LOGIQUE ET PSYCHOLOGIE DE L'APPRENTISSAGE DES CONCEPTS

In the field of concept learning, there are very few studies in which logícal conditions are used as independent variables. A logical analysis of concept learning phenomena is presented: it is an application of some elementary theoremas of logics and set theory. To learn a concept means to identify relevant attributes of the phenomena observed; the theoretical analysis of the situation shows that concept learning can be seen as a problem, the solution of which depends on a precise algorithm. Numerous experiments have been carried out on the basis of such an analysis, some of which are described here. Results provide evidence that time and quality of performance depend on the length and logical structure of the set of successive stimuli presented to subjccts. So logical features of the situation influence concept learning; but, there are various other factors which control subject's performance : for instance, number of redundant examples, and subject's memory and perceptual-motor activity. Current interpretations of concept learning, i.e., stochastic models of learning and logical and mathematical interpretation are discussed and the need of an approach which would combine both to fit the complexity of concept learning phenomena is emphasized.     

Applied psychology in Mexico

Two important issues must be made clear in the context of the development of psychology in Mexico. Psychology in general and applied psychology in particular are relatively new and fast-growing fields of study in this country. In 1940, there were only six students registered in the Department of Psychology at the National University of Mexico (the largest institution both for teaching and research in this country), and the first research papers in what at the time could be considered applied psychology appeared in the 1950s (e.g. Días-Guerrero, 1952, on the mental and social health of Mexicans living in the cities; and Gómez-Robleda, 1959, on industrial psychology).     

Ethnic hierarchies,ethnic prejudice,and social dominance orientation

Previous research in multi‐ethnic societies has shown that people rank, or form hierarchies of, the ethnic groups on the basis of social distance. Based on self‐report data from a community sample (N = 150 non‐psychology students), this study examined (1) the correspondence of ratings and rankings of six ethnic target groups among various subgroups of participants (Swedish and immigrant men and women), and (2) the relationship of inclination to ethnic ranking with ethnic prejudice and social dominance orientation. In accord with our hypotheses, the results disclosed that (1) irrespective of gender and ethnic origin, the various subgroups of participants ranked and formed similar hierarchies of the six ethnic target groups, and (2) people's inclination to ethnic ranking showed significant correlations with their ethnic prejudice as well as social dominance orientation. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of ethnicity,nationality, counseling orientation,and mental health standards on stereotypic beliefs about women: A pilot study

People vary in the extent to which they hold stereotypic beliefs about women. The recently developed Beliefs About Women Scale (BAWS) was used in five investigations to examine the following aspects of people's stereotypic beliefs about women: (Study I) the impact of ethnicity (Hispanics and Anglos) on women's endorsement of traditional beliefs about women; (Study II) the impact of national culture (Mexico and the United States) on women's responses to the BAWS; (Study III) the extent to which U.S. women define women's and men's mental health in terms of stereotypic beliefs about women; (Study IV) the extent to which preferences for counseling orientation influence the beliefs about women attributed to mentally healthy women and men; and (Study V) the impact of national culture (Mexico and the United States) on the beliefs about women ascribed to mentally healthy women and men. The results indicated that (a) U.S. Anglo females disagreed more strongly with traditional beliefs about women than did U.S. Hispanic females; (b) U.S. women expressed greater agreement with traditional stereotypes about women's interpersonal abilities and greater disagreement with traditional stereotypes about women's personal competencies than did women from Mexico; (c) the beliefs about women held by U.S. psychology trainees, and the beliefs about women that they attributed to mentally healthy females, were more nontraditional than those that they attributed to mentally healthy males; (d) particular counseling preferences were associated with the stereotypic beliefs about women that female counseling trainees imputed to mentally healthy males and females; and (e) similarities and differences exist on the beliefs about women that female psychology trainees from the United States and Mexico ascribe to mentally healthy females and males. The discussion focuses on mentally healthy beliefs about women, and the implications of these findings for the delivery of mental health services to women and men from various cultures.     

POUR UN PROGRAMME INTERNATIONAL DE RECHERCHES PSYCHOLOGIQUES

For an international program of psychological studies. — We live at a time of a rapid accumulation of psychological data as contrasted with disproportionately slow development of psychology as a scientific system. Progress in the practical utilization of psychological research findings appears equally inadequate in the face of the quantitative explosion of the research. Having established a multitude of concrete facts, we are unable to agree on any but a few general statements. Each area of psychology has developed a host of “miniature theories”, but there is little, if any, agreement among them. The deplorable theoretical state makes it equally difficult to establish a valid hierarchy of research problems that might enable us to discriminate between fundamental and secondary issues. The relative isolation of the “miniature theories” has led to an atomization of research into “miniature projects”, or else into mutually irrelevant topics. In effect, the research potential of psychology is being largely dissipated. The history of psychology has recorded many attempts to develop great theoretical systems, of which three proved most successful. These were : the associationist psychology of either the S-S type, based on the idea of mental connections, or the S-R type; the Gestalt psychology based on the idea of structure; and psychoanalysis, based on the idea of dynamic tendencies. Each has greatly contributed to the development of psychological studies without being able, however, to account for all by then established facts. The net effect has been a general disenchantment with theory. Nevertheless, the fundamental ideas underlying these systems have come to be generally acknowledged. Attempts to develop new entities from various pieces of these systems have produced numerous theoretical constructs of an eclectic character, which only increased the atomization of psychology. The growing atomization of psychology has been a source of concern for many scholars. At the xviith Congress of Psychology in Washington, this situation was extensively discussed by G. Allport. In continuation of his ideas, it may be suggested that there seems to be real prospects of defeating the atomization of psychology, and of integrating it into a coherent system, provided psychology is approached as a science of man. This would require us to abandon the heritage of Hume's philosophy, which has caused us to view psychology as a science of phenomena, processes, reactions or behaviors, while disregarding the fact that these are merely manifestations of man's goal-oriented and organized activity, resulting from his continuous effort to adjust his relationships with the environment. Such a reorientation would enable us to establish a definite hierarchy of problems, with the main emphasis resting on the structure of man's activity and the mechanisms by which this activity is orientated and organized. As a result, the gap between psychological theory and practical application would be narrowed down, a circumstance of great significance for the social prestige of psychology as a science. An organized effort is needed to overcome the present atomization in psychology. A particularly great responsibility rests on the International Union of Psychological Science. The present author suggests the following objectives for the IUPS in this respect : further efforts should be made to improve the methods of scientific information; a co-operation should be sought with other international institutions responsible for research on man; specially interesting appears to be the UNESCO initiative to investigate the basic development trends in the sciences of man; an international program of scientific research work in psychology should be drawn up.     

Attitudes towards complementary and alternative medicine among medical and psychology students

The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is increasing in Europe as well as in the USA, but CAM courses are infrequently integrated into medical curricula. In Europe, but also especially in the USA and in Canada, the attitudes of medical students and health science professionals in various disciplines towards CAM have been the subject of investigation. Most studies report positive attitudes. The main aim of this study was to compare the attitudes towards CAM of medical and psychology students in Germany. An additional set of questions concerned how CAM utilisation and emotional and physical condition affect CAM-related attitudes. Two hundred thirty-three medical students and 55 psychology students were questioned concerning their attitudes towards CAM using the Questionnaire on Attitudes Towards Complementary Medical Treatment (QACAM). Both medical students and psychology students were sceptical about the diagnostic and the therapeutic proficiency of doctors and practitioners of CAM. Students' attitudes towards CAM correlated neither with their experiences as CAM patients nor with their emotional and physical condition. It can be assumed that German medical and psychology students will be reluctant to use or recommend CAM in their professional careers. Further studies should examine more closely the correlation between attitudes towards CAM and the students' worldview as well as their existing knowledge of the effectiveness of CAM.     

A cross-cultural study of trait self-enhancement, explanatory variables, and adjustment

We investigated trait self-enhancement, explanatory variables, and adjustment in European American (n = 141), Asian American (n = 72), Mexican (n = 141), and Filipino (n = 174) college students. Consistent with trait perspectives, students in all cultural groups rated their traits with moderate to high accuracy, using peer ratings as a criterion. European Americans did not exhibit self-enhancement relative to peers, but both self and peer ratings were higher (i.e., more positive) for European Americans than for the other three groups. Support was found for some, but not all, cultural psychology explanations of self-enhancement. In all cultural groups, self-enhancement was more associated with personal (intrapsychic) adjustment than interpersonal adjustment, as judged by peers. The results provided support for an integration of trait and cultural psychology perspectives.     

The Prevalence of Well-Being on Teachers in Afri Twin Schools as Well as Non Afri Twin Schools

This study investigated the self-perceived preparedness of students from a historically disadvantaged rural South African setting for psychology studies at a university. The study sample comprised 399 beginning students with a historically Black university (age M = 22.8 years, SD = 5.1; 72.2% women; 65.7% rural background) students. The students responded to a questionnaire investigating, inter alia, prior awareness of the subject, access to psychology literature, awareness of psychologists in their communities, perceived relevance to or clashes with their culture, and parental awareness of the subject. Of the sample, 48.1% first heard about psychology upon entering a university, 75.7% had no access to books on the subject, and only 44.6% received information from their school teachers about psychology as a career. Significantly more urban (65.2%) than rural (34.8%) students had received information about psychology before coming to university.     

TRADUCTION ET VALIDATION CANADIENNE-FRANÇAISE DE L'ÉCHELLE DE L'ESTIME DE SOI DE ROSENBERG*

Since the early days of psychology, the self-concept and more specifically global self-esteem has been addressed by numerous researchers in the field. Among the widely used instruments for measuring global self-esteem, Rosenberg's Self-Esteem scale (RSE) has displayed high levels of validity and reliability (Harter 1983; Wylie 1974). Through a brief (10 items) and direct approach, the RSE can be answered quickly by different age and social groups. Considering the good psychometric properties of the RSE mentioned above, and the importance of self-esteem for research in psychology, the purpose of the present four studies was to translate and validate in French the RSE Internal consistency (study 1) and confirmatory factor analyses through LISREL VI (study 2) were conducted with a French-Canadian junior college student population in order to verify the internal consistency and the unidimensional factorial structure of the scale. In addition, the construct validity (study 3) and temporal stability (study 4) of the scale were assessed. Although the present findings are preliminary in nature, they nevertheless support the reliability and validity of the Rosenberg's Self-Esteem scale in French.     

Students' Views on the Value of Psychological Research: A Contribution to Indigenising Psychology in Botswana

The goal of the study was to explore the value that psychology students accredit to psychological research in a country like Botswana where psychology is a relatively new discipline. Forty-five undergraduate students belonging to the first cohort of psychology students at the University of Botswana participated in the study (males = 7, females = 38, age range 18–23 years). Data were obtained from student essays and evaluated with Qualitative Content Analysis. Students were of the view that psychological research should (a) increase knowledge to better understand human beings and the world (epistemological value); (b) create awareness about psychology within society so as to to assist society in combating societal problems (societal value); (c) enhance individuals' understanding of psychology so as to to accept psychology (individual value); and (d) up-date psychological theories to ensure their applicability in present times (theoretical value). Considering students' views could play an important role in indigenising psychology in Botswana.     

QUELQUES OBSERVATIONS SUR LA PSYCHOLOGIE EN ALGERIE: UNE PERSPECTIVE TRANSCULTURELLE

In this article we would like to familiarize our Francophone colleagues with the Algerian sociocultural background as well as with some aspects of psychology in Algeria. This information should facilitate contacts between Francophone and Algerian psychologists in order to contribute to research in the area of cross-cultural psychology. There are three institutes of psychology and educational sciences in Algeria. Most psychologists hold degrees from French universities. Psychologists are not organized into an independent association, but they belong to ‘The Union of Algerian Sociologists and Economists’. Their research projects are concerned with problems specific to Algerian culture as well as with problems in general psychology. We believe that for cross-cultural research, the Algerian culture could provide different factors or greater extremes of factors than those found in the West. Factors related to certain behavior differ in Algeria from those found in the West. One important area of cross-cultural research is the adaptation and validation of tests of personality and intelligence.     

SHORT- AND LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF CONTINGENCY MANAGED INSTRUCTION ON LOW,MEDIUM, AND HIGH GPA STUDENTS1

Undergraduate students had been assigned to a contingency managed course or a conventional lecture course (Du Nann and Fernald, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1976, 9 , 373–374). Two years later, some 35% (N = 86) of the original classes responded to a letter offering them $2.00 to participate in a study of their educational experiences. These students completed a multiple-choice test on material from the course, and answered questions about activities and attitudes that might have been affected by the experience in Introductory Psychology. In the contingency management course 2 yr past, students were tested each week on a chapter of textbook material with 10-item multiple-choice quizzes. The course employed a modified “Doomsday Contingency”, requiring each student to achieve 80% mastery on one of the four weekly quizzes or drop the course. Quizzes were given in small groups and scored individually, while the student stood near, by an undergraduate proctor assigned to that group. The proctor was asked to show interest in the students' quiz performances, help clear up difficult areas, and develop a friendly working relationship with each student. While many students passed the quiz on the first attempt, others were given individual tutoring, so that no one was in fact forced to drop the course. In addition to the weekly quiz assignment, students in the contingency managed group were asked to attend one lecture each week. While the contingency management course procedures had much in common with PSI (Keller, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1968, 1 , 79–89), several departures made them unique. First, self-pacing was curtailed because students were required to master one unit per week or drop the course. Second, proctors met with students in small groups, usually giving individual tutoring only to those students who did not pass the quiz on the first attempt. Finally, students were asked to attend one lecture per week. Students in the conventional lecture group were not asked to pass weekly quizzes, but instead attended three 50-min lectures each week. Two of these lectures followed the textbook material closely, while the third, which was also attended by students from the contingency management course, covered material only indirectly related to the text. This partition of lecture content allowed material to be similar across the two instructional groups. Although students in the lecture condition were told they could obtain copies of the quizzes, few of them did so. Course grades were determined by scores on two 45-item multiple-choice hourly exams, each covering half the semester material (each worth 25%), and by a 90-item final exam, which served as a measure of short-term retention. Before analyzing the follow-up data, several characteristics of the returning students were compared to determine the comparability of the sample from the two original classes. Most important, both attrition and the current mean GPAs of students from the two classes were very similar. These considerations, and others, suggested there was no systematic sampling bias to confound comparisons of student performance. A 2 (contingency management versus traditional lecture) by 3 (high, medium, and low GPA) analysis of variance was computed on the course final-exam scores and the follow-up measures. Instructional procedure and GPA interacted on the final exam such that low and medium GPA students performed significantly better under contingency management, but there was no significant effect of instructional procedure with high GPA students. On the 2-yr retention measures, students from the contingency management course performed significantly (p < 0.01) better on items drawn from quizzes used in their original course, and marginally better (p < 0.10) on items drawn from the final exams, but no interactions with GPA appeared. Furthermore, instructional method produced no significant main effects or interaction with how many students became majors or minors in psychology, how many psychology courses were later taken, how many books in psychology were reported to have been read, or on students' evaluation of the interest and importance of psychology.     

TRANSFERENCE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE AND ITS IMPACT ON MEXICO

The impact of the transfer of the psychological knowledge from the developed countries to Mexico, is briefly described. It is clear that scientific psychological methodology and contents were introduced to Mexico at the end of the 19th Century. The impetus to the National Educational System was primarily derived from psychometric methods and secondarily from modern conceptions of education. The professional psychological practice in Mexico today is practically indistinguishable from its exercise in the developed nations as far as client services are concerned. On the other hand, there is relatively scarce and often inept use of professional or applied research techniques to the social problems of groups or to the evaluation of programs. The impact on pure and applied research, none the less, has been extensive and a relatively large number of people are doing research in several areas of psychology, particularly cross-cultural, neuro-psychological, the experimental analysis of behavior, action and interdisciplinary research in social and educational psychology. Priorities are: (1) Systematic teaching at the graduate level of the statistical and computational methodology of psychology in the context of research design and evaluation; (2) The operationalization or transferring to every day language of the concepts and techniques of psychology for use of the general public; (3) The better staffing of many, particularly the private schools of professional psychology.     

Notes from a Visit to Several Zapatista Communities: Toward Practices of Nomadic Identity and Hybridity

Reflections on meeting members of the Zapatista movement and visiting two Zapatista autonomous zones in Chiapas, Mexico inform an American liberation psychologist’s reflections on how to engage psychology students (and herself) in community and ecological fieldwork, community practice, and participatory research. The importance of community psychologists’ exploration of their own subjectivity as they encounter communities outside their own is underlined, as is critical inquiry on the impact of our social locations on the communities with whom we partner. Zapatistas’ conceptualization of autonomous zones where people can work together to create forms of shared leadership, decision-making through consensus, communal economics, empowerment of women, and liberatory arts and education inspire the creation of public homeplaces throughout the world.     

The Social Intelligence of Acting Students

American acting students were asked to predict the ratings made by the general population of undergraduate psychology students on an adjective checklist dealing with several professions, one of which was acting. The same task was set for two benchmark comparison groups (psychology graduate students and a sample from the general population of students). Chi-square comparisons of the ratings of the undergraduate psychology students and their predicted ratings by the acting students revealed that the acting students achieved a 70% correct prediction rate. Chi-square analyses of the performance of the psychology graduate students and the general student sample showed that the acting students' predictions were inferior to those of the psychology graduate students but no different from those of the general undergraduate student sample. The acting students were more accurate in predicting the endorsement of negative adjectives (100%) than positive adjectives (55%). The acting students tended to distrust other people's attitudes towards actors, whereas, in fact, the general population of students' feelings about them were mildly positive.     

Maternal employment,anxiety, and sex differences in college students' self-descriptions

This study sought to determine if a relationship exists between maternal employment during childhood, anxiety, and gender in college students. A questionnaire incorporating the Adjective Generation Technique (AGT) was administered to undergraduate psychology students from intact, two-parent families. Subjects were grouped into four categories: males whose mothers worked during their childhood (n=33), males whose mothers remained home (n=49), females whose mothers worked (n=54), and females whose mothers remained home (n=49). Data were analyzed using a 2×2 analysis of variance. Results indicated no differences in anxiety for subjects of either sex in relationship to the employment status of the mothers. A pronounced sex difference was found, with females scoring significantly higher in anxiety than males.     

NÉCESSITÉ ET SIGNIFICATION DES RECHERCHES COMPARATIVES EN PSYCHOLOGIE GÉNÉTIQUE

Need and meaning of comparative studies in genetic psychology. — The comparative studies in the field of genetic psychology are indispensable for Psychology in general and also for Sociology, because only such studies allow us to separate the effects of biological or mental factors from those of social and cultural influences on the formation and the socialization of individuals. Relevant to this discussion is the well-known issue between culturalistic psychoanalysts like Fromm, Horney, etc., and classical freudian psychoanalysts who reduce the whole individual development to an endogenous evolution of « instinct ». In the field of cognitive functions to which this paper is devoted, at least four kinds of various factors must be distinguished, the respective influences of which can be separated through comparative studies : I. Biological factors depending on the “epigenetic” system (maturation of nervous system, etc.). These factors probably explain the sequential aspects (constant and necessary order) of the stages in the development of operative intelligence. However, if only these factors were acting, the stages would not only appear in a sequence, but at the same ages, whereas in fact, the ages where a stage appears differ from one environment to another. 2. Equilibration or autoregulation factors, determining behavior and thought in their various specific activities. They correspond to the sequential forms in general coordination of the actions of individuals as interacting with their physical environment; such intervening regulations are probably at the origin of the mental operations themselves, especially logical - mathematical operations. 3. General socialization factors, which are identical for all societies : cooperations - discussions - oppositions - exchanges, etc., between children or between adults or between adults and children. These factors 3 are closely related with the factors 2, because the general coordination of actions concerns inter-individual as so as intra-individual actions. 4. Factors related to educational and cultural transmission, which differ from one society to another; they are those we usually have in mind when we say briefly “social factors”. To discuss the influence of these four factors, Mohseni's study on Teheran school children and illiterate rural children is given as an example. Three results were obtained : (1) For “conservation” tasks, the same stages of intellectual development are observed for urban and rural children, in Iran as well as in Europe. (2) For these same tasks, a systematic delay of two to three years is observed among rural children with respect to Teheran children. (3) For performance tests (i.e. Porteus, Goodenough, etc.) there is a delay of four and primarily five years. These data seem to show that there is some sequential order of the stages which depends partially on the factors I. But, the ages for each stage are not constant, showing the factors 2 and 3 are intervening in a probably inseparable way. On the other hand, the difference between the actual operative results and the performance tests seems to indicate that a distinction might be made between the factors of general coordination (factors 2 and 3) and the educational transmissions (factors 4). About these last factors, the three and four year delays observed by Canadian psychologists working in Martinique with school children (French curriculum) in operative tasks (like conservations) seem to indicate that the general operations depend less on school than on the activities themselves of children or in general on the adult stimulations in the environment. We must pay special attention to the problems raised by language. In some precise and systematic experiments in Geneva, Sinclair shows children on the “preoperative” level (i.e. with no conservation…) do not spontaneously use the same language as operative children : the former use chiefly “scale” words (“much” or “many”, “little” or “few”, “large”, “small”) and the latter use chiefly “vector” words (“more”, “less”). If the younger subjects are submitted to a verbal training, they do learn to use the older children's language, but it only results in very little operative improvement (about one case out of 10 subjects on the average). Therefore, replicating the same experiments in countries speaking different languages would be very interesting. For instance, in the Turkish language, there is only one “vector” word, i.e. “again”; so that the Turk says “again much, again many” to say “more”. Then, the question is to know whether a change will be observed for the stages of logical-mathematical operations or whether these operations will be found everywhere with their identical common background; it seems that this last conclusion has already been observed in Aden (Hyde), Hong Kong (Goodnow), South Africa (Price-Williams). In conclusion, the kind of psychology we develop in our social environments, remains conjectural as long as comparative extensive and systematical research is not available; a great effort is still to be made in this direction.     

Graduate school mentoring in clinical,counselling, and experimental academic training programs: an exploratory study

This study focused on graduate student mentoring within clinical, counselling and experimental psychology programs. A nationwide survey of 336 psychology graduate students indicated that counselling students reported higher levels of socioemotional support in their mentoring relationships, as well as higher overall levels of satisfaction, compared with clinical and experimental students. Clinical and experimental students, however, reported higher levels of selected outcome variables, such as research productivity. The relationships between mentoring qualities and several outcome variables were noted and discussed. This study adds to the developing literature concerning graduate student mentoring within professional psychology training programs.     

Research Report: Students' knowledge of abnormal psychology

The present study aims to compare whether final year psychology students (n = 26) could answer more items on a multiple choice questionnaire (MCQ) correctly on abnormal psychology than prospective psychology candidates (n = 77) and final year engineering students (n = 26). The three groups of students completed MCQs in five different fields of abnormal psychology namely; eating disorders, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders and depression, sexual disorders, and personality and compulsive disorders, respectively. They were also asked to indicate their confidence level in relation to the accuracy of the answers they had given. The results showed that final year psychology students scored higher on levels of accuracy, as well as confidence on all measures compared to the two other groups. On the subject of sexual disorders, engineering students scored higher than prospective psychology students. Implications of the present findings are discussed.     

Men Pursuing an Undergraduate Psychology Degree: What’s Masculinity Got to Do with It?

Using discursive psychology as its theoretical and methodological framework, the present study explored male Canadian undergraduate students’ accounts of their reasons for studying psychology, their experiences of being male undergraduate psychology students, and their anticipated future careers. Ten men (19–29 years-old) who were at least in their second year of study in the psychology major program were interviewed. Contrary to survey research concluding that men who make gender-atypical vocational choices conform less to masculine norms than do men who make typical academic and career choices, our participants produced contradictory accounts. On the one hand, in talking about their experiences as psychology students in the context of the gender gap, they argued that gender does not matter. On the other hand, they showed that gender does matter in brief “boy moments” when they shared tacit gender knowledge with the interviewer and in justifying their academic paths toward futures that involved leaving psychology for a male-concentrated field. Thus, gender-does-not matter was the preferred argument when gender was an explicit topic of conversation, and the doing of gender occurred in unacknowledged ways.