Electronic Library of Scientific Literature - © Academic Electronic Press

STUDIA PSYCHOLOGICA

Volume 45 / No. 4 / 2003

• STATE OF RESEARCH INTO INTELLIGENCE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 21ST CENTURY - AND WHAT NEXT?
• AN INFORMATIONAL ANALYSIS OF REACTION TIMES TO DIFFERENT INTENSITIES OF LIGHT
• AMBIGUITY IN THE VISUAL WORLD: EYE MOVEMENTS AND INFORMATION SELECTION FROM AMBIVALENT OPTOKINETIC STIMULI
• SELF-RATING SCALE OF PRO-CREATIVELY ORIENTED PERSONALITY (SRSCP-KG) ADAPTED FOR KINDERGARTEN TEACHERS IN RELATION TO CREATIVE ACHIEVEMENTS
• SOCIAL BEHAVIORS OF CHILDREN WITH DIFFERENT TYPES OF ATTACHMENT TOWARD THEIR KINDERGARTEN TEACHERS
• PERSONALITY ASPECTS OF COPING WITH LOAD IN ADULT MEN
• IRRATIONALITY AND MANIFESTATIONS OF FEAR AND ANXIETY IN A SAMPLE OF SLOVAK ADOLESCENTS
• QUALITY OF LIFE OF CONVICTED DRUG ADDICTS; PRELIMINARY REPORT

Abstract: A critical review is made of the present state of research into intelligence. Coming to the forefront of interest is en enframing of intelligence in a wider context of situational and cultural variables. Attention is drawn to the advantage of a more detailed delimitation of the construct of practical intelligence and the possible barriers of its application. Here also belongs the dichotomy of declarative and procedural ideas as also "well-" and "ill-defined" problems An analysis is made of cognitive and intellectual styles that permit an optimum interaction between an individual and the social environment. Through the application of mature and dialectical thinking past expectations regarding a striking decrement in advanced age are undergoing a change. A higher usability of the quantitative data on intelligence is made possible by implicit theories on intelligence. The importance of a search for parallel conceptions on intelligence is underlined by data from researches of intelligence in various cultures.

Key words: intelligence, cognitive and intellectual styles, "well" and "ill" defined problems, intelligence and advanced age, implicit theories of intelligence, practical intelligence

pp. 261-283

¹ Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb, Lučiceva 3, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia, E-mail: dbratko@filozof.ffzg.hr
² Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation, University of Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract: Twelve circular areas of the same size (50) differing in light intensities from 1 lux to 1000 luxes in equal logarithmic steps were presented to 5 subjects 80 times each in a random order. Informational value of this set of stimuli was 3.585 bits. Reaction time (RT) to each stimulus presentation was registered in milliseconds. It was found that the registered RT to different light intensities were almost completely overlapped and informational analyses have shown that they are composed almost completely from equivocation and ambiguity and contain only a small amount of information (0.63 bits), not enough to discriminate even two levels of light intensities. It was concluded that RT represents a much poorer informational channel than subjective estimates (for which informational analyses have shown to contain about 3 bits of information).

pp. 285-294

Abstract: Many of the visual stimuli patterns offer more than one possible interpretation. Typical examples are ambiguous figures. In our work, ambivalent optokinetic stimuli (series of black vertical stripes on a transparent film loop moving smoothly in opposite horizontal directions and projected on the screen) were used to study this problem (Zikmund, 1973, 1978, 1985, 1999). Particular versions of the above stimuli movement can be perceived successively only, and the eye movement recording may serve as an objective indicator of perceived direction and/or versions of stimuli movement and of their alternations respectively. In this study, several previous results are summarized and findings are presented showing the time course and the dynamics of the alternations in perception of the direction of the above stimuli movement at their different velocities and/or frequencies. Possible bases and mechanisms of alternations in information selection from these stimuli are discussed.

pp. 295-305

¹ Department of Psychology, Philosophical Faculty, Comenius University, Gondova 2, 811 02 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
² Department of Psychological Sciences, FSV Constantine the Philosopher University, Trieda A. Hlinku 1, 949 74 Nitra, Slovak Republic

Abstract: The study outlines the starting points for the construction of an instrument identifying procreative orientation of personality in kindergarten teachers. The first phase of verification of the scale on a sample N = 111 has shown its high internal consistency, as well as its highly significant correlations with classical creativity measures - TTCT - Torrance (Jurčová, 1984). A more subtle sample of 50 kindergarten teachers revealed a statistically significant relation of the scale with the motivation inventory scores (PSMI - CMS, Torrance, 1971). However, no significant relations could be confirmed between the scale and the performance indicators of creativity - fluency, flexibility and originality (by TTCT).

pp. 307-321

Abstract: In the theoretical part of the paper the author gives answers to the question, whether a real attachment relationship can exist between an infant and a nonmaternal caretaker. If one exists, how does one measure it; and is there a relationship between the child-teacher attachment and the child's socioemotional functioning. The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between different types of children's attachment to their kindergarten teachers (secure, anxious) and their social behaviors. Twenty-two kindergarten teachers participated in the evaluation of 95 children (50.5% boys). Children ranged in age from 3 to 6 years. Those from 3 to 5 attended kindergarten in terms of day-care, while the 6-year-olds were part of the regular prep-school program within the framework of the kindergarten. Teachers completed the Questionnaire about the children's social behavior - SV-O (LaFreniere, Dumas, Zupančič, Gril, Kavčič, 2001), types of attachment were determined on the basis of the evaluations the teachers gave on the revised version of the AQS (Howes, Smith, 1995) and the evaluation scale of the child's behavior toward pre-school teachers, the CBPT (Cugmas, 2000). The results confirmed the hypotheses that the children's relationships with kindergarten teachers characterized by security are related to child competence behaviors and positive adjustment in the kindergarten.

pp. 323-338

Abstract: The study is concerned with effective coping represented by a high level of a sense of coherence SOC - according to Antonovsky and personality orientations or types of personality according to Jung, in a sample of 86 adult males (aged 26-50 yrs) holding lower managerial posts. An analysis is also made of the relation between coping and the level of self-concept. The results bring out a connection between effective coping and preference of the functions E and J in terms of Jung's typology, as also a significant positive relation of the level of SOC to that of self-concept.

pp. 339-344

Abstract: The present study had for aim to assess how far the measure of irrational beliefs corresponds with selected types of fear and anxiety in a sample of secondary school students (N = 115). Two original Slovak scales were used: The Scale of Classical Fears and Stage Fright, Social situational fears (KSAT) and the Scale of Irrational Beliefs (IPA). The highest number of significant relations between irrationality and anxiety was noted with the factor of irrational idealization and anxiety. Idealization positively corresponded with the total KSAT scores as also with all the forms of fear. Perfectionism was related to the overall level of anxiety, and specifically to stage fright with which also corresponded irrationally-tinged negative expectations and the overall measure of irrationality. The latter was also related to experiencing of fear in social situations. The results vary in dependence on subjects' gender and are discussed also within the conceptual framework of the rational-emotive behavioral theory (REBT).

pp. 345-355

Abstract: Within the context of personality measurements, the scales WHOQOL - BREF (WHO, 1997) and ComQol - A5 (Cummins, 1997) were administered to a group of condemned drug addicts (heroin), N = 43, mean age 29 years. According to expectations, a difference of statistical significance appeared in the health indicators. Despite similar objective ratings, the addicts achieved significantly lower scores in subjective indicators of safety, social standing and emotional well-being than a group of controls.

pp. 357-359

Electronic Library of Scientific Literature - © Academic Electronic Press