The Gauguin Syndrome - Change of Identity or Myth?

Gauguin syndrome is a phenomenon described by life span psychology, referring to the inten-tion to stimulate the changes of personality by means of a change of life circumstances. The phenomenon is patterned on Paul Gauguin's life, fuli of sudden and unexpected turns. Gauguin syndrome is an example of the change of life linę during the so called midlife crisis and it implies personality change: an attempt to discover one's own identity and intention to construct a new identity and self-concept. In this article we propose a few criteria defining Gauguin syndrome: (1) important change of life priorities, (2) undertaking a new form of activity, (3) which justi-fies meaning of life, (4) is based on different values than before, (5) gives a sense of freedom and authenticity, (6) decision about such a change is undertaken by a person independently, without any support from other people, and (7) it implies the decline of social and economic status of a person. In this article we also emphasize the differentiation of the Gauguin myth and syndrome, with possible explanations of the phenomena. Three case studies arę presented including life histories according to McAdams approach. The empirical data suggests that an important change of life might be announced by previous experiences.

Sources of the myths on creative activity and their educational implications

The personological trend inpsychology of creativity has underlined the exceptionality of the creator and the creative process. This point of view forms social attitudes and convictions rela-ted to criteria of selection of human behavior and works worth recording. Opinions appear in literaturę that the aforementioned convictions take on the form of myths about creativity.
Mythical comdctions about creativity may be the essence of so-called hidden theories of creativity, which arę employed not only by laymen but also by professionals - like teachers. I intend to explain in this manner the difference between teacher's declarations about their affirmation ofpupiPs creativity and their activity in practice.
The article contains a review of current educational research, and its effects on the influence of myths concerning creativity and their negative implications on education.
 

Parental Control and Discipline

The differences in parental control distribution were explored (which was conceptualized as teaching children's rules) and the demand of immediate obedience. PAiNK scalę was used to assess the level of parental control and discipline. The sample consisted of two groups of preschool children's parents. Children were 4 to 6 years old. The whole sample consisted of 204 people, 51 mothers and 51 fathers of „difficult" children and 51 fathers and 51 mothers of well-behaved children. The research was carried out in Poland's three big cities: Warsaw, Cracow and Częstochowa.
Hypotheses were presented that parents of "difficult" children would achieve higher scores in demanding immediate obedience, parents of well-behaved children would achieve higher scores in parental control. Two way multivariate Analysis of Yariance (MANOYA) confirmed research hypotheses: the distribution of parental control differs in both groups. Ań interaction effect between parental role and upbringing difficulty for obedience demanding yariable was discovered. Outcomes demonstrate crucial role of explanations and time in assimilating rules.

Impact of the space density on the estimation of temporal duration - developmental changes

According to the models emphasizing the role of memory in estimating time the morę elements the phenomenon contains, the longer is its subjective duration. Research on space perception shows that the subjective path length is positively related to the number of landmarks associated with a given route. The aim of our experiment was to analyze how the density of space influences the judgments of time needed to traverse it in children aged 4, 6 and 9 years.
120 children (20 girls an 20 boy s in each agę group) were tested individually. We presented them two 15-second videos that differ in the number of presented objects. Participants produ-ced prospective time estimations, using the specially designed clock. 9-year olds perceived space with a greater density with longer durations F(1.39) = 11.50, p < 0.005. The tendency for lengthening subjective time as aresult of increased density of space has appeared also in preschool groups, but the differences in the 4- and the 6-year-olds were not statistically significant.
 

Specific character of establishing short term plans in maturation period - research results

The presented research is based on the human activities theories (Nuttin's concept of self behaviour (1980), Tomaszewski's theory of activities (1975) and Miller's, Galanter's and Pribram's theory of plans (1980)) as well as on the future time perspective of human beings theory (Nuttin 1980, Nurmi 1991, Zaleski 1991).
The corę problem of the research focuses on the defmition of specificity of establishing short term plans (not longer than half year) by youth in relation to its agę.
The author uses her ąuestionnaire "Future planning" constructed for the purpose of the research, which was created especially for studies on process of planning. The survey was conducted in 2004 in Warsaw and involved population a sample of 300 people (15-year-old students of grammar schools and 18-year-old students of secondary schools).
The analysis of research results allows to draw up the following conclusions. Process of establishing plans by youth has its own specificity and is dependent on the youth agę. In comparison to students of grammar schools students of secondary schools use advanced planning strategies morę often (they gather information, mąkę notes, use diaries). The statistical analysis of the research results allows to conclude that students of grammar schools take advantage of generał strategies, while students of secondary schools - of detailed strategies in the process of establishing plans.

Anxiety-trait, emotional reactivity and superstitiousness of primary school pupils

The aim of the research was to find relationship between anxiety-trait, emotional reactivity and superstitiousness. There were 75 six-class pupils chosen as research participants (33 girls and 42 boys) recruited from one of primary schools near Warsaw. Statistical analysis show statistically significant positive correlation between anxiety-trait and superstitiousness (r = 0,33;p<0,01)andnearly statistically significant positive correlation between emotional reactivity and superstitions (r = 0,22; p < 0,06). In result of the research it also turned out that as far as superstitions arę concerned, there arę gender differences: girls arę morę superstitious thanboys (F = 23,81 (1; 73); p < 0,001).
 

Sprawozdanie z Międzynarodowej Konferencji Naukowej Rain Man  jest wśród nas.Współczesne formy pomocy osobom z autyzmem w ujęciu systemowym.
Kraków 27-29 listopada 2008

Recenzja: Identity and Story. Creating Selfin Narrative. Red. D.P. McAdams, R. Josselson, A. Lieblich.

Washington: American Psychological Association, 2006