Experiencias con el MAUD: ayudas al decisor mediante técnicas de estructuración versus técnicas autodozimantes

RESUMEN

El MAUD, abreviatura de Descomposición de la Utilidad Multiatributiva (MultiAttributive Utility Decomposition), es un programa interactivo basado en la ayuda a la toma de decisiones, diseñado con el fin de proporcionar un apoyo a los decisores a la hora de enfrentarse con elecciones entre alternativas, donde las preferencias por éstas descansan en las diferencias de grado de valor asignado a los diferentes atributos de estas alternativas. Este artículo analiza qué es lo que hace el MAUD en interacción con el decisor y cómo realmente ayuda a cuarenta decisores, pertenecientes a cuatro grupos distintos, a la toma de decisiones con diferentes objetivos. Los autores concluyen que el MAUD ayuda al decisor en su capacidad de reestructuración de la situación, de tal manera que la confusión de metas se reduce y la estructura de preferencias se clarifica, de forma que es posible aplicar una regla de composición coherente para llegar a una decisión.     

El papel de las automanifestaciones en las terapias cognitivo-conductuales

RESUMEN

En este artículo Bas examina el concepto automanifestación (en adelante, AM) y desarrolla sus implicaciones terapéuticas. El autor comenta aquellas terapias cognitivo-conductuales que han considerado las AM de un modo central en la interpretación de los problemas y que han confeccionado instrumentos específicos de intervención sobre ellas. En este repaso se hace especial mención del fenómeno de la depresión, aunque también se señalan otras áreas de disfunción. Posteriormente presenta los métodos más utilizados para evaluar las AM y finaliza con una revisión más amplia de un método muy extendido para modificar un tipo de AM especial: las autoinstrucciones, según lo han desarrollado Meichenbaum y otros y orientado hacia la problemática infantil.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Transfer of conditioned inhibition across different aversive reinforcers in the rat

Three experiments using a conditioned suppression procedure in rats assessed transfer of conditioned inhibition across different aversive reinforcers. Experiment 1, using shock and car horn blast as reinforcers, showed that a noise negatively correlated with 0.7-mA shock between sessions attenuated suppression of lever pressing elicited by the signals for 0.7-mA shock and 110-db horn blast. Similarly, when the noise signaled the omission of horn blast, it attenuated suppression elicited by the signals for horn blast and shock. Experiment 2, using the same procedure, replicated transfer of conditioned inhibition from shock to horn found in Experiment 1, and indicated that such effects should be attributed to associative factors. Experiment 3, using the conditioned inhibition paradigm and different chambers during training and testing, replicated transfer from horn to shock and indicated that transfer cannot be attributed to multiple-background-reinforcer associations established during inhibitory training. The results of these experiments have implications for theories of conditioned inhibition.     

Do patients suffering from chronic diseases retrospectively overestimate how healthy they were before they fell ill?

Background/Objective: To examine the impact of a disease on a person's subjective health state, patients are often asked to assess their current health state and to retrospectively assess how healthy they were before they fell ill. The objective of this study was to test whether patients generally overestimated the quality of their pre-disease health. Method: Six samples of patients with chronic diseases (cancer patients, cardiovascular patients, and patients diagnosed with sarcoidosis, N between 197 and 1,197) were analyzed. The patients assessed their current health states and their health states at the time before diagnosis. The retrospective scores were compared with matched data from general population studies. Results: In three of the six studies, the retrospective health ratings of the patients were significantly higher than the general population norms (effect sizes between 0.24 and 0.46), two studies yielded nonsignificant effects, and in one study there was an opposite trend. The general overestimation of pre-disease health was more pronounced in older patients as compared with younger ones, and it was more pronounced when global health/quality of life was to be assessed. Conclusions: Retrospective assessments of pre-disease health states are not appropriate for assessing disease-related changes in a person's health state.     

Therapeutic Assessment with couples

Therapeutic Assessment can be helpful to many types of couples, including (1) those who are considering marriage and wish to know each other more deeply, (2) long-term couples who are in distress and considering separating, and (3) couples who have decided to separate but wish to better understand why they were unable to stay together. This article comprises the first complete case study of Therapeutic Assessment (TA) with couples. I describe how those steps common to all forms of TA (initial sessions, extended inquiries, assessment intervention sessions, and summary/discussion sessions) differ when applied to couples. I also discuss the use of the Consensus Rorschach as an assessment intervention with long-term distressed couples engaged in problematic projective identification. The case example involves a young heterosexual couple married for 12 years who were at an impasse in couples therapy. The assessment helped the partners explore mutual conflicts around the expression of anger and dependency needs, and to resolve a power imbalance within the couple. Long-term follow-up showed that the Therapeutic Assessment helped the couple have more compassion for each other and move beyond the destructive role-lock they had fallen into. Also, the referring therapist reported that the TA helped resolve the impasse in the couples’ therapy.     

Interacción persona x situación en la predicción de la personalidad: algunas especificaciones del factor personal

RESUMEN

Este trabajo intenta determinar si la multidimensionalidad de la Ansiedad-rasgo (A-trait), medida por el S-R GTA (Inventario E-R del Rasgo General de Ansiedad) está referida a diferentes perfiles de personalidad. Los resultados del análisis de regresión lineal múltiple usando la escala de “Locus of Control” interno-externo, el Inventario Psicológico de California, la Escala de Confianza interpersonal, como medidas predictivas, confirmaron la existencia de diversos perfiles de personalidad para una de las cuatro facetas de la Ansiedad-rasgo. Estos hallazgos atestiguan la multidimensionalidad del Inventario E-R del Rasgo General Ansiedad y la importancia de especificar la situación en la medida de la Ansiedad.     

聋生“是……的”句的句法意识

聋生在书面语语法学习中遇到极大困难。以"是……的"句为实验材料,使用移动窗口式自步速逐词句子阅读任务进行3项实验研究发现,和既懂手语又懂口语的(听力损失不高于70 d B的)中轻度聋生相比,(听力损失高于70 d B的)重度聋生对句尾助词"的"的句法信息加工尤其困难,他们对"是……的"句的句法意识较弱。本研究对重度聋生的书面语语法教学训练具有重要的心理学指导意义。