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This thesis investigates individual and interpersonal predictions of future affect and explores their relation to implicit theories of emotion, prediction recall, debiasing, and focalism. Studies 1, 2, and 3 assessed affect predictions to upcoming reasoning tests and academic results, and Studies 4, 5, and 6 concerned predictions for self-identified events. The first study investigated the influence of implicit theories of emotion (ITE; Tamir, John, Srivastava, & Gross, 2007) on impact bias and prediction recall manipulating ITE between participant pairs who predicted and reported their affective reactions to feedback on a test of reasoning skills. Neither impact bias nor recalled predictions were affected by the manipulation. Recalled affect predictions differed from original affect predictions, but were not influenced by experienced affect. Study 2 further investigated the effects of target event timing on impact bias and affect prediction recall. The results showed no differences between individual and interpersonal impact biases across conditions. Again, recalled predictions differed from original predictions, and were not influenced by experienced affect. Study 3 investigated the influence of prior information about impact bias on interpersonal affective forecasting involving real-world exam results. The results demonstrated no differences in predictions due to information, however, significantly less unhappiness was predicted for participants’ friends compared to self-predictions. Study 4 examined the effect of different de-biasing information on affective predictions. The results demonstrated no differences in affective predictions by condition and found that participants’ ITE were not associated to affect predictions. Study 5 examined individual and interpersonal affect predictions using a between-subjects design in place of the within-subjects design. The results demonstrated no differences between the affect predictions made for self and for friends, and ITE were not associated with predictions. Study 6 examined the impact bias in interpersonal affective forecasting and the role of focalism. The results demonstrated distinctions between individual and interpersonal affecting forecasting with individual impact bias for positive reactions for negative events and individual and interpersonal reverse impact bias for calm emotional reactions to positive events. Immune neglect was found not to be associated with predictions. Overall, the studies found evidence for similar individual and interpersonal predictions which are resistant to influence.

Les études qui ont initialement porté sur l’agression sexuelle commise envers les enfants se sont penchées sur les différents facteurs de risque impliqués derrière le passage à l’acte et le maintien de ces activités sexuelles délictuelles, mettant ainsi en lumière le rôle des distorsions cognitives. Ward et Keenan (1999) ont été les premiers à identifier les distorsions cognitives émergeant directement de schémas cognitifs qu’ils nomment « les théories implicites ». Interconnectées entre elles, ces croyances erronées agissent directement sur les comportements délictueux. Or, la place qu’elles occupent chez les cyberdélinquants sexuels reste encore méconnue. Ce mémoire a donc pour but d’étudier le rôle que jouent les théories implicites dans l’explication des différents délits sexuels commis par ce sous-groupe délinquant particulier. Réalisée grâce à des données de la Sûreté du Québec, cette étude se penche sur les relations entre les croyances soutenues par 137 cyberdélinquants lors de leur interrogatoire et les différents délits sexuels répertoriés à leur dossier criminel, plus précisément en matière de pornographie juvénile, de leurre d’enfants et de contacts sexuels envers des mineurs. À la suite de plusieurs analyses bivariées et multivariées, les résultats indiquent que la théorie implicite « la nature du tort » serait associée au fait qu’un individu détienne davantage d’antécédents sexuels, celle-ci étant dans l’ensemble la plus criminogène en matière de délinquance sexuelle. Ce mémoire met également en lumière que seules quatre théories implicites distinctes jouent un rôle derrière la délinquance sexuelle des cyberdélinquants, certaines n’étant associées à aucun délit sexuel. Aussi, les résultats soulèvent le fait que certaines théories implicites sont plus fortement associées au fait qu’un individu ait commis exclusivement des délits en matière de pornographie juvénile et réduisent donc inversement les chances qu’un cyberdélinquant entreprenne des contacts virtuels ou hors ligne avec sa victime. Quant à la théorie implicite « les enfants sont des êtres sexuels », celle-ci augmente de plus de deux fois les chances qu’un cyberdélinquant passe à l’acte en dehors du monde virtuel. Par contre, l’aire sous la courbe non significative de ce modèle soulève le fait que celui-ci ne permettrait pas de prédire mieux que le hasard l’appartenance des cyberdélinquants à ce sous-groupe particulier que sont les délinquants sexuels mixtes. / Studies that initially focused on sexual assault against children looked at the various risk factors behind engaging and maintaining those criminal behaviors, thus highlighting the role of cognitive distortions. Ward and Keenan (1999), the first authors to present a more precise definition of these mistaken beliefs, explained that they are emerging directly from underlying cognitive patterns which they call “implicit theories”. Interconnected among themselves, these implicit theories act directly on criminal behaviour. However, their place among online sex offenders is still unknown. This thesis therefore aims to study the role of implicit theories behind the various sexual offences committed by this particular subgroup. In collaboration with the Sûreté du Québec, this study examines the relationships between the beliefs maintained by 137 online sex offenders during their interrogation and the various sexual offences listed in their criminal record; more precisely, offences related to child pornography, luring of children and sexual contacts with minors. Following various bivariate and multivariate analyzes, the results show that the implicit theory “Nature of harm” would be associated with heavier criminal record in terms of sexual delinquency, this one being overall the most criminogenic. This study also highlights that only certain implicit theories are associate with sexual delinquency, some not related with any indicator. The results show us that certain implicit theories are more strongly associated with the fact that an individual has exclusively committed offences relating to child pornography and would therefore reduce the chances that an online sex offender initiates virtual or offline contacts with his victim. As for the implicit theory “Children are sexual beings”, this one would increase by more than twice the chances of an online sex offender to act out outside the virtual world. On the other hand, the area under the curve of this model raises the fact that it would not predict, significantly better than chance, the inclusion of online sex offenders to this particular subgroup of mixed offenders.

Det är skolans ansvar att motivera sina elever till lärande. Efter ett initierande samtal med en avgångsklass på ekonomiprogrammet på en kommunal gymnasieskola framkom det att eleverna inte såg någon nytta i själva inlärningsprocessen. Motivation för att kunna något fanns, men motivation till att lära sig något saknades.Carol Dweck ger genom sina teorier om mindsets en beskrivning av just detta fenomen. Hon delar in elever i två grupper efter hur de ser på sin egen intelligens och vilka mål eleverna ser med sitt eget lärande. I följande arbete görs en studie av Dwecks arbete genom att, i första delen, beskriva teorin för att se om man kan dra paralleller mellan en elevs mindset och dennes benägenhet att engagera sig i sitt eget lärande. Studien visar genom Dwecks definition av statiska respektive dynamiska mindsets att så är fallet, teoretiskt. Studien går vidare med att beskriva Dwecks tankar om hur man kan göra för att påverka eleverna till att öka sitt engagemang. Teorin exemplifieras genom en sammanfattning av en av Dwecks forskningsstudier.I den andra delen av studien appliceras Dwecks teorier på elever vid en kommunal gymnasieskola. Genom att testa elevernas mindset med två av Dwecks egna instrument undersöks om Dwecks teorier är applicerbara för att förklara intrycket att eleverna i det ursprungliga samtalet inte ser en nytta i själva lärandet som process. Elevernas mindset testades genom en enkät med 22 frågor. 38 elever svarade på enkäten. Enkäten följdes upp med semistrukturerade intervjuer där 11 elever studerades mer ingående.Genom Dwecks teorier och definitioner av mindsets kan man tänka sig att det uppfattade fenomenet i det initierande samtalet beror på att eleverna främst besitter statiska mindsets. Genom enkät och intervjuer visade det sig att så inte var fallet. Då enkät och intervjuer utgick från elevernas allmänna uppfattning om intelligens, talang och arbete kan man inte dra slutsatser om teorierna har bevisats eller ej. Vid fortsatta studier skulle det vara intressant att göra om samma studier med specifikt skolan och inlärningsmål som domän.

Golembiewski, Billingsly, and Yeager (1976) conceptualized three distinct types of change that might result from development interventions, called alpha, beta, and gamma change. Recent research has found that beta and gamma change do occur as hypothesized, but the phenomena are somewhat infrequent and the precise conditions under which they occur have not been established. This study used confirmatory factor analysis and item response theory to identify gamma and beta change on a multidimensional, multisource managerial performance appraisal instrument and to examine relations among the change types, training program content, and raters' implicit theories of performance. Results suggested that coverage in training was a necessary but not sufficient condition for beta and gamma change to occur. Further, although gamma change was detected only in the trainee group, beta change was detected in self-ratings from trainees and in ratings collected from their superiors. Because trainees' superiors were involved in post-training follow-up, this finding was interpreted as a possible diffusion of treatments effect (Campbell & Stanley, 1963). Contrary to expectations, there were no interpretable relations between raters' implicit theories of performance and either of the change types. Perhaps relatedly, more implicit theory change was detected among individuals providing observer ratings than in the trainees themselves. The implications of these findings for future research on plural change were discussed. / Ph. D.

Il presente lavoro di ricerca si propone di esplorare le concezioni degli studenti sulla creatività attraverso strumenti quali la parola e il disegno, a tramite attività mentali quali il giudizio, il riconoscimento e la descrizione. Tre sono i concetti chiave oggetto di indagine della presente ricerca: il riconoscimento, inteso come l’abilità nel distinguere prodotti (e autori) creativi da quelli non creativi. Tale distinzione ha luogo nel momento in cui l’individuo è in grado di cogliere quegli elementi che portano a un cambiamento di significato di un dato oggetto che in questo modo viene considerato creativo. Il secondo concetto chiave è il giudizio, ovvero l’abilità di un individuo di valutare l’autore - o gli autori - di prodotti creativi e non creativi. Il terzo concetto è quello legato all’abilità, attraverso la quale le persone esprimono il loro potenziale creativo. Gli obiettivi declinati nel presente lavoro di ricerca sono tre. Il primo si prefigge di indagare la capacità che gli studenti hanno di riconoscere la fase di ristrutturazione - costitutiva dell’atto creativo - distinguendo i prodotti creativi da quelli non creativi sulla base del loro diverso livello di originalità. A tale proposito sono state messe a punto diverse serie di disegni che rappresentano la realizzazione di artefatti creativi e non creativi e presentate prima a un campione di studenti universitari (Studio 1) e poi di studenti della scuola Primaria e Secondaria (Studio 2, Studio 3). Il secondo obiettivo consisteva nel descrivere la rappresentazione del comportamento del creativo. Attraverso una storia è stato richiesto agli studenti di giudicare il ruolo della persona creativa (Studio 2, Studio 3). Infine, il terzo obiettivo era valutare l’espressione della creatività e la sua relazione con la rappresentazione (Studio 3) attraverso l’impiego di strumenti diversi, quali il differenziale semantico, il compito di completamento di disegni ed il test delle Linee Parallele tratta dal Test di Pensiero Creativo di Torrance (TTCT: Torrance, 1989). / The present work is aimed at exploring how students represent creativity. To explore their beliefs we used different research tools (as words, drawings), and different cognitive tasks (as judging, recognizing, describing). Three concepts will be investigated in this research: (1) recognition, intended as the ability to distinguish between creative and non-creative products as well as between creative and non-creative authors: we tried to identify if our participants were able to catch the distinctive elements that determine the change of meaning of an artifact so that it become creative; (2) judgment, intended as the ability to judge the author(s) of creative and non-creative products; (3) expression, intended as the ability to express our own creative potential. Three specific aims has been set across this research. The first aim was to investigate the ability of students to recognize the restructuring phase of a creative act, differentiating between creative and non-creative products. Different series of drawings that represented the realization of creative and non-creative objects were devised and tested on undergraduates (Study 1) and on school children (Study 2, Study 3). The second aim was to describe the representation of creative behaviour. Using a story as a baseline, students were requested to judge the role of the creative person (Study 2, Study 3). The third aim was to evaluate the expression of creativity and the relationship between expression and representation of creativity (Study 3) using different tasks: a semantic differential scale, a picture completion task and a subscale of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT: Torrance, 1989).

The purpose of this study was to explore adolescent self-views of singing ability through both implicit theories and self-concept meaning systems. A secondary purpose of this study was to examine these self-views specifically in the context of a choral hierarchy. Using a researcher-designed survey instrument, I gathered data from middle- and high-school students currently enrolled in a choir program organized in a hierarchical structure. I analyzed descriptive statistics of survey responses to items designed to measure implicit theories of singing ability, singing self-concept, and goal orientation. I also examined differences among participants by ensemble placement in implicit theory and self-concept scores, correlation between implicit theory and self-concept, and whether implicit theory, self-concept, goal orientation, or current enrollment could predict future enrollment decisions. In addition to these quantitative measures, I coded open-ended responses to two failure scenarios and examined participant responses by ensemble and gender. Both implicit theory and self-concept scores were higher for participants at the top of the choral hierarchy than at the bottom. Open-ended responses, however, did not align with the implicit theory scale and a number of students presented a false growth mindset. Open-ended responses also indicated that failure scenarios were likely to result in an altered view of the self and shame in placement in an ensemble at the bottom of the choral hierarchy. The means scores for participants in the middle- and high-school ensembles in both implicit theory and self-concept were significantly different, with participants in the high-school ensembles having higher scores in both constructs. Implicit theory and self-concept were significantly related, and self-concept, goal orientation, and current enrollment significantly predicted future enrollment decisions.

This dissertation examines different aspects involved in the formation of psychologists’ expert opinion in the Portuguese criminal justice system, more precisely, as this opinion is reflected in assessment reports. The present dissertation is comprised of three qualitative studies, the first sought to provide a general portrait of a sample of 106 forensic psychological reports as to their overall quality as measured in terms of relevance and coherence. Results show that the formal markers of quality are present in the sample analysed, a certain number of weaknesses have been observed, notably concerning the internal coherence of the reports as well as the relevance of the information reported on. The second study explored the opinions of 17 Portuguese judges and state prosecutors concerning the use they make of this type of forensic report. It appears that they consider these reports to be useful and very credible, specially so when they have been produced under the auspices of the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, which is the state forensic institution. Furthermore, it appears that judges and prosecutors were particularly interested in data that allowed for a personalised portrait of the assessee. The third study sought to better comprehend the conceptual bases on which psychologists construct their reports. To this end, an exploratory study was undertaken with a sample of key-actors; the analysis of their interviews shows that they define their judicial mandate as well as the basic concepts that are associated to this mandate in different ways. A theoretical framework provided by an implicit theories model was used to help understand these results. / Cette thèse présente trois études qualitatives qui concernent différents aspects de la formulation de l’opinion experte chez des psychologues forensiques, tel que cette opinion se révèle dans leurs rapports d’expertise psycho-légale. La première étude porte sur la qualité d’un vaste échantillon de rapports d’expertise en se concentrant sur des critères de pertinence et de cohérence comme mesures de leur qualité générale. Cette étape a permis de dresser le portrait de 106 rapports forensiques produits au Portugal et d’établir qu’ils rencontrent les critères de qualité formelle établis tout en présentant certaines faiblesses en ce qui concerne la pertinence des informations utilisées et la cohérence interne du rapport La deuxième étude explore les opinions de dix-sept juges et procureurs de la République portugaise et s’interroge plus particulièrement sur leurs perspectives concernant l’utilité ce type de rapports d’experts dans leur travail en cour criminelle. Il appert que ces derniers leur accordent une grande crédibilité en particulier lorsqu’ils ont été produits par les experts de l’Institut portugais de médicine légale et sciences forensiques, l’institution forensique nationale affiliée au Ministère de la Justice. De plus, il se dégage des entretiens que les juges et les procureurs sont particulièrement intéressés par les données qui permettent de dresser un portrait individualisé de la personne évaluée. La troisième étude vise à mieux saisir les bases conceptuelles sur lesquelles les psychologues experts construisent leurs rapports. Pour ce faire, une étude exploratoire auprès d’un échantillon d’acteurs-clés a été menée qui a permis de dégager un certain nombre de constats, notamment que ceux-ci définissent leurs mandats judiciaires ainsi que les concepts fondamentaux qui y sont associés de manière différente. Un cadre théorique basé sur le modèle des théories implicites a été utilisé pour mieux comprendre ces résultats.

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