Electronic Library of Scientific Literature - © Academic Electronic Press

STUDIA PSYCHOLOGICA

Volume 45 / No. 3 / 2003

• THEORIES OF CATEGORIZATION AND CATEGORY LEARNING: WHY A SINGLE APPROACH CANNOT BE SUFFICIENT TO ACCOUNT FOR THE PHENOMENON
• CONTEMPORANEOUS PREDICTION OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN FROM A SET OF PERSONALITY DIMENSIONS
• LIFE SATISFACTION AND AFFECTIVITY (A RESEARCH PROBE)
• NORM OF INTERNALITY AND EVALUATION OF PROFESSIONAL WORTH IN AN ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT
• THE EFFECT OF SHOPLIFTER'S STATUS ON REPORTING A CRIME: AN EVALUATION IN A NATURAL SETTING
• FAMILY FUNCTIONING AS A MEDIATING VARIABLE AFFECTING PSYCHOLOGICAL ADAPTATION OF CHILDREN WITH CONVERSION DISORDER
• PREMENSTRUAL SYNDROME: SUBJECTIVE SYMPTOMATOLOGY AND COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING
• SPIRITUALITY IN PSYCHOLOGY: THE CONCEPT AND ITS CONTEXT

Institute for Neuroscience, University of Texas
¹ University Station A8000, Austin, TX, 78712-0187, USA

Abstract: The article offers an overview of the current state of categorization literature in the world and in the Czech Republic. Strengths and weaknesses of the classical, prototype, exemplar, and knowledge-based theories are discussed. Three reasons were found to support the need of the multiple-theories approach to categorization: presence or absence of background knowledge; use of both the exemplar similarity and rules in categorization; explicit and implicit modus of learning. An experiment supporting the distinction between explicit and implicit categorization was replicated. Participants learned one-dimensional (explicit) and complex (implicit) categorization rules, half of them performing a secondary Stroop task simultaneously. Consistent with the multiple-system theory, the Stroop task interfered more with explicit than implicit rules. The replicated findings are inconsistent with any single-process view.

Key words: concepts, categorization, hybrid theories, implicit learning

pp. 169-185

Abstract: Relations of personality dimensions to social behavior were examined for 381 preschool children. Their teachers reported on the children's adaptive and problem behavior, and rated their personality characteristics using bipolar adjective scales that represented markers of the Big Five. As previously established, making use of these scales yields a four-factor structure of personality in preschoolers, with two of the factors becoming more differentiated with increasing age. The results of the present study revealed that social competence (presence of adaptive behavior) and general adaptation (presence of adaptive as well as absence of maladaptive behavior) could be contemporaneously predicted in younger children (mean age of four years) by each of the four personality dimensions, a result also obtained for the general adaptation of older children (mean age of six and a half years), while social competence in the latter group was predicted by a combined Conscientiousness-Intellect/Openness factor, Extroversion and Agreeableness. The absence of internalizing problems in the younger group was predicted by Extroversion and Social Adaptability, whereas in the older one it was predicted by Extroversion, Emotional Stability and Conscientiousness-Intellect/Openness. Within both the age groups, the absence of externalizing behavior was predicted negatively by Extroversion and positively by Agreeableness (or Social Adaptability in the younger group) and Emotional Stability (or combined Emotional Stability/Amiability in younger preschoolers), as well as by Conscientiousness-Intellect/Open- ness in the older group.

Key-words: preschool children, social behavior, behavioral problems, personality, Five-Factor Model

pp. 187-201

Abstract: A sample of 99 subjects from three age groups took part in a research probe intended to clarify the relationships between life satisfaction, accommodation flexibility and negative affectivity (anxiety). Although a comparison according to age failed to make it evident, a selection of Ss according to whether they are extremely satisfied or extremely dissatisfied with life showed that those satisfied achieve significantly higher scores in accommodation flexibility and statistically lower scores in anxiety measures than Ss extremely dissatisfied with life.

Key words: life satisfaction, ageing, accommodation flexibility, anxiety

pp. 203-209

Abstract: In this research, we studied the influence of the norm of internality on a professional evaluation task. 44 executives were asked to evaluate applicants for a job promotion. They were provided with two kinds of information regarding the candidate: a) an evaluation of the target's previous job performance (excellent/medium) by a supervisor; and b) the target's answers (internal/external) to an internality questionnaire. The dependent variables measured 1) the professional worth of the applicant and 2) access to judgment criteria by the executives. Results showed that excellent candidates were preferred to medium ones, and more importantly, that internal candidates were preferred to external ones. Both factors (job performance and internality) are equally important in the proportion of variance they explained. Nevertheless, executives estimated that job performance was the main criterion they used to judge the applicant. This difference between objective and subjective weight of the two factors (as well as correlation analysis) shows that subjects did not systematically have access to judgment criteria.

Key words: norm of internality, professional worth, access to judgment

pp. 211-219

Abstract: Many studies have shown that we are more tolerant concerning infringement or offense committed by high status people. However, these researches are only correlational or imply judgment with booklets, recording cases of common law, and assessed by students who were supposed to put themselves in jurors' place. Experimental researches on the effect of criminal behavior in a natural setting where the author's status is manipulated, are scarce and focus on minors' transgressions. Then, an experiment was carried out where subjects witnessed a theft committed by a male-confederate whose status was manipulated by his apparel appearance. Results showed that crime is profitable to high status confederates because the subjects, faced with the offense, intervene less. However, a low status, by comparison with a neutral one, does not lead to more intervention.

Key words: crime, reaction to a crime, shoplifter's status

pp. 221-228

¹ Department of Pediatrics, PGIMER, Chandigarh, 160012, India
E-mail: apc1@glide.net.in

Abstract: The study examines the mediating effect of family functioning in influencing the psychological adjustment in children with conversion disorder. Twenty-three children (Mean age = 11.2 years, SD = 1.7) with a clinical diagnosis of conversion disorder as per DSM IV criteria were recruited and were matched on age, sex and socio-economic status to healthy controls. The Childhood Psychopathology Measurement Schedule and Pre-adolescent Adjustment Scale measured psychosocial adjustment. Family functioning was measured by the Family Environment Scale. Children with conversion disorder as compared to controls had significantly higher childhood psychopathology scores (p < .002), and lower adjustment scores (p < .02). Stepwise multivariate regression analysis revealed that family functioning variables were important in predicting psychosocial adaptation in children with conversion disorder. Expressiveness in families accounted for 18% of the variance (F = 5.79, p < .25) in psychopathology scores and control in families accounted for 13% of the variance (F = 4.36, p < .04) in the adjustment scores of children with conversion disorder. These findings suggest that family functioning variables are important correlates of psychosocial adaptation and should be considered in the clinical management of children with conversion disorder.

Key words: conversion disorder in children, family functioning, psychological adjustment

pp. 229-236

Abstract: The aim of this study was to determine the extent of subjective symptomatology and the extent to which cognitive functioning was adversely affected during the premenstrual phase in 38 women between 20 and 40 years old who suffered from premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Each participant completed a Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder Checklist and a PMS Symptoms Questionnaire. A neuropsychological test battery, consisting of the Benton Visual Retention Test, Wechsler Digit Repetition Subtest, Stroop Color and Word Test, Rey and Taylor Complex Figure Tests, Porteus Maze and Auditory Verbal Learning Test, was applied premenstrually and postmenstrually. The prevalence of subjective symptomatology was high. Participants performed significantly more poorly premenstrually than postmenstrually with regard to the cognitive functions of visual perception, visual memory, immediate auditory recall, working memory, cognitive flexibility, planning ability and integration of cognitive responses.

Key words: premenstrual, symptomatology, cognitive

pp. 237-248

Abstract: The article is intended to contribute to the clarification of the concept of spirituality as used in   the   psychology   of   religion.   The   role   of   this   concept   is   analyzed   with   regard to its role   in   our   understanding   of   contemporary   transformation   of   religion   as   seen   by   C.G. Jung and M. Eliade. The origin and development of the concept of spirituality is traced from the Christian theology to the modern understanding of the human spirit and the attempts of contemporary psychologists to describe concrete manifestations of spirituality. It is shown that while the concept of spirituality "as such" is useful in theorizing at the general level, its concrete descriptions lead to cultural ethnocentricism in the study of religion, because the de facto Western spirituality used to be misinterpreted as rituality "as such" (without a qualifying adjective). Current tendency towards idealization of religion and spirituality is seen as an important cause of this misinterpretation. To improve the definition of spirituality, it is recommended to make full use of the concept of implicit religion and implicit spirituality as its counter7part.

Key words: spirituality, idealization of religion, implicit religion

pp. 249-257

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