Untreated organized violence-related PTSD and its lifelong persistence

Annals of the
Al. I. Cuza University
Psychology Series
Volume 21, Issue no. 1 2012
Editura Universitii Al. I. Cuza, Iai
Founding Editor Adrian NECULAU, Al. I. Cuza University, Iai, Romania Editor CorneliuHAVRNEANU, Al. I. Cuza University, Iai, Romania Associate Editors Ion DAFINOIU, Al. I. Cuza University, Iai, Romania Anamaria Silvana DE ROSA, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy Assistant Editors Cornelia MIREAN, Al. I. Cuza University, Iai, Romania Tudor-tefan ROTARU, Al. I. Cuza University, Iai, Romania Consulting Editors Mihai ANIEI Patricia ATTIGUI Adriana BABAN Jean-Marie BARTHLMY Ana-Maria BLIUC Wolf BLOEMERS Zolthan BOGTHY tefan BONCU Mihaela BOZA Elena COCORAD Ticu CONSTANTIN Mihai CURELARU Petru CUREU Sylvain DELOUVE Andreea ERNST-VINTIL Alin GAVRELIUC Mihai Dinu GHEORGHIU Ruxandra Loredana GHERASIM Antonio MAGALHAES Daniela MUNTELE HENDRE Mihai HOHN Luminia Mihaela IACOB Marcela LUCA James MADDUX Craig McGARTHY Mircea MICLEA Ricardo Garcia MIRA Nicolae MITROFAN Dorin NSTAS Adrian OPRE Marian POPA Michel-Louis ROUQUETTE Florin SAVA Dorina SLVSTRU Jean-Marie SECA Andr SIROTA Camelia SOPONARU
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Contents
Volume 21, Issue no.1
Untreated organized violence-related PTSD and its persistence throughout the lifespan: a theoretical synthesis
Dana BICHESCU-BURIAN
The influence of social capital on school performances: a comparison between Italy and Romania
Elena COCORAD , Alina Elena MLDRAANU
25
The mobility of Romanian academic elites to the test of European construction

Mihai Dinu GHEORGHIU
37
Subjective Perception of Risk, in Relation to Personality Factors

Carmen-Valentina POALELUNGI , Corneliu-Eugen HAVRNEANU
49
The Influence of Workload on Attention during the Driving Task

Alexandra Raluca JILAVU, Grigore HAVRNEANU
71
The Relationship between Creativity and Preferred Style of Approaching Conflict Following Procedural Unfairness
Ana Maria HOJBOT, Paula Andreea PASCU
85
Negative Attributional Style and Academic Achievement: The Moderating Role of Attribution of Uncontrollability and Previous Academic Performance
Loredana Ruxandra GHERASIM
101
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Untreated organized violence-related PTSD and its persistence throughout the lifespan: a theoretical synthesis
Dana BICHESCU-BURIAN1
Abstract: When psychological effects of severe trauma, such as organized violence and torture are left untreated, there is a high probability that these problems persist throughout the lifespan and exacerbate in old age. This paper reviews and analyses empirical evidence on adverse long-term effects of organized violence. A substantial proportion of survivors suffers from chronic, long-lasting mental and physical impairments. Research shows the long-term course of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as being characterized by possible remissions and relapses, with old age representing a particularly vulnerable period among victims who experienced organized violence earlier in life. Our own findings on former political prisoners in Romania confirm this pattern by showing that PTSD and other clinical conditions persisted, often over four decades, in a significant rate of the survivors, showing that psychological consequences evidently outlast the change of the political regime. Research has also revealed some factors and mechanisms of these symptom fluctuations across the lifespan. These results have far-reaching implications for understanding and treating persons affected by severe adversities. Future research should employ improved methods and available knowledge for broader and more thorough study of lifetime effects. Keywords: PTSD, organized violence, old age, long-term impairments, symptom persistence and exacerbation
Introduction Within the wide range of impending harm resulting from traumatic experiences, PTSD is seemingly the most common and has constituted the most frequent research focus in the field of psychotraumatology. It is classified as a pathological condition that develops as a response to an extremely threatening or catastrophic event or situation. Its symptoms embody representative consequences of such experiences that are clinically observable and measurable. There are three categories of symptoms and signs of according to the DSM-IV-TR: (1) recurrent and distressing re-experiencing (e.g., flashbacks and dreams), (2) avoidance and
1
Knowledge Based Society, Iai, Romania; University of Ulm, Medical Faculty / Centre for Psychiatry Sdwrttemberg, Germany. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Dana Bichescu-Burian, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy I (Weissenau), University of Ulm / Centre for Psychiatry Sdwrttemberg, Weingartshofer Strae 2, 88214 Ravensburg-Weissenau, Germany (Tel.: +49-751-7601-2950; Fax: +49751-7601-2987). E-mail: DanaMaria.BichescuBurian@ZfP-Zentrum.de
Dana Bichescu-Burian
emotional numbing (e.g., persistent avoidance of stimuli and situations associated with the trauma, restricted affect, detachment, and a sense of foreshortened future), and (3) pervasive symptoms of increased arousal (e.g., hypervigilance, problems with sleep, anger, and concentration). A substantial proportion of the present-day population in their sixties, seventies, and eighties was exposed to organized violence earlier in life and still suffer significant distress and PTSD, e.g. veterans, refugees, and prisoners of war (POWs), Holocaust survivors, and political victims of the former Communist dictatorships (e.g. Bramsen, 1995; Spiro, Schnurr & Aldwin, 1994). Nevertheless, earlier exposure to traumatic experiences has been commonly overlooked by studies on human development and aging (e.g. Baltes, 1987). Although some progress has been made, knowledge about the chronic consequences of organized violence manifesting in old age is still scarce. The scientific interest in this research area with a particular focus on the late posttraumatic sequelae has increased in recent years. Most findings are based the investigation of Holocaust survivors, POWs and veterans of the Second World War (WWII), Vietnam, and Korea, and, more recently, of the victims of former totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. They suggest that repeated, severe traumatic experiences have complex and long-lasting psychological consequences that persist into old age. Unfortunately, the last 5-6 years have hardly brought new insights in this area since the more recent largescale wars / man-made disasters such as Yugoslav Wars, Rwandan ethnic conflicts and genocide, and the conflicts and regime abuses in Uganda do not completely allow a lifespan perspective. Anyway, there still are numerous notable historical events whose lifespan effects have not been subjected to systematic clinicalpsychological investigation (e.g., the regime abuses in China, Ethiopia, and Central African Republic). The impracticability of a more systematic research in this area was mostly due to the high risks, lack of access, and / or resources involved. Multiple and long-lasting disturbances have been recognized among the outcomes of exposure to organized violence. Mechanisms of perpetrating organized violence are known to invade a persons identity and dignity, and therefore frequently result in enclosed feelings of guilt and fear, damaged selfrespect, and remorse (e.g. van der Kolk, 1996). Given the complexity of physical and psychological dysfunction following torture and other methods of organized violence, systematic categorization of the consequences of such experiences proves to be a difficult task (e.g. Bauer, Priebe, Haring & Adamczak, 1993). Moreover, since the introduction of PTSD in the DSM-III criteria, the two subsequent revisions have not operated substantial changes in the core criteria for posttraumatic symptoms, and the associated features solely account for the chronic complication of PTSD. Diagnostic issues further constitute a topic of debate among clinicians as well as an open question for clinical, developmental and neurobiological research and for the study of risk factors for PTSD. In particular, the psychological status of older victims of prolonged trauma still lacks accurateness.
Untreated organized violence related PTSD
The extensive review of empirical support for the co-occurrence of complex symptoms led to the conclusion that this was mainly the consequence of prolonged, repeated trauma that usually occurred during captivity, in, for example, prisons, concentration camps, or labor camps (Herman, 1997). It has been argued that traumatized individuals may suffer from various combinations of symptoms over time and that this pattern of symptoms reflects the adaptation to psychological trauma on the cognitive, affective and behavioral levels, particularly when trauma occurred early in life (van der Kolk, Weisaeth & van der Hart, 1996). Steel et al. (2009) accomplished a systematic review and meta-analysis on the prevalence of PTSD and depression among refugees and other populations affected by torture and other traumatic events. One of their main findings was that the unadjusted weighted PTSD and depression prevalence rates across all surveys was 30.6% and 30.8% respectively. After the adjustment of methodological factors that explained a significant part of the PTSD and depression variability rates, the factors associated with PTSD were torture, cumulative traumatic exposure, time since conflict, and level of political terror. In any case, patients, war veterans, and civilian populations (nonrefugees / asylum seekers) from high-income countries exposed to terrorist attacks or involved in conflicts that took place more than 25 years ago have been excluded from the analysis. To my knowledge, there is no available work attempting a systematic review of late effects (into old age) of exposure to organized violence. The origins of the research with survivors of organized violence The first empirical studies that laid the foundation for the clinical research of prolonged traumatic exposure and brought some insight into its long-term consequences are those conducted on Holocaust survivors (Bastiaans, 1970; Eitinger, 1980; Hocking, 1970; Matussek, 1971; Venzlaff, 1966; von Baeyer, Hfner, & Kisker, 1964). Observed indications of distrust, social isolation, nightmares, irritability, anxiety, depression, somatization, memory and concentration disorders, and increased mortality delineated the main topics for discussion. Few of these researches referred to posttraumatic and comorbid disturbances in terms of psychological effects. Most of them describe symptoms related to the concept of concentration camp syndrome (Eitinger, 1971) and enduring personality changes. These clinical studies of Holocaust consequences later in life have consistently shown a worsening of the mental and physical health status as an effect of the exposure to severe and prolonged stress (Krystal, 1991). Circumstances and effects of including PTSD in the diagnostic criteria Later on, the clinical experience with Vietnam veterans (Horowitz & Solomon, 1975; Horowitz Wilner, Kaltreider & Alvarez, 1980) provided useful insight into the research of the effects of complex traumas, such as intrusive
thoughts, nightmares, flashbacks, social withdrawal, and hypervigilance. Agerelated problems may also be aggravated in survivors of violence: more severe and frequent illness was noticed in aging Holocaust survivors (Hirschfield, 1977) and POWs (Beebe, 1975) as compared with non-traumatized individuals. This research led to the inclusion of the PTSD diagnosis in the DSM-III criteria in 1980 (Kinzie, Fredrickson, Ben, Fleck & Karls, 1984), as well as to the development of specific instruments for clinical assessment. During the following years, much research has concentrated on the effects of combat in Vietnam veterans and emphasized negative psychological consequences that persist from youth through midlife (e.g. Boyle, Decoufle & OBreien, 1989; Card, 1983; Davidson & Foa, 1993). On the other hand, the study of torture victims has led some authors to the belief that Torture is a human-made stressor resulting in category-specific diagnostic symptoms and the narrowness of the PTSD concept has raised criticism and encouraged supplementary research of disorders and symptoms that were commonly associated with posttraumatic symptoms depression, anxiety, dissociation, substance abuse and somatization (Allodi, 1991, p. 4). Subsequently, the number of research projects aimed at emphasizing the prevalence of complex long-term psychological effects consisting of PTSD and other co-morbid disorders as a result of persecution and torture has grown worldwide (Allodi, 1991; Cervantes, 1989; Kinzie et al., 1984; Mollica, Wyshak, & Lavelle, 1987; Rasmussen & Lunde, 1980). These studies found that psychological distress and PTSD persist for many years in a great number of the survivors. As compared to the general population, an increased psychiatric morbidity was commonly observed in populations exposed to organized violence (de Girolamo & McFarlane, 1997). Symptomatic complications of the patients with trauma histories are usually somatic disorders, depression, anxiety, phobias, interpersonal sensitivity, paranoia, and dissociative symptoms. More recent epidemiological findings in aged survivors Data on the long-term consequences of organized violence into old age has been mainly made available by later studies on highly traumatized populations: Holocaust survivors and POW-s and combat veterans in the WWII, Vietnam or Korea. Irrespective of the particular type of assessment used to determine mental health consequences, most studies have found that survivors suffered from longlasting impairment even later in life (Levav, 1997). In what follows, I review the state of the art across categories of victimization. A systematization of the main epidemiological findings in aged survivors exposed to confinement and combat during the WWII is offered in Table 1.
Holocaust survivors More recent studies reported the persistence of posttraumatic symptoms and high rates of related co-morbid disorders in many victims who developed PTSD in the aftermath of the trauma, for 40-50 years after the end of WWII and up into old age (Joffe, Brodaty, Luscombe, & Ehrlich, 2003; Kuch & Cox, 1992; Robinson et al., 1990; Silow, 1993; Speed, Engdhal, Black, & Eberly, 1989; Yehuda et al., 1995; Yehuda, Kahana, Southwick & Giller, 1994).
Table 1. Findings on PTSD rates and other comorbidities coming from newer studies of Holocaust survivors, veterans and POWs of WWII.
Sample size / Mean age 100 / 74.1 Years since trauma 55 Lifetime PTSD (%) Current PTSD (%) 39 Other symptoms and disorders depression anxiety somatization disorder pain disorder depression sleep disorders depression anxiety depression depression dissociation
Study
Joffe et al., 2003 *
Kuch & Cox, 1992 * Holocaust studies
124 / 62.0
40
47
Robinson et al., 1990
86 / 68.3
45
Yehuda et al., 1994 * Favaro et al., 1999 *
72 / 66.4 51 / 71.5
50 50
35
30 26
Spiro et al., 1994 * Rosen et al., 1989 * Studies of WWII veterans Jongedijk et al., 1996
809 / 69 42 / 65
45 40
54
6.7 27
affective disorders anxiety disorders dissociation somatization -
28 / 65.9
45
67 33 29
McCranie & Hyer, 2000 ^
83 / 71.8
45
Study
Sample size / Mean age 113 / 66.9 824 / 67
Years since trauma 45 -
Lifetime PTSD (%)
Current PTSD (%) 18.5 27 -
Other symptoms and disorders
Blake et al., 1990 * ^ Hovens et al., 1994 *
56
depression anxiety somatic disorders anxiety depression sleep disorders
Falger et al., 1992 *
147 / 64.1
46
56
Speed at al., 1989 Eberly & Engdahl, 1991 *
62 / 65.1 345 / 70
40 45
50 70.9
29 34.5
depression anxiety disorders depression anxiety disorders sleep disorders anxiety disorders affective disorders alcohol dependence depression
Sutker et al., 1993 * Studies of POWs in the WWII
36 / 67
40
78
70
White, 1983
30 / 60
37
85
Kluznik et al., 1986 *
188 / 63
40
67
47.6
Page et al., 1991 *
747 / 6069
38
* controlled study and / or representative community sample these studies additionally showed an association between the severity of trauma and the severity of symptoms in old age ^ the same studies showed similar findings in veterans of the Korean war partial PTSD
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The highest PTSD rate, five decades after the war, has been reported by Kuch & Cox (1992): 47% of the examined Holocaust survivors. Other diagnosed symptoms and disorders were depression, anxiety, somatization, sleeping disorders and dissociation. Similarly, Holocaust survivors have also been found to experience high emotional distress (Carmil & Carel, 1986; Levav & Abramson, 1984) sleep disorders (Rosen, Reynolds, Yaeger, Houck & Horowitz, 1991), dissociation (Yehuda et al., 1996), and depression (Yehuda et al., 1994). POWs and war veterans Various studies illustrate that POWs in WWII and the Korean War are suffering even forty or fifty years after their captivity under considerable physical restraints (e.g. Beebe, 1975; Klonoff, McDougall, Clark, Kramer & Horgan, 1976; Page, 1992). Research on POWs in WWII showed that half of the prisoners developed PTSD in the aftermath of trauma and that in more than a half of these the symptoms persisted for over forty years in old age (Eberly & Engdahl, 1991; Speed et al., 1989; Sutker, Allain, & Winstead, 1993). Other studies found even higher current PTSD rates, ranging between 50% and 85% (Goldstein, van Kammen, Shelly, Miller & van Kammen, 1987; Kluznick, Speed, Van Valkenburg & Magraw, 1986; White, 1983), as well as considerable levels of anxiety (Goldstein et al, 1987) and depression (Page, Engdahl, & Eberly, 1991). Highest PTSD prevalence rates with a lifetime prevalence of 54% and a point prevalence of 27 % to 67% have been reported in aged veterans of WWII by Hyer, Summers, Boyd, Litaker and Boudewyns (1996) and Jongedijk, Carlier, Schreuder and Gersons (1996). Moreover, greater cardiovascular risk in older WWII Dutch veterans with PTSD as compared with recent surgical and heart patients (Falger et al., 1992) and age-matched controls was detected. The National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study (NVVRS; Kulka et al., 1990) found high PTSD prevalence rates (31% lifetime and current full and partial PTSD rates of 15.2% and 11.1%) among combat veterans almost 20 years after the war (Weiss et al., 1992). As a response to the controversies caused by the high rates of PTSD reported by the NVVRS study, Dohrenwend et al. (2006) revisited these data. The reanalysis using more rigorous norms still revealed prominent rates of 18.7% for lifetime and 9.1% for current PTSD in 260 NVVRS participants. There are also increasing indications coming from studies with Vietnam veterans that PTSD is an impairing condition also on the physical level. For example, two studies found high comorbidity rates between PTSD and pain: 80% self-reported chronic pain not diagnostically confirmed by physicians among PTSD veterans seeking treatment (Beckham et al., 1997) and a rate of 66% physician-diagnosed chronic pain problems in veterans diagnosed with PTSD (Shipherd et al., 2007). Moreover, PTSD treatment led to self-reported alleviations in pain during treatment that were maintained at four months follow-up (Shipherd et al., 2007).
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Investigations of Korean veterans reported lower PTSD rates than in WWII veterans. The Department of Veterans Affairs study found current PTSD rates of 30% in WWII and 18.5% in Korean treatment-seeking veterans (Blake et al., 1990). A very large survey of 1210 WWII and Korean War veterans 45 years later has found lower PTSD prevalence ranging from 0% to 12% as a function of the diagnostic measure (Spiro et al., 1994). Prospective research has also focused on the late effects of combat exposure, showing relatively few PTSD symptoms in survivors (Lee, Vailliant, Torrey & Elder, 1995). However, these results may be influenced by the participants selection procedures. Earlier clinical investigations of Holocaust consequences late in life have underlined an increase in the severity of depressive and somatic symptoms as an outcome of the unsuccessful emotional processing of the trauma (Krystal, 1991). These findings have lately been supported by other studies, which have suggested that late life might be a period of increased vulnerability in the aftermath of severe trauma (Brodaty, Joffe, Luscombe & Thompson, 2004; Joffe et al., 2003). Political persecution and torture Research concerning posttraumatic consequences of organized violence has lately focused mainly on refugees. Valuable evidence came from the study of the displaced Cambodian persons who have been exposed to abuses of the Khmer Rouge regime throughout the period between 1975 and 1979 (Mollica et al., 1993). Frequent exposure to extensive trauma (e.g., forced labor, murder of a closely related person, torture, sexual abuses, and rape) and symptom scores indicating a 15% prevalence of PTSD and 55% of depression were reported. In addition to the very relevant studies on refugees, the importance of research on victims of organized violence who continued to live in their countries of origin has been emphasized (Basoglu et al., 1994b) as the only way in which the effects of organized violence could be separated from the ones present in individuals living in exile. Despite severe exposure to trauma, the comparison between 55 tortured and 55 matched non-tortured former political prisoners in Turkey (Basoglu et al., 1994b), revealed ca. 20 years later moderate rates of lifetime and current PTSD prevalence ( 31% vs. 24% and 4% vs. 0% ). More recently, increasing attention has been paid to psychological disturbances in the aftermath of political imprisonment specific to former East Germany (Bauer et al., 1993; Denis, Eslam & Priebe, 1997; Maercker & Schutzwohl, 1997). Long-term consequences such as PTSD, anxiety, depression, dissociation and vegetative complaints were found. Our own survey examined 59 political prisoners (mean age 73.5 years; Bichescu et al., 2005) arrested during the communist regime in Romania, as compared to an age-matched sample of 39 persons. The PTSD lifetime prevalence was 54% and the PTSD prevalence at the time of investigation was 33%. Other psychiatric disorders such as somatization, substance abuse, depression, and
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dissociative disorders were also common among the former political prisoners and were associated with PTSD symptoms. Risk factors for exacerbating impairments in old age The mechanisms that account for the high levels of distress seen in old survivors of organized violence still require investigation. Are there factors that contribute to the maintenance, aggravation, or reactivation of the mental health problems in elderly persons with a traumatic history? Is there an age-related vulnerability to additional stress burden because of earlier victimization? Several studies offer some insights that may orientate the search for answers to these issues. However, most research in this area concentrated on the cases of delayed onset of PTSD and less on the mechanisms of maintenance and aggravation of symptoms. For instance, some case studies signalized the occurrence of delayed PTSD onset phenomenon in aged veterans several decades after combat (e.g. Hamilton, 1982; Pary, Turns & Tobias, 1986; Pomerantz, 1991). These phenomena were usually associated with situations such as physical or mental illness, retirement, loneliness, anniversaries, service meetings and other factors such as alcohol and drug abuse. Many victims of severe persecution invest great energy in building new lives by concentrating on family and professional career, which was noticed in Holocaust survivors (Klein, 1972) and former political prisoners of the Communist regime (Bichescu, 2004). Aging usually goes along with a reduction of activity and personal and professional losses, e.g. retirement, children leaving home, death of friends and relatives. Critical life events, minor and major stressors could potentiate or reactivate symptoms in old age. Immediate precipitants could be minor stressors, e.g. situations that resemble the original trauma in a significant way. Greater losses such as retirement or death of someone close may trigger the delayed onset of PTSD symptoms by the exacerbation of repressed memories (Herman & Eryavec, 1994). The main research findings on factors affecting distress across the lifespan in victims of organized violence are presented below.
Age, severity of trauma, and adaptation strategies One study (Brodaty et al., 2004) investigated possible factors of PTSD and psychological morbidity among Holocaust survivors. Variables such as age, gender, severity of trauma, extraversion, neuroticism values from the Eysenk Inventory (EPI-N, EPI-E), and defence mechanisms were included in the analyses. Advanced age, severity of trauma and adaptation strategies have emerged as important factors. Other studies have found trauma severity and younger traumatization age as predictors of PTSD (Yehuda et al., 1994, 1995). In the survey of WWII and Korean War veterans (Spiro et al., 1994), the level of exposure to 13
combat proved to be a decisive factor for the persistence of the disorder, since WWII veterans exposed to moderate or heavy combat had 13.3 times greater risk of PTSD symptoms. The severity of trauma appears to be one of the most stable predictors of posttraumatic symptom severity across studies. According to the dose-effect relationships model (Mollica, McInnes, Poole, & Tor, 1998a), the cumulative frequency and severity of trauma correlates with the severity of posttraumatic psychological distress, so that beyond a certain threshold everyone would necessarily become affected. This concept became consecrated after the model was empirically confirmed on Cambodian survivors of mass violence (Mollica et al., 1998a) and Vietnamese former political prisoners (Mollica et al., 1998b). Basoglu et al. (1994) studied factors related to long-term posttraumatic psychopathology of tortured political prisoners during the late 1970s and 1980s in Turkey. They found that PTSD was associated with negative effects of captivity in certain life areas (e.g., family, socioeconomic and professional status), psychosocial exposure to stress after captivity, severity of torture, and family history of psychiatric illness. The psychological preparedness for trauma (Basoglu et al., 1997) and certain appraisals (e.g., negative beliefs about the police and the state; Basoglu et al., 1996) seem to play a protective role against peritraumatic and posttraumatic distress. In aging victims of political detention Maercker, Beaducel, & Schtzwohl (2000) found that initial reactions to trauma and trauma severity predict later psychopathology such as posttraumatic and dissociative symptoms. Our examination of factors of the PTSD and other psychological problems in Romanian victims of political detention is in line with the results of the studies on Turkish and German political prisoners: we found that the severity of trauma, the level of peritraumatic emotional distress and the subjection to persecutions after release from prison may account for the PTSD retention in old age and predict certain symptoms in the long-term, such as dissociation and anxiety (BichescuBurian, 2011). A newer follow-up study (Gbler & Maercker, 2011) examined the association between revenge phenomena and PTSD approximately four decades after political imprisonment in East Germany. It revealed that revenge feelings and cognitions strongly predict the persistence of PTSD a long time after traumatization. Political instability and conflicts Some studies demonstrated that media reports of military conflicts can reactivate symptoms in older, asymptomatic veterans (Brockway, 1988; Long, Chamberlain, & Vincent, 1994), just as political turbulences may increase distress levels among Holocaust survivors (Eaton, Sigal, & Weinfeld, 1982). Some interesting findings come from studies that assessed reactions to the Gulf War in aging Holocaust survivors (Hantman, Solomon, & Prager, 1994; Solomon & Prager, 1992) and case studies of WWII veterans (Christenson, Walker, Ross &
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Maltbie, 1981). Greater distress, anxiety, and exacerbation of posttraumatic symptoms were found. Physical illness and hospitalization Major stressors, such as illness, may generate similar effects. Increased coping problems (Baider & Sarell, 1984) and higher psychological distress (Baider, Peretz, & Kaplan De-Nour, 1992) were observed in Holocaust survivors suffering from cancer. Moreover, physical health deteriorations may trigger a delayed onset of PTSD (Hamner, 1994). Furthermore, clinical evidence indicated that Holocaust survivors often perceive hospitalization as highly traumatic, since such situations are intensively reminiscent of the concentration camp experiences (Danielli, 1994; Hirschfeld, 1977). Psychological treatment Investigations of Holocaust survivors in old age showed that depressive and psychosomatic symptoms may arise as a consequence of the post-traumatic symptoms, which in turn prevent a successful emotional processing of the experienced trauma (Krystal, 1991). Such results have been confirmed by newer findings suggesting that old age might represent a highly vulnerable period for individuals with a history of severe traumatization (Brodaty et al., 2004; Joffe et al., 2003). In our own survey on Romanian political prisoners (Bichescu et al., 2005), some prisoners of our group had already received psychological help from an aid organization in Romania. Participants who had never received treatment still had PTSD and higher rates of depression, whereas the lifetime PTSD prevalence in the two groups was similar. Moreover, survivors receive and benefit from treatment also decades later. For example, PTSD treatment led to symptom reduction and self-reported alleviations in pain during treatment that were maintained at 4 months follow-up (Shipherd et al., 2007). Our randomized clinical study on Romanian former political prisoners already showed signs of improvement shortly after trauma-focused therapy and significant improvements 6 months later (Bichescu, Neuner, Schauer, & Elbert, 2007). Figure 1 summarizes research findings on factors of PTSD and related conditions from early adolescence to late adulthood. It clearly indicates that more numerous risk factors are acting during old age than during middle age, whereas less protective factors intervene later in life. Conclusions Various findings on long-term effects of severe traumatization in old age are now available, since man-made catastrophes have unfortunately been common throughout human history. Studies of Holocaust survivors and veterans of the WWII showed serious long-term effects of war and combat experiences expressed in increased PTSD rates and psychological and physical illness. Later, these findings have been confirmed by studies of aged Vietnam veterans. Controlled
15
studies and case studies with political prisoners of abusive political regimes also proved high rates of lifetime and chronic PTSD, and a high prevalence of psychological and physical morbidity. Figure 1. Risk and protective factors influencing organized violence-related PTSD, psychological and physical pathology across the lifespan: a model presenting research findings and hypothesized aetiopathology.
Overall, research has so far demonstrated that long lasting disturbances affect an important size of these survivors. In addition, the longitudinal course of chronic PTSD and other related health problems may be marked by remissions and relapses, so that they can become chronic and persist for decades and sometimes for a lifetime. This has a great societal impact, since the effects of organized violence may reach far beyond the directly affected individuals. For example, reviews of the literature found secondary and transgenerational effects of trauma in families of WWII and Vietnam veterans and POWS (Galovski & Lyons, 2004; Dekel & Goldblatt, 2008). Prior studies suggest a complex interaction between personal variables and the onset and chronicity of PTSD. This could also explain the difficulty in verifying strong and reliable predictors. However, research has clearly demonstrated two realities: (1) unprocessed traumatic experiences and untreated PTSD may lead to exacerbation, reactivation, and / or onset of serious mental and physical impairment; (2) due to certain circumstances and characteristics inherent to
16
the aging process, old age is a period of increased psychological and physical vulnerability in severely traumatized individuals. Existent evidence should guide the further search for answers regarding factors of long-term symptom aggravation and the development of more effective prevention, support, and treatment strategies to counteract the increased risk for distress in aging victims of organized violence. In particular, present knowledge should be employed in the prognosis and treatment of the numerous victims affected by organized violence and their families. Outcomes on risk and protective PTSD factors deliver helpful insights into potentially helpful treatment interventions. Further results have meanwhile emerged from more recent areas of mass conflicts. However, the long-time perspective offered by such studies still remains partial. For example, most veterans and other victims of the Yugoslav Wars (19911995 and 1998-2001) are not yet in their old age. This major set of conflicts in Europe with serious implications including genocide and other war crimes caused many deaths and severe mental and physical damage in surviving victims. Indeed, studies to date indicate that the effects are devastating (e.g., Nemcic-Moro, Franciskovic, Britvic, Klaric, & Zecevic, 2011). Similarly, other major man-made disasters such as the Rwandan genocide 1994 have generated further research in this field. Schaal, Dusingizemungu, Jacob, & Elbert (2011) conducted an investigation on orphans and widows of the genocide 10 to 15 years later. Fortyeight percent of the widows and 29% of the orphans still fulfilled PTSD symptom criteria 13 years after the genocide. Furthermore, increased prevalence rates of clinically significant depression (48% vs. 34%) and anxiety (59% vs. 42%), as well as suicidal tendency (38% vs. 39%) were reported. Cumulative traumatic exposure and poor physical health were the main PTSD predictors. Future studies on these phenomena and other mass disasters will start to display the lifespan course of war-related distress up to more advanced age over the following decade. Hopefully longitudinal research and improved tools and methods will be employed in this area to extensively investigate and better explain protective and risk factors contributing to the maintenance and worsening of symptoms over time. Also, the information in this field should be complemented by data coming from randomized trials of trauma-focused psychotherapy with victims of organized violence. Acknowledgements: The paper was made within The Knowledge Based Society Project supported by the Sectorial Operational Program Human Resources Development (SOP HRD), financed by the European Social Fund, and by the Romanian Government (POSDRU ID 56815).
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Untreated organized violence related PTSD Hirschfield, M. J. (1977). Care of the aging Holocaust survivors. American Journal of Nursing, 77, 1187-1189. Hocking, F. (1970). Psychiatric effects of extreme environmental stress. Diseases of the Nervous System, 31(8), 324-326. Horowitz, M. J., & Solomon, G. F. (1975). A prediction of delayed stress response syndromes in Vietnam veterans. Journal of Social Issues, 31, 67-80. Horowitz, M. J., Wilner, N., Kaltreider, N., & Alvarez, W. (1980). Signs and Symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry, 37(1), 85-92. Hyer, L., Summers, M. N., Boyd, S., Litaker, M., & Boudewyns, P. (1996). Assessment of older combat veterans with clinician-administered PTSD scale. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 9, 587-594. Joffe, C., Brodaty, H., Luscombe, G., & Ehrlich, F. (2003). The Sydney Holocaust Study: post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychosocial morbidity in an aged community sample. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 16(1), 39-47. Jongedijk, R. A, Carlier, I. V., Schreuder, B. J., & Gersons, B. P. (1996). Complex posttraumatic stress disorder: An exploratory investigation of PTSD and DESNOS among Dutch war veterans. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 9, 577-586. Kinzie, J. D., Fredrickson, R.H., Ben, R., Fleck, J., & Karls, W. (1984). Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Survivors of Cambodian Concentration Camps. American Journal of Psychiatry, 141(5), 645-650. Klein, H. (1972). Holocaust Survivors in Kibbutzim: Readaptation and Reintegration. Isr Ann Psychiatry and Related Disciplines, 10(1), 78-91. Klonoff, H., McDougall, G., Clark, B., Kramer, P., & Horgan, J. (1976). The neuropsychological, psychiatric, and physical effects of prolonged and severe stress: 30 years later. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 163, 246-252. Kluznick, J. C., Speed, N. H., Van Valkenburg, C., & Magraw, R. (1986). Fortyyear follow-up of United States prisoners of war. American Journal of Psychiatry, 143, 1443-1446. Krystal, H. (1991). Integration and self-healing in posttraumatic states: A ten year retrospective. American Imago, 488, 93-118. Kuch, K., & Cox, B. J. (1992). Symptoms of PTSD in 124 survivors of the Holocaust. American Journal of Psychiatry, 149, 337-340. Kulka, R. A., Schlenger, W. E., Fairbank, J. A., Hough, R. L., Jordan, B. K., Marmar, C. R., & Weiss, D. S. (1990). Trauma and the Vietnam War generation: Report of findings from the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study. New York: Brunner/Mazel. Lee, K. A., Vailliant, G. E., Torrey, M. D., & Elder, G. H. (1995). A 50-Year Prospective Study of the Psychological Sequelae of World War II Combat. American Journal of Psychiatry, 152(4), 516-522.
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Dana Bichescu-Burian Levav, I. (1997). Individuals under conditions of maximum adversity: the holocaust. In B. P. Dohrenwend (Ed.), Adversity, stress and psychopathology (pp.13-33). New York: Oxford University Press. Levav, I., & Abramson, J. H. (1984). Emotional distress among concentration camp survivors A community study in Jerusalem. Psychological Medicine, 14, 215-218. Long, N., Chamberlain, K., & Vincent, C. (1994). Effect of the Gulf War on reactivation of adverse combat-related memories in Vietnam veterans. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 50, 138-144. Maercker, A., & Schtzwohl, M. (1997). Long-term effects of political imprisonment: a group comparison study. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 32(8), 435-442. Matussek, P. (1971). Die Konzentrationslagerhaft und ihre Folgen. Berlin: Springer Verlag. Mollica, R. F., Donelan, C., Tor, S., Lavelle, J., Elias, C., Frankel, M., & Blendon, R. J. (1993). The effect of trauma and confinement on functional health and mental health status of Cambodians living in Thailand-Cambodia boder camps. JAMA, 270(5), 581-586. Mollica, R. F., McInnes, K., Pham, T., Smith Fawzi, M. C., Murphy, E., & Lin, L. (1998b). The dose-effect relationships between torture and psychiatric symptoms in Vietnamiese ex- political detainees and a comparison group. Journal of Mental and Nervous Disease, 186(9), 543-553. Mollica, R. F., McInnes, K., Poole, C., & Tor, S. (1998a). Dose-effect relationships of trauma to symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder among Cambodian survivors of mass violence. British Journal of Psychiatry, 173, 482-488. Mollica, R. F., Wyshak, G., & Lavelle, J. (1987). The Psychosocial Impact of War Trauma and Torture on Southeast Asian Refugees. American Journal of Psychiatry, 144, 1567-1572. Nemcic-Moro, I., Franciskovic, T., Britvic, D., Klaric, M., & Zecevic, I. (2011). Disorder of extreme stress not otherwise specified (DESNOS) in Croatian war veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder: case-control study. Clinical Science, 52, 505-512. Page, W. F. (1992). The health of former prisoners of war : results from the medical examination survey of fromer POWs of World War II and the Korean conflict. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Page, W. F., Engdahl, B. E., & Eberly, R. E. (1991). Prevalence and correlates of depressivesymptoms among former prisoners of war. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 179, 670-677. Pary, D., Turns, M., & Tobias, C. R. (1986). A case of delayed recognition of posttraumatic stress disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 143, 941. Pomerantz, A. S. (1991). Delayed onset of PTSD: Delayed recognition or latent disorder? American Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 1609. Rasmussen, O. V., & Lunde, I. (1980). Evaluation and investigations of 200 torture victims. Danish Medical Bulletin, 27, 241-243.
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Dana Bichescu-Burian Von Baeyer, W., Hfner, H., & Kisker, K. P. (1964). Psychiatrie der Verfolgten. Berlin: Springer. Weiss, D. S., Marmar, C. R., Schlenger, W. E., Faibank, J. A., Jordan, B. K., Hough, R. L., & Kulka, R. A. (1992). The prevalence of lifetime and partial post-traumatic stress disorder in Vietnam theater veterans. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 5, 365-376. White, N. S. (1983). Post-traumatic stress disorder. Letter to the editor. Hospital Community Psychiatry, 34, 1061-1062. Yehuda, R., Elkin, A., Binder-Brynes, K., Kahana, B., Southwick, S. M., Schmiedler, J., & Giller, E. L. (1996). Dissociation in Aging Holocaust Survivors. American Journal of Psychiatry, 153, 935-940. Yehuda, R., Kahana, B., Southwick, S. M., & Giller, E. L. (1994). Depressive features in Holocaust survivors with post-traumatic stress disorder. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 7, 699-705. Yehuda, R., Kahana, B., Schmiedler, J., Southwick, S. M., Wilson, S., & Giller, E. L. (1995). Impact of cumulative trauma and recent stress on current post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in holocaust survivors. American Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 18151818.
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The influence of social capital on school performances: a comparison between Italy and Romania
Elena COCORAD1, Alina Elena MLDRAANU2
Abstract: The pupils social capital makes the difference between their ways of adapting and their school performance; it explains the inclusion process of various groups within the educational system, including the immigrants. This conducted study aims at identifying the variables which define the pupils with certain educational results. Various childrens groups are being brought under discussion: children who reside Romania, but whose parents have emigrated to Italy, children who have immigrated to Italy together with their parents and children who reside Romania together with their parents. The analysis has included the scoring and nominal variables: social capital, gender, age, educational level and occupation of the mother/ father, the childrens proximity to their parents etc. The multinomial logistic regression shows that the best available predictor of school performance is social capital, followed by the educational background of the mother, gender and proximity to the parents. The predictors are more adequate for the good and excellent school results. Key words: Social Capital, school results, immigrants.
Introduction Social capital is an aggregate of existing or potential resources correlated with the membership status in a group and with the existence of a solid, long-lasting network of relationships, more or less institutionalised (Bourdeiu,1983) or resulting from the social relations between the actants, for instance the relationship between parents and children (Coleman,1988). Other approaches underline the focus of the social capital on characteristics of social organizations, such as trust, norms and networks (Adler & Know, 2000; Putnam, 1993). In the approach centred on the individual social capital is designed as an investment in social relations, and this investment is expected to be returned (Nan Lin, 2000), as a product of the interactions which can contribute to the social, civic and economic wellness of the members of a community (Kilpatrick, Field & Falk, 2003). The types of social capital identified by Coleman (1988) are: 1. trust, obligations and expectations of the structures; 2. informational potential as a basis for the actions; 3. norms and criteria for applying rewards and punishments to
1 2
Transilvania University of Braov, e-mail: elena.cocorada@unitbv.ro University of Catania
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Elena Cocorad and Alina-Elena Mldranu
individual actions. Inside the walls, the types of social capital are represented by collegial networks (among peers), which have strong effects on the level of expectation and on the educational process, by the amount of trust present between teachers and administrators and by the cooperation climate between school and community. Networks which connect school to the community (outside the network walls) are added to the above (Putnam, 2004). Influences of the Social Capital The effects of the social capital, either positive or negative, depending on the context (Morgan& Sorensen, 1999), are considered to be obvious when it comes to education, the results of the children being directly related to their parents social capital (Putnam, 2000). When parents get involved in their childrens education, teachers report low levels of violence and apathy towards school tasks and a simultaneous increase of the pupils wellness (Morrow, 1999; Portes, 1998; Coleman, 1988). The effects of the social capital are different depending on the educational level. In secondary schools, supportive networks are the decisive factor which differentiate the manners of adaptation and activate the students cultural norms (Nan Lin, 2000; Marjoribanks & Kwok, 1998). Ethnical support provides momentum and force, which are useful to academic success (Zhou, 1992). Acceptance among ones peers, the support given by them, helping each other inside the group, intensifies the feeling of safety that the pupils get in the school environment (Coleman, 1988). The negative effects of social capital take place when the group norms are discriminatory and the networks are socially segregated, leading to the exclusion of certain people- which is possible in the case of immigrants - or when they favour conformity towards the group or restrain the rights of the individuals (Rustenbach, 2010); Putnam, 1993). Social capital is deficitary in monoparental families as well as nuclear families where one or both parents are absent from their childs life or the parents attention is unequally divided between their children (Coleman, 1988). A number of articles have analysed the social capital of various groups of immigrants in social contexts over the last decades, associated with the school results of their children and to other aspects of education. Groups of Chinese, Moroccan, Mexican immigrants have been analysed (Zhou, 1992; Bruna, 2009). Migration is seen not only as moving from one place to another, but also as a profound change, resulting in ambivalent feelings of loss and separation, which influence the reporting towards space and time, self-image, daily culture and linguistic practices (Duccio & Favaro, 1998). The sons of immigrants constitute a risk group, most probably punished by their educational failure and by psychological and adaptational difficulties (Favaro, 2011, 2001). On the other hand, when underlining the creative potential of the milestone between two worlds and of the change in itself, the opportunities and wealth of
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The influence of social capital on school performances
some life conditions which integrate a variety of points of view, more languages and more social memory (Favaro, 2011; Duccio & Favaro, 1998) are also highlited. Other articles take on a holistic perspective, analysing the sources of antiimmigrants attitudes in various European countries, their degree of satisfaction as reported to the level of the generation (Maxwell, 2010). Most of the current approaches underline the heterogeneity of the impact of migration and the role of the States in offering favourable conditions to the immigrants (De Haas, 2010). Measuring Social Capital In order to measure social capital, the literature has focused on measuring the interactions between parents and children, having as indicators the frequency of their discussions on school tasks (Teachman, Paasch & Carver, 1996). The Integrated Questionnaire for the Measurement of the Social Capital (SC-IQ) has focused on more dimensions: groups and networks, trust and solidarity, collective actions and cooperation, information and communication, social cohesion and inclusion, power and action (Grootaert, Narayan, Jones, Woolcock, 2004). Recent instruments have included the social relations of the pupils and those of the teachers, the teachers, parents and pupils participation in governing the school and the community as well as the overall communication between school and community in general (Catts & Ozga, 2005). Empirical study Hypotheses In the past 20 years, the number of emigrants from Romania has increased massively, particularly towards European countries. Some families emigrate with their children; other families leave their children at home. In both cases, the social capital is expected to decrease, which influences the adaptation and development of the children, as well as their school performance. The objective of this research is to compare the school performance associated to the social capital of Romanian childrens groups found in different social situations: (1) children who are in Romania, but whose parents immigrated to Italy, (2) children who have left for Italy together with their parents and (3) children who live in Romania with their parents. The below hypotheses have been established according to specific literature. H1. The social capital of the three groups is different, the children residing in Romania with their parents thus having a higher social capital as compared to the two other subgroups. H2. The social capital of the pupils is directly associated to their school performances.
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H3. The school performances of the pupils can be predicted on the basis of the social capital and some of their personality traits. Instruments The used instruments were a five-scale questionnaire for the diagnosis of the social capital (SoCa), designed by the author, the Rosenberg self-esteem scale (short version, 1965), the Raven progressive matrices and a factual data questionnaire regarding the age, gender, year of study, school results on subjets, such as mathematics, Romanian and Italian language, the yearly average, the level of education of the parents, the number of brothers/sisters). SoCa entails 75 forcedchoice items, grouped in seven dimensions: relation with peers (10 items) relation with teachers (10 items), school activities (18 items), and school relations in general (12 items), family relations (15 items) trust/affective status (10 items). All scales present good internal consistency, the Alpha Cronbach being situated between .61 (trust) and .88 (collective educational activities), the internal consistency of the whole scale being .90 in its final form. The Alpha Cronbach is of .88 for the first part and .82 for the second part. CaSo was applied to the pupils, and high scores indicate a high social capital. Sample The sample is a convenience one, comprised of 150 primary school pupils, aged between 11 and 14, with an age average of 12.49. 47.3% of them are boys and 52.7% are girls. The children who immigrated to Italy with their parents are from the cities of Catania, Misterbianco, Bellpasso and Paterno, whereas the children who live in Romania (both those whose parents have immigrated to Italy and those whose parents are in Romania) live in the city of Ploiesti and the communes of Podenii Noi, Pacurei and Baleti. The three categories of the subgroups are equal in terms of volume, each representing 33.3% of the total. The amount of children from the urban area is at 52.67% and one of those from the rural area is at 47.33%. The data were collected between 2009 and 2010, in Italy and Romania. Due to the fact that all the participants to this research were minors, the informed consent of both parents and children was obtained. The parents level of education was coded as follows: level 1 for general studies (junior high), level 2 for secondary studies (high school, vocational school and post-high school studies) and level 3 for higher education. The highest level of education is to be found with the parents who live in Romania, the level of education being slightly lower in the case of the parents who left the country. Considering the fact that the grading system in the two countries is different (grades from 1 to 10 in Romania and qualificatives in Italy) the school performance level was measured via a common code, comprised of 5 qualificatives (insufficient, sufficient, good, very good and excellent), after debating this issue with two teachers from each country.
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Results In the case of all three subgroups of pupils, the one way variant analysis for related scores indicated statistically significant differences between the scores at the global social capital level and in some of the seven subscales. F ranges between 10.89 and 47.34, being highly statistically significant (the significance level ranging between .025 and .001). The post-hoc comparison, made by using the Turkey test, highlights the following clarifications: 1. There are no differences among the 3 groups as far as the family relations scale is concerned. 2. The relations inside the school are not significantly differe nt for the groups of pupils whose parents are in Romania and pupils whose parents are not in Romania. 3. The relations Teacher-pupil are not significantly different for the subgroups of pupils who live with their parents in Italy and those who live in Romania without their parents 4. The global social capital does not differenciate between the groups of pupils who live with their parents in Italy and those who live in Romania, but whose parents immigrated to Italy, but both groups are different from the one where the pupils live with their parents in Italy.
Table 2: Correlations between the Caso questionnaire scores and the researched variables
Variables Yearly qualificative Raven Self-esteem Level of education of the mother Level of Education of the father Colleague Networks Student Teacher relations Collective school activities Inside the walls relations Family relations Total social capital Yearly qualificative .557 ** .313 ** .460 ** .322 ** .332 ** .265 ** .488 ** .323 ** .381 ** .482 ** Raven Selfesteem .258 ** .357 ** .261 ** .391 ** .292 ** .407 ** .445 ** Level of education Mother 464** 268** 281** .627** .142 * .195* .337 ** .196* .272** Father 331** 199* .627** .176 * .194 * -
.242 ** .199 * -
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
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Features of the pupils according to school results classifications In order to establish the features which distinguish between the pupils with different school results the multinomial logistic regression was conducted. The methodological restraints concerning the application of the logistical regression ware respected: the dependent variable is a categorial, pentatomic one, the categories are exclusive, and the volume of the sample is situated slightly above the inferior limit. The independent variables which were introduced in the model are based both on literature data, which include socio-demographic factors, personality traits and situational factors in determining educational success as well as on the correlations we obtained (Table 2). According to the stepwise analysis method, the first introduced predictor is social capital wealth, followed by the educational level of the mother, the gender of the pupil, his/her proximity towards the parents and the cultural environment (table 3). The value of a -2 log likelihood probability diminishes with every predictor, indicating a greater adequacy of the model. The chi square value is significant to a point of less than .05. The likelihood ratio tests suggest that eliminating any of the predictors would lead to the decrease of the correspondence between the predicted and the real data. Consequently, the predictors should be kept as such in order not to affect the accuracy of the classification. Table 3: Step Summary and Likelihood Ratio Tests
Effect Model Fitting Criteria Step Summary Effect Selection Tests Likelihood Ratio Tests Model Fitting Criteria Likelihood Ratio Tests -2 Log Likelihood ChiDf Sig. Df Sig. of Square Reduced Model 257.891a .000 0 6 .000 275.584 17.692 6 .007 15 .003 290.425 32.534 15 .005 3 6 .006 269.405 .019 273.047 11.514 15.156 3 6 .009 .019
-2 Log Likelihood
ChiSquarea
Intercept Social_Capital_Wealth Educational Level of the Mother Gender Proximity towards Parents
357.397 319.979 285.527 273.047 257.891
37.418 34.453 12.480 15.156
In order to evaluate the degree of correspondence between the model and the real, factual data, Goodness-of-fit type tests were used. For this model, the predicted data correspond to the real ones, the differences between them being statistically unimportant. Therefore, the model is capable of explaining the frequencies observed (for the Pearson test, chi-square =314.93; sig.=.13). The
30
pseudo R square statistics show, through all methods, that the values of the combined correlation between school results and the predictors in the analysis are moderate. The independent variables introduced in the model explain between 25.5% (the McFadden indicator) and 52.4% (the Nagelkerke indicator) of the school results variance. According to table 3, eliminating any of the predictors would significantly diminish the correspondence between the model and the real data, so the predictors are to be kept as such. In previous versions we introduced more predictors (selfesteem) but these did not increase the correspondence between the model and the real data. The predictors, which best differenciate between the school results categories, are the following: a) The proximity towards the parents predictor and the poor social capital(category 1 B=2.56; sig.05) predictor both significantly make a difference in the case of sufficient school results for chil dren who live in Romania with their parents b) In the case of the good school results category the social capital predictor is still highly involved (B= .75; sig. = .021), but another predictor is also important at this level, namely the level of education of the mother: when the mother had level 2 studies (vocational school) B=3.2; sig.=.014; when she had level 4 studies (higher education) B=2.17; sig.=.018). c) For the very good results level, the predictor which most differentiates is gender (B=1.84; sig.=.008). The precision of predictions varies for the 4 categories of the dependent variable (table 4), being more precise for the good and excellent results (61.9%) and less precise for the other school performance levels: very good (48.6%) and enough (41.4%). In the case of good and excellent school results there were almost 2 out of 3 chances to make the right prediction whereas in the case of the sufficient results, the situation is the other way around. Table 4: Classification
Observed Sufficient 10 8 0 0 12,0% Good 16 39 14 6 50,0% Predicted Very Good 1 9 18 2 20,0% Correct Excellent percentage 2 34,5% 7 61,9% 5 48,6% 13 61,9% 18,0% 53,3%
Sufficient Good Very Good Excellent Overall Percentage
If we aimed to make individual predictions on the basis of the obtained data, we would notice more possible predictor variable models having a value of over 70%
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by inspecting table 5 (observed and predicted frequencies). The first three highprobability predictors are described in the before mentioned table. Table 5: Observed and Predicted Frequencies
Social capital wealth Poor social capital Medium social capital Medium social capital IQ measured with the Raven Test Normal intelligence Normal intelligence Normal intelligence Level of education of the mother Juniorhigh Juniorhigh Higher Education Proximity towards parents With parents in Italy With parents in Romania With parents in Romania Gender School results category Good Good Prediction probability
Boy Girl
80.7% 71.6%
Boy
Very good
70.6%
Discussions and Conclusions The social capital differenciates between the ways of adapting and school performance of the pupils explains the educational system inclusion process of various groups, including immigrants. The conducted study was aimed at identifying the influence of the social capital on school results. Groups of Romanian children found in various situations were compared to: children who live in Romania, but whose parents have emigrated in Italy, children who have immigrated in Italy with their parents and children who live in Romania with their parents. The data analysis has been conducted considering the following variables: gender, age, level of education and occupation of the mother/father, proximity of the children towards their parents. The Romanian children who live in their own country are integrated in more social relation networks as compared to the children who left Romania with their parents. Changing the cultural environment had a more powerful impact on the networks that they are included in. The only significant differences as far as the pupils from the rural area as compared to the ones from the urban area are concerned, are perceived at the level of relations inside the walls there is a higher score for the urban rather than the rural area. The Romanian children who immigrated to Italy with their parents have a poorer social capital, being integrated in fewer social networks as compared to the Romanian children who live in Romania with their parents. As expected, the similarities to the groups in the new environment is reduced; in order to hold social capital, the pupil has to relate to his colleagues, the possible advantages residing, not in his/her inner-self, but in the social relations they manage to establish.
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The social capital volume depends on the size of the social relations network in which the pupils can integrate, as well as on the economic, cultural or symbolic capital volume which every member of the network holds (Bourdieu, 1986). In the case of Romanian children who have immigrated to Italy, the volume of social capital is also diminished by the economic, cultural or symbolic capitals, which are supposedly higher in the case of Italian children. For these reasons, Romanian children who immigrated to Italy can acquire fewer obligations from the part of their Italian peers which could be returned at some point, as pointed out by other sources as well (Portes, 1998). The only scores which are not significantly different between the subgroups pupils with their parents in Italy and pupils who live in Romania without their parents are found on the scale of teacher -pupil relations, thus confirming other research: a scuola nessuno straniero, according to Favaro (2011). The Romanian children who live in their own country with their parents are integrated in more relation networks as compared to the children whose parents left the country. The family relations network does not register significant differences between the three groups. Unfortunately, this capital can be of little use to the pupils whose parents left the country. The social capital existing outside of the family, consisting of the social relations which exist between the parents inside a community and their relations to the institutions of that certain community is very poor or even inexistent, having few positive effects on the overall development of children, as stated before (Coleman,1988). The cultural and financial capital of the parents becomes available only if the child-family bonds are strong enough. A family where the parents are physically absent, as in the case of the pupils whose parents emigrated, have fewer possibilities of transmitting the social capital of the parents and this leads to diminishing the positive effects on the development of the children. The social capital is somewhat transmitted to the children by the relatives who nurture them-grandparents or other relatives. In order to identify the distinctive features of the pupils on the basis of the five categories of school results expressed by means of qualificatives, a logistic multinomial regression was conducted. The data analysis suggests that the school performance of the pupils can be predicted by the social capital: the pupils in a category can be identified according to the wealth of social capital, the educational background of the mother, gender and proximity towards parents. The pupils in the categories good school results and excellent school results can be identified to a percentage of 61.9%, thus there are two out of three chances of making the right prediction. By way of contrast, the pupils in the category sufficient results can be identified to a percentage of only 34.5%, therefore there are two out of three chances of making a wrong prediction. Other personality features (self-esteem) correlate with the social capital of the pupils, but do not make the object of the final model. The most likely prediction for an individual case is that of 80.7%, for the case of the pupil described on the first table line. This is a pupil with good school
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results, of male gender, residing in Italy with his parents. His mother has juniorhigh studies, his IQ level is an average one, and the social capital is poor. It is possible that immigrant pupils are sometimes penalized for their school failure or for adaptation difficulties which also threaten the children who live in Romania, but whose parents have immigrated to Italy (Favaro, 2011). The results of the current research sustain the relevance of the approach that underlines the heterogeneity of the migration impact, demonstrating that the increase of mobility of the workforce does not automatically bring positive effects on a large scale. References
Adler, P. S, Know, S.W. (2000). Social capital: the good, the bad and the ugly. In E.L. Lesser Knowledge and Social Capital. US, Butherworth-Heinemann. Bourdieu, P (1993). The Field of Cultural Production. Oxford: Polity Press. Bruna, K.R. (2009). Mexican immigrant transnational social capital and class transformation: examining the role of peer mediation in insurgent science, Cultural Studies of Science Education, published online: 16 September 2009, accessed 10 mai, 2010. Catts, R., Ozga, J. (2005). What is Social Capital and how might i t be used in Scotlands Schools? www.ces.ed.ac.uk, accessed april 11, 2010. Coleman, J. S. (1988). Social Capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology, 94, S95-S121. De Haas, H. (2010). Migration and Development: A Theoretical Perspective1 International Migration Review, 44, 1, 227 264. Duccio, D., Favaro, G. (1998). Bambini stranieri a scuola. Firenze: Ed. La nuova Italia. Favaro, G. (2001). I bambini stranieri. Firenze: Ed. Giunti Gruppo Editoriale. Favaro, G. (2011). A scuola nessuno straniero. Firenze: Giunti. Grootaert, C., Narayan, D., Woolcock, M. & Nyhan-Jones, V. (2004). Measuring Social Capital. New York: World Bank. Kilpatrick, S., Field, J., Falk, I. (2003). Social Capital: an analytical tool for exploring lifelong learning and community development, British Educational Research Journal, 29, 3, 417-433. Lin, Nan. (2000). Inequality in Social Capital. Contemporary Sociology, 29, 785-795. Marjoribanks, K., Kwok, Y. (1998). Family capital and Hong Kong adolescents' academic achievement. Psychological Reports, 83, 1, 99 - 105. Maxwell, R. (2010). Evaluating Migrant Integration: Political Attitudes across Generations in Europe, International Migration Review, 44, 1, 25 - 52. Morgan, S.L., Sorensen, A.E. (1999). Parental Networks, Social Closure, and Mathematics Learning: A Test of Colemans Social Capital Explanation of School Effects , American Sociological Review, 64 (5), 661-681. Morrow, V. (1999). Conceptualising social capital in relation to the well-being of children and young people: a critical review. Sociological Review, 47, 4, 744 - 765. Portes, A. (1998). Social Capital: Its Origins and Application in modern Sociology. Annual Review of Sociology 22, 1 - 24. Putnam, R. D. (1993). The prosperous Community: Social Capital and Public Life. The American Prospect 13, 35 - 42.
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The influence of social capital on school performances Putnam, R (2000). Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon and Schuster. Putnam, R. D. (2004). Education, Diversity, Social Cohesion and Social Capital, 2004, Dublin, Meeting of OECD, Education Ministers. Rustenbach, E. (2010). Sources of Negative Attitudes toward Immigrants in Europe: A Multi-Level Analysis, International Migration Review, 44, 1, 53 - 7.Teachman, J. D.,
Paasch, K., & Carver, K. (1996). Social capital and dropping out of school early. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 58, 773 - 783.
Zhou, M. (1992). Chinatown: The Socioeconomic Potential of an Urban Enclave. Temple UniversityPress, Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Buchner, A., & Lang, A.G. (2009). Statistical power analyses using G*Power 3.1: Tests for correlation and regression analyses. Behavior Research Methods, 41, 1149-1160.
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The mobility of Romanian academic elites to the test of European construction

Mihai Dinu GHEORGHIU1
The international movement of students is an object of study both ancient and current, in terms of its scope and policies that are devoted to European and international levels. For a country like Romania, situated on the borders of the European Union, such an object can be viewed from two perspectives. Student mobility, but also professors, is one of the mechanisms of transformation of the education system and beyond, to reproduce or renew the ruling elites. The opportunity to study abroad has appeared at the same time, as a "risk" incentive to emigrate, strengthening centres of attraction for new candidates or by opening new, but also as a possible lever to reduce the gaps between academic institutions and even encourage returns. "Mobility" and "migration" may well be regarded as two sides of the same movement, which intersect in part without confusion. They are subject of contrasting social representations, by their association, in the case of "mobile" to "success", to "dynamism" and to "progress", and in the case of "emigrants", to the stigma of victims, to suffering and impoverishment. If mobility implies a certain continuity in the course, emigration means break and change of identity. Interdependent and yet relatively autonomous, social representations of mobility and migration depend on more or less the ancient countrys social history. For Romania, these relations are reversed with respect to current representations, to the extent that emigration was associated, after World War II, to a form of political opposition and an exile that preserves the "real "national values. Despite progress in understanding the different categories of migrants2 and the success of some programs of mobility and reinsertion, the ambiguous relationship between student mobility and migration have remained little studied in the last twenty years.
Universit Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Iasi, Centre de Sociologie Europenne, Centre dEtudes de lEmploi, Paris. E-mail: mihaidg@yahoo.fr 2 Historians have repeatedly approached the issue of migration in the academic context of modernization of the country from the nineteenth century (Nastasa, 2006). More recently, these migrations are the preferred object of a series of works done as part of "European Studies", analyzing the transfer of values as a process of Europeanisation (Ioana Bursan, 2009; Verena Wagner, 2007). A paradigm shift has marked recent years: an area of debate was set up between the defenders of the thesis of "Brain Drain" and those of the thesis of "Brain Gain" or the "Brain Circulation". Accountable for the human capital theory, these opposing views on the issue of gains and losses determined by the "upward mobility" between developed and underdeveloped countries, the skilled labor force or "brains" (Wagner , 2007).
37
Mihai Dinu Gheorghiu
The first objective of our exploratory study is to analyze the links between "mobility" and "emigration" within the different groups that make up the "academic elite"3. To what extent and in what form the movement of teachers and students does it benefit from the various disciplines and from their actors (situation of mobility) or on the contrary does it threaten it (situation of emigration)? What are the conditions and the strategies of accumulation and reconverting specific capital, international or spatial4, in career strategies? Can we conclude that there is a variable rate of convertibility of this capital, according to the social and economic circumstances? To find the answers to these questions, we will analyze several examples of transformations of institutional and individual order related to the experiences of mobility in the social sciences and humanities. We have thus interviewed three categories of actors: university professors who have been able to benefit from "the opening of the system" of the early 1990s and have been directly involved in its transformations; students and PhD students who participate in mobility programs (Erasmus in particular); high level young researchers, who have done training courses in multiple "centres of excellence" in the humanities and social sciences5. Some framing elements A prior perspective of the Romanian university system and of its recent transformations can be useful. The very low international mobility of teachers as well as Romanian students in the 1980s was the effect of a double insulation of its political regime, in the space of the socialist exchanges and in the international space in the broad sense (Gheorghiu, 1998). In contrast to the situation that existed until 1945 (peregrinatio academica oriented to western and central Europe) and in the 1950s (predominance of studies in the USSR and other socialist countries), the
3
Recognizing the heterogeneity of such a category, we specify that it is made primarily by the occupants of the dominant positions of national and university space by the pretenders to the occupation of these positions, the succession struggles and usurpation being the principle of the definition of these elites. 4 Here we use the two concepts (international capital and spatial capital) in an undifferentiated way, knowing that the notion of international capital is confusing because of the financial homonym and because the spatial capital has already been the subject of a sociological definition: "both places baggage (the right to live, work or study, the presence of a social network, knowledge) and competences to manage them (ability to move, to use the premises of saving time and energy, organizing them) (...), spatial capital can be exchanged with social capital, cultural, economic or symbolic (...) according to the objectives of the actor and contexts. "(Garneau, 2007) 5 We conducted twenty interviews. Four young research members of the "excellence centers" were interviewed in order to update the results of an initial investigation into this type of institution: they are the Collegium Budapest, the New Europe College (NEC), the Doctoral School of the EHESS in Bucharest, the Center for Advanced Study Sofia (CAS) (Gheorghiu, 2004). Our thanks to Livia Dumitriu, Head of International Relations Services at the University of Iasi, for the documents submitted.
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The mobility of Romanian academic elites
ability to study abroad had become rare and no longer constituted a decisive criterion in the selection and in the career of intellectuals or political elites, as was the case previously. The liberalisation from 1990 onwards has taken several forms. The depoliticization, the privatization and the internationalization of higher education have been placed under the sign of the opening: university autonomy and registration in the circuits of international education, appearance of a private education sector, but also "commodification" of a part of public education. Higher education has also been accused of becoming a thriving industry ("factory degree"), in the circumstances in which other industries had collapsed. The posting of links between economy and education has made a constant increase of staff, an "inflation" of titles and a change in the relationship between disciplines and areas possible. Thus, over 18 years (1990-2008), while enrolment in secondary education is declining by about 200,000 students, higher education student numbers have multiplied by 4.5 (nearly one million currently). This increase in university enrolment6 was performed differentially across domains: law school (240%), economics (150%) in social sciences (+100%) and medicine (50%) experienced the largest increases in enrolment, while the faculties of engineering have lost the privileged position they previously occupied7. Meanwhile, during the same period, there has been an increase in emigration and in student mobility. The early 1990s was characterized by an acceleration of emigration called "discharge" after the opening of the borders. With the lifting of political control of departures from Romania, several measures were taken to separate requests for international academic mobility from emigration. According to the latest estimates (2008), the number of Romanians living as foreigners in the European Union is 1.7 million, this ranks first as a national group migrating within Europe (representing 15% of the total number of foreign nationals of another EU Member State). The first destination countries of Romanian immigrants in Europe are Italy (40%), Spain (18%), Germany (5%) and Hungary (5%)8. Students make up small numbers among these migrants, although the short periods of study are not recorded. The international mobility of students from Romania has grown more slowly than the total numbers of students in Romania. In 2004, 2.4% of Romanian students (a percentage below the European average) were studying in another European country for at least one year, representing two thirds
6
The number of foreign students in Romania has also increased, but numbers remain low (from 8639 to 11095). Moreover, higher education has "feminized": the number of female students is higher than that of students since the late 1990s. 7 Cf. INSSE, Anuarul Statistic al Romaniei, 2009, accessed at http://www.insse.ro/cms/rw/pages/index.ro.do 8 EUROSTAT, 2009, press release fro December 16th 2009, accessed at http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/3-16122009-BP/FR/3-16122009-BPFR.PDF
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of the total of those studying abroad (16,000 on 23,000). France is the leading destination of Romanian students abroad totalling about 3,816 people in 20082009. Nearly one-third is enrolled in Humanities (1,285), other represented disciplines are medicine (690), economics and administration (650), law and political science (638). The number of students in colleges (mostly engineering schools) is also decreasing (479 in 2008-2009 against 613 in 2005-2006). In 2008, 50% of employees were enrolled in a master degree program and 18% in PhD studies9. The example of France shows the different destinations of the "emigrants" and "mobile" people, despite the inability to clearly distinguish the two categories. Academic mobility is part of the international specific logic.
Social sciences and humanities mobility: strategies of the lords To observe the use of the international component in institutions and by their actors in Romania, we will take three categories of examples: professors, their students and "high level" young researchers. The analysis of the trajectories of five university professors, who hold singular positions in the subspaces of their disciplines, shows a series of common properties associated with their international mobility. They are university professors in Bucharest and Iasi, in letters (German language and literature), political sciences (after starting their career in philosophy), communication sciences (after studying letters), sociology (with passage from research to teaching in the early 1990s), history (with a shift of the research field, from Bucharest urban history to the history of Jews in Romania). They occupy important positions in their disciplines heads of department, director of the university publishing house, director of the national journal in his/her field, directors of research centers. They studied before 1989 and began their academic career after 198910. Almost all have held administrative positions at their university (dean, department head ...), one of them is a university president and was Secretary of State at the Ministry of Education, another one was ambassador. One of their common properties is the constant and early accumulation of international capital through the establishment of contacts and relationships of trust of long duration, with frequent exchanges after liberalization and particularly through the conversion of that international capital in social and institutional capital: personal relationships transformed into partnership agreements, private visits followed by visits of official delegations, with welcoming ceremonies,
10
Source : editions.campusfrance.org/pays/2009/roumanie.pdf Professions before: researchers (2), journalist, publisher reader.
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receptions, medal awards, titles of Doctor Honoris Causa, etc11. The scarcity of international capital accumulated before 1989 explains its value, but also the devaluation risk exposures on the denunciations of the conditions of its acquisition, under police control. Hence the need to convert it into social and institutional capital, which makes it last. The continuity in research activity and / or teaching, sometimes associated with work experience in related fields, such as journalism or publishing, is another common property. Thus, a historian, professor nearing retirement, whose scientific career was interrupted several times, restarted his/her career due to exceptional circumstances, international mobility. L. R., director of Goldstein-Goren Diaspora Research Center (University of Tel Aviv), co-director of the Institute of Jewish Studies (University of Bucharest), is among the few "returners", who emigrated before 1989 to come back to work part time in Romania. He divides his time between Bucharest, his hometown, and Tel Aviv, where he settled after his emigration to Israel in 1985. His career, marked by several breaks of course, could serve as a link between places and remote areas of scientific activity; it also facilitates the establishment of exchange networks between the two countries. Historian, author of a thesis on the history of the Bucharest City Hall, he had to change his field of research after his arrival in Israel, including a center specialized in Eastern European countries. Since the end of the Cold War, this sector has shrunk, its chances of reconversion in other areas of research are low, and he felt uncomfortable teaching in the Hebrew language. L.R. returned to Romania from December 1991 with the organization of two conferences on the history of Jews in Romania, which led to the publication of a five-volume work on the subject. In the early 2000s, with the establishment of Centers of Jewish studies in Romania, he began to teach here. His participation in the works of the commission of IsraeliRomanian historians and in the " Wiesel commission", on the Holocaust in Romania, as well as in the foundation of the Research Centre Goldstein-Goren in Bucharest, contributed to a renewed perspective of the non-Jew Romanian historians on a little-known part of the history of their country. Flexibility in the choice of research topics and adaptation to external demand is another common property of these mobile academics. In passing from the aesthetics of reception to the cultural history of Bukovina, A.H.C. has a very promising theme: seen from Austria, we are interested in rediscovering a distant province of the former empire; seen from Romania, we are interested in the
11
One should write the history of relations between the University Alexandru Ioan Cuza of Iasi (Romania) and of the University Maximilian de Freiburg in Breisgau (Germany), which celebrated 30 years of official exchanges in 2005, and began with complex relationship of a professor of Freiburg, Paul Miron, with Iasi, his hometown. A collection of stories in three languages (Romanian, German, English), illustrated with photos, was published on the occasion of this anniversary: Marturii despre an exemplar Partnering / Beweise einer ausgezeichneten Partnerschaft, 1975 to 2005, Iasi, May 2005.
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historical and symbolic connections to Central Europe. Becoming a promoter of the rational choice theory (rational choice theory) in political science, such as A. M., or importing the human capital theory and the ideology of the World Bank, as D. S., means to ensure a correspondence in the international networks, while benefiting from expert status, especially with the World Bank in Romania. Finally, these scholars have in common that they associated the experience of cross-border mobility and transdisciplinary organizational strategies. Political science and communication science are probably the best examples. The founding actors of these disciplines in Romania, coming from different disciplines, have invested a field with multiple challenges, political, economic and intellectual ones. Interdependence relationships were established between the new political and administrative structures and the medias on the one hand and faculties and higher schools on the other12, which could provide them a constant public. Summarizing these stories of life and institutions, one is struck by the close association between the pursuit of excellence and the accumulation of international capital. The lack of recognition, highlighted, as discussed later, by the problems of continuity and transmission of the established scientific heritage, reinforces the dependence on the international movement. Renewal of generations: between circulation and reproduction Twenty years have passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall. To travel, young people do not have to face the same obstacles as their predecessors; visas have often been removed. The simplification of bureaucratic procedures does not seem to have encouraged greater mobility so far. Thus, students of the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences of Bucharest are described by their dean as highly mobile, particularly through the 24 Erasmus partners of this faculty, half of them in France or Belgium. But most students are not interested in going abroad; less than 20% participate in international mobility programs. Contacts and local networks, in Romania, have priority. In this faculty, students are mostly middle class; many of them work to pay for tuition. The signs of social success of the first promotions are often highlighted, quoting the positions held in Romania and abroad. At the same time, despite the integration appreciated in the international mobility circuits, shifts continue and have even accentuated. The assessment made by the Dean of the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences is severe: the scientific level is not one he would have liked; his department has managed to establish neither a European master degree nor doctoral degrees in joint supervision. The "intellectual products",
12
Faculties of political science and science communication exist in Bucharest at the University, as well as at the National School of Political Science and Administration (SNSPA), also State institution.
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the research works, circulate less than students, and the international visibility abroad remains low. A Germanist accademic shares the more general ascertainment of the students change in attitude in relation to mobility offers: unlike their counterparts in previous promotions, they have become more reticent and more selective. More reluctant because the financial conditions are discouraging, and they "do not want to appear as a pariah in front of their Western colleagues"; they understand the effort that is asked from them, for the short stays of one semester. The stay in a western university has lost the aura of heroism it had before. Students are also more selective; destinations are prioritized based on their reputation, on the existence or not of networks of compatriots able to assist in their integration (including to find work or settle for the long term). Student preferences for community networks are reducing their availability for scientific activity and move the internal borders abroad. At the same time, the interest of academics for international mobility opportunities weakens the constraints of everyday life have made them more homebodies. In general, the level of literary studies (Germanistic) is considered down: the best students, even if they received intensive training in foreign languages in high school, choose economics especially or law studies. The character of the "second best" of these studies is confirmed by the choice of the best students, for which studying letters is only a passageway to other studies and professions, where the degree in letters increases their chances of success. Faced with a demand for studies in foreign languages, departments have responded by simplifying the subjects taught in special sections, such as "Translation", thus forming technicians skilled in foreign languages for emigration. The decline of interest in international mobility could be explained by the reduction of the gap in scientific information, thanks to online journal subscriptions. If this improvement is real, it is so only in part because access to books is still problematic, and translations are considered very poor. For some, the shift increases on the contrary: universities did not benefit from the scheme of gratuities in their favour before EU integration, and the state and universities have invested too little to equip their libraries. The reproduction of high-level positions in higher education is doubly threatened by a lower level and by emigration. To limit losses, the university authorities have raised the performance standards, encouraged the proliferation of doctorates under joint supervision, which theoretically open opportunities to have a job abroad; foreign professors are invited in the examining boards to elevate the symbolic value of diplomas. But the downside is that the gap is increasing between the levels of different categories of students in the same faculty or the same department, which also raises the frustrations of those who consider themselves to be victims. The violent remarks run by students or former students on the discussion forums of universities websites, in the press or blogs, are the proof of it.
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Under these conditions, the specter of brain drain appears, paradoxically, less threatening. Foreign language students are unlikely to compete with the "natives" and make an academic career in a country that is not theirs. The study of foreign languages open a door to a "modest" emigration, with reconversion in activities without a direct link to the diplomas. The extension of the study trips to look for work abroad has no major risks in relation to the origin university, because it gives grace periods for these prodigal sons, who can stay a few years abroad before returning back to their studies. As one sociologist interviewed explained, the problem of "brain drain" does not arise immediately: "I confess I have emphasized the need to break out of isolation. I confess that I told my best students who have asked me at the end of their studies what they should do, to stay or go. Seeing how these programs function, I told them to leave, do a high quality masters degree or PhD studies. Before taking into consideration the question of brain drain, we must solve the question of getting out of the wrong area. I say this because in our field, the social sciences, does not put an emphasis on what apartment I live in, in what neighbourhood of Bucharest or on Wall Street, because you can collaborate very well. The problem is not if they stay in Romania or if they leave, the problem is if someone who studied in Romania continues to work in research networks abroad dealing with Romania." The extension of the scientific cooperation networks abroad, thanks in large part to the support of the Romanian diaspora is, on the contrary, a good sign. "I can appeal to my former PhD students who work abroad but keep an eye on what is happening here, and they'll give me a hand. Thus we can get out of methodological nationalism!" (Interview with D.S.)
From indetermination to the specialization in the international For their part, the international institutions established in the 1990s as "excellence centers" for top young researchers in humanities and social sciences have stabilized and are better recognized; their institutional capital has increased13. The CAS of Sofia has just moved its reception area has grown. The NEC of Bucharest has more support from the Romanian state; the regional and national character of funded projects has been strengthened. The linguistic dualism always separates the English and French lines, although many of their students with a scholarship master both languages: the recommended bibliographies like suggested itineraries highlight the differences throughout the route of high level students. The French branch, represented mainly by the French Doctoral School of Social Sciences from Bucharest University, supported by the
13
For the history and functioning of theses excellence centers in humanities and social sciences, see Gheorghiu, 2004.
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Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, seems to have cleared recently, while France remained the leading country destination abroad for Romanian students. The Collegium Budapest and Central Europe University are best placed to recruit PhD students and postdocs, constituting a hub between Berlin, Bucharest and Sofia on one side, top American universities on the other. The joint efforts of socialization of scientific elites deployed at Collegium Budapest in view of their transnational integration confirms that strategic position. The scholarship students know better today the procedures and the priority themes. They have "the culture of the 'grants' research" and benefit from the shared experience of older colleagues. For a part of them, the material conditions for this mobility are not similar with what could have been expected in the early 1990s. The amount of the scholarships is considered to be sufficient, in spite of the differences that persist between the major host institutions14. If family support is the most often required during the entire period of mobility, this is due to the short duration of scholarships and to their difficult sequence. The discontinuities of course, the uncertainties about the prospects of continuing the scientific activity, and especially the weak hope of career opportunities at the end are major differences compared to the previous situation. Their predecessors benefited from favourable circumstances, with internal and external mobilities better synchronized, that gave meaning to the general "opening". Today, with the closure inside, following the positions blocking in times of crisis, scholarships and trips abroad are best described as "valves" in order to avoid a dramatic situation or emigration. They prolong a state of indetermination to "stay in the loop", to have access to information, to keep contact with former colleagues, to avoid exclusion. The insecurity and the relative instability of this fraction, the youngest and most endowed with cultural capital of the new intellectual elite15 have increased in recent years. The uncertainty of the professional becoming, the addiction to
14
At Collegium Budapest, as at the NEC, the teams are composed of young researchers from 15 to 20 people present for periods of three to six months. The amount of the scholarships is significantly different between Budapest (1500 euros, net decreased to 1100 after removing housing costs and maintenance) and Bucharest and Sofia (600 euros, but the accommodation and maintenance are free). With 750 euros a month in Paris, 650 in Bucharest, the Doctoral Francophone School are proportionally lower, but cover longer periods of time (ten months per year for three years). The percentage of senior scholars is more important in Budapest, while in the group of scholarship researchers in Bucharest and Sofia, there are only young PhD students and postdocs, the seniors being invited occasionally for conferences. In Budapest, projects can last longer, from three to four years, but they are reserved for seniors who supervise young people. 15 It is through their international institutional careers that members of these excellence centers, selected on the basis of their research works, of their linguistic capital (knowledge of at least two foreign languages) and of their international experience, are distinguished from other categories of youth artistic and intellectual elite.
45
"projects" and to "grants", mainly through international structures, had as a main effect the strong subjective perception of "uprooting". They have strengthened the ties between the members of these cosmopolitan groups, who share the expatriation experience, the reclusive life in the " excellence centers", seminars as parties, and who have an interest in maintaining these ties to survive in the short and medium term while waiting for a turn that brings them stability and recognition. Given the low wages (recently reduced by 25 %) and the poor working conditions of the young researchers and academics in Romanian universities, the recruitment by a national university takes the meaning of a decommissioning from the previous position. The majority of C. C. colleagues, young researchers in the humanities and social sciences, have not returned to Romania, and those who have chosen to return have encountered major difficulties reintegrating. "Either they continue going back and forth without real hope of finding a suitable position, and fear especially the confinement in a Romanian university or the constrained reconversion to jobs in bank, or publishing houses. There are several who have remained undecided, 'one foot in Romania, one foot abroad', observing the changes of the situation ... " (Interview with C. C. ) The alternative for survival in the indeterminacy is the specialization in the "international" field. Positions were unfilled until recently in the diplomatic services, under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the institute specializes in international cultural exchanges (the Romanian Cultural Institute, ICR, organized according to the British Council model). The political renewal promoted by the "liberal democratic" and "liberal" governments, of the center-right, since 2004, has increased the chances of young intellectuals holding positions in these sectors16. For some, there were real professional reconversions; others extend the state of indetermination while waiting for better opportunities to convert their international capital.
16
We can quote the relevant examples of young ministers of foreign affaires of Romania since 2004: Mihai Razvan Ungureanu, historian specialized in Jewish studies, currently Prime Minister of Romania; Adrian Cioroianu, also a historian, former member of the executive committee of the liberal party, professor at the University of Bucharest; Teodor Baconsky, a current minister, studied theology, and is the former ambassador of Romania to the Vatican and France. Not yet Minister, Cristian Preda, professor of political science at the University of Bucharest, Doctor of the EHESS, is currently a member of the European Parliament from the ruling party (PDL) after being an adviser of the President in office, Traian Basescu, and was responsible for organizing the eleventh Francophone Summit in Bucharest in 2006. Among those interviewed, A.C.H. was Ambassador of Romania in Vienna, and C.C. had just been appointed Deputy Director of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Tel Aviv (a position cut shortly after the interview, following the austerity measures).
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Conclusion: mobility between opening and closure The mobility of academic elites in Romania, like in other former socialist countries, was ahead and prepared the political process of enlargement of the EU, facilitating the internal reforms, and repositioning the institutions and actors according to the new standards of excellence. Usually studied independently of the problem of emigration, student mobility is influenced by migration policies, and its effects should be considered in the long term, with the proper role of diasporas in the construction of national identity, the morphological changes of the university area or the individual strategies of appropriation and exploitation of international capital associated with periods of study abroad. For countries situated at the periphery of the European university system, such as Romania, the intensification and institutionalization of the international movement took as initial effects of differentiation and expansion of national academic space, a higher dependence of its institutions compared to those of different "centers" of the European system. Secondly, the internationalization of education has contributed to the professionalization of several new or renewed disciplines (political science, communication...) and to the specialization in activities related to international of a fraction of high level young researchers for which mobility was an opportunity for reconversion. Finally, it appears that the differences between "mobility" and "migration" tend to fade with the growing number of situations in-between migrant-mobile practices of round trips of the short and medium term as well as the transformation of emigration "lifestyle" for many families and communities. This equalization of condition is provided, however, at the expense of an increased precariousness insecurity and a weakening of trajectories and social ties, at a time of economic crisis and social closure.
REFERENCES
Bursan, I., (2009) Exchange Yourself. The Erasmus Programme and the multicultural mind : A European Dream. MA, Anthropology and Multicultural Studies, Faculty of European Studies, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj Napoca Garneau, S., (2007) Les expriences migratoires diffrencies dtudiants franais, Revue europenne des migrations internationales, vol. 23 - n1 | mis en ligne le 30 juin 2010, URL : http://remi.revues.org//index3731.html. Gheorghiu, M.D., (1998) La mobilit universitaire internationale, la formation et les reconversions des lites des pays ex-socialistes, in : Broady, D., De Saint Martin, M., Chmatko, N. (eds.) Formation des lites et culture transnationale, Centre de Sociologie de l'Education et de la Culture, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, SEC, ILU, Universit dUppsala, Centre de sociologie franco-russe, Moscou, pp. 297-318. Gheorghiu, M.D., (2004) Les centres dexcellence en sciences humaines et sociales et leur insertion dans les communauts scientifiques mergeantes en Europe de lEst, in Perspectives roumaines. Du postcommunisme lintgration europenne. Sous la
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Mihai Dinu Gheorghiu direction de Catherine Durandin, avec la collaboration de Magda Carneci, Paris, LHarmattan. pp. 139-162. Nastas, L., (2006) Itinerarii spre lumea savant. Tineri din spaiul romnesc la studii n strintate (1864-1944) [Itinraires vers le monde savant. Jeunes de lespace roumain aux tudes ltranger], Cluj -Napoca, Editura Limes. Wagner, V., (2007) Brain Drain oder Brain Circulation ? Eine explorative Fallstudie der Hochschulkooperation Al. I. Cuza University Iasi, Rumnien, und der Universitt Konstanz. Magisterarbeit, Konstanz.
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Subjective Perception of Risk, in Relation to Personality Factors

Carmen-Valentina POALELUNGI1, Corneliu-Eugen HAVRNEANU
Abstract This present research is aimed at examining the personality factors which predict risk perception in traffic, in a Romanian context. Also, the connection between risk perception in traffic and driving behavior, as well as the variables which predict the latter were analyzed. The study was carried out among 232 subjects, 119 of which were male, and 113 female. A questionnaire was composed of 76 items, divided into 5 subscales, was used in order to measure the independent variables (sensation seeking, normlessness, driving anger, altruism and anxiety). For the measurement of the dependent variables, we used a set of 30 traffic images on which the subject was asked to answer 5 questions.The overall results show anxiety as a predictor for risk perception; however it explains only 5% of the variance. As expected, risk perception and excitement prediction, in turn, had a percentage of 7.2% of the speed which subjects prefer to use. Based on previous studies, we expected other personality variables to explain risk perception and driving behavior. Also, because of the fairly low variance explained by the predictive model validated as significant, analysis were performed for each situation provided in the questionnaire, thus supporting the principle according to the participants in traffic who are strongly influenced in their actions by their mood and by the situational context. Consistent with previous studies, gender and age differences were shown to exist in regard to risk perception and driving behavior. Keywords: traffic, risk, sensation seeking, normlessness, driving, altruism, anxiety
Introduction Studying risk perception in traffic presents interest mostly because of the efforts of the specialists to diminish the number of traffic accidents. Increasing the responsability level of the drivers can be achieved through media awareness campaigns, or by educating future drivers still in training. Thus, relevant results in this field could help direct educational efforts in the case of beginner drivers, and/or conduct awareness campaigns regarding traffic safety which take into account that the messages need to be constructed in different ways, depending on the targeted subgroup. As shown in the existing literature in this field, young drivers are the ones most often involved in traffic accidents, compared to other age groups (Bjornskaug, 2000 and Summala, 1987). Also in previous research, it was shown
1
Alexandru Ioan-Cuza University, e-mail: carmenpoalelungi@yahoo.com
49
Carmen-Valentina Poalelungi and Corneliu Eugen Havrneanu
that young drivers tend to have riskier driving behavior than other drivers. For example, they are more likely to drive at high speeds, or very close to the vehicle in front of them, or conduct dangerous overtakings, compared to other drivers (Gregersen & Bjurulf, 1996). The main causes for these situations were considered to be a lack of abilities and experience, adding here the adolescents error of perception regarding their own ability to drive. This seems to happen, most likely, due to the fact that young drivers tend to underestimate risky situations in traffic (Brown & Groeger, 1988, Deery, 1999 cit. in Ullberg, 2002) and due to their predilection to consider themselves invulnerable in risk situations (Millstein, 1993). It is not very clear, however, if risk taking in traffic and involvement in accidents are determined by intentional behavior, lack of abilities, or both. Either way, according to the existing theory, the degree of involvement in accidents and the predilection of assuming risky behavior in traffic are corelated with certain personality traits. Among the personality traits that were associated frequently with a risky life style, a risky driving style and the frequency of involvement in accidents, are sensation seeking, social deviance, hostility, agression, impulsiveness, emotional liability, and a low level of altruism (Beirness, 1993; Elander, West & French, 1993; Jonah, 1997, Underwood, Chapman, Wright and Crundall, 1999; West & Hall, 1997 cit. in Ullberg, 2002). The studies which aimed at analyzing the role of individual differences in risk taking in traffic have targeted, generally, the individual contribution of these personality variables. There is, however, little reasearch which is centered on identifying the drivers who represent a high risk in traffic, by identifying the existing personality subtypes, based on the analysis of the combinations of certain personality variables. In 1999, Deery and Fildes identified 5 personality subtypes for young drivers, by applying personality and driving behavior measuring instruments. Two of these subtypes were considered high risk groups: the subjects reported risky driving behavior, a low traffic accident record, and negative attitudes toward traffic safety. These subgroups were characterized by a high level of sensation seeking, hostility, offensive tendencies, and traffic aggressions. One of the groups also presented a high level of depression and irritability as well as low scores for emotional balance. Aproximatly 80% of the subjects from the two subgroups were men. Donovan, Umlauf and Salzburg, in 1988 (cit. in Ullberg, 2002), found 3 such factors. One factor was characterized by high levels of impulsiveness, agression, sensation seeking and hostility. Another factor was characterized by hostility, depression and a low level of emotional balance. The third factor was characterized as well as adapted, which meant the subjects did not have high scores for any of the analyzed personality dimensions.
50
Subjective perception of risk
Wilson, 1991 described 4 existing factors, only one of these considered to be well adapted, the other ones being characterized by high levels of sensation seeking, hostility and iresponsability; or emotional instability - with a high level of hostility, but a low level of sensation seeking, or characterized by depression and personal problems. In his work in 2002, Ullberg describes the existence of 6 types of young drivers. The author took into consideration the analysis of 6 personality traits: sensation seeking, anxiety, agression, normlessness, altruism and driving anger. These were related to risk perception in traffic and self-reported driving behavior, with the goal of observing whether the population of young drivers is homogenous or formed by more subcategories of individuals characterized in different ways. Starting from this data, Machin and Sankey (2008a), analyzed the extent of the personality factors suggested by Ulleberg which predicted the perception of risk and driving behavior in; this only confirmed some of the previously presented data. Gender was also reported to be related to risky driving behavior, men tending to take more risks compared to women. It was considered that this tendency can be related to evolution, representing an adaptation to the requirements of the environment (Buss, 2004 cit. in Oltedal, Rundmo, 2006). Regarding driving behavior, gender differences were reported on different occasions. Yagil, 1998 (cit. in Oltedal, Rundmo, 2006) discovered male drivers are less motivated to respect the rules, especially young drivers. Whissell and Bigelow, 2003 (cit. in Oltedal, Rundmo, 2006) suggests, also, that accidents appear depending on gender. Moreover, risky driving represents a factor which influences accidents and deaths, especially among men (Vavrik, 1997 cit. in Oltedal, Rundmo, 2006). Rosenbloom and Wolf, 2002 (cit. in Oltedal, Rundmo, 2006) reported riskier methods used by men to overcome danger, compared to those used by women. Driving experience associated with a high accident risk rate seems to be, also, one of the variables which determines a significant difference regarding risk perception in traffic (Sumer, Unal and Birdal, 2007). Previous research shows that inexperienced drivers get worse results during the risk perception process, both regarding scanning the road, detecting potential risk factors but also regarding the efficient actions taken to avoid accidents (Deery, 1999; Grayson & Groeger, 2000 cit. in Sumer, Unal i Birdal, 2007). Falkmer i Gregersen, 2001(cit. in Sumer, Unal i Birdal, 2007) showed that beginner drivers tend to drive closer to the vehicle in front of them, than experienced drivers do. Beginners are more inefficient when it comes to observing risks at greater distances in traffic (Brown, 1982 cit. n Sumer, Unal i Birdal, 2007), they fail in controlling and verifying the sides of the road (McKnight & McKnight, 2003 cit. in Sumer, Unal & Birdal, 2007), center their attention on the irrelevant elements in traffic and cannot predict the actions of another driver so that they can avoid potential dangers (Bjornskau & Sagberg, 2005 cit. n Sumer, Unal & Birdal, 2007). So, to resume, we observe that there is theoretical and empirical data which supports the existence of personality factors in a more or less close relationship
51
with risk perception and driving behavior, one of the questions we can ask being to what extent can this data be confirmed in a Romanian context. The research directions in this field are centered, at present, on finding answers regarding: The determinants of risk perception in traffic the type of relationship existing between certain personality factors (such as anxiety, for example Shahar, 2009) and the perception of risk in traffic. Thus, the goal is reaching a consensis regarding the number of the factors, as well as the ways to characterize the groups of drivers which can represent an increased risk in traffic. The degree in which we can talk about certain personality types which could predict the perception or risk only in the case of young drivers or older drivers. The degree in which the perception of risk depends on the driving experience, drivers gender or his/her provenience. The existence of a causal relationship between the perception of risk and driving behavior. How and why the perception of the expert differs from the perception of the beginners. This research aims at establishing the personality factors which predict the perception of risk in traffic, in a Romanian context. Unlike previous research, this present study was conducted on a population of young drivers (less than 24 years old), but also on a population of drivers over 24 years of age, to see if differences are found regarding the way in which risk in traffic is perceived, depending on the age of the drivers. Also, the method of measuring the perception of risk is different, this research using real traffic images, unlike the self-reporting questionnaires used in most of the previous research. Scientifically, obtaining relevant data in this field would strenghten the perspective according to which the personality traits predict individual perceptions and the method of evaluation of the environment (McCrae & Costa, 1995 cit. in Ulleberg, 2002b), as previous research has showen (Matthews & Deary, 1998; Yagil, 2001 cit. in Ulleberg, 2002b). Also, it would contribute to existing information according to which personality traits can be put in relationship with traffic accidents but, until now, no limit has been drawn up to which we can discuss about the existence of this relationship (Elander, West and French, 1993 cit. in Gylfason, Thorisdottir, Peersen, 2004). The objective and the hypothesis of the research Starting from existing research, this present study aims at examining personality factors which predict perception of risk in traffic, in a Romanian context. Also, in this research, we are following the existing relationship between
52
perception of risk in traffic and driving behavior, as well as the variables which predict the latter. Thus, we can establish the following hypothesis: H1. Depending on the score obtained for each of the independent variables, there are personality factors which predict the degree of perception of risk in traffic differently. H2. There is a significant relationship between the perception of risk and driving behavior. H3. There are gender and age differences regarding the perception of risk and driving behavior. Method Investigated sample This research was conducted on 232 subjects, all of them having reported that they owned a driver licence. Of these, 88 subjects had driving experience of less than 10.000 km, 69 had a driving experience between 10.000 km and 50.000 km, and 75 subjects had more than 50.000 km behind the wheel. Around 40% of the subjects were 24 years of age or younger, while 60% were 25 and above. The sample had an almost even gender distribution, with 51% males and 49% females. Variables Independent Variables: sensation seeking, normlessness, driving anger, altruism, anxiety, gender, age, number of driven kilometers. Dependent Variables: perception of risk (measured through the score for the item: Estimate, on a scale from 1 to 5, how dangerous the presented situation is, as a whole), driving behavior (operationalized through the speed prefered by the subject in a certain context) Instruments Data were collected using two instruments. One instrument was used for the measurement of the independent variables. The questionaire was composed of a total of 76 items, divided into 5 subscales. The items were selected and adapted using already existing scales, according to: analysis of the statistical data we had acces to; the actuality of the items; the relevance for the context of the present research. 1. The subscale created for the measurement of sensation seeking, contains 20 items, taken from the AISS Jeffrey Arnetts Sensation Seeking Inventory, constructed in 1994. Ten of these items refer to the degree of novelty, and the other 10, to the degree of intensity, according to the
53
author, the two mentioned aspects are the main components of sensation seeking. For each item, the answer is offered on a Likert type scale, from 1 to 6, where 1 signifies strong disagreement, and 6 signifies strong agreement. The higher the score for this subscale, the more the person is inclined toward sensation seeking. 2. The subscale created for the measurement of normlessness, consists of 10 items selected from a number of existing scales: Kohn and Schoolers Scale, 1983 (Seeman, 1991); Deans Scale, 1961 (Seeman, 1991, pg 313); McClosky and Schaar, 1965 (Seeman, 1991, pg 321); Neal and Groat, 1974 (Seeman, 1991, pg 321-323). For each item, the answer is offered on a likert type scale, from 1 to 6, where 1 means strongly disagree and 6 signifies strong agreement. The higher the score to this subscale, the more likely it was for the person to breach the norms. 3. The subscale created for the measurement of driving anger, contains 18 items taken from DAS Traffic Anger Scale, constructed n 1994 by Deffenbacher, Oetting and Lynch (found in the study of O'Brien, Tay i Watson, 2002). The items are divided into 6 factors: lack of politeness in traffic (items 1-4), blocking traffic (items 5-7), hostile gestures in traffic (items 8-10), slow driving (items 11-13), police presence (items 14-16), breaking the norms in traffic (items 17-18). For each item, the answer is offered on a likert type scale, from 1 to 6, where 1 means very much anger, and 6 means very little anger. The lower the score obtained on this subscale, the more the person was inclined towards a higher degree of driving anger. 4. The subscale created for the measurement of altruism, contains 19 items, taken from SRA Self-reported Altruism Scale, constructed in 1981 by Rushton, Chrisjohn and Fekken. For each item, the answer is given on a likert type scale, from 1 to 6, where 1 means very rarely, and 6 means very often. The higher the score obtained for this subscale, the more the person was inclined toward altruism. 5. The subscale created for the measurement of anxiety, contains 9 items taken from the IPIP Scale The international Platform of Personality items (http://ipip.ori.org/ newNEOFacetsKey.htm). For each item, the answer is given on a likert type scale, from 1 to 6, where 1 means strong disagreement, and 6 strong agreement. The higher the score obtained for this subscale, the more the person was inclined toward a higher anxiety level. For the measurement of the dependent variables, a set of 30 images containing traffic situations was used. Based on each image, the subject was required to answer 5 questions: 1. Note on the answering sheet the elements which, in your opinion, can contribute to the production of an accident.
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2. Order the identified elements according to the probability that they represent the cause of an accident in a given situation (from the most dangerous, to the least dangerous). 3. Assess with a mark from 1 to 5, where 1 means very low risk and 5 means very high risk, how dangerous the situation is, as a whole. 4. What is the optimal speed which should be used in this situation, to avoid any danger? 5. What is the speed you would prefer to use in a situation like this? Question number 3 was used to operationalize the perception of risk, while question number 5 was used to operationalize driving behavior. The 30 images were selected from a number of 60 images, which were in turn extracted from an initial collection of 713 traffic photos, taken on the roads of Romania. The 60 images were selected according to: the wideness of the road (2 lanes / 2 lanes + emergency lane / 4 lanes), right turn (less dangerous, dangerous), left turn (less dangerous, dangerous), visibility (high front, to the right, to the left, low front, to the right, to the left), presence of intersections, presence of buildings to the left, presence of buildings to the right, presence of light poles to the left, presence of light poles to the right, presence of trees to the left, presence of trees to the right, vegetation to the left, vegetation to the right, type of traffic present (heavy traffic, cars, carts, bicycles, pedestrians, animals), presence of traffic in the same direction, presence of traffic from the opposite direction, crossing pedestrians (legal, illegal), heavy traffic, cars, carts, bicycles, pedestrians, animals stationing on the roadway in the same direction, heavy traffic, cars, carts, bicycles, pedestrians, animals stationed on the roadway in the opposite direction, presence of pedestrian crossings (with/without pedestrian traffic), presence of animals next to the roadway on the left, presence of animals next to the roadway on the right, luminosity (day, night), quality of the road (dry/humid), bumpy road, weather conditions (clear, cloudy, precipitations), presence of ditches/parapets on the left, presence of ditches/parapets on the right, presence of utilities (bus station/gas station/halt), presence of police. Subsequently, the 60 photos selected by the researchers were pre-tested by several experts, in order to fit different degrees of risk. Pre-testing resulted in the selection of 30 images depicting traffic situations, as shown in Table 1. Table 1: Pretest results Risk degree of the situation Very low risk, speeds over 100 km/h Low risk, speeds of 90-100 km/h Fairly risky, speed of 80 km/h Risky, speed of 60 km/h Very risky, speed of 40 Km/h Number of selected situations 2 4 6 13 6
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Procedure The research was conducted with the help of 40 students in psychology, as part of their reuirements for obteining research credits. Their task was to apply questionnaires on a sample of at least 5 subjects, identified and recruited by them according to the criterias given. The students were instructed regarding the instructions and the method of applying the questonnaire. They were offered a dead-line for the task, when the questionnaires were collected. Results statistical analysis and data interpretation A first examination of the data was done through the frequency analysis, the analysis of the missing values as well as the distributions of the scores, for each variable. The results showed that the independent variables, as well as the dependent variables, have a normal distribution, and that no missing values existed for any of the cases. Later, the Alpha-Crombach internal consistency coefficient was calculated for every questionnaire used. The only modification was done to the subscale measuring sensation seeking, where item number 2 was eliminated from the analysis in order to increase the value of the internal consistency coefficient. For the other subscales of the questionnaire, no modifications were needed, the values for the alpha cronbach coefficient being over 0.7, as is shown in table 2: Table 2. The value of the internal consistency coefficients
Dimensions 1. Sensation Seeking 2. Normlessness 3. Driving anger 4. Altruism 5. Anxiety initial 0.687 0.766 0.860 0.860 0.873 Number of Items 20 10 18 19 9 final 0.693 0.766 0.860 0.860 0.873 Number of items 19 10 18 19 9
Also, two factor analysis were conducted, for the questionnaire measuring sensation seeking and for the one measuring driving anger, to see the extent to which the conceptual delimitations we started from were being respected. It was observed that for measuring sensation seeking, the factor analysis shows the existence of 3 factors, instead of the two we had started with (novelty and intensity), which, together, explain 29% of the variance of the scores. Taking into account these results, for the following analysis, sensation seeking, only the total score was taken into account, without the deployment of the items into factors. For the questionnaire measuring driving anger, the exploratory factor analysis confirms the existency of only 5 factors instead of the 6 we had originally started with, traffic blocking being the factor that didnt show up as a stand -alone
56
factor. Together, the 5 factors explain 65.84% of the variance of the scores. Although the results confirm most of our expectations, the following analysis took into account the total score obtained for the driving anger subscale, giving up the division in factors because, as we shall see further, this variable does not appear to be a good predictor for the perception of risk and driving behavior in most situations. Results of the linear regression analysis. Table 3 presents correlations between variables included in the survey, variables which the regression analysis performed later were based on. In general, correlations between variables were low, which indicates that no multicoliniarity problems were present.
Table 3. Corelations between personality traits, risk perception and driving behavior
Dimensions 2. Number of kilometers 3. Risk perception 4. Speed with which should circulate 5. Speed with which subjects would prefer 6. Speed difference 7. Sensation seeking 8. Normlessness 9. Driving anger 10. Altruism 11. Anxiety 1 .377** .021 -.004 -.102 .205** -.388** -.153* .200** -.017 .080 2 1 -.094 -.012 -.032 .028 -.169* .047 .156* .134* -.190** 3 1 -.199** -.218** .045 -.040 -.085 -.022 .094 .232** 4 5
1 .739** .246** .037 .012 -.031 -.040 .022
1 -.472** .189** .090 -.098 -.011 -.019
Dimensions 7. Sensation seeking 8. Normlessness 9. Driving anger 10. Altruism 11. Anxiety
6 -.241** -.100 .098 -.043 .051
7 1 .270** -.267** .129* -.169**
8 1 -.294** -.024 .165*
10
1 .011 -.192**
1 .03
* p< 0.05, ** p< 0.001
Thus, multiple linear regression analysis was conducted, using the forward method. The results of the regression analysis, with the personality traits (Sensation seeking, normlessness, driving anger,altruism, anxiety) and demographic variables (age, number of kilometers) included as predictors for perception of risk in traffic are presented in the figure below: = 0.232** R2ajustated =0.050
Anxiety
Perception of risk
Figure 1. Risk perception prediction model, N=232, * p< 0.05, ** p< 0.001 We can see that the predictive model for the perception of risk in traffic contains only anxiety from all of the variables included in the analysis. Although the predictive model explains 5% of the scores variance for the 57
perception of risk, the obtained data supports the already existing empirical data and confirms the assumption that the perception of risk could be an intermediate variable between anxiety and driving behavior (Elander et al., 1993 cit. n Shahar, 2009). Figure 2 presents the results for the regression analysis with personality traits (sensation seeking, normlessness, driving anger, altruism, anxiety), the demographic variables (age, number of kilometers driven) and perception of risk, as predictors for the speed which should be used, speed which the subjects choose to use, and the difference between these two values :
= -0.19*
Perception Of risk
Speed which should be used
R2ajustated =0.035
Perception of risk Sensation seeking
= -0.210*
Speed which the subjects choose to use
R2ajustated =0.072
= 0.180*
Sensation seeking
=0.241**
Difference of the two
R2ajustat =0.054
Figure 2: Prediction models for the speed which should be used, speed the subjects choose to use and the difference between speeds, N=232, * p< 0.05, ** p< 0.001 We notice that the speed which should be used in traffic is explained at a rate of 3.5% by the perception of risk, the rest of the variance for the scores is not explained by any of the variables inserted into the model. So, the greater the perception of risk, the higher the tendency to be aware of the speed which should be used in traffic to avoid an accident. Still, a large part of the variance of the criterion variable remains unexplained. Also, the speed the subjects chose to use in traffic is explained at a rate of 7.2%, both by the perception of risk, as well as by sensation seeking, which suggests there is a tendency to accelerate, in spite of the perceived risk, when the subject obtains high scores for sensation seeking. The fact that sensation seeking represents one of the predictors for driving behavior (expressed through the speed the driver chooses to use) is according to the previous research (Machin and Sankey, 2008; Oltedal and Rundmo, 2006; Ulleberg 2002a, 2002b), however we
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would have expected for the prediction model to contain other variables as well, such as normlessness or driving anger, which were found to be, in previous research, good predictors for driving behavior. Figure 2 also shows that 5.4% of the variance of scores for the difference between speeds variable (speed which should be used and speed the subjects choose to use) is explained by the variance of the scores for sensation seeking. Although it seems counterintuitive, by applying one sample t-test to compare the average for the variable speed the subjects choose to use (52.47) and the variable speed which should be used (53.70), we obtained a significant difference, the average value for speed the subjects choose to use is significantly smaller than the average value for speed the subjects choose to use (t = 2.191, p = 0.029, N=223). So, keeping in mind the predictive model previously presented, we can indirectly state that the higher the score for sensation seeking is, the higher the score for speed the subjects choose to use is, thus lowering the score obtained for difference between the two speeds. Moreover, the t-test suggests that, overall, the subjects tend to be more cautious in traffic, prefering to drive at a lower speed than the one they believe appropriate in order to avoid any danger. At a deeper analysis, however, we notice that this precaution is a characteristic of women, significant results being obtained when using the t-test (Mspeed which should be used in traffic - women = 53.46; Mspeed women choose to use = 51.46; t=2.35, p=0.02, N=113), while, for men, the difference between the average value for the speed which should be used (M =53.93) and the average for the speed they choose to use (M =53.40) is not significant (t=0.711, p=0.478, N=119). Also, an analysis according to the subjects age categories shows that drivers over 24 years of age tend to be more cautious, significant differences between the average values for the two groups being obtained (Mspeed which subjects choose to use, age < 24 years= 53.67; Mspeed which subjects choose to use, age > 24 years = 51.83; t=2.63, p=0.009, N=140). Later on, a number of statistical analysis according to gender, age and driving experience (number of driven kilometers) were conducted, in order to see to what extent differences which are influenced by these variables appeared. Below you can find the results obtained for the multiple regression analysis, according to gender, to see the differences which appear in the prediction model. The results for the regression analysis with the personality traits ( sensation seeking, normlessness, driving anger, altruism, anxiety) and demographic variables (age, number of driven kilometers), as predictors for the perception of risk in traffic, according to gender, are presented briefly in Figure 3 and Figure 4:
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= 0.194* R2adjusted =0.029 Perception of risk Figure 3: Prediction model for the perception of risk, men N=119, * p< 0.05 Anxiety
Anxiety
= 0.243*
Figure 4: Prediction model for the perception of risk, women N=113, * p< 0.05 We can see that anxiety remains constant as a predictor for the perception of risk. In the case of women it explains a larger percentage of the variance for the scores obtained at the criterion variable (5,1%) than in the case of men (2,9%), and the prediction coefficient is, also, higher ( = 0.243*, for women, as opposed to = 0.194*, for men). The results for the regression analysis with personality traits (sensation seeking, normlessness, driving anger, altruism, anxiety), demographical variables (age, number of driven kilometers) and perception of risk, as predictors for the speed which the subjects choose to use, according to gender, is presented in the following figure:
Perception of risk Sensation seeking = 0.210*
Perception of risk
R2adjustated =0.051
Speed subjects choose to use
R2adjustated =0.072
= 0.180*
Figure 5: Prediction model for the speed the subjects choose to use, men N=119,* p< 0.05 What we must notice is that, for men, as well as for the subjects in general, driving behavior (expressed by speed the subjects choose to use) is explained at the same rate of 7.2% by the results for perception of risk and sensation seeking. At the same time, for women, the predictive model for speed the subjects choose to use, contains none of the variables introduced in the analysis. These differences could suggest that sensation seeking is, more likely, a variable which should be taken into account especially when we are dealing with male drivers, which is also suggested by previous empirical research, in which
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groups of subjects found to represent a higher risk in traffic and which were characterized, among other things, by a high score for sensation seeking, were, also, mainly male (Ulleberg 2002a, 2002b). Taking also into account the results obtained by the research of Rothengatter and Huguenin, 2004, who stated that a theoretical explanation model regarding the psychology of the participant in traffic, should take into account not only the social and cognitive processes, but also the mood of the drivers, as well as the contextual characteristics (Havrneanu, 2011). We conducted predictive analysis for risk perception and speed choice of subjects in traffic conditions, for every situation. Some of the data obtained can be found in the following table: Tabel 4: Prediction models for perception of risk and speed subjects choose to use, for every situation, N=232, * p< 0.05, ** p< 0.001
Situation 2 7 8 9 10 Criteria 1 = perception of risk predictors R2adjusted anxiety 0.172* 0.021 normlessness -0.145* Number of driven km. Age Number of driven km. Anxiety Altruism Sensation seeking Altruism anxiety Sensation seeking normlessness Driving anger -0.139* 0.164* -0.194* 0.124* 0.159* -0.143* 0.169* 0.196* 0.179* -0.149* 0.140* 0.024 0.024 0.015 Criteria 2 = speed subjects choose to use predictors R2adjusted Perception of risk Perception of risk Sensation seeking Perception of risk Sensation seeking Sensation seeking Perception of risk Sensation seeking Perception of risk Sensation seeking -0.177* -0.351** 0.147* -0.264** 0.170* 0.141* -0.208* 0.134* -0.375** 0.135* 0.058 0.027 0.133 0.098 0.016
11 13
0.050
0.016 -
22
0.044
Sensation seeking
0.248**
0.057
A first general discussion over the data indicates that, according to the context, other variables among those analized in the predictive models also appear, for perception of risk, as well as for speed the subjects choose to use. For instance, in situations numbers 2 and 22, presented below, the prediction model contains, beside anxiety, the variable normlessness (image 1) and the variable sensation seeking (image 2). As we can see, Picture 2 shows overtaking on continuous white line in good weather and light traffic conditions and Picture 22 shows driving on the opposite lane in order to avoid obstacles on the
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road.We notice that in both situations, the subject is driving on the opposite lane, in areas where such behavior is not permitted. Image 1 - PICTURE 2
Image 2 - PICTURE 22
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Image 3 shows a situation where pedestrians are present on the roadway, specifically on the opposite lane. In this stuation the variables which predict the perception of risk at a rate of 5%, are anxiety, altruism and sensation seeking. In images number 4 and 5, perception of risk is not predicted by any of the variables inserted in the prediction model. Picture 7 presents a situation of driving at night, with two pedestrians standing on the roadway. Picture 8 shows another situation of driving at night, with a number of cars parked on the first lane, decreasing visibility on the right side of the road. We notice that both images show nocturnal images of traffic situations, which can suggest that such contextual variables could have a greater influence in explaining perception of risk. Image 4 - PICTURE 7
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Image 5 - PICTURE 8
This can be supported by the situation in image 6, in which the variance of scores for perception of risk is explained at a rate of 2.4% by the variance of scores for altruism. Picture 13 shows a night-time image of an intersection, with a car crossing the road at an intersection in order to get on the opposite lane. Although it is also a nocturnal image, new contextual elements could explain the apparition of altruism in the prediction model. Another general observation regarding the prediction for perception of risk is that, situations arise in which the variable number of driven km is included in the predictive model, and its beta coefficients are negative, as we
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can notice in the table above, which suggests that perception of risk drops with the increase of the number of driven kilometers. This was also proposed by the explanatory model proposed by the theory of zero risk (Ntnen, Summala, 1976; Summala, 1997, cit. in Lewis-Evans) which states that, as drivers gain experience, they perceive the same situations as being less risky, because of the trust they gain in their own abilities to maintain control. Later on, we conducted a frequency analysis regarding the fashion in which the situations were categorized by the experts who pretested the images, and the way the subjects of this research categorized the situations. An 2= 21.415, p = 0.006 was obtained, which suggests the existence of significant differences regarding the categorization fashion. Thus, if the experts considered 13 of the situations as belonging to class 4, dangerous, and 5 of the situations as belonging to class 5, very dangerous, the subjects considered most of the situations as being in class 3 fairly dangerous. This difference could be one of the explanations for the results obtained. Conclusions, limits and future research directions Starting from already existing research in the field, this present study is aimed at examining the personality factors which predict the perception of risk in traffic, in a Romanian context. Also, the connection between perception of risk in traffic and driving behavior was analyzed, as well as the variables which predict the latter. We expected to find a significant connection between perception of risk and driving behavior, as well as gender and age differences regarding the perception of risk and driving behavior. It was noticed that, overall, anxiety is the only variable which was included in the prediction model, explaining 5% of the variance of scores for perception of risk. This data confirms the expected connection between personality traits and perception of risk, as it was previously shown in other research, which found an increase of perception of risk associated with anxiety (Elander et al., 1993 cit. in Shahar, 2009), perception of risk being, in turn, associated with the presence of risky driving behavior (Horwarth, 1988; Brown and Groeger, 1988 cit. in Shahar, 2009 An analysis conducted on gender showed that anxiety explains 5.1% of the variance for women, while for men it only explains 2.9%. The fairly small percentage explained is in agreement with the theory proposed by Rothengatter and Huguenin, 2004. They asserted that a theoretical explanatory model regarding the psychology of the participants in traffic should take into account at least one component regarding the mood of the driver and one which takes into account context, beside the components regarding the social and cognitive processes. In other words, the results can be connected to the fact that, beside the personality traits, the perception of risk and driving behavior are determined, to
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great extent, by the mood of the driver and the context of the action. If we take into account the differentiated results which we noticed during the analysis of every situation, we can add the fact that drivers with greater experience tend to perceive themselves as a lower risk, or at least to declare they do, something possible because of the manifestation of the illusion of control, which we know signifies the tendency of the individual to consider that he/she has more control over their own behavior or the environment, than they actually have (DeJoy, 1987 apud Parker & Manstead, 1996 cit. in Havrneanu, 2011). Gender differences were also found regarding caution in traffic, women prefer driving with significantly lower speeds than those they believe optimal for avoiding traffic accidents. This seems in agreement with the results of the prediction analysis conducted. Also, the speed chosen by subjects is explained at a rate of 7.2% both by the perception of risk, as well as by sensation seeking, which suggests there is a tendency to accelerate, in spite of the perceived risk, when the subject obtains a high score for sensation seeking. Previous research found, as well, sensation seeking to be one of the predictors for driving behavior (the speed the driver chooses to use) (Machin & Sankey, 2008; Oltedal and Rundmo, 2006; Ulleberg 2002a, 2002b), but we would have expected the prediction model to contain other variables as well, such as normlessness or driving anger, which were found in previous research to be good predictors for driving behavior. However, according to the data obtained, sensation seeking is, more likely, a variable which should be taken into account mostly when we are dealing with male drivers, which is also supported by previous research in which groups of subjects found to represent an increased risk in traffic were, also, mainly male (Ulleberg 2002a, 2002b). The obtained results can also be explained by the fact that, regarding the instrument used for the measurement of the dependent variable, the selected situations were chosen depending on the difficulty of the situation as established by the experts but, as weve shown, significant differences appeared compared to the way the subjects categorized the evaluated situations (the subjects considered most of the situations as being fairly dangerous category number 3). The fact that perception of risk was one of the predictors for speed choice of the subjects in some of the situations, suggests that as the perceived risk is higher, the speed with which subjects choose to drive drops. This result is in accordance with the results of Rolison and Scherman (2002), who proved that perception of risk is negatively correlated with the involvement of adolescents in risky behavior, which suggests that if the perceived risk grows, the chances for the individual to develop behavior complementary to that risk drop. The results obtained could have practical implications in both driving schools as well as in traffic safety campaigns. In driving schools, based on the model developed in this research, an instruction curriculum could be developed for the drivers,
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individualized according to the characteristics of the students, beginning drivers being, thus, treated differently, according to their specific personality traits. Proving there is a significant relationship between personality factors and the perception of risk, as well as establishing a connection between the perception of risk and driving behavior can have practical applications for selecting beginning drivers for thorough training sessions, according to their tendencies of driving in a risky fashion. Moreover, special awareness sessions, regarding the perception of risk in various traffic situations and the behavioral consequences of these perceptions, can be conceived. Also, programs containing images and short movies shot in traffic situations could be developed, thus helping the driver practice his/her ability to perceive risk, and become aware of the practical abilities they have. Future research could aim at the creation of a standardized instrument for practicing the ability to perceive risky situations, in specific contexts taken from traffic, as well as suggesting some efficient methods for increasing the awareness regarding the psychological threats to which the drivers could be subjected to, such as the illusion of control. Regarding the traffic safety campaigns, the characteristics of the target populations could be taken into account, so that the effects of the awareness increase regarding excessive speed, for instance, appear in the case of drivers who represent a real threat in traffic, and not simply increase the anxiety level of drivers who already have adequate behavior, because, as it was shown in previous studies, a too low or too high level of anxiety can have negative effects on driving behavior. In conclusion, this present research proves the existence of connections between personality traits and perception of risk, but, as in previous research, it fails to establish a very strong connection, permitting the finding of other variables which could predict the perception of risk or driving behavior, such as the number of hours of driving. However, this must not diminish the importance of personality factors regarding traffic safety. References
Arnett, J (1994) Sensation seeking: a new conceptualization and a new scale, Personality individual differences, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 289-296 Bjornskau, T. (2000) Road traffic risk in Norway, Oslo, Norway: Institute of Transport Economics. Deery, H., Fildes, B. (1999) Young novice driver subtypes: relationship to high-risk beahviour, traffic accident record, and simulator driving performance. The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 628-643. Gregersen, N. P., Bjurulf, P. (1996), Young novie drivers: towards a model of their accidents involvement, Accident Analysis and Prevention, no. 26, pp. 297-303. Gylfason, H.F.; Thorisdottir, R.; Peersen, M. (2004) Young drivers:research on the driving behaviourof men and women, The National Commissioner of Police, Division 4. Havrneanu, C.E. (2011) Evaluarea psihologic a conductorilor auto . Editura UAIC, Iai.
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Carmen-Valentina Poalelungi and Corneliu Eugen Havrneanu Lewis-Evans, B., Rothengatter, T (2009) Task difculty, risk, effort and comfort in a simulated driving taskimplications for Risk Allostasis Theory, Accident Analysis and Prevention, vol 41, pp. 1053-1063. Machin, M.A., Sankey, K.S. (2008a), Factors influencing young drivers risk perception and driving behavior, University of Southern Qeensland, Departament of Psychology, p. 20 Machin, M.A., Sankey, K.S. (2008b), Relationships between young drivers' personality characteristics, risk perceptions, and driving behaviour. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 40 (2). pp. 541-547 Millstein, S.G. (1993) Perceptual, attributional and affective processes in perceptions of vulnerability through the life span in Bell, N. J. & Bell, R. W. (eds.) Adolescent risk taking. London: Sage publications, pp. 55-65. Nayum, A. (2008), The Role of Personality and Attitudes in Predicting Risky Driving Behavior, University of Oslo, Master of Philosophy in Psychology, pp. 1-50; O'Brien, S; Tay, R.; Watson, B. (2002) An exploration of australian driving anger, Queensland University of Technology, pp. 306-312 Oltedal, S., Rundmo, T. (2006) The eects of personality and gender on risky driving behaviour and accident involvement. Safety Science Journal. no. 44, pp. 621-628. Rothengatter, T., Huguenin, R.D. Eds. (2004). Traffic and transport psychology: Theory and applications. Amsterdam, Elsevier. Rushton P. J., Chrisjohn, R.D., Fekken, G.C. (1981) The altruistic personality and the selfreport altruism scale, Personality and Individual Differences, vol. 2, pp. 293-302; Seeman, M. (1991) Alienation and Anomy in Robinson J., Shaver P., Wrightsman, L. (eds.) Measures of personality and social psychological attitudes vol. 1, pp. 291-366. Shahar, A. (2009), Self-reported driving behaviors as a function of trait anxiety, Accident Analysis and Prevention, vol. 41, pp. 241245; Sumer, N., Unal, A. B., Birdal, A. (2007) Assessment of hazard perception latencies using real life and animated traffic hazards: comparison of novice and experienced drivers, Proceedings of the Fourth International Driving Symposium on Human Factors in Driver Assesment, Training and Vehicle Design, pp. 488-494. Summala, H (1987) Young drivers accidents: risk taking or failure of skills?, Alcohol, drugs and driving, no. 2, pp. 79-91. Summala, H. (1987) Young driver accidents: risk taking or failure of skills? Alcohol Drugs and Driving, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 79-91. Ucel, E.B., Gunerergin, M., Cerit A.G. (2010) An empirical study of the relationship between normlessness, business ethics and social responsibility, African Journal of Business Management Vol. 4(18), pp. 3947-3956. Ulleberg, P (2002b) Influencing subgroups of young driversand their passengers. Motivational influences of personality traits on risk-taking attitudes and driving behaviour, Psykologisk institutt, pp. 1-239. Ulleberg, P. (2002a) Personality subtypes of young drivers. Relationship to risk-taking preferences, accident involvement, and response to a traffic safety campaign, Transportation Research Part F, no. 4, pp. 279-297. URL:http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/licensing/tests/driverqualificationtest/sensationseekingscal e/, Transport, Roads & Traffic Authoity.
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Subjective perception of risk URL:http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:pnPv2_YKPcJ:www.yorku.ca/rokada/psyctest/driving.pdf+Development+of+a+driving+an ger+scale&hl=ro&gl=ro URL: http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/html.cfm/index86974EN.html, Sensation Seeking Scale, Zuckerman, M. URL: http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Altruistic-Behaviour/87905 Wilson, R. J. (1991), Subtypes of DWIs and high risk drivers: implications for differential intervention, Alcohol, drugs and driving, no. 7, pp. 1-12.
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The Influence of Workload on Attention during the Driving Task

Alexandra Raluca JILAVU, Grigore HAVRNEANU1
Abstract: This experiment analyses the effect that mental and visual workload have on the driver. The aim of this experiment is to induce both mental and visual workload to the participants, while they are solving an attention test on the computer; the difficulty has been manipulated by combining two types of items. Thirty students at different colleges in Iai participated in this study. Their ages varied between 22 and 24 years old, they were all males and had little experience as drivers. Each participant had to go through all the experimental conditions: without workload, mental workload and visual workload. The results indicate that mental workload mitigates task performance at the attention test, while visual workload doesnt. These results reinforce those studies which suggest that there are no differences between hand-held cell phones and hands-free phones, concerning mental workload. Another finding is that mental workload is much more dangerous than visual workload, because it can lead to the appearance of the looked, but failed to see phenomenon. Keywords: mental workload; visual workload; attention test.
Introduction The number of new devices installed inside vehicles nowadays is rising continuously. This phenomenon has led to an increased probability that these devices would be used during driving. This represents a real problem for safety, because these devices compete with the driving task over the limited resources of the driver (Wickens, 2002). It has been estimated that 25-37% of accidents imply some form of distraction or inattention of the driver, although these numbers also include distractions that are not caused by in-vehicle devices (Sussman, Bishop, Madnick & Walter, 1985; Wang, Knipling & Goodman, 1996). Others, however, (e.g. Neale et al., 2005) state that inattention plays a very important, even decisive role in more than 78% of accidents. Also, the increased rates of car crashes have been associated with road sections containing a large number of commercial banners on the side of the road (Wallace, 2003). McEvoy, Stevenson & Woodward (2007) revealed that over 10% of a sample of 1367 drivers that were hospitalized because of a car crash reported that, at the time of the accident, they had
1
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University: grighav@yahoo.com
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Alexandra Raluca Jilavu and Grigore Havrneanu
been distracted by stimuli considered as irrelevant for the driving task. According to the load theory of selective attention (Lavie et al., 2004), when the driver experiences cognitive overload because of the surrounding environment, he or she would not be able to process stimuli that are relevant for the primary driving task. When drivers deal with too much information that cannot be processed, they experience workload. Workload is defined as the amount of resources processing information used in a unit of time in performing a task (de Waard, 1996; Wickens & Hollands, 2000). This notion is based on a conception derived from the theory of information, which states that man functions as a channel with limited capacity in transmitting and processing information. Overloading this channel, when the task is already complex and demanding, results in the emergence of errors, omissions or larger reaction times (The Great Psychology Larousse, 2006). There are two types of cognitive workload: visual and mental. (1) Visual workload appears when the drivers visual span contains more visual stimuli than the driver can process, while (2) mental workload is produced when the drivers cognitive resources are overloaded by the actions carried out by him. The studies carried out in order to discover the effects that visual workload has on drivers revealed that this particular type of workload leads to speed reduction (e.g. Antin et al., 1990; Curry, Hieatt & Wilde, 1975) and impairs peripheral detection (Olsson, 2000), as well as the capacity to detect critical events in traffic (Greenberg et al., 2003). Also, visual workload leads to a reduced lane keeping performance (Greenberg et al., 2003; Zwahlen, Adams & de Bald, 1988) and entropy of steering wheel movements (Boer, 2000). On the other hand, mental workload is consistent with an increased reaction time of the driver (Makishita & Matsunaga, 2008). Research by Recarte and Nunes (2003) showed that some mental workload inducing tasks, like word production and engaging in a complex conversation, led to the concentration of gaze towards the centre of the road. There have been many contradictions concerning lane keeping. Some studies show that mental workload impairs lane keeping performance (Strayer & Johnson, 2001), while others demonstrate that it has little or no influence (Horrey & Wickens, 2004) or that it actually increases lane keeping performance (Brookhuis, de Vries & de Ward, 1991). Like visual workload, mental workload also reduces the capacity of detecting critical events. One study shows that drivers are much more aware of the visual workload state than the mental workload one (Makishita & Matsunaga, 2008). Therefore, it can be stated that the mental workload phenomenon is much more dangerous and affects the driving task more than the visual
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The influence of workload on attention during the driving task
workload. The purpose of this experiment is to investigate the visual and mental workload phenomenon in order to establish which of these two types of workload has a greater impact on the driver, more precisely on the ability to drive safely.
Method Main goal Although cognitive overload has been widely explored in mainstream cognitive psychology, in traffic psychology the distinction between mental and visual workload is a new topic. It is only recently since the two are assumed to have potentially distinct effects on performance. Therefore, the aim of this experiment is to induce both mental and visual workload to the participants, while they are solving an attention test on the computer. The difficulty level has been manipulated by combining two types of items. Thus, we tested which of these two phenomena impairs the ability of driving safely to a greater extent. We expected that (1) the mental workload will decrease performance on the attention test to a higher degree than the visual workload, and that (2) attractive visual stimuli will deteriorate the performance on the attention test to a higher degree than the neutral visual stimuli. Participants The initial sample consisted of 33 male participants, aged between 22 and 24 years and with little driving experience, meaning that they drove less than 50.000 km. Our sample fits the high-risk group pattern mentioned by the literature: young inexperienced males. Three subjects did not pass the adaptation phase in order to be accepted in the testing phase. Thus, the final sample included 30 participants. Procedure The computer-based attention test The attention test used in this experiment was given to the participants on a laptop with a 10.1 inch display, 1366 x 768 screen resolution as well as an active speaker. The participants were placed at approximately 40 cm away from the screen. The attention test includes a combination of items belonging to Posners (1980) behavioral inhibition and attention mobility tests. Posner measured attention mobility through a series of items with a basic shape represented by a square with a fixation point (X) in the center of the screen. On each side of this fixation point, numbers and capital letters can appear. Participants must press the Caps Lock key only when a letter is shown on the left side of the fixation point. Similarly, the Enter key must be pressed when a number is displayed on the right side of the 73
fixation point. This means the item requires action only when (a) there is a letter on the left side of the fixation point and when (b) there is a number on the right side of the fixation point. The item is incorrect when (a) there is a number on the left side of the fixation point or (b) there is a letter on the right side of the fixation point (see the Appendix). In the last two situations no key should be pressed. Behavioral inhibition refers to the possibility of repressing certain behaviors or reactions. It was measured with a different type of item. This time, two uppercase letters that are or are not followed by a sound, appear inside a slot. Participants must press the Space key only when the letters are the same and are followed by a sound (see the Appendix). This is the only situation that requires action. Otherwise no key should be pressed. Experimental stages The experiment consisted in three stages: initiation, adaptation and testing. In the initiation phase, participants were shown the different types of items, as well as the way they should react to them. The adaptations goal is to let the subjects get familiar with the task by exercising on a set of sixteen demonstrative items. In order to get to the testing phase they must correctly solve at least eleven out of sixteen items. The first two items are not taken into account as they serve as practice for the subjects. The feedback regarding the participants performance appears at the end of the series of items. If a participant solves less than 11 items correctly, he is asked to repeat the adaptation phase, but within the limit of 3 trials. If the participant still does not succeed in adapting, he will not be included in the testing phase. The items pertaining to the attention mobility and behavioral inhibition test sections are presented at constant time intervals that only differ depending on item type. Specifically, the items belonging to the attention mobility test are presented at 3000 ms intervals, and those belonging to the behavioral inhibition test are presented at 2000 ms intervals. This situation only applies when the subject does not press any key. If a key is pressed, regardless of it being a correct or incorrect reaction, the next item automatically appears. The testing phase contains a set of 125 items that unroll at a time interval of 2000 ms for attention mobility items and 3000 ms for behavioral inhibition items. Following a counterbalancing method, each participant must solve the set of items three times, in different experimental conditions. The set of 125 items is the same in each condition, meaning that there are the same items placed in the same order. Experimental conditions In the control condition the participants' task was to solve the items according to the rules presented in the initiation phase, without giving them any type of workload (no workload). In the mental workload conditi on, participants were told to skip count by two, aloud, starting at 2, as fast and correct as possible, while solving the attention test. The speed at which the participants were counting was not considered as a variable in this study. They
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were asked to count as fast as they could in order to prevent them from concentrating on the primary task (the attention test) through a standardized mental task. In the visual workload condition, some items are accompanied by visual distracter stimuli, which have a circular shape and switch location on the screen from one item to the next. The attractive distracting stimuli are red, whilst the neutral ones are grey. The red color was chosen due to its significance for the drivers: most of the important traffic signs are red, such as the Stop sign, the traffic lights are red and so are the braking lights at the rear of the cars. The grey color was chosen because it could easily blend with the black background. Dependent measures The dependent measures analyzed in this experiment are: (1) the average total reaction time, (2) the average reaction time on the items measuring attention mobility, (3) the average reaction time on the items measuring attention mobility that were answered correctly, (4) the average reaction time on the items measuring attention mobility that were answered incorrectly, (5) the number of correct answers on the items measuring attention mobility, (6) the number of incorrect answers on the items measuring attention mobility, (7) the average reaction time on the items measuring behavioral inhibition, (8) the average reaction time on the items measuring behavioral inhibition that were solved correctly, (9) the average reaction time on the items measuring behavioral inhibition that were solved incorrectly, (10) the number of correct answers on the items measuring behavioral inhibition, (11) the number of incorrect answers on the items measuring behavioral inhibition, (12) the average reaction time on the items accompanied by attractive distracting visual stimuli and (13) the average reaction time on the items accompanied by neutral distracting visual stimuli.
Results SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) v. 17.0 was used in the statistical analysis of data. Considering the fact that the measurements were withinsubjects, the Paired-Sample T Test was used in order to see how the participants performance varies through the conditions.
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Table 1: Comparison between the average total reaction time from the three experimental conditions.
Source no workload visual workload no workload mental workload visual workload mental workload *p<.05 Mean 695.75 685.46 695.75 918 685.46 918 SD 119.06 92.88 119.06 129.16 92.88 129.16 t 0.662 -9.345* -10.944* df 29 29 29
Figure 1: Comparison between the average total reaction time from the three experimental conditions.
Concerning the total reaction time, the only significant differences were those between the mental workload and the other experimental conditions. More precisely, the average total reaction time was significantly higher in the mental workload condition than in the other two conditions.
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Table 2: Comparison between the average reaction time on the items measuring attention mobility from the three experimental conditions.
Source no workload visual workload no workload mental workload visual workload mental workload *p<.05 Mean 692.07 678.73 692.07 947.81 678.73 947.81 SD 137.23 109.03 137.23 143.20 109.03 143.20 t 0.730 -9.612* -11.349* df 29 29 29
Figure 2: Comparison between the average reaction time on the items measuring attention mobility from the three experimental conditions.
When we compared the average reaction time on the items measuring attention mobility, we found significant differences between the two types of workload and between the mental workload and no workload. The average reaction time on the items measuring the attention mobility from the mental workload condition is significantly larger than those from the other two conditions. These differences emerge when it comes to both correctly and incorrectly solved items. When it comes to the number of errors, the ones from the mental workload condition are significantly more frequent than the ones from the visual workload condition [t(29) = 5.403; p < .05], as well as from those in the without workload condition [t(29) = 4.215; p < .05].
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Alexandra Raluca Jilavu and Grigore Havrneanu Table 3. Comparison between the average reaction time on the items inhibition from the three experimental conditions. Source Mean SD 703.12 120.17 no workload visual workload 698.92 108.98 703.12 120.17 no workload mental workload 858.40 127.95 698.92 108.98 visual workload mental workload 858.40 127.95 *p<.05 measuring behavioral t 0,311 -6.641* -7.188* df 29 29 29
Figure 3. Comparison between the average reaction time on the items measuring behavioral inhibition from the three experimental conditions.
When comparing the average reaction time on the items measuring behavioral inhibition, significant differences were found between the mental workload condition and the other two experimental conditions, namely visual workload and no workload. Specifically, the average reaction time on the items measuring behavioral inhibition is significantly larger in the mental workload condition than in the other two conditions. Also, these differences emerge when it comes to both correctly and incorrectly solved items. Moreover, in what the number of errors is concerned, the ones from the mental workload condition are significantly more frequent than the ones from the visual workload condition [t(29) = 7.367; p < .05] and from the ones in the without workload condition [t(29) = 6.633; p < .05].
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Table 4: Comparison between the average reaction time on the items accompanied by attractive distracting visual stimuli and the average reaction time on the items accompanied by neutral distracting visual stimuli.
Source attractive stimuli neutral stimuli *p<.05 Mean 429.45 388.64 SD 61.56 53.06 t 7.840* df 29
It emerges that the average reaction time on the items accompanied by attractive distracting visual stimuli is significantly bigger than the one obtained on the items accompanied by neutral distracting visual stimuli. Generally, the data reveals that the performances obtained by participants in the no workload and visual workload conditions are not statistically different. This means that the distracting visual stimuli did not deteriorate the participants results in a significant way. However, when comparing the average reaction times on the items with attractive distracting visual stimuli with those on the items with neutral distracting visual stimuli, it turned out that participants ability to respond correctly and quickly was considerably diminished by the attractive distracting visual stimuli. The values obtained in the mental workload condition differ in a significant way from those obtained in the other two conditions. This means that the participants performance is considerably diminished when they experience mental workload, unlike visual workload or lack of workload. Discussion The results of the experiment support the first hypothesis, the one that stated that a mental workload deteriorates the attention test performance in a greater extent compared to a visual workload. Our data suggests that a mental workload has powerful and significant effects on driving performance, in the sense that the participants reaction times and correct answers were considerably diminished compared to the other two experimental conditions. On the other hand, the visual workload did not provoke a similar effect. On the contrary, the average reaction times obtained in the visual workload condition were smaller than the ones in the no workload condition. This phenomenon can be due to the fact that the participants got used to the task and therefore improved their performance. This may also mean that the visual stimuli did not distract the participants attention and thus did not fulfill the purpose for which they were introduced. Considering this conclusion, it can be stated that a visual workload does not have a powerful impact
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on attention or that the distracting visual stimuli used were not able to have a significant effect. Although it seems like the distracting visual stimuli did not have a strong impact on the participants, the reaction times on the attractive visual stimuli were significantly larger compared to the neutral visual stimuli. Therefore, the deterioration of the performance from the attention test does not appear between conditions, but within the same (i.e. visual) condition. All of this considered, it cannot be stated that the difference in the reaction times obtained at the red stimuli and the grey stimuli is due to the fact that the participants perceived the red stimuli as more attractive than the grey ones. One should also consider that the stimuli selected for both workload conditions constitute only a small range of possibilities. The outcome could have been different if the visual stimuli had other characteristics (e.g. ego-threatening, more salient etc.). The most important practical implication of these results is that they indirectly reinforce those researches that have discovered that there are no differences between mobile phones and hands free devices in what concerns a mental workload (e.g. Alm & Nilsson, 1995; Consiglio et al., 2003; Lamble et al., 1999; Trnros & Bolling, 2005, 2006). Although using hands free while driving is permitted by law, these devices are as prejudicial as mobile phones because they induce a mental workload. Another practical implication of this research is that a mental workload is much more dangerous than a visual workload. This conclusion is not shared by most drivers because they tend to consider that they can observe potential threats and act in order to avoid them as long as they keep their eyes on the road. In spite of these beliefs, the results of this experiment show that the state of ones mental workload has a significant negative impact on attention. It may be the cause of the looked-but-failed-to-see phenomenon. One should be aware that the attention test used represents a simulation of the mental and visual workload phenomena, without any certainty that they develop in exactly the same way in real life. The same thing can be said about the concepts of attention mobility and behavioral inhibition, measured by Posner (1980) and transposed into the two types of items introduced into the attention test. In addition, the number of participants who took part in this experiment is relatively small. Although we tried to control the variables that could have interfered with our results, it is possible that some of the participants had more experience in typing and therefore they would have found the useful keys more quickly in order to react to the items, thus obtaining shorter reaction times. Also, there is a chance that certain participants were more familiarized with the size and the shape of the laptop that we used in this experiment. Another possible issue is that the induction of the mental workload state depended on the participants mathematical abilities, namely on the ability to operate with numbers. It is possible that some of the subjects obtained a smaller reaction time due to their ability to operate with numbers easier and faster than others. Besides, there can be additional confounding variables that may explain the differences observed in the results.
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As far as further research is concerned, this experiment could be improved by introducing more relevant distracting visual stimuli that would probably lead to the appearance of significant effects. Appendix
A
X X
Two examples of correct attention mobility items. In the first case the left key must be pressed. In the second case the participant must press the right key.
Two examples of incorrect attention mobility items (no key should be pressed).
Example of correct behavioral inhibition item (the space key must de pressed).
K
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Example of incorrect behavioral inhibition item (no key should be pressed).
Example of incorrect behavioral inhibition item (no key should be pressed).
Example of incorrect behavioral inhibition item (no key should be pressed). References
Alm, H., Nilsson, L., 1995. The effects of a mobile telephone task on subject behaviour in a car following situation. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 27 (5), 707-715. Antin, J.F., Dingus, T.A., Hulse, M.C., Wierwille, W. (1990). An evaluation of the effectiveness of an automobile moving-map navigation display. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 33, 581-594. Bloch, H., Chemama, R., Depret, ., Gallo, A., Leconte, P., Le Ny, J-F., Postel, J., Reuchlin, M. (2006). The Great Psychology Larousse. Ed. Trei, Bucharest. Boer, E. (2000). Behavioural entropy as an index of workload. In Proceedings of the IEA 2000/HFES 2000 congress. Brookhuis, K.A., de Vries, G., de Ward, D. (1991). The effects of mobile telephoning on driving performance. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 23 (4), 309-316. Consiglio, W., Driscoll, P., Witte, M., Berg, W.P., 2003. Effect of cellular telephone conversations and other potential interference on reaction time in a braking response. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 35 (4), 495-500. Curry, G.A., Hieatt, D.J., Wilde, G. (1975). Task load in the motor vehicle operator: A comparative study of assessment procedures. Ottawa, Ontario: Ministry of Transport, Road and Motor Vehicle Traffic Safety Branch. De Waard, D., 1996. The measurement of drivers mental workload. Ph.D. Thesis. University of Groningen, Traffic Research Centre, Haren, The Netherlands. Greenberg, J., Tijerina, L., Curry, R., Artz, B., Cathey, L., Grant, P. (2003). Evaluation of driver distraction using an event detection paradigm. Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 1843, 1-9.
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The influence of workload on attention during the driving task Horrey, W.J., Wickens, C.D. (2004). The impact of cell phone conversations on driving: A meta-analytic approach (Technical Report AHFD-04-2/GM-04-1). General Motors Cooperation, Warren, MI. Lamble, D., Kauranen, T., Laakso, M., Summala, H., 1999. Cognitive load and detection thresholds in car following situations: safety implications for using mobile (cellular) telephones while driving. Accident Analysis and Prevention 31 (6), 617-623. Lavie, N., Hirst, A., de Fockert, J.W., Viding, E., 2004. Load theory of selective attention and cognitive control. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133 (3), 339-354. Makishita, H., Matsunaga, K., 2008. Differences of drivers reaction times according to age and mental workload. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 40, 567-575. McEvoy, S. P., Stevenson, M. R., & Woodward, M. (2007). The prevalence of, and factors associated with, serious crashes involving a distracting activity. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 39, 475482. Neale, V.L., Dingus, T.A., Klauer, G.S., Sudweeks, J., Goodman, M., 2005. An overview of the 100-Car naturalistic study and findings. DOT HS Publication 05-0400. NHTSA. Olsson, S. (2000). Measuring driver visual distraction with a peripheral detection task. Master thesis, ISRN LIU-KOGVET-D-0031-SE. Linkping University, Department of Behavioural Science/ Volvo Technology AB. Recarte, M.A., Nunes, L.M. (2003). Mental workload while driving: Effects on visual search, discrimination and decision making. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 9 (2) Strayer, D.L., Johnston, W.A. (2001). Driven to distraction: Dual tasks of simulated driving and conversing on a cellular phone. Psychological Science, 12 (6), 462-466. Sussman, E. D., Bishop, H., Madnick, B., & Walter, R. (1985). Driver inattention and highway safety. Transportation Research Record, 1047, 4048. Tornros, J., Bolling, A., 2005. Mobile phone use effects of handheld and handsfree phones on driving performance. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 37, 902-909. Tornros, J., Bolling, A., 2006. Mobile phone use effects of conversation on mental workload and driving speed in rural and urban environments. Transportation Research Part F 9 (4), 298-306. Wallace, B. (2003). Driver distraction by advertising: Genuine risk or urban myth? Proceedings of the Institution of Civil EngineersMunicipal Engineer, 156, 185190. Wang, J.-S., Knipling, R. R., & Goodman, M. J. (1996). The role of driver inattention in crashes: New statistics from the 1995 Crashworthiness Data System. 40th Annual Proceedings of the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine, 377392. Wickens, C.D., Hollands, J.G., 2000. Engineering Psychology and Human Performance, third ed. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Wickens, C. D. (2002). Multiple resources and performance prediction. Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science, 3, 159177. Zwahlen, H.T., Adams, C.C., de Bald, D.P. (1988). Safety aspects of CRT touch panel controls in automobiles. In A.G. Gale et al. (Eds), Vision in vehicles II (pp. 335-344). The Netherlands: North Holland.
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The Relationship between Creativity and Preferred Style of Approaching Conflict Following Procedural Unfairness
Ana Maria HOJBOT1, Paula Andreea PASCU2
Abstract: The authors investigated the relationships between creative thinking abilities, assessed with The Battery of Tests for Creative Thinking (Ana Stoica-Constantin, Mariana Caluschi, 2005), measuring fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration, sensitivity to problems, and the personal style of managing conflict, evaluated with Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Instrument Mode (1977), following unfair treatment; emotional stability was also measured using the neuroticism scale from the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (1975). The sample of 240 teenagers was divided into a control group and an experimental group; in the experimental condition, procedural unfairness was manipulated through a situation in which participants were subjected to an unannounced evaluation and exposed to negative comparison to a reference out-group. The results revealed that in controlled conditions, highly creative subjects preferred less competitive responses, compared with low-creative subjects; on the other hand, in the experimental condition, after being exposed to the frustrating, unjust situation, the subjects showing higher levels of creative thinking were inclined to equally competitive strategies as their less creative counterparts. Key words: creativity, style of approaching conflict, perceived unfairness.
The problem Our empirical study approaches the relationship between creativity and conflict styles, as psychological processes of primary epistemic interest. We tested the hypothesis that the level of the most important creative thinking factors may play a role in the way in which people adjust their self-perceived degree of cooperativeness in procedurally unfair, frustrating and self-threatening situations. In order to achieve this, we combined the individual differences and experimental approach, in an attempt to verify if interpersonal orientation in conflict differed after unfair interventions, in both creative and less creative participants. In the first part of this article, we discuss the nature of the association between interpersonal conflict and creativity analyzed from the perspective of the process and person, by discussing a series of hypotheses derived directly or indirectly from the empirical studies and concurrent theoretical models. The intersection of the two multifaceted concepts can be a fertile and interesting area of study. The integration of previous theorizing efforts and the existing empirical attempts to tap into this
Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iasi, Romania; e-mail: a_hojbota@yahoo.com 2 Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania
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Ana Maria Hojbot and Paula Andreea Pascu
zone, mainly done indirectly, may have multiple theoretical and applicative benefits. Up to this moment, the relationship between creativity - defined either in terms of processes, products or psychological characteristics of creative persons -, and the antecedents, behaviors and consequences associated with conflict situations, has been scarcely formulated into comprehensive theoretical reviews in the literature and with an emphasis on the understanding of conflict (to cite some of the existing work: Fryer, 1998; Gruber, 2000; Hojbot & Constantin, in press); for instance, both Fryers and Grubers integrative models are published in volumes dedicated to the topic of conflicts and conflict resolution. What is the impact of conflicts on creativity? Recent literature tends to emphasize the idea that divergent thinking and, more broadly, creativity is sensitive to contextual factors. Conflict is one of the factors that recently have received much attention. Researchers have been mostly curious and busy with finding out what beneficial influences of conflicts on the mindsets and creative outputs of individuals are and, more recently and with a greater interest for practitioners, of groups. While psychoanalysts considered conflict, especially inner conflicts (Freud, 1910), but also those located in the social environment (Rank, 1932), as the primary source of the need for self-expression and differentiation, more recent models consider the tension between the old and the new as inherent to the definition of creative acts (Sternberg & Lubart, 1995). Recent data offer interesting, but sometimes conflicting results, suggesting a wide range of mediating variables that should be taken into account when analyzing the subject. For instance, some studies suggest that conflict positively influences creative performance in individuals and teams, but only if they are restricted to task-related issues (clarifying goals, negotiating solutions, planning, implementation of solution), not spilling-over from the relational domain (Beersma & De Dreu 2005; Jehn, 1995; Nemeth, Personnaz, Personnaz, & Goncalo, 2004; Oldham & Cummings, 1996; Pelled, 1996; Postmes, Spears, & Cihangir, 2001; Shalley, Zhou, & Oldham, 2004; Tjosvold, 1985; West, 2002). The negative affect embedded in relational conflicts is suspected to invade and debilitate the motivation and efficiency of groups. Some researchers interpret these results through the lenses of social influence, suspecting that disagreements reduce the risks of conformity (De Dreu & West, 2001; Sheldon, 1995, 1999). In the same time, a high level of inquisitiveness and epistemic motivation allows negotiators to be less biased and in the same time, more creative (De Dreu & Carnevale, 2003). On the other hand, a series of studies have uncovered the side effects of conflicts or mediated influences on mindsets and efficiency of processing. Bar-Tal, Kruglanski, and Klar (1989) depicts that conflict situations induce informational fixedness, reducing the thoughtfulness of the parts, freezing their epistemic explorations and keeping them in the conflict schema. Also, Carnevale and Probst (1998) showed that competitive mental sets lead to rigidity, reduced the complexity and novelty of ideas; in contrast, the same study
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The relationship between creativity and style of approaching conflict
states that subjects in cooperative situations tend to prefer integrative solutions. However, a meta-analysis on the topic (Hulsheger, Anderson, & Salgado, 2009) suggests that the results of the studies on the relationship between conflict and creativity are mainly inconclusive. A related issue concerning the relationship between affectivity and creativity, has generated various theoretical conceptualizations and intensive empirical approaches (as illustrated in Averill, 2005; De Dreu, Baas, & Nijstad, 2008; Kaufmann, 2003). If research on mood and creativity initially insisted on the benefits of positive affectivity on finding divergent solutions (Isen, 1987), some studies suggest that not only positive, but also negative moods sometimes promote superior creative expression (Gasper, 2003; Mraz & Runco, 1994; Verhaegen, Joorman & Kahn, 2005). Other investigations suggest that creative achievers tend to manifest difficulties in down-regulating negative affect and may even suffer from chronic affective disorders (Andreasen, 1987; Jamison, 1989; Ludwig, 1992; Richards, 1993; Schuldberg, 2001). Or, conflicts are usually infused with negative affect, stemming from the divergence of representations, beliefs and expectations and the acknowledgment that these incompatibilities already are or may be translated into interpersonal frictions, ranging from diffused tensions to overt hostility. And inversely, does creativity influence conflicts? Correlational studies relating conflict and creative traits or products suggest that highly creative individuals tend to exhibit low agreeableness: they are independent, dominant, arrogant, hostile, self-sufficient and impulsive (Feist, 1998, 1999; Hall & MacKinnon, 1969; Hammer, 1984). Kennon Sheldon develops that idea in the following explanation: In order to develop and market their new ideas, individuals must often be willing to diverge strongly from group norms and accepted behavior, risking alienation and potentially drawing the groups wrath (Sheldon, 1999, pp. 342-343). Another group of studies suggests another way to interpret the relationship between creativity and conflict, speculating on a more dark side of creativity that extends beyond the intrapersonal domain to moral behavior and manifests mainly in conflict situations (Sternberg, 2010). This side is reflected in the tendency towards dishonesty, since creative individuals are presumably better at finding adhoc justifications for unethical acts; they can easily extract and connect data in a manner in which less creative people are not accustomed to (Ayal & Gino, 2011; Gino & Ariely, 2011; Gino, Ayal, & Ariely, 2009; Mazar, Amir, & Ariely, 2008). The complicated relationship between creativity and conflict may also reside in the age, experience and social competences of the actors. In an interesting experimental design described in Gruber (2000), the author attempted to compare the patterns of collaboration between groups of adults and adolescents in generating syntheses of different points of view, by giving each member of dyads a different image that represented the projections of the same object on a wall. The task was inspired by Platos Myth of the Cave and was given with three types of
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instructions: (1) in the cooperative condition, subjects were encouraged to work together, as their performance would be evaluated as a whole; (2) in the individualistic conditions, subjects were instructed to share the necessary information and then work on their own, and (3) in the neutral condition, subjects werent given any instructions. The research indicated that adults te nd to be cooperative in all experimental conditions, suggesting that these kinds of situations naturally evoke cooperation; the results suggests that adolescents tend to focus on their own viewpoint, less attentive to the suggestions and ideas of their partners and have more rigid approaches. The empirical results converge towards the conclusion that adolescence and adulthood differ in the experiences and skills that may help creative synthesis through problem solving. Moral socialization and development are still not fully attained, perspective taking, empathy and social problem solving may be still lacking depth. Although some researchers show that it increases along with age (Eisenberg & Fabes, 1991), in adolescence, social value orientation is not entirely developed into a dominant style, either prosocial, individualistic, or competitive.
The present research The goal of this study was to determine if threatening the self through collective negative appraisals influences the momentary attitudes in conflict, in a 2 X 2 quasi-experimental design (creative thinking scores - low vs. high, and frustration vs. control group). We chose to explore this relation on adolescent participants, whom we suspected that, in comparison to adults, would be less biased by expertise, experience with social interactions and a stable preference for certain styles of interpersonal negotiation. We suspect adolescents to be less equipped for cooperation and constructive resolution of conflict situations. They own less crystallized preferences and styles of behaving in conflict situations, and also, may be less sensitive to organizational or broader cultural norms that value specific responses to conflict. Our hypothesis was the following: creative subjects who encountered an unfair situation would show less collaborative conflict-related behaviors and prefer more competitive responses; we did not expect this pattern in the case of their less creative counterparts. In other words, we expected more variability in the responses of the more creative group in comparison to the less creative across the two conditions. Experienced conflict and induced frustration would influence the selfreported reactions in conflict situations. In line with the conclusions of the studies described in the first part of the article, we hypothesized that creative individuals should prefer actions that would restore their sense of self-affirmation and autonomy over other potentially rewarding experiences, such as those pertaining to affiliation motives. Mistreatment manifested as inferiority inter-group comparisons and perceived procedural unfairness is expected to influence the self-reported
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reactions to conflict situations, as it affects individuals self -worth (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) and typically induces frustration (Tiedens & Leach, 2004) or other reactive affective experiences, such as righteous emotions (e.g. righteous anger or indignation, described by Rozin, Lowery, Imada & Haidt, 1999), anger or Schadenfreude, emotions that are seen as a specific form of psychological negotiations of inter-group relations (Leach & Spears, 2008).
Method Participants. The participants consisted of 240 high-school students aged between 16 and 19, 150 of them female (62.5%). The subjects participated in the study during their school hours, in groups of 20 to 30. Materials Creative potential measures. Creativity was assessed with the Creative thinking tests battery (Ana Stoica-Constantin & Mariana Caluschi, 2005), comprised of five tasks that measure fluency, flexibility, originality, problem sensitivity and elaboration. Due to time limitations, there were only 3 tasks used in this research, the unusual uses tasks (named The cane), the invention task (named The club of ingenious people) and the drawing task (The semi-discus). The tasks were timed, measured by means of paper-and-pencil, and provided the following five types of scores: fluency (the number of ideas or solutions generated), flexibility (the different numbers of categories generated or types of ideas or solutions), originality (the number of unique ideas or solutions or statistical infrequency of the responses), elaboration (the extent to which details were used in the task resolution, revealing rich perceptual and representational resources) and sensitivity to problems (the tendency to discover creative problems, to spontaneously observe the imperfections, limitations in different situations and be able to come up with ideas of how to improve them). An overall creativity score was subtracted from all these measures. The battery provides a standardized operational definition of creativity (i.e. fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration, and sensitivity to problems), allowing for the creative process to be assessed as a research variable3.
3
Psychometric qualities of the creative thinking battery: the inter-rater reliability, tested with experts, suggested that the scale is appropriate for assessing creative potential. Reliability reflected by internal homogeneity, the inter-correlations between the factors measured by the battery indicated high associations between flexibility and fluency on the one hand, and flexibility and originality, on the other; smaller correlations were observed between fluency and originality. Test-retest reliability showed satisfactory levels, the values exceeding .80 for the fluency and flexibility measures, and .70 for originality and
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Neuroticism. The participants completed the Neuroticism scale form the Eysenck Personality Inventory - EPI (Eysenck, 1975, adapted on Romanian population by Gulian and Andriescu, 1975). The scale measures general emotional reactivity and a tendency towards emotional exhaustion, with 24 items on a dichotomous (Yes/No) response scale. The reason we included this scale in the study is the fact we expected neurotics to respond in a contentious, more abrasive manner in conflict situations. Conflict styles. In a second session, participants were administered the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI, 1977). TKI is built on Blake and Moutons Managerial Grid (1964) and measures the typical behavior or preferences of individuals in conflict situations, on two dimensions: assertiveness the degree to which the person searches to satisfy their own interests and cooperation the disposition of the individual towards meeting the other persons concerns. The intersection of the two coordinates generates five specific methods or styles of approaching conflict, paralleling those of Blake and Mouton: competing (low cooperativeness, high assertiveness), collaborating (high cooperativeness, high assertiveness), avoiding (low assertiveness, low cooperativeness), accommodating (low assertiveness, high cooperativeness), and compromising (average assertiveness and average cooperativeness). Procedure In the first phase of the study, the participants completed the demographic data, the neuroticism measure from the Eysenck Personality Inventory and the creative thinking measure. A few days after completing the personality measures and divergent thinking tasks, which required a short time for completion, the adolescents completed the TKI questionnaire that assessed individual differences regarding their preferred conflict styles. The experimenters administered the measure in the absence of teachers. Prior to the application, the experimental procedure was introduced to approximately half of the participants (N=126), the rest of the participants were assigned to the control group (N=114). The groups of the participants were randomly assigned to the experimental condition. Designed to induce frustration /anger, the procedure for the experimental condition, designed to provoke perceived procedural unfairness, was the following: the adolescents received an unannounced test from previous courses and then their performance was negatively contrasted to other classes from the school.
elaboration. Convergent validity with parallel measures of creative thinking abilities indicated acceptable values (ranging from .70 to .73 for fluency; from .60 to .69 for flexibility, and from .62 to .68 for originality). Criterion validity is also acceptable, the battery showing significant correlations with indicators of creative achievement, with selfreported and hetero-evaluated creativity (Stoica-Constantin & Caluschi, 2005).
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After this manipulation, they were administered the scale measuring the conflict preferences. After the completion of the research procedure, the protocols were gathered, the participants were probed for suspicion and thanked for their participation as well as thoroughly debriefed. The debriefing procedure made sure, in a supportive manner, that the aims and purpose of the study was clear to each participant. We carefully informed the participants of the deception involved in the procedure, by telling them that the study concerned their reaction to the frustrating feedback. During the debriefing, special attention was directed to the participants in the ego-threat condition, to ensure that they understood that their class was randomly selected and assigned to the condition. Finally, the experimenter asked the participants in this condition if they had any lingering doubts about the study and its procedure and probed them to see how they were feeling, the debriefing discussion continuing until all participants appeared to understand the procedure and ventilated the negative affects. The research design is 2x2, with a creativity level like the first inter-group variable and the experimental procedure as the other variable. Results Associations between conflict variables, creative measures and neuroticism Before the discussion of the hypothesis, we briefly presented the Pearson (and Spearman, for the variables that were not normally distributed) correlation coefficients that reflect the associations between the variables included in the study. As can be seen in table 1, creative thinking correlated negatively with the competing conflict style (r=-.132, p<.05); neuroticism positively correlated with the accommodating (r=.159, p<.05) and compromising (r=.277, p<.01) styles and negatively with the competing (r=-.393, p<.01) and avoiding styles (r=-.133, p<.05). As expected, neuroticism correlated with styles that exhibit average to low levels of assertiveness. Regarding the scores on each characteristic measured by the task, only two of the five styles showed significant correlations: overall, competing conflict mode negatively correlated with originality (r=-.225, p<.01), flexibility (r=-.223, p<.05), fluency (r=-.235, p<.01), and sensitivity to problems (r=-.173, p<.01). The avoiding style positively correlated with originality (r=-.159, p<.05). The more creative an individual is, the less competitive are his/her preferred self-reported conflict strategies.
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Table 1. Relationships between the neuroticism, TKI scores and total creativity scores
1 2 1.Competing TKI 2.Collaborating TKI -.344** 3. Accommodating TKI -.304** -.322** 4. Avoiding TKI -.334 -.165* 5.Compomising TKI -.075 -.123* 6. Creative thinking -.132* -.024 7. Neuroticism EPI -.356** .110 Note: N=240, *p<0,05, **p<0,01 3 4 5 6
-.023 -.403** .019 .280**
-.307** .121 -.182*
.011 .127*
.064
Links between Cognitive Creative Traits and Conflict Mode As we already mentioned, data were analyzed in a 2 (level of creative thinking high and low) x 2 (frustration induced by injustice/ control) analysis of variances. To test our first hypothesis, we developed Anova Univariate with conflict styles, such as a dependent variable, and creative thinking (high, low) as independent variable. The results indicated no significant interaction effect between creativity and induced frustration (F(1.239)=1.94, p=.165). Table 2. Descriptive statistics for the 4 experimental conditions
Experimental condition N Mean and standard deviations of the TKI scores competing collaborating comprom avoiding ising .601 (.121) .561 (.143) .337 .504 (.094) (.129) .553 (.118) .554 (.118) .355 .513 (.129) (.101) .574 (.121) .571 (.136) .362 .493 (.105) (.144) .571 (.127) .590 (.111) .330 .506 (.103) (.128) 0,571 .569 .347 .504 (.122) (.126) (.133) (.101) accommod ating .495 (.122) .522 (.114) .498 (.108) .501 (.122) .503 (.116)
control
frustration
low creativity high creativity low creativity high creativity
41 73 64 62 240
Total
Significant differences between scores on the TKI for the experimental groups based on their creativity level were analyzed with independent t tests (table 2). In the no-frustration condition, a significant difference between creative subjects and less creative regarding the scores on the competing mode was observed: t(112)=2.059, p=.042. The less creative participants had significantly higher scores (M=0.60, SD=.121) than the highly creative ones (M=0.55, SD=.118). In the frustration condition, the differences between the scores on the competitive style for the respondents with highly creative responses (M=0.574, SD=.121) and those with less creative responses (M=0.571, SD=.127) were not significant, t(124)=.134, p=.894. In other words, if in regular circumstances creative individuals are inclined towards low levels of competitiveness, frustrating
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situations orient creative individuals towards levels of competing conflict attitudes similar to their less creative counterparts. We also want to mention that there were no statistically significant differences between the high and low scorers on the divergent thinking tasks regarding the self-reported answers on the scales measuring the collaborating, compromising, avoiding and accommodating styles.
High creativity 0,61 0,6 0,59 0,58 0,57 0,56 0,55 0,54 0,53 0,52 FRUSTRATION CONTROL CONDITION Low creativity
Figure 1: The scores for competing style preference in the experimental and control conditions of highly creative and low creative subjects Results show an interesting difference between creative and less creative students within the frustration condition: while the scores on the competing style scale were significantly lower for the creative subjects in the control condition, in the experimental condition, creative individuals showed similar concern for the others and own outcome as their less creative counterparts (Figure 1). In other words, while in normal conditions, highly creative subjects exhibit a significantly lower degree of competitiveness, when trust is obliterated (as in the situation when explicit norms were violated and the self-evaluation threatened), they show the same vehement reaction as the low scorers on the divergent thinking battery. Discussion The results suggest that creative people are more sensitive to emotion induced by conflict situations than less creative people, and tend to give more polarized responses. In the same time, some of the results suggest that neurotic tendencies protect against escalation of conflicts and predispose to approaches more oriented towards solutions that would satisfy both parties. Unable to cope
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effectively with negative emotions, neurotic subjects may be threatened by conflict situations and consequently, more readily discard the tension and anxiety generated by actual or potential disputes with others by accepting a less satisfying agreement. If creative individuals pertaining to the control group are significantly more cooperative, in the experimental conditions, the highly creative tend to describe themselves as preferring more competitive styles. Frustration-related, righteous emotions presumably elicited by the unfair treatment may temporarily modify the degree of trust and cooperativeness of individuals, and this shift may be obvious in highly creative individuals. These individuals may flexibly select and temporarily adhere to more competitive strategies if the situation is perceived as threatening and therefore, asks for decisiveness or prompt actions, or when individuals feel they have to protect themselves against being taken advantage of by another party. Competition can be conceptualized as a comparative process that provides an occasion for the reconsideration of an undesired or unfair evaluation; the competitiveness exhibited by the participants in our study may be an implicit solicitation for an occasion to reaffirm their challenged abilities and competencies. In other words, our results indicate a leveling effect of situational unfairness on the cooperativeness of divergent thinkers. Contrary to the common beliefs regarding creative personalities, such as independent and nonconformist thinkers that disregard social norms, pressures and evaluations, creative people are not immune to evaluative judgments; on the contrary, as this study suggests - they show more readiness when it comes to claming their rights and reestablishing their challenged sense of self-worth. These results may partially explain the varying results in the literature concerning the conflict between humanistic tendencies vs. hostile reactions of creative individuals, labeled by Galang (2010) as the paradox of the prosocial psychopath. One of the main limits of the study could concern the significance of the creativity score, given the debate in the literature concerning the generalizability of divergent thinking results. The other, concerns the nature of the experimental procedure. Social stimuli are inherently ambiguous and the procedure is sensitive to various situational aspects, such as the performance of the class, the relationship between the teacher and the students, as well as the educational culture that induces a specific response to evaluation. A greater limitation consists in the operationalization of conflict preferences. We chose a self-report measure referring to general responses to conflict situation to eliminate the influence of self-efficacy and actual competence of the subjects in approaching conflicts. Another ignored class of information that would be useful refers to the types and consequences of attributions in achievement domains of the participants and the latency or flexibility of the self-reported preferences after the frustrating event. We limited our measurements regarding positioning in conflict to self-report because our primary interest was to capture a cognitive orientation and a naturalistic experiment would be hard to manage. More data, from controlled studies, using questionnaires concerning interpersonal dynamics related to specific
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tasks and observational data examining communication patterns, collaborative work and management of conflict in real dyads and groups would be a more promising avenue for research and provide firmer conclusions. Also, a more careful control of the manipulation procedure through detailed measures of affect would clarify the mediating or moderating role of affect and affective traits in this relationship. An important point to discuss is the answer to the question: are differences in conflict styles stable, or are they situational, contextdependent? In managing reactions to everyday situations, we chose habitual patterns of behavior, those with which we feel most comfortable; in exceptional situations, such as stressful or frustrating episodes, we tend to adjust by choosing the style that best suits the current demands. In conclusion, it is important to note that we treat the notion of style as an adaptable, flexible reaction to situations, as opposed to more typological conceptualizations. Citing Csikszentmihalyi (1996) and Cropley (1997), who previously defined creativity as a bundle of paradoxes, Haller and Courvoisier (2010) suggested in a recent article that highly creative individuals display more complex personality profiles. More specifically, they are able to fluctuate between apparently contradictory poles, such as selfishness versus altruism (Haller & Courvoisier, 2010, p. 150) and flexibly adjustment to situational demands, even if this means extreme shifts in behavioral responses; consistency or uncompromising adherence to a defined set of behavioral responses may not be an important goal or value for the highly creative. The reaction suggested by these results may also be informative because of a possible explanation that illuminates the way in which the cartesian anxiety or ambivalence of teachers towards creativity /creative types or pupils is perpetuated in classrooms. Cartesian anxiety refers to the ambivalence of teachers towards exhibiting creative behaviors in class: most of the teachers value the trait, but tend to discourage it in specific environments and situations, because of the disruptive potential implicitly attached to the representation of their authors (Karwowski, 2010; Rudowicz, Tokarz, & Beauvale, 2009). Creativity also tends to be devalued in organizational contexts, by a negative implicit association between the schema of leadership, of managerial skills and creative expression (Mueller, Goncalo, & Kamdar, 2010). Academic evaluations are, by their inherent nature, ambiguous and may generate frustration, feelings of inequity and therefore, prompt, more than assertive reaction of the creative may contribute to the ambivalent feelings towards them. In particular, these results highlight the importance of cognitive characteristics associated with creativity when it comes to managing dispositional reactions to conflicts. They may reflect the way the predisposition to creative thinking may also generate competitive ways of thinking in certain situations, a conclusion that remains to be verified on experimental, naturalistic designs. In advancing new ideas, especially in hostile, reluctant contexts, the appeal to competitive strategies may cut in both ways: on one hand, by protecting the
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survival chance of the idea, but on the other hand, compromising the social approval of its proponent. Further empirical tests could investigate the role of specific coping strategies, of moral emotions, personal values and other potentially significant variables in the relationship between managing interpersonal conflict and creative potential, in both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. References
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The relationship between creativity and style of approaching conflict Tjosvold, D. (1985). Implications of controversy research for management. Journal of Management, 11, 2137. Verhaeghen, P., Joorman, J., & Khan, R. (2005). Why we sing the blues: The relation between self-reflective rumination, mood, and creativity. Emotion, 5, 226232. West, M. A. (2002). Sparkling fountains or stagnant ponds: An integrative model of creativity and innovation implementation in work groups. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 51, 355424. Internet resources: Gino, F., & Ariely, D. (2011) The Dark Side of Creativity: Original Thinkers Can be More Dishonest, retrieved at http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6613.html
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Negative Attributional Style and Academic Achievement: The Moderating Role of Attribution of Uncontrollability and Previous Academic Performance
Loredana Ruxandra GHERASIM1
Abstract: This study examined if the relationship between a negative attributional style and academic achievement was moderated by controllability attributions and previous academic performance. One hundred and eighty seven undergraduate students filled in the Academic Attributional Style Questionnaire and reported their perception of uncontrollability for negative academic evens. Academic achievement was measured at the middle and end of the semester. The results indicated that the students with a negative attributional style and midterm exam performance were significant predictors of the final course exam. The findings offer a more complex view of attributional styles and suggest that a depressive attributional style may not be uniformly harmful. Keywords: negative attributional style, attribution of uncontrollability, midterm exam performance, final exam performance
Introduction The patterns of attributions about the causes of events are significant determinants of peoples generalised expectancies (Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978; Abramson, Metalsky, & Alloy, 1989; Carver, Scheier & Segerstrom, 2010). The attributional style has implications for many areas of daily life, previous research findings showing that attributional style is a significant predictor of students negative emotions (Fresco, Alloy & Reilly-Harrington, 2006; Sanjuan & Magallares, 2009) or academic performance (Martin-Krumm, Sarrazin & Peterson, 2005; Butnaru, Gherasim, Iacob & Amariei, 2010). Moreover, some studies indicated that the relationship between an attributional style and academic outcomes may be moderated by different individual factors, such as control perception, self-efficacy, previous performance or learning strategies (see Au, Watkins, Hattie & Alexander, 2009 for review). The goal of this study was to examine the relationships between the attributional style and performance in an academic context, and if this relation if moderated by previous academic and attribution of controllability. Negative attributional style and academic achievement According to the reformulated learned helplessness model (Abramson et al., 1978) and its revision, the hopelessness theory (Abramson et al, 1989; Peterson & Seligman, 1984) attributional style is a cognitive personality variable that reflects the habitual way of explaining the causes of events. People with a negative
1
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iai ; e-mail: gloreda@uaic.ro
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Loredana Ruxandra Gherasim
(or pessimistic) attributional style have the tendency to explain negative events with internal, stable, and global causes and positive events with external, unstable one, and specific causes are more likely to develop depression when faced with stressful situations then people with an positive (or optimistic) attributional style. These people have the tendency to explain negative events with external, unstable and specific causes to explain negative events but are good with internal, stable, and global causes. A fourth dimension of attributions, controllability, was introduced by Peterson and Seligman (1984) as a dimension of the attributional style in order to measure perception of controllability over events. Most of the previous research was centred on the relationship between negative attributional style and depression. These studies confirmed a strong association between depression and the attributional style of negative events, as well as positive events, although the association was weaker in the latter case (see Mezulis, Abramson, Hyde, & Hankin, 2004 for review, Fresco et al., 2006). Longitudinal studies showed that this style has a causal role in the development of depressive symptoms (Sanjuan & Magallares, 2009; Gherasim, Butnaru, Gavreliuc, & Iacob, in press) sometimes in interaction with stressful events (Haeffel & Vargas, 2011). Also, previous studies indicated that a negative attributional style is correlated with other negative emotions, such as anxiety, hostility and negative affects (Fresco et al., 2006). The studies of the relationship of hopelessness conceptions to achievement (see Au et al., 2009 for review) reported mixed findings. Some studies reported that a negative attributional style was associated to lower grade point averages (Gibb, Zhu, Alloy, & Abramson, 2002; Fazio & Palm, 1998; Peterson & Barrett, 1987) and lower school grades (Butnaru et al., 2010, Martin-Krumm et al., 2005). Conversely, other studies have reported that students with a negative attributional style scored higher on a voluntary midterm exam (Houston, 1994), earned higher grade point averages (Satterfield, Monahan & Seligman, 1997) and higher grades on course examinations during the semester (Yee, Pierce, Ptacek & Modzelesky, 2003). Finally, other studies have found no significant relationship between the attributional style and academic achievement (Bridges, 2001; Tiggemann & Crowley, 1993). Academic risk factors: Uncontrollability and previous academic experience Over time, researchers have invoked different explanations for the controversial relationship between the attributional style and academic outcomes. Researchers focused on variables responsible for the learning processes, such as aptitude (Bridges, 2001; Gibb et al., 2002), prior academic experience (Yee et al., 2003), prior knowledge (Hailikari, Nevgi & Komulainen, 2008) or perception of controllability (Yee, Edmondson, Santoro, Begg, & Hunter, 1996) that could interact with the attributional style, increasing or decreasing its effects on academic performance. Our study we investigated if the relationship between the attributions
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Negative attributional style and academic achievement
and academic outcomes is moderated by previous academic performance and attribution of controllability. Control is a multivariate construct. Studies have found that outcome expectancies (Stipek & Weisz, 1981) or causal attributions (Weiner, 2010) influence effort, strategy use, self-regulation, and achievement in academic domains. Factor analyses of component control beliefs (self-efficacy, outcome expectancies, causal attributions, and expectancy of success) have found that these are not reducible to a single latent dimension (Shell & Husman, 2008). Factor structures basically confirm that the component beliefs are distinct from one another, with each typically forming its own factorial dimension. In this study we examined the role of control beliefs measured as a causal attribution. The perception of uncontrollability, which occupied a central role in both the original and reformulated theories, gradually has been replaced with the construct of event valence (see Au et al, 2009 for review; Peterson & Seligman, 1984). Perceptions of controllability are a product of the attribution process, resulting from the degree to which individuals perceive the cause(s) of an event as lying within their control (Weiner, 1985, 2010). Weiner's attribution theory treats controllability as an independent causal dimension; emotional reactions to events depending partially on controllability attributions. Causal attributions or a perceived causal explanation of outcomes, are expected to influence expectancy of success and subsequent achievement behaviour and affects (Weiner, 1985, 2010). However, little attention has been paid to the role played by the controllability dimension in the relationships between the attributional style and negative outcomes (Sanjuan & Magallares, 2009). Studies found that the negative attributional style and attributions of uncontrollability interacted in predicting negative emotions (Brown & Siegel, 1988; Bruch & Belkin, 2001; Sanjuan & Magallares, 2009): internal, stable and global attributions for negative events were positively related to increase depression only when the events were attributed to uncontrollable causes, but not when the events were attributed to controllable causes. These findings suggest that the risk to people with a negative explanatory style could develop depressive symptoms which would be increased when they also explain the negative events with uncontrollable causes. Thus, the attributions of controllability may be critical when it comes to the non-consistent relationships between attributions and achievement. Experimental studies of learned helplessness have explored the role of prior experiences on learned helplessness deficits, the findings suggesting that modest levels of initial failure enhance subsequent performance, while higher levels of initial failure might lead to a decrease in performance (Tiggemann & Crowley, 1993; Yee et al., 1996). Although both positive and negative relationships between the attributional style and previous performance have been demonstrated across academic settings, the researchers have not answered the question of what effects naturally previous experiences would have on the performance of participants with a negative attributional style (see Au et al., 2009
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for review). Few previous studies analyzed whether the effect of an attributional style on academic achievement was mediated by previous academic experience. The results indicated that the negative attributional predicted a significant variation of course performances at the end of semester even after controlling other predictors, such as prior performance (Yee et al., 2003). In these studies, previous academic experience did not mediate the impact of the attributional style on predicted subsequent academic performance (Yee et al., 2003). This present study attempted to examine whether the effect of the negative attributional style on academic achievement was mediated by previous academic performance. The present study The first aim of the study was to examine the relationship between negative attributional style and academic achievement and whether this relationship is moderated by attributions of uncontrollability. Previous research (see Au et al, 2009 for review; Sanjuan & Magallares, 2009) did not consider the role of attributions of uncontrollability in the relation between the negative attributional style and academic performance. Controllability may be critical to understand the controversial relationship between attributions and achievement. Specifically, we expected that attributions for negative events were negatively related to achievement only when the events were attributed to uncontrollable causes, but not when the events were attributed to controllable causes. This second aim of the study was to examine if the relationship between the negative attributional style and final exam performance is moderated by previous performance measured at the midterm exam. To test this aim, we conducted a short longitudinal study in which students completed two examinations during the semester. Thus, the effects of natural previous experiences on students academic performance with a negative attributional style could be analyzed more accurately. In addition to our study, the relationship between a negative explanatory style, attributions of uncontrollability, and academic performance was tested on a sample of youth and senior undergraduate students. The reformulated model of academic hopelessness had not been tested with samples of adults, since attributional research used samples formed by youth undergraduates, adolescents or children (Leeson, Ciarrochi & Heaven, 2008). Method Participants Two hundred and twenty four students from the first year enrolled in an obligatory statistics course participated in exchange for the course credits. Students who did not want to participate in the research were offered the opportunity to complete an alternative assignment for credits. Students participated voluntarily in the research. Participants who provided incomplete data were excluded, yielding a
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sample of 208 participants. Of these, 187 (12.8% male and 87.2% female, age 30.92 7.37 years) participated in both course examinations. Men and women were not found to differ significantly in age, t(185)=1,43, ns. Measures Academic Attributional Style. The Academic Attributional Style Questionnaire (AASQ; Peterson & Barrett, 1987) is a self-reporting measurement of the attributional style containing 12 negative academic events. The AASQ is an academic revision of the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ; Peterson et al., 1982) and was developed to assess the attributional style specific to negative academic events (e.g., You failed a final examination; You are dropped from the university because your grades are too low). The participants were instructed to write a cause for each event and to rate this cause on an eight-point scale according to its internality, stability and globality. A fourth dimension, controllability, was added, asking subjects to rate the degree of control that they believed they would have in these situations (Peterson & Seligman, 1984). Scores on each dimension range from 1 to 8, with a higher score indicating more internal, stable, global and uncontrollable attributions. Scores for each of the four attributional dimensions were calculated by averaging the participants` responses for each dimension across all events. The alpha coefficients scales range between .61 and .70, similar with other studies (Peterson & Barrett, 1987; Sanjuan & Magallares, 2009). A composite score was computed using the responses to the internality, stability and globality dimensions. Higher scores indicated a more depressive attributional style and a higher perception of uncontrollability. Academic achievement Both midterm and final exams followed the same format and consisted in applying specific statistical methods to verify the hypothesis. Procedure The participants filled in the Academic AASQ at the beginning of the semester. Data collection occurred during regularly scheduled classes. Two exams were organised approximately seven weeks apart, during week 8 and 16 of the semester. The students grades for the statistics course examinations were obtained from the instructors, with the permission of both students and instructors.
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Results Since no gender differences were found in the analyzed variables (attributional style, midterm and final performance, all ps>.30), male and female data was analyzed together. A 2 (gender) x/2 (exams) mixed design ANOVA with gender as a between subjects factor and exams as a repeated measures factor was computed to evaluate possible differences in men and women students performance on the exams over time. No significant main effects or interactions were observed. Correlations, means and standard deviations of all measures are presented in Table 1. Performance on the final exam correlated significantly with a negative attributional style; the students with a negative attributional style were more likely to perform better in the final exam. Table 1: Correlations, means and standard deviations (SD) of the variables
1 2 3 1. Age 2. NAS .08 3. Controllability -.003 .21** 4. Midterm exam .06 -.06 -.03 5. Final exam .02 .16* -.01 Mean(SD) 30.92(7.37) 61.7(16.32) 24.56(9.19) N=187, NAS Negative Attributional Style; **p<.01,*p<.05 4 5
.41** 8.00(1.45)
5.27(2.53)
We computed a series of multiple regression analyses to evaluate the extent to which the effect of the attributional style was moderated by previous performance on the midterm exam (Aiken & West, 1991). The participants gender, age and the grades from the midterm exam were entered in the equation as a set on Step 1 and negative attributional style and attributions of controllability were entered in the second step, and the Midterm exam x ASQ, Midterm exam x Controllability interactions were entered in the third step. The results, which are summarized in Table 2, showed that the midterm exam grades (=.41, p<.01) and NAS were significant predictors of the final course exam (=.20, p<.01). Those students who had higher grades on the midterm exam or had a negative attributional style were more likely to report higher grades in the second examination. The interactions between a depressive attributional style and the midterm exam as well as between attributions of uncontrollability and the midterm exam were not significant.
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Table 2: Hierarchical regression analysis to predict final exam performance

Predictors Step 1 Age Gender Midterm exam Model R2=.16, F(3,183)=12.84, p<.01 Step 2 NAS Controllability Model R2=.19, F(5,181)=9.73, p<.01 Step 3 Midterm exam x NAS Midterm exam x Controllability Model R2=.20, F(7,179)=7.67, p<.01 .20 -.04 2.95** -.59 .03* -.11 .06 -1.68 -.97 .01 .007 .03 .41 t .11 .53 6.21** .17** R2
N=187; NAS - Negative Attributional Style; **p<.01; *p<.05
Discussion The goal of this study was to examine the relationship between the negative attributional style and academic performance across time. Specifically, we examined whether the negative attributional style interacted with the midterm exam performance when it came to predicting the performance on the final exam. The results indicated that the negative attributional style was positively related to the final exam performance. Contrary to the hypothesis of the helplessness and hopelessness theories (Abramson et al., 1978, 1989), in our study participants with a negative attributional style were found to be more likely to increase performance. Our findings are consistent with results reported by other researchers who have also found positive links between the negative attributional style and performance in academic settings (Houston, 1994; Satterfield et al., 1997; Yee at al., 2003). These findings offer a more complex view of attributional styles and suggest that a negative attributional style may not be uniformly deleterious. The regression analyses indicated that controllability attributions did not predict academic performance, either on the midterm or final exams. Even though previous studies showed a significant effect of controllability in predicting students depressive feelings (Bruch & Belkin, 2001; Sanjuan & Magallares, 2009) it seems that attributions made on this dimension had no impact on academic performance. These findings did not eliminate the role of control perception on performance. Other components of control beliefs (Shell & Husman, 2008), such as self-efficacy or outcome expectancies could be more important in determining achievement in the academic domain. The second goal of the study was to examine if the relationship between the negative attributional style and academic performance on final exam is moderated by previous performance. The regression analyses showed that the previous performance from the midterm exam is a significant positive predictor of performance in the final exam. These results confirm previous findings indicating that previous experience is a significant predictor of performance (Yee, et al, 2003. 107
Moreover, the results indicated that the negative attributional style and previous performance did not interact as predicted in the performance of the final exam. These results suggest that previous experience is not a necessary precursor of enhancement effects associated with a negative attributional style. Our findings are similar to the other longitudinal studies carried out in an educational context which reported that a negative attributional style predicted increased academic performance (Houston, 1994; Satterfield et al., 1997; Yee, et al, 1996, 2003). However, because these longitudinal studies have focused on aggregate measures of performance, it was not possible to determine how initial performance may influence subsequent performance and if the negative attributional style interacted with prior experience when it came to determining subsequent performance. Our study tested undergraduate students who had passed the midterm exam; those who did not pass the first exam could not be present in the final exam and thus, they were excluded from the analyses. Consequently, the sample contains highly achieving students. It may be possible that the positive relation between attribution and achievement explain only the results of a highly achieving group of students. These findings are similar to Houstons (1994) results, which also reported a positive relationship between highly achieving students achievement and their negative attributional style. Because we collected data, including information regarding examination performance, from the students who passed the midterm exam, it is not possible to evaluate whether those who did and those who did not participate in the present study differed from one another in any systematic ways (regarding motivation to perform well in the course or prior knowledge). Replication of the study with a different sample would enable examination of the generalizability of the findings. Also, it may be important to examine performance in other domains to explore the generalizability of these findings for other task domains. We are also aware that we have excluded other important variables from our predictive model, such as students emotions, goal orientations or learning strategies, which may have influenced our results. Further research should address these issues. Both prior academic experience and negative attributional style are important factors in learning activities. Assessing students prior academic performance and attributional style, researchers can obtain valuable insights into individuals personality traits and subsequent performance. Students may be unaware of their prior academic achievement and attributional style, and thus hold false beliefs about themselves. Our findings provide further evidence that both prior academic performance and attributional style have positive and complementary consequences for performance and should be taken into account in instruction.
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Untreated organized violence-related PTSD and its lifelong persistence

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Annals of the

Al. I. Cuza University

Volume 21, Issue no. 1 2012

Editura Universitii Al. I. Cuza, Iai

Volume 21, Issue no.1

The mobility of Romanian academic elites to the test of European construction

Subjective Perception of Risk, in Relation to Personality Factors

The Influence of Workload on Attention during the Driving Task

Founded and sponsored by Al. I. Cuza University, Iai

Untreated organized violence related PTSD

Untreated organized violence related PTSD

Joffe et al., 2003 *

Kuch & Cox, 1992 * Holocaust studies

Robinson et al., 1990

Yehuda et al., 1994 * Favaro et al., 1999 *

affective disorders anxiety disorders dissociation somatization -

McCranie & Hyer, 2000 ^

Sample size / Mean age 113 / 66.9 824 / 67

Years since trauma 45 -

Lifetime PTSD (%)

Current PTSD (%) 18.5 27 -

Other symptoms and disorders

Blake et al., 1990 * ^ Hovens et al., 1994 *

depression anxiety somatic disorders anxiety depression sleep disorders

Falger et al., 1992 *

Speed at al., 1989 Eberly & Engdahl, 1991 *

Sutker et al., 1993 * Studies of POWs in the WWII

Kluznik et al., 1986 *

Page et al., 1991 *

Untreated organized violence related PTSD

Untreated organized violence related PTSD

Untreated organized violence related PTSD

Untreated organized violence related PTSD

Transilvania University of Braov, e-mail: elena.cocorada@unitbv.ro University of Catania

Elena Cocorad and Alina-Elena Mldranu

The influence of social capital on school performances

Elena Cocorad and Alina-Elena Mldranu

The influence of social capital on school performances

Elena Cocorad and Alina-Elena Mldranu

357.397 319.979 285.527 273.047 257.891

37.418 34.453 12.480 15.156

The influence of social capital on school performances

Sufficient Good Very Good Excellent Overall Percentage

Elena Cocorad and Alina-Elena Mldranu

The influence of social capital on school performances

Elena Cocorad and Alina-Elena Mldranu

The mobility of Romanian academic elites to the test of European construction

Mihai Dinu Gheorghiu

The mobility of Romanian academic elites

Mihai Dinu Gheorghiu

Source : editions.campusfrance.org/pays/2009/roumanie.pdf Professions before: researchers (2), journalist, publisher reader.

The mobility of Romanian academic elites

Mihai Dinu Gheorghiu

The mobility of Romanian academic elites

Mihai Dinu Gheorghiu

The mobility of Romanian academic elites

Mihai Dinu Gheorghiu

The mobility of Romanian academic elites

Subjective Perception of Risk, in Relation to Personality Factors

Alexandru Ioan-Cuza University, e-mail: carmenpoalelungi@yahoo.com

Carmen-Valentina Poalelungi and Corneliu Eugen Havrneanu

Subjective perception of risk

1 .739 .246 .037 .012 -.031 -.040 .022

1 -.472 .189 .090 -.098 -.011 -.019

7 1 .270 -.267 .129* -.169**

-.023 -.403 .019 .280