Volume 19, Issue 2, 2011

The admission criteria to the university as predictors for academic performance: A pilot study
Roşeanu, G. & Drugaş, M. Pages 7-19Author(s): Gabriel Roşeanu , Marius Drugaş
Language: English
Subject(s): Psychology
Issue: 2/XIX/2011
Page Range: 7-19
No. of Pages: 13
Keywords: admission criteria; academic performance; neuropsychology discipline; history of psychology discipline
Summary/Abstract: The race for human resources and also for state funding has motivated several university study programs to resort to employing loose admission criteria for candidate selection. Even dough the economic rationale is easy to understand, several warning signs, such as low employability rate of graduates and criticism from employers, have emerged. Based on these observations we set out to investigate the extent to which the admission criteria for the university are efficient predictors of academic performance. For this pilot study a sample of 105 freshman psychology students was used. A series of regression analyses were carried out in order to observe the efficiency of the admission criteria variables for predicting the grades of two very different disciplines within the psychology education program (neuropsychology and history of psychology). The obtained results indicate that only one of the admission criteria, high school grades average, is efficient in predicting academic performance for both disciplines.
Download full article

The wellbeing of people with disabilities
Salloum, M. Pages 20-34Author(s): Maria Salloum
Language: English
Subject(s): Psychology
Issue: 2/XIX/2011
Page Range: 20-34
No. of Pages: 15
Keywords: happiness/wellbeing; people with disability; social exclusion; integration; inclusion; normality/abnormality; attitude
Summary/Abstract: The objective of this work is to highlight that happiness/wellbeing is essential for a normal life. People with disabilities must have equal opportunities to a fulfilling life. Our attitude towards them contributes to the image in their “social mirror”. Our research includes three studies. The results of the first study show that life satisfaction and the degree of happiness of people with disabilities are lower than those of valid individuals. The second study presents the effectiveness of an intervention program involving teachers from urban and rural area on integration of children with SEN in mainstream schools. The third study, an experiment with a single subject highlights the importance of knowing strategies to address students, depending on the specifics of their disability.
Download full article

Individualism-collectivism and personal conceptions of intelligence: Guidelines of an intervention plan in the Romanian and Portuguese educational contexts
Ciochină, L. & Faria, L. Pages 35-53Author(s): Luísa Faria, Laura Ciochină
Language: English
Subject(s): Psychology
Issue: 2/XIX/2011
Page Range: 35-53
No. of Pages: 19
Keywords: individualism-collectivism; personal conceptions of intelligence; educational intervention
Summary/Abstract: In this study we analyze the relation between individualism-collectivism (IND/COL) and personal conceptions of intelligence (PCI) in Romania and Portugal. The IND/COL questionnaire – Anonymous Questionnaire of Self-Attitudes (Shulruf, Hattie, & Dixon, 2003-2007) – and the PCI questionnaire – Personal Conceptions of Intelligence Scale (Faria, 1990-2006) – were administrated to 1394 secondary school students, 758 Romanian and 591 Portuguese. On the whole, the results indicated that participants with dynamic PCI are more individualist, whereas static PCI are more characteristic of collectivist participants. Starting from the psychological and socio-cultural interpretation of the results, we proposed an intervention plan in the educational contexts of both countries.
Download full article

Developing reasoning in students with above average cognitive skills
Boroş, D. & Sas, C. Pages 54-66Author(s): Cecilia Sas, Denisa Boros
Language: English
Subject(s): Psychology
Issue: 2/XIX/2011
Page Range: 54-66
No. of Pages: 13
Keywords: cognitive modifiability; development acceleration; inductive reasoning
Summary/Abstract: Strategies to stimulate cognitive development in general, especially reasoning can be used in the teaching process, being applicable for all children. The present study demonstrates that application of strategies of developing inductive reasoning in children with above average cognitive skills leads to superior performance in all six elements of inductive reasoning. The training program used is based on theories of cognitive modificability, especially the studies by Hamers, Koning, & Sijtsma (2002) and includes 120 tasks, divided into 6 categories of inductive reasoning: generalization, recognition of relationship, discrimination, differentiation of relationship, cross classification and system formation. The study included 30 primary school children with above average cognitive abilities, using a pretest-posttest-follow-up design.
Download full article

Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy features on intrinsically religiously oriented people
Roman, O. T. Pages 67-95Author(s): Ovidiu Teofil Roman
Language: English
Subject(s): Psychology
Issue: 2/XIX/2011
Page Range: 67-95
No. of Pages: 29
Keywords: intrinsic religiosity; irrational cognitions; emotional distress; psychotherapy
Summary/Abstract: The interest in studying the implications of religion on mental health has increased lately, but the complexity of this relationship is not sufficiently elucidated. The purpose of this comparative study is to investigate the effectiveness of two versions of REBT in relieving emotional distress of intrinsically motivated religious people: 8 sessions of standard REBT intervention and 8 sessions of religiously oriented REBT intervention. A group of 52 students of Emmanuel Christian University of Oradea received 3 weeks of REBT intervention as follows: 3 weeks of standard REBT (n = 19), 3 weeks of religiously oriented REBT (n = 18) and a control group without therapeutic intervention (n = 15). Study results show similar efficacy of standard REBT and religiously oriented REBT in relieving emotional distress. Irrational cognitions underlying depressive and anxiety symptoms, as well as those of anger and stress have been modified as a result of our proposed interventions. Given the implications of religion in relation to mental health professionals should pay more attention to spiritual / religious resources of their customers and to offer psychotherapeutic methods which act to incorporate these resources into psychotherapy.
Download full article

The attributional style of adults studied by the experimental induction of negative mood
Marian, M. Pages 96-116Author(s): Mihai Marian
Language: English
Subject(s): Psychology
Issue: 2/XIX/2011
Page Range: 96-116
No. of Pages: 21
Keywords: negative mood; induction; attributional style; vulnerability
Summary/Abstract: The work is aligned to relatively recent preoccupations regarding the involvement of causal attributions in the evolution of depression. We investigate the impact of negative mood experimentally inducted in the modification of psychopathological reactivity, of self esteem and the causal attributions. The steps proposed shall investigate the status of the causal explanations as a vulnerability factor in psychopathological reactivity and the extent to which these are causal factors in psychopathology or on the contrary, they are just a consequence. The lot was formed out of 345 participants, 82 participants were evaluated both in pre and post test. The induction of depressive mood surprises the modifications between T1 and T2 of the way in which the participants make causal attributions in the case of negative scenarios. In the next stage there are presented comparisons between psychiatric depressive persons, non-psychiatric depressive persons with experimentally inducted depression and non depressive persons according to the socio-cognitive variables. The study claims the modification of negative causal attributions according to the symptom model and vulnerability. The experimental situation acted as a trigger of the disadaptive attributional style, which might indicate the activation of some answer modalities to confirm the actual mood of the participants.
Download full article

Romanians’ attitudes towards emigration
Timofti, I. C. Pages 117-123Author(s): Iulia-Cristina Timofti
Language: English
Subject(s): Psychology
Issue: 2/XIX/2011
Page Range: 117-123
No. of Pages: 7
Keywords: emigration; Romanians; positive and negative attitudes; the scale of attitudes towards emigration
Summary/Abstract: The present paper analyzes the Romanians attitude towards emigration and Romanian emigrants. The sample consists of 1376 participants, and the variables taken into consideration are: gender, age, level of education and area of residence. The instrument built and used is the scale of attitudes towards emigration. First of all, the paper identifies the hierarchy of 10 components of the attitude towards emigration, in the perception of respondents. The second step of this study was to group the attitude towards emigration in: positive and negative. Interesting differences appear in attitudes according to the demographic variables.
Download full article

Dental fear survey: A validation study on the Romanian population

Mărginean, I. & Filimon, L. Pages 124-138
Download full article