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The models guiding the intervention of the educational psychologist suggest a multiplicity of opportunities / options that each professional will have to take. Research has long suggested that learning together leads all students to better results (e.g., Johnson & Johnson, 1990, 1994; Slavin, 1991). Although many psychologists still work only with an individual perspective, the purpose of this paper is to discuss the ways in which the educational psychology can create and sustain authentic inclusion settings. This is based on Vigotsky's belief that all children, in spite of their disabilities, should have access to the regular school system. Starting from the analysis of three key aspects inclusion, special education needs and psychology; it concludes with some suggestions that help define how the educational psychology can contribute to the success of all students in the regular school system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the items of "Padrões" test - a multiple-choice computerized test of field dependenceindependence - considering the one, two or three parameters logistic models of Item Response Theory (TRI). A sample of 1918 candidates to an aeronautic course on Portuguese Air Force was considered. We analyzed the adjustment level for one parameter (1PL), two parameters (2PL) and three (3PL) parameters logistic models. Results show that 1PL adjusted to all items, 2PL adjusted to half, and 3PL didn't allow the assurance of the previous conditions. Data analysis suggest that the first reason for 2PL and 3PL models maladjustment is the lack of unidimensionality, which can be considered as an illustration of the basic exigencies for IRT implementation on psychological test construction and validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we approach the idea that, the ease or fluency of information processing being subjectively experienced as feeling of familiarity with a positive affective tone, interfere with evaluative processing. The close association of familiarity and positive affect is here addressed within a affective priming paradigm. Participants were asked to evaluate a set of target stimuli previously tested for their valence. These targets were immediately preceded either by a familiar or a unfamiliar stimuli. Congruently with the familiarity-positive affect association, familiar stimuli facilitated evaluations (generate faster responses) of affective consistent targets (positive targets). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses de evolution of the symbolic communication, as an interplay between symbolic expression and interpretation, during the therapeutic process. Wittgenstein's (1953, 1975) notion of language-games is used as a framework to analyse the specificities of the symbolic communication. A clinic vignette of a child's analytic psychotherapy is used in order to illustrate one of the central characteristics of the language-games used in therapy - the inter-relation between different thematic discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assimilation model is an integrative model that can be applied to any kind of therapeutic setting for describing the process of change. The Assimilation of Problematic Experiences Scale (APES) describes the process of assimilation of problematic experiences in therapy. Although the APES presents an orderly sequence, studies have shown that assimilation process is not smooth; instead it seems to follow a sawtoothed path, with advances followed by setbacks or reversals, particularly in cognitive psychotherapies. In this paper, we report an analysis of assimilation setbacks in the process of of a good-outcome client, María, treated with linguistic therapy of evaluation are analyzed. The sample is composed of 105 setbacks taken from analysis of María's assimilation of three main problems. The reasons for most of the setbacks could be classified in one of three categories: the zone of proximal development, the balance metaphor, and multiple strands. Each of these categories can be understood as a consequence of the cognitive strategy and thus part of the process of cognitive therapy rather than a deviation or failure. In this sense setbacks, framed in the assimilation model, reflect some of the main characteristics of cognitive therapy. Nevertheless, we could not exclude the possibility that setbacks could mark a prospective drop-out; therefore, therapists should pay attention and resolve them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]