Correction: Study of the efficacy of the Hero program: Cross-national evidence.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0238442.].

Argentinian Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Screening Study of the General Population During Two Periods of Quarantine.

Background: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Argentina has been under mandatory quarantine. We have aimed to investigate the state of mental health of the Argentine population and the behaviours adopted to cope with mental distress during quarantine. Method: An online survey was conducted using a probabilistic sampling technique and stratified according to the geographic regions of the country. The survey covered days 7-11 (n = 2,631) and days 50-55 (n = 2,068) after compulsory quarantine. The psychological impact was measured using the 27-item Symptom CheckList (SCL-27), which provides a Global Severity Index (GSI). An ad hoc questionnaire registered problematic, healthy and other behaviours. Two network models were estimated using a Mixed Graphical Model. Data from the two periods were compared and analysed. Outcomes: Higher GSI scores and greater risk of experiencing mental disorder were found in Period 2 as compared with Period 1. The lowest GSI scores were associated with physical activity in both periods, and meditation and yoga in Period 1. Drug users reported the highest GSI scores in both periods. The Network Comparison Test confirmed a significant change in symptomatology structure over the two quarantine periods. Conclusion: This study showed that psychological symptoms and the risk of experiencing mental disorder increased significantly from Period 1 to Period 2. Network analysis suggested that the quarantine might have brought about changes in the relationships between symptoms. Overall results revealed the relevance of mental health and the need to take mental health actions upon imposing quarantine during the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Study of the efficacy of the Hero program: Cross-national evidence.

The present study focuses on an analysis of the efficacy of the online intervention program called "Hero" for promoting prosociality and other socioemotional variables related to prosocial behavior, such as empathy, positive emotions, and forgiveness, in two Latin American countries: Argentina and Uruguay. The final Argentinean sample consisted of 579 adolescents (experimental group = 319 and control group = 260), and the Uruguayan sample consisted of 330 adolescents (experimental group = 140 and control group = 169), aged 12 to 15 years old. The 'Hero' program provided evidence of efficacy for the promotion of prosociality, empathy, positive emotions, and attitudes of forgiveness. It impacted each of the dimensions comprising these variables differently depending on the country where it was applied. We discuss the differences found in each country.

Psychotherapists' emotional and physiological reactions toward patients with either borderline personality disorder or depression.

Objective: There is a marked difference between the effects of psychotherapy for major depressive disorder (MDD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD), with treatment being less effective for the latter. Considering the importance of the therapeutic relationship in the prognosis of therapeutic results, some of these differential effects might be explained by the distinctive reactions that patients elicit in their therapists. The aim of the present research was to characterize therapists' perceptions of their emotional and physiological reactions to patients diagnosed with MDD or BPD. Method: A semi-structured interview was conducted with 43 clinical psychologists from Argentina with different theoretical orientations. These professionals treated at least one patient diagnosed with BPD and one with MDD during the previous year. Therapists' reactions were categorized through a modified consensual qualitative research analysis. Results: Our findings suggest that psychotherapists feel emotions of dysregulation with BPD patients and sensations of fatigue with MDD patients. Conclusion: The results provide some support for the idea that therapists may mirror their patients' internal experiences.

Nuevas tecnologías: puentes de comunicación en el trastorno del espectro autista (TEA) / New technologies: communication bridges in autism spectrum disorders (ASD)

Los trastornos del espectro autista (TEA) son alteraciones del neurodesarrollo caracterizados por dificultades en interacción social, con principal hincapié en la comunicación, sea esta verbal y no verbal. La investigación y desarrollo aplicada en TEA se centra en hallar estrategias terapéuticas adecuadas y que sean focalizadas en el individuo, valiéndose de todos los recursos que estén al alcance (interfaces virtuales, realidad virtual, entornos 3D, robótica, etc). Así, el uso de tecnologías para mejorar y estimular particularmente la comunicación de los niños con TEA ha aumentado en los últimos tiempos de manera exponencial. Estas herramientas en contextos terapéuticos posibilitan una generalización del comportamiento hacia contextos naturales del niño. Por lo tanto, el uso de un software personalizado en dispositivos móviles permitirá que se avance con su tratamiento fuera del ámbito clínico pudiendo utilizarlo en su casa/escuela para comunicarse con sus vínculos sociales cercanos.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) refers to neurodevelopmental problems characterized by difficulties in social interaction, especially verbal or nonverbal communication. Research on ASD focuses in finding appropriate solutions for a patient, using all available resources (virtual interfaces, virtual reality, 3D environments, robotics, etc.) in order to develop therapeutic strategies. Therefore, the use of technologies to improve and stimulate communication, particularly in children with ASD, has increased exponentially in recent years. When used in therapeutic contexts, these tools allow a generalization of a child's behavior towards a natural context. Hence, the use of customized softwares for mobile devices will allow progress in treating ASD beyond a clinical setting and may be used at home/school to communicate with their close social peers.

Dog's discrimination of human selfish and generous attitudes: the role of individual recognition, experience, and experimenters' gender.

Discrimination of and memory for others' generous and selfish behaviors could be adaptive abilities in social animals. Dogs have seemingly expressed such skills in both direct and indirect interactions with humans. However, recent studies suggest that their capacity may rely on cues other than people's individual characteristics, such as the place where the person stands. Thus, the conditions under which dogs recognize individual humans when solving cooperative tasks still remains unclear. With the aim of contributing to this problem, we made dogs interact with two human experimenters, one generous (pointed towards the food, gave ostensive cues, and allowed the dog to eat it) and the other selfish (pointed towards the food, but ate it before the dog could have it). Then subjects could choose between them (studies 1-3). In study 1, dogs took several training trials to learn the discrimination between the generous and the selfish experimenters when both were of the same gender. In study 2, the discrimination was learned faster when the experimenters were of different gender as evidenced both by dogs' latencies to approach the bowl in training trials as well as by their choices in preference tests. Nevertheless, dogs did not get confused by gender when the experimenters were changed in between the training and the choice phase in study 3. We conclude that dogs spontaneously used human gender as a cue to discriminate between more and less cooperative experimenters. They also relied on some other personal feature which let them avoid being confused by gender when demonstrators were changed. We discuss these results in terms of dogs' ability to recognize individuals and the potential advantage of this skill for their lives in human environments.

Individual differences in social and non-social behaviors in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) during the acquisition, extinction and reacquisition of a problem solving task.

Dogs are able to solve different problems by trial and error learning, but it seems that they cannot understand the means-end connection. Some studies suggest that dogs' performance is influenced by their breed and by the level of familiarity with the person they interact with. In our study, we assess individual differences in both social and non-social responses in a problem-solving task during the acquisition, extinction, and reacquisition phases. In order to investigate the effect of familiarity, in the first experiment, the human present during the task was either a familiar (the dog's owner) or unfamiliar person. In the second experiment, we compared breeds (Retrievers and Shepherds) that had previously shown differences in a communicative task. The results revealed that all groups learned the task and became more efficient in the acquisition trials. These non-social responses diminished during extinction, where an increase in social responses was observed. With regard to individual differences, dogs were more persistent in searching the reward during the second extinction trial when the owner was present (in contrast with a stranger), and also looked longer at the unfamiliar person at the beginning of the acquisition trial. On the other hand, Retrievers showed greater social motivation during reacquisition and Shepherds picked up more bones during the third acquisition trial, thus suggesting a more persistent search of the reward. These findings highlight the relevance of studying different learning schedules as well as individual differences in problem-solving ability so as to improve selection and training techniques.

Relación terapéutica: estudio en población de psicólogos clínicos / Therapeutic relationship: a study within a clinical psychologist population

Diferentes estudios han observado que la Relación Terapéutica (RT) resulta un predictor del éxito de los tratamientos psicoterapéuticos (Del Re et al., 2012; Hartmann et al., 2014), a la vez que observan que las características del terapeuta afectan positivamente la RT. Por este motivo, el presente trabajo se propone evaluar las nociones acerca del impacto de la RT en los resultados de los tratamientos y de la percepción de las características de los terapeutas de mayor relevancia para el fortalecimiento de la RT en una muestra de 121 psicólogos clínicos de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. Los resultados permiten observar que los profesionales consideran que la RT impacta positivamente en los resultados del tratamiento a la vez que otorgan importancia a diferentes características del terapeuta en el fortalecimiento de la RT, tales como el interés en la problemática del paciente y la flexibilidad del encuadre, entre otras. En segundo lugar, se observa que la formación y experiencia de los psicólogos se asocia a la percepción de una mayor relevancia de compartir características socioculturales con los pacientes para el fortalecimiento de la RT. Estos resultados resultan consistentes con distintos estudios previos en los que se ha observado que la formación profesional y la supervisión promueven características de los terapeutas que fortalecen la RT y los resultados del tratamiento (Orlinsky & Rønnestad, 2005; Zeeck et al, 2012)...

Dogs' Eavesdropping from people's reactions in third party interactions.

Eavesdropping involves the acquisition of information from third-party interactions, and can serve to indirectly attribute reputation to individuals. There is evidence on eavesdropping in dogs, indicating that they can develop a preference for people based on their cooperativeness towards others. In this study, we tested dogs' eavesdropping abilities one step further. In a first experiment, dogs could choose between cooperative demonstrators (the donors) who always gave food to an approaching third person (the beggar); here, the only difference between donors was whether they received positive or negative reactions from the beggar (through verbal and gestural means). Results showed that dogs preferentially approached the donor who had received positive reactions from the beggar. By contrast, two different conditions showed that neither the beggar's body gestures nor the verbal component of the interaction on their own were sufficient to affect the dogs' preferences. We also ran two further experiments to test for the possibility of dogs' choices being driven by local enhancement. When the donors switched places before the choice, dogs chose at random. Similarly, in a nonsocial condition in which donors were replaced by platforms, subjects chose at chance levels. We conclude that dogs' nonrandom choices in the present protocol relied on the simultaneous presence of multiple cues, such as the place where donors stood and several features of the beggar's behavior (gestural and verbal reactions, and eating behavior). Nonetheless, we did not find conclusive evidence that dogs discriminated the donors by their physical features, which is a prerequisite of reputation attribution.

Relación terapéutica: estudio en población de estudiantes universitarios / Therapeutic relationship: a study within a university students: population

En la actualidad, se considera que parte del éxito de un tratamiento psicoterapéutico depende de la relación entre paciente y terapeuta. Sin embargo, se ha observado que la inclusión de esta temática es escasa en los planes de estudio de la Licenciatura en Psicología de la Universidad de Buenos Aires. Por este motivo, el presente trabajo se propone evaluar, a partir de un cuestionario autoadministrable desarrollado ad hoc, las creencias acerca de los factores que influyen en la relación terapéutica en el tratamiento (inicio, sostenimiento y resultados) y de las características del terapeuta más importantes para el establecimiento de la relación terapéutica (e.g. adaptación a las necesidades del paciente, actitud empática, expresión abierta de interés, actitud cálida, cultura/religión) en una muestra compuesta por 290 estudiantes de la Carrera de Psicología de la UBA seleccionada a través de una técnica de muestreo no probabilística de tipo intencional. La mayoría de los estudiantes consideró importante la relación terapéutica tanto en el inicio, como en el sostenimiento y la culminación del tratamiento. Para el establecimiento de la relación terapéutica valoran la “adaptación a las necesidades del paciente”, la “actitud empática”, la “expresión abierta de interés” y la “actitud cálida”, junto a un “diálogo fluido”. Finalmente, cuantas más materias presentan aprobadas los estudiantes, consideran más relevantes a la “actitud empática” y la “escucha abstinente”, otorgando menos relevancia a la “actitud cálida”, el “diálogo fluido” y la “expresión abierta de interés”. Se analizan estos resultados en el marco de las corrientes teóricas más relevantes en el contexto local y se concluye la necesidad de fortalecer la formación sobre relación terapéutica en la Carrera de Psicología de la Universidad de Buenos Aires.

It is considered that psychotherapy outcomes partially depend on the therapeutic relationship. However, it has been observed that teaching this issue is scarce in the Bachelor of Psychology curriculum at the University of Buenos Aires. For this reason, this paper aims to assess beliefs about the factors that influence the therapeutic relationship in a sample of 290 psychology students. These factor range from adaptation to the client´s needs, empathetic attitude, warm Attitude, Culture / Religion, etc. Most students considered important the therapeutic relationship in the psychotherapy process. For the establishment of the therapeutic relationship there were valued "adaptation to the client´s needs" an "empathetic attitude", "open expression of interest" and a "warm attitude" with a "fluid dialogue". Advanced students tend to consider "empathetic attitude" and "Abstinence" most important than beginner students, while decreasing the perception of relevance in relation to the “warm attitude”, “fluid dialogue” and “interest”. These results are discussed in the context of relevant theoretical trends in the local context. It is concluded the need to strengthen the training about Therapeutic Relationship at the University of Buenos Aires.

Relación terapéutica: estudio en población de estudiantes universitarios / Therapeutic relationship: a study within a university students: population

En la actualidad, se considera que parte del éxito de un tratamiento psicoterapéutico depende de la relación entre paciente y terapeuta. Sin embargo, se ha observado que la inclusión de esta temática es escasa en los planes de estudio de la Licenciatura en Psicología de la Universidad de Buenos Aires. Por este motivo, el presente trabajo se propone evaluar, a partir de un cuestionario autoadministrable desarrollado ad hoc, las creencias acerca de los factores que influyen en la relación terapéutica en el tratamiento (inicio, sostenimiento y resultados) y de las características del terapeuta más importantes para el establecimiento de la relación terapéutica (e.g. adaptación a las necesidades del paciente, actitud empática, expresión abierta de interés, actitud cálida, cultura/religión) en una muestra compuesta por 290 estudiantes de la Carrera de Psicología de la UBA seleccionada a través de una técnica de muestreo no probabilística de tipo intencional. La mayoría de los estudiantes consideró importante la relación terapéutica tanto en el inicio, como en el sostenimiento y la culminación del tratamiento. Para el establecimiento de la relación terapéutica valoran la ôadaptación a las necesidades del pacienteö, la ôactitud empáticaö, la ôexpresión abierta de interésö y la ôactitud cálidaö, junto a un ôdiálogo fluidoö. Finalmente, cuantas más materias presentan aprobadas los estudiantes, consideran más relevantes a la ôactitud empáticaö y la ôescucha abstinenteö, otorgando menos relevancia a la ôactitud cálidaö, el ôdiálogo fluidoö y la ôexpresión abierta de interésö. Se analizan estos resultados en el marco de las corrientes teóricas más relevantes en el contexto local y se concluye la necesidad de fortalecer la formación sobre relación terapéutica en la Carrera de Psicología de la Universidad de Buenos Aires. (AU)

It is considered that psychotherapy outcomes partially depend on the therapeutic relationship. However, it has been observed that teaching this issue is scarce in the Bachelor of Psychology curriculum at the University of Buenos Aires. For this reason, this paper aims to assess beliefs about the factors that influence the therapeutic relationship in a sample of 290 psychology students. These factor range from adaptation to the client´s needs, empathetic attitude, warm Attitude, Culture / Religion, etc. Most students considered important the therapeutic relationship in the psychotherapy process. For the establishment of the therapeutic relationship there were valued "adaptation to the client´s needs" an "empathetic attitude", "open expression of interest" and a "warm attitude" with a "fluid dialogue". Advanced students tend to consider "empathetic attitude" and "Abstinence" most important than beginner students, while decreasing the perception of relevance in relation to the ôwarm attitudeö, ôfluid dialogueö and ôinterestö. These results are discussed in the context of relevant theoretical trends in the local context. It is concluded the need to strengthen the training about Therapeutic Relationship at the University of Buenos Aires. (AU)