The Spanish journal of psychology
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Excessive attention to pain is a common psychological characteristic among people who suffer from chronic pain. The Pain Vigilance and Awareness Questionnaire (PVAQ) is an internationally accepted tool to assess this feature, although there is no validated version of this measure for Spanish people with fibromyalgia. Since this pain syndrome mainly affects women, the aim of this study was to determine the psychometric properties of the PVAQ in Spanish women with fibromyalgia. ⋯ It showed good reliability (internal consistency α = .82), convergent validity and divergent validity (p < .01). The optimal cutoff point for identifying fibromyalgia women with worse daily functioning was a score of 24.5, with a sensitivity of .71 and a specificity of .75. The relevance of vigilance to pain for clinical research in fibromyalgia is discussed.
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The purpose of this work was to study the relationship between self-focused attention and mindfulness in participants prone to hallucinations and others who were not. A sample of 318 healthy participants, students at the universities of Sevilla and Almería, was given the Launay-Slade Hallucinations Scale-revised (LSHS-R, Bentall & Slade, 1985). Based on this sample, two groups were formed: participants with high (n = 55) and low proneness (n = 28) to hallucinations. ⋯ A correlational analysis showed a negative association between self-focused attention (private and public) and mindfulness (r = -0.23, p < .001; r = -0.38, p < .001 respectively). Finally, mindfulness was found to partly mediate between self-focused attention and hallucination proneness. The importance of self-focused attention and mindfulness in understanding the etiology of hallucinations discussed and suggest some approaches to their treatment.
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The experience of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) includes significant suffering and life disruption. This cross-sectional study examined the associations between pain, catastrophizing, acceptance and physical limitation in 55 individuals (11 males and 44 female; Mean age = 54.37; SD = 18.346), from the Portuguese population with (RA) 2 years after the diagnosis; also explored the role of acceptance as a mediator process between pain, catastrophizing and physical limitation. Results showed positive correlation between pain and catastrophizing (r = .544; p ≤ .001), and also between pain and 2-years' physical limitation (r = .531; p ≤ .001) Results also showed that acceptance was negatively correlated with physical limitation 2 years after the diagnosis (r = -.476; p ≤ .001). ⋯ Pain and catastrophizing are associated but the influence of catastrophizing on physical limitation is promoted by low levels of acceptance. Results emphasize the relevance of acceptance as the emotional regulation process by which pain and catastrophizing influence physical functioning and establish the basic mechanism by which pain and catastrophizing operate in a contextual-based perspective. Also the study results offer a novel approach that may help behavioral health and medical providers prevent and treat these conditions.
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Recent research has found low levels of general self-efficacy (GSE: beliefs about the ability to appropriately handle a wide range of stressors) and high levels of anxiety sensitivity (AS: fear of the negative consequences of experiencing anxiety) to be relevant predictors of pathological worry. This study examined the role of psychological inflexibility (PI: the dominance of private experiences over chosen values and contingencies in guiding action), the central component of the acceptance and commitment therapy model of psychopathology, in the effect of GSE and AS on worry. ⋯ However, mediation analyses revealed that psychological inflexibility completely mediated the independent effects of both GSE and AS on pathological worry. Theoretical and treatment implications of the results are discussed.
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The purpose of the present study was to assess the factor structure and reliability of the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS-21) in a large Portuguese community sample. Participants were 1020 adults (585 women and 435 men), with a mean age of 36.74 (SD = 11.90) years. ⋯ Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the best-fitting model (*CFI = .940, *RMSEA = .038) consisted of a latent component of general psychological distress (or negative affectivity) plus orthogonal depression, anxiety and stress factors. The Portuguese version of the DASS-21 showed good psychometric properties (factorial validity and reliability) and thus can be used as a reliable and valid instrument for measuring depression, anxiety and stress symptoms.