The formal definition of decision D was supplemented by the developmental factor in such a way that D^f <G, A, H, {p(hj)}, {uij}, E), where the set G includes, among others, such elements as developmental sequences of the perception of alternative actions, recognition of the states of the world, evaluation of the probability of events and utility of actions, search for and accumulation of information.Decision components in the definition can be regarded as a basis for the analysis of the development of cognitive representation of a decision situation. Among others, two basic conditions which determine the generation of cognitive representation of alternative actions were distinguished, namely, an adequate level of skill and an evaluation of one’s own possibilities of action. In the development of the concept of event probability the following six stages were distinguished: (1) empirical anticipation of events (the first year of age); (2) mediated anticipation of events (2-3 years of age); (3) quantified anticipation of the perception type (4-7 years of age); (4) operative anticipation of the concrete type (7 or 8 up to 11 or 12 years of age); (5) operative anticipation of the formal type (12 or 13 up to 18 or 19 years of age); and (6) realistic anticipation. The development of utility evaluation does not form a sequence of regular changes. Subjective evaluation of an individual’s utility is being shaped in the course of his life and it is a result of the satisfactory relations between his needs and the objects fulfilling them. Numerous studies on the formal aspects of preference have shown that stability and transitivity are increasing functions of age. Development of the search for and accumulation of information covers, among others, the decisions of initiation and continuation, as well as strategies of search for signals and their processing into probabilistic or categorical information.Characterization of decision making in its ontogenetic aspects reveals the presence of syncretism in the period up to 3 years of age; elementary principles of rational actions and the phases of predecision, decision, and postdecision appear in the period of 4-7 years of age; coordination between outcomes and the probability of attaining them (by the SEU criterion) are present in the period of 8-12 years of age; adolescence brings a more complete distinction amçng decision components, a more frequent occurrence of irrevocable and unconditionally accepted decisions; finally, a development of some aspects of decision takes place in old age.Research postulates include, among others, the necessity of taking into account the so-called existential decisions (whose consequences are long-lasting and of vital importance in life) and styles in decision making, with such dimensions as pursuit—avoidance, rigidity—flexibility, probabilism—determinism, among others.

The article presents the author’s results of his examination of the hypothesis about a positive correlation between the group’s homogeneity and risk dimension polarization. The tests were carried out by means of N. Kogan and M. Wallach dilemmas on 400 groups, each of 3 persons, including 200 sociometrically homogeneous groups (100 masculine and 100 feminine groups) and 200 sociometrically heterogeneous groups (100 masculine and 100 feminine groups). The tests showed that magnitude of the risk shift depended first of all on the type of the decision situation. Besides that, the decision-makers from the homogeneous groups were more radical in situations stimulating risky behaviour and more cautious in situations „requiring” caution and judiciousness. This phenomenon occurred in both masculine and feminine groups.

The paper deals with the problem of the effect of the system of values on the risk undertaken in various decision situations. The estimation of values was carried out by means of a scale of values of our own construction, while the risk examinations employed the questionnaire of choice dilemmas by Kogan and Wallach in the author’s modification.The analysis of correlation coefficients indicates a dependence of the risk level on three values connected materially with decision alternatives. Subsequently, the coefficients of linear regression, which make it possible to predict the risk on the basis of the decision-maker’s system of values, were calculated.

The general aim of the paper is the presentation of the author’s own empirical studies on some conditions of real and presumed agreement in religious convictions and practices of married couples on three levels of awareness, with special regard to the period of marriage and satisfaction in their married life. One may suppose that in married life the agreement of convictions (and not only convictions) on the first level of awareness (convictions declared) is regulated by the mechanisms of the second level (convictions attributed to the partner) and of the third level (convictions reflected — „I think that my partner think that I believe in ...”).In order to test the agreement in religious convictions and practices of partners in marriage, the author prepared his own questionnaire which included six domains: Gospel, fasts, prayer, Eucharist (Holy Communion), confession, Mass. Each of them had three pairs of statements, one for convictions and the other for practices. A short scale was also prepared for the evaluation of satisfaction in married life.Ninety married couples were divided into three equally numerous groups in respect to marriage periods of 1-2 years, 5-6 years, and 15-16 years, and they were tested in groups of some dozens couples. Each subject filled the questionnaire three times; the first version included the subject’s own answers, the second — the presumed answers of the partner as supposed by the subject, and the third — the presumed answers of the subject as supposed by the partner. The comparison of all the responses gave 15 possible combinations of similarities and differences, with three levels of awareness and with the real and presumed agreement (Table 3).The examination revealed the following regularities: (1) The agreement in religious convictions and practices increases in time. (2) The rate of increase in this agreement is the greatest in the first 2-3 years of married life, when the intensity of partners’ interaction is usually the highest, and it clearly decreases after about 10-15 years of marriage. (3) The presumed agreement of religious convictions and practices of the partners is actually higher than the real agreement — probably because of the desire of both partners to assimilate their respective convictions and practices, and because of attributing one’s own convictions and practices to the partner in case of mere ignorance. (4) The real agreement in convictions and practices is actually higher in the couples who are satisfied with their married life than in those dissatisfied, probably because of a more intense and effective interaction in the former; the presumed agreement is sometimes higher in dissatisfied couples, possibly owing to a stronger desire to adjust one’s own convictions and practices to those of the partner as well as a poorer acquaintance with the partner; however in the couples getting divorced (i.e. completely dissatisfied), the presumed agreement, is even lower than the real one, possibly owing to suspecting ill will and hostility in the partner (apart from mere ignorance). (5) The agreement of religious convictions is higher than that of practices, since convictions belong to central behavioral regulators, while practices are unstable and changeable. (6) The dynamic aspect of the development of both types of agreement varies, the most significant similarity of convictions occurring in the first years of marriage, while that of practices — later on. (7) The difference between real and presumed agreements is greater in men than in women, possibly because of a better insight, empathy and a more realistic evaluation of the marriage situation in the latter. (8) There appears a tendency towards smaller agreement in religious convictions and practices of married partners in later years of marriage with which the partners are dissatisfied and with the increase in their dissatisfaction.

In the context of wide-range cross-cultural psycholinguistic studies of Osgood and others, the author presents a part of his own research carried out in New Guinea and Poland in 1973, in which he was examining the structure of the conno- tative meaning of five basic religious concepts, namely, „God”, „heaven”, „prayer”, „immortality” and „sin”. The concepts were additionally provided with short definitions in order to avoid misunderstandings as to their meanings. The tests were carried out on secondary-school boys (70 boys from Poland and 86 from New Guinea) by the Semantic Differential Technique which consisted of 30 scales of contrasted adjectives. The analysis of the results obtained was made on the level of arithmetic means (for the generation of mean profiles) and on the level of factorial analysis (e. g. for the concept of „sin”, separately for each group).The analysis of arithmetic means revealed that in all the concepts tested there were statistically significant differences in 54 % of all the scales, on the average. The evaluations in the Polish group were generally more consistent and more „positive”, i. e. tending towards the positive adjectives. In most scales the profiles of means had almost parallel courses which seems to imply some similarities in the evaluations of both groups tested. The author offers a possible interpretation of the differences observed by a possible influence of concrete factors of cultural and ethnological nature.In each of the rotated concepts („grzech” and „sin”), the within concepts factor analysis revealed 6 factors, namely: for the concept of „grzech” — factor I „evaluation”, factor II „power of effects”, factor III „subjective impression”, factor IV „external features”, factor V „external conditions”, factor VI „type of involvement”; wThile for the concept of „sin” — factor I „evaluation”, factor II „spontaneity”, factor III „psychological effects”, factor IV „range of effects”, factor V „secrecy” and factor VI „2nd evaluation”.Some of the factors revealed a certain similarity of contents which, within each concept, made it possible to group them into three classes called „Evaluation of sin” (factor I for „grzech” and factors I, VI for „sin”), „Nature of sin“ (factors IV, V, VI for „grzech” and factors II, V for „sin”), and „Consequences of sin” (factors II, III for „grzech” and factors IV, III for „sin”).The results of the tests seem tô confirm the findings of Osgood and others, and they also reveal a great similarity in the elementary structure of meaning of various concepts. The differences between them appear in the surface levels and they are conditioned culturally.

Although each world view has its specific individual version, yet similarities between such versions make it possible to distinguish some types of opinions about the world.Besides cognitive elements, an important role in creating strong world-view convictions is also played by emotional factors. Both these factors may be related by means of the semantic differential of Ch. E. Osgood, which determines connotative meanings.The aim of the studies presented in the article was the determination and comparison of connotative meanings of concepts connected with world views for two groups representing different types of opinions. Examinations included 30 students who believed in religion and 30 students who claimed that they did not believe. Applying the semantic differential, the connotative meanings of the following nine concepts were determined: human life, people, suffering, death, love, honesty, responsibility, sexual life, and religion. The concepts had been selected on the basis of a pilot survey carried out on 142 persons earlier. Ten adjectival scales of value dimensions were used, thus the semantic differential played the function of the scale of attitudes.The results of the tests revealed a differentiation in the connotative meanings of the concepts evaluated. In a great majority the concepts were more positively evaluated by religious students (the only exception was the concept of sexual life). The greatest differences appeared in the evaluation of the concept of religion, and then in those of suffering and death. Undoubtedly, in many cases the Catholic doctrine exerted definitive influence on the evaluation by the students. At the same time, however, it should also be added that the concepts were generally described in terms of approval by both groups of students.The intragroup determination of connotative meanings allows one to study the mode of thinking and its specificity in individual groups representing different world views.

The paper discusses some controversial problems resulting from recent neurophysiological studies on the. problem of domination in cerebral hemispheres. The domination in cerebral hemispheres is generally established on the basis of a finding of lateralization in the subject examined. Lateralization is usually understood as a preference in using limbs as well as the differences in their strength and skill. According to some opinions, lateralization is genetically conditioned and thus in may be connected with some brain lesion in early childhood or, to some extent, it may depend on environmental factors. The region of the predominating hemisphere is also associated with the functions of speech or verbal thinking, while the region of the dominated hemisphere — with the ability to perceive spatial relations, to the knowledge of brain functions has been made by studies on subjects with a severed corpus callous. They revealed a situation in which the subjects with the severed corpus callous behaved as if they had two independent forms of consciousness. This finding served as a basis for the conception of interrelation-ship between the verbal and subdominant hemispheres which makes it possible for one consciousness to exist in healthy subjects. On the basis of indirect observations, the researchers also found differences in the functional dominance of cerebral hemispheres between men and women ; women showed a functional predominance of the left (or verbal) hemisphere, while men — of the right hemisphere. In view of different sex-dependent morbidity of schizophrenia, psychopythy, hysteria, and affective psychoses, a hypothesis was proposed according to which the occurrence of the above disorders depended on a minute lesion in a relevant brain hemisphere,. At our present knowledge, the above conceptions and results of studies on neuropsychological conditions of consciousness, functional brain asymmetry in men and women, or conditions determining morbidity of some disorders, still need further research.

In the upbringing of blind children it is important to know the factors which condition their moral development, particularly the specificity of the situation of the loss of sight, so that one may influence the moral profile of a blind child by manipulating these factors. The article shows that in this development as important role is played by such factors as: (1) the very fact of a loss of a possibility of receiving visual information; (2) features of the disability, i.e. time, degree and way in which the sight was lost; (3) disorders of the central nervous system and, in particular, intellectual defects, changes in higher emotions on organic basis, deficiencies in strength, mobility and equilibrium of nervous processes; (4) the attitude of the normal clear-sighted people, in particular of the children of the same age as the blind child; (5) atmosphere in the family and the attitudes of the parents, as well as the type of educational methods applied mosi frequently, e.g. punishment and explanations; (6) institutional education of blind children; (7) forms of child's own activities, such as games, self-educational tendencies in the youth period.It has been strongly emphasized that the factor which creates greatest difficulties in the moral development of the blind child is not the very lack of sight and resulting cognitive limitations, but the social consequences of blindness, especially the wrong attitudes of the parents of the blind child. Apart from the factors creating difficulties in the socio-moral development of the blind child, in blindness there are also useful factors for the shaping of its moral-philosophical reflection, deepening of inner life, training virtues of character and strong will (advantageous in view of the requirements of social life), and of a mature moral attitude, including the acceptance of blindness and a positive relation to the world of normal people.