Browsing by Author "Martins, Eva C."
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- Empirically supported interventions in psychology: contributions of Research Domain CriteriaPublication . Martins, Eva C.; Pasion, Rita; Barbosa, FernandoEmpirically supported interventions in psychological disorders should provide (1) evidence supporting the underlying psychological mechanisms of psychopathology to target in the intervention and (2) evidence supporting the efficacy of the intervention. However, research has been dedicated in a greater extent to efficacy than to the acquisition of empirical support for the theoretical basis of therapies. Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) emerges as a new framework to provide empirically based theories about psychological mechanisms that may be targeted in intervention and tested for its efficacy. The current review aims to demonstrate the possible applications of RDoC to design empirically supported interventions for psychological disorders. Two RDoC-inspired interventions are reviewed, and the RDoC framework is broadly explored in terms of its contributions and limitations. From preliminary evidence, RDoC offers many avenues for improving evidence-based interventions in psy
- On the importance of being flexible: early interrelations between affective flexibility, executive functions and anxiety symptoms in preschoolersPublication . Martins, Eva C.; Mărcuș, Oana; Sassu, RalucaWhen children are confronted with an emotional problem, affective flexibility mobilizes their cognitive and emotional resources to optimally address it. We investigated the contribution of executive functions to cognitive and affective flexibility in preschoolers. We assessed affective flexibility in 67 preschoolers (30 girls; Mmonths = 61.77, SD = 11.08 months) using an innovative measure – the Emotional Flexible Item Selection Task (EM-FIST), plus cool measures of executive functions (working memory, inhibition and cognitive flexibility), anxiety symptoms and intelligence. Findings revealed that affective flexibility improves during the preschool years. While individual differences in age and proactive inhibition predicted cognitive flexibility, a different constellation of predictors (maternal education, proactive inhibition, working memory and age) were significant for affective flexibility. Cognitive flexibility didn’t contribute to affective flexibility beyond the predictors mentioned above. Anxiety exerted a negative effect on affective flexibility in a high anxious subgroup of preschoolers, but only when processing negative, relative to happy faces, supporting the Attentional Control Theory which predicts valence-related executive impairments
- Relations Between Theory of Mind and Academic School Readiness: The Moderating Role of Child GendePublication . Martins, Eva C.This study investigated the prospective relationship between preschoolers’ theory of mind (ToM) skills and academic school readiness, while exploring the possible mod erator role played by child gender. The participants were 75 children who were assessed at two time points: when enrolled in the second preschool year (T1) and again 4 months before school entry (T2). The results showed an association between children’s ToM abilities at T1 (but not at T2) and later academic readiness at T2, but only for girls, even after accounting for child IQ and maternal education. These find ings support the idea that girls and boys can differ in how they use their ToM abili ties in their daily life and highlight the relevance of further exploring gende