No abstract

Anxiety plays a central role in human life and psychotherapy. First, we aim to clarify the concepts of existential anxiety (through its association with values, freedom, will, wishes, and the process of wishing), trait anxiety, state anxiety, normal anxiety, and neurotic anxiety. Second, we emphasize how will and wishes are vital for coping with anxiety. Third, we propose practical strategies for coping with anxiety in a constructive way, based on the review by Rollo May, Irvin Yalom, and Kirk Schneider. Finally, we address how these strategies contribute to emotional regulation and better ways of focusing attention by understanding the relationship between wish and will.

The sexual sensation seeking scale (SSSS) is a widely used instrument to measure individuals' tendency to seek an optimal level of sexual arousal and novel sexual experiences. However, psychometric studies have suggested different factor structures for this instrument, which may lead to a biased assessment of the subdimensions of sexual sensation seeking. The present study (N = 812) aimed to identify the best factorial model of the SSSS by comparing the model suggested by previous research. Results from Exploratory and Confirmatory FactorAnalyses showed that none of the models tested have sufficient goodness-of-fit to support the internal validity of the instrument. Thus, this study highlights the limitations of the SSSS in assessing sexual sensation seeking and proposes psychometric alternatives that should be considered by researchers to achieve a reliable measure of sexual sensation seeking.

Sociosexuality refers to an individual’s disposition to have casual sex without establishing affective bonds and has been widely studied worldwide using the Revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI-R; Penke & Asendorpf, 2008). Despite its many validations in different cultural contexts, no psychometric analyses of this instrument have been conducted in Spanish-speaking Latin American countries. To address this gap in the literature, we examined the psychometric properties of the SOI-R in Colombia. In a cross-sectional study with a large sample of participants (N = 812; 64% women), we conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to identify different factor structures and determine which had the best fit for our sample and examined the reliability of the scale. Results showed that a three-factor structure, with sociosexual behaviors, attitudes, and desire as first-order factors, and global sociosexuality as a second-order factor, had the best fit indexes. Each factor presented good reliability indexes. Replicating already established gender differences, we also found that men scored higher on each factor when compared to women. These findings show that the SOI-R is a reliable and valid instrument to assess sociosexuality in countries where sociosexuality research is underrepresented.