En étudiant le rôle d'un état émotionnel négatif stable, apparenté à la peur, sur l'élaboration des représentations sociales du travail et du chômage nous avons pu observer et décrire plusieurs phénomènes importants. Tout d'abord, ce type d'état émotionnel contribuerait à orienter la sélection des éléments d'information constituant le champ représentationnel. Il orienterait cette sélection dans le sens d'un accroissement de l'attention en direction d'éléments relatifs à des préoccupations individuelles au détriment d'éléments relatifs à des questions sociales au sein des représentations du travail et du chômage. Ensuite, une partie de la représentation est congruente avec cet état émotionnel. Cette congruence affective concernait la dimension psychologique de la représentation du chômage. En plus de l'effet de congruence, cet état émotionnel stabiliserait le poids des éléments d'information contenus dans cette dimension psychologique. Enfin, ce type d'état contribuerait à structurer les représentations. L'état émotionnel négatif stable contribuerait à augmenter le nombre des éléments contenus dans le noyau de la représentation du travail. / By studying the role of a stable negative emotional state, like fear, on the social representations elaboration of unemployment and work, we could to observe and describe several important phenomena. Firstly, this type of emotional state guides the informationnal elements selection forming the representational field. It would guide the selection in the direction of increased attention towards items related to individual concerns at the expense of items relating to social issues in the representations of work and unemployment. Secondly, a part of the representation is congruent with this emotional state. This emotional congruence concerned the psychological dimension of the unemployment representation. In addition to the effect congruency, this emotional state stabilizes the weight of the information elements contained in thispsychological dimension. Finally, this state type would take part in structure representations. The stable negative emotional state would increase the number of elements contained in the kernel of the representation of work.

Le suicide tue environ 10 000 personnes par an en France, dont 30% sont des personnes âgées. Encore tabou, il reste difficile d'aborder directement cette question auprès des personnes. Cette thèse, étayée par les conceptions cognitives de la dépression et des addictions, s'intéresse aux processus psychologiques en jeu dans la prise de décision de suicide. Elle vise également à pouvoir repérer certaines spécificités liées à l'âge. Nous pensons que certaines croyances joueraient un rôle au moment de passer à l'acte. Nous avons tenté de les identifier à partir d'un questionnaire créé dans cet objectif. Nous avons cherché à repérer si certaines seraient différentes ou plus présentes chez les aînés, expliquant, en partie, leur nombre aussi important de suicidés. Nous avons proposé un panel d'échelles validées (dépression, BDI, anxiété, STAI, désespoir, BHS) et l'Échelle d'Ambivalence Suicidaire que nous avons construite, à un échantillon de 274 sujets de 18 à 97 ans. Nos analyses statistiques ont montré que les sujets adhéraient différemment à certains types d'idées, en fonction de leur vécu, et de leur âge. / In France, the number of suicide deaths is estimated at around 10,000 per year, 30% corresponds to elderly people. Remaining a taboo, it is still a difficult question to directly address to the public. This thesis focuses on the depression and addiction cognitive conceptions that are involved in psychological processes related to the decision for the suicide act. It furhter aims at enabling the identification of some age-related particularities. We think that certain beliefs may play an important role in the actual moment of carrying out the act. We have attempted to identify them by using a questionnaire specifically designed for this purpose. We sought to determine whether some beliefs are different or more prevalent among elderly people, partly explaining their large number of suicides. A group of validated scales (Beck Depression Inventory, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, , and Beck Hopelessness Scale) and the Suicidal Ambivalence Scale that we have developed were administered to a sample of 274 subjects aged 18 to 97 years old. Our statistical analysis showed that subjects adhered differently to certain kinds of beliefs, depending on their life experiences and age.

L'objectif principal de cette thèse est de proposer une lecture spécifique des idées de suicide en jeu dans la décision de passer à l'acte à l'aide d'un instrument psychométrique, l'Evaluation de l'Ambivalence Suicidaire (EAS). Cette échelle EAS projette d'évaluer des pensées autorisant versus freinant la décision de se suicider, leur présence simultanée constituant l'ambivalence suicidaire. Lorsque le poids des pensées en faveur de la mort (motivation au suicide) pèse plus lourd dans la balance décisionnelle, les individus passeraient à l'acte. 120 patients hospitalisés dans le cadre d'une crise suicidaire ont été recrutés pour les besoins de l'étude. Certains venaient de réaliser une tentative de suicide très récente (< 6 jours), récente (< 6 mois) ou ancienne (> 6 mois). Une première étude a permis de vérifier les propriétés psychométriques de notre échelle censée évaluer l'ambivalence suicidaire, nous permettant d'envisager l'utilisation clinique future de cet instrument. D'autres résultats ont mis en avant une forte adhésion aux pensées motivant le suicide juste avant le geste suicidaire. Les idées permissives autorisant directement le suicide se manifestent plus fortement à l'approche du passage à l'acte. Concernant ceux qui viennent de passer à l'acte (< 6 jours), ils auraient tendance à avoir une motivation à la vie actuelle plus faible que les autres ; d'où l'importance d'intervenir très tôt après une tentative de suicide.Les conclusions de cette étude nous permettent de proposer une prise en charge cognitivo-motivationnelle des suicidants, intégrant le concept d'ambivalence suicidaire. / The main objective of this thesis is to propose a specific reading of suicidal ideas involved in the decision to commit suicide by using a psychometric instrument, namely the Scale of Suicidal Ambivalence (EAS). This scale intends to evaluate suicide-promoting thoughts versus thoughts inhibiting the suicide act, with their simultaneous presence constituting suicidal ambivalence. When the weight of thoughts favouring suicide outbalances that of suicide-inhibiting thoughts in the decision scale, one is expected to proceed to the act.Suicidal crisis inpatients were recruited (N = 120) for the purposes of the study. Some of the patients had very recently committed an attempt to suicide (<6 days), others less recently (<6 months) and others before a considerable amount of time (> 6 months).A first study tested the psychometric properties of our scale anticipating the assessment of suicidal ambivalence, allowing us to regard suicidal ambivalence as a valid construct and consider the future clinical use of this scale. Other results highlighted a strong adherence to suicide-motivating thoughts just before the suicide attempt. Permissive ideas promoting suicide [P+] manifest more strongly in the actual passing to the act. Regarding those who recently attempted suicide (<6 days), they tended to have a lower current motivation for living compared to the others; hence the importance of intervening early after suicide attempt.The findings of this study allow us to propose a cognitive-motivational support for individuals who committed suicide, that integrates the concept of suicidal ambivalence.

Anxiety and depression are among the most common psychiatric disorders in childhood and adolescence (Costello, Egger, & Angold, 2005). Although the parental environment appears to play a role in the development of emotional disorders (e.g., Abramson & Alloy, 2006), cognitive styles within the families of adolescents with internalising disorders have received little attention. The main aim of this thesis was to increase the understanding of maternal cognitions in relation to internalising disorders experienced by adolescents. Specifically, maternal attributional style, catastrophic worries, selective attention and perceptions of adolescents' social competence were examined through a combination of cross-sectional, correlational and experimental designs in the programme of five studies conducted with a clinical sample. Three groups of adolescents and their mothers participated in the studies: adolescents with clinical internalising disorders, adolescents with clinical externalising disorders and a non-referred group of school-children along with their mothers. In support of the hypotheses, mothers of adolescents with clinical internalising disorders had more negative attributional biases than the mothers in the two control groups. When parental attributions were examined from the child's perspective, adolescents in the clinical internalising group perceived that their parents had more negative attributions than both control groups. Examination of maternal evaluations of adolescents' social skills, revealed that even though adolescents did not have social deficits according to objective ratings, mothers of adolescents with internalising disorders underestimated the performance of their children compared to the non-referred control group. Significant relationships were found between maternal and adolescent attributions and perceptions of social competence, suggesting a link between maternal and adolescent cognitive style. Furthermore, mothers of the clinical internalising group produced a greater number of worries which were more catastrophic in content than mothers in the control groups. Contrary to predictions, mothers of adolescents with clinical internalising disorders did not selectively attend to threatening information related to adolescents' behaviours. Analyses using combined data from the four studies that showed significant relationships provided evidence that different cognitions in mothers and their children are interrelated, highlighting the importance of interactions between various cognitions within the family. Additionally, attributional style, catastrophic worries and negative perceptions were found to discriminate families with adolescents with internalising disorders from those with adolescents with externalising disorders or non-referred adolescents. The studies included in this thesis extend the current literature on maternal cognitions and adolescent internalising disorders and suggest that mothers of adolescents with internalising disorders are characterised by cognitive biases that should be taken into consideration in both research and clinical practice.

Cigarette smoking and depressive symptoms are two problems that affect adolescents’ health. Although it has been well-documented that a relationship exists between these two concerns, most researchers have used self-report methods to study smoking behaviors. While adolescents are typically accurate when reporting depressive symptoms, they tend to be less accurate reporting smoking. Moreover, research supporting the Prototype Willingness Model (PWM) has shown that the social cognitions of willingness to smoke, and the prototypes or images of smokers are predictors of smoking in adolescents. Little is known about the association between social cognitions and depressive symptoms in adolescence. In this study, I examined the relationship between cigarette smoking and depressive symptoms in high school students using a biological measure of cigarette smoking. First, I investigated whether depressive symptoms and cigarette smoking were related in a sample of 440 high school sophomore students from Iowa. Then, using data from 264 of the same participants, I examined whether smoking during or before the sophomore year of high school predicted depressive symptoms a year later when participants were in their junior year of high school. Conversely, I also examined whether depressive symptoms during the sophomore year of high school predicted cigarette smoking in the junior year of high school. Finally, I studied the relationship between social cognitions (i.e., prototypes and willingness) and depressive symptoms. An additional section explored whether the social cognitions predicted cigarette smoking. The findings did not provide evidence supporting a relationship between cigarette smoking and depressive symptoms when smoking was measured by a biological measure. Only self-report of smoking cigarettes significantly predicted depressive symptoms during the sophomore year of high school. Cigarette smoking during or before the sophomore year of high school did not predict depressive symptoms a year later. Similarly, depressive symptoms reported in the sophomore year of high school did not predict cigarette smoking a year later. For the social cognitions, willingness to engage in smoking behaviors and the prototypes or images adolescents have about teenagers who smoke were significantly associated with depressive symptoms. Only willingness to engage in smoking behaviors was a significant predictor of cigarette smoking. These results support the idea that the relationship between depressive symptoms and cigarette smoking varies when using different methodologies to assess smoking status. Also, the finding that social cognitions correlates with depressive symptoms could motivate further investigation. This work can also alert adults about other ways in which elevated depressive symptoms in adolescents may influence their perceptions.

The current study examined whether elevations on four variables (drive for thinness, depressed mood, maladaptive cognitions, and ineffectiveness) were related to increased risk of developing an eating disorder over a 4-year prospective interval. Subjects (N = 191) were female undergraduates who were assessed with the Anorexia-Bulimia Inventory (ABI), Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI), and a structured clinical interview. Results indicated that individuals with elevated scores on each of the four variables at the initial assessment did not show higher absolute eating disorder incidence rates over the 4-year interval. However, initial scores on the four variables together lll explained approximately 13% of both anorexia and bulimia symptom severity variance at the final assessment. Changes over time in the four variables were more highly related to later symptom severity, explaining 34% of the variance in anorexic severity and 16% in bulimic severity. Thus, the findings suggest that initial scores, and especially changes in scores, on the four variables were related to severity of symptoms 4 years later. However, a large proportion of the variance in eating disorder severity remained unexplained. Examination of the role of each risk variable individually revealed that initial elevations on maladaptive cognitions and drive for thinness subscales were related to higher anorexic symptom severity at the later assessment. Of interest was the absence of significant relationships between early scores on maladaptive cognitions and drive for thinness and subsequent bulimic symptoms, suggesting that anorexia and bulimia may have somewhat different risk pathways. The pretest scores on the depressed mood and ineffectiveness subscales were not significantly correlated with symptom severity at the later assessment, and were not identified by the regression analyses as parsimonious or efficient predictors of eating disorder symptoms. This finding suggests that perhaps early difficulties with depression and low self-esteem are less related to onset of later eating disorders than previously believed. Finally, the overall 4-year incidence rate of .6% found in the current study suggests that as women move through their college years, they are departing the developmental period of high risk for onset of eating disorders, and thus, new cases become increasingly rare.

This study investigated the differences in how domestically violent men processed social information before, during, and after the completion of treatment received from a Batterers Intervention Program in Florida. Men receiving mandatory treatment for domestic violence as the result of a court order were exposed to a series of hypothetical scenarios involving their intimate partners and women with whom they were not intimately acquainted. The scenarios were sculpted to create negative feelings in the men,and cognitive processing patterns were investigated by testing their recall of social cues, their perception of intentionality and hostility, response consideration, response decisions, enactment ability, and response evaluation. Data was collected from participants prior to their first treatment session, after 14 weeks, and upon completion of treatment after 26 weeks. The cognitive processing patterns of domestically violent men from a control group not receiving treatment were tested at the same points in time. Results of the study suggest that receiving treatment for domestic violence does have an effect on the cognitive processing patterns of domestically violent men. Namely, after receiving treatment, there is a greater consideration of more socially appropriate forms of behavioral responses, and less emotional comfort with intimate partner aggresssion. Implications of this study on research and treatment are discussed, and suggestions for improvement are made.

Rape remains a significant problem in the U.S., with the majority of victims reporting a drug-or-alcohol facilitated rape (DAFR) or incapacitated rape (IR). Many DAFR/IR victims do not acknowledge the incident as a rape, and are therefore are the least likely to report or disclose the assault. Rape scripts theory is one theory that could be used to explain why DAFR/IR victims are more likely than other victims to not acknowledge the incident. In addition, individuals are more likely to blame the victim of a DAFR/IR rape. Furthermore, DAFR/IR victims experience more self-blame for the incident. Taken together, when alcohol is involved in a rape, the victim is viewed as more responsible for the assault. The majority of studies that examine blame for a sexual assault rely on explicit self-report methods. However, implicit beliefs may be more accurate in measuring unbiased beliefs that individuals hold. Implicit attitudes are commonly measured using an Implicit Association Task (IAT). Moreover, hyperfemininity (HF) is a personality characteristic that may influence blame for a sexual assault. Women higher in HF value relationships with men and are willing to use their sexuality as a means to maintain the relationships. Therefore, the present study hypothesized that women higher in HF who read a scenario of a rape involving alcohol will be more likely to implicitly blame the victim. A sample of undergraduate college women completed a battery of questionnaires, read a written scenario depicting a rape in which the victim and perpetrator consumed either alcohol or soda, and completed an IAT. The IAT instructed participants to correctly categorize two sets of stimuli. The stimuli used for the IAT were words that described the victim (innocent-related words) and perpetrator (guilt-related words) of the scenario, and pictures of alcohol and soda. Faster reaction times of categorization indicated a stronger IAT effect; that is, more blame towards the victim of an alcohol involved assault. Results indicated that HF did not influence the relationship between written scenario condition and implicit blame for the rape. Because Women who have not been sexually victimized may hold strong rape myth acceptance and thus may assign more blame to the victim of a sexual assault (Mason et al., 2004), an exploratory analysis was conducted to determine if sexual victimization history impacted the relationship between rape myth acceptance and implicit blame for a sexual assault. Results showed that women without a history of sexual victimization may hold certain rape myths, but implicitly believe that alcohol can be associated with guilt or blame towards the perpetrator of a rape. Additionally, women with a history of SV who hold certain rape myths may be less likely to blame the perpetrator of a rape when alcohol is involved. Detailed results of the present study, policy and public health implications, and future directions are discussed.

Parenting self-efficacy is an important construct in understanding parents' choices about their child-rearing. Associations between marital and coparenting relationships have been established in prior research. Most of these studies used global assessments of marital quality, marital satisfaction, or measures of conflict to predict to the quality of the coparenting relationship. The present study is unique in that it utilizes multiple dimensions of marital quality, including satisfaction, maintenance strategies, and conflict, to examine the associations between marriage, coparenting, and parenting self-efficacy. These associations were explored using the Family Systems framework, comparing the explanatory power of the additive and compensatory processes. Of the marital quality indices, maintenance was the strongest, most consistent predictor of parenting cognitions for mothers and fathers, predicting to both parenting self-efficacy and meta-parenting. Mothers' reports of marital satisfaction were negatively associated with their, and their partner's, parenting self-efficacy. Undermining coparenting was predictive of parenting self-efficacy for mothers and fathers, but only predictive of meta-parenting for mothers. There was evidence supporting positive additive effects of marriage and coparenting on parenting self-efficacy. Maintenance for mothers, and marital satisfaction for fathers, combined with supportive coparenting to predict to even greater parenting self-efficacy. There was also support for the compensatory effect of marital quality on parenting self-efficacy for fathers. Fathers reporting higher levels of maintenance in combination with higher levels of undermining coparenting maintained their levels of parenting self-efficacy while fathers reporting lower levels of maintenance also reported less parenting self-efficacy in the face of higher undermining coparenting.

Notre sujet de recherche porte sur l’étude de patients psychotiques et alcoolo-dépendants (CIM-10) qui évoluent sur les dimensions psychologiques de la créativité, des émotions (reconnaissance, expression et régulation émotionnelle) et des cognitions (perception, attention, mémoire, fonctions exécutives) lors d’une intervention de psychothérapie à médiation musicale de groupe au sein d’un hôpital de réhabilitation psychiatrique stationnaire. Nous appliquons une méthodologie quantitative et qualitative intégrée pour une période de huit mois d’intervention thérapeutique. Six études scientifiques (articles) composent le contenu de cette thèse :Étude 1 : Mise en évidence du processus créatif (artistique et musical). Étude 2 : L’élaboration de schémas d’observation clinique. Étude 3 : L’évolution du malade psychique sur la dimension des émotions.Étude 4 : La dimension cognitive : Capacités d’attention et de mémorisation lors du processus thérapeutique.Étude 5 : Études structurales en psychothérapie à médiation musicale de groupe.Étude 6 : Le groupe thérapeutique comme objet de recherche en réhabilitation psychiatrique stationnaire. Les résultats des études quantitatives confirment l’existence d’un impact favorable du sonore sur les dimensions psychologiques et sur le comportement observable, tout en prenant en considération l’existence de différences significatives entre les sous-groupes cliniques des patients psychotiques (schizophrénie) et des patients alcoolo-dépendants. Finalement, la mise en place de programmes d’intervention psychothérapeutique spécialisés, adaptés aux diagnostiques préalables et aux besoins spécifiques des patients, est discutée / Our research theme relates to the evolution of psychiatric patients on the psychological dimensions of creativity, emotions and cognitions during music psychotherapy within a long-term care psychiatric hospital. The research objectives, carried out via a mixed quantitative and qualitative methodology, focus the subject of sound influence on the human body, so as the developement of the therapeutic relationship and latent processes during therapy sessions. Six scientifical studies (articles) are going to compose the content of this thesis : Study 1 : Revealing the creative process in music psychotherapy. Study 2 : The development of observational frames in the arts psychotherapies. Study 3 : The patient’s evolution on the psychological dimension of emotions.Study 4 : The cognitive dimension : Attention and mnestic capacities during the therapeutic process.Study 5 : Structural studies to resume group music psychotherapy intervention. Study 6 : The therapeutic group as a research object in long-term psychiatric care. The results of the studies tend to confirm the existence of a favourable sound impact on psychological dimensions, by taking into account significant differences between the clinical sets of psychotics (schizophrenia) and alcoholo-dependent patients. Finally, reflections on the implementation of specialized psychotherapeutic intervention programmes, adapted to initial diagnosis and patient’s demands, are presented