Felicia Ceaușu

Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION

I.COGNITION AND THINKING

I.1 What are the maps of thinking?
I.2 Thinking a superior cognitive process
I.3 Reasoning (inference)

II.THE PARADIGMS OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

II.1 Classical symbolic paradigm
II.2 (Neo) connectionist paradigm
II.2.1. Neuro-mimetic networks
II.2.2 Levels of mental processing of information
II.2.3 Mental schemes
II.2.4 Attention

III. COGNITIVE ARCHITECTURES AND SPATIAL-TIME REPRESENTATIONS

III.1 Geographical, social or semiotic knowledge of the human knowing agent
III.2 From mental representations to semiotics and socio-linguistics

IV. SCHOOL COUNSELING AND SELF-KNOWLEDGE

IV.1 Conceptual clarifications
IV.2 Factors related to counseling and school guidance
IV.3 Essential functions and objectives of counseling
IV.4 Counseling for self-knowledge
IV.5 Methods and techniques used in school counseling

V. RESETTING EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOR THE INFORMATION

SOCIETY

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VI. EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

VI.1 Conceptual outlines: emotional intelligence, emotional abilities

VI.2 Particularities of emotional intelligence

VI.3 The need of developing emotional intelligence
VI.4 Development of emotional intelligence – the premise for mending the school and the
society

VII. THE PROCESS OF ARTISTIC-PLASTIC EDUCATION

VII.1 Psychological premises on which the artistic-plastic education is based on
VII.2 The imagination of the child
VII.3 The dual function of expression
VII.4 Characteristics and mechanisms of action of the visual-plastic art-therapy
VII.5 Developing creativity of children by drawing activities

CONCLUSIONS
REFERENCES

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 INTRODUCTION

In modeling the reality, we rely on our knowledge, irrespective if this knowledge is

real or imaginative, simple or sophisticated; our mental models are constructed in many cases
of fragmentary information. Many studies regarding mental modeling focus on the study of
cognitive processes that take place in the human mind, in certain specific cases such as
problem solving. The mental model is constructed with the aim of understanding an aspect of
the outside world. In the process of mental modeling, the individual will necessarily use his
acquired knowledge. When the individual develops a certain mental scheme, he can
acknowledge that this scheme is inadequate for his purposes. Now it is the moment in which
he starts developing a new mental model in order to understand what is happening on the
outside.
In modeling the reality, we rely on the knowledge we have, irrespective if this
knowledge is real or imaginative, simple or sophisticated; our mental models are constructed
in many cases of “fragmentary information based on a partial understanding of what is
happening and on a simple psychology postulating causes, mechanisms and relationships
where, actually, none of these exist” (Norman1 , 1988, p.38)
The mental model is constructed with the aim of understanding an aspect of the
outside world, of the reality. In the process of mental modeling, the individual will necessarily
use his acquired knowledge and depends on the speed he sets up an adequate relationship
between previous knowledge and the new information provided by the outside reality. When
the individual develops a certain mental scheme, he can acknowledge that this scheme is
inadequate for his purposes. Now it is the moment in which he starts developing a new mental
model in order to understand what is happening on the outside. “While the schemes are
structures of pre-compiled generic knowledge, the mental models are structures of specific
knowledge that are constructed with the aim of representing a new situation using this generic
knowledge…” (Brewer, 1987, pp. 189, quoted by Katzeff2, 1990).
Thus, the role of the scheme will be to provide to the individual the pre-requested
knowledge in order to understand the process of interaction, but also the knowledge allowing
him to understand the clues provided from the outside, at the same time, in what way his
scheme is different from an adequate model of reality. The quantity of information kept in his

1 Norman, D.A., The psychology of everyday things (Basic Books Inc., 1988), p.24
2 Katzeff, C., „System demands on mental models for a fulltext database”,International Journal of Man-
Machine Studies , 32 (1990), 483-509

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memory represents a performance index and it is based on the hypothesis that, theoretically,
the information which was integrated in a coherent, unique mental model can be recalled with
easiness.
The mental model is constructed with the aim to understand an aspect of reality. For
example, in case of comprehending lectures, the studies indicate that in the process of
understanding the speech, there are a series of clues related to the story that can suggest
alternative interpretations of the text; these will be successively evaluated, invalidated or
confirmed by confronting new phrases, in the end, a (more or less) consistent interpretation of
the text being discovered (Richard3 et al, 1990).
Norman4 (1988), referring to the way each one of us carry out many of the common
daily tasks – for example finding the switch to light up an unknown room – shows that such
tasks are supported by an interesting blend between the external information flux and the
previous knowledge stored in our memory. We search for the switch but we will search for it
in certain areas – where they are usually located. The recognize the object we find mounted
on the wall as being a switch, even though we do not know before how this specific switch
looks like. “Regarding common situations, the behavior is determined by the combination
between internal knowledge and information and external constraints, the knowledge being
partially, gained in the “mind”, partially in the “world” (in the environment) and partially in
the world’s constraints” (Norman, 1988, p. 54).
Both types of knowledge – in the mind and in the world – are essential for our daily
functioning. In certain limits, we can choose to use more one type of information or another:
the information from “the world” acts as its own element of remembrance – it can help us in
remaking structures we would otherwise forget with easiness; the usage of “mind”
information can be more efficient in certain situations, the resource consumption (mostly,
time resource) thus not being necessary for searching and interpretation of the information
from the environment. On the other hand, in order to use the “mind” information, we initially
have to bring it there, shows Normal, which can presume an extraordinary learning effort. The
“world” information can also be difficult to use: its usage is strongly supported by the
continuous, physical presence of information: changing of environment parameters means in
fact changing the available information. This selection needs a balance process – to benefit

3 Richard, J.F., Bonnet, C., Ghiglione, R., (Eds), Traité de psychologie cognitive: le traitement de l’information
symbolique, (Paris: Dunod, 1990), pp.121-123

4 Norman, Donald Arthur, The psychology of everyday things, (Basic Books Inc.,1988), p.156

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from the advantage offered by the “world” knowledge (information) means to lose the
benefits offered by the “mind” knowledge; thus, permanently, in carrying out the most diverse
tasks, people use various strategies in order to get the most advantageous balance between the
quantity of external information, available in the “world” and the quantity of knowledge
necessary in the “mind”.
To act in the world involves combining the already available information present in
the environment with internalized representations in the memory; what the user must
internalize depends on the information that is not available (in the external environment or in
the memory) in order to reach the current objective. When the emphasis is on the emergence
of human behavior in complex environment, a contingent analysis of circumstances is
necessary in which the users behave, more or less, as planned or directed by the objective.
Many studies regarding mental modeling were focused on the study of cognitive
processes that take place in the human mind in specific situations of problem solving.
Generally, these studies offer little attention to the way in which the people interact with
external representations of information or with other persons when are “focused” on carrying
out a cognitive task.
Why should the cerebral processes of a personal describing a visual perception (for
example, expressed by the phrase “I see a red tomato”) be identical with those of a person
transmitting an idea (for example, “I see a red devil”)? The red tomato exists, but the devil
exists only in my imagination. If the phrase “I see a red tomato” is true because a certain real
object reflects the light in a certain way, how can we justify a phrase about an imaginary
object not reflecting light in any way? How can we be certain that a characteristic of our
language is also a characteristic of reality? (the supporters of the Picture Theory). For
example, an athlete observes the trajectory of a ball he wants to catch and, as a consequence,
he moves his body allowing him to catch it. The perception of the ball is a stage in the
sensorial-motor coordination process controlling the movements of the athlete’s body. The
light reflected by the ball produces an activation pattern in the neurons of the athlete’s retina
(retina images), such activation producing a certain route of the electro-chemical signals
reaching in the motor neurons of the athlete’s legs and hands, after they passed through the
lateral genicular nuclei, occipital lobe and certain cortical motor and pre-motor areas.
Sometimes the internal stimulus from the brain can trigger a verbal behavior not necessarily a
motor response. For example, I see a red tomato and, as a consequence, I am saying: “This
tomato is red” or I imagine a red devil and I am saying: “The devil I imagined is red”. Until
now we do not precisely know what are the perception triggering the sensorial-motor

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coordination. Consciousness is most likely a biological phenomenon too of synchronization
between the frequencies of oscillations of a neural group whose activity determines distinct
aspects of perception, for example, in the case of visual perception, color, shape and
movement recognition. The information regarding colors is mixed together with the
information regarding shape and movements. The athlete’s brain must work in such way that
he can catch that ball. In order to fulfill this task, the brain must distinguish between three
categories of information (color, shape and movement), thus three distinct areas of the brain
will process this information, after which the image of a single ball will be constructed which
is white, round and moves on a certain trajectory by synchronizing the cerebral processes
triggering the recognition of the white color, of the round shape and of the movement. Only
by forming a mental representation indicating a white and round ball moving on a certain
trajectory, as an internal object, the athlete can catch the true ball. The image of the
phenomenal world which us, human beings construct with the help of neural processes,
represents an intermediary stage in the sensorial-motor coordination which is necessary for
being able to successfully interact with the real world.
The external world perceived by us is composed of internal objects of mental
representations that are compiled of practical intelligence in order to successfully interact with
part of the real world which is formed in our natural and social environment. Other animals
might be able to perceive the outside world in other ways, adequate to their form of live. For
example, a frog recognizes the flies as being the movement of some black dots. It would
never eat a dead fly. The perception created by a human being will always be different from
the perception created by a frog. It is true that there is something in the outside world that is a
common source of perception of a fly by us, humans and by a frog. Why our perception
should be superior to the perception of a frog? There are simply two representations of the
same reality constructed in accordance with the necessities of a two distinct forms of practical
interaction with it.
A point of view regarding human reasoning is that it depends on the mental models.
From this point of view, the mental models can be constructed, assembled with the help of
perception, imagination or speech understanding (Johnson-Laird5, 1983). Such mental models
are related with the “models” of architects or the “diagrams” of physicists where their
structure is similar with the structure of the situations they represent, unlike, let’s say, the
structure of logical forms usually used in the formal theories of reasoning.

5 Johnson-Laird, Philip N, Mental Models: Toward a Cognitive Science of Language, Inference and
Consciousness, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,1983), pp.50-99

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 For most of today’s cognitive psychologists, a mental model is an internal
representation model of an external reality. This is constructed on knowledge gained by
previous experience, mental schemes, perception and strategies of problem solving. A mental
model contains minimal information. It is unstable and can change. It is used for taking
decisions regarding new situations. A mental model should be functional, able to offer a
feedback regarding the obtained results. The humans must be able of evaluating the results of
their action or the consequences of a state change. They should be able to mentally repeat the
actions they intend to materialize in reality.
The human brain picks up information and interprets it (perception), codes the
information from outside and carries out the synthesis of mental objects (words and images),
stores the information (learning, memory) in order to gain advantage from the passed
experiences and recombines it in order to find out new solutions (intelligence). These mental
functions are regrouped under the term “cognition” or “cognitive processes”. These terms
were reintroduced by the American Edward Chace Tolman in order to designate the
mechanisms of mental representation, planning, intention etc but these terms already existed
in the vocabulary of European philosophy, Kant and in the past they were used in the 14th
century by the French theologian Oresme (E. Littré, Dictionnaire de la langue française,
Librairie Hachette&Cie, 1883). However, if the functions of certain processes are abstract
being compared to those of machines (computer, virtual images of movies or video games),
other mechanisms inherited from the past, from the animal phase, are of biological origin, the
motivations, the emotions, what belongs to the affective field. The integration of cognitive
and affective mechanisms produces a synthesis called the personality.
It is a generally accepted concept that the human mind processes information which
we came in contact depending on the pre-existing network of thoughts, on certain categories
and schemes. The issue that puzzled many minds is if these thoughts are formed through the
interaction of the brain with the environment or if we are born with them.
Cognitive psychology proposes a new architecture of the cognitive system creating the
concept of “mental scheme”. Irrespective of how much inherent or gained support the mental
schemes have, they help us to deal with a continuous flux of stimuli, to order the received
information and thus to be able to communicate and act in an efficient way. In the specialty
literature, the concept with the highest degree of generality and the most used one is that of
“mental scheme”. It subordinates the ones of “category”, “prototype”, “stereotype”.
According to the brain’s metaphor, human cognition is best understood in the terms of
brain’s proprieties. The brain’s metaphor and specifically the so-called neuromimetic

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connexionist networks, as computational implementations of the way in which the brain might
work, became more popular in recent times and challenged the leadership of the computer’s
metaphor when we are talking about the theory regarding the nature of human cognition. The
connexionist networks, the neural network or the models of distributed parallel processing, as
they are differently called, vary from the theories based on computer’s metaphor from many
points of view. For example, in theories adhering to the computer’s metaphor, all the
processes assumed as being subjacent to the human behavior must be explicitly described. On
the other hand, the connexionist networks, in certain degree, can “program” themselves, e.g.
they can learn to produce specific outputs when certain inputs are given to them. Moreover,
the connexionist theoreticians often reject the use of explicit rules and symbols and use
distributed representations in which the concepts are characterized as activation pattern in a
network

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 I.COGNITION AND THINKING
In a proper motivational frame, sensorial stimulation transforms into conscious,
psychic facts, communicated through the language. As an instrument of information
transmission between people, the language appears to be a code, a system of linguistics signs
(morphemes and words), orally transmitted or in written form. The word, as Ferdinand de
Saussure said, is distinguished both by acoustic image (signifier) and by concept (signified)
having a cognitive value only in a well connected system. In contrast with the richness of
meanings of natural languages, the formalized ones have high expression accuracy, thus they
are sometimes preferred in science. The depth of the ideas expressed by language is the result
of an evolved thinking, carried out by analysis and synthesis, comparison, abstraction,
generalization, concretization, induction and deduction. The analysis (mental separation of
features and parts of an object) and synthesis (mental integration of features or parts separated
in a whole) are opposed psychic processes that are mutually integrated in the knowledge
evolution. By comparison, the resemblances and differences of things are set based on some
comparison criteria allowing the division on groups, classes or categories. Abstraction takes
out from an assembly certain features and makes possible generalization which extends
common aspects of a distinct class of objects or phenomena, designated by notion. Thus, the
notion, expressed by word, is characterized by the notion’s sphere and the specific difference,
aspects that should be taken into account in the correct formulation of definitions.
For the results of science should be applied in practice, it is necessary the passing,
through the concretization operation, from the level of abstract features to the object
expressed in its determination wholeness. In logical reasoning, often we call for deduction,
through the passing from general assertions to particular cases. The syllogism is the typical
form of deduction, but there is also the hypothetic or disjunctive form. Deduction is much
more rigorous than induction, based on the passing from particular cases to general assertions.
Ultimately, verification in practice is the fundamental criteria of setting up the truth. The
thinking process is triggered, in all its complexity, by the resolution of life issues. The
solution does not appear either as a sudden illumination (gestaltism) or as a succession of
trials and errors (behaviorism), but involves adequate strategies and plans subordinated to a
purpose. An important role is played by heuristic procedures which can direct the cognitive
approach: analogy, modeling, analysis by synthesis, resorting to simpler problems, recreation
of the reverse route, starting from results to initial data. The analogy suggests the possibility
of existence of some deep relations between similar phenomena in an external plain. Many
times in order to simplify the study of reality we go to the simplified reconstruction of objects

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and phenomena by removing the insignificant aspects, an action called modeling. The model
can be carried out by materials (models, moulds) or can be expressed by mathematical
representations (mathematic model). The analysis by synthesis resorts to placing an object in
a new context, a case in which it reveals unknown valences. If the issue to be solved is
complicated, we can reduce it to simpler issues, ultimately reconsidering the complex
situation.
Due to the simultaneity and succession of real events, they intimately associate
themselves in the memory by forming some nervous, temporal, more or less stable
connections. We should proceed with a great spirit of understanding since not every
associated fact reflects essential relations between phenomena. Based on the cognitive data
stored in the memory, unprecedented situations can be elaborated through imagination and
creative thinking, mostly if the process is stimulated by strong emotional experiences. The
research of W. Okon offered the method of problematization as a valuable conquest of
modern pedagogy, of learning through discovery. Starting from a “problem situation”, the
students remake step by step the way of scientific thinking, with real or apparent
contradictions whose resolution generates an active attitude of searching some original
solutions. The brainstorming method initiated by A. F. Osborn stimulates group creativity by
spontaneous, uncensored issuance of idea necessary for solving some theoretical or practical
problems. Each participant is encouraged to consider the suggestions of his/her colleagues, to
modify them as he/she wishes in order to attain superior ideas. Critical remarks are forbidden
and the assessment is delayed in order to avoid inhibition of thinking. Another method related
to brainstorming is the engineering of ideas in which the experts direct the debates towards
well defined objectives in order to avoid useless efforts. Synectics was initiated in 1944 by W.
Gordon based on powering of psychic mechanisms of the subconscious in the creation act.

I.1.What are the maps of thinking?

This concept developed by dr. David Hyerle represents a set of visual techniques
encouraging long term learning and memorizing. These techniques – maps of thinking – are
used in kindergartens, schools, high schools, universities, companies, corporations from all
over the world. In kindergartens for example, they are useful for grounding notions of
grouping, classification and sorting. Later, in middle school, they can be used to
categorization: main ideas, classifications, details of some concept such as: motivation,
thinking for an easy following and understanding.

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1). Circle type map which is used in description, brainstorming, defining ideas, things,
concepts, objects. In the center of the circle we use a name, an idea, a concept, a
symbol we want to define, to describe.
2).Bubble map- represents the second type of logical diagrams of mental
representations and are used for describing, characterizing the qualities of objects,
things, ideas, concepts etc.
In the central circle the object to describe is located, and around it, its features are
connected with other connected circles.
4)Comparative-contrast maps are used when we are comparing in contrast two ideas,
concepts, objects, each in one circle and their features revolve around them.
5 Tree type maps These are used for classification and grouping. Ideas and objects are
sorted in categories and groups and sometimes new categories and groups are created.
On the top of the tree, there are written the name of the appurtenance classes,
categories, general ideas. Under each category, there are written the group members.
These types of logical diagrams are ideal for studying tests, social surveys etc.
6)Structure with brackets – helps us to easily learn the relation between whole and part
that interferes in thinking, memorizing etc. There are used for analyzing the structure
of an object, idea, concept etc. It has an important role in group organizational
structure, plans of working agenda etc.
7) Flow map This type of logical diagrams divides and ordinates a process in stages
and phases. It is the type of mental representation of concepts, ideas characterizing as
correctly as possible the concepts, ideas and processes described in the book of
professor Golu since they are specific to cybernetic sciences structured on stages,
phases.

Thinking
Categorization
• Categorization represents the process of grouping on classes of the information
avalanche we enter into contact every day. This information is grouped on classes,
categories after certain criteria. The most important quality of these categories is that
they contain maximum of information in a minimal format;
Prototype
• What is the prototype?

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The prototype is the concept reuniting at a given time all common, most obvious
features of a category.
For example: Category of birds – parrot; Domestic animals – cat;
What is the concept?
• By abstracting, the thinking creates mental models of reality;
• These are informational models condensing, preserving, systematizing
common features, generally valid for the entire category of objects-phenomena;
• The concepts represent mentally constructed, cognitive entities referring to
classes of experiences formed by various specimens;
Empirical concepts
They integrate concrete, particular features, local characteristics. They are formed
since childhood and during schooling by storing and systematizing of a concrete
intuitive experience in an ascending manner (down-up). These are unstable, they can
be restructured in time, they are subjected to hazard and they are random.
Scientific concepts
These are usually acquired by learning, education, assimilation of systematized
scientific knowledge in the human knowledge at a given time. They integrate and
condensate universally valid essential features for a category of phenomena. They use
specialized languages specific to various fields of knowledge such as the language of
mathematics, informatics, physics etc.
Thinking as an understanding process
Understanding expresses the best the processes of thinking that describes the way in
which information is processed. In the ascending processing, understanding is a
concentration, an integration of features in a general representation, an empiric
concept. In the descending processing, understanding is the result of an imposing of
some explicative models of reality through learning, training and education. In the
ascending processing, understanding is a consequence. In the descending processing,
understanding is a premise. The understanding leads us to an explanation, and the
explanation allows us to elaborate a functional model of the reflected reality.
Mechanisms of understanding – informational coupling
• The mechanism of understanding is mainly based on an informational
coupling.

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 • The situations that need to be understood – usually – problematic situations,
e.g. those situations for which our collection of answers is not enough in order to solve
them.
• 2) The second mechanism is represented by associative systems
• 3) The third mechanism of understanding is analogy. When people understand
something by analogy, they understand one thing in relation to another thing. Here are
some suggestive examples of analogy:
• atom structure – solar system;
• gas molecules – pool balls;
• human memory – library.
By analogy we can understand something unfamiliar in the terms of another already
understood thing. Another well known example for understanding problems, discussed by
Wertheimer (1959) is finding the area of a parallelogram. The students are taught that the area
of a parallelogram is calculated after the formula A=b*h, where b is its base and h its height.
Werheimer described two ways in which the formula can be understood. In a representation, b
is the length of the horizontal side of the parallelogram and h is the length of the vertical line
from a corner to the top of the figure until the base. Many students, apparently using this
representation become confused if they are asked to find the area of a parallelogram oriented
in a different direction. A second way of understanding the formula consists of a relation
between parallelograms and rectangles. A parallelogram can be transformed in a rectangle by
removing a triangular part from an end and attaching it to the other end. Thus, the base and
height are equal with the length, respectively the width of the rectangular in which the
parallelogram was transformed. The students understand the parallelogram issue as they do
not encounter any difficulty in solving the problems in which the figure is directed in a
different way and can frequently transfer their knowledge in order to solve more complex
problems such as finding the area of a trapeze.
The two representations have different features compared to specific problems, one is
that the base and height identified with specific locations in the figure and the other with the
base and height defined in more general terms.

Association and analogy as mechanisms of understanding

• Association – puts in relation the knowledge, experiences stored in the memory
with present situations and advances explanations;

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• There are three basic forms of association: after resemblance; after contrast,
after spatial co-existence and temporal succession;
• Analogy – represents that mechanism of understanding through which people
understand one thing in relation to another;
Problem solving
• It is the performance field of thinking. The problems represents a cognitive
obstacle compared to which the collection of answers of the subject is not enough for
understanding it. Various explicative models were created out of which the most
important are as follows:
1. Trial-error model (Thorndike) ;
2. Spontaneous intuition model (Kohler).
Resolution strategies
1. Algorithmic strategy – expresses a full convergence between the problem, solving
means and problems solution. The problem is well structured, well defined, the
requirements are clearly formulated and in relation with them, there is set of means,
standardized working formulas that lead to a unique result if they are correctly
applied;
2. The heuristic strategies express a divergence, a discordance between the problems,
means and solution; The problems is not very well defined. It is the solving way of
very complex problems by exploration, discovery. The stages of resolution process
1. Problems definition
2. Problem resolution
Notions:
1. The problem (cognitive obstacle, as a breach in knowledge, as a situation for which
the collection of answers of the subject is not enough for understanding it)
2. Problematic situation (what is atypical and generates conflicts)
3. Problematic space (problem representation; consists of 3 states: initial, final and
intermediary)
4. resolution conduct (the passing from one state to another through some logical
operators)
Model of problems solving (Newell and Simon)
Problem definition
Internal representation of the problem in the working memory
Identification of means and strategies

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 Application of strategies
Verification
Solution

I.2.Thinking a superior cognitive process

Thinking is the superior cognitive process of extracting the essential, logical and
necessary features with the help of some abstract-formal operations for understanding,
explaining and predicting some causal relations of reality and creating some concepts,
notions, theories, cognitive systems as mental models of reality.
Cognitive processing has a deep character, has a high degree of mental autonomy, a
maximum level of selectivity in relation with the features of the world and life.

Operations of thinking
The operations of thinking ARE psychic instruments gained and improved by
intellectual developed, by learning and exercises. The operations of thinking act in operative
couples that are mutually completed: analysis and synthesis, abstracting and generalization,
induction and deduction. The cognitive analysis and synthesis have their origin and are
preceded by perceptive analysis and synthesis that are carried out in a concrete-intuitive plane
on some concrete objects and situations. Instead, cognitive analysis and synthesis are carried
out in a mental plane after a model and are mediated by word and other systems of signs and
symbols. By analysis, the features of an object or of a class of objects are separated, ordinate
– in the mind – after certain criteria, after a certain model and are synthesized, remade same
or in different way depending on requirements of intellectual activity. Synthesis is defined as
the mental re-composition of the object from its initial features. The comparison is the
assessment operation by relating to one or more criteria. Also, this operation has its origin in
comparison after perceptive criteria of color, shape, size, contrast etc. Comparison involves
evidencing essential resemblances and differences of minimum two objects, persons, events,
situations, phenomena, after one minimum common criterion. Abstracting and generalization
comprises of the most complex operations of thinking and have a formal character, are
exclusively carried out in the mental plane, are typical for the descending type processing.
Abstracting is the extraction operation of some essential features, of some cognitive
invariants, common features for an entire class, category. The operation of abstracting
simultaneously expresses two meaning: on one hand something essential is extracted and on
the other hand all that is irrelevant is dropped, accidental, contextual or conjunctural. The

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abstracting advances in depth, as the diamond seeker digs and removes earth in order to reach
the diamond (essence). Generalization is the operation through which the features extracted
with the help of abstracting are extended to an entire class of objects-phenomena. Abstracting
and generalization operate simultaneously so that, as the essential features are revealed, they
are extended to more and more broad categories. Abstracting and generalization have varied
degrees of depth and expansion depending on the evolution of human knowledge. Opposed to
abstracting and generalization are the operation of concretization and particularization. The
route from concrete to abstract is complementary to the one from abstract to concrete, but
extremely different regarding quality. Concretization following abstracting defines by
essential features an ideal, abstract object meeting the features. Induction and deduction are
the operations best describing the evolution of thinking on the knowledge’s vertical. J. Piaget
shows that induction organizes the observation or experience data and classifies them as
concepts. Induction is the logical support of ascending processing starting from the database,
concrete-intuitive experiences and mental images. Induction has a deeply intuitive character,
simple relations are extracted grouping a class of objects after empirically observable criteria.

I.3.Reasoning (inference)
When we think in propositional terms, the succession of our thoughts is organized.
The organization type is manifested when we are trying to create Reasoning. Reasoning is a
procedure through which new information is obtained by combining existing information.
• Deductive reasoning
• Inductive reasoning
• Heuristics
• Inductive reasoning intercepts regularity and facilitates the extraction and
formulation of a general conclusion from a multitude of particular cases. The limit of
this type of reasoning consists in the fact that there are not used more varied specific
cases and as many as possible. Thus, the conclusion is valid until an exception is met,
since in inductive reasoning, the hazard intervenes as it has a probabilistic character.
• Deduction describes the descending approach of thinking on the knowledge’s
vertical. Deductive reasoning starts from general, by inferences and implications and
reaches particular cases. Deduction starts by hypotheses or premises transformed to be
valid and then derives the implications of these hypotheses.
Deductive reasoning

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• Rules of logics: According to logicians, the most powerful inferences are those
having deductive validity – it is impossible for a conclusion of inference to be false the
its premises are true.
Example: a) If outside is raining, I will take my umbrella.
b) Rains.
c) Thus, I will take my umbrella.
If p then q.
Logical connectors: p or non p; pVq;
p and q with true and false values.
Inductive reasoning
• “It is improbable for a conclusion to be false if its premises are true”.
• RI= induction reasoning of a propriety consists in the induction or
generalization of a constant characteristic of some members belonging to a category –
for all the category members.
• Example of inductive inference:
• a) George studied accountancy as fundamental specialization in faculty.
• b) George works for an accountancy firm.
c) Thus, George is an accountant.
Heuristics
• Heuristics: is a mental procedure that is easily to be applied and can often lead
to the correct but not inevitable answers. Heuristics related to causality: People
estimate the probability of a situation according to the power of causal connections
between the events of the situation. Assessment of probabilities. A large number of
experimental studies examined how and how well people estimate probabilities for
tasks involving simple or multiple evens, doubtful quantities and composed and
conditional probabilities.
• Probability as trust
• Some events seem to be unique or close to uniqueness so that it is difficult to
conceptualize them as coming out from sets of events with relative frequencies. The
probabilities for these events can interpreted as degrees of faith or degrees of trust. For
such probabilities, there is no correct answer; different persons can have in a justified
way different degrees of trust in the same proportions. However, a kind of validity,
called calibration can be examined in a large collection of assessments of probability.

18
 A set of assessments of probability is well calibrated if, for all events for which a
probability of O.XX type was attributed, O.XX% of events can happen.
Judging probability after representativeness
When a uncertain event or sample is generated from an origin population by a process
(such as the random extraction of a sample from a population), the surveys indicated that
people judge its probability “after the degree in which: (i) it is similar in essential properties
with the origin population; and “reflects fundamental features of the process through which it
is generated” (Kahneman and Tversky, 1972a, p.431). Kahneman and Tversky named this
strategy of estimating probabilities heuristics of representativeness. People using heuristics of
representativeness can be diverted either following characteristics that are normatively
irrelevant or by not taking in consideration characteristics that are normatively important. As
an example for the first type of error, people judging the possible results of a coin toss with an
unaltered coin, consider HTTHTH more probable than HHHTTT, since the lack of an
apparent order in the first case seems to be more representative for a random process. They
also consider HTTHTH more probable than HHHHTH since the last does not represent the
unaltered coin (Kahneman and Tversky, 1972a). A second type of error is exemplified by not
taking into account the sample size, a sample feature that has no parallel in a population.
Thus, people believe that in a large hospital (where about 45 of children are born on the same
day) it would be as probable as in a small hospital (where about 15 children each day are
born) to have a day in which more than 60% of children to be boys.
Combined probabilities
In the 60s, a thorough researched theme was the question: how well the people use data
information in order to update the probability for a hypothesis to be true.

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 II.THE PARADIGMS OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
The analysis of the representational-algorithmic model is the main concern of
cognitive psychology but not the only one. The computational theories, by their generality,
practically belong to the cognitive sciences, they are the nucleus around which the unification
of these sciences is carried out. On the other hand, the analysis of knowledge automatically
involves the investigation of the way in which they represented by the human cognitive
system and the implementation analysis becomes more and more the appanage of a new group
of disciplines – cognitive neurosciences. In this way, the way in which the human subject
represents the environment and the knowledge about it, as well as the processing procedures
of these representations in order to allow the solving of issues and, finally, adaptation to
environment, is the milestone of cognitive psychology.
Depending on the type of representations and implicitly their treatment ways, we can
illustrate two paradigms guiding the research of the human cognitive system: the classical-
symbolic paradigm and the neo-connectionist paradigm. More or less, they are present in
almost all cognitive sciences with applications not only in psychology but also in artificial
intelligence or cognitive neurosciences.

II.1.CLASSICAL SYMBOLIC PARADIGM

The classical symbolic paradigm directed the development of cognitive psychology
(and generally of cognitive sciences) since the early years of their affirmation, dominating the
researches in the field until the beginning of the 90s. It has strong philosophic roots both in
rationalism (Leibniz, Descartes) as well as in the English empirism (Th. Hobbes J. Locke and
D. Hume) – so that the attribute of classical. The successes obtained in the first decades of our
century in formalizing the logics on one hand (Russell, Carnap, Wittgenstein etc.), the
appearance of theoretical linguistics and generative grammar (N. Chomsky) on the other
hand, imposed the idea of conceiving the thinking as a manipulation of symbols. As we know,
in symbolic logic, the propositions are represented by propositional variables or propositional
functions. The operations with these symbols are carried out based on some rules (of
composition, of deduction etc) that do not depend on knowledge or propositions which
symbolization they are. The more complex symbolic expressions can be exclusively generated
based on some abstract rules from a set of simple expressions. Some expressions (theorems)
can be deducted based on some deduction rules from others (axioms). Implemented on a
computer, the formal-logical systems have lead to the demonstration of some theorems by
strictly mechanic means. The computer, taken as a model in understanding the human

20
cognitive system, worked based on symbol manipulation with the help of rules. By analogy,
the human cognitive system was conceived as a symbolic system, “the operation with
symbols and symbolic structures being the fundamental means by which the human thinking
is made” note by H. A. Simon, one of the founders of cognitive sciences (1977, p. 272).
The main thesis of the classical-symbolic paradigm of cognitive psychology is the
following: knowledge and implicitly the corresponding state of things are represented in the
cognitive system by symbols or symbolic structures. A symbol is a representation denoting
objects or state of things and is subjected to some combination rules (= grammar). The
linguistic expressions, concepts, judgments, images are symbolic representations. In order to
operate with knowledge, the computer has to encode them in a programming language. The
resulted expressions are symbolic representations: they denote knowledge a state of things but
at the same time they can be manipulated by a physical system. A similar phenomenon takes
place in the case of human subject. In order to operate with knowledge, the brain encodes the
knowledge in symbolic expressions. Generally, a physical system uses symbolic
representation of knowledge in order to operate on them. The human cognitive system same
as the computer are, according to the expression of A. Newell and H.A. Simon, physical-
symbolic systems6. The human cognitive system is a physical system since it has a
neurobiological instance and it is symbolic because, in order to operate with knowledge, has
to represent it in the form of some symbolic expression which are manipulated according to
certain rules. For example, the knowledge it has about a certain object and that is
linguistically represented and the linguistic expressions are manipulated based on some
syntactic, semantic or pragmatic rules.
The persistence of symbolic models was supported to a large extent by the application
of the paradigm to central cognitive processes, starting with those related to the solving of
issues. Moreover, it was searched to reduce all the issues to well-defined-problems, e.g. whose
initial state can be completely specified (= data of the problem), the final state (= solution)
and the block of operators allowing the passing from the initial state to the final state. The
demonstrations of some geometry problems or of some theorems of mathematical logic are
example of well-defined-problems.
For example, if we have to demonstrate a theorem in the axiom system proposed by
Withead and Russell in Principia Mathematica we shall have to represent it in the language of
proposition logic. We shall then compare the theorem to be demonstrated (T) with the axiom

21
(A) and we should set the main difference between A and T. Then, we shall use an operator
(in our case a deduction rule) capable of decreasing the difference between A and T. If the
newly obtained state (A1) is identical to T, then the problem is solved. If not, we have to
successively compare all the intermediary states A2, A3…Ak with T and we shall proceed to
the successive reduction of the difference by applying operations until this difference is null,
e.g. the problem is solved. The GPS program – General Problem Solver – made by Newell,
Shaw and Simon (1959) uses the same strategy.
The computer metaphor, based on the idea that both the cognitive system and the
computer are physical-symbolic system has favored the computer simulation of many
cognitive processes and the elaboration of artificial intelligent systems. The ACT* theory of J.
L. Anderson (1983) and the SOAR Model of A. Newell (1992) represent the most significant
incarnation of the classical-symbolic paradigm.

II.2.(NEO)CONNECTIONIST PARADIGM

The (neo)connectionist paradigm also known as the paradigm of parallel distributed

processes or neuro-mimetic modeling (neuronal) has entered into a period of eclosion only in
the last ten-fifteen years. It begins with the idea that the cognitive activity can be explained
based on some neuronal inspiration models. The first attempts in this respect were made by
Pitts & McCullogh (1943), who modeled the neuronal activity by applying a Boolean algebra
(cf. A. Dumitriu, 1973, for details). They proved the behavior of some simplified neurons
(formal neurons). In other words, neuro-mimetic network can carry out logical calculus. This
idea was taken by F. Rosenblatt that built a neuro-mimetic network with two levels called
perceptron, meant to carry out the discrimination between two different sensorial impulses.
The research in this regard were suddenly stopped by the book of M. Minsky & S. Papert -
Perceptrons: An introduction to computational geometry (1969), where they proved the
incapacity of some neuro-mimetic network of perceptron type to calculate simple logical
functions. The researchers were disappointed and ceased their efforts and the research funds
were stopped. Only a few fans such as J. Konorski and S. Grossberg extended their
investigations on the computation ability of neuro-mimetic networks but their work was
written a difficult to understand mathematical slang, a fact which hindered their access to the
laboratories of cognitive psychologists. The connectionist paradigm for almost two decades
fades. It seems that classical-symbolic modeling was the only viable parading, now supported
also by a series of great technological achievements.

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 Since the beginning of the 9th decade, J.L. McClelland and D.E. Rumelhart expand the
idea of constructing a new cognitive models of neuronal inspiration (= neuromimetics) and
form a group of research of parallel distributed processing - PDP Research Group. Their
attempts yielded a paperwork in two volumes: Parallel Distributed Processing: Exploration
in the Microstructure of Cognition, vol. 2: Psychological and Biological Models (1986,1987),
considered as the Bible of the present connectionism that some people call it neo-
connectionism.

II.2.1. Neuro-mimetic networks

The theoretical nucleus of the neo-connectionism is based around the information
processing modeling (at representational-algorithmic level) by neuro-mimetic networks7. If
the classical-symbolic paradigm considers the knowledge as a manipulation process of
symbols based on some rules, the neo-connectionism supports the idea that information is
represented by the human cognitive system by activation values and patterns of some simple
units (neuromimes). These networks, inspired by the functioning of the nervous system, bear
the name of neuro-mimetic networks or neuronal networks. Quoting D. A. Norman: “the
information passes between the processing unit not in the form of messages but in the form of
activation values, as scalars and not symbols” (1986, p. 545). The rules governing the
dynamics of these networks are not rules of symbol manipulation but rules of modification or
propagation of activation values. The transformation procedure (algorithms) of the input in
output are not formal-logic, they do not refer to the organization of symbolic expression but
refer to mutual adjusting of activation patterns between the network units. What we briefly
described until now should be underlined more clearly based on the characterization of neuro-
mimetic or connectionist network.
A neuro-mimetic network is also called a connectionist model and it is formed by: (1)
a set of units; (2) a state of activation; (3) an activation rule; (4) an output function; (5) a
pattern of connections between these units; (6) learning rules; (7) an environment (or
ambiance) in which the respective network operates. We shall describe briefly each of these

7 In the specialty literature, often the neural network is used instead of neuro-mimetic network. We mention that
these network do not pretend to model the neuronal functioning but the cognitive functioning even though it is
inspired by the neurobiological processes (cf. D. A. Norman 1986 for a detailed argumentation). Moreover, the
network units take only several proprieties of the real neuron; in this way, they are neuro-mimetic. Based on this,
we consider the neuro-mimetic network expression as more correct.

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components. For a more detailed approach, we send the interested readers to the two volumes
edited by McClelland & Rumelhart (1986) or to Bechtel & Abrahamsen (1991).
1. The units (u). The network units sometimes called “cognitive units”, “neuromimes”,
“formal neurons” or “nodes” take several proprieties of the real neurons, mainly the activation
value and the idea of grouping in a connection network (“synapses”). The single characteristic
of a unit consists in its value of activation, usually noted by a figure between [-1,+1]. If the
units have the function of receiving the input, converting it in an activation value, they are
called input units. The units submitting the output in the network environment are called
output units. Both can be directly acceded from the network environment and thus they are
called visible units. If between the output and input units other units interfere, they can not be
directly accessed from the environment, but only through the visible units, thus they are called
hidden units. Their main function is to modulate the activation values propagating between
the visible units. The connectionist networks containing only visible units are called bi-level
networks; the perceptron of Rosenblatt is a bi-level network. If the network contains also
hidden units than it is called a multi-level network. The neuromimes are not semantically
interpretable e.g. they do not symbolize known state of things and the connectionist networks
are semantically-opaque compared to the symbolic models that are semantically-transparent.
To the neuro-mimetic units an interpretation can be attributed but it is carried out by the one
exploring the network proprieties. This interpretation is external, not inherent to the respective
network, the network does not manipulate symbols but activation values. However, if this
attribution of significances takes places, then the networks are divided in two categories: a)
localizationist networks, it is considered that each unit represents a concept or a certain
hypothesis; b) distributive networks, in the case in which information is not located at the
level of units but is distributed on unit interactions. In other words, a certain concept or
proposition is not represented by a single unit but by a connection pattern among the network
units. In this case, the units represent non-interpretable features from a semantic point of
view.
2. Activation state. Any unit has a value or an activation state at a given time
indicating its activity level. More precisely, a unit of a connectionist network is nothing but a
state of activation, encoded by a number. The activation states can continuously or
discontinuously vary depending on the interests of the one exploring the network. Usually, the
variation interval is set between [1, +1] but another interval can be selected. As the units are
practically some activation values, a connectionist network seems to be a matrix of activation

24
values (2.3.5.). The modification of activation states is equivalent to the modification of
values inside the respective matrix.
Any cognitive unit has an activation rest, resulted of its past stimulations (similar to the
activation level of a previously stimulated real neuron). The activation value is damaged
together with the passing of time or with the modification of connections – same as regarding
a real neuron its release rate decreases depending on time or by lateral inhibition. The
decreasing rate of the activation state is called decay state and is noted with dr.
3. Activation rule. The activation rule is a function setting the way in which the
activation value is modified of the network units. The modification of activation state (a) is
set based on the calculation of the net input. The net input represents the amount of inputs
received by a certain unit. These inputs are weighted with the weight or strength of
connections between the input units (ui) and the receiving units (uj). In this way, the net input
is the weighted amount of received activation values. An analogous phenomenon also takes
place in the real neural networks: the activation value of a certain neuron is modified
amounting the activation potential from all neurons it comes into contact, weighting them
depending on the synapse strength that it has with each of them. The activation value
modification is carried out adding the net input to the activation rest. The activation function
has sigmoid form: initially, smaller values of the net input produce significant modifications
of the unit activation state, after a certain threshold the net input increase not affecting in a
significant way the activation value. The setting of some non-linear functions between the
input and the activation value had a great importance in improving the computation capacity
of connectionist models.
4. Output function. The output function sets the relationship between the activation
value of a unit and the output that it transmits to other units of the network. In the simplest
case, the output value is identical with the value of the activation state. As alternative
solution, we can set a threshold of the activation state under which the output value is zero,
and below which the output value is equal to the activation state. Again, we can find an
analogy in the neural structure functioning where a neuron transmits the nervous impulse only
if it reached a certain threshold.
5. Connections. The network nodes are related between them by connections (thus the
name of connectionism or neo-connectionism given by the modeling of cognitive processes
by neuro-mimetic networks). The weight or the connection importance between two units i
and j are noted as Wi,j. If the connections are directed in a single direction, e.g. if the

25
activation is propagated only from the input units towards the output units, then we are
dealing with a one-dimensional network (feed-forward network). If the connections are
mutual, then it is set the weight of each of them. In this way, we have a connection from i to j
with the weight Wi,j and a connection from j to i, with the strength Wj,i. In case when the
interactions are mutual or bi-directional, we are dealing with an interactive network. Both in
the case of one-dimensional networks and interactive networks, the connections can be
excitative or inhibitive. The excitative connetions have a positive weight, e.g. the weight Wi,j
(and/or Wj,i) is positive. Usually 0<Wi,j or Wj,i<1. When the weight Wi,j (and/or Wj,i) is
negative, we are dealing with inhibitive connections: [-1<Wi,j<0]. The weight of connections
modulates the activation state and the net input value of a cognitive unit. The analogy with
interactions between the nervous system cells is obvious. In many connectionist networks, the
units from the same level function based on lateral inhibition; if one of the units is excited (=
has a positive activation value) it inhibits (= it reduces the activation state) of units of the
same level (competitive learning). The connections are the most important element of neuro-
mimetic models. The learning consists in modifying the strength or the importance of these
connections. A unit is something or has an activation value depending on the connections it
possesses.
6. Learning rules. The modification of connection strength is carried out based on
some learning rules. These are in fact a series of algorithms or equations governing the
modulation of connection weight of network. The manipulation rules of symbols of the
classical-symbolic paradigm correspond in case of neo-connectionist models, rules of
modifying the connection weight.
The main learning rules which are currently in operation: Hebb’s rule, delta rule and th
rule of error retro-propagation.
Hebb’s rule stipulates that the connection weight between two units is modified
depending on their activation value product. This rule models the experimental results
obtained by D. Hebb (1949) according to which the synapse strength between two neurons
increases if, at the moment of stimulation, they are in the same activation state (= both excited
or both inhibited) and decreases if they are in opposed activation states. According to the
Hebb’s rule, the connection weight increases if the units have an activation state of the same
sign (either positive or both negative) and decreases otherwise. The proportion the strength of
the connection is modified is modulated also by a modification rate of interactions set by the
creator of the respective network. This is called learning rate and it is noted with lr.

26
 The rule of error retro-propagation (generalized delta) represents an extension of the
delta rule to multi-level networks. The error or the decrement between du and au is
propagated backwards, from the level of output units to the hidden ones and towards the input
ones. The connections are modified depending on the weight they have on at the time of the
error.
All these learning rules aim to optimize the network performance to the cognitive
tasks that it is confronted. For example, on their basis a network can be thought to associate
words for a set of objects or to have a different behavior regarding some different stimuli, e.g.
to carry out the recognition of stimuli. A stage in which, based on the learning rules, all the
connections are modified in a network, and it is called an époque. Usually, in the learning
phase, the network needs many époques in order to render the desirable solution. After the
learning phase or training, the network enters the testing phase where its performance is
evaluated for a similar category of stimuli than those that were used in the training phase.
7. Network environment of ambiance. Any connectionist network – as any other neural
network – is sunk in more general structures; it is connected to other network forming its
ambiance or environment. The environment influence appears in connectionist models in the
form of biases (sing.: bias), e.g. of some inputs with fix values, independent of the activation
dynamics within the network. Often, the biases increase the network performance.

II.2.2.Levels of mental processing of information

Immediate world in which man lives is the natural environment and social
environment, but also that of his own reality. In this world much smaller are the biological
brains and even the new electronic brains which arouses so much interest. Roger Penrose
(1989, 1994), Henry Stapp (1993), S.R. Hameroff (1994), and K. M. Jibu Jasue (1996) are
promoters of the quantum theory of consciousness. Their actions are based on two types of
quantum processes known: type I (after von Neumann) the system evolution takes place under
the Schrödinger equation and leaves no possibility of occurrence the mental and
consciousness; type II, in which takes place the reduction of vector state (representing a
superposition of states). Penrose called process U and process R two processes aforesaid.
Stapp and Penrose believe that the process of consciousness can be related to the phenomenon
of reduction state vector (collapse of wave function of process U by process A).
David Bohm supports processes and non-measurable physical quantities, but who
determines the evolution of the physical phenomena. Margene (1984) argued that the

27
interaction of body / mental is analogous to a field of probabilities described by quantum
mechanics, the field has no mass, no energy but can cause a microsite an effective action.
Peters and Kora (1987) proposed considering bundles of dendrites of the neuron as a
structural microunitate of the cortex, called „dendron”. Each „dendron” or neural unit should
be imbued with a mental unit called „psihon”. An intentional mental acting through its
„psihon” available through his dendron nearly 10,000 presynaptic vesicular network already
activated, where each vesicle expected to be selected.
Roger Penrose8 (1999) suggested that the microtubules of neurons would be the place
of the relevant quantum effects in the brain. Information processing mechanisms in the
neuronal assemblies, using a Bose-Einstein model and Fröhlich effect, as the Meda Truta
demonstrates that the structures of higher learning such as thinking, language is achieved
through a state of consciousness necessary for brain determine the role and place that human
beings occupies in the environment.
In a world where there is not only the fundamental forces of physics, the differences of
principle between the live information devices and technical devices are blurring,
G.G.Constandache9 argue. The differences could arise only from the degree of complexity: a
large self-organised complexity by evolution in the case of biological brain and the
complexity much less of technical devices and systems, at least until now. If these technical
systems without live elements, without DNA, could be made by specialists in similar degree
of complexity with living brain, it might happen that the artifacts to acquire certain propreties
similar to natural brain, including such mintal events. This is the way that research into
artificial life went, very useful to study the behavior of structure in evolution, but which it
could not explain the true nature of living or mintal processes.
Class of complex systems (systems consisting of a multitude of agents with memory
or internal model, with adaptation’s propreties) is given much attention in the hope that
through this way to understand and describe the reality it can fully explain the mental
phenomena and consciousness. Structural agents of many complex adaptative systems should
actually be structural-phenomenological agents. Consequently there could be two classes of
such systems: structural and structural-phenomenological. Although the latter have a strong
systemic side with a certain structural complexity, excess the systems properties generating

8 Penrose R., 1999, Incertitudinile raţiunii; Umbrele minţii; În căutarea unei teorii ştiinţifice a conştiinţei,
Editura Tehnică, Bucureşti, p.59
9 Constandache G.G. (editor), 2002, Filosofie şi ştiinţe cognitive, Editura Matrix Rom, Bucureşti, p.143

28
life, mental and consciousness. New ontological model must include a deeper reality than the
universe which he comes. Bernard d 'Espana supports from the data of quantum physics there
is a deeper level of existence, placed under the quantum world, a veiled reality, which he
considers somewhat hidden for knowledge. The idea of a "deep underlying reality" is strongly
supported by Menas Kafatos.
The structural-phenomenological philosophy recogniez all scientific knowledge about
the brain obtained from neurobiology and states like her that the mind belongs to the brain
and it is its function, the mind is not a separate entity from from the brain. Patricia Smith
Churchland of the University of California stated in a paper entitled: “Can neurobiology teach
us anything about consciousness?” the existence of high levels of brain functioning which in a
very profound mood are not understood. The highest level is considered the psychological
level, which she thinks that it can be explained only by reduction at the brain structures and
functions. The problem is to define the levels considered.
Roger Penrose (1989, 1994), Henry Stapp (1993), S.R. Hameroff (1994), and K. M.
Jibu Jasue (1996) are promoters of the quantum theory of consciousness. Their actions are
based on two types of quantum processes known: type I (after von Neumann) the system
evolution takes place under the Schrödinger equation and leaves no possibility of occurrence
the mental and consciousness; type II, in which takes place the reduction of vector state
(representing a superposition of states). Penrose called process U and process R two processes
aforesaid. Stapp and Penrose believe that the process of consciousness can be related to the
phenomenon of reduction state vector (collapse of wave function of process U by process R).
David Bohm supports processes and non-measurable physical quantities, but who
determines the evolution of the physical phenomena. Is the assertion that led to the so-called
hidden variables theory of quantum mechanics. In quantum mechanics a given initial state can
evolve into any number of potential successor states that make up the state vector. According
to Schrödinger’s equation, the state vector evolves deterministically. Following an act of
observation it is found a single state. Measurement / observation process in itself is that
structures the system, collapsing the set of all possible states into one. For this reason the
measuring process is distinct from other physical process.
The very complex physical systems, such as the brain, sensory organs and especially
the neurons are small enought to operate by the laws of quantum probability. Margene (1984)
argued that the interaction of body / mental is analogous to a field of probabilities described
by quantum mechanics, the field has no mass, no energy but can cause a microsite an
effective action.

29
 Peters and Kora (1987) proposed considering bundles of dendrites of the neuron as a
structural microunitate of the cortex, called „dendron”. Each „dendron” or neural unit should
be imbued with a mental unit called „psihon”. An intentional mental acting through its
„psihon” available through his dendron nearly 10,000 presynaptic vesicular network already
activated, where each vesicle expected to be selected. For example, one of the V4 area’s
dendron, acting on its psihon to produce the sensation of red. In order to maintain constantlly
the sensation of red, it should produce an integration which assembled the million of
perceptual mintal units that lead to global experiences.
Roger Penrose10 (1999) suggested that the microtubules of neurons would be the place
of the relevant quantum effects in the brain. At the origin of the phenomenon of
consciousness would be those neuronal cytoskeleton that is grafted microtubules, places of
existence of coherent quantum states. Large-scale quantum coherence does not imply
consciousness itself. Otherwise we have to recognize that superconductors are aware.
And yet, it is possible that such consistency to be one of the ingredients needed for a
body to be self-conscious. Inour brains there is a high degree of organisation, and as
consciousness is an integrator phenomenon of all mental activites, that means that we must
seek far wider that the single microtubules. There should be a significant non-separability
between the states of separate cytoskeletons of a large number of different neurons, so that
large areas of brain are involved in a kind of collective quantum state.
There are other issues that must be taken into account. How much of the brain is
involved in a state of consciousness or conscience? Very likely this is not the whole brain.
Cerebellum is frequently associated with a computer because it responds to unconscious
mintal activities. It would be nice to know that there are essential diffrences in cellular
organisation and cerebellum cytoskelletons compared with cortex. Cellular organisation and
cortex cytoskelletons seem to have a more direct relationships with the phenomenon of
consciousness. Note that microtubules in neurons are much different in comparison with those
of other cells because they are placed in parallel (not radial), a greater number of microtubules
is organized in more complex networks that in other cells, show a greater genetic variability,
transport chemical vesicles during dendritic and axonal processes and they were associated
neuro-specific proteins.
From the neurobiological point of view we can define consciousness as a visible
property of the brain that comes from the voice activation of an undetermined number of

10 Penrose R., 1999, Incertitudinile raţiunii; Umbrele minţii; În căutarea unei teorii ştiinţifice a conştiinţei,
Editura Tehnică, Bucureşti, p.57

30
neurons over a variable period of time after being substituted by a different number of
neurons that is activated and the process continues until the installation of biological death of
the brain. Neural ensembles is a mechanism unreadable, but precisely where, in an infinitely
small time the vibrations of supracondensate material, produced by the molecules of the
neuron, releases energy that can be transformed or expressed through what we call
consciousness. Information processing mechanisms in the neuronal assemblies, using a Bose-
Einstein model and Fröhlich effect, as the Meda Truta11 demonstrates that the structures of
higher learning such as thinking, language is achieved through a state of consciousness
necessary for brain determine the role and place that human beings occupies in the
environment.
The neuronal assemblies that are subject to two effects are found in the brain in
following form: continous lightning occuring in the space between neurons, even though the
brain is activated by stimuli, it is a source of energy that forces the molecules of membrane
cell to emit photons. And when the emission reaches a critical frequences, the molecules
inside the membranes of millions of neurons, vibrating in unison, coming into phase Bose-
Einstein.
There are only four known species of primates whose brains are very close in structure
to the human brain. Moreover, DNA is a rate of 94.6% identical to human. Intelligence,
reasoning, language, creativity are encoded in only 3.6% of the human genom. The major
difference between humans and other primates is given by the complexity of the language.
Language has an important role in human development because all higher cognitive functions
are determined by de brainʼs unique ability for symbolic representation. Language is not only
a means of communcation, but the basis of human consciousness. People have become
intelligents and inventives because they have developed the capacity for speach. Mintal
reprezentations of the world and of Being itself is the result of biological evolution.
This is generally accepted that the human mind processes the informations that
bombards constantly, depending on the existing network of thoughts, for certain categories
and schemas. The problem that has worried many minds is whether these thoughts are formed
by interaction between brain and environment or are innates. Cognitive psychology propose a
new architecture of cognitive system that provides basic the concept of “mental schema”.

11 Truţă M., 2003, Prelucrarea informaţiei în mecanismul învăţării, Editura Tritonic, Bucureşti

31
 II.2.3.Mental schemes
Whether innate or acquired support are our mental schemes, they help us cope with a
continuous stream of stimuli, to order the received information, and thus we can communicate
and act effectively. In the literature, the concept with the highest degree of generality and best
use is that of "mental schema". He subordinate the notion of “category”, “prototype”,
“stereotype”.
Schemes refer to itself, to other people, the roles and social institutions, the social
groups and nations, to social events. They are the function to simplify and make faster
filtering and organizing information, storing it in memory and recall, therefore to make
decisions and act as promptly and efficiently. An important aspect of these schemes is that
many of them have a hierarchical organization,in the top of the hierarchy hovering the
abstract and general elements, which, as we descend toward the base, is specifically distinct
categories, gains concreteness, to specific cases. The association between the components of
the schemes, often, rather as a “tangled” ball, striking interference than a clear hierarchy.
Some authors (Doise et al., 1996, Corneille and Leyens12, 1997) considers that in
social judgments, the most explanatory concept is that of “category” (and categorizing), or
that he is first in the explanation of cognition, that of the "scheme". Simply say, the category
is a class of objects that have common traits and high degree of similarity.
Here are some characteristics of categories:
1.Categories, the more social, does not refer to a property of individuals within a class, but to
several attributes that are distributed in the form of "cluster" (cluster) that is linked to other
polymorphic.
2. Categories are organized vertically, meaning that there are different levels of abstraction
offered by them. E. Rosch13 (1978) also shows that there are three levels: over-ordered, the
middle and the sub-ordered level. The middle is called the basis because is optimal in
cognition. The over-ordered encompasses many individuals with multiple characteristics,
while the under-ordered, including details, require a considerable cognitive effort. For
example, the term "priest" is more easily defined than the super-ordinate concept of
'intellectual' or supra-ordinate the "Catholic priest", "Orthodox priest".

12 Corneille, O., Leyens, J., 1997, “Categorii, categorizare socială şi esenţialism psihologie”, în Stereotipuri,
discriminare şi relaţii intergrupale, (coord. R. Bourhis, J. Leyens), Editura Polirom, Iași

13 Rosch, E., 1978, „Principles of categorization”, în Cognition and Categorization (eds. E. Rosch, B. Lloyd),
Hillsdale, MJ: Erlbaum, p.286

32
3. There is also a horizontal structure of categories, the meaning constellation of attributes,
but also that they are detectable, categories with well defined borders, while others are groups
or sets vague (fuzzy).
The prototype is a concept intimately linked to that class, he expressing the model of
typical features, characteristic of members of a group, of a category. Prototypes are condensed
descriptions existing in our minds, serving as the decisive landmarks surrounding the
classification and interpretation of reality. Those represented are either models or ideal types,
or is a model that represents the average features of a category, or characteristic or
combination of the most common features or a specific representative of that class, considered
typical. Here we have operated a firm (strong) dissociation between the use of the prototypes
at the level of scientific knowledge and how they function in everyday practice. Researchers
are called to discover the large share of error and illusion in the content of many prototypes
and stereotypes in the common consciousness, embodied in phrases like "so it is the
Romanian”, “so are young people today”.
Stereotypes have been heavily exploited in social psychology. An approximate
definition the stereotype would be: a mental representation of a social group and its members,
a mental structure aimed at different groups (ethnic, age, class, gender, profession). An
enlarged definition would be: stereotypes are a set of socially shared beliefs, targeting
characteristics (personality, attitudes, values, behavior) of a specific group of people. So,
stereotypes are mental representations that refer to social groups, and not objects of natural or
social space. A close concept is "cliché", which has a broader scope. We are talking about
clichés, for example, on certain diseases and treatments, art, etc. economic reform. Clichés
and stereotypes circulates in the individual's social environment, and take it as such, without
them critically. Fundamental problems encountered in their study:

1.On as mental schemes, stereotypes help us to organize information, to classify quickly

concrete individuals in the category they belong, and thus infer their personality’s
characteristics. They help us to make behavioral predictions, to realize what we can expect
from people who are part of one group or another and thus to know what attitude to adopt,
how to behave with them.

2. Relatively recent studies shows that stereotypes are not necessarily seen as exaggerated and
false beliefs, but that their use maintains self-esteem, justify people’s decisions and actions

33
depending on the situation. P. Oakes14 et al. (1994) argues that the features considered as its
own (self stereotyping and self categorization) and hetero stereotyping (as he characterizes the
others from other groups) depend on the interaction context. We're talking about activation of
situational stereotype.

3. A contentious issue is whether stereotypes are true or false. For their carriers, they have
truth value, of course. It would seem that if it are useful to the group which it belongs, they
are true.

4. It is likely that most stereotypes are false perceptions and interpretations and are
dysfunctional in relationships between people and groups.

To summarize, the categories and prototypes are schemes that focus on content and mode of
information processing, while stereotypes aimed at groups.
Newell15 (1990), one of the founders of traditional computational models, suggested a
plausible solution: lower-level cognitive processes such as object recognition can be well
modeled by connectionist models, but higher- level cognitive processes such as reasoning and
language may require traditional symbolic modeling.
According to the metaphor of the brain, human cognition is best understood in terms
of brain properties. The metaphor of the brain and, more specifically, the so-called
neuromimetics connectionists networks, as computational implementations of the mood of
how the brain might work, have become increasingly popular lately and it attacked its
leadership of the computer metaphor when it comes to theorizing the nature of human
cognition. Connectionists networks, neural networks or parallel distributed processing
models, as they are called varied, differs from theories based on computer metaphor in many
ways. For example, in theories that adhere to the computer metaphor, all processes assumed to
be underlying of human behavior must be explicitly described. Connectionist networks, on the
other hand, may in some degree to “schedule” one, meaning that they can learn to produce
specific outputs when they are given certain inputs. Moreover, connectionists theorists ofen
reject the use of explicit rules and symbols uses distributed representations which the concepts
are characterised as patterns of activation in a network.
Current connectionist networks have the following characteristics:

14 Oakes, P., Haslam, S., Turner, J., 1994, Stereotyping and Social Reality, Blackwell, Oxford, p.256
15 Newell, A., 1990, Unified Theories of Cognition, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press

34
a.The network consists of elementary units or neuro n-like or nodes which are interconnected
so that one unit has many links with other units ;
b.The units affects other units exciting or inhibiting them;
c.A unit usually takes the weighted sum of all links input and produces a single output to
another unit if the weighted sum exceeds a threshold value;
d. The network as a whole is characterized by propreties of its units, the manner in which the
units are interconnected, and the algorithms or rules used to modify the strength of
connectious between units;
e. The network can have different structures of layers; they can have a layer of input units,
intermediate layer (the so-called « hidden units ») and a layer of outputs units;
f. A representation of a concept is stored in a distributed mood by a pattern of activation in the
network;
g. The same network can store many different patterns without that they necessarly interfere
each other;
h. An algorithm or a rule that are used in neural networks to allow the emergence of learning
are known as reverese propagation or retro-propagation of errors.
David Marr proposed that an information processing system can be understood in any
of three levels of description. They are:
Level 1: the computation level where we ask what makes a device and why;
Level 2: the representation and algorithm level where we ask how the computations are
implemented; we are interested what are the representations corresponding to input and output
device, and which is the algorithm for transforming those representations;
Level 3: the hardware implementation – in psychology it is the level where we describe the
physical realisation in the brain of representations and algorithms described in the level 2.

Marr saw significant relationships between these levels. Particularly, he noted that “some
types of algorithms will better suit certain natural substrates than others” (Marr16, 2003).

II.2.4.Attention

Attention is often regarded as a fundamental mental resource that is required to operate

any mental process. Most theories that discusses attention assume that these is a limited
mental resource and that resource which is available, determine many processes. One of

16 Marr, D., 1982, Vision: A Computational Investigation, în Human Representation and Processing of Visual
Information, first edition in 1982, New York: Freeman, p. 113

35
perhaps the most interesting issue concerning the role of attention focused on the question of
whether attentional selection occurs "early" or "late" in cognitive system. Much of the early
research on this topic focused on the degree to which stimuli are processed which are not
paying attention. Early selection models argue that selection occurs at a relatively early
cognitive system, ie prior to extract meaning. Initial support for this idea came from listening
tasks dihotică the listeners had to repeat verbal information presented to one ear while
different information (or identical) were presented simultaneously to the other ear. The results
suggest that little information from those presented to the ear that is not paying attention were
noted.

36
III. COGNITIVE ARCHITECTURES AND SPATIAL-TIME REPRESENTATIONS

The white color of the cybernetic box shows an entirely algorithmic issue and the
black color shows an issue whose structure is not known or does not make the subject of our
interest. What is important is that the specified inputs produce an output corresponding to its
name (or codification). The black boxes are also called “demons” since they either mainly
illustrate impossible cases or you don’t know what outcome to expect after the processing is
done, as in the case of “Maxwell’s demon”, enunciated since 1871 by Max Clerk Maxwell for
the study of heat proprieties, which was one of the first examples: an imaginary being made
up from molecules would violate or not the second principle of thermodynamics).
The cybernetic box is grey when the algorithm is partially know and can be divided
into modules. Some specialists use the term of perceptron in order to designate the cybernetic
box equipped with a series of possible inputs and a compulsory output – because through this
representation we already witness a scheme of the perceptive process with the analyzers,
internal transformations and the emission of some externalized responses. The compulsoriness
of the existence of output in such a scheme can be explained: the inputs can be absent in an
issue with implicit data but due to the lack of outputs the algorithmic activity of the device
loses its meaning: the entire construction must lead to a certain result.
In the pages below we will create the formal model as a representation more or less
simplified of a “material world”. We will, therefore, admit the presence of some physical-
mathematical, psychic and semiotic models (depending on the language). The physical-
mathematical models refer to the image of the world starting from the 4th dimensional
continuum perceived by our senses. The models are referential rather than imaginary because
physics inhibits the mathematical tendency of generating too many possible worlds. On the
contrary, the psychological models can be also reported to imaginary luxurious worlds due to
the outcome of our imagination which can be hardly quelled. Unlike the physical-
mathematical or psychological models, the semiotic or symbolic models directly intercept the
social processes within the communication and the information structuring since it refers to
the language, thinking and, to some extent, even to the behavior.
The formal system is more than a model due to its additional mandatory proprieties: 1)
the possibility of self-representation; 2) the existence of some universal (holistic) proprieties.
A system as the psychic in a non-formal description has both hereditary proprieties
(identical with the ones of the component elements) and emergent proprieties (specific only to
the whole). The psychic manifests as a whole not only by hereditary proprieties but also by

37
emergent proprieties. The memory represents a category of the psychic, therefore, from a
hereditary point of view, the psychic is memorative. However, at the level of the psychic
working as a whole, there are emergent proprieties truly exceptional such thinking (about
something) or the state of awareness (towards something).
At this point, we are capable of describing the cognitive architectures as formal
systems of the thinking process (in the extent to which the process of human thinking can be
formalized); a more correct term would be “semi-formalized systems”. The human
information processing – from the stimuli acquiring, through the receptors, to their higher
processing at the level of the brain cortex – is complex process resulting in the adaptability of
the human being to the environment. This is carried out at all levels of the nervous system
including: the processing of external signals, representation of knowledge, obtaining the
internal model of the external world, learning and, ultimately reasoning and problem solving.
The classical symbolic model of information processing was proposed by Alan Newell
and Herbert Simon in 1972 [Newell; Simon, 1972] and it is based on the classical point of
view of artificial intelligence and on the sequential architectural structure of the Von
Neumann machine. The researchers consider that the human mind is a sequential machine of
information processing using rules of production, such as formal grammar. They proposed the
IPS model (Information Processing System) based on the theory of problem solving, a serial
system with input and output patterns.
The system above is composed of a long term memory (LTM), a short term memory
(STM) and an external memory (EM). LTM has an unlimited capacity and an associative
organization in which the information is stored in symbolic structures connected through
different network and can be “encapsulated” in other structures. STM has a limited capacity.
In the process of problem solving, STM only retains two symbols for a task while another task
is prepared to be solved. EM has an unlimited capacity and it is used to resolve and store
information from the existing task. The sensorial and motor patterns are symbolized and kept
identically in LTM and STM. In this structure the problem solving is carried out by searching
in the problem space from a state of knowledge to another, until the desired solution is
reached. This functioning of the system proposed by Newell and Simon determines its serial
character which allows that at a certain time one piece of information is processed. The
Newell-Simon model allowed the elaboration and development of systems based on
knowledge and expert-systems.

38
 Newell17 (1990) − who is among the founders of the traditional computational models,
suggested a plausible solving: the cognitive processes at the lower level such recognition of
objects can be well modeled by connectionist models but the cognitive processes at higher
levels such as reasoning and language can require a traditional symbolic modeling.
According to the brain metaphor, the human cognition is best understood in terms of
brain properties. The brain metaphor and, more specifically, the so-called connectionist
neuro-mimetic networks as computational implementations of the module in which the brain
could function, become more and more popular during the last years and challenged the
leadership status of the computer metaphor when we are talking about theorizations regarding
the nature of the human cognition. The connectionist networks, the neural networks or the
parallel distributed processing models, as they are variedly called, differ from the theories
based on the computer metaphor due to multiple aspects. For example, in theories adhering to
the computer metaphor, all the processes assumed to be underlying to the human behavior
must be explicitly described. The connectionist networks, on the other hand, can to a certain
extent “program” themselves in the way in which they can learn to produce specific outputs
when certain inputs are given to them. Moreover, the connectionist theoreticians often reject
the use of explicit rules and symbols and use distributed representations in which the concepts
are characterized as activation patterns in a network.
The current connectionist networks typically present the following characteristics: a)
the network consists from elementary or neuro n- like units or nodes that are interconnected
so that a single unit has many links with other units; b) the units affect other units by
excitation or inhibition; c) a unit usually takes the weighted average of all the input
connections and produces a single output towards another unit of the weighted amount
exceeds a threshold value; d) the network as a whole is characterized by the proprieties of its
units, by the manner in which the units are interconnected and by the algorithms or the rules
used in order to modify the strength of the connections between the units; e) the networks can
have various structures of layers; they can have a layer of input units, intermediary layers (the
so-called “hidden units”) and a layer of output units; f) a representation of a concept is stored
in a manner distributed by an activation pattern in the network; g) the same network can store
many different patterns without interfering necessarily between them; h) an algorithm or a

17 Newell, A., 1990, Unified Theories of Cognition, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, p.178

39
rule that is used in the neuronal networks in order to allow the occurrence of learning is
known as “reverse propagation” (or “retro-propagation”) of the errors.
David Marr states that an information processing system can be understood at any of
the three description levels. These are: 1) The level of computation where we ask ourselves
what does a device do and why; 2) The level of representation and algorithm where we ask
ourselves how the computations described at level 1 are implemented; specifically, we are
interested what are the representations corresponding with the input and output of the device
and what is the algorithm for transforming those representations; 3) The level of hardware
implementation – in psychology this is the level where we would describe in the brain the
physical accomplishment of the representations and algorithms described at level 2.
Marr observed important relationships between these levels. In particular, he specified
that “some types of algorithms will match better with certain physical sub-layers than others”
(Marr18, 2003, p. 113; first published in 1982).
A model of cortical information processing should be in consonance with the
following suppositions: 1) the sensorial stimuli transmitted to the brain for processing are
chaotic; 2) the processing system can convert the input information as continuous stimuli in
distinct data units; 3) the degraded or ambiguous stimuli can be processed – even though only
partially; 4) a large volume of information can be easily processed, stored, recovered and used
in a corresponding way.
Within the brain information processing three stages can be distinguished, each of
them associated with a certain storage system: 1) reception, filtration, storage and initial
processing of the information with the help of the sensorial system; 2) final analysis, short
term storage and a second filtration of data via the short term memory; 3) accessing of the
long term system and integration of some information in the database of the long term
memory.
The human being works with two knowledge bases: propositional (declarative) and
ambient (geographical); the second base has a distinctly non-linguistic character and is also
present at the sufficiently intelligent animals, helping to orientation in the environment
[Drăgănescu]. We shall consider that a propositional knowledge basis – which can be present
both in the human mind and on certain electronic support – contains FLC (fundamental
logical categories) and DLC (derived logical categories):
FLC = { n, p };

18 Marr, D., 1982, Vision: A Computational Investigation, in Human Representation and Processing of Visual
Information, New York: Freeman

40
 DLC = { sensu stricto operators, connectors, subnectors, predicators }
Where the abbreviations mean [n]otions and [p]ropositions and DLC are designated as
functions (not necessarily logic) abbreviated by the first two letters and having the proprieties:
op = f(n / n), co = f(p / p), su = f(n / p), pr (p / n) [Ioan, 1999],
The formula f (x / y) with the significance: „a function that transforms y in x“. In case of
operators and connectors, the simple notions or propositions are transformed in composed
notions / propositions. This model functions based on the successes of artificial intelligence,
the field by which the intelligent human or animal thinking and behavior are compared
(occasionally forcibly but sometimes in an inspired way) with the operation system of a
computer and with the external actions issued by it.
We will state that the operators and the connectors are homogenous derived categories
and the subnectors and the predicators, heterogeneous derived categories. Even in the
language of some intelligent animals we will be able to describe activities based on acquiring
some notions or even actions described by verbs (the latter, in fact, leading us to the “nucleus”
of a proposition). Although in case of animals the representations of these notions or
“proposition nuclei” are not linguistic, however, they often represent the basis of a similar
logic to the one present in certain human conducts.
The proposition offers clear information if we can label it as either true or false. If not,
we say that is indecisive. The one who extracts the information from the environment is
usually called an agent. The latter can also be a “physical character”, for example the wind. In
semiotics, the agents are specialized in emitters and receivers. Not all agents are intelligent!
The current PC has both a routine, non-intelligent part (the majority of processed algorithms)
and an intelligent part (procedures of artificial intelligence with which various programs are
equipped).
Regarding the aspects of the message (in its broader sense) the Aristotelian coupling
(matter, form) is replaced, from the middle of the 20th century, with a triadic model, SEI
(substance, energy, information) (Ceauşu, 2009). All the components of the model are
concepts, in other words, notions difficult to define but, in general: 1) the substance is a
support, a passive, a memory etc.; 2) the energy is a non-intelligent element-like active; and
3) the information, an intelligent active. What distinguishes the information from the energy is
the possibility of the former to be revealed by successive attempts to which only yes or no
answers are given (true or false). Therefore, the information can be defined as negentropy (the
opposite of disorder) taking the form of a logarithm to base 2 with the minus sign.

41
 Usually, the information is digital (numerically “discretized”) or analogue
(continuous) but the energy generally does not admit discretized models and the continuous
models of the energy are usually complicated (in the way in which that they can be expressed
in analogical way but the numerical representations can be built with great difficult).
A cybernetic scheme of the computer as processor of program-codes (with optional
inputs within which there is also a γ(P) program-code and a mandatory output) can be applied
also to the human psyche. The psyche behaves as a perceptron with feed-back and its systemic
aspect is assured by the state of consciousness – by which the brain exercise a process of
monitoring / control on the entire body. Therefore we can represent the psyche as a cybernetic
box with feed-back, the model being obviously inspired by the representation of the computer
through a universal cybernetic box. Such box not only has simple inputs (INP1, ..., INPn), but
also receives program-codes (figured by γ(P)), which means that we also admit algorithms,
data and program on entry. Moreover, the idea of “universality” of the psyche (but also of the
computer) is related to the possibility of enumerating all the possible programs written in a
programming language. At the level of the human psyche, the intelligence fulfills the role of
that “universal program” determinant, the thinking being manifested as a type of hierarchy of
universal programs.
There is a tautological ration between thinking and intelligence based on the psyche.
Thinking is a defining category of the psyche through which the latter becomes controllable in
a certain measure. It comprises aspects such as reason and logic, produces the change of
attitude and influences the behavior, cooperating with other availabilities of the human
psychic system not only on a cognitive line but also on an affective-motivational and volitive-
regulating line.
Next to consciousness and personality, thinking determines the stability of the psyche
(follow the main determinations in the following figure). Together with consciousness,
thinking concurs in forming the behavior of cybernetic system with self-representation of the
psyche. Therefore we can describe the psyche as a cybernetic box (with eventual input
variable, at least one output variable and a number of intermediary computational variables)
with feed-back.
Irrespective if they have a born or gained support, the mental schemes help us in
coping with a continuous flow of stimuli, to order to received information and, therefore, to
be able to communicate and take action in an efficient way. In the specialty literature, the
concept with the highest degree of generality and also the most used concept is the one of
“mental scheme”. It subordinates the terms of “category”, “prototype” or “stereotype”.
42
 III.1 Geographical, social or semiotic knowledge of the human knowing agent

The mental schemes refer to the own person, to others, to social roles and institutions,
to social groups and nations, to social events. These have the function to simplify and to speed
up the filtration and organization of the information, storage in the memory and remembering,
thus to take decisions and to act as promptly and efficiently as possible.
An important aspect of the schemes is that many of them have a hierarchical
organization, at the top of it there are the general and abstract elements which, as long as we
go down towards the base, are specified in distinct categories, acquire concreteness until
specific cases. The association between the schemes of the components often takes the form
of a “tangled ball of yarn” of significant interferences rather than of a clear hierarchy.
Some authors (Doise et al., 1996, Corneille and Leyens19, 1997, Radu20, 1994) assess
that in social judgments, the most explicative concept is the one of “category” (and
categorization) or that it is prior in the explanation of cognition to the “scheme” one. In
simple words, the category represents a class of objects with common features and high
degree of similarity. Here are some features of categories21:
1) Categories, especially the social ones, do not refer to a feature of the individuals
from a class but to many attribute that are distributed as a cluster, e.g. related to others from a
polymorphic point of view.
2) The categories are structured vertically in the way that there are various levels of
abstraction which they offer. E. Rosch22 (1978) shows that there are three such levels: the
supra-ordinate , intermediary level and the sub-ordinate level. The intermediate level is also
called the basic level because it is optimal in cognition. The supra-ordinate one incorporates
more individuals with multiple features, and the sub-ordinate one, including many details,
requests a great cognitive effort. For example, the notion of “priest” is much easier to be
defined than the supra-ordinate notion of “intellectual” or the sub-ordinate one of “Catholic
priest”, “Orthodox priest”.

19 Corneille, O., Leyens, J., 1997, „Categories, social categorization and psychological essentialism“, in
Stereotypes, discrimination and inter-group relationships (coord. R. Bourhis, J. Leyens), „Polirom“ Publishing
House, Iaşi
20 Radu, I., 1994, „Interpersonal attraction, affiliation relationships and sociometric enquiry“, in Social
Psychology (coord. I. Radu), EXE Publishing House, Cluj-Napoca
21 Apud Iluţ, P., 2000, Illusion of localism and localization of illusion; Current topics of psycho-sociology,
Polirom Publishing House House, Iaşi, pp.64-65
22 Rosch, E., 1978, „Principles of categorization“, in Cognition and Categorization (eds. E. Rosch, B. Lloyd),
Hillsdale, MJ: Erlbaum

43
 3) There is also a horizontal structure of categories, in the way of constellations of
attributes but also in the way that they are detectable, categories with well defined borders,
while others are fuzzy assemblies or sets.
The prototype is an intimate concept related to the one of category, expressing the
model of typical features, the characteristics of group members, of a category. The prototypes
are compressed descriptions which exist in our mind, operating as decisive marks in the
classification and interpretation of the surrounding reality.
The respective marks are either ideal models or types or a model representing the
average of the features in a category or the most frequent feature or combination of features or
a concrete representative of the respective class considered typical.
Here a firm dissociation must be operated between the use of prototypes at the level of
scientific knowledge and the way in which they function in the daily practice: for example,
the researchers are called upon to discover the large share of error and illusion in the content
of many prototypes and stereotypes at the level of common consciousness materialized in
expressions such as “that’s how the Romanians are”.
Among other mental schemes, the stereotypes were heavily exploited in social
psychology. An approximate definition of the stereotype would be: a mental representation of
a social group and its members, a mental structure regarding different groups (ethnic, age,
class, sexual, professional etc.). A wider definition would be the following: the stereotypes are
an assembly of socially communicated beliefs regarding the specific features of a group of
persons (from the point of view of personality, attitudes, values, conduct etc.). Therefore the
stereotypes are mental representations referring to social groups and not to objects from the
natural or social space.
A similar notion is the one of cliché which has a wider sphere of comprehension. We
are talking about clichés, for example, regarding certain treatments and diseases, art,
economic reform etc. The clichés and stereotypes revolve in the social environment of the
individual picking them up as such without a critical analysis. Further on we will state the
fundamental issues occurred in their study.
1) As mental schemes, the stereotypes help us in organizing the information, to rapidly
classify the concrete individuals in the category they belong to and therefore to also deduct
their personality features. They help us to make behavioral predictions, e.g. to be aware of
what we should expect from the persons belonging to a group or another and thus to know
what attitude to adopt, how to behave with them.

44
 2) Relatively recent studies show that the stereotypes are no longer regarded as
exaggerated and false beliefs but their use maintains self-esteem, justifies the decisions and
actions of the humans depending on the situation. P. Oakes et al.23 (1994) argues that the
features considered being our own (auto-stereotypes and auto-categorizations) and hetero-
stereotypes (how others from other groups are characterized) depend on the context of
interaction. We are talking about the activation of situational stereotypes.
3) A disputed topic is in what extent the stereotypes are true or false. For their carriers,
they have of course a truth value. It seems that if they are useful to the group they belong to,
they are also true and correspond with the reality.
4) It is very likely that most of stereotypes are false perceptions and interpretations and
are dysfunctional in the relationships between humans and groups.
Synthetizing the above, categories and prototypes are schemes focusing on content and
the way of processing the information, while the stereotypes focus on groups.
The mental schemes help the cognitive agent in a fast operation and with less effort at
the level of all main processes of information assimilation and processing: in perception,
attention, memory, interpretations and evaluations. We insert below a systematization of the
issue of scheme functioning.
1) It is clear that we do not perceive and do not pay the same attention to all the
elements in the surrounding environment. A selection of stimuli takes place as they are
numerous and complex, direct or indirect, especially by mass-media. The prior existence in
our mind of schemes guides the attention mainly on the elements “coming out” from the
scheme, which do not confirm it.
2) However, it was found out that the information consonant with the mental scheme
is better and faster embedded in the memory and we find them much easier in the process of
recollection, reproduction.
3) The mental schemes increase the information processing speed but there are also
cases in which the evocation of some scheme comprising many elements, that are not entirely
consonant, slows forming an opinion or taking a decision.
4) The schemes also have the function that through an automated inference to
complete the informational picture.

23 Oakes, P., Haslam, S., Turner, J., 1994, Stereotyping and Social Reality, Blackwell, Oxford, p.323

45
 5) In confronting the schemes with the reality, almost always the comparison between
“what I expected” with “what I have found” occurs in the foreground. The extent in which the
two planes are identical is a strong source of satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
6) The confrontation between our mental structures and the data of the concrete reality
does not lead automatically to disagreements. Most of the times the two places are
harmonized because: 6.1) we choose the situations that confirm the schemes; 6.2) because we
perceive, judge, rationalize (justify) the structures; 6.3) they radically modify our schemes;
6.4) the schemes are imposed to the reality, transforming it in accordance with our wishes and
expectations.
If you expect something and you think that this will be fulfilled, this also comes true –
a phenomenon called self-fulfilling prophecy (R. Merton24, 1957). Robert Merton interpreted
the inter-ethnic relations in the USA: the Caucasians perceive the African-Americans as
untrained, lazy, forgetting that they as such due to some stereotypes or practices of the
Caucasians (anticipations).
The human system of information processing can be made up of three memory-related
deposits, five fundamental cognitive processes and two channels of representing knowledge.
The three memory-related deposits are the sensorial memory where the sensorial input is
stored for a short time in its initial form; the working memory, where a limited number of
elements of the presented material are stored and handled in the alert consciousness
[conscious awareness]; and the long term memory where large quantities of knowledge are
stored for long periods of time.
The five cognitive processes are: selection of images, selection of words, organization
of images, organization of words and the integration of all of them. The two channels are the
auditory-verbal channel (in which the material enters in the cognitive system through the
auditory analyzer and is in the end represented by verbal codes) and the visual-pictographic
channel – in which the material enters in the cognitive system through the visual analyzer and
in the end, is represented by a pictographic code.
The final cognitive process – and namely integration – connects the pictographic
model with the working visual memory, the verbal model with the verbal working memory
and the knowledge prior to the long term memory. The outcome is an integrated
representation based on visual and verbal representations of the present material the same as
the relevant previous knowledge. As a whole, building of knowledge requires that the subject

24Merton, R., 1957, „The Self - Fulfilling Prophecy“, in Social Structure and Social Theory, Free Press, New
York

46
to select relevant images and sounds from the presented materials, to organize them in
coherent pictographic and verbal representations and to integrate the pictographic and verbal
representations between them and with the previous knowledge.
In synthesis, the presented model of information processing is based on three
assumptions from the cognition science: assumption of the dual channel, the assumption of
limited capacity and the assumption of active learning (Mayer, 2001).
a) The assumption of the dual channel is stated as follows: people have separate
channels of information processing for the visual-pictographic material and the auditory-
verbal one (Baddeley25, 1998; Paivio26, 1986). For example, the printed words and parts of the
exemplifying material (such as graphic illustrations, animations and video) are processed as
visual images (at least initially) in the visual-pictographic channel, while the spoken words
are processed as sounds (at least initially) in the auditory-verbal channel. However, the way in
which the verbal and pictographic material is represented in the working memory is different,
so that there is a verbal code and a pictographic one.
b) The assumption of limited capacity – The theory of the „Naïve Scientist” begins
with the assumption that, in the everyday life, people do not act in the same way as authentic
scientists, developing logical reasoning, but resort to information to confirm their opinions
which treats them by using different “heuristics”. Hence errors in thinking at the level of
common sense result, including errors regarding the sequences of happiness. Laurean J.
Chapman and J.P. Chapman (1967) were the first to study this phenomenon.
c) Also, we resort to the assumption of active learning: learning with a meaning
[authentic] (or understanding) is made when the subjects undertake in adequate cognitive
processing during learning – including the selection of relevant information, organization of
the material by a coherent representation and integration of input visual and verbal
information with the previous knowledge (Mayer, 1996). The balanced and coordinated
activation of these types of processes leads to the achievement of a significant outcome of
learning that can be stored in the long term memory for a subsequent use. Briefly, significant
learning is a generative process in which the subject must actively engage in a cognitive
processing rather than to passively receive the information for storage (Wittrock27, 1990).

25 Baddeley, Alan 1998, The central executive: A concept and some misconceptions, Journal of the
International Neuropsychological Society , 4:5:523-526 Cambridge University Press
26 Paivio, Allan,1986, Mind and Its Evolution; A Dual Coding Theoretical Approach, Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates, Inc., S. U. A.
27 Wittrock, M. C., 1990, Generative processes of comprehension. Educational Psychologist, 24, 345-376

47
 III.2. From mental representations to semiotics and socio-linguistics

When discussing about the rule and grammaticality, Alexandru Boboc28 highlights the
analogy between grammar and play made by Ludwig Wittgenstein29: “the grammar consists
from comparisons – somewhat like in a chart. This could be part of a mechanism. The
connection, and not the action, determines, however, the significance”. It is not by accident
the fact that the rules of the field (semantic) are convenient in a calculus with predicates or in
a polyvalent calculus under the form of truth tables, as the “first Wittgenstein”, the one from
Tractatus, proceeds. In building a formal system, we also identify rules of good construction
and rules of transformation. The first ones set out the affiliation of the formulas to a certain
formal vocabulary. As a word is or is not present in the dictionary (with its basic forms or
with its flexional forms), a formula is present in the system’s vocabulary only if it is correctly
constructed of variables and basic operators. Among the transformation rules, the most well-
known are the rule of substitution and modus ponens. In the triad of vocabulary – text –
discourse applied to a formal system, the rules of good construction would refer to the
vocabulary, the rules of transformation to the text syntax and the field rules to the text
semantics – which also leads us to discourse. The metarules, present in the grammars with a
structure of generalized phrases of G. Gazdar and G. Pullum30, create a good compromise
between the transformation of the vocabulary and test within natural languages.
Syllogistics, mereology and other logic related fields primarily work with notions and
not with sentences: a logic of the notions is founded with the help of a theory of sets (naïve or
axiomatized), therefore, if we write with A and B two notions, we cannot say A or B (this
happens between sentences) but A union with B (A ∪ B). However, in the classical manner,
the work was done with sentences since these describe more accurately the various “semiotic
cases”. For example, the logical system of Alonso Church (1956: 35) includes three axioms
and namely
A3) (p  (q  r))  ((p  q)  (p  r));
A2) p  (q  p));
A1) ((p  f )  f )  p,

28 Boboc,A. (1997). Logică și ontologie. București: Editura Didactică și Pedagogică, p.57

29 Wittgenstein, L. (1991). Tractatus logico-philosophicus. Traducere de Mircea Flonta. Bucureşti: Editura
Humanitas, p.62

30 Gazdar, G., Pullum, G. (1982). Generalized-Phrase Structure Grammar. A Theoretical Synopsis, University
of Sussex, Cognitive Studies Programme, p.5-32

48
To which two rules are added: the rule of substation and the rule of detachment (modus
ponendo ponens). The letters p, q, r and so on are logical sentences and the signs between
them operations with sentences. It is also admitted, in the spirit of interpretation by the
intuitionists, the special variable f (the false). Of course, we may also construct, through the
notion-sentence parallelism (due to the structure of Boolean algebra both of the sets of notions
as well as of the sets of logical sentences) a logic of concepts (not only of primary sentences
or principles) but this involves a serious discussion about the rules of substitution and
detachment for the notions.
Defying the diversity of the representation systems, the science of cognition accedes to
paradigms in which the traditional axes of the communication theory (issuer – receptor,
signifier – signified, denotation – connotation) also operate within typologies other than the
ones of the sign implanted in the social, authoritarian and stable. But the epistemic aspects of
representation do not cease to occur: from the raw representation with a mnesic function of
the psychologist, passing through generic field representations, expressed by notions and
statements, also evoking social representations (rumors, clichés, signs of power), we reach the
representations from the knowledge bases by which we surpass the operations on notions and
statements, driving towards transfrastic forms of the reasoning. To a great extent, these
representations also have an imagistic basis. And in our approach, we caught the synchrony,
not the diachrony; we followed the road from simple to compound until complex, without
raising the issue of indecomposable complexes such as the simulacra type or some chains of
fantastic sparks in the style of strings admitting a quantic foundation but advancing another
explanatory endeavor.
Both the definition of the mind and the definition of the consciousness refer to some
relational aspects related to them, firstly the relation of the knowing subject with the observed
environment. We are not talking about quantity or quality, but about relation. Entire theories
are dedicated to the quantitative aspects such as “the play of neurotic clerks” of the Danish
researcher Per Bak, mentioned by George Ceaușu31, a promoter of the concept of “self-
organized criticality” and the qualia chapters opens up a long discussion on the experiential
proprieties of the consciousness. We may use a “realist” construction of the world in which
the knowing agent issuer called “consciousness” also lives in. But the distinction between
quantity / quality cannot be the entire picture of our world.

31 Ceauşu, G. (2002). Douăsprezece expuneri de filosofia minţii. Iaşi: Editura Performantica, p.79

49
 Sometimes, linguists can be criticized about a major lack of interest regarding the
approach of the features of consciousness. So we are doing to explore a related field:
philosophy.
The ontology – the chapter of philosophy that offers a list of categories for existence –
was also very “merciless” with feelings and opinions, leaving the impression that almost
nothing can be founded on them. From the Aristotelian categories to the list of Kantian
categories, the philosophers underlined the categories of nature, even those of the universe in
general – certainly not of the psyche.
The titles of quantity, quality, relation and modality – mentioned in the table of
judgments and in the table of notions in the Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant32 –
although formally limited to the predication structures, in the vision of the above mentioned
author, represent the basis of some discriminations regarding the principles of the intellect, of
psychological reasoning, of cosmological ideas, also helping in the systematization of the
ethical and esthetical judgments. We will remind that, at relation level, the sentences are
divided in categorical, hypothetical and disjunctive and, at the level of modality, they are
divided in assertoric, problematic and apodictic. We will explain the judgments from a modal
point of view: “it is true that p” (assertoric), “it is possible that p” (problematic) and “it is
necessary that p” (apodictic). From the point of view, the philosopher of Konigsberg is
indebted to the Stagirite more that we can assume since the Aristotelian syllogistic helps in
making the quantitative/qualitative distinction. The relational point of view is introduced by
valid syllogistic inferences and the modal point of view is exactly the one predicted by the
Aristotelian modal syllogistic (Secondary Analytics). Then, based on a good intuition of the
parallelism of the Fundamental Logical Categories, the notion and sentence, Immanuel Kant
unfolds again the four titles in the “table of categories” but these are not seen in a realist spirit
but in an anti-realist one, as pure ideas of the intellect. In the current logical terminology,
categories are notions and judgments are sentences and a separating ontological factor
between these two would be the time, effectively present in judgments and fictively present in
notions as George Ceaușu33 observed.
It is known that Immanuel Kant operates with twelve notions that we could call them
ontological (fundamental) categories. Of course, as the principles are the most respected

32Kant, I. (1969). Critica raţiunii pure. Traducere de Nicolae Bagdasar şi Elena Moisuc. Bucureşti: Editura
Ştiinţifică, p.104
33 Ceauşu, G. (2006). Repere ontologice plasate în cauzalitatea mental. În Ana Gugiuman (Ed.), Idei şi valori
perene în ştiinţele socio-umane. Studii şi cercetări,Tomul XI. Cluj-Napoca: Editura Argonaut, pp. 174 – 192

50
logical sentences (from princeps), on their turn, the categories are enjoying respect as they are
the broadest notions and thus they cannot be defined (but only described):
Ontological categories = { totality, multiplicity, unity; reality, negation, limitation;
inherence-subsistence, causality – dependence; communion (mutual action); possibility;
existence; necessity }.
These are systematized in the table of categories and grouped around the four titles
mentioned above (in series, by three) – we separated the titles by a comma and the categories
within the titles by semicolon.
In the 20th century, the theoreticians of psychological orientation are highly critical of
this list due to the weak presence of the psyche and human consciousness in the process of
knowing the nature. Among them, Ştefan Odobleja34 considers the significant classifications
in the history of philosophy (some of them were mentioned above) as being “wrong”, albeit in
some classifications, evolution and ideal categories appear, concepts that assume the active
presence of the psyche. For Odobleja, the classification of a certain Regnaud seems a
classification of content since it includes general logical qualities (between which those
related to senses are also inserted such color, shape, sound, smell etc.); also, the sensible
qualities inherent to things; then the generic categories between the natural species have
particular qualities that afterwards overlap a classification of senses. Odobleja himself pleads
for the classification of spatial / temporal / balance related / resonance / primary affects /
secondary affects (feelings) categories.
In other words, the philosophic dictionaries (moreover, explanatory) will have an issue
in defining the consciousness. Both those for the public as well as those of specialty, they can
no longer keep up the pace with the multitude of acceptances related to the concepts of social
sciences, acceptances that lead more often to semantic plethora and cultural encyclopedia.
The impossibility of defining the consciousness brings us to an “empirical perception” of it
and to a behavior of total notion of the existence; for that matter, the topics such as
“consciousness as existence” was already forwarded and referred to them some other time.
There is no definition of existence (we can only describe it) since it is a very broad
concept! Even a concept of concepts. But existence can be conceived as a totality of
manifested or non-manifested events (phenomena) that happen in the world. This description
arises some issues such as the distinction of manifested/non-manifested and existence/world.
However, it also refers to interpreting the “reality” as “contingence” (the space of events). On

34 Odobleja, Ş. (1980), Psihologia consonantistă. Bucureşti: Editura Academiei, p.72

51
the other hand, the water, air, earth and fire, until the Middle Ages, were essences. Even God
is not the simple existence, in the Christian vision, He is essence, even quintessence.
(although, “quintessence” is literally “the fifth essence”). And the essence can refer to the
principles of non-contradiction and of the excluded third party, thus the proprieties of the
discourse as a reflection of existence.
Many current exegetes of the natural sciences divide the profound, essential aspects of
the existence from the superficial ones. Mihail Drăgănescu35 raises the issue of a latent matter,
not protruded by information (lumatie) and a matter easy to attract in the informational circuit
(informaterie) and Paul Constantinescu36 carries out the calculus of the “finesse” constant of
the matter (from which about 110 chemical elements must result) based on interpreting the
matter as a coupling of substance / energy type and the matter as a coupling of energy /
information type.
In cognitive philosophy, besides qualia, the characteristic proprieties of the
consciousness (besides those specified, we can also mention unity, difference center –
periphery, aspect of familiarity, mood, delimitation conditions etc.) Searle37 highlighted a
series of structural levels: 1) sensorial (of the interaction between environment-sensorial
analyzers); 2) of the “vigilance state”; 3) of the conscious self; 4) of the specific
consciousness states; 5) of “world experimentation” through the perspective of 1st person; 6)
of the narrative consciousness states (of the “storms of awareness”). The consciousness
introduces the 1st person in the perception of reality: “I think, therefore I am” says René
Descartes I don’t accept another person as a guarantee of my existence. It is possible not to
accept the plural “We think, therefore we are”, in the case in which the data of my private
existence seems more important than those of public existence – as they are designed by the
community in which I live. The sciences are still questioning the fact is there is an influence
of the consciousness on the structure of reality but the researchers such as Mircea Eliade have
given an affirmative answer long ago, developing the history of religions, this third party
included between science and religion.
However, it is somewhat not enough for the “rational animal” called “human being”
but who, in addition to animals, also attributes to himself the existence of rationality and

35 Drăgănescu , M. (1988). Spiritualitate, informaţie, materie. Bucureşti: Editura Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică, p.

124

36 Constantinescu, P. (1990). Sinergia, informaţia şi geneza sistemelor. Bucureşti:Editura Tehnică, p.35

37 Searle, J.R. (2004). Problema conştiinţei. În Angela Botez, Răzvan Popescu, Filosofia conştiinţei şi ştiinţele
cognitive. Bucureşti: Editura Cartea Românească, p.19

52
feelings. Usually, animals are seen as having a “diffuse consciousness” but how can we
recognize the “diffuse feelings” if these belong to the human being? This is about the diffuse
consciousness of animals. But what about the one of plants?
The diversity of social relationships imprints to the natural language an incomparable
complexity not only with the various animal languages but also with the other artificial
languages made by humans. When the semiotic function is invoked in philosophy, this is
referred to signaling (and communication) experiments with superior mammals (monkeys,
dogs, cats), with rats or with insects (bees, ants), as Maurice Reuchlin38 states based on which
the languages are created that have their historical role. The animals communicate between
them, they signal each other; maybe even more: they use systems of symptoms but they don’t
signify. We can even extend the communication with a chapter of the human-animal
communication but not on information criteria but on mainly energetic ones, taking into
account a communication channel: physical, chemical or biochemical. The physical channels
refer to touching and mechanical motions, electric shocks, static or thermodynamic effects
etc. The chemical channels refer to various attack and defense “weapons” of the animals or
plants and the biochemical ones refer to biogravity, bioluminescence, cytopathic effect in the
mirror, mitogenetic radiation in the way of Gurvici etc.
However, it is simpler to set out a connection between the vocabulary (in order to also
have access to language and, in a broader sense, to the machine’s language), text and
discourse. The vocabulary is an inventory (open) of semiotic availabilities for a knowing
agent which, in the vision of John Deely39, can be human, animal, vegetal or even of physical
provenience (the wind, for example). The text is a logical-grammatical sequence correctly
constructed within a vocabulary with a unitary significance and the discourse is the text
together with the entire show of social presentation. Within the vocabulary, the explanation
operation takes place, encryption and encoding take place in the text and in the discourse.
Nowadays, we are trying to find a grammatical logic and a logical grammar – in order
to optimally capitalize the correlation between thinking and language. Philosophers (such as
Gotlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, Edmund Husserl, Alfred Tarski and others) and linguists
(represented by Richard Montague, Noam Chomsky, M. A. K. Halliday, Eugeniu Coșeriu
and others) tried to explain the subordination and coordination of the terms by logical means
in order to simplify the understanding of intra- and inter-propositional relationships. The
theory of validity, the theory of meaning and the theory of structure brought to the linguistics

38 Reuchlin, M. (1999). Psihologie generală. Bucureşti: Editura Ştiinţifică, pp. 301-310

39 Deely, J. (1997). Bazele semioticii. Traducere de Mariana Neț, București: Editura All, p.37

53
field necessary clarifications both from the point of view of the truth of a sentence – requiring
the introduction of (referential) relations of the significance between the expressions of the
sentence and the extra-linguistic entities, as well as from the point of view of a saturation of
an expression with the help of another expression, therefore anticipating the discrimination in
linguistics between adjectival (completing a name) and adverbial (completing a verb).
Following the relation between the categories of logic and the ones of semiotics, the
professor Petru Ioan40 launched in 1995 a hexadic “supermodel” of the semiotic situation by
an analogy with the “pedagogic situation”. On the structure of the same hexad, later on, a
model of the “creating situation” and of the “cognitive situation” is created, serving the theory
of logical systems (metalogica) in its attempt to reveal aspects of the “physical reality”, of the
social reality and the structure of the knowledge bases. Within the semiotic hexad, the place
of the pure and simple sign (L) is marked in the center. The other parameters of the semiotic
situation can be correlated: the I[ssuer] and the R[eceptor] come from the communication
situation; the objective sign is I[ntension] (D[enotation]) and the subjective sign is
C[onnotation]. D[enoted] or Reference and S[ignifier] will remain at the extremities of the big
vertical diagonal of the hexagon. The most important couplings in the diagram are Issuer –
Receptor (communicational axis), Intension – Connotation (semantic axis) and Denoted –
Signifier (significance plan). The Denotation – Intension axis can be also called the one of the
fundamental logical categories (FLC) since extension (denoted) and intension (denotation)
are component sides of the FLC, notion and sentence.
It is advised to specify in the hexad not only the sides but also all the diagonals since
the tips will be simultaneously combined not only two by two but also by three, four, five or
six – depending on the number of parameters that can be distinguished in the description of
the “semiotic situation”. At the moment, the hexad of the “semiotic situation”, made by us,
can be proposed as a shape in which we have to indicate the specified axes (Figure 1).

40 Ioan, P. (1995). Educaţie şi creaţie în perspectiva unei logici “situaţionale”. Bucureşti Editura Didactică şi
Pedagogică, pp. 72-144

54
 Axis of basic DENOTED
logical
categories

Semantic axis
INTENSION CONNOTATION
Significance
plan

Communicational axis
ISSUER

SIGNIFIER

Figure 1. The hexad of the “semiotic situation”

Noted with capital letters, the components of the hexad will be transposed in an
assembly model:
(1) { E, I, D, C, R, S }. In fact, this hexadic diagram resembles sufficiently enough
with the one of Roman Jakobson from the theory of communication except that the
asymmetry specific to the input-output (Issuer – Receptor) type model is not reproduced and a
combinatoric basis is stated between the six poles of the hexad giving a necessary importance
to all poles. The famous model of Roman Jakobson41 includes three parameters contained in
the preceding diagram. Schematically, the model of Roman Jakobson is illustrated as follows
in the assembly form:
(2) { E, I, R, Q, K, C' };
E, I, R has the old significance and Q, K, C' represents the Code, respectively the Channel and
the Context. We assimilated the Message from the model of Jakobson with the Intension of
the preceding diagram, in the current interpretations of the logic of notions, the meaning
(content) in an enunciating syntax of the text (without dialogues). The message is a mainly a
reported intension to a dialogue syntax; however, the assimilation of the two terms can be
successfully made in the semiotic approach. Through the intersection of the (1) and (2)
models, we obtain an analysis diagram with ten parameters used by authors of this paperwork:

41 Jakobson R. (1960), "Closing Statement: Linguistics and Poetics," in Thomas Sebeok (ed.), Style in Language
(ed.). Cambridge, Massachussetts: MIT Press, pp. 350 - 377

55
 (3) { E, I, K, R, C, S, D, Q ,C', X },
where X is an unspecified parameters which is available to the user as it can be borrowed from
the known semiotic models.
We tried to apply the above diagram in the conceptualization of some ideas related to
the philosophy of the mind, focusing on several syntagms: the mind / body problem, the
representational theory of the mind, anthropic categories of the psyche (consciousness,
thinking, personality).
We agree to designate the parameters of model (3) by Fundamental Semiotic
Categories (FSC) since they can rely as notions of maximum extension in reconstructing a
domain. Then, starting from them, we will construct derived semiotic categories (DSC). Their
construction diagram will resemble a bit with the one through which, from Fundamental
Logical Categories (FLC), the notion and the sentence, we build the four Derived Logical
Categories (DLC), a procedure that is present in the works of the School of Logic of Iasi
(Petru Ioan and Petre Botezatu). A Derived Semiotic Category (DSC) will be a function
having as arguments the fundamental logical categories and, as an image, a fundamental
logical category. In a simplified notation, we will have:
c = f(x / y), where x, y ∈ CSF,
whichever c ∈ CSD. The notation “f(x / y)” has the following significance: that f function that
admits as input parameter x and output parameter y. Ten parameters being fundamental,
comb(10, 2) = 10 . 9 / 2 = 45 will be derived (considering that f(y / x) is obtained from the
inversion of f(x / y) function).
CSD can be studied in various ways (with field deciding suggestions): as dual
combinations (in the way illustrated in the “semiotic situation” hexad); as opposed dipoles
(contrary, sub-contrary, contradictory etc) or of correlated terms (subordinate, superordinate,
equiordinate etc); as inputs/outputs in a white, black or gray cybernetic box; as cause-effect
type couplings (parameters characterized by causal covariance).
As a matter of fact, the refusal of several psychologists to define the notions from the
area of feelings and opinions (or even to describe them) – generates many confusions since,
far from being habits of mind, the feelings and opinions are relationed to many holonyms:
institutions, theories, fields, theoretical or social systems etc.; generally, even feelings have a
strong social character (their social diversity is sometimes confusing), or even “natural”
despite their subjectivity. We cannot understand why only six terms are selected from the
“encyclopedia of psyche” (by Descartes or any other expert in the field).

56
 There are approaches of feelings (and opinions) also from the “propositional side”, not
only from the one of notions. An excellent classification of verbs expressing behaviors and
affects belongs to M. A. K. Halliday42: this author, starting from 15 present participles of the
English language (being, doing, sensing; behaving, seeing, feeling, thinking, saying,
symbolizing, having identity, having attribute, existing, happening, creating, doing (to)),
shows us an entire functional grammar with explicit pragmatic roles, engaging what linguists
called two centuries ago the “pragmatic universals”.
Thus, the “connection” with the morphosyntactic square we presented in the first
section of the paperwork is obvious: each verbal topic leads to the construction of nouns,
adjectives and adverbs based on which a rather consistent social imaginary is developed.
Capitalizing then the similarity of social representations with the mental ones, we can make
available to the creator from a literary or scientific field a kind of inferential machine through
which we can create descriptive or narrative statements. We also have a maneuver area for
cultural representations, not similar to the mental ones. Through this opposition relationship,
we can develop at a large scale fictive notions and imaginary phenomena.
Beginning with the logical, linguistic and pragmatic universals of the discourse,
Halliday43 creates the bases of a linguistic serving the sociological study of notions and
statements. In this way, we discover three meanings of the grammatical sentence: as a
message, as an interaction and as an exchange. Therefore, we also intertwine with the issues
of semiotic categories that we presented in the second section. Passing then from the text
proprieties (or “semiotic texture” for the non-symbolic representations such as the visual
ones) to the ones of the discourse, we reach on a royal way in logic and we can describe
proprieties such as consistency (consistent non-contradiction), completeness (excluded third
party), consistency (non-contradiction), minimality of the axiom system, their independence
etc.
However, Halliday, together with other linguists, takes a step further, considering that
the above proprieties, successfully applicable to the scientific type text, are too pretentious in
order to describe the literary text, which brings into the discussion weaker proprieties of the
discourse such as contiguity, coherence or cohesion, setting out clearly classifiable cases in
the context of the cohesion of statements. Through it, the literary statement borrows the rigors
of the modal logic of predicates but it distances itself by logic through the rather large space

42 Halliday, M.A.K. (1994). Functional Grammar. London and New York: “Arnold”, p.17

43 Halliday, M.A.K., Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. London: Longman, p. 178

57
given to “symbolic” creativity. We find ourselves in a favorable territory where three types of
representations are intertwined: social, cultural and mental.

58
 IV. SCHOOL COUNSELING AND SELF-KNOWLEDGE
The specialized literature comprises many definitions and meanings given to the
concept of counseling. Counseling means the existence of a person who has the temporary or
permanent role of counselor and who offers or agrees explicitly to give time, attention and
respect to one or more persons with the temporary role of clients. The task of counseling is to
offer the client the opportunity to explore, discover and clarify ways of living, capitalizing
his/her resources which in turn leads to feeling “well inside”, focusing to a better wellbeing.
Counseling is an activity which is started but a person who seeks help. It offers the
opportunity to the client to identify the thing disturbing him/her, to self-explore and to
understand him/herself. The process of counseling will help the person in identifying his/her
thoughts, emotions and behaviors which, when they discovered, make the person to feel full
of resources and to decide making changes.
In a broader sense, school counseling represents an intensive process of giving
psycho-pedagogical assistance to students and other persons involved in the educational
process (professors, parents, tutors and school authorities). The role of counseling is proactive
which means the prevention of personal and education crisis situations for students.
School counseling is focused on the trinity: family – child – school in order to make
education efficient and to develop an optimal personality for children.
Psycho-pedagogical counseling has the aim to develop a coherent system of purposes
in life and to strengthen the intentional behavior. A persons focused on purpose is able to put
into motion alternative behavioral models, to approach life issues from different perspectives
but without limiting to certain prefabricated solutions.
Consequently, the counseling process tries to “trigger” a voluntary change in the
client’s attitudes and behavior so that the person or the group “to function optimally from a
psycho-social point of view”.
“Counseling” by the educator or the form master is the first step in establishing and
correcting the malfunctions acting on the student. However, this should not be confused with
the discussion held during the parent-teacher conferences. It is a voluntary action manifested
by both partners: professor-student or professor-parent, an action which needs a good prior
documentation and training for the one who counsels. Scientifically, counseling is a process in
which a professional establishes a relationship based on trust with a person who needs
support. This relationship assures the expression of thoughts and feelings in connection with
an issue and offers support in clarifying fundamental meanings, in identifying some value
patterns based on which solutions can be designed. Through counseling, we may reach a

59
deeper understanding of thoughts and emotions which increases the chances for an optimal
development level of personal resources.
Counseling provides assistance to the individual in exploring and understanding
his/her own identity, supports him/her in developing some strategies for problem solving and
decision taking. For counseling, four directions of approaching issues were outlined that the
individual can encounter during his/her evolution: intervention in crisis situations,
intervention for improvement, prevention, formative and development intervention.
Individual counseling is a personal interaction between the counselor and the client
within which the counselor assists the client in solving mental, emotional or social issues.
This is done in meetings offering the client full confidentiality which allows the exploration
of problematic ideas, feelings or attitudes. The counselor and the counselee form a team
together.

IV.1. Conceptual clarifications

The British Counseling Association: gives the following definition to the term
counseling: “we are talking about a counseling relationship when a person (the counselor)
agrees explicitly to offer time, attention and respect to another person (the client). The
purpose of counseling is to offer the client the change to explore, discover and clarify the
optimal ways of living his/her own life, to have a happy existence”. Initially, the field of
counseling was identified incorrectly with the field of psycho-therapy and then the spheres of
the two activities were delimited categorically from a theoretical point of view. Between the
two terms there are significant definitions: counseling is a proactive action while psycho-
therapy is a post factum intervention (of remedy, of therapy).
Counseling is a complex process comprising a very board area of interventions which
entail a specialized professional training. More specifically, the term counseling describes the
inter-human relationship of help between a specialized person, the counselor, and another
person who requests specialized assistance, the client (Egan44, 1990). The relationship
between the counselor and the counselee is an alliance, of participation and mutual
cooperation (Ivey45, 1994).

44Egan, G. (1990). The Skilled Helper: A Systematic Approach to Effective Helping. Monterey, CA:
Brooks/Cole
45 Ivey A.E., (1994). Intentional Interviewing and Counseling – Facilitating Client Development in
Multicultural Society. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company. (Biblioteca Psihologie)

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 There are several types of counseling. For example, educational counseling includes
elements of vocational, supportive, personal development or informational counseling. Worth
mentioning in this context is the fact that the professor, who can be qualified for educational
counseling has no abilities in what we call crisis counseling and pastoral counseling. The
latter type of counseling is the process of psychological assistance made by the priest in his
religious community. The crisis counseling represents an intervention field which strictly
belongs to the ability of the psychologist. This field involves knowledge, methods and
techniques of specialized intervention. A teacher, a psychology teacher, a social worker or a
sociologist, let alone a professor, has no abilities and expertise needed for such interventions.
The psychological and school counseling integrates the humanist perspective developed
by Carl Rogers (1961) where psychic issues are not seen mandatorily in terms of disorder and
deficiency but within the parameters of the need to know yourself, of strengthening the ego,
of personal development and adaptation. In this way, the psychologist does not play the main
role anymore who was seen as a super-expert. The success of counseling is provided by an
active and responsible involvement of both parties (the counselor and the counseled persons)
in carrying out an authentic alliance based on mutual respect and trust. To help and to credit
the person as being able to assume his/her own personal development, to prevent various
disorders and dysfunctions, to find solutions to the issues, to feel well with him/herself, with
others and in the world he/she lives, all of these represent the humanist values of
psychological counseling.
Defining counseling entails the highlighting of certain characteristics in order to make a
distinction from other specialized areas involving psychological assistance:
• A first characteristic is given by the type of persons involved. Counseling addresses
normal persons who do not have psychic or personality disorders, intellectual or
other types of deficiencies. Counseling facilitates, through its approaches, the
process in which a person copes more efficiently with the daily stress and tasks and
therefore improving his/her life.
• A second defining characteristic for counseling is given by the fact that the
assistance offered uses an educational model and a development model and not a
clinical and curative one. The task of the counselor is to teach the person/group new
behavioral strategies, to capitalize their existing potential, to develop new adaptive
resources. Counseling facilitates and catalyzes reaching an optimal operational level
in the world;

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 • A third characteristic of counseling is the prevention of issues which may hinder the
harmonious development and functioning of the person. The prevention strategy
consists in identifying situations and risk groups and in acting on them before having
a negative impact and before triggering personal or group “crises”.
Summarizing the characteristics above we may say that the counseling process emphasizes on
the dimension of preventing emotional and behavioral disorders, on the dimension of personal
development and problem solving.

IV.2 Factors related to counseling and school guidance

The main factors involved and with responsibilities in counseling and school and
professional guidance are: school, family, economic units, mass-media, other specialized
institutions.
The school plays an essential role both through its structures, cycles and types of
programs and through the variety of subjects, curricular areas, specific actions of school and
professional guidance (homeroom classes, activity of counselors and psychology teachers).
The family exercise a strong influence on school and professional options both by the
transfer of some models of parents towards their successors and by the projection of some
ambitions or failures of fulfillment by them.
The economic units, through the partnership with the training institutions for the labor
force, are becoming an important factor in determining some professional options both by
propaganda made for the products and manufacturers as well as by meetings of students with
specialists, sponsorships, scholarships offered to the best students.
Mass-media, through its educational programs, by presenting various types of schools
and specializations etc., is included in the set of factors involved in school and professional
guidance.
Specialized institutions include: cabinets and laboratories of school and professional
guidance, the Institute of Educational Sciences, youth organizations – by “Infotin” programs,
directorates of labor and social solidarity and internationally – International Association for
Educational and Vocational Guidance (Geneva).
The two agents directly involved in the counseling process are the two human factors:
the counselor – as the specialist and respectively the “client” – the student, the pupil, the
parents.

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 IV.3 Essential functions and objectives of counseling

The essential purpose of school counseling is the optimal psycho-social functioning of the
person/group. This ultimate purpose can be reached by monitoring the achievement of the
objectives of the counseling process: three objectives and namely46:

(1) PROMOTION OF HEALTH AND WELL-BEING: optimal functioning from a

somatic, physiological, mental, emotional, social and spiritual point of view.
(2) PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT: self-knowledge, self-esteem, ability to take
responsible decisions, harmonious interpersonal relations, stress control,
efficient learning techniques, creative attitudes, realistic vocational options.
(3) PREVENTION: of negative emotional moods, of self-distrust, of risk behaviors,
of interpersonal conflicts, of learning difficulties, of social maladjustment, of
psycho-somatic dysfunctions, of crisis situations.
Counseling is more interested in the well-being rather than the disease state. What
does the well-being represents? As the World Health Organization defines it, health is not
only conditioned by the absence of disease and disorder but it refers to a complex and
multidimensional process in which the subjective well-being is a fundamental element.

Components of well-being:
• SELF-ACCEPTANCE: positive attitude towards oneself, acceptance of personal
qualities and defects, positive perception of past and future experiences.
• POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHERS: trust in people, sociable,
intimate, the need to receive and to give affection, empathic, open and warm
attitude.
• AUTONOMY: independent, determined, resists to peer pressure, self-assessment
according to personal standards, not excessively preoccupied with the expectations
and assessments of others.
• CONTROL: feeling of competence and personal control on tasks, creates
opportunities for capitalizing the personal needs, makes options according to own
values.

46 Mih, Viorel, Consiliere şcolară, Universitatea “BABEŞ-BOLYAI” Cluj-Napoca, Curs Învăţământ la distanţă,
p.6

63
 • MEANING AND PURPOSE IN LIFE: focused on medium and long term
purposes, positive experience of the past, the joy of the present and the relevance
of the future, the belief that it is worth to be involved, curiosity.
• PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT: openness to new experiences, the feeling of
capitalization of own potential, ability to self-reflect, perception of positive self-
changes, efficiency, flexibility, creativity, the need for challenges, rejection of
routine.

It would be totally wrong to consider that well-being is conditioned by carrying out a

complex psycho-therapeutic process. Above all, family and school have an essential role in
developing and maintaining well-being. At the same time, we found out that, unfortunately
not rarely, family and school are the institutions generating conditions undermining the self-
confidence of children and students, hindering their autonomy and independence, marking out
individualities, involving unproductive competition at the expense of cooperation, censoring
daily joys and pleasures, inducing threatening perceptions on the world and life, unwinding
them of any ludic and hedonist elements. The exclusive focus of school on the intellectual
side of the students and on their educational achievements, ignoring their emotional and social
needs, represents a sure way to decrease well-being and to increase the risk for dysfunctions
and physical and psychic disorders. The modern school cannot ignore, in the name of the
mandatory need of knowledge and high performance educational results, the physic, physical,
social and spiritual well-being of its students. Otherwise, the school becomes an institution
segregated from the individual, society and life. Before being an institution conferring
diplomas, the school must be the place in which persons in harmony with themselves, with
others, with the world are formed and thus who are able to transpose in instruments the
content of the diplomas, to operate efficiently with themselves, to enjoy the process and the
fruits of their activities.
School counseling can be defined as an inter-human assistance and support
relationship between the person specialized in educational counseling and psychology and the
group of students for personal development and the prevention of problematic and crisis
situations47. The main task of the counselor is to help the students to take the steps of an

47 Mih, Viorel, Consiliere şcolară, Universitatea “BABEŞ-BOLYAI” Cluj-Napoca, Curs Învăţământ la distanţă,
p.4

64
approach of self-awareness, clarification, evaluation and update of their personal system of
values.
The essential purpose of educational counseling is to provide an optimal functioning
of the individual or the group, a purpose which can be achieved by fulfilling the objectives of
counseling: promotion of health and well-being, personal development, prevention.
Counseling for a proper educational and professional guidance has well-defined
objectives and specialized functions:
- Knowledge and self-knowledge of students’ personalities in order to make an efficient
correlation between possibilities-aspirations and socio-professional requirements; stimulation
of students who are able of high performance to opt for professional fields in accordance with
their special skills etc.;
- Educating students for selecting correct and realistic educational and professional
options; facilitating the perception of socio-professional categories and of estimating real
working situations, of respect for each activity field;
- Guiding and counseling students in order to plan their own studies in relation with the
future professional and career projects; supporting students in the projective prefiguration of
becoming;
- Educational and professional information which refers to the knowledge of some
correct and sufficient information about professions and professional fields, knowledge of
economic and social realities as well as of professional risks and advantages; informing the
parents regarding the training possibilities of students as well as regarding the objective
dynamics of educational and professional ways;
- Correction of erroneous options, reorientation via counseling;
- Counseling of students, professors and parents takes into account elements of
psychological and psycho-social examination of the students in general and of problem
students especially, aspects of their adaptation to the school, family and informal
environment, prevention and resolution of failure cases and school dropout, school and
professional guidance of students, adaptation in school-family-community.
- Designing the specific measures for improving educational activities.
- Supporting activities of improvement and educational research organized at zonal level
by specialized institutions;
- Elaboration of materials needed for school administrators in order to improve
educational managerial activities carried out at territorial and local level.

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 Regarding counseling and guidance of persons with special educational needs, in
Romania, the field is not fully shaped as until now no higher education institution has an
adequate training program for this type of specialists. Practically, right now, the specialists in
the field of special Psycho-pedagogy are qualified to offer counseling services to people with
intellectual or motor disabilities, with hearing or sight problems, with communication,
behavior or learning issues. A special category is the gifted children – for which, in certain
areas of the country, exceptional educational programs were designed that also incorporate
counseling and guidance assistance.

IV.4 Counseling for self-knowledge

Knowledge and self-acceptance are essential variables for the optimal functioning and
adaptation to the social environment, for maintaining mental and emotional health. A child or
an adolescent needs to feel that it is not necessary for him/her to win awards or Olympiads in
order to be loved, accepted and respected. Affection, appreciation, respect must not be
conditioned by educational or other performances (e.g. sports). Respect, appreciation, reward
are stimuli encouraging personal development, preventing and remedying problematic or
deficient attitudes and behaviors. According to the humanist psychology developed by Carl
Rogers and Abraham Maslow, each person is valuable him/herself. By his/her human nature,
the person has the ability to develop and to choose his/her own destiny, to validate his/her
qualities and positive features in the extent in which the environment creates conditions of
updating the ego. Unconditioned acceptance (irrespective of performances) and positive
thinking (the belief that each person has something good) are attitudes favoring personal
development.
Self-knowledge is developed together with age and with the experiences we
encounter. As a person gets old, he/she acquires a higher and more accurate ability to self-
reflection. However, we can never say that we entirely know ourselves; self-knowledge is not
a process that finishes together with adolescence or youth. Confronting various events may
trigger new dimensions of the personality or may develop new sub-dimensioned ones. Self-
knowledge is an individual cognitive, affective and motivational process but sustains strong
environment influences.
Self-esteem refers to all the perceptions regarding personal abilities, attitudes and
behaviors. Self-esteem can be understood as a mental representation of own person or as a
structure organized by declarative knowledge about oneself guiding social behavior. In other

66
words, self-esteems means the awareness of “who am I” and “what I am able to do”. Self-
esteem influences both the perception of the world as well as own behaviors. A person with a
poor or negative self-esteem will tend to think, feel and behave negatively. For example, a
student who perceives him/herself as an interesting person will perceive the world around
him/her and will act completely different from another student who sees him/herself as a
boring person. Self-esteem does not always reflect reality. An adolescent girl with an
attractive physical appearance may perceive herself as ugly and fat and vice versa.
Self-knowledge and the formation of self-esteem are complex processes involving
several dimensions. Self-esteem (ego) is not a homogenous structure. Within self-esteem, we
make the distinction between the real Self (oneself), the future Self (oneself) and the ideal
Self (oneself).
The real Self or the current Self is the result of our experiences and of the social and
cultural framework we live in. The real Self comprises:
• Physical Self: structures development, incorporation and acceptation of own
physicality. The physical image refers to the way in which a person perceives itself
and to the way in which he/she believes he/she is perceived by others. In other words,
physical image determines the degree in which you feel comfortable in and with your
body. If the ideal image of the physical Self is strongly influenced by cultural and
social factors (e.g. silhouette standards) and does not correspond with the physical
Self, this may generate feelings of disappointment, mistrust, anger, isolation. The
discrepancy between the real physical Self and the one cultivated by mass-media
determines the high number of anorectic type dietary behaviors among adolescent
girls.
• Cognitive Self refers to the way in which the ego receives and structures the
information content about oneself and the world and to the way in which it operates
with them. There are people who memorize and re-update only the negative
evaluations about oneself, other people repress them and others ignore them. Some of
us make internal designations for negative events so that we permanently
incriminating ourselves while others make external designations in order to maintain a
positive self-esteem. Some are analytical persons while others are synthetic. Within
the cognitive Self we also include the self-biographical memory with all the
consequences exercised on the personality.
• Emotional Self (intimate Self or private Self) synthesizes the entirety of feelings and
emotions towards self, world and future. Many times, the person wishes to disclose the
67
 emotional self only to some very close persons, family, friends, relatives. A person
with a more stable emotional Self will perceive the world and those around as a safe
environment which does not threaten the self-esteem. Emotional self-disclosure is not
perceived as a risky or painful process. Generally, the emotional Self of adolescents is
unstable. Courage, bravery, negating any danger may alternate with extreme anxiety
and agitation. Children and adolescents must be helped in order to develop their ability
to identify the emotions felt and to express them in a manner corresponding to the
situation without fear of ridicule or to expose their “weaknesses”. Emotional
intelligence shapes only such ability.
• Social Self (interpersonal Self) is a dimension of personality which are willing to
expose it to the world; it is the “display” of the person. If we make a comparison with
the world of plants, we may say that some of us have a “cactus” type social Self (I feel
safe only when I am offensive and bottleful), others have a “mimosa” type social Self
(a defensive attitude confers protection) or a plant which blossoms or dies depending
on the environment in which he/she lives in (I react according to the surrounding
world). If the discrepancy between the emotional Self and social Self is greater, then
the degree of growing up for that person is smaller. Generally, an immature person
will behave in a certain way at home, among close friends and in another way (to
make him/her feel safe) within social interactions.
• Spiritual Self reflects the values and existential landmarks of a person. From this
perspective, persons can be characterized as pragmatic, idealistic, religious, altruistic,
pacifist.
Future Self (possible Self) refers the way in which a person perceives his/her potential of
personal development and projects him/herself into the future. The future Self incorporates
the set of aspirations, motivations and purposes of medium and long term. The future Self is
an important personality structure since it acts as a motivational factor in behaviors of
strategic approach and, in this case, it becomes the desired Self. The future Self also
incorporates the possible undesired dimensions that we do not wish to develop in time (e.g.
alcoholic, lonely, failed) and in this case it is called the feared Self. The future or possible Self
(either desired or feared) derives from combining the representations of the past with those of
the future. An optimistic person will shape a future Self dominated by the desired Self for
which he/she will mobilize motivational and cognitive resources; the feared Self, the avoiding
behaviors and negative emotions will characterize a pessimistic person. The importance of the
future Self for the personality structure underlines the role of family and school regarding the
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development in children of the optimistic attitude towards self and the world. Optimism is
energizing, directive and constructive, gives meaning and purpose to life. Compared to
optimism, pessimism has an inhibiting, blocking, avoiding and destructive effect and may
determine the alienation state. Each of these two future Selfs has attached an emotional set –
trust, joy, pleasure, for the desired Self; anxiety, anger, depression, for the feared Self. The
structure of the future Self and its motivational function involves the need to set out, underline
and strengthen the positive aspects of the student and to avoid negative labels which anchor
the child in those negative features and behaviors. We may see negative labels, which are
often used by adults with good intentions but unintentionally, as stones tied to the legs of the
child who must swim in a river. “Attaching” these stones, the child has not got many changes
to get out of the river. The future Self, by its desirable component, is the symbol of hope and
consequently has an important self-regulating function. At the same time, the future Self, by
its anxiogenic component (feared) is the sign of mistrust and has effects of distortion.
Therefore, the adult in his/her role of teacher may opt between maintaining the hopes of
children and youth (by positive evaluations, however small) or mistrust (by negative
evaluations, even if they are made for stimulation purposes).
We have to make the distinction between the future Self and the ideal Self. The ideal
Self is what we wish to be but at the same time we are aware that we do not have the real
resources to reach it. The future Self is the one that can be reached, for which we can fight to
materialize and, consequently, it mobilizes our own resources; the ideal Self is, as many
ideals, a chimera. When are getting close or even reach the so-called ideal, we realize that we
wish something else and this becomes an ideal. In other cases, the ideal Self can never be
reached (e.g. an adolescent girl of small stature who wants to have the stature and the
silhouette of a model). If a person will be entailed in the gap between the real Self and the
ideal Self, he/she has more chances to live in a permanent state of self-disappointment,
frustration and even depression. The domination of the self-esteem by the ideal Self is a
phenomenon present quite frequently in adolescents; they wish to become persons like
Madonna or Brad Pitt and they feel totally disappointed by their own personality and life. It is
good for adolescents to learn to make the distinction between the ideal Self and the future
Self, the latter comprising realistic elements and thus achievable elements. The ideal Self can
have a positive role only in the extent in which it marks the trajectory of the future Self and
does not interpose as a desired finality.

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 IV.5 Methods and techniques used in school counseling

In relation with the essential functions of counseling, the methods and techniques used
can be classified in several categories:
1. Methods of knowing the personality of the counselee by tests and questionnaires of
professional interests. For this purpose, the Holland test is representative and below we are
giving several sequences in order to understand its construction:
„Several activities are given in the Holland questionnaire. The subjects will write in the
marked box a number which will represent if that activity is liked, disliked or neutral.
Therefore: number 2 – if liked, 1 – if neutral and 0 (zero) – if disliked:

Crt
Activity 1 2 3 4 5 6
no.
1 To repair watches and jewelry
2 To count money (in a bank)
3 To interview people on community issues
4 To make scientific experiments
5 To lead an administrative department
6 To sing on a stage
7 To repair car engines
8 To record financial data
9 To help people with disabilities
10 To use the microscope for study
11 To buy supplies for a store
12 To be an artist
13 To make furniture
14 To work with computers
15 To be a social worker
16 To read books, scientific magazines

The questionnaire includes other 104 types of activities.

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 Adding on the vertical axis the points from the six columns, it results a certain type of
personality (preponderant): realistic, investigator, artistic, social, entrepreneur or
conventional.
In the same category of methods of knowing your personality there are also the tests of
general and special abilities, creativity tests and personality tests.
2. Methods of self-knowledge of personality by:
- self-characterization – structured by the counselor and made with its methodic and
logistic supporter, especially regarding the correct use of some tools such as tests, portfolios,
references etc.;
- self-evaluation – according to some scores and criteria of performance with the help
of some techniques as objective as possible.
3. Information and documentation methods, of personal marketing on the labor force
by:
- professional and/or career projects defining your own policy in the design of
becoming and socio-professional accomplishment; school and professional routes,
competences and performance levels required by future professions, career opportunities etc.;
- job fairs – contact with possible employers where they get interviewed etc.
- reading specialized magazines, presentation brochures etc.
- watching TV programs, video cassettes in which various professional fields and
work environments are presented.
- reading webpages, websites containing information useful regarding counseling;
- designing cover letters which, together with the CV, present the abilities of the
applicant, his/her interests and motivations related to work, intentions regarding company’s
development; even managerial projects.
4. Proper counseling (advising) methods by:
- Discussions regarding issues of guidance and counseling with the objective either to
clarify the options and attitudes of participants or the analysis of advantages or disadvantages
in choosing a socio-professional route; clarification of some questions asked by the youth
regarding career evolution;
- case study, the method of situation of the critical incident which determines the
analysis of the situation, establishing some decision alternatives of favorable or unfavorable
factors for each alternative as well as the corresponding measures of applying the optimal
decision;

71
 - role play as well as the simulation of a situation can be focused on issues such as the
employment, choosing your profession etc.
- the interview: meant to clarify the problems on which the counseling will focus or
even practicing for the real employment interview.

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V. RESETTING EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOR THE INFORMATION
SOCIETY

ONLINE LEARNING – ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

The learning process defines the people at any age. The humankind itself is
conditioned by learning; in order to survive we have to learn: to know the environment, to
know our close ones and in the deepest form to surpass ourselves.
The newest trend in education, known and estimated to be the most efficient and
desirable method, is electronic education. Known as “e-learning” or, more recently, as “e-
education”, the electronic (or virtual) education concept is represented by the interaction
between the teaching-learning processes and the information technologies. Right now, e-
learning is more than a concept; it is a part of the current education process and tends to
become more and more attractive due to the time savings. According to a formal definition, e-
learning gives the chance for an individual to be informed easily and quickly, in any field, as
this is not conditioned by a physical support (paper books) or an intermediary (the professor).
This concept allows the “flexibilization” of the education process for offering the widest
range of electronic books, advices, images and texsts.
Professional development and learning of the traditional model are becoming a thing
of the past. There are no experts in the classrooms, things are moving fast and the professors
and students must be a team in order to create a learning environment by using modern
technologies. Nowadays, the best and the most important distribution channel is the online
channel. The online environment supports the abilities of the 21st century as well as
cooperation, communication and creativity.
All over the world the universities, colleges and schools must prepare their professors
for change. As the culture of our society is changing as a response to technological
innovations, the institutions and the professors must adapt.
The opportunities of e-learning and the use of open educational resources and of other
technologies may decrease the costs associated with the materials needed for learning and
allow a more efficient use of the professor’s time. Nowadays, we can talk about a combined
learning which mixes the learning opportunities face to face with the e-learning opportunities.
The degree in which e-learning takes place and the way in which this is incorporated in the
curriculum may vary depending on the school. The strategy of combining e-learning with the
face to face school training is useful in order to adapt the various learning styles of the
students and to allow each student to study at his/her own pace.

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 Online resources allow the overhaul of the educational system not only because there
are affordable and accessible but also because they allow for the entire teaching and learning
process to become more interesting and adapted to the digital student. Therefore, a
personalization of learning is achieved. Nowadays, the students and the professors benefit
from free and paid online resources. Each student prefers different resources depending on
his/her interest and learning style. The professors and the students wish the high quality tools
to be free. In order to help my colleagues to find the best online resources to ease their life,
below you will find a list of several links offering what is needed for a proper lesson.

Internet learning
Internet learning can be defined as a form of education in which the students are
shown training content via the internet. Therefore, the basic condition imposed to the
participants in the learning process is having a computer and an internet connection.
When we are talking about supporting the curriculum which is used in internet
education, most of the times the so-called course tools are used which allow storing
educational content on a Web server, the creation of communication networks between the
participants of the education, learning and management process, allowing independent testing
of their knowledge via the various tests.
The web and WBT-Web based training is made based on publishing the content for
learning on the academic institution website. The advantages of this method of distribution of
educational materials are the following: quicker distribution, by accessing the www the
students may have educational materials; it is possible to insert hyper-mediatized materials;
the service can be used by one or more persons or groups at the same time; the possibility to
connect, multi-mediation of contents, the easiness of content renewal and publication; the
possibility to access administration, interactive contents etc.
The email is the simplest form of asynchronous interaction and it is often used only as
an additional element for/besides other communication forms. The advantages of email are:
simplicity of use; the communication is private; it allows enough time for reflection and
reaction to the answer.
The email lists represent a service with a similar interaction form. The advantages and
disadvantages are the same as for the email as they are easy to use, they can be adapted to
working within a group, allows the division of students and sections in smaller groups as each
group is formed from participants with common features/specializations.

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 The forums and online lists allow open debates, questions and answers can be sent,
exchanges of opinions and thoughts are made; it is possible to create a new topic for the group
on a subject selected by you. This communication method allows large files to be stored
elsewhere, allows learning by duplication/multiplication, file transfer usage for transferring
course materials and elaboration of tables for communication with the professor. Internet
relay chat (IRC) is a synchronous communication based on text messages via the Internet or
Intranet, in real time and allows connecting the students with pretty much equal knowledge,
the objective assessment of content and the possibility to recover omitted information.

Video conferences
The divided applications (Whiteboards) are a way of synchronous interaction in which
the students participate and work together in a team on the software application. There are
two ways of using the distributed/divided application: as a way to learn how to use the
application itself but also for learning concepts and competences. The advantages of this
interaction way are the simulation of reality and encouraging group learning.
Electronic learning does not mean only educational portals; it means learning during
the entire lifetime – known as “life-long learning”. Of course, the established form of
electronic education is the institutionalized one, especially under the name of remote learning
but also computer assisted training, training via multimedia.
E-learning is gaining group each day by applying the new technologies in training.
The possibility to connect via a website in order to acquire knowledge under the guidance of
some people who are located hundreds of miles away and to learn almost entirely the aspect
of such contents in real time allows us to acquire knowledge without the day to day stress.

The advantages and disadvantages of using the eLearning platforms for the
activity of learning and assessment
An e-learning platform is an integrated set of online interactive services offering the
professor, the students, the parents and other people involved in education, information, tools
and resources in order to support and improve the educational management and delivery.
The main features of e-learning platforms are:
- Authentication
- Content generation
- Content visualization
- Various media with a professor / tutor

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 - Activities such as tasks, working groups
- Report of activities carried out by the students
- Assessment tools

The e-learning platforms allow two ways of learning:

• Synchronous in which the trainer controls the lesson entirely, creating, coordinating,
adapting and monitoring the educational environment
• Asynchronous which involves study at personal pace of students, cooperation projects
and remote learning

Being based on e-Learning technologies (multimedia), the eLearning platforms have several
advantages such as:
• Access to knowledge at any moment and from any location
• Focused on student/participant
• The students can cooperate and learn together
• Favors creativity and discovery of new interpretations
• Allows access to new competences required by modern life
• The professor may address to a higher number of students compared to traditional
education
• Materials can be customized
• The possibility to modify the information transmitted
• Interaction with the professor is free, without constrains
• The students can learn at his/her own pace
• The student can benefit from quick and permanent feedback
• Low costs of distribution of materials
• Online education is organized on subjects, not on age groups
• Electronic education is less stressful compared to the traditional one
• The possibility to measure the efficiency of the program by monitoring the number of
downloads made by the student
• High storing capacity. The Internet has a much higher capacity of storing information
compared to physical locations or individual hard disks
• Allows synchronous and asynchronous interaction between the professor and the
student

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Among the disadvantages related to online training, we mention:
• The preparation of an online course is more expensive than the preparation of a
traditional course
• Lack of high-performance technological resources and of some optimal connections to
a network of low-performance regarding sound, images and certain graphs
• Some issues related to face-to-face interaction may arise, an interaction which many
times essential for socialization
• Not all courses may be delivered via eLearning platforms
• The need of student experience in the field of computers
• The students must be extremely motivated to attend online courses
• The possibility of decreasing the ability of oral expression of the examinee together
with a loss of the abilities of presentation-argument-rebuttal and the emphasis of the
dehumanizing degree which is paradoxically under the conditions that technique and
technology opened new roads and offered new tools and techniques for inter-human
communication

Observing the increasing number of advantages compared to the disadvantages, we may

say that the use of eLearning platforms represents an opportunity offered to those who wish to
obtain a continuous training. It does not exclude classical education in which real objects are
used as a source of information but adds virtual resources. A combination between the
classical learning and assessment methods and the eLearning methods is preferred in order to
obtain performances related to the development of student competences.
Why is online learning pleasant to the students
When we are talking about individual study, most of the times the same image comes into
mind: a student over his/her head with all the tasks he/she has to do, looking lost to a pile of
books, workbooks, exercise books, text books or mathematical gazettes.
Being passionate of smart gadgets, interesting apps or spectacular online games, the
adolescents hardly resonate with the old learning methods. Fortunately, the development of
technology meant also the development of some educational products created in perfect
synchronization with the new generations of students of the digital era.
Why students learn with pleasure when they use online platforms

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They can be used anytime; they offer very useful explicative movies, problems solved in
steps, exercises with various degrees of difficulty and the possibility of testing per notions –
here are only a few of reasons for which more and more secondary school students discover
the efficiency of online learning platforms such ExamenulTau.ro. Such alternative educational
methods naturally complete the classroom study facilitated by the professors and encourage
the student to have a positive attitude towards learning.
Accessing the educational product ExamenulTau.ro, the adolescents will find video
lessons or teaching movies which can be viewed anytime; they can work when they have time
and can test themselves without issues in order to know exactly the level of knowledge either
for Romanian language or for mathematics.
Although it comes as a completion to classical learning in school, online learning has
several irrefutable benefits. In the case of electronic platforms, the information is accessible
anytime as the students may access this online educational product when they have time.
Moreover, the teaching movies can be viewed as needed for the students to prepare their daily
homework or for exams or the final exam. And regarding the problems solved in steps but
also the tests, the secondary school students have the possibility to verify their knowledge and
to refine the subject matter.

Advantages and disadvantages of online learning

How technology helps us to make advancements in education? What are its advantages and
disadvantages? Is investing in online learning really worth it? These are few questions we
often encounter.
Seeing how learning is made more efficient by using the internet, we may mention several
advantages; however, we will find a few disadvantages. Below we will talk about how I see
learning via the internet.

Advantages:

1. Quick distribution of educational materials

The professors or the administrators may send very quickly, anytime, anywhere and to anyone
the desired information. Therefore, there is no need to synchronize the people for physical
meetings and no one will lose anything since the information stays online.

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 2. Students/pupils will have the materials via a simple click
Any person of the target group has access to all information, anytime, anywhere.

3. Existence of multimedia contents

Through the internet, images, videos, files and any type of virtual materials can be sent which
always made learning more efficient.

4. Content can be deleted, corrected or updated with ease

If the sender finds out that he/she sent wrong information or maybe he/she wishes to update
the information, this can be done anytime and anywhere. Likewise, any document can be
edited and re-edited, thus such corrections are made with ease.

5. The service used by one or more persons, group creation

Information can be directed to a single person or several persons at the same time individually
or groups can be created in which the users may communicate.

6. The use of interactive contents, existence of feedback

As groups are already created, the member may exchange experiences, opinions or
information. Likewise, they can receive feedback in real time, even in a short time from the
group administrator or from fellow students. Therefore, there is also virtual interaction and
not only individual learning.

Limits and difficulties / Disadvantages

1. Difficulties in using the technology

Technology advances day by day and not all people are updated with the novelties. Therefore,
many times, issues related to usage and accessing of information are encounter as well as
issues related to the elaboration of some projects or homework. Likewise, sometimes there is
confusion which generates of lack of motivation. But such issues can be solved by video
tutorials.

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 2. Lack of real/physical communication
When learning and communication stay focused in the virtual environment, when people meet
each other, they forget to communicate and start communicating also by technology. Using
the virtual environment in excess makes us robots!

Traditional learning vs. online learning: differences, advantages and disadvantages

Nowadays, the online courses / training became extremely popular since more and more
institutes and companies offer online courses. However, despite the popularity of online
education, large groups of people reject such methods mostly due to misconceptions. At the
same time, despite the increasing popularity of online courses, traditional training (in the
classroom) is putting up a fight and is trying to adopt newer way of maintaining the interest of
the students. There are always two sides of a coin. For some individuals, online training is
more adequate while for others training in classroom is the preferred method.
Let’s compare the two methods.

Online courses
People attend professional courses usually for increasing their qualification level and to
increase their career opportunities. For example, in order to get a promotion to a higher level
and better jobs. However, many employees can be exhausted after work and do not wish to
attend the regular classes. Thus, obviously, an online class is more convenient for them since
it saves time, money and energy.
The best thing about online courses is that the individuals may attend a course from
the comfort of their office or home. Even with a busy schedule, you can always find a bit of
time for a course.
Regarding online courses, the student does not interact directly with the institution.
Therefore, if you have questions, it may be difficult to ask the online trainers since the
communication is often very impersonal. However, these courses offer most of the times
alternatives such as online forums, emails and chat rooms. The use of such alternatives may
be useful.
People often believe that the interaction with a trainer live is the best way to learn
since it is interactive and allows a bidirectional communication. For such persons, online
synchronized courses may be more appropriate.
Another way to acquire knowledge via an online environment is to search on the
various search engines such as Google, Bing etc. Although this helps in decreasing the

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quantity of books to be read, there can be too many sources of information and you have to
select the most relevant ones, a thing that can lead to an overload of information.
Therefore, the courses may be more appropriate to adults who continue their education
while working.

Traditional courses
Traditional courses are more adequate for small children, adolescent and young
adolescent who did not join the workforce yet. The frequent participation to courses helps
them to interact with other people of the same age, helps them to be more disciplined, to
follow a regular schedule and to improve their physical abilities and mental vigilance.
Learning in a classroom helps the students and the professors to know each other
better. This allows the professors to know their students and to assess their strengths and
weaknesses better, to act as mentors and to guide the students in their career opportunities.
In a traditional classroom, the students may share directly their opinions and may clarify their
own questions to professors, thus obtaining immediate answers.
Understanding the model of questions and answers and the suggestions offered by the
experienced professors, the students may find more useful information compared to when
they use notes and generalized online suggestions which are available on the internet.
Likewise, learning in a classroom is more useful due to the continuous interaction
between students and professors since this helps the students to get rid of their fears regarding
exams which rarely happens within an online setting. Finally, the interactions with good
teachers contribute to the motivation of students to obtain higher grades.

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 VI. EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

VI.1 Conceptual outlines: emotional intelligence, emotional abilities

In 1980, the psychologist Howard Gardner came up with the concept of “multiple
intelligence”. According to him, intelligence has nine different dimensions and namely:
spatial, kinesthetic, musical, linguistic, logical-mathematical, interpersonal, intrapersonal,
naturalistic and spiritual. He argued the fact that intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence
play an important role in having a successful life same as those cognitive abilities which are
assessed in standard IQ tests.
“For the business world, emotional intelligence – a combination between interpersonal
and intrapersonal intelligence of Gardner – has at least the same importance as the logical-
mathematical intelligence.” (Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries48, 2003).
The emotional intelligence includes:
- Intrapersonal intelligence – which determines moods, feelings or other mental states
which can affect our behavior;
- Interpersonal or social intelligence – understanding the emotion of others by using
information as a behavioral guide and in order to build and maintain inter-human
relationships.
In 1990, the psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer popularized the term of emotional
intelligence defining it as “a form of social intelligence involving the ability to monitor own
feelings and emotions as well as those of others and using such information to influence own
thoughts and actions.” (Patrick E. Merlevede49).
IQ tests were understood in the past as being some indications with a high degree of
accuracy related to the school performances of a person. Anyway, in time, the researchers
understood that intelligence is something much more complex than they initially thought and
that many more abilities besides the intellectual one are needed in order to have a successful
life. The most important skills for emotional intelligence are: active listening, interpretation of
non-verbal communication and interpretation of own emotional states. More precisely, in
order to better understand emotional intelligence, we must start from knowing ourselves.
In the most recent books and articles related to this topic, several models of emotional
intelligence are given in order to better understand this term and its components.

48 Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries, Leadership arta si maiestria de a conduce, Editura Codecs, Bucuresti, 2003, p.
30

49 Patrick E.Merlevede, Steps to Emotional Intelligence, Denis Bridoux and Rudy Vandamme, 2002, p. 5

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 Among the emotional intelligence models we will discuss the one provided by Adele
B. Lynn in her book called The EQ Difference: A Powerful Plan for Putting Emotional
Intelligence to Work. Adele B. Lynn came up with the self-training method necessary for
monitoring our own behavior and for its evaluation. This method proved to be very efficient
in helping people to develop emotional intelligence.
This emotional intelligence model has 5 components:
1. Self-awareness and self-control
2. Empathy
3. Social intelligence
4. Personal influence
5. Purpose and vision

All these components have a strong influence on the success achieved at the workplace.

1. Self-awareness and self-control

Self-awareness represents the basis in understanding the need of power and development of
the mind. Self-awareness can be also defined as a way towards the development of emotional
intelligence.
The behavioral choices are influenced by the experiences during lifetime which help
us in forming an image about us and about what is possible to achieve in life. Therefore, our
behaviors are formed depending on our own needs.

2. Empathy

Empathy is the basis of building a relationship. The truly empathic persons care about others
and value very much understanding their feelings and thoughts.
Empathy needs discipline. It is the art of being in a continuous contact with people. Therefore,
empathy also needs communication abilities besides listening abilities.
The ability to work with people is one of the most important factors in determining the
success achieved at the workplace. Obviously, having excellent technical skills is essential.
Professional training is not enough without the ability to establish relationships.
Technical abilities are not yet enough to guarantee professional success. People with technical
skills lose their job sometimes because they are not capable of understanding their coworkers.

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A study regarding the reasons why people are fired showed that 90% of the firings are the
result of an inadequate attitude and behavior or due to some difficulties in establishing
relationships despite having the necessary technical skills for the job.
Technical abilities will lead you towards a management position but the ability to work with
people is the one keeping out at that level.

3. Social intelligence

A person who has emotional intelligence is the one being able to maintain good relationships
with all the people within the organization.
Social intelligence represents building relationships in order to make things happen. Beyond
the abilities needed in building a strong and collaborative relationship, social intelligence is
represented by mutual trust. It allows people to work even in conditions of conflict without
destroying the ability to work together.
When people are talking about their frustrations at the workplace, they blame other coworkers
in order to justify their problems. Managers are complaining about the people who do not
behave according to their expectations. Employees complain about their managers who fail to
inform or to delegate authority. Coworkers are complaining about other coworkers who have
difficult personalities.
In any case, when people are asked: “Did you talk to him/her about this?” or “Have you tried
to solve this problem?” often their answer is: “Are you kidding? I can’t tell him/her that.”
When things at the workplace don’t go as planned, you must find an answer to the behavior
you adopted that got you in this situation.
When something is not going as we wished, generally, we tend to blame another person as the
one causing the problem. We even find a certain satisfaction in complaining to friends about
being treated roughly when this happens. However, if we look closely, we will always find
something that we could have done in order for the situation to change.

4. Personal influence

Personal influence is the ability to get things going with and through other people.
Although most of the times power was seen as a negative thing, it can also have positive
attributes. Power means to have the ability to get things going. Power also means to have an
extensive network of people who likes you, who trusts you, listening to your ideas or

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demands. Reputation and good relationships with coworkers determine the behavior of the
most powerful persons in this regard.
Self-confidence contributes to the ability to influence others. Such people take initiative in
order to reach their goals and in order to instill optimism and flexibility in relation to others,
encouraging them to have an efficient and pleasant attitude.

5. Mastering the purpose and vision

Mastering the purpose and vision represents the expression of humanity via work. Mastering
the purpose and vision is the way to transform a workplace in something that expresses its
own values and vision as a human being.
Beginning with 1995, when the book of Daniel Goleman was published, emotional
intelligence became one of the most discussed concepts in the United States of America. For
example, when Harvard Business Review published an article in 1998, it attracted more
readers than any other article of this magazine in the last 40 years. When the general manager
of Johnson & Johnson read this article, he was so impressed that he sent a copy of this article
to more than 400 top-managers of the entire world.
In his book, Goleman presents many interesting information about the brain, emotions
and behavior. However, Goleman described very few original ideas although the book also
contained several own paradigms and beliefs. What the author did was to collect the work of
several people which was then organized and given a commercial form. From 1995, Goleman
focused more on the scientific research related to emotional intelligence.
Combining his own analyses and research with the results obtained in the field until
then, Goleman showed in his first book that essentially we have two brains, respectively two
minds: the rational and the emotional one. Emotional intelligence – whose components are:
self-knowledge, self-regulation, self-motivation, empathy and the ability to form relationships
with others – determines the way in which we manage our own emotions and the emotions of
others.

In the vision of Daniel Goleman50 (1998), EI consists of five factors: knowing your
own emotions (self-awareness), management of emotions (self-regulation), motivation,
knowing the emotions of others (empathy) and interpersonal relationships (social skills).

50 Goleman, Daniel, Working with Emotional Intelligence, Bantam Books, 1998

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 Compared to general intelligence, about which some psychologists say that it cannot
be developed by constant intellectual exercises, emotional intelligence has real chances to
improve for any person. The first step to capitalize this type of intelligence is to be aware of
the specific way in which we understand the world, in which we connect to others, everything
in harmony with our emotional structure. The rational analysis of the way in which emotions
influence our life may lead to the conclusion that some emotions determine us to live at a
higher intensity than we could afford. A “cooling” of emotions may be the solution for a
balanced life with the benefits about which many are talking but which for some they seem
unattainable! A deep self-knowledge means the capitalization of all personal resources,
including latent or unknown resources until a given time. The understanding ourselves
generates empathy, assertiveness, a positive analytical attitude in relation to others (Butnaru,
Cristina51).
Of course, emotional intelligence cannot be transposed in a chemical formula to be
bought in drugstores and to be taken in maintenance doses. The efforts for development can
be sometimes huge and sometimes prolonged, measureable in years. But essential are the
results and the fulfillment that life can be different… not necessarily better, happier or prettier
but more bright and closer to what the complicated human nature means.
Another name in the field of emotional intelligence is David Carusso. He continued
the work started by Mayer and Salovey. Using the same idea, Carusso suggested that EI is the
true form of intelligence which, however, was not measured scientifically until the research
work began.
All those who contributed to this field did not make “a hole in the sky” but they put
them together and gave another name, “emotional intelligence”, to some human qualities
appreciated since the beginning of time: common sense, wisdom, empathy, fairness,
tactfulness etc.
As a matter of fact, the motto of Goleman’s book (1998, p. 55) is a quote from
Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle: “Anyone can get angry – it’s easy. But to be angry on the
right person, in the right extent, at the right time, due to the right reasons and in the right way,
it’s not easy.”

51 Butnaru, Cristina, Programul de formare Educarea inteligenţei emoţionale pentru îmbunătăţirea vieţii

şcolare, CCD, Galaţi, 2010, p. 5

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 One of the definitions proposed by Carusso together with his forerunners is “the
ability to process emotional information, especially the information involving perception,
assimilation, understanding and the control of emotions”. (Mayer and Cobb, 2000, p. 112).
Further on he gets into details explaining that this consists from the following “four branches
of mental ability”:

Emotional identification, perception and expression

Emotional easing of thoughts
Emotional understanding
Emotional management

In one of their recent publications, these four branches are described as follows:
The first, Emotional Perception, includes abilities such as: identification of emotions
on faces, in music and from stories.
The second, Emotional Easing of Thoughts, includes abilities such as: connecting the
emotion with other mental sensations such as taste or color (connections which may generate
artworks) and using emotions in debates and problem solving.
The third area, Emotional Understanding, includes solving emotional problems such as
which emotions are similar, which emotions are opposed and what relationships are there
between them.
The fourth area, Emotional Management, includes the understanding of the
implications of social actions on the emotions and controlling your own emotions and those of
people around you.
In 1997, an article of Mayer and Salovey listed these four branches and offered a
detailed graph reflecting own thoughts. In that article, they said that the plotted branches are
“organized from the simplest psychological processes to complex ones. For example, the
lowest level comprises the (relatively) simple abilities to perceive and express emotions. By
contrast, the highest level comprises the consciousness, the reflexive control of emotions”
(Mayer and Salovey52). The abilities occurring relatively quick in development are located on
the left of the branch, those occurring later are on the right side.

52 Mayer and Salovey, 1997, Emotional Intelligence: Educational Implications, p. 23

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 The four branches of emotional intelligence:

Perceiving, knowing and expressing emotions

Emotional easing of thinking
Understanding and analysis of emotions; the use of emotional knowledge
Reflexive control of emotions, the way towards emotional and intellectual development

On the other hand, emotional intelligence is “a type of social intelligence which

includes the ability to monitor your own emotions and those of other people, to make a
distinction between them and to use the information to guide the way of thinking and the way
of action of other people” (Mayer & Salovey, 1993, p. 13). According to Mayer and Salovey53
(1990), EI sums up the concepts used by Gardner of interpersonal and intrapersonal
intelligence which also include abilities that may be categorized in five fields:
a. Self-awareness
Self-observing and awareness of feelings as they occur.
b. Control of emotions
The control of emotions so that they would be adapted to the situation; being aware of the
cause that generated a certain feeling; finding methods to control fears and concerns, anger
and sadness.
c. Self-motivation
Channeling emotions in order to achieve a certain purpose; self-control of emotions.
d. Empathy
Being sensible towards the feelings and problems of other people and the ability to look
through their perspective; being aware of the fact that people feel different towards different
things.
e. The ability to create relationships:
The control of emotions of other people; social competence and social abilities.
Emotional intelligence represents the ability of a person to be aware, to access and to generate
emotions and to assist his/her own thoughts, to understand emotions and emotional
knowledge and to control his/her own emotions in a reflexive way as well as to promote
intellectual and emotional development. (Mayer & Salovey54, 1997).

53 Mayer & Salovey, 1990, Emotional Intelligence, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc., p. 255
54 Mayer and Salovey, 1997, Emotional Intelligence: Educational Implications, p. 84

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 Emotions intelligence means many things for different persons. For certain people, it
means “to be a good guy”. Other consider emotional intelligence as an oxymoron: I don’t
believe that feelings can be intelligent.
Following the studies focusing on the development level of emotional intelligence
during the years, it was found out that people progress as they master in a better way their
emotional impulses, as they motivate themselves easier, cultivating their empathy and social
flexibility, i.e. they become more emotionally intelligent. As a consequence, they have more
chances to be understanding towards themselves but also towards others, to be contented with
their life and to be efficient and good teammates having the upper hand in any field of life,
either in sentimental and intimate relationships or in observing the unwritten rules governing
the success in a field of activity, and they have emotional abilities, the word “abilities”
suggesting a training process. Competence means a performance level based on knowledge,
skills, habits and attitudes determining the effectiveness of an activity (Macavei Elena55,
2002). Emotional competences are creating the performance level determining the efficiency
of managing emotions.
A broader definition of emotional competences, as a component of the emotional
culture of the teaching staff, is given by Cojocaru-Borozan M.56 (Cojocaru-Borozan, Maia,
2011): “We define emotional competence as a result of EQ increase, a system of
beliefs/attitudes regarding the importance of disciplining the emotional behavior, the varied
spectrum of knowledge about the emotional life of the individual, the collection of abilities
allowing the adequate management/channeling of emotional energy, the successful integration
in any social environment and the creation of a resounding career”. The definition confirms
the idea: “the quality of competences reflects as a whole the level of the emotional culture of
the personality”. In the emotional competences specific to teachers, the researcher integrates:
emotional involvement, emotional contamination, emotional mobility, positive emotional
orientation, emotional compassion, emotional activism, emotional expressivity, emotional
resistance to stress, the depth of emotional perception, emotional flexibility, emotional
creativity. (Cojocaru-Borozan, Maia57, 2011).

55 Macavei, Elena, Pedagogie. Teoria educaţiei, vol.I, Bucureşti, EDP, 2002, p. 111

56 Cojocaru-Borozan M. Teoria şi metodologia dezvoltării culturii emoţionale a cadrelor didactice, Teză de doctor
habilitat în pedagogie, Chişinău, 2011, p. 269

57 Cojocaru-Borozan M. Teoria şi metodologia dezvoltării culturii emoţionale a cadrelor didactice, Teză de doctor
habilitat în pedagogie, Chişinău, 2011, p. 271

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 VI.2 Particularities of emotional intelligence
A vision on human nature ignoring the power of emotions is of course limitative. Even
the name “homo sapiens” (thinking species) leads to shadowing the new evaluation and vision
on the place of emotions in our life. For example, in taking decisions and carrying out actions,
the emotional feelings matter same as and often more than thoughts so that the supremacy of
reasoning – measured by IQ – loses ground. Intelligence may lead to nothing when emotions
are taking over. Despite social constraints, the passions often overwhelm reasoning. This fact
of human nature results from the basic architecture of the psychic life: we are born with what
worked maximally for the last 50.000 of human generations.
In essence, all emotions are impulses towards actions, instantaneous plans of
confronting life which the evolution makes them available. Each emotion prepares the body
for a certain type of response.
Moreover, the rational and emotional functions of the brain are in a state of
interdependence. The research proved that, from an evolutionary point of view, the emotional
component existed in the human brain long before the development of reasoning, respectively
of the neocortex. Before being processed by cortex, the messages are firstly taken in that area
of the brain in which emotional memory is located – the nucleus of the amygdala. Therefore,
some emotional reactions and memories of emotional type can be formed without any
conscious, cognitive involvement. In the first milliseconds of our perception, not only we
understand – unconsciously – what it is but we also decide if we like it or not. “Emotional
intelligence influences in fact the rational thinking. Therefore, psychologically, when the
centers of emotion are affected, our intelligence is short-circuited. Emotional feelings are
indispensable to rational decisions; they are guiding us to the correct decision.” (Elias M. J.,
Tobias S. E., Friedlander B. S.58, 2003).
IQ and EQ are incomplete and ineffective one without the other. If the IQ helps us to
discern, to calculate, to correctly estimate a problem, the EQ is responsible for the degree of
self-estimation and self-knowledge for social sensitivity and adaptability.
The word “emotion” has the root in the Latin word matere which is translated by “to
move”. Emotions are taken us out of the paralysis state offering the motivation of action.
It is much healthier to accept and to exteriorize our intense emotions rather than to
ignore them or to consider them dangerous. Same as physical pain, emotional pain is a
warning which has to be taken into account.

58 Elias M. J., Tobias S. E., Friedlander B. S., Stimularea inteligenţei emoţionale la adolescenţi, Curtea Veche,
Bucureşti, 2003, p. 155

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 Moreover, self-control does not come by repressing feelings but from experiencing
them in a conscious way. J. Segal59 (1997) estimates that “a healthy thing for the mind, body,
heart and soul is to leave our emotions to manifest themselves. The active awareness of
emotional states – exteriorizing and fully experiencing the emotion everyday – and their
intertwining with cognitive abilities would represent according to Segal a proof of high
sensitivity. Awareness and acceptance of your own feelings opens the way towards empathy
since only those who care about themselves will also care about other people.”
Goleman60 (2008) looks both into empathy and the ability to direct, lead and handle
interpersonal relationships which are included in the concept of “interpersonal power”.
Empathy is seen as an ability of imaginative-ideational transposition but also as an emotional
ability with functions of knowledge, anticipation, communication, emotional and performance
contagion. Interpersonal power is translated in an increased self-control, in the ability to get
over anxiety and stress.
In any communication between two participants, emotional exchanges are taken place
continuously; most of them are carried out at imperceptible levels (we are talking about
“subliminal emotions’). Emotional intelligence means knowing and directing these
imperceptible and subtle exchanges.
The people who are “emotionally competent” have the capacity to imitate in an
unconscious way the emotions observed in others, they adopt the same mimic, gestures, voice
tone and other non-verbal aspects. We are talking about a recognition at own level of the
moods of other people. When two people interact, the emotional disposition is transferred
from the person stronger in expressing his/her feelings to the more passive one. Very strong
emotional relations lead to the occurrence of “sentimental synchronicity”. Emotional
contagion, respectively the power to emotionally synchronize yourself is encountered in
certain leaders, allowing them to organize the group, to negotiate solutions, to establish
multiple personal connections, to determine the cause of negative feelings and personal
worries.
To be empathic does not mean to live the same emotion or state, to be overwhelmed
by the feelings or the mood of others. On the contrary, it is natural and even necessary to
continue to feel well (especially if that’s what you feel) while you perceive the pain of others.
Empathy makes us stronger, i.e. more categorical and more conscious due to the information
it offers us about others and about our relationships with them. To know how others are

59 J. Segal, Raising your emotional intelligence, New York: Holt, 1997, p. 323
60 Goleman, D, Inteligenţa emoţională, Ediţia a III-a., Curtea Veche, Bucureşti, 2008, p. 199

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feeling helps us in knowing the value of our own individuality, motivates us in what we do
and encourages us to act, thus making us richer at personal and social level.
People need understanding, not necessarily help. Spiritual participation, attention and
understanding make them feel protected and encourage them to learn from the sensations the
experience and to solve their problems themselves. Therefore, it is enough to listen with our
entire body without involving at rational level.
Empathy “heals” us from the mania of separating people who are right from people
who are wrong but also weans us from the tendency to contradict and helps us to be able to
disagree with someone without becoming distasteful.
Empathy is contagious; it has the power to open the hearts of others. It guarantees only
the ability to interpret signs, from linguistic ones to gestures, facial expressions and body
language and not intuiting the feeling of a person who is totally uncommunicative. In time,
the signs you are able to decipher will contribute to the accomplishment of your own wisdom.
Therefore, understanding others follows after understanding yourself. “Being aware of
the various sensations – either physical or emotional – creates the texture of emotional
sensitivity. The real EI means “granting” our sensitivity to the wavelengths of the signs
received by the entire body. Being aware of your own feelings is developed as “a sixth sense”
anticipated by the exploitation, by the intense demand of the other senses.” (Robu Maria61,
2008).
Perceiving emotional states and their management does not mean their camouflage,
their repression but their manifestation – loosening and energizing the body. An example in
this regarding is the behavior of children who are able to run and to play immediately after
they cried loudly; they do not disregard the sensation but they get carried by them proving
that mental and physical health depends on using the emotional valve.
A study carried out in a European university says that, in order to control their
aggressive behavior, school children should be taught to monitor their feelings. Being aware
of physical sensations – e.g. blushing or flexing a part of the body – from the moment they
lose their temper, the children might be able to restrain their aggressiveness. Even when we
formed certain automatisms, we may wean from the respective behavior by taking into
account the sensations of those moments.
The ability to feel our emotions attracts the power to induce and to maintain a fluidity
state of the consciousness which allows the passing from action directly from inside without

61 Robu M., Empatia în educaţie. Necesităţi pedagogice moderne. Bucureşti: Didactica

Publishing Hous, 2008 p. 78

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the filter of reasoning. “It is the so-called “state of grace” or “of overflowing” in which to
excel comes by itself, without effort, based on relaxation and forgetting about yourself.
Entering such state represents emotional intelligence at the highest parameters; the
overflowing state represents probably the peak of exploiting emotions for performance and
learning; in this state, the emotions are positive, fortifying and resonant with the tasks to be
accomplished.” (Dumitrescu Marinela62, 2005).
The feeling is pleasant, the attention given to task is the highest, the consciousness
fuses with action. Although the connection with the time and space is lost, the person proves
an optimal control of the activity.
It is said that people are focused best when the requirements towards them are higher
than usual and are able to offer more. If the requirements are less, people get bored. If it is too
much for them to handle, they become anxious. Overflowing occurs in this delicate area
between boredom and anxiety.
In overflowing, the brain is a state of calm; when the person is entailed in activities
capturing their attention without effort, the brain “calms down” in the way that it records a
decrease of the cortical excitation simultaneous with the increase of efficiency. Therefore,
even a very stressful work may seem refreshing or replenishing of forces rather than
exhausting.

VI.3 The need of developing emotional intelligence

One of the innovating ideas captivating the education debates of today is the concept
of emotional intelligence (EI) which means self-awareness, self-discipline, empathy, control
of impulses and feelings in interpersonal relationships. Responding to the modern value
exigencies, we may add to the category of “new education” the education for emotional
development. Consequently, there is a need to integrate contents dealing with the education of
emotions within the educational dimensions.
The differential treatment of students comprises the idea of respecting the emotions
and feelings of each of them. Why is emotional intelligence so important for the teaching staff
and for the entire instructive-educational process? If the IQ (coefficient of academic
intelligence) is a genetic fact, EI (emotional intelligence) is that type of intelligence which is

62 Dumitrescu Marinela, Educaţia pentru sănătate mentală şi emoţională. Ghid metodologic pentru
pregătirea cadrelor didactice, Editura Arves, Bucureşti, 2005, p. 189

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continuously improved with each emotional experience lived, influencing the efficiency of a
person (Goleman, Daniel63, 2008, p. 88).
However, in order to contribute to the development of EQ (emotional coefficient) of
the educational object (the student), it seems logical that the educational subject (the
professor) must know and manage his/her own emotions. Educational practice proves the
need to know the emotional universe of those to be educated by consolidating emotional
contacts, by the expressivity and impartiality of the professor in his/her interaction with the
students, a fact which generated the concept of emotional culture of the professor developed
by Cojocaru-Borozan M. (2010) in the monographic study “Theory of emotional culture”. In
her paperwork, the researcher says that, by arguments, “the values of the new educational
paradigm, promoted by the modern society, involve a balance between IQ and EQ, harmony
in the communication of the professor with him/herself and with the students as the emotional
development for an efficient academic communication is an important challenge of the
educational system in the context of the tendency towards European integration, global
communication and school mobility” (Cojocaru-Borozan, Maia64, 2010).

VI.4 Development of emotional intelligence – the premise for mending the school and the
society

The process of learning in school includes in itself the professor-student relationship, a

relation which is based on communication – a form of interaction – which involves certain
reciprocity. The efficiency of communication between the professor and the student depends
on the empathic ability of both parties involved in the process. “Above all, the empathy and
compassion of the teacher have positive effects on the student”. (Chabot D, Chabot M65.,
2005). Empathy and compassion represent values of the emotional culture of the professor.
The role of empathy in interpersonal knowledge is significant same as the role of
intellectual factors, says the researcher Rocco M.66 (2005) as interpersonal knowledge is
based on empathic communication. Empathy is the ability which is built based on emotional
self-awareness; it is the foundation of “the ability of understanding others”, the more we are

63 Goleman, D, Inteligenţa emoţională, Ediţia a III-a., Curtea Veche, Bucureşti, 2008, p. 88

64 Cojocaru-Borozan M. Teoria şi metodologia dezvoltării culturii emoţionale a cadrelor didactice, Teză de doctor
habilitat în pedagogie, Chişinău, 2011, p.64
65 Chabot D., Chabot M. Pédagogie émotionnelle, ressentir pour apprendre. Québec: Trafford Publishing, 2005,
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/daniel-chabot, p.9
66 Rocco M., Creativitate şi inteligenţă emoţională, Polirom, Iaşi, 2005, p. 453

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opened to our own emotions, the more we are able to interpret the feelings of others.
(Goleman, D, 2008).
The element that is often absent from interpersonal relationships, during adolescence,
generating misunderstandings, conflicts, aggressiveness is empathy, the reason being that it
was cultivated in the family since childhood. In this context, the opinion of Goleman D.
(2001, p. 45) is that “the family life is the first school of emotions; from childhood emotional
intelligence must be developed, cultivated”. The topic of the vital role of the family and
parents in the education of children is currently addressed in the works of many researchers:
Elias M., Tobias S., Friedlander B. (2003); Luminet O., Lenoir V. (2006); Briers St. (2008);
Faber A., Mazlish E. (2008); Robu M. (2008); Adams G., Berzonsky M. (2009); Ekman P.
(2009); Cuzneţov L.(2009); Butunoi E. (2011) etc. The researchers Faber A. and Mazlish E.
believe that “it is necessary to look closely on what’s happening in schools as well as beyond
the classes. It is important to give the same attention to the professor and to the parent. The
behavior in school of the child is deeply influenced by what is happening at home (and the
other way around!). Both the professor and the parent are well intended but they do not form a
team regarding the education of a child; it is certain that the result will not be the expected
one”. (Faber A., Mazlish E.67, 2010).
We notice the fact that the parent have a key role in establishing the bases of
emotional intelligence of the children since they represent the real models. The way in which
the parents react in certain situations and express their feelings has consequences on the
development of emotional intelligence of the child. It was proved that children whose parents
have a high level of emotional intelligence are more empathic, they are aware and express
their feelings better and that they don’t hold grudges, they are friendlier and sociable and the
children whose parents have a low level of emotional intelligence start with a “disadvantage”
that can be compensated only during life together with experience. For the positive evolution
of children, the friendship and communication relationship between them and their parents is
important; such relationships have a future influence on the emotional life of the children. If
the family talks about feelings, the child will learn to identify them and to express them in a
proper way, a face which is an important factor in developing the ability to be aware of your
own feelings. The ideal parent is interested in the feelings of his/her adolescent and
encourages him or her to develop independence, to be aware of his/her own emotional states,
to perceive the emotions of those around them and to anticipate their emotional reactions.

67 Faber A., Mazlish E., Cum să-i asculţi pe adolescenţi şi cum să te faci ascultat, Curtea Veche, Bucureşti, 2010

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This is the reason why the child must not be deprived of the life’s experiences but has to be
left alone to experiment and to learn from life. (Elias M. J., Tobias S. E., Friedlander B. S.68,
2007).
The child who is not aware of his/her own feelings will not be able to control his/her
outbursts being guided by the first impulse; therefore, he/she will not be able to exteriorize
his/her feelings and will make rushed decisions. When the adolescent will realize what he/she
feels and will be able to impose his/her point of view, communicating the decisions in a
natural way to others, he/she will begin to realize what is the meaning to deal with the various
social situations. The increase of the level of emotional intelligence contributes to the increase
of the IQ facilitating achievement at educational level, harmonizing the relationships with the
parents, making friendships and establishing some ideals in life.
Based on the above, we may state the following: the quality of the emotional
development of the student depends on the emotional difficulties of the educator. The activity
of educator means not only professional skills but also specific emotional abilities reflecting
the emotional culture of the teaching staff – “a sub-component of the professional culture of
psycho-educational and socio-educational nature, a dynamic formation of personality
reflected in the unit of intrapersonal dimensions and in the communicative-relational
dimension represented in a system of emotional variables”. (Cojocaru-Borozan M.69, 2011).
Salome J.70 (2002) launched the idea to transform communication in a separate
discipline to be taught in schools which will make the individual (the adolescent) aware in
order to create a healthy relationship via an active and conscious communication. In the
opinion of the psychologist, the purpose of educational approaches is not to give advice but to
stimulate personal reflection and maturity, to awaken the consciousness and taking a position
from yourself and from others as the starting point is personal expression.
Education, which also means changing for the better, and psychotherapy are fields that
have a set of tangencies regarding the emotional aspect of the person. Therefore, the purpose
of the education based on emotional intelligence is to help the children in order to develop the
necessary abilities in order to apply in life the emotional intelligence, thus assuring a
successful socio-professional integration and mental health.

68 Elias M. J., Tobias S. E., Friedlander B. S., Inteligenţa emoţională în educaţia copiilor, Curtea Veche,
Bucureşti, 2007, p. 36
69 Cojocaru-Borozan M. Teoria şi metodologia dezvoltării culturii emoţionale a cadrelor didactice, Teză de doctor
habilitat în pedagogie, Chişinău, 2011, p.91

70 Salomé J., Curajul de a fi tu însuţi. Arta de a comunica conştient: Curtea Veche, Bucureşti, 2002, p. 12

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 In the conditions of freedom of expression, of the democratization of social life, the
tasks associated to education are unique and difficult. Cucos C. says that “the formative
intervention must be founded on lines of value forces fortifying the individual and directing
him/her towards spiritual autonomy (similar to the harmonization between IQ and EQ). The
school is an institution appointed by the community to transmit a certain system of values to
the youth in name of an actional autonomy and responsibility”. (Cucos C., Momanu M.,
Salavastru D.71, 2005).
The role of the school has become more complex due to the need of its functional
correlation with the social segments. Robu M. (2008) believes that “making a perfect
harmonization of the cognitive side with the emotional, behavioral, attitudinal and social one
represents an objective that has to be monitored very carefully by each professor”. In the same
context, we notice the emergence of a new vision on education – the emotional education –
promoted in the works of the Canadian psychologists Chabot M. and Chabot D. They are
talking about four field of competences that have to be trained for students: (a) cognitive
(associated with “to know”, the most requested in school); (b) technical (associated with “to
know” – “to do”) – considered classical; (c) relational (allowing interaction with others); (d)
the recent emotional competences (allowing to feel things). One of the objectives of the said
researchers is to prove the importance of emotions for the assimilation of knowledge and
academic accomplishments since, according to them, if the student has difficulties in learning,
the problem is not always at cognitive level. The impact of negative emotions on the cognitive
and intellectual activities is significant: attention, perception, memory, reasoning are all
affected. Negative emotions are responsible for a large number of learning difficulties,
therefore, the purpose of emotional education is to help the student in guiding his/her
emotions which are unfavorable for learning but also to favor positive emotions, a fact which
represents the purpose of teachers.
The development of emotional intelligence is an important objective of the current
education since many adolescents are not able to completely understand and to express in a
proper way what they are feeling. The ability to recognize, express and use your own
emotions and the emotions of those around you is necessary for taking the most adequate
decisions and for their practical applications. The adolescents are fragile emotionally and

71 Cucoş C., Momanu M., Sălăvăstru D., Educaţia - provocări la început de mileniu, Iaşi, Universitatea „A. I. Cuza”,

2005, p. 15

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psychically, have frequent depressive moods and failure disarms them. An insufficient
involvement of the parents, the school and the society, as a whole, determines the youth to be
thrown into uncertainty and in confusing situations.
Six ways in which the parents may support their children during the (COVID-19)
pandemics:

1. Be calm and take initiative

“With calm and in a controlled manner, the parents must discuss with their children about the
disease inflicted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) and about the important role of children in
protecting their own health. Tell the children that it is possible, at a given time, for you or
them to manifest symptoms similar to cold or flu symptoms but they should not be scared
about this possibility”, recommends Dr. Damour. “Parents must encourage their children to
say if they are not feeling well or if they are concerned about the virus so that the parent to
intervene.”
“Adults may understand why the children are feeling restless and concerned about COVID-
19. Calm the children explaining that the disease inflicted by COVID-19 is generally
moderate, especially in children and young people”, says Dr. Damour. Likewise, it is
important to know that many of the COVID-19 infection symptoms can be treated.
“Furthermore, we can remind the children that we have a series of efficient measures to
protect ourselves and those around us but also to feel that we have more control on the
situation if we wash our hands frequently, if we do not touch our faces and if we observe
social distancing.”
“We may help the children in acquiring a wider perspective. Therefore, tell them: «We ask
you to do some things: wash your hands, stay inside, not only due to the fear of getting sick
but also in order to take care of those around you. We are also thinking about the others.»”

2. Establish and observe a routine

“Children need organization. Period. All of us have to invent very quickly ways to organize
our time and to spend our days”, says Dr. Damour: “I strongly advise the parents to take care
to make a daily schedule, a schedule comprising playtime, when the child may contact his/her
friends by phone, time without electronic devices and time for household chores. We must
think about the aspects we value and to organize our time depending on them. The children
will feel much better knowing that the day has a structure, knowing when it is the time to
work and when it is the time to play.”

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 Dr. Damour suggests also involving the children. “I would ask the children of 10-
11years of age and older to make up the schedule themselves. Offer them directions regarding
the activities to be included in the daily schedule and start from their proposals”. In case of
very little children, “depending on who babysits them (I assume not all parents will be at
home), organize the day so that to carry out all the high-priority activities (all homework and
all household chores). In some families, children like to carry out high-priority activities early
in the morning. Other families may find that it is better if you start the day later after sitting in
bed for a while and eat breakfast together”. The parents who are not at home during the day
will discuss with the person babysitting the children which are the best ways to organize the
day. Expect to be very sad and frustrated due to the losses they lament for, accept such
feelings as normal and support your children in coping with them.”

3. Let your children to feel their emotions

Together with the closing of schools, the school plays are also cancelled along with concerts,
games and other activities. The children will be very disappointed. The first advice of Dr.
Damour is to let the children be sad. “In the life of adolescents, these are major losses, at a
much larger scale for them than for us since we weigh in through the lens of our life and
experience. Expect to be very sad and frustrated due to the losses they lament for, accept such
feelings as normal and support your children in coping with them.” When you don’t know
exactly what to do, empathy and support represent the safe solution.

4. Discuss with the children in order to understand what they heard

There is much disinformation about the disease caused by coronavirus (COVID-19). “Find
out what the children heard and what they truly believe. It is not enough to present the facts as
they are since, if they heard something inaccurate, and you don’t know what beliefs they
developed and you don’t solve the wrong understanding, the children may combine the new
information with the existing information. Find out what the children know and start from
here in order to correct the perception.”
If they have questions you don’t know the answer, do not guess but use the occasion to
find the answers together. For information, use the websites of trusted organizations such as
UNICEF and WHO. In the context of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, many children
are dealing with online bullying. Your children should know what, if they are subject to any
kind of intimidation, you are there for them. “The reaction of the witnesses to abuse is the best
way to sanction any form of bullying”, says Dr. Damour. “We must not expect for the

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children and adolescent to confront the aggressors but we must encourage them to get help
and support among friends or adults.”

5. Make room for entertainment

In order to cope with difficult emotions, “inspire yourselves from your children and think how
to assure a balance between discussions and entertainment. When children are very sad and
need to unwind, make room for entertainment”. Once a few days organize an evening of
games with the whole family or cook together. Dr. Damour uses supper time to consolidate
his relationship with his daughters. “I decided to have a team responsible for supper every
evening. We work in pairs and, one at the time, we prepare supper for the whole family.”
In case of adolescents and their devices, leave them some freedom but not total freedom. Dr.
Damour advises to be open with the children and to tell them that we understand they have
more free time but that it is not a good idea to have unlimited access to devices and social
networks. “Ask the adolescent child: «What are we doing in this case? Come up with a
schedule and I’m going to tell you what I think about it.»

6. Monitor your own behavior

“Of course, the parents are also concerned and the children perceive and absorb emotional
clues from the parents”, explains Dr. Damour. “I would ask the parents to do everything in
order to manage their anxiety when they are alone without transmitting their angst to their
children. For this purpose, it may be necessary to hide the emotions which sometimes can be
difficult, especially if the respective emotions are intense”.
The parents are those offering their children the safety and protection feeling. “It is
important not to forget that, in this case, they are the passengers and we are the drivers, thus,
even though we have fears, these should make our passengers make them feel unsafe.”
UNICEF report: COVID-19 pandemic exacerbates the risks to which the vulnerable
children and their families are subject to in Romania
Bucharest, April 29, 2020. In the current context of COVID-19 pandemic, the existing
vulnerabilities of children, families and communities may lead to the exacerbation of pre-
existing risks: limited access to social services, inequalities regarding access to education,
poverty, as a report coordinated by the UNICEF representative in Romania showed.
The purpose of this first report was to evaluate the status of children and families with
an emphasis on vulnerable groups in order to allow UNICEF and other relevant parties to set

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out corresponding prevention and response measures in order to decrease the consequences of
the COVID-19 pandemic in three sectors: healthcare, education and social services.
The categories most affected by the COVID-19 prevention measures are: children of
families living in poverty; Roma children (limiting the movement decreased the income of
Roma families); children whose parents are abroad for work; children living in overcrowded
households; children with disabilities and the elderly, affected by the decrease of the activity
of family physicians within the communities but also by the reduction of social contacts.
The children of the said categories are characterized often by multiple vulnerabilities:
they live in households with many members or in single-parent families, have a risk of
poverty, they live in overcrowded households.
The authors of the report note that online education deepens the inequalities of access
to education of children coming from vulnerable families which are not always able to assure
the necessary technological equipment and internet access. The closing of schools affects
disproportionally various categories of children, those from families living in poverty or
Roma children, being more likely not to attend the online courses due to the lack of the
necessary equipment (IT devices, internet connection), the low level of digital skills of their
parents in order to support their children in taking online courses or their involvement in
household chores to the detriment of their attending the courses. The children of these
categories are more vulnerable compared to the usual conditions since they were the target of
the various measures and efforts of the teacher to prevent school dropout, which, in the
current context, cannot be applied. One solution would be the implementation of some
programs to distribute free electronic devices or to facilitate their procurement at subsidized
prices for the children coming from families with reduced income as well as providing such
equipment to the teaching staff. Other recommendations include the development of a
national plan regarding remote education comprising online teaching and the creation of
support network between parents, children and professors in order to compensate the existing
inequalities in using educational electronic means. Among the problems faced by the social
services we mention the reduction or even the suspension of the activities of day-care
facilities and limiting the mobility of workers in the field, especially considering the lack of
corresponding protection materials. The recommendations are: providing corresponding
equipment to the existing staff, especially protection materials; developing some detailed
procedures for providing social and special protection services in order to adapt to the current
emergency state.

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 VII. THE PROCESS OF ARTISTIC-PLASTIC EDUCATION

The philosophers, sociologists and estheticians believe that we live in the age of
image, saying that the television, cinematography, video and – more recently – the displays of
computers tend to surpass and then – who knows – even to replace the prints of the Gutenberg
era. Communication by images is not a novelty but it’s old as the world: the gestures, the
mimics – but also the fire lit on high grounds or the feather of a chief’s hat – sent messages
well before the writing, which was originally done by pictograms (c.f. Egyptian hieroglyphs),
drawing living beings or things. Also, in all eras, the artists worked to give shape to the
harmonies discovered with fear in the surrounding visible world.
Without visual communication, no history of facts and culture would be possible; the
memory of humans would not be kept in documents from the slab with inscriptions to the
written book and the computer.
The image seems to be comprehended more easily than the word (which is more
abstract). It is seen with the eyes and there is no need to be translated from one language to
another. After painting and sculpture, the silent movie, without words, was regarded as a
universal art. In English “I see” means actually “I understand”. However, all that can be seen
cannot be recounted precisely and the meaning of the spoken or written language cannot be
transposed entirely in images.
The “visual thinking”, as Paul Klee named it, is the oldest on the scale of human
evolution being located at the root of the brain and activates mainly in the right hemisphere
while the centers of speech and writing are located in the left hemisphere.
In children, the first communication is done by images. The retina of the child is
assaulted by shapes and colors which are registered non-rationally, globally, without depth.
When the child reaches something that leaves marks, the child discharges him/herself of
emotions and tensions scribbling on everything he/she finds – walls, asphalt, books. The
passionate involvement of the child, with his/her entire being, in his/her drawings leads to
unexpected achievements, often envied by mature people.
“Genius is no more than childhood recaptured at will”, said Charles Baudelaire.
All children draw and paint. Why later on only very few of them continue to express
themselves by images? One of the explanations could be found in the evolution of seeing –
the marvelous way through which the soul envelops the surround world. It is known that the
eye perceives the shining vibrations which are sent via the optical nerve of the central nervous
system to the brain which processes them.

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 However, the miracle of human sight is the result of a chain of much complex
processes, from the chemical reactions within the optical cells to the cerebral functions and to
the psychic interpretations involving thoughts, memories, emotions etc. The child learns to
see as he/she understands. The child integrates in the surrounding world by its visual
discovery, receiving and sending messages, acquiring education and culture. However, in the
first years of life, his/her way of total participation to what the adults often deem “doodling”
is similar with the focus of all soulful faculties of art creators.
Therefore, our contact with the surround world may take place either analytically – on
restricted segments with the help of the yellow spot – or synthetically, at global level – with
the entire retina. We assume that the oldest way of seeing of prehistoric humans was global
and the child begins his/her life by perceiving probably with his/her entire retina, receiving
many visual sensations through which he/she gradually learns to select. Intoxicated by
images, he/she reacts and responds also by images, drawing with a thumping pleasure.
However, later on, he/she learns to read and detaches him/herself from focusing on the letters.
The child mainly searches for the detail and he/she ends up recognizing mechanically the
conventional signs of the written communication. Therefore, the knowledge is restricted to the
rational way which replaces the total artistic experience and the adolescent overwhelmed by
clichés unlearns to use his/her entire retina at the same time, he/she does not receive visual
assemblies from the surrounding world anymore but more details. At the same time, the
ability to express him/herself by original, peculiar images decreases along with his/her “talent
to draw”.
Together with the child’s evolution, the brain’s selection activity also increases, i.e.
the judgment, which interposes between the world and the human being the filters of the
attention, of the memory – which recognizes the images – and of the sensitivity – which
triggers emotional states.
All the time we are flooded with an incredible multitude of visual images. If our mind
would receive all the details which the eye sees in a certain moment, its fuses will short-
circuit. In order to avoid the overload of our mental circuits, the brain responds only to the
visual information needed at that moment.
Compared to the common existence, the artistic experience occurs as the revelation of
another reality which is more profound. Starting from the experience of one of the senses,
from a convention of shapes, colors or sounds, the artistic creation infuses life into the whole
human being.

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 Scientists recorded the entry into resonance in turn of all nervous centers. Compared to
simple information, with one meaning, univocally, the artistic vibration is triggered by
surprise when we discover that the message may have several meanings, inducing
associations and emotions, awakening different personal reactions for each spectator.
In order to express an exceptional experience, the usual communication means are
used in a peculiar way: “a swan’s neck” is not normal for a woman but overlapping the two
images forms an expressive metaphor, similar to “golden hair”, “ivory hands” etc. The
metaphor or the symbol also found in literature are in fact overlaps of two or more images
which together form something new, unseen, non-recurring. Science problems are solved only
by clenching the logical thinking while the work of art requires the participation of the entire
being of the spectator. The spectator must focus his/her attention outside but also inside
his/her soul, must see – but mostly must listen – his/her own emotions, thoughts and feelings,
awakened together with the contemplation of the artwork. Therefore, the artistic image does
not have only one meaning, it does not address only to the mind but to the whole soul of the
spectator, to his/her unique personality. This is the only explanation for the different reactions
people have to the same work of art. One of these experiments of thinking is the case of Mary
of F. Jackson72 who grew up in a black and white environment as she learned about the
colored sight. When she got out of that environment, she learned something new, how it feels
to see the color red. Therefore, the argument is how it feels to see the color red when the
environment fails to offer the experience of this color. Dennett objects that probably she
would imagine what objects are red; but this theory is ruled out by two reasons. The issue is if
she knows how it feels to see the color red, not what things are red. And what she knows is in
the virtue of the physical, functional reality about the colored sight even though she is
intelligent or not to figure it out based on what she knows.
Lewis denies the fact that Mary acquires knowledge about, insisting that she acquires
only functional abilities to imagine and recognize. But the knowledge acquired by her may
seem embedded in certain contexts. For example, she may reason that if this is as it would be
red then this is similar to the case in which she would see orange. The ability of Lewis in
analyzing Mary’s knowledge has the same problem here as the non-cognitive analysis of the
ethical language has in explaining the logical behavior of the ethics of predicates.
Here we have a different objection to the experiment presented by F. Jackson: what
Mary acquired when she sees the color red is a new phenomenological concept, a disposition

72 Journal of Philosophy, 1986, 83: 291-95

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of recognition which allows her to select a certain type of phenomenal perception. This new
phenomenal concept is a component of a knowledge which is just born – the knowledge of
how it feels to see the color red. But the new phenomenal concept selects old properties,
properties selected by physical and functional concepts which she already has. Therefore, the
new knowledge is even a new way of knowing old known realities. Before leaving the room,
she knows how it feels to see the color red via a third person; after leaving the room, she
learns a new way of knowing the same reality. What she acquires does not exclude any other
possible world which was not excluded at all by the reality that she already knew and the
mental experiment is not dangerous for the physicalist doctrines. Incidentally, the disposition
of recognition shows the fact that qualia might start to be relational; maybe the disposition of
recognition selects a relational physical state of the brain or even a functional state.
Detecting the architecture of the human cognitive system remains one of the major
problems of the current and future research in cognitive psychology. Any model of cognitive
architecture of the human subject must be created so that: 1. To manifest a flexible behavior
depending on the environment’s dynamics; 2. To provide proof of an intentional, adaptive
behavior; 3. To operate in real time; 4. To operate in complex environments: to be able to
perceive a huge amount of details, to use a considerable basis of knowledge, to control a
motor system with several degrees of liberty; 5. To use symbols and abstractions; 6. To use
natural and artificial languages; 7. To learn from the environment and/or from its own
experience; 8. To be able to develop its abilities as soon as they are learned; 9. To live
autonomously but within a social community; 10. To have consciousness and self-identity.
The architecture of the cognitive system is not homogenous. The human cognitive system has
a dual architecture: neuromimetic – for peripheral processing and symbolic – for central
processing. Therefore, in carrying out a task, neuromimetic, connexionist and symbolic
mechanisms are involved. The stimuli received by the human subject via its sense organs
belong to two categories: a. undiscovered stimuli – not met by the cognitive system before; b.
known stimuli – already assimilated in the cognitive structures of the subject. After their
impact on the receptors, both categories of stimuli are kept in the sensorial memories. The
non-accidental features of the stimuli and their organization based on the gestalt principles
activate much knowledge from the long term memory of the subject. This activated
knowledge forms the working memory or the short term memory. The undiscovered stimuli
need a more labored processing, thus a more intense activation of some cognitive units of the
M. L. D.

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 The most active information and processing mechanisms form the “field of attention”.
Attention is not an autonomous “faculty” which can be manipulated at will but a result of the
stronger activation of a subset of cognitive units, however, being located in the working
memory. The “focalization” or attention switching means in fact the activation of some
contents of the working memory. This activation may be carried out either if the stimulus is
undiscovered or if, albeit known, the stimulus is relevant for the structure of purposes which
the subject has at a given time in the working memory. The activation of some units due to
their relevance or belonging for the subject’s purposes can be modeled based on the
production rules. If there are certain purposes or intentions then certain procedures and
declarative knowledge are activated. The knowledge and processes that may be activated by
production rules form the explicit memory. Probably the implicit memory gets activated
according to the rules specific to connexionist networks. The organization of knowledge is not
a strictly internal process but is carried out at the interface between the internal and external
environment of the subject. Categorization, processing of visual images, problem solving,
decision and reasoning are all carried out either in the field of attention or in the working
memory. The knowledge belonging to the working memory influences the processes of the
attention field.
The behaviors or actions done by the subject are either automatic or controlled. The
automatic ones are determined by the knowledge of the working memory and the controlled
ones result from the processing of knowledge and of the structure of purposes from the most
activated part of the working memory, i.e. the attention.
This possible model of cognitive architecture allows a flexible behavior depending on
the dynamics of the environment, allows cognitive functioning in real time, based on a
cognitive system that may operate in complex environments, allows operations with symbols
and symbolic structures, also postulates the sub-symbolic and neuromimetic mechanisms.
One of the disadvantages of the proposed architecture is the fact that it does not sole the issue
of the relationships between the symbolic structures and processes on one hand and the
neuromimetric networks and processes – on the other hand. The proposed architecture allows
the reception and the production of the natural language or of the artificial languages, allows
the human cognitive system to learn from the environment or from its own experience.
The architecture makes possible the cognitive development. This development
involves firstly: the augmentation of the knowledge basis, the development of the size of the
working memory, the modification of the production rules, the optimization of the access
from M.L.D. A decrease of the proposed model consists in the fact that it does not explain the

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way in which cognitive development is influenced by the meta-cognitive development. Meta-
cognition comprises the knowledge which the subject has about the operation of its own
cognitive system and which may optimize its operation. The proposed architecture allows the
human subject to have a social life, maintaining its internal autonomy. It allows the
emergence of consciousness and the construction of own identity by the activation and
processing of knowledge about the internal life of the subject.
The process of artistic-plastic education of students had an evolutional route
depending on the mentalities of various historical periods. There was a time (which
unfortunately persists) in which the emphasis was on the education of the mimetic ability in
rendering the reality which was considered to be a basic feature of the artistic talent. In this
case, there is a confusion of values between the reproductive image and the productive
artistic-plastic image of the shapes as creativity is neglected. Clichés and diagrams were used,
networks were developed and thus came the routine, quelling creativity. The students who had
no talent, skills, abilities got demotivated and lost the pleasure of drawing lessons.
The process of artistic-plastic education of students within the discipline of artistic-
plastic education has the general objective to instill in the students some essential aspects of
the artistic knowledge, an important part of human knowledge, on one hand, and the
development of creativity, of those mental processes which lead the human being to
innovations, on the other hand. This educational process has as main objectives:
a) The development in students of the artistic-plastic thinking, a quality specific to
creative thinking;
b) The development of sensitivity, of their artistic taste and common knowledge.
The actions of achieving such objectives are directed on three main ways, namely:
a) Making the students acquainted with the grammar of plastic language elements;
b) Their initiation in the issues related to the creation act;
c) Contact with the beauties of the surrounding environment (nature, constructions, art
works, traditional creations etc.)

VII.1 Psychological premises on which the artistic-plastic education is based on

The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget proved that drawing is a form of the semiotic
function which occurs in children when they are 2 years of age as it is a fundamental
function for his/her psychic education. Drawing as graphical language is a way for the child
to “take over” the external world to which he/she has to adapt and, at the same time, it

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represents a way to harmonize the external world with the child’s internal world. From this
point of view, the infantile drawing resembles the symbolic play which occurs in about the
same period of graphical expression and has as essential function the assimilation of the real
with the child’s “self”. This has to be carried out without restraints or interdictions from
outside. However, unlike the play, which frees the child from the external reality, the drawing
is also a form of balance between his/her internal world and the stresses of the external world.
The artistic-plastic education for the child offers the possibility to also express, in his/her
experience, what cannot be formulated and assimilated by the means of the spoken language.
In this way, the child gives shape to his/her experiences and crystalizes his/her ideas
on the world in which he/she lives and only after 8-10 years of age the child is preoccupied in
rendering the graphical image of what he/she sees and not of what he/she knows about the
object (shape). The evolution of the drawing’s realism in children passes through the
following phases:
a) The phase of fortuitous realism or the phase of doodling
The drawing of the child of 2 years ½ - 3 years old has an involuntary character stimulated
only by the trace left by the pencil or by the brush on all the surfaces the child encounters:
walls, fences etc. in order to create lines which yet have no significance that is set beforehand.
The child is not conscious that the movements of his/her hands are connected with the traces
left by the pencil (brush). By the uncontrolled movements of the hand, the child releases an
undirected energy which develops his/her ability to leave traces. A step forward is marked by
the moment in which the child discovers that there is a connection between movements of
his/her fingers and the traces left by the pencil. Now the child tries to name the doodle by also
manifesting the intention to control it.
b) The phase of failed realism or the phase of synthetic inability
It is the stage in which the child of 3-4 years of age controls the doodles, carrying out an
imaginative activity of play’s type. The child makes a connection between the determined
shapes of the doodles with the shapes of certain objects beginning to think in images.
Therefore, the child identifies the doodles with the real world. In this stage, the child needs a
lot of encouragement from the teacher and parents. They must stimulate the child by gradually
bring him/her closer to certain working techniques.
c) The phase of intellectual realism or the phase of ideoplastic drawing
It occurs at 4-6 years of age and lasts in some children until 9-10 years of age. It is a
fluctuating stage with regressions and quick developments being considered as the best stage

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for the development of the ability to draw. It is stage in which the schematic drawings of the
child have two features:
1) Frequent repetition of drawings/symbol
2) Arrangement of figures along the line located at the basis of the page.
d) The phase of visual realism or the phase of physio-plastic drawing
The stage when the child of 9-10 years old is preoccupied in rendering graphical images and
the visible aspects of the objects. The main feature of this period is the fact that, in drawing,
the child is subject more or less skillfully to visual perspective or to the active relationships
between the images. The expression and transposition of plastic image of what the child sees
and knows is not carried out with the same spontaneity and easiness. The psychologist G. H.
Luquet says that the child from now on (regarding drawing) reaches the adult period and that
afterwards only the technical ability, developed by training and special culture, sets out from
the point of view of the drawing the differences between the individuals. However, many
adults will remain incapable of making a drawing visibly different from the drawing of a child
of 10 or 12 years old.

VII.2 The imagination of the child

Imagination is a revealing force which stimulates the unit of the child’s thinking
combining action with intelligence and these two with his/her artistic-plastic experience. It is
more or less rich as the professor tries more or less to motivate the imagination of the
children.
Creativity is a dimension of human personality which reflects the ability of the human
being to receive, incorporate, combine and transform what knows in new spiritual and
material forms. This ability with the help of which the human being develops models,
problems, solutions is the result of a thorough preparation and of some supported pursuits in
the respective field.73
Functions of creativity: fluidity, flexibility, ingenuity, resourcefulness, critical
thinking etc. Constraining the students for imitating some ready-made sketches, the
conformism represents an obstacle, a blockage for their creative activities. Another factor
which leads to the blockage of creativity is the fear of failure, weakening the confidence in
their own force in order to try approaching new working techniques (new materials etc.).
Undervaluation as well as the overvaluation of their works determines the occurrence of

73Maria Ilioaia, Metodica predării desenului, Editura Didactica si Pedagogica, 1981, p.121

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indifference, sufficiency or tension which destroys their curiosity to try “something else”, to
make new efforts. The overvaluation of the results of the artistic-plastic activities of the
students (exaggerated praise, undeserved high grades etc.) inhibits them and removes the
nervous relaxation needed for the process of creation.

VII.3 The dual function of expression

The research in the psycho-pedagogy field showed that what makes the child to
observe, assume, induce, deduce and interpret of the things around him/her is his/her own
ability of expression. This ability confers his/her expression a dual function and namely:
a) The ability of self-expression;
b) The ability to understand the expressions of others and the expression of the
forms of the surrounding world.
Creativity consists in a structure of the psyche which makes possible the creation of
productions, works. However, the creative act is a process of elaboration via invention or
discovery with the help of the creative imagination of some ideas, theories or new, original
products of high social value and with applicability in various fields of activity. The term
creativity originates from the Latin creare = to give birth, to conceive, to forge. In
psychology, the term was introduced by G. Allport designating the unique and original ability
of personality following the understanding of the fact that “the psychic substratum of creation
is irreducible to skills” (Popescu Neveanu). Creativity is the transformative-productive side of
the personality. Creativity represents the assembly of subjective and objective factors which
lead to the creation by an individual or by groups of an original product of value for the
society. The levels and stages of creativity. According to C. W. Taylor, five levels of
creativity can be differentiated: a) the creativity of expression, belonging to mimics, gestures
and speech and which is capitalized mostly in theater and show business; b) process
creativity, belonging to the original notes in the development of psychic processes, in the way
in which the subject perceives the world, in his/her thinking and feeling way and through
which a personality is characterized as being more or less distinct; c) product creativity which
is objective and which remains, exceeding the existence of the subject; d) the innovating
creativity which means the ingenious recombination of known elements so that to create a
new structure of an object or technological process; e) the inventive creativity, belonging to
the compatibility of parts, the generation of new models and the artificial fulfillment of some

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functions; f) the emergent creativity consisting of the discovery and commissioning of a new
whole field of knowledge, technique, art or social existence.
In preschool, the only level that can be achieved is the one of expressive creativity.
This type of creativity is characterized by a free and spontaneous self-expression without the
concern that the product of its activity has a certain degree of usefulness or value. At this age,
the creation, even though it has no value for “mankind”, is extremely important for the human
“making”. In order to capitalize the creative potential of children, the teacher must use the
active, associative methods which emphasize the freedom of associations in which the
children become participants in finding the answers as they may have initiative, ask questions,
discuss and propose solutions. This can be achieved almost in each type of activity provided
that the teacher must not put barriers between him/her and the child and must not eliminate
the sometimes phantasmal answers of the child only because the teacher is thinking to a
certain answer and insists in this regarding to obtain it as others are deemed as wrong
answers.74 It’s good to know that, at this age, the child does firstly “his/her apprenticeship” in
learning to work with instruments and only afterwards asserts him/herself via the result of
his/her work. The child is capable of producing something new and original only in relation
with him/herself and his/her creation is marked by a great discrepancy between desires and
possibilities. As an intellective factor of creativity, in preschool, the imagination experiences a
real “explosion” as it is now at its apex also because thinking is at a development level which
still has to cross important stages. Therefore, in a certain way, imagination fills out the
weaknesses of thinking and even though it’s at the apex of its manifestation, it’s still not at the
apex of its quality. Through play the child learns, acquires experience, combines and
recombines his/her own representations available at a given time, experiments new things,
fables, forms working habits, colors, paints, borrows by imitation etc., in a nutshell, the child
creates without imitating entirely and, sometimes, even imitating very little. Through play, the
children may achieve truth discovery, may engage their ability to act creatively since the
strategies of the play are basically heuristic strategies in which cleverness, spontaneity,
inventiveness, initiative, boldness are manifested. Creativity is a fundamental objective of our
whole education, of the entire education process from kindergarten and outside it. Art is by
excellence creation. The artist reflects not only the reality but also recreates it or according to
a critic “creates a new reality”. Creative imagination, divergent thinking, deep sensitivity
contribute to the creation of the art work. The plastic education activities are beloved by

74 Florica Dumitrescu, Educatie plastica și metodică, Sinteze de curs, 2018-2019

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children. They are attracted by color, by the variety of the technical instruments, they prove
their spontaneity and let their imagination run free. It allows the measurement of the level of
creative performance by some variables.

VII.4 Characteristics and mechanisms of action of the visual-plastic art-therapy

In Europe, since the middle of the 19th century, physicians realized that by plastic
creation an improvement of the mental state of many patients can be achieved. Painting,
household chores or gardening were meant to eliminate boredom and to take the patients out
of isolation. Various activities of today’s art-therapy.
At the beginning of the 20th century, various authors showed interest for the paintings
and drawings of mental patients. The interest attracted by the psycho-pathological art allowed
the organization of international exhibits with the artistic works of the mental patients. The
scientific approach of these ways of pathoplastic expression determined the emergence of
institutions, studies, periodicals and international reunions concerning this topic.
Art may heal various pathological states. This idea is very old and was applied since
Antiquity. “Major figures of those times like Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, Pythagoras
recommended for therapeutic purposes the contemplation of art works.”75
When looking at an art work you feel obliged to focus on it, you forget about the
problems bothering you. In China and Japan the virtues of art were used to treat precarious
psychological states. This therapy stimulated the process of getting healthier. “For healing
physical and mainly psychic states, the patients were recommended to pain or draw in nature.
It was also a therapy through color.”76
In recent times, medical research strengthened the conclusion that the therapeutic
virtues of the art are related to the type and topic of the works, to the intellectual training and
to the patient’s sickness. In case of chronic melancholies and severe depressions, the use of
therapy through colors started to be broadly applied in the US, Japan, China, ex-USSR,
France etc. Research showed that not any work of art had a positive impact on health. Some
works by their chromatics and topic have an unsettling effect and, therefore, must be avoided
in the therapy of patients.
In Leningrad, the therapy through art was used to treat diseases of internal organs:
hepatic, gastric and pancreatic diseases as the sick were put in front of some works creating a
very favorable psychic state and thus increasing the efficiency of some drugs. The therapeutic

75 J. Rodriguez and G. Troll, L’art therapie. Pratiques, techniques et concepts, Ellebore, Paris, 2001, p. 265
76 Forestier R., Tout savoir sur l’art therapie, Favre, Laussane, 2000, p. 73

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sessions of looking at some famous art works made by brilliant painters and sculptors such as:
Delacroix, Goya, Rodin, Braque were short but these were repeated for 5-10 times a day by
projection on color devices or by visits to museums. The results of this experiment were
sensational. The changing of the psychic state of the patient, the elimination of stress and the
beneficial effect of colors, all of these improved the healing of some organic and functional
diseases in a faster way compared to the usual therapies. We have to underline that when this
is abused and the brain gets tired by many viewings, hearing and sight disturbances may occur
as well as hallucinations, angst or disorders of the heart rhythm. Some patients may
experience the “Stendhal syndrome” discovered by the famous author. This syndrome occurs
many times in tourists who, in a very short time, look at the famous art collections of
museums sitting for hours and hours and getting tired, experiencing stress states, physical and
psychic fatigue. It begins with anxiety, a state of relentless panic and then a form of
uncontrollable euphoria can be triggered.
“The art-therapy has a broad applicability as it is used mainly for the rehabilitation,
stimulation and development of children and adults with physical and mental disabilities but
also for personal development and in education, respectively in prevention.”77
The working models practiced in Romania starting from the 90s, together with the
information transfer especially in practice, made by various charity NGOs, are homologated
and come from the UK, France and Germany, countries with a tradition in the research /
development of art-therapy and related techniques.
Visual arts, music, literature, physical exercises, dancing, theater and puppet shows are
the main components of these techniques.
In Romania, the specialists and the NGOs they represented opted for a plan with long-
term effects, with an incidence at national level with the aim of helping as many beneficiaries
as possible.
After 1990, the Romanian movement of art-therapy grew and development of several
levels of professionalization.
Gradually, a critical mass of professionals was created who work in various
rehabilitation centers and local NGOs from all over the country and who have the same source
of initial training. Positive results soon followed as well as the desire of the coordinators and
the authorities to extend this successful model.

77 Preda, Vasile, Terapii prin mediere artistică, Editura Presa universitară clujeană, Cluj-Napoca 2003, p.122

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 The initiative to professionalize the profession of art-therapist by organizing master
studies represents a normal step in developing the field of art-therapy in Romania and
represents the legitimate desire of many groups directly involved in the daily activities with
the beneficiaries of the social system of protection or care in Romania. Many of the persons
already working with techniques specific to art-therapy have a university education in the
artistic and/or psychic-social fields. The official recognition of the profession of art-therapist,
after graduating master studies, offers knowledge and develops new skills and professional
abilities and helps the students to be competitive in a continuous growing market.
By using the expression means specific to art in the activity of professional in the field
of human psycho-somatic-social development, it was found out that one of the basic needs of
people is to express what they feel.
Art, like any other technique used for artistic expression, cannot be separated from
emotions. When we refer to the emotional level of humans, we must consider therapy. “At the
emotional level of the artistic creator, we find the same ingredients necessary for
psychotherapy. Each individual has his/her own perceptions and emotions, with his his/her
cultural influences. The sensations originate within the setting of our social-cultural condition.
As they are present in a relational framework, these become the result of projections.”78 At
this moment, the therapy through art becomes essential since it allows the experience of some
positive and valorizing emotions and leads to the balance of the normal cycle of contraction –
expansion which is characteristic to the human being.
Art-therapy, through the access to the nature of self-transformations and the
relationship between humans, by its positive values which are the basis of understanding,
exploration and assistance to the human being is a way of regaining and maintaining the
somatic-psycho-social health as well as a way to prevent alienation.
Art-therapy offers to the beneficiary that safety that is much needed and that freedom
of manifestation and expression of desires, opinions, own attitudes and satisfies the human
needs of belonging and identification with a group.
The neuropsychology of drawings defines it as a complex process of personality
expression with a cortical representation and with the same value as spoken language (oral
and written) in relation with the symbolic gnostic-praxeological cortical functions. The
psychological foundation for explaining the neuropsychological nature of drawings refers to:

78 Fabini, Dana, Creativitate artistică. Relaţii între artele vizuale şi terapia prin artă, Presa Universitară
Clujeană, Cluj-Napoca, 2006, pp. 54-55

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 – The drawing as an instrumental symbolic function of the brain with the same value
as the spoken language
– The drawing as a representation at the level of certain cortical areas
– Any lesion generated at the level of the cortical areas of the drawing will determine
a disturbance specific to drawings
– As a neuropsychic function, the drawing may be considered as a form of psycho-
diagnostic analysis.
In the category of the most frequent disorders that are plastically expressed with a
diagnostic value, we mention79:
1. Disturbances related to shape that represent modifications of the shape without
essentially changing the natural shape

2. Disturbances related to the execution of the shape determining a rigid, poor, messy
and undetermined appearance

3. Disturbances related to the construction of the shape consisting of:

- Emphasis on a non-essential element
- Shape stereotypy
- Omission of some essential elements
- The color does not support the shape.

4. Disturbances of body schematics referring to:

- Body transparency
- Pronounced asymmetries, disproportionalities between the various sections of the body
- Omissions or additions of section
- The body rendered “from the front and the head and legs “from the side”
- Asymmetric, deformed head that not connected to the neck and with an open outline
(upwards)
- Limbs with an appendicular and asymmetric appearance, over- or undersized limbs,
uni- or bilateral absence
- “New formation” = two heads, three hands, more fingers.

79 Popescu Al., Terapia ocupaţională şi ergoterapia, Edit. Medicală, Bucureşti, 1986, p.67

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5. Disturbances of the symbolic meaning of the shape – they occur when the student’s
imagination is put to work and he/she is not able to create or use the “symbol shape” and
refers to:
- The color covering in an illogical way all the elements (e.g. the head has the color of
the clothes)
- Special drawing techniques (shades, color spots) that have no meaning and
significance.

6. Disturbances of compositions. The composition is the most complex activity of

drawing concurring with many factors, with logical compositional principles; these factors
confer rhythm, balance, measure, proportions, emotional and communication force to the
plastic composition. Its disturbances refer to:
- The absence of relations between shapes, details, space
- An “in plane” close composition that is rendered frontally in two dimensions with a
static appearance
- Frequent repetition of “schematic” shape
- The affective perspective dominates the visual perspective by reversing the real ratios
between the elements
- Failure to give attention to the “environment” characteristic to the topic
- The color has not constructive or impressive role but expresses only the internal
feelings of the child
- Narrow perceptive plane offering poor, lacunar, unreal and dismembered images

7. Disturbances of color. The entire harmony of a plastic work is supported by the

dominant chromatic tonality, on a balance that is subjectively directed. The disturbances
refer to:
- Failure to observe visual realism
- Absence of a refined chromatic harmony, tones or nuances
- Illogical use of colors (red snow, green hair)
- The spatial effect of colors is not used and the drawing is flat in two dimensions with a
messy appearance.

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 8. Disturbances of the plastic space (relating the composition structure with its shape as a
whole). The disturbances refer to80:
- Open, empty, poor, simplistic, static, raw and gloomy space
- Descriptive, serial, decorative
- Unbalanced space by under- or oversizing the shapes.

The drawing is a complex mechanism driving many sides of the psychology of the
individual with a strictly individual specific character in relation with the particularities of the
respective subject, with his/her ability of expression, with his/her skills and cultural level,
with his/her affectivity and the entire dynamics of his/her personality.
The interpretation of drawings highlights several points of view oriented towards two
directions: the esthetic and the psychological one as these are legitimate together since the
drawing before being “a work” is “a language”, a symbolic neuropsychological information
system.
The psychological direction that is our focus is the one depending on the structure and
the dynamics of personality. The drawing acts as a vehicle for the intra-psychic content of the
individual, reflecting his/her general personality.
The drawing, in the case of persons with psychic disorders, appears as and “accessible
language operating as a specific system”81 of concrete physical signs through which it
develops a “circulating-communicable” form within interpersonal communication, behaving
as the value of a message expressing outwards the global intra-psychic content of the
personality of the deficient.
Therefore, the drawing as language and message is the carrier of information which
the subject sends, with a certain meaning and in a specific physical form that is particular to
this type of language (graphical-plastic sign).
In other words, the drawing, as a plastic message, has an accurate semantic system, an
information code that, within interpersonal communication, will be subject to the general laws
of semantics.

80 Williams G.H., Wood M., Developmental Art Therapy, Baltimore University Park Press, 1977, p.90

81 Kramer E., Childhood and art therapy, Schooken Books, 1978, USA, p.145

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 Plastic expression, the drawing, within the setting of investigations on the deficient
exceeds the points through which they are seen as practical abilities to copy reality and their
features refer to82:
- Expressive value – given by the graphic gesture translating some aspects related to
temperament and the nature of the tonic-emotional reactions of the subject
- Projective value – refers to the ability of the drawing to give a faithful image of the
personality of the subject (= intra-psychic content)
- Narrative value – it is the value that sensitizes and draws attention as it is influenced by
the search of what is of interest for the subject, by the selection of the drawing’s topics,
all of these in relation with personal experience, memories, personal imagination
- Associative value – through which the drawing is the result of a cluster of meanings
and, in this way, the content of the drawing (topic, style) is closer to a dream as a type of
psychological elaboration.
Since the period of symbolic play, the child exercises his/her symbolization functions,
modeling, drawing, all being ways of a bipolar communication act – with his/her own being
and with those outside.
“The symbolic play is always a mixture of action and dream, it achieves the dream by
action, and it idealizes the action through dream. The play has a progression on things and
evades things. It takes over the world and creates another world. That’s the reason why some
tried to explain art through play.”83
On one hand, it is said that the artistic impulse has its roots in the subconscious
activity of the child who plays in his/her captivating struggle to form him/herself, in his/her
simultaneous and contradictory desire to impose on the attention of people and to isolate
him/herself in order to taste the whole seduction of the play. James Sully, Popa M. (1997). On
the other hand, it is said that the primitive art, mostly through the representation of fights and
hunting scenes, seems to prove that art is only a continuation of the activity of play.
However, it is proved that art does not come from play but rather from all human
activities. “Art is one of the ways in which the entire activity of humans is used and
consumed”84. Dancing is not a simple game, a simple expression of movement from an excess
of used energy, it mixes up with the useful and mystic aims of collective life and involves

82 Enăchescu C., Igiena mintală şi recuperarea bolnavilor psihici, Edit. Medicală, Bucureşti, 1979, p.78
83Enăchescu C., Expresia plastică a personalităţii, Edit. Ştiinţifică, Bucureşti, 1995,p.76
84 Delacroix H., Psihologia artelor, Edit. MERIDIANE, Bucureşti, 1983, p.156

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moods that are extremely profound and complex, without giving up to all that the art itself
adds to these primitive forms, without giving up to the purely esthetic forms of the self.
From a psychological point of view, there are many similarities as well as differences
between play and art – the play is liberation – same as the art, it unshackles, liberates someone
from reality. Same as art, it is the creation of some profound tendencies. Its message is
freedom through action and through dream. However, in arts, we are not talking about a play
of images and feelings, we are talking about a selection of images and feelings which are
expressive and beautiful and are able to order themselves in harmonious symbols.
Art builds a world imposing on the spirits by order and its laws. Art does not mean
that monotonous and fugitive creation which loses itself in ephemeral emanations and which
remains transcendental and insensitive to the structure and external appearance of its
accomplishments. The play contributes to the preparation of art but the play becomes art only
for the being that is on the highest edge of spirituality. The play becomes art when the one
who is playing is an artist. Kramer, E. (1978) Edith Kramer in her work – Childhood and art
therapy (1978) considers “some types of play as a preparation for the arts.” In this regard she
shows that –“small children need to play with soft and unstructured materials such as water,
sand, clay, stones, glue.”85
Based on the understanding of the child’s psychology, Freud’s theory, E. Kramer
underpins the idea of art as a purpose. Art-therapy has the force to sustain the Ego, to amplify
the development of the meaning to facilitate the psychic organization of the individual so that
he/she to be able to function in stress conditions without damage. In this way, art-therapy
becomes both a component of a therapeutic environment (together with other types of
therapies) and a form of complementary therapy or supporting psychotherapy without
replacing it.
The features of the pathoplastic art:
• In oligophrenia:
• It has an infantile, simple, naïve, schematic appearance; it renders the non-essential
life aspects, construction defects of images.
• In neuroses:
• Creation has an unequal, disharmonic appearance with inconsistencies, comebacks or
abandonment, bizarre topics as choosing and way of treatment.
• In schizophrenia:

85 Kramer E., Childhood and art therapy, Schooken Books, USA, 1978, p.234

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 • It has a bizarre, unusual appearance, rigid construction, tendency to stylization-
geometrization, of filling up the space, cold chromatics, presence of symbols.
• In manic-depressive psychosis:
• The character is given by the periodical alternation of the two maniacal or melancholic
phases.
• The maniacal artistic creation: it is characterized by joyful, expansive, cheerful topics,
predominance of warm tones.
• The melancholic artistic creation: in this phase, the interest for drawing/painting is
reduced; the topics are grim, sad, monothematic, poor, cold chromatics,
monochromatic, poor, clumsy composition.
• In epilepsy:
• The paroxysmal and inter-paroxysmal creation, the latter was studied more; we can
see a tendency towards rendering the details by points, lines repeated at very short
intervals.

Edith Kramer (1978) distinguishes five ways in which the materials specific to arts can
be used. The first four are not considered art and are explained as being preliminary stages,
dysfunction symptoms which reflect a psychological disorder or a limited communication.
The first category consists of – preliminary activities, activities of exploring the
physical properties of materials which are not involved in the creation of symbolic
configurations but are considered positive.
The second category is described as being chaotic activities – such as smudging,
splashing, doodling – destructive components determined the losing control.
The third category – stereotypes – denoted as actions for defense. These can take the
form of copying, plotting or stereotypic repetitions. Two types comprise this category:
a. Conventional stereotypes;

b. Rigid or bizarre stereotypes that have a personal meaning,

highlighting false fillings.

The fourth category and the most controversial is pictography which represents a
pictorial communication replacing or supplementing words.
The fifth category, the one of – formal expression – defines the creation of symbolic
configurations successfully serving both to the expression itself and to communication. For E.
Kramer, only this way of using materials represents art in the deep meaning of the word since

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it derives from evoked feelings and serves as an analogue for a varied form of human
experiences.
The categories highlighted by Kramer not rigidly separated so that a child can pass
through preliminary activities of play to formal expression, he/she can regress to chaotic
creations, he/she can abandon a depressive activity and can come back to a creative, final
activity.
The aim of the art-therapist is to help people, children or adults, to create works that
are at the same time expressive and formal as there are periods when creative activity goes
beyond the daily reality and when these ways to exist, to function are more useful for the
individual.
Therapy through art is related to the concept of sublimation, to the pleasure
experienced by the subject by sublimation. “In art, sublimation is obtained when the artist
replaces his/her impulse to exteriorize fantasies with the act of creating equivalent elements
for his/her fantasies by visual images. These creations become art only when the artist
manages to make them intelligible to others in order to communicate.”86
The role of the art-therapist is to distinguish and answer to the obvious as well as
hidden aspects of the child’s creations and to help him/her in creating emotionally expressive
materials.
In art, the image is a substitute, a way to exteriorize life experiences, erotic impulses,
sexual fantasies in many cases.
According to Freud, the effects of art-therapy are:
1. Restating the ego;
2. Person identification;
3. Deconfliction;
4. Learning cultural symbols;
5. Affective rebalancing;
6. Affective-emotional differentiation;
7. Compensation of some altered components;
8. Self-valorization by socialization.

86Fabini, Dana, Creativitate artistică. Relaţii între artele vizuale şi terapia prin artă, Presa Universitară
Clujeană, Cluj-Napoca, 2006, p. 54

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 The objectives of art-therapy are achieved by87: Popa M. (1997)
1. Perception of cultural symbols and facts;
2. Affective-cognitive reception of symbols;
3. Imitation and execution of symbols;
4. Their transformation in own activities;
5. Development of some forms of interest, award, motivation;
6. Selection of knowledge values and activities;
7. Providing a feeling of comfort by these activities.

Nowadays, there are a series of studies and research related to the expression forms of
the normal child. They are also used as a way of interpreting pathological or morbid
personalities in deficient children or subjects with psychic disorders.

The acting mechanisms of drawing in psychotherapy and rehabilitation of personality

• 1. The free plastic expression representing the morbid intra-psychic content of the
general personality and through which the patient can be directly contacted;

• 2. The symbolic content of the plastic language which is the key to the interpretation
of the morbid transformation of the subject’s personality;

• 3. The activity of plastic creation liberates the intra-psychic tension of the person and
the most important are sublimation and catharsis;

• 4. Creation can lead to a dialogue with its author, leading to the awareness of some
conflicting feelings;

• 5. The art develops positive reactions and removes morbid isolation

• 6. Helps in the discovery of (new) strategies and solutions to cope with traumatic
symptoms and experiences, of prevention and reduction of stress;

Conclusions

Drawing, as complex form of expression, is capable not only to represent the formal
structure and the content of the personality, but also implicitly to use it in a psycho-diagnostic

87 Popa M., - Note de curs de Ergoterapie şi Artteapie – Dactilo, Universitatea Bucureşti, 1997, p.123

122
investigation. Drawing is used for the psycho-diagnostic investigation of the patient’s
personality, based on its expressive and projective function of exteriorizing the intra-psychic
content, based on its communication and ability to represent aspects which the subject does
not know, cannot or even does not want to verbalize.

VII.5 Developing creativity of children by drawing activities

Conceptual delimitations
Creativity represents an extraordinary modern face but not enough known and
harnessed. H. Jaoui, defining creativity as “an ability to carry out original and efficient
assemblies starting from pre-existing elements”, considers that anyone can be creative”88
(1990).
The term of creativity is used in relation with three aspects. Creativity is evidenced
firstly in relation with the action, the creation process, a phenomenon of extreme personality
through which it is created either an artwork or a technical innovation, a mechanism, a device.
The result of the creating process is explained by the creativity of a person by a complex
ability of the human being, a characteristic structure of the psyche enabling the creating work.
Finally, creativity is also objectively estimated by the activity product – more or less
remarkable, new, original.
However, it would be wrong if we would identify superior intelligence with creativity
as it is defined by the originality and value of the created products. In other words, “superior
intelligence does not mean by all means creativity”89 (Lɑndɑu), since not all intelligent people
are also creative.
„Although the research in the field of creativity was intensified only in 1950 with
studies since 1926, G. Wɑllɑcе set out the phases of the creation process: training, incubation,
illumination (inspiration) and verification. In 1971, А. Mоlеѕ and R. Clɑudе distinguished
five stages: informing and documentation, incubation, illumination, verification and
formulation.”90
Psychic-educational bases of developing creative abilities
Creativity, in the broadest sense, represents that complex ability of the human being, that
characteristic structure of the psyche that makes possible the creating work.

88 Jaoui, H., La creativité, ESF, Paris, 1998, p.90

89 Popescu, Gabriela, Psychology of Creativity, Fundaţia România de Mâine Print House, Bucharest, 2007, p.59
90 Munteanu, A., Incursions in Creatology, August Print House, Timişoara, 1994, p.110

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 L. Taylor talks about the five levels of creativity among which, at the pre-school age, the
only level that can be achieved is the one of expressive creativity. This type of creativity is
characterized by a free and spontaneous expression of the person without being concerned for
the product of its activity to have a certain degree of utility or value (e.g. drawing, collage,
modeling activities etc).
The pre-school years are more and more appreciated as a period that contains the most
important education experience from the life of a person; during it we record the most pregnant
rhythms regarding the development of human individuality and some of the most significant
gains with obvious echoes for the later stages of its development.”91
At this age, creation, even if has no value of the “humankind”, is extremely important
for the “human becoming” of the child. The adult man cannot reach to higher forms of
expressing creativity if, in the early stages of its evolution, he/she did not develop the creative
potential, was not encouraged to have independent and original manifestations in answers and
solutions to the issues occurred in childhood and adolescence.
The psychological profile of the pre-school age includes many favoring conditions for
the cultivation and stimulation of the creative potential. Considering the dynamism,
impetuosity and expressivity specific to that age, this permanent excitement or that vibration
and inner effervescence confers to the children specific notes of creative dynamism, chances
of spontaneous exteriorization and vivid auto-expression, analogue to any creating upsurge.
The receptivity and curiosity of the child, the richness of the imagination, his/her
spontaneous tendency towards novelty, the passion for fable, his/her desire to create
something constructive, the psycho-social climate or atmosphere in which the activity of the
child is carried out can be “fueled” and adequately harnessed by requests and corresponding
training that thus may be able to offer multiple positive elements in stimulating and
cultivating the creative potential specific to the pre-school age. At the pre-school age, the
child has the tendency to express in his/her works based on personal experience. Thus it is a
good practice to give to the child the freedom of ideas, to find means and forms of presenting
own impressions about the world in which to reflect the felt emotions and feelings.
The artistic-plastic activities are a way of activating and expressing the child’s life.
“The motivation of the child for artistic-plastic activities represents the need of expression of
own experiences, the need to render the image in an artistic way or the pleasure to narrate in
images. The plastic representations of the child gradually evolve towards a more realistic

91 E., Răfăilă, Education of creativity at the pre-school age. Bucharest: Aramis Print House, 2001, p.91

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rendering, sometimes the creating imagination intervenes and pass towards fabulous, towards
the unreal.”92
The children of pre-school age create with carefulness and competence, under the close
guidance of the teacher, original, peculiar but mainly interesting works by the multitude of used
materials and working techniques.
The various types of practical and plastic activities are very beloved and attracting for the
children. Through them, pre-school children come into contact with some simple forms of
physical and intellectual work allowing both the development of the physical abilities of the
children as well as the intellectual ones. By carrying out practical and plastic activities we can
educate and development many psychic processes (perception, representations, observation,
attention, memory, thinking, imagination) and some qualities related to personality are laid:
initiative, confidence in own abilities, desire to work in a group, creativity.
For the pre-school age, there are numerous and varies plastic and practical activities,
taking into account the particularities of development specific to each level of age as well as the
grading of difficulties of the tasks leading to the concretization of the proposed topics.
At the pre-school age, the techniques that may be used in artistic-plastic activities as well
as in practical activities are as follows:
• technique of the thread;
• technique of stamping;
• technique of wet colors;
• technique of the ink spot;
• technique of the air jet;
• technique of finger painting ;
• technique of the drawing with candle;
• drawing with chalk, correction fluid, tempera, watercolor;
• technique of the modeling;
• technique of the collage etc.
Strengthening and broadening of elementary knowledge regarding the plastic
language, obtaining the plastic image through dots, lines, spots, observing some requirements
of: rendering the general shape of each component part, in details, placing the elements in
space, rendering of some spatial relationships by higher or lower placing on the plane surface

92 Boden, A., 1995. The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanism. New York: Basic Books, p.343

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as well as covering of more distant objects by the nearer ones; creation of visual balance,
harmonious joining of shapes and colors, initiations in notions of compositions, sketch.
„The orientation of the practical activity process of the children towards the
representation of own feelings, attitudes, finding own means of representation, improving the
graphical skills related to execution that the child has by hachuring in various directions,
tracing as perfect as possible straight, inclined, parallel, wavy, rounded lines; getting thin,
thick, light, pronounced lines in order to enhance the artistic effect, removing of useless lines,
tinting and highlighting shapes.”93 The skills of handling and selection of necessary materials
and tools (simple and colored crayons, markers, pastel crayons, nib, pen, burnt sticks, chalk,
brick etc.).
„It is important to develop in children the desire to carry out something new but this
may be done based on diversity. The familiarization of children with some new working
techniques enhances their curiosity and determines the artistic-plastic activities to be attractive
and creative.”94
Regarding evaluation, the artistic-plastic and practical activities involve a complex
analysis since they are referring both to the product of the children’s work and to the
knowledge regarding its materials and characteristics as well as to the use of working
techniques specific to age for its processing and creating some simple products but also to an
analysis of the children’s behavior and attitude towards their own creations.
The advantages of carrying out plastic activities in pre-school children:
- Developing of esthetic sensitivity, contribution in forming the artistic taste via the means of
painting expression (colors, light and brightness, spot, line, dot).
- Training of presentation skills (by the plastic language) of own ideas, feelings, experiences,
moods via colors, shapes, their proportions etc.
- Familiarization with the constructive and spatial role of the line, dot, spot, skills of line
modeling (uniform, of various thicknesses, straight, vertical, horizontal, inclined, parallel,
intersected, curve, wavy, rounded etc).
- Development of the ability to combine colors and to apply them in own creations,
highlighting both the specificity of those represented as well as the emotional state (joy,
tranquility, anxiety etc), harmonious and balanced distribution of cold and warm colors.
- Familiarization of children with the working materials and tools (brushes, watercolor
painting, gouache, some natural colorants, palettes etc) working way with these.

93 Fustier, M., Fustier, Bernardette, 1988. Pratique de la Créativité. Paris: ESF, ed. A II.a, p.178
94 Roco, Mihaela, 2004. Emotional Creativity and Intelligence. Polirom Print House, Iaşi

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- Development of observation, visual memory, motion.
- Consolidation of skills related to representation of ornamental motives; initiation in the
stylizing ways of shapes, their harmonious combinations.
The drawing activities have a multilateral influence on children. They mainly bring a
significant contribution in the field of esthetic education. With the help of drawing activities, the
children gain some elementary skills and abilities to render in artistic images the reality, to
combine lines, shapes colors etc so that to obtain artistic effects.
„The development of the child’s thinking and imagination is another field in which the
influence of drawing activities is manifested. These activities confer the possibility to carry out
operations of analysis, synthesis, comparisons and generalizations.”95 Drawing any object, the
children must consider its components parts and their attributes; to compare these parts between
them in order to create images as close as the reality; also, they are in the position to mirror the
essential features of some categories of objects, beings etc, to generalize.
Beginning the early age, we may use these means, the color being the first notion that is
assimilated; based on color the child can tell what object he/she drew. Through color, a series of
object phenomena are rendered.
At the age of 6-7 years the children know the basic colors and apply them in practice.
The nuances likewise, by combining more colors which creates a nuance.
As the child perceives these nuances from one and the same color this means that
his/her sensorial perception is more developed (yellow – red, yellow – brown), what color do
we have? The child must be taught how to combine and to mix. By explanation,
demonstration, the child cannot be taught but only by practical activity. By mimics, he/she
speaks about aggressiveness, by color we may render the psychological state of a being. The
child must know the warm, color, neutral colors. The flower bouquet in warm, cold, neutral
colors. The children use the simple pencil, aquarelles, charcoal pencil, colored chalk, wax
pencil; a tree may be represented, the sky, the soil, a strip, a large surface, the joyful and
beautiful spring.
The shape plays a very important role regarding expressivity – the child most oftene
use the square, the circle, the triangle, all geometrical shapes, arches, plates. They render only
plane images.

95 G., Kelemen, Pre-school Education, „Aurel Vlaicu” University Print House of Arad, 2007, p.112

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 Conclusions

The analysis of the representational-algorithmic model is the main concern of

cognitive psychology but not the only one. The computational theories, by their generality,
practically belong to the cognitive sciences, they are the nucleus around which the unification
of these sciences is carried out. On the other hand, the analysis of knowledge automatically
involves the investigation of the way in which they represented by the human cognitive
system and the implementation analysis becomes more and more the appanage of a new group
of disciplines – cognitive neurosciences. In this way, the way in which the human subject
represents the environment and the knowledge about it, as well as the processing procedures
of these representations in order to allow the solving of issues and, finally, adaptation to
environment, is the milestone of cognitive psychology.
Depending on the type of representations and implicitly their treatment ways, we can
illustrate two paradigms guiding the research of the human cognitive system: the classical-
symbolic paradigm and the neo-connectionist paradigm. More or less, they are present in
almost all cognitive sciences with applications not only in psychology but also in artificial
intelligence or cognitive neurosciences.
Both types of knowledge – in the mind and in the world – are essential for our daily
functioning. In certain limits, we can choose to use more one type of information or another:
the information from “the world” acts as its own element of remembrance – it can help us in
remaking structures we would otherwise forget with easiness; the usage of “mind”
information can be more efficient in certain situations, the resource consumption (mostly,
time resource) thus not being necessary for searching and interpretation of the information
from the environment. On the other hand, in order to use the “mind” information, we initially
have to bring it there, shows Normal, which can presume an extraordinary learning effort. The
“world” information can also be difficult to use: its usage is strongly supported by the
continuous, physical presence of information: changing of environment parameters means in
fact changing the available information. This selection needs a balance process – to benefit
from the advantage offered by the “world” knowledge (information) means to lose the
benefits offered by the “mind” knowledge; thus, permanently, in carrying out the most diverse
tasks, people use various strategies in order to get the most advantageous balance between the
quantity of external information, available in the “world” and the quantity of knowledge
necessary in the “mind”.

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 To act in the world involves combining the already available information present in
the environment with internalized representations in the memory; what the user must
internalize depends on the information that is not available (in the external environment or in
the memory) in order to reach the current objective. When the emphasis is on the emergence
of human behavior in complex environment, a contingent analysis of circumstances is
necessary in which the users behave, more or less, as planned or directed by the objective.
The pre-school age is a determining stage. Flexibility, fluency, imagination, ingenuity,
high sensitivity at this age determines the potential possibilities of the multilateral
development of the child.
The results of children at the pre-school age serve as a basis of success in later school
grades. At the end of the pre-school age in children, the desire to learn must persist, he/she
must know to correctly learn and to have confidence in his/her own strengths.
The child is an active subject of knowledge absorbing with lust the information which
the educator proposes that he/she must be prepared to receive more and more knowledge. The
main task of the adults is to create optimal conditions of discovery and achievement of his/her
creative possibilities and to take into account the individuality of each child.
From the point of view of forming the personality, creativity acquires the purpose of creative
potential, the sum of qualities or psychic factors of the future creative performance1. All
virtual conditions existing in the human being, and not necessarily the used ones, that can
contribute to the success of the creative act, make up the potential creativity of the person
compared to the creative ability which implies the real “updated possibility” of creation. The
potential creativity is in fact the performance obtained at the creativity tests. In fact, creativity
may mean either an ability or a skill of the “person” as A. Roşca2 indicates, e.g. to make up
original and useful ideas or things both as an action and process that lead to the original
product, the latter being considered, on its turn, as a criterion of creativity.
The task of the teacher is to educate and find out the creative abilities of the pre-
school child. Education and stimulation of the child’s creativity implies knowing their
creative potential, finding out the intellectual, skill and personality related factors that, by
interaction and overlapping, provides this potential. Even though we cannot discuss yet
some well outlined and, at the same time, accessible techniques and methods, the teacher
may use, with good results, the classical methods of knowing the child (observation,
dialogue etc). To these we may add various tests of creativity and divergent thinking.

129
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