From solidarity to autonomy: towards a redefinition of the parameters of the notion of autonomy

Starting from examples of concrete situations in France, I show that autonomy and solidarity can coexist only if the parameters of autonomy are redefined. I show on the one hand that in situations where autonomy is encouraged, solidarity nevertheless remains at the foundation of their practices. On the other hand, in situations largely infused with family solidarity, the individual autonomy may be put in danger. Yet, based on my ethnographic observations regarding clinical encounters and medical secrecy, I show that while solidarity may endanger individual autonomy, it does not necessarily endanger autonomy itself. The social practices observable in France reflect the reality of an autonomy that goes beyond the individual, a reality that involves a collective subject and includes solidarity. The opposition between these two values can then be resolved if the content of the notion of autonomy is understood to be dependent on its cultural context of application and on its social use.     

Use of Multisystemic Therapy to Improve Regimen Adherence Among Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes in Poor Metabolic Control: A Pilot Investigation

The purpose of the current study was to conduct a pilot investigation to determine the effectiveness of Multisystemic Therapy (MST) for improving regimen adherence and metabolic control among adolescents with poorly controlled Type 1 diabetes. Thirty-one adolescents were randomly assigned to either MST or a control condition. MST treatment lasted approximately six months. Data were collected at study entry and at a six-month posttest. Twenty-five adolescents completed the study. Adolescents who received MST had significantly improved adherence to blood glucose testing and metabolic control from study entry to the six-month posttest, whereas controls did not. Adolescents receiving MST also had a decreased number of inpatient admissions at the six-month posttest. Improvements in metabolic control were related to improvements in parent report of adolescent adherence. Results suggest that MST holds promise as an intervention for improving adherence behavior and health outcomes among adolescents in poor metabolic control.     

Different forms of intergroup contact with former adversary are linked to distinct reconciliatory acts through symbolic and realistic threat

In a society burdened with the most severe type of intergroup conflict, we examined the association between willingness to reconcile with former adversary, intergroup contact with, and perceived threat from former adversary. We focused on three reconciliatory acts—forgiveness to the outgroup, support for ingroup apology and support for financial compensation to the outgroup. We included different forms of positive and negative intergroup contact—direct and indirect (extended and mass‐mediated). In the link between contact and reconciliation, we tested the mediating role of two types of intergroup threat—realistic and symbolic. The sample comprised Bosniaks (N = 267) and Croats (N = 278) from Bosnia and Herzegovina. In both samples, reconciliation associated with indirect forms of intergroup contact even when controlling for its link with direct contact. This indicates the potential of indirect contact to promote reconciliation in the lack of direct contact, characteristic for segregated post‐conflict societies. Symbolic threat mediated the relationship between intergroup contact and symbolic forms of reconciliation—forgiveness and support for ingroup apology. Realistic threat mediated the link between intergroup contact and a more tangible form of reconciliation—support for financial compensation. This highlights the importance of considering different types intergroup threat when targeting distinct reconciliatory acts. Our results suggest that practitioners promoting reconciliation in post‐conflict societies need to implement different means when tailoring interventions that should enhance different sides of peace‐making process.     

The factor structure of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory

In the first study, we administered the 40-item Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; Raskin & Terry, 1988) to 843 female and 843 male college students, most of whom were Euro-American, to comprehensively assess the NPI factor structure using confirmatory factor analysis. Initial exploratory common factor analyses (N = 724) revealed a 2-factor model (Leadership/Authority and Exhibitionism/Entitlement). Subsequently, we used confirmatory factor analysis in a separate sample (N = 724) to evaluate the Emmons (1987) 4-factor model, the Raskin and Terry (1988) 7-factor model, the Kubarych, Deary, and Austin (2004) 2- and 3-factor models, and our 2-factor model. Finally, we assessed construct validity by correlating the scale scores with the Five-factor model of personality in an independent sample (N = 238). The 2-factor models for the NPI we obtained in this study and by Kubarych et al. (2004) appeared to be the most parsimonious models, with both a good fit to the data and satisfactory internal consistency values; so they are recommended for use. However, additional NPI research is needed to rescale, modify, or omit several NPI items and develop gender-equivalent items.     

The effect of embodying the elderly on time perception

The present study investigated the perception of stimulus durations represented by elderly faces or by young faces. In a temporal bisection task, participants classified intermediate durations as more similar to a short or a long reference duration. The results showed that the durations represented by elderly faces were less often classified as “long” than the durations represented by young faces. According to internal clock models of time perception, this shortening effect is due to a slowing down of the speed of the internal clock during the perception of elderly faces. Analyses also revealed an interaction between sex of face and sex of participant such that this shortening effect occurred only when the participants share the same sex than the stimulus faces. As discussed, this finding is quite consistent with embodied cognition approaches to information processing, but alternatives accounts are also considered.     

The effects of cystic fibrosis on couples: marital satisfaction, emotions, and coping strategies

An earlier diagnosis and better overall multidisciplinary care enable people suffering from Cystic Fibrosis (CF) to have a life expectancy of 40. Consequently, new populations and questions about the development of the life of couples have arisen. This study by questionnaires takes a first look at marital adjustment, anxiety, depression, and emotion focused, social support focused, and problem focused coping strategies in 16 CF patients and their partners. As a whole, the couples' marital adjustment level was good; it was higher for men who were patients than men who were partners, and vice versa for women. Anxiety was high for at least one partner in 10 of the couples; depression, for at least one partner in seven of them. The participants seem to use coping strategies to a lesser extent than the general population. The results are discussed in terms of how the quality of life as a couple with one partner suffering from CF is affected by the proper mutual adjustment of the partners.     

Experimental dissociations between memory measures: Influence of retrieval strategies

The objective of this study was to explore the participants’ processing strategies on the mere exposure effect, object decision priming and explicit recognition. In Experiments 1, we observed that recognition and the mere exposure effect for unfamiliar three-dimensional objects were not dissociated by plane rotations in the same way as recognition and object decision priming. However, we showed that, under identical conditions, prompting analytic (part-based) processing at testing produced a large plane rotation effect on recognition and the mere exposure effect similar to that observed for object decision priming (Experiment 2). Furthermore, inducing a non-analytic (whole-based) processing strategy at testing produced a reduced plane rotation effect on recognition and object decision (Experiments 3 and 4), similar to that observed for the mere exposure effect. These findings suggest that participants’ processing strategies influence performance on the three tasks.     

L’adhésion des populations immigrantes à la valeur de l’autonomie véhiculée en santé publique

Autonomy, a basic ethical value in public health, is regularly put under pressure by the demands of empowerment, rights of individuals and healthy communities. This article describes the results of a study about the support of non-immigrants and immigrants subjects (n?=?137) from the Montreal area on the value of autonomy conveyed in six public health programs. The results indicate that non-immigrants Quebecers and longstanding immigrants differ from recent immigrants concerning activities about commitment of fathers, poverty families, screening for sexually transmitted diseases and treatment of tuberculosis.     

Predictive Value of Informant Discrepancies in Reports of Parenting: Relations to Early Adolescents’ Adjustment

Research has demonstrated a lack of agreement between parent and child reports across a range of parent and child variables. These discrepancies hinder the interpretation of research findings as well as diagnostic and treatment decisions in clinical practice. The current study examined the hypothesis that discrepancies between parent and child reports of parenting can be useful as predictors of future child outcomes. The participants included 559 early adolescents and their primary caregivers (79% African American, 21% Caucasian). Both respondents provided information on parental nurturance, harsh discipline and inconsistent discipline. A year later, information of adolescents’ internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and social competence was collected. Structural equation modeling revealed that parent-child discrepancies in parenting reports could be explained by a latent factor which was a significant predictor of child internalizing problems and social competence, but not of externalizing problems, after adjusting for initial internalizing and externalizing problems. The three models applied across gender and ethnicity.