Problemas epistemológicos del concepto y definición de la psicología

RESUMEN

Todavía es reciente, en Psicología, el predominio de una actitud “epistemolófoba”, que rechazaba como acientífico cualquier intento de reflexión metacientífico sobre el objeto de la psicología y las formulaciones explicativas que define. En los últimos años, esta actitud ha cambiado y los psicólogos vuelven a considerar pertinente y necesaria la reflexión. En este trabajo se analizan los diversos modos de explicación de la conducta, sin exclusiones y a partir de la premisa de la “sobredeterminación” de la propia conducta. Se define la psicología científica como la ciencia de los principios, estructuras y funciones de la formalización conductual de la interrelación respectiva del hombre y su medio natural y social.     

Narraciones orales y escritas en niños. Un estudio sobre sus diferencias

Resumen

El objetivo de este trabajo fue comprobar las diferencias existentes entre las modalidades oral y escrita de expresión. El tipo discursivo elegido para la comparación fue la narración espontánea, fundamentalmente por la literatura psicológica y psicolingüística que la apoya. Se analizaron 64 narraciones, 32 orales y 32 escritas de otros tantos sujetos todos ellos alumnos del último trimestre de primer curso de E.G.B. Las variables analizadas fueron nivel narrativo, cohesión y presencia de marcadores, M. L. E., cantidad de palabras, cantidad y tipo de nexos, cantidad y tipo de formas verbales.

Los resultados parecen demostrar que es más lo que une que lo que separa a ambas modalidades si no existe a la vez de la comparación intermodal la comparación inter discursiva. Así no resultan diferentes significativamente más que los marcadores narrativos (las medidas más altas son dé la modalidad escrita) y la productividad del texto, (las medidas más altas cuantitativamente son de la modalidad oral); el resto de variables no son significativamente diferentes.     

La falacia de la validación personal: Más efectos placebo

RESUMEN

En este artículo se pone a prueba la influencia de efectos placebo en la aceptación de informes evaluativos y diagnósticos por los sujetos. Tras introducir brevemente el tema y plantear las hipótesis, los autores describen el método y los resultados de su investigación. En la discusión explican que estos resultados sugieren que la aceptación del diagnóstico que ofrece un profesional es un fenómeno general independiente de las características personales de los individuos que lo reciben, poniendo en entredicho el fenómeno de la validación personal y, al mismo tiempo, interactúa con determinadas características profesionales de los sujetos, ligadas a imágenes de personalidad a las que son más propensos. Los autores también analizan una limitación importante de su trabajo, el tamaño reducido de la muestra, y finalizan destacando que es el contenido del informe, más que el tipo de pruebas o profesionales, lo que parece afectar diferencialmente a distintos grupos profesionales.     

Social aspects of career choice from the perspective of habitus theory

The concept of habitus designates a cognitive structure that is socially embedded and can give valuable insight into the social influences on career choice. A study investigating the relationship of habitus to career choice is presented in a sample of Icelandic youth aged 19–22 (N = 476). Measures of habitus were developed on the basis of reported cultural and leisure activities. The analysis of leisure and cultural items progressed in two steps: factor analysis and cluster analysis. The clusters constitute the four different habitus groups: Pop and fashion, Sports and rock, Music, and Literature. Correspondence factor analysis showed that the habitus groups (clusters) were related to other social variables, such as gender and class; validating habitus theory. Additionally, habitus measures were strongly linked to career variables, such as occupational perception and preferred future occupation. The results support previous research in showing that habitus theory is relevant to career counseling theory and can be a basis of understanding the relationship between social structure and career choice.     

The role of traffic law enforcements in the relationship between cultural variables and traffic fatality rates across some countries of the world

The aims of the present study were to investigate whether cultural variables are related to law enforcements as well as traffic fatality rates and to examine the role of law enforcements of five risk factors for road safety (i.e., national speed law, national drink-driving law, national motorcycle helmet law, national seat-belt law, and national child restraint law) in the relationship between cultural variables and traffic fatality rates across countries of the world. The aggregated data of the study included Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, Schwartz’s value dimensions, law enforcements of five risk factors for road safety, gross national income per capita, and traffic fatality rates for 97 countries of the world. The results showed that most of the cultural variables were associated with law enforcements of five risk factors for road safety and traffic fatality rates of countries. By bootstrapping, among Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, it was found that the indirect effects of long-term orientation (LTO) on fatality rates (FR) through speed, helmet, and child restraint enforcements were significant, separately. Among Schwartz’s value dimensions, the indirect effects of embeddedness on fatality rates through speed and child restraint enforcements were significant, separately. Intellectual autonomy had also significant indirect effects on fatality rates via speed and child restraint enforcements, separately. Finally, it was found that the indirect effects of affective autonomy on fatality rates through speed and helmet enforcements were significant, separately.     

Behavioural Profiles and Offender Characteristics across 111 Korean Sexual Assaults

Although the potential usefulness of the offence action–offender characteristic (A–C) relationships is widely accepted and operational ‘offender profiling’ units now exist around the world, few such relationships have been empirically established. To explore this, the offending action patterns within 111 sexual assault cases from South Korea were coded in terms of 16 distinctive, objective crime scene criteria and subjected to an agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis. Background psychiatric and general characteristics, Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) scale scores, and criminal histories were described for each cluster. The cluster analysis drew attention to six clusters or behavioural profiles within the sexual assaults. Cluster 1 included serial offenders who aggressively raped and robbed adult women, with some pseudo‐intimate sexual behaviour, in their homes. Two thirds of these offenders had histories of sexual assault. Cluster 2 included offenders who again targeted adults in their homes, but without pseudo‐intimate sexual behaviour. Cluster 3 included offenders who targeted adults outdoors at night. These offenders showed high antisocial personality PAI scores and psychiatric histories of sexual sadism. Cluster 4 included unarmed offenders who targeted adults in their homes without robbery. These offenders often had psychiatric histories of depression. Cluster 5 included offenders who targeted adults outdoors with a blitz‐style attack, and Cluster 6 included offenders who targeted minors outdoors, without weapons, using a confidence‐trick style of approach. Paedophilia and histories of psychiatric treatment were prominent amongst these offenders. The results indicate therefore some of the key empirical relationships that future research may develop as the basis for sexual assault ‘profiles’. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Some relationships between factors and components

The asymptotic correlations between the estimates of factor and component loadings are obtained for the exploratory factor analysis model with the assumption of a multivariate normal distribution for manifest variables. The asymptotic correlations are derived for the cases of unstandardized and standardized manifest variables with orthogonal and oblique rotations. Based on the above results, the asymptotic standard errors for estimated correlations between factors and components are derived. Further, the asymptotic standard error of the mean squared canonical correlation for factors and components, which is an overall index for the closeness of factors and components, is derived. The results of a Monte Carlo simulation are presented to show the usefulness of the asymptotic results in the data with a finite sample size.The author is indebted to anonymous referees for their comments, corrections and suggestions which have led to the improvement of this article.     

The effect of additional variables on factor indeterminacy in models with a single common factor

Determinate solutions for the indeterminate common factor ofp variables satisfying the single common factor model are not unique. Therefore an infinite sequence of additional variables that conform jointly with the originalp variables to the original single common factor model does not determine a unique solution for the indeterminate factor of thep variables (although the solution is unique for the factor of the infinite sequence). Other infinite sequences may be found to determine different solutions for the factor of the originalp variables. The paper discusses a number of theorems about the effects of additional variables on factor indeterminacy in a model with a single common factor and draws conclusions from them for factor theory in general.     

军队初级指挥官PM领导行为类型的研究——与中、日企业领导行为的比较

本研究采用日本三隅二不二教授的PM领导行为理论 ,用中国修订版的PM量表对 2 64名初级军官的领导行为类型进行了评定 ,并与对中、日企业界的有关研究结果进行了比较 ,目的是研究初级军官所特有的领导行为特征以及与其相对应的情境因素。研究结果显示 :①在军事组织中 ,PM型是较理想的领导类型 ,其次为P型。这与中、日企业的结果有所不同。②方差分析结果表示 ,在与领导行为类型相关的八项情境因素中 ,初级军官在工作激励、连队满意度、团队精神和会议成效等因子上高于中、日企业界 ;但在心理卫生、对待遇满意度、信息沟通和绩效规范等因子上均低于中国企业界。③ χ2 分析结果显示 ,三种组织与四种PM行为类型之间在六项情境因素上的差异显著 ,提示三种组织在领导行为和情境因素上各有其特点 ;另外 ,与军事指挥官领导行为类型关系最为密切的是工作激励因素和团队精神 ,这是军事集团突出的特征之一。④中、日企业界在会议成效和信息沟通两因素上的差异较大 ,反映了两国在企业管理方面不同的特点。