Problems of Psychology in the 21st Century

57-58

Authors: Editorial Board

Cover page, Vol. 10-2, PPC, 2016

60-61

Authors: Sergiy Boltivets

The future of psychological science as we see it depends on our ability to understand the phenomenon of psychogenity of man and of the groups of people in their significance to himself and to every other human being. Psychogenity as we define it, is an ability of the humanized environment to create, reflect, transform, save and expose the constellation of psychic manifestations of the own natural essence of every man as a psychological unity. We consider the humanized environment in the sense broader than that of the social environment as we keep in mind not only the mutual influence of people, but also the fact that human life is mediated by the human environment. The latter is one of the most important components equilibrating human psychogenity, the world exists for man only in its humanized sense.

69-76

Authors: Maria Annarumma, Luigi Vitale, Olga Campiglia

The analysis of the reason-emotion dynamics intersects several disciplinary fields, such as psychology, medicine, informatics, linguistics, neuroscience, with a specific relevance for Education Sciences, as it offers interesting perspectives over its influence on the learning process. Such issues are rooted in philosophical reflections by Plato, Aristotle and later by Descartes, Vico and Kant. These dualistic perspectives will be definitively abandoned in favour of a globalist vision of the mind-body relationship, during the first half of the XX century, particularly thanks to Dewey (1933) who, inspired by Darwin’s theories, was the first to support this unity by recognizing an intersection among physical, mental and environmental processes. Over the last decades, an imperatively anti-dualistic analysis has been developing in the field of neurosciences and cognitive linguistics: on the one hand, cognitivism, considering the mind in its function of symbolic manipulation; on the other hand, connectionism, studying neural networks. Furthermore, recent scientific research has allowed mapping in a detailed - albeit admittedly incomplete manner - the complex activity of the brain and highlighting analogies between elementary connections and complex interactions. The systemic perspective is hence considering “mind and body”, “reason and emotion” as two interconnected and essential aspects of human complexity. In this regard, Damasio’s research shows how participation of the organism to conscious experience returns to the consciousness itself those biological requirements which are essential to legitimate it as an object of scientific study. Knowledge is generated by socio-experiential relationships that play a crucial role within knowledge representation. The mind takes therefore an active role in shaping the representation of the world: understanding does not just consist in a mere reproduction of the external world in our mind; instead, it is a continuous process of creative reconstruction of our perceptive dynamics. Emotion, creativity and rationality are essential elements of the human being, which activate and develop due to personal inclination as well as socio-cultural aspects. Both genetic and social components are decisive in cognitive dynamics, as they represent innate potentials that need to be recognized, understood and exploited.

85-97

Authors: Stanislava Stoyanova

A review of several studies of teachers’ career motivation since Bulgarian Renaissance till nowadays is presented in this paper. 203 Bulgarian teachers in public schools were studied by means of a questionnaire created by Slavchov & Stoyanova (2007) measuring career motivational types, according to Moses’ typology (2003). The career motivational type of Authenticity seekers was the most preferred by the studied Bulgarian teachers, followed by Personal developers and Stability seekers. Career builders as a career motivational type was minor career motivator, the least preferred one by Bulgarian teachers. A lot of significant positive correlations existed between teachers’ career motivational types. Some social-demographic factors (such as gender, specialty, work experience, and age) differentiated teachers’ career motivators. The type of Autonomy seekers was more preferred career motivator by male teachers than by female teachers in correspondence to the traditional stereotypes for men. Longer teachers’ work experience and teachers’ advance in age were related to more frequency of Stability seekers, but less frequency of Novelty seekers career motivator. Preschool and elementary school teachers preferred more strongly Authenticity seekers as a career motivator than teachers in natural sciences and mathematics. Establishing major career motivators for teachers may be related to opportunities for improvement of performance and work satisfaction.

108-112

Authors: Editorial Board

End page, Vol. 10, No. 2, PPC, 2016