Problems of Psychology in the 21st Century

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Authors: Editorial Board

Cover, Vol. 14, No. 2, 2020

84-86

Authors: Sergii Boltivets

Among the threats and dangers of the future, our duty to the younger and future generations is to develop the instincts, feelings and self-preservation of children and young people, who by their very birth suffer from inventions, conflicts and crises inherited by all previous older generations. The dominants of future self-preservation are in the mental development of children and youth, the main of which we consider mental abilities, development of feelings and especially - a sense of empathy for all living things, as well as - the imagination of every child and young person. her own life and the lives of others. Our common methodology should be to understand that the social world is not simplified, but complicated, and we have a duty to prepare our children and young people to solve these complications.

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Authors: Inna Boychenko

The purpose of the study was to determine the features of the professional self-identity in future psychologists in terms of educational and professional training. The objectives of the study were: 1) to identify theoretical approaches to the problem of professional identity and self-identity in terms of professional training; 2) to research the features of self-identity in the course of a professional choice by students-psychologists and their educational and professional adaptation. To solve the particular research problem: 1) the features of self-identity in the course of professional choice by students-psychologists and their educational-professional adaptation are defined; 2) questionnaire was developed for identification of the features of students-psychologists’ awareness of their professional choice and adaptation to professional training and the need for professionally significant qualities. To identify the features of the professional self-identity of future psychologists in the study of a number of methods were: 1) "Methods of studying professional identity (MVPI) (author LB Schneider); 2) questionnaire "Professional choice and educational-professional adaptation of future psychologists" (author IS Boychenko). 178 students of III-IV courses of the Pedagogical and Psychological Institute of the National Pedagogical University named after MP Drahomanov and 5-th courses of the psychological faculty named after T.G. Shevchenko and the Faculty of English of the National Linguistic University took part in the survey. The analysis of the conducted methods revealed that the predominant types of professional choice awareness by students-psychologists in the course of their educational and professional activity are the moratorium on professional identity, premature professional identity and diffusion of professional identity. The reasons for this state of the students may be unconscious or insufficiently conscious choice of profession by the latter as well as insufficient professional support of these students by psychologists. The acquisition of professional self-identity by future psychologists takes place: (I) in a group during the educational process (lectures, practical group classes, educational and psychological practice, attempts at one's own psychological practice), (II) individually, and (III) under the guidance of a mentor. In the course of these psychological practices, especially during their own attempts at practice, future psychologists begin to form an idea of their professional functions. This is an important prerequisite for the formation of their professional identity. According to the results of the research of the students-psychologists with achieved positive professional identity, the types of practical activities can include psychological (attempts at personal practice) and educational-psychological practice (according to the curriculum), that is mastering the profession through training in HEI and beyond, satisfaction of professional needs. The perspective of the research is the problem of conformity of the professional self-identity formation of future psychologists to the social requirements and the availability of conditions to ensure their professional development during educational activities and beyond.

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Authors: Ieva Pakse, Guna Svence

The aim of the study is to adapt linguistically and psychometrically the construct of flourishing and to compare four most popular measuring instruments by looking at their psychometric validity indicators and examining in more details the flourishing level of randomized sample in Latvia (N=312). As this construct was not adapted in Latvia jet, it is a new concept both – in terms of content and psychometry. Therefore, the tasks of research were more related to the study of the construct’s own content by comparing most popular flourishing measuring instruments, their internal consistency, analyzing the convergent validity of measuring instruments, and studying of the relationships between various demographic indicators and the level of flourishing. The research results confirm that flourishing scores of all four measuring instruments mutually correlate, that suggests cross compliance of all four instruments. Demographic indicators as education and occupation are the only ones which are mathematically plausible, but only at trend level correlate with flourishing characteristics. The data adapted in the study and psychometrically tested methodologies can be used in the practice of psychologists and in other studies in the future. The discussion raised the question of why neither gender nor age correlate with flourishing, that contradicts other similar studies in the word.

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Authors: Stanislava Stoyanova

A new Brief Rumination Scale was constructed to measure rumination as repetitive thoughts about negative past events and regrets. Its good psychometric properties were established in a heterogeneous Bulgarian sample of 1274 healthy individuals – one-factor structure, high enough internal consistency, proven convergent, discriminant and intentional validity. It was found that rumination decreased with past positive time orientation and present hedonistic time orientation. Rumination increased with past negative time orientation and proneness to dysfunctional impulsivity. Regarding social differences in rumination, it was found that the participants whose income was above the medium (but not the highest one) and who were living in cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants were more prone to moderate rumination than expected – they emphasized on unfavorable events in their past and expressed regret about more omitted opportunities in their life. A brief, valid and reliable measure of rumination would shorten the process of conducting a study and would make it more probable the subjects to agree to participate in the study in this way enriching the scientific knowledge.

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Authors: Editorial Board

Cover, PPC, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2020

4-6

Authors: Maria Annarumma

The great catastrophes of humanity – be it the plague of 1347 or that of 1629, the Spanish flu of 1918, the tsunami of 2004, the Coronavirus of 2020 – are all showing that, despite scientific progress or the arrogance of the "Promethean syndrome", the human being is constantly in danger. Violently and unexpectedly dropped in an atypical situation, which has subverted values and annihilated ancient certainties, we keep convincing ourselves that nothing will be the same. We try to hypothesize scenarios, outline reference frames, look ahead to the future. Probably, after the first months of austerity, of virtuous assertions about moral commitments to restore the frugality of customs as well as considerations about the sense of death and destiny, we will be carried away by the joy of having survived and we just would like to forget what happened. We will be rejecting the memory of suffering, bereavement, hospitals and intensive care. We will try to forget painful traces and go back to saying yes to life.

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Authors: Maria Annarumma, Luigi Vitale, Francesco Sessa, Ines Tedesco

In the life cycle of family systems, transition periods are important stages for the maturation of the individual and his family as it allows the reorganization of relational arrangements. The health emergency of recent months makes it necessary for us to reflect on resilience education, to cultivate more authentic educational relationships and to react to stressful and problematic situations with greater self-effectiveness. If rigid family systems risk of causing communicative and relational diseases, investing in emotional literacy and empathy means providing adults and children with the tools to deal with the painful situations, that are inevitably part of everyday life, to share negative experiences and bring out the inner resources. In this perspective, technologies play a significant role in the media, both because they are a bridge between the family context and the external social network, and because they potentially allow more inclusive and flexible learning-teaching processes. A meticulous analysis of assistive technologies is thus necessary in order to call for a reconfiguration of information flows, spatial-temporal arrangements, methodologies and tools that are to be reconfigured ad habitus of the new individual and social educational needs.

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Authors: Mehboob Ul Hassan, Rafaqat Ali Akbar

Applications of teachers’ pedagogical approaches for learners’ educational gains have been remained one of the educational debates since ago. Teachers transfer chunk of information among students through implementing techniques to strengthen teaching learning process. Relevance of ground-breaking instructional strategies put concrete effect on students’ entire academic success. Present quantitative research was conducted to explore the effect of teachers’ usage of students’ centered teachers’ pedagogical approaches on students’ educational gains. Researchers adopted ex-post-fact research design on sample of 800 respondents; 400 urban and 400 rural students randomly selected from public sector secondary schools of District Kasur Punjab-Province of Pakistan. Data were collected by administering self-constructed questionnaire mode of 5-point Likert type options. Validity of the instrument was confirmed from experts and Cronbach’s Alpha was applied to ensure instrument’s reliability scores; .864. Learners’ educational gains of science and arts students were obtained from gazette of Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Lahore. Results of independent sample t-test and regression analysis ascertained that teachers’ centered students’ pedagogical approaches effect 58% on learners’ educational gains whereas brainstorming 43%, inquiry 57%, problem solving 54% and cooperative technique effect 50% on learners’ educational gains. Science teachers were making more use of brainstorming, inquiry, problem solving, and cooperative teaching as compared to arts teachers. Study recommends that Govt. may train heads of the institutions on students’ centered teachers’ pedagogical approaches and bound them to implement with true spirit and vigor through teachers to overcome science and specially arts students’ declining level of educational gains; stakeholders’ cause for concern.

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Authors: Ahmed Saeed Yahya, Shakil Khawaja, Jude Chukwuma

Both philosophy and cognitive science have made valuable contributions towards accounting for the aetiology of Schizophrenia, an illness that possesses a disparate assortment of symptoms. However, there is no firm agreement on what causes such experiences to arise. A theory is proposed which simplifies the signs and symptoms of Schizophrenia and is something which does not appear to exist in the field to date. The model proposed is a hybrid theory, combining the phenomenological approach of Sass and Parnas with elements from Frith and Hemsley’s cognitive science perspective. An argument is that if a hybrid theory was used it would assist in the early intervention of Schizophrenia by providing a focus for treatment during developmental stages.

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Authors: Editorial Board

Cover, PPC, Vol. 13, No. 2, 2019

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Authors: Vaitsa Giannouli

Although medicine, psychology and law have a long history behind them (Frank, 1930; Kapardis, 2009), and several issues may emerge at the interface of these scientific fields, new specific disciplines have been created to fill the research gap, such as legal psychology and forensic psychology (Taylor, 2019). In this direction, forensic neuropsychology combines not only psychometric testing, but also interviews, behavioral observations, and record reviews as additional sources of information for answering cognitive functioning questions in legal and forensic settings (Fink, 2007). Additionally, the emergence of a new promising interdisciplinary field, neurolaw, explores how neuroscience and advanced techniques can be used in the legal system (Meynen, 2014; van Dongen & Franken, 2019). Although there are still a plethora of topics that are not adequately described and need further research in neuropsychology, several attempts have been made to collect data for different research questions linked to this complex field (Canter & Žukauskiene, 2019). Methods and protocols regarding the processes of criminal profiling, the examination of cognitive biases in legal decision making, interrogations and confessions, detection of deception, eyewitness memory and false memories-distortions, cognition and emotions of child witnesses, and competence to stand trial, are still not clear (Bornstein & Miller, 2016; Brewer & Douglass, 2019).

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Authors: Mariam Kvitsiani, Maia Mestvirishvili, Khatuna Martskvishvili, Tamar Kamushadze, Mariam Odilavadze, Mariam Panjikidze

When talking about human well-being, Unconditional Self-acceptance represents one of the cores. Although researchers have focused on various predictors of Acceptance, there is not a clear understanding of personal values impacting the process of accepting oneself. The aim of the research was to explore the association between basic values and unconditional self-acceptance, and to find out the role of psychological flexibility in this relationship. 370 participants filled the questionnaires to explore basic values, unconditional self-acceptance and psychological flexibility. As data showed, self-transcendence and openness to change predict higher level of psychological flexibility, however, only openness to change possesses positive predictive power for unconditional self-acceptance. Mediation model indicates that basic value system of openness to changes is the one, which reflected on individual’s higher psychological flexibility, and through this flexibility she/he achieves higher level of unconditional self-acceptance. The research confirmed a unique role of openness to change in association with self-acceptance which might be an important insight for clinical psychologists as well as for mental health professionals.

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Authors: Nadja Walter, Thomas Heinen

Despite typical physiological risks of regular physical activity such as injuries or overtraining, particularly excessive exercise can have psychological side effects and become obsessive. This obsessiveness is often associated with symptoms of addiction (i.e., reduction of other activities, lack of control, withdrawal symptoms). However, the underlying process of developing an exercise addiction is not yet fully understood. Besides the physiological approach, there are several psychological and socio-theoretical models focusing on personal and situational factors. The aim of this research was to explore the role of psycho-social aspects and their influence on symptoms of exercise addiction. 501 participants were asked to record their current sport regarding type, intensity, frequency, and competitive activity. Furthermore, the participants were asked about the motives to exercise as well as their inspiration to start with their current sport. Addictive symptoms were assessed using the Exercise Dependence Scale (EDS). It was expected, that inspiration, competitive activity, as well as the motives achievement striving and catharsis have an influence on the EDS score. The results showed that athletes rating the motives achievement striving, catharsis and enjoyment of movement as important or very important showed significantly higher scores in the EDS. No significant differences were found for inspiration, but competitive activity. The findings suggest an important role of intrinsic motivation on the development of exercise addition, particularly the motive enjoyment of movement. However, the interaction of personal and situational factors needs to be explored further.

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Authors: Editorial Board

Cover, Vol. 13, No. 1, 2019, PPC

4-6

Authors: Irakli Imedadze

In 1979 a large international symposium dedicated to the problem of unconscious was held in Tbilisi. More than 150 visitors from 17 foreign countries and about the same member from different scientific centers of the former Soviet Union took part in its work. These ciphers may not sound very impressive now but taking into account the years when the Soviet Union was still separated from outer world by the so called “iron curtain”, the symposium can indeed be considered a grand event. Foreign participants came not only from the countries of “socialist camp”, but also from Western states (Austria, Canada, England, Ireland, Italy, France, USA, Western Germany). One more notable thing is that a lot of researchers working in the sphere of psychoanalysis visited Tbilisi. Remembering the fact that psychoanalysis, even at that period, stayed as the main ideological “scarecrow” for “Soviet psychology”, the symposium seemed really unique and unprecedented.

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Authors: Jiang-Zhou Yeh, Hsiu-Lan Chin, Tai-Lin Wu, Shuo-En Xu, Bor-Wen Cheng

This research adopted a quasi-experimental design in which purposive sampling was used. The research site was the National Cheng Kung University Hospital Dou-Liou Branch dementia daycare center, from which 30 patients with dementia who were ≥ 65 years old were recruited. During the research, participants were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control groups. During the research, eight participants withdrew due to personal reasons; 22 participants completed the research. The research spanned 12 weeks, from 21 September to 31 December 2017. The experimental group included four male dementia patients (76.25 ± 6.61 years), of which three had mild dementia and one had moderate dementia; and seven female dementia patients (80.14 ± 6.38 years), of which four had mild dementia and three had moderate dementia. In the control group, there were five seniors male dementia patients (80.8 ± 1.6 years), of which three had mild dementia and two had moderate dementia; and six female dementia patients (82.83 ± 8.93 years), of which three had mild dementia and three had moderate dementia. The present research employed an interactive drum-beating somatosensory game, “Taiko no Tatsujin”. Results showed that differences in the experimental group across the 12-week program reached statistical significance (p =.046*). The Jamar dynamometer was used to measure the grip strength of both hands of the participants; the experimental group showed significant improvement across the 12 weeks (p≦.001***). The Minnesota manual dexterity test was used to measure bilateral hand coordination of the participants. Though there were significant differences in the performance between the experimental and control groups (p≦.001***), both groups improved the time taken to complete the test across the 12 weeks.

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Authors: Yasuto Okamura, Mitsuhiro Ura

Research in cognitive linguistics suggests that individuals understand abstract concepts by using knowledge of the superficially dissimilar, and more concrete concepts through conceptual metaphors. Previous studies have reported round-warm and square-competent associations: such that curved shapes (e.g., rounds) increase the perception of warmth and angular shapes (e.g., squares) enhance the perception of competence in a metaphor-consistent manner. The study investigated whether manipulating abstract concepts (e.g., social judgments) influenced the processing of concrete concepts (e.g., shapes). Participants were asked to select round or square ornaments in a restaurant in a dating (warm) or a business (competent) situation. Results indicated that participants in the dating condition selected more round ornaments whereas those in the business condition selected more square ornaments, revealing that the representations of a round shape were activated in the dating condition, whereas the representations of a square shape were activated in the business situation. The theoretical implications of this finding are discussed.

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Authors: Editorial Board

End, Vol. 13, No. 1, 2019, PPC

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Authors: Editorial Board

Cover page, PPC, Vol. 12, No. 2, 2018

60-62

Authors: Sergii Boltivets

The emergence of a public request for the realization of special abilities of a person, focused on children, is typical for countries where awareness of their own intellectual backwardness has become a consequence of comparison with others. This is the so-called post-totalitarian or, more specifically, post-communist countries, different from the free world, as thoroughly proved by the study "Psychotherapy in the Western World and in the USSR" (1973) by one of the most prominent hypnotherapists and psychotherapists of the world Dr. Eugene Hlywa (Sydney, Australia). In particular, a definite stature, inherent in every human population, the aggregate of the capacities of people's abilities is roughly equal in each country.

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Authors: Lili Khechuashvili, Mariam Gogichaishvili, Tamari Jananashvili

Two independent mixed method studies are aimed at exploration of the major process of negotiation with an internalization of the master narrative, which assists as the cultural framework for narrative identity development. It analysed and compared the data obtained from same-sex desire individuals, ex-convicts and ordinary Georgian citizens, and traced the process of autobiographical reasoning and negotiation with autobiographical master narrative as the mean for development alternative master narrative, which, in turn, serves as the avenue for overcoming stigma, achieving resocialization and generativity, and coming in accord to one’s own identity. The comparative analysis addressed the following questions: How do research participants construct biographical alternative master narrative? Does this narrative lead to generativity? Does autobiographical reasoning mediate development of alternative master narrative? Altogether 30 life stories (16 same-sex desired persons and 14 ex-convicts) or 840 narratives were coded for narrative autobiographical reasoning, generativity, as well as for narrative structure (redemption and contamination). Besides, thematic comparative analysis was carried out. Qualitative analysis revealed the main thematic lines of the life stories, such as stigmatization and victimization, family relations, hard childhood experiences, urge for generativity, resocialization and identity formation. Research participants from both samples constructed their life stories or narrative identities through bringing on the surface the implicit master narrative and creating their own alternative one via either shifting and replacing the events or modifying sequences of the events included in the normative life story or autobiographical master narrative.

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Authors: Tinatin Tiabashvili, Rusudan Mirtskhulava, Marine Japaridze

Mythodrama group psychotherapy approach of resolving conflict and bullying has been successful as an intervention in a school setting. This study aimed to provide further evaluation of Mythodrama group approach. A total of 97 Georgian adolescents (Mean of age = 14.65, SD = 1.76) participated in the controlled experimental study. Participants of the experimental group received a Mythodrama group intervention during a period of three months. Analyses revealed a significant increase in emotional intelligence, prosocial behavior and adaptive coping strategies in the intervention group. No significant changes were observed in the control group. The findings suggest that adolescents’ behavior, trait emotional intelligence and coping strategies can be improved using Mythodrama intervention. Follow-up research is required to reveal the persistence and replicability of the result.