Let’s Open the Decision-Making Umbrella: A Framework for Conceptualizing and Assessing Features of Impaired Decision Making in Addiction

Neuropsychology Review - Decision-making impairments play a pivotal role in the emergence and maintenance of addictive disorders. However, a sound conceptualization of decision making as an...     

Complementary variable- and person-centred approaches to the dimensionality of work engagement: a longitudinal investigation

This study illustrates complementary variable- and person-centred approaches to the investigation of the underlying dimensionality of the work engagement construct. A sample of 730 participants completed a questionnaire twice across a four-month period. The results showed that employees’ ratings of their work engagement simultaneously reflected a global overarching work engagement construct, which co-existed with three specific dimensions (vigour, dedication, and absorption). Relying on factor scores from this initial measurement model, the present study examined latent profiles of employees defined based on their global (work engagement) and specific (vigour, dedication, and absorption) levels of work engagement. The results revealed five distinct work engagement profiles, which proved to be fully identical, and highly stable, across the two time points. These profiles characterized disengaged-vigorous, normative, totally disengaged, vigorously absorbed, and engaged yet distanced employees. These profiles were also showed to be meaningfully related to employees’ levels of stress, intentions to leave the organization, health, and job satisfaction.     

Request solicitation and semantic evocation of freedom: an evaluation in a computer-mediated communication context

The "But you are free of..." technique is a compliance procedure which solicits someone to comply with a request by simply telling him that he is free to accept or to refuse the request. This semantic evocation leads to increased compliance with the request. A new evaluation of the generality of this technique was tested in an experiment in which subjects received an anonymous electronic mail which asked them to consult the site of a humanitarian association for children. Analysis showed that, when the semantic evocation of freedom is included in the message, a higher compliance rate was observed than in a situation in which this evocation was omitted.     

A longitudinal analysis of motivation profiles at work

Motivation and Emotion - This paper examines the multidimensional nature of workplace motivation and the importance of a continuum structure in self-determination theory through application of...     

New Wine in a New Bottle: Refining The Assessment of Authentic Leadership Using Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM)

The aim of this study was to investigate the multidimensional nature of authentic leadership (AL) through the re-evaluation of the factor structure of the most commonly used scales in AL research, the Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ) and the Authentic Leadership Inventory (ALI). Results from Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) conducted among 538 workers of private (57,81%) and public (42,19%)? organizations provide support for the multidimensional nature of AL but also reveal excessive content overlap across subscales and an inability to properly reflect the a priori factor structure of both instruments. Further analyses enabled the identification of key items from both instruments providing a cleaner depiction of the a priori dimensionality of AL, leading to the development of an integrated optimized measure, the Authentic Leadership Integrated Questionnaire (AL-IQ). The main contribution of this study is the proposition of an alternative and optimized measure of authentic leadership that sheds light on the distinct theoretical facets of this positive leadership style. Our data suggest that the AL-IQ is a promising tool for characterizing the strengths and weaknesses of leaders and managers’ AL practices. To our knowledge, this is the first study to use a combination of classical Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) and newly developed ESEM framework to assess the construct validity (factor structure, reliability, and criterion-related validity) of the two main AL measures: the ALQ and the ALI.     

Peut-on réverser avant thrombolyse ? Que ferait le juge face à un infarctus cérébral ?

In an unpacified and somehow violent world, the judge is more and more advised to handle technical and often urgent cases. Committed to judge, the magistrate fulfilled its own mission disregarding the tempo of the uncommon life-threatening emergency. Considering the acute stroke for being one of the most important complications of atrial fibrillation shows how frail and uneasy is for the judge to build its decisions over a large amount of laws. In the case of an anticoagulated patient suffering an ischemic stroke, the practitioner is able to embrace a wide bunch of treatments leading to myriads of effects and modulating the medical responsibility. Adding up deontological aspects, ethics, scientific data (techniques and technology) to summarize medical engagement which stands just aside new patients’ rights leads to consider further the particular functional link between the patient, his disease, his physician and their judge.     

Transient activation of the CA3 Kappa opioid system in the dorsal hippocampus modulates complex memory processing in mice

The hippocampus plays a central role in various forms of complex learning and memory. Opioid peptides and receptors are abundant in the hippocampus. These peptides are co-released with glutamate from mossy fiber- and lateral perforant path-synapses. In this study, we evaluated the functional relevance of the CA3 Kappa opioid receptors (KOR) by transient pharmacological activation or inactivation using single bilateral intrahippocampal microinjections of a selective agonist (U50,488H, 1 or 2.5 nmol), a selective antagonist (nor-binaltorphimine, norBNI 5 nmol) or a mixture of both. C57Bl/6J mice were tested in a fear conditioning paradigm (FC) or in a modified version of the water maze task thought to reveal how flexibly animals can learn and manipulate spatial information (WM). In FC, the agonist (2.5 nmol) decreased context-induced (but not tone-induced) freezing whereas norBNI had no effect. The impairment caused by the agonist U50,488H was blocked by the injection of norBNI, suggesting that overstimulation of CA3-KOR impairs the acquisition and consolidation of contextual fear-related memory. In the WM task, mice were trained repeatedly each day to find a hidden platform. After having reached this goal, the platform position was changed the next day for a new task. U50,488H injection before the last task abolished the previously acquired ability to find rapidly a new platform location, whereas adding norBNI reversed this impairment. Thus, in the mouse, even partial and topographically restricted activation of CA3-KOR entails impairments in two different hippocampus-dependent tasks, indicating functional relevance of the kappa opioid system.     

The effects of mindfulness on executive processes and autobiographical memory specificity

Previous studies have found that mindfulness training reduces overgeneral memories and increases autobiographical memory specificity (e.g., [Williams, J. M. G., Teasdale, J. D., Segal, Z. V., & Soulsby, J. (2000). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy reduces overgeneral autobiographical memory in formerly depressed patients. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 109, 150-155]). However, little work has investigated the mechanisms underlying this effect. The present study explored the role of executive processes as a mediator of MBCT effects in an unselected sample. An autobiographical memory task, a cognitive inhibition task, a motor inhibition task, a cognitive flexibility task and a motor flexibility task were administered before and after intervention. Compared to matched controls, MBCT participants showed increased autobiographical memory specificity, decreased overgenerality, and improved cognitive flexibility capacity and capacity to inhibit cognitive prepotent responses. Mediational analyses indicated that changes in cognitive flexibility partially mediate the impact of MBCT on overgeneral memories. Results are discussed in terms of Conway's [2005. Memory and the self. Journal of Memory and Language, 53, 594-628] autobiographical memory model.