The main objective of this study is to assess moderation effects of online behaviors between personality traits and addiction to Internet. To this end, four instruments were validated for Portuguese version through confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory factor analysis (Study 1) Multiple regression analysis was applied to examine the personality predictors of specific online behaviors while controlling for gender and age; and moderation effects were assessed (Study 2). Results showed good psychometric properties for the four validated scales. Machiavellianism is positively associated with all the dimensions of this study. Psychopathy is positively associated with total Cyberstalking, Cyberstalking Control, Flaming and Trolling. Narcissism is positively associated with all the dimensions, except Online Harassment and Flaming. Machiavellianism is positively associated with Addiction to Internet through Cyberstalking, Flaming and Trolling. Psychopathy is positively associated with Addiction to Internet through Cyberstalking Control and Flaming. Narcissism is also positively associated with Addiction to Internet through Cyberstalking and Trolling. This study demonstrates that dimensions of the dark triad of personality play an important role in Internet addiction through online behaviors. The results of this study have theoretical and practical implications: on the one hand, they reinforces the findings of other studies showing that dimensions of the dark personality triad play an important role in Internet and social network addition, contributing to the literature; and, on the other hand, on a practical level, they allow to conduct awareness campaigns in communities, schools, and work to understand that one can be exposed to unpleasant situations due to behaviors that some people with personality traits of Machiavellianism, narcissism and/or psychopathy that may cause problems affecting the mental, emotional and psychological health of others.

Introduction The present research investigates the neural correlates of attentional bias in fibromyalgia (FM) with a dot-probe task performed during an electroencephalogram (EEG) recording. Methods For this purpose, 30 female participants were recruited, divided into two groups: a group of patients with FM (FM, n = 15, M_age = 51.87) and a healthy control group (HC) (HC, n = 15, M_age = 46.13). Results The results did not show behavioral differences between groups, but the EEG results showed that healthy controls had larger P300 amplitudes than patients with FM. Regarding late positive potentials (LPP), we found that patients with FM had larger amplitudes than healthy controls in a later time window. Conclusion In summary, while the P300 results suggest that patients allocate less attentional resources to the task, the increased amplitudes of their LPP suggest augmented emotional processing of the target stimuli. Altogether, our results seem to support the thesis of generalized attentional deficits in FM.

Background/Objectives: The purpose of this study was to analyze the mediating effects of coping styles on the relationship between satisfaction with social support (SSS) and quality of life (QoL) in breast cancer patients. Methods: A cross-sectional structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was used to examine the mediating effects. The participants were 311 women who were breast cancer patients, aged between 27 and 86 years (M = 46.61, SD = 9.53). Results: SEM analyses showed that SSS was positively associated with fighting spirit (β = 0.31, p < 0.05), cognitive avoidance (β = 0.19, p > 0.05), and QoL (β = 0.21, p < 0.05), and negatively associated with helplessness–hopelessness (β = −0.28, p < 0.05). Furthermore, fighting spirit and helplessness–hopelessness showed significant relationships with QoL. Anxious preoccupation was negatively related to QoL. Furthermore, fighting spirit and helplessness–hopelessness showed significant relationships with quality of life (β = 0.18, p < 0.05; β = −0.15, p < 0.05, respectively). In addition, the mediation analysis revealed that coping styles (i.e., fighting spirit and helplessness–hopelessness) mediated the relationship between SSS and QoL. Conclusions: The findings suggest that perceptions of SSS from family and friends may promote perceived QoL via adaptive coping, such as fighting spirit and helplessness–hopelessness strategies to deal with the cancer experience.

In Portugal, it is estimated that chronic pain affects 36.7% of the population, constituting a multifactorial phenomenon with great impact at individual, family, community, and social levels. In the fear-avoidance model of pain, one of the most consistent consensual in the literature, the fear arises as one of the variables that can contribute to the development and maintenance of this condition. Thus, instruments for evaluating the fear of pain, as Fear of Pain Questionnaire (FPQ-III), may be useful in the conceptualization of the subjective experience of pain. Accordingly, this paper aims to describe the adaptation of FPQ-III for the European Portuguese. A total of 1094 participants (795 women; mean age = 25.16, SD = 7.72) completed the web based questionnaire. The results pointed to a different factor solution found in the first study of the original scale (five factors: minor pain, severe pain, medical pain, injection pain, and afflicted pain), good internal consistency (0.75 to 0.85) and good correlations (between 0.30 and 0.59) between subscales and (between 0.68 e 0.85) for the total score and subscales. Given the need to meet the various dimensions of subjective experience of pain, the Fear of Pain Questionnaire is assumed as a useful tool, in combination with other, may contribute to the evaluation and intervention procedures progressively more comprehensive and adjusted to the challenges raised with the issue of chronic pain. (C) 2016 Elsevier Editora Ltda.

The present study investigated the neural correlates of attentional deficits in fibromyalgia through an Oddball Dual Task and an Emotional Stroop Task, both performed during EEG recordings. Thirty female participants were recruited, being divided into two groups: a group of patients with fibromyalgia (FM, n = 15, M_age = 51.87, SD_age = 7.12) and a healthy control group (HC, n = 15, M_age = 46.13, SD_age = 8.41). In the Emotional Stroop Task, the behavioural results showed that patients with FM had less hits and longer times reactions than healthy controls. These results were consistent with those obtained with our Event-related Potential (ERP) methodology, which evidenced that patients with FM had higher frontal latencies in the P200 time-window compared to healthy controls. Regarding the Oddball Dual Task, we found that patients with FM had lower P300 amplitudes than healthy participants. Moreover, we found that rare stimuli elicited higher P300 amplitudes than frequent stimuli for healthy controls, but this comparison was non-significant for patients with FM. Taken together, our results suggest that fibromyalgia may be associated to a reduced processing speed, along to reduced neural resources to process stimuli, mainly in distinguishing relevant (rare) and irrelevant (frequent) stimuli according to the goals of the task. Altogether, our results seem to support the hypothesis of generalized attentional deficits in FM.