Category: Interview

By Vlad Glăveanu
EJOP Editor

In this interview Prof. Emily Holmes addresses some of the most recent developments in the area of experimental psychopathology. At the core of her interest for this field stands a pervasive preoccupation for unpacking the importance of the imaginary in terms of our mental functioning and, in particular, the relationship between the mental imagery and emotion. Prof. Holmes explores, in this context, several important issues for academics and practitioners alike, from methodological aspects to the broader concern for making research results directly applicable and disseminating them effectively to different groups and audiences. Continue reading →

By Vlad Glăveanu
EJOP Editor

In this interview Professor Barbara Rogoff explores the many ways in which culture shapes the course of human development, and illustrates this with several findings from her past as well as most recent work. Continue reading →

By Miruna Andreescu
ASPSE, Bucharest

Daniela Vercellino
SNSPA, Bucharest

In this interview Professor Gian Vittorio Caprara shares with us some of his thoughts about personality psychology and organizational psychology, emerging out of a long experience of working in both fields. Many important questions have been raised in these areas where there is a long-lasting concern with how personality should be understood and ‘measured’. Professor Caprara addresses this and other pressing issues for theorists and practitioners alike in the present interview. Continue reading →

By Vlad Glăveanu
EJOP Editor

Culture and mind represent, in themselves, perhaps the two most complicated phenomena to ever be studied. Their massive complexity has posed, for centuries, great challenges to researchers from a variety of fields. It is therefore all the more difficult to understand the interconnection between the two. And yet, as Professor Michael Cole and, more broadly, cultural psychologists would argue: there is no way of making sense of one if we disregard the other. Culture and mind constitute each other through action and communication and it is their intricate relationship that holds the key to understanding human nature and human society.

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By Vlad Glăveanu
EJOP Editor
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By Dragos Iliescu, Ph. D. National School of Political and Administrative Studies & Test Central Bucharest, Romania The mentor of Romanian I/O Psychology, Prof. Horia D. Pitariu, passed away on March 25th, 2010 He would have been 71 years on … Continue reading →

By Vlad Glăveanu
EJOP Editor

Professor Robert Sternberg is a scholar that needs no introduction for all those who are in contact with fields such as intelligence and creativity, thinking and problem solving, social relations and leadership, and thus, more generally, with the discipline of psychology. His prodigious scientific activity has greatly shaped our understanding of the human mind, of intelligent and creative behaviour, of the development of the intellect. Professor Sternberg’s research stands out not only as a fundamental contribution to psychological theory but, above all, as an example of how psychological research can be extremely useful for different fields of human activity, from educational to organisational settings. In this interview Professor Sternberg talks about the past an present of intelligence and creativity research, and also about his career and current projects, a source of inspiration for graduate students, young scholars and psychologists at large.

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By Vlad Glăveanu
EJOP Editor

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By Dan Ispas and Alexandra Ilie
EJOP Senior Editors
University of South Florida

Studied under various names such as industrial-organizational psychology, organizational behavior, human resources management etc., organizational sciences share a focus on both research and practice. However, most of the actors in the field chose one over the other. For this issue’s interview, we talked to Dr. Fred Morgeson a prolific researcher who successfully combined science and practice in his work.
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For centuries we have been used to attributing creativity to the individual, traditionally the lone genius and, later on, to each and every individual taken separately. However, in previous decades more and more voices argued for a social conceptualization of creativity, one that would recognize the collaborative efforts that make creativity possible. Among these voices is that of Dr. Ronald Purser who advocated for the study of social creativity especially in organizational contexts and who has generously offered to answer some of our questions on this topic. Continue reading →

Psychology not playing a major part in squarely addressing the human problems. It has become a sophisticated clinical tool of discrimination and labeling, incapable of being moved by human suffering. Why is the field of psychology so self-obsessed and dehumanized?
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Broadly speaking, researchers can be classified into two groups: those that focus on one specific area of research and others that publish across many topics. For this issue’s interview, we talked to Dr. Timothy Judge, professor and researcher in I/O psychology/business/organizational behavior that publishes across various areas from selection to work-family conflict.
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In a constantly changing environment organizations face complex challenges and therefore an interdisciplinary level of analysis would be more appropriate in dealing with all these demands. Organizational Science is an emerging field which attempts to address the shortcomings of other disciplines that work in isolation by studying organizations and how they deal with theoretical and practical problems from a multiple perspective.
In this issue’s interview, we talked to Dr. Steven Rogelberg, Professor in the first Organizational Science doctoral program at UNCC.
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Caring for and about children is a central part of who I am from childhood until the present. As the oldest of four children, I was involved in caring for my siblings which let to baby sitting. As I matured, I taught Sunday School, worked with Brownie Scouts, taught swimming, and was employed in other educational and recreation programs with children. My passion for learning resulted in beginning my career as a teacher of children and adolescents. As I worked with diverse populations, I increasingly understood the importance of child and adolescent development and counseling and guidance. I was particularly interested in children with challenges having opportunities to develop their potential. I continued my education in this realm. Working with a federal government National Defense Education Act program for innovations in education led to an offer to join the faculty at California State University Northridge. I was fortunate to be a central committee member to develop the Interdisciplinary Major in Child Development (now the Department of Child and Adolescent Development).
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Our interviewee is Dr. Ulrich von Hecker, PhD, researcher and lecturer in social psychology at Cardiff University. His research interests are in the area of social cognition, in particular the link between cognition and emotion. Dr. von Hecker studies how social schemata shape the way we perceive groups and social relations around us and involving us, and how social perception is affected by states of dysphoria and depression. He is also interested in power processes in small groups, and in the way we use language in the attributions of interpersonal events. His most recent project is on the neural correlates of generative reasoning in subclinical depression.
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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.
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Dr Richard House, prolific author, editor, educator, psychotherapist and activist in the politics of psycho-practice in UK agreed to offer us an interview. Graduating from Oxford University in 1976 (with First Class Honours), Richard House gained a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from the University of East Anglia (Norwich) in 1984. After working in publishing he trained as a counsellor/psychotherapist (1987-95), and has worked in the ‘human potential’ field since 1990 in various capacities. He was recently appointed Senior Lecturer (part time) in Psychotherapy and Counselling at Roehampton University, London (Research Centre for Therapeutic Education).
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Our interviewee is Paul E. Spector, PhD in I/O psychology, University of South Florida (USF), Professor of I/O Psychology and Director of the I/O graduate program. His research interests include the impact of jobs on the behavior and well-being of employees, including counterproductive behavior, job satisfaction, job stress, and withdrawal behavior. Professor Spector published in many journals in the field, including Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Journal of Organizational Behavior (JOB), Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (JOOP), and Psychological Bulletin. He has written books on both methodology (research design and SAS programming) and content, including an I/O psychology textbook (Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Research and Practice). Professor Spector’s most active interests now are counterproductive behavior at work and cross-cultural job stress.
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Our interviewee is Yvonne Bates , a humanistic counsellor/ therapist with The Alexander Group. She co-authored with Richard House and published “Ethically Challenged Professions: Enabling innovation and diversity in psychotherapy and counselling”, an anthology assembling 30 essays, most of them by prominent international figures in the field, which both challenge a number of psychotherapy and counselling’s most inhibiting, taken-for-granted assumptions, and offer cutting-edge visions and examples of the form and substance of an ethically mature, post-professionalized therapy practice.

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Our interviewee is one of the most prominent personalities of Romanian academic and cultural life. Starting as one of Constantin Noica’s disciples, he begun his carrier as a philosopher, but in time he grew more and more acquainted with psychoanalysis, so that he finally came to embrace it as a full-time profession, not only as a professor, but also as analyst and director of the main psychoanalytical publishing house in Romania . His research activity spreads out on more than 30 years, during which he worked in the research institutes of the Romanian Academy (The Philosophy Institute, The Anthropology Institute) and in several faculties of psychology, philosophy and educational sciences within the University of Bucharest and “Titu Maiorescu” University. As philosopher, psychoanalyst, professor and researcher, Vasile Dem Zamfirescu is a vivid example of professional and academic excellence and also an active model for younger generations, in a cultural area profoundly marked by the inevitable side-effects of about half a century of communism.
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