Psychological Thought

132-141

Authors: Dilwar Hussain

Over the last few decades there has been a substantial increase in the research and applications of meta-cognition and mindfulness. The concept of meta-cognition and mindfulness seems different and their research literature evolved independent of each other. However, meta-cognition and mindfulness share many commonalities and are conceptually related in many ways. Evidently, there has been relatively little research addressing this relationship. The research tradition of meta-cognition and mindfulness may strengthen and benefit each other. Specific aspects, such as development of ‘meta-awareness’ can be integrated with each other in a complementary as well as supplementary manner in applied settings such as psychotherapy. This paper describes the nature of meta-cognition and mindfulness and reviews their conceptual relationships. Finally, theoretical and applied implications of this relationship are discussed.

148-172

Authors: Eva Papazova, Raymond Moody, John Bathurst

Emerging adulthood exists only in cultures that allow young people a prolonged period of independent social roles and exploration during the late teens and twenties. It is a period of the course of life that is culturally constructed, not universal or immutable (Arnett, 2000). This assumption led to the idea for comparison of this age in three cultures - Bulgarian, Hawaiian and New Zealand. The Myers-Briggs type indicator, Form G, was administered (Myers et al., 1998). The sample consisted of 289 respondents, aged 18-29, respectively the Bulgarians were 100, the Hawaiians were 89 and the New Zealanders were 100. Six SRTT comparisons were made. The results show that there were typological differences that distinguished the group of Bulgarians, aged 18-29, from their peers from Hawaii, USA and New Zealand. The specificity was expressed in preference to N, P, T, IN, NP, NT, IP, TP and INTP. This finding is largely consistent with the pursuit of new experience and opportunities, typical for the years of emerging adulthood. As well, there were some typological differences between the gender groups.

189-201

Authors: Thomas H. Dozier

Misophonia is a condition in which a person has an acute emotional response of anger or disgust to a commonly occurring innocuous auditory or visual stimulus referred to as a trigger. This case details the effective treatment of misophonia in a young woman that included a counterconditioning treatment called the Neural Repatterning Technique (NRT), which combines a continuous positive stimulus and a reduced intensity, intermittent trigger. The treatment was delivered via the Misophonia Trigger Tamer smartphone app and all treatments were conducted independently by the patient. In this patient, the trigger elicited a physical reflex of contraction of the flexor digitorum profundus, which caused her to clench her fist. To enhance the effect of the NRT treatment, Progressive Muscle Relaxation was incorporated to increase her ability to deliberately relax the affected muscle during treatment. During NRT treatment sessions, the patient experienced a weak physical reflex to the reduced trigger stimulus but no emotional response. Her emotional response of misophonia was not treated, but when the physical reflex extinguished, the emotional response also extinguished. This case indicates that the misophonic response includes a Pavlovian-conditioned physical reflex. It is proposed that the trigger elicited the physical reflex and the physical reflex then elicited the conditioned emotional response that is characteristic of misophonia. Because of the conditioned reflex nature of misophonia, it is proposed that a more appropriate name for this disorder would be Conditioned Aversive Reflex Disorder.

1-6

Authors: Marius Drugaş

This Editorial article discusses the publishing strategies of some journals, the authors' reactions to them and the quality of publishing.

17-34

Authors: Steven Charles Hertler

Freud noted that the obsessive traits of orderliness, parsimony, and obstinacy incontestably belonged together. This observation has been unfailingly justified, but unsatisfactorily explained. Being a highly heritable pattern essentially unaffected by parental influence, it is counterfactual to continue to explain the obsessive trait constellation as a pathological signature of harsh, authoritarian parenting. Alternatively, the present paper, building upon a previously promulgated evolutionary etiological model, describes how obsessive traits work in unison to enable survival within harsh northerly climates. What appears to be a loosely federated inventory of pathology, after the application of evolutionary reasoning, becomes a coherent behavioral package, adaptive suite, or behavioral syndrome. All three of these terms, taken from behavioral biology, suggest that traits strategically covary, such that the adaptive value of each trait is enhanced by the presence of the others. In this vein, the union of anxious tension and conscientiousness drives the obsessive personality to labor incessantly. The fruits of obsessive labor are then conserved through parsimoniousness, hoarding, vigilance, and niggardliness. And so, obsessive personality is a coherent behavioral package in that the drive to work towards the acquisition of necessities is paired with the drive to conserve and defend them.

47-67

Authors: Maria Clara Ferrão, Gabriela Gonçalves

This article presents an overview of empirical research on the role of observer variables in rape victim blaming (female attacked by a male perpetrator). The focus is on literature from the last 15 years. The variables observer gender, ambivalent sexism, rape myth acceptance, and rape empathy are discussed in relation to victim blaming. Most research on rape is conducted using diverse methods and approaches that result in a great disparity regarding the role of these variables in predicting blame assignments. Despite the inconsistencies, most studies show that men hold the victim more responsible for her own victimization than women. Findings further indicate that higher scores on sexist ideologies and rape myth acceptance predict higher victim blame, and that higher rape empathy scores predict lower victim blame. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

82-93

Authors: Stanislava Stoyanova, Natali Doseva, Teodor Gergov, Emese Virginás-Tar

Nostalgia and sentimentality are very typical for the old age. There are some characteristics that are perceived as typical for the elderly people in the different cultures, such as being dependent, and needing long-term care. There are also some similarities between the population tendencies in Bulgaria and Romania. The simultaneously acceptance in European Union of both countries also suggests the existence of some similar attitudes towards the past among elderly minority people in both countries. The hypothesis of the study was that together with some similarities, the elderly people from both ethnic minorities in the two countries would differ cross-culturally in their sentimentality and nostalgia related to the past. Sentimentality and nostalgia in elderly minority people (26 Roma people in Bulgaria and 21 Hungarians in Romania) were measured by means of a questionnaire created by Gergov & Stoyanova (2013). The results indicated that the Hungarian minority in Romania was more sentimental and nostalgic than the Roma minority in Bulgaria. More thoughts about the past reported the minority young elders than the minority oldest old. The females from the minority groups were more sentimental than the males from the minority groups. Higher sentimentality and nostalgia among elderly Hungarians could be explained by their higher conservatism and more satisfaction with the hystorical past than Roma people. Roma people living in institutions felt a sense of stability in their present and they shared some positive expectations for the future.

105-113

Authors: Shraddha Sharma, Surila Agarwala

Present research was conducted with the purpose to study the effectiveness of behavioural intervention program in enhancing the self-esteem and collective self-esteem among adolescents. The research was conducted on 74 subjects in the age range of 17-23 years. Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (RSE; Rosenberg, 1965) and Collective self-esteem scale developed by Luhtanen and Crocker (1992) were used to measure self-esteem and collective self-esteem respectively. A self-structured behavioural intervention program was administered for three months to enhance low level of self-esteem and low level of collective self-esteem among subjects. In the interventional program, teachers and parents were requested to cooperate. Pre- and post-test design was used. Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was applied to test the significance of difference between pre-intervention scores and post-intervention scores of self-esteem and collective self-esteem. The results showed that the mean self-esteem score in pre-measure was 11.31, which increased to 17.42 in post measure and Z value was 7.51 that was significant at .01 level. It suggests that there is significant difference between pre-intervention self-esteem score and post-intervention self-esteem score. Further, the results showed that the mean collective self-esteem score was 34.73 in pre-intervention measure which increased to 53.47 in post-intervention measure. The obtained Z value for collective self-esteem was 7.57 that was also significant at .01 level. It suggests that there is significant difference between pre-intervention collective self-esteem scores and post-intervention collective self-esteem scores. Thus, the results proved the effectiveness of interventional program in enhancing self-esteem and collective self-esteem.

130-131

Authors: Stanislava Stoyanova

No abstract available.