Infertility-related psychological research is traditionally oriented to analyze the wellbeing of couples undergoing Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART), than to study the job-related effects on the healthcare fertility staff. This piece of research aims at understanding the subjective perspective of the fertility professionals and contribute to identify their emotional dynamics in their work environment. An in-depth explorative research study was conducted on 12 healthcare professionals of an Italian ART hospital clinic. Structured interviews with open-ended questions were administered to explore their deep feelings about their professional experience. Emotional text analysis was then conducted to analyze the textual corpus of their narratives to grasp their affective symbolizations. Statistical multidimensional techniques were used to detect some thematic domains (cluster analysis) and latent factors organizing the contraposition between them (multiple correspondence analysis). Five thematic domains were detected which refer to different emotional dimensions, as follows: performance anxiety (Cluster 1), ambivalence between omnipotence and powerlessness (Cluster 2), care burden (Cluster 3), feeling of duty (Cluster 4), and sense of interdependence (Cluster 5). Then, four latent factors were identified dealing with the laborious attempt to remedy, the realistic sense of limitation, the incumbent feeling of pressure and the restorative sense of justice, respectively. The results are discussed based on the existing literature and some useful recommendations for staff education, training and clinical supervision are provided accordingly.
The article provides an analysis of the affective polarization of the public sphere, namely, the increasing momentum gained by affective sensemaking in the current socio-institutional scenario (e.g. raise of populism, distrust in democracy and spreading xenophobia). To this end, the Semiotic Cultural Psychology Theory (SCPT) is outlined. The SCPT focuses on the embodied micro-mechanisms bridging the intra- and inter-psychological levels of analysis of the semiotic dynamics. The article is composed of two parts. First, the SCPT is outlined in terms of its nine underlying tenets. Then, SCPT is used to frame an interpretation of the psycho-social dynamics underpinning the current socio-political scenario. Based on the SCPT model, the spread of affective sensemaking in current societal dynamics is interpreted as being due to the capacity of affects to work as semiotic stabilizers, enabling people to face the deep uncertainty fostered by the economic and political turmoil associated with globalization.
Evidence in the literature indicates that psychology is regarded favorably. The public, however, appears somewhat confused about the role and functions of psychologists. This may impact upon the capacity of professionals to assist the wider community. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the presence of a psychologist in the primary care setting together with the physician affects the image of psychologists among the public. An observational study was conducted on a group of 227 patients recruited in the waiting rooms of 4 primary care practices: the physician worked in a joint consultation with the psychologist in 2 of these practices, whereas the physician worked alone in the other 2. Propensity score-matching was used to minimize any bias arising from a nonexperimental design. An open-ended question was conceived to assess people's perception of psychologists. Our findings show that almost 65% of the participants thought that the psychologist addresses daily life problems and 96% considered the psychologist useful. No significant differences between the 2 groups emerged regarding how useful psychologists are and the issues they address, while patients who attended a joint consultation were 4 times more likely to perceive the personal relevance of the psychologist than those who consulted the physician alone (odds ratio [OR] ϭ 4.3, p Ͻ .02). In conclusion, this study reveals a positive public image of psychology, though a joint consultation setting appears to be required to induce patients to consider psychologists as relevant to themselves.
Social and cultural aspects (i.e., political decision making, discourses in the public sphere, and people’s mindsets) played a crucial role in the ways people responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Framed with the Semiotic-Cultural Psychological Theory (SCPT), the present work aims to explore how individual ways of making sense of their social environment affected individuals’ perception of government measures aimed at managing the pandemic and the adherence to such measures. An online survey was administered from January to April 2021 to the Italian population. Retrieved questionnaires (N = 378) were analyzed through a Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) to detect the factorial dimensions underpinning (dis)similarities in the respondents’ ways of interpreting their social environment. Extracted factors were interpreted as markers of Latent Dimensions of Sense (LDSs) organizing respondents’ worldviews. Finally, three regression models tested the role of LDSs in supporting the individual satisfaction with the measures adopted to contain the social contagion defined at national level, individual adherence to the containment measures and the perception of the population’s adherence to them. Results highlight that all the three measures are associated with a negative view of the social environment characterized by a lack of confidence in public institutions (health system, government), public roles and other people. Findings are discussed on the one hand to shed light on the role of deep-rooted cultural views in defining personal evaluations of government measures and adherence capacity. On the other hand, we suggest that taking into account people’s meaning-making can guide public health officials and policy makers to comprehend what favors or hinders adaptive responses to emergencies or social crises.
Making the life-saving treatment of transplantation available to patients who need it re-quires the cooperation of individuals and families who decide to donate organs. Healthcare workers navigate organizational, bureaucratic and relational aspects of this process, including cases in which a deceased individual has not specified a wish about organ donation and their surviving family members must be asked for consent to donate during a delicate phase of mourning. This research aims to understand the experience of these health workers regarding their work. We collected 18 interviews from organ donation healthcare workers in five of the major hospitals in Rome. The transcripts underwent a multivariate text analysis to identify the repre-sentations of organ donation and the symbolic categories organizing the practice of these workers. This research elucidated a symbolic space constructed of four factors: the "Context", in-volving family and health workers; the "Work purposes", including the procedures and the relationships; the "Transplant", which involves omnipotence and limits; the "Donation", which involves ideals versus reality. The characterizing elements of these representations, belonging to organ donation work-ers, are the prestige, the certification of brain death, the communication, the transplant, and the salvation. In the lives of these workers, to be a "bridge between life and death2 evokes feelings of prestige rather than difficult feelings associated with confronting one's limitations. These aspects concern the difficulties met by the health staff in their work, and they are useful ele-ments to design a focused training and support program for organ donor workers.
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