se o fato de que a Educa����o Inclusiva deve se referir ao processo de apropria����o e usufruto das produ����es humanas mais complexas, elaboradas nas diferentes ��reas da vida e do conhecimento.

Ansiedade social e atribui����o de emo����es a faces neutras

Trabalhos anteriores t��m revelado vieses no reconhecimento de emo����es e padr��es diferenciais de ativa����o cerebral no transtorno de ansiedade social. No presente estudo, foi investigada a atribui����o de emo����es a faces neutras em 22 indiv��duos com ansiedade social e 20 volunt��rios controles. Atrav��s do m��todo da escolha for��ada, participantes atribu��ram emo����es de alegria, medo, raiva ou tristeza a faces neutras. Verificou-se que homens e mulheres com ansiedade social atribu��ram mais frequentemente emo����es de raiva e tristeza ��s faces neutras, respectivamente. A atribui����o de raiva por homens pode estar associada �� tend��ncia masculina em detectar sinais de hostilidade no ambiente social, enquanto que o aumento na atribui����o de tristeza pelas mulheres pode estar associado �� facilita����o na identifica����o de emo����es negativas. Os resultados sugerem que a ansiedade social afeta diferentemente os sexos e t��m implica����es importantes sobre o uso da face neutra como condi����o de base ou controle nas neuroci��ncias comportamentais.

Perfil comportamental e compet��ncia social de crian��as e adolescentes com distrofia muscular de Duchenne

A distrofia muscular de Duchenne �� uma doen��a gen��tica caracterizada por enfraquecimento muscular progressivo e degenera����o irrevers��vel, acompanhados por danos sensoriais e neuropsicol��gicos. Os objetivos do estudo consistiram em avaliar o perfil comportamental de crian��as/adolescentes com DMD e a influ��ncia do preju��zo motor, da idade no in��cio do uso de cadeira de rodas e da idade no diagn��stico. Participaram 34 pacientes e 20 controles. Os pacientes formaram dois grupos conforme o quociente de intelig��ncia (QI). Os pais responderam ao Invent��rio de Comportamentos da Inf��ncia e da Adolesc��ncia. Pacientes com DMD obtiveram escores mais baixos em Atividades e Sociabilidade (p < 0,01; ANCOVA). Os pacientes com QI < 80 apresentaram menores ��ndices de Escolaridade. O preju��zo motor e as idades referentes �� cadeira e ao diagn��stico correlacionaram-se com sintomas psiqui��tricos/som��ticos e problemas escolares. Os achados enfatizam a necessidade de programas educacionais acerca da doen��a como base para o desenvolvimento de estrat��gias de inclus��o social.

Conceito de responsabilidade social de gestores e empregados

Este trabalho visou a avaliar a concep����o de responsabilidade social de gestores e empregados de algumas empresas que participam da Pol��tica Nacional de Integra����o da Pessoa com Defici��ncia. A amostra foi constitu��da por 57 sujeitos, divididos em dois grupos: gestores e empregados. O grupo de gestores foi formado por 19 profissionais de recursos humanos, e o grupo de empregados, por 38 profissionais com defici��ncia. Os sujeitos foram solicitados a escrever as associa����es evocadas pelas palavras responsabilidade social em um per��odo de 90 segundos. A partir dos dados coletados, as respostas dos sujeitos foram agrupadas em oito categorias: preocupa����o com o ambiente, inclus��o social, solidariedade, respeito, compromisso social, sentimentos e atitudes positivos, coletividade e outras respostas. A an��lise estat��stica do Qui-quadrado permitiu rejeitar a hip��tese nula com um alto grau de probabilidade. Verificou-se que o maior n��mero de respostas associadas ao conceito de responsabilidade social concentrou-se nas categorias inclus��o social, sentimentos/atitudes positivos e preocupa����o com o meio ambiente que, em conjunto, englobaram pouco mais da metade (52%) do total das respostas. A fim de avaliar o grau de associa����o entre as respostas dos gestores e dos empregados, foi calculado o coeficiente de correla����o posto-ordem de Spearman. Os resultados permitiram identificar uma rede de conceitos associados ao conceito de responsabilidade social, tal como previsto por uma das teorias sobre forma����o de conceitos: a vis��o te��rica.

Language and Embodiment: sensory-motor and linguistic-social experience. Evidence on sentence comprehension

In this work I address the study of language comprehension in an ���embodied��� framework. Firstly I show behavioral evidence supporting the idea that language modulates the motor system in a specific way, both at a proximal level (sensibility to the effectors) and at the distal level (sensibility to the goal of the action in which the single motor acts are inserted). I will present two studies in which the method is basically the same: we manipulated the linguistic stimuli (the kind of sentence: hand action vs. foot action vs. mouth action) and the effector by which participants had to respond (hand vs. foot vs. mouth; dominant hand vs. non-dominant hand). Response times analyses showed a specific modulation depending on the kind of sentence: participants were facilitated in the task execution (sentence sensibility judgment) when the effector they had to use to respond was the same to which the sentences referred. Namely, during language comprehension a pre-activation of the motor system seems to take place. This activation is analogous (even if less intense) to the one detectable when we practically execute the action described by the sentence. Beyond this effector specific modulation, we also found an effect of the goal suggested by the sentence. That is, the hand effector was pre-activated not only by hand-action-related sentences, but also by sentences describing mouth actions, consistently with the fact that to execute an action on an object with the mouth we firstly have to bring it to the mouth with the hand. After reviewing the evidence on simulation specificity directly referring to the body (for instance, the kind of the effector activated by the language), I focus on the specific properties of the object to which the words refer, particularly on the weight. In this case the hypothesis to test was if both lifting movement perception and lifting movement execution are modulated by language comprehension. We used behavioral and kinematics methods, and we manipulated the linguistic stimuli (the kind of sentence: the lifting of heavy objects vs. the lifting of light objects). To study the movement perception we measured the correlations between the weight of the objects lifted by an actor (heavy objects vs. light objects) and the esteems provided by the participants. To study the movement execution we measured kinematics parameters variance (velocity, acceleration, time to the first peak of velocity) during the actual lifting of objects (heavy objects vs. light objects). Both kinds of measures revealed that language had a specific effect on the motor system, both at a perceptive and at a motoric level. Finally, I address the issue of the abstract words. Different studies in the ���embodied��� framework tried to explain the meaning of abstract words The limit of these works is that they account only for subsets of phenomena, so results are difficult to generalize. We tried to circumvent this problem by contrasting transitive verbs (abstract and concrete) and nouns (abstract and concrete) in different combinations. The behavioral study was conducted both with German and Italian participants, as the two languages are syntactically different. We found that response times were faster for both the compatible pairs (concrete verb + concrete noun; abstract verb + abstract noun) than for the mixed ones. Interestingly, for the mixed combinations analyses showed a modulation due to the specific language (German vs. Italian): when the concrete word precedes the abstract one responses were faster, regardless of the word grammatical class. Results are discussed in the framework of current views on abstract words. They highlight the important role of developmental and social aspects of language use, and confirm theories assigning a crucial role to both sensorimotor and linguistic experience for abstract words.

Fundamental Dimensions of Social Judgment: Sociability and Morality as Distinct Characteristics of Social Warmth

The present dissertation focuses on the two basic dimensions of social judgment, i.e., warmth and competence. Previous research has shown that warmth and competence emerge as fundamental dimensions both at the interpersonal level and at the group level. Moreover, warmth judgments appear to be primary, reflecting the importance of first assessing others��� intentions before determining the other���s ability to carry out those intentions. Finally, it has been shown that warmth and competence judgments are predicted by perceived economic competition and status, respectively (for a review, see Cuddy, Fiske, & Glick, 2008). Building on this evidence, the present work intends to further explore the role of warmth and competence in social judgment, adopting a finer-grained level of analysis. Specifically, we consider warmth to be a dimension of evaluation that encompasses two distinct characteristics (i.e., sociability and morality) rather than as an undifferentiated dimension (see Leach, Ellemers, & Barreto, 2007). In a similar vein, both economic competition and symbolic competition are taken into account (see Stephan, Ybarra, & Morrison, 2009). In order to highlight the relevance of our empirical research, the first chapter reviews the literature in social psychology that has studied the warmth and competence dimensions. In the second chapter, across two studies, we examine the role of realistic and symbolic threats (akin economic and symbolic competition, respectively) in predicting the perception of sociability and morality of social groups. In study 1, we measure perceived realistic threat, symbolic threat, sociability, and morality with respect to 8 social groups. In study 2, we manipulate the level and type of threat of a fictitious group and measure perceived sociability and morality. The findings show that realistic threat and symbolic threat are differentially related to the sociability and morality components of warmth. Specifically, whereas realistic threat seems to be a stronger predictor of sociability than symbolic threat, symbolic threat emerges as better predictor of morality than realistic threat. Thus, extending prior research, we show that the types of threat are linked to different warmth stereotypes. In the third and the fourth chapter, we examine whether the sociability and morality components of warmth play distinct roles at different stages of group impression formation. More specifically, the third chapter focuses on the information-gathering process. Two studies experimentally investigate which traits are mostly selected when forming impressions about either ingroup or outgroup members. The results clearly show that perceivers are more interested in obtaining information about morality than about sociability when asked to form a global impression about others. The fourth chapter considers more properly the formulation of an evaluative impression. Thus, in the first study participants rate real groups on sociability, morality, and competence. In the second study, participants read an immigration scenario depicting an unfamiliar social group in terms of high (vs. low) morality, sociability, and competence. In both studies, participants are also asked to report their global impression of the group. The results show that global evaluations are better predicted by morality than by sociability and competence trait ascriptions. Taken together the third and the fourth chapters show that the dominance of warmth suggested by previous studies on impression formation might be better explained in terms of a greater effect of one of the two subcomponents (i.e., morality) over the other (i.e., sociability). In the general discussion, we discuss the relevance of our findings for intergroup relation and group perception, as well as for impression formation.

Cognitive and affective processes in social actions and decisions

The question of how we make, and how we should make judgments and decisions has occupied thinkers for many centuries. This thesis has the aim to add new evidences to clarify the brain���s mechanisms for decisions. The cognitive and the emotional processes of social actions and decisions are investigated with the aim to understand which brain areas are mostly involved. Four experimental studies are presented. A specific kind of population is involved in the first study (as well as in study III) concerning patients with lesion of ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). This region is collocated in the ventral surface of frontal lobe, and it seems have an important role in social and moral decision in forecasting the negative emotional consequences of choice. In study I, it is examined whether emotions, specifically social emotions subserved by the vmPFC, affect people���s willingness to trust others. In study II is observed how incidental emotions could encourage trusting behaviour, especially when individuals are not aware of emotive stimulation. Study III has the aim to gather a direct psychophysiological evidence, both in healthy and neurologically impaired individuals, that emotions are crucially involved in shaping moral judgment, by preventing moral violations. Study IV explores how the moral meaning of a decision and its subsequent action can modulate the basic component of action such as sense of agency.

Peer and group relationships in preschoolers: the role of social and linguistic skills

Being able to positively interact and build relationships with playmates in preschool years is crucial to achieve positive adjustment. An update review and two studies on such topics were provided. Study 1 is observational; it investigates the type of social experience in groups (N = 443) of children (N = 120) at preschool age in child-led vs. teacher-led contexts. The results revealed that in child-led contexts children were more likely to be alone, in dyads, and in small peer groups; groups were mostly characterized by same-gender playmates who engaged in joint interactions, with few social interactions with teachers. In teacher-led contexts, on the other hand, children were more likely to be involved in small, medium and large groups; groups were mostly characterized by other-gender playmates, involved in parallel interactions, with teachers playing a more active role. The purpose of Study 2 was to describe the development of socio-emotional competence, temperamental traits and linguistic skill. It examined the role of children���s reciprocated nominations (=RNs) with peers, assessed via sociometric interview, in relation to socio-emotional competence, temperamental traits and linguistic skill. Finally, the similarity-homophily tendency was investigated. Socio-emotional competence and temperamental traits were assessed via teacher ratings, linguistic skill via test administration. Eighty-four preschool children (M age = 62.53) were recruited within 4 preschool settings. Those children were quite representative of preschool population. The results revealed that children with higher RNs showed higher social competence (tendency), social orientation, positive emotionality, motor activity and linguistic skill. They exhibited lower anxiety-withdrawal. The results also showed that children prefer playmates with similar features: social competence, anger-aggression (tendency), social orientation, positive emotionality, inhibition to innovation, attention, motor activity (tendency) and linguistic skill. Implications for future research were suggested.

The Role of Multiple Social Categorisation in Promoting the Inclusion in the Human Group of Outgroup Members

The school environment as a teacher. The role of space and place in enhancing ecological literacy and social competence development in children and young people

Can space and place foster child development, and in particular social competence and ecological literacy? If yes, how can space and place do that? This study shows that the answer to the first question is positive and then tries to explain the way space and place can make a difference. The thesis begins with the review of literature from different disciplines ��� child development and child psychology, education, environmental psychology, architecture and landscape architecture. Some bridges among such disciplines are created and in some cases the ideas from the different areas of research merge: thus, this is an interdisciplinary study. The interdisciplinary knowledge from these disciplines is translated into a range of design suggestions that can foster the development of social competence and ecological literacy. Using scientific knowledge from different disciplines is a way of introducing forms of evidence into the development of design criteria. However, the definition of design criteria also has to pass through the study of a series of school buildings and un-built projects: case studies can give a positive contribution to the criteria because examples and good practices can help ���translating��� the theoretical knowledge into design ideas and illustrations. To do that, the different case studies have to be assessed in relation to the various themes that emerged in the literature review. Finally, research by design can be used to help define the illustrated design criteria: based on all the background knowledge that has been built, the role of the architect is to provide a series of different design solutions that can give answers to the different ���questions��� emerged in the literature review.

The Efficiency of Microcredit Applied to Social Exclusion.

Microcredit has been a tool to alleviate poverty since long. This research is aimed to observe the efficiency of microcredit in the field of social exclusion. The development of questionnaires and use of existing tools was used to observe the tangible and intangible intertwining of microcredit and by doing so the effort was concentrated to observe whether microcredit has a direct effect on social exclusion or not. Bangladesh was chosen for the field study and 85 samples were taken for the analysis. It is a time period research and one year time was set to receive the sample and working on the statistical analysis. The tangible aspect was based on a World Bank questionnaire and the social capital questionnaire was developed through different well observed tools. The borrowers of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, is the research sample whish shows a strong correlation between their tangible activity and social life. There are significant changes in tangible aspect and social participation observed from the research. Strong correlation between the two aspects was also found taking into account that the borrowers themselves have a vibrant social life in the village.

Social Cognition: New Insights from Affordance and Simon Effects

The perspective of the present project can be inscribed in the so-called ���Social Cognition��� framework, that in the last years moved from a focus on the individual mind toward embodied and participatory aspects of social understanding. Among the topics relevant for social cognition, the aim of the thesis was to shed more light on motor resonance and joint action, by using two well-known effects of cognitive psychology: ���Affordance��� and ���Simon���. In the first part of the project, the Affordance effect has been considered, starting from Gibson to some post-Gibsonian theorizations. Particular attention has received the notion of ���Micro-affordance���. The theoretical and empirical overview allows to understand how it can be possible to use the affordance effect to investigate the issue of motor resonance. A first study employed a priming paradigm and explored both in adults and school-age children the influence of a micro-affordance that can be defined dangerousness, and how motor resonance develops. The second part of the thesis focused on the Simon effect, starting with the presentation of the ���stimulus���response (S���R) compatibility effect��� to introduce the ���Simon effect���. Particular attention has been dedicated to recent studies on the ���joint Simon effect���. The reviewed empirical findings have been discussed in a wider theoretical perspective on joint action. The second study was aimed at investigating whether shared representations, as indexed by the presence of the joint Simon effect, are modulated by minimal ingroup���outgroup distinctions and by experienced interdependence between participants. The third study explored to what extent prior experience could modulate performance in task sharing, combining two paradigms of cognitive psychology, the joint Simon and the joint transfer-of-learning. In a general discussion the results obtained in the three studies have been summarized, emphasizing their original contribution and their importance within the Social Cognition research.