Les troubles du comportement chez l'enfant et l'adolescent : vers une cohérence des pratiques pluridisciplinaires

Many professionals are involved with the children who present behaviour disorders. One question is “How to develop a medical and psychological care project which involves the child, the family and the school”. In order to respond to that question, four papers with different theoretical approaches will follow in this issue of Pratiques Psychologiques. They present: 1) the different nosological status of behaviour disorders; 2) an example of an analytic work with children and their relatives; 3) a behavioural intervention at school; 4) the problems of treatment access and possibilities of new responses.     

Pour une psychométrie spécifique des attitudes

In usual testing techniques, we can point out two totally different situations according to the objectives. The first situation is related to the origin of aptitude tests and aims at showing the best performance that somebody can reach in that test. The second situation (attitudes evaluation) lets the individuals express their feelings about themselves frankly and freely without any kind of judgment. Despite of this very difference, it turns out to be that both techniques used are the same. This similitude has never been investigated since the development of the aptitudes test techniques that took place in the early 1920's. In what follows, the authors point out the inconvenience of that situation and present interesting keysto treat in a differential perspective the answers given to a test according to the situation in which the test is taken.     

Motivation,réponses de coping et performances sportives des escrimeurs : une analyse qualitative exploratoire

The aim of this work was (a) to examine the coping responses in fencers from a motivational viewpoint and their previous experiences and (b) to specify the consequences that the coping could have on their performances. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with six fencers. Results obtained from the inductive analyses revealed that coping responses deployed with stressors are various and appear to be influenced by the previous experiences and motivation. Problem-focused coping would be really favourable for the achievement of the objectives. Emotion-focused coping and avoidance could have positive and/or negative consequences according to the individual and situational characteristics. Some of these results seem to be in agreement with preceding research, like that of Kim and Duda (2003). Future research would be necessary in order to better understand the dynamics of the coping process.     

Psychologie de la santé et cancers : quels apports et quelles perspectives ?

How to adjust to the malignancy is an area that is widely explored by researchers in health psychology for over 35 years. A number of concepts and theories have been developed in an attempt to help people better cope with this particularly stressful life event. Two theoretical approaches are briefly presented: the transactional model of stress and the health belief model. Then, we discuss the interest of several concepts from these models (personality traits, social support, perceived control and coping), illustrating recent research. Finally, both theoretical and practical perspectives are discussed, with proposals that are supported to develop to help patients.     

Les directives anticipées et la personne de confiance en gériatrie : de l'émergence de mouvements défensifs à une possibilité d'élaboration psychique sur le vieillissement et la mort proche pour le sujet âgé et sa famille

The object of this study is to identify old people's resistances and their family's, concerning advance directives and the personhood's nomination. Semi-structured interviews were realized by 20 hospital patients and 14 persons living in an old people's home. Families named as “personhood” by their parents were also interviewed. Writing advances directives spark off anguish and defence mechanisms among the elderly people and their families, curbing the law's application. But these protocols seem to be used as a tool of the trade by the psychologist in geriatrics. It allows indeed old people to enter in an grieving process and to prepare themselves for the end-of-life.     

Le burn-out est-il une entité nosographique distincte ?

Although it has largely been studied since the 1970s, it remains controversial to accurately define what the concept of burnout encompasses. Indeed, burnout is not consensually defined and, although some consider that it is a work-related illness, there is no clear diagnostic criteria. This problem is intensified by the fact that some studies present methodological limitations, thus impeding an appropriate characterization of burnout. As a consequence of this lack of agreement, burnout is not acknowledged as a work-related illness, which minimizes the pain of those individuals who are suffering from it. The present paper will review findings that can help to disentangle whether burnout should be considered as a medical diagnosis. Cultural differences concerning the consideration of burnout as a medical condition will be pointed out and the distinctiveness of burnout compared to depression, adjustment disorder or other stress related symptoms will be highlighted. Moreover, we will explain why considering that burnout belongs to broader diagnostic categories implies that the weight of employees’ discomfort mainly relies on personal causes and therefore weakens the role of existing working conditions. This paper will also summarize clinical, psychological and biological evidences for and against the inclusion of burnout as a medical condition, before embedding them in a wider social, political and economic context. More specifically, we will explain why burnout is intimately related to the political and economic situation of a country: when society promotes cost-effectiveness, it increases stress and psychological pressure, which makes a burnout more likely to appear. Furthermore, if burnout is recognized as a work-related disease, the consequences for organizations will be that they will have to pay for additional health care charges. Finally, more effective prevention techniques could be developed, and more appropriate care could be provided to patients, but only if an agreement on diagnostic criteria was obtained and if reliable assessment tools were developed. As long as these issues are not addressed, treatments specifically targeting burnout symptoms will be further delayed although it is a serious clinical condition associated with physical and psychological symptoms impairing patients’ quality of life. In conclusion, we suggest that burnout should be considered as a medical condition despite the economic and political impediments. Nevertheless, up to now, several methodological limitations preclude to reliably establish a pathological cut-off and to delineate burnout from other mental illnesses.     

Vers une métrique absolue dans les épreuves d'évaluation subjective: La méthode fonctionnelle

The functional method is a new construction method of subjective evaluation tests such as personality, values or competences. Its approach differs from the usually used methods that are directly inherited from the works of Spearman that are tests of maximal performances. The latter tests were developed (almost one hundred years ago) for selection purposes in a differential perspective that suggests certain “underlying” aptitudes from which the level is simply obtained by a sum of the right answers. Thus, the subjective evaluation tests have no unique underlying aptitude and do not give a sum of correct answers, but it shows a global and multidimensional vision of oneself. The functional method points out this multidimensional specificity and offers a model of the subject's answers that reveals his or her strategy that is projected into a hyper-spherical measurement space defined by the characteristics of the items. This measurement space allows the calculation of scores that are the projections (scalar products) of vectors onto one another. The very interests of this method are a better reliability, a clinical intra-personal evaluation of the subjects (that are much more efficient than the simple differential approach that is also described in the article) and, finally, a more informative control upon the intake conditions (test biases, suitability of the test for a person, etc.).     

Réflexions autour du processus de parentalité : quelles étapes et quelles spécificités dans l’adoption ?

Parenthood is a process lead by the desire of child and its project. The expectation of a child generates psychological reorganization but its reality will induce modification for the parental couple. We are questioning the process of parenthood amid the encounter of 18 couples divided according to crossed variables: nature of parenthood and its time. Childhood attachment patterns are questioned. The insecure attachment models with more perceived stress are frequent for new parents, the child being biological or adopted. This suggests the necessity to think the welcoming of the child and the couple's preparation to the welcoming together with an accompaniment for at least the first year of the child.     

Le passage de haies : de la réalité sportive en heptathlon à la réalité subjective d'Emma

The major dimension of this article is to point out the importance of psychological follow-up with sporting teenagers. Emma's example illustrates the inherent transitions from this period of age in the specific context of the high level sport. For Emma, the passage of hurdle becomes the metaphor of its psychical conflict. The counter performance which appears in the passage of hurdle announces its ambivalence with regard to its personal history within realities of sport cultures. This making sense of the sporting problems within the framework of the psychological follow-up can help to exceed this difficulty of passage and to support its engagement like subject of its own desire on the way of its realization in the sporting act.     

La boulimie à l'épreuve du Rorschach : étude des représentations de soi et d'objet dans une analyse multivariée

The aim of this study was to examine self and objet representation disorders defined by bulimic women. 113 bulimics and 115 non-bulimics, aged 18 to 58, both outpatient women, where assessed by the Rorschach test according to the french method. 14 topics were selected from ther international psychopathological literature then translated into 14 Rorschach indices from the analysis of each protocol. Ten of the fourteen selected indices distinguish the two groups in a significant way. A multivariate analysis (AFCM) reveals in the bulimic group five dimensions corresponding to 63% of the inertia. If the first dimension appears to be related to general psychopathology, the four others are more specific to bulimic representation disorders.     

Explanation and categorization: How “why?” informs “what?”

Recent theoretical and empirical work suggests that explanation and categorization are intimately related. This paper explores the hypothesis that explanations can help structure conceptual representations, and thereby influence the relative importance of features in categorization decisions. In particular, features may be differentially important depending on the role they play in explaining other features or aspects of category membership. Two experiments manipulate whether a feature is explained mechanistically, by appeal to proximate causes, or functionally, by appeal to a function or goal. Explanation type has a significant impact on the relative importance of features in subsequent categorization judgments, with functional explanations reversing previously documented effects of ‘causal status’. The findings suggest that a feature’s explanatory importance can impact categorization, and that explanatory relationships, in addition to causal relationships, are critical to understanding conceptual representation.     

La fausse couche : du côté des hommes

ObjectiveThe experience and psychological consequences of a miscarriage have been widely studied but mainly among women. This qualitative study aims to examine the experience of men whose woman has had a spontaneous abortion.MethodThirteen men who have lost an early pregnancy during the five past years participated to a semi-directive interview. The interview was based on the analytical framework previously established and took into account various themes such as psychological experience, marital relationship, guilt, coping strategies, social support given to the spouse, and significance of the loss. All the interviews have been transcribed and studied with a thematic analyse.ResultsResults underline the difficulties linked to the experience of miscarriage among men. Many of them were shocked and have had a sustainable significant distress expressed by sadness, tears or depressive symptoms. In addition to their own difficulties, men have to confront women's distress and want to be a support. Guilt was expressed more or less directly, concerning the miscarriage but also concerning men's reactions toward women. Some of them who encountered psychological problems found very difficult not to be able to support their wife. A miscarriage is a difficult event for a couple and two men interviewed separated shortly after. Several coping strategies were used by men, the most common were seeking social support and avoidance. As in women, significance of the loss was different among men, some of them have lost a child, others an embryo or a life project.ConclusionResults show the variety of feelings and reactions of men that highlight the need to consider their psychological distress. While all men are not equally involved in miscarriage, difficulties encountered by some of them can last several months. Given this results, support interventions for males seems interesting.     

“Alexa,who am I?”: Voice Assistants and Hermeneutic Lemniscate as the Technologically Mediated Sense-Making

Human Studies - In this paper, I argue that AI-powered voice assistants, just as all technologies, actively mediate our interpretative structures, including values. I show this by explaining the...     

‘Kierkegaard’: A Reasonable Fideist?

The task I set myself is to identify whether Climacus is an extreme or moderate fideist, and to go on to evaluate how convincing or persuasive I find Climacus' position. Separating metaphysical and epistemological fideism, I spend the first section of the article denying that Climacus is a 'metaphysical fideist'. This involves looking at the notion of 'truth as subjectivity'. I will claim that in expounding this notorious maxim Climacus can be seen as expressing something almost trivially obvious and/or something substantially wrong. I will further argue that even the obvious version of the maxim needs to be heavily qualified before it can be a sufficient account of 'religious truth'.
In the second section of the article I argue that Climacus should be understood as a moderate fideist, who considers that reason should assent to its own limitations. Although I will approve of reason-exhausting projects, I will complain that the paradox which is supposed to so exhaust my reason does not perplex me in the relevant sense.     

Poly Implant Prothèse : en l’absence de responsabilité de l’État,quelle indemnisation possible ?

With two decisions dated November 16th 2020, the French administrative Highest court (“Conseil d’État”) has compromised the possibility for PIP's victims to demonstrate the deficiency of the National medicines agency (ANSM) in its duty of health control. Those decisions transpose to medical devices already well-established principles, used for other healthcare products. There are of interested because they give the Highest court the opportunity to precisely detail the qualification of the facts. Although the consequences for the victims seem to be only of symbolic value, the scope of the solution is not limited to the liability of the State. By reducing the number of potential liable persons, those decisions also seem to jeopardize the compensation of the victims by the national solidarity funds.     

Environmental annoyances: an urban-specific threat to quality of life?

Two questions are at the bases of this paper: (1) what is the importance of environmental features among all other factors contributing to threaten the individual's quality of life, and (2) are cities perceived as being worse than rural environments in terms of environmental quality? In order to respond to these questions, a French version of the Lazarus Hassle scale has been published in an issue of the periodic “Science et Vie”. 1791 individuals from all parts of France sent in their responses. Results show that environmental features are among the most severe hassles of daily life in French population. They are the most often mentioned and the highest ranked items. Looking at the size of the place of residence, it appears that inhabitants of rural areas do not consider themselves significantly less exposed to stressors like noise, air pollution, traffic problems or criminality than Parisians or inhabitants of other big agglomerations, and they do not feel significantly less irritated, frustrated or anxious by environmental problems, than others. In terms of people–environment relations, the results suggest that, whatever the objective environmental condition, people feel stressed by environmental problems, which indicates that the awareness of such issues seem to be at least partly dependent on normative social constructs.     

Étude exploratoire des stresseurs relatifs aux maladies somatiques chroniques : identification des dimensions et analyse des liens avec la qualité de vie

What are the subjective stressors common to the somatic chronic diseases and do those perceptions influence the quality of life of the patients? Sixty-six adult subjects suffering from a chronic pathology (diabetes, respiratory insufficiency, heart disease, asthma) participated to this exploratory research. Qualitative then quantitative analysis showed 4 domains of perceived stress in the chronic disease: physical repercussions, social and relational consequences, decrease of the biopsychosocial resources and fear and anxiety. These domains are moderately correlated justifying existence of a hierarchical factorial structure. The inventory has satisfactory psychometric properties (construct validity and internal consistency). The four scales correlated fairly with assessment of quality of life (PQVS). Better predictors are physical repercussions of the disease and fear and anxiety.