Le rôle de l’implication et des systèmes de croyances au sein des représentations sociales

The study presented in this article concerns the functioning of representational mechanisms in social thought. More specifically, its objective is to identify the role of variables covering psychosocial involvement and systems of belief within social representations. At the interface between the individual and the group, these variables are considered here because of their status as explanatory variables of social thought. By analyzing the representation of human rights, we hypothesize that the level of involvement and the type of beliefs developed toward the state (concepts of a democratic state versus a safe state) impact on the expression of this representation and the standpoints it creates. The survey was conducted by questionnaire with a student population (315 participants). The main results, which are consistent with our hypotheses, provide evidence of an influence of the variables tested on the expressiveness of the representation of human rights. On the one hand, they reveal how an involvement developed in this subject and the social beliefs attached to the role of the state come to particularize the meaning of this representation, especially concerning its principles of equality. On the other hand, the results demonstrate the activity of ideological processes – political in content – which intervene in the realization of the representation. Through these processes, the results show a stronger influence of social beliefs than of psychosocial involvement on the representation studied.     

Tradition religieuse et capacité de pardon

Forgiveness is a fundamental ingredient of everyday life. This article is intended to present, in a synthetic way, a number of recent works having empirically determined the relationship between religious tradition and forgivingness. To forgive is basically to give something to someone. For/give is the equivalent of the latin per/donare. Forgiveness is the gift of one's right to resentment after having been the victim of an offense. Forgiveness has been empirically investigated in two ways. The first approach specifically considered forgiveness as a possible answer to a given situation. The second approach considered forgiveness as a philosophy of life, as a habit; that is, as a personality trait. The studies reported in this article illustrate this second approach. A three-factor model of forgivingness is presented: lasting resentment, sensitivity to the circumstances of the offence, and unconditional forgiveness. It is shown that this model nicely fit empirical data from samples of persons grown up either in the Buddhist tradition, or in the Christian tradition, or in the Hindu tradition. It is also shown that among people grown up in the Muslim tradition this model must be adjusted to reflect the unique character of this tradition: Islam is both a religious and a political tradition. In brief, people whose spiritual references are either Buddhist or Christian or Hindu must be aware that if a conflict, even a minor one, opposes them to Muslims, a particular attention will be attributed to their apologizing behavior and to their efforts to repair the wrong committed. Forgiveness will probably be granted only after the offender has satisfied a number of conditions. Symmetrically, people whose references are Muslim must be aware that, if a conflict opposes them to people grown up in the other traditions, all the circumstances of the situation will probably play a more or less similar role (intention, apology, social proximity) and that forgiveness may be unconditionally granted. Unconditional forgiveness exists, at least in theory, in these traditions: it is not regarded as a weakness or as an immoral disposition.     

Représentations sociales et influence sociale

Since content and structure of social representations are determined through communication, their link with the study of social influence should be of relevance. Three research programs are presented. In the tradition of social influence studies, the first one demonstrates that a majority source induces manifest influence on a social representation, whereas influence induced by a minority is latent. Considering an expert source, the second one confirms that high status sources may induce only superficial influence, showing that such dynamics are due to identity stakes. The third one examines the reciprocal influence that social representations may exert on the social influence processes themselves.     

Un modèle neurobiologique de la perception et de l'estimation du temps

Frontal-striatal circuits provide an important neurobiological substrate for timing and time perception as well as for working memory. In this review, we outline recent theoretical and empirical work to suggest that interval timing and working memory rely not only on the same anatomic structures, but also on the same neural representation of a specific stimulus. In the striatal beat-frequency model, cortical neurons fire in an oscillatory fashion to form representations of stimuli, and striatal medium spiny neurons detect those patterns of cortical firing that occur co-incident to important temporal events. Information about stimulus identity can be extracted from the specific cortical networks that are involved in the representation, and information about duration can be extracted from the relative phase of neural firing. The properties derived from these neurobiological models fit well with the psychophysics of timing and time perception as well as with information-processing models that emphasize the importance of temporal coding in a variety of working-memory phenomena.     

Théories naïves et raisonnements téléologiques sur les animaux et les plantes

The cognitive status of plants as a biological category remains unclear in the conceptual organisation. A series of five experiments investigated whether adults agree with different kinds of teleological assertions to account for attributes of animals or plants. One major finding is that adults are inclined towards explanations that evoke an advantage for other species to motivate the existence of attributes in plants, but not in animals. This supports our assumption about social-serving teleological reasoning for plants, as for artefacts, and may contribute to increase the ambiguous status of plants within the unified concept of living thing. Therefore, plants may not only differ from animals by the low relevance of an intuitive psychology to account for their properties, but also by their tendency to trigger intuitive explanations devoted to artefacts.     

Motivation et métacognition : les buts de compétence prédisent les processus métacognitifs en résolution de problèmes mathématiques

This study analyzes the effects of achievement goals on the metacognitive processes as 200 students solve two mathematical problems differing in complexity. Results show that the diverse achievement goals have significant effects both on metacognitive experiences and on metacognitive strategies, coherently across the two problems. Mastery-approach goals predict the feeling of liking the task, mastery-avoidance goals have an effect on the use of metacognitive strategies, whereas neither performance-approach nor performance-avoidance goals are significantly related to metacognitive processes. The results offer a rich picture of the interactions between goals and metacognitive processes, revealing the major role of mastery-avoidance goals.     

Les nouvelles technologies au service des personnes âgées : entre promesses et interrogations - Une revue de questions

Based on a literature review, this article proposes to discuss the psychosocial stakes dependent for the use of new technologies for the elderly. This reveals that if these devices have undeniable assets which can contribute to improve comfort and with the quality of life of the elders, he does not remain about it less than the fast development of these technologies also cause a series of interrogations relating to the maintenance of the psychic and social integrity of these users. These systems can thus cause a new form of dependence (with the technical assistance) and accentuate - paradoxically - the stigmatization of people by the construction of a new profile: “the technically assisted elders”.     

Représentations de la société et pratiques éducatives en contexte de disparité culturelle : les choix de scolarisation de l'enfant chez des parents sénégalais

The purpose of this study, including the socio-cultural context of Senegal, is to show how society and social change's representations affect the choice to attend school or not. Representations of the society and of the social change have been apprehended during half directive talks, accomplished with twenty subjects (parents of Senegalese children) and put in evidence by statistical analyses, both lexical and morphosyntactical. It emerges from the results that important changes concerning representations of the society and of the social change - especially according to school attendance's modes - can be observed. Parent's positions on the social change - sometimes ambivalents - underline incoherence of link between society and social change's representations and school attendance's methods in a cross-cultural context.     

Régulations endogène et exogène des émotions : des processus complémentaires et indissociables

Studies dealing with emotion regulation have known a fast expansion during the last twenty years. Yet, they are most often based on models centered on endogenous cognitive and behavioral processes as well as the pursuit of welfare, and do not consider the social aspect of emotions and emotion expression which elicit exogenous emotion regulation processes from social interaction partners. The goal of this article is to show that both endogenous and exogenous emotion regulation processes are complementary and indivisible, and to suggest working hypotheses about how they connect. In the first part of this document, after a quick reminder of the different theoretical approaches of (individual) endogenous emotion regulation, we emphasize works about social approach behaviors (social affiliation) in emotional situations. These studies report that social interactions are sometimes sought as they would allow for the endogenous implementation of interpersonal emotion regulation strategies, especially by means of emotion expression. Individual and interpersonal endogenous emotion regulation processes would then complementarily modify the emotions experienced by an individual faced with a critical situation. The second part of this article underlines that social interaction partners actually are operators of exogenous emotion regulation processes rather than passive reservoirs of resources an individual may pick up to regulate their emotions. For that purpose, we especially consider the ways relatives (directly or indirectly, explicitly or implicitly) constrain the social affiliation behaviors and emotion expressions of an individual who experiences emotions. Thus, we argue that those behaviors are strongly influenced not only by the nature and intensity of emotions, but also by: firstly, social learning about how to feel, what to express and how to regulate emotions in a specific situation; secondly, features of the social environment as well as social expectations and demands about sharing emotions versus inhibiting their expression; and thirdly, the exogenous emotion regulation strategies a partner may use to regulate an individual's emotions. This set of studies entices us to consider endogenous and exogenous emotion regulation processes as acting jointly to promote not only the adaptation to emotional situations, but also the quality of social bonds between members of a social network. Social integration is thus central in the study of emotion regulation processes.     

Effets de l’âge et de la capacité de mémoire de travail sur l’exécution d’instructions de complexité variable chez des adultes jeunes et âgés

Technical devices are part of elderly people's daily life. Meanwhile, research has not yet systematically explored how old people understand procedural instructions accompanying these devices. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate how age and memory span affect how people follow procedural instructions. To do so, the Reading Span Test of Daneman & Carpenter (1980) and an adaptation of the Kaplan & White's (1980) following directions game were administrated to young and older adults. The Reading Span Test was administrated in order to determine the participants’ memory span size. Then, participants had to follow procedural instructions with a growing complexity displayed on a computer screen. Results show that participants’ age and instructions complexity affect how the instructions are performed. Old adults encounter more difficulty performing the task than young adults. Furthermore, whatever the age, as the complexity of instructions increases, low-span participants have more difficulty performing instructions than high-span participants do.     

Modèles et méthodes d'étude de la production écrite

The purpose of the present introduction to this special issue is to provide readers with a general theoretical framework of the cognitive structures and processes involved in writing. The first part of this introduction browses the major lines of the evolution of the writing models, since the first cognitive architecture of the writing processes proposed by Hayes and Flower (1980). In parallel with advance in theoretical conceptions of writing, methods for studying writing also evolved. The second part briefly describes the methods that are most used in writing research. The final part of the introduction presents the different articles that compose this special issue.     

L'interprétation d'indices non verbaux par les enfants

Interpreting appropriately face expressions and analyzing social relations between people, according to their actions are useful competence for treating pragmatic aspects of communication. We do research on these competences by presenting a recognition emotion task, and a task in which movements of geometrical figures simulate social interaction, to 98 children (children aged 8, 10, 12 and 14 years, children with autism and mental retardation). Results show that answers qualitatively increase with age, even after 12 years. Children with autism encounter more difficulties to recognize emotional expression than to attribute intentional actions. Emotion recognition is related to simple intention attribution but not with complex one, which develops later.     

男性犯罪者人格对人身危险性的影响:有中介的调节模型

以463名男性犯罪者为调查对象,在控制人口学变量后,探讨人格、成熟应付方式、社会支持与人身危险性的关系。结果表明:(1)年龄、文化程度、婚姻和犯罪次数是人身危险性的重要预测变量。(2)人格可以显著预测人身危险性。(3)社会支持调节人格与人身危险性之间的关系。(4)这种调节作用以成熟应付方式为中介变量,其中通过中介变量起作用的调节效应占总调节效应的29.4%。因此,人格对男性犯罪者人身危险性的影响是有中介的调节效应。     

Capacité de mémoire de travail et traitement du pronom chez l’enfant

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between working memory capacity (WMC) and reading comprehension in children by testing the processing of pronouns. Two groups of nine- to ten-year-old children classified as high span and low span were administered a pronoun processing task. In this task, the computation of the antecedent referent for pronouns was varied by manipulating the distance between the pronoun and its antecedent and the availability of a gender cue. The results showed that compared to high-span children, low-span children experienced more difficulties in computing a pronoun's referent. High-span children spent longer reading sentences containing anaphoric pronouns when pronouns could not be resolved on the basis of the gender alone, suggesting that the pronouns were resolved as they were read. Low-span children tended to delay resolution until it was required by the task. In the question-answering times, low-span children were more adversely affected by distance than high-span children. Altogether these findings support the view that working memory capacity constrains resolution of anaphoric pronouns in children.     

Disponibilité à la psychothérapie et à l’engagement dans les soins chez les patientes boulimiques : contribution du Rorschach

The instability of involvement in the care process and psychotherapy is frequent among bulimic women. The preliminary evaluation of the capacity of involvement helps to make the decision to begin specific care with these patients. We thus make the assumption that involvement in the care process can express itself in indexes of Rorschach when this test is part of a prior examination of orientation at the beginning of the care. These indexes concern the relationship dependence and the capacity of development of subjective expression. They appear in several analysis registers of the Rorschach protocol, which are: the scale of oral dependence (ROD); the index of expressive capacity (EX); the recurring object (ORec); contents in connection with the representation of dependence among bulimic women. A group of 34 bulimic women involved in multifocal care process, especially including a psychoanalytical-inspired psychotherapy (ES) is compared with a group of 34 bulimic women who precociously stopped this care or didn’t get involved in it (NES). The subjects of the ES group received care during at least 1 year. The comparison between the two groups shows significant differences in the pretherapeutic indexes (ROD, ORec). The interest and the limits of this type of analysis are debated.     

Communication engageante et représentations sociales : une application en faveur de la protection de l’environnement et du recyclage

The aim of this study is to compare the effectiveness of several communication strategies, by articulating the binding communication paradigm and the social representation theory, in order to encourage young sportsmen to act for environmental protection. A pilot study made it possible to identify central and peripheral elements of the social representation of environmental protection. An experiment was conducted and the results conform to our expectations. On one hand, the participants in the binding communication situation express attitudes and behavioral intentions more favorable towards recycling and environmental protection than those who only read the persuasive message. On the other hand, the activation of central elements involves more important changes in attitudes and behavioral intentions than the activation of peripheral elements.     

Structure factorielle et qualités psychométriques de la version française de l’inventaire de comportements des adultes (Adult Behavior Checklist) d’Achenbach et Rescorla

While they often need to obtain information about their patients’ functioning from friends, relatives or spouse, French clinicians currently lack a reliable and handy other-report instrument allowing for a comprehensive review of the behavioral and emotional problems presented by an adult person. The aim of the present study is to verify the factor structure and psychometric properties of the French version of the Achenbach and Rescorla's Adult Behavior Checklist (ABCL). We collected 403 ABCL forms completed by informants, who all were third-year students in psychology. The subjects (198 women) were aged 18 to 59 years and came from families with a large variety of socioeconomic status. The confirmatory factor analyses yielded the expected eight-syndrome first order factor structure and supported the measurement models implied by the DSM-oriented scales more recently added to the ABCL. French people scored higher than American on almost all scales. Women scored higher than men on the scales measuring anxiety, and lower on those measuring attention problems and rule-breaking behavior. Middle-aged people scored lower than younger on attention problems and rule-breaking behavior. Despite some limitations, these results speak in favor of the use of the French Adult Behavior Checklist in both research and clinical practice.     

Rythmicités de l’attention des enfants et synchronisation,perspective socioécologique

This study investigates the impact of socioecological synchronization on the level and variations in children's attention at school. The aim was to re-examine previous results and broaden the chronopsychological scope of the research to include new synchronizers originating from proximal ecological niches. Two time-management factors were considered, the organization of the school timetable and the regular and predictable daily time with parents, influenced by work organization and compromises within the family. Two studies were conducted on a total of 498 children between six and 11 years of age. Results confirm a daily attention pattern. The level of performance and the daily pattern are affected by the two time-management factors whose beneficial or adverse influence depends on the child's age. Thus, while the weekly school timetable organized over four days has the strongest negative impact on attention performance for the two age groups, desynchronization due to a longer week-end is greater in the older children. The effects of the two possible four-and-a-half-day timetables also differ according to age. The benefits of working on Wednesdays for younger children appeared less beneficial for the older pupils. Regular and predictable daily time with parents does appear to play a role which also varies according to age, as it has an effect on younger children but has no impact on older children's attention or performance. This study confirms the synchronizing role of temporal messages from school and parental niches in the level and variations in children's attention at school, and is in line with the ecological point of view demonstrated by chronobiological studies. These findings support the importance of research that takes an overall approach to the child's environment. Further work should investigate the prioritization of social synchronizers according to their proximity to the child and how they interact.     

Effets comportementaux et cognitifs de l'engagement dans un acte préparatoire activant un élément central versus périphérique de la représentation du don d'organes

We render an account of a research programme that links two fields of study usually unconnected: the field of the freely agreed submission and the field of social representations. Two hypothesis are tested in the foot-in-the door paradigm: participants that agree to perform an initial request (to sign a petition) that selects a core element of the representation of organ donation: a) will be more inclined to agree to perform the target request (to sign a donor card); and b) will have an attitude more favourable about organ donation than participants that agree to perform an initial request that selects a peripheral element. The two experiments presented confirm these hypotheses.