Empathy in Healthcare Professionals during the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Background: Empathy is important for successful interactions. The aim of the present study was to determine whether the cognitive component (Perspective taking) and affective components (Empathic concern and Personal distress) of empathy in health professionals were related to the degree of perceived threat of coronavirus, difficulties in doing work, difficulties in getting along with people, the health condition (current or past coronavirus disease), as well as with some socio-demographic characteristics. Fantasy as the cognitive component of empathy was not the focus of the present study as more irrelevant to clinical practice.

Subjective well-being among psychotherapists during the coronavirus disease pandemic: A cross-cultural survey from 12 european countries.

Objective: The aim of this study is to examine the amount of the total variance of the subjective well-being (SWB) of psychotherapists from 12 European countries explained by between-country vs. between-person differences regarding its cognitive (life satisfaction) and affective components (positive affect [PA] and negative affect [NA]). Second, we explored a link between the SWB and their personal (self-efficacy) and social resources (social support) after controlling for sociodemographics, work characteristics, and COVID-19-related distress.

Burnout among psychotherapists: a cross-cultural value survey among 12 European countries during the coronavirus disease pandemic.

The aim of this study was to examine cross-cultural differences, as operationalized by Schwartz's refined theory of basic values, in burnout levels among psychotherapists from 12 European countries during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. We focused on the multilevel approach to investigate if individual- and country-aggregated level values could explain differences in burnout intensity after controlling for sociodemographic, work-related characteristics and COVID-19-related distress among participants. 2915 psychotherapists from 12 countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Finland, Great Britain, Serbia, Spain, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, and Switzerland) participated in this study.

Factors Associated With Highest Symptoms of Anxiety During COVID-19: Cross-Cultural Study of 23 Countries.

The COVID-19 restrictions have impacted people's lifestyles in all spheres (social, psychological, political, economic, and others). This study explored which factors affected the level of anxiety during the time of the first wave of COVID-19 and subsequent quarantine in a substantial proportion of 23 countries, included in this study. The data was collected from May to August 2020 (5 June 2020).

Attitudes towards e-Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Untangling the Gordian Knot in Greece, Bulgaria and Romania in Healthcare Professionals and Students?

Background: Until recent times, healthcare specialists lagged behind other fields in terms of computer networks and software usage, partly because they were uncomfortable with information and communication technologies. The rapid development of personal wearables, their easier connections with smartphones and other similar devices, and the possibilities of online or cloud storage of personal medical data led to improvements of eHealth services in terms of ease of access and reduced costs of delivery.

Subjects And Methods: The current research aimed to fill a research gap regarding attitudes towards e-Health during the COVID-19 pandemic in three Balkan countries: Greece, Bulgaria, and Romania.

Functional, Dysfunctional Impulsivity and Sensation Seeking in Medical Staff.

Background: It is important to study impulsivity and sensation seeking in medical staff because they might shed light into the effectiveness of decision-making processes and performed responses. The aims of this study were to specify if functional impulsivity prevailed in medical staff compared to dysfunctional impulsivity; how strong the relationships between functional, dysfunctional impulsivity and sensation seeking were; furthermore, it aimed to differentiate functional and dysfunctional impulsivity, according to the size of the place where medical care was practised.

Subjects And Methods: A sample of 323 medical workers and 99 medical students filled in Radoslavova and Velichkov's (2005) questionnaire measuring sensation seeking, functional impulsivity and dysfunctional impulsivity.

Sex differences in human mate preferences vary across sex ratios.

A wide range of literature connects sex ratio and mating behaviours in non-human animals. However, research examining sex ratio and human mating is limited in scope. Prior work has examined the relationship between sex ratio and desire for short-term, uncommitted mating as well as outcomes such as marriage and divorce rates.

Sex Differences in Mate Preferences Across 45 Countries: A Large-Scale Replication.

Considerable research has examined human mate preferences across cultures, finding universal sex differences in preferences for attractiveness and resources as well as sources of systematic cultural variation. Two competing perspectives-an evolutionary psychological perspective and a biosocial role perspective-offer alternative explanations for these findings. However, the original data on which each perspective relies are decades old, and the literature is fraught with conflicting methods, analyses, results, and conclusions.

Contrasting Computational Models of Mate Preference Integration Across 45 Countries.

Humans express a wide array of ideal mate preferences. Around the world, people desire romantic partners who are intelligent, healthy, kind, physically attractive, wealthy, and more. In order for these ideal preferences to guide the choice of actual romantic partners, human mating psychology must possess a means to integrate information across these many preference dimensions into summaries of the overall mate value of their potential mates.

When is a person with dementia in need of palliative care? Opinions of healthcare professionals and university students from three South East European countries.

Background: Recommendations of the European Association for Palliative Care have been proposed to strengthen the provision of palliative care and it is clear that people with dementia can benefit from palliative care, but no research so far addresses the beliefs of university students and professionals in the social, medical and other science fields in South East Europe regarding the need from palliative care. The objective of this study is to explore when students and professionals consider a person with dementia in need of palliative care and to compare their opinions in three South East European countries.

Subjects And Methods: An anonymized questionnaire was used based on van Riet Paap et al.

Global Study of Social Odor Awareness.

Olfaction plays an important role in human social communication, including multiple domains in which people often rely on their sense of smell in the social context. The importance of the sense of smell and its role can however vary inter-individually and culturally. Despite the growing body of literature on differences in olfactory performance or hedonic preferences across the globe, the aspects of a given culture as well as culturally universal individual differences affecting odor awareness in human social life remain unknown.

Corrigendum: Marital Satisfaction, Sex, Age, Marriage Duration, Religion, Number of Children, Economic Status, Education, and Collectivistic Values: Data from 33 Countries.

[This corrects the article on p. 1199 in vol. 8, PMID: 28785230.

Sentimentality and Nostalgia in Elderly People in Bulgaria and Greece - Cross-Validity of the Questionnaire SNEP and Cross-Cultural Comparison.

Sentimentality and nostalgia are two similar psychological constructs, which play an important role in the emotional lives of elderly people who are usually focused on the past. There are two objectives of this study - making cross-cultural comparison of sentimentality and nostalgia among Bulgarian and Greek elderly people using a questionnaire, and establishing the psychometric properties of this questionnaire among Greek elderly people. Sentimentality and nostalgia in elderly people in Bulgaria and Greece were studied by means of Sentimentality and Nostalgia in Elderly People questionnaire (SNEP), created by Gergov and Stoyanova (2013).

Corrigendum: The Associations of Dyadic Coping and Relationship Satisfaction Vary between and within Nations: A 35-Nation Study.

[This corrects the article on p. 1106 in vol. 7, PMID: 27551269.

The Associations of Dyadic Coping and Relationship Satisfaction Vary between and within Nations: A 35-Nation Study.

Objective: Theories about how couples help each other to cope with stress, such as the systemic transactional model of dyadic coping, suggest that the cultural context in which couples live influences how their coping behavior affects their relationship satisfaction. In contrast to the theoretical assumptions, a recent meta-analysis provides evidence that neither culture, nor gender, influences the association between dyadic coping and relationship satisfaction, at least based on their samples of couples living in North America and West Europe. Thus, it is an open questions whether the theoretical assumptions of cultural influences are false or whether cultural influences on couple behavior just occur in cultures outside of the Western world.