Sexual Permissiveness: A Mozambique–France Comparison

The present study compared sexual permissiveness between African adults and European adults. The 301 participants (154 males, 147 females) living in the area of Maputo, Mozambique, and the 309 participants (157 males, 152 females) living in the area of Toulouse, France, were presented with the Portuguese and French versions of 7 permissiveness items taken from the Sexual Attitudes Scale devised by Hendrick & Hendrick (1987 ). Permissiveness scores were shown to be lower among Mozambican participants than among French participants. A clear effect of religious involvement on permissiveness was also demonstrated, and this effect was of the same magnitude in both samples.     

Apologies,Repentance, and Forgiveness: A Muslim–Christian Comparison

Forgivingness (dispositional forgiveness) was assessed in three different samples: Lebanese Muslims (N = 119), Lebanese Christians (N = 121), and French Christians (N = 151). Two different forgivingness structures were evidenced, one that corresponded to the three-factor Western European model (Lasting Resentment, Sensitivity to Circumstances, and Unconditional Forgiveness), which fit the data from the Christian samples, and one that gave a special status to repentance and apologies, which fit the data from the Lebanese Muslim sample. In this alternative model, the meaning of the Sensitivity to Circumstances factor was reduced to circumstances that did not imply the offender's behavior or the victim's mood, and the meaning of the third factor was that the presence of apologizing behavior from the offender was a necessary condition for the resentment to weaken, for the mood to improve, and for a first step toward forgiveness to be taken. The Lebanese Muslims' unconditional forgiveness score was lower than the corresponding Lebanese Christians' and French Christians' scores. This difference was not attributable to possible differential acquiescence effects.     

Conceptualizations of Forgiveness and Forgivingness Among Hindus

The conceptualizations about forgiveness of Indians from the Hindu community were explored using the Conceptualizations of Forgiveness Questionnaire. As expected, the four-factor structure of conceptualizations found among Western Europeans from Christian backgrounds (Encourages Repentance, Immoral Behavior, Broad Process, and Change of Heart) fit the data collected among the Hindus. Hindus' propensity to forgive was also explored using the Forgivingness Questionnaire. As expected, the three-factor structure of forgivingness found among Europeans (Lasting Resentment, Sensitivity to Circumstances, and Unconditional Forgiveness) fit the data collected among the Hindus. Finally, it was shown that, among Hindus, the relationships between conceptualizations about forgiveness and propensity to forgive were basically the same as the ones found among Western Europeans.     

Reid, Kant and the Philosophy of Mind

I suggest a possible rehabilitation of Reid's philosophy of mind by a constructive use of Kant's criticisms of the common sense tradition. Kant offers two criticisms, explicitly claiming that common sense philosophy is ill directed methodologically, and implicitly rejecting Reid's view that there is direct epistemological access by introspection to the ontology of mind. Putting the two views together reveals a tension between epistemology and ontology, but the problem which Kant finds in Reid also infects his own system, as his weaker ontological claims are undermined to such an extent by the necessary reintroduction of self-consciousness that the justification he seeks for reason fails to be reached epistemologically. Plausible solutions to these parallel tensions imply that both Reid and Kant have a pre-systematic concept of mind, and may lead to the conclusion that Reid's method is more economical in the elaboration of an ontology for the philosophy of mind.     

Les nouveaux «Gastarbeiter»? Les réfugiés sur le marché du travail suisse

With about 28,000 asylum requests a year since 1990, Switzerland is one of the western countries with the highest inflow of refugees. The aim of this article is to answer two questions: What is the role of refugees in the Swiss economy? and what are the factors influencing their incorporation into the labour market? The research is based on the multivariate analysis of an individual database of 110,000 asylum seekers and refugees, in-depth interviews and 174 questionnaires to refugees and employers.     

Understanding patterns of attitude change: When implicit measures show change, but explicit measures do not

A common assumption in research on attitudes is that indirect measures assess relatively stable implicit attitudes, whereas traditional self-report measures assess more recently acquired explicit attitudes that coexist with old, presumably stable implicit attitudes. This assumption seems difficult to reconcile with research showing experimentally induced changes on implicit but not explicit measures. The present research tested a process-account of such asymmetrical patterns. Specifically, we argue that implicit measures show experimental effects that do not emerge on explicit measures when (a) the pairing of an attitude object with positive or negative valence creates new automatic associations in memory, and, at the same time, (b) the consideration of additional information about the attitude object eliminates the impact of automatic associations on self-reported evaluative judgments. Results from three studies support these predictions. Implications for research on attitude change are discussed.     

How to find what's in a name: Scrutinizing the optimality of five scoring algorithms for the name‐letter task

Although the name‐letter task (NLT) has become an increasingly popular technique to measure implicit self‐esteem (ISE), researchers have relied on different algorithms to compute NLT scores and the psychometric properties of these differently computed scores have never been thoroughly investigated. Based on 18 independent samples, including 2690 participants, the current research examined the optimality of five scoring algorithms based on the following criteria: reliability; variability in reliability estimates across samples; types of systematic error variance controlled for; systematic production of outliers and shape of the distribution of scores. Overall, an ipsatized version of the original algorithm exhibited the most optimal psychometric properties, which is recommended for future research using the NLT. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sexual tensions in a remarried family

The remarried family is vulnerable to sexual tensions between adults and children because of the weakness of generational boundaries and because the emotional tasks confronting the new couple can result in the detouring of conflict through a child. The case presented here demonstrates the use of structural family therapy which included several therapeutic tools not usually associated with a structural approach. These included family and marital history, individual and subsystem work, education, and modeling. Unspoken sexual tensions between stepfather and stepdaughter were interwoven with the structural problems that the family was experiencing. Following three months of therapy, significant shifts were made in the family structure that resulted in clearer and more appropriate boundaries between parents and the identified patient.Appreciation is expressed by the author to David Abelson, MA, Karlotta Bartholomew, PhD, and Joellyn Ross, PhD, for their support.     

COVID-19 and Its Lockdown in Belgium: How Limited Access to Environmental Satisfaction Impacts Emotions?

The COVID-19 pandemic has been shown to induce several psychological consequences (e.g., increases in anxiety and stress). Accordingly, it seems relevant to investigate how individuals cope with their emotions. Indeed, when facing negative emotions, individuals need to rely on adaptive emotion regulation strategies to alleviate their negative impacts (e.g., decrease in quality of life, increase in sleep disturbances). Moreover, lockdown’s measures led to a restriction of the access to activities which, in turn, might have decreased the “environmental satisfaction”. Then, this research investigates the pandemic’s psychological impacts on emotions and regulation strategies, intolerance of uncertainty, and environmental satisfaction. Our approach’s originality relies on comparing one’s actual psychological functioning (i.e., since the pandemic) to one’s general psychological functioning (i.e., before the pandemic). This study also assesses the relationships between both negative and positive emotions and (1) emotion regulation strategies, (2) intolerance of uncertainty and, (3) environmental satisfaction since the pandemic and its lockdown. The total sample comprised 948 adults from the general population. Results show that, since the pandemic, individuals experience higher levels of negative emotions, lower levels of positive emotions and environmental satisfaction. They also tend to worry less and to resort to acceptance more often. Also, environmental satisfaction is the most important predictor of both negative emotions and positive ones. Overall, findings confirm previous ones and seem to indicate that environmental satisfaction should be addressed more thoroughly.