Duhem and Koyré on Domingo de Soto

Galileo's view of science is indebted to the teaching of the Jesuit professors at the Collegio Romano, but Galileo's concept of mathematical physics also corresponds to that of Giovan Battista Benedetti. Lacking documentary evidence that would connect Benedetti directly with the Jesuits, or the Jesuits with Benedetti, I infer a common source: the Spanish connection, that is, Domingo de Soto. I then give indications that the fourteenth-century work at Oxford and Paris on calculationes was transmitted via Spain and Portugal to Rome and other centers where Jesuits had colleges, and figured in the rise of mathematical physics at the beginning of the seventeenth century. A result of these researches is their vindication of Duhem, as contrasted with Koyré, on the origins of modern mechanics.     

La qualité de vie au travail dans les services de ressources humaines

This research looks at work well-being for human resources staffs, which are brought to manage relations between individuals and organization, between organization and society, between individuals and society. 263 human resources staffs performed a questionnaire estimating work facets such professionals satisfaction and commitment, work conditions and health. Results shown firstly a work quality of life for staffs, what does not prevent them from reporting hardness (temporal constraints, working overload), secondly the absence of systematic effects of status, age and gender on work attitudes and health. Results and futur works are discussed.     

Conception et santé : quelques remarques sur le statut de l’activité de travail dans la conception des systèmes de production

The aim of this article is to discuss the status of activity at work for the design process. After having highlighted the stakes to take into account activity at work during design, three approaches are discussed. One can try to model the workers’ activity in order to anticipate it during the design process. One can try to support the design of flexible systems, which control activity. One can try to catch and articulate in a same process the development of both the situation and the activity. These different positions result in different understanding of the design process mainly in its temporal dimension. For each approaches, some lines of research are presented.     

Les psychologues dans le champ de la santé mentale : les perspectives en promotion de la santé mentale positive

Literature findingsMental health promotion is still insufficiently known by psychologists and few of them work in this field, in part because it is based on public health concepts and data. Furthermore, its approach is focused on positive health – as opposed to deficit models – which proposes interventions consisting in developing human competencies and strengths as a means of preventing potential future mental illnesses.DiscussionThe present stake, in the field of mental health, thus requires a paradigmatic change in psychologists which would enable to move from mainly curative interventions to actions oriented towards individual and collectives’ potentialities. This article presents a synthesis of mental health determinants as well as national and international public policies aiming at developing health promotion.ConclusionIt concludes on how psychologist could become major actors in this field.     

Sentiment de responsabilité pour le changement et l'innovation dans le contexte du comportement de santé : le rôle de la charge de travail cognitive,le leadership,l’autonomisation et la personnalité proactive

The innovation is one of the possible answers to the actual global competitive context able to foster and cope the high standards necessary for survival and competition of the organisations. The objective of this study, realized in the health context, is the exploration of the relationships between the innovative work behaviour and three antecedents (proactive personality, job cognitive demands and empowering leadership) trying to maintain the interactionist perspective between individual factors and context factors. These relationships have been investigated with a mediator role of felt responsibility to change, the individual belief that has a person when has feeling of responsibility in a realisation of transformations and new and constructive changes.     

Les transformations du marché du travail et des organisations : enjeux de maintien au travail et de mobilité professionnelle

This article examines the impacts of the changes in the labor market and organizations as well as their effects on women executives’ job retention and professional mobility. This research is rooted in a qualitative approach based on 51 individual interviews with female executives. The results reveal that the work of women executives is organized around financial goals and could entail risks such as loss of meaning. In these contexts, women developpe resistance or collaboration strategies to integrate and stay at work. These strategies have consequences on their professional mobility.     

Confort au travail : Le rôle de l'attachement et de la personnalisation dans la perception de la qualité de l'espace de travail

This article investigates the links between personalization, workplace attachment and perceived workplace quality. Participants (N = 116) work in the same office building. This investigation focus also about the office ability to improve intimacy and appropriation by owners (open space, individual office, shared office). As we were expecting, we observe an effective link between personalization and workplace attachment, and perceived workplace quality. The overall results lead to the conclusion of a solid link between attachment and perceived workplace quality. We will discuss our conclusions furthermore and we will offer recommendations.     

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.     

La communauté de pratique : au carrefour des notions de groupe informel et de transmission des savoirs tacites

The results of a field study confirm what the most important research in knowledge management reveals about communities of practice in organizations. If one accepts that the essence of a community of practice is found in its informal nature and its transmission of tacit knowledge, one observes that it is within informal groups that one finds individuals in the best position to convey tacit knowledge. The community of practice would therefore seem to act as a sort of catalyst in the transmission of tacit knowledge.     

Questionnaire d’efficacité de la consultation : élaboration et validation préliminaire d’une échelle de mesure de l’efficacité de la consultation en gestion

Despite sustained interest of both researchers and practitioners in favor of a reliable measure of management consulting effectiveness, the existing assessment instruments remain scarce, poorly validated and often inadequate. This study proposes a new instrument for assessing management consulting effectiveness from the consultant's point of view: The Consulting Effectiveness Questionnaire (Questionnaire d’efficacité de la consultation). The preliminary empirical validation of the questionnaire was conducted using two samples of 116 and 207 consultants. Exploratory and Confirmatory factor analyses suggests a second-order two-factor solution, namely the Quality of the process and Value-added results. The results offer preliminary support for the psychometric properties (validity and reliability) of this promising tool for both research and practice purposes.     

Premières étapes de construction et de validation d’une échelle de spiritualité explicite areligieuse

Although spirituality and religion have often been used in an undifferentiated way in the literature, the existence of an areligious spirituality beyond the question of religious belief. The objective of our study was to construct and validate a scale of areligious spirituality applicable to the university student. The unidimensional structure of the scale was revealed in an exploratory study carried out with 263 students. This structure was also exhibited in a confirmatory study concerning 259 students. The internal coherence was satisfactory. Multi-group analyses showed that the model works equally well for men and women and for members and non-members of a religious order. Finally a high score on the scale of areligious spirituality is associated with a strong satisfaction with life. This preliminary research highlights the good psychometric properties of the Explicit Scale of Areligious Spirituality (ESAS) and seems to be a good investigative tool for all researchers and professionals interested in the subject of spirituality.     

Causalité juridique et imputabilité médicale : l’incidence de l’approche juridique du lien de causalité sur la pratique expertale en droit de la réparation du dommage corporel

Traditionally, a “direct and certain” causal link was required between fault and harm in order to engage an individual's compensatory liability. However, upon reading case law, it is possible to note that causality no longer necessarily has to be either direct or certain. Indeed, although the presence of a previous condition long enabled the exclusion of a direct link between a harmful event and its aftereffects, the French Court of Appeal (Cour de Cassation) now considers that pathological predispositions must no longer be taken into account (in respect of an exclusion or a reduction in the right to compensation) if these were latent, and only revealed by the harmful event. Similarly, on occasion the plaintiffs support their claims with bundles of evidence and arguments that can but force magistrates to set aside the absence of absolute certainty on a scientific level. Presumptions of accountability have even been put forward in some areas of personal injury compensation (traffic accidents and workplace accidents). The conduct and content of forensic expertises are then disrupted, both for the expert and for the victim's lawyer.