Psihologija 2010-03

psihologijaYU ISSN 0048-5705 UDC 159.9 Vol. 43 (3) 215–353

SADRŽAJ / CONTENTS

EFFECTS OF PROFICIENCY AND AGE OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITIONON WORKING MEMORY PERFORMANCE IN BILINGUALSDušan Vejnović, Petar Milin, and Sunčica Zdravković . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

THE EFFECTS OF MATCHING A PERSUASIVE MESSAGETO A RECIPIENT’S SELF-CONCEPT ON ATTITUDE CHANGEMarija Branković and Iris Žeželj . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

COGNITIVE REACTIVITY TO SAD MOOD:THE IMPORTANCE OF THE FIRST DEPRESSIVE EPISODE Zorica Marić and Tatjana Vukosavljević-Gvozden. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

DAROVITI PODBACIVAČ U ŠKOLI: NEKO KO IMA PROBLEM, ILI „BUNTOVNIK“ KOJI PRAVI PROBLEM?Vitomir Jovanović, Pregrad Teovanović, Tatjana Mentus i Milina Petrović . . . . . . 263

WORKING WOMEN’S ROLES IN SLOVENIA:CONFLICT OR ENRICHMENT?Eva Boštjančič . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

CONSTRUCTION OF SELF IN CHILDREN’S DAYDREAMINGNARRATIVES: STORY OF TWO GENERATIONSJelena Pavlović, Jasmina Šefer, and Dejan Stanković . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

DELOVANJE KOMPONENTI AFEKTIVNE VEZANOSTI NA RAZVOJ FORMALNO-OPERACIONALNOG MIŠLJENJABranimir Vukčević . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

POVEZANOST OBRADE REČI RAZLIČITE AFEKTIVNE VALENCEI BAZIČNE STRUKTURE LIČNOSTIAna Orlić . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

PSIHOLOGIJA, 2010, Vol. 43 (3), UDC 159.953-057.875 ; 81’246.2-057.875© 2010 by the Serbian Psychological Association DOI: 10.2298/PSI1003219V

Effects of proficiency and age of language acquisition on working memory performance in bilinguals

Dušan Vejnović1, Petar Milin,1&2 and Sunčica Zdravković1&21

1 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, Serbia2 Laboratory for Experimental Psychology,

Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Serbia

This study examined language proficiency and age of language acquisition influences on working memory performance in bilinguals. Bilingual subjects were administered reading span task in parallel versions for their first and second language. In Experiment 1, language proficiency effect was tested by examination of low and highly proficient second language speakers. In Experiment 2, age of language acquisition was examined by comparing the performance of proficient second language speakers who acquired second language either early or later in their lives. Both proficiency and age of language acquisition were found to affect bilingual working memory performance, and the proficiency effect was observed even at very high levels of language competence. The results support the notion of working memory as a domain that is influenced both by a general pool of resources and certain domain specific factors.Key words: working memory, bilingualism, language proficiency, age of acquisition, reading

span.

Bilingualism today is more of a rule than an exception, since at least half of the world’s population is bilingual (Grosjean, 1989). Consequently, the research of bilingual cognitive functioning had been receiving increasing attention in past twenty years. The majority of the studies in the field tackled the questions of long-term memory organization, lexical storing, access and retrieval, bilingual language production, etc. (cf. Costa, La Heij, & Navarrete, 2006, French & Jacquet, 2004; Schwartz, & Kroll, 2007). Although the idea of connections between immediate memory capacities and bilingualism is not a new one (cf. Kolers, 1963; Weinreich, 1953), the number of studies addressing this subject is considerably smaller.

Working memory – more specifically its verbal component, phonological loop – is seen as a system of critical importance in the process of language

Corresponding author: [email protected]

EFFECTS OF PROFICIENCY AND AGE OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION ON WORKING MEMORY PERFORMANCE IN BILINGUALS220

acquisition (Baddeley, Gathercole, & Papagno, 1998; Gathercole & Pickering, 2000). In this view, the role of phonological loop in recollection of familiar phonological material (known words or numbers) is regarded as a byproduct of the development of a system whose primary function is the acquisition of new phonological material (i.e. new language). Though the previous statement renders the significance of working memory for people acquiring the second language (future bilinguals) evident, connections between bilingualism and working memory go beyond the language acquisition processes. There are a vast number of studies showing that long-term knowledge affects immediate memory performance (for an overview, see Thorn, Frankish & Gathercole, 2008). These influences are argued to be both phonological (e.g. Conrad & Hull, 1964; Gathercole, Frankish, Pickering, & Peaker, 1999) and lexical/semantic (e.g. Hulme, Maughan, & Brown, 1991; Hulme et al., 1997; Poirier & Saint Aubin, 1995) in nature. Since bilinguals typically differ in linguistic knowledge of the first (L1) and second language (L2) it is important to investigate the effect these differences on the working memory performance in two languages. The question of concern here is whether a person acquired the first and then the second language (using the phonological loop system), exhibits different working memory performance in the two languages, and what factors might possibly drive those differences. Another potentially interesting question, both for actual models of working memory (e.g. Baddeley, 2003) and bilingual educational practice, is whether the acquisition of L2 might have backward effect on working memory functioning in L1. In other words, could the functioning of verbal working memory, or perhaps even working memory in general, be improved by the L2 acquisition? Current notions of working memory do not predict such an outcome, and they would need to be revised in case of positive effect of L2 acquisition on working memory.

Present study had two specific goals. The first one was to examine the influence of language proficiency on verbal working memory performance in bilinguals’ L2. Language proficiency in L2 is known to affect L2 processing from the levels as low as the individual word recognition. For example, Favreau and Segalowitz (1983) showed that highly proficient bilinguals exhibited greater semantic priming than less proficient bilinguals, especially at short stimulus onset asynchrony intervals. Whether, and to which extent, the proficiency effect is present in the verbal working memory operation is still unclear, as the previous findings have not been unanimous. In an early study of Harrington and Sawyer (1992) native (L1) Japanese speakers with upper-intermediate to advanced proficiency in L2 English were tested on a version of reading span task of Daneman and Carpenter (1980). The subjects exhibited no differences in working memory span in L1 and L2. However, significant correlation between L2 proficiency and working memory span in L2 was observed in the same study, suggesting that the issue required further inquiry. Moreover, the same study reported of moderate correlations between L1 and L2 working memory

Dušan Vejnović, Petar Milin, and Sunčica Zdravković 221

spans (higher correlations were found in Osaka and Osaka, 1992 and Miyake and Friedman, 1998). These findings were compatible with the capacity theory of comprehension (Just & Carpenter, 1992). More recently, Service, Simola, Metsaenheimo and Maury (2002) examined two groups of Finnish-English bilinguals. The task in this study was to memorize the last words of the auditively presented sentences while judging their correspondence with the pictures that were shown. No difference between L1 and L2 working memory spans was found in a group of highly proficient L2 speakers. However, significantly lower working memory spans in L2, as compared to L1 spans, were registered in a group of less proficient L2 speakers. These results suggested that proficiency effect does exist, but that it can only be observed at lower levels of L2 proficiency. Investigating the same issue, Van den Noort, Bosch and Hugdahl (2006) conducted a study that examined working memory functioning of trilinguals. Their subjects were native (L1) Dutch speakers who spoke fluent German (L2)1 and less-fluent Norwegian language (L3). These subjects performed better on the L1 reading span task, as compared to the L2 task, and their performance in L2 was better than in L3. Accordingly, the study confirmed the language proficiency affects working memory performance. However, the study of Van den Noort et al. showed that the effect might not be exclusive feature of insufficiently proficient language processing. Contrary to the findings of Service et al. (2002), the study suggested that the effect of language proficiency might be a more comprehensive one, and that it could be registered in fluent speakers of foreign language, too. In the same vein, an fMRI study by Chee, Soon, Lee and Pallier (2004) reported proficiency effect in patterns of brain activation during auditory n-back task. Recent studies, thus, generally support the view of some kind of dependence of verbal working memory performance on language proficiency. Whether this dependence is only present in less proficient L2 speakers, meaning that there is some proficiency threshold beyond which the effect is not observed, is still unclear. Alternatively, it might be the case that the proficiency is influencing verbal working memory performance even in highly competent L2 speakers. This dilemma is addressed in our Experiment 1.

The second goal of our study was to examine the age of language acquisition effects on verbal working memory performance. Relevance of age of acquisition factor was extensively explored and documented in different areas of psycholinguistics, especially after the influential study of Morrison and Ellis (1995) which showed that early-acquired words are processed faster than the later acquired ones, even after controlling for the frequency effect. Effects of age of acquisition on the word level language processing were shown in different experimental paradigms: naming (e.g. Brysbaert & Ghyselinck, 2006), lexical decision (Morrison & Ellis, 2000), semantic categorization task

1 Proficiency level in L2 German of these subjects was comparable to the proficiency level in L2 English of the highly proficient group from the study of Service et al (2002).


(Brysbaert, Van Wijendaele & De Deyne, 2000), etc. Several reported studies explored the effects of age of acquisition in the second language, as well. Mainly motivated by the pursuit of the critical period for language acquisition, these showed clear differences in processing of L2 words in function of their age of acquisition. For example, Silverberg and Samuel (2004) found effects of L2 semantic priming in early, but not in late bilinguals. Their results suggested that early bilinguals might have unitary conceptual system, whereas late bilinguals use separate conceptual systems for each of their languages. Abundant research on age of acquisition in past two decades demonstrated this factor affects various aspects of language processing, yet thus far no study investigated whether the age of acquisition of a particular language might be a factor relevant for the working memory processing in that language. On the other hand, bilingual working memory research, as commented, focused principally on the examination of the language proficiency effect. In our Experiment 2, we made the first exploratory step in examining the possibility of independent influence of the age of language acquisition on verbal working memory performance.

EXPERIMENT 1

The goal of Experiment 1 was an elaborate examination of the effect of second language proficiency on working memory performance in bilinguals.

MethodParticipants: Thirty-one first year students of psychology at the University of Novi Sad took part in this experiment. Out of all first year psychology students, those with the lowest and the highest scores on the placement test of English language (Quick Paper and Pen Test, 2001) were chosen for the experiment2. Selected students formed the less proficient (LP) and the high proficient (HP) experimental groups. All subjects spoke Serbian as their native language (L1), and English as their second language (L2). Groups were of the similar age (MLP = 20; MHP = 20.5; t(29) = 0.877, p > 0.05), did not differ in age at which they began L2 acquisition (MLP = 10.6; MHP = 9.6; t(27.394) = 1.466, p > 0.05), nor duration of L2 learning (MLP = 9.87; MHP = 10.69; t(21.731) = –0.852, p > 0.05).3 All 15 subjects from the LP group attended the lowest offered level of the English course (pre-intermediate), while the HP subjects attended the most advanced level of English course offered (upper-intermediate) or were exempt from the course due to very high English competence. Mean English test scores were 27.2 and 45.94 (out of 60) for the LP and the HP group, respectively. Difference between them was significant (t(29) = –18.224, p < 0.01).

2 The placement test is regularly administered to all first year students in order to assign them to study groups with similar English competence level for their English language course. The test is comprised of 60 multiple-choice questions that examine the knowledge of English grammar, vocabulary and comprehension and is valid criterion for the English language competence selection (Radić-Bojanić, 2008).

3 Reported language background information was obtained through subjects’ self-reports.


Tasks: Subjects were administered the reading span task of working memory (Daneman & Carpenter, 1980) in two parallel language variants: the Serbian and the English. The reading span task was chosen as it is the most commonly used procedure for the verbal working memory capacity assessment. The English task procedure resembled the procedures used in Waters and Caplan (1996) and Engle, Tuholski, Laughlin and Conway (1999) and was based on the findings of the study of methodological and technical aspects of the reading span task (Lalović & Vejnović, 2008).

Stimuli (task elements) were presented on the computer screen one at a time. Task element consisted of a sentence, followed by the question-mark, followed by the uppercase target-word (for example: “Nigel can’t swim as fast as his younger window and his friends can. ? FLOWER”). Subjects were asked to read out loud each sentence the moment it appears on the screen, say “yes” if the sentence made sense or “no” if it did not4, and read and memorize following target-word. When this was done presentation of the next element was activated by the experimenter. After the presentation of several elements, three question-marks would appear on the screen notifying the subject to pass to the reproduction phase in which he was instructed to write all the target-words from the previous trial in the response sheet. Reproduction phase was then succeeded by the presentation of next trial, and the presentation and reproduction phases would alternate until the end of experiment.

The experiment consisted of twelve trials (sequences of elements between two reproduction phases), and trial size (2–5) was calculated as the number of elements in a given trial. Total number of elements in the experiment was 42, so that trials of each size were administered three times within the experiment. The order of the presentation of trials was randomized so the subject could not know the timing of the next recollection phase. The Serbian version of the task was exactly the same as the described English in all aspects save for the language employed.Stimuli: Eleven to fifteen word long sentences, followed by target-words (nouns), were used as stimuli. They were presented on 17” computer screen, in 20pt Arial white font on dark background. In order to make the two language versions of the task parallel, the stimuli were matched for several relevant characteristics: sentence length, syntactic and vocabulary complexity5, target-word frequency and target-word length (as measured by the number of phonemes). Mean sentence length was 12.36 for Serbian, and 12.43 for English task; with two language variants not differing significantly (t(82) = –0,365, p > 0.05). Frequencies of the Serbian target-words were extracted from the Serbian Language Corpus (Kostić, 1999) and the English from the CELEX database (Baayen, Piepenbrock, & Gulikers, 1995). Mean target-word frequency was 266.29 occurrences per million words for Serbian, and 194.43 occurrences per million words for English target-words. This difference was not significant either (t(82) = 1.139, p > 0.05). Average number of phonemes was 4.69 in Serbian target-words and 4.38 in English target-words, and their difference was statistically insignificant (t(82) = 1.319, p > 0.05).Design: Main analysis of Experiment 1 included L2 working memory span as a dependent variable, L2 proficiency as a categorical predictor, and L1 working memory span as a

4 Half of the sentences were made semantically implausible by substituting animate subject for inanimate. Semantic verification of the sentences was introduced in order to make sure the sentences were read for comprehension.

5 In the pilot examination it was ensured that syntactic complexity and vocabulary of the selected sentences were appropriate for the low-proficiency level of L2. Half of the sentences were then kept for the English version of the task, and the other half was translated for the use in the L1 (Serbian) version of the task.


continuous covariate predictor. Additionally, ANOVA and hierarchical regression models were performed (see the results section) and within-group comparison of the L1 and L2 working memory span was made for each of the groups.

Working memory spans were operationalized as an average proportion of correctly reproduced elements of all trials. For each trial, an index representing the number of correctly reproduced elements divided by trial size was calculated. Final score was obtained as the sum of all the indices, divided by total number of trials in the experiment (12), and the reading span index took the values between 0 and 1.Procedure: Two language versions of the task were administered individually in one session. The order of administration was balanced and had no effect on results. The DMDX software v.3.2.5.4 (Forster & Forster, 2003) was used for the presentation of the stimuli. Average duration of the session was around 25 minutes.

ResultsCorrelations between the English test scores and the reading span measures

in two languages were calculated together for subjects from the two groups. The span scores in two language versions of the task were highly and positively correlated (r(29) = 0.647, p < 0.01)6. The English test scores were significantly correlated with working memory span in English task (r(29) = 0.432, p < 0.05), but not with the span in the Serbian version of the task (r(29) = 0.199, p > 0.05).

Mean working memory spans and standard deviations for two groups of subjects are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Means and standard deviations of L1 and L2 spans for two groups of subjects.

Group Span M SD

Less proficientL1 0.596 0.104

L2 0.461 0.078

Highly proficientL1 0.639 0.112

L2 0.543 0.102

Proficiency effect on L2 span was examined by linear modeling (ANCOVA design). Significant main effect of proficiency level on L2 reading span task performance was registered (F(1, 28) = 5.022, p < 0.05) even after controlling for the covariate L1 span effect (F(1, 28) = 18.760, p < 0.01). Additional test showed that unique contribution of proficiency level was significant (R2 = 0.12, F(1, 29) = 4.955, p < 0.05), after L1 span effect was accounted for. At the same time, effect of proficiency on L1 span was not significant (F(1, 29) = 1.21, p > 0.05).

6 When computed separately for each group, the correlations were: r(15) = 0.538, p < 0.05 (LP group) and r(16) = 0.701, p < 0.01 (HP group).


In order to further inspect the proficiency effect, the reading span task performance in L1 and L2 was compared for each group of subjects. Both groups had significantly higher spans when they performed the task in their native, as compared to their second language (t(14) = 5.809, p < 0.01, for the LP group; and t(15) = 4.633, p < 0.01, for the HP group).

DiscussionResults showed that the reading span scores in L1 an L2 were highly

correlated. Subjects’ reading span in L2 (English) was moderately correlated with their English knowledge test scores, while, expectedly, English knowledge test scores did not correlate with L1 working memory spans. The pattern of these correlation coefficient magnitudes is similar to the one reported in Osamu (2006). It suggests that performance on the reading span task in L2 depends both on 1) a common pool of resources that is involved in verbal working memory processing independently of the task characteristics, and, at least to some extent, on 2) the mastering of L2.

Subjects from the highly proficient L2 group performed substantially better on the L2 task than their less proficient matches, while the two groups’ performance in L1 was comparable. Importantly, the effect of proficiency level on L2 performance remained significant even after the L1 performance influences were statistically partialled out, and its unique contribution improved the model significantly. Thus, Experiment 1 showed that language proficiency influences working memory performance in L2.

Additionally, Experiment 1 also showed that both experimental groups were more successful when faced with the reading span task in L1 (Serbian) than when performing the same task in L2 (English). Better L1 performance of the less proficient group can easily be attributed to their higher proficiency in L1, as compared to proficiency in L2. Yet more importantly, similar claim could be made for the highly proficient L2 subjects, too, for their L1 proficiency is arguably superior to their L2 proficiency, as well. Consequently, it could be concluded that the proficiency effect is not exclusive feature of the non-proficient language processing. Our results showed that it can be spotted even in highly proficient L2 speakers.

However, there is an alternative explanation for the subjects’ superior L1 performance (that is particularly relevant for the highly proficient group). As described, our subjects started acquiring L2 (English) at the age of nine or ten – at the time they already were reasonably competent L1 (Serbian) speakers. Therefore, it perhaps might be the case that the difference in the performance in two languages that was observed in highly proficient subjects was not (only) due to their superior proficiency in L1, but (at least partly) due to the difference in the age at which they had acquired those languages. This issue was addressed in our Experiment 2.


EXPERIMENT 2

The main goal of Experiment 2 was to examine effect of age of language acquisition on verbal working memory performance in bilinguals.

MethodParticipants: A group of 15 subjects, students of psychology or Serbian language for ethnic minorities, participated in Experiment 2. Their native language was Hungarian and they all spoke fluent Serbian, as a language of the community they live in. The results of this group (the early acquired – EA group) were contrasted with the data obtained from the highly proficient L2 speakers of Experiment 1 (the later acquired – LA group). Both of the groups, thus, were comprised of proficient L2 speakers. Importantly, the groups matched in L2 proficiency self-assessments on a ten-point Likert scale (MLA = 7.31; MEA = 8; t(29) = 1.92; p > 0.05) and crucially differed in the age at which they had started L2 acquisition (MLA = 9; MEA = 4, t(29) = 6.680, p < 0.01).

Tasks: Two language versions of the reading span task were administered: the Hungarian and the Serbian. The Serbian version was the same as in Experiment 1. The Hungarian was constructed for the purpose of this experiment and matched the Serbian in all relevant aspects (see below).

Stimuli: Two language versions of the reading span task were matched for the sentence length, syntactic and vocabulary complexity, frequency and the length of target-word. Average sentence length was 12.36 words in both versions of the task. Hungarian target-word frequencies were extracted from the Hungarian National Corpus (Magyar Nemeti Szövegtár, 2003), their mean was 205.43 occurrences per million, and it matched mean Serbian target-word frequency (t(82) = 1.026, p > 0.05). Mean number of phonemes in target-words was 4.45 and 4.69 for the Hungarian and Serbian version of the task, respectively, with the two versions not differing in this respect either (t(82) = 0.962, p > 0.05).

Design: The main analysis of Experiment 2 included L2 working memory span as a dependent variable, with age of L2 acquisition as a between-group categorical predictor and L1 working memory span as a continuous covariate predictor. Within-group comparison of L1 and L2 spans of the EA group was performed for further examination of proficiency effect. Working memory spans were calculated in the same fashion as in Experiment 1.

Procedure: Administration of the task was individual. Participants were administered two parallel language variants of the reading span task (Hungarian and Serbian) in one session. The order of task administration was balanced and had no effect on the results. Technical aspects of the presentation of the stimuli were identical to those in Experiment 1.

ResultsDescriptive statistics of the subjects tested in Experiment 2 (the EA

group), together with the highly proficient subjects from Experiment 1 to whom they were compared to are displayed in Table 2. Due to lower variability in language proficiency of the EA subjects, their L1 and L2 spans were even more highly correlated (r(29) = 0.84, p < 0.01) than those of the groups tested in Experiment 1.


Table 2: Means and standard deviations of L1 and L2 spans for the groupsof early and later acquired L2 subjects.

Group Span M SD

Early acquiredL1 .627 .111

L2 .590 .111

Later acquiredL1 .639 .112

L2 .543 .102

Linear model (ANCOVA) was performed in order to examine the effect of the group membership on L2 span. Significant main effect of group was registered (F(1, 28) = 5.064, p < 0.05), even after controlling for the covariate L1 span effect (F(1, 28) = 41.405, p < 0.01). Conversely, group effect on L1 span was not significant (F(1, 29) < 1). While compared groups equaled in their L1 performance, the EA group performed significantly better in L2. Furthermore, subjects from the EA group had larger spans in L1 than in L2 (t(14) = 2.342, p < 0.05).

DiscussionAs in Experiment 1, high correlation between working memory spans in

L1 and L2 was found. This correlation was even higher than the correlation registered in HP group of the Experiment 1.

Unlike in Experiment 1, subjects from both groups considered in Experiment 2 analyses were proficient speakers of both L1 and L2. They matched in self-assessment of L2 proficiency, with the critical difference between the groups being the age of L2 acquisition. Subjects from the EA group started L2 acquisition at the age of four, while those of the LA group did so at the age of nine. This difference is both statistically significant and substantial. Furthermore, the EA group subjects acquired L2 within the critical period that is often claimed to be the maturational constraint for fully successful language acquisition (cf. Johnson & Newport, 1989; Newport, 1990), whereas the age of first exposure to L2 for the LA group goes well beyond the critical age of seven, with their L2 acquisition continuing during puberty period.

Experiment 2 showed that the two groups had similar working memory spans in their L1. The EA group, however, performed significantly better in the L2 task than the LA group. Accordingly, the experiment showed that the verbal working memory performance is affected by the age of language acquisition.

Results of Experiment 2 also showed that the L1 span was larger than the L2 span even in subjects who acquired L2 early in their lives and have very good command of it. This finding gives an additional support to the results of Experiment 1. More specifically, it shows that language proficiency effect on verbal working memory is not only characteristic of lower level L2 mastering, but that it is present even in very highly skilled speakers.


GENERAL DISCUSSION

This study examined factors that influence bilingual verbal working memory performance. The nature of previously reported proficiency effect was under particular scrutiny in our experiments, while the age of language acquisition effect was examined for the first time. The answer to the first principal question of the study – is verbal working memory performance affected by language proficiency? – is clearly affirmative. Several findings support this claim. Most importantly, critical comparison of two experimental groups in Experiment 1 showed that proficient L2 speakers had larger L2 working memory spans than the group characterized by lower L2 proficiency, even after the influence of L1 performance was statistically controlled for. At the same time, two groups did not show significant differences in their L1 performance. Moreover, subjects’ scores on L2 knowledge test were correlated with their L2 spans, and not with their L1 spans. Registered proficiency effect confirmed previous findings of Service et al. (2002) and Van den Noort et al. (2006), in spite of notable methodological differences in three studies. In particular, Service et al.’s experimental task was considerably different from ours: their subjects were shown pictures while the sentences were presented auditively. The task was to verify the correspondence between the two, while at the same time memorizing the last words of the presented sentences. Languages used were Finnish and English, and there were several procedural particularities in this study. In the Van den Noort’s study standard reading span task was administered in three Germanic languages (Dutch, German and Norwegian), while the same task and different scoring procedure was applied in our study. The languages we used (Serbian, Hungarian and English) origin from different and quite distant language groups. Thus, the concurrence of the results from the three studies proves that the proficiency effect is robust enough to be registered by the application of different experimental procedures and in very different languages. Additional support for this finding comes from the neurological study of Chee et al. (2004) where different brain activation at different L2 proficiency levels in working memory (n-back) task was reported. On the basis of the presented results, we concur with the view of Service and colleagues, and argue that language proficiency affects verbal working memory performance. It is our view that this happens in the following way: higher language proficiency in a given language leads to greater automatization of its processing, which leads to smaller processing costs in comprehension of the verbal material. This in turn causes that larger portion of available resources can be employed in the retainment of the information in working memory, which can ultimately be observed in superior working memory spans in proficient language processing.

Furthermore, results of the study allow for a more precise specification of registered proficiency effect. In Experiment 1, the effect was shown at lower levels of language proficiency (L1 span > L2 span). But more importantly, the


same result was obtained in highly proficient L2 speakers, too, for even highly proficient L2 subjects performed better when they were administered the task in L1 (in which they were more proficient), than in L2 (which they mastered fairly well, but not as good as L1). Finally, larger L1 span was found even in the group of early acquired L2 subjects (Experiment 2). Clearly, these results conflict with the threshold hypothesis that predicts the effect is to be observed at lower levels of language proficiency only. Presence of the effect at all examined proficiency levels contrasts with the findings reported in the study of Service et al. (2002), and concurs with the results of the Van den Noort’s et al. (2006). We suspect that the divergent findings of Service et al. are likely to have emerged due to application of considerably different procedure than the one used in other two studies. Our results suggest that even highly proficient L2 speakers do not reach the level of automatization of L2 processing that is characteristic of their L1 processing. Consequently, when comprehending L2 material they need to engage more of available resources than in L1 processing, and this in turn results in less information retained in their working memory.

However, there is one objection that can be made with respect to previous discussion. It can correctly be noted that superior L1 working memory performance of the Experiment 1 subjects may not necessarily have been caused by their superior L1 proficiency, since there also was a substantial difference in the age at which these subjects had acquired two languages. Having in mind the critical period hypothesis of language acquisition (cf. Johnson & Newport, 1989; Newport, 1990), one could wonder whether the L1 working memory superiority was (at least partly) caused by this other difference. The outcome of Experiment 2, however, does not support this skepticism, as similar superiority of L1 performance was found in subjects that had started with L2 acquisition very early (at the age of four), well before L1 acquisition was anywhere close to completion, and certainly well before the end of the critical period.

Relevance of the age of language acquisition on verbal working memory performance was examined in Experiment 2 where two highly proficient L2 groups were tested. Critical comparison showed that the group that acquired L2 at the early age had larger L2 working memory span than the group that started with the L2 acquisition later (the groups equaling in L1 performance). This showed that, in addition to language proficiency, age of language acquisition presents another domain specific variable that affects bilingual verbal working memory performance. Given that we have shown that proficiency affects working memory performance, potential objection regarding previous conclusion concerns the question of whether the subjects of the two highly proficient groups were exactly equal in their L2 competence, i.e. whether L2 proficiency of the later-acquired group was as high as that of the early-acquired group. In response to this, we firstly note that an effort was made to select the best later-acquired L2 speakers available. Their L2 proficiency was judged as high both by experts and by the objective L2 test scores. These L2 (English) test scores could not have


been compared with objective L2 (Serbian) test scores of the early-acquired group, since matching standardized test of Serbian as the second language is not available. However, we asked our subjects to assess their L2 proficiency, and these self-assessments did not show between-group difference. Also, subjects from the two groups were similar in declaring preference of the use of L1. Based on all this, we conclude that there was no evidence indicating between-group difference in L2 proficiency, and suggest that the observed results were likely to be the consequence of the differences in the age of L2 acquisition. This first establishment of the age of language acquisition effect is to be reconfirmed in subsequent experimentation.

Besides two principal outcomes of the study, two other results are also worth noting. Firstly, high positive correlation of performance in reading span tasks in different languages is found in both experiments. These correlations are comparable in size to the ones reported in Osaka & Osaka (1992) and Van den Noort et al. (2006). Differences among three languages used in our study additionally strengthen this finding. Viewed in the light of domain generality discussion, this result supports the notion of working memory as a cognitive capacity that is largely domain general, or at least language independent. However, registered interlingual correlation was far from perfect, indicating some specific language factors (e.g. language proficiency and age of language acquisition) also contribute to the working memory performance. Secondly, an effect of L2 proficiency or age of L2 acquisition on L1 working memory performance was not shown in either of the experiments. Learning of L2, even in an early period, does not seem to have backward beneficial effect on general working memory functioning. As discussed, this comes as no surprise, since current notions of working memory do not predict such an effect.

In conclusion, results of the study support the notion of a general pool of resources that are engaged in every working memory processing. This general ability, by large, determines working memory performance in verbal domain irrespectively of the language employed. However, the research unambiguously showed that some specific characteristics of language also have effect of verbal working memory performance. These are, namely, language proficiency and age of language acquisition. Age of acquisition effect was shown for the first time, and language proficiency was proved to affect working memory performance even in very high levels of language mastering.

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PSIHOLOGIJA, 2010, Vol. 43 (3), UDC 159.955.072 ; 159.922.072© 2010 by the Serbian Psychological Association DOI: 10.2298/PSI1003233B

The Effects of Matching a Persuasive Message to a Recipient’s Self-Concept on Attitude Change1

Marija Branković and Iris ŽeželjDepartment of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Serbia

The paper addresses the question of whether matching a persuasive message to a recipient’s self-concept can enhance message processing. A large body of experiments within the Elaboration likelihood model proved that framing a message so as to be perceived as self-relevant led to more careful argument scrutiny. In this research, we matched the messages with previously assessed need for cognition – tendency to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive tasks. Two possible sources of motivation to process a persuasive message were hereby confronted: dispositional (cognitive style) and situational (matching). Results showed a significant attitude change, but the main hypothesis was not confirmed: matched messages did not produce more argument processing activity than the mismatched. Manipulations did not have any significant effects on message processing of the high need for cognition participants. Contrary to expectations, participants low in their need for cognition elaborated the message more carefully when it was mismatched, that is when the message addressed them as persons inclined to careful thinking. Results can be explained within the framework of self-affirmation theory, which argues that providing people with an opportunity to affirm their sense of self-worth makes them more open to persuasion attempts, as well as more objective. Results are discussed from a wider theoretical and empirical perspective of motivation.Keywords: matching effect, need for cognition, argument quality, Elaboration likelihood

model, attitude change

When we attempt to persuade somebody to vote for a certain candidate or to buy a certain product the first obstacle we have to overcome is to get the person’s attention. How can we make people listen to and think about the arguments we have? People approach new information differently – while some are thoughtful, others try to avoid too much thinking. The question we can ask is how these individual differences may be used to enhance persuasion and,

Corresponding author: [email protected] This research is a result of work on the project “Psychological issues in the context of

social changes”, funded by the Ministry of Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia (project # 149018 D).

THE EFFECTS OF MATCHING A PERSUASIVE MESSAGE TO A RECIPIENT’S SELF-CONCEPT ON ATTITUDE CHANGE234

furthermore, if and under which circumstances these chronic tendencies can be reversed.

A large body of research has dealt with the issue of motivation in persuasion. One possible way of motivating recipients to process a persuasive message is through tying the messages to the self. People tend to be more sensitive to information that is relevant to themselves and appealing to their self-perceptions, following much the same principle as turning when someone calls your name (Petty, Cacioppo, & Goldman, 1981; Petty, Wheeler, & Bizer, 2000). If we formulate a persuasive message in such a manner as to appeal to the kind of person the recipient is, this may motivate the recipient to process the message more thoroughly.

Following this line of thought, in our study we attempted to frame the persuasive messages so as to appeal to individuals differing in their need for cognition – the tendency to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive activities (Cacciopo & Petty, 1982). We wanted to investigate whether such a match to an important aspect of self-concept would elicit more cognitive engagement of the participants, a result likely to expect on basis of the considerable research done in the field of persuasion and attitude change.

Our study draws on research done within what is currently the most accepted theoretical framework for studying attitude change – the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion (ELM, Petty & Cacioppo, 1986; Petty & Wegener, 1999). According to the ELM, people are motivated to hold accurate attitudes but, due to the limitations of their cognitive system, are unable to scrutinize every piece of information they confront. Sometimes people act as cognitive misers, while at other times it is more adaptive for them to engage all resources in careful information processing. This model postulates that there are two possible routes to processing persuasive information: central and peripheral. The key difference between the two routes is the extent of the cognitive effort put into argument scrutiny. With central processing, attitude change occurs as a result of investing cognitive effort into carefully thinking about the message and its contents. Persuasive argumentation is being thoroughly scrutinized: the relevant information is assessed on the basis of previous knowledge. Peripheral processing is based on a variety of processes, all of which require less cognitive effort. Some of these processes differ in a quantitative way from central-route processes (less careful argument scrutiny), while some are also qualitatively different – they include no argument scrutiny at all (e.g. heuristic reasoning or classical conditioning). Attitudes formed via the central route are more stable, accessible, resistant to counter argumentation, and more predictive of behaviour than those formed via the peripheral route (Petty & Wegener, 1999).

Which of the two routes is chosen depends on two key factors: the recipient’s motivation and ability to process, both of which can be a result of individual differences (dispositional factors) or the context of persuasion (situational factors). For example, recipients differ in terms of their intellectual

Marija Branković and Iris Žeželj 235

abilities or previous knowledge about a topic, while situational factors such as repetition or distraction can influence a recipient’s ability to process a message regardless of these individual differences. Similarly, people differ in their cognitive style – while some are thoughtful, others are not, but some situational incentives (e.g. talking about a subject in some way important for the recipient) can influence the motivation of a recipient.

While ELM deals mainly with motivation to accept or defy attitude change attempts, another important theory raises the question of why people actually have attitudes (Katz, 1960; Watt, Maio, Haddock, & Johnson, 2008). This functional approach identifies the needs and motives that people satisfy by holding, expressing, or changing their attitudes. A valuable implication of this approach for the study and practice of persuasion is that when we want to change somebody’s attitude, we should discover and appeal to the motivational basis of the attitude. The positive effect of matching a persuasive message to the functional basis of attitudes is known as the functional matching effect (Julka & Marsh, 2000; Lavine & Snyder, 1996; Petty & Wegener, 1998; Petty, Wheeler, & Bizer, 2000), and has been supported by robust empirical evidence. When tailoring the message to respond to the motivational basis of an attitude, a researcher can choose one of three widely used strategies.

Some researchers postulate that diverse objects serve the same function for different individuals – e.g. for most people coffee has an instrumental value (i.e. taste), while perfume is rather a means of expressing social identity. Sharon Shavitt (1990) presented her participants with two different kinds of advertisements for coffee and perfume: ones that appealed to the instrumental value of the products and ones that invoked a picture of social identity of people who use them. The results showed a clear matching effect: coffee ads with an instrumental appeal were more effective, as well as perfume ads with a social identity appeal.

Another line of research is an individual difference paradigm, based on the assumption that for an individual most of the attitudes he/she holds serve the same function (DeBono, 1987; Lavine & Snyder, 1996). For example, while attitudes of self-monitors typically serve a social adaptive function, attitudes of low self-monitoring individuals serve a value expressive function. DeBono (1987) presented high and low self-monitors with messages that contained the same arguments, but were framed to appeal either to social adaptation (it is claimed that the message expresses the attitude of the majority of students) or value expression (it is claimed that the issue in question bears on important values). Messages that matched the presumed functional basis of participants’ attitudes produced more attitude change.

The third line of research does not attempt to match the message to the recipient but rather to match the recipient to the message. Julka and Marsh (2000) used situational manipulations to induce a need to express values or to understand coming information in their participants. Commercial ads that were


created to appeal to these induced needs (i.e. matched messages) created more attitude change than those that did not (mismatched messages).

How does the matching effect actually work? There are two possible explanations:a) matching enhances persuasion by means of biased processing (top-down

hypothesis)b) matching enhances argument scrutiny, thus resulting in more attitude change

only when the arguments are strong (bottom-up hypothesis)The first-generation research showed that matching generally results in

more persuasion, which can be explained by biased information processing under the influence of existing cognitive structures (Lavine & Snyder, 1996). Research done within the framework of ELM showed, however, that matching messages to functional bases of attitudes can prompt people to give more careful thought to the message, or, using ELM terminology, to process it centrally. This can occur when the initial elaboration likelihood is not constricted to be either very high or very low (Petty & Wegener, 1998).

The ELM authors also proposed that the functional matching paradigm can be extended to include other types of matching, e.g. matching messages to cognitive/affective bases of an attitude, to an aspect of participant’s self-schema or social identity. All these types of matching share a common ground in that they attempt to make a bond between the message and the self, or to put it differently, to speak to just the kind of person the recipient considers him/herself to be. In this way, the message appears self-relevant, captures the attention and engages cognitive effort on the part of the recipient.

Several studies which investigated the effects of self-schema matching have been conducted within the ELM framework. In an early study by Cacioppo, Petty and Sidera (1982) participants were divided into groups based on whether they considered themselves to be religious or legalistic persons. They were then presented with arguments in favour of capital punishment and abortion which were either religious (e.g. taking somebody’s life is against the Ten Commandments), legalistic (e.g. the constitution guarantees everybody the right to live), or neutral. Results showed a clear matching effect – religious participants rated the message containing religious arguments as more persuasive, while the opposite was true of legalistic participants.

While these results are consistent with the top-down hypothesis, experiments with argument quality manipulation seem to support the bottom-up hypothesis. In one study, Evans and Petty (2003) identified among their participants those guided by their ideals and wishes and those guided by their responsibilities. The two groups were then presented with ads for a fictitious breakfast product that appealed either to ideals (Fast-Break: Your ideal breakfast solution!) or to duties (Fast-Break: The responsible breakfast!). Matched messages induced central-route elaboration, i.e. a greater effect of argument quality on attitude change


and thought positivity. The authors conclude that matching increased elaboration either by increasing motivation to elaborate (making messages appear self-relevant), ability to elaborate (making it easier to attend to and remember the message), or both.

Drawing on the research done within ELM (as in Wheeler, Petty, & Bizer, 2005), we wanted to further examine the effects of matching a persuasive message to an aspect of the recipient’s self-concept on attitude change. As already mentioned, we used need for cognition as the matching variable, a motivational construct that refers to the tendency of an individual to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive tasks (Cacciopo & Petty, 1982; Cacciopo, Petty, Feinstein, & Jervis, 1996; Cacciopo, Petty, Kao, & Rodriguez, 1986; Petty, Brinol, Loersch, & McCaslin, 2009; Trogrlić &Vasić, 2009). We constructed two different versions of the persuasive message to appeal either to people who like thinking thoroughly or people not inclined to think thoroughly. Using need for cognition in a matching paradigm could be especially informative because it allows confronting two basic sources of motivation: dispositional (cognitive style) and situational (matching). If need for cognition (i.e. cognitive style) is the strongest source of motivation, it can be expected that recipients who are thoughtful processors consistently engage in more processing activity, as opposed to those who are typically not thoughtful processors. If situational manipulation (i.e. matching) overrides dispositional differences, it can be expected that all recipients process the message more carefully when it matches their self-concept, regardless of whether they typically are careful processors.

Our main hypothesis was that matching messages to this aspect of self-concept would result in capturing the attention of the recipients and more careful argument scrutiny. We hypothesised that this effect would be observed with participants both high and low in their need for cognition. Besides testing the functional matching effect (registered mostly in ELM framework and with an English speaking audience) within a different cultural context, this study included several procedural novelties to test if the effect can be further generalized.

Within the ELM paradigm, it is common to study “non attitudes” (newly formed attitudes to uninvolving, often fictive commercial products) or what Zanna (1993) referred to as “parochial college issues” (attitudes towards different students’ policies). We opted for a more controversial and emotionally involving issue – attitudes towards people with serious psychiatric diagnosis. We also attempted to solve a more difficult task of changing already existent and relatively unfavourable attitudes to more favourable positions using counter-attitudinal messages in contrast to the commonly used pro-attitudinal messages. With this choice we adhere to a stricter definition of persuasion, which defines it as an attempt to change somebody’s already formed attitudes on an important subject (Žeželj, 2005; 2006), and make an effort to encompass a wider range of subjects.


Prior to the manipulation, we asked the participants to rate the importance of the subject, which enabled us to determine initial elaboration likelihood. According to the ELM, initial elaboration likelihood determines what outcomes are to be predicted, but is commonly deduced from results, which we felt was methodologically unacceptable. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we introduced a somewhat different operationalisation of the key factors – argument quality and matching, which shall be discussed in greater detail in the methods section.

MethodThe study had a 2 (need for cognition: high vs. low) x 2 (argument quality: high vs. low) x 2 (message type: matched vs. mismatched) between-subject design.

Participants and procedure: One hundred seventy-two high school students (average age 17.5) from Belgrade, Serbia participated in the study. Out of the initial sample of 218, only 178 of the high school students returned to take part in the fourth phase of the study. Six participants were excluded from the final analysis during randomization of experimental groups.

The study was conducted through four successive stages:In the first phase students’ need for cognition and their initial attitudes towards the

rights of persons with serious psychiatric diagnoses were assessed. The students also indicated how important the subject was, for them personally and for society as a whole.

In the second phase, potential arguments were created and their quality was assessed by a group of psychology students. A strong and a weak version of the message were created.

In the third phase, participants were identified as either high or low in need for cognition in the pre-test and then randomly assigned to experimental conditions.

In the fourth phase, the main experiment was conducted, including the following steps:

1. The participants were given cards with the message frame and were told that they would first get feedback regarding the previous session.

2. Then, the participants were presented with written persuasive messages.3. Both matching cards and messages were removed and the participants were given

questionnaires that first assessed their attitudes and then took a number of other dependent measures.Both the pre-test and the main experiment were conducted during lectures at school

and took between 20 and 30 minutes to complete. Participants were thanked and debriefed in cooperation with school psychologists.

Stimuli: The persuasive messages consisted of between 250 and 300 words and presented the arguments in form of a transcript of a fictive TV interview with a representative of the Serbian National mental health committee (Appendix 1). We assumed a transcript would be perceived as more persuasive than retelling somebody’s statements. We chose a TV programme offering mostly service information about the Serbian capital, and, among other things, comments on important social issues, such as mental health. Since this programme is not popular among teenagers, we minimized likelihood that participants might realize that the interview was fictive.

The pre-tested arguments were presented through the questions of the programme host and answers of the fictive expert. The participants (all except one) did not express doubt about


the authenticity of the interview, either by spontaneous comments or in their answers to the questionnaire.Independent variables: Need for cognition (NFC) was measured using an adapted version of the Short Need for Cognition Scale (Cacioppo, Petty, & Kao, 1984). The scale consists of 18 items and participants are instructed to indicate on a 5-point Likert-type scale the degree to which each item characterizes them. Reponses are summed (inverse items being recoded) with scores ranging from 18 to 90, higher scores indicating a higher need for cognition.

The Serbian version of the scale in our translation showed good psychometric properties (Cronbach’s α = .82). Principal component analysis and a scree test yielded one dominant factor, accounting for 28% of total variance. The participants were identified as either high or low in need for cognition based on a median-split. The two groups differed significantly in their need for cognition – the low NFC group had Mn = 52.8, SD = 7.2, while the high NFC group had Mv = 69.1, SD = 5.9 (F (1, 170) = 262.2, p = .00).Argument quality was determined using a procedure somewhat different from the standard procedure used in ELM research. ELM researchers define argument quality empirically (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986): potential arguments should be pre-tested and those eliciting predominantly favourable thoughts should be considered strong, while those with a predominantly unfavourable response profile should be considered weak. In practice, strong arguments are usually constructed so as to provide persuasive evidence in form of relevant statistical data or results of empirical studies (Petty, Cacioppo, & Goldman, 1981). Weak arguments, however, rely on quotations, examples, or personal opinions, without mention of statistical data. Thus, these arguments differ both in their form and in their actual relevance for the standpoint argued.

Different authors have criticised this empirical definition, demanding a stricter logical analysis and evaluation of argument quality (Van Enschot-van Dijk, Hustinx, & Hoeken, 2003). In one of the first such attempts, Areni and Lutz showed that argument quality is not a one-dimensional concept, but that it is possible to distinguish between argument strength and argument valence (Areni & Lutz, 1988). Whereas differences in argument valence (desirability of the consequences) are relatively easy to detect, detecting differences in argument strength (probability of consequences) demands considerable cognitive effort on the part of the recipients. When arguments are constructed so as to differ in argument strength only, argument quality effect can be less pronounced compared with arguments differing both in their form and relevance (Van Enschot-van Dijk, Hustinx, & Hoeken, 2003).

Following this criticism, we made an effort to make both strong and weak arguments appear equally compelling at first sight, while their logical consistency only becomes apparent upon thoughtful scrutiny (as suggested in Žeželj, 2006). Thus, both potentially strong and weak arguments provided statistical data, results of empirical studies and referred to eminent experts and institutions in the field of mental health. However, all these references were relevant only in the case of strong arguments. For example, a strong argument would state that only 4% of persons with serious psychiatric diagnosis had ever committed a crime (which is not different from the normal population), while a weak argument would state that only 4% of these persons possessed firearms. Both arguments rely on statistical data, but in the case of the weak argument this data can be easily refuted (a. one can commit a crime without possessing firearms and b. being diagnosed with psychiatric illness can be a serious obstacle for obtaining a firearm licence).

We chose not to use completely fictive arguments, but drew on actual data from publications and articles on mental health. We feared that, despite the debriefing, knowledge that we used fictive arguments favouring rights of people with psychiatric diagnoses could further polarize respondents’ negative attitudes.


Forty four psychology students rated preliminary arguments on a 7-point rating scale. The students were asked to carefully read each statement and rate the degree to which it can serve as a strong argument favouring rights of people with serious psychiatric diagnosis, regardless of what attitudes they personally held. In the instruction, a strong argument was defined as a logically sound argument that is difficult to refute. Arguments for the final version of the message were chosen based on their average rating and on their content – in cases where several arguments had similar ratings those that added new information were chosen. Strong and weak argument groups differed significantly in average ratings in pre-test: Mw = 3.42, Ms = 5.29 (F (1, 8) = 83.29, p = .00).Matching manipulation was conducted through message frames – an introduction and a summary that were added to each message – while the body of the messages contained strong or weak arguments, in order to keep these factors orthogonal. The frames were introduced to the participants as feedback regarding their need for cognition, measured in the first phase. Two versions of feedback were constructed (Appendix 2). One version addressed participants as persons who like thinking and who wish to look at all sides of a problem when making a judgment. The other one addressed them as persons who do not like thinking about and analyzing all the details, but prefer to rely on their intuition. In addition to this “introduction” to the message, a summary line was also presented following the arguments, once again addressing participants as people who like or do not like thinking. This served to reinforce the manipulation.

After dividing participants into two groups based on whether they were high or low in need for cognition, each participant from the two groups was randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions, formed by crossing argument quality (strong vs. weak) and message frame (matched vs. mismatched). Thus, in half of the cases the message frames matched actual need of cognition of the participants (addressing the thoughtful ones as individuals fond of thinking and the non-thoughtful ones as those who do not like thinking) and, conversely, mismatched the actual level of need for cognition in the other half (telling the thoughtful ones they do not like thinking and the non-thoughtful ones that they do).

This feedback was presented on separate cards given to each participant before the persuasive message in order to assure that they would attend to it and recognize if it truly matches their self-perceptions regarding cognitive style. A number of students recognized that the feedback regarding the need for cognition did not apply to them and commented on that, which showed that our matching manipulation was successful.

Dependent measures: Attitude measures: The pre– and post-test attitudes were assessed by ten-item agreement scales, including items as “Persons with serious psychiatric diagnoses often pose a threat to their environment.” or “It would be perfectly all right if a sibling of mine wanted to marry a person with a serious psychiatric diagnosis.”. The score on the scale did not correlate significantly with the score on the Short Need for Cognition scale (r = .15, p = .05).

In the pre-test the ten items assessing attitude towards people with psychiatric diagnoses were embedded among filler items ostensibly assessing attitudes towards homosexuals and the role of church in society. In the retest the participants responded only to a ten item scale (α = .76). Retest measures were taken immediately after the persuasive message.

Item analysis showed that one of the items was negatively correlated with the scale, so it was excluded from the final analysis. Responses were summed into a score ranging from 9 to 45 (inverse items being recoded), the higher score indicating a more favourable attitude. An attitude change measure was constructed simply by subtracting the pre-test from the post-test attitude measure.


RESULTS

Randomization of experimental groupsThe respondents were randomized into one of eight experimental

conditions. After eliminating outliers2, the conditions did not differ significantly in the initial attitudes, as shown by ANOVA (F (7, 164) = 1.73, p = .10), or in the assessment of the importance of the subject (F (7, 164) = 1.63, p = .13). The mean rating of importance was 3.04 (SD = .79) on a 5-point scale, which indicates that the subject was rated as moderately important. We can therefore conclude that initial elaboration likelihood was not constricted to be either very high or low (this is a prerequisite for hypothesised effects to be observed, according to the ELM).

To test the experimental hypothesis, the data was subjected to a three-way between-subject analysis of variance.

The effect of argument quality on attitude changeThe results show that experimental manipulation led to significant attitude

change to a more favourable position (F (1, 164) = 155.72, p = .00) – with an average pre-test attitude of 20.56 and a post-test attitude of 24.48 (on a scale ranging from 9 to 45).

We hypothesized that messages containing strong arguments would induce more attitude change than those containing weak arguments. Repeated measures analysis of variance, however, did not reveal a significant effect of argument quality (F (1, 164) = .06, p = .80).

Table 1: Mean attitude change (with SD) in the eight experimental conditions

Group matched message mismatched message

strong arguments

weak arguments

strong arguments

weak arguments

low NFC 1.62 (3.64) 4.62 (4.98) 5.47 (3.59) 4.04 (3.83)

high NFC 5.69 (5.83) 3.50 (5.01) 4.75 (3.76) 4.68 (4.86)

The effects of self-concept matching on attitude changeANOVA showed no significant interaction between argument quality and

message type (matched vs. mismatched) (F (1, 164) = 0.69, p = .41). Thus, the

2 Groups in the final sample differed both in size and their initial attitudes, so that an additional balancing was needed. From the four groups with extreme scores, 4 participants with the highest (above 95 percentile)/lowest (under 5 percentile) scores were excluded. In the largest group, we excluded additional two participants with scores between 90 and 95 percentile, to even out group sizes.


matching hypothesis was not confirmed when looking at the sample as a whole. However, there was a significant three-way interaction between argument quality, matching, and need for cognition (F (1, 164) = 5.65, p = .02).

To further investigate the interaction, we conducted separate two-way analysis in the high and low NFC groups (Figure 1). Within the high NFC group there was no significant interaction between argument quality and matching, with insignificant differences in the expected direction. The participants were somewhat (but not significantly) more responsive to argument quality when shown a matched rather than mismatched message.

Figure 1: Matching effects in groups high and low in need for cognition

Within the low NFC group there was a marginally significant main effect of message type (matched vs. mismatched) (F (1, 82) = 3.49, p = .065) and a significant interaction of message type and argument quality (F (1, 82) = 6.36, p = .014). The low NFC group behaved in a way opposite to expectations: the matched message led to less attitude change (M = 3.02) than the mismatched (M = 4.70). When the message was matched to participants’ self-concept they became less responsive to argument quality – strong arguments led to an average attitude change of 1.62 units when the message was matched, and to an average of 5.47 points of attitude change when the message was mismatched.

DISCUSSION

We hypothesised that matching a persuasive message to an aspect of a recipients’ self-concept would result in more careful argument scrutiny and heightened sensitivity to argument quality. This hypothesis was not confirmed.


The participants were on average not prompted to central route elaboration by messages that were formed to match their cognitive style. However, we observed a three-way interaction with need for cognition.

High need for cognition individuals were in general not influenced by our matching manipulation – they were somewhat (but not significantly) more responsive to argument quality when shown a matched rather than a mismatched message. This finding is consistent with studies demonstrating that the functional matching effect can be limited with persons high in need for cognition. Namely, since these persons tend to spontaneously engage in effortful cognitive scrutiny, little space is left for them to be prompted to expend more effort because of a ceiling effect (Evans & Petty, 2003; Petty & Wegener, 1998).

On the other hand, the low NFC individuals behaved in a way quite opposite to the one expected: they engaged in central route processing when the message was mismatched – when the persuasive message addressed them as persons fond of thorough thinking. Additionally, they tended to show more attitude change when presented with the mismatched message, regardless of whether the arguments were strong or weak. These results could obviously not be explained within the matching framework, so they called for a switch in mindset – instead of minute functional analysis, we turned to general issues of motivation. In our opinion, the effect of the “thoughtful person” framing can be understood in at least two ways: as an effect of attributing the named characteristic to the self (participants are said that they are thoughtful, so they act accordingly) or as an effect of positive feedback or praise (positive information elicits more cognitive activity).

There are several lines of research investigating conditions under which persons behave (and perceive themselves) in accordance with explicitly or implicitly stated expectations of others. One of these phenomena is known as the effect of attributional labelling, where attributing a trait or characteristic to participants elicits behaviours consistent with the label (Henderlong & Lepper, 2002; Jensen & Moore, 1977; Toner, Moore, & Emmons, 1980). Equivalent effects were also observed in the field of persuasion – in one study, participants primed with the trait of extraversion or stereotypes towards Afro-Americans scrutinized the persuasive messages that matched the primes more thoroughly than the mismatched (Wheeler, DeMarree, & Petty, 2008). The authors suggested an explanation in terms of an active self concept (inspired by the concept of dynamic self, see Markus & Wurf, 1987): the primed contents can be temporarily included in the person’s active, flexible part of the self-concept and thus affect behaviour. Consequently, while the framing matched to the “non-thoughtful” identity of the participants’ perhaps even additionally discouraged message processing, informing participants that they are inclined to thoughtful thinking could have led to behaviour consistent with this information (engaging in more careful scrutiny).


There is, however, a problem with this explanation – the low NFC participants adopted the mismatched message to a greater extent, regardless of the quality of the arguments presented. So, even if attribution could partly account for the observed effects, it seems that it cannot provide a complete explanation. Another hypothesis is that the participants perceived the “thoughtful person” feedback as a kind of positive information or praise. The most important argument in support of this is the experimental setting – the fact that the research was conducted at school, where thoughtfulness is considered a highly desirable trait. This feedback could have been perceived by the participants as something resembling a teacher’s praise (one participant tried to photograph the card with the feedback, as if to document it).

If our participants perceived the mismatched feedback as positive, it could have enhanced their intrinsic motivation, an effect demonstrated by a great deal of empirical research (see Deci, Koestner, & Ryan, 1999 for a review). One of the proposed mediating mechanisms of this effect is enhancing perceptions of self-competence, as explained in the framework of Steele’s theory of self-affirmation (Steele, 1988). Receiving positive feedback on a task reinforces the recipient’s sense of self-worth and acts as a sort of “inoculation” to defensive responses to persuasion. Research has shown that, when participants are given a chance to affirm themselves in a certain way, they become more open to objective assessment of counter attitudinal messages and more inclined to change their attitudes when shown valid arguments (Cohen, Aronson, & Steele, 2000).

However, affirmation can also make the recipient more inclined to accept any attempt at persuasion, regardless of whether the arguments are strong or weak (Correll, Spencer, & Zanna, 2004). It should be pointed out that both mechanisms could be at work at the same time, because our low NFC participants not only grew more responsive to argument quality, but also tended to change their attitudes more in response to both strong and weak mismatched messages (the main effect of matching). Since our study was not designed to test this hypothesis, further research is needed to investigate these effects more directly, in particular the issue of what makes a feedback positive. For instance, if we examined members of a sports club, would a “thoughtful person” feedback elicit more careful scrutiny of messages or perhaps a feedback addressing them as successful athletes?

Another perspective from which to observe the results is whether manipulating situational factors (i.e. matching message to self-concept) would override dispositional differences (cognitive style). Can we make participants behave in a way that is atypical of them – can we prompt those who are not fond of thinking to be thoughtful and vice versa? We are led to conclude that, although we attempted to neutralize the differences in cognitive style, they still appeared. Within participant groups differing in need for cognition, different patterns of interaction were observed. There appears to be no significant possibility (or


danger) to prevent persons who like thinking thoroughly from doing so. On the other hand, there appears to be a possibility of motivating typically non-thoughtful people to engage in extensive information processing activity.

Possibly the most surprising result of the study is the absence of the argument quality effect – the fact that strong arguments did not produce more attitude change than weak ones. This finding contradicts one of the most empirically documented effects in persuasion. Our findings suggest that the respondents did not expend enough cognitive effort to recognize the subtle differences in argument quality – mere mentioning of authorities and statistical data seems to have had effect, no matter how relevant the information really was. On the other hand, there is a possibility that any argument favouring rights of persons with serious psychiatric diagnosis would be new, perhaps even surprising to the participants, considering the sensationalistic and negative portrayal of mental health issues in the media. Some studies show that presenting new arguments on a topic can have an initial positive effect, even if the arguments are weak (Cacioppo & Petty, 1980). Another issue of importance is that it was psychology students who assessed the arguments used. Perhaps our participants thought that weak arguments were strong enough, since they did not have the opportunity to consider the more relevant ones. An interesting question for future researchers would be to compare “expert” ratings of argument quality with the ratings given by the participants in the experiments.

The crucial methodological novelty introduced in our study is the operationalisation of argument quality, which we previously discussed in the method section. Since our results show that different procedures give different effects, the argument quality paradigm in assessing the extent of message processing is hereby once again called into question. Criticism of this kind has apparently been recognized even by the ELM authors (See, Petty & Evans, 2009). They have accepted the fact that the crucial limitation of the classical paradigm is the fact that strong and weak arguments differ in their form – for example, strong arguments present more empirical data so that some forms of peripheral processing can suffice to make a distinction between them. The authors are now developing purer indicators of elaboration depth.

Another important reason for obtaining these results might be our choice of subject in the study. As already mentioned, we chose a topic of high social and moderate personal relevance, which is presumably both more personally involving and emotionally charged than the topics usually chosen in ELM research (e.g. campus life, tuition increase, or fictive commercial products). Participants were at least minimally familiar with the subject, mostly or overwhelmingly in a negative sense (e.g. they have presumably heard of cases of mass murders committed by psychiatric patients). Research focusing on personally relevant attitudes indicates that attitude change and resistance to change include both cognitive and affective elaboration. For instance, Zuvernik


and Devine found that the argument quality effect was dominantly mediated by affective and not cognitive responses (e.g. weak arguments provoked more irritation and annoyance, but these negative affective reactions were attenuated when arguments were strong) (Zuvernik & Devine, 1996). In the authors’ opinion, these results call for a revision of the concept of argument quality and its broadening beyond the definition in terms of the type of thoughts elicited. The precise mechanism mediating the effect of affective responses as well as the interactions between cognitive and affective factors needs further clarification. In this particular case, a good starting point would be investigating the role of ego-defensive motivation incited by an unpleasant and frightening topic. The effects could also be mediated by the amount of personal experiences with people having psychiatric diagnoses.

An important implication for future campaigns aimed at reducing the mental illness stigma in society is that caution should be taken with regard to the characteristics of the individuals whose attitudes we attempt to change. Different cognitive styles entail different approaches to information and in some cases it is particularly important to anticipate and try to overcome the possible sources of resistance. What encourages us is that it seems that this is not an impossible task.

To briefly summarize our findings, our results indicate that matching a persuasive message to an aspect of a recipient’s self-concept elicits neither more argument scrutiny nor biased assimilation. It appears that matching effects are not as universal as thought and can depend on the topic chosen. There are, however, two important limitations to our conclusions. Firstly, there are different types of matching (functional matching, matching to attitude base, social identity etc.) which can be guided by different sets of principles. Self-concept matching should be further investigated, since it is not as empirically founded as functional matching, and we can presume that in this case more complex effects and interactions are yet to be found. Secondly, in studying self-concept matching, care should be taken regarding the aspect of self-concept that is used. The cognitive style variable used in this study is highly specific since it is a trait engaged in the persuasion process itself, so that the message appeal and task requirements interfere. Different results could be obtained with other variables where there is no such interference. We would also suggest that future researchers use a more varied range of attitude objects, especially those that are more involving and personally important, as a means of reaching more valid conclusions on the process of attitude change.

Perhaps the most general question raised by our study is the nature of the effect of positive feedback on motivation, and more specifically, motivation to process persuasive messages. Future research should be aimed at understanding the processes that underpin these effects – for instance, how they depend on the context of persuasion, message or source characteristics or type of feedback


given. On the other hand, only further research of matching effects can show the possibilities and limitations of using this approach in attempts to enhance persuasion. In particular, self-concept matching opens a variety of research possibilities (matching persuasive messages to different characteristics or traits, different aspects of self-concept etc.). Investigations of bonds between attitudes and self appear to be a promising area of research that can offer important insights into the structure and dynamic of both the self and attitudes.

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Appendix 1The Strong and Weak Versions of the Persuasive Message

Strong argumentsIn the last few years, a steady increase in the number of people suffering

from mental disorders has been recorded in Serbia, which was the reason to adopt the National strategy for mental health. An important issue taken up by this strategy are the public attitudes towards people with psychiatric diagnoses.

The National mental health committee official, Doctor Jelena Milićević participated in the programme Belgrade chronicle (shown on the 8th of May, 2008) on national television (RTS). We would now like to ask you to carefully read some excerpts from the transcript of this conversation.

Programme host: Mrs. Milicevic, what is your personal opinion about the public attitudes towards individuals with psychiatric diagnoses?

Dr. Milićević: I have to say that the wide-spread social stigmatisation is a far more serious obstacle for these people to lead a normal life than the actual difficulties they experience. At a recently held conference at The Institute for Mental Health in Belgrade, we concluded that it is essential for the rehabilitation of the individuals with serious psychiatric diagnoses that they are included in the community and not isolated.

Programme host: The greatest obstacle to inclusion of these individuals into the community is the fear of their violent behaviour.

Dr. Milićević: This fear is not well-founded. Research done by forensic psychologists shows that only 4% of persons with serious psychiatric diagnoses had ever committed a crime. What is more, studies conducted in several countries showed that a reduced number of hospitalizations and inclusion of persons with serious psychiatric diagnoses did not result in an increased number of homicides committed by these people.

Programme host: But, do these individuals truly pose less threat to others than it is believed?

Dr. Milićević: We have recently heard a presentation on this topic at a scientific conference, which concluded that, after an adequate drug treatment, the probability that a person with serious psychiatric diagnoses would act violently is less than for a member of the ‘normal’ population.

Weak argumentsIn the last few years, a steady increase in the number of people suffering

from mental disorders has been recorded in Serbia, which was the reason to adopt the National strategy for mental health. An important issue taken up by this strategy are the public attitudes towards people with psychiatric diagnoses.

The National mental health committee official, Doctor Jelena Milićević participated in the programme Belgrade chronicle (shown on the 8th of May,


2008) on national television (RTS). We would now like to ask you to carefully read some excerpts from the transcript of this conversation.

Programme host: Mrs. Milicevic, what is your personal opinion about the public attitudes towards individuals with psychiatric diagnoses?

Dr. Milićević: My colleagues from the National committee of mental health and I must constantly remind the public of the fact that through respecting the rights of people with serious psychiatric diagnosis we show our humanity. I remind you once again of something you should always bear in mind, and that is when a person gets a serious psychiatric diagnosis once, it is left with them for the rest of their life.

Programme host: The greatest obstacle to inclusion of these individuals into the community is the fear of their violent behaviour.

Dr. Milićević: This fear is not well-founded. Statistical data gathered by the American Association of Psychiatrists show that only 4% of people with serious psychiatric diagnoses possess firearms. Another interesting piece of information are the findings of researchers from Great Britain, which show that 60% of people in this country believe that persons with serious psychiatric diagnosis should have more rights.

Programme host: What message do you have for our viewers about this topic?

Dr. Milićević: We can conclude that our country should become a leader in South-eastern Europe in every respect, above all when it comes to the rights of people with serious psychiatric diagnoses.

Appendix 2Message Frames Used For The Matching Manipulation

The “thoughtful” frameIntroduction: “Your results show that you are the kind of person who

likes hearing different opinions on a certain issue, before you make your own judgement. You wish to be informed in detail, to look at all sides of a problem and only then will you be ready to form your own opinion.”

Summary: “As you can see, this is a topic of such complexity that making any judgement requires careful consideration of all arguments.”

The “non-thoughtful” frameIntroduction: “Your results show that you are the kind of person not

too fond of elaborating each and every issue that you are expected to make a judgement about. You do not like analyzing every little detail, and prefer simply saying what you have in mind and keeping things as simple as possible.”

Summary: “As you can see, this is a topic of such complexity that it is best to base your judgement on intuition.”

PSIHOLOGIJA, 2010, Vol. 43 (3), UDC 159.97.072:616.89-008.454© 2010 by the Serbian Psychological Association DOI: 10.2298/PSI1003253M

Cognitive Reactivity to Sad Mood:The Importance of the First Depressive Episode

Zorica Marić1 and Tatjana Vukosavljević-Gvozden23

1 REBT Affiliated Training Center of Albert Ellis Institute, Belgrade, Serbia2 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Serbia

Cognitive reactivity to sad mood refers to the degree to which a mild dysphoric state reactivates negative thinking patterns. In this research, the contribution of the history of depression, the length of the current depressive episode and the intensity of the depressive symptoms were assessed in explaining the cognitive reactivity to sad mood measured with the Leiden Index of Depression Sensitivity (LEIDS). The sample consisted of 123 depressed outpatients. The results of principal components analysis suggested a three-factor solution of the LEIDS. The intensity of depressive symptoms, the history of depression and the length of the current depressive episode were all significant in explaining cognitive reactivity to sad mood. We have also found out a significant effect of interaction of the history of depression and the length of the current depressive episode, which demonstrated that a prolonged depression does not induce a stronger cognitive reactivity to sad mood during the relapse of a depressive episode, while during the first depressive episode a longer duration of depression does induce a stronger cognitive reactivity. Such a result demonstrates that the length of the first depressive episode, regardless of its intensity, is crucially important for the formation of cognitive reactivity.Key words: depression, cognitive reactivity to sad mood, history of depression, length of the

current depressive episode, Leiden Index of Depression Sensitivity

Dysfunctional cognitions are considered to be important causative and maintaining factors of depression (Ellis, 1963; Beck, 1967). Research has shown, however, that dysfunctional cognitions of depressed persons disappear once the depressed persons reach full remission of depressive episode after medication or cognitive therapy (Coyne & Gotlib, 1983; Simons, Garfield, & Murphy, 1984). Cognitive theories have explained these findings by stating that dysfunctional cognitions do not disappear during remission of depressive episodes, but remain “latently present” and could be easily activated by stress (Teasdale, 1988;


COGNITIVE REACTIVITY TO SAD MOOD: THE IMPORTANCE OF THE FIRSTDEPRESSIVE EPISODE254

Miranda & Persons, 1988; Segal, Williams, Teasdale, & Gemar, 1996). This phenomenon is well known in research literature as cognitive reactivity.

The results of the very important previous research (Segal, Gemar, & Williams, 1999) suggest that the cognitive reactivity to sad mood is a residual of the previous depression. Depressive episodes leave a latent cognitive deficit which can be easily activated with the feeling of sad mood with which it is associatively connected in the memory. However, further research of aetiology of cognitive reactivity to sad mood is needed, including the contribution of the length of the previous depressive episode and the intensity of the depressive symptoms. Also, the fact that cognitive reactivity predicts recurrences of depression leaves it undetermined whether cognitive reactivity is causally implicated in the first episode of depression (Segal, Kennedy, Gemar, Hood, Pederson, & Buis, 2006).

Previous research of this construct has predominantly made use of laboratory assessment of changes of dysfunctional cognitions produced by experimentally induced sad mood. Some of the objections to this method suggest that such an approach does not make it possible for assessment of cognitive reactivity to sad mood to be made in natural conditions and that it exposes vulnerable subjects to an increased risk of development of a new depressive episode (Van der Does, 2002). Data also suggest that 25% of experimental subjects do not react to the induction of sad mood at all, which produces sample dropout (Martin, 1990). These objections have repelled researchers, so studies of cognitive reactivity to sad mood have remained scarce in comparison to studies of other constructs. One of the ways to overcome such a situation was the creation of the Leiden Index of Depression Sensitivity (LEIDS, Van der Does, 2002). Since this instrument permits self-assessment of cognitive reactivity to sad mood in natural conditions, we believed that it would be a useful tool.

This research aims to assess the contribution of the history of depression and the length of the current depressive episode in explaining the cognitive reactivity to sad mood measured with LEIDS subscales. Given the theoretical position that during a depressive episode there occurs a strengthening of the associative link between negative thoughts and sad mood (Ingram, Miranda, & Segal, 1998; Segal et al., 1999), we can predict that persons with a previous history of depressive episodes would have higher levels of cognitive reactivity to sad mood than persons who were never depressed. We can also predict that the length of the current depressive episode would affect the level of cognitive reactivity to sad mood, because a long depression strengthens associative links between negative thoughts and sad mood. However, it is possible that the length of the first depressive episode is more influential than the length of subsequent depressive episodes. If this hypothesis comes to be true, we could expect a significant interaction effect between the history of depression and the length of a depressive episode.

Zorica Marić and Tatjana Vukosavljević-Gvozden 255

MethodParticipants and procedure: Our sample consisted of 123 female outpatients who had been diagnosed as suffering from unipolar mood disorder (nonpsychotic major depression) in several medical institutions in Serbia. None had a history of bipolar affective disorder or concurrent drug and alcohol abuse. In the sample, there were 86 participants whose current depressive episode had been lasting less than 6 months and 37 participants whose current depressive episode had been lasting more than 6 months. There were 30 participants without history of depression and 93 participants with history of depression. Participants’ age varied from 19 to 65 years (M = 36, SD = 14.6). These patients were assessed by psychiatrists using ICD–10 (WHO, 1992). The participants also filled out self-assessment scales at their homes and brought them back, over a period of two weeks.Measures: Leiden Index of Depression Sensitivity Subscales (LEIDS; Van der Does, 2002; Marić, 2008). The original LEIDS (Van der Does, 2002) is a 26-item scale measuring cognitive reactivity to sad mood. Prior to answering the questionnaire, the participants are instructed to imagine feeling somewhat sad (but not depressed) and then to fill out 26 items. In a previous study carried out in a student sample in Serbia (Marić, 2008) the results of factor analysis revealed three factors. Two items were excluded for MSA lower than .50 (Cerny & Kaiser, 1977) and two other for equal loadings on two factors. Factor Negative Self-Evaluation (10 items) was predominantly made of items reflecting “depressive cognitive triad” (Beck, 1996), since it measures negative evaluation of self, in regard to personal future, capabilities and life. Factor Avoidance (7 items), was consistent with the cognitive problem solving theory (D’Zurilla & Nezu, 2001) since it expresses an avoiding style of problem solving. Factor Interpersonal Sensitivity (5 items) corresponded to the dimensions of the trait “interpersonal sensitivity” (Boyce, Parker, Barnett, Cooney, & Smith, 1991). Internal consistencies for the subscales Negative self-Evaluation and Avoidance were good (Cronbach’s alpha .90 and .83), while the subscale Interpersonal Sensitivity had a somewhat weaker internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha .71). Moreover, the three months prospective study examined the predictive validity of the three subscales and revealed that they significantly explained the variance of depressive symptoms independently of the explanation of initial symptoms of depression, dysfunctional attitudes, ruminative style and chronic suppression (Marić, 2008). In this study we calculated summation scores for the three subscales according to the results obtained in the previous study.

Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II; Beck, Steer & Garbin, 1988). BDI consists of 21 categories of statements relating to depressive symptoms over the previous two weeks. Each of the categories contains statements that can be ranked on a 4-point scale according to the intensity of symptoms. In studies carried out in Serbia, the Beck Depression Inventory revealed a good internal consistency and validity (Marić, 2002, 2003).

A questionnaire about the history and length of depression (Marić, 2008). Data on the history of depression comprised answers to two questions: a. “Have you ever had, earlier in your life, a period of depression (when you were very sad most of the time and/or uninterested in the things you usually enjoy)”? (1-yes; 2-no); b. “If you have, how long did it last”? (1. less than two weeks; 2. more than two weeks, but less than six months; 3. more than six months). The participants who had experienced a period of depressive mood that had lasted more than two weeks were defined as participants “with a history of depressive symptoms”, while others were defined as participants “without a history of depression”. Data on the length of the current depression comprised answers to two questions: a. “Have you been depressed during the last two weeks (very sad most of the time and/or uninterested in the things you usually enjoy)”? (1-yes; 2-no), b. “If you have, how long ago did it start”? (1. less than two weeks; 2. more than two weeks, but less than six months; 3. more than six months).


Data were analyzed in the SPSS statistical package. The data analysis comprised descriptive analysis, reliability analysis and MANCOVA.

ResultsDescriptive data

Means and SDs of the LEIDS subscales are given in Table 1. We calculated summation scores and SDs for the whole sample and for the subgroups formed according to the length and the history of depression. For the variable “length”, we assigned number 1 to the patients who are depressed less than six months, but more than 2 weeks and number 2 for the patients who are depressed more than 6 months. For the variable “history”, we assigned number 1 to the patients with no history of depression, and number 2 to the patients with history of depression. Additionally, means and SD for the BDI and age were calculated for the whole sample. The mean age for the whole sample was 35.57 (SD = 14.61), and the mean Beck Depression Inventory score was 24.71 (SD = 11.81).

Table 1. Means and standard deviations of the LEIDS subscales for the subgroups formed according to the length and the history of depression and for the whole sample

NegativeSelf-Evaluation

Avoidance Interpersonal Sensitivity

History Length N Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD

1 1 19 14.63 7.98 13.58 7.04 6.47 5.21

2 11 27.09 10.23 20.91 4.85 8.73 4.24

2 1 67 25.46 7.64 19.69 5.39 7.06 3.70

2 26 29.35 7.36 18.77 5.38 8.19 5.06

Whole sample 123 24.77 9.05 18.66 5.99 7.36 4.31

Reliability dataCronbach’s alpha coefficients for LEIDS subscales were expected, given

the number of items per subscale. The results are shown in Table 2 bellow.

Table 2: Reliability analysis

Numberof items

AlphaInter-item(average r)

Item-total(range r)

Negative Self-Evaluation 10 .84 .35 .38 – .65

Avoidance 7 .76 .31 .37 – .62

Interpersonal Sensitivity 5 .66 .28 .36 – .49

Beck Depression Inventory 21 .90 .31 .24 – .72


CorrelationsThe subscale Negative Self-Evaluation had significant positive zero-order

correlations with subscales Avoidance and Interpersonal sensitivity, while the subscale Interpersonal Sensitivity did not have a significant correlation with the subscale Avoidance. All subscales have significant positive correlations with severity of depressive symptoms. The results are shown in Table 3 bellow.

Table 3. Correlations (zero-order)

NegativeSelf-Evaluation

Avoidance Interpersonal sensitivity BDI

Negative Self-Evaluation 1.000

Avoidance .518** 1.000 .

Interpersonal Sensitivity .185* .177 1.000

BDI .586** .392** .243** 1.000

Age .255** .314** .045 .552**

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)

Contribution of the history of depression and the length of the current depressive episode in predicting scores on LEIDS subscales

To test our hypothesis we applied the method of multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) with the three subscales of the LEIDS as dependent variables. Categorical variables of the history of depression and the length of the current depressive episode were treated as fixed factors (independent variables), while the intensity of depression and age were treated as covariates in the model. The results of MANCOVA demonstrated a significant main effect for the length of the depression. The main effect for the history of depression was not significant. The interaction effect of the history and the length of the depression was significant, suggesting that prolonged depression affects LEIDS scores differently in patients with and without history of depression. The main effect is significant independently of the intensity of the depression and patients’ age. The results for the effects are shown in Table 4.

Table 4. Multivariate Tests

Wilks’ Lambda F Sig.

History of Depression .93 2.54 .059

Length of the Depression .88 4.77 .004

History * Length .91 3.63 .015


Univariate Test of Between-Subjects Effect for the subscale Negative Self-Evaluation indicated the significant main effect for the history of depression (F (1, 117) = 7.37, p = .008), for the length of the depression (F (1, 117) = 13.04, p = .000), and for the interaction between history of depression and length of depression (F (1, 117) = 5.92, p = .017). The results for the subscale Avoidance indicated the significant effect for the interaction between history of depression and length of depression (F (1, 117) = 8.73, p = .004). The main effects for the history of depression and the length of depression were not significant. The significant main effects are independent of current depression intensity and age, since we treated BDI scores and age as covariates in the model. The results for the subscale Interpersonal Sensitivity indicated no significant main effects. All main effects are significant independently of the intensity of the depression and patients’ age.

Figure 1 demonstrates the interaction effects for the subscale Negative Self-Evaluation and Figure 2 for the subscale Avoidance. As we can see, the length of depression did not significantly affect the two LEIDS subscales in the subsample of persons with a history of depression (the dotted line). In the subsample of persons without a history of depression (the full line), a longer duration of current depression was related to higher scores of the total of the LEIDS and two subscales.

Figure 1. The interaction effect between history of depression and the length of the current depressive episode for the subscale Negative Self-Evaluation

Length of depression

More than 6 mon th sLess tha n 6 mo nths

LEID

S - N

egat

ive S

elf-E

valu

atio

n

30 28

26

24 22 20

18 16

14 12 10

History of depression

W ith out a h istor y

W ith a hi story


Figure 2. The interaction effect between history of depression and the length of the current depressive episode for the subscale Avoidance

DISCUSSION

The results demonstrated that there was a significant effect of interaction of the history of depression and the length of depressive episode in explanation of the variance of the results on the subscales Negative Self-Evaluation and Avoidance. This result demonstrated that the length of depression did not identically affect the scores of these subscales in the sample of persons who had already had depression in the past and those who had been experiencing it for the first time. The latter had higher results on the subscales, if their depression had been lasting more than six months, while the persons who had already been depressed in the past had the same results on these subscales, regardless of the length of the current depressive episode. Therefore, the results are in accordance with the assumption that depressive episodes produce a latent cognitive deficit that can easily be activated with feelings of sadness with which it is associatively linked (Van der Does, 2002). On the basis of our results, we can conclude that the length of the first depressive episode, regardless of its intensity, is crucially important for the formation of a propensity to react to sad mood by negative self-evaluation and avoidance of problems and difficulties. In recurring depressive episodes, the propensity to react to sad mood by negative self-evaluation and avoidance of problems does not change significantly with a prolonged duration of depression.

The results could be explained by the model of information processing (Ingram et al., 1998) that relies on the construct of associative memory network (Bower, 1981). This construct relates to a memory system made of memory

Length of depression

More than 6 monthsLess than 6 months

LEID

S - A

void

ance

30

28

26

24

22

20

18

16

14

12 10

History of depression

Without a history

With a history


units that are mutually connected by associative networks. The wider and more elaborated an associative network is, the easier its activation and the more complicated its deactivation become. Associative networks grow stronger and wider when emotional and cognitive units are simultaneously activated several times. Therefore, if a depressive episode lasts longer, a depressive cognition associated with sad mood and dysphoria will be more often used. Repeated use of depressive cognitions strengthens associative links between depressive thoughts and sad mood (Segal et el., 1999). This means that persons with a history of depression are more cognitively vulnerable and therefore exposed to a higher risk of development of a new depressive episode.

Our study has several limitations. The participants were diagnosed through usual clinical interviews conducted by psychiatrists in the course of their regular examinations of outpatients by ICD–10 criteria. Because of temporal and financial limitations, no use was made of a DSM-IV standardized diagnostic interview that would demand more time and necessitate a previous professional training. The history of depression and the length of the current depressive episode were assessed on the basis of the participants’ memory alone, which means that these data can be unreliable. The intensity of a depressive episode was assessed by the Beck Depression Inventory, the commonly used instrument of assessment of depressive symptoms in cognitive-behavioural studies (Kendall, Hollon, Beck, Hammen, & Ingram, 1987). Although this inventory is a reliable and valid measure of depressive symptoms, it is not sufficient for a diagnosis of clinical depression. According to the advocates of the theory of discontinuity of depression, the unique valid procedure is a structured clinical interview for depression (Gotlib & Hammen, 1992). Finally, it is obvious that our conclusions are limited to females, since our sample consisted of female patients.

Future research could test the hypothesis of the relation of the Leiden Index of Depression Sensitivity and the history and the length of depression in a mixed clinical sample, where assessment of clinical depression could be accomplished in better conditions. Moreover, there remains the possibility to prospectively examine whether the subscales Negative self-Evaluation and Avoidance could predict the acute beginning of clinical depression. In that case, a test-retest sample should be large, in order to comprise a sufficient number of persons who are in stable remission from a previous depressive episode, as well as a sufficient number of persons who were never depressed.

CONCLUSIONAmong many significant results, one of the most important ones suggests

that the length of the first depressive episode, regardless of its intensity, is of crucial importance for the formation of cognitive reactivity to sad mood. The results also give directions for conclusions about the construct-validity of the Leiden Index of Depression Sensitivity. They suggest that the subscales Negative


Assessment and Avoidance are valid indicators of cognitive reactivity to sad mood in a clinical sample. The results also question the construct-validity of the subscale Interpersonal Sensitivity, given the fact that this subscale did not perform according to the hypothesis of the origins of cognitive reactivity.

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PSIHOLOGIJA, 2010, Vol. 43 (3), UDK 159.928.23.072-057.874© 2010 by the Serbian Psychological Association DOI: 10.2298/PSI1003263J

Daroviti podbacivač u školi: neko ko ima problem, ili „buntovnik“ koji pravi problem?

Vitomir Jovanović,1 Pregrad Teovanović,2 Tatjana Mentus2 i Milina Petrović1

1 Odeljenje za psihologiju, Filozofski fakultet, Univerzitet u Beogradu 2 Fakultet za specijalnu edukaciju i rehabilitaciju, Univerzitet u Beogradu

U radu su poređeni daroviti učenici koji u školi podbacuju sa darovitim uspešnim i ostalim učenicima, i to na dimenzijama self-koncepta (slike o sebi), stavova prema školi i samoprocene inteligencije. Uzorku gimnazijalaca iz Beograda (N = 434) zadata je baterija testova sposobnosti i na osnovu postignuća na njima i školskog uspeha izdvojene su tri podgrupe ispitanika: daroviti podbacivači (N1 = 26), daroviti (N2 = 81) i ostali (N3 = 332). Rezultati jednofaktoske analize varijanse ukazuju da između tri grupe postoje značajne razlike na dimenzijama stavova prema školi, konkretno, na subskalama akademske samopercepcije, stavova prema nastavnicima, procene ciljeva, motivacije i samoregulacije; razlike su takođe nađene na sledećim dimenzijama self-koncepta: procena sposobnosti, procena postignuća i akademsko samopouzdanje. Navedene dimenzije pokazuju najveće korelacije sa kanoničkom funkcijom koja najbolje diskriminiše podbacivače od darovitih učenika (koeficijent .70, uspešnost klasifikacije 91.6%). Učenici koji podbacuju, iako svoju inteligenciju procenjuju jednako visoko kao daroviti učenici, ipak ne nalaze izvore svog samopouzdanja u školskom postignuću. Daroviti podbacivači procenjuju obrazovne ciljeve kao manje bitne, vide sebe kao manje sposobne i voljne da se angažuju u školskom kontekstu, nisu motivisani da ulože napor u ostvarivanje ciljeva i skloniji su da uđu u konflikte sa nastavnicima u nameri da ospore njihov autoritet. Nalazi sugerišu da biti podbacivač donekle može predstavljati i „voljan“ izbor koji se koristi kao strategija otpora, i da podbacivanje ne mora biti samo posledica intrapsihičkih konflikata ili nedostatka vere u sopstvene sposobnosti, mada postoji mogućnost da se nalazi interpretiraju i drugačije.Ključne reči: darovitost, podbacivanje, stavovi prema školi, self-koncept, samoprocena

inteligencije

Još je Termanova studija, u kojoj je tokom više decenija longitudinalno praćeno oko 1500 ispitanika svrstanih u 1% najboljih po skoru na testu inteligencije (IQ-u), pokazala da izvestan broj ispitanika ne ostvaruje postignuće koje bi se očekivalo na osnovu njihovih intelektualnih sposobnosti (Zuo & Cramond, 2001). Oni se mogu označiti kao podbacivači (underachievers) (Altaras, 2006).

Kontakt adresa: [email protected], [email protected].

DAROVITI PODBACIVAČ U ŠKOLI: NEKO KO IMA PROBLEM, ILI „BUNTOVNIK“ KOJI PRAVI PROBLEM?264

Istraživači se i dalje ne slažu oko toga kako fenomen podbacivanja treba definisati, pa čak i da li on zaista postoji. Skeptici iznose argument da podbacivanje nije legitimna psihološka kategorija, već puki statistički artefakt (prema Rimm, 2008) i da se podbacivanje identifikuje u odnosu na neku arbitrarno uspostavljenu normu. Ipak, među autorima koji se bave ovim fenomenom i koji nude različite definicije podbacivanja postoji zajednički imenitelj, a to je upućivanje na razliku između potencijala (sposobnosti) i postignuća (Dowdall & Colangelo, 1982; Reis & McCoach, 2000). Iz ovog ugla, nesklad između mogućeg (očekivanog) i ostvarenog učinka čini srž pojma podbacivanja. Većina autora se prilikom operacionalizacije pojma sposobnosti oslanja na standardizovane testove inteligencije, dok postignuće uglavnom određuju kao aktuelnu meru školskog (ili akademskog) uspeha (Altaras, 2006; Dowdall & Colangelo, 1982; Reis & McCoach, 2000). Na ovaj način je fenomen podbacivanja operacionalizovan i u ovoj studiji. Podbacivanje se najčešće istražuje na darovitim učenicima, gde eventualna razlika između potencijala i postignuća dostiže najveće razmere.

Postoje posebni problemi u identifikaciji darovitih učenika, iz čega slede i problemi u identifikaciji darovitih podbacivača; dodatno, postavlja se pitanje kolika treba da bude diskrepanca između potencijala i postignuća da bi neko bio označen kao podbacivač. Različiti autori predlažu različite kriterijume darovitosti. S jedne strane, Ganje (Gagné, 2005) pojmove darovitosti i talenta definiše široko, tako da se ovi odnose na gornjih 10% populacije po prirodnim sposobnostima u nekom domenu, odnosno na gornjih 10% po određenoj sistematski razvijenoj veštini. Kalahanova i Milerova, sa druge strane, darovitog pojedinca vide kao inovatora koji rešava probleme u nekoj akademskoj zajednici (Callahan & Miller, 2005), čime se približavaju definisanju darovitosti kao eminentnosti i kreativnosti i Renzulijevoj koncepciji kreativne produktivnosti (Renzulli, 2005). U ovom radu ćemo se držati šireg određenja darovitosti.

Drugo važno pitanje tiče se faktora koji utiču na podbacivanje. U literaturi nailazimo na tri etiološka modela: individualni, porodični i školski (Baker, Bridger, & Evans, 1998). Individualni model je proistekao iz medicinskog modela u psihologiji, a zasniva se na uverenju da se osnovni uzrok nastanka podbacivanja nalaze u samom učeniku – njegovim motivacionim, bihejvioralnim i emocionalnim problemima. Porodični model etiologije bazira se na pretpostavci da podbacivanje proističe iz nesposobnosti porodice da adekvatno podrži dete i tumači podbacivanje kao indikator porodičnog stresa. Školski model odražava širi pristup, koji uzima u obzir interakciju unutar različitih konteksta kao potencijalne determinante ponašanja, a podbacivanje posmatra kao rezultat sukoba između potreba deteta i školskog okruženja. Na najglobalnijem nivou analize, faktori se mogu podeliti na intrapersonalne i interpersonalne, čime se pažnja pomera samo sa psihičkih faktora podbacivanja ka (psiho)socijalnim (Altaras, 2006; Rimm, 2008), koji mogu obuhvatiti šire društvene i obrazovne prakse, diskurse i normativna određenja zajednice (Ber, 2001; Stojnov, 2005).

Vitomir Jovanović, Pregrad Teovanović, Tatjana Mentus i Milina Petrović 265

Model koji kombinuje psihičke i socijalne faktore u rasvetljavanju etiologije podbacivanja uživa ubedljivo najveću podršku među istraživačima ove oblasti (Altaras, 2006). Istraživači su itekako svesni da podbacivanje ne izvire samo iz intrapsihičkih problema podbacivača, ali donekle ostaje otvoreno pitanje kako širi diskurzivni faktori utiču na fenomen podbacivanja (no, to pitanje prevazilazi okvire ovoga rada).

Što se tiče uticaja intrapsihičkih faktora na podbacivanje, istraživanja pokazuju da su daroviti podbacivači po karakteristikama ličnosti sličniji profilu nedarovitih podbacivača nego darovitih uspešnih učenika (Dowdall & Colangelo, 1982; Altaras, 2006). U poređenju sa darovitima, daroviti podbacivači pokazuju se kao socijalno manje zreli, imaju više emocionalnih problema, češće su angažovani u antisocijalnim aktivnostima, i imaju nestabilniji self-koncept (Bricklin & Bricklin, 1967; Colangelo & Pfleger, 1979; Hecht, 1975; Pringle, 1970, sve prema Dowdall & Colangelo, 1982). Činioci koji se najčešće povezuju sa podbacivanjem uključuju nizak akademski self-koncept (slika o sebi) (Supplee, 1990), nisku motivaciju i krizu identiteta (Winner, 2005), nisko postavljene ciljeve (McCall, Evahn, & Kratzer, 1992, prema Reis & McCoach, 2000) i negativne stavove prema nastavnicima i školi (Colangelo, Kerr, Christensen, & Maxey, 1993; Rimm, 1995), pri čemu i dalje ostaje nerazjašnjeno da li su i u kakvoj vezi ovi intrapsihički faktori sa širim normativnim i diskurzivnim obrascima koji prvenstveno obuhvataju obrazovni sistem. U novije vreme, javlja se i slika darovitog podbacivača kao kreativca i/ili buntovnika, a njoj doprinose nalazi istraživanja koji kod podbacivača uviđaju izrazitu potrebu za nezavisnošću, interesovanja koja izlaze iz okvira kurikuluma, orijentaciju na socijalnu, a ne na akademsku sferu i neanalitički saznajni stil (Altaras, 2006; Reis & McCoach, 2000). U jednom istraživanju (Altaras, 2006), daroviti podbacivači izdvojili su se kao učenici sa najvišim skorovima na dimenziji otvorenosti, koja pretpostavlja sklonost ka nezavisnom mišljenju, kritičnosti i proširenju iskustva (Knežević, Džamonja-Ignjatović i Đurić-Jočić, 2004). Poznato je da škola najčešće ne izlazi u susret ovim potrebama, a i sama širina interesovanja može ometati fokusiranje na školsko gradivo.

Ako, sa druge strane, posmatramo samo društvene faktore koji mogu uticati na podbacivanje u školi, onda bi se ono tumačilo prvenstveno kao posledica delovanja obrazovnog sistema, pri čemu se misli na neizlaženje u susret potrebama darovite dece, s jedne strane i na pretežno disciplinujuće ustrojstvo obrazovnih institucija uopšte (Jovanović, 2008). Podbacivanje se tako predstavlja kao individualni strateški odgovor na ono što obrazovni sistem produkuje u skladu sa sopstvenim normama, pravilima i disciplinama (Fuko, 1997; Stojnov, 2005; Jovanović, 2008), čemu idu u prilog podaci da školski kontekst može imati negativan uticaj na učenje u odnosu na širi kontekst socio-kulturne sredine (Baucal i Jovanović, 2008). Podbacivanje, iz ove perspektive, može biti sagledano kao izbor da se kroz neuspeh i otpor, putem loših ocena,


sačuva samopoštovanje (Džinović, Pavlović i Stojnov, 2006). Rajsova takođe smatra da ono što podbacivanje predstavlja za školsku upravu, društvo, pa i istraživače koji se bave ovom tematikom, iz perspektive samog podbacivača može biti shvaćeno kao „dostojanstveno odustajanje“ od postignućna relevantnog za školski kontekst (Reis, 1998) ili kao izraz želje darovitih učenika da budu „normalni“ poput ostalih (Winner, 2005). Ovakav pristup podbacivanju produkuje niz zanimljivih pitanja. Da li je podbacivač neko ko za sebe ne zna da je inteligentan? Da li je podbacivač neko ko sebe ne poštuje, neko ko sebe ne vrednuje i neko ko nije uklopljen u svoje socijalno okruženje? Ili to može biti i neko ko, uslovno rečeno, voljno bira neuspeh u školi jer iz njega može crpeti samopoštovanje i postići različitost? Stoga, postavljena su pitanja kako daroviti podbacivači procenjuju svoju inteligenciju, koje ciljeve sebi postavljaju, kako vide svoju školu i nastavnike i kako opažaju sami sebe. Ovo istraživanje, dakle, ima sledeće ciljeve: a) utvrditi da li postoje razlike u samoproceni inteligencije darovitih podbacivača u odnosu na darovite učenike i prosečene učenike, b) utvrditi da li postoje razlike u samopoštovanju i drugim komponentama self-koncepta (slike o sebi) između darovitih podbacivača i ostalih učenika i c) utvrditi da li postoje razlike u stavovima prema školi i nastavnicima između darovitih podbacivača i ostalih učenika.

MetodIstraživanje počiva na jednofaktorskom trivalentnom multivarijantnom nacrtu, osim

u delu istraživanja u kojem nastojimo da utvrdimo koji linearni kompozit na najbolji način diferencira određene grupe ispitanika, kada nacrt ima formu složenog korelacionog.

Uzorak: Uzorak sačinjavaju učenici i učenice drugog i trećeg razreda beogradskih gimnazija (N = 434), i to Filološke (35%), Desete (32.3%), Pete (23.3%) i Matematičke gimnazije (9.4%). Prosečna starost ispitanika je 16.5 godina (SD = .73). U uzorku se našlo manje mladića (Nm = 176; 40.2%) nego devojaka (Nž = 262; 59.8%).

Varijable i instrumenti: Nezavisna varijabla je grupa, sa tri nivoa: uspešni daroviti, daroviti podbacivači i ostali (učenici koji nisu identifikovani kao intelektualno daroviti). Zavisne varijable su self-koncept, stavovi prema školi i samprocena inteligencije. Ovo se odnosi na analizu varijanse. Prilikom sprovođenja kanoničke diskriminacione analize, varijable grupisanja se smatraju zavisnim jer se u zadatku klasifikacije ispitanika upravo predviđa grupna pripadnost (Fajgelj, 2003).

Korišćeni testovi sposobnosti su: a) Test kombinovanih rešenja (TKR; Bujas i Krizmanić, 1969) koji se sastoji od dvadeset testovnih zadataka i nalikuje Ravenovim progresivnim matricama, s tim što se od ispitanika zahteva da izabere onu kombinaciju ponuđenih polja koja na najbolji način upotpunjuje matricu zadataka. Broj tačno izabranih polja varira u rasponu od jedan do tri. Vremensko ograničenje za rešavanje ovog testa je petnaest minuta. Rezultati validacione studije ukazuju da TKR ima zadovoljavajuće metrijske karakteristike, kao i da je prilikom njegovog rešavanja u najvećoj meri angažovana fluidna inteligencija i sposobnost spacijalne vizuelizacije (Teovanović, 2008). b) Subtestovi Verbalne serije Borislava Stevanovića (Stevanović, Dragićević, Štajnberger, i Bukvić, 1988). Sposobnost verbalnog rezonovanja procenjena je zadavanjem dva subtesta ovog instrumenta. Prvi od njih, Analogije (subtest četiri), sastoji se od trideset testovnih


stavki, a vreme rešavanja je ograničeno na dva minuta. Od ispitanika se zahteva da uvidi odnos između dva prikazana elementa (npr. obuća i noga) i na osnovu analogije odabere odgovarajući pojam. U drugom subtestu (subtest pet), nazvanom Ispremetane rečenice, od ispitanika se traži da uvidi smisao rečenice u kojoj su reči ispremetane i da u skladu sa razumevanjem odgovori na postavljeno pitanje. Test ima dvadeset pet zadataka, a ispitanik na raspolaganju ima pet minuta.

Kao indikatori školskog postignuća korišćeni su prosečna ocena na polugodištu tekuće školske godine i prosečna ocena na kraju prethodne školske godine.

Self-koncept je ispitivan instrumentom koji je razvio Vo (Waugh, 2001), a koji se sastoji od četrdeset pet stavki raspoređenih u tri dimenzije (od kojih je svaka operacionalizovana putem tri subskale): akademski self-koncept (subskale akademskog postignuća), socijalni self-koncept (subskale socijalnog selfa u odnosu na vršnjake istog i suprotnog pola, kao i subskala samoprocene prihvaćenosti učenika unutar sopstvene porodice) i samopredstavljanje (subskale fizičkog selfa, samopouzdanja i dostojnosti poverenja). Ispitanik iskazuje stepen slaganja sa tvrdnjom na četvorostepenoj skali.

Stavovi prema školi su ispitivani instrumentom SAAS-R (School Attitude Assessment Survey–Revised; McCoach & Siegle, 2003), koji meri stavove učenika prema različitim aspektima školske situacije. Instrument je razvijen sa namerom da olakša identifikaciju podbacivača u srednjim školama. Sastoji se od tridesetpet stavki (sedmostepene skale Likertovog tipa) raspoređenih u pet faktora:

a) Akademska samopercepcija. Odnosi se na stavove koje učenik ima prema vlastitim kognitivnim sposobnostima. Deo je opšteg uverenja o sopstvenoj vrednosti, ali se odnosi na percipirane akademske veštine, poverenje u vlasititu kompetentnost u školskom kontekstu (npr. „Brzo učim nove stvari u školi.“). Ranija istraživanja ukazuju da je ova dimenzija značajan prediktor školskog postignuća (McCoach & Siegle, 2003) i korelat podbacivanja.

b) Stavovi prema nastavnicima je dimenzija kojom se procenjuje afektivni odnos učenika prema ličnosti i ulozi nastavnika (npr. „U dobrim sam odnosima sa svojim nastavnicima.“). Autori instrumenta smatraju da je u ovom stavu moguće registrovati i odnos prema autoritetu uopšte, ali i afektivni stav prema samoj nastavi.

c) Stavovi prema školi predstavljaju dimenziju koja opisuje kakav je afektivni stav učenika prema školi koju pohađaju, nezavisno od nastave i od nastavnika. Skala se odnosi na vrednovanje sopstvene škole u odnosu na ostale (npr. „Ponosan sam na svoju školu.“, „Ova škola je pravi pogodak za mene.“).

d) Procena ciljeva predstavlja dimenziju koja meri doživljenu važnost dobrih ocena i uspeha u školi za učenika i procenu u kojoj meri dobre ocene predstavljaju važan cilj za učenika i za njegovu budućnost („Veoma je važno imati dobre ocene.“, „Uspeh u školi je važan za moje buduće ciljeve u karijeri.“).

e) Motivacija i samoregulacija predstavlja dimenziju koja govori u kojoj su meri učenici motivisani da ulažu sistematičan, posvećen i koncentrisan napor u školske zadatke. Ova dimenzija se može opisati i kao sklonost da se koriste metakognitivne strategije, samoupravljanje i samoregulisano učenje („Koristim različite strategije prilikom učenja novog gradiva.“,“Mnogo truda ulažem u svoj školski rad.“).Samoprocena inteligencije je merena na osnovu jednog ajtema koji podstavlja zahtev

ispitaniku da sebe svrsta u jednu od ponuđenih kategorija inteligencije: 1) „Ja sam natprosečno inteligentna osoba.“, 2) „Ja sam malo inteligentnija/inteligentniji od proseka.“, 3) „Ja sam


prosečno inteligentna osoba.“, 4) „Po svojoj inteligenciji sam nešto ispod proseka.“ i 5) „Po svojoj inteligenciji sam značajno ispod proseka.“.

Procedura istraživanja: Iz opšteg uzorka su izdvojene tri grupe ispitanika: daroviti (N1 = 81), daroviti podbacivači (N2 = 26) i ostali (N3 = 332). Na uzorku gimnazijalaca, na osnovu rezultata primenjenih testova sposobnosti, izdvojena je grupa učenika koji se nalaze među 25% najuspešnijih po svom postignuću na testovima sposobnosti. Unutar ove selekcionisane grupe izdvojeno je 10% učenika sa najslabijim školskim postignućem i oni su svrstani u grupu daroviti podbacivači, dok je ostatak ispitanika svrstan u grupu daroviti. Postignuće je predstavljeno preko ekstrahovane glavne komponente za dve mere školskog uspeha (prosečna ocena na polugodištu i na kraju školske godine), pri čemu su obe prikazale isto zasićenje na faktoru školskog uspeha (.93) koji objašnjava 86.9% varijanse. Potencijal (postignuće na testovima sposobnosti) predstavljen je preko glavne kopmonente ekstrahovane iz tri testa sposobnosti pri čemu verbalni testovi (Analogije i Ispremetane rečenice) imaju veća zasićenja (.83 i .85, redom) u odnosu na TKR (.28). Na ovaj način smo uspeli da identifikujemo 26 podbacivača od ukupno 439 gimnazijalaca koliko je sačinjavalo naš uzorak (tabela 1).

Tabela 1. Struktura uzorka.

Grupa Frekvenca Procenat

Daroviti podbacivači 26 5,9

Daroviti 81 18,5

Ostali 332 75,6

Ukupno 439 100

Uspostavljeni kriterijumi podele korišćeni su prilikom operacionalizacije kategoričke varijable grupa, čija smo tri nivoa (daroviti, daroviti podbacivači i ostali) poredili na zavisnim varijablama, i to pomoću jednofaktorske analize varijanse. Post-hoc testovi su poslužili da, u slučaju postojanja efekta faktora grupa, utvrdimo između kojih nivoa je on izraženiji. Na kraju, pomoću diskriminacione kanoničke analize nastojali smo da utvrdimo koji linearni kompozit se pokazuje najboljim diskriminatorom pomenutih grupa.

RezultatiDaroviti podbacivači i daroviti učenici se ne razlikuju po svom skoru na

testovima inteligencije: t(105, 1) = 0.26; p > .05. S druge strane, izražena je razlika u školskom uspehu na kraju polugodišta između darovitih podbacivača (AS = 2.30) i darovitih (AS = 4.48). Pored toga, postoji i razlika između darovitih podbacivača i grupe ostalih učenika (AS = 3.27) na faktoru školskog postignuća. Razlika između sve tri grupe je statistička značajna: F(272, 2) = 52.2 p < .001. Ovakvi nalazi govore u prilog valjanosti izvršene klasifikacije.Razlike među grupama na skali stavova prema školi. Na četiri dimenzije stavova postoje statistički značajne razlike između darovitih, podbacivača i ostalih (tabela 2). Ove grupe ispitanika se ne razlikuju jedino na subskali stavova prema


školi. Treba napomenuti da se ovom dimenzijom izražava stav učenika prema konkretnoj školi koju pohađaju, a ne prema školskom sistemu u celini. Nasuprot tome, postoje značajne razlike između podgrupa učenika s obzirom na akademsku samopercepciju, stavove koje imaju prema nastavnicima, vrednovanje školskih ciljeva i motivacione aspekte učenja u školskom kontekstu.

Tabela 2. Deskriptivne mere i rezultati jednofaktorske analaze varijanse za skalu stavova prema školi (u svim tabelama su zasenčene statistički značajne razlike)

Grupa N AS σ F p

Akademska samopercepcija

Daroviti podbacivači 26 4.71 0.89

19.51 .000Daroviti 81 5.83 0.92

Ostali 329 5.12 1.05

Stavovi prema nastavnicima


5.73 .004Daroviti 81 3.98 1.21

Ostali 329 3.55 1.28

Stavovi prema školi


1.13 .323Daroviti 81 4.79 1.84

Ostali 329 4.48 1.80

Procena ciljeva


9.19 .000Daroviti 81 5.40 1.18

Ostali 327 5.45 1.17

Motivacija i samoregulacija


12.24 .000Daroviti 81 4.44 1.28

Ostali 326 4.19 1.28

Kako bismo utvrdili između kojih grupa učenika postoje statistički značajne razlike, koristili smo Sidakove post-hoc kriterijume značajnosti (tabela 3). Na svakoj od pomenutih dimenzija postoji razlika između podbacivača i darovitih. U slučaju akademske samopercepcije i stavova prema nastavnicima izostaje razlika između podgrupa darovitih podbacivača i ostalih. Međutim, upravo na tim subskalama postoje razlike između darovitih i ostalih.


Tabela 3. Rezultati testiranja značajnosti razlika između podgrupa na skali stavova prema školi putem Sidak post hoc testa

Prva grupa Druga grupa p

Akademska samopercepcija

Daroviti podbacivači

Daroviti .000

Ostali .147

Daroviti Ostali .000

Stavovi prema nastavnicima


Daroviti .012

Ostali .265


Procena ciljevaDaroviti podbacivači

Daroviti .001

Ostali .000


Motivacija i samoregulacija


Daroviti .000

Ostali .000


Skala self-koncepta. Od postojećih devet subskala self-koncepta, njih pet je osetljivo na razlike između tri podgrupe ispitanika (tabela 4): procena sposobnosti i postignuća, akademsko samopouzdanje, slika o sebi unutar porodice i dostojnost poverenja. Razlike između podbacivača i druge dve grupe učenika na dimenzijama opšteg samopouzdanja i self-koncepta koji ima izvor u odnosima sa istopolnim vršnjacima nisu se pokazale statistički značajnim. Ne postoje statistički značajne razlike između podbacivača, darovitih i ostalih na subskalama fizičkog selfa i slike o sebi na osnovu odnosa sa vršnjacima suprotnog pola.

Tabela 4. Deskriptivne mere i rezultati jednofaktorske analaze varijanseza skalu self-koncepta.

Grupa N AS SD F p

Procena sposobnosti

Podbacivači 26 1.75 0.42

21.33 .000Daroviti 78 2.46 0.52

Ostali 323 2.06 0.59

Procena postignuća


27.58 .000Daroviti 78 1.99 0.68

Ostali 320 1.51 0.72


Akademsko samopouzdanje


3.80 .023Daroviti 78 1.65 0.57

Ostali 319 1.54 0.62

Slika o sebi na osnovu odnosa sa istopolnim vršnjacima


2.96 .053Daroviti 78 1.97 0.58

Ostali 317 2.13 0.59

Slika o sebi na osnovu odnosa sa vršnjacima suprotnog pola


0.45 .638Daroviti 77 2.20 0.62

Ostali 314 2.18 0.55

Slika o sebi unutar porodice


4.36 .013Daroviti 76 2.58 0.61

Ostali 311 2.65 0.5

Fizički self


1.51 .221Daroviti 76 1.95 0.78

Ostali 307 1.99 0.67

Opšte samopouzdanje


2.88 .058Daroviti 77 2.31 0.66

Ostali 306 2.44 0.56

Dostojnost poverenja


3.29 .038Daroviti 77 2.53 0.53

Ostali 306 2.60 0.46

Razlike između parova podgrupa ustanovljene su primenom Sidakovog post hoc testa (tabela 5). Statistički značajne razlike između grupa dobijene su u slučaju sva tri poređenja na dimenzijama procene sposobnosti i procene postignuća. Ostale razlike nisu unutar granica statističke značajnosti, osim na dimenzijama akademskog samopouzdanja, gde postoji razlika između podbacivača i darovitih, odnosno na subskali slike o sebi unutar porodice, na kojoj se razlikuju podbacivači i ostali.


Tabela 5. Rezultati testiranja značajnosti razlika između podgrupa na skali self-koncepta putem Sidak post hoc testa

Prva grupa Druga grupa p

Procena sposobnosti


Daroviti .000

Ostali .028


Procena postignuća


Daroviti .000

Ostali .000


Akademsko samopouzdanje


Daroviti .024

Ostali .089


Slika o sebi unutar porodice


Daroviti .111

Ostali .016


Dostojnost poverenja


Daroviti .286

Ostali .051


Činjenica da podbacivači imaju značajno niži skor na skali procene postignuća (0.87) i od grupe darovitih (1.99) i od grupe ostalih učenika (1.55) govori o tome da su podbacivači manje ponosni na svoje školsko postignuće i svesni toga da su njihova postignuća manja nego što bi trebalo da budu. Na subskali akademskog samopouzdanja, postoji statistički značajna razlika između darovitih učenika i darovitih podbacivača (p = .024), ali ne postoji razlika između podbacivača i grupe ostalih učenika, što se pre može protumačiti visokim samopouzdanjem darovitih učenika usled njihove samoaktualizacije u školskom kontekstu, nego sniženim i ispodprosečnim samopouzdanjem darovitih podbacivača. Podbacivači čak imaju nešto veće akademsko samopouzdanje u odnosu na prosečne učenike, ali razlika nije statistički značajna. Razlika u prihvaćenosti unutar porodice nije statistički značajna između grupe podbacivača i darovitih, ali jeste između podbacivača i ostalih učenika (p = .016), što nam ne daje puno povoda za utvrđivanje razlika na ovoj dimenziji između grupa. Daroviti podbacivači i daroviti učenici se osećaju podjednako prihvaćeno i voljeno unutar svojih porodica, imaju poverenja u nju, smatraju da se porodica zadovoljavajuće odnosi prema njima i osećaju da je porodica ponosna na njih.


Samoprocena inteligencije. Samoprocena inteligencije na celokupnom uzorku pokazuje povezanost sa objektivno merenom inteligencijom (r = -.33, p < .01; negativna korelacija govori o pozitivnoj vezi između fenomena pošto je skala samoprocene inteligencije invertovana) i akademskom samopercepcijom (r = .39, p < .01). Pored toga, postoje statistički značajne razlike u samoproceni inteligencije (p = .001) između grupe darovitih (1.83) i grupe ostalih učenika (2.47). Daroviti podbacivači (2.13) se na ovoj dimenziji ne razlikuju značajno od darovitih učenika (p = .495) .Rezultati kanoničke diskriminacione analize. Kanonička diskriminaciona analiza je primenjena sa ciljem da se utvrdi pomoću kojih konstrukata se najbolje može izvršiti razlikovanje između darovitih učenika i darovitih podbacivača. Kako je primena Boksovog testa pokazala da matrice kovarijansi nisu homogene (M = 192.54, p = .003), diskriminativna kanonička analiza je sprovedena na odvojenim matricama kovarijansi za svaku podgrupu (separate group).

Izdvojila se jedna statistički značajna (λ = .508; χ2(14) = 62.938; p = .000)

diskriminativna funkcija (čija je svojstvena vrednost .967, a koja objašnjava celokupnu varijansu). Koeficijent kanoničke korelacije (0.70) i uspešnost klasifikacije (91.6%) ukazuju na kvalitet funkcije koja je najviše zasićena varijablama samoprocene sposobnosti i postignuća, akademskog self koncepta, vrednovanja školskih ciljeva, stavova prema nastavnicima i motivacije (tabela 2). Položaj na centroidu ukazuje da daroviti podbacivači (–1.665), za razliku od darovitih (0.570), imaju značajno niže skorove na pomenutim dimenzijama.

Tabela 6. Matrice sklopa i strukture diskriminativne kanoničke funkcije (zelenim su označene subskale Voovog instrumenta, a plavim subskale instrumenta SAAR-S)

Standardizovani koeficijenti

Strukturni koeficijenti

Akademska samopercepcija .167 .535Stavovi prema nastavnicima .451 .333Stavovi prema školi -.417 .015Procena ciljeva .246 .348Motivacija i samoregulacija .052 .498Samoprocena sposobnosti .539 .626Procena postignuća .481 .742Akademsko samopouzdanje .068 .264Istopolni odnosi -.076 -.017Međupolni odnosi .018 .082Porodični odnosi -.075 .175Fizički self -.334 .122Opšte samopouzdanje -.366 .070Dostojnost poverenja .135 .146


INTERPETACIJA I DISKUSIJA

Dobijene rezultate možemo svrstati u dve grupe: 1) osobine po kojima se daroviti podbacivači ne razlikuju od darovitih i ostalih učenika i 2) osobine kod kojih su konstatovane značajne razlike između darovitih podbacivača i darovitih i ostalih učenika. Prvu grupu nalaza čine podaci koji govore da daroviti podbacivači nemaju negativniji self-koncept od darovitih učenika kada se on odnosi na vanškolski kontekst i da se daroviti podbacivači ne razlikuju u proceni svojih intelektualnih sposobnosti u odnosu na grupu darovitih učenika. Drugu grupu nalaza čine podaci koji govore da se daroviti podbacivači od darovitih i ostalih učenika razlikuju u svojim stavovima prema nastavnicima i prema učenju, i da se daroviti podbacivači razlikuju od darovitih i ostalih učenika po akademskom self-konceptu, odnosno po proceni svog školskog postignuća, motivaciji da se za njega založe i proceni svojih sposobnosti da se angažuju u školskom kontekstu .

Na skalama opšteg samopouzdanja, fizičkog selfa, socijalne prilagođenosti i osećanja prihvaćenosti od strane vršnjaka i unutar porodice, ne postoje statistički značajne razlike među grupama učenika. Ovo govori da su sve tri grupe učenika jednako prilagođene među svojim vršnjacima, bilo da su oni istog ili suprotnog pola, da su u sličnoj meri zadovoljni svojim fizičkim izgledom i da se osećaju podjednako prihvaćenim u svojim porodicama. Smatramo da je za celokupnu interpretaciju rezultata naročito važno da se osvrnemo na dimenziju opšteg samopouzdanja, gde ne postoje statistički značajne razlike između grupa podbacivača i darovitih i ostalih učenika. Ovo nam govori da su daroviti podbacivači osobe koje su u podjednakoj meri zadovoljne sobom kao i ostali učenici, koje smatraju za sebe da imaju dovoljno samopouzdanja, poštuju sebe i smatraju da vrede, u istoj meri kao i daroviti pojedinci koji za razliku od njih postižu izrazit školski uspeh. Međutim, kada se sve ovo odnosi na školski kontekst, daroviti podbacivači pokazuju niže skorove.

Ono što je naročito važno, daroviti podbacivači imaju statistički značajno niže skorove na dimenziji stavova prema nastavnicima (3.14), u odnosu na grupu darovitih (3.98) i u odnosu na grupu ostalih učenika (3.55). Ovo nalaže da, u skladu sa sadržajem date subskale, o podbacivaču razmišljamo kao o nekome ko ne voli svoje nastavnike, ko misli da njegovim nastavnicima nije stalo do njega, nekoga ko ne voli časove i nastavu u školi. Daroviti podbacivač ne misli da su njegovi nastavnici dobri i da mu žele dobro, o čemu govori sadržaj ove subskale. Može se reći da nizak skor na subskali stavova prema nastavnicima ukazuje na otpor prema nastavničkom autoritetu. Podbacivač je, na osnovu ovih rezultata, neko ko je više sklon da se suprotstavi nastavniku nego što je to slučaj sa darovitim ili prosečnim učenikom. Takođe, na dimenziji procene ciljeva, daroviti podbacivači postižu najniže skorove (4.41), po kojima se razlikuju (p < .001) i od darovitih (5.40) i od prosečnih učenika (5.45). Ovo nam nedvosmisleno govori o tome da daroviti podbacivači u manjoj meri žele da ostvare dobre ocene, da ne žele da se


pokažu u školi, da ne žele da daju sve od sebe, niti školsko postignuće smatraju važnim. Samoprocena inteligencije na celokupnom uzorku pokazuje povezanost sa objektivno merenom inteligencijom, što znači da uopšte uzev učenici nastoje da sebe i svoje sposobnosti percipiraju manje-više u skladu sa stvarnošću, što je uobičajen nalaz. Kada se u obzir uzmu stvarne razlike u inteligenciji, daroviti podbacivači i daroviti se ne razlikuju u samoproceni sopstvenih intelektualnih kapaciteta, ali se razlikuju na skali akademske samopercepcije, što ukazuje na to da nemaju istu procenu mogućnosti uspešnog funkcionisanja u školi i želje da se u njemu angažuju. Potonji nalaz je u skladu sa ranijim istraživanjima koja izdvajaju skalu akademske samopercepcije kao značajan prediktor školskog postignuća i korelat podbacivanja (McCoach & Siegle, 2003).

Uzeti zajedno, dobijeni nalazi ukazuju na to da profil darovitog podbacivača donekle odstupa od tradicionalne, simplističke slike deteta koje ima problem na psihičkom i/ili na socijalnom planu, pa zbog toga ostvaruje slabije postignuće u školi (Altaras, 2006; Peters, Grager-Loidl, & Supplee, 2000). U prilog tome govori rezultat da se daroviti podbacivač ne razlikuje od darovitog deteta koje niže školske uspehe po fizičkom i socijalnom self-konceptu i da svoju inteligenciju takođe ocenjuje kao natprosečnu. Tačke razilaženja između darovitih učenika i podbacivača, na ovde merenim dimenzijama, predstavljaju izrazitiji negativni stavovi prema nastavnicima, negativniji skorovi na dimenziji procene ciljeva i na dimenziji motivacije i samoregulacije, kao i snižena akademska samopercepcija. Ovo nas stavlja pred pitanje o tome da li se za podbacivanje u školi, u ovom kontekstu i na osnovu ovih podataka, može reći da predstavlja voljan izbor koji čini strategiju za očuvanje samopoštovanja u disciplinujućem školskom kontekstu. U prilog tezi da je daroviti podbacivač, bar u nekoj meri, „učenik sa problemom“, ponajviše govore razlike na subskali akademske samopercepcije. Razlike između darovitih podbacivača i darovitih učenika u skorovima na ovoj dimenziji govore, naime, da daroviti podbacivač sebe vidi kao nekoga ko nije sklon tome da „brzo uči“, da „ovlada složenim gradivom“, da prikazuje „pamet u školi“, niti se „ponosi svojim sposobnostima za učenje u školi“, o čemu govore ajtemi akademske samopercepcije sa obe skale (Waugh, 2001; McCoach & Siegle, 2003). S druge strane, nizak skor na skali akademske samopercepcije može se takođe interpretirati kao potkrepljenje teze o voljnom (ili bar svesnom) biranju podbacivanja, jer neslaganje sa navedenim ajtemima ukazuje na to da daroviti podbacivač zna da podbacuje.

Ipak, postavlja se pitanje: kako dete koje je inteligentno, i zna da je inteligentno, može istovremeno da ima relativno nizak skor na akademskoj samopercepciji, proceni školske sposobnosti i školskog postignuća, akademskom samopouzdanju, motivaciji i samoregulaciji, a da pri tom „nema problem“? U ovakvoj konstelaciji nalaza problem podbacivanja darovitih čini se još kompleksnijim. Dodatno, sam izbor učenika da podbacuje, iako može biti stvaran i svestan, može se istovremeno tumačiti kao prinudan, tj. nastao kao rezultat toga što sama škola ne nudi adekvatne mogućnosti za punu realizaciju


učenikovih potencijala (Altaras, 2006: 177). Kvalitativna istraživanja koja će u većoj meri uključiti „glas“ samih podbacivača u istraživački proces možda mogu pružiti jasniji odgovor na pitanja koja postavlja ovaj rad.

ZAKLJUČAK

Navedeni podaci donekle sugerišu mogućnost da podbacivač ne bude samo neko ko hoće, a ne može (Ford, 1992; Peters, Grager-Loidl, & Supplee, 2000), već i neko ko zna da može, ali neće. Ovo nas može usmeriti, s jedne strane, školskom modelu etiologije podbacivanja, koji odražava širi, ekosistemski pristup i interakciju unutar različitih konteksta, a najviše se usmerava na sukob i nesklad između učenikovih potreba i školskog postignuća (Baker, Bridger, & Evans, 1998; Altaras, 2006). Takođe, pojedini nalazi drugih istraživanja na domaćem uzorku, koji govore da daroviti podbacivači odskaču na dimenzijama otvorenosti, kreativnog mišljenja i nezavisnog suđenja (Altaras, 2006: 225), idu u prilog ovde iznetoj tezi da daroviti podbacivači mogu biti osetljiviji na disciplinujuće aspekte školskog sistema i da stoga mogu birati podbacivanje kao strategiju otpora. Date karakteristike mogu značiti i da daroviti učenici koji podbacuju imaju interesovanja i saznajni stil koji nije kompatibilan sa sistemom obrazovanja, što takođe može predstavljati jedan od etioloških faktora podbacivanja. Jedna od glavnih smernica za razumevanje „podbacivača“ kroz tezu o voljnom izboru podbacivanja kao strategiji otpora prema disciplinujućem obrazovnom sistemu, na osnovu ovih podataka, jeste činjenica da smo jasnije i doslednije uspeli da mapiramo i zabeležimo relativno problematične odnose između nastavnika i učenika-podbacivača, nego problematične intrapsihičke, porodične i vršnjačke interakcije. Ovde pre svega imamo u vidu nalaz da na varijablama self-koncepta ne postoje tako drastične razlike između darovitih podbacivača i druge dve kategorije učenika, koliko je to slučaj sa skalama stavova prema školi. Očigledno, učenici iz poduzorka podbacivača nisu deca koja potiču iz potencijalno problematičnih sredina ili socijalnih grupa koje su ugrožene i žive pod otežanim uslovima, pa to može predstavljati dodatno opravdanje za pozivanje na školski etiološki model podbacivanja.

Ipak, kada se u obzir uzmu razlike u akademskom self-konceptu, zaključak postaje manje nedvosmislen. Iako je i dalje moguće interpretirati nalaze u skladu sa tezom o voljnom biranju podbacivanja, jer ova skala govori da podbacivač zna da podbacuje i da ne želi da se angažuje u školi, niti se oseća samopouzdano u školskom kontekstu, nameće se pitanje o stepenu voljnosti ovakvog izbora, ako razmišljamo o tome da dati izbor može biti prinudan. Drugim rečima, pitanje o tome da li je podbacivač neko ko ima, ili ko pravi problem svojim neuklapanjem u obrazovni sistem, ili i jedno i drugo, ostaje otvoreno, budući da nalazi omogućavaju različite interpretacije i ohrabruju ukrštanje različitih perspektiva iz kojih se može sagledavati ovaj fenomen.


Ako je „podbacivač“ uloga koja se bira i koja je utvrđena unutar školske i šire zajednice, verovatno je da ona svoje značenje crpi iz šire socio-kulturne sredine i da je profil buntovnika-podbacivača povezan sa diskursima koji odstupaju od školskih, što bi se najpre moglo ispitivati kvalitativno. Ovaj profil podbacivača u literaturi se opisuje kao tip dominantnog nekomformiste (Reis & McCoach, 2000; Altaras, 2006). Dominantni nekomformista bi školu posmatrao kao i Fuko: školski kurikulum bi u sebi implicitno sadržao norme dobrog, razumnog i zdravog ponašanja i mišljenja, koje se prihvataju kao zdravorazumske, ali koje su istovremeno nametnute i implicitno potčinjavaju učenika, pa obrazovanje postaje jedan od ključnih stubova disciplinovanja i nadziranja pojedinaca (Fuko, 1997; Fuko, 2005). Podbacivač u tom smislu može biti neko ko ne pristaje da se potčini ovim „disciplinama“, razvijajući strategije otpora iz kojih crpi svoje samopoštovanje, uprkos tome što mu loše ocene u mnogo čemu mogu odmoći. Podbacivač može biti i neko ko je zbog svoje veće otvorenosti za nova iskustva (Altaras, 2006: 243) spremniji da dovodi autoritete u pitanje, u većoj meri misli nezavisno i kritički i ne pristaje da uči zbog postignuća već zarad samog razumevanja i spoznaje. Ili se, s druge strane, fenomen podbacivanja može predstavljati kao produkt sistema koji nije toliko razvijen da „ukalupi“ sve pojedince i prilagodi ih i usmeri prema vlastitim ciljevima. Problematizovanje pojedinca, osim što služi kao početna tačka procesa pružanja pomoći, nekada može poslužiti i kao diskurzivna strategija kojom se prikrivaju nesavršenosti i nepravednosti na kojima funkcionišu institucije, pa čak i takve poput škole (Jovanović, 2008).

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The Gifted Underachiever in School:A Student who has a Problem or a „Rebel“ Making Problems?

Vitomir Jovanović,1 Pregrad Teovanović,2 Tatjana Mentus,2

and Milina Petrović1

1 Department of Psychologu,Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Serbia2 Faculty for Special Education and Rehabilitation, University of Belgrade, Serbia

The main goal of this research was to study the correlates of school underachievement and to sketch the possible profile of the gifted underachiever. The study was conducted on a sample of high school students in Belgrade (N = 434). The subjects were administered a battery of ability tests and asked to self-estimate their intelligence. On the basis of ability test and school achievement data, the subjects were classified into three groups: gifted underachievers (N1 = 26), gifted students (N2 = 81), and others (N3 = 332). The results of ANOVAs indicate that these three groups differ significantly on the dimensions of Attitudes towards school: academic self-perception, attitudes toward teachers, assessment goals, and motivation and self-regulation. Also, significant between-group differences emerge on the following dimensions of self-concept: assessment of ability, assessment of achievement, and academic self-confidence. These dimensions show the highest correlation with the canonical function that efficiently discriminates between underachievers and gifted students (canonical correlation coefficient = .70, performance of classification = 91.6%). Students who do not realize their potential in school, although they consider themselves to be equally intelligent as gifted students, do not draw their confidence and self-esteem from academic achievement. Gifted underachievers evaluate educational goals as less important and are not motivated to make an effort in school. Also, they are likely to come into conflict with teachers in order to challenge their authority. These results suggest that being an underachiever is a „choice of will“, rather than the unwilling result of difficulties in the environment, psychological problems or underdeveloped meta-cognitive skills, but an alternative interpretation is also plausible. The roots of this hypothetical choice are examined with reference to the educational system and its possible effects of „normalization“.Keywords: gifted, underachievement, attitudes toward school, self-concept, self-estimation of

intelligence

PSIHOLOGIJA, 2010, Vol. 43 (3), UDC 316.662-055.2:159.922.07(497.4)”2008”© 2010 by the Serbian Psychological Association DOI: 10.2298/PSI1003281B

Working Women’s Roles in Slovenia:Conflict or Enrichment?

Eva BoštjančičDepartment of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Abstract. In the past, men and women had different experiences in balancing their professional and family lives. This is why they see their roles differently today. Our scope of interest in this article is employed women in Slovenia. Working women’s various roles today may lead to conflict or enrichment. This study seeks to determine the connection between their multiple roles, life orientation, and life satisfaction. This study was carried out through Internet questionnaires and it surveyed 1,298 working women. Their average age was 35.6 years. A total of 43% of participants at least had a college degree. The results show that working women are the least satisfied with their leisure time and the most satisfied with their maternal role. Women with higher career satisfaction report about higher life satisfaction. Women with multiple roles are more satisfied with their maternal role but less satisfied with their partners and leisure time. They are also more optimistic.Key words: women, work, role, life orientation, life satisfaction, Slovenia

The twenty-first century is presenting new challenges for working women and men alike. This paper mainly focuses on the role of working women engaged in various social and personal roles. These women are more strongly involved in both work– and family-related roles. The statistical data are quite revealing. According to the Slovenian Statistical Office (Vertot, 2008), 61.8% of women are employed, which is higher than in the EU (57.2%). The share of the population enrolled in tertiary-level education is increasing. Among those enrolled in two-year vocational colleges, three-year junior colleges, and undergraduate programs, a full 58.3% are women. A similar percentage can be found in the United States, where 57% of college graduates, 58.5% of master’s program graduates, and 30% of MBA graduates are women. In 2006, 61.9% of tertiary-level graduates were women. In most western countries parental leave is only available for those who have worked for their current employer for a certain period of time. In Slovenia a mother gets 100% paid maternity leave for 12 months and a father gets 11 days


WORKING WOMEN’S ROLES IN SLOVENIA: CONFLICT OR ENRICHMENT?282

paid. There is also an official policy for part-time work for mothers with young children. The pre-school care is appropriately organized, but not for free – parents pay contributions based on their average family incomes. However, the position of women on the labour market does not reflect this: more men than women are employed, more women than men are unemployed, and women earn 15% less per hour than men and have more difficulties being promoted than men. As a result, the European Commission adopted the 2006–2010 Roadmap for Gender Equality, followed by the European Council’s Pact for Gender Equality, both proof that the EU is actively pursuing genuine gender equality.

BackgroundWomen’s lifecycle. There are gender differences in the lifecycle. There

are many life patterns (work, marriage, family), but two are the most frequent in Slovenia. The first pattern starts with primary education, followed by the opportunity to pursue vocational or high school education. Women choose their vocations, find their first jobs, and get pregnant. After pregnancy, some additional training is often necessary in order to return to work, where they remain until retirement. The second pattern takes women to college after high school, followed by their first jobs and initial career building. The near future entails a pregnancy, followed by training to return to work. After training, women usually set out to build their career until retirement (Alexander, 1993). According to Powell and Mainiero (1992), women continuously pay attention to career building and family relations, but their focus shifts over time. However, under present circumstances lifecycles are diverging from the ones described, given that the childbearing age is increasingly shifting towards the mid-thirties. Moreover, an increasing number of women are choosing career over family, thus consciously giving up the latter.

Women and employment. Employed women are mentally healthier (Barnett & Baruch, 1985) and in comparison to unemployed women they less often develop psychopathological symptoms and increased blood pressure when faced with stressful events (cf. studies by Brown, Bhrolcrain, & Harris and by Hauenstein, Kasl, & Harburg, as cited in Baruch, Biener, & Barnett, 1987). Some studies have shown that employed women are less depressed than unemployed ones (cf. studies by Aneshensel and by Kandel, Davies, & Ravies, as cited in Barnett & Hyde, 2001).

Women and career. After examining literature from the past fifteen years, Stoltz-Loike (1992) identified four factors that influence women’s careers: the husband’s view of his wife’s job, financial prospects, household work, and the woman’s character. During their careers, both men and women can climb the corporate ladder; higher positions offer more positive opportunities for women: promotion, a sense of responsibility, self-respect, and financial independence (Argyle, 1999; Crompton & Lyonette, 2004). At the same time, such positions positively affect women’s roles in their social, economic, and private lives (Ufuk

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& Őzgen, 2001). Businesswomen often suffer due to conflicts arising from the different roles they play as professionals and within their families (Ufuk & Őzgen, 2001). If they have to choose between different roles, they more often spend time on their family and work, leaving less time for themselves and relaxation (Stevenson, 1988). The most common stressors are unsatisfactory demands on the labour market, excessive expectations from family members, and physical exhaustion. Also, personality traits are important – life satisfaction is linked to numerous successful outcomes in one’s life: higher sociability and activity (r = 0.51), altruism (r = 0.43), linking of self and others (r = 0.36), effective conflict resolution skills (r = 0.33) (Lyubomirsky, Diner & King, 2005).

Women and the family (partner, marriage, children). Marriage is a great source of life satisfaction among adults (Argyle, 1999), and so divorce could worsen women’s situations. Changes in professional roles exert a stronger influence on the mental health of women without families (Barnett et al., 1992). Similarly, women with preschool children face less stress if they are employed (cf. a study by Kessler & McRae, as cited in Barnett & Hyde, 2001). Some studies (Schoon, Hansson, & Salmela-Aro, 2005) point out that being a parent does not significantly correlate with life satisfaction. However, for divorced women the combination of parenthood and employment correlates with low life satisfaction. Divorced women tend to be more satisfied when childless. Most couples are more satisfied than divorced persons, and the employed are more satisfied than the unemployed.

Two theories’ perspectives on the role of working women. An attempt to look at women’s role in modern society from a theoretical and scientific standpoint reveals that women’s roles are defined by the social and cultural values of the society they live in (Oppong & Abu, 1985). Most women play several roles in their adult lives. These roles mix with their private (mother, wife, and housewife) or professional (employee, manager, or director) lives. On the one hand, modern society sees women as part of their families, which is also their most important role; on the other hand, they are expected to work and earn a living. This can lead to overload or a role conflict. In the past, the relations between roles have mostly been studied through the prism of negative consequences (Barnett, 1998; Greenhaus & Parasuraman, 1999; Haas, 1999). Nevertheless, modern trends are establishing a different, positive take on this – more precisely, how a combination of different roles enriches women’s development (Kirchmeyer, 1992; Rothbard, 2001), positively strengthens it (Crouter, 1984; Grzywacz, 2000; Summer & Knight, 2001), stimulates it (Ruderman, Ohlott, Panzer, & King, 2002; Tiedje et al., 1990), and enables it (Frone, 2003; Tompson & Werner, 1997; Wayne, Musisca, & Fleesen, 2004).

Playing several roles at a time is a source of numerous challenges for women. Researchers’ opinions differ on whether more roles stimulate women’s effectiveness or impede it. Gove (1984) and Schoon et al. (2005) advocate the theory of stressful roles. They argue that the combination of having to raise


children and work at the same time has negative repercussions on women’s health and wellbeing. They claim that an individual simply cannot reconcile work and family (cf. a study by Farmer, as cited in Schoon et al., 2005). Dividing time between children and work can lead to role conflict and put pressure on women, leading to disease and stress. Women that feel their roles are conflicting are more depressed and less satisfied with their parenting role (Tiedje et al., 1990). On the other hand, the accumulation theory argues that multiple roles generally have a positive influence on a person’s life satisfaction, wellbeing, and health (cf. studies by Helson, Elliott, & Leigh; Lahelma, Arber, Kivelä, & Roos, and Sieber, as cited in Schoon et al., 2005). Researchers believe that the satisfaction obtained from different roles (worker, partner, and parent) outweighs potential stress. Paid work outside the home enables additional social contacts and professional challenges, and contributes to better self-esteem and financial independence. Reconciliation of parenthood with work helps a person find satisfaction in one area of life when there are problems in another (cf. a study by Fokkema, as cited in Schoon et al., 2005). The theory of role accumulation has been confirmed by several studies that have shown that men and women engaged in different social roles experience fewer physical and psychological problems connected to stress and report feeling better than individuals engaged in fewer roles (cf. studies by Barnet & Marshall, Crosby & Jaskar, and Thoits, as cited in Barnett & Hyde, 2001). Higher life satisfaction is linked to full-time employment (Schoon et al., 2005) and paid work (Argyle, 1999; Warr, 1999).

Personality of employed women. Personality variables (for example, a dispositional optimism in our research) seem to play a strong role in determining individuals’ level of subject well-being (Diener & Lucas, 1999). Optimistic persons adjust more favourably to important life transitions (Aspinwall & Taylor, 1992) and they tend to use more problem-focused coping strategies than do pessimists. Optimistic women respond better to the failure of an unsuccessful in vitro fertilization than do women who are more pessimistic (Litt, Tennen, Affleck, & Klock, 1992). There are several factors influencing life-satisfaction: social relationships, work (school) or performance in an important role such as grandparent, researcher or manager, and personal factors – satisfaction with the self, religious or spiritual life, learning and growth, and leisure. Past researches showed that satisfaction with life has been associated with health (Willits & Crider, 1988), social interaction (Gibson, 1986), personality (McCrae & Costa, 1991), income and social class (George, 1990), and the experience of various positive life events (Magnus, 1991). It is important to notice that about 80% of the variance in long-term stable levels of subject well-being could be attributed to inborn temperament (Lykken & Tellegen, 1996). Life satisfaction is also influenced by events such as widowhood (Lucas, Clark, Georgellis, & Diener, 2003) or unemployment (Lucas, Clark, Georgellis, & Diener, 2004).

O’Neil, Hopkins, and Bilimoria (2008) conducted a review of studies pertaining to the described area from the past 20 years. They pointed out several


patterns and the resulting discrepancies between descriptions in the literature and in practice:– To women, a career is more than work; it is part of a broader life context.

However, organizational reality calls for a division between career and other parts of their lives;

– Family and career are the focus of women’s lives. In practice, for women family is an obligation and responsibility that affects their career development;

– Women’s careers are formed by different paths and patterns. Nevertheless, the reality is that organizations mostly reward vertical and mobile career paths;

– Human and social capital are key factors in women’s career development. On the other hand, an increase in human and social capital does not necessarily enable women to make it to the top or break the glass ceiling.

Based on numerous studies and interesting findings so far, two research hypothesis were formed regarding employed Slovenian women:H1: Women’s life orientation – optimism (Scheier, Carver & Bridges, 1994) is

positively associated to their perception of career, children, and perception of partner’s role.

H2: Positive association between the multiple roles women play and life orientation (optimism) and life satisfaction (Diener, Emmons, Larsen & Griffin, 1985).

MethodParticipants. The study included 1,298 employed Slovenian women, whose average age was 35.6 years (SD = 8). The youngest participant was 19 and the oldest 64. On average, the participants had been employed for 12 years (SD = 7.6). The majority was married (48%) or with a partner (35%), 12% were single, and 5% divorced or widowed. Regarding education, 43% had a two-year vocational college, three-year junior college, or undergraduate education, 16% had a post-undergraduate certificate, master’s degree, or PhD, 23% completed only high school and 18% only primary school. Regarding their area of employment, the sample was heterogeneous: 49% worked in business, 24% in state administration, 19% in education, 3% in healthcare, and 5% in other fields.Measures. Demographic data on the participants were collected in the first part of the questionnaire. The second part started with a check-list of 20 different suggestions of roles that one woman could play in her life and continued with questions on satisfaction with various roles (motherhood, hobbies and leisure time, employment, and partners). A scale from 1 to 5 was used for self-assessment (1 = I am not satisfied at all, 5 = I am very satisfied).

The Scheier, Carver, and Bridges (1994) Revised Life Orientation Test (LOT-R) focused on and measured life orientation (optimism-pessimism). This test includes ten items describing optimism and pessimism, of which only six were later assessed (e.g., If something can go wrong for me, it will) while four were fillers. Participants rated items on a five-point scale (1 = strongly agree, 5 = strongly disagree). The test’s internal reliability is 0.78 (Scheier, Carver, & Bridges, 1994) and 0.72 for the present study.

The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) followed. This was developed by Diener, Emmons, Larsen, and Griffin (1985) to measure participants’ global assessment of their


quality of life according to personal criteria. The scale is comprised of five items (e.g., In most ways my life is close to my ideal). The participant answered on a seven-point scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree). Cronbach’s α equals 0.88.Procedure. Data collection for the study took place in July and August 2008. The questionnaire was available on-line and at the beginning it was distributed via e-mail to about 50 different women in Slovenia employed in business and in education. The participating women further forwarded it to others – friends, peers, relatives. Anyone with an e-mail could participate.

Results

Satisfaction. Women are most satisfied with their parental (maternal) role. On average, they rate their satisfaction as 4.3 (on a scale of 1 to 5). They are least satisfied with their leisure time, for which the average is 3.4. Career satisfaction was rated at 3.6 and partner satisfaction 4.2. Statistically significant differences were revealed only for career (F (4, 1258) = 3.62; p < 0.01) by area of employment.

Table 1Women’s career satisfaction: various areas of work

n M SD

State administration 313 3.56 0.96

Other 39 3.56 1.19

Business 629 3.58 0.98

Education 246 3.81 0.92

Healthcare 36 3.89 0.98

Figure 1. Interaction between position and career satisfaction.


When assessing work satisfaction the highest rating was given by women employed in healthcare and pharmaceuticals (M = 3.89; SD = 0.98), followed by women in education and business. The least satisfied are women in state administration (M = 3.56; SD = 0.96). With regard to the different hierarchical positions of women in organizations, they chose between three positions currently held in the organization: executive, manager, or employee. The most satisfied women are executives (Figure 1), followed by female managers, whereas the least satisfied are women in non-managerial jobs (F (2, 1279) = 31.15; p < 0.01).

Compared with managers and employees, female executives are also the most satisfied with their lives (Figure 2); the female employees are the least satisfied (F (2, 1093) = 7.24; p < 0.01).

Figure 2. Interaction between position and life satisfaction.

Figure 3. Interaction between position and life orientation.


Although the graph slope in Figure 3 is rising, it points out a high level of optimism among executives, which diminishes with lower positions (F (2, 1080) = 4.75; p < 0.01). On average optimistic women express greater work satisfaction (r = –0.26; p < 0.01).This finding supports the first part of the established hypothesis H1.

Table 2Correlation between type of satisfaction and demographic variables

Type of satisfaction

Career Parental Leisure time Partner

Age –0.029 –0.086* –0.091** –0.259**

Seniority –0.033 –0.084* –0.080** –0.239**

Education level 0.235** 0.039 0.059* 0.062*

Profession 0.028 0.043 –0.071* 0.003

Professional status 0.004 0.003 0.090** 0.090**

*p < 0.05. **p < 0.01.

As shown in Table 2, the correlations between types of satisfaction are statistically significant, but relatively low. Participants with the highest level of education are more satisfied with their careers (r = 0.23; p < 0.01). Higher age and seniority are linked to lower parental satisfaction, and lower satisfaction with partners and leisure-time quality. Women whose work entails more responsibility are more satisfied with their leisure time and partners. And last but not least, the correlation between LOT-R Optimism scale and Life Satisfaction scale is significant and negative (r = –0.42; p < 0.01), which we can interpret as a high positive connection between optimism (more optimistic women had lower scores) and the life-satisfaction construct (more life-satisfied women had higher scores). The next step is to measure an interaction effect between career satisfaction and work position on the life satisfaction outcome variable. The univariate analysis of variance shows significant influence, F (13, 1075) = 2.04; p < 0.05. This analysis revealed that women’s career satisfaction influences their life satisfaction, but the position does not have an important role in it.Partner. Women who currently have a partner (compared with the single-divorced women group) are more satisfied with their lives (F (1, 1001) = 39.92; p < 0.01). 50.1% state they share household chores equally; 45.2% say they themselves do 70% of the work, which leaves 30% for the partner. Single and divorced women find more satisfaction in balancing work and leisure time (F (1, 1177) = 14.71; p < 0.01). The satisfaction with this role is not statistically significant in relation to life orientation which disproves part of hypothesis H1.


Parenthood. The majority of women believe that the right time for motherhood is when they want to have children (65%) or up to age 30, when women are not yet in executive positions (28%). The following questions were answered only by women who had already experienced motherhoods: the majority of women decided to become mothers prior to turning 30, when they were not yet in executive positions (51%), 25% had an unplanned pregnancy, 13% gave birth to their first child while they were college students, and 10% had children later on, after they had accomplished what they desired at work.

The number of children affects women’s lives and their way of thinking. Women that have more children have less time for themselves (δ = –0.21; p < 0.01). Such women also spend less time with their children (probably because their time is divided between several children) (δ = –0.59; p < 0.01). Women with more children are more pessimistic (δ = 0.08; p < 0.01), but there was no statistically significant connection between perception of motherhood role and life orientation of participants. This finding does not support part of hypothesis H1. On the other hand, happier women spend more time with their children (δ = 0.12; p < 0.01).

Women without children are the most satisfied with their partners; the least satisfied in this regard are women with two children. Women with one child, or three or more, find themselves in the middle regarding partner satisfaction (F (3, 1008) = 19.99; p < 0.01). Women without children are the most satisfied with their leisure time, and women with children less so (F (3, 1184) = 17.91; p < 0.01). Women with three children are the most satisfied with life in general, followed by women without children and with two children. The least satisfied in this regard are women with only one child (F (3, 1092) = 4.44; p < 0.01).

Figure 4. Interaction between number of children and partner relationship satisfaction.


Figure 5. Interaction between number of children and life satisfaction.

The age of children also plays an important role. The older children are, the more time women devote to household chores (probably because they have more time on their hands). With the age of children, both parental satisfaction (F (3, 814) = 3.33; p < 0.01) and partner satisfaction (F (3, 750) = 6.90; p < 0.01) decrease. However, once children find a job or perhaps leave home (after college), partner satisfaction increases again. Life satisfaction also decreases, but goes up again when children start to work (F (3, 748) = 10.93; p < 0.01).

Figure 6. Interaction between children’s ages and satisfaction with maternal role.


Figure 7. Interaction between children’s ages and partner relationship satisfaction.

Figure 8. Interaction between children’s ages and life satisfaction.

Time for household chores and children. Most women (70%) spend less than 2 hours per day on their household, and 30% spend 2 to 4 hours daily. Given their position at work, female employees devote the most time to household chores, followed by female executives, whereas female managers do the least. The differences between them are statistically significant (F (2, 1182) = 3.31; p < 0.05).


Most women spend on average more than 4 hours with their children (41%), followed by women who spend 2 to 4 hours with their children daily (35%). The number of women who spend less than 2 hours daily with their children is the lowest (24%).Number of roles. Finally, in order to establish which factors affect the number of roles employed women have, three sets of variables were included in the hierarchical regression analysis. The first variables are education level and career satisfaction, both pertaining to job satisfaction. The second part includes variables linked to private life satisfaction, and the third includes two variables linked to individuals’ general orientation: life satisfaction and life optimism or pessimism.

Table 3Hierarchical regression analysis model: influence of independent research variables on the

number of roles employed women play

Model 1 2 3

1Level of educationCareer satisfaction

0.13**0.01

0.13** 0.02

0.12** 0.01

2Satisfaction with maternal roleLeisure-time satisfactionPartner relationship satisfaction

0.08*–0.09*–0.03

0.08–0.09*–0.02

3Life orientationLife satisfaction

–0.09*–0.03

R2

F0.026.42**

0.03 3.99**

0.03 3.48**

*p < 0.05. **p < 0.01.

Table 3 shows that the number of roles women assume in their lives is primarily influenced by their education and partially by satisfaction with their maternal role. Optimism also positively correlates with the number of roles women identify as their own which partly supports hypothesis H2.

DISCUSSION

In modern society, women are caught between several roles. The society or women’s immediate surroundings expect them to perform each role successfully. In her article on parenting versus careers for women, Bobovnik (2007) considers the period in which women are ready to take on one and/or the other. Of course, she finds no right answer to this question. This study seeks to answer the following question: How are the roles of working women linked to their


personal characteristics and other demographic factors? Another question arises as well: is there a conflict in women balancing family and work?

It is interesting that a great number of the questionnaires distributed online were completed and returned. This is a good indicator and can forecast the future orientation of psychological research – in areas that allow such methods, of course. Such an approach makes broader and international studies possible. According to Davis (1999), the use of the Internet enables access to a greater sample of participants, who then participate in data collection; in turn, this is faster and guarantees complete anonymity. Anonymity can have a positive influence on the tendency to give socially desirable answers. At the same time, as confirmed in the study on filling out personality questionnaires via the Internet (Kveton, Jelinek, Klimusova, & Voboril, 2007), such a method is a reliable one and will be useful in the future.

The first question is how life orientation, whether optimism or pessimism, influences working women’s views. Optimists expect positive things to happen. They have faith in themselves and put a lot of effort into the work they do. The LOT-R questionnaire directly measured the level of optimism. It was established that the most optimistic participants were female executives. Descending the hierarchical ladder, optimism decreases; this is perhaps linked to lower income, unfulfilled wishes, or problems encountered at the outset or during the career. Because optimism is a relatively stable personality trait, career counselling should caution people in advance on the advantages, challenges, and disadvantages of a particular job as well as which personal traits are expected given the nature of work.

Does work influence satisfaction? As early as 1983, a study by Freudiger revealed that there are small differences between life satisfaction among women that used to be employed, were employed at the time, and had never been employed. Employed Japanese women with more children perceived themselves as effective parents and reported greater life satisfaction (Holloway, Suzuki, Yamamoto, & Mindnich, 2006). Such parallels are perhaps difficult to transpose into the Slovenian or European context; however, it can be stated with great certainty that satisfaction at work is linked to different external and internal factors. In this study, the most common answers to the question “What does being employed mean to you?” were personal fulfilment (n = 893), social security (n = 866), and, on the other hand, burden and stress (n = 190), giving up many things (n = 116), and being a woman in a man’s world (n = 92).

Women in Slovenia are most satisfied with their maternal role and partners, and less satisfied with their career and the quality of their leisure time. Motherhood and the partner relationship can be combined under the common denominator of a factor that women can directly influence. On the other hand, career and leisure time are influenced by several external factors, such as relations at work, opportunities for promotion, and physical working conditions. Satisfaction with the partner relationship increases with age, in contrast to satisfaction with the


parental role and leisure time. Education level is often an important demographic variable. This study has shown that a higher level of education is linked to career satisfaction; nevertheless, it negatively influences leisure time spent away from work. This connection makes sense because higher education enables more rapid promotion followed by higher and more responsible positions, which in return leaves less time for quality leisure. At the same time, career satisfaction strongly correlates with life satisfaction (r = 0.41; p < 0.01), which illustrates the mutual influence of these two variables. In practice, this can be seen as all-round care for employees as a workforce and as individuals that live their family and professional lives in parallel. Satisfaction at work will be reflected in general satisfaction; at the same time, the order of private life will be reflected in career satisfaction (i.e., job satisfaction). A large German longitudinal study carried out over 22 years must be mentioned as well; it established that greater shifts in life satisfaction occur in relation to distance to death (time distance) rather than distance from birth (chronological age; Gerstorf, Ram, Stabrook, Schupp, & Wagner, 2008). Hence, regardless of satisfaction in old age, general satisfaction slightly decreases.

Women give birth regardless of the differences and similarities between genders. The experiences and recommendations of the 1,298 women that participated in this study show that it would be good and maybe also recommended to have children up to age 30 or prior to assuming an executive position. That data may reflect an optimal time for first-time motherhood, but we need to consider the limitations of our sample. Optimism increases with the number of children (with the first optimism plummets, but then increases again). An interesting finding reveals that satisfaction with the partner relationship decreases with the birth of the first child and worsens with the second, but the third might bring about higher tolerance or cooperation and understanding between partners and with this increased partner satisfaction. DeFour and Brown (2006) came to a similar conclusion when they established that mothers that see their children as the greatest joy in life report higher family satisfaction. Holloway et al. (2006) established a positive connection between the number of children and commitment to the maternal role with Japanese women. The women in this study connect their role as mothers with personal fulfilment (n = 744), giving up many things (n = 396), and being a woman (n = 365).

New challenges and obstacles arise with every career period and so, with age, views on motherhood, partners, and life change. The period of children’s schooling is undoubtedly a watershed that significantly decreases satisfaction with the maternal role, partner relationship, and life satisfaction. The reasons for such a change can primarily be found in the greater psychological and time burden on mothers, who complain about having to devote more leisure time to children once they start school. With schooling comes adolescence and puberty, bringing about a different manner of communication in the family. For many parents, this is too great a change. As a result, they start questioning their roles as


mothers or the quality and success of their partner relationship. In any case, this piece of information is important in practice. It should be understood that this coincides with the period (usually between age 35 and 50) when women climb the corporate ladder. On the one hand, they are faced with family challenges, including communication with adolescents, their successes and failures in school, and first broken hearts; on the other hand, they often occupy leading positions, which, as demonstrated in this study, entail significant efforts, giving up many things, and a lack of leisure time.

The results presented here should be summarized for particular groups of women employed at different hierarchical levels in an organization. Leading managers, such as directors, businesswomen, and board members, are (as expected) satisfied with their careers and the successes they have achieved in their professional lives. This agrees with the findings of Crompton and Lyonette (2004), who say that higher positions offer more positive opportunities: promotion, a sense of responsibility, self-respect, financial independence, and so on. As established earlier, such satisfaction correlates with life satisfaction; however, women in this group are characterized by only moderate optimism. The reasons for such a world view can be found in the fact that they bear great responsibilities and are well informed and familiar with the current economic and political situation. Leisure-time satisfaction is high as well, which correlates with better financial opportunities, making quality and more expensive activities and help with the household possible. All of this leaves time for hobbies and various forms of relaxation. On the other hand, these women are dissatisfied with their maternal role, for which they probably lack time and energy. This group of women can be characterized as career oriented, whereas their counterparts are women to whom career is of little importance. A 1987 study (Pietromonaco, Manis, & Markus, 1987) revealed that career-oriented women with full-time employment are more satisfied with themselves and their lives than women that only work part-time or are unemployed. When describing themselves, these women list numerous characteristics in connection with their positions. It would be interesting to examine the influence of gender on the opportunity for promotion (data are unavailable), studying the perceptions of both female and male managers.

Female managers are usually bound directly to the organization, at the same time being responsible for their subordinates’ results as well as the performance of all tasks assigned by their superiors. These are women that have already advanced in their careers; nevertheless, their further promotion depends on them alone – their management, motivation, and delegation skills, focus on results and achievements, and so on. This study shows that this group of women is fairly satisfied with their career and life, but sees life least optimistically. Having to prove oneself at work leaves little time for household chores and relaxing hobbies. Such women are primarily fulfilled by the great satisfaction found in motherhood and in their partners. In practice, the findings primarily


reveal a need for greater attention to this group. Women in this group need more relaxation, earned leisure time, and perhaps greater concern for their private lives on the part of their superiors. One suggestion is clearer career planning, allowing them to see the reward (i.e., promotion) for achieving the goals set. Small tokens of appreciation from an employer can help increase effectiveness at work and, indirectly, career and life satisfaction.

The final group of women is as important as the rest and includes female employees without managerial authority, who are pessimistic but satisfied with their lives. What are the reasons for this combination? These are mostly employees without high ambitions, who like to do routine everyday work and do not seek greater authority or responsibility. Hence, they remain in their positions; however, lower positions entail less pay. Less money also means lower material security. These women are less satisfied with their careers, their partners, and the quality of their leisure time. Limited leisure time may again be linked to lower income. It can be presumed that fixed working hours leave them with more time for household chores.

Going back to the theories of multiple roles, it has been established that women that assume several roles are slightly more optimistic (r = –0.067; p < 0.05). Multiple roles correlate positively with parental satisfaction (r = 0.07; p < 0.05) and negatively with partner relationship (r = –0.10; p < 0.05) and the quality of leisure time (r = –0.16; p < 0.01). The correlations are low, making it impossible to confirm the stress role theory or the theory of role accumulation.

What next? What are the opportunities for women’s development? Newspaper articles and studies in this area (Avberšek, 2006) currently show that the share of female managers is between 3% and 20% in any particular organization. There are several reasons for this low percentage (Kanjuo Mrčela, 1996): it can be seen as an underestimation of women’s management style, the unbreakable glass ceiling, a lack of role models, sexual harassment, family obligations, frequently limited geographical mobility, and traditional prejudices, including emotional instability and absenteeism, and so on. On the other hand, this is an area that is being increasingly discussed, studied, and written about. There is a gradual process of awareness-raising taking place; slowly, but steadily, facts are being brought to light, and numbers are dispelling myths, discrimination, and false beliefs.

This study has continually raised new questions that could provide valuable answers for understanding the lives of working women and at the same time possibly improve social and economic policies in employment:– Which factors influence women’s decisions to choose a professional or

management career?– What is the influence of women’s immediate and extended family and family

patterns on career planning?


– Because this study was conducted during the summer of 2008 (prior to the recession), it would be interesting to repeat it at least in part and compare the results on the optimism and satisfaction of the same participants.

– And last but not the least: Are findings in this research unique to women or do they characterize men as well?

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PSIHOLOGIJA, 2010, Vol. 43 (3), UDC 159.922.72.07-053.2 ; 159.954/.955.07-053.2© 2010 by the Serbian Psychological Association DOI: 10.2298/PSI1003301P

Construction of Self in Children’s Daydreaming Narratives: Story of Two Generations1

Jelena Pavlović, Jasmina Šefer, and Dejan StankovićInstitute for Educational Research, Belgrade, Serbia

This paper reports on the research results regarding children’s positioning in their daydreaming narratives. A special feature of the research was its cross-generational character, i.e. we have collected and analyzed written accounts of primary school children’s daydreams in grade 4, which were produced in the year 1984 and the year 2009. One of the major insights from our research is that children’s daydreaming narratives broadly belong to the category of “preferred self” constructions. We classified these preferred self-constructions in three categories, namely “fictional selves”, “future selves” and “actual selves”, which emerged from repetitive themes in children’s narratives. Each of these broad categories was further “unpacked” into more specific constructions of preferred selves. Based on the qualitative data we developed hypotheses about generational shifts in preferred self constructions and used nonparametric statistical tests to evaluate these hypotheses.Key words: narrative, self-constructions, daydreaming, children imagination

Daydreaming is one of the terms resisting consensual and precise definition even though it is rather meaningful to the majority of people. Some of the problems in defining daydreaming are the result of its complexity and multidimensionality. In different definitions of daydreaming three dimensions represent the main points of divergence, focusing on the question whether daydreams are: 1) realistic or fanciful; 2) task-related or task-unrelated; and 3) deliberate or spontaneous (Klinger, 2008). For example, daydreaming may be defined as a form of imaginative thought, but also as a feature of naturally occurring stream of consciousness (Singer, 1999). Also, daydreaming may overlap with fantasy, as some daydreams are forms of mental activity departing from reality. Early research on daydreaming was sparked with Freud’s explorations of the relationship between daydreaming and creativity and for the

Corresponding author: [email protected] Note. This article is a result of the project “Education for knowledge-based society” No

149001 (2006-2010), financially supported by the Ministry for Science and Technological Development, the Republic of Serbia.

CONSTRUCTION OF SELF IN CHILDREN’S DAYDREAMING NARRATIVES:STORY OF TWO GENERATIONS302

first half of the 20th century a major source of evidence into daydreaming was provided by patients in psychoanalysis (Singer, 2003). Creation of the Imaginal Processes Inventory (IPI; Singer & Antrobus, 1970) marked the beginning of a line of studies which used questionnaires as a principal data gathering technique. Repeated factor analyses of IPI produced three second order factors that referred to different styles of daydreaming: 1) Positive-constructive; 2) Guilt and fear of failure; 3) Poor attentional control (Huba, Singer, Aneshensel, & Antrobus, 1982). These factors mapped variations in daydreaming styles from a positive attitude toward daydreaming as a worthwhile phenomenon facilitating problem solving and idea generation, and providing warm feeling and pleasant thought, to depressing and frightening qualities or tendency toward mind wandering and loss of interest. A number of studies have also asked participants to describe daydreams that are remembered retrospectively and to provide written accounts of their daydreams (Gruis, 2005). These descriptions were then analyzed and quantified, providing insights into the frequency of the particular types of settings, main characters and their actions.

Studies of daydreaming have mainly investigated daydreams of adult population and a majority of studies focused even more narrowly on college students’ daydreaming (Gruis, 2005). There are significantly fewer studies of daydreaming among children, probably due to the methodological limitations researchers are confronted with when using questionnaires with children population. Apart from these methodological difficulties in studying children’s daydreaming, development of the Imaginal Processes Inventory for Children (IPI-C) was confronted with unsatisfactory reliability in non-American samples (Vooijs, Beentjes, & Van der Voort, 1992). However, factor analysis of IPI-C enabled researchers to gain insights into three kinds of fantasies that emerge in children’s daydreaming: 1) Positive-intense daydreaming; 2) Aggressive-heroic daydreaming and 3) Dysphoric-aggressive daydreaming. The positive-intense daydreaming style was characterized by vivid and pleasant daydreams, similar to the positive-constructive style found in adult population. The distinction between aggressive-heroic and dysphoric-aggressive daydreaming styles was important because of the different role of aggression (Young, 1997). In aggressive-heroic daydreams, aggression was not the main focus, but the morality of the tale.

Though qualitative methods have been widely used in the study of creativity and imaginative activities (Deacon, 2000; Trotman, 2006; VanSledright & Brophy, 1992), there have been few qualitative studies of daydreaming. This relative lack of qualitative studies of daydreaming may be seen as somewhat surprising given that qualitative methodology is often referred to as suitable for research of phenomena in which complexity and process are more relevant than accurately quantifying relationships (Silverman, 2000). It may be argued that methodological burdens of IPI-C and relatively few studies of children daydreaming make the use of qualitative methods even more suitable when it comes to the research of children’s daydreaming.

Jelena Pavlović, Jasmina Šefer, and Dejan Stanković 303

SELF-REPRESENTATIONS, DAYDREAMING AND NARRATIVES

Self-representations have been a specific line of interest in research on daydreaming. According to Singer (2003), people are almost continuously engaging in daydreams that involve judgement about their actual selves and how these relate to ideal or socially accepted selves. This line of research has therefore focused on the influence of self-representations on daydreaming patterns. In other words, self-representations are perceived as one of the determinants of the content of daydreaming. Yet, another research option is to look at daydreaming as an important “vehicle” for the construction of selfhood and consider what sort of self-images are produced in daydreams. This line of thinking is suggested by the narrative approach, which we adopted in our study of children’s daydreams.

According to the narrative approach, telling stories is about making sense of ourselves and the world around us (Bamberg, 2008; Davies & Harre, 1990; Pavlović, Džinović, & Milošević, 2006). In this approach, stories are not perceived as mere expressions of our experience, but as constitutive forces in creating experience. One important aspect of this experience is our sense of ourselves. Narrative researchers assume that the sense of ourselves is produced in stories we tell. They use the notion of positioning to refer to the discursive process whereby selves are produced and located in stories (Bamberg, 1997; Davies & Harre, 1990; De Fina, Schiffrin, & Bamberg, 2006). The notion of positioning implies that when telling different stories, we are taking different identity positions in conversations. For example, one person can take several different identity positions during the same conversation or within the same story. This discursively produced self is thus multiple, discontinuous and fragmented, rather than unitary, inherently given and stable. Instead of the traditional metaphor of self as “located under the skin”, narrative researchers adopt a metaphor of self-as-a-story. Self-as-a-story is built from cultural symbolic resources and its positioning depends on the opportunities and restrictions set by these resources. This means that availability of different cultural resources plays an important role in creating our sense of ourselves. Consequently, in the encounter with narrative, we are shaping and refining not only our understanding of personhood, but also of the cultural resources that enabled certain self-constructions. Narrative analysis aims to elaborate on the way identities are constructed and performed in stories told in a particular cultural context. In other words, narrative analysis aims at exploring both the construction and the function of narratives. Construction of narratives refers to the linguistic resources in terms of images and metaphors underlying a story. Function of narratives refers to the question of how persons use language to perform different kinds of actions in an interaction or a local discursive context (Bamberg, 2004; Potter & Wetherell, 1995). For example, a person may use language for apologizing, accusing, justifying, negotiating intimacy, attributing, giving a positive image of self to other people, legitimizing their versions of events or maintaining a credible stance in interaction (Burr,


2003:60). In this functional sense, narratives are both enabling and constraining, working both in inhibiting and productive ways, designating both exclusions and choice. However, this distinction between construction and function of narratives should not be painted to sharply, since they are usually combined and mark different shades of research emphasis (Potter & Wetherell, 1995).

In this study, we adopted a narrative approach to study children’s daydreams and based our research on the assumption that selves may be researched as constructed and performed in narratives. We assumed that daydream narratives allow us to analyze how children’s selves are “positioned” along the story lines. This notion is opposed to the idea of children’s daydreaming narratives as manifestations of some internal, hidden and unconscious dynamics in their personalities. Instead, we assumed that specific self-images created in these narratives are important object of analysis in their own right. Images and metaphors around which these self-images are being built inform us about their worldviews, ways in which they wish to present themselves, as well as about important functions of these self-constructions.

Our choice of the narrative framework in study of daydreaming may be justified by several arguments. First, there is evidence that daydreams naturally comprise a continuous sequence of images that unfold like elaborate stories (Klinger, 1990). In other words, it may be argued that daydreams are naturally recollected in narrative form. Furthermore, narrative is often referred to as an important way of conceptualizing experience and organizing memory (Eubanks, 2004). If we assume that research on daydreams, especially among children, deals with under-conceptualized experience and with memory that is not regularly accessed, then narrative may be seen as an appropriate research tool for this topic. Finally, qualitative analysis of this kind allows informants to illuminate their complex and unique frames of reference, rather than to conform to the categories of researchers. This is of special significance since there are few studies on children’s daydreams and therefore not so many known ways of categorizing children’s experience.

MethodThe aim of our study was to explore children’s self-constructions in written accounts of

their daydreams. In line with the twofold focus of narrative psychology on both construction and function of narratives, we addressed the following research questions: 1) What sort of self-images are constructed? 2) What is the function of these self-constructions? 3) In what ways do children’s constructions of their selves vary in narratives produced in the past and nowadays?

Participants and data production. We analyzed written anonymous accounts of daydreams of primary school children in grade 4 (age 10). These written accounts were produced in the year 19842 and the year 2009 in the same primary school. With the help and support of the

2 Data from 1984 were produced in a study by one of the authors (J. Šefer) which has not been published so far.


school psychologist, we approached the participants during their school classes. Children were invited to produce written accounts of their daydreams. We gave them a somewhat general instruction to describe what they usually daydream about (“Please write down what you usually daydream about. This is not an assessment of your writing skills and there will be no marks. Write down what you usually daydream about freely as if you were telling it to us.”). This general instruction was further clarified in line with additional questions children may have asked (e.g. “How much text they should write”, “How much time they have available for the task”). The instruction to write as if they were telling us and additional clarifications that they have the whole class period available and that they should write as much as they wish allowed children to produce stories of their daydreaming rather than just listing elements and topics. Children completed this task in conditions somewhat similar to a regular class (they were sitting at their desks in the classroom and writing down in relative silence). In some classes the school teacher was present, while in some classes not. However, we wanted to stress that the narratives produced would not reach the school teacher and would not be assigned school grades. In this way, we intended to stimulate children’s expression and avoid their concerns about grammar, teacher’s evaluations etc. The above mentioned instruction was accompanied by further explanations of our understanding of the term “daydreaming”. Daydreaming was referred to as an imaginative activity in which they engage in their waking state as opposed to their night dreams.

Narratives from year 1984 were produced by 66 boys and 66 girls. Contemporary narratives were produced by 53 girls and 33 boys. In total, there were 218 children participants. In both cases, narratives were produced in similar research conditions – all classes of one generation of children were invited to participate; children were addressed as a group in their classroom; children were given the same instruction. In 2009 there were somewhat fewer participants in general and fewer boys in particular. Although there are differences in the sample structure between the two generations, we wanted to maintain the original data production conditions – addressing the whole classroom as a group and researching one generation in one particular school.

Analytic procedure. Written accounts of children’s daydreaming were analyzed in line with the principles of narrative positioning analysis (Bamberg, 1997) and grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). We developed a coding scheme to capture patterns of actions and states in given self-constructions. Our coding scheme was not a matter of assigning predefined categories, but it emerged during the analytic process. First, we performed open coding (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) by breaking down data into key themes: self-referential images, accompanying actions, as well as our interpretations of their functions. By doing so, we created a record of open coding, which included 36 pages of text and enabled us to keep the coding process transparent. This record was then used as a basis for axial coding, which was more focused, directed and conceptual than open coding. While in the open coding phase we identified and named certain concepts, during the axial coding phase we reduced these concepts to a smaller number of categories and reassembled the data by relating concepts to categories. During the selective coding phase we scanned open codes to check for fit with the identified categories and we further theorized these categories by identifying patterns of relationships between them in terms of their similarities and differences, their functions, generational variability, etc. In other words, we subsequently developed broader categories of self-referential images and integrated our line-by-line codes into a set of hypotheses about the main themes and their relationship. Although we adopted a qualitative approach, we also used counting and nonparametric statistical tests to evaluate some of the hypotheses which emerged during the coding phase.


RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Preferred selves as the central categoryin children’s daydreaming narratives

One of the major insights from our research, which we noted even during the open coding phase, is that almost all children’s daydreaming narratives included self-images which were related to positive emotions, pleasant and desirable situations. We identified a total of 3 narratives (out of 214) in which negative and unpleasant self constructions were elaborated (e.g. “Most often I daydream about my mathematics test. I get all sweaty daydreaming about it”, “I daydream about ghosts that chase me and I try to run away”, “I daydream about my parents being dead... I know it’s wrong because I couldn’t survive without them”). Therefore, children’s constructions in our research seem to fit into the concept of “preferred selves”, which refers to the desirable stories about oneself or different ways in which persons would prefer to describe themselves (Fridman & Kombs, 2009). This major finding may also be associated with Freud’s early interpretations of the wish-fulfilling functions of daydreams (Mueller, 1990). Rather than to rely on psychoanalytic concepts and the idea of unconscious dynamics, we have, however, interpreted this finding from the narrative perspective, pointing out children’s daydreaming as an imaginative space for the preferred selves’ elaboration.

Subcategories of preferred selves:fictional, future and actual selves

Based on the initial codes identified during the open coding phase, we developed the main subcategories of the preferred self-constructions: fictional, future and actual selves. This conceptualization of data emerged gradually during the phase of axial coding, as we classified concepts coded line-by-line. Underlying these subcategories is the hypothesis about some sort of “distance” between children’s preferred selves and their actual “child identity”. For example, fictional selves refer to self-constructions that step outside the realm of everyday experiences into the realm of fiction. Future selves refer to children’s self-constructions as adults, while actual selves refer to preferred self-constructions in which their “child identity” is preserved. Each of these subcategories was further “unpacked” into more specific constructions (Table 1).

It is worth mentioning that these categories sometimes overlapped, e.g. children sometimes referred to themselves in terms of some fictional character, but also some future character in the same narrative. Cases where more than one character was constructed in a single narrative made the total number of self-constructions (233) greater than the total number of participants (218).


Table 1. Overview of frequencies of children’s self-constructions.

1984 2009Total

(N = 218)Boys(N = 66)

Girls(N = 66)

Boys(N = 33)

Girls(N = 53)

Fict

iona

l sel

ves

Fighters against Evil 14 4 11 2 31

Change agents 2 10 3 13 28

Explorers 14 11 2 2 29

Fictional selves unspecified 3 10 3 4 20

Total number of fictional selves 33 35 19 21 108

Futu

re s

elve

s

Professional selves 10 4 2 4 20

Celebrity selves 9 5 10 15 39

Future selves unspecified 3 3 0 2 8

Total number of future selves 22 12 12 21 67

Act

ual s

elve

s

Travelling selves 0 6 4 10 20

Playful selves 0 8 0 4 12

Actual selves in “repaired realities” 4 8 3 2 17

Actual selves unspecified 2 2 0 5 9

Total number of actual selves 6 24 7 21 58

Fictional selvesPrevious research on adult daydreaming pointed to the relatively low

importance of fiction in daydreaming. Klinger (1990) estimated that no more than 20 percent of adult daydreams contain fictional actions. In our analysis, however, fictional characters represented the dominant construction of children’s preferred selves. This finding raises a question whether fiction becomes less important in daydreams with age or adults tend to be more pragmatic and more oriented towards everyday problem solving. We classified and interpreted a variety of fictional themes that emerged in children’s narratives into three subcategories (Table 2): (1) fighters against Evil; (2) change agents; (3) exploring selves. In light of previous research on children’s daydreams, selves as fighters against Evil may be interpreted in line with the general aggressive-heroic pattern found


in IPI-C, while selves as change agents and explorers may be interpreted as elaborations of the positive-intense daydreaming pattern.

Table 2. Excerpt of the coding scheme: Fictional selves

INITIAL OR OPEN CODING AXIAL CODING

S3 III 23 boy Self as a pirateActions: defence of country (“I am leading a war against countries which created a plot against my country”), hiding and adventure (“Nobody would know of our shelter, except my pirates”)Function: acquiring respect and admiration

FICTIONAL SELFFighter against Evil

S III 5 girl1Self as a fairyActions: helping others in need (“When my friend’s mother is sick, I give comfort to him”, “Nobody would ever die”, “I would make brotherhood and unity last forever”)Functions: control over the undesired states in life

FICTIONAL SELFChange agent

S III 28 girlSelf as an astronautActions: discovery (“I would discover every single bit of the Universe”), fear (“Maybe I would be afraid”)Functions: elaboration of the unknown

FICTIONAL SELFExploring self

N 4 14 girlSelf as a flowerActions: looking nice and smelling nice (“I would be the prettiest of all flowers”)Functions: being likeable

FICTIONAL SELFUnspecified

The subcategory of fictional selves as fighters against Evil refers to an image of a courageous self and representative of Good (e.g. “I save the people and bust the bad guys”, “In the middle of the battle a black spider shows up and everybody runs away except me”). During the selective coding phase we developed a hypothesis that this subcategory is more dominant among boys. Using the chi-square test we found statistically significant differences in occurrence of this subcategory among boys and girls (χ2 = 18.096, df = 1, p < 0.01). This is in line with the finding that daydreams of adult men resemble traditional stereotypes of masculinity and are determined by aggressive drives

3 “S” refers to narratives from the past, while “N” refers to contemporary narratives; ordinal number refers to the school class, while Arabic number refers to the code made for the specific participant.


and active lifestyles (Gruis, 2005). In narratives from the past, some elements (e.g. importance of national defence, ambition to follow the steps of national heroes who died for the country, etc.) point to the strong influence of dominant ideologies of the time on boys’ construction of selves as fighters against Evil.

The subcategory of selves as change agents refers to making a positive change in the world, mainly in form of fairies and wizards (“I would turn bad people into good ones”, “I would bring happiness to people”). A better world is constructed as a controllable world in which children have the ability to control natural forces, change their order or control the wellbeing of others. In narratives from the past, this image of a better world may also reflect values of a socialist society: equality and the world of brotherhood and unity (“I would make Tito alive”, “I would bake bread for all the people in the world, so there would be no hunger”). We found a statistically significant difference between boys and girls in terms of likelihood to construct an image of self as a change agent (χ2 = 9.84, df = 1, p < 0.01). Previous research on daydreaming of women (Gruis, 2005) pointed out to their passive, nurturing and protective role, in line with the general image of feminine and maternal attributes. Our research supports this orientation towards nurturing and protecting, but it also points out the active role girls play in their daydreams.

The subcategory of selves as explorers refers to daydreaming about being an astronaut who explores the Universe, meets other civilizations, travels through time, discovers new planets etc. (“I would discover every single part of the Solar system”, “As a researcher of the Universe, I would make friends with aliens”). Almost complete disappearance of astronauts as preferred selves in contemporary narratives brought us to a hypothesis about a generational shift. The chi-square test confirmed that the likelihood of the subcategory of the exploring self is not the same in narratives from 1984 and 2009 (χ2 = 9.218, df = 1, p < 0.01). This finding may be interpreted in light of the “race” for the Universe, which was once an issue of national progress and strategic positioning between the “Western” and “Eastern” blocks. Lack of explorers in contemporary narratives in general may also indicate decreased interest for discovery and experimentation.

Future selvesPrevious research pointed out the role of daydreams in anticipating future

involvement in life events (Gruis, 2005). In our analysis, children also constructed their preferred selves as their future selves (Table 3): (1) celebrity selves; (2) professional selves. If we refer to previous research on children daydreaming, we may link the celebrity and professional self narrative with the positive-intense daydreaming pattern in IPI-C and achievement oriented daydreams in IPI for adults.


Table 3. Excerpt of the coding scheme: Future selves.


N III 4 boySelf as a citizen of New YorkActions: being adored (“Audience adores me”, “I give autographs”), gaining financial security (“I live in a huge house”)Function: acquiring admiration and respect

FUTURE SELFCelebrity self

N III 25 girlSelf as a teacherActions: teaching (“I like children very much and I know they would like me, too”), experiencing professional success (“I would do my job well”)Functions: elaborating professional choice

FUTURE SELFProfessional self

S IV 31 girlSelf in the future (“I daydream about the colourful future world”)

FUTURE SELFUnspecified

The subcategory of celebrity selves refers to standing out of the crowd, being adored, admired and respected (“When I walk down the street, everybody recognizes me”, “Everybody would applaud to me”), enjoying the company of other celebrities (“I would meet Angelina Jolie”), as well as being a wealthy person (“I have a lot of money and newspapers write about me”). While selves as explorers almost disappeared in contemporary narratives, we noticed that celebrity selves became dominant. The chi-square test confirmed a difference in variability of this subcategory in narratives produced in 1984 and 2009 (χ2 = 12.085, df = 1, p < 0.01). This finding may be seen as part of a broader shift towards the “celebrity culture”, which found strong support in the development of various forms of mass media. Though the celebrity self-narratives are told in the “when I grow up” genre and represent some sort of children’s future selves, they are very close to fictional characters in terms of their capacity to loosen the boundaries of children’s actual selves.

The subcategory of professional selves refers to self-constructions which provide elaboration of future professional choices (“I daydream about becoming an architect”), experience of professional fulfilment (“I would be a farmer... and I would be so happy”), connection of children’s current interests with their future work (“I am already into volleyball and I find it very interesting, so I would like to become a volleyball player one day”), etc. A theme that is worth mentioning as a prevailing one is boys’ construction of professional selves as pilots. Becoming a pilot was a professional role that was particularly appealing in the boys’ narratives from the past. This profession allowed boys to find their heroes not only in fictional characters, but also in real characters that may have been their neighbours.


Actual selvesA majority of research on adult daydreaming points to their orientation

towards presence. In our research on children daydreaming, however, fictional characters and grown up characters, both distant from children’s actual selves, appear to be the dominant constructions. However, a variety of actual self-constructions also emerged in our study (Table 4): (1) travelling selves; (2) playful selves; (3) actual selves in “repaired realities”. We developed a hypothesis that the construction of preferred self as a child character is more dominant in girls’ narratives than in boys’ narratives. The chi-square test points to statistically significant differences in occurrence of actual selves among boys and girls (χ2 = 16.862, df = 1, p < 0.01). This finding may be interpreted in terms of children’s identity being closer to the girls’ sense of preferred selves, than is the case with boys’ identity.

Table 4. Excerpt from the coding scheme: Actual selves.


N III 14 girlSelf as a travellerActions: travelling around the world (“I would see England and Big Ben”, “I would learn English and meet English people”, “I would buy a lot of clothes”)Functions: elaboration of the unknown, enjoyment

ACTUAL SELFTravelling self

S III 16 girlSelf as the best pupil in schoolActions: doing well in school (“I would always get good marks... I know my dreams are a bit crazy, but by hard work and studying maybe I can achieve them”)Functions: acquiring respect and admiration

ACTUAL SELFActual self in “repaired realities”

N III 5 girlSelf as a child playing with a dogActions: having company (“I would finally have someone to play with because my friends don’t come to my house every day”), experience of care over others (“I would take care of the dog”)Functions: enjoyment

ACTUAL SELFPlayful self

S III 12 boySelf as reflecting over daydreamingActions: descriptions of own daydreaming activities (“Most frequently I daydream with my friend”, “We daydream about the film we watched”)Functions: entertainment

ACTUAL SELFUnspecified


The subcategory of travelling selves refers to travelling around Europe, sightseeing, learning foreign languages and shopping (“To see the Eiffel tower would be the happiest day of my life”). Similarly to exploring selves, these travelling selves also include the notion of exploring unknown territories. However, today’s travelling selves are not curious and brave explorers of the Universe, but rather enjoy the pleasures of popular touristic sites, which may be seen as an aspect of the globalization process and the accompanying “touristic practices” indicating materialistic and hedonistic life orientation.

The subcategory of actual selves in “repaired realities” refers to a self construction in which children preserve their child identity, but redefine the social context around them (“Nobody is quarrelling, there is no envy”, “Parents would have enough money to buy me my favourite toys”) or their own role in it (“I dream of being the best pupil in the school”). Finally, the subcategory of playful selves refers to self-constructions in which children enjoy the play with peers or animals (e.g. “I would knit a dress for my doll”, “I would play with my sister and we would plant flowers in our yard”). It is interesting that although this self-construction seems to be most available to children in terms of its grounds in reality, it is one of the least dominant self-constructions.

Function of self-constructions in daydreaming narrativesDuring the selective coding phase each of these categories of self-

constructions was further “theorized” by looking at functions of the protagonists. The most prevailing function of children’s self constructions in daydreaming narratives refers to acquiring respect and admiration. Children’s positioning both as fighters against Evil and as celebrities seems to refer to imaginative elaboration of children’s selves as important actors in the social world of adults. This type of functional orientation points to daydreaming narratives as a context for experimenting with subject positions which may otherwise be unavailable to children. In other words, these findings raise a question whether children manage to position themselves as respectable in everyday discursive spaces other than imaginative.

Another important function of children’s daydreaming narratives is imaginative exercise of control over life. Girls’ positioning as change agents points to the interactive business of controlling wellbeing of others and changing the order of natural forces in line with the socially desirable states (e.g. absence of illness and death). Again, we may raise a question whether, outside daydreaming narratives, children have other discursive spaces available for elaboration of the important topic of control versus lack of control in life.

Children’s narratives also seem to point to the importance of daydreaming as a discursive space for elaboration of unknown (outer space, different planets and continents, etc.). Selves as explorers dominant in children’s narratives from the past point to this important function of daydreaming in the given cultural milieu. Absence of this type of self-construction points to a hypothesis that


this developmental theme may not be of such importance nowadays, or that technological advances in the last couple of decades have created discursive spaces for elaborating this theme.

CONCLUSION

The majority of self-constructions refer to the category of preferred selves, which indicates that children in both generations are active and constructive in their daydreams. These preferred self-constructions are more often fictional characters than realistic adult characters located in the future. Actual selves tend to be less dominant in children daydreaming narratives than in the research on adult population. We found a difference in variability of categories of fighters against Evil and change agents between boys and girls. Moreover, we found differences between boys and girls in the occurrence of self-constructions as actual selves. Finally, we found generational patterns in self-constructions as explorers and celebrity selves.

Disappearance of exploring self-constructions may indicate that curiosity and experimentation are no longer on the “list” of the preferred self-constructions, pointing out that science, discovery and other creative task oriented activities are not considered as popular as they were in the past. The rise of celebrity self-constructions points out a cultural shift in values that occurred over time. While the influence of socialistic ideology was strongly present in the past, some of the generational shifts may also be understood as a reflection of dominant trends in social values indicating growth of a hedonistic, consuming and glory oriented style of life, especially prevailing in modern media.

In the end, we may conclude that our results indicate that fiction as a creative potential for self-constructions is alive nowadays as it has been in the past. Although daydreaming seems to be an individual and private business, it may also be seen as our “window” into social resources, which are available to children for the important business of constructing their identities.

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PSIHOLOGIJA, 2010, Vol. 43 (3), UDK 159.922.73.07 ; 159.942.07© 2010 by the Serbian Psychological Association DOI: 10.2298/PSI1003315V

Delovanje komponenti afektivne vezanosti na razvoj formalno-operacionalnog mišljenja

Branimir VukčevićUgostiteljsko-turistička škola sa domom učenika, Vrnjačka Banja

U ovom istraživanju ispitali smo delovanje komponenti afektivne vezanosti na razvoj formalno-operacionalnog mišljenja u porodičnom kontekstu. Korišćen je instrument UPIPAV-R koji ispituje sledeće komponente: korišćenje spoljašnje baze sigurnosti, strah od gubitka spoljašnje baze sigurnosti, nerazrešenu porodičnu traumatizaciju, negativni model selfa, negativni model drugog, slabu regulaciju besa i kapacitet za mentalizaciju. Mišljenje je ispitivano Bondovim testom logičkih operacija. Ispitana su obeležja porodičnog konteksta: materijalni posed porodice, kulturno-pedagoški nivo porodice i specifična roditeljska medijacija kulturno-potpornih sredstava. Uzorak su činili ispitanici starosti od 14 do 19 godina, ukupno 200. U skladu sa koncepcijom baze sigurnosti kao osnove za pravilan razvoj deteta, pretpostavili smo da komponente afektivne vezanosti deluju na razvijenost mišljenja, kao i da menjaju značaj porodičnih kulturno-potpornih sredstava tako da ostvaruju indirektan efekt na razvijenost mišljenja. Nalazi pokazuju da kulturno-pedagoški nivo porodice i nerazrešena porodična traumatizacija ostvaruju delovanje na mišljenje adolescenata. Ove varijable uzete su kao mogući prenosioci delovanja ostalih ispitivanih varijabli na mišljenje u postupku testiranja indirektnih efekata. Negativni model selfa i kapacitet za mentalizaciju ostvaruju indirektni efekat na mišljenje menjajući delovanje kulturno-pedagoškog nivoa porodice. Slaba regulacija besa negativno deluje na razvijenost mišljenja jačajući delovanje nerazrešene porodične traumatizacije.Ključne reči: formalno-operacionalno mišljenje, afektivna vezanost, kulturno-potporna sredstva,

porodica

Osnovni podsticaj na proučavanje delovanja afektivne vezanosti na mišljenje nalazi se u koncepciji baze sigurnosti kao osnove pravilnog razvoja deteta koju je postulirala Meri Ejnsvort u okviru teorije afektivnog vezivanja (Salter Ainsworth, 2010). Polazna osnova ove koncepcije je da dete ima urođenu težnju da otkriva i stvara promene u svojoj okolini, što je osnova razvoja ličnosti. Istovremeno se javlja strah od promena u sredini koji smanjuje obim i složenost eksplorativnih aktivnosti. Sigurna afektivna vezanost doprinosi da se dete oslobađa od ovog straha, pa je ona osnova za sticanje raznovrsnih znanja,

Kontakt adresa: [email protected]

DELOVANJE KOMPONENTI AFEKTIVNE VEZANOSTI NA RAZVOJFORMALNO-OPERACIONALNOG MIŠLJENJA316

interesovanja i veština. Svojstva sigurno afektivno vezane dece koja ih razlikuju u ovom pogledu od dece sa nesigurnim obrascima vezivanja, obuhvataju uverenost u sopstvenu dostojnost nege i podrške bliskih osoba kada zatreba, kao i osećanje poverenja da su bliske osobe voljne i kompetentne da to i pruže.

Hanak određuje afektivno vezivanje kao relativno trajnu organizaciju osećanja, misli i ponašanja individue u odnosima sa bliskim osobama koji obezbeđuju osećanje sigurnosti i pripadanja (Vukosavljević-Gvozden i Hanak, 2007). Ona je operacionalno odredila komponente afektivne vezanosti i konstruisala upitnik koji ih ispituje (UPIPAV-R). To su komponente: strah od gubitka spoljašnje baze sigurnosti, odnosi se na strah od gubitka figure vezanosti, verovanje kako je taj nedostatak težak ili da je njen gubitak fatalan po dalji tok života; kapacitet za mentalizaciju, odnosi se na sklonost osobe ka razumevanju i anticipaciji svojih i tuđih mentalnih stanja i procesa; nerazrešena porodična traumatizacija, odnosi se na nerazrešene konflikte i napete odnose sa bliskim osobama u prošlosti i sadašnjosti, kao i negativne stavove prema svom detinjstvu i porodici; negativan model selfa, odnosi se na shvatanje sopstvene nedostojnosti i neadekvatnosti u domenu afektivnog vezivanja; negativan model drugih, odnosi se na shvatanja i osećanja da su bliske osobe neadekvatan oslonac u važnim životnim pitanjima, te da se mora biti oprezan i distanciran u odnosu na druge; korišćenje spoljašnje baze sigurnosti, odnosi se na postojanje bliskih ljudi na koje osoba ume da se osloni kada ima probleme, kao i shvatanje da je njihovo postojanje važno; slaba regulacija besa, odnosi se na samokontrolu ljutnje i konstruktivno rešavanje konflikata u odnosima sa bliskim osobama. Komponente afektivne vezanosti su unutrašnje odlike individue koje deluju na obrazac vezivanja za figuru vezanosti i predstavljaju manifestacije afektivnog vezivanja koje se mogu pouzdano ispitati upitnikom (Hanak, 2004; Vukosavljević-Gvozden i Hanak, 2007; Vukčević, 2009). Obrasci afektivnog vezivanja dobijaju se postupkom klasterizacije ispitanika metodom k-proseka na osnovu skora na upitniku UPIPAV-R. Ovako dobijeni obrasci interpretabilni su u skladu sa pristupom Bartolomjuove, u kojem su unutrašnji radni modeli, koje čine osećanja i uverenja o sebi i drugome, očekivanja i strategije ponašanja u afektivnoj vezi, predstavljeni kao dve dimenzije: anksioznost ili pozitivnost modela sebe (doživljaj svoje dostojnosti tuđe nege i podrške), odbacivanje ili pozitivnost modela drugog (doživljaj adekvatnosti drugog kao pružaoca nege i podrške, više u: Bartolomew & Shaver, 1998). U četvorokategorijalnom modelu afektivne vezanosti Bartolomjuove, obrasci su kombinacije navedenih dimenzija: siguran – pozitivan model i sebe i drugog; odbacujući (izbegavajući) – pozitivan model sebe, negativan model drugog; preokupirani – negativan model sebe, a pozitivan model drugog; bojažljivi – negativan model i sebe i drugog.

Faktori kognitivnog razvoja prema teoriji Žana Pijažea su nasleđe, iskustvo, jezik i socijalno prenošenje, uravnotežavanje. Svi faktori su jednako važni, ali prva tri navedena faktora predstavljaju neophodnu biološku i iskustvenu pripremu deteta, dok uravnotežavanje dovodi do razvojne promene kognitivnih

Branimir Vukčević 317

struktura zahvaljujući njihovom svojstvu autoregulacije (Pijaže i Inhelder, 1996). Formalno-operacionalno mišljenje predstavlja završni stadijum razvoja mišljenja koji počinje u ranoj adolescenciji kada nastaje nov kvalitet reverzibilnosti kognitivnih operacija. Tada počinje koordinacija grupisanja klasa i relacija, što u prethodnom stadijumu nije bio slučaj. To će omogućiti stvaranje celovite kognitivne strukture u kojoj su inverzija i reciprocitet povezani tako da je svaka operacija inverzna nekoj drugoj i recipročna nekoj trećoj operaciji. Ova struktura omogućava postojanje definišućih karakteristika formalno-operacionalnog mišljenja, a to su: odvajanje forme od sadržaja – sposobnost logički ispravnog postupka zaključivanja bez obzira na saglasnost sadržaja iskaza sa stvarnošću; razlikovanje pojavnog od mogućeg – sposobnost nalaženja svih mogućih rešenja problema i sistematičnog otkrivanja koje je rešenje moguće pod kojim uslovima, hipotetičko-deduktivno mišljenje – sposobnost postavljanja hipoteza o stvarnosti, izvođenja njihovih logičkih implikacija i njihove sistematske empirijske provere; logika iskaza, sposobnost uspostavljanja logičkih veza između propozicija i kombinatorika – sposobnost sistematičnog stvaranja svih kombinacija skupa elemenata (više u: Gruber & Voneshe, 1995; Stepanović, 2004a). Uloga fizičke i socijalne sredine u Pijažeovoj teoriji ogleda se u tome što je za kognitivni razvoj neophodan susret sa problemskim situacijama koje izazivaju kognitivnu neravnotežu. Porodica kao deo sredine može biti u većoj ili manjoj meri stimulativna za razvoj mišljenja, a Pijaže je isticao značaj ponašanja roditelja, kao što su otvaranje problemskih situacija, pokretanje diskusija, podsticanje razmene mišljenja (kritika ili potvrda valjanosti zaključivanja), kao i podsticanje radoznalosti dece. Smatrao je da stimulativnost okruženja može da utiče na brzinu javljanja formalnih operacija (Pijaže i Inhelder, 1996; Piaget, 1972; Stepanović, 2006).

Aspekti sredine koji mogu biti veoma značajni za razvoj mišljenja oličeni su u pojmu kulturno-potpornih sredstava u okviru teorije intelektualnog razvoja Lava Vigotskog (Vigotski, 1996). Plut razrađuje učenje Vigotskog i određuje kulturno-potporna sredstva kao raznovrsne posrednike između pojedinca i kulture, koji imaju simboličku prirodu veće ili manje složenosti i koji omogućavaju razvoj viših psihičkih funkcija pojedinca s jedne strane, kao i razvoj kulture, gledano s druge strane (Plut & Pešić, 2003). Kulturno-potporna sredstva mogu biti formativni ili motivacioni činilac razvoja viših psihičkih funkcija čoveka, prenosiva su u međuljudskoj komunikaciji ili se mogu preneti upotrebom vrlo različitih produkata kulture (knjige, kulturne i obrazovne manifestacije itd.). Internalizacija kulturno-potpornih sredstava koja se nalaze u zoni narednog razvoja deteta može da nastane medijacijom intrapsihičkih struktura koje ispoljava osoba na višem intelektualnom nivou od deteta u okvirima njihove asimetrične interakcije, ili u okviru kontakta deteta sa produktima kulture koji su medijatori kulturno-potpornih sredstava. Kulturno-potporna sredstva doprinose kontroli i regulaciji sopstvenih mentalnih procesa, povećanju intelektualnih kapaciteta u smislu većeg broja sposobnosti i veština, povećanju moći psihičkih funkcija (brzine, snage,


efikasnosti), elastičnosti mentalnog aparata i uravnoteženosti različitih aspekata mentalnog rada, što Plut određuje kao ciljeve razvoja koje Stepanović u svom istraživanju povezuje sa definišućim karakteristikama formalno-operacionalnog mišljenja (Stepanović, 2007). Na osnovu tog rada smatramo da porodica može da ima izvore kulturno-potpornih sredstava, a to su obeležja sredine koja doprinose postojanju njihovih medijatora. Ekonomski status porodice je opšti izvor jer od njega zavisi koliko će članovima porodice biti dostupni različiti sadržaji kulture koji su važni za razvoj različitih psihičkih funkcija. Specifičniji izvor za razvoj formalnih operacija je kulturno-pedagoški nivo porodice i on određuje ne samo postojanje u porodičnom okruženju produkata kulture čijom upotrebom dete razvija logičko mišljenje (knjige, učila, različiti edukativni materijali itd.), nego i implicitne poruke roditelja deci o važnosti intelektualnog rada. Specifičan izvor je i specifična roditeljska medijacija kulturno-potpornih sredstava koju određuje Stepanović, kao oblike komunikacije između roditelja i dece koji podstiču razvoj definišućih odlika formalno-operacionalnog mišljenja (Stepanović, 2006).

S druge strane, možemo da pretpostavimo da razvijenost porodične sredine u pogledu kulturno-potpornih sredstava doprinoseći kognitivnom razvoju može da doprinese većoj razvijenosti aspekata sigurne afektivne vezanosti dece, što podrazumeva: jačanje razvijenosti spoljašnje baze sigurnosti, smanjenje straha od njenog gubitka, umanjenje nerazrešene porodične traumatizacije, bolju regulaciju besa u odnosima sa značajnim osobama, smanjenje izraženosti negativnog modela sebe i drugog. Komponente afektivne vezanosti mogu potom povratno, snažnije da deluju na iskorišćenost konteksta porodice u pogledu kulturno-potpornih sredstva.

Do prethodnog rada ovog autora niko nije proučavao delovanje afektivne vezanosti na razvoj formalnih operacija (Vukčević, 2009). U tom radu je pokazano da sigurno i odbacujuće afektivno vezani adolescenti ostvaruju bolje rezultate na Bondovom testu logičkih operacija (BLOT) nego bojažljivo i preokupirano vezani adolescenti, kao i da brže razvijaju formalne operacije. Zajedničko sigurno i odbacujuće afektivno vezanim adolescentima za razliku od ostalih, bile su slabo izražene komponente afektivne vezanosti koje su merene instrumentom UPIPAV-R, nerazrešena porodična traumatizacija, negativan model sebe i slaba regulacija besa. Zato smo u tumačenju tih nalaza pretpostavili da sigurno i odbacujuće afektivno vezani adolescenti bolje koriste kapacitete socio-kulturne sredine za razvoj mišljenja, jer nemaju anksioznost u pogledu dobijanja pomoći ili podrške bliskih osoba, što je u skladu kako sa tim nalazima, tako i sa teorijskim određenjem obrazaca afektivnog vezivanja (Bartolomew & Shaver, 1998). Pored toga, pretpostavili smo da sigurno i odbacujuće vezani adolescenti razvijaju povoljnije samopoimanje, pre svega, veće samopoštovanje i osećanje opšte kompetentnosti, što pozitivno deluje na postignuće u intelektualnom domenu (Opačić, 1995). Cilj ovog rada je rešiti problem koje komponente afektivne vezanosti deluju na mišljenje adolescenata i na koji način, uzimajući


u obzir njihove moguće indirektne efekte na razvoj mišljenja preko delovanja na značaj porodičnog konteksta u pogledu kulturno-potpornih sredstava razvoja mišljenja. U delatnostima koje se bave razvojem adolescenata neophodna su znanja o povezanosti različitih aspekata emocionalnog i kognitivnog razvoja, a sadržaj ovog rada je nov doprinos u tom smeru.

MetodHipoteze. 1) Komponente afektivne vezanosti deluju na razvijenost formalno-operacionalnog mišljenja. 2) Komponente afektivne vezanosti menjaju delovanje materijalnog poseda porodice, kulturno-pedagoškog nivoa porodice i specifične roditeljske medijacije kulturno-potpornih sredstava na formalno-operacionalno mišljenje tako da ostvaruju indirektan efekat na razvijenost mišljenja. 3) Materijalni posed porodice, kulturno-pedagoški nivo porodice i specifična roditeljska medijacija kulturno-potpornih sredstava deluju na komponente afektivne vezanosti tako da ostvaruju indirektan efekat na razvijenost mišljenja.

Varijable. Nezavisne varijable su komponente afektivne vezanosti, materijalni posed porodice (kao aspekt ekonomskog statusa porodice), kulturno-pedagoški nivo porodice i specifična roditeljska medijacija kulturno-potpornih sredstava. Zavisna varijabla je postignuće na testu formalno-operacionalnog mišljenja. Kontrolna varijabla je: obrazac afektivne vezanosti koji može biti siguran, odbacujući, preokupirani i bojažljivi, kako je već rečeno.

Instrumenti1. Za ispitivanje afektivne vezanosti adolescenata korišćen je upitnik za procenu afektivnog vezivanja, UPIPAV-R (Vukosavljević-Gvozden i Hanak, 2007). Sastoji se iz 7 skala koje predstavljaju navedene komponente afektivne vezanosti, ukratko opisane u uvodu. Skale su sedmostepene; svaka komponenta ima 11 stavki gde ispitanik procenjuje koliko se sa tvrdnjom slaže od apsolutnog neslaganja do apsolutnog slaganja (i dobija od 1 do 7 bodova po stavki). Za ispitivanje mišljenja adolescenata upotrebljena je verzija BLOT (Bond’s logical operations test) na srpskom jeziku koja je korišćena u pomenutom istraživanju Stepanovićeve. BLOT se sastoji od 35 zadataka koji obuhvataju svih 16 binarnih operacija formalne logike i formalno-operacionalne šeme koje su definisali Pijaže i Inhelder (Bond, 1995; Stepanović, 2004b). Svi zadaci su osmišljeni da izgledaju kao problemske situacije iz svakodnevnog života; za svaki tačno rešen zadatak ispitanik je dobijao 1 bod. Materijalni posed porodice ispitivan je upitnikom u kojem se od ispitanika traži informacija da li porodica poseduje određene materijalne vrednosti (kompjuter, televizor, satelitska antena itd.; ukupno 9 stavki, svaka stavka nosi 1 bod). Kulturno-pedagoški nivo porodice meren je upitnikom koji je sačinjen od 11 pitanja na kojima ispitanik odgovara (sa da ili ne) koliko su deci tokom života u porodici roditelji omogućili da različiti sadržaji kulture budu dostupni, kao što su bioskop, pozorište, kurs stranog jezika, knjige itd., (za svaki potvrdan odgovor dobijao se 1 bod). KPS skala, koju je konstruisala Stepanović za potrebe svog istraživanja, ispituje specifičnu roditeljsku medijaciju kulturno-potpornih sredstava i sastoji se od 15 stavki. Skala je sedmostepena; ispitanici procenjuju koliko često su zastupljeni oblici komunikacije sa roditeljima koji podstiču razvoj mišljenja (sagledavanje svih mogućih rešenja nekog problema, podsticanje nalaženja objašnjenja za različite pojave, itd.; više u: Stepanović, 2006). Sve navedene skale koje ispituju porodični kontekst koristila je Stepanović u svom radu (Stepanović, 2007). Uzorak su činili adolescenti starosti od 14 do 19 godina. U analizi su korišćeni podaci 200 ispitanika koji su slučajnim izborom odabrani iz matrice podataka uzorka od 301 ispitanika prethodnog istraživanja (Vukčević, 2009), tako da ima: po 50 učenika koji imaju siguran,

1 Detaljne informacije o instrumentima nalaze se u navedenoj literaturi.


odbacujući, bojažljivi i preokupirani obrazac vezanosti; 66 učenika osmog razreda osnovne škole, 66 učenika II i 68 učenika IV razreda srednjih škola u Vrnjačkoj Banji. Od tehnika za obradu podataka i analizu rezultata korišćena je regresiona analiza radi opisa veza između ispitivanih obeležja. Upotrebljeni su testovi zaključivanja o indirektnim efektima ispitivanih varijabli na mišljenje postupkom koji se naziva butstrep (bootstrap, prema: Preacher & Hayes, 2008).

REZULTATI

Za ilustraciju postupka analize koji ima dva koraka u ovom istraživanju, upotrebili smo sledeću skicu (Preacher & Hayes, 2008).

Legenda: NV nezavisna varijabla; ZV zavisna varijabla; MV medijatorska ili moderatorska varijabla; c totalni efekt, c` direktni efekt, b delovanje MV na ZV, a –delovanje NV na MV

Skica 1: Direktno i indirektno delovanje

Prvi korak. Napravili smo regresiju formalnih operacija svim varijablama istraživanja metodom ¨Stepwise¨. U regresionu jednačinu ušli su samo prediktori koji imaju parcijalnu korelaciju sa kriterijumom koja je statistički značajna na nivou 0,05. Time smo napravili selekciju varijabli koje potom tretiramo kao moguće prenosioce indirektnog delovanja ostalih varijabli, tj. kao MV na prethodnoj skici.

Tabela 1: Prediktori formalno-operacionalnog mišljenja

Prediktori beta t test Značajnostt testa

osnovnakorelacija

parcijalnakorelacija

Nerazrešena porodična traumatizacija

– .347 –5.159 .000 – .413 – .328

Skala kulturno-pedagoškog nivoa porodice

259 2.964 .003 .314 .188


U tabeli 1 vidimo dva prediktora koji su povezani sa mišljenjem značajnom parcijalnom korelacijom. Koeficijent multiple regresije iznosi 0,454. Na navedenom uzorku ovi prediktori objašnjavaju ukupno oko 20,6 % varijanse mišljenja. Postojanje kulturno-potpornih sredstava u porodičnom okruženju koje reprezentuje kulturno-pedagoški nivo porodice doprinosi razvoju formalno-operacionalnog mišljenja. Nerazrešena porodična traumatizacija deluje u suprotnom smeru.

Drugi korak. Kako tvrde Pričer i Hejes (Preacher & Hayes, 2008), većina autora se slaže da je osnovni matematički izraz kojim se izražava veličina medijacije: c = c`+ab. Slovo c je nestandardizovani koeficijent regresije zavisne varijable svim prediktorskim varijablama, ili totalni efekt, a on je jednak zbiru nestandardizovanog koeficijenta regresije direktnog efekta (c`) i proizvoda nestandardizovnog koeficijenta regresije medijatora nezavisnom varijablom (put a) i nestandardizovanog koeficijenta regresije zavisne varijable medijatorom (put b). Koristimo postupak testiranja indirektnog efekta jednom od strategija ponovnog uzorkovanja koja se naziva butstrep procedura i koju izračunava makro za SPSS Pričera i Hejesa (Preacher & Hayes, 2008). Ovim postupkom dobija se interval vrednosti proizvoda ab koji čine sve vrednosti ab u zadanom intervalu ponovnog slučajnog uzorkovanja iz prvobitnog uzorka. Ako je odabrana opcija intervala poverenja 95% to znači da donju granicu predstavlja najniža vrednost iznosa ab u 95% uzorkovanja, a gornju granicu najviša vrednost ovog proizvoda. U ovaj postupak uneli smo odabrane varijable koje direktno deluju na mišljenje kao medijatorske, a one koje direktno deluju na njih unosimo kao nezavisne varijable, jer njihovo indirektno delovanje želimo da testiramo i uporedimo. Za svaku nezavisnu varijablu to smo uradili pojedinačno u postupku sa varijablama koje su selektirane kao mogući prenosioci efekta. Odabrana je opcija da se izvrši 1000 risemplovanja (ponovnog uzorkovanja) radi dobijanja empirijske distribucije proizvoda ab; odabran je percentilni interval poverenja od 95% sa opcijom korekcije o kojoj se može saznati iz radova Efrona (Efron & Tibshirani, 1993), Pričera i Hejesa (Preacher & Hayes, 2008). Odabrana je i opcija kontrole preostalih varijabli koje nisu medijatori. Potvrda hipoteze da postoji indirektni efekt podrazumeva da 0 kao iznos ab ne postoji među vrednostima ab koje su obuhvaćene intervalom poverenja. Sama analiza ne obezbeđuje sigurno zaključivanje o postojanju direktnih i indirektnih efekata, jer odabir ispitivanih obeležja vrši istraživač na osnovu teorijskih razmatranja. Stoga, nalazi koje smo dobili govore o odnosima između obeležja koje smo odabrali da ispitamo u ovom radu.

Nerazrešena porodična traumatizacija ima značajni negativni indirektni efekat na razvijenost mišljenja, tako što umanjuje pozitivno delovanje kulturno-pedagoškog nivoa porodice na razvoj mišljenja. Rezultati butstrep procedure prikazani su u tabeli 2.


Tabela 22: Indirektno delovanje na mišljenje nerazrešene porodične traumatizacije

prenosilacdelovanja

srednja vrednost

ab

St. greška

Interval poverenja 95% Bias korigovani interval poverenja

Donjavrednost

Gornjavrednost

Donjavrednost

Gornjavrednost

kpn – .015 .010 – .040 – .001 – .044 – .002

U tabeli 3 vidimo da negativni model selfa ostvaruje indirektno negativno delovanje na mišljenje tako što povećava negativno delovanje nerazrešene porodične traumatizacije i umanjuje pozitivno delovanje kulturno-pedagoškog nivoa porodice na razvijenost logičkog mišljenja. Interval poverenja za razliku ovih indirektnih delovanja obuhvata nulu te možemo da zaključimo da između navedenih indirektnih delovanja nema značajne razlike.

Tabela 3: Indirektno delovanje negativnog modela selfa na mišljenje

prenosiocidelovanja

srednja vrednost

St. greška

Intervalpoverenja 95%

Bias korigovaniinterval poverenja

Donjavrednost

Gornjavrednost

Donjavrednost

Gornjavrednost

kpn – .019 .011 – .046 – .002 – .052 – .002

n.p.trauma – .065 .020 – .111 – .024 – .121 – .029

razlika .046 .025 – .008 .099 – .004 .101

Tabela 4: Indirektno delovanje kapaciteta za mentalizaciju na mišljenje

prenosiocidelovanja

srednja vrednost

ab

St. greška


Donjavrednost

Gornjavrednost

Donjavrednost

Gornjavrednost

kpn .018 .012 .001 .047 .002 .047

n.p.trauma – .040 .018 – .079 – .008 – .085 – .010

razlika .058 .020 .022 .100 .022 .082

Kapacitet za mentalizaciju ostvaruje značajno indirektno delovanje na mišljenje tako što deluje na veću povezanost kulturno-pedagoškog nivoa

2 Legenda važi za svaku tabelu u ovom odeljku: kpn je kulturno-pedagoški nivo porodice, n.p.trauma je nerazrešena porodična traumatizacija; razlika je razlika u veličini indirektnog delovanja; u tabeli su prikazani odabrani podaci iz ispisa koji se odnose na postupak butstreping (bootstrapping, prema: Preacher & Hayes, 2008).


porodice sa mišljenjem (tabela 4). Izgleda kao da sa porastom nerazrešene porodične traumatizacije porast izraženosti kapaciteta za mentalizaciju doprinosi da ova traumatična iskustva imaju snažniji negativni efekat na mišljenje. Tome doprinose ispitanici koji imaju preokupiranu organizaciju afektivne vezanosti jer oni naglašavaju značaj ove dimenzije kod sebe zajedno sa isticanjem nerazrešene porodične traumatizacije (Vukčević, 2009).

Od ispitivanih komponenti afektivne vezanosti samo još slaba regulacija besa ostvaruje indirektno delovanje na mišljenje, tako što deluje na nerazrešenu porodičnu traumatizaciju. Slaba regulacija besa povećava negativno delovanje nerazrešene porodične traumatizacije na razvijenost mišljenja adolescenata (tabela 5).

Tabela 5: Indirektno delovanje slabe regulacije besa na mišljenje

prenosiocidelovanja

srednja vrednost

ab

St. greška


Donjavrednost

Gornjavrednost

Donjavrednost

Gornjavrednost

kpn .002 .007 – .015 .018 – .007 .017

n.p.trauma – .029 .014 – .060 -.007 – .045 – .006

razlika – .031 .015 – .063 – .004 – .068 – .007

Ispitali smo da li kulturno-pedagoški nivo porodice ostvaruje pored direktnog i indirektno delovanje na formalne operacije preko nerazrešene porodične traumatizacije (tabela 6).

Tabela 6: Indirektno delovanje na mišljenje kulturno-pedagoškog nivoa porodice

prenosilacdelovanja

srednja vrednost

ab

St. greška


Donjavrednost

Gornja vrednost

Donjavrednost

Gornjavrednost

N.p.trauma .182 .086 .043 .381 .049 .403

S obzirom da granice intervala poverenja ne obuhvataju nulu, kulturno-pedagoški nivo porodice deluje na mišljenje i preko komponente nerazrešena porodična traumatizacija. Sa većim kulturno-pedagoškim nivoom porodice smanjuje se nerazrešena porodična traumatizacija, pa tako slabi i njeno negativno delovanje na razvoj formalno-operacionalnog mišljenja. Specifična roditeljska medijacija kulturno-potpornih sredstava, koja je ispitana KPS skalom, ostvaruje delovanje na mišljenje preko kulturno-pedagoškog nivoa porodice i komponente nerazrešena porodična traumatizacija (tabela 7).


Tabela 7: Indirektno delovanje specifične roditeljske medijacije KPS na mišljenje

prenosiocidelovanja

srednjavrednost

abSt.

greška


Donjavrednost

Gornjavrednost

Donjavrednost

Gornjavrednost

kpn .017 .009 .001 .038 .002 .038

n.p.trauma .026 .009 .008 .046 .010 .051

razlika .001 .012 – .036 .022 – .040 .019

DISKUSIJA

Nerazrešena porodična traumatizacija i kulturno-pedagoški nivo porodice ostvaruju delovanje na mišljenje adolescenata. U odnosu kulturno-pedagoškog nivoa porodice i nerazrešene porodične traumatizacije ogleda se sinergija delovanja povoljnog porodičnog konteksta i sigurne organizacije vezanosti na razvijenost mišljenja jer sa većim kulturno-pedagoškim nivoom porodice ide manja razvijenost nerazrešene porodične traumatizacije, što zajedno povoljno deluje na kognitivni razvoj. Iz ugla pomenute koncepcije baze sigurnosti možemo reći da razvijenost nerazrešene porodične traumatizacije predstavlja glavno svojstvo adolescenata koje im smanjuje osećanje sigurnosti u saznajnim aktivnostima u porodičnom kontekstu koje doprinose razvoju mišljenja. Nerazrešeni sukobi sa roditeljima u oblasti afektivnog vezivanja dovode do manjeg značaja porodičnih medijatora kulturno-potpornih sredstava za razvoj formalno-operacionalnog mišljenja. Slaba regulacija besa ne umanjuje vrednost porodičnih kulturno-potpornih sredstava neposredno, nego sa njenom razvijenošću jača nerazrešena porodična traumatizacija i njen negativan uticaj na razvoj mišljenja.

Kapacitet za mentalizaciju doprinosi većem značaju porodičnih kulturno-potpornih sredstava za razvoj mišljenja kada je njihov izvor kulturno-pedagoški nivo porodice. Sa većom sposobnošću i težnjom da shvate svoja i tuđa mentalna stanja i procese, adolescenti bolje koriste porodične medijatore kulturno-potpornih sredstava, poput udžbenika, knjiga, računara, itd., a i bolje prihvataju implicitne vrednosne poruke roditelja o važnosti intelektualnog rada.

Negativno vrednovanje sebe u oblasti afektivne vezanosti umanjuje vrednost porodičnih kulturno-potpornih sredstava za razvoj mišljenja i povećava negativno delovanje nerazrešene porodične traumatizacije na razvijenost mišljenja adolescenata. Treba proveriti novim istraživanjem da li je delovanje ove komponente na slabiju medijaciju kulturno-potpornih sredstava ostvareno preko slabije samoprocene intelektualnih sposobnosti i osećanja samopoštovanja. S obzirom da ovu komponentu možemo da shvatimo kao aspekt samoevaluativnog


sistema koji ima svoje principe funkcionisanja (Opačić, 1995), pretpostavka je da usklađivanjem slike o sebi, negativno samopoimanje u oblasti afektivne vezanosti dovodi do procene drugih aspekata selfa kao manje vrednih i lošijeg globalnog samopoštovanja. To se može reflektovati i na rešavanje sukoba sa bliskim osobama, pa otuda sa izraženošću negativnog modela selfa raste i razvijenost nerazrešene porodične traumatizacije.

Materijalni posed porodice i specifična roditeljska medijacija kulturno-potpornih sredstava koja je ispitana KPS skalom, nisu značajni prediktori mišljenja za razliku od nalaza Stepanovićeve (2007). Aspekti interakcije između roditelja i deteta koji čine KPS skalu povećavaju značaj kulturno-pedagoškog nivoa porodice, a umanjuju delovanje negativnih iskustava iz oblasti afektivne vezanosti, tako da posredno doprinose razvoju mišljenja.

Ovo istraživanje daje uvid u neposredno i posredno delovanje ispitanih obeležja na razvijenost formalno-operacionalno mišljenja u ovakvom skupu ispitivanih varijabli, tako da su time navedeni nalazi o direktnim i indirektnim efektima ograničeni. Na primer, možda je ovde neposredno delovanje nerazrešene porodične traumatizacije na mišljenje posredovano njenim delovanjem na osećanje globalnog samopoštovanja ili na samoprocenu intelektualnih sposobnosti, što treba ispitati drugim istraživanjem.

Nalazi pomenutog istraživanja autora ovog teksta ukazuju na moguće razlike u strukturi korelacija ispitivanih varijabli u delovima uzorka koji reprezentuju obrasce afektivne vezanosti (Vukčević, 2009). Zato treba ispitati navedene efekte u novom istraživanju za ispitanike svakog obrasca afektivne vezanosti posebno. Preciznije bi se uočilo na koji način aspekti porodičnog okruženja i komponente afektivne vezanosti imaju značaj za mišljenje adolescenata u grupama formiranim prema obrascu afektivne vezanosti. S druge strane, ovde nije bio cilj da ispitamo kako razvijenost mišljenja deluje na afektivnu vezanost, što može biti predmet drugog istraživanja.

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Vukčević, B. (2009). Afektivna vezanost i razvoj mišljenja u porodičnom kontekstu. Magistarski rad. Niš: Filozofski fakultet.

Vukosavljević-Gvozden, T., i Hanak, N. (2007). Kapacitet za empatiju osoba s različitim organizacijama afektivnog vezivanja. U: N. Hanak i A. Dimitrijević (ur), Afektivno vezivanje, teorija, istraživanja, psihoterapija (str. 183–205), Beograd: Centar za izdavačku delatnost, Fakultet za specijalnu edukaciju i rehabilitaciju.


The Effects of Attachment Componentson Formal-Operational Thinking

Branimir VukčevićThe Hotel Staff School, Vrnjačka Banja

In this work our aim is to examine how the components of attachment influence the thinking development of adolescents in familial context. We investigated the components of attachment: unresolved family traumatisation, the use of external security base, fear of loss of external security base, negative self concept, negative other concept, capacity for mentalisation, low control of anger. We used a revised Questionnaire for Assessment of Adult and Adolescent Attachment (in original: UPIPAV-R). Formal operations were tested by Bond’s Logical Operations Test. We examined the cultural-pedagogical status of the family, the parental mediation characteristic for the development of formal operations, and family property as the aspects of familial context. The sample consisted of 200 pupils aged 14 to 19. According to the attachment theory, secure attachment provides the feel of security in environment exploration, which is the ground of personality development. We assumed that components of attachment contribute formal-operational thinking development and change the influence of familial cultural-supportive tools. The findings show us that the cultural-pedagogical status of the family improves formal operations development and unresolved family traumatisation has negative influence. Capacity for mentalisation has a positive indirect effect on thinking development through the influence of the cultural-pedagogical status of the family. The low control of anger has a negative indirect effect on thinking development; it increases the influence of unresolved family traumatisation. Negative self concept has indirect effects on thinking development through increasing this negative influence of unresolved family traumatisation and decreasing the role of familial cultural-supportive tools.Key words: formal-operational thinking, attachment, cultural-supportive tools, family

PSIHOLOGIJA, 2010, Vol. 43 (3), UDK 159.923.3.072 ; 159.942.2.072© 2010 by the Serbian Psychological Association DOI: 10.2298/PSI1003329O

Povezanost obrade reči različite afektivne valencei bazične strukture ličnosti

Ana OrlićLaboratorija za eksperimentalnu psihologiju, Filozofski fakultet, Univerzitet u Beogradu

Fakultet sporta i fizičkog vaspitanja, Univerzitet u Beogradu

U ovom radu ispitivana je povezanost kognitivne obrade afektivno obojenog verbalnog materijala i bazične strukture ličnosti. Za potrebe istraživanja konstruisan je poseban eksperiment u kome je mereno afektivno primovanje u zadatku leksičke odluke. Pod afektivnim primovanjem se podrazumeva ubrzanje u prepoznavanju nekog stimulusa ako mu prethodi stimulus iste afektivne valence. Ispitanicima su na ekranu računara prikazivane po dve reči iste ili različite afektivne valence (stimulus-prim i stimulus-meta), a njihov zadatak je bio da odgovore da li druga reč u paru predstavlja reč srpskog jezika ili ne. Bazična struktura ličnosti definisana je modelom „Velikih pet“ i Modelom dezintegracije, a operacionalizovana inventarima NEO PI-R i Delta 10. Rezultati eksperimenta afektivnog primovanja pokazali su jak efekat pozitivne facilitacije i znatno slabiji efekat negativne facilitacije. Kvazikanoničkom korelacionom analizom izdvojene su dve značajne funkcije. Prva kvazikanonička funkcija ukazuje na povezanost efekta pozitivne facilitacije i svih subskala sa dimenzija neuroticizma, ekstraverzije i savesnosti (NEO PI-R), kao i svih modaliteta dezintegracije (DELTA 10). Druga kvazikanonička funkcija govori o povezanosti facilitacije za negativne stimuluse i pojedinih subskala sa dimenzija neuroticizma, ekstraverzije i saradljivosti, kao i svih modaliteta dezintegracije.Ključne reči: emocije, kognicija, afektivno primovanje, bazična struktura ličnosti

Ispitivanje kognitivne obrade afektivno obojenog materijala je poslednjih godina jedna od veoma aktuelnih tema u oblasti kognitivne psihologije i eksperimentalne socijalne psihologije, a sve češće i u oblasti psihologije ličnosti. Jedna od dominantnih paradigmi u okviru koje se vrše ispitivanja kognitivne obrade afektivno obojenog materijala je afektivno primovanje. Pod afektivnim primovanjem se podrazumeva facilitacija odgovora na neki stimulus ako mu prethodi stimulus koji je sa njim afektivno kongruentan. U tipičnom eksperimentu primovanja ispitanicima se sukcesivno prikazuju dva stimulusa (stimulus-prim i stimulus-meta), koji mogu biti iste ili različite afektivne valence, a njihov zadatak

Kontakt adresa: [email protected]

POVEZANOST OBRADE REČI RAZLIČITE AFEKTIVNE VALENCE I BAZIČNESTRUKTURE LIČNOSTI330

je da odgovore na drugi stimulus. Efekat primovanja se ogleda u facilitaciji i/ili inhibiciji odgovora na stimulus-metu koji je uzrokovan prethodno prikazanim stimulusom-primom.

Ovako definisano, afektivno primovanje je primećeno u različitim zadacima: zadatku evaluativne odluke (Fazio, Sanbonmatsu, Powell, & Kardes, 1986; Fazio, 2001; Bargh, Chaiken, Raymond, & Pratto, 1992; Klauer & Musch, 1997), zadatku imenovanja reči (Bargh, Chaiken, Raymond, & Hymes, 1996, De Houwer & Randell, 2004; De Houwer, Hermans, & Spruyt, 2001; Hermans, De Houwer, & Ellen, 1994), zadatku leksičke odluke (Wentura, 2000; Hill & Kemp-Wheeler, 1989) i dr. U najvećem broju ovih istraživanja kao stimulusi se koriste reči, ali su efekti afektivnog primovanja primećeni i kada se kao stimulusi koriste crno-beli crteži objekata (Giner-Sorolla, Garcia, & Bargh, 1999), fotografije (Murphy & Zajonc, 1993; Murphy, Monahan, & Zajonc, 1995; Fazio, 1993; Hermans, De Houwer, & Ellen, 1994), nepoznate reči čije je emotivno značenje naučeno u prethodnoj fazi eksperimenta (De Houwer, Hermans, & Ellen, 1998), pa čak i prijatni i neprijatni mirisi (Hermans, Baeyens, & Ellen, 1998). Nalazi pomenutih istraživanja nisu uvek jednoznačni, a teorijska objašnjenja mehanizama koji stoje u osnovi ovog fenomena kreću se od klasične teorije šireće aktivacije u semantičkoj memoriji (Fazio at al, 1986; Fazio, 2001; Bargh al, 1992, 1996), preko teorije kompeticije odgovora (Wentura, 1999, 2000; Klauer & Musch, 1997; Klauer, 1998) do teorije odvojenog afektivnog i kognitivnog sistema (Zajonc, 1980; Murphy & Zajonc 1993; Murphy, Monahan, & Zajonc, 1995; Wong & Root, 2003; Padovan & Versace, 2002; Le Doux, 1995, 1996).

Poslednjih godina može se naći sve veći broj radova koji paradigmu afektivnog primovanja primenjuju u oblasti individualnih razlika. Teorijski značaj ovakvih istraživanja je u tome što mogu dati precizniji uvid u mehanizme regulacije, odnosno deregulacije kognitivno-afektivnih procesa koji stoje u osnovi psihometrijski definisanih crta ili dimenzija ličnosti. U najvećem broju radova uzima se jedna izolovana dimenzija ličnosti, operacionalizovana skorom na nekoj skali, a zatim se posmatra kako se pojedinci sa visokim i niskim skorom na toj dimenziji razlikuju u kognitivnoj obradi afektivnih stimulusa. Osnovna pretpostavka u ovim istraživanjima je da će osobe sa visokim skorom na izabranoj dimenziji imati izmenjenu strukturu obrade emocionalnog materijala, na primer, pojačanu usmerenost na negativne stimuluse u slučaju neuroticizma ili depresije ili odsustvo primovanja u slučaju aleksitimije, psihopatije ili šizotipalnosti.

Bler i saradnici ispituju povezanost afektivnog primovanja i psihopatije koristeći zadatak evaluativne odluke (Blair, Richell, Mitchell, Leonard, Morton & Blair, 2006). Rezultati ovog istraživanja su pokazali da kod kontrolne grupe postoji facilitacija u vremenu reakcije za afektivno kongruetne reči (kako pozitivne tako i negativne), kao i inhibicija i situaciji kada pozitivnoj meti prethodi negativan prim, dok kod grupe sa povišenim skorom na skali psihopatije ne postoji ni facilitacija ni inhibicija. Autori zaključuju da kod ljudi

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sa povišenim skorom na skali psihopatije postoji određeni stepen disocijacije između semantičke i afektivne reprezentacije reči, odnosno da oni razumeju značenje reči, ali ga ne povezuju dovoljno efikasno sa njihovom afektivnom reprezentacijom.

Suslov i saradnici (Suslow, 1998; Suslow & Junghanns, 2002) ispituju povezanost afektivnog primovanja i aleksitimije upotrebljavajući nekoliko različitih eksperimentalnih paradigmi. Aleksitimija je definisana kao multidimezionalni konstrukt koji obuhvata teškoću u identifikovanju, razlikovanju i opisivanju emocija, siromaštvo mašte i govor i mišljenje koji su konkretni i tesno povezani sa spoljašnjim događajima. Koristeći nešto izmenjen zadatak leksičke odluke u kome su kao primovi korišćene rečenice sa emocionalnim značenjem, a kao mete reči koje označavaju određene emocije (sreća, tuga i sl.), autori pokazuju da ispitanici sa povišenim skorom na skali aleksitimije pokazuju smanjeno afektivno primovanje u odnosu na kontrolnu grupu (Suslow & Junghanns, 2002). Međutim, u zadatku imenovanja i zadatku evaluativne odluke rezultati su mnogo manje jasni. U zadatku imenovanja totalni skor na skali aleksitimije pozitivno korelira sa facilitacijom negativnih stimulusa, dok u zadatku evaluativne odluke on pozitivno korelira sa sa facilitacijom pozitivnih stimulusa (Suslow, 1998). Drugim rečima, u ovim zadacima je kod ljudi sa povišenim skorom na skali aleksitimije efekat afektivnog primovanja jači u odnosu na kontrolnu grupu, pa je na osnovu ovakvih rezultata teško doneti jedinstven zaključak o povezanosti afektivnog primovanja i aleksitimije.

Nekoliko grupa istraživača ispitivalo je afektivno primovanje kod nekliničke populacije koja ima povišene skorove na skali šizotipalnosti (Kerns & Berenbaum, 2000; Kerns, 2005; Van ‘t Wout, Aleman, Kessels, Laroi, & Kahn, 2004). Šizotipalnost se u ovakvim istraživanjima tretira kao kontinuirana crta ličnosti koja je normalno distribuirana u populaciji i može se posmatrati kao predispozicija za razvijanje šizofrenije na nivou organizacije ličnosti. Rezultati ovih istraživanja nisu jednoznačni i ukazuju na potrebu za daljim istraživanjem ovog fenomena. Sa druge strane, ispitivanje afektivnog primovanja na osobama koje imaju dijagnozu šizofrenije pokazalo je da u uslovima suboptimalnog prikazivanja fotografija srećnih i tužnih lica (u trajanju od 16,7ms) grupa sa izraženom socijalnom anhedonijom, koju karakteriše nedostatak zadovoljstva u odnosu sa drugim ljudima, pokazuje pojačanu facilitaciju za negativne stimuluse, čak i u situaciji kada neutralnoj meti prethodi fotografija srećnog lica (Suslsow, Roestel, & Arolt, 2003). Autori zaključuju da ovakvi rezultati idu u prilog hipotezi da osobe sa dijagnozom šizofrenije, naročito one kod kojih je izražena socijalna anhedonija, imaju disbalans između averzivnih i apetitivnih moždanih centara, odnosno generalnu usmerenost prema afektivno negativnim stimulusima. Ovakva struktura rezultata nije potvrđena u pažljivo dizajniranom ekperimentu Roselove koja ispituje afektivno primovanje u zadatku leksičke odluke na osobama koje imaju dijagnozu šizofrenije (Rossell, 2004). Iako je dobila značajne efekte afektivnog primovanja za kongruetne parove stimulusa,


Rosvelova nije dobila značajne interakcije sa gupom (šizofrena vs. kontrolna), pa zaključuje da su obrasci afektivnog primovanja slični za ove dve grupe ljudi.

Robinson i saradnici ispituju efekte afektivnog primovanja kod ispitanika koji imaju povišen skor na skali neuroticizma (Robinson, Ode, Moeller, & Goetz, 2007). Rezultati njihovog istraživanja pokazuju da je neuroticizam pozitivno koreliran sa facilitacijom u vremenu reakcije na negativne stimuluse kada im prethodi reč negativne afektivne valence, dok za pozitivne stumuluse to nije slučaj. Autori pretpostavljaju da je kod ljudi sa povišenim skorom na skali neuroticizma pojačano automatsko širenje aktivacije u semantičkoj mreži za negativne stimuluse, što može objasniti veliki broj neurotičnih simptoma (negativan afekat, zabrinutost, somatske poremećaje, nedostatak životnog zadovoljstva i slično).

Grupa belgijskih autora ispituje negativno primovanje u modifikovanom Strupovom zadatku kod pojedinaca koji imaju dijagnozu Velike depresije (Goeleven, De Raedt, Baert, & Koster, 2006). Rezultati ovog istraživanja jasno pokazuju da kod osoba sa dijagnozom depresije izostaje inhibicija negativnih stimulusa, što autori objašnjavaju generalnom usmerenošću na negativne informacije u spoljnjem svetu.

Na osnovu dosadašnjih istraživanja povezanosti crta ličnosti i afektivnog primovanja ne mogu se izvući jednoznačni zaključci. Ovakvih istraživanja je relativno malo, a autori ispituju različite crte ličnosti i koriste različite skale i eksperimentalne paradigme, što dodatno otežava upoređivanje rezultata. Pored toga, moguće je da je kognitivna obrada emocionalno obojenog materijala povezana sa strukturom različitih osobina ličnosti, a ne sa pojedinačnim crtama. Ovi problemi otvaraju potrebu za sistematskim ispitivanjem povezanosti celokupne bazične strukture ličnosti i načina kognitivnog procesiranja afektivno obojenih informacija. Najbolju teorijsku osnovu za ovakvo istraživanje svakako pruža model „Velikih pet“ (Big Five), koji je zbog svoje široke empirijske utemeljenosti postao dominantna paradigma za razumevanje bazične strukture ličnosti. Petofaktorski model pretpostavlja da se celokupni prostor bazične strukture ličnosti može opisati duž pet velikih dimenzija: neuroticizma, ekstraverzije, otvorenosti, saradljivosti i savesnosti (Costa & McCrae, 1985; Knežević, Džamonja-Ignjatović, & Đurić-Jočić, 2004). Svaka od ovih dimenzija se sastoji od po šest subdomena (faceta), koji bliže određuju sadržaj te dimenzije.

Prva dimenzija u okviru modela „Velikih pet“ je neuroticizam koji se odnosi na prilagođenost i emocionalnu stabilnost naspram neprilagođenosti i emocionalne nestabilnosti. Uži aspekti ovog domena su: anksioznost, hostilnost, depresivnost, socijalna nelagodnost, impulsivnost i vulnerabilnost. Ekstraverzija, kao druga dimenzija petofaktorskog modela, prevashodno se odnosi na socijabilnost. Subdomeni ovog faktora su: toplina, druželjubivost, asertivnost, aktivitet, potraga za uzbuđenjem i pozitivne emocije. Treća dimenzija je otvorenost i obuhvata estetsku senzitivnost, intelektualnu radoznalost, intraceptivnost, preferenciju različitosti, potrebu za promenom, nezavisnost mišljenja, odnosno sklonost

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nedogmatskim stavovima. Uži aspekti ovog domena su: fantazija, estetika, osećanja, akcija, ideje i vrednosti. Četvrti faktor, saradljivost, je dimenzija interpersonalnih relacija. Uži aspekti ove dimenzije su: poverenje, iskrenost, altruizam, popustljivost, skromnost i blaga narav. Poslednji faktor, savesnost, predstavlja sposobnost samokontrole u smislu disciplinovane težnje ka ciljevima i pridržavanje sopstvenih principa. Uži aspekti ove dimenzije su: kompetencija, red, dužnost, postignuće, samodisciplina i promišljenost.

Iako je stabilnost petofaktoske solucije potvrđena u mnogim istraživanjima, pokazalo se da on ne može uspešno da diferencira spektar ljudski ponašanja koja se kreću na dimenziji psihotično – nepsihotično. Uzimajući ovo u obzir, neki autori smatraju da je za precizan opis univerzuma ljudskog ponašanja modelu „Velikih pet“ neophodno dodati još jednu dimenziju, koja se u literaturi označava nazivima kao što su psihoticizam, šizotipalnost, disocijacija ili dezintegracija (Đurić-Jočić, Džamonja-Ignjatović, & Knežević, 2004). U osnovi ovakvih shvatanja je pretpostavka da je sklonost ka razvijanju različitih vrsta psihoza kontinuirana crta ličnosti, rasprostranjena u celoj populaciji, a psihotično ponašanje je samo krajnja tačka na ovom kontinuumu. Obimno istraživanje koje su sproveli Knežević i saradnici, koristeći 26 skala domaćih i stranih autora koje mere različite fenomene psihoticizma, šizotipalnosti i disocijacije, pokazalo je da se faktorskom analizom može izdvojiti robustan faktor prvog reda nazvan generalni faktor dezintegracije (Knežević, Savić, Kutlešić, Jović, Opačić, & Šaula, 2008). Ovaj faktor se sastoji od 10 modaliteta: generalna egzekutivna disfunkcija, perceptivne distorzije, povećana svesnost, depresija, paranoja, manija, introvertivna anhedonija, zaravnjeni afekat, somatomorfna disregulacija i magijsko mišljenje.

U ovom radu želeli smo da proverimo da li postoji veza, i ako postoji u kom smeru, između obrade reči različite afektivne valence (afektivnog primovanja) i bazične strukture ličnosti definisane modelom “Velikih pet” i Modelom dezintegracije. Efekte afektivnog primovanja ispitali smo zadatkom leksičke odluke, kao jednom od najstandardnijih eksperimentalnih procedura u kognitivnoj psihologiji.

EKSPERIMENT

MetodIspitanici: U eksperimentu su učestvovala 152 ispitanika koji su bili studenti prve i druge godine osnovnih studija na Odeljenja za psihologiju Filozofskog fakulteta u Beogradu.Stimulusi: Za potrebe ovog eksperimenta korišćeni su pojmovi iz baze Konotativni rečnik Dragana Jankovića (Janković, 2000a, 2000b). Svaki pojam koji se nalazi u bazi prethodno je procenjen na subskalama Konotativnog diferencijala (CD–15) koje mere afektivnu dimenziju značenja (Prilog 1). Iz baze je izdvojeno 240 pojmova (imenice u nominativu jednine) grupisanih u tri kategorije: 80 afektivno pozitivnih pojmova, 80 neutralnih i 80 afektivno negativnih pojmova, koji su kasnije korišćeni u zadatku primovanja. Po 60 afektivno


pozitivnih, neutralnih i negativnih pojmova iskorišćeno je za konstruisanje stimulusa-primova, a po 20 pozitivnih, negativnih i neutralnih pojmova za konstruisanje stimulusa-meta. Svi stimulusi korišćeni u istraživanju i prosečne vrednosti koje oni zauzimaju na afektivnoj subskali Konotativnog diferencijala navedeni su u Prilogu 2, posebno za primove i posebno za mete. Rezultati analize varijanse su pokazali da se afektivno pozitivne, neutralne i negativne reči koji su korišćene kao stimulusi-primovi značajno razlikuju po vrednostima koje dobijaju na navedenoj meri afektivnog značenja: F(2,118) =1 028. 4, p<0.01. I kod imenica koji su korišćene kao stimulusi-mete analiza varijanse je pokazala značajnu razliku između tri grupe stimulusa: F(2,57) =718.2, p<0.01. Post hoc test (LSD) je pokazao da se i u slučaju stimulusa-primova i u slučaju stimulusa-meta afektivno pozitivni, neutralni i negativni stimulusi međusobno značajno razlikuju na nivou 0.01. Ispitanicima je prikazano 120 parova stimulusa, od kojih su 60 reči-meta bile pseudoreči, a 60 reči (po 20 emotivno pozitivnih, neutralnih i negativnih). Njima je prethodilo po 15 emocionalno pozitivnih, 15 neutralnih i 15 emocionalno negativnih reči, kao i 15 situacija u kojima je umesto reči prikazivan niz slova, na primer DDDD. Pseudoreči su konstruisane menjanjem po jednog slova na korpusu pojmova koji je preuzet iz baze Konotativni rečnik. Pre eksperimenta, ispitanicima je prikazivana vežba koja se sastojala od 24 para stimulusa.

Nacrt: Eksperiment je bio trofaktorski. Prvi faktor, leksikalnost, imao je dva nivoa: reč i pseudoreč1. Drugi faktor, afektivna valenca stimulusa-prima, imao je četiri nivoa: pozitivni, neutralni i negativni prim, kao i sutuaciju u kojoj je ispitanicima umesto prima prikazivan niz slova (situacija bez afektivnog konteksta, odnosno kontrolna situacija). Najzad, treći faktor, afektivna valenca stimulusa-mete, imao je tri nivoa: pozitivna, negativna i neutralna afektivna valenca reči. Da bi se obezbedilo da se iste reči-mete u eksperimetu pojave u različitim kontekstima, a izbeglo ponavljanje stimulusa, stimulusi-primovi rotirani su po latinskom kvadratu.

Procedura: Za konstrukciju eksperimenta korišćen je program SuperLab Pro (verzija 2.0). Na ekranu računara ispitanicima se nakon fiksacione tačke pojavljivao stimulus-prim, u trajanju od 150 milisekundi. Posle njega sledio je interstimulusni interval (ISI) od 100 milisekundi, a zatim stimulus-meta koja je nestajala sa ekrana kada ispitanik da odgovor. Maksimalno vreme za davanje odgovora iznosilo je 1500 milisekundi. Između svakog para stimulusa postojao je interval (ITI) u trajanju od 1200 milisekundi. Zadatak ispitanika bio je da prvu reč (stimulus-prim) samo pročitaju, a da na drugu reč (stimulus-metu) pritiskom na taster (da/ne) što brže odgovore da li predstavlja reč srpskog jezika koja ima značenje ili ne. U nejednakim intervalima na ekranu se pojavljivala poruka „Ponovite poslednje dve reči“, čime je obezbeđeno čitanje svih stimulusa koji se pojavljuju, kako primova, tako i meta.

Kontrolne varijable: Svi stimulusi bili su ujednačeni po dužini, frekvenci, konkretnosti i asocijativnoj povezanosti između primova i meta. Podaci o frekvenci pojmova korišćenih u istraživanju uzeti su iz frekvencijskog rečnika srpskog jezika (Kostić, 1999). Podaci o konkretnosti, odnosno apstraktnosti pojmova uzeti su iz baze Konotativni rečnik, u kojoj za sve korišćene pojmove postoje procene na sedmostepenoj bipolarnoj skali konkretno – apstraktno. Podaci o asocijativnoj povezanosti pojmova dobijeni su procenama dvadeset nezavisnih procenjivača, čije je zadatak bio da na sedmostepenoj skali označe u kojoj meri su dva pojma međusobno povezana. U eksperimentu su korišćeni samo oni pojmovi oko kojih je postojalo nedvosmisleno slaganje da nisu međusobno asocijativno povezani.

1 Stimulusi–primovi koji su prethodili pseudorečima su takođe izabrani iz baze Konotativni rečnik i podeljeni u tri grupe (pozitivne, neutralne i negativne), međutim, kako pseudoreči ne ulaze u dalju analizu svi podaci se odnose samo na one primove koji su prethodili pojmovima sa značenjem.

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Inventar za merenje petofaktorske strukture ličnosti – NEO PI-R: Za operacionalizaciju modela petofaktorske strukture ličnosti korišćen je upitnik NEO PI-R (Revised NEO Personality Inventory). Ovaj upitnik je, kao jedan od najčešće primenjivanih instrumenata u oblasti psihologije ličnosti, standardizovan na našoj populaciji, što ga čini posebno pogodnim za ovo istraživanje. NEO PI-R se sastoji od pet osnovnih dimenzija (domena): Neuroticizam (N), Ekstraverzija (E), Otvorenost (O), Saradljivost (A) i Savesnost (C). Svaka skala namenjena merenju ovih domena obuhvata po 6 subskala koje mere aspekte (facete). Subskale se sastoje od po 8 ajtema, što ukupno čini 240 ajtema. Stepen slaganja ili neslaganja sa sadržajem ajtema ispitanici izražavaju na petostepenoj Likertovoj skali procene (od “nimalo se ne slažem” do “u potpunosti se slažem”).Inventar za merenje dezintegracije – DELTA 10: Inventar za merenje dezintegracije – DELTA 10 konstruisan je na osnovu ranije opisanog istraživanja Kneževića i saradnika (Knežević et al, 2008). Inventar se satoji od 10 skala koje mere različite modalitete dezintegracije. Ove dimenzije su: generalna egzekutivna disfunkcija, perceptivne distorzije, paranoja, depresija, zaravnjeni afekat, somatomorfna disregulacija, povećana svesnost, magijsko mišljenje, manija i introvertivna anhedonija. Svaka skala se sastoji od po 20 ajtema, što ukupno čini 200 ajtema. Stepen slaganja ili neslaganja sa sadržajem ajtema ispitanici izražavaju na petostepenoj Likertovoj skali procene (od “nimalo se ne slažem” do “u potpunosti se slažem”).Postupak: Inventare NEO PI-R i DELTA 9 ispitanici su popunjavali u okviru redovnih vežbi iz predmeta Psihologija ličnosti, a rečeno im je da će podaci biti korišćeni isključivo u istraživačke svrhe. Eksperiment afektivnog primovanja ispitanici su radili individualno, a sproveden je u Laboratoriji za eksperimentalnu psihologiju na Filozofskom fakultetu u Beogradu. Eksperiment je trajao 10 minuta.

RezultatiIz analize su izbačeni ispitanici čija su vremena reakcije bila iznad 3

standardne devijacije u odnosu na prosek. Na ovaj način izbačena su 4 ispitanika. Takođe, jednom broju ispitanika zbog tehničke greške nisu zadate skale manije i introvertivne anhedonije iz inventara DELTA 10, pa smo ove skale takođe izbacili iz analize.Afektivno primovanje. Rezultati eksperimenta afektivnog primovanja obrađeni su analizom varijanse za ponovljena merenja i prikazani su na Slici 1. Analiza varijanse je pokazala značajan onovni efekat afektivne valence prima: F(3, 453) = 2.75, p< 0.05, osnovni efekat afektivne valence mete: F(2, 302)= 35.72, p< 0.01 i značajnu interakciju afektivne valence prima i afektivne valence mete: F(6, 906) = 6.40, p< 0.01.

Osnovni efekat afektivne valence prima pokazuje da se brže obrađuju stimulusi kojima prethodi pozitivan prim u odnosu na stimuluse kojima prethodi neutralni prim: F(1, 151) = 7.03, p < 0.01 i stimuluse kojima prethodi kontrolni prim (niz slova): F(1, 151) = 5.60, p<0.05. Ostali parcijalni efekti nisu dostigli statističku značajnost. Osnovni efekat afektivne valence mete pokazuje da se pozitivni stimulusi-mete obrađuju brže od neutralnih: F (1, 151) = 65.78, p < 0.01 i negativnih: F(1, 151) = 38.62, p<0.01, dok razlika između neutralnih i negativnih meta nije statistički značajna.


Slika 1: Prosečna vremena reakcije za afektivno pozitivne, negativne i neutralne mete

Kao što smo ranije istakli, rezultati su pokazali značajnu interakciju između afektivne valence prima i afektivne valence mete. Pregledom vremena reakcije pretpostavili smo da ova interakcija potiče prvenstveno iz situacije kada pozitivnoj meti prethodi pozitivan prim. Da bi proverili ovu pretpostavku pristupili smo analizi parcijalnih interakcija. Prva parcijalna interakcija koju smo analizirali je interakcija neutralnih i negativnih meta i svih nivoa prima. Rezultati su pokazali da ova interakcija nije značajna. Parcijalna interakcija neutralnog, negativnog i kontrolnog prima i svih nivoa mete takođe ne dostiže statističku značajnost. Sa druge strane, parcijalna interakcija pozitivnih i neutralnih meta i svih nivoa prima je statistički značajna: F(3, 453)=7.70, p < 0.01. Interakcija pozitivnih i negativnih meta i svih nivoa prima takođe dostiže statističku značajnost F(3, 453)=10.38, p < 0.01. Ovakva struktura rezultata ide u prilog pretpostavci da interakcija afektivne valence prima i afektivne valence mete potiče prvenstveno iz efekta pozitivne facilitacije.

Još detaljniju strukturu rezultata dobili smo analizom parcijalnih efekata. Situacija u kojoj pozitivnoj meti prethodi pozitivan prim značajno se razlikuje od situacija kada joj prethodi neutralan prim: F(1, 151) = 22.74, p < 0.01, negativan prim: F(1, 151) = 29.30, p < 0.01 i kontrolni prim: F (1, 151) = 26.87, p < 0.01. Situacije u kojoj pozitivnoj meti prethode neutralni, negativni i kontrolni prim se međusobno ne razlikuju. Drugim rečima, postoji jasan efekat facilitacije za situaciju kada pozitivnom primu prethodi pozitivna meta.Situacije u kojima neutralnoj meti prethode pozitivan, neutralan, negativan i kontrolni prim se statistički značajno ne razlikuju, odnosno neutralne mete se obrađuju podjednako, bez obzira koji im prim prethodi. Situacija u kojoj negativnoj meti prethodi negativan prim značajno se razlikuje od situacije kada joj prethode pozitivan prim: F (1, 151) = 4.1, p < 0.05 i kontrolni prim: F (1, 151) = 4.67, p < 0.05.

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Ova situacija se ne razlikuje značajno od situacije kada negativnoj meti prethodi neutralan prim. Situacije u kojima negativnoj meti prethode pozitivan, neutralan i kontrolni prim se međusobno statistički značajno ne razlikuju.

Sa druge strane, ukoliko parcijalne efekte posmatramo po afektivnoj valenci prima, rezultati pokazuju da se u situaciji pozitivnog prima značajno razlikuju vremena rekcije na pozitivne i neutralne mete: F (1, 151) = 70.9, p < 0.01 i pozitivne i negativne mete: F (1, 151) = 56.39, p < 0.01. Razlika između neutralnih i negativnih meta ne dostiže statističku značajnost. Ukoliko stimulusima prethodi neutralan prim, takođe se značajno razlikuju vremena reakcije na pozitivne i neutralne mete: F (1, 151) = 13.96, p < 0.01) i pozitivne i negativne mete: F (1, 151) = 4.36, p < 0.05, a razlika između neutralnih i negativnih nije statistički značajna. U situaciji kada stimulusima prethodi negativan prim nema statistički značajnih razlika, mada je razlika u vremenu reakcije na pozitivne i neutralne mete na granici značajnosti: F (1, 151) = 3.69, p < 0.054. I, na kraju, ukoliko stimulusima prethodi kontrolni prim značajno se razlikuju vremena reakcije na pozitivne i neutralne mete: F (1, 151) = 10.37, p < 0.01 i pozitivne i negativne mete: F (1, 151) = 11.18, p < 0.01. Razlika između neutralnih i negativnih meta ne dostiže statističku značajnost.

Uopšteno rečeno, rezultati analize varijanse pokazujno značajno ubrzanje vremena reakcije na pozitivne stimuluse ukoliko im prethode pozitivni primovi u odnosu na sve ostale situacije u eksperimentu. Sa druge strane, ubrzanje u vremenu reakcije na negativne stimuluse ukoliko im prethodi negativan prim je mnogo manje jasno. Videli smo da analize kontrasta pokazuju da se situacija u kojoj negativnoj meti prethodi negativan prim značajno razlikuje od situacija kada joj prethode pozitivan i kontrolni, ali ne i kada joj prethodi neutralan prim. Pored toga, vreme reakcije na negativnu metu ne razlikuje se značajno od vremena reakcije na neutralne mete, bez obzira koji joj prim prethodi.

Povezanost afektivnog primovanja i bazične strukture ličnostiZa povezivanje efekata afektivnog primovanja i bazične strukture ličnosti

korišćene su kanonička i kvazikanonička korelaciona analiza. Levi skup varijabli sačinjen je od svih varijabli ličnosti sa inventara NEO PI-R i DELTA 10. Da bi u ovu vrstu analize ubacili eksperimentalne podatke najpre smo izračunali diferencijalne skorove za vremena reakcije. Situaciju u kojoj je pozitivnoj meti prethodio pozitivan prim oduzeli smo od situacija u kojima je pozitivnoj meti prethodio neutralni prim sa jedne, i kontrolni prim sa druge strane. Na isti način izračunati su i diferencijalni skorovi za negativne mete – situaciju u kojoj je negativnoj meti prethodio negativan prim oduzeli smo od situacija u kojima su negativnoj meti prethodili neutralni i kontrolni prim. Na ovaj način dobili smo efekte pozitivne i negativne facilitacije. Ovi skorovi sačinjavali su desni skup varijabli u kanoničkoj i kvazikanoničkoj analizi.

Pregledom matrice interkorelacija (Prilog 3) možemo primetiti da su korelacije varijabli pozitivne i negativne facilitacije i varijabli ličnosti uglavnom


male i retko dostižu statističku značajnost. Ipak, one donekle ukazuju na povezanost nekih od subdomena neuroticizma, ekstraverzije i dezintegracije s jedne, i efekata pozitivne facilitacije s druge strane. Efekti negativne facilitacije su povezani samo sa subdomenom hostilnost sa dimenzije neuroticizma i altruizma sa dimenzije otvorenosti.

Rezultati kanoničke korelacione analize nisu izdvojili značajne kanoničke funkcije. Kvazikanonička korelaciona analiza kao mnogo robusnija metoda pokazala je dve značajne kvazikanoničke funkcije (Tabela 1).

Tabela 1: Kvazikanoničke korelacije i testovi značajnosti

ro ro2 f-test značajnost

.332 .111 15.411 .000

.367 .135 19.270 .000

Prva kvazikanonička funkcija ukazuje na povezanost facilitacije za pozitivne stimuluse (Prilog 4) i sa jedne, svih faceta sa dimenzija neuroticizma, ekstraverzije i savesnosti (NEO PI-R), kao i i svih modaliteta dezintegracije (DELTA 10) sa druge strane (Prilog 5). Drugim rečima kod neneurotične (emocionalno stabilne), ekstravertne i savesne strukture ličnosti sa sniženim skorovima na skalama dezintegracije postoji pojačano primovanje u situaciji kada pozitivnoj meti prethodi pozitivan prim.

Druga kvazikanonička funkcija govori o povezanosti facilitacije za negativne stimuluse (Prilog 4) i pojedinih faceta sa dimenzija neuroticizam, ekstraverzija i saradljivost, kao i svih modaliteta dezintegracije (Prilog 5). Hostilne, rezervisane, socijalno povučene, sumnjičave, kompetitivne i netolerantne osobe sa niskim skorovima na skalama dezintegracije imaju pojačano primovanje u situaciji kada negativnom primu prethodi negativna meta.

Matrica interkorelacija pokazuje da su kvazikanoničke funkcije praktično ortogonalne i kada su u pitanju varijable ličnosti i kada su u pitanju varijable pozitivne i negativne facilitacije (Tabela 2). Nepovezanost ovih funkcija ukazuje na postojanje dva nezavisna procesa kada su u pitanju efekti facilitacije kojima odgovaraju dve različite strukture ličnosti.

Tabela 2: Interkorelacije kvazikanoničkih funkcija

Varijable ličnosti Varijable pozitivne i negativne facilitacije

1 2 1 2

1 1.000 -.084 1 1.000 .081

2 -.084 1.000 2 .081 1.000

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DISKUSIUJA

U ovom radu želeli smo da proverimo da li postoji veza i u kom smeru između obrade reči različite afektivne valence i bazične strukture ličnosti definisane modelom “Velikih pet” i Modelom dezintegracije. Rezultati eksperimenta afektivnog primovanja u zadatku leksičke odluke su pokazali značajne osnovne efekte afektivne valence prima i afektivne valence mete, kao i značajnu interakciju ova dva faktora. Sa druge strane, kvazikanonička korelaciona analiza je pokazala povezanost pozitivne i negativne facilitacije sa pojedinim dimenzijama bazične strukture ličnosti.

Prvi značajan nalaz odnosi se na osnovi efekat afektivne valence mete. Videli smo da se u kontrolnoj situaciji (situaciji bez afektivnog konteksta) afektivno pozitivne reči obrađuju značajno brže od neutralnih i negativnih, dok razlika između negativnih i neutralnih reči nije statistički značajna. Ovakva struktura rezultata se replicira i kada su kao primovi korišćene pozitivne i neutralne reči. Kada su kao primovi korišćene reči sa negativnom afektivnom valencom osnovni efekat afektivne valence ne dostiže statističku značajnost, iako je razlika u vremenu obrade pozitivnih i neutralnih stimulusa na samoj granici značajnosti (p < 0.054).

Ovakvi nalazi su u skladu sa ranijim istraživanjima afektivnog primovanja. Naime, osnovni efekat afektivne valence se dosledno replicira u različitim kognitivnim zadacima: zadatku imenovanja reči (Bargh et al, 1996; De Houwer & Randell, 2004), zadatku evaluativne odluke (Fazio et al, 1986; Bargh et al., 1996), zadatku leksičke odluke (Rosell, 2004; Orlić, 2002). Ovi različiti nalazi pokazuju da se, gledano u apsolutnim vremenima reakcije, najbrže obrađuju afektivno pozitivne, zatim afektivno negativne i na kraju afektivno neutralne reči. Međutim, statistička značajnost razlika između afektivno pozitivnih, neutralnih i negativnih stimulusa nije ista u svim eksperimentima.2 U jednom broju istraživanja sve razlike su statistički značajne, u jednom broju su značajne razlike između pozitivnih sa jedne strane, i neutralnih i negativnih reči sa druge strane, a u nekim radovima značajna je razlika između pozitivnih i neutralnih reči, a razlika pozitivnih i negativnih, kao i negativnih i neutralnih ne dostiže statističku značajnost. Pored toga, u velikom broju radova se uopšte ne koriste afektivno neutralne reči-mete, već samo pozitivne i negativne, što u znatnoj meri otežava poređenje različitih nalaza. U svakom slučaju, sa priličnom sigurnošću možemo tvrditi da se, bar kada su u pitanju reči, najbrže obrađuju afektivno pozitivni stimulusi, dok razlika između pozitivnih i negativnih, kao ni između negativnih i neutralnih stimulusa nije toliko stabilan nalaz.

Drugi značajan nalaz odnosi se na dobijenu interakciju afektivne valence prima i afektivne valence mete. Ovaj nalaz ukazuje na postojanje efekta

2 Po našem saznanju, samo u jednom istraživanju u kome je korišćen zadatak imenovanja dobijeno je da se negativne reči obrađuju brže od pozitivnih (Bargh et al, 1996).


afektivnog primovanja, odnosno na uticaj afektivnog konteksta na brzinu obrade reči različite afektivne valence. Videli smo da ova interakcija potiče prevashodno iz razlike u brzini obrade stimulusa pozitivne valence kada im prethodi afektivno pozitivan prim, u odnosu na situacije kada im prethodi neutralan, negativan ili kontrolni prim. Dok je efekat pozitivne facilitacije prilično nedvosmislen nalaz, efekat negativne facilitacije je mnogo manje jasan. Naime, situacija kada negativnoj meti prethodi negativan prim se značajno razlikuje od situacija kada joj prethode pozitivan i kontrolni, ali ne i neutralni prim. Pored toga, vreme reakcije na negativne mete nije značajno brže od vremena reakcije na neutralne mete, bez obzira na afektivni kontekst koji im prethodi. Ovakva struktura rezultata nas navodi na oprez u donošenju zaključaka o postojanju negativne facilitacije u ovako dizajniranom eksperimentu.

Prethodna istraživanja u kojima je dobijan efekat afektivnog primovanja uglavnom izveštavaju o postojanju facilitacije i za pozitivne i za negativne stimuluse. Međutim, gledano u apsolutnim vremenima reakcije, negativna facilitacija je uvek manja od pozitivne facilitacije. Kao što smo istakli, osnovni efekat afektivne valence mete u situaciji bez afektivnog konteksta ukazuje na to da se pozitivne reči obrađuju brže od negativnih. Pored toga, prethodna istraživanja koja izveštavaju o osnovnom efektu prima pokazuju da se reči obrađuju brže ukoliko im prethodi pozitivan prim nego ako im prethodi negativan prim. U našem istraživanju ovo nije slučaj, odnosno razlika u obradi reči kada im prethodi pozitivan i negativan prim nije statistički značajna. Međutim, pozitivan prim značajno ubrzava obradu reči u odnosu na neutralni i kontrolni prim. Uzimajući sve ovo u obzir, možemo zaključiti da se pozitivne reči obrađuju brže od negativnih, ali i da značajno više ubrzavaju obradu reči koje im slede.

U uvodnom delu smo istakli da se objašnjenja afektivnog primovanja međusobno razlikuju, pa smo u ovom trenutku daleko od preciznog odgovora na pitanje koji kognitivno-afektivni procesi stoje u pozadini ovog efekta. Bez obzira na vrstu objašnjenja, jasno je da ovako dizajniran zadatak, najopštije rečeno, meri kapacitet za kognitivnu obradu afektivnih informacija. Sa druge strane, veliki broj psihometrijski utvrđenih crta ličnosti se definiše upravo odnosom kognitivnih i afektivnih procesa. Na primer, neuroticizam i depresija se određuju kao generalna usmerenost na negativne sadržaje, ekstraverzija kao usmerenost na pozitivne sadržaje, aleksitimija i afektivna zaravnjenost kao nedostatak afektivne reakcije na stimuluse u okolini, šizotipalnost i disocijacija kao neusklađenost afektivnih i kognitivnih funkcija. Polazeći od ovakvih definicija, prethodna istraživanja koja su se bavila individualnim razlikama u kognitivnoj obradi afektivno obojenog materijala su uzimala jednu izolovanu dimenziju ličnosti i posmatrala kakva je struktura afektivnog primovanja kod pojedinaca koji imaju visok i nizak skor na toj dimenziji. Osnovna pretpostavka ovih istraživanja bila je da kod osoba sa povišenim skorovima na ispitivanoj dimenziji postoji određeni disbalans između apetititivnih i averzivnih kognitivno-afektivnih mehanizama.

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U ovom istraživanju pokušali smo da ispitamo vezu između procesiranja afektivno obojenih stimulusa i celokupnog prostora bazične strukture ličnosti. Da se podsetimo, bazična struktura ličnosti definisana je modelom „Velikih pet“ i dopunjena modelom Dezintegracije. Rezultati kvazikanoničke korelacione analize u kojoj su jedan set varijabli predstavljale sve opisane dimenzije bazične strukture ličnosti, a drugi set efekti pozitivne i negativne facilitacije pokazali su dve značajne kvazikanoničke funkcije.

Prva kvazikanonička funkcija ukazuje na povezanost facilitacije za pozitivne stimuluse i svih faceta sa dimenzija neuroticizma, ekstraverzije i savesnosti (NEO PI-R) s jedne, kao i svih modaliteta dezintegracije (DELTA 10) s druge strane. Pri tom, povezanost pozitivne facilitacije, neuroticizma i dezintegracije je negativna, dok je povezanost pozitivne facilitacije, ekstraverzije i savesnosti pozitivna. Ova struktura rezultata ukazuje da je kod emocionalno stabilne, ekstravertne i savesne strukture ličnosti pojačano primovanje u situaciji kada pozitivnoj meti prethodi pozitivan prim. Sa druge strane, kod emocionalno nestabilne, introvertne, manje savesne strukture ličnosti sa izraženim dezintegracionim fenomenima efekat pozitivne facilitacije je smanjen.

Bazičnu strukturu ličnosti kod koje je pojačan efekat primovanja u situaciji kada pozitivnom primu prethodi pozitivna meta možemo jednostavno opisati kao stabilnu i proaktivnu. Osobe koje spremnije reagiju na pozitivne draži ne samo da su emocionalno opuštene, umerene, sigurne, samopouzdane, optimistične i tolerantne na frustraciju, već su i otvorene prema drugim ljudima i svetu oko sebe i odgovorne u postavljanju i ostvarivanju svojih ciljeva. Sa druge strane, strukturu ličnosi kod koje je smanjen efekat pozitivne facilitacije možemo opisati kao emocionalno nestabilnu, povučenu i neorganizovanu. Ove osobe su sklone negativnim emocijama kao što su tuga, anksioznost, depresija, panika i niska frustraciona tolerancija. Pored toga, povučene su, stidljive, nenametljive, oprezne, ali i nemarne i neorganizovane u ostvarenju ciljeva. Takođe, ove osobe su sklone ispoljavanju svih modaliteta dezintegracionih procesa, što ukazuje na postojanje slabih granica i konfuzije u razumevanju sveta i sebe.

Druga kvazikanonička funkcija govori o povezanosti facilitacije za negativne stimuluse i pojedinih faceta sa dimenzija neuroticizma, ekstraverzije i saradljivosti, kao i svih modaliteta dezintegracije. Hostilne, rezervisane, socijalno povučene, sumnjičave, kompetitivne i netolerantne osobe sa niskim skorovima na skalama dezintegracije imaju pojačano primovanje u situaciji kada negativnom primu prethodi negativna meta. Sa druge strane, efekat negativne faciliticije je smanjen kod blagih, umerenih, srdačnih, toplih, tolerantnih i popustljivih osoba, koje istovremeno imaju povišene skorove na svim modalitetima dezintegracije.

Ovakva struktura rezultata ukazuje na ulogu agresivnosti u pojačavanju osetljivosti na negativne stimuluse. Osobe koje spremnije reaguju na negativnu metu ukoliko joj prethodi negativan prim možemo opisati kao agresivne, ali integrisane. Osobe kod kojih je smanjen efekat negativne faciliticaje možemo opisati kao neagresivne, ali dezintegrisane. Na ovom mestu treba naglasiti da


da svi modaliteti dezintegracije negativno koreliraju i sa efektima pozitivne, i sa efektima negativne facilitacije. Ovakav nalaz ukazuje na mogućnost da su osobe sklone dezintegracionim fenomenima generalno manje osetljive na afektivnu valencu stimulusa, bilo da je ona pozitivna ili negativna.

Suprotno očekivanjima, u ovom istraživanju ni neuroticizam u celini ni dezintegracija nisu povezani sa jačom facilitacijom za negativne stimuluse. Kod osoba koje imaju visoke skorove na neuroticizmu i dezintegraciji, a niske skorove na ekstraverziji i savesnosti postoji smanjena facilitacija u situaciji kada pozitivnom primu prethodi pozitivna meta. Ovakav nalaz ukazuje da ove osobe nemaju generalnu usmerenost ka negativnim sadržajima, već nedostatak usmerenosti ka pozitivnim. Konkretnije, u situaciji primovanja pozitivan stimulus ne izaziva u dovoljnoj meri pozitivnu reakciju organizma, pa efekat ubrzavanja stimulusa iste valence izostaje.

Jedina subdimenzija neuroticizma koja je povezana sa pojačanim efektima negativne faciliticaje je hostilnost. Ona, zajedno sa pojedinim subskalama iz domena saradljivosti i ekstraverzije, ukazuje na ulogu agresivnosti u povećanju osetljivosti na negativne sadržaje. Ono što na prvi pogled deluje iznenađujuće je da ta agresivnost ide uz smanjene skorove na svim skalama dezintegracije. Međutim, ovo možda i nije neobično s obzirom da agresivnost nije glavni sadržaj dezintegrativnih fenomena. Osnovni sadržaj ovog konstrukta je zapravo nedostatak koordinacije i integracije afektivnih, kognitivnih i bihejvioralnih funkcija. Nalaz da su kod osoba koje imaju visoke skorove na dezintegraciji smanjeni efekti facilitacije, bila ona pozitivna i negativna, upravo govori o slaboj povezanosti afektivnih reakcija i njihovih kognitivnih reprezentacija.

ZAKLJUČAK

Iako se tradicionalna eksperimentalna psihologija i psihologija individualnih razlika već dugi niz godina izučavaju odvojeno, čini se da na njihovom preseku postoji čitav niz relevantnih tema koje mogu da izazovu pažnju istraživača. Jednom od takvih tema smo se bavili u ovom radu. Nalazi našeg istraživanja pokazuju da postoji povezanost obrade afektivno obojenih reči i bazične strukture ličnosti. Ipak, još uvek smo daleko od toga da damo konačan odgovor na pitanja kakva je tačna struktura ove povezanosti i koji su precizni mehanizmi kojima se ona ostvaruje. Smatramo da smo u ovom radu u većoj meri otvorili ova pitanja, nego što smo dali odgovor na njih.

Saznanjima o prirodi procesiranja afektivnog materijala kod različitih bazičnih struktura ličnosti mogu da nas približe samo pažljivo konstruisana istraživanja. Pravci u kojima se mogu kretati ova istraživanja su mnogobrojni. Mi ćemo predstaviti samo neke od njih i ujedno ukazati na propuste u ovom radu.

Na prvom mestu, ovakvo i slična istraživanja treba izvesti na pažljivije odabranom uzorku. Da se podsetimo, naše istraživanje je obavljeno na uzorku

Ana Orlić 343

studenata psihologije. Međutim, ova grupa je visoko selekcionisana, pa distribucije skorova sa inventara ličnosti odstupaju od normalnih. Drugim rečima, studenti u proseku imaju smanjene skorove na neuroticizmu i dezintegraciji, a povišene na skalama ekstraverzije, otvorenosti, saradljivosti i savesnosti. Ova činjenica otežava dobijanje jasnih efekata i ograničava broj statističkih metoda koje su nam na raspolaganju. Naravno, ovde se javlja problem tehničke prirode – istraživanja individualnih razlika zahtevaju prilično veliki broj ispitanika, što je u našim uslovima prilično teško izvesti na opštoj populaciji. Uzorak može da se modifikuje i ciljanim izborom grupa koje će biti obuhvaćene istraživanjem (na primer, ispitivanje kliničke populacije).

Prirodu povezanosti procesiranja afektivno obojenog materijala i bazične strukture ličnosti treba ispitati i na drugim kognitivnim zadacima i sa drugačijim vrstama stimulusa. Iako veliki broj autora afektivno primovanje razmatra kao jedinstven proces ipak postoji mogućnost da to nije slučaj. Na primer, moguće je da procesi i mehanizmi uključeni u direktnu evaluaciju stimulusa (kao što je slučaj kod zadatka evaluativne odluke) i u indirektnu evaluaciju (kao što je slučaj kod leksičke odluke ili zadatka imenovanja) nisu potpuno isti. Takođe, obrada vizuelnog i verbalnog materijala može uključivati donekle različite procese, s obzirom da slike daju direktniju informaciju o afektivnom značenju, dok reči zahtevaju prethodnu semantičku obradu. Smatramo da bi za razumevanje mehanizama procesiranja afektivno obojenog materijala bilo veoma korisno uporediti individualne razlike u procesiranju verbalnih i vizuelnih stimulusa.

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PRILOG 1

Subskale instrumenta Konotativni diferencijal (CD–15)koje su korišćene prlikom merenja afektivne valence stimulusa.

POJAM

Neprijatno -3 ____-2 ____-1 ____ 0 ____ 1 ____ 2 ____ 3 Prijatno

Mrsko -3 ____-2 ____-1 ____ 0 ____ 1 ____ 2 ____ 3 Drago

Negativno -3 ____-2 ____-1 ____ 0 ____ 1 ____ 2 ____ 3 Pozitivno

Nepoželjno -3 ____-2 ____-1 ____ 0 ____ 1 ____ 2 ____ 3 Poželjno

Loše -3 ____-2 ____-1 ____ 0 ____ 1 ____ 2 ____ 3 Dobro

PRILOG 2

Prosečne vrednosti na afektivnoj subskali Konotativnog diferencijalaza stimuluse korišćene u istraživanju

STIMULUSI – PRIMOVI

Pozitivni primovi Emo Neutralni

primovi Emo Negativni primovi Emo

RADOST 6,78 CREP 4,07 TUMOR 1,3ZNANJE 6,45 GRANA 5,15 BEDA 1,68DUGA 6,09 TEPIH 5,3 ZLOBA 1,27MLADOST 6,24 BOJLER 5,29 BOGALJ 1,65TORTA 5,93 ISKAZ 4,53 SRAMOTA 1,96SREĆA 6,68 OLOVKA 5,25 FAŠIZAM 1,38ŽURKA 6,15 PROLAZ 5,38 POKOLJ 1,33ZVEZDA 5,87 KOCKA 4,44 SAHRANA 1,55SLOBODA 6,53 LIST 5,3 RAZDOR 1,91JELEN 6,03 MRVICA 4,59 STRES 1,62NEŽNOST 6,67 TANJIR 5,09 PANIKA 2,04SJAJ 5,36 POD 4,11 RAT 1,31JUTRO 6,33 KONCEPT 4,73 UVREDA 1,76IDILA 5,58 KAPUT 5,28 KLETVA 1,35ŽIVOT 6,01 MAGIJA 3,84 GUBITAK 1,78IZVOR 5,91 RAM 4,23 ZATVOR 1,78

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LEPOTA 6,47 PRODAVNICA 4,42 LEŠINAR 2,29MOĆ 5,43 KUTIJA 4,13 NERVOZA 1,98LAGUNA 5,93 KVAKA 4,05 RASPAD 2,09DAN 5,98 TELEFON 5,39 ZLO 1,59MIR 6,62 FUNKCIJA 4,18 DEPRESIJA 1,89HARFA 5,65 METAFORA 5,05 GLAD 2,18POVERENJE 6,36 SOBA 4,73 NESREĆA 1,39POBEDA 6,42 STOLICA 5,28 SVAĐA 2,18AVION 5,69 POTREBA 4,51 DOSADA 2,2PESMA 6,29 ANTENA 4,16 OPUŠAK 2,37MUZIKA 6,57 TRAVA 5,01 PRAŠINA 2,41SRCE 6,09 PAPIR 4,94 SUJETA 2,35MED 5,87 NAOČARE 4,04 ZAVIST 1,53DRVO 6,13 KONAC 4,5 ZARAZA 1,73LJUBAV 6,64 KALDRMA 3,94 GLUPOST 2,49PUPOLJAK 6,02 PEŠKIR 4,55 LAŽ 1,49PAHULJICA 5,62 ISHOD 4,24 PRLJAVŠTINA 2,09DUŠA 6,32 ORMAN 4,24 AJKULA 2,51ANĐEO 6,11 ČEŠALJ 5,09 GREŠKA 2,42BISER 5,49 POUKA 5,31 OČAJ 1,67DETE 6,01 MRAV 4,16 PROSJAK 2,49LUBENICA 5,73 ROBA 4,13 ĐUBRE 2,01CVET 6,23 BESKRAJ 5,2 TRN 2,56LETO 5,47 BROJ 4,7 GROBLJE 2,51RAZONODA 6,09 VREME 4,91 BOL 1,92MAJKA 6,55 HODNIK 3,98 GROM 2,57SEKS 6 ŠPORET 4,16 OŽILJAK 2,6SUNCE 6,44 ČESMA 4,58 PLAČ 2,62NADAHNUĆE 6,34 STRUJA 4,09 UMOR 2,64VODOPAD 5,71 METAL 3,87 INSEKT 3,18SNAGA 6,12 PROJEKCIJA 4,05 MULJ 3,13FONTANA 5,44 FLAŠA 4,2 KOPRIVA 3,27ČOKOLADA 6,02 KLUPA 4,6 PRETNJA 1,64VEDRINA 6,38 REGION 4,45 SUZE 2,89LANE 5,67 SVINJA 3,93 OTPAD 2,18


ISTINA 5,97 RELACIJA 4,2 ŽABA 3,27

PROLEĆE 6,09 ALAT 4,53 STRŠLJEN 2,33

LETOVANJE 6,15 SLOVO 4,53 KRV 3,29

DIJAMANT 5,43 PERTLA 4,29 ŠAMAR 2,22

STRAST 5,91 MAKAZE 3,94 ZMIJA 2,43

ŠARM 6,05 ČAŠA 4,66 PAKAO 1,63

PLAŽA 5,62 TOČAK 4,42 ŽRTVA 1,76

SVILA 5,6 CIPELA 4,27 BES 2,02

SLADOLED 5,93 ZNAK 4,76 SMRT 1,76

STIMULUSI – METE

Pozitivne mete Emo Neutralne

mete Emo Negativne mete Emo

PRIJATELJ 6,70 DOGAĐAJ 5,09 IZDAJA 1,24

USPEH 6,75 BETON 3,31 UCENA 1,42

LABUD 6,14 STANICA 4,02 PREVARA 1,53

OSMEH 6,73 PRISTUP 4,98 SMRAD 1,6

IGRA 6,58 DASKA 4,02 BOLEST 1,42

POLJUBAC 6,67 VRATA 4,49 TUGA 2,38

ZABAVA 6,37 TABLA 4,07 OTROV 1,64

NAGRADA 6,14 TROTOAR 4,53 TRULEŽ 1,93

NEBO 6,47 STANJE 4,22 BRIGA 1,75

ISKRENOST 6,56 KAMEN 4,63 PROPAST 1,47

ŠALA 6,24 SITUACIJA 3,96 MRŽNJA 1,83

DELFIN 6,47 POJAM 4,18 RANA 1,93

DODIR 6,4 NASLON 4,65 STRAH 2,17

CVRKUT 6,04 PROCENA 4,2 KOŠMAR 1,6

JAGODA 6,42 ŠOLJA 4,84 ŽALOST 1,49

TRIJUMF 6,16 ŠIFRA 3,33 NEPRAVDA 1,38

POKLON 6,29 DALJINA 3,84 PORAZ 1,9

UMETNOST 6,13 LUSTER 4,98 NEUSPEH 1,62

ZAGRLJAJ 6,67 STOLICA 5,28 GENOCID 1,35

PRIRODA 6,29 BOJLER 5,29 POHLEPA 1,33

Ana Orlić 349

PRILOG 3

Interkorelacije varijabli ličnosti (redovi) i pozitivne i negativne facilitacije (kolone)

Pozitivna facilitacija Negativna facilitacija

Kontrolni prim Neutralni prim Kontrolni prim Neutralni prim

NEO PI-R

Pirs

onov

koef

icije

nt

kore

laci

je

Sig

Pirs

onov

ko

efic

ijent

ko

rela

cije

Sig

Pirs

onov

ko

efic

ijent

ko

rela

cije

Sig

Pirs

onov

ko

efic

ijent

ko

rela

cije

Sig

Anksioznost -0,11 0,22 -0,09 0,30 -0,10 0,27 -0,04 0,68

Hostilnost -0,19 0,03 -0,27 0,00 0,02 0,79 0,19 0,04

Depresivnost -0,08 0,38 -0,20 0,03 -0,11 0,21 -0,01 0,89

Socijalna nelagodnost 0,00 0,96 -0,11 0,22 -0,02 0,83 0,12 0,18

Impulsivnost -0,05 0,56 -0,12 0,19 0,07 0,43 0,02 0,81

Vulnerabilnost -0,11 0,23 -0,17 0,06 -0,07 0,43 0,13 0,15

Toplina 0,06 0,49 0,18 0,04 0,01 0,92 -0,16 0,07

Druželjubivost 0,03 0,72 0,10 0,25 -0,01 0,92 -0,13 0,14

Asertivnost 0,05 0,61 0,17 0,06 0,08 0,37 -0,07 0,42

Aktivitet 0,08 0,36 0,07 0,44 -0,02 0,80 -0,16 0,08

Potraga za uzbuđenjem -0,04 0,67 0,02 0,80 0,00 0,96 -0,02 0,78

Pozitivne emocije 0,12 0,17 0,13 0,15 0,10 0,27 -0,05 0,61

Fantazija -0,12 0,18 -0,07 0,41 -0,07 0,43 -0,01 0,91

Estetika 0,08 0,37 -0,08 0,36 0,02 0,83 0,09 0,32

Osećanja 0,02 0,79 0,03 0,75 -0,02 0,78 -0,03 0,71

Akcija 0,00 0,96 0,06 0,53 0,11 0,20 0,02 0,85

Ideje 0,02 0,81 0,00 0,96 -0,01 0,95 -0,17 0,06

Vrednosti -0,06 0,49 0,00 0,97 -0,10 0,27 -0,11 0,22

Poverenje 0,06 0,48 0,15 0,08 0,04 0,66 -0,14 0,13

Iskrenost 0,09 0,33 0,10 0,27 0,05 0,57 0,16 0,07

Altruizam -0,04 0,65 0,06 0,47 -0,08 0,35 -0,18 0,04

Popustljivost 0,00 0,98 0,03 0,76 -0,07 0,41 -0,07 0,47

Skromnost 0,07 0,44 0,03 0,71 -0,10 0,28 -0,01 0,95


Blaga narav 0,00 0,98 0,13 0,15 -0,12 0,18 -0,10 0,25Kompetencija 0,00 1,00 0,10 0,26 0,06 0,52 -0,02 0,82Red 0,11 0,22 0,12 0,18 0,12 0,17 0,05 0,60Dužnost 0,04 0,62 0,09 0,33 -0,05 0,54 -0,02 0,83Postignuće -0,06 0,48 0,16 0,08 0,00 0,98 -0,02 0,82Samo-disciplina 0,10 0,26 0,20 0,03 0,02 0,82 0,01 0,92

Promišljenost -0,03 0,77 0,09 0,33 -0,05 0,56 0,04 0,69

DELTA 10Generalna egzekutivna disfunkcija

-0,14 0,12 -0,22 0,01 -0,09 0,31 -0,05 0,60

Perceptivne distorzije -0,15 0,09 -0,06 0,49 -0,09 0,29 -0,01 0,88

Paranoja -0,13 0,15 -0,19 0,03 -0,01 0,94 0,06 0,50Depresija -0,15 0,08 -0,30 0,00 -0,10 0,26 0,02 0,81Zaravnjeni afekat -0,12 0,20 -0,11 0,20 -0,14 0,11 -0,07 0,44

Somatomorfna disregulacija -0,07 0,43 -0,08 0,36 -0,12 0,20 -0,12 0,18

Povećana svesnost -0,10 0,24 0,02 0,78 -0,16 0,08 -0,08 0,40

Magijsko mišljenje -0,16 0,08 -0,04 0,62 -0,03 0,70 -0,03 0,71

PRILOG 4

Kvazikanonički koeficijenti, sklop i struktura varijablipozitivne i negativne facilitacije

Kvazikanonički koeficijenti Sklop Struktura

1 2 1 2 1 2Pozitivna facilitacija (kontrolni prim) .490 .272 .669 .391 .701 .446

Pozitivna facilitacija (neutralni prim) .806 -.123 .855 -.248 .835 -.178

Negativna facilitacija (kontrolni prim) .250 .542 .207 .771 .269 .788

Negativna facilitacija (neutralni prim) -.216 .786 -.240 .858 -.170 .838

Ana Orlić 351

PRILOG 5

Kvazikanonički koeficijenti, sklop i struktura varijabli ličnosti

Kvazikanonički koeficijenti Sklop Struktura

NEO PI-R 1 2 1 2 1 2Anksioznost -.151 -.158 -.467 .014 -.468 .054Hostilnost -.355 .220 -.600 .309 -.626 .360Depresivnost -.230 -.106 -.708 .042 -.711 .102Socijalna nelagodnost -.121 .153 -.572 .062 -.577 .110Impulsivnost -.112 .088 -.387 .077 -.393 .109Vulnerabilnost -.242 .085 -.645 .099 -.653 .153Toplina .222 -.200 .460 -.555 .507 -.594Druželjubivost .130 -.176 .362 -.328 .390 -.359Asertivnost .201 -.035 .641 -.139 .653 -.193Aktivitet .128 -.189 .376 -.220 .395 -.252Potraga za uzbuđenjem .006 -.047 .121 -.165 .135 -.175Pozitivne emocije .205 .056 .480 -.162 .493 -.203Fantazija -.139 -.108 -.292 -.120 -.282 -.095Estetika -.043 .177 .010 -.138 .022 -.139Osećanja .037 -.057 .147 -.257 .168 -.270Akcija .070 .105 .227 -.046 .231 -.065Ideje .044 -.202 .350 -.226 .369 -.255Vrednosti -.035 -.246 .195 -.198 .212 -.214Poverenje .201 -.135 .473 -.445 .510 -.485Iskrenost .103 .264 .080 .020 .078 .013Altruizam .052 -.328 .299 -.545 .345 -.570Popustljivost .019 -.148 -.035 -.407 -.001 -.404Skromnost .039 -.066 -.221 -.097 -.213 -.079Blaga narav .098 -.255 .141 -.346 .170 -.358Kompetencija .104 .004 .650 -.111 .659 -.165Red .178 .188 .466 .186 .450 .147Dužnost .086 -.069 .487 -.119 .497 -.160Postignuće .103 -.080 .580 -.082 .587 -.131Samo-disciplina .218 .034 .667 .022 .665 -.035Promišljenost .037 -.028 .338 -.055 .342 -.083


DELTA 10

Generalna egzekutivna disfunkcija -.270 -.152 -.695 -.384 -.662 -.326

Perceptivne distorzije -.151 -.149 -.533 -.502 -.491 -.457Paranoja -.243 .051 -.640 -.332 -.612 -.278Depresija -.357 -.067 -.630 -.306 -.604 -.253Zaravnjeni afekat -.174 -.235 -.455 -.267 -.433 -.229Somatomorfna disregulacija -.107 -.262 -.535 -.574 -.486 -.529Povećana svesnost -.056 -.277 -.352 -.584 -.303 -.554Magijsko mišljenje -.119 -.130 -.397 -.476 -.357 -.443

Ana Orlić 353

The Relationship Between Cognitive Processing ofAffective Verbal Material and the Basic Personality Structure

Ana OrlićLaboratory for Experimental Psychology,

Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, SerbiaFaculty of Sport and Physical Education, University of Belgrade, Serbia

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between cognitive processing of affective verbal material and the basic personality structure. For the purposes of research a new experiment was created, where affective priming was measured in a lexical decision task. The term affective priming stands for facilitation in recognition of the stimuli that comes after the presentation of stimuli of the same valence. In this experiment, two words were presented on a screen in front of the subject (stimuli-prime and stimuli-target). Those two words were of the same or different affective valence, and the subject’s were instructed to respond whether the second word on the screen had a meaning or not. The basic personality structure was defined by the “Big five” model and the Disintegration model and measured by NEO PI-R and Delta 10 questionnaires. The results of the affective priming experiment indicated a strong effect of positive facilitation and much weaker effect off negative facilitation. Two significant functions were extracted by quasicanonical correlation analysis. The first function showed correlation between the effect of positive facilitation and all of the subscales of Neuroticism, Extraversion and Conscientiousness (NEO PI-R), as well as all sub dimensions of Disintegration (DELTA 10). The second one indicated to a correlation between the negative facilitation effect and some subscales of Neuroticism, Extraversion and Agreeableness (NEO PI-R), as well as all subscales of Disintegration (DELTA 10).Keywords: emotions, cognition, affective priming, basic personality structure

CIP - Каталогизација у публикацијиНародна библиотека Србије, Београд159.9 PSIHOLOGIJA : časopis Društva psihologa Srbije = journal of the Association of Serbian Psychologists / glavni i odgovorni urednik Aleksandar Kostić. – God. 1, br. 1 (1967)–. – Beograd (Đušina 7/III) : Društvo psihologa Srbije, 1967– (Beograd : Dosije studio). – 24 cmTromesečnoISSN 0048-5705 = Psihologija (Beograd)COBISS.SR-ID 7003650

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