Jean Gagnon

• Ph.D.
• Professor at Université de Montréal

Depression, a multifaceted mental health disorder, is often associated with negative cognitive biases such as hostile attributions (HA). However, the borderline pattern, with its characteristic emotional dysregulation and complex interpersonal interactions, may have a significant role in this relationship. To better understand these associations, w...

Cognitive processes underlying inferences regarding inferring mental states (i.e. intentionality ascription) are still to be investigated. To assess how people accumulate social cues in order to attribute intentionality, a measure of gaze transition entropy (GTE) seems indicated to throw some light on these processes. Violent behavior is associated...

Aims The way that individuals subjectively experience the world greatly influences their own mental well‐being. However, it remains a considerable challenge to precisely characterize the breadth and depth of such experiences. One persistent problem is the lack of objective tools for directly quantifying and comparing narrative reports of subjective...

The way that individuals subjectively experience the world greatly influences their own mental well-being. However, it remains a considerable challenge to precisely characterize the breadth and depth of such experiences. One persistent problem is the lack of objective tools for directly quantifying and comparing narrative reports of subjective expe...

Current data on the nature of aggressive individuals’ difficulties in reappraising their spontaneous hostile intent attribution are contradictory: they are impulsive and don't seek out for additional nonhostile cues vs. they pay attention to nonhostile cues but fail to integrate them into their hostile schemas. To better understand the nature of ag...

One type of hostile bias often observed in aggressive individuals is Hostile Expectation Bias (HEB), a cognitive tendency, characterized by the expectation of hostility in others' intentions. Investigating HEB can be crucial in the context of modifying hostile biases, as it relates to the first two steps of the Social Information Processing (SIP) m...

Aggressive behaviours are commonly observed in clinical settings, making it crucial to employ advanced assessment tools to accurately evaluate the likelihood of such behaviour. This article aims to present an assessment framework for developing a psychotherapy case formulation for patients with aggressive behaviours within the context of clinical s...

Research on aggression usually aims at gaining a better understanding of its more negative aspects, such as the role and effects of aversive social interactions, hostile cognitions, or negative affect. However, there are conditions under which an act of aggression can elicit a positive affective response, even among the most nonviolent of individua...

Although the association between immature defensive styles to protect oneself from conflict in emotional context and reactive aggression (RA) has been shown recently among nonclinical individuals, the factors that may explain this relationship remain poorly understood. One putative factor is negative urgency as impulsive individuals tend to react a...

A research protocol was developed to test a theoretical model regarding impulsivity in borderline personality (BP) disorder. It was hypothesized that the impact of identity disturbance of individuals with BP features on their response-inhibition functions could be explained by the disposition of their self-concept to increase the intensity of negat...

The aim of this study was to better understand the role of hostile attribution bias (HAB) in the relationship between cluster B personality traits and reactive aggression. Sixty-three French-speaking adults were asked to complete online questionnaires assessing their personality traits, hostile attribution bias, and aggressive behaviors. While brai...

Introduction: Splitting, as a defense mechanism in Kernberg's theory, plays a significant role in the development and maintenance of polarized and oscillating representations of self/other characteristics of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Although the notion of splitting can be considered from a structural and a functional point of view, a...

Selon l’article 16 du Code criminel canadien, la responsabilité criminelle n’est pas engagée si la personne est atteinte d’un trouble mental ou se montre incapable de distinguer entre le bien et le mal. Alors que l’évaluation du trouble mental repose solidement sur l’entrevue du psychiatre, celle de la capacité à distinguer entre le bien et le mal...

Bien que l’association entre les styles défensifs pour se protéger d’un conflit en contexte émotionnel et les comportements agressifs réactifs soit bien démontrée chez les individus cliniques et non cliniques, les facteurs qui peuvent expliquer cette relation demeure peu connus. Par ailleurs, les individus impulsifs ont tendance à réagir de manière...

Research on cognitive processes has primarily focused on cognitive control and inhibitory processes to the detriment of other psychological processes, such as defense mechanisms (DMs), which can be used to modify aggressive impulses as well as self/other images during interpersonal conflicts. First, we conducted an in-depth theoretical analysis of...

Cette étude s’intéresse aux processus cognitifs sous-tendant les comportements agressifs réactifs auprès d’une population présentant des traits de la personnalité limite (TPL), mais pas nécessairement le diagnostic TPL. Une association a été démontrée entre le biais d’attribution d’intention hostile (BAIH) et les comportements agressifs, mais cette...

Résumé Introduction Le « Displaced Aggression Questionnaire » est le seul instrument de mesure auto-rapportée de la tendance des individus à commettre des comportements d’agression déplacée. Il est composé de trois facteurs qui évaluent la dimension affective (rumination de la colère), cognitive (planification de la vengeance) et comportementale (...

L’agressivité humaine est omniprésente dans toutes les sphères de la société et a fait l’objet de nombreuses études en psychologie sociale depuis les années 1960. L’avènement des neurosciences sociales 30 années plus tard a permis de mieux comprendre les corrélats neuronaux associés à l’agressivité. Alors que l’imagerie par résonance magnétique fon...

Being sexually aroused can lead to a stronger propensity to engage in sexual risk-taking and sexually coercive behaviors possibly by narrowing attentional focus toward immediate gratification rather than long-term consequences. The goal of this paper was to investigate the attentional processes implicated in sexual self-regulation failure and its m...

L’échelle d’impact des problèmes actuels de comportement (IMPAC) est un outil visant à mesurer l’impact des comportements problématiques chez les personnes ayant subi une lésion cérébrale acquise. Cette mesure évalue l’impact des comportements sur la personne cérébrolésée et son entourage selon cinq dimensions : les relations significatives, l’inté...

We investigated the influences of hostile and non-hostile schemas activations in non-aggressive individuals on their intent attribution processes in various social contexts. 38 non-aggressive participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups, one primed with negative words, to be conditioned as temporarily hostile (TH), and the other with po...

Concerns about road safety are at the forefront of discussions given the recent legalization of cannabis in many areas. Some studies have demonstrated that the frequency of cannabis use is a significant predictor of risky driving among young drivers. However, it is difficult to isolate the specific contribution of substance use from the influence o...

Background: Hostility and aggression have been found to be highly prevalent among depressed patients and are associated with higher comorbidity and illness severity levels. Although negative interpretation biases are a fundamental element of cognitive models of depression, few studies have examined the specific biases in information processing, mai...

From a neuropsychological perspective, impulsive aggression and its treatment are usually conceptualized in most research as a closed executive functioning system, as though the behavior was the product of the person’s cerebral functioning only. However, recent studies in social cognitive neuroscience have emphasized the influence of social factors...

From a neuropsychological perspective, impulsive aggression and its treatment are usually conceptualized in most research as a closed executive functioning system, as though the behavior was the product of the person’s cerebral functioning only. However, recent studies in social cognitive neuroscience have emphasized the influence of social factors...

Impulsivity is an important clinical and diagnostic feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Even though it has been reported that BPD individuals’ inhibition performance is significantly reduced in the context of negative emotion or stress, this literature shows mixed results, raising questions about the possible role played by other fact...

Response inhibition is defined as one’s ability to voluntarily override an automatic or already initiated action when that action is inappropriate. Although a core mechanism of self-control, its association with sexual coercion perpetration and the impact of erotic cues on its exertion remain unknown. According to a domain-specific perspective on i...

Introduction: The use of sexual coercion by university students is a prevalent and serious phenomenon. Studies have indicated that insecure attachment (i.e., attachment anxiety and avoidance) is related to sexual coercion perpetration, but the mechanisms explaining this association remain misunderstood. Negative urgency, which refers to the tendenc...

Introduction: The use of sexual coercion by university students is a prevalent and serious phenomenon. Studies have indicated that insecure attachment (i.e., attachment anxiety and avoidance) is related to sexual coercion perpetration, but the mechanisms explaining this association remain misunderstood. Negative urgency, which refers to the tendenc...

Self-reported impulsivity has been found to predict the perpetration of sexual coercion in both sexual offenders and male college students. Impulsivity can be conceptualized as a generalized lack of self-control (i.e., general perspective) or as a multifaceted construct that can vary from one context to the other (i.e., domain-specific perspective)...

Risky and excessive behaviors, such as aggressive and compulsive behaviors, are frequently described in patients with brain damage and have dramatic psychosocial consequences. Although there is strong evidence that impulsivity constitutes a key factor at play in these behaviors, the literature about impulsivity in neuropsychology is to date scarce....

Impulsivity is a common and debilitating sequela following traumatic brain injury (TBI) and should be assessed during the rehabilitation process. It is now accepted that impulsivity is a multidimensional construct and such a distinction may help in understanding the mechanisms underlying impulsivity and facilitate assessment. The goal of this study...

Negative urgency defined as the tendency to act rashly when faced with intense negative emotions and hostile attribution bias (HAB) which refers to the tendency to interpret the intention of others as hostile when social context cues are ambiguous are two key psychological factors underlying reactive aggression. However, the specific associations b...

Research has shown that self-injury is associated with dependency characterized by fear of abandonment. Few studies have explored this relation, but emotional and relational problems, as well as some intrapersonal and interpersonal functions of self-injury, appear to be connected to both variables. With a sample of 58 outpatients, we assessed self-...

This study tested the hypotheses that borderline personality (BP) features are characterized by a negativity bias and instability in spontaneous and deliberate evaluations of others. Undergraduate women (N = 204) watched two movie clips depicting either positive or negative conjugal interactions. Spontaneous and deliberate evaluations of the male c...

Hostile attribution bias (e.g., tendency to interpret the intention of others as hostile in ambiguous social contexts) has been associated with impulsive aggression in adults, but the results are mixed and the complete sequence of hostile inferential processes leading to aggression has not been investigated yet. The goal of this event-related brain...

Inappropriate social behaviours are among the most frequent behavioural sequelae after a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and may have a deleterious effect on the person’s social reintegration. The goal of the present study was to develop and validate an instrument to predict inappropriate social behaviour after a TBI, the Social Responding Task (SRT)....

Purpose: To develop a French version of the Overt Behaviour Scale (OBS) and examine some of its psychometric properties. Methods: The scale was adapted and validated according to standard guidelines for cross-cultural adaptation of questionnaires (Échelle des comportements observables; ÉCO). The reliability and construct validity of the ÉCO were...

Influence of the Relational Inner World in the Relationship between Dependency and Self-Injury Scientific research describes interpersonal dependence as associated with self-injury. However, little is known about the nature of this relationship. Through self-injury functions, attachment and object relations models, the authors of this paper will at...

Impulsivity has been identified as a risk factor for problematic sexual behaviors in adults such as conjugal infidelity, risky sexual behaviors, and sexual coercion. Impulsivity can be conceptualized as a relatively stable intrapersonal characteristic leading individuals to engage in reckless, inconsiderate actions. However, studies have suggested...

L’impulsivité a été identifiée comme un facteur de risque pour les comportements sexuels problématiques chez les adultes tel que l’infidélité conjugale, les comportements sexuels à risque et coercitifs. L’impulsivité peut être comprise comme une caractéristique intrapersonnelle multidimensionnelle relativement stable conduisant les individus à agir...

Kernberg's object relations model postulates that excessive splitting compromises the integration of the positive and negative poles of the representations of self and other, as well as their arrangement into more complex and hierarchically ordered structures such as the individual's identity, resulting in identity diffusion. In adult functioning,...

Date d'évaluation Nom du client évalué/identification Personne qui donne les observations Statut de la personne qui donne les observations//client Clinicien évaluateur Les comportements problématiques Certains comportements peuvent être éprouvants ou problématiques s'ils sont perturbateurs, rendent le client ou les autres personnes mal à l'aise, ou...

The aim of this study was to verify the relevance of social information-processing (SIP) models in the study of impulsivity. 170 undergraduates completed the UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale relevant to negative urgency, the SIP–AEQ and control measures. The SIP–AEQ consists of eight vignettes featuring a social situation measuring hostile attribution...

Impulsivity is a common and debilitating sequela following traumatic brain injury (TBI), but there is no consensual definition or measure to assess this construct. The following review aims to elucidate the differences and resemblances between impulsivity, disinhibition and other related terms following brain injury and the instruments that are com...

Aim: Recent studies showed that the quality of object relations in patients with personality disorders predict individual psychotherapy attendance rate. However, associations between these variables have led to inconsistent results for group psychotherapy. The aim of the present study was to verify whether two dimensions of object relations are ass...

Beck's cognitive model is widely acknowledged in the explanation of some psychopathologies related to impulsivity, and recent studies on cognitive distortions have shown that this model can explain the cognitive processes underlying impulsivity. Our study examined the relationships between dysfunctional beliefs and four dimensions of impulsivity fr...

Background: Very little research thus far has examined the decision making that underlies inappropriate social behavior (ISB) post-TBI (traumatic brain injury). Objectives: To verify the usefulness of a new instrument, the Social Responding Task, for investigating whether, in social decision making, individuals with TBI, who present inappropriate s...

Although cognitive distortions are widely acknowledged in the explanation of impulsivity-related psychopathologies (and more recently in the explanation of specific impulsive behaviors), no study has systematically verified whether they can also explain the cognitive processes underlying these impulsivity traits of personality: urgency, lack of pre...

Adaptatée de la douzième édition de Personality: Theory and Research, publiée en 2013, cette nouvelle édition présente une refonte complète du texte original. Le lecteur y trouvera les théories de la personnalité les plus importantes ainsi que des recherches récentes, notamment en neurosciences, qui viennent soutenir ou relativiser les textes fonda...

The aim of this article is to position borderline impulsivity, as defined by direct and indirect impulsive self-destructive behaviors, within the framework of Kernberg's (1975, 1976) and Masterson's (1976) object relations models and then to test in an exploratory and empirical manner certain hypotheses emerging from this conceptual analysis. We as...

Les jeunes de la rue présentent des comportements à risque liés à la consommation et à des comportements sexuels ayant des implications majeures sur leur santé et leur sécurité. En plus des problèmes de santé mentale, les traits impulsifs de la personnalité peuvent être un facteur de risque important par rapport à plusieurs de ces comportements pro...

Organic personality disorder (OPD) is the traditional diagnostic category used to account for personality disturbances after traumatic brain injury (TBI). The recent use of Axis-II personality disorders, notably borderline personality disorder (BPD), has appeared in the TBI literature as an alternative to OPD. This would presumably offer a better d...

This study aims to assess the nature and severity of borderline traits after traumatic brain injury (TBI). Thirty subjects with moderate or severe TBI were compared to 30 normal controls on the Revised Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines (DIB-R), a dimensional measure of borderline traits, the Go-no go inhibition task, the Complexity of Representa...

A right hemisphere lesion can be the source of difficulties in the processing of words in right-handed individuals (Joanette, Goulet & Hannequin 1990). The research that have attempted to shed light on the nature of these difficulties have taken two orientations. One such orientation is the stream of research that has investigated the semantic natu...

Cette etude a pour but de verifier que les troubles lexico-semantiques du droitier porteur d'une lesion hemispherique droite s'associent a une difficulte d'utilisation (activation controlee) du savoir lexico-semantique plutot qu'a une perturbation de l'organisation de ce meme savoir (activation automatique). Dix sujets cerebroleses droits (CD) et d...