Europe’s Journal of Psychology (PsychOpen)
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The Psychology of Specialization and Specialization in Psychology
No full textSome years ago I committed blatant heresy by publishing a book that questions one of the sacred beliefs of the modern world; namely, that specialization is necessarily beneficial. This belief has become sacred because it is derived from two lines of argument, each of which is independently taken for granted as received wisdom. The first line of argument derives from the ideas of Adam Smith (1723-1790), particularly as set out in The Wealth of Nations. By increasing divisions of labor, Smith argued, workers could become more productive, “The division of labour… so far as it can be introduced, occasions, in every art, a proportional increase of the productive powers of labour.” The second line of argument is derived from an even more illustrious source, Charles Darwin’s (1809-1882) monumental scientific treatise on the Origin of Species. The theory of evolution seems to imply that specialization is necessary to maximize the utilization of environmental resources, find ‘vacant spaces’, and increase survival chances. Taken together, Smith and Darwin seem to present increasing specialization as an inevitable and necessary path to increasing production and improving survival opportunities
Conflict Resolution Strategies and Organisational Citizenship Behaviour: The Moderating Role of Trait Emotional Intelligence
No full textThis study investigated the relationship between conflict resolution strategies and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) and the moderating role of trait emotional intelligence (EI). Participants were 320 public servants (male = 180, female = 140) randomly selected from five states in Southwestern Nigeria. Measures of trait EI, OCB, and conflict resolution strategies were administered to the respondents. Multiple regression was used to analyse the data collected. The results indicate that forcing and withdrawing strategies negatively and significantly predicted OCB. Confronting, compromising and smoothing strategies significantly predicted OCB. Trait EI moderated the relationship between OCB and forcing and withdrawing strategies. It was recommended that counsellors and psychologists should develop programmes to foster emotional intelligence and conflict resolution for both subordinates and superiors in work organisations
Role of the Fuzzy System in Psychological Research
No full textA new analytical method for psychological research is being proposed. The advantages of evaluation with fuzzy statistical analysis include: (i) The evaluation process becomes robust and consistent by reducing the degree of subjectivity of the evaluator; (ii) The self-potentiality is highlighted by indicating individual distinctions and (iii) It provides the evaluators with an encouraging, stimulating, self-reliant guide that emphasizes individual characteristics. The empirical results demonstrate that the new approach is efficient and more realistic than the traditional method. To demonstrate the effectiveness and advantages of the new method, the results are presented in comparison to those obtained with the help of the traditional method. Twelve subjects were involved in this study and Sinha’s Comprehensive Anxiety Test (SCAT) and Approval Motive Scale were employed. Fuzzy and traditional approaches are discussed in the end. Keywords: Fuzzy logic; Anxiety; Motivation; Defuzzification; Fuzzyfication of variables
Being Human: Relationships and You. A Social Psychological Analysis
No full textKnud S. Larsen Reidar Ommundsen Kees van der Veer It would be redundant to say that the world we live in is not perfect. Our social life is often plagued by prejudice and discrimination, our social contacts frequently end up in some form of aggression, different persons or groups constantly try to persuade us to do things that serve them and may end up being harmful for us. At a larger scale history tends to repeat itself and the atrocities of the past – wars, torture, terrorism and genocide, to name just a few of the most damaging – describe the society of today as they did in the last centuries. On the other hand we encounter in our daily lives instances of cooperation and altruism, we see some people sacrificing themselves for the good of others and, at a macro level, see how nations try to work together in order to fight worldwide threats like global warming. The social world we live in is definitively a world of contrasts. How can we explain this “diversity”? How to make sense of crime and also of heroism? How do we make sense of ourselves? These are all central questions for the discipline of social psychology. Answers for questions like the above and for many other similar interrogations are put forward in the book “Being Human: Relationships and You. A Social Psychological Analysis”. Aimed to be a useful resource for students and scholars in social psychology, and more broadly in psychology, this text will certainly be of interest for social scientists in general and for all readers concerned with the intricacies of our social and psychological life
The 31st International School Psychology Association (ISPA) Conference
No full textThe 31st International School Psychology Association (ISPA) Conference will be held in Malta from 7-11th July 2009. The conference theme is School Psychology for Diversity. Diversity is inherent in the work of school psychologists. In the latest issue of School Psychology International, Annan et al. (2008) focus on educational psychologists’ routine role of facilitating teams in which participants hold diverse points of view: they suggest that ‘psychologists can support effective interventions by recognizing, understanding and utilizing the diverse views of the people involved in their consultation work.’ This is just one example of how school psychologists use diversity for the flourishing of educational communities
The 11th European Congress of Psychology (ECP2009)
No full textDear colleagues, It is both a privilege and a pleasure to invite you to participate in The 11th European Congress of Psychology (ECP2009) Oslo, Norway 7 – 10 July 2009 A Rapidly Changing World – Challenges for Psychology You will meet interesting colleagues, both among speakers and participants, experience a scientific programme representing a wide spectre of psychological fields, and enjoy the opportunity to join workshops and social events with colleagues from across Europe
Research Methods in Social Psychology: A Comparative Analysis
No full textResearch in social psychology would be inconceivable today without the use of questionnaires, interviews and focus groups. This essay will briefly present all three methods and compare their characteristics through an analysis of their importance for stereotype, identity and social representations research
Workaholism components and perceptions of negative organizational acts (1)
No full textAccumulating research findings on work addiction and work addicts has shown that individuals scoring higher on work addiction also report more negative affects and poorer psychological health. This study extends this research by examining the relationship of work addiction to perceptions of negative acts or bullying in a large sample of Norwegian oil rig workers
Scientific Insights Regarding the Orgasm
No full textSeveral scientific insights about the orgasm are presented. Insights from evolutionary biology and psychology contribute to understanding the orgasm. Important issues are the point of inevitability (which only exists in males), effects of endorphins, differences regarding orgasm for the two sexes, and how the orgasm increases the strength of a relationship
Imagery and Emotion Components of Event Descriptions about Self and Various Others
No full textImagery and emotion have been identified as two of the main component systems of autobiographical events. It is not yet known, however, whether a primary focus on either the self or others may have an impact on these components. To investigate this issue, half of the participants in this study provide a real and made-up event description about themselves, and half provide descriptions about a well-known other. In addition, all participants generated a made-up event description about an unfamiliar other. In accord with predictions generated from a multiple-system model, real events received higher visual detail, imagability, and positive emotion ratings than made-up events. This pattern was also evident for a novel measure of imagery, in which real events were rated as being much more dynamic than made-up events. However, contrary to theoretical positions which postulate a special enhanced role for self-referent information processing, the self-descriptive events were not rated as being easier to imagine and did not have more positive emotions or visual detail, than descriptive events about well-known others. This pattern suggests that efficient cognitive schemata may be involved in the processing of information about both the self and well-known others. In contrast, descriptions of an unfamiliar other received lower imagery and emotionality ratings, suggesting that less well-differentiated cognitive structures are involved in component processing for these individuals