Electronic Library of Scientific Literature
Volume 41 / No. 2 / 1999
Abstract: The health and social sciences have been characterized by a pathogenic paradigm, evidenced, for instance, by psychologists' proclivity for detecting deficits. In practice, this view fosters a disempowering image of people; in research it could result in information being ignored. A new paradigm has been emerging for at least half a century, with many attempts to discover "what can go right". Two basic assumptions are that stressors and adversity are an integral part of the human condition, and that there are sources of strength through which this condition can be endured, even transcended, thus producing a strengthening and toughening of the individual. Examples of thinking along these lines are presented. A description of resilience follows. A Resilience Exercise is touched on, in which participants are requested to complete stories in response to sentences that introduce adverse situations. Scoring consists of descriptions of 11 scoring categories, each followed by diverse examples; it could also be used to assess resilience from personal documents, e.g. letters, diaries, biographies or speeches. Implications of resilience as a framework for therapy and counselling are touched on, and a training program is briefly described.
Key words: fortigenesis, resilience, salutogenesis
pp. 89-104
Abstract: Our research is concerned with the personality study of 315 Slovak pilots (both military and civil). The cross-sectional study also includes statistical comparison of pilots and non-pilots and shows how the level of pilot training affects the pilot's personality traits as well as what the influence of training level is on pre-start anxiety, and anxiety as a personality quality in general. Pilots as a specific professional group in the population are characterized by rather expressive emotional stability and psychological resistance to situational influences. The adaptive behavior of pilots is based on the aim principle. The training level and age of pilots have a significant influence on the personality structure in the process of their own professional career. Training has the greatest effect on the levels of cognitive, emotional, regulative and adaptive components of the pilot's personality. Relatively low and relatively high pilot training levels produce increased emotional excitation and situational tension. The optimum pilot training level generally suppresses excitability. Extremely high training level and age of the pilots bring about decreased psychophysiological performance and increased anticipation. Similar results have been achieved by means of the measurement of pre-start anxiety level as well as by the measurement of anxiety as a personality trait of pilots. Age plays a more important part in the increase of anxiety than training.
Key words: pilot's personality traits, pre-start anxiety, selection,
training level of pilots
pp.105-122
Abstract: Psychometric integrity of Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory was investigated using responses of 2165 subjects (1132 males, 1033 females). The findings generally correspond to that published by Cloninger, especially the character dimensions, but the 4-dimensional temperament model was not supported in the present sample. Persistence appeared to be part of harm avoidance, closely associated with reflection, reserve, and regimentation. Exploratory excitability was negatively associated with harm avoidance subscales, the finding that was obviously expected and was discovered in some of Cloninger's samples and a New Zealand sample as well.
Key words: TCI, personality questionnaire, psychometrics, exploratory
factor analysis
pp. 123-132
Abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate motivational correlates of academic success in mathematics. Assumptions examined in the study are derived from two theoretical perspectives: social cognitive theory of self-efficacy and expectancy theory of motivation applied to academic achievement in mathematics. Mathematics grades at the end of the first semester were used as a measure of students' academic success. The predictors were variables of self-referenced cognitions about causes and scope of math competence and of math anxiety. The sample comprised 182 eighth grade students from two secondary schools in Zagreb. Three instruments were used to assess perceived self-efficacy in math, attributions of success and failure in math and math anxiety. Data were analyzed by standard procedures of univariate and multivariate statistics. Multiple regression analysis and discriminant analysis were applied. The results of this study indicate that math anxiety, perceived math incompetence and math self-efficacy contribute most to the explanation of total variance of math grades.
Key words: secondary school, math achievement, motivation, self-referenced
cognitions
pp. 133-142
Abstract: This study is a part of a long-term project, which studies a group of so-called affected pre-school children (AG, n = 52) who have been living in a polluted area since birth. For years this area has been contaminated by neurotoxic substances. The point of reference for this study is the knowledge that long-term exposure of toxins on the organism and CNS of very young children cause a deterioration of cognitive and, thus, language functions of children. The effort to understand the organization of language structure using the association response method was supplemented by the results of the rating scale focused on the evaluation of language expressions of children. The research found a prevalence of the so-called syntagmatic (developmentally lower) associations on the part of the affected children, compared to the control group (CG, n = 36), which tended towards associations of the paradigmatic type. We can speculate that children from the affected group have a slower cognitivization in the arrangement of semantic memory. However, considering the conditions of the research project and the relatively small sample of subjects, this remains a hypothesis. The rating scale used to evaluate the level of language production, has indicated a richer vocabulary and better pronounciation in children of the control group.
Key words: neurotoxins, cognitive development, language structure
development, syntagmatic and paradigmatic associations
pp. 143-149
Abstract: Using an Identity Structure Analysis approach, the research study investigates the processes by which individuals evaluate primordialist and instrumentalist ethnic statements rated against the views on political parties, governments, ethnic/national groups, family members and friends. Among Slovak academics (n = 64) we differentiated "primordialists" (they understand ethnic identity as given forever) (n = 29) and "instrumentalists" (they consider ethnic identity changeable) (n = 24). The results confirmed the different patterns of identifications in the primordialist and instrumentalist participants not only with the political and ethnic groupings but with the other entities such as parents and past self as well. The instrumentalists perceive themselves as changing and developing over time, while the primordialists perceive themselves in static terms, by comparison.
Key words: ethnic identity, political identity, implicit personal
theories, ethnicity, primordialism, instrumentalism
pp. 151-166
Abstract: In a sample of 82 university students (61 women and 21 men) we studied the relationship between learning style (Kolb's model) and risk tendency, optimism and arousability. The results showed a greater arousability in women, which is interpreted in terms of poorer screening. Differences were found in learning styles, characterized by a significantly more active experimentation on the part of women, compared to men. Students who have a high level of risk behavior prefer a learning style based on concrete experience; careful students (with a low level of risk tendency) prefer a learning style based more on abstract conceptualization; they are less arousable and are better screeners. The results confirmed the expected intersexual differences in perception of risk, arousability, learning style and academic success.
Key words: learning style, risk taking, optimism, arousability
pp. 167-176