Unconscious phantasy and its conceptualizations: An attempt at conceptual integration

That there is a lack of consensus as to how to decide between competing, at times even contradictory theories, and about how to integrate divergent concepts and theories is well known. In view of this situation, the IPA Committee on Conceptual Integration (2009–2013) developed a method for comparing the different versions of any given concept, together with the underlying theories and fundamental assumptions on which they are based. Only when situated in the same frame of reference do similarities and differences begin to appear in a methodically comprehensible and reproducible form. After having studied the concept of enactment followed by the publication of a paper in this Journal in 2013, we proceeded to analyze the concept of unconscious phantasy while at the same time continuing to improve our method. Unconscious phantasy counts among the central concepts in psychoanalysis. We identified a wide range of definitions along with their various theoretical backgrounds. Our primary concern in the present paper addresses the dimensional analysis of the semantic space occupied by the various conceptualizations. By way of deconstructing the concepts we endeavoured to establish the extent to which the integration of the different conceptualizations of unconscious phantasy might be achieved.     

Emotional encounter: Researching young people's intimate spaces in their information & communication technology practices

This article discusses the role and place of emotions in research and, particularly, in researching young people's intimate spaces in their information and communication technology (ICT) practices. It echoes Harris and Hutington's remarks (2001) that we cannot claim to explore and understand people's social life, without taking into account the potentially powerful role played by emotion. In this paper, I show how adopting a relational position in terms of theoretical framework, such as I have developed it, has two main implications: First, it considers the exploration of young people's intimate sphere of emotion as a central task; second, it involves discussing the methodological tools that render such an exploration possible. I present how I translated these implications, by means of an ethnography of young people's practices in Montreal and, notably, by recursive interviews. Finally, I show how emotions cross over, and are imbricated in, both young people's practices and in my relationship with the young people themselves, showing all the great wealth of this emotional encounter.     

Coaction and upward social comparison reduce the illusory conjunction effect: Support for distraction-conflict theory

This article proposes an integration of Festinger’s (1954) social comparison theory and Baron’s (1986) distraction-conflict theory of the social facilitation-inhibition effect, which successfully predicts attentional focusing in coaction when social comparison represents a distraction. Two experiments confronted participants with the illusory conjunction task (Treisman, 1998), where illusions occur because of the lack of attentional processing of central cues. If coaction, like upward comparison, is distracting and thereby enhances the attention allocated to central cues (here the target’s features) at the expense of peripheral cues (here distractors), then a reduction should be found in the illusions. Experiment 1 indeed showed a lower rate of conjunctive errors under upward comparison than under downward comparison. Experiment 2 specified that this effect was due to downward comparison effectively reducing distraction, with upward comparison only maintaining it, as compared to mere coaction.     

Adjusting researchers’ approach to adjustment: On the use of covariates when testing interactions

A common design in social psychology involves the use of two independent variables, an experimental manipulation and a measured individual difference, and the interest is in the interaction between them. In such designs, there are often obvious covariate(s), correlated with the measured independent variable, which the researcher wishes to control. Typically this is done by including the covariate in the analytic model. We show that in most cases this is an inadequate model. In general, the interaction between the two independent variables will be estimated without bias only when the interaction between the covariate and the manipulated independent variable is included in the analysis. We present simulations showing the factors affecting the magnitude of the bias and provide a survey of recent social psychological literature illustrating the frequency of the problem. Finally, we discuss cases where both independent variables are manipulated and the covariate is a potential mediator.     

Increasing convergence between imagined and executed movement across development: evidence for the emergence of movement representations

Motor imagery (MI) has become a principal focus of interest in studies on brain and behavior. However, changes in MI across development have received virtually no attention so far. In the present study, children (N = 112, 6 to 16 years old) performed a new, computerized Virtual Radial Fitts Task (VRFT) to determine their MI ability as well as the age‐related confluence between performance in executed and imagined movement conditions. Participants aimed at five targets, which were positioned along radial axes from a central target circle. The targets differed in width (2.5, 5, 10, 20 or 40 mm), resulting in an index of difficulty (ID) that varied from 6.9 to 2.9 bits. Performance was indexed by the linear relationship between ID and Movement Time (MT). The findings showed that executed task performance was slower than imagined performance. Moreover, conformance to Fitts’ Law during executed movement performance was obtained from a very young age. Most importantly, correlations between imagined and executed movements were low in the young participants but gradually increased across age. These age‐related changes in MI are hypothesized to reflect the children's emerging ability to represent internal models for prospective actions, consistent with the gradual unfolding of feedforward control processes.     

Effects of task relevance and stimulus-driven salience in feature-search mode

Attentional allocation in feature-search mode (W. F. Bacon & H. E. Egeth, 1994) is thought to be solely determined by top-down factors, with no role for stimulus-driven salience. The authors reassessed this conclusion using variants of the spatial cuing and rapid serial visual presentation paradigms developed by C. L. Folk and colleagues (C. L. Folk, R. W. Remington, & J. C. Johnston, 1992; C. L. Folk, A. B. Leber, & H. E. Egeth, 2002). They found that (a) a nonsingleton distractor that possesses the target feature produces attentional capture, (b) such capture is modulated by bottom-up salience, and (c) resistance to capture by irrelevant singletons is mediated by inhibitory processes. These results extend the role of top-down factors in search for a nonsingleton target while arguing against the notion that effects of bottom-up salience and top-down factors on attentional priority are strictly encapsulated within distinct search modes.     

A matter of time: actual time and the production of the past

In psychoanalytic theory, space metaphors are frequently used to describe the psychic apparatus. As for time, it is traditionally invoked under the heading of timelessness of the unconscious, more aptly described as the resistance of the repressed to wearing away with time. This paper examines how the insertion of time into psychic events and structural differentiation form a single process. After looking into the parallelism between phenomenological and psychoanalytic views of time and differentiation, the author draws a distinction between two time categories: chronological versus actual. A clinical example is presented.