Vol. 5 No. 2 (2018)

Parental alienation syndrome (PAS), as defined by its creator Dr. Richard Gardner (2001), is a poorly defined, poorly researched, and controversial pseudoscientific construct arising primarily in the context of child custody disputes. The syndrome allegedly manifests as a non-rational and unjustified campaign of denigration against one parent during custody proceedings. It is purported to result from the combination of a parent’s “brainwashing” and indoctrination regarding the vilification of the target parent. Unfortunately, there is little evidence to support that parental alienation represents a scientifically valid syndrome. There is no commonly recognized or empirically supported pathogenies, course, familiar pattern, or treatment selection indicated for the proposed symptoms of PAS. Additionally, it has been consistently excluded from both DSM-V and ICD-10, representing a near global rejection by the scientific community. When used in the legal context, PAS is exceptionally dangerous as it can conceal actual cases of abuse and cause children to be remanded into the custody of an abusive parent. Furthermore, it can be used as leverage to separate children from the caregiver that they are best suited to be with solely on the accusation of the non-preferred parent that they have been “alienated.” In the interest of improving the scientific quality of custody evaluations and the safety of children, pseudoscientific theories such as parental alienation syndrome should be eliminated from the custody decision making process.

The importance of critical thinking in education is supported by numerous researches for decades. In the absence of a critical thinking test (CTT) designed to be used in Portugal, the focus of this paper is the presentation of a critical thinking test for Portuguese adolescents. We present the exploratory validation study of this instrument, administered to 128 students, aged 12 to 19, attending elementary and secondary schools of low and high socioeconomic status. The construct validity of the nine-item instrument was estimated using an Exploratory Factorial Analysis (AFE), to evaluate the multidimensionality of the CTT. There were three factors: creation, argumentation and explanation, explaining 70.07% of the total variance .We found significant differences between grades and schools. The results suggest that the development of critical thinking skills is related to the grade and students’ socioeconomic status.

 

Recent researches highlight the importance of the development of social skills in early childhood intervention and the need to use valid and reliable instruments to measure the social skills in preschool settings. The aim of study was to assess the empirical structure of the Behavioral Scales for Children in Preschool (PKBSpt), which evaluates social skills and behavior problems of children. The instrument was administered to 577 children aged between 3 to 6 years. The subscales Social Skills and Behavior Problems were applied and completed by teachers, both using Likert type scales with four levels of response. The results of this instrument show that models related to subscales of the PKBSpt have acceptable adjustment indicators and adequate internal consistence levels. These results are similar and fall within the studies by other authors with the same instrument. The implications of this study point to the usefulness of PKBSpt at Portugal and others countries which spoken Portuguese language in preschool education. Need to perform further research on particular confirmatory studies with other population and different countries are pointed out.

 

In this paper we present the psychometric study of the Questionnaire for the Evaluation of Online University Lecturers (version D), whose purpose is to evaluate the teaching of professors who work online mode, on the basis of the previous considerations of the student. The questionnaire has been constructed using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodology. The particularly relevant feature of this scale is that it has been generated from the students' opinion about the characteristics that online lecturers must have in order to be considered a good teacher. In previous works we have presented the procedure that has been used to build the scale; in this we present the psychometric study of the specific questionnaire for online tutors. The sample was selected by random sampling by conglomerates, considering the Campus as a conglomerate. An exploratory factorial analysis (AFE) was carried out and subsequently a confirmatory factorial analysis (CFA). The results indicate that the constructed questionnaire has a high reliability and validity, which makes it a useful and relevant evaluation tool.

 

Teaching staff play an important role while preventing and fighting against inequality and gender-based violence, as school is one of the main influences in differential gender socialization. It is for this reason why this paper’s aim is to analyse and evaluate a variety of beliefs and myths regarding romantic love in a sample of future teachers from the Community of Madrid (Spain). The reduced version of Myths Scale toward Love was used, as well as some statistical analyses were applied to the results, in order to study gender-based differences of the sample. The scale mentioned above was applied to 433 trainee teachers (76.7% females and 23.3% males) belonging to different teaching university degrees (master´s and bachelor`s), with an average age of 24.04 (SD = 3.83). The results show that the most commonly believed and accepted myths about love are the ones related to the eternal passion, the omnipotence of love and the “better-half”. In addition, there are statistically significant differences between men and women in the acceptance of romantic love myths, what could be due to the differential socialization of gender. Distorted beliefs about love can justify and encourage gender-based violence, so it is necessary to modify the romantic discourse and promote real equality from all socializing areas.

This paper aims to offer the reader a critique of the so-called Parental Alienation Syndrome (SAP). The concept is analyzed first, as defined by its creator, Gardner, and that meaning is explained within the context in which it was developed. It points out how it has never been scientifically proven, and how it has been rejected by all scientific organizations (one of them being the American Psychological Association). It is explained how in spite of this, in many Spanish courts its use is habitual, which means acting outside a scientific approach, which in turn also implies a lack of protection of minors, with serious consequences that are also exemplified. Finally, recommendations are made to avoid this situation, and especially stresses the need for the justice system to know that the techniques related to the SAP lack scientific validity, and that the application of non-scientific theories about people undermines the meaning of the justice system itself.

 

Having friends and feeling accepted by those one feels as significant is a key factor in healthy psychosocial development. However, a significant number of students are rejected by their peers, which may have a considerably negative impact on their development and well-being. There are several causes for this social rejection. The present study specifically explores the relationship between aggressiveness and rejection. Two objectives are set to this piece of work: first, identifying the percentage of socially rejected students in a sample of school children in the second cycle of Infant Education; second, checking for differences in social relations and externalized problems relating to sociometric types. To this aim, eight classes in three different schools of Asturias (two public schools and a state-funded private school) were selected, consisting of a total of 160 students aged four-six. The eight teacher-tutors, all female, also participated in the study. The instruments used in gathering information were a positive and negative nominations sociometric test, implemented with the students, and a reduced version of the Preschool and Kindergarten Behaviour Scales completed by the teachers. Results show a significantly high number of socially rejected students. It is also shown that rejected students have more externalised problems and problems of social interaction if compared to the more widely accepted students in the group. Practical implications of these findings are discussed.

The human being experiences emotions from birth to death that determine the self-perception of the world around him, allowing personal and social relationships to be established. The current globalized world has generated an increase in highly competitive individualism, where emotions and feelings are denied elements, which produces an emotional illiteracy and the inability to express feelings and emotions. The objective of this study is to identify the emotional perception of 816 university students taking degrees in Education Sciences and Computer Engineering from the University of A Coruña (Spain), through a questionnaire prepared ad hoc (Emotional Perception). The results show that the recognition of the emotions of envy and jealousy stands at a higher level of recognition, followed by the identification of emotions in others, shame / guilt, self-recognition of emotions, followed by joy, fear, anger, anger / anger and sadness. The data provided by this research allow opening doors to other fields related to personal, academic and professional emotional competences, contributing to the full integration of university students in the teaching-learning process.

The main purpose of this book is to present some contributions of Educational Psychology to teacher training and to teacher practice, so that, throughout its nine chapters, there are texts that allow us an updated and a contextualized reading of renowned authors, as well as chapters on aspects related to self-regulation, affectivity and interpersonal relationships, so frequent in daily living at school.

It presents a review of a work surprising for its originality and very precise and concise in the appraisals of the most relevant contributions that have given to the Psychology a series of authors and researchers, some of the late nineteenth century, and most of measured and late twentieth century. This work, although published in English initially in 2007, and reissued in Spanish in 2016, nevertheless it preserves all his freshness and his key ideas that the author, Tom Butler-Bowdon, economist classified in the University of Sidney, winner of several prizes, wanted to transmit thinking not so much about the psychologists and teachers but rather about the great public. Across fifty works of others so much authors, doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists the majority, have gone away peeled hundreds of ideas that the own author of the book is selecting and that they include slightly more than one century, examining some of the issues that most interest people about our behavior... what it is that motivates us to act, what makes us feel and act in one way or another, how our brains work and how it is created a sense of self.  A review of the main contributions of 50 key authors of Psychology are offered as a whole repertoire of ideas, principles and relevant laws to try to understand human behavior.