Floriana Irtelli

By S. Doria, F. Irtelli, R. Sanlorenzo and F. Durbano

Anxiety is a potential cause of serious influence in a person's daily life. This chapter is focused specifically on the effects of the work environment factors in disease development and progression. Working environments are places of significant sources of stress: they put us in connection with our duties and expectations (often not coincide with reality) and with a "forced socialization." Especially forced socialization is to be considered a main source of stress in work places, inducing negative outcomes in work and social relationships. The psychosocial risks of work places can so be defined according to design, organization and management of work as well as to social and environmental contexts that may lead to damage of physical, social and psychological domains. Stress can then be defined as a pattern of emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and physiological reactions to adverse and noxious aspects perceived as the contents of the working environment. Thanks to the beginning of psychosocial research on the working environment, the impact of some aspects of the work environment on health has become an object of study, as the interventions to mitigate it. Yoga, meditation, and mantra techniques, as described in this work (presenting others’ experiences and two of own current projects, used in a hospital workplace to control the condition of occupational stress but also in a clinical sample), showed the potential in considerably reducing anxiety and mood symptoms.

Part of the book: A Fresh Look at Anxiety Disorders

By Floriana Irtelli and Enrico Vincenti

The majority of empirical research on psychopathy involves forensic populations; however, researchers have recently turned their attention to the nature and implications of psychopathic features in the workplace, hence shedding light on the notion of “workplace psychopaths.” Nowadays, many studies deal with successful people having a psychopathic outlook in a work environment. This is a contemporary phenomenon, originated during the 1990s. In this period, changing nature of work and business has created a general state of confusion due to increasing instability and competitiveness. In this social context, psychopathic personality aspects, such as the appearance of calm, confidence and other psychopathic tendencies, are mistaken for “leadership qualities.” This contemporary phenomenon is dangerous and connected to psychosocial risks: the social and environmental contexts are affected by this dynamic, which can for instance lead to increasing anxiety in the co-workers and lack of motivation. This affects not only workers, but also companies: results of recent researches show the significant influence of psychopaths on organizational commitment. These dynamics stimulated the interest of researchers in a variety of disciplines: psychiatry, as well as psychology, criminology, and sociology. This chapter aims at reviewing the current knowledge on this phenomenon, and to promote prevention and diagnosis.

Part of the book: Psychopathy

By Floriana Irtelli and Federico Durbano

The quality of life concept was born in the 1970s within the social sciences and soon it arrived in the field of medicine and health, where this notion has been considered as a criterion to evaluate health interventions. The World Health Organization defines quality of life as the subjective perception individuals have of their life position, in their cultural context and value system, in relation to their objectives, expectations, standards, and worries. It is a very complex and articulated conception, and as a matter of fact in this chapter, we will analyze an overview about this topic, to examine it in depth, and clarify this concept; synthetically, we can note that the quality of life is specified by the perception of one’s physical, psychological, and emotional health, by the degree of personal independence, by social relations, and by the type of interaction with one’s context. We can note that this construct is broader than that of health, it is not a synonym of it, and it is also important to point out that the definition of the World Health Organization about this topic connects elements resulting from an enormous amount of studies. In this sense, being healthy is considered one of the numerous quality of life dimensions, and health-facilitating behaviors are judged as predictors of the quality of life itself. Moreover, the definition of quality of life always includes a reference to the individual’s physical state, but it is not considered only on the basis of a person’s bodily functions, detectable with standardized parameters, since it is described in relation to the perceived satisfaction degree regarding this functionality level. This kind of definition shifts the emphasis from the objectively definable functionality to the subjectivity dimension; the detection of both these two aspects can constitute a reliable quality of life measure. Furthermore, we can note that the most common method for measuring quality of life is the administration of questionnaires and, in addition, that there are two questionnaire types: generic and specific for pathology. Finally, this chapter highlights the importance of the biopsychosocial paradigm in relation to the quality of life concept.

Part of the book: Quality of Life

By Fabio Gabrielli and Floriana Irtelli

Part of the book: Anxiety, Uncertainty, and Resilience During the Pandemic Period

By Floriana Irtelli, Federico Durbano and Barbara Marchesi

Every human psychic aspect, even the development of the Self, cannot be considered separately from the financial and cultural context in which it is inserted: ad a Matteo of fact the realization of individual freedom is correlated to broader economic and social changes, which influence the individual on self-realization. In the chapter, various theories about this topic and about the ideal self are explored, and it concludes by considering that self expression helps people to satisfy their real emotions and their real self, it also highlights the fact that self-realization and self-expression are among the highest needs on the human needs scale, and they affect human health.

Part of the book: Psychoanalysis