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Abstract: Background: Despite the growing number of organ transplants, there is still a significant difference between the number of donated organs and the number of people waiting for them. Knowing the reason people decide to donate is the first step to increasing organ donation rates. Aims: The main aim of the present study was to develop and validate a new scale for organ donation. Method: In three studies, 3,585 participants ranging in age between 14 and 89 years were selected through systematic random sampling. In the first study, we created a scale following the organ donation model theoretical framework and submitted the scale to exploratory factor analysis. In the second study, we performed a confirmatory factor analysis to cross-validate the hypothesized factor structure. In the third study, the scale was related to some important variables involved in organ donation. Results: Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis with a good fit index and acceptable levels of validity and reliability guarantee the quality of the scale and stable factor solution. Limitations: The main limitations are connected to social desirability, the presence of systematic bias of the population that refused to take part in the study, and the use of the Caucasian population. Conclusion: The resulting scale consists of 21 items in a seven-factor model (bodily integrity, fear of death, familial beliefs, altruism, medical mistrust, trust in the health institution, and emotional support). We also observed the relationship between scale factors, religiosity, and knowledge of organ donation with the willingness to donate organs.

Abstract. This study explored the relationship between the ability to talk to others in more than one language and ethnic prejudice, considering the quality and quantity of intergroup contact. A structural equation model analysis was carried out on a sample of 631 Italian citizens. The results showed that multilingualism led to an increase of acceptance of intergroup differences and positive attitudes toward Moroccans and that the quality (but not quantity) of intergroup contact-mediated those relationships. The mediating role of the quality of intergroup contact extends previous results on the relationship between multilingualism and positive attitudes toward ethnic out-groups. These findings are important from a scientific point of view, as they enrich the conditions of the intergroup contact hypothesis.

Several studies have already examined the psychological impact of COVID-19 on psychological well-being in samples of the general population. However, given the importance of future orientation for university students’ mental well-being, it is important to explore whether and how COVID-19 affected this vulnerable population. Therefore, the current study aims to investigate the protective role of future orientation and the mediating effect of resilience on negative emotional symptoms (anxiety and depression). An online questionnaire was administered to a sample of 244 non-infected Italian university students. The mediation analysis results indicated that resilience fully mediated the relationship between anxiety and depression. Finally, the perceived threat of death from COVID-19 moderated the association between resilience and anxiety. This study shows that university students with higher levels of future orientation exhibit higher resilience levels and, consequently, fewer symptoms of negative emotions.

The present study aimed at investigating the mediational effects of social stigma and self-esteem on the relationship between Body Mass Index (BMI) and Internet addiction disorder. A total of 413 participants aged between 18 and 26 years old (M = 20.94 SD = 2.95) were assessed with self-report standardized questionnaires exploring self-esteem (i.e. Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale - RSES), Internet addiction (i.e. Young Internet Addiction Test- YIAT), and social-stigma (i.e. Perception of Teasing Scale - POT), and with objective measures related to BMI. Results showed a partial direct association between BMI and Internet addiction. Specifically, our mediation model revealed a good fit to data showing that BMI is a directly significant predictor of Internet addiction (β =.10) and social stigma (β =.27). Social stigma, in turn, predicts self-esteem (β = −.19) and Internet addiction (β =.12). Furthermore, self-esteem predicts Internet addiction. In conclusion, the results of the present study suggest that people who are stigmatized for being overweight exhibit low levels of perceived self-esteem, and increase, in turn, their perceived levels of Internet addiction. © 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Summary Study aim. The purpose of the current study is to determine the impact of single bouts of physical exercise of different duration and intensity on young adults’ executive functions. Material and methods. The study employed 81 participants (37 females, 44 males) ranging between 19 and 39 years (mean age: 24.6 ± 4.08 years; mean height: 168 ± 9.67 cm; mean weight: 67.2 ± 13.0 kg). The executive functions were assessed through the Stroop task, the Tower of London test, and the Corsi block test. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the three experimental conditions (30-second Wingate test condition, an incremental intensity exercise test, and a submaximal constant-intensity test) or the control group. Results. For all the conditions, repeated measures ANOVA revealed a significant effect of time on executive function performances, meaning that participants improved their performance between pre-test and post-test, while the interaction time x activity was in the expected direction but nonsignificant. Conclusions. Apparently, a single, brief, high-intensity bout of exercise has no effects on young adults’ cognitive functions, but the same experiment should be replicated with a bigger sample.

In this experiment, we examined the effect of perspective-taking—actively contemplating others’ psychological experiences—on linguistic intergroup bias. We asked some participants to adopt the perspective of a character (an Italian or a Maghrebian), while others did not receive similar instructions, and complete a short dialogue comprised of a series of vignettes, resulting in a 2 (perspective-taking: presence vs. control) × 2 (group: ingroup vs. outgroup) between-participants design. We analyzed the texts produced on the basis of the linguistic category model. As expected, participants were more likely to describe the outgroup member using less abstract terms when we asked them to take the perspective of a Maghrebian. Since the level of abstraction of the terms used to describe a person’s behavior is considered an index of stereotype use, one might describe Maghrebians less stereotypically when he or she can see the world from their perspective. The results extend previous findings on the role of perspective-taking as it relates to reducing intergroup stereotypes.

Il presente manuale è frutto di un’attenta analisi da parte di esperti del settore sportivo a livello internazionale (Austria, Bosnia ed Erzegovina, Croazia, Lituania, Serbia, Spagna). Esso rappresenta il punto di partenza per una riflessione profonda riguardo tematiche quali violenza ed esclusione sociale, in contesti sportivi e scolastici. Il suo intento è quello di essere una guida pratica per tecnici ed operatori che si trovano quotidianamente a formare ed educare i ragazzi sulla gestione delle relazioni all’interno del gruppo (sportivo e non), sulla presenza di fenomeni frequenti (ad es., il pregiudizio) e di eventuali conflitti. Inoltre, il manuale fornisce conoscenze aggiuntive per gli studenti di scienze motorie e psicologia che si trovano a dover mettere a frutto gli insegnamenti appresi in ambito accademico. La struttura schematica ed intuitiva è pensata per una rapida consultazione ogniqualvolta ve ne sia la necessità, mentre i casi studio offrono la possibilità di riconoscere situazioni conflittuali ed ottenere suggerimenti su come risolverle.

Il presente manuale è frutto di un’attenta analisi da parte di esperti del settore sportivo a livello internazionale (Austria, Bosnia ed Erzegovina, Croazia, Lituania, Serbia, Spagna). Esso rappresenta il punto di partenza per una riflessione profonda riguardo tematiche quali violenza ed esclusione sociale, in contesti sportivi e scolastici. Il suo intento è quello di essere una guida pratica per tecnici ed operatori che si trovano quotidianamente a formare ed educare i ragazzi sulla gestione delle relazioni all’interno del gruppo (sportivo e non), sulla presenza di fenomeni frequenti (ad es., il pregiudizio) e di eventuali conflitti. Inoltre, il manuale fornisce conoscenze aggiuntive per gli studenti di scienze motorie e psicologia che si trovano a dover mettere a frutto gli insegnamenti appresi in ambito accademico. La struttura schematica ed intuitiva è pensata per una rapida consultazione ogniqualvolta ve ne sia la necessità, mentre i casi studio offrono la possibilità di riconoscere situazioni conflittuali ed ottenere suggerimenti su come risolverle. Riconoscendo l’importanza della tematica

Objectives The purpose of this quantitative review was to provide an estimation of the effect of stereotype threat on women's performance in sport. Design This review employed a meta-analytic technique. Method a meta-analysis with random effects model was performed on 24 effects. Publication bias was tested through funnel plots and Egger's regression test. Results Findings show a symmetric distribution of effects, making it possible to conclude that no file-drawer problem affected the collected sample of effects. Aggregating the results of the reviewed studies, a medium effect of stereotype threat manipulation on women's sport performances emerged (d = 0.33). Collected studies were coded for stereotypicality of threatened exercise. The effect of stereotype threat was significantly higher for sports activities perceived as masculine. Conclusions This meta-analysis reveals that gender stereotype affects the sport activities of women and that this is particularly true for sports typically considered suited to males.

The Behavioural Assessment to improve School Environment (BASE) European Erasmus+ project responses to the European requirement of reforming the whole scholastic disciplinary system identifies in the proven US-born concept of the Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) one possible solution, and tries to adapt its practical and evidence-based principles to the heterogeneous European school settings. Recently, scientific studies (Sugai, Horner, 2016) have emphasized the promising role of PBS in reducing the occurrence of behavioural problems by setting up a preventive, proactive and multilevel system based on the direct involvement of the entire school team: starting from teachers, school leaders until all actors of the community involved in the educational processes. The features of PBS are rooted in the behavioural science and in the practice of Functional Behaviour Analysis (FBA). It works very well in coping with challenging behavioural problems in everyday school life. The growing expectation is that schools will deliver socially acceptable, effective, and efficient interventions to ensure safe and productive environments where the prosocial behaviour is promoted and pupils can become successful adults. With the purpose of achieving these goals, the rationale for this project is to combine the PBS approach with the FBA practice, taking advantage of the important results achieved by two funded European projects: the Web Health Application for Adhd Monitoring (WHAAM) and the PBS project. The web-based BASE application will expand the functionalities included in the WHAAM application according to the theoretical and methodological constraints defined by the PBS project. While the original WHAAM application was focused only on the functional assessment applied to problem behaviors of children with ADHD, the new BASE web application will include features useful for a larger field of intervention. The BASE application will include functionalities that can be grouped in the following categories: - Tools to perform the functional assessment of problem behaviours; - tools to evaluate the well-being status of teachers and students (i.e. rating, emotional thermometer, or visual analogue scales); - tools to collect information about academic progresses such as discipline referrals, attendance reports, etc.; - tools to easily create qualitative and quantitative measures for the observation according to the PBS principles; - tools to easily generate reports about the data collected with the application. The data collected with the BASE application will be used to take informed decisions about the strategies to increase the well-being of the school, preventing and reducing the occurrence of problem behaviors, teachers' burnout, students' drop out, and property destruction. Teachers will take advantage of the possibility to access evidence-based features that help them to evaluate the efficacy of their actions on multiple levels (students' performance, reduction of problem behaviours, levels of the classroom wellbeing, etc.), to share the educational events with other colleagues and with students' caregivers promoting a better communication and connection between school and families.

Stefano Boca, Maria Garro, Isabella Giammusso, Costanza Scaffidi Abbate Department of Psychology, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy Background: Previous research demonstrated several benefits of strategic perspective taking in the field of intergroup relations and, more specifically, in the negotiation processes aimed at conflict resolution. The present study, which analyzes the effect of perspective taking and mediation in a conflict setting, corroborates the psychological models that hypothesize the positive effects of the assumption of the competitor’s perspective on having intergroup conflict and lessening of negative consequences. Materials and methods: After being involved in an epistolary debate on a topic for which their ingroup had very contrasting views compared to an outgroup, participants were asked to use a feeling thermometer to assess their level of intergroup hostility. Mediation was then used as a conflict-resolution strategy for half of the participants. Furthermore, the assumption of perspective was manipulated, resulting in a 2 (conflict: presence vs absence) × 2 (perspective taking: presence vs absence) × 2 (mediation: presence vs absence) between-subjects design. Finally, participants were asked to use the same feeling thermometer to evaluate whether feelings of hostility diminished. Results: The results show that in conflict situations, the level of hostility decreases the most when the mediation process is accompanied by perspective taking. Conclusion: The results extend recent results about the advantages of a significant social ability – perspective taking – for improving intergroup relations. Keywords: perspective taking, mediation, conflict resolution, intergroup conflict, racial bias

Monitoring physical fitness (fitness) and identifying, since the beginning, possible determinants in youth could be useful to preserve health and avoid morbidities in adulthood. The main objective of this study is to provide details on the fitness levels of a sample of adolescents living in the Southern area of Italy and describe its associations with biological/genetic, socio-cultural/environmental, and lifestyle (physical activity/sedentariness, alcohol/smoking, meal patterns/habits) factors. The study was conducted within the Adolescence Surveillance System for Obesity Prevention (ASSO) project, funded by the Italian Ministry of Health and examining adolescents&rsquo, lifestyle in relation to obesity. Fitness measures were collected through the ASSO-fitness tests battery (FTB) and examined in relation to 79 selected possible influencing factors, which were collected through a web-based questionnaire included in the ASSO-NutFit software. Logistic regression analyses were performed to assess associations, with ORs and 95% CIs estimated as crude and adjusted. A total of 919 participants were initially recruited, but fitness data were collected for 544 students aged 13&ndash, 19 (68% M, 32% F). Fitness level was low for 14.2% of the students, medium for 67.8%, and high for 18.0%. The independent determinants of low physical fitness in our sample of adolescents were included in the biological/genetic and physical activity/sedentariness dimensions: female gender (Adj OR 8.33, CI 2.08&ndash, 33.33), obesity (Adj OR 1.97, CI 1.10&ndash, 9.22), practicing sport less than 3 h/week (Adj OR 6.09, CI 1.63&ndash, 22.72), practicing sport with strength/speed as prevalent biomotor ability (Adj OR 8.97, CI 1.43&ndash, 56.19), using PC/internet for more than 3 h/day (Adj OR 4.46, CI 1.17&ndash, 16.98). Drinking alcohol was instead a protective factor. This study confirms that females and obese individuals need more attention in the interventions aimed at increasing fitness levels. It suggests that local actions should be implemented with the aim of increasing sport practices and reducing sedentary time spent in front of PC/internet. The focus should be particularly addressed to sports with strength or speed as dominant biomotor abilities.

The present experiment examined the effect of self-awareness on adult perspective-taking and egocentrism. After having indicated their own opinion on an ecology-related topic, university students estimated a fellow student’s opinion on the same matter. Participants did so either in front of a mirror or not, and either after having received a cue for the fellow student’s most probable opinion—his perspective—or not, resulting in a 2 (self-awareness: Low vs. high) × 2 (cue: Yes vs. no) between persons design. As expected, self-aware participants were more likely to correctly estimate the fellow student’s most probable opinion, reflecting perspective-taking, if a cue for his/her perspective was provided. Moreover, self-awareness also reduced participants’ false consensus beliefs (i.e., egocentrism)—when they had a cue for the fellow student’s perspective. The results conceptually replicate and extend previous findings on self-awareness, perspective-taking, and egocentrism.

In recent years, considerable research effort has been directed at the identification of relationships between psychological variables and Facebook usage indicators. However, the identification of homogeneous subgroups of individuals based on similar Facebook usage characteristics still presents a challenge. This study aims: (1) to empirically determine homogeneous groups of Facebook users based on variables regarding their personal experience on Facebook, by using a Latent Class Analysis; and (2) to examine the association between an individual's personality and interpersonal characteristics and the empirically-derived profiles of Facebook usage. Eight hundred and eleven Facebook users (aged from 17 to 61 years) provided data on personality traits, self-esteem, interpersonal difficulties, attachment styles, preference for online social interaction and information on general Facebook use. We found that a three-class model (Mild-users, Committed to Facebook, and Online Socially-Oriented groups) fitted well with our data. Individuals in the Online Socially-Oriented group reported greater openness to experience as well as a greater preference for online social interaction, whereas the individuals in the Committed to Facebook group showed high self-esteem, extraversion and need for approval, as well as low emotional stability. The results of this study provided a more comprehensive picture of individual characteristics associated with the different profiles of Facebook usage.

The present field experiment examines the effect of self-awareness on adult perspective-taking and on prosocial behavior. University students at an Italian university were interviewed briefly on their campus, and for half of them self-awareness was induced by asking them to hold a mirror before their faces. In the same context they then had to choose between a postcard written in Italian and 1 written in English, to be sent to England. This led to a measure of perspective-taking, and their actual readiness to mail the postcard was taken as an index of prosocial or helping behavior. Both perspective-taking and helping behavior were boosted considerably by self-awareness.

The present paper examines how someone's use of stereotypes can exert influence over others’ judgments. In the 2 studies reported here, participants were presented with messages containing information provided by a source. In Study 1, the source was an in-group member. The messages were manipulated in a between-subjects design so that participants were either given stereotypical or counterstereotypical information. After being given a hint regarding the source's estimate, participants were asked to provide their own estimates about a number of points displayed on a computer screen. Results indicate that participants tended to use as an anchor the estimate provided by the source that made use of stereotypes. In Study 2, an out-group member provided participants with information that was either stereotypical or neutral. Again, results indicate that participants were influenced by the source making use of stereotypes.

Social categories are conceived of as broad classes in which some instances are better exemplars than others, and non-necessary features are assumed to modulate typicality. This research investigated how various emotional expressions impact on gender categorization. Two concurrent measures - response latencies and prototypicality judgments - were collected and compared in three experiments. The results showed that emotional expressions of any kind are highly relevant in modulating females' category membership, while they are of less relevance in making a male more or less prototypical. These findings provide new insights into the relation between gender and emotional expressions.

Years of research on bystander apathy have demonstrated that the physical presence of others can reduce the tendency to help individuals needing assistance. Recent research on the implicit bystander effect has suggested that simply imagining the presence of others can lead to less helping behavior on a subsequent unrelated task. The present study was designed to contribute to previous findings on the implicit bystander effect by demonstrating these effects on commitment to help and on real helping behavior, rather than simply on intentions to help. Studies 1a and 1b demonstrate that merely priming participants with the construct of being in a group at Time 1 created significantly less commitment to future helping on a subsequent task at Time 2. Study 2 aimed to extend this effect to behavioral measures and verified that participants exposed to a group prime helped less than those who were exposed to a single-person prime. The implications of these findings for the literature on the bystander effect are discussed.

This study investigated the influence of priming and bystander apathy on helping behavior. After priming prosociality through a scrambled sentences test, participants encountered a woman who dropped the books she was carrying. Helping behavior in bystander and no-bystander conditions was tested. The results showed that people in a prosocial-prime condition were more likely to help than people in a neutral-prime condition, and that the effect of priming persists even in the presence of bystanders.

The present study aims to analyze the effect of product placement on attitude change and takes into consideration psychological models of the mere exposure effect. A sample of high school students watched an excerpt from two widely-distributed movies in which several products were shown by using the technique known as product placement. The results indicate that students who saw the commercial brand liked the products more than those who didn’t see it. This effect, in line with the literature on the product placement effect, seems to be independent from the recognition of the brand in the movie excerpt. This study also shows that, in the high involvement condition, one exposure is enough to produce a positive attitude toward the brand.

It is proposed that emotion has long-lasting cognitive and social consequences as it is observed for traumatic events. Indeed, emotion, like trauma, is characterized by a sudden disruption of the normal course of events, challenging people's belief systems about themselves and the world and calling for extensive cognitive and social processing. We propose that mental rumination and social sharing constitute fundamental aspects of this processing. In this chapter, we present the results of an integrated programme of research investigating the nature and functions of mental ruminations and social sharing that follow emotional events. A number of questions are addressed, such as whether people do share their emotions, to what extent, with whom, and for which types of emotion. Culture, sex and age differences are also considered. A functional model of rumination and social sharing in emotion is proposed and tested. Finally, five theoretical arguments relate the empirical findings of our research programme to ...

We argue that emotion cannot only be conceived of as a short-lived and intrapersonal phenomenon. Rather, based on five theoretical arguments, we propose that the social sharing of an emotional experience forms an integral part of the emotional processes. A series of six studies investigated different aspects of this hypothesis. Study 1 showed that an overwhelming majority of people reported sharing their emotional experiences and that the memories of these experiences tended to come back spontaneously to their consciousness. No difference was found among emotions. Using a different procedure, Studies 2 and 3 replicated these findings in two different populations. In addition, these studies provided indications that women share their experiences with a wider array of individuals than do men. The first three studies did not find any differences among emotions, but they did not include shame. It could be argued that people are less inclined to socially share shame experiences which are typically eli...

This study examines the hypothesis of an association between adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) and eating disorders (EDs). A population of young females affected by AIS has been interviewed for a possible diagnosis of EDs. The proportion of individuals with EDs resulted significantly larger than normative epidemiological data: Prevalences were 9.2% for anorexia nervosa (AN), 7.7% for bulimia nervosa (BN) and 5.3% for eating disorders not otherwise specified (EDNOS). The relationship between EDs and AIS was further tested through a second analysis. Severity of the rachides pathology was correlated with the presence of AN. Our study supports the hypothesis of a comorbidity between AIS and EDs: Some possible clinical explanations for this association are discussed.

The authors argue that cross-national variation in the association between right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO) depends upon the degree to which political systems are organized along a single explicitly ideologically articulated left–right dimension. In societies where the political system is ideologized along a single dimension, RWA and SDO should be strongly positively correlated, and the magnitude of this association should be moderated by political identification. This hypothesis was tested in Italy, a society where the political system is highly ideologized, using analyses of concurrent data from student (N = 148) and community samples (N = 133) (study 1), and an experiment in which the salience of peoples’ political identification was manipulated (study 2; N = 151). In both studies, stronger political identification was associated with a significantly stronger positive RWA–SDO association, although mean levels of RWA and SDO did not vary across conditions in study 2.