Individual Differences in Attachment and Reproductive Strategies: Commentary on Buss & Greiling

Buss and Greiling cite individual differences in attachment as a principal illustration of adaptive individual differences. This particular example, however, is a highly controversial one: Many if not most relationship researchers assume (implicitly or explicitly) that insecure attachment patterns reflect some kind of malfunction of the attachment system in modern environments rather than evolved facultative strategies. I therefore review some of the arguments and evidence on both sides of this issue, along with the closely related topics of mating/reproductive strategies and parental investment. In the end I support the Buss-Greiling position, but for reasons not discussed in their article.     

Le mathème du fantasme à l'adolescence

In Lacan's writing the matheme is a logical construction aiming to correspond to the bone structure of the subject. In what respect can the formalization of fantasy enlighten us as regards the adolescent “passage”? Is this passage from child neurosis to the adolescent period accompanied by a different positioning in fantasy? This is the assumption which will be illustrated and defended with clinical cases. Fantasy is logically constructed. The matheme unite and separate through the awl, the two sides of the subject: the “barred subject” and the “object a”. The recasting of fantasy at adolescence will consist in revisiting the three terms while gauging the worth of the link-break operation which is the awl.     

Le Développement de l'Identité Notionnelle

Cette étude vise à déterminer, dans le domaine des surfaces, les relations entre la genèse des invariants qualitatifs (identité, transitivité de l'identité) et celle des invariants' quantitatifs (identité, transitivité de l'identité). Afin d'éliminer les effets possibles d'interaction dans la mesure de ces notions, un groupe ‘A’ (n = 56, âges moyens: 5;6 et 6;6 ans) subit les épreuves Identité Qualitative et Transitivité Qualitative alors qu'un autre groupe ‘B’ (n = 82, âges moyens: 5;6, 6;6 et 7;6 ans) subit les épreuves Identité Quantitative et Transitivité Quantitative. L'analyse statistique nonparamétrique des résultats permet d'attester l'authenticité des principaux stades obtenus pour les invariants qualitatifs et les invariants quantitatifs. Pour chaque type d'invariants, le stade 3 marque le synchronisme d'acquisition des notions d'identité et de transitivité. En outre, l'âge d'acquisition des invariants qualitatifs (6;3 ans) et celui des invariants quantitatifs (7;2 ans) confirment l'antériorité génétique des premiers.     

Le renversement de préférence… renversé !

Preference reversal (PR) occurs when pairs of lottery gambles are evaluated under two different conditions: to choose the gamble preferred to play and assign minimum selling price to each gamble. The preference order is then reversed from one condition to another: while it receives the lowest selling price, the gamble less risked is preferred in condition of play. Many times replicated, this result is considered as a cognitive bias. Recent research suggests that it could be related only to the procedure used to present the gambles (i.e., the evaluation mode): either by pair (joint evaluation or JE) in condition of play, or one by one (separate evaluation or SE) in the pricing task. Then, by reversing the evaluation mode in each condition, PR should be reversed, as it is shown in this study: although the phenomenon still occurs when subjects evaluate gambles in the classical paradigm, we observe an inversion of PR when they have, on the one hand, to play in SE, and on the other hand, to sell in JE. Furthermore, an analysis not often used in this literature provides new elements, which can attest to the cognitive mechanisms underlying the phenomenon: by recording the online information (self-paced display time paradigm) we show the effect of an anchoring and adjustment process when riskiest gambles are preferred.     

Research & clinical exchange

Abstract

Question: Family therapists are often called upon to do consultations to schools about children having social and educational difficulties. In what ways is the family therapist's role different when he or she is called in to consult as an “outsider’ to the school system about a particular child whom he or she does not know, compared to being called upon by the school for advice about a child who is already being seen in treatment by that therapist?