Previous research has revealed a persistent association between social structure and mental health. However, most researchers have focused only on the psychological and psychosocial aspects of that relationship. The present paper indicates the need to include the social and structural bases of distress in our theoretical models. Starting from a general social and psychological model, our research considered the role of several social, environmental, and structural variables (social position, social stressors, and social integration), psychological factors (self-esteem), and psychosocial variables (perceived social support). The theoretical model was tested working with a group of Spanish participants (N = 401) that covered a range of social positions. The results obtained using structural equation modeling support our model, showing the relevant role played by psychosocial, psychological and social, and structural factors. Implications for theory and intervention are discussed.

Some studies with children have shown that there is no semantic priming at short stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) in lexical decision and naming tasks for homographs. The predictions of spreading activation theories might explain this missing effect. There may be differences in children's and adults' memory structures. We have explored this hypothesis. The development of memory structure representations for homographs was measured by a Pathfinder algorithm. In Experiment 1, the three dependent variables were: the number of links in the network, closeness measures (C), and distances between nodes. Results revealed developmental differences in network structure representations in adults and children. In Experiment 2, results revealed that these differences were not due to the cohort effect. In Experiment 3, the relationship between associative strength, as measured by associative norms, and distances, as measured by Pathfinder algorithm, was explored. The results of these three experiments and empirical research from semantic priming experiments show that these differences in memory structure representations could be one of the sources of the missing semantic priming effect in children.

Social psychologists have shown a profound interest in intergroup relationships, but there are very few papers focusing on the developmental aspects that explain the psychological mechanisms involved in the construction of group and cultural identity. Our research aims to explore how the self-categorization of Andalusian children evolves. We tried to assess the degree to which they self-identify as Andalusian, Spanish, and European, and how this identification changes with age. We were also interested in the affective evaluation of different groups (French, Italian, English, German, Spanish, Catalonian, and Andalusian) made by Andalusian children. Furthermore, we analyzed the relationship between self-categorization and the evaluation of these groups. Results show that the development of national (autonomous community) identity in these children is influenced by their cognitive development, as well as by the relationships among the regional communities of Spain and the relationships between Spain and other countries. The peculiarity of Andalusians as a group is that they assume both identities: Spanish and Andalusian, from a very early age. In-group favoritism is an extended phenomenon at all ages, and Andalusian children have a negative stereotype of the other Spanish groups and other European communities.

This research shows the utility of systematic data-gathering from older people and of a statistical analysis procedure for interpreting the data. Four cases of institutionalized older people are presented, and their scores of depressive symptomatology over a period of one to two years is analyzed. Time-series analysis showed a significant positive trend of depression symptomatology in two of the cases, perhaps too subtle for detection in routine clinical check-up, but statistically verifiable. In one of these cases, none of the factors of the scale stands out, despite the fact that the general index shows a statistically significant change over the 36 observations made, so that the results obtained are related to the syndrome of depletion or exhaustion. In the second of the cases, we detect a significant change in the depressive mood factor, which may indicate a subclinical depressive form in its initial stages. Continuous registers can reveal valuable information about situations and progress in the evolution of an older person's mood, with regard to natural development, the prelude to a mood disorder, or follow-up in clinical cases.

Alexithymia refers to a specific disturbance in emotional processing that is manifested by difficulties in identifying and verbalizing feelings and a tendency to focus on and amplify the somatic sensations that accompany emotional arousal. Alexithymia is conceptualized both as an affect-deficit disorder and a continuous personality variable. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the stability levels of alexithymia with regard to changes in emotional distress levels caused by university exams. We tested 20 university students at four different times, before and after the exams. Alexithymic features and self-reported emotional distress (trait anxiety and physical symptoms) were measured. Whereas emotional distress measures changed significantly during the diverse phases, the level of alexithymia remained unchanged. We therefore conclude that alexithymia represents a constant trait.

The study of cardiac defense has a long tradition in psychological research both within the cognitive approach—linked to Pavlov, Sokolov, and Graham's work on sensory reflexes—and within the motivational one—linked to the work of Cannon and subsequent researchers on the concepts of activation and stress. These two approaches have been difficult to reconcile in the past. We summarize a series of studies on cardiac defense from a different perspective, which allows integration of the traditional approaches. This new perspective emphasizes a sequential process interpretation of the cardiac defense response. Results of descriptive and parametric studies, as well as those of studies examining the physiological and psychological mechanisms underlying the response, show a complex response pattern with both accelerative and decelerative components, with both sympathetic and parasympathetic influences, and with both attentional and emotional significance. The implications of this new look at cardiac defense are discussed in relation to defensive reactions in natural settings, the brain mechanisms controlling such reactions, and their effects on health and illness.