Aurel Clinciu - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Aurel Clinciu

Abstract: The present study is a pilot study which takes into consideration academic stress withi... more Abstract: The present study is a pilot study which takes into consideration academic stress within the background that follows the implementation of Bologna process in Transilvania University of Brasov. The study inventories new sources of stress that are superadded to those contextually specific to the Romanian higher education. The study focuses on an investigation area of science studies and on one of humane studies within the higher education at Transilvania University of Brasov. The research hypotheses anticipate the existence of some determinants related to age, years of teaching, gender and specialization type (humane and science) of the investigated variables. The obtained results confirm the formulated hypotheses in various degrees. The study draws the attention on several important facts, such as the teaching staff’s accommodation to the modern ways of information and documentation promoted by virtual library; or the paradox of promoting the novelties connected to post-Bol...

Questionnaire for evaluating eating disorders has been created to detect the problems of self-ima... more Questionnaire for evaluating eating disorders has been created to detect the problems of self-image connected to eating behaviour of adolescents and adults. 71 items offer a global expression of these issues, consisting of Self-deception factor (34 items), Anorexic tendencies (24 items) and Bulimic tendencies (13 items). The study was carried out on a sample of 234 adults and students from Departments of Psychology and Sociology within Transilvania University of Brasov. There were used CEDA, NEO PI-R (Costa and McCrae) and questionnaire of factual data. The study goal is to determine the internal reliability of CEDA scales and cross validation against the Big Five factors/facets. Internal reliability of the instrument (.92) and its factors is very good: Self-deception .90, Anorexic tendencies .87, Bulimic tendencies .73. Dimensions of CEDA factors are naturally integrated between Neuroticism facets, correlations being very high for Depression, Anxiety and Self-Consciousness (.63, .4...

This article approaches the issue of the role a good information manager has during elaborating a... more This article approaches the issue of the role a good information manager has during elaborating a study of scientific research under the circumstances of a reflective practitioner in the field of school and educational counseling. Action research is seen as a form of practical inquiry involving planning, acting, observing, and reflecting, aiming at the improvement of practices (Kemmis, 1993). There are evoked, step by step, the stages of scientific research in the field and within each analyzed stage the focus lies on the specific role of information management as a major contributor to raising the research quality and the level of professional practice in educational field.

The main objective of the survey is to investigate the psychological factors that are involved in... more The main objective of the survey is to investigate the psychological factors that are involved in school achievement. This was operationalized as a zone of convergence between intellectual endowment and school results expressed through final mark. There were additionally identified the overachieved and underachieved children, namely the ones who overuse or underuse the available cognitive resource. The research was carried out on a population of 780 students from the urban area, with ages between 7 and 18 years, covering three school cycles. The students were investigated with seven tests of intelligence (IQ), five tests of memory (Memory Index), two motor behavior tests (Motor Index/ dominance) and HSPQ Cattell test of personality. There was set forth the hypothesis of existing some gender differences regarding the amplitude and dynamics of school achievement and the psychological mechanisms supporting them. Thus, for both genders, overachievement is closely associated with a cognitive asymmetry in which memory factor prevails as against intelligence; the situation is reverse in the case of school underachievement. Both of them are grounded upon specific personality factors which are particularized in accordance with gender criterion. With boys, underachievement seems to be more closely linked with the Anxiety factor, while with girls we speak about Neuroticism. There are supplementary factors of personality which give shades to this relationship, such as conscientiousness (factor G), emotional-affective dependence (factor I) or intellectual horizon (factor B). Motor Index and the degree of dominance differentiation, together with the level of parents' studies seem to play an important role in the studied issues as well. Our survey shows a tendency of a more precocious setting up and a larger ampleness of the phenomenon of school underachievement with boys, which sends to a pedagogy of difference.

The present study was carried out in the school year 2006-2%7 on 351 students from secondary leve... more The present study was carried out in the school year 2006-2%7 on 351 students from secondary level (the 6th and 8th forms) and from high school (the 10th and 12th forms). The forms which constitute the quasi-experimental group we compared to forms containing two years younger students (the 6th, respectively the 10th forms) which constitute the witness group. The comparison was made through a complex batterv of tests destined to evaluate the intellectual endowment and the school stress linked “7th two types of assessment, national tests and baccalaureate. The major objective of research was identifying the elements that are associated with the stress caused by summative exams Secondly we had in view to determine the convergent and predictable validity against the external criterion, school success, for the newly elaborated Questionnaire of School Maladjustment. We med to catch the gender differences and those concerning intellectual endowment that were involved in the stress genesis ...

206 adolescents, aged between 16 and 18, from four high schools in Brasov, distributed in a balan... more 206 adolescents, aged between 16 and 18, from four high schools in Brasov, distributed in a balanced way after the gender criterion, were investigated with a battery of instruments destined to determine the factors implied in the global level of life satisfaction. Besides the questionnaire of demographic data, there were used the questionnaire of Existential Topics, indicative for global level of life satisfaction, Burns questionnaires for anxiety and depression, Dean questionnaire of Social Support and three questionnaires of self-esteem, on its dimensions: physical (Clinciu Body Self-perception), psychical (Clinciu Self-perception) and social (Social Self-Esteem Inventory of Lawson, Marshall, and McGrath). The study hypothesis anticipates a significant direct link between the level of self-esteem and the level of life satisfaction and an indirect one between life satisfaction and negative emotionality (anxiety and depression). In addition, we anticipate that negative emotionality ...

The proposal of including preparatory kindergarten group within the structure of the first school... more The proposal of including preparatory kindergarten group within the structure of the first school cycle means to recognize the importance of the preschool child's previous preparation with a view to his/ her adaptation to school requirements. The first goal of the research was to generate a valid diagnosing method of schooling aptitude. Secondly, I investigated this aptitude depending on three essential criteria: gender, environment and the level of parents' education (studies) in their quality of supplementary determinants. The basic hypothesis of research, which was carried out on 1690 preschool children of 5, 6 and 7 years, in the area of Tara Barsei, anticipates that significant differences occurring between boys and girls in terms of school achievement can be identified even from the beginning of schooling. In addition we anticipate that schooling aptitude will be better for the children with a higher level of their parents' studies and who belong to the urban area which is richer in information. The first objective was reached by creating a Method of determining mental maturity; it consists of a motor component (gross and fine motor behaviour) and of a cognitive one (drawing, arithmetic calculation and language). The global score at these subtests provides an objective indicator of development which was obtained by the preschool child's effective examination. The evaluation is completed through a Chart of standardized observation that is filled by the preschool teacher towards the end of the kindergarten; it capitalizes her knowledge experience in five chapters: adaptation, language, play, temperament and character data. The combined data of the Method and Chart offer a complex image with regard to the level of infantile development at school entering. The made analyses outline the psychometric and practical validity of the approach, grasping the group portrait of preschool child that is differentiated in accordance with his/ her gender, parents' studies and environment.

The present study is aimed both at those students who must generate a research project by taking ... more The present study is aimed both at those students who must generate a research project by taking into consideration a set of minimum standards, as well as at the professors who are involved in supervising this kind of projects. Several basic concepts are discussed in this article, namely the first steps in getting a head start on your project, key issues in project management, types of resources that can prove useful in the development of the project and potential pitfalls which might occur, i.e. the hypothesis was not confirmed by the results found, the academic language was inappropriately used which can lead to plagiarism, the word count was not respected, too much use of the internet or lack of originality. An important issues concerns self-management during this process, namely having good time management skills, setting priorities or avoiding procrastination.

The present article focuses on the comparative analysis of tables and of graphic images used with... more The present article focuses on the comparative analysis of tables and of graphic images used within a psychological research study which aims to follow the regulations developed by American Psychological Association (APA). Relevant information is presented with regards to the possibilities and the limits of each of the two ways of supporting the written discourse. In the case of graphic images, there are several examples of the concrete ways in which an SPSS Output can be converted/ transferred into an APA format. For the appropriate use of figures we indicate some necessary and important cautions that need to be taken into account. Both for tables and for graphics, you will find enclosed a list of frequently asked questions along with their answers concerning the editing of a good figure to professional standards. Key words: tables, figures, APA standards, SPSS outputs.

Depăşind distincţia operată de William James (1890) între memoria primară şi memoria secundară, A... more Depăşind distincţia operată de William James (1890) între memoria primară şi memoria secundară, Atkinson şi Shiffrin (1968) au dezvoltat modelul modal al memoriei. Acesta susţine existenţa a trei tipuri distincte de memorie, memoria senzorială (MS), memoria de scurtă durată (MSD) şi memoria de lungă durată (MLD). Modelul memoriei de lucru al lui Baddeley şi Hitch (1977) relativizează distincţia MSD – MLD, fiind prima tentativă consistentă de a lua în studiu componentele sistemului mnezic şi a le da o susţinere experimentală convingătoare. Plecând de la paradigmele sarcinii duale (Dual Task Paradigms) autorii au dezvoltat o construcţie teoretico-experimentală coerentă asupra sistemului memoriei de lucru, compusă dintr-un sistem executiv central (sistem preponderent atenţional, care administrează resursele cognitive) şi două subsisteme aservite, care sunt calea vizuo-spaţială şi bucla fonologică (fono-articulatorie). Lucrarea de faţă este un studiu teoretic care prezintă evoluţia mode...