One of the main goals of sport psychology is to identify those psychological factors that are relevant for sport performance as well as possibilities of their development. The aim of the study was to determine whether the set of specific psychological characteristics [generalized self-efficacy, time perspective, emotional intelligence (EI), general achievement motivation, and personality dimensions] makes the distinction between athletes based on their (non)-participation in the senior national team, that is, their belonging to the subsample of elite or non-elite athletes depending on this criterion. According to the group centroids it can be said that elite athletes are characterized by a positive high score in self-efficacy, emotionality, present fatalistic time perspective, past positive time perspective, and openness to experience. They are also characterized by low past negative time perspective, emotional competence, and future time perspective. Non-elite athletes have the opposite traits. The results have been discussed in the context of their application in the process of talent selection and development in sport as well as the development of life skills in athletes.

The objective of this paper is to test the stability of construct characteristics and the factorial structure of the achievement motive and the psychometrical characteristics of the instrument MOP 2002. The analyses are performed on the sample comprising 2846 examinees of different gender and of different educational profile. The sample has been collected during the period of 15 years in a transitional social context. The instrument MOP 2002 is applied, it contains 55 items and has a form of five-level scale. The results of factor analysis have shown that the instrument is multi-dimensional and consist of four factors: competing with others, persistence in realizing goals, realizing goals as source of satisfaction and orientation towards planning. All of these factors are, among others, important for successful participation in the competitive sport. By factor analysis of the second order it is established that the instrument has a unique object of measuring and satisfactory psychometrical characteristics proven stable during 15 years of application on heterogeneous samples of examinees.

The research presented in this paper is a part of the project "Condition, Factors and Development of European Identity in Serbia and Montenegro" which is financed by the Ministry for Science and Protection of Environment of the Republic of Serbia. The goal of this research is to determine the relation between the achievement motive and locus of control on the one hand, and European identity on the other. These motivational factors were selected as the indicators of the active orientation of persons, which is a psychological prerequisite for the development of consciousness of the people and the society as a whole. The research was carried out during 2003 with the sample of 2635 subjects from four regions of Serbia and Montenegro, of both sexes, different levels of education, 18 to 43 years old. The scale EUROID2002 was applied to measure the European and national identity. The achievement motive was measured with the MOP2002 scale, and locus of control with LOKKON2002. All these instruments were created at the Department of Psychology in Novi Sad. The canonical correlation analysis was used to process the data. The results point to the existence of two statistically significant regularities in the relation between the achievement motive and European identity. The achievement of the goal, which is experienced as a source of pleasure and followed by the need to compete with others, was related to two factors of social identity, namely with the need to preserve national identity and with the exclusive national attachment. Thus, the results indicate that the persons for whom competition with others is a significant goal also express a higher degree of nationalism. Furthermore, the results indicate that the degree of nationalism is higher with the higher degree of persistence in the competition with others. In the relation between the locus of control and European identity, three statistically significant regularities were obtained. If the faith in the power of destiny is more pronounced, the need to preserve national identity and exclusive national attachment is also more pronounced. Stronger internal locus of control is related to greater openness for technological progress. Furthermore, the results indicate that those who in achievement situations attach great importance to the activities of other people also have a more pronounced pro-European orientation

The aim of this research was to examine predictive factors of entrepreneurial orientation of students in transitional, social, and economic contexts. Attitudes towards work, value orientations, gender, and the entrepreneurial experience of the father and the mother of the respondents were examined as predictor variables. The sample comprised 220 students from both genders with an average age of 21.57 years. The results indicate that, in all three measured components, young men have a more pronounced entrepreneurial orientation compared to young women. Attitudes towards work and organizational values were shown to correlate significantly with entrepreneurial orientation. Experiencing work as an opportunity for personal fulfilment (b ¼ 0.420, sig <0.001), autocratic value orientations (b ¼ 0.269, sig <0.05), and the entrepreneurship of the father were distinguished as significant predictors of entrepreneurial orientation on the total sample (b ¼ 0.211, sig <0.001), as well as on the subsample of young women (b ¼ 0.283, sig <0.05). The results of this research indicate the complexity of relationships between the examined factors and entrepreneurial orientation, the conversance of which provides the basis for conceptualizing the entrepreneurial socialization of young people in a particular social and economic context.

This article provides insight into the state of higher education in Serbia, particularly in the context of reform processes based on European Higher Education Area principles. A multidimensional approach was taken, encompassing (a) a review and analysis of legal regulations relevant to the historical context of Serbia, (b) an examination of current working conditions at accredited state and private higher education institutions, (c) and a pilot survey of attitudes among the main participants in higher education teaching.The research gauged attitudes of university professors and students with work or study experiences, respectively, at both state and private higher education institutions. Specific instruments for measuring attitudes were constructed for this study. Professors' attitudes toward state and private higher education were compared through the assessment of aspects of organisational culture including work organisation, stimulating atmosphere, innovation, and creativity.Students expressed their attitudes toward state and private higher education in terms of general atmosphere, curricula, grading criteria, and student status. The results indicate that private higher education was appreciated slightly more than state higher education; both professors and students held more positive attitudes of private higher education for all dimensions investigated.