Changes in Mothering Ideology After Childbirth and Maternal Mental Health in French Women

Sex Roles - The prevailing dominant discourse about motherhood in western societies reflects a set of interconnected beliefs referred to as intensive mothering ideology. Little is known about how...     

Incremental Validity of Leaderless Group Discussion Ratings Over and Above General Mental Ability and Personality in Predicting Promotion

Leaderless group discussions (LGDs) constitute one of the oldest assessment center exercises. In recent times, their added value has sometimes been questioned in light of trends to streamline assessment centers. The purpose of the present study is to examine the incremental validity of LGD ratings over cognitive ability scores and personality ratings for the prediction of extrinsic career success (i.e., promotion speed and number of promotions). We investigated this issue in the context of the promotion of French naval officers (N = 93) in an academy for high‐level executive positions over a 10‐year period. Results indicated that LGD ratings accounted for incremental variance in the prediction of promotion criterion measures, beyond cognitive ability and personality test scores. These results confirm that LGD ratings provide a unique contribution to the prediction of extrinsic career success in high‐level executive positions.     

Family relations,mental health and adherence to nutritional guidelines in patients facing dialysis initiation

This study investigated the effect of family relations on patients’ adjustment to dialysis. The two main aims were to develop a family typology, and to explore the influence of family profile on the patient's anxiety, depression and adherence to nutritional guidelines. The sample consisted of 120 patients (mean age 63 years; 67.5% of men). They completed several measures 1, 6 and 12 months after dialysis initiation. The scales used were the Family Relationship Index and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Perceived adherence to nutritional guidelines was assessed using two visual analogical scales. Results showed that family relations remained stable over time. Cluster analysis yielded three family profiles, which were named conflict, communicative and supportive families. Patients belonging to conflict families perceived themselves as less adhering to nutritional guidelines. For these patients, anxiety and depressive moods increased significantly over time, whereas mental health remained stable over time for communicative and supportive families. This research underlines that family relations are essential in global consideration of the care of patients treated by dialysis. Conflict families seem especially at risk. They should be identified early to help them adapt to this stressful treatment.     

Referees' Decision Making in Handball and Transgressive Behaviors: Influence of Stereotypes About Gender of Players?

We offer norm theory as a framework for developing some common ground within both feminist psychology and lesbian and gay psychology about the meaning of empirical differences between social groups. Norm theory is a social cognitive theory that predicts that empirical differences will be consistently explained by taking more typical groups (e.g., men, straight people) as implicit norms for comparison and by attributing differences to less typical groups (e.g., women, lesbians, and gay men). Results of an experiment (N = 114) are presented to show that norms shape interpretations of empirical differences between lesbian/gay and straight persons by (1) leading explanations to focus on attributes of lesbian/gay persons, and (2) leading to judgments that straight persons have less mutable attributes. Stereotypes also affected interpretations; stereotype-consistent results led to more essentialistic explanations and, when targets were female, to higher ratings of the results' importance and fundamentality. We highlight how experiments can be used to understand the process of constructing the meaning of scientific data, and make recommendations for empiricists' interpretive practices and constructionist theories in feminist psychology and lesbian and gay psychology.     

Du modèle transactionnel à une approche dyadique en psychologie de la santé

In the context of chronic disease, models and studies in health psychology have first focused on the patients’ adjustment. Research conducted with the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984) and the Transactional Integrative and Multifactorial Model (Bruchon-Schweitzer, 2002) have shown that individuals’ social relations, and especially family support, are associated to patients’ outcomes. Recently, studies have taken more attention to the “significant others”, most often the partners. In fact, relatives are also affected indirectly by the disease and its changes on daily life. Moreover, they often play a crucial role by helping the patient to face the disease. These models are focused on the individual and are not relevant to study dyads. An evolution of these models can be proposed by integrating a systemic and dyadic approach. In fact, the way the patient and the relative face the disease, the quality of their relation but also the way they face the disease together, as a dyad, have to be considered. The first part of this article presents the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping and the Transactional Integrative and Multifactorial Model and their evolutions. The second part shows how it is possible to develop a dyadic approach based on these models. It presents the Family System-Illness Model (Rolland, 1987), the Developmental-Contextual Model of couples coping with chronic illness across the adult life span (Berg and Upchurch, 2007) and a Systemic and Transactional Model of Dyads, which help to take more completely into account the adjustment processes of patients and relatives to a chronic illness.     

Perceived motivational climate and unit cohesion: The case of French soldiers in training

Using a correlational design, this exploratory research investigates the relationships between soldiers’ perceptions of the motivational climate created by platoon leaders and unit cohesion in a French military sample. Conducted among 257 soldiers, the findings indicate that new recruits perceive motivational climate as significantly more task- than ego-involved. Moreover, multiple regressions show that a task-involving motivational climate predicts higher measures of cohesion than does an ego-involving motivational climate. Implications for the professionalization of military forces and exercising command in training are discussed.     

Family relations, mental health and adherence to nutritional guidelines in patients facing dialysis initiation

This study investigated the effect of family relations on patients' adjustment to dialysis. The two main aims were to develop a family typology, and to explore the influence of family profile on the patient's anxiety, depression and adherence to nutritional guidelines. The sample consisted of 120 patients (mean age 63 years; 67.5% of men). They completed several measures 1, 6 and 12 months after dialysis initiation. The scales used were the Family Relationship Index and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Perceived adherence to nutritional guidelines was assessed using two visual analogical scales. Results showed that family relations remained stable over time. Cluster analysis yielded three family profiles, which were named conflict, communicative and supportive families. Patients belonging to conflict families perceived themselves as less adhering to nutritional guidelines. For these patients, anxiety and depressive moods increased significantly over time, whereas mental health remained stable over time for communicative and supportive families. This research underlines that family relations are essential in global consideration of the care of patients treated by dialysis. Conflict families seem especially at risk. They should be identified early to help them adapt to this stressful treatment.     

REFEREES' DECISION MAKING ABOUT TRANSGRESSIONS: THE INFLUENCE OF PLAYER GENDER AT THE HIGHEST NATIONAL LEVEL

Prior research has found that referees are harsher toward sporting offenses in regional-level matches between women than in regional-level matches between men. We tested whether this bias also occurs at a higher, national level of competition, despite the greater pressures for objectivity and fairness at this level. Referees' decisions were examined in 15 national-level handball matches between women and 15 national-level handball matches between men after transgressions that varied in severity. The results suggest that referees made harsher decisions in female than in male matches. Although more research is needed, this study supported the hypothesis that referees may use the gender of players as a powerful judgmental heuristic for deciding how to respond to aggression.     

Team Sports Players' Observed Aggresion as a Function of Gender, Competitive Level, and Sport Type

This study aims at examining observed aggression in team sports as a function of gender, competitive level, and sport type. It was hypothesized that (a) male players display more aggressive behaviors than female players, (b) aggressive behaviors increase when competitive level rises, and (c) gender difference in observed aggression is depending on sport type. One hundred and eighty games, equally shared among males and females, soccer and handball, and departmental, regional, and national competitive levels were recorded on videotapes and observed using a grid to differ instrumental from hostile aggressive behaviors. The results revealed that male players always display more aggressive behaviors than female players, whatever the sport, the competitive level or the nature of the observed aggression; instrumental aggressive behaviors increase and hostile aggressive behaviors decrease when competitive level rises; and the gender difference appears larger in handball than in soccer.     

Players’ Gender and Male Referees’ Decisions About Aggression in French Soccer: A Preliminary Study

The aim of this study was to examine (a) aggression displayed by players and (b) referees decisions about these behaviors as a function of the gender of the players in French soccer. Twenty-six games (13 for women and 13 for men) were videotaped. Instrumental aggressive acts and referees decisions were then observed. The findings indicated a significant effect of gender on instrumental aggression and referees decisions related to these behaviors. Male players displayed more instrumental aggressive acts than female players did. Nevertheless, relative to the total number of aggressive acts displayed, referees penalized women more than men. Gender stereotypes might be a relevant explanation for these results, as soccer is generally perceived as a masculine-type sport, particularly in France, and aggression as a masculine characteristic.