Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

This present study, that was carried out within a context of national social movements and global educational reform, seeks to uncover the main conceptions about teaching as presented and promoted within the new regulatory framework of the Chilean school system. For that purpose, critical discourse analysis was used to identify recurring historical conceptions present in the regulations, as well as interpreting the position teachers have within the educational process. The sample consisted of four educational laws and related documents passed between the years 2005 and 2011. The main findings suggest that the educational laws contain a business management discourse that displaces educational discourse when talking about the educational system. That way, traditional teaching conceptions and roles are transformed, being reduced to tasks and technical abilities subject to persistent standardization and evaluation. In addition, teachers are positioned in a passive role regarding their participation and influence in students’ educational process, where their pedagogical knowledge is displaced by management skills and knowledge.

Social domination orientation (SDO) and authoritarianism (RWA) are very relevant variables inside Political Psychology field. The acquisition of these orientations occurs during childhood within political socialization process. Yet, the exploration of these aspects with children has received less attention than its study with adults. Thereby, no psychometric study with children has been carried out in Latin America in order to determine structure validity, reliability and convergent validity of these scales. Therefore, the present study aimed to analyze two scales that allow the operationalization of those constructs with the objective of determine their psychometric properties. An instrumental empirical study with a non-random accidental sample of 292 9-11 years old children from Cordoba, Argentina, was carried out. Results show the adequate psychometric properties of the scales considered. This way, SDO scale showed a bidimensional structure with 10 items, with adequate levels of reliability for children (α = ,60 and α = ,61). On the other hand, RWA scale also demonstrated a two-dimension structure with adequate levels of reliability (α = ,69 and α = ,62), and 11 items. Theoretical and operational implications are discussed considering convergent analysis of the two scales.

This research was conducted in the context of updating the curriculum in higher education, with the aim of defining the training profile in interdisciplinary competencies in statistics that will enable students and graduates to respond to real and dynamic demands of psychology. A case study was carried out with the School of Psychology at the UCV, based on an evaluative research; which allowed to combine qualitative and quantitative data of the document analysis and the opinion of the actors in the curricular project for the development and validation of knowledge, grouped into the UNESCO four domains of knowledge. The results present a proposal of specific interdisciplinary competencies profile in statistics for psychology. It was found that the theoretical contents are benefits to be preserved, while learning for the know-how are elements to improve; attitudinal and coexistence are needs that must be incorporated. Change options for curriculum and teaching plans arise; particularly in the teaching of statistics, including changes in the method of instruction and project work in an articulated manner to the real problems of the formation of the psychologist.

This cross-sectional descriptive correlational study describes and analyzes socio-demographic and criminogenic variables of 174 people serving sentence for sexual offences in the prison of Valparaíso, Chile. Results show that most are middle-aged single men, with medium education level, exhibiting medium to low crime involvement. The majority of the participants were sentenced for sexual abuse and/or adult violation, or violation of children under 14 years old. No significant relationships among the studied variables were found. It is concluded that the study results partially confirm international reports of sex offenders’ characterization and that the studied group seems closer to the general population characteristics rather than to the prison population convicted for common offences.

This article is the result of the research carried out in intervention services with male perpetrators of domestic violence against women (HAV) in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The objective was to investigate the theoretical and methodological bases of intervention policies with HAV. In each of the four organizations identified, two semi-structured interviews were conducted with the institutional managers and professionals facilitating the groups, completing eight interviews. The analysis of the conceptions and meanings attributed by the interviewees, reflected in their theoretical-explanatory lines and methodologies, revealed different theoretical-argumentative biases that operate from different scientific assumptions for the interpretation of the phenomenon of violence against women, different conceptions about HAV, and approaches used to overcome it. The proposed reflections update important debates about these assumptions, contributing to the discussion about the improvement of these works, the capacity for change of men, and the paradigmatic development alternative to traditional science.

The article aims to describe and analyse the sources and forms of processing the malaise associated with gender conflicts in Chilean young people. From a qualitative and psychoanalytic methodology, the material from three cases relating to everyday life, dreams and associations of the dream is analysed here. It is possible to see that the gender conflicts participate in the dream activity, providing a form of processing the discomfort that is daily, social and personal. In addition, it is shown that although gender seems to be experienced in a problematic way in young people, processing forms are linked to the cultural norms, but they also subvert traditional kinds of identification with their position as a woman or man.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) generates biopsychosocial repercussions that affect adherence to treatment. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between depression and anxiety on therapeutic adherence in patients with CKD. Thirty one CKD patients participated, between 18 and 69 years old, with renal replacement therapy. Beck Depression Inventory-II, Beck Anxiety Inventory and Therapeutic Adherence Scale were applied. Results showed that patients had high adherence (67%). and depressive symptoms (48%) and anxiety (35%). Depression was associated with lower adherence, especially in controlling food/liquid intake and medical monitoring. It is discussed the emotional impact of the disease and the need to psychological support.

Domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) show special communicative skills in their interaction with people. Domestication and ontogeny processes play a key role in the origin of these abilities. Studies carried out on other species of canids, which have not been domesticated are relevant to this topic. We evaluate the ability of two species of captive foxes (Lycalopex gymnocercus y Cerdocyon thous) to discriminate human attentional state. To obtain food, foxes had to choose between a person facing forward (attentive) and another looking backwards (inattentive). Since individuals tend to differ in their levels of sociability, the preferences in the test may be modulated by these levels. For this reason we also applied a sociability test that allowed us to classify two groups: sociable and unsociable foxes. Results showed that foxes of the sociable group approached the attentive person to obtain food; those of the non-sociable group avoided approaching her, preferring to obtain the food from the inattentive, or do not approach any of them. This indicates that foxes are sensitive to the human attentional state, but their behavior is modified according to the level of sociability that they possess. Our results suggest that interaction with humans during ontogeny is important, and the ability is not exclusively explained by the processes of domestication.

Emergency lands in Argentina or "villas" (suburbs) are the result of migratory movements, and their inhabitants are a minority group called “villeros” (inhabitants of shantytowns). Sometimes the term is used with a negative connotation being associated to different kinds of criminal behavior. Thereby, prejudice levels towards shantytowns’ inhabitants have increased significantly over recent decades. The main objective of the present study was to adapt and validate a Subtle and Blatant Prejudice Scale towards inhabitants of shantytowns. Data was collected from 266 citizens from Buenos Aires city, with ages between 19 and 55 years old. The internal consistency for the global prejudice towards villeros scale (α = ,82) and for the blatant prejudice (α = ,84) and subtle prejudice (α = ,72) dimensions were adequate. Furthermore, the unidimensional model (χ2 [gl] = 166,30[77]; CFI = ,92; RMSEA = ,06), as well as the bidimensional model (χ2 [gl] = 165,19[76]; CFI = ,92; RMSEA = ,06) shows adequate fit. In addition, strong associations were found between the global prejudice scale and both dimensions of prejudice towards villeros with authoritarianism, social dominance and intergroup anxiety. Results are discussed related to previous studies, as well as the scope and limits of the evaluation.

The way that individuals solve syllogisms is an important topic of deductive reasoning studies. Item response theory permits to select items that maximize information for estimating accurately ability levels. In this work, the two-parameter logistic model was applied to obtain the information functions of categorical syllogisms in order to select the subset that maximized them. A test of 26 syllogisms was administered to 405 students of psychology. BILOG-MG program was run iteratively by applying the two parameter logistic model. The test information function was examined at each iteration, and items with low discrimination were excluded. The process ended when the information function reached the maximum. Six syllogisms were kept that gave their greatest information at the 1.123 difficulty level, which is a medium-high level. The maximum test information was 7.594 and its reliability was 0.744, which may be considered good taking into account the small size of the subset. Every syllogism had valid conclusion. The method allowed finding a core of syllogisms without losing information that might constitute a short test keeping accuracy when estimating ability. It is useful to have a statistical criterion to select items for a briefed test and, thus, avoid the fatigue.