Miguel Gallegos

Socioeconomic environment effect on inferential reasoning of Latin American students

Introduction. Inferential reasoning (IR) is a major component of intelligence, which comprises many different cognitive processes such as perception, memory, and logic. Many studies have proposed that socioeconomic status (SES) has a negligible association with IR, but more recent findings suggest that they may have a higher association when evaluating group instead of individual SES. Objective. The aim of this study is to test the effects of both individual (students) and group (schools) socioeconomic status on IR, comparing different countries of Latin America. Method. The sample was composed of 2 358 students aged 14 and 15 years from 52 different schools (44% public) of five Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru). Participants took part in an inferential reasoning test and answered a socioeconomic questionnaire. Results. SES student showed a small positive correlation with IR ( r = .10, p F [2, 1944] = 74.68, p p 2 = .07), with higher IR at schools with higher SES. A significant difference of IR between countries ( F [4, 1976] = 20.68, p p 2 = .04), was also found with Peru showing the highest mean. Peru was the country with the higher percentage of private schools in the present study. A multilevel model was fitted using individual and group SES as predictors. Discussion and conclusion. Our findings showed that group SES have a higher predictive value of IR when compared to individual SES. This result suggests that individuals with low SES can benefit from studying on higher SES schools. Future research and the importance of public policies are discussed.

Social Representation and Imagery of Labor: Evaluation Process of the Psychosocial and Labor Vulnerability and Its Relation with Mental Health

This work is a first step in the research line called “Vulnerability Psycosociolaboral (VPSL), Conceptualization and Measurement: Its effects on mental health.” The main purpose is to conceptualize the new construct called psychosocial and labor vulnerability. Subsequently, we decided to operationalize the concept, building and validating a screening instrument capable of measuring the construct. The preliminary instrument was implemented as part of a pilot phase in a first “control sample”, characterized by a wide profession and age variability of experimental subjects from the city of Rosario (Argentina). We are currently working on the basis of an agreement signed between the National University of Rosario (UNR) and the provincial electric power company’s union of Rosario, applying the instrument to workers constituting the front office of the business organization (Provincial Power Company—EPE). The results obtained so far allow us to provide an acceptable internal consistency and good levels of reliability (Cronbach’s Alpha) in several of the items assessed. Finally, thanks to these first encouraging results and with further testing of the instrument we propose to socialize these findings to then patent the instrument. As part of this work we present a summary of the key ideas agreed by the research group.

Las publicaciones periódicas de psicología en Argentina: revisión histórica y situación actual

espanolEn este trabajo se realiza un analisis de las revistas de psicologia que se editan regularmente en Argentina. Para la seleccion de las mismas se hizo una recuperacion de la informacion por medio de los indices y bases de datos establecidos por la Resolucion 2249/14, del Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas, la cual fija tres niveles de categorizacion para las revistas seriadas en el campo de las ciencias sociales y humanas. A partir de la muestra de 49 revistas de psicologia se hizo un analisis de la indexacion, la gestion editorial y las caracteristicas de publicacion. Se considera que aun cuando la edicion de revistas de psicologia en Argentina cuenta con una importante trayectoria durante todo el siglo XX, no fue sino hasta la decada de 1990 que se logran proyectar diversas revistas con suficiente solidez y madurez editorial. EnglishThis paper examined the most common publishing journals of psychology in Argentina. The databases of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Information (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas) were used to identify the significant journals in the fields of humanities and social sciences. The Council proposes specific guidelines for publications following the Bill 2249/14. As such, the journals of psychology go through a three level category systematic process. Results comprised of 49 psychology journals. Journals were further analyzed examining their index criteria, publishing characteristics and the editorial management. It is considered that even when the edition of psychology journals in Argentina has an important trajectory throughout the twentieth century, it was just in the 1990s, when it was possible to project several journals with sufficient solidity and editorial maturity.

Education, SES, and Intelligence

Three studies analyzed the effect of education and social variables on intelligence (represented by one cognitive measure and at the g level) using samples from the SLATINT Project. The results indicated that intelligence, as measured by one measure (e.g., the SPM or IR test), was slightly influenced by education or the SES of schools. However, when intelligence was represented at the latent level (or g factor), the influence of social variables decreased. On the other hand, school performance was primarily influenced by cognitive differences, and secondly by the SES of schools.

Cognitive Sex Differences

The area of sex differences is one of the most controversial subjects in social sciences, especially when significant differences are detected in the field of intelligence. In this chapter, we offer results from several studies conducted at specific and general levels of intelligence using a variety of different cognitive measures. Finally, we present results obtained from our SLATINT Project.

The Long Road to the Profession of Psychologist

Professional concerns have been key in Latin American psychology for several decades. This chapter describes and analyzes the training of psychologists in different countries, their conceptual foundation, the social needs and the developments of the discipline that led to the creation of the career of psychologist, the insertion of the profession in society, and other related matters.

Cognitive Factor Structure: The g Factor

One century of intelligence research, generally performed on samples from developed countries, has shown the existence of a general model of intelligence (or g factor). In our study, we tested this model using data from the SLATINT Project. A positive manifold of correlations was found and results from SEM modeling (Structural Equation Modeling), using the total sample and each Latin American sample, indicated that a single-factor model (or g factor) fit the data adequately, i.e., a general cognitive ability influenced performance on a set of cognitive ability measures.

Intelligence, Latin America, and Human Capital

Intelligence research has shown that human cognitive capital is associated with the development of nations. This chapter summarizes the results presented in previous chapters in order to analyze the quality of the human capital available in the Latin American region compared to the existing human capital in a developed country (in this case Spain). Additionally, challenges and future prospects are discussed.

Intelligence, Problem Solving, and Creativity

In this chapter, notions of psychometric intelligence and cognitive psychology were used to analyze individual differences in the ability to execute cognitive processes. Specifically, the performance of good and poor problem solvers through the analysis of the types of errors in the SPM test were studied. Additionally, the relationship between creativity and intelligence was analyzed in middle-low and high cognitive performers.

Work and Psychological Suffering: A Case Study on Customer Service Employees at an Electrical Services Company

This chapter communicates some results of an ongoing research project. The study presented here was conducted in an energy company of the city of Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina, with the employees in the customer service area. It is considered of great importance to analyze the effects that working in customer service has on this sector’s employees, who must meet the demands of users and, not infrequently, must deal with customers’ annoyance with regard to the service or the costs.