Factor and cluster analysis of the Intermediate Halstead Category Test

The factorial invariance of the six subtests of the Intermediate version of the Halstead Category Test (IHCT), as well as clusters of IHCT subtest patterns, were evaluated in a sample of 87 children with traumatic brain injuries. A two-factor solution was found which partially replicated that found in previous research with children with learning disabilities, supporting the assumption that the IHCT measures multiple underlying constructs in clinical populations. Four clusters were found, with differences between clusters determined to a substantial extent by relative accuracy on subtest 111, and to a less substantial extent by relative accuracy on subtests IV and V. Clinical and research implications are discussed.     

Bios politikos and bios theoretikos in the Phenomenology of Hannah Arendt

Abstract

Hannah Arendt frequently referred to herself as a phenomenologist in that she wished to reveal how action, in the Greek sense of praxis, engenders a public space of appearances or of phenomenality. The life of the Greek city‐state, of the polis, was made possible through this activity, this bios politikos. However, beginning with Plato and continuing right down to Hegel and Heidegger, there has been a sustained attempt to cover up and conceal the specific phenomenality of the bios politikos in favour of the bios theoretikos, involving the substitution of poiesis and theoria for the life of praxis. At the roots of this concealment of the active life is a misunderstanding of the true nature of the theoretical and its highest form, namely, thinking.     

Diagnostic colours contribute to the early stages of scene categorization: Behavioural and neurophysiological evidence

We examined the effects of colour cues on the express categorization of natural scenes. Using a go/no-go paradigm sensitive to fast recognition processes, we measured early event-related potential (ERP) correlates of scene categorization to elucidate the processing stage at which colour contributes to scene recognition. Observers were presented with scenes belonging to four colour-diagnostic categories (desert, forest, canyon and coastline). Scenes were presented in one of three forms: Diagnostically coloured, nondiagnostically coloured, or greyscale images. In a verification task, observers were instructed to respond whenever the presented stimulus matched a previously presented category name. Reaction times and accuracy were optimal when the stimuli were presented as their original diagnostically coloured version, followed by their greyscale version, and lastly by their nondiagostically coloured version. These effects were mirrored in the early (i.e., 150 ms following stimulus onset) ERP frontal correlates. Their onset was delayed for greyscale scenes compared to diagnostically coloured scenes, and for nondiagnostically coloured scenes compared to the other two conditions. Frontal ERP amplitudes also decreased for greyscale and nondiagnostically coloured scenes. Together, the results suggest that diagnostic colours are part of the scene gist responsible for express scene categorization.     

Theologians Wanted! Some Reflections about the Creation/Evolution Debate

I plead here in favor of more frequent recourse to and input from theologians, in debates about the creationist crisis, not only in order to develop new aspects of theology concerning creation, but also to undertake a real theological diagnosis of this crisis. The task of theology is not simply to write catechisms or Summae, but it is much more to do with incompleteness, light and shade. Theologians must confront themselves with reality—like secular theology at the seventeenth century, but also natural theologies—without forgetting to pose limits: absolute power of God, reality of the evil, scientific discoveries that are negative for theology, etc. Theology is a work of revelation (apocalypse).     

Acculturation orientations towards Israeli Arabs and Jewish immigrants in Israel

The State of Israel can be characterized as having two integration policies: an assimilationist one towards “valued” Jewish immigrants and a somewhat ethnist one towards its “devalued” national minority, namely Israeli Arabs. Using the Host Community Acculturation Scale (HCAS), this study explored Jewish undergraduate (N = 153) acculturation orientations towards “valued” Jewish immigrants of Russian and Ethiopian background and towards “devalued” Israeli Arabs. Results showed that Jewish undergraduates mainly endorsed the integrationism and individualism acculturation orientations towards Jewish immigrants. However, they were more segregationist and exclusionist towards Israeli Arabs than towards Jewish immigrants of Russian and Ethiopian background. Assimilation was weakly endorsed towards both Jewish immigrants and Israeli Arabs. Based on an extensive questionnaire, multiple regression analyses showed that each acculturation orientation had a distinct psychological profile. The integrationism and individualism orientations were endorsed by undergraduates who were tolerant towards ethnic diversity, felt secure personally, culturally, and militarily, and did not endorse the social dominance orientation (SDO). In addition to not feeling threatened by the presence of Israeli Arabs, integrationists and individualists were identified as secular Israelis and Labour Party sympathizers rather than as religious Jews. In contrast, the assimilationism, segregationism, and exclusionism orientations were endorsed by undergraduates who felt insecure personally, religiously, culturally, and militarily, who tended to be less tolerant towards ethnic diversity, and who were more prone to endorse the SDO. In addition to feeling threatened by Israeli Arabs, they avoided close relations with Russian and Ethiopian immigrants. Segregationists and exclusionists were identified mainly as Jewish nationals. Orthodox Jews, and as Likud Party sympathizers. Exclusionists were distinctive in also feeling threatened by the presence Jewish immigrants of Russian and Ethiopian background. While taking into consideration the context of intergroup relations in Israel, results are discussed using the Interactive Acculturation Model (Bourhis, Moïse, Perreault, & Senecal, 1997).     

A Test of the Tripartite Model of Anxiety and Depression in Elementary and High School Boys and Girls

The applicability of the tripartite model of emotion, which distinguishes the shared aspect of depression and anxiety, negative affect (NA), from their respective specific components of low positive affect (PA) and physiological hyperarousal (PH), was examined in 472 elementary and high school students. The relations among depression, anxiety, and the three tripartite dimensions were examined for the total sample and across four subgroups based on age and gender. High school girls reported more depression, anxiety, NA, and PH than the other groups, and lower PA as assessed by the PANAS-C, but not the AFARS. Using structural equation modeling, the tripartite model proved to be a reasonably good fit for the total sample. Among the subgroups, the best fit was found for high school girls. However, several findings for the total sample and for individual subgroups were not consistent with the tripartite model, raising issues related to the independence and specificity of the tripartite constructs and their measurement. Alternative age- and gender-specific models to better account for the shared and unique aspects of depression and anxiety in children need to be explored.     

The misunderstanding (le malentendu)

The idea that misunderstanding is simply a problem in both the psychoanalytic situation, between analyst and patient, and in translation between one language and another, is turned on its head in this paper. Originally written in French, this paper addresses both Francophone and Anglophone psychoanalytic communities in the realization that misunderstanding is the ground from which we start in analysis. The author portrays two patients who illustrate that, even when analyst and patient speak the same language, the patient may speak in a style that the analyst must first learn to hear as a kind of dialect, to hear his own misunderstanding, in order for meaning to appear.     

Using the impact of event scale to evaluate distress in the context of genetic testing for breast cancer susceptibility

The data obtained with two forms of the Impact of Event Scale were compared, one referring to a BRCA1/2 test result (IES-T) and another to cancer (IES-C). The sample consisted of 272 women with a family history suggestive of a BRCA1/2 mutation who underwent genetic testing and received results: noncarrier, carrier, or inconclusive. Globally, mean scores on the IES-C form were higher than those obtained on the IES-T form. Among carriers of a BRCA1/2 mutation, mean scores on the two forms were similar and agreement was good, as measured by the intraclass correlation coefficient (.83; 95% 95% CI=.72, .91). Agreement between the forms was poor to fair among noncarriers (ICC= .38; CI= .15, .57) and women with an inconclusive result (ICC= .40; 95% CI= .26, .52). Having had cancer increased total scores but had little influence on agreement between scores on forms. These findings highlight the importance of carefully selecting the form of the Impact of Event Scale in the context of genetic testing for breast cancer susceptibility.