COORDINATOR
COORDINATOR
Rosario Ortega Ruiz, Professor of Psychology, is currently Professor Emeritus at the University of Córdoba and Director of the Laboratory of Studies on Coexistence and Prevention of Violence (www.laecovi.co). She has over 30 years of research experience in interpersonal relationships and the development of social, emotional, and moral competence, as well as in child play and social and moral cognition.
In the last twenty-five years, she has conducted research on unjustified aggression, school violence, bullying, cyberbullying, and adolescent and youth courtship, focusing on its potential to harbor violence, which may evolve into a psychogenesis of gender-based violence. With more than one hundred scientific articles and over fifteen published books, she dedicates her academic activity to the training of young researchers, as well as to the prevention of school and youth violence through evidence-based psychoeducational intervention models.
She has supervised more than thirty doctoral theses, the majority of which have earned international recognition and excellent grades. In 5, under her leadership, the Department of Psychology was created, and in 2008, Master’s and Doctoral studies (with the ANECA quality mention in 2008) were introduced. Her international work includes psychoeducational research and interventions in Latin America (Inter-American Development Bank; UNESCO-Brazil, DIFID-United Kingdom) for the evaluation of school and youth violence in Nicaragua, among others.
She has led over fifteen research projects (European, international, national, and regional). Her experience in scientific management includes two terms on the Coordinating Commission for Psychology and Education; a term at ANECA and a term at CNEAI; a term at the current State Research Agency, coordinating the evaluation of Ramón y Cajal fellowships, Juan de la Cierva fellowships, and the National R&D&i Plan. She has also served as Coordinator of the University Faculty Training Fellowships, always in the fields of Psychology and Education.
She has been, repeatedly, a member of the evaluative panels for National R&D&i Plan projects, as well as for research projects and fellowships of the La Caixa Foundation. She has been a member of the European Research Commission’s Evaluator Panel on four occasions (ERC panels SH4, SH3, and SH2) for the Starting Grant (StG) and Consolidator Grant (CoG), as well as for research programs of Agencies in Norway, Portugal, and Chile, among others. She currently serves as an evaluator on panels of the European Science Foundation and collaborates with FECyT.
She is a board member of the Association for Scientific Research in Educational Psychology
(ACIPE), Associate Editor of Psychología Educativa: https://journals.copmadrid.org/psed, and Co-director of Psychology Society and Education: http://ojs.ual.es/ojs/index.php/psye. She is currently a Full Member of the Spanish Academy of Psychology.
Eva M. Romera is Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Córdoba and a member of the Laboratory of Studies on Coexistence and Prevention of Violence (LAECOVI). Her research focuses on interpersonal relationships, social and moral competence, and peer violence.
She has been the principal investigator in several National Plan projects, as well as in a European project (H2020), aimed at analyzing the risk and protective factors of bullying and cyberbullying and promoting socio-moral competence to improve mental health and the well-being of students.
She has published a significant number of articles in national and international high-impact journals. She is the author and co-author of manuals designed for teacher training and for the educational community to improve interpersonal relationships.
She is a member of the Scientific Committee of the International Observatory on School Violence and a member of the board of directors of the Scientific Association of Psychology and Education. Currently, she coordinates the Competitive Research Unit for Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Córdoba. She is also co-editor of the journal Psychology, Society & Education.
Introduction: Bullying and cyberbullying are forms of immoral interpersonal violence that require an understanding of the complex interaction between social and moral cognition variables within the framework of group dynamics. To address this integrative goal, four studies developed within the Laboratory for Studies on Convivencia and Violence Prevention are presented, focusing on moral processes such as dehumanization and moral sensitivity, co-rumination, and social costs based on class group norms.
Method: The research involved different groups of students aged 11 to 17, utilizing methodologies based on self-reports and peer-reports. Data analysis included regression analyses, latent class analysis, moderation analysis, and exploratory factor analyses.
Results: The results indicate, on one hand, that moral sensitivity and co-rumination are associated with aggression and victimization, respectively. On the other hand, involvement as cyber-aggressors or reinforcers is associated with a cost, both for personal moral development and for the risk of becoming a victim.
Conclusions: The main conclusions highlight the need for advancing towards integrative models that allow a deeper understanding of the complex interaction between sociomoral and group variables and their impact on the development of moral criterion.