team members


    Prof. Florin Alin Sava, PhD
  • Email: florin.sava@e-uvt.ro / afsava@gmail.com
  • Keywords: implicit measures, evaluative conditioning, attitude change, randomized trials, personality assessment
  • Current interests:

    The Semantic Misattribution Procedure (SMP) as an implicit measure of personality self-concept. How good is this measure to predict behaviors? Does the introduction of SMP lead to an incremental gain over what is explained by explicit measures in contexts with a high level of social desirability (i.e. personnel selection)? What implicit processes are involved in the SMP?
    Evaluative conditioning as an evidence-based intervention that alters implicit cognitions / attitudes and its corresponding impact on the actual behavior. Do EC procedures have long-lasting effects? What are the mechanisms of change involved in the occurrence and the persistence of the EC effect?
    Moderators and mediators involved in the dynamic between propositional (deliberative) and associative (impulsive) processes. When is feeling stronger than thinking? What are the factors that shift the weight of reflective and impulsive processes on behavior?

    Associate Prof. Laurențiu P. Maricuțoiu, PhD
  • Email: laurentiu.maricutoiu@e-uvt.ro / lmaricutoiu@gmail.com
  • Keywords: predictive validity,implicit measures, self-schemata, traitness, personality assessment
  • Current interests:

    More than 30 years ago, researchers suggested different approaches for enhancement of predictive validity of psychological measures: self-schemata, traitness, metatraits, scalability… and now the implicit measures of the self-concept . Are these approaches effective in enhancing the prediction of behaviors? Are these approaches based on similar psychological mechanisms? Can these approaches be used outside psychological laboratories?

    Assistant Prof. Silvia Măgurean, PhD
  • Email: silvia.magurean@e-uvt.ro / silvia.magurean@gmail.com
  • Keywords: implicit measures, personality assessment, implicit cognitions in smokers, altering implicit cognitions
  • Current interests:

    Implicit measures of personality. What is the relationship between different implicit measures of personality? What is their ability to predict behavior in natural and lab settings?
    The Semantic Misattribution Procedure (SMP) as an implicit measure of personality self-concept. How good is this measure to predict behaviors? Does the introduction of SMP lead to an incremental gain over what is explained by explicit measures in contexts with a high level of social desirability (i.e. personnel selection)? What implicit processes are involved in the SMP?
    Altering implicit cognitions in smokers. Can implicit interventions improve the results of explicit/medical interventions meant to reduce smoking? Which factors are able to increase the effect of implicit interventions on smoking related behavior?

    Assistant Prof. Paul Sârbescu, PhD
  • Email: paul.sarbescu@e-uvt.ro / paul.sarbescu@gmail.com
  • Keywords: psychological assessment, driving behavior, implicit measures, altering implicit attitudes
  • Current interests:

    Implicit measures of driving behavior: How reliable are the implicit measures of driving behavior? Is the predictive validity of these measures better than the one of explicit measures? What are the relationship patterns between different implicit and explicit measures of driving behavior?
    The temporal stability of driving behavior: How much does driving behavior really vary over certain periods of time? What are the time-invariant variables that influence driving behavior the most? How effective is driving behavior (as a time-variant predictor) in predicting traffic accidents?
    Altering implicit attitudes towards driving behavior: Can implicit attitudes towards speeding and aggressive driving be reduced using evaluative conditioning? Will this possible attitudinal change reflect at the behavioral level?

    Assistant Prof. Andrei Rusu, PhD
  • Email: andrei.rusu@e-uvt.ro / andreirusul@gmail.com
  • Keywords: psychological assessment, implicit self-concept, implicit change
  • Current interests:

    Implicit / automatic processing of information. Could be developed fully reliable procedures for changing implicit associations involved in facilitating maladaptive behaviors?
    Moderators and mediators involved in the dynamic between propositional (deliberative) and associative (impulsive) processes. What are the factors that shift the weight of reflective and impulsive processes on behavior?

    Research Assist. Nastasia Salagean, PhD student
  • Email: nastasia.salagean@e-uvt.ro / nastasia.salagean@yahoo.com
  • Keywords: implicit measures, implicit self-concept, mental disorders
  • Current interests:

    How do negative self-schemas influence the development of depression? What implicit personality concepts are associated with it? Could a test for the evaluation of depression and suicide ideation that is not influenced by desirability be developed? Could said test be temporally stable across evaluations? What are the implicit associations implicated and could they be changed?

    Research Assist. Cristina Măroiu, PhD student
  • Email: cristina.maroiu@e-uvt.ro
  • Keywords: decision making, awareness, rational, intuitive
  • Current interests:

    How does normative rationality relate to ecological rationality?

    Research Assist. Diana-Paula Dudău, PhD student
  • Email: diana.paula.dudau@gmail.com / diana.dudau90@e-uvt.ro
  • Keywords: digital traces, social media behaviour, screening, depression, anxiety
  • Current interests:

    Traditional self-report assessment is marked by important shortcomings due to problems such as questionable validity, social desirability, impression management or memory biases, to name a few. Therefore, my main interests revolve around the goal of identifying, proposing and testing alternative methods and tools for operationalizing variables in social and personality psychology and mental health. In this regard, my current research work is reflected in questions such as: How could cutting edge technology and data analysis be used as an aid in the fields of mental health and behaviour change? Could people’s digital traces provide a window into their psychology? What digital traces are specifically related to depression and anxiety? Based on such insights, could we develop an accurate enough and cost-efficient screening instrument for depression and anxiety?

Colaborators

Our team has been engaged in collaborative projects with other researchers. Collaborators in ongoing and past projects include: