Psychological Thought

81-82

Authors: Vasil Madolev

Psychological Thought should create conditions for stimulating development of psychological science. Parallel to this organizing role, the journal should co-operate for the propaganda of the achievements of psychology. Psychological Thought should reveal the defensive, integrating and controlling nature of Self; it should point out the process of transformation of human being into a cognitive personality; it should contest the prejudices and it should present the mechanisms for their surmounting; it should support the eclectic approach and every method for finding the truth about human life.

99-105

Authors: John H. Morgan

Geriatric Logotherapy is an analytical approach designed to address issues uniquely confronted in the counseling encounter with the elderly and is an adaptation of the psychotherapeutic school of thought known as Logotherapy. Logotherapy is a type of psychotherapeutic analysis and treatment which focuses on a will to meaning, founded upon the belief that striving to find meaning in one's life is the primary, most powerful motivating and driving force within the human experience. Sometimes called existential analysis, logotherapy grew out of the psychiatric research and personal experience of Viktor Frankl, M.D., based on his internment experience in Germany. Known as the Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy (Freud and Adler being the founders of the First and Second Schools), logotherapy as a school of thought emphasizes existential reflection rather than psychoanalytic repression, focusing upon the concept and centrality of “meaning” in one’s life rather than Freud’s “pleasure principle” and Adler’s “will to power.” This article explores, then, the application of this school of psychotherapeutic theory and practice to the psychological care and treatment of the elderly, emphasizing the “existential efficacy of the good memory” as an analytical tool for emotional nurture with emphasis upon “immediacy” rather than “longevity” of care and treatment.

113-123

Authors: Marius Drugaş

The investigation of the unemployment consequences is a challenging theme in current psychological research. The recent controversy on the nature of general causality orientations (GCO’s) as personality traits stood as a reason for this study. Considering that prolonged unemployment is a significant life event, we investigated the stability in time (as a condition for a personality trait) of GCO’s for a sample of unemployed and we compared the results to those obtained from a sample of employed individuals. The first measure took place in April 2007, the second in September 2007 and the third in November 2011. The results indicated a higher level of control orientation for the unemployed in T3 and a significant positive growth of impersonal orientation for the same sample. Among the research limits were the poor data collection about the reasons of unemployment, family structure, job search behaviors and economic status.

141-149

Authors: Ira Das, Himani Anand

The research was conducted with the purpose to study the effect of prayer and meditation on galvanic skin response (GSR). It was hypothesized that there was a significant positive effect of prayer and meditation (Om chanting) on galvanic skin response (GSR). The sample consisted of 20 normal, healthy female participants through purposive sampling. The age group of the sample was 18 to 24 years (Mean= 18.7, SD= 1.55). Gender was female and minimum education was graduation. The daily practice time of prayer and meditation session was 30 minutes for one month. Pre- Post data were recorded before and after intervention of prayer and meditation session by using single group pre-post research design. Recordings of galvanic skin response (GSR) were made on a computerized polygraph (Model Physiopac, PP 4, Medicaid Systems, Chandigarh, India) test. The results revealed a significant increase in GSR values as an effect of prayer and meditation which suggested the psychophysiological relaxation. Practicing prayer and meditation increases the galvanic skin response and hence decreases the stress level of the individual.

166-185

Authors: Zornitza Ganeva

Ethnic stereotypes and prejudices as terms were examined and a historical review of their development (Duckitt, 1992) was made. The results from a survey of prejudices of young people of Bulgarian origin (n=942; 347 men and 595 women; average age 21.3 years) towards the in-group and the representatives of the main ethnic minorities: Turks, Roma and Jews, carried out in 5 time intervals: 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012, were presented. Through free associations, the relation between stereotypes and attitudes was studied in two social contexts: personal and community. The results showed that the assessment of the minority groups was more positive in the former than in the latter context. The persons studied perceived most negatively the representatives of the Romani ethnos, more weakly negatively the Turks, and the attitudes towards the Jews were positive.

195-212

Authors: Nikolay Ivantchev, Kremena Markova

An experiment on conformity was carried out. The participants were 95 youths. The scale “Conformity – Autonomy” from I. Karagiozov’s questionnaire for locus of control (1998) was also used. The results indicated the prevalence of youth conformity regarding institutions and media. The different types of conformity were related to each other. The subjects’ gender and the experimentators’ gender mediated the connections between the both types of conformity. The female youths conformed more with institutions than the male youths, but there were not any significant gender differences in their conform behavior regarding media (magazines). More male youths conformed for the magazines when the experimentator was a woman. More female youths conformed for the magazines when the experimentator was a man.