Problems of Psychology in the 21st Century

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Authors: Editorial Board

Cover page, Vol. 6, 2013, PPC

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Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas

Pedagogical practice preparing future teachers is, undoubtedly, one of the most important elements of university studies. However, up to now pedagogical practice remains a very problematic sphere. Pedagogical activity, on the whole, is complicated, diverse and manifold. After all, it is an activity requiring creativity, high intellect and good psychological preparation. A student doing pedagogical practice, inevitably encounters various hardships -both specialty/professional and psychological. During the practice many different kinds of pedagogical situations are revealed. Various scientific research studies, carried out in the last few years, show the common situation – students-practitioners lack psychological preparation in communication with students, adjusting to a new environment, understanding them and so on. Actually, pedagogical practice theoretical and practical questions were discussed in the international scientific conference which took place between 1- 5 July, 2013 in Yerevan (Armenia). The conference under the theme „Modernization of Continuous Practice and Implementation of Organizational Mechanisms in the Higher Pedagogical Education System“ was organised by Armenian State Pedagogical University named after Khachatur Abovyan.

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Authors: Cristiano M. A. Gomes, Hudson F. Golino, Bianca C. G. Costa

Psychological processes are difficult to be studied due to their complexity. The dynamic system approach shows itself as a good tool for psychology to deal with this complexity issue. We propose two fundamental contributions of the dynamic system approach to psychology and apply it in the study of achievement emotions, appraisal and cognitive achievement. Two hypotheses were investigated: 1) More than one correlation pattern between test achievement, appraisal and emotion will be found; 2) Test achievement, appraisal and emotion form a dynamic system which will be explained by a latent variable that is dependent on the previous state of the system. A sample of thirteen students from seventh to ninth grades performed an inductive reasoning test, appraised their achievement, and declared their emotional valences (from extreme positive to extreme negative). Each variable was measured in 20 different occasions. One correlation matrix of each individual was generated and seven qualitative profiles were identified. Then four different states of relations between the variables were identified through a hidden Markov model. The two hypotheses were not refuted. It’s concluded that the dynamic system approach brings new possibilities to the study of psychological processes.

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Authors: Maureen Ogwokhademhe, C. A. Ishola

The study investigates factors responsible for extramarital affairs as perceived by married adults in Lagos metropolis. Extramarital affair has been described by many authors and scholars and has been identified as one of the causes of marital problem. Descriptive survey method was employed for this study and the population is all married adults in Lagos metropolis. A total number of 200 respondents were randomly selected in Lagos metropolis and a self developed instrument titled “Factors Responsible for Extramarital Affairs Questionnaire” (FAREAQ) was used to collect relevant data from the respondents. Collected data were analyzed with both descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive static was employed for the personal data and research question and inferential statistic was used to analyze the hypotheses generated for the study. All hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha level. The major finding of the study revealed that “sex related factor” was perceived by married adults in Lagos metropolis to be the highest factor responsible for extramarital affair. Gender, age, religion and educational qualification of the factors responsible for extra marital affairs while family type of the respondents did not influence their perception. Implications of the findings to guidance and counselling therefore is that counselling (Guidance) services should be extended to families so as to educate parents on the effects of extramarital affair on marriage and on the children and also for counsellors to emphasize the effectiveness of “sex” in marital relationship. Based on the findings of the study, it was therefore recommended that counsellors should organize continuously on the mass media enlightenment programme on the various factors responsible for extramarital affairs so that couples can learn and work on themselves to secure their marriage.

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Authors: Sílvia Schein, Laíssa Eschiletti Prati

Crack consumption is being a problem that challenges health systems all over the world. In Brazil, changes in public policies were trying to organize the net of services that deal with this public. This paper presents how the public health system is organized and what are the interventions adopted in the different services that attend crack users. Using Ecological Insertion, researchers followed the everyday interventions at different services during three months (in each place). All the observations were registered in field diaries that were qualitatively analyzed. The data collection happened in three hospitals, six psychosocial attention centers, and five basic health unities in Paranhana Valley, southern Brazil. These services are distributed in different levels of attention in the health system. Results show that treating crack users still is a challenge for the system. The services must work integrated and adequate to the user demands. The multidisciplinary work is fundamental (involving psychiatry, psychology, social work and physical education). Different treatment approaches are needed, keeping the crack dependents and their family attended. The general hospital is the preferential therapeutic strategy. The basic health unities do not recognize their responsibility with this public and the psychosocial centers has the feeling that what are offered doesn’t attend the dependent demand. Despite the efforts to provide quality service, professional specialization and commitment with the patients are aspects that must be improved.

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Authors: Editorial Board

End page, Vol. 6, 2013, PPC