Indice Ouverture Preludio, di Gianni Montesarchio e Claudia Venuleo 1. La psicologia e il gruppo, di Roberto Rizzo 1. Una premessa istituente 2. Una cornice filosofico-epistemologica 2.1 Il pensiero postmoderno di Jean-François Lyotard 2.2 Strutturalismo e post-strutturalismo 2.3 La social construction 3. I paradigmi di Thomas Kuhn: un concetto-stampella per la psicologia 3.1 ll concetto di paradigma: definizioni, caratteristiche, funzioni 3.2 La “natura” della scienza 4. Psicologia moderna e postmoderna 4.1 Elementi per un confronto 4.2 Temi “moderni” in un’ottica postmoderna 5. Il gruppo: una breve rassegna storica 5.1 Le prime esperienze e il polo dell’individuo 5.2 Il polo del collettivo e la psicologia sociale di Kurt Lewin 5.2.1 Lewin e la psicoanalisi 5.2.2 L’analisi “di” gruppo: Wilfred Bion 5.2.3 S. H. Foulkes e la gruppoanalisi 5.2.4 La lettura francese del gruppo: Anzieu e Käes 6. Per una lettura postmoderna del costrutto: il |gruppo| come format Riferimenti bibliografici 2. Per un approccio dialogico e contestuale al |gruppo|, di Gianni Montesarchio e Claudia Venuleo 1. Introduzione 2. Il gruppo tra definizione ingenua e tentativo di concettualizzazione 2.1 Approccio monistico v.s. approccio plurale alla conoscenza 2.2 Oltre l’individuo e l’identicità 2.3 Per una concezione contestuale della mente 2.4 Il gruppo come qualità emergente e situata dello scambio dialogico 2.4.1 Note sulla natura contingente ed affettiva del significato3. Sulla funzione della clinica 3.1 Sul concetto di riflessività Riferimenti bibliografici 3. Dal mito del gruppo all’utilizzo del gruppo come strumento di intervento: il gruppo come “assetto della relazione”, di Viviana Fini 1. Miti emblemi spie 1.1 “Riunificare” il gruppo 1.1.1 Le variabili strutturali: obiettivo, metodo, ruolo 1.2 Per una teoria della relazione individuo-contesto. Un ancoraggio alla ridefinizione delle cosiddette “variabili di processo”: comunicazione, clima, sviluppo 1.2.1 Pensiero duale e pensiero di gruppo: cosa vuol dire “sviluppo”? 1.3 La leadership: lo “snodo” tra variabili strutturali e variabili di processo 1.3.1 Il caso del Comune che si “deve” sviluppare 2. Epilogo Riferimenti bibliografici 4. Il gruppo come dispositivo generativo, di Gianni Montesarchio e Claudia Venuleo 1. Alcune premesse fondative di un uso del gruppo come dispositivo generativo dell’intervento clinico 2. Formazione data e formazione generativa 3. Gruppo e formazione generativa: quale rapporto? 3.1 L’apprendimento come pratica dialogica e situata 3.2 Setting e relazione 3.3 Il |gruppo| come oggetto del colloquio di gruppo 4. Dalla precarietà del tecnicismo alla trasversalità/trasferibilità dei criteri interpretativi e metodologici Riferimenti bibliografici 5. Giocare il gruppo. Dalla lezione ai metodi attivi: il gioco come strumento di narrazione, di Eleonora Marzella 1. Premessa 2. Una cornice teorica 3. Il gioco “generativo” 3.1 L'organizzazione/suddivisione in fasi dei giochi 3.2. La lezione 3.3 I giochi analogici 3.3.1 Il dilemma del prigioniero 3.3.2 L’acrostico Epilogo 3.3.3 Il T.A.T. in acquario 3.3.4 La donna sul ponte 3.4 Il metodo dei casi 3.4.1 Lo studio dei casi 3.4.2 I business games 3.4.3 Gli autocasi 3.5 Lo psicodramma 3.5.1 Il role-playing 4. Dopo il gioco, il resoconto Riferimenti bibliografici 6. Il gruppo come spazio privilegiato della formazione clinica alla clinica, di Gianni Montesarchio e Claudia Venuleo 1. Premessa 2. Il setting del gruppo esperienziale 3. Formazione e resocontazione 3.1 Inter-visionandosi…Di resocontazione in resocontazione 4. Un approccio semiotico all’uso di grandi, medi, piccoli, gruppi 5. Note sul prodotto Riferimenti bibliografici 7. Il gruppo nella pratica della ricerca psicologica, di Marco Guidi 1. Premessa 2.

What is reflexivity, why is it so important in higher education, and how can it be implemented? We assume a semiotic standpoint to deal with these issues, focusing on the acknowledgment of the primary role of meaning in mediating the ways people take part in their system of activity, be it educational or professional. Reflexivity can be seen either as a specific educational model that teachers adopt to cope with the otherness of the students’ system of meanings, or a basic competence that higher education programs should promote in the students in order to improve their ability to manage the otherness with which they will deal in their professional practice. A specific reflexive model, based on narrative methods, will be presented. In this model, the development of the ways the students think of their educational identity and of their future professional practice is conceived as the emergent property in an intersubjective sense-making process, as every dialogic exchange can be regarded

L’adolescenza è riconosciuta come periodo critico rispetto all’assunzione di comportamenti rischiosi. Nel lavoro presentato si indagano i fattori sociali di rischio che intervengono nella valutazione e messa in atto di comportamenti potenzialmente dannosi per la salute. Entro un campione di 391 studenti di scuole superiori di Lecce è stato esplorato il ruolo di alcune variabili psicosociali, ampiamente iconosciute nella letteratura come fattori di protezione e/o rischio, come supporto sociale, supervisione familiare, trasparenza del rapporto genitori-figli, norme familiari, approvazione del rischio da parte dei pari e influenza dei pari e dei genitori, e il ruolo dei modelli culturali, intesi come sistemi di significato con i quali si interpreta e si agisce nell’ambiente micro e macro-sociale cui si prende parte. La percezione di eventuali vincoli nella richiesta di aiuto e di canali preferenziali rispetto alla diffusione di piani di prevenzione e/o di intervento da parte di enti e istituzioni di competenza sono anche stati oggetto dell’indagine. I risultati evidenziano come studenti che esprimono diversi modelli culturali e che caratterizzano diversamente il proprio intorno sociale valutano diversamente il rischio e hanno probabilità diverse di assumerlo: studenti che valutano minore il rischio e che dichiarano di assumere più comportamenti rischiosi si caratterizzano per un’immagine anomica del contesto macro-sociale, per la percezione di un basso supporto sociale, di un ambiente famigliare poco vigile e di un gruppo dei pari approvante il rischio. I risultati offrono spunti di riflessione per la formulazione e progettazione di strategie preventive e di contrasto dei comportamenti a rischio rivolti agli adolescenti.

A prominent explanation for people's involvement in harmful behaviour is that they have poor risk-judging skills. However, a number of studies have shown that there is a great variability in morality about the nature of acceptable norms of conduct and lifestyle and that different cultural groups correspond to very heterogeneous risk assessments. The current study evaluates the proposition by proponents of cultural theory that a person's worldview plays a major role in affecting risk evaluation (Boholm, 1998). Particularly, the study tests the hypothesis that subjective cultures in terms of which people interpret their micro and macro social environment affect the magnitude of the risk related to different kinds of hazardous behaviours. Subjective cultures of the social environment were detected through the questionnaire on the Interpretation of the Social Environment (Mossi & Salvatore, 2011) among high school students and bachelor degree students from South-East Italy. Respondents were asked to indicate their personal opinion regarding risks related to different kind of behaviours: drug and alcohol use, smoking, smartphone use, driver risk-behaviour, unsafe sexual behaviour, in three domains: health, relationships and social approval. Three Principal Components Analyses (PCA) – one for each of the domains of risk investigated – were applied to the risk ratings expressed by the respondents. Correlation Analysis was applied to analyze the linkage between the components of risk rating extracted and subjective cultures. The findings show that different cultural views of the social environment relate to different evaluations of the magnitude of risks related to different kinds of hazardous behaviour (i.e. socialized/not socialized; licit/illicit). The subjective cultures might constitute a factor to be taken into account to get a better understanding of the attitude towards hazardous behaviours among adolescents and young adults and to improve healthcare strategies.

In this paper, a study on 40 semi-structured interviews with users of the Italian health services and self-help groups is presented to gain a deeper insight on how members describe, understand, and face their problems with substance or behavioral addiction. A simple correspondence analysis (CA) was applied to the transcripts of the interviews to detect the main dimensions of sense which organize the users’ discourse about their problem and their request for help. In addition, constraint correspondence analysis (CCA) was applied to evaluate whether these dimensions are affected by the kind of help context the users belong to, type of addiction, age, and gender. No substantial differences emerged from CA and CCA. Results show that the users’ discourses focus on two different kinds of experience: the substance or gambling problem and the experience of being helped. Furthermore, dis/similarity in the user discourses concerns the way of symbolizing the problem motivating the request for help, identified with the addiction or with the breakup of one’s family and social relationships. Through the interviews, a view of addiction as a disorder affects the way users define their problem and define the goal of the treatment.

In the mainstream approach, psychopathology is recognized as an expression of a sick individual acting in a social vacuum. On the other hand, cross-cultural studies and cultural psychopathology show that cultural variations exist in perceived causes, onset patterns, epidemiology, symptom expression, course and outcome; yet, by promoting the view of culture as the context container to which individuals belong, this standpoint neglects the role of individuals in negotiating their cultural world and the meaning of their experience. In this chapter, gambling will be used as an argument to highlight the limits both of individualistic perspectives and of a view of culture as a monolithic entity. According to a cultural and semiotic perspective stating the dialectic unity of mind and context, we argue the field dependent dynamic and inherently unique nature of psychopathology and suggest modelling it at the same time as an intrapsychic, interpersonal and cultural process. The implications of this perspective in the way of establishing the goal of the clinical intervention in the psychotherapeutic field as well as in the community will be underlined.

The paper tests longitudinally the hypothesis that educational subcultures in terms of which students interpret their role and their educational setting affect the probability of dropping out of higher education. A logistic regression model was performed to predict drop out at the beginning of the second academic year for the 823 freshmen of a three-year bachelor degree in psychology at an Italian university. The model uses both measures of students' educational subculture and incoming levels of knowledge and skills. The probability of dropping out was used as dependent variable. Results show that the probability of dropping out is significantly associated with students' educational subculture – but not with their incoming level of knowledge and skills. Our results suggest the need to recognize the meaning as a legitimate variable of research and of intervention in the field of educational success

In this paper a dynamic and semiotic model of meaning (DSMM) is presented. According to it: a) meaning is the emergent product of a field dynamics; b) meaning consists of the way signs iteratively combine with each other in the local circumstances of communication; c) meaning is bivalent, i.e. it emerges from the iterative mutually constitutive tension between two components: an observable side, the Significance in Praesentia (SIP), namely the portion of the world used as sign, and a latent side, the Significance in Absentia (SIA), namely the pertinent gestalt of linkages among signs defining the condition of interpretability of the former. In the second part of the work some methodological implications of DSMM for the study of meaning are highlighted. In particular, emphasis is given to the wisdom of adopting a methodology being able to model the contingency and situativity of socio-symbolic phenomena

Inscrivendosi entro una cornice concettuale di matrice socio costruttivista e psicodinamica, si propone che lo sviluppo del rapporto scuola/fruitori sia un processo sociale culturalmente mediato. Promuoverlo implica confrontarsi con le domande dei fruitori e con i modelli simbolici che le sostanziano. Entro questa premessa, la ricerca presentata – una mappatura dei modelli di significazione del servizio scolastico delle famiglie degli studenti di un campione nazionale di scuole italiane - risponde ad una duplice funzione: come sistema di indagine e conoscenza, essa è volta all’individuazione ed alla elaborazione dei codici di significato in rapporto ai quali i genitori regolano il proprio rapporto con l’ambiente scolastico; come congegno psicologico clinico strettamente connesso all’intervento, essa mira a fornire competenze alle scuole in termini di criteri per interpretare i modelli di rapporto proposti dalle famiglie.

This paper presents a study aimed at analysing the users’ models of evaluating the Public-Relations Department (URP) settled in a Southern Italian City National Health Service (ASL). The research is grounded on a socio-constructivist and psychodynamic approach which acknowledges the social and situated nature of perceptions, opinions and attitudes expressed towards a public service, and, at the same time, their being expression of affective symbolic processes. A questionnaire constructed with ISO methodology was administered to 205 users. A Multiple Correspondence Analysis aimed to detected the factorial dimensions was applied on the data. Results highlight how user's evaluation of the URP and of the ASL is organized by two main symbolic dimensions: the first concerns the service evaluation, depicting a dialectic between positive and critical aspects of the services. The second one concerns the model of relationship with the URP, depicted in terms of opposition between a trust and distrust one on the possibility of taking advantage from the service.

Gruppo, formazione generativa

Lo sviluppo della competenza a trattare con la propria e altrui soggettività – che implica la capacità di distinguere tra il proprio mondo psicologico e quello altrui, e che individuiamo come competenza fondamentale dello psicologo clinico – non può essere rimandato al là e allora dell’esperienza professionale. Lo stesso setting formativo va concepito come contesto in cui esercitare la capacità di elaborare il ruolo costruttivo e al contempo vincolante della soggettività nel processo conoscitivo e nella costruzione dell’esperienza. Detto in altri termini, la costruzione socio-simbolica dell'immagine professionale non si esaurisce – dunque non può essere perseguita – sul piano funzionale e cognitivo, attraverso la conoscenza dei suoi oggetti e dei suoi parametri di funzionamento, ma richiede specifici setting formativi volti a governare i modelli di fruizione e conoscenza degli attori in formazione. Possiamo così esplicitare l’idea che il gruppo esperienziale sia il dispositivo per eccellenza della formazione clinica alla clinica, dove non si procede nonostante, ma a partire da e attraverso i codici culturali, simbolici, emozionali che i partecipanti propongono; codici che il setting dovrà consentire di visualizzare, pensare, elaborare.

The authors suggest of conceiving the group setting as a chaotic field of sense, and process which generates the possibility of “thinking otherwise” one’s own history and the relationship between oneself and the Other. This proposal is inscribed within a conception of the clincal psychological intervention as setting aimed at developing the competence to living together, thus to living with the Otherness.

Inscrivendosi entro una prospettiva simbolico culturale, si discute il ruolo regolativo del significato sulle modalità e gli esiti della partecipazione degli studenti agli ambienti di apprendimento e si riconosce nel linguaggio, in quanto processo intrinsecamente intersogettivo di sense making, uno strumento di comprensione e di perturbazione delle culture formative espresse dagli studenti.

Background: Current literature shows number of papers focusing on Internet Addiction (IA). Few authors have dealt with the prevention programme. The aim of this paper is to present an evaluation of an action-research intervention for the prevention of Internet Addiction (IA) in schools. Methods: Applying a pre-experimental research design model, a total of 90 young subjects (45 males and 45 females) were treated using a peer education programme. The Internet Addiction Test was used as a screening tool pre- and post-treatment and analysed using a paired t-test. Results: The results showed a significant positive difference in the post-treatment values for both males and females. Conclusion: The difficulties of IA prevention can be explained by the social legitimacy of the use of new technologies. In addition, IA does not have the same social stigma as other addictions. The absence of shared instruments and diagnostic criteria manifests further difficulties in working in terms of prevention.

In una prospettiva psicologia clinica, la formazione può essere intesa come processo riflessivo sui significati con cui gli studenti interpretano il setting di apprendimento. Il contributo approfondisce questa prospettiva e presenta un caso studio volto ad esaminare l’impatto di un laboratorio riflessivo sui modi con cui gli studenti di un corso di laurea triennale in psicologia costruiscono il senso del proprio percorso universitario. From a clinical psychological point of view, the training can be conceived as a reflexive process on the meanings by which students interpret the learning setting. The present paper deepens such perspective; furthermore, it is presented a case study aimed to analyze the impact of a reflexive workshop on the ways the students of a three year degree course in psychology construct the sense of their university experience.

This paper proposes a reading of liminal transitions in semiotic terms, namely as a byproduct of the dynamics of sensemaking consisting of how two components of meaning interact: the observable side of meaning (Significance in Praesentia) – the rupture directly experienced by the interpreter – and a further generalized meaning – the semiotic scenario (Significance in Absentia) which makes the lived experience interpretable. Due to its pre-semantic and affective nature, in the liminal hotspot the semiotic scenario keeps a certain version of the self alive, regardless of the changes occurring in the real world. The conditions that favor such dynamics are briefly outlined as well as some implications for theory, methodology and intervention.

Si presenta uno studio volto ad esplorare i modelli professionali e di servizio a partire dai quali medici di base e pediatri di libera scelta si rappresentano la collaborazione con lo psicologo entro il Servizio Sanitario Nazionale. La ricerca si inscrive entro una prospettiva psicodinamica-culturalista che riconosce il ruolo centrale dei processi simbolici affettivi nel modo di interpretare la propria funzione entro un servizio e le forme della collaborazione professionale. Un’intervista semi-strutturata è stata proposta a 13 medici di base e 17 pediatri di libera scelta. I trascritti sono stati sottoposti ad analisi multidimensionale: un’Analisi delle Corrispondenze Lessicali, finalizzata all’individuazione delle principali Dimensioni Simboliche caratterizzanti le produzioni discorsive, e un’Analisi dei Cluster, per l’individuazione dei principali nuclei tematici. I risultati consentono di evidenziare la presenza di una committenza sul servizio integrato e di precisare quali modelli professionali e di servizio fondano la domanda di collaborazione con lo psicologo. Laddove la funzione attribuita al servizio è identificata con la funzione medica (si tratta di curare), lo psicologo è chiamato a "contenere" dimensioni psicologiche "disturbanti" le procedure mediche previste. Laddove la funzione attribuita al servizio è quella di prendersi carico, integrativamente, di un utente riconosciuto nella sua unità bio-psico-sociale, lo psicologo è pensato come professionista al quale affidare la componente emozionale. Si discutono i risultati in termini di vincoli e risorse per lo sviluppo di una funzione psicologica entro un servizio integrato.

A number of studies show how different social groups express heterogeneous evaluations about the meaning of “risk” and the nature of the acceptable conducts. From a cultural perspective, the current study tests the hypothesis that subjective cultures in terms of which people interpret their role and their social environment affect the magnitude of the risk perceived related to different kinds of behaviours: substance (alcohol, hard drugs, marijuana or nicotine) consumption, internet use and gambling. The study involved 198 bachelor degree students from South-East Italy. Respondents were asked to assess the risk related to each of the target behaviours, in three domains: health, relationships and social approval/stigma. Principal Components Analyses allowed to identify two factorial dimensions for each domain: as regards the health, respondents express different evaluations of the risk related to substance use or specific behaviours; as regard the relationships, the differentiation concerns socialized and not socialized behaviours; as regards social approval, the differentiation concerns licit and illicit behaviours. The questionnaire on the Interpretation of the Social Environment (Mossi and Salvatore, 2011) was used to detect the subjective cultures. The Analysis of Multiple Correspondence allowed to identify the two principal dimensions of sense which organize them. Finally, Kendall correlations were applied to analyse the linkage between the components of risk rating and the components of subjective cultures. The results provide support for the idea that cultural differences in the way of evaluating the social environment are related to a different evaluation of the risk related to different kind of hazardous behaviours. The Implications for strategies of intervention will be discussed.

Si presenta uno studio che ha inteso esplorare i modelli simbolici di interpretazione dell’ambiente ambiente micro e macro sociale, e del social network, espressi da giovani utilizzatori e non utilizzatori di Facebook, nell’ipotesi che siano tali modelli a orientare il proprio rapporto con il social network, le modalità e l’intensità del suo utilizzo

Pochi lavori scientifici hanno esaminato il ruolo del significato sul successo educativo. Gli autori presentano uno studio volto a testare longitudinalmente l’ipotesi che i modelli socio-simbolici espressi dagli studenti impattino la probabilità di abbandonare gli studi universitari. Un modello socio-simbolico può essere descritto come un set coerente di significati generalizzati nei termini dei quali gli studenti interpretano il proprio ruolo e più in generale l’ambiente nel quale sono iscritti. Lo studio è stato volto a identificare i modelli socio simbolici di interpretazione dell’ambiente sociale espressi dagli studenti di un corso di laurea triennale in Psicologia, all’inizio del percorso accademico, e il loro rapporto con la permanenza all’università o il drop out. I risultati incoraggiano l’ipotesi di un ruolo significativo dei modelli socio simbolici nella comprensione del successo o del fallimento formativo e suggeriscono la necessità di politiche di sviluppo della qualità universitaria attente al loro riconoscimento e alla loro elaborazione. Few scientific works have investigated the role of the meaning in the educational success. The authors present a study aimed to test longitudinally the hypothesis that the socio-symbolic models affects the probability of dropping out of higher education. A socio-symbolic model is a consistent set of generalized meanings in terms of which students interpret their role and more in general the social environment they participate in. The study aimed at identifying the socio-symbolic models by which the students of a three-years degree course in Psychology interpret their social environment, raised at the beginning of the academic path, and their relationship with their study retention. The results give support to the hypothesis of a central role of the sociosymbolic models in the understanding of the educational success or failure, and suggest the need for improving the academic quality policies caring for their recognition and elaboration.

The current paper aims to present the method of Non-Symmetrical Correspondence Analysis (NSCA) based on Emerson’s orthogonal polynomials, which takes into account, in efficient way, the ordinal structure of the data. The extension of NSCA is the so called Singly Ordered Non-Symmetrical Cor- respondence Analysis version (SONSCA), that, by taking into account the ordinal structure in the ta- ble, improving the interpretation ability of the analysis. The methods was applied to 40 in-depth in- terviews, gathered with people in treatment for their problems with addiction. NSCA and SONSCA are used to evaluate if the classes of age of the subjects interviewed influence the addiction thematic categories that characterize their discourses.The work provides insight on NSCA and SONSCA methods and how they could be applied in the psychological context and in particular to study the dependence between ordinal and categorical variables reported in a contingency table.

La proposta avanzata di chiamare GRUPPO: UN CAMPO SIMBOLICO-AFFETTIVO PLURALE, GENERATO DA SCAMBI DIALOGICI; GENERATIVO DI NUOVE NARRAZIONI, FONDANTI IL SENSO DELLO STARE INSIEME; CONTENITORE COMMENSALMENTE PRODOTTO DA MATRICI SINGOLARI, MA NON RIDUCIBILE AD ESSE guarda alla possibilità di ricomporre la dimensione teorica, clinica e metodologica del costrutto di |gruppo| , entro una generale cornice epistemologica che ci consenta di decentrare l’attenzione dal riferimento ad uno specifico modello di Scuola per fare dialogare prospettive teoriche che si riconoscono in un comune postulato fondamentale: la fondazione dialogica e contestuale della mente, del suo sviluppo, del suo cambiamento, per una fondazione dialogica e contestuale anche dell’intervento clinico, formativo o terapeutico che sia.

Si propone un punto di vista psicologico clinico sul territorio riconosciuto come soggetto e oggetto di interpretazioni, narrazioni e azioni

According to a semiotic, dynamic, and cultural standpoint, we recognize as distinctive field of reference of a reflexive learning approach the meanings which are embedded in the discursive and behavioral practices enacted by the trainees in the course of their training activities. Consistent with the idiographic perspective, which stresses the uniqueness and, at the same time, the dynamicity of the processes deployed in a specific learning setting, we address the utility of a training method which makes use both of open texts tools (Eco, 1979), conversational processes and case-reporting methodology, as a way for making explicit and develop the plurality of the trainees’ subjective points of view on the training experience, through the methodological choice of making them the subject of sensemaking.

The cultural context is widely cited as integral to understanding why people engage in behaviour that damages their health. Yet it is rarely the direct object of investigation in the field of addiction behaviour. The current study examines whether the subjective cultures through which subjects interpret the social environment play a role in increasing (or decreasing) the probability of problem gambling, drinking, and internet use. The questionnaire on the Interpretation of the Social Environment (ISE) (Mossi & Salvatore 2011) was used in order to detect the subject cultures in a whole sample of 771 participants, recruited in five different contexts (public Health service; Slot-machine room and Bingo center, Undergraduate courses; smoke shops and betting centers, Help Centre for immigrants and the disadvantaged). One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and logistic regressions were used to compare problem (both at risk and dependent) group and control for each of the three kinds of harmful behaviour under analysis on ISE scores of subjective culture. The problem group of gamblers, drinkers and internet users show they differ from control as concerns the evaluation of the social environment. Whereas control groups tend to express trust in social norms and institutions, problem groups tend to perceive their social environment as lacking in rules, and thus as untrustworthy. Within this interpretative frame, to be "reasonable", to act "responsibly" does not appear a key for a person's social adaptation nor a key to acquire power over events and one’s own future. The results suggest that the way people interpret their social environment might be a key area for a better understanding of harmful behaviour, with different critical effects on social adjustment; the knowledge of subjective cultures might provide valuable information in the development of healthcare strategies.

RTS is a specific training model, in the form of a process of analysis of the ways students interpret their own role and the educational relationship. The forms of the RTS model and its main goals will be presented. A case study will be further proposed, in order to analyze the impact of a workshop based on the RTS model upon the ways the students of a bachelor degree in psychology conceive their own role, giving a meaning to what is happening. The workshop was organized as a course of 5 group sessions, where the students met once a week for 2 hours. A Lexical Correspondence Analysis (LCA), aimed at identifying the (dis)similarities emerging through the subjects’ (trainer and students) discourses, was used to detect the ways they viewed the experience. LCA was applied to the verbatim transcription of the discourses produced in the first, third and final session of the workshop. The results highlight 2 main symbolic transitions occurring in the course of the workshop, and concerning both the way adopted by the students to interpret their role and the way they took part in the process and evaluated the experience. The RTS workshop appears to have strongly favored both the students’ involvement in the activities and the construction of a linkage between the present training and future professional practice.

In mainstream clinical practice, language is regarded as a medium by means of which to keep (and/or to change) specific “essences” – characteristics that are conceived as “inner” properties of the individual mind. I outline the unity of mind and discourse: we construct the world we habit by speaking. Hence language use – as sensemaking process – is intrinsically an intersubjective process. I highlight the implications of this perspective in the way of defining the object that has to be processed by the therapist, the role of the social and discursive context in the understanding of the reality constructed by the patient, and the aim of the clinical exchange, shaping it as an intrinsically intersubjective process of sensemaking.

Characteristics of the higher educational programs (e.g. non systematic variability of course’s difficulty among and within programs and over times) make observed data (e.g. number of credits acquired) poorly informative indexes of the students’ performance. As alternative, it is proposed an extended version of Rasch model (the Three Facets Model, TFM). TFM conceptualizes student’s performance the expression of a three-component latent variable to be esteemed. In so doing, TFM is able to take into account the non-systematic sources of variation characterizing higher educatonal settings, thus avoiding limits entailed in the use of indexes based on observed data. An exemplificative longitudinal case study has been performed, aimed at detecting predictors of performance within an undergraduate program of psychology of an Italian university. Two regression models have been compared: one using a traditional index of performance based on observed data versus one using the TFM estimation.

In the present study we underline the utility of the Reflexive Training Setting (RTS) in the bachelor degree in psychology. The RTS is an educational method aimed at promoting students’ self-awareness about their representations of the training experience. Furthermore, we present a survey on the meanings a group of freshmen enrolling in a Psychology degree ascribe to the student’s training role. We interpret these meanings as the result of the specific positioning the students assume in relation to the symbolizations shared in the wider social context they belong to, and as the interpretative keys through which the students represent their relationship with the University and the professional figure they wish to become. Our analysis is aimed at exploring whether , and in which directions, the students’ ways of interpreting their training experience will change , thanks to a specific workshop on the Reflexive Training Setting methodology designed to help students incorporate reflexivity in their training experience.

It is recognised that cultural factors play a role in the onset and continuation of several mental health problems. However, there is a significant lack of empirical studies investigating the relationships between cultural factors and gambling behavior. This study assessed whether the subjective cultures through which subjects interpret and enact their experience of the social environment play a major role in increasing (or decreasing) the probability of pathological gambling. Participants, recruited in three different contexts (public health services for the treatment of addiction, casino, undergraduate course) were subjected to the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) (Lesieur and Blume in Am J Psychiatry 144(9):1184–1188, 1987), in order to identify a group of pathological gamblers—and with the Questionnaire on the Interpretation of the Social Environment (QUISE) (Mossi and Salvatore in Eur J Educ Psychol 4(2):153–169, 2011)—in order to detect their subjective cultures. The study compares pathological group (scoring >5 on SOGS, n = 34) and a healthy control group (scoring <1 on SOGS, n = 35). One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare groups on QUISE scores of subjective culture. Moreover, a logistic regression was applied in order to esteem the capability of the QUISE scores to differentiate between pathological gamblers and control. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that pathological group expresses different subjective cultures compared with no gambler subjects. The theoretical and clinical implications of the results are discussed.

According to a socio-constructionist perspective, pathological gamblers' “subjectivities” emerge out of social networks and networks of meaning-making, in which scientists, politicians, health services and common people take an active part. We are interested in showing how a legitimated view (sociocultural model) of problem gambling as a disease affects the way in which the members of Gamblers Anonymous (GA) self-groups understand and present their identity and talk about their problem and the help they have received. The work is based on a qualitative analysis of 35 in-depth, semi-structured open-ended interviews, 25 with gamblers attending Italian GA self-help groups, and 10 with gamblers’ relatives attending GamAnon family groups. The main themes arising from the interviews show how a dominant view of problem gambling as lifelong chronic illness opens the door to the reconciliation with oneself and one’s relatives. This work provides insights on the close relationship between acculturation to a pathological identity, moral reconciliation and "social belonging" through conforming to the GA group.

The teaching-learning process is grounded on cultural assumptions concerning the sense of the teaching relationship: who are the people engaged in the shared scholastic activity, what and why they are doing what they are doing. Generally, these assumptions are taken for granted and acted out, rather than being negotiated between student and teacher. Starting from the analysis of a transcript of communicative interaction in class, we discuss conditions and constraints concerning the educational model that we call “taken for granted setting”. Moreover, we highlight the fact that due to the profound cultural change in the student population, the teaching-learning relationship can no longer take these relational assumptions for granted. Consequently, we propose to consider teaching as being aimed at constructing, developing and governing the relational conditions required for the teaching to take place. We call such a methodological approach: reframing setting.

A content analysis of the representative Journals in the field of psychotherapy research has been performed. The analysis focused on the articles’ keywords. We analyzed 7086 works published in 17 Journals, in the period 2005-2011, using a two-step multidimensional procedure. Firstly, a Cluster Analysis led to the extrapolation of 4 groups of keywords, each of them interpreted as the marker of a topic active within the literature. Secondly, a factorial analysis was carried out in order to picture the thematic orientation of the most representative Journals, namely the main topics they focus on and how they differ from each other in this respect.

The aim of this chapter is to highlight the role that the unconscious plays in meaning-making. In pursuit of this goal, we will propose a semiotic conceptualization of the unconscious. Our starting point is Ignacio Matte Blanco’s theory of the unconscious. With it we will present a model of the affects as a mode of semiosis, in contrast to semiosis in “paradigmatic” (logical) thought. We will discuss (a) how affective semiosis might be conceived, (b) what kind of object it takes as its reference, and (c) how a joint psychodynamic and semiotic approach can help to understand meaning-making.

The current study examines whether cultural differences in the way of interpreting the social environment affect the probability of different kinds of addictive behaviours. Subjective cultures of the social environment were detected through the questionnaire on the Interpretation of the Social Environment (ISE) in a convenience sample of 771 participants from Italy. Problem gambling, drinking, internet use and smoking were assessed. A problem group was identified and a healthy group was selected for each of the four kinds of harmful behaviours. Logistic regressions were used to compare problem groups and control on ISE scores of subjective cultures. Problem groups of gamblers, drinkers and internet users were found to differ from control in their evaluation of the social environment, which they considered very unreliable. The problem group of smokers differs from control in their relationship with the social environment, viewed as an anomic place. The findings support the idea that subjective cultures associated with a critical image of the social environment, disparaging social ties and the rules of living together, are more likely to be associated to a maladaptive pattern of behaviour, as addiction can be understood.

Preambolo; Note epistemologiche; Ragionando sui limiti di un nuovo realismo applicato alla psicologia; Ribadendo la realtà psicologica della narrazione; Epilogo;

This study compares the impact of levels of impulsivity and subjective cultures through which subjects interpret their experience of the social environment on the probability of hazardous and harmful alcohol use. A sample of 501 participants from Southern Italy completed a series of questionnaires in order to detect their subjective cultures and levels of impulsiveness (attentional, motor and non-planning). Moreover, alcohol consumption, drinking behavior, alcohol-related problems and adverse reactions during the past year were assessed. A sub-group of hazardous and harmful drinkers (n = 106; 21%) was identified and a healthy control group (n = 127; 25%) was selected. Members of the hazardous and harmful group view the social environment as a significantly more unreliable place, and also scored higher on motor impulsiveness and lower on non-planning impulsiveness. Discussion considers theoretical and clinical implications of the results.

Gli autori propongono il concetto di “ri-narrazione generativa” come possibile modalità di definire il prodotto psicologico clinico. Tale proposta si inscrive entro un approccio ermeneutico al colloquio che rende pregnante i significati con cui gli attori sociali costruiscono la realtà della loro esperienza, e recupera altresì il contributo della scienza storica nel definire la fine del mito (e del senso) di una storia unitaria, universale, lineare.