ABSTRACT:Ethical research on consumption has focused mainly on the obligations, principles and values guiding consumers' actions and reasons for action. In doing so, it has concerned itself mostly with such bounded contexts as voluntary simplifiers, anti-consumption movements or so-called ‘ethical consumers,’ thereby fostering an artificial opposition between ethical and non-ethical consumption. This paper proposes virtue ethics as a more apt conceptual framework for the ethical analysis of consumption because it takes into account the developmental dynamic triggered by engagement in consumption (...) practices. We build on MacIntyre's goods-virtues-practices-institutions framework and Beabout's concept of a domain-relative practice and argue that when engaging in consumption activities, agents may pursue goods internal to practices, further their individual life narratives and contribute to the good of their communities, thus developing virtues that perfect themselves both as consumers and as ethical agents. (shrink)

ABSTRACT:Ethical research on consumption has focused mainly on the obligations, principles and values guiding consumers' actions and reasons for action. In doing so, it has concerned itself mostly with such bounded contexts as voluntary simplifiers, anti-consumption movements or so-called ‘ethical consumers,’ thereby fostering an artificial opposition between ethical and non-ethical consumption. This paper proposes virtue ethics as a more apt conceptual framework for the ethical analysis of consumption because it takes into account the developmental dynamic triggered by engagement in consumption (...) practices. We build on MacIntyre's goods-virtues-practices-institutions framework and Beabout's concept of a domain-relative practice and argue that when engaging in consumption activities, agents may pursue goods internal to practices, further their individual life narratives and contribute to the good of their communities, thus developing virtues that perfect themselves both as consumers and as ethical agents. (shrink)

The COVID-19 global health emergency has greatly impacted the educational field. Faced with unprecedented stress situations, professors, students, and families have employed various coping and resilience strategies throughout the confinement period. High and persistent stress levels are associated with other pathologies; hence, their detection and prevention are needed. Consequently, this study aimed to design a predictive model of stress in the educational field based on artificial intelligence that included certain sociodemographic variables, coping strategies, and resilience capacity, and to study the (...) relationship between them. The non-probabilistic snowball sampling method was used, involving 337 people from the university education community in south-eastern Spain. The Perceived Stress Scale, Stress Management Questionnaire, and Brief Resilience Scale were administered. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences was used to design the architecture of artificial neural networks. The results found that stress levels could be predicted by the synaptic weights of coping strategies and timing of the epidemic, with a predictive capacity of over 80% found in the neural network model. Additionally, direct and significant associations were identified between the use of certain coping strategies, stress levels, and resilience. The conclusions of this research are essential for effective stress detection, and therefore, early intervention in the field of educational psychology, by discussing the influence of resilience or lack thereof on the prediction of stress levels. Identifying the variables that maintain a greater predictive power in stress levels is an effective strategy to design more adjusted prevention programs and to anticipate the needs of the community. (shrink)

The ethic of care has often been opposed to the ethic of justice as offering a different and even a contradictory approach to moral problems. This article argues that, from the perspective of the discourse ethic, both approaches are complementary in a very fundamental sense, since each one applies to one of two stages of moral reasoning that are as different as they are interconnected. It argues, in particular, that while justice is concerned with the justification and elaboration of norms, (...) care is concerned with finding a solution for specific moral situations. The article then places considerations of care at the centre of ideal discourse and subordinates the importance of rational understanding and moral justification to intuitive communication. (shrink)

El Aprendizaje Basado en Proyectos (ABP), genera contextos integrados de enseñanza primando los procesos de aprendizaje competencial. El ABP favorece el desarrollo de habilidades cognitivas, lingüísticas y sociales del alumnado, fomentando la participación activa, la motivación y la creatividad. Sin embargo, la investigación sobre ABP adquiere matices diferenciales en su implementación en los diferentes niveles educativos. Este estudio descriptivo e inferencial analiza la investigación didáctica publicada, desde 2015 a 2022, siguiendo las directrices PRISMA. Los resultados obtenidos informan de una destacada (...) presencia española en las áreas de las Ciencias Naturales. Los resultados sugieren una mayor extensión curricular de esta metodología activa y su atención en la formación inicial del profesorado. (shrink)

El presente trabajo presenta el proceso completo para la creación de una escala. Se pretende elaborar un esquema que aglutine el proceso por seguir para la construcción de una escala y su posterior validación. Para ello nos centraremos en un estudio de caso que será la elaboración de una escala de prevención del sinhogarismo relacionada con los sucesos vitales estresantes que las personas sin hogar han vivido antes de la situación de sinhogarismo, así como en ella para observar sus dificultades (...) de inclusión. (shrink)

A key issue in the business ethics field is the design of effective measures for assessing the ethical culture of organizations. The Corporate Ethical Virtues Model (CEV), developed by Kaptein in 2008, is an instrument for measuring ethical culture, and has been applied, adapted and validated in different contexts. In 2013, DeBode, Armenakis, Field and Walker developed the CEV–S, a shortened version of the original scale. Both the CEV and CEV–S assess eight dimensions based on corporate ethical virtues: clarity, congruency (...) of supervisors, congruency of senior management, feasibility, supportability, transparency, discussability and sanctionability. The objective of this study is to present a Spanish version of the CEV–S and its validation process. The scale was applied to two samples of 114 and 193 Colombian employees from two companies operating in the services sector. The confirmatory factor analyses revealed a good fit for the eight-factor structure of the Spanish CEV–S and the statistical tests applied showed good levels of reliability and validity for this scale. The adequate psychometric properties shown by the Spanish CEV–S may support its use in future research to measure organizational ethical culture in Spanish-speaking settings. (shrink)

The objective of this research is to develop accurate forecasting models for chlorophyll-α concentrations at various depths in El Mar Menor, Spain. Chlorophyll-α plays a crucial role in assessing eutrophication in this vulnerable ecosystem. To achieve this objective, various deep learning forecasting techniques, including long short-term memory, bidirectional long short-term memory and gated recurrent uni networks, were utilized. The models were designed to forecast the chlorophyll-α levels with a 2-week prediction horizon. To enhance the models’ accuracy, a sliding window method (...) combined with a blocked cross-validation procedure for time series was also applied to these techniques. Two input strategies were also tested in this approach: using only chlorophyll-α time series and incorporating exogenous variables. The proposed approach significantly improved the accuracy of the predictive models, no matter the forecasting technique employed. Results were remarkable, with |$\overline{\sigma}$| values reaching approximately 0.90 for the 0.5-m depth level and 0.80 for deeper levels. The proposed forecasting models and methodologies have great potential for predicting eutrophication episodes and acting as decision-making tools for environmental agencies. Accurate prediction of eutrophication episodes through these models could allow for proactive measures to be implemented, resulting in improved environmental management and the preservation of the ecosystem. (shrink)

There is a growing interest in improving the teaching–learning process at all levels of education, including higher education. In recent years, university institutions have been taking action to renew and modernize the way in which they teach and learn, making the process more dynamic and closer to the current social reality. Competencies such as the ability to work in a team have become essential for the successful implementation of innovative methodologies in which student participation is particularly relevant. Student acceptance is (...) key to the success of any teaching methodology; however, the influence of group work skills on satisfaction with innovative methodologies such as project-based learning has not yet been tested among university students. Thus, the objective of this study is to explore the association between group work competencies and satisfaction with PBL. A total sample of 359 students from two Spanish universities participated in the research. Our results reveal that there is a significant and positive relationship between competencies related to group work and satisfaction with PBL. In addition, a multiple regression analysis shows that the competencies “Conception of group work,” “Usefulness of group work,” “Planning of group work by teachers,” and “Group norms” increase satisfaction with the use of the PBL methodology. This work expands our knowledge about the role in increasing students’ satisfaction that is played by the ability of college students to work as a team. These findings could also guide teachers interested in new teaching methodologies. (shrink)

Business Ethics: A European Review, EarlyView.

The ethic of care has often been opposed to the ethic of justice as offering a different and even a contradictory approach to moral problems. This article argues that, from the perspective of the discourse ethic, both approaches are complementary in a very fundamental sense, since each one applies to one of two stages of moral reasoning that are as different as they are interconnected. It argues, in particular, that while justice is concerned with the justification and elaboration of norms, (...) care is concerned with finding a solution for specific moral situations. The article then places considerations of care at the centre of ideal discourse and subordinates the importance of rational understanding and moral justification to intuitive communication. (shrink)

The objective of this research study was to determine if psychological distress, anxiety, and academic self-efficacy predict satisfaction with studies in Peruvian university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional and predictive design was used, in which 582 Peruvian university students participated, 243 men and 339 women, between the ages of 16 and 41. Student’s t-statistics were used to analyze the differences in scores of psychological distress, anxiety, academic self-efficacy, and satisfaction with studies based on the sex of the participants, (...) Pearson’s R was used for the analysis of correlations between variables, and multiple linear regressions were used to evaluate the predictive model. In the analyses, the significance level was set at 0.05. The results show that men have higher levels of psychological distress, anxiety, and academic self-efficacy than women do ; high levels of psychological distress correlate with high levels of anxiety and low levels of satisfaction with studies and academic self-efficacy ; high levels of anxiety correlate with low levels of satisfaction with studies and academic self-efficacy ; and high levels of academic self-efficacy correlate with high levels of satisfaction with studies. Academic self-efficacy was also found to predict satisfaction with studies. This concludes that, although there are significant correlations between psychological distress, anxiety, academic self-efficacy, and satisfaction with studies, academic self-efficacy is the variable that most predicts satisfaction with studies in Peruvian university students. (shrink)

Este artículo desarrolla un panorama histórico de las evaluaciones de logro académico, estandarizadas y a gran escala, aplicadas en la educación mexicana. Mediante una investigación documental, se analizan los inicios, expansión, consolidación y situación actual de este tipo de pruebas. Se concluye destacando la relevancia de contar con evaluaciones confiables del logro académico, que contribuyan al desarrollo educativo nacional.

In the international context of a progress toward more inclusive educational systems and practices, the role of Special Education teachers is being transformed. From an inclusive perspective, these professionals increasingly support students and their teachers in the mainstream classroom, avoiding segregation. However, Special Education teachers often struggle to reach and support all students with special needs and their teachers to provide quality inclusive education. For this reason, more research is still needed on in-service training strategies for the inclusion of students (...) with special needs that effectively translate into evidence-based school practices that improve the education of all students. This article analyses the impact of two evidence-based dialogic training programs of Special Education teachers working in mainstream schools carried out in Mexico during the 2018–2019 school year. Through in-depth interviews with participants, it was identified how, after the training, teachers increasingly grounded their actions on scientific evidence and promoted interactive learning environments that improved the educational inclusion of their students with special needs. This training also became the venue to make evidence-based educational actions available to other students without special needs, improving the quality of education provided to all students. (shrink)

IntroductionThe aim of the present study is to carry out a multidimensional analysis on the relation between satisfaction with social support received, resilience and optimism in cancer patients and their quality of life.Materials and MethodsData were gathered through questionnaires fulfilled by 142 cancer patients. Data relate to sociodemographic, health, quality of life, social support, resilience and optimism.ResultsSatisfaction with the sources and types of support, resilience and optimism relates positively with quality of life. Predictive models show that informational support from friends (...) is the variable that most increases patients’ general health, while emotional support from the partner is the one that best improves how patients cope with the disease. In the same line, emotional support from the partner, together with informational support from family are the ones that most contribute to reduce patients’ symptoms. Resilience improves general health and functioning, and reduces symptoms. Patients’ optimism and resilience also reduce symptoms. Gender differences were found, with females showing lower quality of life than males, mainly in how they cope with cancer. Patients in the stage of treatment showed lower quality of life and higher symptoms. Such increase was observed in patients who received hormonotherapy or chemotherapy.DiscussionImportant practical implications can be drawn from results, which could help improve cancer patients’ quality of life through intervention strategies aimed at increasing their resilience, optimism and the social support provided by their closer sources. (shrink)

The fast–slow paradigm of life history focuses on how individuals grow, mate, and reproduce at different paces. This paradigm can contribute substantially to the field of personality and individual differences provided that it is more strictly based on evolutionary biology than it has been so far. Our study tested the existence of a fast–slow continuum underlying indicators of reproductive effort—offspring output, age at first reproduction, number and stability of sexual partners—in 1,043 outpatients with healthy to severely disordered personalities. Two axes (...) emerged reflecting a double-track pathway to fast strategy, based on restricted and unrestricted sociosexual strategies. When rotated, the fast–slow and sociosexuality axes turned out to be independent. Contrary to expectations, neither somatic effort—investment in status, material resources, social capital, and maintenance/survival—was aligned with reproductive effort, nor a clear tradeoff between current and future reproduction was evident. Finally, we examined the association of LH axes with seven high-order personality pathology traits: negative emotionality, impulsivity, antagonism, persistence-compulsivity, subordination, and psychoticism. Persistent and disinhibited subjects appeared as fast-restricted and fast-unrestricted strategists, respectively, whereas asocial subjects were slow strategists. Associations of LH traits with each other and with personality are far more complex than usually assumed in evolutionary psychology. (shrink)

IntroductionThe present study aims at analysing how social support received and provided by parents of children, adolescents and young adults (AYA) diagnosed with cancer, as well as their sociodemographic and clinical variables, affect those parents’ stress levels and life and family satisfaction.Materials and MethodsA total of 112 parents of children and AYAs who had been diagnosed with cancer and who received treatment in Malaga participated in the study. In the study, participated all parents who voluntarily agreed to fulfil the questionnaire. (...) The main inclusion criterion was that their child had cancer. Instruments used were Questionnaire on the Frequency of and Satisfaction with Social Support (QFSSS), Paediatric Inventory for Parents (PIP), Life Satisfaction Scale and Family Satisfaction Scale.ResultsIn the mean difference analyses, male parents showed 3.38 (SD = 0.56) in social support received and female parents showedM = 3.08 (SD = 0.72). Conversely, in social support provided, female parents showed 3.22 and male parents showedM = 3.55 (p = 0.020). Significant differences were also found in family satisfaction, where female parents (M = 3.64) feel more satisfied than male parents (M = 3.06;p = 0.027). Parents of children aged between 0 and 14 years (M = 3.06) feel more stress than those parents of children aged 15–21 (M = 2.61;p = 0.021). The correlation analysis shows that there is a negative and significant relation between stress levels experienced by parents when facing different situations related to the child’s disease and both types of support, receivedr = −0.411,p < 0.001 and providedr = −0.282,p < 0.01. There is also a positive and significant relation between life satisfaction and social support receivedr = 0.292,p < 0.01, and social support providedr = 0.409,p < 0.001. There is a positive and significant relation between family satisfaction and social support receivedr = 0.330,p < 0.01, in the same way as with social support providedr = 0.222,p < 0.05. The regression analysis related to stress levels of parents indicates that social support received predicts levels of stress significantlyp < 0.001, with the variable of number of children being the one that showed to be significantp < 0.05. Social support provided showed the most significant resultsp = 0.001, meaning that social support provided increased life satisfaction. Social support received explains family satisfaction (p = 0.50), as it increases the family satisfaction of parents of children with cancer.DiscussionAnalysing social support received and provided, as well as sociodemographic and clinical variables, allowed us to broaden the knowledge on the effect social support has on stress levels, life satisfaction and family satisfaction in parents of children and AYAs diagnosed with cancer. This may have relevant practical implications for the design of interventions that would improve parents’ lives. (shrink)

PRO-Mueve Relaciones Sanas is a gender-based violence and dating violence prevention program targeted at adolescents. The program has been designed to be implemented during three consecutive courses [from the first to third year of Spanish mandatory secondary education ] in 8 annual sessions, imparted by university students who have been previously trained and supervised by university professors. The present study evaluates the effects of the program after the first year of implementation through a quasi-experimental design and assesses whether there are (...) gender differences in the outcomes. The results obtained evidenced a significant reduction in benevolent sexism in the intervention group compared to the quasi-control group. Regarding hostile sexism, it was found to increase significantly in the quasi-control group, while it remained stable in the intervention group. Thus, there were significant differences between both groups after the intervention. Likewise, romantic love myths were found to decrease significantly, and knowledge about gender-based violence increased significantly in the intervention group between the two time points assessed, although there were no significant differences with the quasi-control group. No gender differences in the outcomes of the program were observed. The obtained results supported the efficacy of the program during the first year of intervention in the first course of the ESO and laid the foundation for the following phases of intervention. (shrink)