RCAAP Repository

No summary/description provided

No summary/description provided

No summary/description provided

No summary/description provided

Psychopathy is one of the most studied personality disorders, in terms of the negative impact that the behaviors associated with this disorder — particularly, the criminal behavior — have in the community where the individual lives. The aim of this article is to present a comprehensive literature review on psychopathy, focusing some difficulties related to its concept, assessment, and intervention. Here, psychopathy is presented as a construct resulting from decades of clinical and empirical research, and whose dimensional nature justifies the possibility of assessing the general population. Studies indicate that psychopathy is manifested in a number of behaviors resulting from biological and personality factors related to a series of family history and environmental factors. We emphasize the need for more empirical research on psychopathy in the general population in Portugal, regarding the development and adaptation of measures of the construct.

A experiência tem demonstrado que as estações locais podem ser competitivas no mercado pela procura/oferta de conteúdos locais. A âncora deste êxito parece advir do compromisso com as questões tradicional e tipicamente locais. O presente artigo tem como objectivo reflectir sobre variáveis de preferenciação e de proximidade em relação à audiência de uma estação de televisão local – Porto Canal – na segunda maior cidade portuguesa – Porto. São caracterizados os perfis das audiências em função dos horários de emissão, assim como as suas percepções acerca da programação e sobre os factores de preferenciação. Conclui-se que não existe uma preferência evidente por conteúdos regionais ou locais.

Measurement of organizational social impact is a pressing issue in corporate social responsibility research. This paper proposes an alternative measurement model – Core Organizational Stakeholder Impact (COSI) – based on economic, legal and ethical responsibilities of organizations. The model allows understanding organizational social footprint, i.e., how organizations impact each stakeholder. It has 40 indicators, easy to apply, dividing internal and external stakeholders in equal number (20), and corresponding to equal maximum scores (35 points each). A first exploratory application of COSI shows that it captures well the strengths and the weaknesses of the organizational performance in terms of social impact. The model also sensitizes managers to the importance of being sustainable and stakeholder oriented in order to accomplish organizational mission, and to contribute the welfare of society.

This research shows the importance of an internal communication (IC) audit in order to know what to do to improve internal and general market orientations (IMO and MO). A triangulation approach – interviews, questionnaires and critical incident analysis – was performed at a Higher Education Institution. In the literature, there is a lack of this kind of joint analysis of these constructs using a case study mixed method approach. The results show a clear and direct relationship among the different levels of IC, IMO, and MO, which have consequences in job satisfaction. All internal stakeholders (managers, teachers, non-academic staff and students) agree with the need of establishing formal rules and procedures to regulate communication access and flow. With this robust and complete diagnosis one can know in what ways can be improved the internal organizational communication, which is an essential basis to have greater IMO and MO. These orientations will be reflected in improved job satisfaction and better results for the organization.

O acolhimento familiar oferece um contexto de vida à criança retirada da sua família biológica, por um período de tempo indeterminado que se pode prolongar, no limite, até à maioridade ou independência. Um contexto familiar estável permite desenvolver sentimentos de segurança e de permanência associados à possibilidade de manutenção dos contactos com a sua família biológica. A criança pode e deve, em muitas circunstâncias, permanecer com os seus acolhedores e o reconhecimento deste papel parental é um passo que pode contribuir para afastar ambiguidades e indefinições que são prejudiciais para o sistema e para as práticas que ele vai configurando. Em Portugal, todavia, o acolhimento familiar é uma medida de carácter temporário, cuja aplicação depende da previsibilidade do retorno da criança ou do jovem à família de origem. O objetivo deste artigo é, após uma breve caracterização do sistema de proteção de crianças e jovens português, analisar a permanência no acolhimento familiar de 2006 a 2011, a partir dos relatórios de caracterização das crianças e jovens em situação de acolhimento. De seguida procedemos à apresentação e discussão de dados recolhidos num estudo desenvolvido no distrito do Porto, englobando as 289 crianças que se encontravam acolhidas em maio de 2011, e que representavam 52% das colocações familiares de criança sem Portugal. Os resultados foram apurados com a aplicação de um formulário de recolha de dados preenchido a partir dos registos oficiais de cada criança acolhida e através da realização de 52 entrevistas a acolhedores. Entre os resultados principais destacam-se os longos períodos de estadia, a permanência da criança na família acolhedora inicial e a avaliação global positiva dos resultados obtidos, o que nos permite identificar um conjunto de desafios que se colocam no futuro imediato ao acolhimento familiar português.

Abstract. According to the narrative framework, clients seek therapeutic help due to the constricting nature of problematic self-narratives and psychotherapy should contribute to the elaboration of narrative novelties and innovative self-narratives. We term these narra- tive novelties as innovative moments (IMs) and developed the Innovative Moments Cod- ing System (IMCS) to study them in psychotherapeutic discourse, differentiating five types of IMs: action, reflection, protest, reconceptualization and performing change IMs. Previ- ous research studies using the IMCS with narrative therapy, emotion-focused therapy and client-centered therapy show that action, reflection and protest IMs appear in good (GO) and also in poor outcome (PO) cases while, reconceptualization and performing change IMs are more typical of good outcome (GO) cases. In this study, we will address how these IMs are co-constructed in the therapeutic dialogue through the discussion of three particu- lar forms of IMs’ emergence in psychotherapy. These forms of emergence refer to different degrees of client and therapist participation: (1) IMs produced by the therapist and ac- cepted by the client; (2) IMs prompted by the therapist and developed by the client; and (3) IMs spontaneously produced by the client. The exploratory analysis of three initial, three middle and three final sessions of contrasting cases (a GO and a PO) of narrative therapy for depression showed that IMs produced by the therapist were more associated to the PO case, while IMs prompted by the therapist were more associated to the GO case.

According to the narrative approach, change in self-narratives is an important part of successful psychotherapy. In this view, several authors have highlighted the usefulness of narrating new experiences (like actions, thoughts, and stories) during therapy in contrast with maladaptive client self-narratives. These new experiences are termed here innovative moments (IMs), and different types can be specified: action, reflection, protest, reconceptualization, and performing change. With the aim of understanding which therapist skills are related to client IMs, we analyzed the association between exploration, insight, and action skills and IMs in two initial, two middle, and two final sessions of three good outcome (GO) and three poor outcome (PO) cases of emotion-focused therapy (EFT) for depression. IMs occurred more often in GO than PO cases. Furthermore, in GO more than PO cases, exploration and insight skills more often preceded action, reflection, and protest IMs in the initial and middle phases of EFT, but more often preceded reconceptualization and performing change IMs in the final phase. Action skills were more often associated with action, reflection, and protest IMs across all phases, especially in the final phase, of GO EFT.

It is intuitively felt that ambiguity plays a crucial role in human beings’ everyday life and in psychologists’ theoretical and applied work. However, ambiguity remains essentially non-problematised in psychological science since its foundation. This article analyses positivist and social constructionist perspectives on ambiguity in the context of their epistemological and ontological fundamental assumptions. The relational thesis of social constructionism is further analysed and it is argued that it constitutes a “weak thesis” concerning the relational constitution of human beings. In the second part, a dialogical alternative is elaborated. In this perspective, ambiguity is placed in the context of relationship and both are brought to an ontological ground. Therefore, it is argued, ambiguity is a fundamental property of human experience and plays a fundamental role in the consti­ tution of (inter)subjective processes. The impact of this thesis on dialogical perspective on self is elaborated.

The self is in a constant process of becoming that demands the construction of “sameness” and identity throughout the irreversibility of time and changing experience (Valsiner, 2002b). Thus, self-organization is the constant and necessary task of a changing self. Occasionally, this dynamic organization may lead to recursive and inflexible patterns implicated in a perpetuating personal problem. The “Identity Positions Interview” (Gonçalves & Cunha, 2006) was designed to elicit dialogical processes while discussing a personal problem. This allows different dialogues to occur: 1) the actual dialogues from the interaction participant- researcher; 2) the imagined dialogues of the participant and others about the problem (e.g. “What would your mother say about the problem?”); 3) the imagined dialogues between Present and Future possible-selves (e.g. “What would the Future say to you?”). These different phases were inspired in therapeutic techniques that call upon the perspectives of social others or temporal movements as semiotic devices used to generate diversity and novelty in the present. Following a dialogical framework, two case-studies are presented to illustrate the emergence of novelty and difference and its regulation into recursive self-dynamics at a microgenetic-level. This idiographic study has two aims: a) to highlight the dynamism of I-positions within the Dialogical Self, and b) to depict the emergence of novelty, self-innovation and re-organization.

No summary/description provided

Per Linell’s (2009) book Rethinking language, mind, and world dialogically offers an inte- grated view upon the many strands of Dialogism, establishing itself as an essential ref- erence to the field. In this review of his book we aim to discuss a few selected topics, building upon these with our own views. Initially, we focus on the relevance and urgency of such book by summing up the most important dialogical concepts presented by it. Following our initial argument, we move on to the discussion of contrasts between monological and dialogical perspectives, the concepts of extended mind and the inter- world, suggesting Dialogism as an ontology, and finally, reflecting upon the relation between intersubjectivity and alterity. We conclude our review by stressing how Linell’s book contributes to the unification of an entanglement of different dialogical theories and perspectives, crafting a solid meta-theory. This integration paves the way for a deeper understanding of what constitutes the nature of knowledge and human phenomena, as conceptualized by Dialogism.

This commentary focuses on König's (2009) work as an opportunity to elaborate on selfhood as a dynamic and dialogical phenomenon. We depart from Bakhtinian dialogism and dialogical self theory to focus on the dynamics of selfhood processes and draw a more explicit theoretical link between the dialogical self and phenomenological experience. The interconnected dimensions of discontinuity and continuity in a multiple, multipositioned self are also elaborated. We defend that the construction of similitude in the self is permitted by self-regulation and self-organization processes that create recurring patterns in a moving self. Finally, the role that the introduction of difference and alterity can play in the promotion of change and development is also discussed.

Neste texto pretende-se enfatizar o papel determinante que a imaginação ocupa no uso da metáfora narrativa em psicoterapia, na medida em que permite a emergência da diferença necessária para a mudança discursiva. Assim, propõe-se que a terapia narrativa de re-autoria, na versão desenvolvida por White e Epston (1990), intencionaliza o uso da imaginação como ferramenta terapêutica essencial para atingir os seus objectivos. A nossa centração na imaginação prende-se com a convicção de que a capacidade do terapeuta e dos clientes imaginarem possibilidades alternativas na vida das pessoas é mais distintiva da terapia narrativa, do que o uso de qualquer estratégia terapêutica ou prática discursiva específicas (como a externalização). Desta forma, o objectivo do presente artigo é convidar e encorajar os terapeutas desta abordagem a libertarem-se das narrativas dominantes quanto à forma “correcta” de fazer terapia narrativa.

No summary/description provided

No summary/description provided

No summary/description provided