What’s in a name? Psychology’s ever evasive construct

We explore in broad terms the uses of the construct concept in psychological and related scientific discourses. First, we provide a brief history of the origins and development of the concept ‘construct.’ We then describe past and current definitions and/or uses of ‘construct’ and attempt to draw out certain conceptual implications of these uses. Finally, we highlight and attempt to clarify several core conceptual confusions that surround the use of ‘construct’ in psychology.     

Utilisation d'un hypermédia et apprentissage : deux activités concurrentes ou complémentaires ?

This article presents a review of the empirical literature about the use of hypermedia for learning. It uses the cognitive load theory as a framework to interpreter the results. This framework enables us to structure the review in four main parts, corresponding to the principal sources of the variations of the cognitive cost: the hypermedia, the learner, the leaning task, and the using task, and to their under-components. According to us, the user of an hypermedia for learning carries out a learning activity and a hypermedia using activity, the first being the goal, the second being the means and representing a specific overcost. We propose to interpret the data observed not in reference to a linear correlation training-use but in reference to the implication training-use.     

Troubles du comportement et adolescence. Problématiques d'accès aux soins et modalités de réponses nouvelles

The psychopathology of adolescence requires particular adaptation of treatments. This article presents the specific organization of psychiatric treatment for adolescents developed in a mental ward. It works in collaboration with paediatric services, school medicine, community homes for adolescents, parents and attending physicians. Going towards adolescents signalled by those partners, we make easier the access to treatment, the “out of walls reception”. Reciprocal therapeutic commitment, worked with the adolescent, allows him to access to a variety of special cares: consultations, therapeutic groups, hospitalisation, “indirect treatments”. Results from three years allows us to stress the relevance of such a specific organization namely for tricky clinical situations.     

Theologia Incurvata In Se Ipse?: One Feminist Theologian’s Reading of Eberhard Jüngel’s Theology

Books reviewed in this article:
Eberhard Jüngel, Justification: The Heart of the Christian Faith
Eberhard Jüngel, God's Being is in Becoming: The Trinitarian Being of God in the Theology of Karl Barth. A Paraphrase     

Les effets de la formation sur site auprès des soignants d'unités de psychiatrie générale : bilan d'une expérience

In the context of a hospital institution prone to many upheavals, which answers the psychologists propose with faintness growing looking after in psychiatry? From an experiment of psychologist in psychiatric sector, we wish to show that the formation on site, being pressed on the articulation of psychopathology to the private clinic and psychoanalytical listening, brings a redefinition and a re-dynamization of the practices. The psychologists have today an important place to organize, insufflate, this type of formation which opens prospects with the reflexion on the practice, while shifting the cleavage in/out where is taken the psychologist in his report at the institution.     

Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology in the light of Kant’s Third <Emphasis Type="Italic">Critique</Emphasis> and Schelling’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Real</Emphasis>-<Emphasis Type="Italic">Idealismus</Emphasis>

In this paper I offer a selective, systematic rather than historical account of Merleau-Ponty’s highly complex relation to classical German philosophy, focussing on issues which bear on the question of his relation to transcendentalism and naturalism. I argue that the concerns which define his project in Phenomenology of Perception are fundamentally those of transcendental philosophy, and that Merleau-Ponty’s disagreements with Kant, and the position he arrives at in The Visible and the Invisible, are helpfully viewed in light of (1) issues which Merleau-Ponty identifies as raised by Kant’s Critique of the Power of Judgement, and (2) Schelling’s conversion of Kantian idealism into a Real-Idealismus. Finally I address the question of whether, and on what basis, Merleau-Ponty’s claim to have surpassed systematic philosophy can be defended.     

Comment évaluer les compétences clés dans le domaine professionnel ?

The article attempts to clarify the question of defining and evaluating key competencies in the professional domain, by reviewing existing literature in the domains of cognitive differential psychology, psychometrics and industrial and organisational psychology. A hierarchical model of competencies is favoured, in which the key competencies are general across professional situations and transferable from one situation to another. The different methods of evaluating key competencies are reviewed. Particular attention is paid to the validity of assessment centres and intelligence tests. The crucial role of general intelligence, depending on the complexity of professional tasks, is demonstrated through an analysis of professional profiles. We review writings on the psychology of intelligence in order to show the importance of the g factor as principle predictor of work performance and the acquisition of key competencies. Finally, the judicious combination of different validated and economical psychometric tools is proposed as the most effective and equitable solution for evaluating key competencies in the three paradigmatic social situations which require it: vocational orientation, recruitment of personnel and access to continuing training.     

Omission bias in vaccination decisions: Where’s the “omission”? Where’s the “bias”?

Several studies have reported that parents are often reluctant to vaccinate their own or other people’s children, even when the balance of health risks and benefits clearly favors vaccination. This reluctance has been interpreted as a manifestation of “omission bias”, a general tendency to prefer inactive to active options even when inaction leads to worse outcomes or greater risks. The research raises significant public health concerns as well as worries about human decision biases in general. In this paper we argue that existing research on vaccination decisions has not convincingly demonstrated any general reluctance to vaccinate nor has it made the case that such a tendency, if found, would constitute a bias. We identify several conceptual and methodological issues that, we argue, cloud interpretation of earlier studies. In a new questionnaire-based study (Experiment 1) we examined the vaccination decisions of undergraduate students (N=103) and non-student adults (N=192). In both groups a clear majority chose to vaccinate when disease and vaccination risks were balanced. Experiments 2 and 3 identify several problems associated with the measures used in earlier studies, and show how these problems could have led to the misleading appearance of majority anti-vaccination preferences. In our data, vaccination intentions appear to be less a function of generalized preferences for action or inaction than they are of the regret respondents expect to feel if vaccination or non-vaccination were to lead to a poor outcome. Regret-avoiding choices led some respondents to favor vaccination, others to oppose it. In two follow-up studies, few respondents mentioned action or inaction per se in explaining their choices. We conclude that there is no convincing evidence that a generalized “omission bias” plays any important role in vaccination decisions.     

Les capacités d'inhibition : une fonction « frontale » ?

It has been strongly suggested that one important function related to frontal lobes is inhibition. However, a review of the literature on classical tests of inhibition (Stroop test, WCST, and AB-AC learning) suggests that this hypothesis is not well established. We further examined this hypothesis using short-term and long-term directed forgetting tasks (Reed, 1970, Zacks et al., 1996), the Stroop test and the Hayling test (Burgess and Shallice, 1996) in 13 patients with focal frontal lesions. The results revealed short-term and long-term memory deficits and a slowing down, but no inhibition deficit compared with control subjects. These results question the relevance of the hypothesis of the frontal lobe as the unique substrate of inhibitory mechanisms. More generally, they address the issue of executive functions: are these sustained by the frontal cortex or by a cortical and subcortical diffuse neural network?     

Mel Gibson’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Passion</Emphasis> and the Many Uses of Christ’s Suffering

Many Christians resonated with Mel Gibsons film, The Passion of the Christ. The films sympathetic portrayal of Pontius Pilate reinforces the sense of victimization Americans have experienced since 9/11, however, and obscures the real meaning of Christs suffering.Marian Ronan is Assistant Professor of Contemporary Theology and Religion at the American Baptist Seminary of the West, a member seminary of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA.     

What’s Wrong With Infinite Regresses?

It is almost universally believed that some infinite regresses are vicious, and also almost universally believed that some are benign. In this paper I argue that regresses can be vicious for several different sorts of reasons. Furthermore, I claim that some intuitively vicious regresses do not suffer from any of the particular aetiologies that guarantee viciousness to regresses, but are nevertheless so on the basis of considerations of parsimony. The difference between some apparently benign and some apparently vicious regresses, then, turns out to be a matter of a more general assessment of costs and benefits, making viciousness of regresses in some cases less of a local matter than is usually thought.     

Children’s understanding of the mind’s involvement in pretense: do words bend the truth?

Many have thought that children have an early appreciation of the role of the mind in pretense, fitting with the notion that pretend play is, in general, a ‘zone of proximal development’ ( Vygotsky, 1978 ). Although results from several experiments are against this hypothesis, the evidence from that line of research has been questioned because the experiments thus far have always used the word ‘pretend’. Young children might have a perfectly clear understanding that pretense involves the mind, but have mismapped the word ‘pretend’ onto non‐mental correlates of pretending, like action and costume. Two experiments tested this possibility. Four‐year‐olds were shown videos of people engaging in real and pretend activities and asked questions regarding the role of mind; for half the children the word ‘pretend’ was used to describe the activity, and for half it was not. Contrary to the hypothesis, even when the word ‘pretend’ was not used, roughly half of the 4‐year‐olds failed to designate pretense as involving mental activity. Consistent with prior work, more children of this age were cognizant of the mind’s involvement in pretense than were cognizant of the mind’s involvement in physical actions.     

Why Reading? Because it's there

Three papers (V. A. Mann, Reading skill and language skill. Developmental Review, 1984, 4, 1–15; G. Wolford & C. A. Fowler, Differential use of partial information by good and poor readers. Developmental Review, 1984, 4, 16–35; F. J. Morrison, Reading disability: A problem in rule learning and word decoding. Developmental Review, 1984, 4, 36–47) are critiqued from the standpoint of their adequacy in advancing our understanding of a problem as complex as reading disability. Experimenters should be explicit about their guiding theoretical assumptions, and should think through the relations, if any, between their laboratory tasks and the actual processes of reading. The reading protocol of a dyslexic child is provided, and is interpreted within the frameworks of the Mann, Wolford and Fowler, and Morrison viewpoints.     

Anonymous résumés: An effective preselection method?

During the preselection process, recruiters use cues from résumés to form attributions about applicants’ suitability. They rely on visible characteristics (e.g., origin) that activate stereotypes that can lead to discriminatory decisions. The anonymization of application forms is a possible intervention to avert discrimination. The few studies on this topic led to inconsistent conclusions. The present study aims to extend previous findings by comparing decisions on anonymous and standard résumés that differ in quality. Recruiters (N = 1,031) assessed a series of application forms whose profile (Caucasian, Moroccan, overweight, normal stature) and résumé content (experience, spelling errors) differed. Results show that anonymous application forms are rated more severely than standard forms, and are effective in neutralizing discriminatory behaviors toward overweight applicants.     

Cronbach’s α, Revelle’s β, and Mcdonald’s ω<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">H</Emphasis></Subscript>: their relations with each other and two alternative conceptualizations of reliability

We make theoretical comparisons among five coefficients—Cronbach’s α, Revelle’s β, McDonald’s ω_h, and two alternative conceptualizations of reliability. Though many end users and psychometricians alike may not distinguish among these five coefficients, we demonstrate formally their nonequivalence. Specifically, whereas there are conditions under which α, β, and ω_h are equivalent to each other and to one of the two conceptualizations of reliability considered here, we show that equality with this conceptualization of reliability and between α and ω_h holds only under a highly restrictive set of conditions and that the conditions under which β equals ω_h are only somewhat more general. The nonequivalence of α, β, and ω_h suggests that important information about the psychometric properties of a scale may be missing when scale developers and users only report α as is almost always the casePreparation of this article was supported by the Patricia M Nielsen Research Chair of the Family Institute at Northwestern UniversityWe thank Lewis R. Goldberg, Win Hill, Dan McAdams, Tony Z. Tang and especially Roderick P. McDonald for their comments on earlier drafts of portions of this articleThis revised article was published online in August 2005 with the PDF paginated correctly.     

Brexit et protection sociale : quel accès aux soins ?

Brexit, by its magnitude, has many legal consequences, including the issue of access to healthcare. Although an exit agreement has been reached between the European Union and the United Kingdom, problems still arise regarding the social protection of European and British residents.