Zenomena Płużek was born on 17th April 1926 in Góry Luszowskie, in an intellectual family with profound Catholic and patriotic traditions. Her early adolescence fell on the period of war and occupation. She manifested her interest in philosophical problems already in secondary school. In the years 1947-1951 she studied at the Faculty of the Humanities of Jagiellonian University in Krakow. She was a disciple of the well-known phenomenologist, Professor Roman Ingarden, and under his supervision wrote her master's thesis entitled Analiza pojęcia intuicji i dedukcji u Kartezjusza [An Analysis of the Concepts of Intuition and Deduction in Descartes], earning in 1951 the title of the master of philosophical sciences. In 1963, at the same university, she obtained the title of the doctor of the Humanities for her dissertation Wartość diagnostyczna testów do wykrywania organicznych uszkodzeń mózgu [The Diagnostic Value of the Tests for Diagnosing Organic Lesions of the Brain], written under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Hab. Maria Susulowska. She obtained habilitation on clinical psychology at the Catholic University of Lublin in 1967 for her work Wartość diagnostyczna testu MMPI-WISKAD dla diagnozy różnicowej w zakresie nozologii psychiatrycznej [The Diagnostic Value of the MMPI-WISKAD Test for the Differential Diagnosis in Psychiatric Nosology]. She earned the title of associate professor in 1978, and professor in 1988. She studied abroad in such centres as: University of California in Berkeley; University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill; University Austin in Texas; Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda; Yale University in New Haven (visiting professor); Louvain University in Leuven; University in Nijmegen.She hold the post of a temporary adviser to WHO. She is a member of many prestige scientific societies at home and abroad (International Association of Suicide Prevention, Finnish Psychiatric Association, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Suicidprevention).For 25 years she was head of the Chair of Clinical Psychology and Personality at KUL. Her theoretical investigations and empirical research bore fruit, e.g. about 400 master's thesis, 40 doctoral dissertations, 17 reviews of habilitation, 8 reviews of scientific output to earn the title of professor. She is an author or co-author of 7 books and over 80 papers. Her range of research interests is broad and embraces the key issues from clinical psychology and personality as regards the norm and pathology, in various age ranges. The problems which she most often addresses in her works belong to numerous disciplines, e.g. suicidology, neuropsychology, psychosomatics, mental deviations, psychological aspects of mystic and religious experiences, crisis, values, sense of life, and self-concept. Professor Płużek's theoretical interests have been reflected in her Polish and international research programmes which she carried out for many years. One should mention here the Polish-American research on the effectiveness of the rehabilitation of older patients with chronic schizophrenia, dynamism of personality changes in persons with the diagnosis of early schizophrenia, prevention of suicide in adolescents.

Ego-resilience (ER), defined and operationalized by J. Block, has been made more precise as regards A. Maslow's conception of the motivational factors of security (Security Feeling Syndrome - SFS) and psychological health, as a characterological determinant of whether an individual functions adequately in the changing and often stressful circumstances. In order to measure ER and SFS J. Block's ER-89 scale was employed and the author's factor version of A. Maslow's Security-Insecurity Inventory.144 men and 144 women, aged 18-23, took part in the research. A statistically significant co-variability has been found between ER and the factors of security (SFS). Moreover, having used the multiple regression model, ego-resilience between ER and SFS factors was operationalized in terms of personal resilience - PR, as a continuous variable. This variable may form a basic ground for empirical typology in the sense of a characterologically interpreted PR.The subjects with a high PR index are characterized by a high level of the sense of intimacy, confidence and openness in relation to their closest surrounding. They trust their own competence and ability to employ their personal and accessible means to behave as adequate as possible. They reveal a tendency to obtain rather lower scores as regards the factor of stability, a fact that should be interpreted as their readiness to accept the risk of losing acquired routine and self-confidence when committing himself to new, often surprising, situations, and undertaking respective tasks.The persons of a low personal resilience have the highest scores in the factor of stability and the factor of self-confidence, and the lowest level as regards the sense of intimacy and openness to their surrounding. They are concentrated on themselves, on safeguarding and supporting the actual status quo.The types of personality that have thus been distinguished express two different orientations in life. They should not be simplified in terms of two polar traits of personality, ways of behaviour, or even in terms of the existential dilemma: security-growth, as described by Maslow.

The paper bases on the empirical research in the problem of the people with disorders in blood circulation system.The used techniques: The Gissen Test (GT) by D. Beckmann and H.E. Richter in Polish adaptation by T. Witkowski - to exam 6 dimensions of self-image; and Individual Chard (KI) for the Disabled by T. Witkowski - to note most important data.The groups: of three categories - heart attack (group A) age 38-70, high blood pressure (group B) age 31-70 and also „heart neurosis” (group C) age 20-37, as a group of psycho-derived, functional disorders, revealed in blood circulation system. Additionally there is a group O - intellectual and sensoria disability, as a reference group - 562 young people, boys and girls age 16-25.Results: The dimensions of the self-image are analogical and proportional in the disability group (O) and also in heart attack (A) and high blood pressure (B). The scores in the dimensions of the self-image are: medium - dominance and basic mood; high (in the frames of average) - perspicacity; significantly high (above standard deviation) self-control, social resonance, where the scores are medium) and social possibilities.The results are different in group C with functional disorders, where are the significantly lower scores in the dimensions of basic mood, perspicacity and social resonance. The dimension of basic mood is the most diagnostic for the examined disorders.

The paper seeks to identify such attributes of a partner's image which are essential for his or her attractiveness. It is assumed here that the quality of those attributes depends on sex and the level of self-acceptance of the person who evaluates that image and on the partner's attractiveness. The analysis takes into account individual attractiveness of the partners, as different from a possible attractiveness of the diad formed by them (cf. Prężyna 1996).The solution to the problem was sought in empirical research. The image of partner was examined by means of the Adjective Check List (ACL) in its 37-scale version. The Scale of Attractiveness (SKAT), as worked out by Nęcki (1975), was employed to study attractiveness. The subjects (120) were men and women (60 mixed diads), who had known each other for at least two years. The mean was 26.2 years. The subjects were graduates of secondary schools (62%) or universities (38%). They were married (48%) or single (52%).The findings have confirmed the thesis about a broad relationship between the level of attractiveness and the attributes (31 out of 37 subjects) of the partner. It has turned out that the most important source of attractiveness is the image of partner, when it is evaluated by a woman, and when the evaluating person - woman and man - is characterized by a higher level of self-acceptance (cf. tab. 1). Furthermore, an analysis of multiple regression (cf. tab. 2) has allowed us to state that a particular dimensions of the image under study are more interrelated when that image is perceived by a woman. The groups consist then of a larger number of dimensions, are qualitatively different than in the case of a man, and explain the bigger percentage of variations of attractiveness (for the woman of a low self-acceptance - 83% and 88%, with high self-acceptance; and for a man 76% and 70% respectively.Finally, comparing the relationship between the image of partner with his individual attractiveness, as perceived by a woman and a man, and the attractiveness of the diad created by the partners, one may deduce that attractiveness perceived by the woman has a greater influence on making the diad more attractive.

The paper is focused on the personality determinants of an efficient educational influence. It presents empirical researches designed to verify the following two hypotheses:1) the relationship between general social maturity of an individual with the effectiveness of educational actions, and 2) to what extent the conditions of a helpful contact are found useful in educational interaction.The subjects consisted of pedagogy students. 144 subjects were tested by the technique of paired-comparisons method. Thus two groups were selected, each of which contained 30 subjects: A - with high, B - with low, predispositions for an efficient educational influence. These groups were then tested by Gough's CPI questionnaire and KBE scale (constructed by the author and designed to measure the level of congruence, unconditionally positive attitude and empathy). The findings confirmed the initial hypotheses. The high predispositions for an effective educational influence is combined with high scores (more than 5.5 sten) in 11 scales CPI (Do, Cs, Sp, Sa To, Cm, Ai, Ie, Py, Fx, and Te). The strongest correlations occurred between the sense of own value and congruence (pu < 0.01), tolerance and empathy (pu < 0.01); mental efficiency and “positive attitude” (pu < 0.01); and also between the attribute of femininity and empathy (pu < 0.01). The studies allow us to draw a conclusion that at the basis of an effective educational influence there lies a general social maturity of the educator and whether he conforms to the psychological conditions of a helpful contact.

In 104 children with emotional disturbances at the age of puberty and in 30 healthy peers personality studies were carried out and 24-hour urinary excretion of catecholamines (adrenaline and noradrenaline) was determined.Among these emotional symptoms the most frequent ones were such as hyperexcitability, anxiety, pathological habits and sleep disturbances.The indices of anxiety and introversion showed a high intensity of anxiety and features of introversion in children with these disturbances.The catecholaminergic activity was studied in relation to the type of emotional disturbances, and increased adrenaline excretion was found in children with aggressive reactions, with hyperexcitability and sleep problems. Noradrenaline excretion was decreased in children with various emotional symptoms: hyperexcitability and anxiety reactions, inhibition and emotional depression.

The development of religiousness is consequent on the changes towards a higher quality of the ties between man and God. There are changes specific for the development of religiousness. They embrace the following mental processes, e.g. transcending; developmental achievements, e.g. the appropriate concept of God, various internal transformations and others. The development under discussion stresses a holistic approach to religiousness in its existential, situational, and ecological aspect. Operationally speaking, the highest stage in the development of religiousness, as defined by means of the empirical research on the masters of internal life, and such is the criterion of tracing the direction of changes. The determinants of that direction being such psychological factors of religiousness as: 1) freedom, 2) consciousness, 3) love, 4) happiness and others, as well as content factors: 1) imitation of Jesus Christ, 2) unification with God, 3) internal participation with the Church in existential problems, 4) living in the presence of God, and others. The direction of the religious development may also be identified and supported by “following the master.” The master may also be a Saint, who is a pattern of life for a person. The effects of changes, that is achievements in the development of religiousness, most often bear the character of gradual and cumulative gains. They are continual, and at the same time in each period of life are completed with a kind of fulfillment, combined with a desire to keep on perfecting the religious life.

Scrupulous conscience is characterized by an anxious, inadequate and negative moral evaluation of one's thoughts, words, and deeds. This phenomenon is connected with deformations in moral evaluations. The scrupulous person is often thought to find it difficult to distinguish evil from good. A closer analysis, however, points mainly to the legalistic level. The scrupulous person usually judges his deed rather from the legal point of view, along the line: permit- ted-prohibited, and not in the categories of good-evil.Psychiatrists and psychologists treat scruples as a specific manifestation of obsessive neurosis, with the stipulation that not in every neurosis of that kind there occur symptoms called scruples, for not all its symptoms must have a moral content, nor every neurosis deforms conscience. Apart from that the scrupulous people, as a rule, do not have any other types of neurotic symptoms.In the remarks on the “pastoral therapy” of scrupulous conscience the tasks of a clergyman and psychotherapist (psychiatrist, psychologist) have been defined and characterized. It has been stressed that in difficult cases it is an optimal situation when a priest and a psychotherapist work together, providing of course strictly defined conditions, dependent on various competencies. There may be situations when a priest, having no contact with a psychotherapist, must manage the process of the “therapy” of conscience on his own.Some basic practical postulates have been put forward, all of them indispensable when a priest wishes to be effective in his role as a confessor and “therapist,” as regards moral and religious affairs of the people with a neurotic conscience. Such proposals are in now way detailed recipes, therefore one should be flexible in their interpretation. In each case those proposals should be adjusted to personality traits of a given person and to the specific character of his or her problems.

The author presents the concept of Future Anxiety and characterizes its cognitive basis. This anxiety refers to distant events in the future. The FA has common features with other anxiety types but also it has its own specificity. The end of the century and of the millenium giver rise to future anxiety and justifies its conceptualization within psychology paradigm.The Polish version of the standardized scale consisting of 29 items is attached. The scale can be used in cross-cultural studies.