Problems of Psychology in the 21st Century

3

Authors: Editorial Board

Contents, Vol. 4, PPC, 2012

6-15

Authors: Beata Grabovac

Recently there has been a growing body of research interested in the concept of love and in the emotional life of bilinguals. The aim of this research was twofold. One aim was to explore the love styles of young people in Vojvodina, Serbia in the context of Hungarian and Serbian language. On the other hand, a monolingual Serbian group and a bilingual group of Hungarian-Serbian young people were studied to see if there were significant differences in their intimate relationships in Serbian, as the dominant language and in Hungarian, as a minority language. The goal was to explore if there were different love styles connected to each language in a majority and a minority group. Additionally, we wanted to see if there were detectable language dominance effects in bilinguals, whether bilinguals had different romantic relationship constructs in their two languages. In this research, Susan and Clyde Hendrick's Love Attitude Scale-Short form was applied. The scale was translated into Hungarian and Serbian. The equality of the meaning of the two scale versions was carefully matched. The results showed that comparing the monolingual group and the bilingual group in the first language there were group differences in Eros and Agape. In the monolingual Hungarian and bilingual Serbian answers we can find the same differences: Eros and Agape were found to be more powerfully expressed in the bilingual group in both of their languages compared to the monolingual group. Considering bilinguals' first and second language results, two styles have been found to differ. These were Mania and Storge, which were present in different amounts in the first and the second language. The relevance of this study lies in the fact that there is a rising number of multiethnic and multicultural intimate relationships. Many of the partners have to use a second language to express love and affection. Expression and understanding of emotions may depend on the language which is used in communication and on cultural variation in values and norms. This research has important implications for the study of ethnocultural differences and first- and second language modulated affective functioning.

29-38

Authors: Nontokozo Mashiya

This article reports on Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) students’ experiences of learning as part time students in one South African Higher Education Institution. The aim of the study was to find out if part time students are fully included in the life of the university. This has been necessitated by the countries call for full inclusion of learners in teaching and learning. This study reveals the experiences and the feelings of students regarding the way they perceive teaching and learning as part time students. This is a qualitative study located within an interpretive paradigm. Two focus group interviews were conducted with PGCE students. These students were randomly selected from a pool of part time students. Each focus group consisted of six students. Data were transcribed and later were analyzed using phenomenological steps. The results suggest that in most cases part time students do not get the attention full time students get. There are some activities full time students are exposed to which cannot be done with full time students. This includes inadequate teaching and learning contact sessions and communication breakdown. Lecturers offered by guest lecturers who are experts in different fields are also one of the ways in which part time students are excluded. This study highlights the importance of equating services given to these students as stakeholders in higher education institutions (HEI). Without consideration of full inclusion of students into the full life of the entire institution, the aim of producing more and better teachers is unlikely to materialize. The study concludes by making necessary recommendations to remedy the situation.

50-61

Authors: Marta Reis, Margarida Gaspar de Matos, Lúcia Ramiro, Isa Figueira

Self-harm behavior refers to the intentional self-destruction or alteration of body tissue without deliberate suicidal intent. Studies claimed self-harm as being associated to obsessive-compulsive characteristics and eating disorders, emotion-regulation functions when interpersonal distress occurs and physiological reactivity during a distressing task in association to social problem-solving deficits. Three national studies referring to young people will be presented. The main study’s aim was to understand frequency of self-harm in Portuguese students and understanding the associations between self-harm and risk behaviors. A convenience sample of 206 was collected among high school and university students. The instrument used was a self-completed questionnaire: “Teens Self-Destructive Scale”. A minority of self-harmers was found. Results suggested associations between self-harm, eating disorders and difficulties regarding self-regulation of emotions and that self-harm can be considered a non-adaptive and not successful personal strategy to manage emotions. Findings from the other two national studies will be referred. All together, these findings demonstrate the relevance of studies in this domain and helped producing guidelines in terms of therapeutic interventions. During the last decades, young people became more literate regarding health information and more aware of risk behaviors, but did not improve their literacy about emotions and how to deal with them. Are we in need for a "positive" approach to mental health promotion in young people?

71-84

Authors: Marina Safonova

In the article results of studying of social representations of Russians about the lonely person are considered. The loneliness in the modern world has ceased to be for a long time a problem of the separate person, for the specific reasons not managed to adapt for a society, to build emotional mutual relations satisfying it with associates. It has turned to a serious social problem. Efficiency of the psychological help to lonely people, constructions and realizations of programs on preventive maintenance of chronic loneliness is in many respects connected with the account of the developed social representations about loneliness and the lonely person. Difficulties in studying of a phenomenon of loneliness are somewhat connected with necessity to receive the information which mentions deep intimate layers of the person. On the one hand, work mechanisms of psychological protection. The respondent starts to have a feeling of alarm because of necessity to give answers about itself, with another – the tendency to social desirability is shown. For minimization of these displays in research the method of the projective composition was used. During the content-analysis of the text information received by a method of projective compositions, 13 semantic components have been allocated, each of which opens certain lines of an image of the lonely person. Psychological interpretation of the received data has allowed to describe some prototypes of the lonely person developing in representations of contemporaries. The urgency of the use of a category "prototype" is connected with specific features of a social reality: complexity, dynamism, variability, a polysemy of the signs used for a categorization. According to model of frequency of signs, the prototype reflects most often meeting signs, accordingly, the prototype is acquired through fixing of the repeating elements inherent in an object, or a situation. The analysis of representations of respondents about the lonely person allows to allocate some developing prototypes: "careerist", «a lonely wolf», "homebody", " the unsocial person".

104

Authors: Editorial Board

End page, Vol. 4, 2012, PPC