Aplicación de la psicología al estudio de los procedimientos policiales de recuerdo de personas

RESUMEN

En este artículo los autores aportan una visión de lo que se entiende por psicología del testimonio. Condensan los estudios sobre los procedimientos policiales de recuerdo de personas que se desarrollaron simulando las condiciones reales lo más exactamente posible, resaltando la capacidad de la ciencia psicológica en un campo “relativamente” nuevo y, a todas luces, aplicado. Comienzan por delimitar el área y describir los procedimientos policiales más difundidos en los diferentes países, comentando a continuación los resultados de las investigaciones psicológicas sobre los instrumentos genéricamente llamados “retratos-robot” y que, principalmente, han sido realizados en las universidades de Aberdeen (Escocia) y Houston (USA). En el último apartado sintetizan los datos más relevantes y finalizan subrayando la utilidad de la Psicología en este ámbito y la importancia de diseños experimentales cercanos a la realidad.     

Autocategorización,identidad nacional y contexto lingüístico

Resumen

Los mecanismos psicológicos implicados en la construcción de la identidad social han sido estudiados sobre todo desde la Psicología Social. Sin embargo, prácticamente no existen estudios evolutivos que muestren dicho proceso de construcción. El artículo expone una investigación sobre el proceso de categorización social con 495 niñas y niños de la ciudad de Girona de 6 a 15 años de diferentes lenguas propias—catalán, castellano y bilingüe—. Los resultados muestran que algunas de las predicciones provenientes de la teoría de la identidad social no se cumplen y que, probablemente, el proceso de construcción de la identidad se explique mejor en el marco de la teoría de las representaciones sociales.     

Estructuras textuales y procesos de comprensión: un programa para instruir en la comprensión de textos

Resumen

El trabajo tiene la siguiente línea argumental: 1) Existe una relación entre las estructuras de los textos y los procesos de comprensión. 2) Los lectores con menor capacidad no se aprovechan de esas propiedades presentes en los textos y, como consecuencia, su representación del significado carece de orden y coherencia. 3) Si se instruye a los sujetos con una pobre capacidad de comprensión a detectar y usar las propiedades de los textos, puede reducirse la distancia que les separa de los sujetos con una buena capacidad de comprensión. Consecuentemente, el programa de instrucción está centrado en las actividades cognitivas que permiten seguir la progresión temática de los textos, extraer el significado global (aplicación de las macrorreglas de selección, generalización e integración) y a reconocer y usar las formas organizativas básicas. Para poner a prueba el programa de instrucción se contrastan los efectos de este programa con otro de carácter más tradicional y otra condición de control aplicando estas tres condiciones a sujetos de dos niveles de competencia, lo que da lugar a un diseño antes/después con dos niveles de competencia por tres tratamientos.     

The emerging global brain 1

We are witnessing the rapid expansion of communications across the globe. Existing networks such as the postal system, telephone networks, airline ticket reservations, weather satellites, banking and stock market systems, etc., are rapidly being supplemented by the World Wide Net. The impact of this process will be two‐fold. First just as the printing press had a major impact on the collective intelligence of Europe, so will the world computer networks upgrade the collective intelligence of global society. Second, the properties of this constellation of systems, approach the anatomy of the human brain. The complexity of the global brain will result in properties, and an independence, which cannot be anticipated at this time.     

Knowledge of Need

Some of the duties of individuals and organisations involve responsiveness to need. This requires knowledge of need, so the epistemology of need is relevant to practice. The prevailing contention among philosophers who have broached the topic is that one can know one’s own needs (as one can know some kinds of desires) by feeling them. The article argues against this view. The main positive claims made in the article are as follows. Knowledge of need, in both first‐person and second‐person cases, is a type of knowledge‐that with no basic epistemological source. Needs, like medical conditions, have signs and symptoms. Knowledge of these, with inference, results in knowledge of need. Finally, it is argued that need is akin to, but not a special case of, metaphysical necessity de re. Some implications of this for the epistemology of need are explained.     

The Racial and Ethnic Identity Formation Process of Second‐Generation Asian Indian Americans: A Phenomenological Study

This phenomenological study elucidates the identity development processes of 12 second‐generation adult Asian Indian Americans. The results identify salient sociocultural factors and multidimensional processes of racial and ethnic identity development. Discrimination, parental, and community factors seemed to play a salient role in influencing participants’ racial and ethnic identity development. The emergent Asian Indian American racial and ethnic identity model provides a contextualized overview of key developmental periods and turning points within the process of identity development. Este estudio fenomenológico dilucida los procesos de desarrollo de la indentidad de 12 individuos Americano‐Indoasiáticos adultos. Los resultados identifican factores socioculturales destacados y procesos multidimensionales del desarrollo de la identidad racial y étnica. Los factores de discriminación, paternos y comunitarios parecieron jugar un papel destacado en su influencia sobre el desarrollo de la identidad racial y étnica de los participantes. El modelo emergente de identidad racial y étnica Americano‐Indoasiática proporciona una visión general contextualizada de los periodos clave del desarrollo y los puntos de inflexión durante el proceso del desarrollo de la identidad.     

La substitution dans les études de représentations sociales : quel processus impliqué ?

This study of social representations aims at identifying the process involved in the responses produced with a substitution technique. Two alternative hypotheses are discussed: one that considers that substitution induces social comparison (Chokier and Moliner, 2006), the other suggesting that this technique leads to a reduction of normative pressures (Guimelli, 1998). In the research presented here, we studied the social representations of Drug addicts (in the tolerance towards the use of cannabis) and of Unemployed people, in order to compare the results with those obtained by Chokier and Moliner (2006) about security. With a specific population of students, these objects allowed us to manipulate two levels of distance to the object of representation. Concerning the technique of substitution, three levels of distance to the reference group (French people in general, Young people, Students) were combined into questionnaires with four types of instructions: standard, substitution, pro- and counter-normative. The PCA highlights a Guttman effect, which indicating that the responses produced with standard instruction are less normative than the responses produced with the substitution instruction to Young people. These results invalidate an explanation in terms of effect Primus Inter Pares. Globally, the results mainly show that the more the distance to the object is low and the distance to the reference group is high, the more the responses produce in substitution are seen as pro-normative and near from those produced with standard instruction. More specifically, we identified a number of inconsistencies with regard to what one could expect from an explanation of the phenomena in terms of personal versus social identity. As regards the representation of Unemployed people, the more the participants are closed to the reference group, the more the responses produced with an instruction of auto-valorization (pro-normative) are closed to those produced in substitution. However, on one hand, this result is observed only with the representation of Unemployed people, and, on the other hand, a social comparison explanation would suppose that the participants perceived the group of French people in general as homogeneous and identified themselves to this group at the same level than to the two other reference groups, which is unlikely. Finally, these results lead us to conclude that the substitution does not induce social comparison (Chokier and Moliner, 2006), but more probably reduction of normative pressures (Guimelli, 1998). It thus suggests that the study of masking effects through a substitution technique should take into account two parameters: distance to the object and distance to the reference group.     

Étude des stratégies d’adultes présentant un retard mental dans la résolution de la Twenty Questions Task

A Twenty Questions problem solving Task was given to 30 mentally retarded adults, 30 mentally nonretarded adults matched on chronological age, and 12 mentally nonretarded children matched on cognitive efficiency. Four strategies were identified on the basis of a subject-by-subject analysis. Results showed group differences of frequency in the use of the strategies. Moreover, results indicated that the more frequent strategy used by the mentally retarded adults is the one which consists in identifying the categories without using them to efficiently reduce the problem space. The interpretation of the results as reflecting a conceptual deficit or a chronicle cognitive sub-functioning of the mentally retarded adults depicted in the literature is discussed.     

Enfreindre sans craindre : tolérance à la dissonance dans le paradigme de l’hypocrisie induite

Induced-hypocrisy is directly derived from cognitive dissonance theory. This paradigm involves the combination of two factors: commitment factor, in which the individual advocates a pro-normative position and mindful factor in which the past transgressions are made salient. This combination arouses dissonance, which is usually reduced by changing the behavior in line with the normative advocacy. We used the induced-hypocrisy paradigm to test one of the original hypotheses of dissonance: it exists a tolerance towards dissonance. This tolerance was operationalized via the frequency of self-reported transgressions (e.g. familiarization with transgressions). Participants were made hypocritical; then they were given the opportunity to reduce dissonance through trivialization scale. According to the hypothesis, less frequent were the transgressions and higher was their trivialization.     

On the Outskirts of the Canon: The Myth of the Lone Female Philosopher,and What to Do about It

Women philosophers of the past, because they tended not to engage with each other much, are often perceived as isolated from ongoing philosophical dialogues. This has led—directly and indirectly—to their exclusion from courses in the history of philosophy. This article explores three ways in which we could solve this problem. The first is to create a course in early modern philosophy that focuses solely or mostly on female philosophers, using conceptual and thematic ties such as a concern for education and a focus on ethics and politics. The second is to introduce women authors as dialoguing with the usual canonical suspects: Cavendish with Hobbes, Elisabeth of Bohemia with Descartes, Masham and Astell with Locke, Conway with Leibniz, and so on. The article argues that both methods have significant shortcomings, and it suggests a third, consisting in widening the traditional approach to structuring courses in early modern philosophy.