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Expressed emotion (EE) measures have been created in English; adaptation into a foreign language is difficult. The aim of this study was to adapt the five minutes speech sample (FMSS), with a designed procedure ensuring optimum quality of the adaptation, and thus better trans-cultural validity. A strategy for improving inter-rater agreement comprised three phases: (1) phase of initial ratings (70 French samples), (2) experimental phase in two steps: ratings of 40 other samples in French, followed by analysis of differences between the French-language ratings and English-language ratings and (3) final rating phase of the initial 70 samples. For each phase, the κ coefficients measuring inter-rater agreement were calculated and compared using a bootstrap procedure. The improvements between these scorings were significant at p < 0.05 (phase 2 initial versus phase 2 final and phases 1 versus 3). The French inter-rater agreement significantly improved after this procedure.

This scale does not have satisfactory psychometric properties and therefore cannot confidently be used in future research assessing whether attitudes towards guidelines are a determining factor in physicians' compliance with guidelines. More research is needed to develop valid scales in a more rigorous procedure, involving qualitative and quantitative steps.

This paper aims to show why a systematic history of obsessive and compulsive symptoms (today called OCD) offers more than a special chapter in the history of psychiatry. It opens a window on the genesis of the Western individual by casting new light on the functions of self-restraint, self-control, and the self-monitoring of intentions and moral feelings (guilt, anxiety), as well as on the formation of a sense of individual autonomy and ‘interiority.’ Such a project aligns with Norbert Elias’s notion of the ‘civilizing process,’ but is distinct from Foucault’s views on madness and normalcy. I finally consider contemporary cognitive and behavioral treatments of OCD in light of their participation in this historical process. The efficacy of such treatments might be explained, in large measure, as deriving from their reliance on, and implicit fostering of, contemporary cultural ideals of autonomy.

Two questionnaires measuring satisfaction of the population with regard to health care offer were constructed from measures validated in the USA (the Consumer Satisfaction Survey Questionnaire or CSS, and the Visit-Specific Satisfaction questionnaire, the VSQ). This work was comprised two stages: i) translation and cultural adaptation of the American instrument to the French health care context, implicating 6 translators, users and experts; and ii) a telephone survey in the general population (n = 706) to test the psychometric qualities of the French instrument (content and internal validity). The French version, the CSS-VF comprises 9 scales: access to primary care, access to secondary care, scope for choice, health cover, communication with and competence of GPs, communication with specialists, competence of specialists, human qualities of practitioners and overall satisfaction. The VSQ-VF, which measures satisfaction with the last medical consultation is unidimensional. The results of the psychometric analyses are good overall, and endorse the use of these scales in assessment studies.

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