Le statut de la critique en psychologie du travail : une clinique de l’activité

The first purpose of the article is to take advantage of observations made on the status of criticism in sociology. This involves a diagnosis on the state of work psychology. The aim is to alter the trend of criticism and support a clinical approach to activity derived from Vygotski's research. The idea of critical psychology as a self-sufficient line of study is invalidated. An example is developed in order to describe the operating method. The last part of the article is devoted to a brief discussion of Beauvois's recent theories.     

Effet de diverses sources d’information sur l’auto-efficacite au leadership

The aim of the study is to investigate the effect of different sources of information on beliefs of leadership self-efficacy. A posttest-only design with three experimental groups and a control group was used to investigate the effect of various information sources on leadership self-efficacy. Performance accomplishments, vicarious experience, and verbal persuasion are the sources of information that were tested. Results indicated that vicarious experience produced a larger effect on leadership self-efficacy than performance accomplishments and verbal persuasion. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in the light of Bandura’s self-efficacy theory (2003) and Bass’ transformational leadership theory (1985).     

MEDIATING ROLE OF MATERNAL SENSITIVITY: ENHANCING LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT IN AT‐RISK FAMILIES

Home‐visiting programs have gained increasing importance in family‐centered prevention and intervention. However, few studies have examined the mechanisms underlying early intervention treatment effects. The goal of this study is to analyze the mediating role of maternal sensitivity in enhancing language development with the home‐visiting program Parents as Teachers (PAT). Data were collected and analyzed within the ongoing, long‐term ZEPPELIN study, a randomized controlled trial with 251 participating at‐risk families. Via longitudinal mediation analysis, we examined whether effects of the PAT on receptive and expressive language outcomes at 24 and 36 months were mediated by maternal sensitivity at 12 months. Within a moderated mediation framework, we investigated whether the level of family psychosocial stress affects this mediation. Results showed that intervention effects on language outcomes are mediated by maternal sensitivity—weakly and through specific pathways. Moderation and moderated mediation analyses indicated that effects of the PAT and also specific mediation effects increase with the level of psychosocial stress. Implications of the results for practice are discussed.     

Effectiveness of an attachment-based intervention for the assessment of parenting capacities in maltreating families: A randomized controlled trial

Even though Parenting Capacity Assessments (PCAs) are essential for child protection services to support placement decisions for maltreating families, presently no evidence-based PCA protocols are available. In this randomized controlled trial, we tested the quality of an attachment-based PCA protocol based on Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline (VIPP-SD). We recruited 56 parent-child dyads (M_age children = 3.48 years) in Dutch family residential clinics that conduct PCAs to support placement decisions. After pretest, families were randomized to receive the Regular Assessment Procedure (RAP) (n = 28), or an additional assessment based on VIPP-SD (n = 28). An immediate post-test and a 10-month follow-up were conducted. Multilevel models showed that therapists felt equally confident about their recommendations regarding child placement for both groups and that they equally often modified their initial placement recommendations. Moreover, children in the VIPP-SD group did not show fewer behavior problems and did not experience recurring child maltreatment less often than children in the RAP group. Thus, we found no evidence that PCAs incorporating the VIPP-SD protocol outperformed PCAs as usual. We discuss possible explanations why in the current study VIPP-SD did not seem to add to the quality of the RAP.     

FATHER PLAY: IS IT SPECIAL?

Both mothers and fathers play with their children, but research on parent–child play interactions is conducted with mothers three times more often than it is with fathers. The articles in this special issue address this gap by focusing on the nature and quality of father–child play, across cultural contexts, and considering whether father play offers something unique and special for early human development, in infancy or early childhood. The studies show that fathers can be just as developmentally supportive as are mothers in terms of being playful and engaged with their children in ways that are related to greater child socioemotional competence, emotion regulation, and vocabulary, and to less aggression, anxiety, and negativity. We encourage future research to examine the cultural influences, family system dynamics, and specificity of timing and types of father–child play in relation to children's developmental competence.     

Reconnaissance des visages d’un autre groupe ethnique : éclairage d’une approche développementale

We are reviewing the recent findings on the Other Race Effect (ORE), which is the difficulty to recognize faces from other race compared to own race faces. Several hypotheses were proposed: negative attitude (Brigham and Malpass, 1985), attentional mechanisms (Chance and Goldstein, 1981), and the contact hypothesis (Brigham et al., 1982) which postulates that the ORE is due to a lack of experience with other race's faces. The contact hypothesis being, of course, modulated by attention and attitude. Valentine (1991 ; Valentine and Endo, 1992) proposes a norm-based coding model in which faces are encoded as vectors according to their deviation from a prototypical average. The resulting dimensions will differ according to the input received with certain salient, individuating dimensions carrying more “weight” than others. Predominant exposure to faces of a specific species, gender, or race early in life will cause the dimensions of one's prototype to become “tuned” towards such faces. The evidence presented support Valentine's model but we are showing that the quality of the contact is crucial in the experience. We are arguing that a developmental approach is necessary to better understand the ORE. Infants are able to process and recognize faces from an early age and several recent studies have found that the ORE can be observed from 9-10 months of age. Experimental results indicate that 6- to 9-months of age represents an important time of transition in the face processing system. If a certain type of face (other races) is not experienced prior to this period, then we appear to lose our ability to discriminate between individual faces within those groups.     

La durée des vacances scolaires affecte-t-elle les performances attentionnelles en classe au retour des vacances ?

The aim of this research was to study the influence of holiday's duration on children's attentional performances at school. Chronopsychological studies underlined a standard daily attention pattern striking a balance between the different rhythms of the child. This study aimed to answer two questions: the first one considered effect of holiday duration (15 days versus 10 days) on the standard pattern of children attention (returning from their holidays) by taking into account their level of education. The second one considered whether decline of attention on Friday (explained by phenomenon of anticipation of the weekend) was still present after 2 weeks of rest, whatever the children's level of education were. Two hundred and twenty-nine children aged from 6 to 11 took part to this study. Attention level was measured through cross-out tests, which children completed at school during the week following their holidays. The sample was divided into two (schooling) levels: from primary to early elementary (124 first-grade pupils) and late elementary (105 fifth-grade pupils). The study was conducted over 2 weeks, one following All Saints’ Day holidays (which are 10 days long) and one following the Easter holidays (which are 15 days long). The results showed that after a 10-day holiday, the youngest pupils obtained higher performances than after a 2-week holiday, except for Friday, which is considered in the literature as a particularly difficult moment. Furthermore, the pattern collectively admitted as standard was not observed after a 2-week holiday. For older pupils, attention was mobilized 5 consecutive days only after 2 weeks of rest. For all pupils, a 10-day holiday didn’t seem to allow synchronization of children's rhythms, and involved a lower level of attention at the end of week than after a 2-week holiday.     

Développement des capacités sociolinguistiques chez des enfants et adolescents porteurs de trisomie 21 et étude de l'environnement sociolinguistique maternel

The aim of our research is to understand the language disturbances in Down syndrome children. Several studies demonstrated substantial differences between sociolanguage behaviours of mothers' Down syndrome children and those of mothers of non retarded children. We propose that these differences can explain DS language disturbances. So, we have compared 12 mother-child dyads (4 Down syndrome children are from 8 to 9 years, 4 are from 12 to 13 years and 4 are from 16 to 17 years). Dyads play in tutorial interaction. Results show language abilities evolution for Down syndrome subjects. Nevertheless, mothers' sociolanguage behaviors do no change.