Les enjeux de la coopération dans la recherche en psychologie en Afrique Subsaharienne francophone

La recherche en psychologie dans les pays d'Afrique Subsaharienne francophone fait face à de nombreuses difficultés relatives à la fois à l'élaboration des savoirs et à leur diffusion. Plusieurs éléments peuvent expliquer cette situation parmi lesquels figure en premier plan, la coopération. Dans ce contexte, nous montrerons que les chercheurs s'inscrivant dans le domaine de la psychologie et plus largement encore dans les sciences sociales, doivent considérer les enjeux d'une coopération à quatre échelles différentes : locale, nationale, continentale et internationale. Bien que ces niveaux se différencient par leurs modalités de coopération et par leur regard porté sur un même objet d'étude, ils tendent néanmoins à s'articuler de manière complémentaire dans leur finalité d'une science au service de la société

Protestant women in the late Soviet era: gender, authority, and dissent

At the peak of the anti-religious campaigns under Nikita Khrushchev, communist propaganda depicted women believers as either naïve dupes, tricked by the clergy, or as depraved fanatics; the Protestant “sektantka” (female sectarian) was a particularly prominent folk-devil. In fact, as this article shows, women’s position within Protestant communities was far more complex than either of these mythical figures would have one believe. The authors explore four important, but contested, female roles: women as leaders of worship, particularly in remote congregations where female believers vastly outnumbered their male counterparts; women as unofficial prophetesses, primarily within Pentecostal groups; women as mothers, replenishing congregations through high birth rates and commitment to their children’s religious upbringing; and women as political actors in the defence of religious rights. Using a wide range of sources, which include reports written by state officials, articles in the church journal, letters from church members to their ecclesiastical leaders in Moscow, samizdat texts, and oral history accounts, the authors probe women’s relationship with authority, in terms of both the authority of the (male) ministry within the church, and the authority of the Soviet state

Expérience de recherche en psychologie au Togo : Regards croisés

La psychologie est une discipline scientifique particulière dans la mesure où certaines connaissances produites sont circonscrites à un contexte culturel donné. En conséquence, il est préférable, voire indispensable d’adapter ses méthodes et son objet d’étude aux contraintes et aux demandes de l’environnement culturel dans lequel la recherche scientifique s’élabore. Cette réflexion prend tout son sens sur le continent africain et notamment au Togo, où la distance entre la réalité du terrain et les pratiques de recherche issues de la psychologie dominante est particulièrement importante. À travers ce chapitre qui rassemble trois auteurs ayant réalisé une partie de leurs recherches doctorales au Togo, nous exposons individuellement nos expériences de recherche en psychologie dans ce contexte particulier à partir de regards croisés. Les auteurs développent à tour de rôle un aspect critique qui a marqué leur expérience de recherche dans leur confrontation au terrain au cours du parcours doctoral, qu’il s’agisse de la recherche de financement, de l’accès à la documentation ou encore du recueil de données par questionnaire auprès d’une population d’étude. Nos propos alternent expérience personnelle, anecdotes et réflexivité. D’une manière générale, nous nous accordons sur la nécessité de ne pas occulter les difficultés qui ponctuent la pratique de recherche en psychologie dans le contexte togolais et qui se retrouvent régulièrement évoquées comme limites dans les écrits scientifiques. Au contraire, ces difficultés sont autant de perspectives sur lesquelles chercheurs et doctorants devraient réfléchir ensemble afin d’offrir aux prochaines générations le bénéfice de leurs expertises du terrain

Psychometric evaluation of the satisfaction with life scale in Togo: a three-step approach

The Satisfaction with life scale (SWLS) developed by Diener, Emmons, Larsen, and Griffin(1985) is considered the most widely used psychometric scale for assessing life satisfaction. Despiteplethora of cross-cultural research that provided evidences of its robustness, none was conducted inFrench-speaking sub-Saharan countries such as Togo.Objective. - Accordingly, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the validity of the SWLS extensively among Togolese college students (n = 460) in a three-step approach from 2012 to 2014.Method and results. - Firstly, social representations of well-being were explored qualitatively. Then, theoriginal version of the SWLS was administered. Based on the results we gathered, a scale item was altered.Psychometric properties of the revised version of the SWLS were examined, revealing adequate constructvalidity, reliability, temporal stability, measurement invariance across gender, convergent validity witha single measure of life satisfaction, and discriminant validity with various life domain satisfactions.Conclusion. - Limitations and implications in life satisfaction measurement are also discussed with regardsto the Togolese cultural context

Positive orientation, job satisfaction and psychological well-being of mental health practitioners in Malaysia

Mental health practitioners in many developing countries are faced with high job demands and a lack of institutional support. Given their high levels of work-related stress, it is important to identify mechanisms that help them to maintain psychological well-being and job satisfaction. Recent research has focused on the role that positive orientation (POS) may play in mediating the negative impact of stress on individual well-being. The present study investigated whether POS predicts mental health practitioners’ perceived levels of stress, mental health and job satisfaction. If POS measures a person’s tendency to take a positive attitude to life and their ability to cope with difficulties, a high POS could be linked to reduced levels of stress and increased levels of job satisfaction and well-being. This study examined associations between self-reported POS and psychological outcomes in a sample of 100 Malaysian mental health practitioners. The results showed that POS significantly predicted job satisfaction positively and mental health issues and perceived stress negatively, even when socio-demographic variables were controlled. Overall, we found a strong effect of POS on individual functioning across the sample of mental health practitioners. Our results have implications for improving practitioner wellbeing and job satisfaction