Heuristic Value of Eclecticism in Theory Development: The Case of Piagetian-Vygotskian <Emphasis Type="Italic">dialogue</Emphasis> about Proportional Reasoning

Køppe’s proposition of four layers in theoretical building are used here in the exploration of a specific case of eclectic combination, the use of Piagetian and Vygotskian general approaches to the analysis of proportional reasoning as a cognitive mathematical ability. It is proposed here that the eclectic consideration of these contributions depends on the consideration of their specificity, in the sense that they highlight different aspects of the phenomenon under scrutiny, and also on the consideration of the coherence between this eclectic convergence and premises in terms of schools of thought under which each contribution is framed. We conclude proposing in accordance to S. Køppe’s proposal that eclecticism can be valuable and heuristic in theory development, but this contribution will depend largely on the effort in establishing careful relations between the four layers of theory-building.     

Cognitive Factors in Fibromyalgia: The Role of Self-Concept and Identity Related Conflicts

Fibromyalgia is a syndrome characterized by the presence of diffuse and chronic musculoskeletal pain of unknown etiology. Clinical diagnosis and the merely palliative treatments considerably affect the patient's experience and the chronic course of the disease. Therefore, several authors have emphasized the need to explore issues related to self in these patients. The repertory grid technique (RGT), derived from personal construct theory, is a method designed to assess the patient's construction of self and others. A group of women with fibromyalgia (n = 30) and a control group (n = 30) were assessed using RGT. Women with fibromyalgia also completed the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire and a visualanalogue scale for pain, and painful tender points were explored. Results suggest that these women had a higher present self-ideal self discrepancy and a lower perceived adequacy of others, and it was more likely to find implicative dilemmas among them compared to controls. These dilemmas are a type of cognitive conflict in which the symptom is construed as "enmeshed" with positive characteristics of the self. Finally, implications of these results for the psychological treatment of fibromyalgia are suggested to give a more central role to self-identity issues and to the related cognitive conflicts.     

Some Thoughts on A. H. Louie’s “More Than Life Itself: A Reflection on Formal Systems and Biology”

We review and discuss A. H. Louie’s book “More than Life Itself: A Reflexion on Formal Systems and Biology” from an interdisciplinary viewpoint, involving both biology and mathematics, taking into account new developments and related theories.     

Factors affecting foster care breakdown in Spain

Breakdown of foster care has been defined as the situation in which one of the involved parties terminates the intervention before having achieved the goals established for the case plan. This work presents a study carried out with a Spanish sample of 318 closed cases of children who were placed in foster homes and kinship care. The data were collected through the exhaustive review of the child protection and foster placement files, complemented with interviews of the welfare workers in charge of each case. The rate of breakdown of the entire sample was 26.1%, although it was significantly different in kinship care (19.7%) and foster care (31.2%). The results of this study indicate that the variables related to breakdown depend on the placement modality, either in foster care or kinship care. In the first case, the variables related to the child's characteristics are noteworthy, especially behavior and academic problems, with special relevance in the 9-12-year-old group, and in children who were previously in residential care. In contrast, in kinship care, the parents' problems (prison, mental health) and having some measure of guardianship are the most important. The fact of undergoing foster placement after having lived in various residential homes is transcendental. Lastly, the availability of economic resources and even the foster carers' studies seem to be related to foster breakdown.     

Hooking Up and Identity Development of Female College Students

Hooking up generally involves casual sex with noncommittal partners. Hooking up is prevalent on college campuses today and can negatively affect the identity development of female students. The authors examined this phenomenon with a feminist developmental perspective, evaluating hooking up in the context of sexual risk taking with physical and psychosocial consequences.     

“All You Need is Holt”—Is the Socio-cultural Phenomenon a Problem for a Neorealist Ecological Psychology?

The aim of this paper is to discuss Charles’s (2011) attempt to turn E.B. Holt’s theoretical approach into the only possible bridge to connect Gibsonian ecological psychology with social psychology. Criticism of Charles’s claims is carried out at four different conceptual levels: historiographical, logico-epistemological, methodological, and theoretical. From this critical perspective, Charles’s resort to Holt’s ideas is viewed as an effort to legitimate Charles’s own line of work. Moreover, far from being this the only possible approach to the subject, many other rich alternatives to the application of Gibsonian principles to the explanation of socio-cultural phenomena already exist. In fact, it is questionable whether Holt’s behavioral neorealism allows dealing with many of the most complex socio-cultural issues, particularly those related to purposive behavior and intersubjective contexts. In order to address these questions from a Holtian point of view, Charles is forced to make a number of argumentative leaps and epistemological transgressions. In the last analysis, his insistence on keeping to the Holtian stance leads him to lose sight of the Gibsonian framework and to modify the very nature of his object of study, the social phenomenon—which, along the lines of classic neorealist behaviorism, becomes reduced to a simple consideration of behavioral purposiveness.     

Re-locating colors in the OSA space

A monolexemic color-naming experiment in the Italian language was performed on a sample of 1,014 colors obtained extending the OSA-UCS color system (E-OSA). Colors were rendered on a Mitsubishi Diamond pro 2070 monitor as patches subtending 10° of visual angle in a completely dark room. The 11 universal categories proposed by Berlin and Kay (Basic color terms: Their universality and evolution, 1969) were considered. Consensus, consistency and focal colors were determined for each category. Comparisons were performed among the results obtained using Boynton & Olson (B&O), the extended OSA (E-OSA), a subset of it covering almost all the B&O sample (R-OSA) and the Sturges & Whitfield (S&W) sample sets. A good overlap could be observed among the locations of the consensus colors in the {L, j, g} color model between B&O and R-OSA, as well as a close proximity among the centroids of homologue regions for the majority of the classes. The analysis of the location of focal colors versus the centroids suggests that an additional basic term could be missing for the Italian language in the blue category.     

The influence of presession factors in the assessment of deviant arousal

Three adult male sex offenders with developmental disabilities participated in an evaluation of presession factors that may influence levels of sexual arousal measured with a penile plethysmograph. We evaluated the effects of presession masturbation (1 participant) and arousal-suppression strategies (2 participants). Results showed that presession masturbation lowered arousal levels and both participants suppressed arousal to varying degrees. These outcomes suggest the potential for consideration and manipulation of presession factors as treatment components for sex offenders with developmental disabilities.     

Death Anxiety and Symbolic Immortality in Relatives at Risk for Familial Amyloid Polyneuropathy Type I (FAP I,ATTR V30M)

This study is an investigation of the impact of familial amyloid polyneuropathy type I (FAP I, ATTR V30M) on death anxiety and symbolic immortality. Templer and Drolet’s scales were administered to 524 individuals: (1) 84 relatives at risk, (2) 92 relatives not at risk for FAP I; and (3) a control group (n = 348) with no known hereditary disease in their families. At-risk relatives had, on average, a higher score for death anxiety and a lower score for symbolic immortality, than either those not-at-risk or controls. There were no significant differences in scores on either measure for those not-at-risk versus controls. Being at risk increases death anxiety and threatens the sense of symbolic immortality and psychosocial wellbeing. This may be true for other serious hereditary disorders as well. Genetic counsellors should become familiar with these concepts, feel comfortable initiating discussions about death with their patients, and be able to identify and reinforce their patients’ and family members’ sense of symbolic immortality.