This discipline, which we will present in this paper project, concerns itself with the science of mental life, as defined by contemporary research methods, theories, and findings.
Cognitive Psychology is concerned with mental processes and their effects on human behaviour. It focuses on phenomenon such as: perception, motor control, attention, sensation, memory learning, language, reasoning problem solving and decision making. The cognitive psychology studies the interlocking neurological and psychological processes, which comprise human thinking, reasoning, and problem solving.
Another definition of the cognitive psychology could be this: in cognitive psychology are analysing the brain processes that intervened between stimulus, behaviour, and the internal representation of the information around us. Shortly, the cognitive psychology is the study of human mental processes and their role in thinking, feeling and behaving (Kellogg, 1995).
In this quest of the cognitive psychology in studding the human mental life we have some more cognitive science having the same field of study. Cognitive science may be defined as the study of the relationships among and integration of cognitive psychology, biology, anthropology, computer science, linguistics, and philosophy. It represents an interdisciplinary effort to address basically the same issues that confront cognitive psychology. How is knowledge represented? How does an individual acquire new knowledge? How dose the visual system organise sensory experience into meaningful objects and events? How does memory work?
Cognitive science is not a coherent discipline in and of itself but is a perspective on several discipline and their associated questions (Kellogg, 1995).

The information processing model of cognition

With the rise of sophisticated methods of brain imaging and neurological study, along with the developments in computer science and artificial intelligence, a new model of human cognition is emerging whose best description is “the information processing model of cognition”. So, what is mean by an “information processing model of mind”?
By “information processing model of cognition is meant the existence of mental representations and processes that modifies these representations in a series of stages. A physical system, which has these two proprieties (representation and manipulation of representation on the base of some exact rules) is called a cognitive system. (Kellogg, 1995).
The information-processing model can be decomposed into smaller systems, such as sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory.
Perception of environmental input involves recognising the pattern of information held briefly in sensory memory. The recognised patterns transfer to short-term memory where they are held for many seconds. If rehearsal properly, then the newly learned information is transferred to long-term memory for permanent storage. Responses to the environment occur following decision made on the basis of information currently held in the short-term store (Kellogg, Ronald, 1995).
The discipline portrays the human mind as, first, a processor of information; it computes answers to problems in a manner analogous to a computer. But the human mind doses more than process information.
Meaning, not information in the mathematical sense, provides the focus of human mental life (Bruner, 1990). The mind lives and breathes through meaning. Our use of symbols to refer to objects, events and other experiences, our efforts to understand why experiences occur as they do, and ultimately our longing to comprehend the significance of our own existence all reflect human longing for meaning.
The human being in his cognitive abilities perceive and organise incoming sensory data, remember and learn, evaluate information for its value and meaning to himself. We learn and remember the information, which are meaningful to us, to our personal cognitive schema.

Historical development

The laboratory investigation of the human mind began in 1879. Structuralism, functionalism, Gestalt psychology, and psychoanalysis all relied on various forms of introspection to reveal properties of conscious and unconscious mental activities and contents. Behaviourism rejected introspection in an effort to establish an objective psychology. The development of information processing systems led to a “cognitive revolution” against behaviourism.

Structuralism

Wilheim Wundt founded the first psychological laboratory in 1879 in Leipzig, Germany. Edward Bradford Titchener brought the wundtian approach to psychology to America in 1892. Titchener established the school of structural psychology, which concerned what the mind is as opposed to what the mind is for. Structuralism aimed to describe the elemental components of consciousness, specifically, sensations, images and feelings. The introspection was used as the method of choice for scientific psychology. The introspection or the self-observation consisted of a carefully controlled technique of looking inward and reporting mental experiences.
The structuralism encountered several difficulties. One concerned the reliability of introspection as the only valid scientific method. Different observers too often gave different introspective reports in the experimental conditions arranged by Wundt, Titchener and their followers (Kellog, 1995).

Functionalism

Functionalism addressed what the mind is for rather than what it is. Functional psychologists, such as James Angell, studied mental processes that mediated between the environment and organism. Angell investigated the nature of mental operations rather the mental elements, and aimed to understand from a biological point of view, the utilities of consciousness in adapting to the demands of the environment.
James’s Principles of Psychology, first published in 1890, provided the backdrop for the functionalist school. James followed a Darwinian line of thinking to question what purpose consciousness served. Angell focused attention on mental operations as opposed to mental structures.

Gestalt psychology

Gestalt psychologists emphasised the meaning and organisation of objects and events. Gestalt means form or shape and was used to emphasise that experience enters the mind as structured forms. Gestalt psychology provided another approach to the study of mind that strongly influenced psychology in Europe beginning with Max Wertheimer’s 1912 publication on movement perception. Gestalt approach opened the door to the study of higher mental processes in their extensive work on problem solving. They emphasised the holistic phenomena of gaining insight into the solution of a problem.

Psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud, a medical doctor from Vienna, created a unique theory of the human mind. Freud published The Interpretation of Dreams in 1900 in which he first describe the Oedipus complex and provide a guide to the symbolic processes of the mind that emerge in dreams. Each dream held a symbolic meaning; the latent content that revealed unconscious desires and conflicts. The Interpretation of Dreams proved so popular that it was reprinted eight times in Freud’s lifetime. Freud’s theory had a great influence on the early twentieth-century Western culture, but his theories attract little interest today.

Behaviourism

John B. Watson launched behaviourism in 1913 with his paper “Psychology as the Behaviourism Views it” in an effort to establish a purely objective psychology. He envisioned an objective science of psychology based on a description of observable, repeatable behaviour.
Watson pursued a science of behaviour, not a science of mental life. He tried to translate the mental contents and processes of the structuralism and functionalist into behavioural terms. Watson believed that the response of an organism to any given stimulus could be accurately predicted. Stimulus-response psychology thus began.
The most influential behaviourist was B.F. Skinner. From The Behaviour of Organisms (1938) to Verbal Behaviour (1957) to Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971), Skinner articulated the principles of operand conditioning and their applications to societal problems.
By the mid-1950s the split from behaviourism was well under way and information processing psychology came into its own (Kellogg, 1995).
This became known as the cognitive revolution against the tyranny of behaviourism. George Miller and Jerome Bruner at Harvard founded the Centre for Cognitive Studies and revitalised interest in thinking and memory. In England, Donald Broadbent pioneered the study of attention and memory from the perspective of information processing. From this point till in our days the cognitive psychology was greatly developed being now a modern scientific discipline studding the human mental life.
In conclusion, my understanding on cognitive psychology is the discipline that studies the human cognitive systems and its components (memory, understanding, language and perception). Cognitive psychology studies the processing of information between sensorial input and behavioural output.

Chapter II
Sensing, Perceiving, and Attending to the Data Incoming

In this chapter we’ll explore how stimuli are transformed from sensations to perceptions in the cycle of perception. We’ll further explore theories that have developed about attention and concentration to the data incoming.
We come to know our world through sensing and perceiving the environment. As we have seen in the first chapter, input from the environment first enters sensory memory, where it is held briefly. Sensory registration, or sensation, refers to the transaction of physical energy, such as sounds waves or electromagnetic radiation, into a preliminary neural code that can be further processed and transformed over time. It is not possible to draw a line where sensation ends and perception begins (Kellogg, 1995).
All that we see, hear, taste, smell, and feel are internal neural representations- images of the mind- of external stimuli. Sensory registration is the beginning point of numerous processes that transforms and stores the initial internal representation of stimulus input.
Pattern recognition refers to the processes responsible for identifying the stimulus. The initial mental representation has been transformed into a more elaborated representation that involves such attributes as colour, location, size, brightness, and name. The short-term store provides a record of mental representations that you have recognised as familiar patterns and attended to consciously. Perception refers to these multifaceted processes of pattern recognition and attention that result in conscious awareness of an environmental input. Our sensation interprets the external stimulus in meaningful ways.
To consciously perceive the stimulus, pattern recognition processes must match the incoming stimulus with schemas or knowledge representations stored in long-term memory (Kellogg, 1995).
Shortly, the physical energy of a stimulus is transducer into a neural representation of what is out there, then processing these into higher-level mental representations that can be compared to previous representations, the cognitive schema, and used to alter behaviour or to modify previous schemas.
Sensation and perception dominated the early history of psychology. It allowed the experimenter to manipulate the physical proprieties of the stimulus in careful laboratory settings and then measure the psychological results.

The cycle of perception

Perceiving stimuli in the environment involves extensive interaction with the environment in what is called the cycle of perception.
“The perceiver must interact extensively and continuously with the environment to construct and maintain an accurate internal model of external objects and events. This interaction is called the cycle of perception” (Kellogg, p. 48, 1995).
Schemas generate expectations about the objects and events that will be encounter. (Schema refers to a mental representation of knowledge about the world). This expectation direct exploration of the environment in the form of eye movements and other bodily movements that pick up the available information. This sample information either confirms or modifies the original expectations, which in turn leads to renewed exploration (Kellogg, 1995). In all cases, the information from the environment modifies what the perceiver needs to look for next. If all expectations are met, then eye fixations can be directed elsewhere. If expectations are violated, particularly in the case of surprising information, then clearly more sampling of the environment is in order.
In conclusion, “the cycle of perception” which points to the interaction of the three main components: Schema, Exploration, and the Environment? Kellogg states that the schema, developed mental representation of our world and how we perceive it as we interact with it, provide us with expectations of what we may encounter in our environment and allow us to explore it to determine if we need to make adjustments that may further support the patterns or may in many instances, provide us with information that may alter or change the pattern schemas there we have developed.

Top-Down and Bottom -Up Processes

Top-down or conceptually driven pattern recognition refers to the use of expectations to ease the process of finding a match between incoming stimuli and schemas that store our knowledge about the world in long-term memory.
Top-down processes reduce the need to sample all the information available in the environment by providing the perceiver with a hypothesis. Simultaneously, bottom-up processes are analysing the edges, lines, areas of light and dark, colours, sounds, and others physical features available briefly in sensory memory. These processes pick up the features needed to verify the hypothesis or, in case that violate expectations, to reject the hypothesis and activate alternative schemas with alternative hypothesis (Kellogg, 1995).
Briefly, bottom-up or data driven pattern recognition refers to the use of the features picked up from the environment. Both the data and the expectations play a critical role in rapid, accurate, and hence adaptive perception.
In conclusion, in order to have a correct schema about ourselves and external world we should put top-down processes against bottom-up processes, helping us to refresh all the time our perception on reality?

Attention

Without attention, the world would overwhelm us with sensory information. Attention refers to the process of selecting only certain stimuli and concentrating cognitive processes on them.
Perception without attention would be a swirl of confusion as the mind tried to comprehend everything stimulating the sense at once.
With other words, attention refers to the selection of certain stimuli for processing to the exclusion of others. It also refers to the concentration of mental resources on a particular process. Two broad classes of theories have developed to explain attention. Filter theories address the selective nature of attention, whereas capacity theories address the allocation of resources to specific mental processes.
Filter theories postulated a bottleneck in the flow of information from initial sensory processing to registration in conscious awareness. Capacity theories recognise that one or more bottleneck exit, but added the assumption that mental processes complete for limited resources as well.
We will study in detail the nature of attention just present some of its features and theories.
Filters theories evolved to explain the selective nature of attention. Experiments designed to test these theories showed the validity of assuming structural bottlenecks in the flow of information processing. Capacity theories build upon idea of bottlenecks while recognising that the location of the bottleneck from early to late stage in perception and cognition can vary (Kellogg, 1995). The most important, capacity theories recognised the mental effort aspect of attention as well as the selective aspect.

Automatic and Controlled Processes

Treisman and her colleagues have proposed features integration theory of vision that entails both automatic and preventive processes dovetailed with controlled or focused attention process. (Kellogg,1995). As Kellogg said, automatic processes require little if any mental effort. Moreover, they occur without intentional control; even when an individual attempts to stop an automatic process from operation, it unfolds anyway. Finally, automatic processes operate outside the scope of conscious awareness. Processes develop automatically either through genetic programming or as the result of extensive practice.
Controlled processes contrast with automatic processes on each point. They demand extensive mental effort, they require intentional control to operate, and they enter conscious awareness.
We believe from our daily experience that attention is a controlled process but we can improve through extensive practice.
The neruroanatomical basis for visual attention systems is only beginning to be understood. The facts to date suggest that the pulniar nucleus in the thalamus servers the function of filtering irrelevant stimuli. It dose so by controlling how sharply tuned a neurone in the neocortex is to a specific stimulus features and by altering the size of a neurone’s receptive field from the receptor cells in the eye (Kellogg, 1995).
In conclusion to this chapter, we have learned and seen how important our personal perception on the outer world is in order to have a correct personal cognitive schema about us and about our environment. We have seen also how important is the attention in our mental life, which can be improved through extensive practice. The cycle of perception helps us to have a correct cognitive schema about reality through top-down and bottom-up processes helping us to perceive the features of the environment with remarkable quickness and accuracy.

Chapter III
Memory and Learning

In this chapter we’ll try to understand what memory is. How is memory formed? How are separate incidents recalled later in their specificity and as the basis of “general concepts” of schema? Which is the connection between memory, attention, learning and forgetting?
In this chapter we will explore the currently strong “multi-store” model of memory and present basic neural mechanism of memory, including our current best understanding of various types of memory. Finally, we will see the three core cognitive processes of memory: learning, remembering, and forgetting.
“The life of an individual has meaning only because of memory” (Kellogg, pag.99, 1995).
Our past defines who we are, what we believe, what we can do, and what we feel. What life would be like if we would lose our memory? No recollection of where you were born, where you grew up, what you did at school, and where you work, whom you live with and even what you thought or did just moments ago.
We will start with the consideration of the classic distinction between short-term and working memory and long-term memory.

Short-Term versus Long-Term Memory

Introspection along these lines has suggested a distinction between short-term and long-term memory from the time of James’s Principles of Psychology in 1890. He referred to immediate memory of events currently attended to as primary memory and all other memory as secondary. Waugh and Norman (1965) formalised the distinction in their model of separate primary and secondary memory. Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) added a sensory store and provided us with the modern labels of short and long-term stores. The multistage model became the most influential theory in the field of cognitive psychology (Kellogg, 1995).
Shortly we will present some difference between short and long-term memory.

Difference in memory stores.

The multistage model contends that sensory memory briefly stores a large number of incoming sensations. Short-term memory holds only about seven recognisable items, but can do so for 20 to 30 seconds without rehearsal. Long-term memory appears to be virtually unlimited in capacity, capable of storing the experiences, factual knowledge, and skills of an entire lifetime.
The span of short-term memory for digits is limited to about seven items. But, Miller (1956) recognised that a cultural process can overcome this limitation. He called the process “chunking”. Meaningful patterns of information, often those grounded in the cultural tool of language, allow a person to remember far more than seven individual items. By grouping meaningful information together, we form a coherent chunk of information. But, the essential point is that short-term memory capacity is severely limited.
Forgetting, certainly occurs, but is unlikely to be necessary as a way of making room for new information, and this is the case with short-term memory.

Duration

In short-term memory we can retrain items for about 20 seconds depending on the specific task and materials used to assess the duration, estimates range from as brief as 10 seconds to as long as 30 seconds (Kellogg, 1995).
The duration of long-term memory must be measured in terms of years, not seconds. Once material is stored in long-term memory, it may well persist for a lifetime.

Retrieval

The retrieval of information from short and long-term memory differs.
Retrieval from short-term memory involves a serial exhaustive search. A serial search means that the items in memory are somehow ordered and are examined on at a time, starting with the first item and proceeding to the next. An exhaustive search refers to one that continues to examine all items in memory even after the target item has been found. So, in a serial exhaustive search would look at all items one at a time.
Retrieval from long-term memory is assumed to be a parallel, self-terminating process. A parallel search means that all items in memory are examined simultaneously, which result in much more efficient retrieval of information. A self-terminating search refers to one that stops as soon as the item being sought is found (Mircea Miclea, 1994).

Forgetting

We have also some differences across the three stores. Masking or replacing all the contents of sensory memory with new information is a unique mode of forgetting.
In the case of the short-term memory, new information displaces a portion of the old information, nudging out one item but leaving others intact. Interference is another common means of forgetting in short-term memory. Finally, brain lesions and other organic problems can cause short-term forgetting.
Displacement can hardly be taken seriously in the case of long-term memory, because its capacity is so large. Decay from long-term memory is certainly possible. If an event, which has occurred at age 7 and it, was rarely or never retrieved over the course of lifetime, the passage of time should result in loosing of that information. The implication of decay theory is that forgotten information is no longer available in memory. But several researches showed that the unavailable events might only be inaccessible to retrieval. The point here is that seemingly forgotten information can be made accessible under the right conditions.Contemporary theory stresses the cue dependent nature of forgetting form long-term memory. Recognising or recalling a past event depends on reactivating the contextual cues associated with the event at the time of encoding (Tulvin, 1983 in Kellogg, 1995).
In conclusion, the multistage model of memory distinguishes among sensory, short-term, and long-term stores. This highly influential model sought to identify unique characteristics with each store. The efforts proved relatively successful with regard to capacity, duration, and retrieval but less so with coding and forgetting. Personally we agree with the multistage model of memory.

Learning, Remembering and forgetting

In the final part of this chapter we will see the three core cognitive processes of memory: learning, remembering and forgetting.
Learning, involves encoding and storing events in long-term memory. Encoding begins with perceptual operations that lead to the entry of information into short-term memory and ends with deeper or higher order processes that store the information in long-term memory.

Encoding

Encoding and storage of episodic information in long-term memory depends on attention and effort. Unattended, automatic encoding fails to support explicit memory. However, merely attending is insufficient as well for good recall and recognition.
Without attention at encoding, little if anything persists beyond the short term. Individuals suffering from depression frequently report difficulties in remembering.

Rehearsal

Rehearsal refers to practising, whether it involves a motor skill such as gymnastics or declarative learning of facts or events. Elaborate rehearsals in which links are establish between new information and information already stored is important. Simply recycling information through attention and short-term storage, what is called maintenance rehearsal, is far less effective.

Organisation

Category cues. Tulvin and Pearlstone (1966) showed the power of organisation in their comparison of free and cued recall. The organisation of encoded information shows the powerful effect as an aid to retrieval. Also, the events may be available in memory but not accessible to recollection without the right retrieval cues. Organisation that is, encoding the relations among events and prior knowledge, benefits both learning and remembering.

Retrieval process

Encoding processes are important, but they cannot be considered apart from retrieval process. The encoding specificity principle asserts that events are recognised or recalled only when retrieval cues at the time of the test match the encoding cues present at the time of learning.
Retrieval can be an active process of remaining the perceptions, feelings, and possibly thoughts about the event and its context (Kellogg, 1995). From this perspective, forgetting represents a failure to access an episode because the retrieval cues are inadequate.
There are some states, which can affect the retrieval process: tip of the tongue states, which is presented by Kellogg (p. 145), as a nearly universal experience, when people often experience a feeling of knowing or familiarity in which some name, or word, date, or other information can not be retrieved despite a certainty that it is available in memory. TOT states suggest that information may be available, but inaccessible, in memory. The forgetting seems to be clearly caused by failure to find the right retrieval cue.
Psychological states. The emotional states of the individual also may serve as an effective retrieval cue. Bower (1981) (in Kellogg, 1995) found that the best learning occurs when the material being learned fits with the induced mood.
Schema and Memory

Schema shapes both what is stored and what is retrieved. They establish expectations those results in selection of the features of events that are encoded in the first place. Because of this schemas sometimes constructively distort memory during encoding in multiple ways. Schemas constructively guide the encoding of events through processes of selection, interpretation and integration. Finally, schemas reconstructively guide the retrieval process, enabling us to fabricate how events must have originally happened.
Because of this influence of schemas in encoding and retrieval we can have two people how witnesses to one experience and still to have two different testimonies are
We totally agree with this information about the cognitive processes of memory, learning, remembering and forgetting. We understood that memory is the essence of learning and that that is true to say that memory is learning. Finally we agree that with the importance of cognitive schemas, which influences the encoding, and retrieval of information. Also, we have seen that there are several causes who can have negative effects on encoding and retrieve information, like psychological, physical and external causes.

Chapter IV
Using Knowledge and Skills: Schema, Code, and Expertise

We have seen that memory and learning are important to our personal life, helping us to know ourselves, to learn to navigate in the real world, doing things and interacting with others. In this chapter we will see theses processes by which we represent knowledge in our minds. We will see how schemas are formed and modified and how their information is coded in propositions and images that the mind can then manipulate. Then we’ll look at how experts in a given domain manipulate schemas and codes to retrieve information.

Schemas

Knowledge representations are variously described in the literature as schemas, mental models, categories, classes, concepts, scripts, and frames. We will first give the definition for the terms. Schema is a dynamic mental representation of what one knows about objects, events and ideas.
Knowledge of mathematical ideas, philosophical beliefs and psychological states illustrate schemas of a non-physical nature. A schema summarises or represents numerous objects, events, or ideas that differ in one or more ways.
The types of schemas include frames, scripts, and equivalence classes or concepts. Frames represent the physical environment, such as a room. Scripts represent routine situations, often social in nature and typically involving a sequence of events.
Formal concepts specify a fixed membership boundary based on a set of defining features and a logical rule relating these features. Ad hoc or functional concepts are generated in responses to the needs of the moment. However, this gradient can shift and adapt to the specific conceptual requirements at hand, illustrating especially well the dynamic and fluid nature of schemas. Schemas change to adapt to current needs, including fashioning a new, momentary schema in an ad hoc manner.

Schema modification

New schemas are learned and modified through exploration of the environment and accommodation of pre-existing schemas. Tuning refers to fine adjustments in schemas that are made on temporary basis to meet a transient problem. The schemas metaphorically shape themselves for a moment to accommodate to the novel situation. Tuning continually alters schemas to meet the new demands of the environment.
Accretion refers to slow cumulative modifications in the structures of schemas. Over long periods of time gradually and permanently modifies a schema as new information is added through repeated exploration of the environments. Slowly, but surely, the shape and complexity of the schema modify themselves to the requirements of the environment.
Restructuring refers to sudden major modification in schemas. Rumelhart and Norman labelled this seismic process restructuring and sustain that such major changes in the representations of knowledge may come after enough exposure to discrepant experiences, through conscious reflection on one’s experience (Kellogg, 1995). But, at this point we would like to label this sudden major modification, from a Christian point of view, repentance, change of direction as an effect of a divine intervention through God’s word and through the Holly Spirit. In the last case we have formal education in which teachers try to impose schemas.

Expertise

As a person learns more and becomes more skilful within a particular domain of knowledge, the structure and process of memory are altered and refined.
Kellogg presents in chapter 7 several principles that should characterise an expertise: Principle of Mnemonic Encoding, the Principle of Retrieval Structure, and the Speed up Principle, the Principle of Flow, the Principle of Deliberate Practice and the Principle of Metagonitive Control. For a person to became expert in a domain should know how to accumulate, store and organised information into meaningful chunks. The superior performance of experts in a domain is no doubt linked to their ability to perceive and think in terms of meaningful chunks (Kellogg, 1995). It is important that the novice should analyse the accumulated information in order to use it in a particular real problem. The second principle linked by the first one is the Principle of Retrieval structure, refers to the highly specialised means used by experts to gain access to what they know. The development of retrieval structures also allows experts to anticipate what they need to remember and to encode the relevant information in a format that ensure later retrieval (Chase & Ericsson, 1982, in Kellogg, 1995). As we saw earlier, the memory depends not only on how well relevant information is encoded but also on how well it is retrieved. The intensive study and practice should increase the performance and retrieval for the young psychologist. As a consequent of practice, an expert carries out a task more rapidly than novice, a finding known as the speed up principle does.
The speed up principle claim that the speed of performance increase with practice. The decrease in task time follows an orderly relation described by a powerful function (Kellogg, 1995). Without any practice the generation task demanded controlled, effortfull processes. But still a negative element may occur here: as the individual gained expertise with practice, automatic processes took over the task. Still, there is an enjoyable emotion after a long time of practice, the flow of state. The Principle of Flow states that when experts are fully challenged by a task and this state is characterised by a total absorption of attention, a sense of effortlessness, and a feeling of enjoyment. The states occur only if there is an optimal match between the demands of the task and the skills of the performance.
The next principle, the Principle of Deliberate practice encourages me because it says that the talent comes from persistent, deliberate practice in the field (Kellogg, 1995). Becoming an experts require enormous amounts of learning and practice. It has been estimated that attaining the status of experts requires a minimum of 10 years of preparation. The experts should be highly motivated to spend time, working hard; he should receive immediate feedback or knowledge on the results of his effort (Bower & Hilgard, 1981, in Kellogg, 1995).
The last important principle is the Principle of Metacoginitive Control, which is important for the novice to be known. Through cognitive development, individuals grow in their ability to monitor their thought process and to select strategies that are effective for the task at hand.
The novice should learn not to despair in difficult moment when the demands of the task seems to be too hard but to think through problems carefully and consciously before taking any steps toward solving the task.
In conclusion to this chapter we have understood the big role of the cognitive schemas in the human development, which affect the encoding, and retrieval of information, affecting the way in which a person view the world and himself. The good news is that the schemas develop and can be changed improving the person’s life, and through hard work and practising a person may became an expertise in a certain field of study.

Chapter V
Language Skills: Speaking and Listening, Writing and Reading

In this chapter we will shortly describe the features of language and its skills, speaking, listening writing and reading and will give special attention to the “slips of the tongue” phenomena.
Language is a system of symbols that are used to communicate ideas among two or more individuals. Some characteristics of the language: semantically, means that the sounds or symbols used in language refers to objects, events, beliefs, desires, feelings, and intentions. They carry meaning (Kellogg, 1995). Arbitrariness refers to the lack of any obvious connection between the symbol and the meaning it carries. Duality concerns the use of a small set of sounds to yield multiple meanings through combination.
Further we’ll take a look at the “slip of the tongue” as phenomena, which are caused by errors in the articulator program, and not as a result of the “unconscious mind” which, as Freud pretended, that has its own motivations and needs.
Articulation, the actual production of speech sounds, is a physical reaction sparked by the mind as signals rush through the muscular system igniting the vocal chords, producing air patterns in the lungs, manoeuvring the tongue, lips and mouth in such a manner as to procure sounds that the mental processes have determined represent the thought processes necessary to enact meaningful speech.
The components of “speaking involves many cognitive and motor processes” (Kellogg, 1995) and a person must “first plan what needs to be said and how it needs to be said to affect listeners in the desire manner” (Kellogg, p.265, 1995).
In regard to the error in articulation referred to as a “slip of the tongue”, Kellogg argues that many cognitive theories consider this error to be the results of a failure in the execution of the articulator program (p.271) and he use Norman (1981) as a basis for this thought as stated, “they are no different than other everyday errors that people make and they reveal much about the workings of mental schemas, not about unconscious conflicts”.
Sigmund Freud on the other hand saw these slips of the tongue as an avenue for the unconscious mind to express itself without interruption from the cognitive constraints of the conscious mind. Freud looked to the psychological conflicts in the unconscious for the source of dreams (Kellogg, p.435, 1995) and he suggested that the unconscious mind has a so called “mind of its own” which possessed its own motivations and needs. In reference to slip of tongue, Freud may have simply argued that the unconscious mind had found an open route to the conscious world and travelled there via the same physical signals initiated by the conscious mind. In modern cognitive psychology, the concept of mental schemas and their and their direct link to the articulation and to the manner in which we conceive and understand those utterances may offer a strong argument for disproving the concept of the personal unconscious mind.
As we have seen in the early chapters, the concept of the dynamic mental structure called a schema evolved from the work of Piaget and Bartlett and these structures allow one to develop models of the physical world. As these mental pictures of foundations are developed, they are stored in long-term memory and are constantly built upon, as we grow older. As a consequent of our environments, schemas provide us with expectations about our environment and continually undergo modification through maturation and learning (Kellogg, p.20, 1995).
I submit that as our language models mature and as memory processes mature, we begin to get more lax in our attention to our mental recall techniques. This lack of attention is especially evident when we are involved in social interactions, which call for us to maintain both attentive listening patterns for cognitive processing and interpretation and for us to simultaneously search long-term memory for related data and information that can then be reprocessed and organised to allow us to articulate the information in a meaningful manner. During the process, a series of technical difficulties can transpire as this dual processing takes place. Such events as a slip of the tongue would then seem more like and early processing release of information.
A “spoonerism is a particular type of cognitive error in which two phonetic segments are reversed and an error may occur at different levels of the language structure. “Reversals” may occur at different levels of the phonetic segment and can allow for words or syllables to be switched without reason and for them to utter without conscious effort (Kellogg, 1995).
Additionally, the function of language in our social intercourse must be explode and the relationship that schemas play as we carry on a conversation with others. Kellogg calls this use of language “pragmatics” and defines it as “the study of the social functions of language” (p.239). According to Kellogg, “pragmatics addresses the various ways that speakers communicate their intentions depending on the social context” (p.239). If one were to consider the word “intention” in this text context, it may infer that considerable thought processes must take place to first define the intention or response prior to delivering it in the proper context within the conversation. With that in mind, the individual who experiences the slip of the tongue might well be said to be experiencing difficulties with their retrieval, encoding, and recall cues associated with the gathered information that they are “intent” on delivering.
In conclusion, we believe that our mental schemas, personal scripts, are almost 99 percent responsible for the slip of the tongue that lead into therapeutic issues because of the way we encode, and retrieve. Studding memory, language, organic functioning and schemas provided a very plausible explanation for the slip of the tongue.

Chapter VI
Thinking and Deciding: Solving Problems and Reasoning

In this chapter we will try to present the process of thinking and deciding. The term thinking traditionally has covered problem solving. Reasoning and decision making.
People think by manipulating mental representations of the world. Thorough the use of such representations, we can plan courses of action and simulate their effects prior to taking action. The study of problem solving has shed a light on how we go about this. Often in solving a problem, one builds a model of the environment with a clear, well-defined goal in mind. One then tries to find a path that leads straight to the goal with little diversion. Such problem solving illustrates directed thinking (Kellogg, 1995). Directed thinking, is goal oriented and rational. The cost of each path is certainly taken into account.
Undirected thinking refers to dreaming, daydreaming, and other forms of thought that meander without concern for attaining a goal. Undirected thinking is neither rational nor goal oriented. So, we have two types of thinking: directed and undirected thinking.
Both directed and undirected thinking have a role in solving specific types of problems, so we have well defined problems and ill defined problems (Kellogg, 1995).
A well-defined problem is characterised by an initial state, a goal state, and a set of operators. An operator defines each legal move from the initial state, to intermediate states, to the Goal State. All the states and operators taken together define the problem space. To solve a well-defined problem, one must select a sequence of operators, or perhaps all three.
An ill-defined problem often calls for insights and creativity, what the Gestalt psychologists called productive thinking. Yet, even some well-defined problems demand creative insights for solution (Kellogg, 1995).
A general model of problem solving entails first representing the problem and then searching the problem space for a path to the goal. Finding a good representation of the problem space is critical and often demands as much insight as the search process itself.
Gestalt psychologists recognised that both perception and problem solving require the proper organisation of elements. They identified two common obstacles to successful problem solving. Set, refers to the tendency to set the mind into a routine approach to problem solving. Thinkers who adopt an automatic or mindless approach to problem space that is ideal. And functional fixedness, which refers to the tendency to see objects as having only a single, typical, uses (Kellogg, 1995).
Generally, thinkers prematurely categorise the elements of a problem in accordance with their typical. Still, in problems solving we can talk also about the role of the creativity. The stage of creativity begins with preparation, studding, working the problem for an extended period of time. Incubation, putting with the problem aside, is the next stage and the third stage is illumination, coming up with a crucial insight that leads to the solution of the problem. The fourth stage is verification, when the insight is implemented and tested.
We believe that most of the people have difficulties in the very first stage, when they became discouraged, tired when have no results of theirs work and they end by giving up in searching for the solution.
In conclusion, we agree with the direct thinking in solving a problem, when one builds a model of the environment with a clear, well-defined goal in mind trying to well-define the space of the problem. Also, we see the importance of knowing the fourth stages of the cognitive processes that are creative in order to complete and succeed to find the solution for the problem.

Chapter VII
Thinking and Intelligence

In this chapter we will try to understand what intelligence from several theories is. Intelligence has historically been approached from two opposing positions. Sir Francis Galton (1892) pioneered the biological view of general intelligence. Individual differences is neural functioning were assumed to affect many cognitive abilities, including perception, attention, memory, problem solving and reasoning. Heredity was assumed to underline these individual differences. Sperman later named this “g” for general intelligence. Binet pioneered the opposing psychometric approach to intelligence, which held that cognitive abilities varied independently of one another. Alfred Binet (1903) assumed that environmental variations caused differences in cognitive abilities.

The triarchic theory of intelligence

The triarchic theory of intelligence assumes, first, that a small number of information processing components account for performance in cognitive task. These include metacomponents, performance components and knowledge acquisition components. Second, the triarchic theory addresses the ability of people to cope creatively with novel tasks and, at the same time, to respond automatically to routine tasks. Third, it addresses the relation of mental processes to the environment that underlines successful adaptation. Selecting and altering the environment to meet human needs is the third aspect of intelligence (Kellogg, 1995).

The frame of mind

The frame of mind approach identifies seven independent modules of intelligence. Linguistic, logical-mathematical, and spatial intelligence has been assessed in various ways on traditional tests of intelligence. Musical, body-kinaesthetic, interpersonal, and interpersonal intelligence have traditionally not been viewed as properly included in discussions of intellectual abilities. The frame view holds the human intelligence is much broader than traditionalist contends. It furthers claims that the seven modules develop independently, thus denying the existence of general intelligence.
Also, from the contextual intelligence subtheory I understood that an individual might not score high on intelligence tests IQ yet, the person might be “street smart”, knowing how to adapt to variations in the environment (Kellogg, p.401, 1995).
Having so many definitions of the intelligence we conclude that the IQ test has its limitation and a person’s intelligence should be evaluated form different perspectives.
The approach to intelligence theory that appears to make most sense to me is the seven-frame theory of intelligence by Gardner. As is written in Kellogg (1995) chapter 13, the frames of mind approach identifies seven independent modules of intelligence and it seems to me that this approach present the human intelligence much broader than traditionalist contend. Again, what we see in the IQ test is that the traditional approach is looking just at the verbal and mathematical aspects of human intelligence, while the seven frame theory “calls for an assessment of the full range of human performances that reflect intelligence” (Kellogg, p.402).
Also, we believe that these modules of intelligence, which are not too developed, could be developed through learning, encoding new information, practice problem solving, “one can continue to acquire new cognitive procedures as well as new knowledge through adulthood higher education (Kellogg, p.409). We believe that it’s good news that we can learn more and be more intelligent than yesterday, to study all thinks and to keep the good ones.
As Kellogg states in regard to evaluation research: “No matter the age at which one starts, it should be possible to learn new thinking strategies that are generally useful. Intelligence is hardly a fixed quantity” (Kellogg, p.410, 1995).

Chapter VIII
Feeling: Affect and Emotion

In this chapter we will try to understand what are the emotions, which are the functions of the emotion and which is the modern approach on emotions.
First and foremost, what are emotions? Does emotion exist as a biological component in the right cerebral hemisphere as British neurologist John Hughlings Jackson suggested or a hereditary genetic component passed on via the successful survival instincts learned and
passed on through the generations as Charles Darwin may have argued. Perhaps Michael Franz Basch suggestions that “we reserve the word “emotion” for the specific situation in which we link an affect triggered in any moment to our memory of previous experiences of that affect” (Nathanson, 1999) offer a definition of emotion that would lead us to believe that it does research our memories and thus maintains the potential to “adapt” to our changing environmental needs for survival.
In the behavioural online conversation with Donald Nathanson, he points to the Tomkin’s Affect Theory and states that, “we are born with a distinct group of normal emotional mechanisms, that …are essential to normal life, and that the ways we learn to handle affect is central to the formation of a personality” (Nathanson, 1999).
In all of this, it is difficult to pinpoint a definition of “emotion”; however, it is easier perhaps to find some agreement on the fact that these difficult to define characteristics do play a significant role in our lives and that they do “adapt” to the environments with which they interact. In his work, The Emotional Brain, Joseph LeDoux (1996) offers that “emotional systems evolved as ways of matching bodily responses with the demands being made by the environment.” It would appear quite obvious that we, as human beings, do possess some form of “emotional self” that does affect the manner in which we perceive and thus, interact, with our environment. Nathanson (1999) refers to this as a “Stimulus-Affect-Response (SAR) triplet” that holds that no stimulus can cause a response unless the stimulus first triggers and “affect” which we evaluate and respond too accordingly. This “script theory” states that the human mind analyses and compares the stimulus to existing “patterns” as they relate to the “stimulus-affect-response scene” (p. 7). Similar in ideology to the formation of schema and the constant revaluation process that reviews inputs and then makes adjustments to the schema format, the S-A-R theory suggests that as we recognise the similar sequences in various “scenes,” we group them into “families” which in turn triggers an affective response.
According to Nathanson (1999, p. 7), the affect mechanism “magnifies” the scene into a group of bundled scenes which is called a “script.” As we continue to interact with our environment, these scenes and scripts continue to develop and grow into new patterns; our emotions evolve along with them.
Joseph LeDoux (1996) says, “emotional systems evolved as ways of matching bodily responses with the demands being made by the environment.”
So, finally we can say that we as human beings react emotionally on unconscious level when we are in a threaded situation, when our life is in danger, in order to protect ourselves. Because of the affect we are able to react to defend ourselves and we do not to consciously process the fact that we are in danger. Than means that emotion helps us to adapt ourselves in different situations and therefor enhances our survival chances.
In conclusion we can say that different people react emotionally different in a given situation, a thing that involve learning, personal mental schema and not in the last place the “emotional memory”(Le Doux, 1996). In short the emotion are quick ways to sort out what incoming information really matters showing us that emotions must be adaptive to allow the organism to learn, evaluate, research, investigate, and thus create patterns for which to survive in their environment.

Chapter IX
Consciousness

In this last chapter we will examine and understand a typology of consciousness and try to understand what consciousness is.
Multiple systems of memory may be associated with different varieties of consciousness. Anoetic or nonknowing consciousness refers to the ability to sense and react to stimuli from the external and internal environments, and is associated with procedural memory.
Noetic or knowing consciousness is associated with semantic memory and takes as its object knowledge of the world. It enables one to be introspectively aware of external and internal stimuli. Autonoetic or self-knowing consciousness enables one to be aware of his or her own identity. Associated with episodic memory, it is consciousness of the personal events of the past, present and future.
Normal consciousness is both personal and sensibly continuos. It is not disconnected from the individual’s sense of identity, nor is it split or disconnected from moment to moment. However, dissociate states of consciousness also exist that are characterised by their impersonal disorders such as amnesia, fugue, and multiple personalities. Dissociated states may also be observed in highly hypnotisable individuals using a method called the hidden observer.
Under hypnosis, some people experience profound analgesia, reporting verbally little if any pain to stimuli that cause excruciating pain under waking conditions.
Waking consciousness is characterised by a running narration or interpretation of our external and internal environment, our perceptions, and our thoughts. and our beliefs (Kellogg, 1995). Both directed and undirected thinking exhibits this property of self-narratization. Its purpose is to interpret the meaning of our perception, thoughts, and emotions.
Two traditional explanations of the relationship between mind and body are dualism and materialism. Dualism views the two as separate entities. Each state of the brain is associated with a state of mind; the two sets of states are correlated with each other. Materialism or reductionism argues that the mind is not separate from the brain at all. Rather. The mind is nothing but the working of the brain and other neural structures and possesses no independent existence. But, interactions it regards the mind as an emergent property of brain functioning. The mind can not be reduced to the brain in this view, because it is an emergent property with a separate existence.
I believe that that being conscious is a part of our being, is a part of our self. We manifest our self in conscious or unconscious states in different situation. To understand why a person is behaving in unconscious states we need to have a complete picture of the person including altered states to understand the self of that person.

Conclusion

Cognitive psychology is a scientific discipline that succeeds to give some extraordinary answers to some questions about the mental life of the human being.
Cognitive psychology is the discipline that studies the human cognitive systems and its components, memory, understanding, language, and perception.
Cognitive psychology studies the processing of information between sensorial input and behavioural output. It represents one of the noblest of all human endeavours: The application of the best of our scientific desire to understand the world to our selves. One glory of the human family is that we are willing to try to understand our very own processes of knowing and feeling.
The results of the cognitive psychology are encouraging showing that the human being is a complex being that can develop raising the living standards. A human being should be proud of its features. But, also there is some domain in the human mental life, which still needs further studies, such as the unconsciousness and the intelligence.

REFERENCES
Kellogg, R.T. (1995). Cognitive Psychology. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publication
LeDoux, J., (1996) The emotional brain: the mysterious underpinnings of emotional life. New York: Simon & Shuster
Miclea, M. (1994). Psihologie Cognitiva. Cluj-Napoca. Gloria. Romania.
Nathanson, D. (1999) A conversation with Donald Nathonson, Behavior OnLine, [Online], Available from http://www.behavior.net/column/nathanson/
copyright © Sorin Balogh

www.psihoteam.com

Since organizations around the globe are made up of people, knowledge of interpersonal and social processes is essential for understanding and managing organizations. It is important to generate reliable and valid knowledge in the area of organizational behavior.
Basically, organizations are social enterprises of people coming together to achieve some shared goals that they believe they can achieve more effectively and efficiently together than alone.
We stress the importance of a sound knowledge of theory, data, and applied strategies to work effectively with and in organizations.
Therefore we will try to understand in this paper project the importance of methods of research in trying to find suitable strategies to improve the activity of the organization; we will identify three frequently used method of research and explain the advantages and limitations of each.

Chapter I
Research in organizational behavior

Knowledge about organizational behavior has become increasingly critical to a manager’s performance and to his long – term career success.
Traditional ways of ascertaining knowledge, such as rationalism, personal experience, intuition (means arriving at knowledge without relying on either reason or inference), tenacity (believing that something is true simply because we have always believed it to be true) and reliance on authorities have many limitation.
The advantage of science relative to these more traditional means is objectivity, and it tends to be public, self-correcting, and cumulative. Science defines the understanding it seeks as the ability to describe, explain, predict, and control the subjects of its inquiry (Wagner III and Hollenbeck, 1992).

Description

The propose of some research methods is simply description, that is, drawing an accurate picture of a particular phenomenon or event. The development of scientific knowledge usually begins with descriptive work. The ultimate criterion for evaluating all descriptive research is the fidelity with which it reflects the real world.

Explanation

The ultimate goal of science is explanation – staying why some relationship exists. Some might argue that as long as we can describe, predict and control things, why go any further? Because if we know the exact reason why something occurs we can usually explain and control it much more efficiently.

Prediction

Prediction or stating what will happen in the future is the primary goal of many scientific studies. Prediction requires that we know the relationships between certain conditions and outcomes.

Control

Studies that focus on prediction often lead to further research in which the goal is to control the situation. Predictive studies often uncover relationships between antecedents and outcomes, and if it is possible to manipulate the antecedents, it may be possible to control the outcomes (Wagner III and Hollenbeck,1992).
Managers in organizations are responsible for controlling the behavior of others. Thus the more information a study provides on how control can be achieved, the more useful the study is to practicing managers.
In conclusion we have understood that the scientific way is the best available means for arriving at knowledge and now we need to consider which are the most frequently used methods of research in organizational psychology and explain the advantages and disadvantages of each.
The three primary methods of study that are used most often in organizational psychology are: the case study, the field experiment and the laboratory experiment (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
In general, as we move from case study to laboratory experiment, we’ll gain increasing control over the independent and dependent variables at the expense of losing realism, ecological validity, or touch with the actual organization, members, or events that are internal and external to an organization.

Chapter II
The Case Study

We are taking case study to be a strategy for doing research which involves an empirical investigation of a particular contemporary phenomenon within its real life context using multiple source of evidence (Robson,1997).
In general, case studies use a combination of data collection methods, such as interviews, surveys, questionnaires, and observations involving qualitative, quantitative, or both types of evidence. In these studies, researchers observe, measure, and record whatever they find without experimentally manipulating the independent variables. Case studies can be used to provide detailed descriptions, test theory, or generate theory (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
The case studies can be done on a person, on a group, on an organizations and institutions where can study policy implementation and evaluation; industrial relations; management and organizational issues; organizational cultures; processes of change and adaptation; etc.
In case study the design process is in one sense more forgiving than in experiments; there is the opportunity to modify and change focus. To develop a case study design we need: a conceptual framework (covers the main features aspects, dimensions, factors, variables of a case study and their presumed relationships); a set of research questions; a sampling strategy (it is not possible to study everything; we need to decide who; where; when; what are the items to be observed); and to decide on methods and instruments for data collection (interviews, surveys, questionnaires, observation) (Robson, 1997).
In experiments we get the design sorted out at the beginning and then put it into practice. Deviation from the design can be a disaster, possibly entailing us starting again. Case study is more arduous as the design is a continuing issue during the course of the study.

Advantages in using case studies

Case studies give you the entree to variables and research questions concerning individual, naturally occurring entities, whether these be individual people, groups, organizations or whatever.
In consultation evaluation, case studies use descriptive techniques to evaluate the specific effects of consultation on consultees and clients.
Wallace and Hall (1996) indicate several advantages of using case studies in the consultation evaluation framework:
1. Evaluation data uncovered is a consultation case study may call into question the findings of global consultation evaluation approaches or methodologies.
2. The case study often elicits evaluation data that contribute substantively to more formal, traditional, and better – controlled evaluation data.
3. The case study approach allows consultants to evaluate atypical consultation situations not amenable to traditional evaluation methods.
4. The case study method permits consultants to apply traditional evaluation methodologies in innovative ways.
5. The case study, through the consultant’s attention to tight control and scientific principles, has the potential to contribute valid evaluation data.
6. The case study allows consultants to add substance and depth to theoretical evaluation data (Wallace and Hall, 1996).
Used to trace the behavior and reactions of an individual to an intervention, case studies are chronologies of the specific dynamics, processes, and outcomes of consultation in organizations.

Disadvantages in using case study

They would normally focus on current events and concerns, and while they can provide theoretical generalization about processes, they do not permit statistical generalizations.
The limitations of this method include little, control over independent and, to a lesser extent, dependent variables, and the difficulty of determining what independent variable – dispositional, contextual, or both – are responsible for whatever dependent measures are part of the study (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
And because of case study’s intensive nature, can only focus on a small number of cases. This leads to questions about the representatives of the findings, and whether they provide and adequate base for both the development and the answering of research questions.(Robson, 1997).
In conclusion we have understand that the case study can be very useful in the consultation process in organizations, they allow the assessment of consultation effects that more global evaluation methods are unable to detect.
The case study can be used best for exploratory purposes research to generate new topic areas, to provide insights and to suggest hypotheses.

Chapter III
The Field Experiment

First, to be experimental is simply to be concerned with trying new things – and seeing what happens, what the reception is. There is a change in something, and a concern for the effects that this change might have on something else. Two ways in which field research can be conducted are: simply choosing to observe naturally occurring behavior; or choosing to manipulate independent variables and looking for changing in behavior (Bordens and Abbott, 1988).
Experimentation is a research strategy involving the assignment of subjects to different conditions; manipulation of one or more variables (independent variables) by the experimenter; the measurement of the effects of this manipulation on one or more other variables (dependent variables); and the control of all other variables (Robson,1997).
A central feature of the experiment is that you need to know what you are doing before you do it. A great deal of preparatory work is needed if it is going to be useful. An experiment is an extremely focused study – you can only handle a very few variables, often only a single independent variable and a single dependent variable. The major problem in doing experiments in the real world is that you often don’t know enough about the thing you are studding for this selectivity of focus to be a sensible strategy. If we recall from the previous chapter that in case studies there is flexibility to develop and change the focus during the study
Field experiment or true experiment outside the laboratory involves systematic observations of events in real – life organizations and situations. Given that the chief strength of true experiments lies in their ability to get at causal relationship it is unsurprising that experimentalists worry about control over variables. The greater such control, the higher the internal validity. And this applies not only to the independent variables, but also to a whole host of possible extraneous variables (Robson, 1997).
Advantages in using field experiments

Compared to a laboratory, natural settings have several advantages; external validity – generalize ability to the real world – is almost self-evidently easier to achieve when the study takes place outside the laboratory in a setting which is almost real “real life”.

Generalizability

The laboratory is necessarily and deliberately an artificial setting where the degree of control and isolation sets it apart from real life. If we are concerned with generalizing results to the real world the task is easier if experimentation is in a natural setting. Much laboratory experiment is based on student subjects, making generalization to the wider population hazardous. Although this is not a necessary feature of laboratory work, there is less temptation to stick to student groups when experiments take place in natural settings (Robson, 1997).

Validity

The demand characteristics of laboratory experiments, where subjects tend to do what they think you want them to do, are heightened by the artificiality and isolation of the laboratory situation. Real tasks in a real world setting are less prone to this kind of game playing. So you are more likely to be measuring what you think you are measuring.

Subject availability

It is no easy task to get subjects to come into the laboratory. You have to rely on them turning up. Although it depends on the type of study, many real life experiments have subjects in abundance, limited only by your energy and staying power. The crucial feature is random allocation to experimental conditions. If you can find a feasible and ethical means of doing this when planning a field experiment, then you should seriously consider carrying out a true experiment.
Compared to the laboratory experiment, the trade – off is realism for reduced control of the conditions of observations (Lawson and Shen, 1998).

Disadvantages in using field experiments

As with the case study and laboratory experiment, the field experiment has its disadvantages. Moving outside the safe confines of the laboratory may well be traumatic and meet some particular practical difficulties (Bordens and Abbott,1988).

Random assignment

There are practical and ethical problems of achieving random assignment of different experimental treatments or conditions (in withholding the treatment from a no-treatment control group). Random assignment is also often only feasible in atypical circumstances or with selected respondents, leading to questionable generalizability. For small samples of the units being randomly assigned, sampling variability is a problem. Treatment – related refusal to participate or continue can bias sampling.

Validity

The actual treatment may be an imperfect realization of the variables of interest, or a restricted range of outcomes may be insensitively or imperfectly measured, resulting in questionable validity. For exempla, a supposed no- treatment control group may receive some form of compensatory treatment, or be otherwise influenced (Ioan, 1993).

Ethical issues

There are gray areas in relation to restricting the involvement to volunteers, the need for informal consent and the debriefing of subjects after the experiment. Strict adherence to ethical guidelines is advocated, but this may lead to losing some of the advantages of moving outside the laboratory.

Control

Lack of control over extraneous variables may mask the effects of treatment variables, or bias their assessment. Interaction between subjects may vitiate random assuagements and violate their assumed independence (Robson, 1997).
As an example of a field experiment would be an examination of the effects of procedural justice or an explanation by management of a pay cut or reduction in force on employees’ job satisfaction and turnover or voluntary departure from the organization (Schaubroeck, May, and Brown, 1994 in Lawson and Shen, 1998).
Since the researcher may not have control over the magnitude of the pay cut (independent variable), he or she has to take whatever is there in the field. Likewise, there may be limited opportunities to select dependent variables because the employees may be resentful and overworked and refuse or attempt to sabotage any data collection process (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
In conclusion to the field experiment method we have understood that the experiment can study virtually any kind of behavior but is limited by both practical and ethical considerations to “low impact” variables and research questions.
Getting at causal inferences is easier in experiments.
Experiments have to satisfy strict design requirements (on the assignment of subjects to different conditions, and the phasing of interventions). We need to know what we are looking for with high specificity because we are dealing with a very small number of variables.
Because the research is conducted in the real world (to different groups and situations), the results can be easily generalized to the real world. But an important disadvantage is that we have little control over potential confounding variables and dose not allow for subjects to be randomly selected.

Chapter IV
The Laboratory Experiment

Lawson and Shen (1998) sustain that this method allows the greatest opportunities for controlled observations in response to manipulations of the independent variables and measurement of the dependent variables.
Laboratory experiments can involve the systematic study of any aspect of organizations or actions within organizations, such as decision making or conflict resolution, because the researchers simulate or create the testing conditions (Lawson and Shen, 1998).

Advantages in using laboratory experiments

When we conduct research in laboratory settings we gain important control over the variables that could affect our results. The degree of control depends on the nature of the laboratory setting. For example, you are interested in animal learning; you can structure the setting to eliminate virtually all extraneous variables that could affect the course of learning.
This is what Ivan Pavlov did in his investigations of classical conditioning. Pavlov exposed dogs to his experimental conditions while the dogs stood in a sound - shielded room. The shielded room permitted Pavlov to investigate the impact of the experimental stimuli free from any interfering sounds. Like Pavlov, we are able to control important variables within the laboratory that could affect the outcome of our research (Bordens and Abbott, 1988).
Complete control over extraneous variables may not be possible in all laboratory settings, but for the most part, the laboratory affords more control over the research situation than dose the field experiment.
Strengths of the laboratory experiment are the ability to identify and describe causal relationships. A related and powerful reason is that many potential consumers of our esquires give high value to what they see as scientifically validated findings, about cause and effect, perceiving them as leading to practical, relevant knowledge (Robson, 1997).
Robson (1997) develops this argument in the context of studies of research on organizations. He takes the example of the effects of a participate approach to organizing work, claiming that if this is shown to lead causally to greater job satisfaction and individual performance than a non-participate approach, then the resulting evidence may be deemed to have considerable practical importance, since the evidence contains an implicit prescription about the appropriate distribution of influence within work organizations.

Disadvantages in using laboratory experiments

Realism and generalizability tend to be sacrificed in laboratory experiments but for many studies the degree of control of the environment, and of what happens to the subjects involved, is crucial in obtaining reliable data about the phenomenon of interests, and the contrivance and artificiality of laboratory conditions are relatively unimportant.
Robson (1997) sustain the fact that the laboratory is the controlled environment par excellence makes results obtained there very difficult to generalize to any settings other than close approximations to laboratory conditions. He says also that the real world phenomena are best studied outside the laboratory to enhance realism and to make easier to generalize results.
On the other hand, we have Bordens and Abbot (1988) who consider that by using a simulation methodology of the real world in the laboratory experiment we have the ability to generalize results as well as controlling extraneous variables.
In a simulation study, we attempt to re-create (as closely as possible) a real – world situation in the laboratory. When carefully designed and executed, simulation may increase the generality of results (Bordens and Abbot, 1988). And also we have Locke (1986) who argues that the generalizability of findings from laboratory to real world settings is considerable when using simulation methodology. The more realistic the simulation, the greater are the chances that the results will be applicable to the simulated real – world event.
In conclusion, the laboratory approach to research has the advantage of allowing us to control variables and thus isolate effects of the variables under study. However, in gaining such control over variables, we lose a degree of generality of results. Using simulation that is high in experimental realism may improve the ability to generalize laboratory results in the real world.

Conclusion

In conclusion to this paper project we recognize the importance of methods of research in trying to find suitable strategies to improve the activity of the organizations.
We have identified three frequently used methods of research and we understood that each method has advantages and disadvantages
The case study can be used best for exploratory purposes research to generate new topic areas, to provide insights and to suggest hypotheses.
The field experiment method is conducted in the real world the results can be easily generalized to the real world. But an important disadvantage is that we have little control over potential confounding variables and dose not allow for subjects to be randomly selected.
The laboratory experiment has the advantage of allowing us to control variables and thus isolate effects of the variables under study. However, in gaining such control over variables, we lose a degree of generality of results.
Using simulation that is high in experimental realism may improve the ability to generalize laboratory results in the real world.

REFERENCES

______Bordens, S. Kenneth & Abbott, B. Bruce. (1988). Research Design and Methods – A Process Approach. Mountain View, California: Mayfield Publishing Company.
______Lawson, R.B., Shen, Z. (1998). Organizational Psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press
______Radu, Ioan. (1993). Metodologie Psihologica si Analiza Datelor. Cluj Napoca: Sincron Publishing House.
______Robson, Colin. (1997). Real World Research. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
______Wagner III, A. John & Hollenbeck, R. John. (1992). Management of Organizational Behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc.
______Wallace, A. William & Hall, L. Donald (1996). Psychological Consultation – Perspective and Applications. Pacific Grove, C.A.: Brooks / Cole Publishing Company.

Copyright © Sorin Balogh

www.psihoteam.com

We know that every individual has something that psychologists have termed “personality”. An individual’s personality is made up of a set of relatively permanent and stable traits. When we describe someone as innovative, relaxed, warm or conservative, we are describing personality traits. An organization, too, has a personality, which we call the organization’s culture.
Organizational culture is an important situational variable that influence all members of an organization to various degrees, so it is important to have a sound understanding of this construct to manage and work effectively in an organization.
In this paper project we want to define organizational culture as it is presented by two theorists, indicate levels of expressions of culture in an organization, and provide specific strategies or tools to modify organizational culture.

Chapter I
Definitions of Organizational Culture

We will present how Schein defines organizational culture in “Organizational culture and leadership”(1992) as it is presented by Yukl in “Leadership in Organizations”(1998) and Ott’s definition of the organizational culture in “The Organizational Culture Perspective”(1989) as it is presented by Lawson and Shen in “Organizational Psychology”(1998).

Schein’s definition of organizational culture
Schein (1992) defines culture of a group or organization as shared assumptions and beliefs about the word and their place in it, the nature of time and space, human nature, and human relationships. Schein distinguishes between underlying beliefs (which may be unconscious) and espoused values, which may or not be consistent with these beliefs. Espoused values do not accurately reflect the culture when they are inconsistent with underlying beliefs. For example, a company may espouse open communication, but the underlying belief may be that any criticism or disagreement is detrimental and should be avoided. It is difficult to dig beneath the superficial layer of espoused values to discover the underlying beliefs and assumptions, some of which may be unconscious (Yukl,1998).
The underlying beliefs representing the culture of a group or organization are learned responses to problems of survival in the external environment and problems of internal integration.
Schein say that the primary external problems are the core mission or reason for existence of the organization, concrete objectives based on this mission, strategies for attainting these objectives, and ways to measures success in attaining objectives (Yukl, 1998).
All organizations need to solve problems of internal integration as well as problem of external adaptation. Objectives and strategies cannot be achieved effectively without cooperative effort and reasonable stability of membership in the organization.
Internal problems include the criteria for determining membership in the organization, the basis for determining status and power, criteria and procedures of allocating rewards and punishments, an ideology to explain unpredictable and uncontrollable events, rules or customs about how to handle aggression and intimacy and a shared consensus about the meaning of words and symbols.

The beliefs that develop about these issues serve as the basis for role expectation to guide behavior, let people know what is proper and improper and help people maintain comfortable relationship with each other (Yukl, 1998). Robbins (1994) and others sustain too that the shared values determine in large degree what employees see and how they respond to their world (Robbins,1990; Robbins, 1994; Stoner and Freeman, 1992)
When confronted with a problem the organizational culture restricts what employees can do by suggesting the correct way - “the way we do things around here”(Bower,1966) - to conceptualize, define, analyze, and solve the problem (Robbins, 1994).
We believe that the internal and external problems are closely interconnected and organizations must deal with them simultaneously.
In conclusion, Schein (1992) defines the organizational culture as shared assumptions and beliefs about the world and their place in it, the nature of time and space, human nature, and human relationships. Organizational culture have distinct dimensions that can be defined and measured. This is important to know in order to develop and use change strategies of the culture.

Ott’s definition of the organizational culture

On the other hand Ott (1989), in “The Organizational Culture Perspective” describe organizational culture as a social constructed, unseen, and unobservable force behind organizational activities. Organizational culture is a social energy that moves organizational members to act and unifying theme that provides meaning and direction to and mobilizes the members. It functions as an organizational control mechanism, informally approving or prohibiting behaviors (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
In short, organizational culture is a hypothetical construct that must be inferred from the share thoughts, feelings, values, and actions of organizational members.
Last, Ott suggested that organizational culture is a concept, construct, energy, idea, rather than a thing that can be directly observed, measured and manipulated.
But we do not agree that the organizational culture is just a concept, energy, idea and can not be observed, measured or manipulated because then we can not discuss about managing and changing the organizational culture. If culture exists, and we argue that it does, it should have distinct dimensions that can be defined, measured, and changed.
I n “Organization Theory - Structure, Design and Applications” Robbins (1990), propose that there are ten characteristics that when mixed and matched tap the essence of an organization’s culture:
1. Individual initiative, which is the degree of responsibility, freedom, and independence that individuals have.
2. Risk tolerance. The degree to which employees are encouraged to be aggressive, innovative, and risk-seeking.
3. Direction. The degree to which the organization creates clear objectives and performance expectations.
4. Integration. The degree to which units within the organization are encouraged to operate in a coordinated manner.
5. Management support. The degree to which managers provide clear communication, assistance, and support to their subordinates.
6. Control. The number of rules and regulations, and the amount of direct supervision that are used to oversees and control employee behavior.
7. Identity. The degree to which members identify with the organization as a whole rather than with their particular work group.
8. Reward system. The degree to which reward allocation are based on employee performance criteria in contrast to seniority, favoritism and so on.
9. Conflict tolerance. The degree to which employees are encouraged to air conflicts and criticisms openly.
10. Communication patterns. The degree to which organizational communications are restricted to the formal hierarchy of authority.
These ten characteristics include both structural and behavioral dimensions which means that organizational cultures are not just reflections of their members’ attitudes and personalities. A large part of an organization’s culture can be directly traced to structurally related variables (Robbins, 1990).
John P. Kotter in “Leading Change” (1996) sustain that culture refers to norms of behavior and shared values among a group of people. Kotter(1996) says too that culture is not something that you manipulate easily but it is possible to make the transformation.
“The first step in a major transformation is to alter the norms and values.” (Kotter, p.156,1996,).
He sustain that cultures changes only after you have successfully altered people’s actions, after the new behavior produces some group benefit for a period of time, and after people see the connection between the new action and the performance improvement.
In conclusion, organizational culture is not just a concept, construct, idea, energy, ghost which can not be seen or measured but it is a system of shared meanings with a certain structural and behavioral dimensions that are closely associated and interdependent. In every organization there are patterns of beliefs, symbols, rituals, myths and practices that have evolved over time. These in turn create common understanding among members as to what the organization is and how its members should behave.
Organizational culture refers to norms of behavior and shared values among the people items which can be changed to increase the performance of an organization.

Chapter II
Levels of expression of organizational culture

According to Schein (1992) organizational culture is discernible at three different levels: artifacts, values and basic assumptions.

Artifacts

It is widely agreed that the most readily observable but least exact expression of the shared meanings of the culture are represented by artifacts. Artifacts include things and the arrangement of things in an organization, as well as observable behaviors captured by organizational stories and ceremonies, rites and rituals (habitual activities rooted in values and basic assumptions like weekly or monthly departmental meetings or presentations), and norms (unwritten rules for appropriate and inappropriate behaviors). Artifacts of a culture are quickly detected but the share meaning is the key for appreciating and becoming deeply aware of the organizational culture.

Values

Values, defined by Schein (1992) as someone’s sense of what ought to be, as distinct from what is, represent the second level of organizational culture. Shared values are important concerns and goals shared by most people in a group that tend to shape group behavior and that often persist over time even when group membership changes (Kotter, 1996).
The basic issue at this level of organizational culture is the members’ determination of what works or is successful for a given organizational problem. Values can be both espoused and enacted; however, adults pay the greatest attention to enacted or operationalized values and are more inclined to modify their own values in response to them than to values that are solely expressed or espoused (Lawson and Shen, 1998). The validity of a given value is determined by testing the preferred solution against physical or social realities. For example, out of many comparable manufacturing processes, one is selected or valued because it yields the most durable product or particular activities are performed in particular ways because the feel right or are accepted by a large majority of organizational members as the right thing to do. Hence, what works and what members agree works becomes the anvil against which values are hammered out for a particular organizational culture.

Basic assumptions

According to Schein (1992) when the initial preferences for organizational problem solving continue to be successful, organizational members increasingly take the originally tentative solutions for granted and come to believe that their selected solutions actually reflect reality because they have continued to be successful. If a solution works repeatedly, it must be true, and any doubt about its efficacy is eliminated from the minds of the members and eventually from the cultural mind of the organization. For example, if the members of an organization share the beliefs that they must first and foremost learn to harmonize human actions and desires with the elements of the world, such as clean air, water, open spaces, and respect for vegetation and other living creatures it is most likely that they will be working for a “green organization”.
As the members act on their fundamental beliefs and the organization succeeds, grows, and prospers, the fundamental beliefs are taken for granted and simply acted on without further reflection or regard. According to Schein (1992) when these fundamental beliefs are shared, taken for granted and nondebatable, they become the basic assumptions of the culture.
Changing basic assumptions is an anxiety-provoking and difficult process that involves double-loop organizational learning or basically changing the important things you have done and still do, rather than single loop learning which involves getting more efficient at what you now do (Lawson and Shen,1998).
In conclusion to this chapter we have understood that there are several level of expression in the organizational culture like artifacts, values and basic assumptions which can be determined analyzed and changed. Artifacts are observable behaviors but least exact expression of the shared meanings of the culture; values represent important concerns and goals shared by most people in a group that tend to shape group behavior and also we have the basic assumptions which are the fundamental beliefs shared by all the members about the organization which are very difficult to change, but it’s possible to do this.

Chapter III
Cultural Change Strategies

Organizational learning and organizational culture are intimately linked to each other, and this linkage provides the bases for instituting organizational cultural change. A number of different changes are possible, including elimination of existing cultural forms that symbolizes the old ideology, modification of existing cultural forms to express the new ideology, and creation of new cultural forms (Yukl, 1998).

Schein’s change strategy
Schein’s (1992) leader-centered change strategy is perhaps the most fully articulated. It is a strategy that involves a clinical relationship between outside consultants and informed and cooperative insiders whose primary joint task is to identify and then change the basic assumptions of the organizational culture primarily by changing either the leaders’ assumptions or changing the leaders.

The external or outside consultant has the distinct advantage of independence and transience (Wallace and Hall1996). As an outsider, the external consultant is independent of the organization’s hierarchy and status system. Detached financially, socially, and emotionally from the consultee’s system.

The outside consultant is in a position to be more objective in the assessment and diagnostic stages of the consultation process, and is free to offer new perspectives and paradigms for action. We consider that the outside consultant it’s very important to have in a change process from the organization.
Schein (1992) identified specific primary strategies that can be applied to change an organizational culture. All these strategies focus on the formal (and informal) organizational leader or leadership team and include for example: what leaders pay attention to, measure, and control; how leaders react to critical incidents and organizational crisis; observed criteria by which leaders allocate scarce resources; deliberate role modeling, teaching, and coaching; observed criteria by which leaders recruit, select, promote, retire, and excommunicate organizational members.
Schein (1992) also identified secondary strategies and reinforcement mechanism to change organizational culture that include modifying organizational rites, rituals, and stories; structuring reward system to promote change; and revising formal statements, such as the organizational mission statement (what we do), vision statements (what we aspire to be), value statements and recruitment materials. Schein’s cultural change process focuses primarily on the leader or leadership team and involves the external consultant working closely with organizational insiders who are committed to organizational change and have sufficient influence to an impact on many members of the organization.

Lawson and Shen Cultural Change Strategy

Lawson and Shen cultural change strategy combines features of different approaches that, in one way or the other involve changing norms, or unspoken rules of behavior, reward systems and organizational rites or organized and planned activities that have both practical and consequences (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
Basically, there are three phases to these cultural change strategy: assessment; construction and implementation of cultural and learning change projects and organizational outcome measures and project modifications. Lawson and Shen (1998) recognize too the importance of the external consultant in the changing process of the organizational culture.
Phase 1, assessment, involves three steps: identifying the client, increasing cultural awareness and establishing baselines. In the first step the external consultant focuses on identifying the organizational processes of motivational systems, leadership, decision making, conflict resolution, and individual - organizational change as the client for the change program, rather than a particular individual, group, or unit. It is important to indicate that these organizational processes will change only if individual members who give life to them change their shared and unifying patterns of thoughts, feelings, values, and actions about the critical issues in the organization.
Phase one also involves increasing cultural awareness by assembling as many of the documents that serve as a preliminary directory of an organizational culture. To obtain information about organizational stories, jokes, ceremonies and rituals; information from external persons or organization that interact regularly with the target organization. And establishing cultural baselines by creating a document that describes the current organizational culture. From the assessment document, the leadership, committed organizational members and the change consultant can identify the cultural baselines and focal processes around which the consultant can build cultural change projects.
Phase 2, construction and implementation of cultural and learning change projects, is the action phase. Once the draft mission statement is completed, the consultant expect some suggestions for revision and discuss the document to give everyone an opportunity to participate in the process.
The external consultant expect suggestions from the internal consultant or from the manager of the organization. The internal consultant is aware of the existence of sensitive records and data; through experience the inside consultant has prior knowledge of the organization’s history, social structure, power structure, communication channels, politics, and local customs and beliefs in the organizational community.
In addition, it is important to have a good collaboration between the external consultant and the internal consultant because the insider has command of the organization’s language – the jargon (favorite terms and phrases unique to the organization) which is very important to make an implementation of cultural and learning change (Wallace and Hall, 1996).
Here it is appropriate to establish some learning experiments in which a current process that supports the new mission statement is described and root causes of problems and barriers to change are identified and then to start implementing a change in a given process while monitoring changes in performance. Last it is important to initiate or reinforce an existing rite of enhancement.
Phase 3, organizational outcomes measures and project modifications, includes a synthesis and interpretation of performance or outcome measures for all cultural change projects and then decision about what modification of existing cultural change project are required and established as the way to do things in the organization. It is critical to provide systematic feedback to members so they become aware of their individual and collective sense of efficacy (capacities to execute specific patterns of actions), identify the extent of resistance to change and help to identify barriers to change in the organizational culture (Lawson and Shen, 1998) .
Cultural transformation requires time and if the leadership is not prepared for a sustained campaign then the focus will be lost and the transformation effort will dwindle and die. A good collaboration between the external consultant and the leadership of the organization is required for the success of the changing process which may take a couple of good years.
Kotter (1994) affirm too that culture changes only after you have successfully altered people’s actions, after the new behavior produces some group benefit for a period of time, and after people see the connection between the new actions and the performance improvement.
In conclusion to this chapter we have understood that a number of different changes are possible to make in an organizational culture, including elimination of existing cultural forms that symbolizes the old ideology, and creation of new cultural forms in the organizational culture to save an organization and to make it if profitable and more efficient.
We indicate that both cultural change strategies are worthy to be followed considering that both accept the importance of an external organizational psychologist consultant who is working closely with the internal consultant / manager and is promoting change strategy that involves the leadership team and change strategy for the other members of the organization by creating reinforcement mechanisms to modify organizational rites, rituals, to promote an holistic change in the organization.

Conclusions

In conclusion to this paper project it is essential to remember that organizational culture is a situational variable that influences, to various degree, all members of an organization. We have learned that organizational culture is the unifying and shared pattern of thoughts, feelings, values, and actions that serve to bind together organizational members and distinguish them from nonmembers.
Organizational learning and organizational culture are linked to each other and this provides the bases for instituting organizational cultural change. We have seen two specify change strategies and the steps to implementate them which can be applied in a wide variety of organizations. We have understood that a solid understanding of organizational culture minimizes the unnecessary expenditure of attention and emotions regarding what, how, when and why to think, value, feel, and act in the workplace.

REFERENCES

_____Yukl, G. (1998). Leadership in Organizations. (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall
_____ Kotter, P. John, (1996). Leading Change, Boston: Harvard Business School Press
_____Lawson, R.B., Shen, Z. (1998). Organizational Psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press
_____Robbins, P. Stephen, (1990). Organization Theory - Structure, Design, and Applications. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall
_____ Robbins, P. Stephen, (1994). Management -fourth edition. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall
_____Stoner, A. James, Freeman, R. Edward, (1992). Management. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall
_____Wallace, A. William, Hall, L. Donald (1996). Psychological Consultation – Perspective and Applications. Pacific Grove, C.A.: Brooks / Cole Publishing Company
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INCREASING THE LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS

Questions about leadership have long been a subject of speculation, but scientific research on leadership did not begin until the twentieth century. The focus of much of the research has been on the determinants of leadership effectiveness.
Social researchers have attempted to discover what traits, abilities, behaviors, sources of power, or aspects of a situation determine how well a leader is able to influence followers and accomplish group objectives.
Individual traits and behaviors are important items which can be improved in order to use them in increasing the leadership effectiveness.
Effective leaders are a renewable resource, and the conditions that yield good leaders have been of interest to a wide variety of organizations.
Studies of leadership have focused on three fundamental features that are critical to leadership: traits or personal characteristics, behaviors and situations.
In this paper project we will examine a leading trait and a behavioral theory of leadership and will see their utility in increasing the leadership effectiveness.
Effective leadership requires competence, emotional maturity, and a commitment to learn continuously throughout life.

Chapter I
The trait approach to leadership

The earliest approaches to leadership, often referred to as “the great man theories of leadership”, held that leaders were born, not made. Sir Francis Galton with his studies of individual differences argued in 1869 that the qualities found in great leaders were inherited (Wagner III and Hollenbeck, 1992). Later, researchers influenced by behavioral schools of thought discarded this idea, suggesting instead that the characteristics associated with successful leadership could be learned.
The view that leaders are born, not made, is still popular among laypersons, thought not among professional researchers (Stoner and Freeman, 1992).
There is considerable evidence that traits are jointly determined by learning and by an inherited capacity to gain satisfaction from particular types of stimuli or experiences (Bouchard et al., 1990 from Yukl, 1998).
Some traits (e.g., values, social needs) are probably more influenced by learning than others (temperament, physiological needs).
The next question is if a person has these traits will this make him an effective leader?
Robbins (1994) sustain that traits alone are not sufficient for explaining leadership because the explanations based solely on traits ignore situational forces. Possessing the appropriate traits only makes it more likely that an individual will be an effective leader. The leader still has to take the right actions. And what is right in one situation is not necessarily right for a different situation.
So, it is important to indicate that what make an effective leader different from an uneffective leader is not only the personal traits but also we need to consider the behaviors characteristics and the situational forces.
The trait model focuses on what a person brings to leadership activities, the behavioral model examine the actions or behaviors of a leader, and the situational model identifies the contextual forces that shape and determine leadership (Lawson and Shen, 1998).

Nature of traits

Yukl (1990), says that the term of trait refers to a variety of individual attributes, including aspects of personality, temperament, needs, motives and values.
Personality traits are relatively stable dispositions to behave in a particular way. Examples include self-confidence, emotional maturity, emotional stability, energy level, and stress tolerance (Yukl, 1998).
Psychologists usually differentiate between physiological needs (hunger, thirst) and social motives such as achievement, esteem, affiliation, power, and independence.
Values are internalized attitudes about what is right and wrong, ethical and unethical, moral and immoral. Examples include fairness, justice, honesty freedom, equality, hummanitarism, loyalty, patriotism, progress, self-fulfillment, excellence, pragmatism, courtesy, politeness, and cooperation. Values are important because they influence a person’s preferences, perception of problems, and choice of behavior.
Basically, the search for personal attributes that are essential for leadership has focused on individual traits, motives, and skills. Although studies of leadership traits have been dismissed as too simplistic (Mann, 1959; Stogdill, 1948; from Lawson and Shen, 1998), and with little scientific merit (Fleet, 1988), but recently they have found that a certain pattern or profile of traits, motives, and skills increase the likelihood that leadership will be effective, especially when these attributes are balanced or deployed in moderation (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
Yukl (1998) reviewed some major research programs which showed that researchers have examined a variety of different personality traits related to managerial effectiveness and advancement and present the traits which can predict leadership effectiveness, and which are: high energy level and stress tolerance; self-confidence; internal locus of control orientation; emotional maturity; personal integrity socialized power motivation; moderately high achievement orientation and low need for affiliation. We will examine one leading trait – emotional maturity – and will indicate its utility in increasing the leadership effectiveness.

The emotional maturity leading trait

The term emotional maturity may be defined broadly to encompass several interrelated motives, traits, and values. A person who is emotionally mature is well adjusted and dose not suffers from severe psychological disorders. Emotionally mature people have a more accurate awareness of their strengths and weaknesses and fantasizing success (Yukl, 1998).
Covey (1990) give us one of the finest, simplest, profound definition of emotional maturity, he says that the emotional maturity is “the ability to express one’s own feelings and convictions balanced with consideration for the thoughts and feelings of other” (Covey, 1990, p.217). Maturity is the balance between courage and consideration. While courage may focus on getting the golden egg, consideration deals with the long-term welfare of the other stakeholders. The basic task of leadership is to increase the standard of living and the quality of life for all stakeholders (Covey, 1990).
People with high emotional maturity are less self – centered (they care about other people), the have more self – control (are less impulsive, more able to resist hedonistic temptations), they have more stable emotions (are not prone to extreme mood swings or outbursts of anger), and they are less defensive (are more receptive to criticism, more willing to learn from mistakes). As a result, leaders with high emotional maturity maintain more cooperative relationships with subordinates, peers, and superiors.
Yukl (1998) sustain that most of the empirical research on traits shows that key components of emotional maturity are associated with managerial effectiveness and advancement.
For example, a study of McCauley and Lombardo (1990, from Wagner III & Hollenbeck, 1992), with a measure called Benchmarks, found that managers with good self – awareness and a desire to improve had higher advancement. Self – objectivity and general adjustment predicted advancement 20 years later in the AT&T study by Howard and Bray (1988). An important discovery in the longitudinal research at AT&T was the effect of the job situation on the relevance of individual traits for managerial success.
Other researcher has found that effective executives have a good understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses, and they are oriented toward self – improvement rather than being defensive (Bennis & Nanus, 1985; Tichy & Devanna, 1986 from Yukl, 1998).
Research on narcissism provides additional insights into the difficulties encountered by leaders who lack emotional maturity.
Narcissism refers to a personality syndrome that involves an extreme need for esteem (prestige, status, attention, administration, adulation), a strong need for power, weak self – control, and indifference about the needs and welfare of others. Selfishness is the most obvious form reflected by this people, which violate the values of most people (Covey, 1990).
People whose parents have been emotionally unresponsive and rejecting may come to believe that they cannot depend on anyone’s love or loyalty. In a effort to cope with their deprivation and inner loneliness, these extreme narcissists become preoccupied with establishing their power, status and prestige. They have fantasies of success and power. They have a grandiose, exaggerated sense of their own self – importance and unique talents.
Because they are so preoccupied with their own ego needs, narcissists have little empathy or concern for the feelings and needs of others. They tend to over simplify human relationships and motives and see everything in extreme good and bad terms. They are very defensive, and any criticism by others is interpreted as a sign of rejection and disloyalty. When a project is not going well and when the failure is evident, the narcissistic leader refuses to admit any responsibility, but instead finds scapegoats to blame (Yukl, 1998).
Finally, because they exploit the organization to compensate for their own sense of inadequacy, extreme narcissist is unable to plan for an orderly succession of leadership. They see themselves as indispensable and cling to power, in contrast to emotionally mature executives who are able to retire gracefully when their job is done and it is time for new leadership.
In conclusion to this chapter we have understand that traits are jointly determined by learning and refers to a variety of individual attributes, including aspects of personality, temperament, needs, motives and values which were found to be especially relevant for effectiveness in organizational leadership. The trait approach has important implications for improving managerial effectiveness.
We have examined the emotional maturity trait and found out that the empirical researches shows that key components of emotional maturity are associated with managerial effectiveness and advancement.

Chapter II
Behavioral models of leadership

The focus of behavioral models of leadership is on what the leader or manager does with whatever personal traits, skills, or motivational capacities he or she has been endowed with or acquired as a result of organizational experience and education.
The primary concern of behavioral models is actions and the impact of those actions on effectiveness (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
Leaders operate in dynamic and turbulent environments in which conflicts, people, productivity issues, outcome reports, events, and anticipated developments converge on them daily. Accordingly, they are continuously involved in work that is hectic, varied, fragmented, reactive, and disorderly. Leaders must make decisions on the basis of incomplete and ambiguous information and must rely heavily on others to implement their decisions.
Questionnaire research on effective leadership behavior has been dominated by the influence of the early research (1950) at Ohio State University. The initial task of the researchers was to develop questionnaires for subordinates to use in describing the behavior of their leader. The researchers complied a list of about 1,800 examples of leadership behavior, then reduced the list to 150 items that appeared to be good examples of important leadership functions (Yukl, 1998). This questionnaire was used by military and civilian personnel to describe the behavior of their supervisors (Fleishman, 1953; Halpin & Winer, 1957 from Lawson and Shen, 1998).
From a factor analysis of the Leadership Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ) responses, reflecting how subordinates perceived their manager’s behaviors, came two behavioral categories: consideration and initiating – structure behaviors.
In general, consideration (or people – oriented) behaviors reflect the extent to which a leader behaves in a warm and supportive manner, exhibits concern for subordinates, and looks out for the well – being of the members of her or his group or unit. Initiating – structure (or task oriented) behaviors reflect the degree to which a leader defines a task and the roles of a task, assigns subordinates to different task roles, monitors subordinates’ performance, and provide feedback on task – related performances (Lawson and Shen, 1998).
The two factor taxonomy of the LBDQ represents a solid point of departure for identifying effective leadership behaviors.
Another major research project to identify leadership behaviors was conducted at the University of Michigan. Likert (1961, 1967 from Yukl, 1998) summarized the results of this project, which found three categories of effective leadership behaviors: task – oriented behaviors; relationship – oriented behaviors; and participate – leadership behaviors. The categories are sufficiently generic to encompass the behaviors of a wide variety of managers yet specific enough to relate to specific situations and the demands of managerial tasks (Fleet, 1988).
The conclusion of the Michigan researchers strongly favored leaders who were employee oriented. Employee – oriented leaders were associated with higher group productivity and higher job satisfaction. Production – oriented leaders were associated with low group productivity and lower worker satisfaction (Robbins, 1994).
But researchers like Stoner and Freeman (1992) sustain that to operate effectively, a group needed someone to perform two major functions: task – oriented or production - oriented functions; and group –maintenance or relations – oriented functions, such as mediating disputes and ensuring that individuals felt valued by the leader. An individual who is able to perform both roles successfully would obviously be an especially effective leader (Stoner and Freeman, 1992).
We will examine only the relations – oriented behavior theory and will see its utility in increasing the leadership effectiveness.

The relations – oriented behavior theory

For the effective managers, task – oriented behavior did not occur at the expense of concern for human relations. The effective managers were more considerate, supportive, and helpful with subordinates.
The type of relations – oriented behavior found to be correlated with effective leadership included showing trust and confidence, acting friendly and considerate, trying to understand subordinates problems, helping to develop subordinates and further their careers, keeping subordinates informed, showing appreciation for subordinates’ ides and providing recognition for subordinates’ contributions and accomplishments (Yukl, 1998).
Moreover, effective managers tended to use general supervision rather than close supervision. That is, the managers established goals and general guidelines for subordinates, but allowed them some autonomy in deciding how to do the work and how to pace themselves. Likert (from Yukl, 1998) proposed that a manager treats each subordinate in a way that will allow the person to view the experience as supportive and that will build and maintain the person’s sense of personal worth and importance.
Covey (1990) sustain that “it is more noble to give yourself completely to one individual than to labor diligently for the salvation of the masses”(p. 201). He indicate also that many of the problems in organizations stem from relationship difficulties among leaders and subordinates.
Creating the unity necessary to run an effective business requires great personal strength and courage. No amount of technical administrative skill in laboring for the masses can make up for lack of nobility of personal character in developing relationships (Covey, 1990).
Doing things that are primarily concerned with improving relationships and helping people, increasing cooperation and teamwork, increasing subordinate job satisfaction and building identification with the organization indicate that a leader wh