BACKGROUND One important aspect of subjective judgments about one's well-being (i.e., subjective well-being: life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect) is that cultural features, such as, nationality seem to shape cognitive judgments about the "the ideal life." In this comparative study we examined differences in subjective well-being and psychological well-being between Italian a...

BACKGROUND Current models theorize that affective temperaments underlie the development and expression of mood psychopathology. Recent studies support the construct validity of affective temperaments in clinical and non-clinical samples. However, one concern is that affective temperaments may be describing characteristics that are better captured by models of normal personality. We conducted tw...

Economists define risk in terms of the variability of possible outcomes, whereas clinicians and laypeople generally view risk as exposure to possible loss or harm. Neuroeconomic studies using relatively simple behavioral tasks have identified a network of brain regions that respond to economic risk, but these studies have had limited success predicting naturalistic risk-taking. By contrast, mor...

In this article we propose a conceptual framework for associating the concepts of usability, computer education and affective quality. We analyze the interaction student-teacher under the light of learning strategies used in educational geosimulators for defining the main emotional constructs that are involved in this process. We elaborate this initial analysis by identifying which interactive ...

A variety of statistical models have been developed to examine longitudinal stability and change of individual differences. Kenny and Zautra’s (1995) trait-state-error (TSE) model models stability as a function of stable variance that does not change (trait), moderately stable variance that changes over time (state), and error variance. Applications of this model have been limited to panel stud...

The constructs of sense of humor (Lefcourt, 2002) and positive psychological capacities (PsyCap; Luthans, 2002a) have been heralded as important phenomenon within the growing field of positive psychology, especially within the organizational sciences. Additionally, a sense of humor has been found to be related to positive affective experiences. Leaders can develop followers’ confidence, hope, o...

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in processes and characteristics that may underlie resilient adaptation to chronic pain. With this recent increase in empirical inquiry, there has emerged a degree of ambiguity in terms between pain resilience and other constructs previously connected to effective pain adaptation, such as pain acceptance, psychological flexibility, and pain se...

This paper explores the application of three constructs that deemed to be essential to quantify virtual environments (VE) efficacy: cognitive, skill-based, and affective learning outcomes. The authors discuss the implementation of these constructs in a user-centered evaluation of a VE training system. By transforming both the conceptual and operational cohorts for training evaluation the author...

BACKGROUND Fibromyalgia (FM) is a prevalent and disabling disorder characterized by a history of widespread pain for at least three months. Pain is considered a complex experience in which affective and cognitive aspects are crucial for prognosis. The aim of this study is to assess the importance of pain-related psychological constructs on function and pain in patients with FM. METHODS DES...

background: leishmaniasis represents a major public health concern in tropical and sub-tropical countries. at present, there is no efficacious vaccine against the disease and new control methods are needed. one way to access this important goal is to knock out genes of specific macromolecules to evaluate the effect of deletion on the growth, multiplication, pathogenesis and immunity of the para...