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February 2006
Looking forward to the future at first anniversary
There is a passage in one of Coelhio’s books which says: “That which happens once, will happen again for sure…”. We do hope that this would also be true for EJOP. We have already made one year of constant publishing to happen and we wish this to be only the beginning of a long success story. Looking back on our activity, we can find plenty of reasons to rejoice, but also many occasions to envisage ways to embetter what at first looked like an almost impossible project. 2005 was a prolific year for our small team of editors from Bucharest. In February we launched Europe’s Journal of Psychology in the city of contrasts, formerly known in the interwar period as “The Little Paris”. (more...)Posted on February 2006
Communication and representation in the construction of the European identity
Our study deals with the issue of the relationship between what is conveyed through mass media and what is represented and organized socially in the form of social reality. The first part of our study focuses on theoretical aspects of this relation, by defining and explaining concepts such as mass-communication, social reality, social representation, cognition, imaginary, and social identity, along with trying to understand the specific relation between these concepts. The second part aims to present and briefly reproduce some of the conclusions of one of our study on European identity, in close relation with the issue of the way in which social representations are constructed from the initial message of the sender with the affective, cognitive and imaginary participation of the receiver. (more...)Posted on February 2006
February 2006
The Rise of Ethics Fundamentalism in the UK: A Warning to Europe
"Research is unethical if it is without scientific merit... student projects do not usually have this potential” (Doyal 2004, section 4.1).
The above quote sounds as if it has come straight from Heller’s Catch 22, but is in fact from the official draft proposal for guidelines on the regulation of student projects in Britain. You have just entered the crazy world of medical ethics in the UK. If you think this doesn’t apply to you because you are a cognitive psychologist & don’t intend to set foot in a hospital until you are ill, you might be shocked. And if you should find yourself ever daring approach a hospital patient, hospital staff, or even setting foot on hospital grounds with a questionnaire, read on and pay close attention.
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Posted on February 2006
Emotional Competence and Leadership Excellence at Johnson & Johnson
A study was conducted on three hundred and fifty-eight Managers across the Johnson & Johnson Consumer & Personal Care Group (JJC&PC Group) globally to assess if there are specific leadership competencies that distinguish high performers from average performers. Participants were randomly selected, then coded for performance rating, potential code, gender, functional group and regional area. More than fourteen hundred employees took part in a one hundred and eighty three question multi-rater survey that measured a variety of competencies associated with leadership performance including those commonly referred to as Emotional Intelligence. Results showed that the highest performing managers have significantly more “emotional competence” than other managers. (more...)Posted on February 2006
February 2006
Police Officers Over Career Stages: Satisfaction and Well Being (1)
This study compared work experiences, work satisfactions and psychological well-being of police officers in constable jobs across five career stages using age cutoffs. These stages were: 32 years of age or younger, 33 to 37, 38-42, 43-47 and 48 years or older. Data were collected from 466 police officers in Norway using anonymously completed questionnaires. The five career stage groups differed on personal demographic and work situation characteristics (e.g., shift schedule, police tenure) related to age. Constables in early career stages reported more favourable work outcomes, greater social support, less exhaustion and cynicism, fewer subjective health complaints and better over-all health. There were also many areas where the career stage groups were similar (e.g., job demands, job satisfaction). The findings suggest the importance of particularly responding to the needs of constables in later career stages. (more...)Posted on February 2006
The three Financial Styles of Very Successful Leaders
By E. Ted Prince
Dr. E. Ted Prince is the Founder of Perth Leadership Institute. For more than two decades, he was a CEO for both public and private companies in New York, Boston and the United Kingdom thus achieving great experience in the organizational behavior field. He has had extensive operating background at the CEO level in both public and private companies. Dr. Prince was Chairman and CEO of Clearstory System (CSYS, formerly INSCI Corp) a Boston-based public (NASDAQ) company that developed software for enterprise content management. He has consulted with numerous companies and has served on the boards of many others. Also, he has had extensive experience in the merges and acquisitions field and has acquired many companies in both the US and overseas including Europe and Asia. Mr. Ted Prince is the architect of Perth’s Leadership Outcome Model (PLOM), the basis for the Perth Leadership System.
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Posted on February 2006
Effects Of Group Cultural Differences On Task Peformance And Socialization Behaviours
ABSTRACT Drawing on Hofstede’s theory and research, this study examined the hypothesis that differences in cultural dimensions of individualism/collectivism and homogeneity/heterogeneity will influence the level of task performance and socialization. Swedes (individualists) and Greeks (collectivists) were assigned to two separate groups. In the first phase of the experiment the two groups were homogenous - consisting of 3 participants from each of the cultures (3 Swedes, 3 Greeks). Their task was to put together a 54piece puzzle. Both homogenous groups were timed and observed separately. The next step was to bring in two heterogeneous (ethnically mixed) groups. For this purpose the size of each homogeneous group was increased to 6 participants by assigning one American, Canadian and German representative. Their task was to put together a larger, 300 piece puzzle within a certain time frame of 25minutes. Individual and group responses were measured using a fine-grained checklist. The hypotheses were: 1) Homogenous individualistic group would finish the task faster than the homogenous collectivistic group. 2) Heterogeneous individualistic group will finish the task faster than heterogeneous collectivistic group. 3) Collectivists will be more socially interactive than individualists. In this research hypotheses 1 and 3 were supported, whereas hypothesis 2 was not. The implications for future research are that individualism/collectivism and homogeneity/heterogeneity of a group may have an influence on group dynamics as it relates to task performance. (more...)Posted on February 2006
European Diploma in Psychology: a Common Framework for Psychology Education in Europe
European Diploma in Psychology represents a system of standards for the education and training of professional psychologists in Europe. This system is organised under the initiative of the European Union (EU) and the European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations (EFPA), in order to achieve greater mobility of professionals across Europe. The EuroPsy project team was also established to develop the contents of this diploma. (more...)Posted on February 2006
Humor, an Antidote to Life's Incongruities
Our interviewee is John Morreall, PhD, Professor of religion at the College of William and Mary, has been studying humor for more than 25 years. He is the current president of the International Society for Humor Studies. Morreall teaches several courses at William and Mary, "Comedy, Tragedy and Religion", "Modern Religious Thought", "Theory and Method in the Study of Religion", and "Roman Catholicism Since 1800". He has given more than 400 talks and seminars on humor in the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan. (more...)
Posted on February 2006
February 2006
Positive Contributions of Constructivism to Educational Design
This paper contrasts contemporary traditional and constructivist educational models to show that constructivist models have invaluable advantages over and are more effective than more traditional models. Bruner’s constructivist theory is discussed, as well as some of its influences, then traditional and constructivist educational models are contrasted point-for-point. The paper then refers to factual examples of successful constructivist education models in practice and suggests methods for using constructivist theory to improve traditionally designed curricula. (more...)Posted on February 2006
Metaphorical Representations of the Consultancy and the Consultant in Romania (2)
The present study was conducted on constructivist analytical frame and it concentrated on the metaphorical representations of the HR specialists about the HR consultants and, generally, about the consultancy process. The study has been developed during January February 2005, by D&D Research, with the participation of HR-Romania. The methodology was mostly quantitative, based on the deployment of 188 questionnaires by face-to-face administration, but, also, by the respondent’s self-evaluation. (more...)Posted on February 2006
Mentoring – a Valuable Method of Practical Intervention in Need of Theoretical Grounding
The present study aims to give a general overview of the information on mentoring that already exists in the specialized literature. The aim of this necessary synthesis is to emphasize the acute need for its systematic research from a more subtle psychological perspective, one from which the psychology of learning should not miss. (more...)Posted on February 2006