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This article aims to provide researchers interested in using Ryff's Scales of Psychological Wellbeing with additional information to make an informed decision on the scales and items to use. It builds on the discussion in the literature on the six factor structure of this measure. An alternative shortened version of this wellbeing measure (Van Dierendonck 2004). "Personality and Individual Differences, 36", 629-643) was analyzed in a combined Spanish language sample from Spain and Columbia. Using confirmatory factor analysis, one-, two-, three- and six-factor models were compared. The results showed that indeed four out the six dimensions overlapped considerably. Nevertheless, the model that fit the data best was the six factor model with one underlying second order well-being factor, hereby confirming Ryff's model in a non-Anglo-Saxon culture.

Applied to theory, research, and intervention, the term “psychosocial” is defined as an approach characterized by the relationships of interdependence and mutual influence between the various levels of reality in which daily life takes place. This idea began to take its first steps with the events that gave rise to the social sciences, psychology among them. Applied to social intervention, the psychosocial perspective is based on a simple premise: psychology is legitimized as an instrument to serve human well-being, both in its personal and collective dimension. It recognizes the constructed nature of reality and the social order, with the purpose of trying to change it when it leaves psychological damage and social destruction in its wake, using the social scenarios (community, group) as the agent and objective of change [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Byline: Dirk Dierendonck (1), Dario Diaz (2), Raquel Rodriguez-Carvajal (2), Amalio Blanco (2), Bernardo Moreno-Jimenez (2) Keywords: Well-being; Measurement Abstract: This article aims to provide researchers interested in using Ryff's Scales of Psychological Wellbeing with additional information to make an informed decision on the scales and items to use. It builds on the discussion in the literature on the six factor structure of this measure. An alternative shortened version of this wellbeing measure (Van Dierendonck 2004). Personality and Individual Differences, 36, 629--643) was analyzed in a combined Spanish language sample from Spain and Columbia. Using confirmatory factor analysis, one-, two-, three- and six-factor models were compared. The results showed that indeed four out the six dimensions overlapped considerably. Nevertheless, the model that fit the data best was the six factor model with one underlying second order well-being factor, hereby confirming Ryff's model in a non-Anglo--Saxon culture. Author Affiliation: (1) RSM Erasmus University, P.O. Box 1738, Rotterdam, 3000 DR, The Netherlands (2) Autonoma University, Madrid, Spain Article History: Registration Date: 23/07/2007 Received Date: 22/05/2007 Accepted Date: 23/07/2007 Online Date: 29/08/2007

Violent extremism is commonly conditioned by a variety of psychological processes and mechanisms that when activated or deactivated aid implication in extreme behavior, including destructive actions with a large dose of cruelty against people and groups. One of those processes is moral disengagement, which was originally postulated by Bandura. To test this relationship, the present research focused on studying these mechanisms in members of Colombian illegal armed groups. Total sample size was 18 (14 males and four females) demobilized members of the Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia [AUC]) and guerrilla organizations (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia [FARC], National Liberation Army [ELN], among others), which had participated directly or indirectly in violent actions against people and groups, which included murders, tortures, and massacres. Qualitative methodology was used, specifically in-depth interviews and content analysis. This analysis led to the verification in the narratives of the participants of the use of all the mechanisms of moral disengagement described by Bandura aiming to justify their behavior within the armed group. The most noteworthy mechanisms were those that minimized participation (especially, attributing behavior to obeying orders: displacement of responsibility) and moral justification, especially, the context of confrontation. Moral disengagement processes are found in armed group members (such as insurgency, terrorist organizations, or militias). These mechanisms cancel ordinary psychological reactions of rejection, fear, and moral controls that oppose the carrying out of cruelty and extreme violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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