Soul in the world: symbolic culture as the medium for psyche

Whilst the loss of a sense of living connection with the material world is mainly associated with the scientific revolution in seventeenth century Europe, it can be traced back to Plato's introduction of a hierarchy between soul and body. Jung's attempted solution to this – esse in anima – is ingenious but maintains the Cartesian split by which the aliveness of the world is reduced to a projection of psychic forces (the archetypes). An alternative approach is proposed, rooted in the Aristotelean emphasis on practical activity that sees the soul as a function of our way of being in the world. Human cognition is extended and distributed by our social and material engagement with the world, especially via collective representations whose symbolic character is constitutive of the reality of the world in which we live. Despite the dominance of ‘scientific Cartesian’ representations in the modern Western world, there remain numerous instances of participation mystique that cannot be captured by the Cartesian notion of projection. These indicate an opening to ways of being in the world that may lead us out of the impasse of the Cartesian matrix.     

Rôle du contrôle exécutif dans le raisonnement par analogie chez l’enfant et le primate non humain

Analogical reasoning (AR) is a cornerstone of human cognition. Two main theories have historically been proposed to account for the ontogeny of AR. They propose that analogical skills are constrained by children's logical skills or limited knowledge of the relations to be considered. We adopt an alternative perspective in this review paper suggesting that AR abilities depend on the efficiency of executive control. We present convergent data collected in children and monkeys highlighting the role of three main executive functions: inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility and working memory updating. The analysis of children's reasoning suggests that the contribution of relational knowledge and executive control to analogical reasoning cannot be considered independently.     

Le rôle de l’implication et des systèmes de croyances au sein des représentations sociales

The study presented in this article concerns the functioning of representational mechanisms in social thought. More specifically, its objective is to identify the role of variables covering psychosocial involvement and systems of belief within social representations. At the interface between the individual and the group, these variables are considered here because of their status as explanatory variables of social thought. By analyzing the representation of human rights, we hypothesize that the level of involvement and the type of beliefs developed toward the state (concepts of a democratic state versus a safe state) impact on the expression of this representation and the standpoints it creates. The survey was conducted by questionnaire with a student population (315 participants). The main results, which are consistent with our hypotheses, provide evidence of an influence of the variables tested on the expressiveness of the representation of human rights. On the one hand, they reveal how an involvement developed in this subject and the social beliefs attached to the role of the state come to particularize the meaning of this representation, especially concerning its principles of equality. On the other hand, the results demonstrate the activity of ideological processes – political in content – which intervene in the realization of the representation. Through these processes, the results show a stronger influence of social beliefs than of psychosocial involvement on the representation studied.     

L’espoir dans la maladie chronique : représentations sociales de l’espoir chez les patients et soignants

Hope has a significant place in many literatures and most recently in health context. Nevertheless, there is still little research describing the distinct concepts and representations of hope in patients’ population. Hope is defined as perceived capability to derive pathways to desired goals, and motivate oneself via agency thinking to use those pathways. The main objective of this study is to explore the representation of hope, in the context of chronic disease, for both patients and health providers. For that purpose, we conducted the present study considering the social representation approach. The sample consisted of 67 chronic disease patients (mean age = 51.13 years; SD = 19.05; 68.70% female), 83 health care professionals (mean age = 35.32 years; SD = 11.49; 74.70% female) and 103 individuals from the general population (mean age = 30.41 years; SD = 13.85; 64.10% female). They completed two free associations task: write “everything that comes into your mind when you think about hope”, one in general and one in disease context. Free associations allowed us to identify shared conceptions of hope as well as intergroup variations in these representations. Associations with the word of hope produced by our respondents were depending on (a) the context (hope in disease or hope in general), and (b) the type of participant (patient, healthcare professionals or individuals from the general population). The results first indicate that hope, for all participants and whatever the context, refers to the beliefs of positive issues and perspectives. Moreover, dealing with a chronic disease seems to create, for the patients, a very specific representation of hope. It appears that when disease becomes serious and persistent, and when patients need to deal with uncertainty, hope is mainly described as a coping strategy, determined by specific objectives and resources.     

Individu dangereux et situations dangereuses : les représentations sociales de la dangerosité chez les citoyens, les magistrats et les surveillants de prison

The notion of “dangerousness” takes an increasing importance currently at the level of the Justice, magistrates and supervisors of jail being brought thus to assess it frequently. A question arises then, that of the significance assigned by these professionals to dangerousness. Results of the interviews achieved close to these two groups as well as with citizens reveal homogeneous representations as for the dangerous individual but greatly heterogeneous representations with respect to the dangerous situations. While confirming the existence of several dangerousness (social, penal and prison), these results also show that all dangerousness assessment can be satisfactory on condition that it is done in an both clinical and social approach.     

Haut potentiel intellectuel et développement social

The first part of this article presents a theoretical and empirical review on the issue of gifted children's social development. As a whole, data does not allow for straightforward conclusion as to whether gifted children may be socially at risk. Conflicting results may be due in part to heterogeneity across studies in sampling procedures and in assessing social adjustment. Next, we will examine how social skills development could be viewed as a potential domain for the expression of intellectual giftedness, in the light of theories that posit a multi-factorial view of intelligence or creativity. Accordingly, there may be a need to reconsider the notion of giftedness and thus take into account social giftedness, both for identification and education purposes.     

Role of social skills training in adolescents with social anxiety disorder

Background/Objective: Social skills training (SST) is frequently included in the treatment of social anxiety disorder (SAD) in both children and adolescents, although there is no empirical evidence to support it. Consequently, our objective is to study the role and effects of SST in the treatment of a sample of adolescents with SAD. Method: A total of 108 adolescents diagnosed with generalized social phobia were randomly assigned to two treatment conditions (with and without SST) and a control group waiting list (WLCG). The evaluation included self-report measures, observational tests and blind evaluators. Results: Both interventions significantly reduced the number of social situations feared/avoided with respect to the WLCG, which worsened. Likewise, both interventions were effective but the group with SST obtained better results in the post-test and follow-ups, as well as a lower dropout rate (6:1). Conclusions: The use of SST reduces the dropout rate of treated adolescents and increases the effectiveness of the Intervention Program for Adolescents with Social Phobia.     

Asertividad: definiciones y dimensiones

Resumen

En este artículo se revisan diferentes definiciones y dimensiones que se ban dado sobre la asertividad, así como también se bosquejan las raíces de este concepto y la tendencia actual que existe entre los profesionales para usar otras expresiones en sustitución del término «asertividad». No hay ninguna definición que baya sido universalmente aceptada, ni un grupo de dimensiones que se hayan establecido definitivamente. Se revisan una serie de características que diferentes autores atribuyen al individuo asertivo y, finalmente se especifican unos elementos que son comunes a la mayoría de las definiciones de la conducta asertiva.