Critical notes and reflections on ‘social representations’

Moscovici has ushered in the ‘era of social representations widely welcomed as a European alternative to what are increasingly regarded as the shortcomings of mainline American social psychology. The rapid and enthusiastic adoption by many psychologists of Moscovici's theoretical approach has not so far evoked a great deal of critical appraisal of the ideas he put forward. The present paper seeks to make a start in jilling this gap by an examination of the conceptual structure and some of its underlying assumptions. There appear to be a number of internal inconsistencies and some doubt concerning the logical status of social representations’ It is suggested that clarification of such issues, together with the establishment of closer links with the findings of neighbouring disciplines, would help to strengthen what is undoubtedly one of the most stimulating new departures in the field.     

CO-WORKER IMPLEMENTED JOB TRAINING: THE USE OF COINCIDENTAL TRAINING AND QUALITY-CONTROL CHECKING ON THE FOOD PREPARATION SKILLS OF TRAINEES WITH MENTAL RETARDATION

In two studies, co-workers of persons with disabilities were taught to use coincidental training procedures while completing their own jobs. In Study 1, the effects of coincidental training on the salad-making skills of 3 trainees with mild and moderate mental retardation were evaluated. Coincidental training by co-workers resulted in improved accuracy of the salad-making skills of the trainees. In Study 2, trainees were also coincidentally taught to make quality-control checks of their salads. An alternating treatments and multiple baseline design indicated that the trainees more readily acquired the skills when taught to check the correctness of their work.     

PRODUCING GENERALIZED JOB INITIATIVE IN SEVERELY MENTALLY RETARDED SHELTERED WORKERS

The development of generalized job initiative was examined with three severely retarded men working in an industrial assembly area of a sheltered workshop. Interventions included discrimination training, role-play training, and self-monitoring. For each participant, training was applied sequentially to three sets of job initiative behaviors. Intensive training was required to establish the first set of job initiative behaviors; however, the second and third sets of job initiative behaviors were learned with only discrimination training. The discussion summarizes the findings and suggests research needed to develop more powerful learning-to-learn paradigms.     

Reciprocal inhibition by aversion relief in the treatment of phobias

The treatment reported is a combination of Wolpeian reciprocal inhibition and aversion-relief therapies. The relief following termination of electric shock was substituted for Jacobsonian relaxation in the reciprocal inhibition of anxiety. Photographs of phobic objects and tape recordings of narrated phobic experiences were utilized in treating seven phobic patients and one ticqueur. Six of the seven phobic patients were free of phobic fears, without symptom substitution, at time of follow-up. Theoretical implications and research possibilities of the treatment procedure are discussed.     

A study of neuropsychological impairment among school-indentified learning-disabled students

This investigation examined the proportion of school-identified learning-disabled (LD) students who scored in the impaired range on the Halstead Reitan Neuropsychological Battery for Children (HNBC) over a 20-year period. A difference was noted in findings for periods before and after the passage of federal legislation (Public Law 94-142); specifically, the proportion of LD students who scored in the impaired range on neuropsychological tests was significantly higher prior to than after this law. A similar pattern of impaired performance across the different tests was noted before and after the legislation. The implications of these results for theorists and practitioners are discussed.     

THE INFLUENCE OF SCHOOLING ON ADULT RECALL OF FAMILIAR STIMULI: A STUDY IN GHANA*

Several studies have shown the influence of schooling on a variety of cognitive skills. However, since the tasks employed were nearly always derived from the school setting, such findings provide no adequate answer to the following question: given a cognitive task with which schooled and unschooled subjects have had equal experience, does schooling still have an effect? Opposing views are held about this question, and the aim of the present study was to contribute towards answering it. Twenty-four schooled and 24 unschooled subjects, evenly divided by sex within each group, were given a recall task based on an indigenous game equally familiar to all of them. The task involved positions, numbers, and combinations of both. The performance of schooled subjects was very significantly superior on all aspects of the tasks. With regard to position there was an interaction indicating that women's performance was particularly enhanced by schooling, but this was not the case with numbers. Results thus support the view that schooling does have a general effect not necessarily mediated by specific experience. Moreover, in the light of the proportion of variance accounted for among different component tasks, it is suggested that a major effect of schooling might be an increased ability to process complex information.     

忘我问卷的编制及其信效度检验

通过文献分析和访谈,阐明忘我的概念与结构,并编制了忘我问卷。采用现场发放和网络问卷的方式对607名被试进行忘我问卷的初测。接着,对357名被试施测正式问卷,进行信度、效度检验。探索性因素分析显示,忘我问卷由3个因子构成; 验证性因素分析表明该量表拟合良好(RMSEA=0.07,NFI=0.95,CFI=0.95,GFI=0.92,AGFI=0.89)。问卷总体一致性系数为0.89,3个因子的内部一致性系数在0.84-0.88之间。问卷总体得分与效标问卷特质焦虑得分呈负相关(-0.51),与安适幸福感、正念觉知的得分呈正相关(分别为0.36、0.31)。忘我问卷具有良好的信度和效度,可在后续的相关研究和实践中作为测量问卷或评估工具使用。     

和平心理学的经典传统与现代研究趋向

本文讨论了不同历史时期的心理学家对和平心理的看法,以“和平”为主线,追溯和平心理学思潮兴起的历史逻辑。毕达哥拉斯、恩培多克勒、柏拉图、奥古斯丁、夸美纽斯、康德等从本体论视角,确立了实现永久和平的理想追求。冯特的民族心理学重视研究原始人、战争英雄等的和平心理品质,早期的意动心理学重视人类和平意识研究,机能心理学强调通过建设学校“微型共同体”,提高儿童的和平意识。精神分析心理学则为战争与和平心理提供了新视角。人本主义心理学主张研究人的和平潜能、致力于世界和平冲突化解,推动了和平心理学的兴起。20世纪末的和平心理学主张用和平的方式实现和平,发生了“政治道歉”、和平冲突化解、“人类命运共同体”等研究趋向。