Decision Making: between Rationality and Reality

Almost by definition decision-making is typical human activity, and therefore important psychological subject. The starting point of its classical conception within psychology could be traced back to economy and mathematic, with ideas of human as rational economic being, and conceptualising decision making as choice between two or more alternatives, and as such being a separate event in space and time. Already in fifties Herbert Simon challenged such a view with his concept of bounded rationality, emerging from the joint effect of internal limitations of the human mind, and the structure of external environments in which the mind operates. During the last decades with the shift to the real word situations where decisions are embedded in larger tasks, becoming so part of the study of action, the lost rational human appeared again as efficient creature in the complex environment. Gigerenzer showed how heuristics help in this process

Happy Face Superiority Effect in Change Detection Paradigm

The aim of the present study was to investigate which affective component guides cognitive processing of emotional facial expressions. According to the threat hypothesis, processing of angry faces is prioritized by the human cognitive system, because rapid detection of threat has a large adaptive value. The negativity hypothesis presumes that distressing emotional experiences of other people attract attention, regardless of whether they represent danger or not. The emotionality hypothesis proposes that positive emotional facial expressions can capture attention as effective as negative ones, while the happy face superiority hypothesis predicts that happy faces are prioritized. In the present study, which was conducted on 24 participants, change detection paradigm was used, because that procedure enables insight into the later stage of information processing. The results obtained show that happy facial expressions are heavily prioritized by the human cognitive system. In explanation of these results, that clearly support the happy face superiority hypothesis, we propose that angry expressions are initially prioritized by our cognitive system, because we benefit from early detection of potential threat in the environment, but in later cognitive processing, happy expressions are given the priority, because smiling is a valuable mechanism for forming and maintaining cooperative relationships. Besides the theoretical relevance, the present study is also valuable methodologically, because we demonstrated that change detection paradigm can be efficiently used for the research of emotional facial expressions processing

Doživjeti Dalmaciju: što čini osjetilni krajobrazni identitet dalmatinske regije?

The article addresses the concept of landscape identity considered from a new perspective – a perspective of five fundamental human senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste. Landscape identity is mostly understood as a phenomenon based on its distinguishable visual characteristics. However, human environment is a multisensory medium, rich in information from all fields of perception. Equally, a man is a multisensory being and experiences his environment with multiple senses. The underlying assumption is that human identification with places does not only arise from the interaction with their visual, but also with their auditory, olfactory, tactile, and even gustatory properties. As a research area, the Dalmatia region in Croatia has been chosen. By the content analysis method, applied on samples of lyric poems and promotional (mostly tourist) materials, the aim was to examine what features, visual and non-visual, the social conception of Dalmatian landscape is based on. The results show that landscape identity of Dalmatia, in terms of sensory perception, is rather diverse. Understanding landscape identity as a sensory multidimensional phenomenon opens many new questions and possibilities in the field of landscape theory and practice.Okosnicu rada čini koncept krajobraznog identiteta promatran iz nove perspektive – perspektive pet osnovnih ljudskih osjetila: vida, sluha, njuha, opipa i okusa. Naime, krajobrazni (i općenito prostorni) identitet uglavnom se shvaća kao fenomen utemeljen na prepoznatljivim vizualnim karakteristikama. Međutim, sva je okolina multiosjetilni medij, bogat informacijama iz svih područja percepcije, a i čovjek je multiosjetilno biće i doživljava okolinu s više osjetila. U skladu s tim, ishodišna je pretpostavka rada ideja da se identifikacija čovjeka, odnosno društva, s prostorom ne odvija samo kroz interakciju s njezinim vizualnim nego i auditornim, olfaktornim, taktilnim, pa i gustatornim značajkama. Za područje istraživanja odabrana je dalmatinska regija. Primjenom metode analize sadržaja, na uzorcima lirskih pjesama te promotivnih (pretežno turističkih) materijala, cilj je bio ispitati na kojim se obilježjima, vizualnim i nevizualnim, temelji društvena predodžba dalmatinskoga krajobraza. Rezultati upućuju na to da je krajobrazni identitet Dalmacije u osjetilnom smislu raznolik. Spoznaja o krajobraznom identitetu kao osjetilno višedimenzionalnoj pojavi otvara mnoga nova pitanja i mogućnosti na području krajobrazne teorije i prakse

Ekonomska socializacija po štirih letih

In 1988 and 1990 we did a research on economic socialization of Slovenian children, based on the international project started by David Leiser. Results were reported in the Journal of Economic Psychology in 1990. The level of knowledge of complex economic problems was relativly low and simplified, at least for the problems studied in the interview (i.e. prices, money). It was suggested that this occured because the questionnaire was based on different socio-economic system, where other aspects (i.e. market), not relevant to the Slovenian (Yugoslavian at that time) economy then, were more emphasised. Also a number of answers were greatly influenced by the current socio-economic situation (i.e. great inflation). Economic and political changes that started in that period developed even further, and drastic changes of the whole political and economic system appeared after the multiparty elections at the end of 1990. In a few years, ideas like private property, privatization, shares, insurance etc. adopt quite different meaning. Therefore, we decide to repeat the earlier study, and find out the effects, these changes have in economic socialization. A comparable sample of children, from the first, fourth and seventh grade of a primary school were questioned with the very same questionnaire. In general, the results showed very similar picture in comparison with previous data, with differences mainly in degree and not in direction. Several differences could be explained either by current socio-economic changes or as idiosyncratic phenomena.Leta 1988 in 1990 sta bili opravljeni dve študiji ekonomske socializacije pri slovenskih otrocih kot del mednarodnega projekta Davida Laiserja. Stopnja znanja kompleksnih ekonomskih problemov je bila relativno nizka in enostavna, predvsem pri določenih pojmih (npr. cene in denar). Verjetno se je to pojavilo zato, ker je bil vprašalnik ekonomske socializacije sestavljen tako, da je bilbližje drugačnemu socioekonomskemu sistemu, kot je bil takratni slovenski (oz. še jugoslovanski). Na odgovore otrok so v veliki meri vplivala takratna specifična dogajanja (npr. velika inflacija). Velik vpliv so imele tudi ekonomske in politične spramembe, ki so bile posledica večstrankarskih volitevleta 1990. Zato so v nekaj letih pojmi, kot so: privatna lastnina, privatizacija, delnice, zavarovanje, dobili čisto druge razsežnosti. Zato smo se odločili, da ponovimo študijo in ugotovimo, kako so te spremembe vplivale na ekonomsko socializacijo otrok. Izbrali smo primerjalni vzorec učencev prvega, četrtega in sedmega razreda in aplicirali isti vprašalnik. Na splošno so rezulteti pokazali zelo podobno sliko kot predhodni. Razlike so se pojavile v stopnji razumevanja posameznih pojmov, ne pa v smeri. Razložili bi jih lahko s socialnoekonomskimi spremembami ali kot idiosinkratični fenomen

Zaznava negativnih gospodarskih pojavov in vrednote

Vsako gospodarstvo ima tudi svojo temno stran, ki se kaže v nezaposlenosti, kraji, goljufiji, siromaštvu in podobnih pojavih. Pričujoča raziskava je posvečena zaznavi takih pojmov pri mladostnikih in mlajših odraslih. Različno stari preizkušanci (13, 17 in 20 let) so ocenjevali pomen pojmov korupcija, neplačevanje davkov, goljufija, kraja in prosjačenje, odgovoriti pa so morali tudi na Kahlejev seznam vrednot ter Richinsovo in Dawsonovo lestvico materialističnih vrednot. Na ta način smo skušali dobiti vpogled v stališča in prepričanja mladih ljudi o "odklonskem" gospodarstvu v okviru njihovega vrednostnega sistema. Ugotovili smo, da so razlike med preizkušanci iz treh starostnih skupin razmeroma majhne, bolj v stopnji kot v smeri. Možna je razlaga z dejstvom, da so preizkušanci na isti stopnji spoznavnega razvoja in se razlikujejo predvsem po obsegu in vsebini svojih izkušenj. Vse tri skupine kažejo razmeroma močno materialistično usmeritev, vsaj v primerjavi z originalnimi Richinsonovimi in Dawsonovimi podatki. Pokazalo se je tudi, da je vrednostni sistem povezan z zaznavo obravnavanih pojmov

Odnos mladih do zdravja in dejavniki, ki ga določajo

Zdravstvene navade se začenjajo razvijati že zelo zgodaj v otroštvu in pomembno vpivajo na stanje zdravja v kasnejših obdobjih. Na njihov nastanek in razvoj vplivajo tudi različni dejavniki (starši, učitelji,vrstniki itd.) Njihova vloga se med odraščanjem spreminja. Raziskava je zajela otroke in maldostnike 5. in 7. razreda osnovne šole in 1. in 3. razreda srednje šole v različnih ljubljanskih šolah. Ugotavljali smo njihov odnos do zdravja in vplive, ki ga določajo. Ti se s starostjo spreminjajo, tako da imajo starejši manj pozitiven odnos do zdravja.Health-related attitudes and behaviours begin to develop early in infancy under different influences. In this study an attempt to establish them, and how different influences are changing during the school years was made. Proceeding from Ajzen\u27s model of planned behaviour, and from other health related theories, a questionary was made and applied to school youth of different age. Four groups of pupils participated in this study, namely 60 fifth grade and 43 seventh grade pupils from primary school, and 54 first grade and 44 third grade pupils from secondary school. With age health concern, motivation to avoid unhealthy behaviour and motivation for health diminish. At the same time disease ignorance and quitting healthy leisure activities increase. Also the decrease of perceived importance of health risk factors can be observed

Happy Face Superiority Effect in Change Detection Paradigm

The aim of the present study was to investigate which affective component guides cognitive processing of emotional facial expressions. According to the threat hypothesis, processing of angry faces is prioritized by the human cognitive system, because rapid detection of threat has a large adaptive value. The negativity hypothesis presumes that distressing emotional experiences of other people attract attention, regardless of whether they represent danger or not. The emotionality hypothesis proposes that positive emotional facial expressions can capture attention as effective as negative ones, while the happy face superiority hypothesis predicts that happy faces are prioritized. In the present study, which was conducted on 24 participants, change detection paradigm was used, because that procedure enables insight into the later stage of information processing. The results obtained show that happy facial expressions are heavily prioritized by the human cognitive system. In explanation of these results, that clearly support the happy face superiority hypothesis, we propose that angry expressions are initially prioritized by our cognitive system, because we benefit from early detection of potential threat in the environment, but in later cognitive processing, happy expressions are given the priority, because smiling is a valuable mechanism for forming and maintaining cooperative relationships. Besides the theoretical relevance, the present study is also valuable methodologically, because we demonstrated that change detection paradigm can be efficiently used for the research of emotional facial expressions processing