Academia Română, Filiala Cluj-Napoca

This paper presents four behaviorally based rating scales constructed by Monica Albu and a lot of masters in psychology from "Babeş-Bolyai" University. They evaluate four dimensions of personal autonomy: cognitive autonomy, behavioral autonomy, emotional autonomy, and value autonomy.

Resurse individuale în contextul stresului la şomeri

Cristina Baciu

Abstract

We took into discussion the correlations between a high level of stress and individual resources as social support, optimism, self-esteem and locus of control. Results showed a positive correlation between stress and external LOC and negative correlations between a high stress score and social support, optimism and self-esteem. All the variables were influenced by stress level.

Modalităţi de ajustare

la stresul pierderii locului de muncă

Cristina Baciu

Abstract

This paper tries to underline the main differences between employed and unemployed persons regarding the ways of coping that they are using more frequently. We are starting with the assumption that the particular situation of being unemployed leads to more passive coping strategies than for the employees. We found no significant differences between the two populations regarding the optimism level, but there where significantly different levels of stress, specifically, as we expected, unemployed people are much more stressed then the other ones. Both of them are using more passive strategies at high levels of stress, but employees are using more frequently instrumental support and unemployed more behavioral disengagement.

DIAGNOSTIC FORMATIV: PROBA IDP

Ioan Berar, Aurica Pulbere

Abstract: Formative diagnostic: IDP Test

As opposed to the classic diagnostic, the formative diagnostic tries to predict the potential of a person, his/her abilities in the future, in the "proximal aria of development". Researches in this field were made by: K. Lowell, R. Gullasch, I.P. Galperin, B. Zörgö, S. Szamosközi, A. Domuta, and others.

Scientifically elaborated, formative diagnostic trials have the same qualities as the classical psychological tests (sensitivity, reliability, and validity). In addition, the formative trials have, as an advantage of their own, an extraordinary quality useful for prediction – receptivity to mediation, to the gradual help offered by the evaluator.

In the present article, there are presented an original formative test, named Identificarea diagonalelor patrulaterului (IDP) (Identification of the diagonals in quadrangles), and the results of its experimental application to 26 pupils, aged between 10 and 11 years.

Structura reprezentării sociale a dizabilităţii

Gabriela Ciot

Abstract

We are living in a world of information, which arrives to us on audio, video and written channels. We are obeyed constantly to a process of reception, selection, memorization, transformation and organization of the information, of constructing the representations of the reality, of elaboration and communication of the knowledge.

The term "disability" was the object of a numerous analyses in the last 20 years. The researchers paid attention to the evolution and pluralism of its means. Through my papers, presented in the previous years, I tried to identify, by content analysis, the categories of social representation of disability reflected in Romanian written press.

Taking into account the paradigms of Abric & Flament (1994) and Guimelli (1994), regarding "the central nod and peripherical elements", this paper tries to discover the complex structure of social representation of disability, as it was reflected by the Romanian press.

Represia şi supresia: o analiză comparativă

Nicoleta Creţ

Abstract: A comparative analysis of repression and suppression

Both concepts refer to excluding from the consciousness of cognitive and emotional feelings with the difference that repression is considered to be a defensive mechanism, while suppression is a strategy of coping or conscious mental control.

A historical analysis of repression and suppression concepts realized by Matthew Erdely (1993) emphasizes extremely important aspects in modern research of defensive mechanisms: (1) we do not have any historical support regarding the unconscious character of defensive mechanisms; (2) we do not have any reason to suppose that repression mechanisms used for defensive purposes are different from those used in non-defensive purposes. Therefore, we may think that a limit between repression and suppression is just a conceptual one which refers to the same mechanism: pushing out (consciously or unconsciously) from our consciousness of some non required thoughts.

The purpose of the presentation is to integrate the studies about repression in and modern research about suppression in order to have a whole image about repression. The comparative analysis is realized on some points: the effects of repression/suppression on memory and the process of forgetting things, "the return of the repression" and paradoxical effects on suppression, the relation between repression/suppression and psychopathology, the individual differences in repression and suppression.

The comparative analysis of repression in classical view and the experimental investigation of suppression emphasized a lot of similar points but also differences. The most important analogy is that referring to "the return of repression" and counter intentional effects of suppression. Still we have to take into consideration the alternative that repression as a mechanism of pushing out of consciousness of the non required thoughts does not have to be considered as a defensive mechanism or a mental control strategy, but as a purpose which can be realized by using more repression strategies.

Autonomia personală şi raţionamentul silogistic

Lucia Faiciuc

Abstract: Personal autonomy and syllogistic reasoning

The general purpose of the present paper was to contribute in a neglected area of study, the one regarding the association between some personality traits and the performance in deductive reasoning tasks. Its specific hypothesis was that the performance in the formal syllogistic reasoning is dependent on the level of personal autonomy, assuming that an autonomous personality is supposed to be sustained by superior thinking abilities, to be associated with more extensive argumentative experience and to be manifested in particular thinking dispositions and attitudes, in a particular style of thinking. In the study were involved 31 participants, 14-16 years old high-school students. Their level of autonomy was assessed with The Questionnaire for Autonomy/Heteronomy and The General Causality Orientations Scale, adapted for teenagers. The general intelligence was assessed with a nonverbal test: Standard Raven Matrices. The syllogistic task consisted of 24 abstract syllogisms, for which the selection of the correct answer from five possible responses (four possible valid conclusions and "no valid conclusion") was required. The most important result indicates that there is a significant bias in the responses of the participants with higher scores at the two autonomy measures. Irrespectively of their nonverbal intelligence, they tended to respond more correctly and rapidly for those syllogisms for which the correct answer is a valid conclusion. The hypothetical explanation given for the above-mentioned bias is that a significant role in its occurrence might be attributed to an increased argumentative experience of those with a higher level of personal autonomy.

CREATIVITATEA ARTISTICĂ. TERAPIA PRIN ARTĂ

Marioara Petcu

Abstract: Artistic creativity. Art therapy

Art therapy has special efficiency on developing the social integration abilities of individuals with social and individual problems.

Art therapy techniques, creative techniques help individuals to understand themselves, to free themselves from anxiety and accumulated tension, and develop conflict solving strategies.

RELAŢIA DINTRE TRĂSĂTURILE DE PERSONALITATE, ATITUDINEA ŞI INTENŢIA ANTREPRENORIALĂ

Sebastian Pintea

Abstract: The relationship between personality traits, attitude and entrepreneurial intention

The article deals with the issue of explaining entrepreneurial intentions using personality traits and also the attitude toward entrepreneurship (the way individuals perceive the feasibility and desirability of the entrepreneurial act). In the first part, we treat the former intentional models and present a rather qualitative metaanalysis regarding the effectiveness of such models. In the second part, we suggest and test an integrative model, containing entrepreneurial experience, personality traits (ambition, risk-taking propensity, locus of control, need for autonomy and tolerance of ambiguity), the perceived credibility of the entrepreneurial act (personal and social feasibility, personal and social desirability) and entrepreneurial intention. We found empirical evidence for our model using a correlational design. The data were collected from a sample of 94 undergraduate students from the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, using a standardized questionnaire. The results show that there is a significant relationship between the presence of an entrepreneurial parental role-model in the subjects' experience and risk-taking propensity and also with the perceived credibility of the entrepreneurial act. The data shows also that risk-taking propensity is the only personality trait which has a direct relationship with the entrepreneurial intention. The relationship of the other personality traits measured in the present study with the entrepreneurial intention is mediated by the attitude toward the entrepreneurial act (the perceived credibility of the entrepreneurial act).

Evoluţia mentalităţilor politice

manifestate în comportamentul electoral

Ala Placinta

Abstract: The evolution of political concepts demonstrated in election behavior

The following themes are discussed in the paper: the impact of electoral behaviors on community, the change of the political attitude and its effects on community, the characteristics of political parties and the analysis of final results of elections from psycho-sociological points of view. Electoral behavior could be associated with an organized system of representations, attitudes and norms. The system includes the perception on political universe and, also, a model of representations of social behavior, of beliefs of what means the legitimacy of the elected representatives, its result being the objective opinion of community.

PROBLEME ALE PSIHOLOGIEI DE MÂINE.
STRATEGII ÎN CERCETAREA PSIHOLOGICĂ

ÎN ULTIMUL DECENIU AL ACESTUI SECOL

ŞI ÎNCEPUTUL MILENIULUI TREI [1]

Alexandru Roşca

Character strengths as predictors of the "good life" in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland

Willibald Ruch, Alain Huber, Ursula Beermann, René T. Proyer

Abstract

Positive psychology has reclaimed character and virtue as legitimate topics of investigation for social science. Over the past several years a classification of character strengths has been put forward (Peterson & Seligman, 2004) which includes 24 widely recognized character strengths organized under six ubiquous virtues, namely wisdom and knowledge, courage, humanity, justice, temperance and transcendence. The construction of the Values in Action inventory of strengths (VIA-IS, Peterson & Seligman, 2004) allows testing an old insight from philosophy, namely that character is the inner determinant of the good life. Park, Peterson and Seligman (2004) provided first evidence that the "good character" is predictive of life satisfaction in American samples. In an attempt to replicate these findings outside the USA the VIA-IS and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS, Diener, Emmons, Larsen & Griffin, 1985) were administered via the Internet to 4419 research participants from Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Results show that overall similar strengths were predictive of life satisfaction in the three countries. Life satisfaction seemed to be higher in Switzerland than in Austria and Germany, but in all three countries degree of life satisfaction increased with degree of development of the good character (i.e., the total score of all strengths). There seems to be an indication for a slight quadratic trend as well saying that the relationship is steeper for individuals lower in overall virtuousness and flatter for those above the mean. While the current results do not imply causality, the study provides evidence that life satisfaction builds upon a well-cultivated character.

FACTORII DE RISC ŞCOLAR ÎN ADOLESCENŢĂ:
ABSENTEISMUL ŞI ABANDONUL ŞCOLAR

Dan Rusu, Oana Ciupercea

Abstract: Some Causes of School Absenteeism and Abandon: A Theoretical and Empirical Approach

Education represents one of the most important rights of social citizenship. For this reason, and because of the raising importance of human capital in the economy, all industrial societies during the last half century have issued school reforms and recorded increasing rates of social participation to education. Despite the efforts of national governments to democratize school systems, no country has yet been able to guarantee a condition of real equality of educational opportunities among its citizens. Moreover, educational opportunities deeply change from country to country depending on the institutional arrangement and the workings of the national school system.

This paper's purpose is to identify the causes of school absenteeism and abandon of high school teenagers. It has been demonstrated that absenteeism is a very frequent problem in Romanian schools, and school abandon is also very common among teenagers.

I have chosen this theme because I wanted to demonstrate that the problem of school absenteeism and abandon is a very real problem with which Romanian school is confronting, and it is also a severe problem, because it magnifies the reduction of the institutional social control factors, by reducing the main functions of social institutions, and also by magnifying the possibilities for breaking the law.

Knowing the causes of school absenteeism and abandon has an important role in reducing these phenomena. Knowing the causes, one can develop activities in order to reduce or eliminate the causes, eventually reducing the discussed phenomena. It is known that school absenteeism and abandon are determined by an over loaded school program, uninteresting classes, in which only the professor speaks and the student writes down, without implication.

INTELIGENŢĂ EMOŢIONALĂ ŞI ÎNŢELEPCIUNE

Marinela Grigore Rusu

Abstract

Emotional intelligence as we understand it today represents a general refinement of behavior, a greater sensitivity of consciousness, both for individuals and society. But emotional intelligence can be also associated with ancestral wisdom. All ancient philosophers sustained pertinent ideas connected with what psychology, generally, understands by "emotional intelligence". Socrates, Platon and Aristotel, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius had often written about the importance of empathical understanding of others in social interactions. We see also in their creations great acceptance and tolerance, a high level of emotional intelligence. That's why, we can associate emotional intelligence and wisdom, we can say they have a "first degree" relation.

APLICAŢII ALE TEORIEI RĂSPUNSULUI LA ITEM

ÎN CONSTRUIREA UNEI SCALE

DE COMPREHENSIUNE A LIMBAJULUI SCRIS

Camelia Rusu, Róbert Balázsi, Anca Dobrean, Gabriel Vonaş

Abstract

The cognitive abilities assessment implies the evaluation of language. One of the most often used tasks in language assessment is the reading comprehension, which implies the construction of a mental representation of the text, the ability to make inferences about the explicit and implicit content (Zwaan and Radvansky, 1998). The main objective of this study is the analysis of 24 reading comprehension items with item response theory. The analysis implies the estimation of the items difficulty level, item-person map and the Rasch homogeneity.

[1] Ultimul studiu (comunicare) al lui Alexandru Roşca.