Italian Psychology Students Research Articles

Competence and Benevolence as Dimensions of Trust: Lecturers' Trustworthiness in the Words of Italian Students.

Trustworthiness includes at least two dimensions: one dimension captures the authority’s benevolence; the other captures authority’s competence. This qualitative study explores the representation of the two dimensions of authority trustworthiness: competence and benevolence. We collected free-associations about what lecturers’ competence and benevolence actually mean for Italian psychology students (n = 125). The data corpus was content-analyzed. Text units were categorized according to meaning using both a bottom-up strategy, with some categories stemming from the data (inductive reasoning), and a top-down strategy, with some categories following from the analysis of the relevant literature (deductive reasoning). Qualitative content analysis showed that these two dimensions overlapped. Students listed theoretically-defined competence characteristics as indications of both benevolence and competence. The same applied to benevolence. Overall, associations were grouped into two main dimensions: (1) the “can-do” dimension, describing a lecturer’s competence and social skill; (2) the “will-do” dimension, describing a lecturer’s good intentions, integrity, and personal motivation. In conclusion, the two conceptually distinct dimensions of trust are indistinguishable in the students’ words. These preliminary results are in line with scholars debating the multifactorial or mono-factorial nature of trust.

Using internet predicts attitudes towards sexual behaviour in Italian psychology students

Summary The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the use of different sources of information about sexuality predicts attitudes towards own and towards others’ sexual behaviours, as measured through the Trueblood Sexual Attitude Questionnaire (TSAQ) Self and Other scales, in 193 Italian psychology students. The self-reported sources of information considered in the study were books, newspapers, magazines, television, internet, friends, family, and sex education courses, and age, gender, sexual orientation, and religious beliefs were tested as possible confounders. Results from hierarchical regression analyses showed that students' self-reported use of the internet predict liberal attitudes towards their own sexual behaviour, including autoeroticism, commercial sex, heterosexuality, homosexuality, and variation in sex, after controlling for age, gender, sexual orientation, and religious beliefs. On the other hand, we did not find any significant relations between self-reported information sources about sexuality and students' attitudes towards others' sexual behaviour. These results highlight the need for higher education institutions, educators and practitioners in the field of human sexuality to review sexual education programmes targeting university students, taking into account the role of the internet.

Are Future Psychologists Willing to Accept and Use a Humanoid Robot in Their Practice? Italian and English Students' Perspective.

Despite general scepticism from care professionals, social robotics research is providing evidence of successful application in education and rehabilitation in clinical psychology practice. In this article, we investigate the cultural influences of English and Italian psychology students in the perception of usefulness and intention to use a robot as an instrument for future clinical practice and, secondly, the modality of presentation of the robot by comparing oral vs. video presentation. To this end, we surveyed 158 Italian and British-English psychology students after an interactive demonstration using a humanoid robot to evaluate the social robot’s acceptance and use. The Italians were positive, while the English were negative toward the perceived usefulness and intention to use the robot in psychological practice in the near future. However, most English and Italian respondents felt they did not have the necessary abilities to make good use of the robot. We concluded that it is necessary to provide psychology students with further knowledge and practical skills regarding social robotics, which could facilitate the adoption and use of this technology in clinical settings.

Gender, Personality Traits and Experience With Psychiatric Patients as Predictors of Stigma in Italian Psychology Students.

A sample of undergraduate Psychology students (n = 1005), prevalently females (82.4%), mean age 20.5 (sd 2.5), was examined regarding their attitudes toward people suffering from mental illness. The survey instrument included a brief form for demographic variables, the Attribution Questionnaire-9 (AQ-9), the Ten Items Personality Inventory (TIPI), and two questions exploring attitudes toward open-door and restraint-free policies in Psychiatry. Higher levels of stigmatizing attitudes were found in males (Pity, Blame, Help, and Avoidance) and in those (76.5%) who had never had any experience with psychiatric patients (Danger, Fear, Blame, Segregation, Help, Avoidance and Coercion). A similar trend was also found in those who don't share the policy of no seclusion/restraint, while subjects who are favorable to open-door policies reported higher Coercion scores. No correlations were found between dimensions of stigma and personality traits. A machine learning approach was then used to explore the role of demographic, academic and personality variables as predictors of stigmatizing attitudes. Agreeableness and Extraversion emerged as the most relevant predictors for blaming attitudes, while Emotional Stability and Openness appeared to be the most effective contributors to Anger. Our results confirmed that a training experience in Psychiatry might successfully reduce stigma in Psychology students. Further research, with increased generalizability of samples and more reliable instruments, should address the role of personality traits and gender on attitudes toward people suffering from mental illness.

Factor Structure and Psychometric Properties of the Italian Version of the Homosexuality Scale of the Trueblood Sexual Attitudes Questionnaire

ABSTRACTThe aim of the present study was to translate the Homosexuality scale of the Trueblood Sexual Attitudes Questionnaire into the Italian language and to assess its factor structure and psychometric properties in Italian psychology students. The questionnaire was originally developed and validated in U.S. college students, and later in Turkish social work students, showing high internal consistency. It measures attitudes toward several sexual practices and behaviors, regarding self and others. Particularly, the Homosexuality scale measures attitudes toward different sexual and romantic practices with people of the same sex. A total of 199 Italian psychology students participated to the study, and they were administered the Italian translation of the scale. We applied exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Results showed that the scale has high internal consistency, and that the original two-factor model accounting for attitudes toward self and others fits the data well. Implications for education and assessment in student populations are discussed.

The Opinions of Italian Psychology Students About People Diagnosed with Depression and Schizophrenia: A Comparative Study

This study explored the opinions about depression and schizophrenia among Italian psychology students, and whether students’ opinions changed during education. Of the 705 students who read a description of depression (N = 275) or schizophrenia (N = 430) and then completed a questionnaire on their opinions about the disorder, 490 made a correct diagnosis (depression = 243/275; schizophrenia: 247/430) and were included in the study. Compared to schizophrenia-group students, depression-group students: more frequently mentioned psychosocial factors and less frequently heredity among the causes; were more convinced about the usefulness of psychological therapies and less about pharmacotherapies; had more prognostic optimism; had lower perception of unpredictability and dangerousness. Compared to first-year students, fifth-year students (depression = 105; schizophrenia = 162): in both diagnostic groups more frequently cited heredity among the causes; in depression group, had lower perception of unpredictability; in schizophrenia group, had higher perception of dangerousness and more prognostic pessimism. More education about stigma should be provided to psychology students.

Investigating the relationship between interoceptive accuracy, interoceptive awareness, and emotional susceptibility.

Interoception, the sense of the physiological condition of the body, provides a basis for subjective feelings and emotions. Anterior insular cortex activity represents the state of the body and varies according to personality traits, such as emotional susceptibility (ES)—the tendency to experience feelings of discomfort and vulnerability when facing emotionally-laden stimuli. The accuracy of perceiving one's own bodily signals, or interoceptive accuracy (IAc), can be assessed with the heartbeat perception task (HPT), which is the experimental measure used by most of the existing research on interoception. However, IAc is only one facet of interoception. Interoceptive awareness (IAw) is the conscious perception of sensations from inside the body, such as heart beat, respiration, satiety, and the autonomic nervous system sensations related to emotions, which create the sense of the physiological condition of the body. We developed an Italian version of the recent self-report Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA), tested its psychometric properties (reliability, dimensionality, and construct validity), and examined its relationship to ES, as assessed using the Emotional Susceptibility Scale, in a sample (n = 321) of healthy Italian psychology students (293 females, mean age: 20.5 years). In a subgroup of females (n = 135), we measured IAc with the HPT. We used a series of correlation/regression analyses to examine the complex interplay between the three constructs. We provide further evidence for a substantial independence of the IAc and IAw measures, confirming previous reports and current theoretical models that differentiate between IAc and IAw. Our analyses elucidate the complex relationship between distinct dimensions of IAw and ES, highlighting the need for continued efforts to shed more light on this topic.

The Influence of Causal Explanations and Diagnostic Labeling on Psychology Students' Beliefs About Treatments, Prognosis, Dangerousness and Unpredictability in Schizophrenia.

This study explored views of 566 Italian psychology students about schizophrenia. The most frequently cited causes were psychological traumas (68%) and heredity (54%). Thirty-three percent of students firmly believed that people with the condition could recover. Reporting heredity among the causes, and identifying schizophrenia were both associated with prognostic pessimism, greater confidence in pharmacological treatments and lower confidence in psychological treatments. Schizophrenia labeling was also associated with higher perception of unpredictability and dangerousness. Compared to first year students, fourth/fifth year students more frequently reported heredity among the causes, and were more pessimistic about schizophrenia recovery. Stigma topics should be included in future psychologists' education.

Linking Positive Affect and Positive Self-beliefs in Daily Life

This study investigated the reciprocal relations between positive self-beliefs (POS) and positive affect (PA) using week-long diaries kept by 268 undergraduate Italian psychology students. An autoregressive latent trajectory analysis was found to be the best statistical model explaining the links between POS and PA. POS and PA levels remained stable over 7 days and they were positively correlated suggesting positive associations between stability in PA and POS across the 7 days. Interestingly, the analysis of cross-lagged paths revealed that the state-like deviations in POS levels significantly predicted later levels of PA, whereas the state-like deviations in PA levels did not predict later levels of POS at all time points. Theoretical and practical implications of these results were discussed.

THE IMPACT OF DECEPTION AND SUSPICION ON DIFFERENT HAND MOVEMENTS

The present experiment examined the relationship between different types of discourse linked hand movements and deception. Hand gestures were experimentally studied during truth telling and deception, and in situations with either weak or strong suspicion. Participants (128 Italian psychology students) were interviewed twice about the possession of an object. In one interview they were asked to lie and in the other asked to tell the truth (veracity factor). In both conditions, suspicion was raised after the interview: Participants were accused of lying by the interviewer and asked to repeat their account a second time (suspicion factor). Results indicate that lying was associated with a decrease in deictic gestures, and an increase in metaphoric gestures (main effect of veracity). Also a decrease in self-adaptor gestures was found. Strong suspicion was associated with an increase in metaphoric, rhythmic, and deictic gestures and a decrease in self-adaptor, emblematic, and cohesive gestures (main effect of suspicion). No interaction effect was found.