Amélioration de la qualité de vie au travail dans les unités de soins : la démarche ORSOSA

Improve the quality of working conditions is a major issue for healthcare workers who have to deal with productivity obligations and multiple procedures. Based on the magnet hospital concept, the ORSOSA study (prospective cohort study of 4000 helthcare workers) helped develop and validate a methodolody that allows to quickly diagnose the levels of psychological and organizational constraints (CPO) from the staff’s point of view / of the staff. The ORSOSA method relies on an organisational psychologist who launches a dynamic during the diagnostic feedback phase. He gets the team to appropriate the strengths and weaknesses and to rank their recommendations. This article presents an overview of the method and it the first stages of its evaluations.     

The role of psychological control,socioeconomic status and academic achievement in parents' educational aspirations for their adolescent children

The present study examined the associations between mothers' and fathers' psychological control, socioeconomic status (SES) and their role in parents' educational aspirations for their adolescent children. Moreover, we examined to what extent SES and psychological control predicted their child's grade point average (GPA) and educational aspirations. A total of 1,034 Finnish adolescents aged 15 to 16 and their parents (720 mothers, 542 fathers) were surveyed at the beginning of the last grade of compulsory school. The results showed that the use of psychological control was more common among parents with lower SES. Moreover, the lower parents' SES was and the more psychological control they imposed, the lower were their educational aspirations for their adolescent children and lower was their child's GPA. The impact of SES was partially mediated by psychological control. The effects were similar for mothers and fathers.     

Selective impairment of masked priming in dual-task performance

This study investigated the impact of divided attention on masked priming. In a dual-task setting, two tasks had to be carried out in close temporal succession: a tone discrimination task and a masked priming task. The order of the tasks was varied between experiments, and attention was always allocated to the first task—that is, the first task was prioritized. The priming task was the second (nonprioritized) task in Experiment 1 and the first (prioritized) task in Experiment 2. In both experiments, “novel” prime stimuli associated with semantic processing were essentially ineffective. However, there was intact priming by another type of prime stimuli associated with response priming. Experiment 3 showed that all these prime stimuli can reveal significant priming effects during a task-switching paradigm in which both tasks were performed consecutively. We conclude that dual-task specific interference processes (e.g., the simultaneous coordination of multiple stimulus–response rules) selectively impair priming that is assumed to rely on semantic processing.     

The Adaptation of Patients During the Hospitalization Period of Bone Marrow Transplantation

A longitudinally study was conducted among 42 bone marrow transplantation (BMT) patients to investigate the association between pretransplant psychosocial variables and psychophysiological outcomes during the immediate convalescence period. Family relationships (cohesion, expressiveness, and conflict) and coping resources (cognitive, social, emotional, spiritual/philosophical, and physical resources) were assessed on the admission day (Day –7 Time 1). Data on psychological distress and pain intensity were obtained on Day +7 (Time 2) and Day +14 (Time 3). The average scores at Times 2 and 3 were computed to indicate the overall adjustments of the patients during the hospitalization period after the day of actual transplant (Day 0). It was shown that higher expressiveness family relationships and higher resources to cope effectively with stressful situations were associated with less psychological distress during the above period. Both pretransplant psychosocial variables were not associated with pain intensity during hospitalization. Allogeneic transplant patients reported higher pain intensity than did autologous transplant patients. Psychological distress and pain intensity were positively correlated with each other. Our findings show that pretransplant family relationships and coping resources associate moderately with psychological distress during the immediate convalescent period of BMT. The present findings support the family-centered approach to BMT care and provide a scientific basis for pretransplant psychosocial interventions.     

Marital conflict: Correlates, structure, and context

Marital conflict has deleterious effects on mental, physical, and family health, and three decades of research have yielded a detailed picture of the behaviors that differentiate distressed from nondistressed couples. Review of this work shows that the singular emphasis on conflict in generating marital outcomes has yielded an incomplete picture of its role in marriage. Recently, researchers have tried to paint a more textured picture of marital conflict by studying spouses' backgrounds and characteristics, investigating conflict in the contexts of support giving and affectional expression, and considering the ecological niche of couples in their broader environment.     

Self‐help strategies to reduce emotional distress: What do people do and why? A qualitative study

Background: Some people with psychological distress do not seek professional help but opt instead for self‐help strategies to reduce their symptoms. Little is known about these strategies. Aim: To investigate which self‐help approaches might be employed to reduce the effects of emotional distress, and the reasons for these choices. Method: Semi‐structured interviews with 11 clerical employees generated data analysed using grounded theory. Findings: Managing distress is a complex and multi‐dimensional process unique to each individual. The use of self‐help options is determined by the interconnection between the person's core beliefs, their social networks, and ideas about coping. Such beliefs may hinder help‐seeking. People tend to engage in activities that are familiar to them already, rather than attempt new ones. The purpose of self‐help strategies is to distract the person from their problems and to contribute to physical and mental well‐being. Implications for practice are discussed.     

Altered states of consciousness are related to higher sexual responsiveness

Altered states of consciousness lead to profound changes in the sense of self, time and space. We assessed how these changes were related to sexual responsiveness during sex. 116 subjects reported (a) intensity of awareness concerning body, space and time, and (b) satisfaction, desire, arousal, and orgasm occurrence. We differentiated vaginal intercourse orgasm from noncoital orgasm. Female vaginal intercourse orgasm was further differentiated as with or without concurrent clitoral masturbation. Overall, sexual responsiveness was related to greater body awareness and lesser time and space awareness. Satisfaction, desire, and arousal were especially associated with less time awareness in women. Female orgasms during vaginal intercourse were related to greater body awareness and lesser time awareness, but noncoital orgasms were unrelated. Our findings provide empirical support for the hypotheses that altered states of consciousness with attentional absorption are strongly related to sexual responsiveness in women, and to a lesser extent in men.     

为我国心理科学的发展、繁荣和走向世界而奋斗

该文系作者在中国心理学会第稚届全国心理学学术大会上作的工作报告,总结了中国心理学会第六届理事会１９９３－１９９７年的工作,内容包括四个部分：１．积极开展心理学各分支学科的学术活动,促进我国心理科学巽;２．加强心理科学宣传,办好学术和科刊物,出版《中国心理科学》;３．加强与国际交往,我国心理科学开始走向世界;４．坚持民主办会原则,健全学会的组织机构,提高工作效率。     

The relationship between expressed social fears and assertiveness and its treatment implications

Behavior therapists have speculated about the relationship between social fears or social anxieties and lack of assertive behavior. Wolpe (1958) perhaps most clearly suggested such a relationship. “If he [the patient] has been ineffectual in such situations—unable, for instance, to return a faulty garment—I explain how unadaptive fears are at the bottom of this ineffectualness. … p. 116.” Wolpe further assumed that engaging in assertive behavior reciprocally inhibited fear in these same social situations and that assertive responses can be programmed for use in overcoming these fears.In later writings (Wolpe. 1969; Wolpe and Lazarus, 1966) Wolpe seems to have broadened his position concerning the cause of non-assertive behavior. Specifically, he now allows that an individual also may be non-assertive, “… not because of anxiety but because they have never had the opportunity of acquiring the necessary habits. p. 40” (Wolpe and Lazarus, 1966). For these individuals direct efforts in assertive training such as behavior rehearsal, operant conditioning or direct instruction are in order. For these individuals whose lack of assertiveness is due to a ‘phobic reaction’ or strong extrinsic fears, systematic desensitization is recommended in addition to assertive training.Despite this apparent change in position, the intuitively appealing notion that the more socially fearful an individual is the more non-assertive he is likely to be has not received the empirical attention it deserves. Rathus (1973) seems to have provided some indirect evidence pertaining to the relationship between social fears and assertiveness. In the context of evaluating the efficacy of an assertive training method he administered both the 100-item Temple Fear Survey Inventory (TFSI) (Braun and Reynolds, 1969) and the Rathus Assertiveness Schedule (RAS) (Rathus, 1973) to groups of female students receiving either assertive training, a placebo treatment or no treatment. He found that at post-test the assertive training group scored significantly higher than either the placebo or no treatment groups on the RAS and that there were no significant differences in post-test Full Scale TSFI Scores. Fear of Social Criticism Factor Scores or Fear of Social Incompetence Factor Scores although in each case the mean changes toward less fear were greater for the group receiving assertive training. This finding gives little support to the reciprocal relationship between social fears and assertiveness. What is needed is a direct determination of the degree to which social fears and assertiveness are related in a sizeable sample of subjects.