Use of Proverbs and Narrative Thought

Use of Proverbs and Narrative Thought

Author(s): Outi Lauhakangas / Language(s): English / Issue: 35/2007

Keywords: functions of proverbs; mundane reasoning; narrative strength of proverbs; persuasive communication; proverbs in contexts; social interaction; social strategies

The article is based on a research of the functions of proverbs insocial interaction. Academician Matti Kuusi’s characterization of proverbs as signs of situations and emotional loadings was a starting point for the writer to collect material of proverbs in their social contexts. The multicultural corpus consists of context examples borrowed from other scholars around the world, from Finnish folklore archives and fiction, from everyday situations and the media. The use of proverbs or proverb-like sayings deals with questions concerning the same themes as in folk narrative research in general: selective memory, reconstruction of experiences, explaining and reasoning about the past, giving instructions and warnings for the future, encouraging or amusing each other, etc. The speech where proverbs are used and its mode of rationality differ from logical and scientific argumentation. The point is in the narrative strength of proverbs in social contexts. Proverbs are multifunctional and flexible instruments of everyday reasoning, although they may maintain solidified attitudesor traditional modes of thought of a certain culture.

Digging One's Own Grave

Digging One's Own Grave

Author(s): Arvo Krikmann / Language(s): English / Issue: 35/2007

Keywords: metaphor; metonymy; blending theory; DIVIDED PERSON METAPHOR; idioms; proverbs

The paper aims to demonstrate that some points in the explicationof the figurative expression digging one’s own grave via the concept of blending given by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner are problematic: (1) Not understanding the consequences of one’s deeds is an almost universal presuppositionof and impulse or motivation for actualizing any utterance with a forewarning or gloating content (e.g., proverbs), not the singularity characterizing just the expression of grave-digging as such. (2) The inversion of causal and temporal structure is not the case because of metonymic association between the concepts of the grave and death, as a result of which specific causal and temporal order loses any significance. Many synonymous examples can be given in which the image refers to events before the death, between the death and funeral, as well as those after burial. (3) The source domain needs not to be restricted to natural death and modern civilized funerals but should include also the cases of violent deaths, e.g., the scenario of execution and the scenario of hunting and trapping. Preliminarily, a very brief synopsis of the main phases of development of cognitive linguistic theory of metaphor and some favourite examples of blends, used also in previous works, is provided.

Riddles as a Community Psychological Phenomenon in Folklore: Myths, Fairytales, Personal Literature Art

Riddles as a Community Psychological Phenomenon in Folklore: Myths, Fairytales, Personal Literature Art

Author(s): Ana Stefanova / Language(s): English / Issue: 35/2007

Keywords: riddle; neck riddle; sacred; profane; community psychological phenomenon; concept; endocept; folklore; fortune telling; symbol; game

The paper is an attempt to review riddles as a community psychologicalphenomenon, through the point of view of the analytical psychology of C.G. Jung, M. Eliade, E. Durkheim’s conception about sacred and profane and the conception of S. Arieti about concept and endocept.There is also a review of neck riddles as similar to the ritual of initiation, fortune telling, other community phenomena, and as a way to reach individuation, the Self.

Some Interlinguistic Relationships in the First Hungarian Proverb Collection of 1598

Some Interlinguistic Relationships in the First Hungarian Proverb Collection of 1598

Author(s): Gyula Paczolay / Language(s): English / Issue: 35/2007

Keywords: Bible; Balkan; Decsi; Erasmus; European; German; Greek; history; Hungarian; Italian; Latin; origins; proverbs; Slavonic; Turkish

Following a short historical introduction, referring to more than athousand Hungarian students studying at Wittenberg and other universities in the 16th century, the article presents proverbs included in the first 1598 Hungarian collection, which was compiled by the Strasburg graduate schoolmaster János Baranyai Decsi and was based on the 1574 edition of Adagiorum Chiliades by Erasmus, and others. It includes universal proverbs like “What isn’t good for you, isn’t good for others”, European loan proverbs originating in the Greek classics, like “To keep a snake in the bosom” (Aesop), from Roman classics, like “To carry wood to the forest” (Horace), “Cobbler do not go beyond your last” (Pliny the Elder), “Go slowly, you arrive earlier” (Suetonius), proverbs from the Bible “He digs a pit for others and falls in himself” (Proverbs 26: 27) – “You see a splinter in another’s eye, but fail to see a beam in your own” (Matthew 7: 3).From Medieval Latin there is, for example, “One need not inspect the tooth of a gift horse”, “Where a pig is offered, be there with your bag”, “Where there are three women, there is a market.” There are also some Hungarian variants of European proverbs. Regional and sub-regional proverbs include those having Nordic (Slavonic, Baltic) affiliations, like “Peel the lime tree until it peels”. “A cheap meat has a dilute broth” has Northern and Southern Slavonic, Baltic and Turkish equivalents (meat is replaced by fish in Estonian, Finnish, Zyryan and Ukrainian), “One stone is enough [to frighten] one thousand crows” can be found in Bulgarian, Turkish and Persian. “One sitting among the reeds can make a whistle of his choice” and “It does (not) bring much to the kitchen” have earlier exact German equivalents, while “A liar is caught sooner than a lame man” is found in different Romance languages. There are a number of proverbs found only in Hungarian, like “The pepper is small but ‘strong’”, “A Székely picks up anything of more value than a louse”, “He that wants to shoot a crow, does not bang his bow”, “There is no packed hay-cart unable to carry one more forkful of hay”, etc.

How Long Are Sayings?

How Long Are Sayings?

Author(s): Anneli Baran / Language(s): English / Issue: 35/2007

Keywords: literary language; metaphorical meaning; phraseological expressions; saying; semantics

We talk, communicate, chat, speak, and make utterances – all thesesynonymous verbs signify verbal communication and mark the same action. The action may also be expressed by means of set expressions, or more precisely, phrases or idioms. Words, phrases and syntactic units, or the sc. microtexts, are at our disposal. The issue may be also considered at another angle – namely, how short can a phrase be for it to preserve its contents? Compared to other short forms (proverbs, riddles), phrases are generally characterised as being shorter. It has been determined that the minimum length of a phrase is a combination of at least two fully semantic words. According to a common claim aphrase characterises a specific situation. Therefore, a phrase can only exist as a set expression in a context. Conceptualising phraseologisms, however, prompts the question of the ‘obligatory’ and ‘facultative’ constituents of a phraseologism, i.e. the issue of its form and, more importantly, of its defining. While discussing the motivation of phrasal expressions, scholars often refer to their opacity vs. transparency. But what would the ideal form be for which people possess sufficient background knowledge, including phraseological competence, which is required for understanding a given expression? What is the smallest number ofwords necessary for understanding an expression? Whether and to which extent can we find help in metalanguage framing a set phrase? In the article I will discuss the issues related to the study of phrasal semantics on the example of set phrases connected with the image of talking, narration, words, etc. The discussion will rely on material from the database of Estonian phrases.

“The proof of the proverb is in the probing": Alan Dundes as Pioneering Paremiologist

“The proof of the proverb is in the probing": Alan Dundes as Pioneering Paremiologist

Author(s): Wolfgang Mieder / Language(s): English / Issue: 35/2007

Keywords: Alan Dundes; paremiology; proverbs; ethnic slurs; Dundes’s works

Alan Dundes (1934–2005) was one of the giants of internationalfolkloristics whose voluminous publications and lectures delivered around the world touched thousands of scholars and students of folklore. The paremiological tribute to Alan Dundes has been divided into eight sections, a conclusion, and a list of references cited, i.e., 1. Honoring Alan Dundes with Three Festschriften; 2. Proverbs as Exemplifications of Folklore Theory; 3. Major Paremiological Contributions; 4. Proverbs as Expressions of Worldview; 5. The Darker Side of Proverbs: Ethnic Slurs and National Character; 6. Proverbs as Collateral Folklore References; 7. Major Monographs Based in Part on Proverbial Matters; and 8. The Interplay of Paremiology and Paremiography.

Introduction

Wprowadzenie

Author(s): Małgorzata Górnik-Durose / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 40 (1)/2013

Cervical cancer in awareness of high school youths. Analyse on the basis of the social campaign project

Rak szyjki macicy w świadomości młodzieży ponadgimnazjalnej. Na przykładzie projektu kampanii społecznej dotyczącej profilaktyki raka szyjki macicy

Author(s): Agnieszka Skorupa / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 40 (1)/2013

Keywords: cervical cancer; social campaign; pro-health attitude; youths

Among many problems which should be provided with health promotion one of the most important is a cervical cancer (WHO, 2009). In Poland are being run many social campaigns but none of them is directed toward highschool youths. An unique project of social campaign aimed at youths was created in close collaboration of University of Silesia with Medical University of Silesia. The campaign is being run since September 2009. The project is divided into two stages. Firstly, we diagnosed level of awareness and attitudes toward cancer among high school youths (622 respondents). Secondly, basing on the knowledge from the first stage we created an interactive workshop. Students who are participating in workshops are filling in two questionnaires diagnosing change of their attitudes towards health (in the process). The analyse of scientific material from the first stage shows that most of respondents have not visited gynaecologist so far. 39,5% students are unrealistic optimists as far as their own potential illness is considered. There are serious lacks in knowledge about cervical cancer, moreover, the lowest level of health awareness is observed among girls who are sexually active (23% of respondents).

Job satisfaction as a component of life quality of contemporary human

Zadowolenie z pracy jako komponent jakości życia współczesnego człowieka

Author(s): Agata Chudzicka-Czupała / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 40 (1)/2013

Keywords: job satisfaction; organizational climate; unethical behavior

The author of the article presents the results of the studies conducted among the workers of Polish organizations concerned with the conditioning of job satisfaction. The analyses are conducted in the context of such variables as experiencing unethical behavior at work from the perspective of the victim and of the observer, organizational climate, the size and the type of the organization.

Menopause and the quality of life

Menopauza a jakość życia

Author(s): Eleonora Bielawska-Batorowicz / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 40 (1)/2013

Keywords: menopause; quality of life; health related quality of life; psychological aspects of menopause; individual concept of menopause; adulthood

The paper presents selected issues related to the quality of life after the menopause. First, it gives the short account of theoretical approaches to quality of life and to health related quality of life. Building on that the author discusses quality of life after the menopause, and in particular these options which include the subjective perspective of menopausal women. The results of psychological studies into the menopausal transition are shortly presented. In all these studies the intensity of menopausal symptoms was considered the indicator of quality of life. The findings demonstrate that intensity of symptoms is related to personality (i.e. high neuroticism), temperament (i.e. high reactivity), to the intensive stress and ineffective coping strategies, and to the life situation (i.e. difficulties in family and personal life). Finally, the author brings forward the idea that the quality of life related to menopausal transition should be analyzed in the context of life-span development. The individual concept of menopause should also be considered.

The sources of humans’ satisfaction with life in terms of the evolutionary psychology — selected aspects

Źródła ludzkiego zadowolenia z życia z punktu widzenia psychologii ewolucyjnej — wybrane zagadnienia

Author(s): Łukasz Jach / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 40 (1)/2013

Keywords: psychology of happiness; error management theory; evolutionary psychology; satisfaction with life; positive psychology

The topic of the article is evolutionary reflection on human sense of happiness, its causes and determinants. According to evolutionary foundations, emotional and cognitive processes connected with feeling of psychological well-being represent the symptom of functioning of psychic mechanisms developed in response to environmental problems of adaptation. Based on this thesis we present explanations of such phenomena as positive and negative emotionality, commonness of optimistic attitude and general positive inclination and influence of contemporary environmental conditions on our sense of happiness. The last part of the article treats shows some ways of practical employment of evolutionary knowledge to develop human well-being.

Machiavellianism and psychopathy

Makiawelizm a psychopatia

Author(s): Irena Pilch / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 40 (1)/2013

Keywords: personality; Machiavellianism; subclinical psychopathy

The aim of this article is to compare two partly overlapping personality variables — Machiavellianism and subclinical psychopathy. Individuals with these traits share tendency to be callous, selfish and manipulative. Some researchers argued that, in nonclinical samples, these two variables are equivalent. The author presents a review of the theories and studies confirming discriminant validity of the Machiavellianism construct.

Psychological determinants of life satisfaction in retirement age

Psychologiczne wyznaczniki zadowolenia z życia osób w wieku emerytalnym

Author(s): Maria Finogenow / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 40 (1)/2013

Keywords: retirement age; life satisfaction; emotions; personal resources; self-rated health

The aim of the study was to analyze the relationship between psychological variables (personality traits, personal resources, self-rated health) and psychological well-being (life satisfaction, positive and negative emotions) in those over retirement age. The results show significant correlations between most personality traits, personal resources and psychological well-being. No significant dependences have been found between openness to experiences and life satisfaction. The relationship between self-rated health and psychological well-being seem to be curvilinear. The regression analysis for life satisfaction has displayed three predicators that explain altogether 25% of the results’ variance: the sense of comprehensibility (R2 = 0,18), self-esteem and self-efficacy. Positive emotions are predicted by four predicators that are responsible for 34% of the total variance — the sense of meaningfulness (R2 = 0,25), extraversion, self-efficacy and neuroticism. The greatest role in predicting negative emotions (altogether 58% of the results’ variance) is played by neuroticism (R2 = 0,46). Other variables that are marked as significant ones in the regression analysis (the sense of manageability, intensity of self-esteem and extraversion) play a less important role.

Acceptance of chronic disease and level of distress in ambulatory patients

Akceptacja choroby przewlekłej i poziom dystresu pacjentów leczących się ambulatoryjnie

Author(s): Anita Gałuszka / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 40 (1)/2013

Keywords: acceptance of illness; distress thermometer; emotions; chronic illness

The lack of homogeneity of the ambulatory patients group may have specific interdependencies of psychosocial variables. Therefore, studies have been undertaken to determine the level of intensity of some of them and to reveal the correlation between them. The study has focused on: acceptance of the disease, the level of distress, the disease‑related physical and emotional state (both positive and negative). Methods: an Acceptance of Illness Scale, by B.J Felton, T.A. Revenson and G.A. Hinrichsen (in Polish version by Z. Juczyński), Distress Thermometer developed by the American Cancer Society in the Polish adaptation of J. Życińska, E. Wojtyna, A. Heyda and A. Syska‑Bielak, Form for Determinants of Patient Vital and a questionnaire to collect socio‑demographic data, both designed for the study reported. The research group consisted of 94 patients. Their average age was 50, while the average duration of morbidity was 10 years. Results: the level of distress exceeded the cut‑off point (4), and it is correlated with negative emotions. The acceptance of the illness is negatively correlated with negative emotions and physical symptoms associated with the illness. In addition, the average level of distress varies significantly in patients with low, medium and high levels of negative emotions and significantly differs in patients with middle and high levels of acceptance of the disease.

Short group rational behavioural therapy and quality of life among cancer patients

Krótka grupowa racjonalna terapia zachowania a jakość życia chorych na nowotwory

Author(s): Ewa Wojtyna,Iwona Nawara / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 40 (1)/2013

Keywords: brief cognitive-behaviour therapy; rational behaviour therapy; cancer; quality of life

The aim of the study was to explore the impact of a short group rational behavioral therapy (RBT) on a quality of life among cancer patients. The study involved 217 people with cancer. 137 people formed the experimental group, which took part in the seven days, group psychotherapeutic classes, based on RBT. The control group consisted of 80 patients waiting for a therapy. The study was longitudinal and consisted of pre-and posttest (8 weeks after the end of the therapeutic influence). The quality of life was estimated by the Polish version of the SF-36v2. It was observed, that in the experimental group the quality of life increased in all areas of a health related quality of life, except for a physical functioning. These changes, with the exception of modifications in a role emotional scale, were bound up with RBT. In the control group the quality of life improved in the scales: a social functioning, a mental health and a bodily pain. However, the observed changes were higher in the experimental group. In both groups there was no deterioration in the quality of life in any of the investigated scales. In summary, the short group RBT can be a valuable complement to standard cancer therapy, particularly for people who seek help and have higher motivation to work.

Parent’s values and children’s materialistic tendencies

Wartości rodziców i tendencje materialistyczne dzieci

Author(s): Dorota Dykalska-Bieck,Anna Maria Zawadzka / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 40 (1)/2013

Keywords: materialism; values; family; intrinsic and extrinsic goals

Following the autodetermination theory research, we can conclude that social environment may lower people’s well-being by enhancing the pursuit for extrinsic goals, inconsistent with human nature. Socioeconomic situation of the family, parental style of the mother, lack of communication in the family, divorce or lack of the father are indicated as sources of children’s materialism. The aim of the paper is to answer the following questions: Are parental values linked with children’s materialistic tendencies? If yes, how are they linked? Children and their patents were surveyed (study 1 — children age and parents, M = 10,5, study 2 — children age M = 4,85 and mothers). Children were asked about their associations with a happy person and about their materialistic aspirations. Parents filled the following value scales: Rokeach Value Survey (study 1) and Schwartz Portret Values Questionnaire (study 2). The results show that mothers of materialistic children valued ‘happiness’ (study 1) and ‘power’ (study 2) more than mothers of non-materialistic children, whereas they valued ‘mature love’ (study 1) and ‘tradition’ (study 2) less than mothers of non-materialistic children. There were no differences between fathers of materialistic and non-materialistic children (study 1). However, in the group of materialistic children the values of their mothers and fathers differed. The fathers valued ‘mature love’ and ‘pleasure’ higher than the mothers whereas they valued ‘happiness’ lower than the mothers. The results imply that values of mothers pursuing extrinsic goals may be linked with materialistic tendencies of their children.

Individual correlates of “good” subjective health

Indywidualne korelaty samooceny „dobrego” zdrowia

Author(s): Joanna Mateusiak / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 40 (1)/2013

Keywords: Five-Factor Model; type A behaviour; type D personality; subjective health

The obtained results reveal some significant relationships among the measured features. The aim of this present paper is to study how personality traits from the Five-Factor Model, type A behavior and type D personality correlate with the categories of subjective health: positive thinking, mental condition, physical activity, sensitivity to others and efficiency of action. First, neuroticism was negatively related to all measures of subjective health, whereas extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience were positively related to subjective health but the relations were not so strong. Second, the study indicates that subjective health is considerably improved by activity and actions but deteriorated by vulnerability, self-consciousness and anxiety. These findings are in line with the results concerning the relationships between subjective health and type A behaviour (positive relation) and type D personality (negative relation). The correlations between agreeableness and subjective health in the study are not so clear. It may result from the fact that some constituents of this trait correlate positively and some negatively with subjective health. Additionally, deteriorated subjective health correlate with both high and low intensity of this trait and this may be another possible explanation of the above-mentioned inconsistency.

Quality of life, sense of success and psychological mercantilism among professionally active people

Jakość życia a poczucie sukcesu i merkantylizm psychiczny u osób aktywnych zawodowo

Author(s): Mariola Paruzel-Czachura / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 40 (1)/2013

Keywords: quality of life; economic activity; success; psychological mercantilism

This article presents empirical research on quality of life, success and psychical mercantilism among entrepreneurs, employees of state and private companies (2010). Among the many psychological theories have been selected concepts that stress multidimensionality: personalistic‑existential concept of quality of life of Maria Straś‑Romanowska, the concept of success of Dominika Dej, Ute Stephan, Marian Gorgievsky and the mental concept of mercantilism by Małgorzata Górnik‑Durose. The results indicate significant differences in the level of quality of life, psychological mercantilism and success among the professionally active people and the existence of weak or moderate correlation between the quality of life, success and psychological mercantilism.

The Story of a Woman from Grozny.

Рассказ грозненки.

Author(s): Inna Aleksandrova / Language(s): Russian / Issue: 27/2001

Keywords: Cechnya; genocide; war; bombing

A Chechen nurse Malika Khashumova, fled to Moscow, shares painful experiences from her life in war-damaged Grozny.

Development of Human Rights Movement in Russia

Развитие правозащитного движения в России

Author(s): Aleksey Smirnov / Language(s): Russian / Issue: 27/2001

Keywords: NGO; development of NGOs in Russia; research; not-for-profit organization; activists; finance

The author, human rights activist from 1969, gives systematic historical overview of Russian human rights movement. Defining NGO’s main aims, their part in the Soviet Union’s break-up and interaction with government machinery, he focuses on their present activities and several financial issues. Russian businessmen start to understand the necessity of offering financial support to NGOs and making their first steps in that field.