The Relationship between Subjective Risk Intelligence and Courage with Working Performance: The Potential Mediating Effect of Workplace Social Courage
Background: There is a growing attention toward the construct of courage from a psychological point of view; recently, courage has been related with numerous positive individual behaviors and outcomes, such as coping strategies and subjective wellbeing, and an increasing number of studies explore the role of courage in the working and organizational environments. The present study is aimed to analyze the effect that individual courage—together with risk intelligence—and workplace social courage have on working performance; Methods: The participants are 961 Italian workers, balanced by gender; the measures used are: Courage, Subjective Risk Intelligence Scale, Workplace Social Courage Scale,…
Predicting University Adjustment from Coping-Styles, Self-Esteem, Self-Efficacy, and Personality: Findings from a Survey in a Sample of Italian Students.
Starting university life requires that students learn to cope with several personal, academic, and social challenges. A wide array of variables affects how students adjust to university life. This study was aimed to investigate which factors among coping styles, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and personality traits (i.e., diligence, relational availability, mental flexibility, activity, and emotional stability) best predicted the levels of university adjustment in a sample of university freshmen (N = 204, 63% women). Data were collected using self-report instruments. Multiple regressions analyses were conducted to identify the most significant predictors of adjustment to college. Our findings …
Employability and job insecurity: The role of personal resources on work-related stress
This study is aimed to assess the effect of both employability and personal resources, in terms of pro-activity and self-efficacy, on the relationship between job insecurity and psycho-social distress. Using survey data from 211 participants, among employed, unemployed and workers in transition, we analyzed the incidence of employability, pro-activity and self-efficacy on psycho-social distress. Our results showed that the above-mentioned variables significantly differed by participants’ gender and age. The structural theoretical model proposed to assess the significance of the hypothesized paths exhibited good fit with the data. Thus, all our hypotheses were supported. Findings are in line…
Psychological Well-Being During the Second Wave of COVID-19 Pandemic: The Mediation Role of Generalized Anxiety
Palmira Faraci, Rossella Bottaro, Giusy Danila Valenti, Giuseppe Craparo Faculty of Human and Social Sciences - University of Enna âKoreâ, Enna, ItalyCorrespondence: Palmira Faraci, Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, University of Enna âKoreâ, Cittadella Universitaria, Enna, 94100, Italy, Tel +39 0935 536536, Email palmira.faraci@unikore.itIntroduction: The outbreak of the COVID-19 has largely impacted individualsâ health and lifestyles. This study aimed to investigate peopleâs psychological well-being during the second phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: We selected six indicators of psychological well-being: fear of COVID-19, loneliness, social interaction anxiety, gene…
Psychometric properties of saving cognition inventory in Italian nonclinical samples
The main purpose of the study was aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the Saving Cognition Inventory (SCI) in Italian nonclinical samples. Two studies were conducted: (a) study 1 was focused on the confirmation of the factorial structure, internal consistency reliability, and subscales' intercorrelations on a sample of 252 participants; (b) study 2 was focused on gathering construct validity data on a sample of 244 participants. In addition to the SCI, other seven self-report measures were administered in order to assess hoarding, depression, anxiety, and obsessive compulsive disorder symptoms. Our results supported the hypothesis of four adequately reliable dimensions. Support …
Mental Images and School Learning: A Longitudinal Study on Children
Recent literature have underlined the connections between children’s reading skills and capacity to create and use mental representations or mental images; furthermore data highlighted the involvement of visuospatial abilities both during math learning and during subsequent developmental phases in performing math tasks. The present research adopted a longitudinal design to assess whether the processes of mental imagery in preschoolers (ages 4–5 years) are predictive of mathematics skills, writing and reading, in the early years of primary school (ages 6–7 years). The research lasted for two school years; in the first phase, the general group of participants consisted of 100 children, and al…
Individual Differences in Adolescents’ Civic Engagement: The Role of Civic Discussions with Parents and Environmental Sensitivity
The main goal of the current study was to examine the direct and moderating effects of civic dis-cussions with parents and environmental sensitivity using both the total score and its specific di-mensions (i.e., Aesthetic Sensitivity, AES; Ease of Excitation, EOE; Low Sensitivity Threshold, LST) on youth civic engagement (attitudes and behaviours). The empirical analysis relied on a ques-tionnaire-based survey conducted on a sample of 438 adolescents (30% males), aged between 14 and 18 years (M = 16.50, SD = 1.36). We used a structural equation model (SEM) with latent vari-ables and the latent moderated structural equation (LMS) method to test our hypotheses. Our re-sults showed that civic …
Development of the Mental Imagery Scale for Preschool Children using Classical Test Theory and Item Response Theory
This study aimed to develop a measure of mental imagery evaluation in preschool children. Three studies were conducted: Study 1 focused on the exploration of the factorial structure, reliability, and Item Response Theory (IRT) discrimination on a sample of children from 4 to 5 years old (N = 100; 50% males and 50% females); Study 2 focused on the confirmation of results about dimensionality on a sample of children from 4 to 7 years old (N = 170; 50% males and 50% females); and Study 3 focused on verifying criterion validity on a sample of children from 4 to 5 years old (N = 70; 47.1% males and 52.9% females). The results confirmed the hypothesis of three reliable factors underlying the scal…
Instruments measuring fatalism: A systematic review.
This systematic review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the existing scales for fatalism, along with information regarding their methodological robustness. A systematic search was conducted in PsycINFO (PsycARTICLES and Psychology and Behavioral Sciences), PubMed, Scopus, MEDLINE, and Web of Science. Articles were selected if they described a Self-Report questionnaire properly designated for assessing fatalism (both original developments and further validations), if they included a measure in which fatalism is the core construct rather than a subscale of a multidimensional scale, and if they were published in peer-reviewed journals in the English language. The methodological qual…
Identifying predictive factors in compliance with the COVID-19 containment measures: A mediation analysis
Giusy Danila Valenti, Palmira Faraci Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, University of Enna âKoreâ, Enna, ItalyCorrespondence: Giusy Danila ValentiCittadella Universitaria, 94100, ItalyEmail giusy.valenti@unikore.itIntroduction: The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has led governments to implement some containment measures to flatten the curve of the diffusion of the virus. The current study aims to investigate individual differences in compliance with these restrictive behaviors. In a sample of Italian individuals (N = 300), we examined whether sociodemographic factors, personality traits, fatalism, and fear could be considered as possible predictors.Methods: We performed a series o…
Emotional Intelligence and Social Support: Two Key Factors in Preventing Occupational Stress during COVID-19
Emotional intelligence (EI) and social support are among the most investigated hypothesized variables that affect stress at work. The current study aims to evaluate the direct association between EI and occupational stress and its indirect relationship mediated by three sources of social support during the spread of the COVID-19. The total sample was composed of 367 individuals (53.7% males), aged from 20 to 68 (M = 37.84, SD = 10.39), who filled out an online questionnaire. A mediation analysis was performed to test the hypothesized relationships. Our findings showed that EI has a direct effect on psychological effects and an indirect effect on almost all the facets of occupational stress.…
Evaluating the Dimensionality of the Sociocultural Adaptation Scale in a Sample of International Students Sojourning in Los Angeles: Which Difference between Eastern and Western Culture?
The Sociocultural Adaptation Scale (SCAS) measures the degree of sociocultural competence in new cultural settings, and, despite its popularity, research aiming at evaluating its dimensionality is lacking and has incongruent results. Moreover, the dimensionality of the scale has been mainly tested on different samples adjusted to Eastern culture. We administered the SCAS to 266 international students sojourning in Los Angeles to test which underlying dimensionality emerges if the measure is used to assess sociocultural adaptation to Western culture, also verifying its measurement invariance across sex. Findings from EFA showed a three-factor solution: Diversity Approach, Social Functioning,…
Human Heart-Related Indexes Behavior Study for Aircraft Pilots Allowable Workload Level Assessment
This study aimed to evaluate workload by detecting Heart Rate Variability (HRV) indexes in a sample of 34 pilots (with a mean age of 33 years) while performing simulated flight exercises. A one-way ANOVA with repeated measures was performed to assess the changes of the physiological measures in five standard maneuvers associated with different workload levels. The results show that all the indexes, but the Low Frequency to High Frequency ratio index (LF/HF), have a well-defined trend between the baseline and the en-route phase and with the three phases takeoff, steady turn, and landing. This study, as main findings, provides evidence of a differentiation among low, medium, and high workload…