Electronic Library of Scientific Literature
Electronic Library of Scientific Literature
Volume 38, No 1-2, 1996
Suitbert ERTEL
Institut für Psychologie, Georg-August-Universität,
Gosslerstrasse 14, D-37073 Göttingen, Germany
Abstract: Chizhevski's 1921 claim of a relationship between solar activity and revolutionary mass behavior is scrutinized. A Master Index of Violence-from-below Events (MIVE) is compiled, consisting of 2101 events along with 4000 references extracted from 18 historical sources (chronologies, time-lines etc, period A.D. 1700-1985. The database is subjected to Q-analysis whose output, average distances of most violent years from solar maximum years, allows for significance estimates based on randomizations. The relationship between solar activity and violence-from-below proves to be very significant (p < .001). Results obtained from various controls corroborate the conclusion that the relationship is substantial. Ensuing physical, physiological, psychological, and societal problems raised by the awareness of correlations of human history with heliodependent environmental processes, need to be resolved.
Key words: Space weather, revolutions, solar activity,
heliodependent environmental processes
pp. 3-22
Imrich RUISEL
Institute of Experimental Psychology, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Dúbravska cesta 9, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Abstract: The structure of implicit theories in adolescents was studied. It was found, based on a 26 item List of Mental Functions and Characteristics, that when adolescent assessors were composing a prototype of an intelligent individual the following characteristics were most important: "Self-control", "verbal readiness", "responsibility", "perception" and "long-term memory". Factor analysis identified the following five factors: personality cognition, learning, cognitive performance, intuition and abstraction. At the same time, the author studied differences between the structures of the prototypes of practical, social, abstract and personal intelligence and wisdom. The functions "self-control", "concrete thinking" and "responsibility" attained a universal position. "Perception" and "imagination" were connected with unequivocally defined forms of intelligence. We can state that, in assessing the prototype of an intelligent individual, our adolescent subjects did not prefer cognitive functions only, they also expected significant manifestation of personality modulated characteristics.
Key words: Implicit theories, intelligence, cognition,
adolescents
pp. 23-33
Ivan SARMÁNY SCHULLER
Institute of Experimental Psychology, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Dúbravska cesta 9, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Abstract: In our research we attempted to verify the concept of actual (heuristic and epistemic) competence (KF-ST scale, Stäudel, 1988) with respect to two cognitive style dimensions (heuristic vs. algorithmic orientation, Groner & Groner, 1990; category width, Pettigrew, 1958). In study I, in a group of university students of technical orientation (n = 38, men and women) we found a nonsignificant effect of psychometric intelligence on solving problem life situations. The preferential use of algorithms is significantly higher in subjects with high emotional tension but also in subjects with controlled escape behavior. In study II, in a group of 121 university students (men, n = 46 and women, n = 75) we found statistically significant intersexual differences in the use of heuristic orientation, where high heuristic orientation in men is in a significantly positive relationship with heuristic competence. This is true only to a limited degree in case of girls.
Key words: Cognitive style, categorization width, heuristic
competence, intersexual differences
pp. 35-43
Ingrid BRDAR, Mladenka TKALÈIÆ, Petar BEZINOVIÆ
University of Rijeka, Faculty of Education, Department of Psychology,
J. Brusica 1, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia
Abstract: The frequency and variability of make-up usage
(powder blush, eye-shadow, mascara, lipstick, facial cream, liquid
make-up) of female university students were related to some aspects
of self-concept (self-esteem, perception of incompetence, masculinity-femininity,
social desirability, anxiety, fear of negative evaluation, private
self-consciousness) in seven different social situations (university
lectures, taking an exam, going out with friends, visiting friends,
visiting relatives, shopping, medical check-up). The results showed
that there was a substantial consistency in make-up usage across
the situations (Cronbach alpha .94). According to regression analyses
both, the frequency as well as the variability of make-up usage
were best explained by masculinity and the level of self-esteem.
Students with higher scores on masculinity and self-esteem scales
report more frequent and more flexible make-up usage.
The results reaffirm that students with higher self-esteem and
higher masculinity are more proficient in using the strategies
of self-presentation.
Key words: Make-up, self-concept, social situations
pp. 45-54
Viliam BÍRO
Institute of Experimental Psychology, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Dúbravská cesta 9, 913 64 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Abstract: This work presents the results of a study with two extreme groups of children. Measurements were taken three times - eight and twelve months apart. While the group marked as EG manifests an increased activity of the cardiovascular system prior and after a sensorymotor load, the PIG group has relatively low values but it consistently responds with high electrodermal activity. The extreme groups are formed on the basis of orientational GSR latency. It is interesting that almost all the children from the PIG group live in an area polluted by industrial neurotoxins. This fact is also discussed.
Key words: Orientation response, dominant response system,
activation
pp. 55-62
Tomáš KOVÁÈ
Research Institute for Child Psychology and Pathopsychology, Drieòová
3, 821 01 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Abstract: 59 students - soccer players (14-17 years of age) from a Private Secondary School for soccer in a small Slovak city participated in a research focused on creativity, coping with stress at school and soccer efficiency. The data were processed by factor analysis which titrated two factors: Factor of creativity and factor of barrier memory. The loading of both is analyzed in the text in more detail.
Key words: Soccer talent, creativity, factor analysis
pp. 63-66
Jasna HUDEK-KNEŽEVIÆ, Igor KARDUM, Zoran SUŠANJ
University of Rijeka, Faculty of Education, Department of Psychology,
51000 Rijeka, J. Brusiæa 1, Croatia
Abstract: On a sample of 91 employed women, the predictors
of job and family involvement have been investigated. The predictors
included in this study were some self-concept variables, social
support, coping strategies, job and marital satisfaction, measures
of conflict and some demographic variables.
The results show that lower scores on avoidance coping and femininity
and higher scores on problem-focused coping contribute significantly
to the prediction of job involvement while femininity, number
of children and emotion-focused coping are statistically significant
positive predictors of family involvement. A latent structure
of all variables measured in this study has also been examined
and implications of the results for future research were discussed.
Key words: Job involvement, family involvement, problem-focused
coping, emotion-focused coping, femininity
pp. 67-77
A. von EYE, A. NEUBAUER, M. STEMMLER
Institute for Children, Youth, and Families, 2 Paolucci Building,
Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1030,
USA
Karl-Franzens-Universität, Graz
Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
Abstract: The paper discusses a modification and specified application of Bauer's (1962) median quartiles test which was originally proposed for detecting differences in dispersion between two independent samples. First, the test is reformulated to be suitable for assessing differences in location. Second, an orthogonal decomposition is introduced for detecting differences in locations as well as dispersion. One specific characteristic of the reformulated Bauer median quartiles test is that it does not need alignments in location for efficient detection of differences in location. Examples from drug research illustrate the use of the reformulated test.
Key words: Median quartiles test, differences in location,
differences in dispersion
pp. 79-84
Christopher ORPEN
Bournemouth Polytechnic, Bournemouth House, Christchurch Rd.,
Bournemouth, BH1 3LG, England
Abstract: 98 employees of three Australian manufacturers completed the nine-item Work Autonomy Scales (WAS) as well as measures of four hypothesized correlates of autonomy at work. The WAS subscales were internally consistent, the factor structure was consistent with the theory underlying the WAS, while the total WAS correlated significantly with participation in decision-making, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Only the correlation with job involvement just failed to reach significance. These results are interpreted as support for the WAS as a potentially useful alternative to the lengthier measures of work autonomy currently available.
Key words: Work autonomy, construct validity, decision-making,
job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job involvement
pp. 85-87
Damián KOVÁÈ
Institute of Experimental Psychology, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Dúbravská cesta 9, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Abstract: This contribution contains factual and in places evaluative information about the overall state and development of psychology in Slovakia in a given period. Following a brief sketch of history of psychology in Slovakia (within Czechoslovakia) ten characteristics (trends) are presented which reveal the most important changes following the democratic rebirth in November 1989: research and scientific activity is made accessible by grant projects and monographs (titles only). The content of scientific studies of psychology at psychological departments at universities in Bratislava, Košice and Trnava (since 1992) is described in detail. Strict selection makes it possible for only 1 out of every 25 applicants to study psychology. The absence of relevant university text books is a basic shortcoming. The scientific-practical activity has gained new dimensions (marketing), however, not enough effort is spent on confronting pseudopsychological excesses. Lobying for legislation was successful in passing a parliamentary law on professional psychological activity and in the establishment of the Slovak Psychological Chamber in 1994.
Key words: Democratization in psychology, research "topics",
education, professional-practical activity, legislature
pp. 89-105
Vladimír DOÈKAL
Research Institute for Child Psychology and Pathopsychology, Drieòova
3, 821 02 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Abstract: Empiric data show that the development of creativity, unlike that of intelligence measured by classic tests, can, to a large extent, be enhanced by the environment. Hence it can be said that creative abilities are not dependent on heredity. The author, who is using the model of genetic limits, shows that the trainability of creativity can be interpreted in another way as well. In the author's opinion, the mechanism of the environment and heredity interaction appears to be the same in the development of both kinds of abilities. The observed data document only a different approach of contemporary civilization toward them: While the reproductive abilities are maximally supported by education, in developing creativity there is great room for accidental influences as well as influences of stimulating programs.
Key words: Heredity, environment, education,
genetic limits, reproductive intelligence, creativity
pp. 107-118