This paper reports the framework, method and main findings of an analysis of cultural milieus in 4 European countries (Estonia, Greece, Italy, and UK). The analysis is based on a questionnaire applied to a sample built through a two-step procedure of post-hoc random selection from a broader dataset based on an online survey. Responses to the questionnaire were subjected to multidimensional analysis–a combination of Multiple Correspondence Analysis and Cluster Analysis. We identified 5 symbolic universes, that correspond to basic, embodied, affect-laden, generalized worldviews. People in this study see the world as either a) an ordered universe; b) a matter of interpersonal bond; c) a caring society; d) consisting of a niche of belongingness; e) a hostile place (others’ world). These symbolic universes were also interpreted as semiotic capital: they reflect the capacity of a place to foster social and civic development. Moreover, the distribution of the symbolic universes, and therefore social and civic engagement, is demonstrated to be variable across the 4 countries in the analysis. Finally, we develop a retrospective reconstruction of the distribution of symbolic universes as well as the interplay between their current state and past, present and future socio-institutional scenarios.

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It is recognised that cultural factors play a role in the onset and continuation of several mental health problems. However, there is a significant lack of empirical studies investigating the relationships between cultural factors and gambling behavior. This study assessed whether the subjective cultures through which subjects interpret and enact their experience of the social environment play a major role in increasing (or decreasing) the probability of pathological gambling. Participants, recruited in three different contexts (public health services for the treatment of addiction, casino, undergraduate course) were subjected to the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) (Lesieur and Blume in Am J Psychiatry 144(9):1184-1188, 1987), in order to identify a group of pathological gamblers-and with the Questionnaire on the Interpretation of the Social Environment (QUISE) (Mossi and Salvatore in Eur J Educ Psychol 4(2):153-169, 2011)-in order to detect their subjective cultures. The study compares pathological group (scoring >5 on SOGS, n = 34) and a healthy control group (scoring <1 on SOGS, n = 35). One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare groups on QUISE scores of subjective culture. Moreover, a logistic regression was applied in order to esteem the capability of the QUISE scores to differentiate between pathological gamblers and control. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that pathological group expresses different subjective cultures compared with no gambler subjects. The theoretical and clinical implications of the results are discussed.

This work presents an approach aimed at modeling the sensemaking underlying psychological transition in an educational setting -though not confined to such types of setting. The psychological transition is understood as change that is to move from a state of psychological equilibrium (eg, identification with a certain vision of the world) to another. This approach is derived from our combined socio-constructivist and psychoanalytic standpoint. It distinguishes two levels of analysis: the representational content, and the shared latent affective dimension, the latter working as the symbolic frame of sensemaking. According to our model, psychological transition has to be defined as a change in the affective structure of sense. We present our theoretical model and a method of analysis following from it. In order to exemplify and to validate our approach, we examine the case of young people entering high school in Italian schools. This study depicts the students' representations involved in role transition. It shows how, in spite of deep modifications of representations related to their entrance to the high school setting, the latent dimension of sensemaking does not change.Key words: Psychological transition, affective sensemaking, high school.Transición psicológica de significado a sentido. Este trabajo presenta un enfoque que define un modelo de construcción de sentido (sensemaking) subyacente a la transición psicológica en un ambiente educativo, aunque no se limite a este tipo de impostación. La transición psicológica tiene que entenderse como ese cambio consistente en pasar de un estado de equilibrio psicológico (por ejemplo: la identificación con cierta visión del mundo) a otro. Este enfoque deriva de nuestro punto de vista que combina tanto la teoría socio-constructivista como la psicoanalítica, y que evidencia dos niveles de análisis: el contenido de la representación y la dimensión afectiva latente, quién actúa como marco simbólico a través del cual la "construcción de sentido" tiene lugar. Según nuestro modelo la transición psicológica tiene que definirse más propiamente como un cambio en la estructura afectiva de sentido. En este sentido presentamos nuestro modelo teórico junto con una metodología de análisis consecuente. Con el objetivo de ejemplificar y validar nuestro enfoque, examinamos el caso de jóvenes que entran en el instituto en las escuelas italianas. Este estudio describe las representaciones de los estudiantes en una transacción de roles. Esta demuestra, que, a pesar de las profundas modificaciones de las representaciones ligadas a su ingreso en el instituto, la dimensión latente de la construcción de sentido no cambia.Palabras clave: Transición psicológica, sentido afectivo, instituto.

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Objective: An explorative study focusing on the process of a Cardiac Rehabilitation Psychodynamic Group Intervention (CR-PGI) addressed to myocardial infarction (MI) patients is discussed. The study aimed at analyzing whether the treatment based on CR-PGI serves as a communicational context within which MI patients are enabled to explore new interpretations of their post-infarction condition.Methods: The intervention, divided into 12 weekly one-hour group sessions, was addressed to MI patients recruited within a Public Hospital of southern Italy. Each session was audio-recorded and lexical correspondence analysis (LCA) was applied to the verbatim transcripts, in order to provide a map of the evolution of the communication exchange occurring over the 12 sessions.Results: The findings showed that the discourses associated to the first eight sessions differed from the discourses of the last four sessions. Two main transitions occurred. The first concerns the response to the infarction, first interpreted as a process of affective elaboration and afterwards as practical management of the functional aspects associated with the condition of MI patients. The second concerns the nature of the change and contrasts a lifestyle-oriented model with a social role approach, which refers to social, legal, and medical practices related to the acknowledgment of being an MI patient.Conclusion: The findings offer preliminary support to the capacity of CR-PGI to work as a context where new meanings for the biographical rupture of the MI can be explored. Consistently with the rationale of the model, the intervention seems to have promoted the emergence of new ways of feeling and understanding one’s condition.

This study deepening the analysis of prosumership service quality model (PROSERV), a new model for assessing the customer satisfaction developed in order to take prosumership into account as a fundamental component of service quality and satisfaction (Ciavolino et al. in Int J Bus Soc 18(3):409-426, 2017b). In particular this study wants to demonstrate its factorial invariance by comparing the results obtained in several production sectors and using innovative PLS Path Modelling (PLS-PM) evaluation. The answers of 544 users of services (53.9% women; age: Mean = 40.77; SD = 13,270) in 4 sectors: banks, post offices, restaurants and medical centers were examined. A procedure of multi-group analysis based on PLS-PM with high order constructs has been implemented. The results show that in the overall satisfaction there is a substantial invariance between the different components considered by the PROSERV model.