Foot-in-the-door and action identification. Binding communication applied to environmental conservation

IntroductionGrowing concern for the environment gives rise to the development of projects aimed at changing attitudes and/or behaviors of individuals in a more ecological way. While the traditional levers of change (information/persuasion) have clear limitations (Perloff, 2003), the promising results of Binding Communication (Joule et al., 2004) present a relevant alternative.ObjectiveOur research, based on the Binding Communication paradigm, aimed to encourage participation in a project to reduce energy consumption and CO₂ emission. The underlying theoretical aim was to identify the impact of action identification (Vallacher and Wegner, 1985) on individual behavior. A variable that commitment theorists (Girandola, 2003, Joule and Beauvois, 1998, Joule et al., 2004) consider as decisive in the paradigm effect although it has not yet been empirically studied.MethodOne hundred and twenty-three households in Brittany, France received a letter inviting them to participate in the presented project. According to three experimental conditions, some households had already received a phone call in order to answer a questionnaire about the environment (8–10 days earlier), wording in reference to two distinct identification levels.ResultsStatistical analyses showed a positive effect of procedure on intention to participate when the wording of the initial questionnaire referred to a high and adequate level of identification.ConclusionDiscussed in the context of commitment (Joule and Beauvois, 1998, Joule and Beauvois, 2002, Kiesler, 1971), self-perception (Bem, 1972) and action identification (Vallacher and Wegner, 1985); the results provide the first empirical validation of the effect of action identification on Binding Communication.     

Burial and resurgence of projective identification in French psychoanalysis

Curiously enough, the concept of projective identification was ignored, and even rejected in France for at least two decades after the publication of the founding texts of Melanie Klein and Herbert Rosenfeld. This rejection was due to a critique from child psychoanalysts close to Anna Freud and also from the teaching of Lacan: the first took the real mother–child relation extensively into account, while the latter only saw the internal object as a signifier. The fact that during this period the countertransference was a concept reduced to its negative content no doubt explains this deliberate ignorance. With the dissemination of a broader and more positive conception of the countertransference, a renewal of interest could be observed in the 1980s with references to empathic listening and to the effects of thought‐induction.     

COUNTERTRANSFERENCE IDENTIFICATION AND FANTASY IN PSYCHOANALYTIC PROCESS

The development of more nuanced understandings of psychoanalytic process is among the primary tasks of contemporary psychoanalytic theorizing. One piece of this complex undertaking involves the examination of moments when the analyst's countertransference position changes. Shifts in the analyst's feelings and thoughts in relation to the patient are complex events in which experiences registered at many levels of organization and via many modes of perception combine to contribute to meaning‐making and furthering of the treatment process. The author explores the role of fantasy in giving form and meaning to alterations experienced as a change of attitude or affect, through close examination of one such moment of shift.     

Eyewitness identification discriminability: ROC analysis versus logistic regression

To reach conclusions regarding the respective accuracy of two conditions, eyewitness researchers evaluate correct and false identification rates computed across participants. Two approaches typically are employed. One approach relies on ratio-based probative value measures; but Wixted and Mickes (2012) and Gronlund, Wixted, and Mickes (2014) showed that these measures fail to disentangle an assessment of accuracy (i.e., discriminability between guilty and innocent suspects) from response bias (i.e., a willingness to make a response). Our focus is on a second approach, logistic regression analyses of the correct and of the false identification rates. Logistic regression also fails to disentangle discriminability from bias. Therefore, it only can denote the most accurate condition in limited circumstances. The best approach for reaching the proper conclusion regarding which condition is most accurate is to use receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analysis. Simulated ROC data illustrate the problem with a reliance on logistic regression to assess accuracy.     

Le rôle des stresseurs sur le comportement d’innovation : Quand le leadership habilitant du supérieur protège le potentiel d’innovation des travailleurs

This study focuses on the relationship between workplace stressors and innovative work behavior. The joint analysis of the mediation process supporting this relationship as well as the influence of certain external conditions such as the moderating role of the supervisor has made it possible to highlight the dynamic that underlie the relationship between stressors and innovation behavior. Using the challenge-hindrance model, this theory proposes that challenge (i.e., role overload) and hindrance (i.e., role ambiguity and role conflict) stressors exert positive and negative indirect effects, respectively, on innovative work behavior through psychological empowerment (PE). Furthermore, empowering leadership (EL) has the potential to optimize the benefits of challenge stressors and reduce the effects of hindrance stressors on PE and indirectly on innovation work behavior. In support of these predictions, a time-lagged study of 146 employees from various Canadian firms reveals that hindrance stressors, particularly role ambiguity, are negatively related to innovative work behavior through PE. Moreover, when EL was high, the positive effects of role overload were enhanced through PE while the negative effects of role ambiguity and role conflict were attenuated. The implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.     

Fears of death and fears of dying in the counter-transference

It is commonplace for people to say they are not afraid of death but they are afraid of dying. I discuss unconscious aspects of fears of dying and fears of death which are revealed in counter-transference experiences in therapy with people suffering from terminal illnesses and with older people. Studying the counter-transference shows that fears of dying, which usually refer to lingering and disabling illnesses, unconsciously are linked with fears of dependency and the apprehension that if one becomes dependent then no-one will want to look after you. This apprehension is often a residue of failures in the early dependency relationship which can be re-enacted in adult life through projective identification when therapists and carers may be induced to abandon the caring role. Despite the ubiquitous denial, fears of death surface in the counter-transference, often obliquely but always with a particular terror for the survival of the self. This unconscious terror confirms Freud’s insight about the denial of death that what is unthinkable is the annihilation of the self. I conclude with a discussion about the importance of setting an ending date in therapy with those who are old or terminally ill.     

Fundamental failure to think logically about scientific questions: An illustration of tunnel vision with the application of Wason's Card Selection Test to criminal evidence

Logic and science are in some respects fundamentally different disciplines, in that for example, application of rules of logic can yield conclusions that are at odds with physical reality. Not surprisingly, people have ample difficulty with logical thinking. Nonetheless, in some instances, logical thinking can fuel empirical decision making. In the current research, it was established that applying rules of logic to a particular area of empirical decision making, that is, criminal fact finding, is indeed quite difficult (Study 1). Furthermore, the ability to think logically was found to be associated with superior evaluation of criminal evidence (Study 2). Implications of these findings are discussed.     

The role of retributive justice and the use of international criminal tribunals in post‐conflict reconciliation

Four experiments examined people's responses to intergroup violence either committed or suffered by their own group. Experiment 1 demonstrated that Serbs who strongly glorified Serbia were more supportive of future violence against, and less willing to reconcile with, Bosniaks after reading about Serbian victimization by Bosniaks rather than Serbian transgressions against Bosniaks. Replicating these effects with Americans in the context of American–Iranian tensions, Experiment 2 further showed that demands for retributive justice explained why high glorifiers showed asymmetrical reactions to ingroup victimization vs. perpetration. Again in the Serb and the American context, respectively, Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrated that post‐conflict international criminal tribunals can help satisfy victim group members' desire for retributive justice, and thereby reduce their support for future violence and increase their willingness to reconcile with the perpetrator group. The role of retributive justice and the use of international criminal justice in intergroup conflict (reduction) are discussed.