Cadre et concepts-clés de la psychologie communautaire

Community psychology has been developed since the 1960s in North America, whereas its development is much more recent in Europe. It differs from traditional models of psychology by its conception of users and communities as collaborators. This field requires from psychologists that they extend their competencies to prevention and mental health promotion. It lays on a positive conception of the individual and of health, and seeks the investment of users in the development of local mental health models and resources. This paper aims at presenting the history of community psychology, its conceptual framework and its specificities, with regards to traditional models.     

Applications cliniques en psychologie de la santé

The aim of the present article is to present recent and validated clinical applications in the field of health psychology, in particular regarding pain and chronic disease management. Techniques such as acceptance and engagement therapy, mindfulness meditation and positive emotions enhancement have proved to be successful. Mindfulness is an attribute of consciousness long believed to promote well-being. It is commonly defined as the state of being attentive to and aware of what is taking place in the present. By this way, mindfulness meditation learns to patients with chronic pain to reduce their pain sensation. Moreover, encourage patients to have positive emotions, such as gratitude, is efficient in long term well-being. Prospective studies reveal that optimism, coping strategies such as positive reframing and acceptance, and social support yield less distress for patients with chronic disease. Similarly, psychosocial interventions that foster optimistic appraisals, build coping strategies, and bolster social support are benefit for patients. Other methods such as Cognitive Behavioral Stress Management (CBSM), enable to significantly enhance quality of life, adaptation to illness and chronic disease patient compliance. This 10-week group CBSM intervention that includes anxiety reduction (relaxation training), cognitive restructuring, and coping skills training is tested among women with breast cancer and HIV patients. The intervention reduces reports of thought intrusion, anxiety and emotional distress. Furthermore, biofeedback through Heart Rate Variability appears to be an important component of the development of patient potential in terms of cognitive and emotional resources enabling better coping with stressful situations and hence maintaining optimal health conditions. Biofeedback treatment intervention on pain and quality of life is helpful in the rehabilitation of patients with chronic pain. Limits of these applications are discussed as well as future research directions.     

La psychologie communautaire en Amérique du Nord : historiques et applications

Community psychology is an applied discipline that emerged during a time of political upheaval and social unrest in the United States and Canada. In this paper, we provide a brief overview of the history of community psychology for both countries and pinpoint some crucial elements that influenced and shaped this discipline. In order to explain community psychology and to concretely demonstrate the diversity of community research and actions, we propose some examples of practical applications of this active field in North America today.     

Psychologie communautaire et psychologie de la santé : l’implication de la recherche psychosociale dans la promotion de la santé

This paper presents the issues and main principles of community psychology and community research as well as associated relationships and viewpoints in terms of health psychology and social psychology. In this perspective, the paper presents the context in which community psychology has emerged and its fundamental principles such as empowerment, community involvement and the ecological model. Using two examples of research in prevention of HIV infection, the paper leads to a greater comprehension of how a particular community-based approach to involve affected populations may be particularly relevant, not only to better understand their beliefs and behaviors but also to try to encourage them to change current behaviors or generate new ones. Research with adolescents involved in promoting condom use illustrates the use of psychosocial models of behavior change through a community approach. A second research focus on medical and psychosocial innovation through the use of non-routine, rapid screening tests for HIV - which are neither carried out nor supervised by medical personnel - aims to highlight the impact of the development of preventive action by directly concerned communities. The article aims to present the innovative methodological and epistemological issues which underpin community research.     

Développement des collectifs de travail et développement de la sécurité : une étude sur les décisions à risque en anesthésie

This article highlights the collective dimensions of risk management for patients before an anesthesia. After a phase of observation of real activity, interviews were conducted with 20 anesthetists from two French hospitals. The analysis reveals interindividual diversity in practices. This diversity is explained by the inclusion, in decisions, of knowledge about “distributed” skills in the team and about local “shared practice”. The results establish a link between the site where the anesthetists are working and the choice of an anesthetic technique. They also show that the positioning of anesthetist vis-à-vis the “shared practice” is significantly related to their seniority in the profession. These results open perspectives for research and intervention for the joint development of collective work and safety.     

Les déterminants de la charge de travail perçue dans deux services d’urgence hospitaliers en France

This article gives an account of research carried out the workload of healthcare providers in hospital emergency wards, by focusing on several factors that are both related to the patients and to their activity. Based on 121 observations conducted in two hospitals, coupled with the NASA-TLX scale and an ad hoc questionnaire, this research indicates that the elements which contribute the most to perceived workload are the agitated behavior of patients and communication difficulties linked to handicap. However, variations in the number of tasks do not seem to have an influence on the workload perceived by health care providers which tends to highlight that the relations to patients contribute more to the perception of workload than the number of tasks. In the situation observed, the regulation of workload is made possible by the management of relational factors (physical demand, frustration and effort) which determine, in part, workload perception. In order to reduce or adapt this load, this article suggests basing interventions on the way to deal with difficult patients and not on the regulation of the number of tasks.     

Les figures temporelles de l’adulte en reconversion vers la création d’entreprise

IntroductionMore and more vocational retraining in France lead the adults to break with his former career for engaging in a new occupation. This entrepreneurial project is at the crossroads of several temporalities, which this paper has investigated.ObjectiveWe study mainly the processes of retraining to start up a company. The goal is to know if the devices of accompaniment to the construction of the entrepreneurial project come to support or interfere the temporalities of the adult in retraining to creation of company. We want to know how these adults in retraining seize these temporalities of the entrepreneurial process (beliefs, feelings, representations) and these temporalities of the assistance and counseling devices (in a structuring way, to gradually build this new professional identity of entrepreneur, or limiting way, like a form of subjugation).MethodNine adults were interviewed in semi-structured interviews about their experience of retraining to start a new business. This research provides a key to seeing the plural temporalities arising from the relationship between the desire for autonomy and the normative framework of the devices.ResultsA thematic content analysis was carried out, to identify the phases of the transition, the temporalities of the processes of retraining and creation, the logics of actions and the forms of relationships.ConclusionThe actor strives to make the limiting and emancipatory temporalities coexist through a personal work of appropriation. This allowed to construct four figures of adulthood in retraining towards entrepreneurship: the author of his artwork, the decision maker of his future, the coin adult of his actions and his time, and the runner.     

Effet de la thérapie des schémas sur la dépression de la personne âgée institutionnalisée : 3 études de cas uniques de type AB en lignes de bases multiples

IntroductionSchema therapy has confirmed its effectiveness in caring for depression. However, few studies have evaluated its effectiveness of an institutionalized elderly population.ObjectiveThe aim of this pilot study is to evaluate the efficiency of this therapy for the treatment of depression in 3 elderly people, with no neurocognitive disease, living in a nursing home.MethodClinician conducted a single case experimental protocol AB with multiple baseline for 3 participants who were experiencing depressive symptoms. Participants were randomized in 3 baselines and performed respectively 8, 7, and 6 intervention sessions.ResultsThe results highlight progressive effectiveness for two of the three residents. From baseline to the end of the therapeutic sessions (11 weeks), the improvement was significant and clinically observable for the activation of the schemas (–1.4 and –2 points on average) as well as for the level of depression (–8 and –9 points to the GDS).ConclusionThis pilot study indicates the effectiveness and replicability of schema therapy as therapeutic intervention for depression in elderly people.     

Passé et present de la psychologie en Afrique subsaharienne

This article is aimed at presenting the past and present of psychology in general and social psychology in particular in subsaharan Africa. For domination and imperialism reasons, most subsaharan psychologists try to reproduce or imitate what is done by psychologists in Western countries. Thus, sub-Saharan psychology is western inspiration. In spite of the important development of psychology teachings in the curriculum of African universities, psychological research in subsaharan Africa remains rather minor and marginal.     

Les foyers de protection judiciaire de la jeunesse et la prise en charge des jeunes auteurs de délit : représentations sociales et réflexions autour de groupes d’adolescents et d’éducateurs

The educators’ work in juvenile justice residential communities and their capacity of affective attunement to the adolescent's needs is essential for the creation of a protective and enriching context for the adolescent and his life trajectories. This article aims to explore the social representations of educators and young people in residential communities in Italy, through the analysis of their discourses gathered during focus groups. Our results reveal the need to compare these representations and work to narrow the gap between the caregivers and the users, in order to improve the relationship between the different protagonists of the interaction and, consequently, the possibilities of good success of interventions.