Amparo Caballero

Autonomous University of Madrid | UAM · Social and Methodological Psychology

In current society, immigration is a reality that poses important challenges. Identifying factors that favor a more positive evaluation of immigrants could lead to new avenues of intervention to achieve more positive intergroup relationships and greater social well-being. Given that a more abstract thinking style promotes less focus on obstacles an...

Investigaciones previas muestran que cuando las personas se perciben en escasez económica su estilo de pensamiento se vuelve más concreto. La teoría del nivel de constructo señala que pensar en concreto implica centrarse más en las consecuencias a corto plazo de los comportamientos y se asocia con atender más a las dificultades del contexto, menor...

Across three studies, we explored the link between an abstract mindset and subjective well-being (SWB) in participants with real and/or perceived financial scarcity. In Studies 1 and 2, samples presented real objective financial vulnerability: Adolescents from lower-middle income districts (Study 1; N = 256), and adults without higher education and...

Previous research shows that being in a situation of economic scarcity promotes a more concrete mindset that motivates behavioral decisions based on action difficulty and their short‐term outcomes, which frequently entails negative consequences. However, a concrete mindset can be counteracted by inducing an abstract mindset to help people focus on...

The present research explored the influence of thinking style and the perception of threats to health and wealth on protective actions and well-being within the framework of the first wave of COVID-19 in Spain. We expected that an abstract (versus concrete) thinking style would be related to greater protective behaviours while maintaining a higher...

In the present research, we examined the links among relative financial scarcity, thinking style, fatalism, and well‐being and their roles in predicting protective behaviors against COVID‐19. Study 1 (N = 120) revealed that after an experimental manipulation to induce the perception of relative financial scarcity (versus financial abundance), peopl...

For constructionism, language is the link among different levels of analysis of emotional events, from individual to interpersonal and macrosocial. The interaction among these emotional levels allows us to construe an emotional episode and label it with an emotion word, coordinate with the emotions perceived in others, and represent events as a soc...

We tested the relationships between economic scarcity, concrete construal level and risk behaviors. We manipulated the lack of economic resources using a priming task in Studies 1 and 2, and participants reported their real income and completed the BIF scale to measure their construal level in Study 3. Studies 1–3 supported the link between perceiv...

Latina women, who are at increased risk of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC), have lower use of genetic counseling and testing (GCT) than non-Hispanic White women. In a recent study, culturally targeted video improved psychosocial outcomes related to GCT. Additional analyses examine whether the culturally targeted video improved positive...

This research analyses how sex, age, focus-alertness and emotional responses to the pandemic influenced media consumption for information about Covid-19 during lockdown in Spain. A sample of 1,981 participants were surveyed during the first two months of lockdown, specifically from 13 March to 12 May 2020. The sample was composed of 71.3% females a...

Tearful crying is a ubiquitous and likely uniquely human phenomenon. Scholars have argued that emotional tears serve an attachment function: Tears are thought to act as a social glue by evoking social support intentions. Initial experimental studies supported this proposition across several methodologies, but these were conducted almost exclusively...

Antecedents Previous research on citizens’ reactions after terrorist events has shown that positive reactions can also emerge alongside pain and horror. Positive emotions have been widely associated with an abstract style of thinking. In the context of the Paris terrorist attacks in 2015, we explored Spanish citizens’ positive reactions – empathic...

Tearful crying is a ubiquitous and likely uniquely human phenomenon. The persistence of this behavior throughout adulthood has fascinated and puzzled many researchers. Scholars have argued that emotional tears serve an attachment function: Tears are thought to act as a social glue by triggering social support intentions. Initial experimental studie...

Background: Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in Latin America, with an extremely low human development index (HDI). Fifty-two percent of the Nicaraguan population are children and adolescents under 18 years of age. Nicaraguan adolescents present several risk behaviors (such as teenage pregnancies, consumption of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis)...

Tearful crying is a ubiquitous and mainly human phenomenon. The persistence of this behavior throughout adulthood has fascinated and puzzled many researchers. Scholars have argued that emotional tears serve an attachment function: Tears are thought to act as a social glue that binds individuals together and triggers social support intentions. Initi...

Tearful crying is a ubiquitous and mainly human phenomenon. The persistence of this behavior throughout adulthood has fascinated and puzzled many researchers. Scholars have argued that emotional tears serve an attachment function: Tears are thought to act as a social glue that binds individuals together and triggers social support intentions. Initi...

Previous research has shown that while considering future behavioral intentions, desirability is more salient in making decisions in an abstract mindset than in a concrete one. Based on this premise, we test whether behavioral intentions to engage in desirable but difficult actions are more likely in an abstract mindset than a concrete mindset. We...

Introduction. Previous research supports that congruence in the construal level between a person’s mindset and predictors enhanced the strength of predictions. Because desired attitudes are more abstract than actual attitudes, we expected that desired attitudes would better predict behavioural intentions in people who present an abstract style of t...

Past research suggests that the connection between values and people's behaviour may not be as straightforward and robust as has been claimed. We propose that a more holistic and discriminative view that acknowledges the influence of a specific combination of values on specific kinds of behaviour is needed. In the current project, we test two hypot...

From a dispositional perspective, we extend the action identification theory (Vallacher & Wegner, 1987) and construal level theory (Trope & Liberman, 2003) to cross-situational consistency of self and self-control. Two studies examined the relationships among the abstract mindset (Vallacher & Wegner, 1989), cross-situational consistency in self-con...

Many health-risk behaviors present a self-control conflict in which the short-term outcomes of an action conflict with its long-term consequences. Across three studies, we find that an abstract construal level leads people to focus on long-term rather than short-term consequences when both are described in a message (vs. no message). Studies 1 and...

English-speakers sometimes say that they feel moved to tears, emotionally touched, stirred, or that something warmed their heart; other languages use similar passive contact metaphors to refer to an affective state. We propose and measure the concept of kama muta to understand experiences often given these and other labels. Do the same experiences...

English-speakers sometimes say that they feel moved to tears, emotionally touched, stirred, or that something warmed their heart; other languages use similar passive contact metaphors to refer to an affective state. We propose and measure the concept of kama muta to understand experiences often given these and other labels. Do the same experiences...

People sometimes want attitudes that differ from the ones they currently possess. These desired attitudes appear to be psychologically meaningful, but little is known about the properties of these evaluations. Because desired attitudes are hypothetical constructs (i.e., attitudes that one does not yet possess) and are distant in time (i.e., attitud...

In order to design prevention programs, it is important to understand the evolution of drinking behaviour patterns among adolescents and young people. The aim of this paper is to analyse the changes in these patterns based on age and their role in explaining this behaviour in the Theory of Planned Behaviour framework. We used 273 participants divid...

In two preliminary control checks it was shown that affective attitudes presented greater abstraction than cognitive attitudes. Three further studies explored how construal level moderated the role of affective and cognitive attitudes in predicting one health-promoting behaviour (exercising) and two risk behaviours (sleep debt and binge drinking)....

Two experiments examined the influence of verb tense on how abstractly people construe action representations. Experiment 1 revealed that written descriptions of several daily events using the simple past tense (vs. simple present tense) resulted in actions and the action’s target being seen as less likely and less familiar, respectively. In Experi...

The current research examined whether nations differ in their attitudes toward action and inaction. It was anticipated that members of dialectical East Asian societies would show a positive association in their attitudes toward action/inaction. However, members of non-dialectical European-American societies were expected to show a negative associat...

Three studies examined how the use of the present versus the past tense in recalling a past experience influences behavioral intentions. Experiment 1 revealed a stronger influence of past behaviors on drinking intentions when participants self-reported an episode of excessive drinking using the present tense. Correspondingly, there was a stronger i...

Observing a person in need usually provokes a compound and dynamic emotional experience made up of empathy and personal distress which, in turn, may influence helping behavior. As the exclusive use of rating scales to measure these two emotions does not permit the analysis of their concurrent evolution, we added the analogical emotional scale (AES)...

Carrera, P., Caballero, A. & Muñoz, D. (2012). Future-oriented emotions in the prediction of binge-drinking intention and expectation: the role of anticipated and anticipatory emotions. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 53, 273–279. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) offers a parsimonious explanation of purposive behavior, but in the study of he...

In this paper, we analyze to what extent lying between co-workers has a negative impact in the workplace. Results show that lies have a negative impact on trusting co-workers and damage interpersonal relationships. Intensity of the negative effects of the lie is fundamentally determined by the objective that the lie is pursuing, and to a lesser ext...

In this paper, we analyze to what extent lying between co-workers has a negative impact in the workplace. Results show that lies have a negative impact on trusting co-workers and damage interpersonal relationships. Intensity of the negative effects of the lie is fundamentally determined by the objective that the lie is pursuing, and to a lesser ext...

We tested how anticipated emotions interact with personal experience in risk behavior to improve predictions from TPB on behavioral intention (BI) and behavioral expectation (BE) for sex without condom (Study 1) and excessive drinking (Study 2). In the moderate-high experience group, anticipated emotional profiles (AEPs) improve TPB prediction from...

Tesis doctoral inédita de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Facultad de Psicología, Departamento de Psicología Social. Fecha de lectura: 3-7-1996 Bibliografía: h. 173-186

Negative emotional appeals do not always help to reduce risk behaviors. We report two studies about a new strategy based on the presentation of appeals with mixed sequential emotions (e.g., sadness/fear-joy/relief). Study 1 shows that a mixed message generates lower post-message discomfort than an exclusively negative message; moreover, in this fir...

El aluvión de privatizaciones, con la consiguiente y sucesiva compra-venta de derechos y deberes, sigue llegando a la escuela. Las privatizaciones también llegan al componente social, allí donde nos relacionamos y comunicamos los ciudadanos. Uno de los subsistemas sociales de mayor importancia es, sin duda, la escuela. Una escuela que no está aisla...

En este estudio se ha analizado la experiencia sexual de una muestra de adolescentes de entre 14 y 16 años y en qué medida la incorporación de las emociones anticipadas mejora la predicción de la intención de mantener relaciones sexuales sin preservativo, en comparación con las predicciones hechas desde la Teoría de la Conducta Planificada, prestan...

In this article we examine the repercussions that lying has in the workplace. The effects of the type of lie and the objectives for lying are explored through the measure of acceptability, graveness, and perception of the consequences based on evaluations made by professionals working there. The main results show that the objective behind the lying...

En este trabajo se analizan las repercusiones que conlleva el uso de la mentira en entornos de trabajo. A partir de las valoraciones de los profesionales que trabajan en ellos, examinamos los efectos del objetivo y la tipicidad de la mentira sobre la valoración de su aceptabilidad, gravedad y de la percepción de sus consecuencias. Los resultados pr...

In this paper we analyse the relationship between the classroom’s social climate and the general climate of society in which the school is inserted. We consider essential to start from this reflection in order to define an educational process for social transformation. Philosophy for Children is a methodological option to improve this social climat...

In this work we present two types of emotional message, negative (sadness) versus mixed (joy and sadness), with the aim of studying their differential effect on attitude change and the probability estimated by participants of repeating the behavior of occasional excessive drinking in the near future. The results show that for the group of participa...

En este trabajo analizamos las relaciones entre clima social de aula y clima general de la sociedad en la que la escuela se inserta. Consideramos esencial partir de esta reflexión para definir un proceso educativo para la transformación social. Filosofía para Niños es una posibilidad metodológica que mejora ese clima social, ofreciendo a profesorad...

The purpose of this paper is to study the differential and complementary role played by the theory of planned behavior (TPB) variables and by participants' emotions when recalling and describing previous experiences of such risk behavior in the prediction of the intention to repeat a risk behavior in the immediate future. We chose the behavior of o...

This research explores the role played by a mixed emotional experience on predicting a specific risk behavior (getting into a vehicle knowing that the driver has drunk excessive alcohol). These emotions could be different than the evaluative component of an attitude. A sample of young people with experience in this risk behavior remembered to have...

Tesis doctoral inédita leida en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Facultad de Psicología, Departamento de Psicología Evolutiva y de la Educación. Fecha de lectura: 13 de diciembre de 2004 Bibliogr.: p. 344-359

The emotional experience and the prediction of risk behaviours. The predictive capacity of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) (Ajzen & Madden, 1986) in a prototypical risk behaviour such as unprotected sex has shown itself to be no more than moderate (Albarracin, Johnson, Fishbein & Muellerleile, 2001). In the present work we chose the behaviour...

La capacidad predictiva de la teoría de la conducta planificada (TCP) (Ajzen y Madden, 1986) en una conducta de riesgo prototípica como es la relación sexual sin preservativo es moderada (Albarracín, Johnson, Fishbein y Muellerleile, 2001). En este trabajo hemos elegido la conducta de montar en un vehículo sabiendo que su conductor ha bebido alcoho...

A partir de una breve revisión de algunas de las experiencias e hitos fundamentales que a lo largo del siglo XX han servido para construir la noción actual de educación para la paz y la convivencia, se abordan algunas de las alternativas que, desde un enfoque psicosocial, han demostrado mayor utilidad en el tratamiento y prevención de los conflicto...

Partiendo de los resultados de un estudio piloto realizado con profesores de secundaria en prácticas (alumnos/as de un curso de formación inicial para profesores), se recoge la necesidad de formación de estos profesionales en cuestiones íntimamente relacionadas con la gestión de grupos y la transformación de conflictos; y se aborda el manejo de los...

En: Tarbiya : revista de investigación e innovación educativa Madrid 2001, n. 29, septiembre-diciembre ; p. 61-73 La educación se ha convertido en uno de los elementos constitutivos de las sociedades contemporáneas que suscita un mayor interés, al vincularse tanto a los procesos colectivos de desarrollo económico, social y cultural, como a las expe...

The present work attempts to increase knowledge about the psychosocial processes that affect the extent to which people believe strangers. Our general hypothesis is that social knowledge about lying will influence the decision to consider their messages as true or false. In order to test this hypothesis we presented verbal (orally) and non-verbal i...

El presente trabajo persigue un mejor conocimiento de los procesos psicosociales que afectan la evaluación de la credibilidad en personas desconocidas. La hipótesis general que manejamos es que el conocimiento social sobre la mentira, referido tanto a los escenarios cotidianos donde aparece la mentira, como a las conductas no verbales asociadas a l...

En: Tarbiya : revista de investigación e innovación educativa Madrid 2000, n. 25, mayo-agosto ; p. 95-106 El conflicto parece ser una consecuencia natural de la interacción social, puede tener consecuencias positivas o negativas en función de cómo se gestione. Se revisan algunas de los programas actuales para la transformación constructivista de co...

Partiendo del supuesto que el conocimiento social sobre la mentira está representado conceptualmente en categorías referidas a los escenarios en los que aparece la mentira en la vida cotidiana (con la familia, con los amigos, con desconocidos y en el trabajo), en el presente trabajo hemos analizado los efectos de tal conocimiento sobre los juicios...

El estudio del conocimiento social y su influencia sobre la conducta de los individuos ha estado guiado en parte, por la idea de que dicho conocimiento se encuentra agrupado en categorías, organizándose los elementos de la categoría en torno a un prototipo que resume y representa el significado de la misma. El prototipo, que escapa a definiciones t...

Según el concepto de «norma perversa» (Fernández-Dols, 1993), la importancia de los amigos y los conocidos en la sociedad española no es debida a un mayor colectivismo sino a graves disfunciones en las organizaciones burocráticas que impulsan a buscar conocidos cuando debemos gestionar una cuestión formal pero no en contextos informales. El present...