Insertion des femmes dans un métier « masculin » : transfert d’acquis d’expériences et stratégies identitaires

Entering a male-dominated occupation is favorable to the study of identity strategies. Based on a research among thirty female bus drivers, this article aims to demonstrate that the transfer – in the professional sphere – of knowledge, abilities, attitudes and values acquired in other spheres and times of socialization, is an important component of such strategies. Referred to the model of an active and plural socialization (Baubion-Broye & Hajjar, 1998 ; Almudever & al, 1999) and to Dubar’s distinction (2000) of a biographical and a relational transaction, the content analysis of the female bus drivers interviews allowed : a) to emphasize the relevance of using transfer of experiences acquisitions as an indicator of biographical transaction; b) to establish the links between transfer processes and gender positioning (as an indicator of relational transaction); c) to define three types of identity strategies distinguished by their level of transfer activation.     

Lost in the move? Secondary task performance impairs tactile change detection on the body

Change blindness, the surprising inability of people to detect significant changes between consecutively-presented visual displays, has recently been shown to affect tactile perception as well. Visual change blindness has been observed during saccades and eye blinks, conditions under which people’s awareness of visual information is temporarily suppressed. In the present study, we demonstrate change blindness for suprathreshold tactile stimuli resulting from the execution of a secondary task requiring bodily movement. In Experiment 1, the ability of participants to detect changes between two sequentially-presented vibrotactile patterns delivered on their arms and legs was compared while they performed a secondary task consisting of either the execution of a movement with the right arm toward a visual target or the verbal identification of the target side. The results demonstrated that a motor response gave rise to the largest drop in perceptual sensitivity (as measured by changes in d′) in detecting changes to the tactile display. In Experiment 2, we replicated these results under conditions in which the participants had to detect tactile changes while turning a steering wheel instead. These findings are discussed in terms of the role played by bodily movements, sensory suppression, and higher order information processing in modulating people’s awareness of tactile information across the body surface.     

Das Asperger-Syndrom bei Erwachsenen

Herr F., 35 Jahre alt, wendet sich per E-Mail an die Kinderklinik mit der Frage, ob eine diagnostische Abkl?rung bei uns m?glich sei, da er im Erwachsenenbereich keine Ansprechperson gefunden habe. Durch eine Internetrecherche sei er auf das Asperger-Syndrom gesto?en. Seit seiner Kindheit habe er sich bereits gefragt, was bei ihm nicht stimme, warum er ,,anders“ sei und warum es seinen Mitschülern immer so leicht gefallen sei auf andere zuzugehen, ,,Small Talk“ zu führen oder Kontakte aufrecht zu erhalten. Er hingegen habe damit immer massive Schwierigkeiten gehabt, habe soziale Zusammenh?nge oft nicht begriffen beziehungsweise die Gedanken, Absichten oder Gefühle anderer nicht entschlüsseln k?nnen. Obwohl er dies erkennt, konnte er es bisher nicht bewusst ?ndern, was in weiterer Folge zu einer depressiven Verstimmung mit Rückzug geführt hat. In der weiteren Exploration stellt sich heraus, dass Herr F. alleine wohnt, aber immer noch finanziell beziehungsweise im Alltag von seinen Eltern unterstützt wird. Derzeit hat er keine Beziehung, die vorangegangene Partnerschaft ging wegen Kommunikationsproblemen in die Brüche, worunter er sehr leidet. Aufgrund seiner speziellen Interessen studierte Herr F. Astrophysik und technische Mathematik und schloss beide Studien mit Auszeichnung ab. Seither hat er in etwa 20 verschiedenen Jobs gearbeitet, die meist nicht seiner Qualifikation entsprachen. Das Arbeitsverh?ltnis wurde jeweils beendet, da Herr F. von den sozialen Anforderungen massiv überfordert war. Seine Freizeit verbringt Herr F. alleine, bet?tigt sich im Internet in Chatrooms, liest Fachliteratur und hat eine vollst?ndige Sammlung an Sportfachzeitschriften seit dem Jahr 1995, die er in einer bestimmten Ordnung aufbewahrt und deren Inhalte er so gut wie auswendig kennt.     

The influence of prematurity,maternal anxiety,and infants' neurobiological risk on mother–infant interactions

In this study, we investigated how the birth of a very low birth weight preterm (VLBW) infant influences the mother–infant interaction at 3 months. We also focused on the impact of the infant's neurobiological risk and maternal anxiety, and their interaction. The comparison of the VLBW preterm sample (n = 79) with an external full‐term sample (n = 35) showed mother–infant interactions of the families with the preterm infant to be more vocally responsive during the interaction, but less facially responsive during the interaction. Additionally, higher levels of maternal anxiety were associated with preterm infants being less facially responsive in interaction with their mother. While neurobiological risk of the infant played a part in this association, with higher risk infants also being less facially responsive, the relationship with maternal anxiety and the mother–child interaction was stronger. How these findings may influence therapeutic interventions is discussed.     

Audiotactile temporal order judgments

We report a series of three experiments in which participants made unspeeded 'Which modality came first?' temporal order judgments (TOJs) to pairs of auditory and tactile stimuli presented at varying stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) using the method of constant stimuli. The stimuli were presented from either the same or different locations in order to explore the potential effect of redundant spatial information on audiotactile temporal perception. In Experiment 1, the auditory and tactile stimuli had to be separated by nearly 80 ms for inexperienced participants to be able to judge their temporal order accurately (i.e., for the just noticeable difference (JND) to be achieved), no matter whether the stimuli were presented from the same or different spatial positions. More experienced psychophysical observers (Experiment 2) also failed to show any effect of relative spatial position on audiotactile TOJ performance, despite having much lower JNDs (40 ms) overall. A similar pattern of results was found in Experiment 3 when silent electrocutaneous stimulation was used rather than vibrotactile stimulation. Thus, relative spatial position seems to be a less important factor in determining performance for audiotactile TOJ than for other modality pairings (e.g., audiovisual and visuotactile).     

Is There a Dark Side of Positive Illusions? Overestimation of Social Competence and Subsequent Adjustment in Aggressive and Nonaggressive Children

This study examined (a) the links between children's overly positive perceptions about the relations with the peer group and with their best friend to subsequent behavioral, emotional, and social adjustment, and (b) whether these links are moderated by children's aggression. Using a short-term longitudinal design, the study was based on a sample of 819 4th- to 6th-graders (427 girls) from low to average SES families. Results showed that positive illusions about their social relations with classmates and with friends were related to an increase in children's peer-rated social preference and fostered the stability of children's dyadic friendships, regardless of children's level of aggression. In addition, overestimation of social competence with the peer group and overestimation of friendship quality were both related to a decrease in children's depressive feelings. Extreme overestimation as well as extreme underestimation of social competence with the peer group was also related to an increase in children's aggression. This latter result, however, was only true for children who were highly aggressive to begin with. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.     

Hearing cheats touch, but less in congenitally blind than in sighted individuals

Abstract— The principles of cross-modal integration were investigated with an auditory-tactile illusion in sighted and congenitally blind adults. Participants had to judge the number of rapidly presented tactile stimuli, which were presented together with task-irrelevant sounds. When one tactile stimulus was accompanied by more than one tone, participants reported perceiving more than a single touch. This illusion was more pronounced in sighted than congenitally blind participants. Given that the congenitally blind were more precise in judging the number of tactile stimuli in a control condition without tones, the present data are in accordance with a modality-appropriateness account suggesting that interference by a task-irrelevant modality is reduced if processing accuracy of the task-relevant modality is high.     

The redundant target effect is affected by modality switch costs

When participants have to respond to stimuli of two modalities, faster reaction times are observed for simultaneous, bimodal events than for unimodal events (the redundant target effect [RTE]). This finding has been interpreted as reflecting processing gains for bimodal relative to unimodal stimuli, possibly due to multisensory interactions. In random stimulus sequences, reaction times are slower when the stimulus is preceded by a stimulus of a different modality (modality switch effect [MSE]). Simple reaction time redundant target experiments with auditory-visual, visual-tactile, and auditory-tactile stimulus combinations were run to determine whether the RTE may be partly explained by MSEs because bimodal stimuli do not require a modality switch. In all three modality pairings, significant MSEs and RTEs were observed. However, the RTE was still significant after reaction times were corrected for the MSE, supporting the hypothesis that coactivation occurs independently of modality switch costs.     

Sabina Spielrein: a bibliography

The work on this bibliography was carried out mostly in 2002. Though it aims at being exhaustive, the research in different languages and translations may not have yielded every document and some may still be unknown to me. It is also likely that more material have been translated since. Besides, the Spanish and Brazilian-Portuguese literature has not been researched. This is why this bibliography must be considered as a 'work in progress' which any addition can only enrich. Victor Ovcharenko has made a list of the writings of Sabina Spielrein starting with 1911, the year of her medical thesis in Zürich, and covering the years to 1931. He points out, however, that between the date of the last paper that she is known to have written and her death in 1942, there are eleven years and that it would be truly astonishing if she had neither written nor published anything during that period. Up to this date no document by her during that time has been found (Journal of Analytical Psychology, 44, 3, 1999).