A General Factor of Personality in a sample of inmates: associations with indicators of life-history strategy and covitality

Author(s): Daliborka Kujacic,Janko Mededovic / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2017

This study looked for a General Factor of Personality (GFP) in a sample of male convicts (N=226; mean age 32 years). The GFP was extracted from seven broad personality traits: FFM factors, Amoralism (the negative pole of the lexical Honesty-Humility factor) and Disintegration (operationalization of Schizotypy). Three first-order factors were extracted, labeled Dysfunctionality, Antisociality and Openness, and GFP was found through the hierarchical factor analysis. The nature of the GFP was explored through analysis of its relations with markers of fast Life-History strategy and covitality. The results demonstrated that the GFP is associated with unrestricted sexual behavior, medical problems, mental problems, early involvement in criminal activity and stability of criminal behavior. The evidence shows that the GFP is a meaningful construct on the highest level of personality structure. It may represent a personality indicator of fitness-related characteristics and could be useful in research of personality in an evolutionary context.

A Response to Tomáš Urbánek

Author(s): Petra Anýžová / Language(s): English / Issue: 03/2017

ACTUAL TENDENCY IN INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF PATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA

Author(s): Andreea Szalontay,Alina Mihaela Pascu,Andreea Teodorescu,Dan Minea,Petru IFTENI / Language(s): English / Issue: 51/2015

Patients with schizophrenia requiring long-term institutionalization represent cases with poor outcome, often leading to high costs for patients and family and constituting a huge economical burden for society if patients are young. The aims of the study were identification of characteristics and predictors of institutionalization in schizophrenia. Retrospective study of all institutionalized patients with schizophrenia in Brasov County, Romania, with a DSM-IV-TR lifetime diagnosis of schizophrenia institutionalized between 1995 and 2014. Institutionalized patients between 2005 and 2014 (n=172) had lower age (51.15 vs. 57.08, p<0.05) and lower age at institutionalization compared with patients admitted between 1995 and 2004. Lower education level (8.23 vs. 13.22, p<0.05), only one parent, multiple antipsychotics treatments and suboptimal response under first generation long acting antipsychotics are predictors for institutionalization. Our study showed a tendency to institutionalize patients with schizophrenia at the younger age compared with other periods. Early intervention in psychosis, controlled treatment with SGAs should be solutions to avoid institutionalization of young patients with schizophrenia.

An Analysis of the Barriers to Inclusion of Children with Behavioural, Emotional and Social Difficulties (besd) in the Contexts of Greece and England

Author(s): Katerina Lykourgioti / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2017

Children with Behavioural, Emotional and Social Difficulties (BESD) are at high risk of experiencing exclusion in both England and Greece. However, this particular category of Special Educational Needs (SEN) has so far received relatively little academic or political attention in comparison to other SEN. This paper attempts to point out the barriers that may prevent the inclusion of children with BESD both in terms of the theoretical conceptualisation of the category itself and in terms of the policies and practices that England and Greece may implement. In order to achieve a further yet coherent picture of the current situation, this paper has identified three different types of factors that may negatively influence inclusion. Therefore, by discussing the possible ideological, structural, and practical challenges, the paper aims to highlight the crucial need for further theoretical insight that would be able to inform and promote the establishment of a more cohesive and efficient legislative framework for pupils with BESD in both countries.

Analysis of the hostile family environment as a predictor of aggression during adolescence

Author(s): Boris Tilov / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2015

Anxiety of Students Preparing for the University Entrance Exam towards Math Lessons

Author(s): Yildirim Bayazit / Language(s): English / Issue: 5/2017

It is known that one of the crucial factors affecting the students’ success at math lessons negatively is math anxiety. In most general meaning, math anxiety may be defined as an anxiety and fear emerging in relation to certain math situations. The aim of this study is to find out the reasons of math anxiety observed among students attending privet courses. To collect the needed data of the study an anxiety scale was administered to 450 students attending different private courses in the city of Kırklareli, Turkey. The obtained data was processed by data processing soft-ware. After the required data interpretation steps were concluded, students’ math anxiety reasons were determined and in relation some solutions were suggested.

Attitudes toward globalization and identity styles

Author(s): Alicja Senejko,Zbigniew Los / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2016

The main aim of the article is to show the possible relations between attitudes toward globalization as described by Senejko and Łoś and the specificity of identity styles as described by Berzonsky. The participants were 601 people aged 16-26 – school students, university students, and working people from the Dolnośląskie Voivodeship, Poland. We used the following instruments: The World–I Questionnaire (measuring attitudes toward globalization) and the Identity Style Inventory (ISI-5). The results obtained in correlational analyses and cluster analyses show that people with a strongly manifested accepting attitude toward globalization are characterized mainly by the informational style and the least strongly by the normative and diffuse-avoidant styles. As the results showed, the critical attitude toward globalization occurs in the form of two clusters: (1) with strong critical and accepting attitudes (people with this configuration of attitudes exhibit a strongly expressed informational identity style and commitment and a weakly expressed normative style); (2) with strong critical and fearful attitudes (individuals with this configuration of attitudes mainly exhibit the normative identity style and commitment). People with a strongly expressed fearful attitude toward globalization typically use the diffuse-avoidant or normative styles, while the least strongly expressed identity style in this group is the informational style and commitment. Cluster analysis made it also possible to distinguish people with a distanced attitude toward globalization, characterized by fairly strong identity commitment.

Autismus jako společenskovědní téma

Author(s): Michael Geisler / Language(s): Czech / Issue: 1/2016

Knowledge on autism has undergone a rapid development over the past few decades, as well as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis rates increasing dramatically. These changes emphasize the need for increased services and wider specialised support for people with ASD and their families. Autism is not only a medical, psychological or special pedagogical topic it is also a social issue. There have been several sociological studies on the topic conducted abroad, however the Czech case is specific in several aspects due to the political-cultural context of the country. Apart from a few exceptions, the topic has not been reflected in Czech social science. The present paper will introduce five approaches to autism based on research which has been conducted abroad and will also discuss to which extent they are applicable in the Czech Republic. The ideas presented are a multidisciplinary combination of sociology of knowledge, historical sociology, sociology of health and illness, cultural anthropology and disability studies. The subtopics discussed include: the social construction of autism, the development of knowledge on autism, social movements related to autism, autism across cultures and lastly, causes of the increasing prevalence of autism.

Autoritarnost kao medijator efekta osobina ličnosti na predrasude studenata prema homoseksualnim osobama

Author(s): Barbara Kalebic Maglica,Anja Vukovic / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 3/2016

Negative attitudes toward homosexuals are just one of many that are often expressed toward various minority groups. There are numerous determinants of negative attitudes towards stigmatized groups, and personality traits are certainly one of them. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the Big Five personality traits, authoritarianism and attitudes against homosexuals. The study included 583 students (443 female and 139 male) of different universities in the Republic of Croatia, with an average age of 21 years. Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire that examined the Big Five personality traits, an Authoritarianism scale and also a Scale of attitudes toward homosexuals. The results show a significant negative correlation of openness to experience and negative attitudes towards homosexuals and a positive one between conscientiousness and authoritarianism and the negative attitudes. Also, authoritarianism is a mediating variable in the relationship between openness and conscientiousness and attitudes toward homosexuals. The obtained results are discussed in the context of existing models and research results.

CHARACTERISTICS OF COGNITIVE DISORDERS IN SCHIZOPHRENIA AND THEIR RELATION TO THE SOCIAL, FAMILIAL AND PROFESSIONAL ADAPTATION LEVEL

Author(s): Mihai Mutica,ILEANA MARINESCU,Mihail PÎRLOG,Dragos Marinescu,Ilinca UNTU,Anamaria CIUBARA / Language(s): English / Issue: 51/2015

Schizophrenia has a prevalence of about 1% of the people over 45 years old, more than 75% of the cases having a chronic evolution with major impact on the patients’ global functioning level and implicitly on their social-familial and professional integration. A focal point in the evolution of schizophrenia is the cognitive deficit. This research aims at recording in a non-interventional manner the link between the socialdemographic characteristics, the severity degree of the disorder, the nature of the cerebral abnormalities, the global functioning level and the degree of the cognitive deterioration in schizophrenic patients. The study batch includes 80 patients with equal gender representation, between 45 and 65 years old, who underwent craniocerebral CT (computed tomography) and were applied GAF, CGI-S and MMSE scales in order to evaluate the aforementioned variables. The results show an obvious interconnection between the cognitive impairment, a weak social-familial insertion and a low global functionality. At the same time, the intensity of the cognitive deficit is correlated with the presence of cortical abnormalities, with a negative evolution of the disorder and a weak social support and low autonomy of the individual. The current paper is intended to set the ground for future research with the ultimate goal of designing adjusted means of integration and management of patients with schizophrenia and with cognitive deficit.

Ciało i piętno. Defloracja jako wytwarzanie kobiecości

Author(s): Anna Zawadzka / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 2/2013

The paper offers an analysis of the cultural meanings of the bodily attributes and practices related to virginity and defloration; the most important are “bloodstains” (a sign of the loss of virginity) and “penetration” (regarded as the only “true” form of sexual intercourse). The obligation to present the defloration and the shame that accompanies it are the vantage point to the analysis of the forms of stigmatizing femininity. A deconstruction of the meanings acquired by penetration led me to a conclusion that the cause-effect relation between gender and culturally defined sexual practices (including sexual orientation) is not only inseparable, but also different than it has usually been thought. It is not the gender that determines an individual’s sexuality, but the culturally imposed sexual practices build the gender.

COLOURS IN THE FUNCTION OF MONITORING THE EMOTIONAL STABILITY WITH FOURTH GRADE STUDENTS

Author(s): Matjaž Duh,Rebeka Kolar / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2012

The article describes the field of colours, which can have a strong effect on human body and our emotions. Even as children we use colours at home and at school. According to experts, the use of different colours reveals the child's emotional life. It is important to emphasize that the children's use and attitude towards colours changes through their development. In our study we studied the emotional stability of students, in terms of self-esteem and expectations for the future, expressed by colours. We were interested in the existence of differences in the relationship between the expression of emotions with colours and emotional stability, expressed in colours. We have found out that most students have conflicting tendencies in both areas, which means that thinking about it is slightly stressful to them.

Creative Social Rehabilitation Outline of the concept for developing potential

Author(s): Marek Konopczynski / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2014

The assumptions of “new social rehabilitation” presented in the paper are an opportunity to recover the humanist dimension of social rehabilitation activities, dominated by economic-formal-utilitarian thinking. They can certainly become the subject of many discussions in academic environments and among practitioners gathered in penitentiary establishments and institutions. These discussions can produce positive and tangible results in the form of not only deepening social rehabilitation thought and deeper reflection on the occurring crisis of change, not only in Polish social reality, but also abroad, and above all bring a real change to the existing social rehabilitation and educational doctrine, which we are all witnesses of, participants and perpetrators at the same time.

CZY DORASTANIE MUSI BYĆ TRUDNE?

Author(s): Lucyna Bakiera / Language(s): Polish / Publication Year: 2010

Niewątpliwymi atutami książki są z jednej strony rzetelna informacja o zmianach zachodzących w życiu młodych ludzi – podana w sposób logiczny i uporządkowany, z drugiej zaś – spojrzenie poradnikowe: jak dorośli mogą na te zmiany reagować i które reakcje pomagają, a które przeszkadzają w rozwoju i układaniu wzajemnych relacji. Autorka pokazuje trudności, ale przedstawia je jako normalne i rozwojowe, wyjaśnia, obala mity. Pisze w sposób wyważony, nie posługuje się stereotypami, nie straszy, lecz uspokaja, buduje zrozumienie, co nadaje całości konstruktywny, pozytywny wydźwięk. Praca łączy w sobie wysokie walory merytoryczne dobrej książki naukowej z przystępnością formy i lekkością pióra książki popularnej. Co więcej, zawiera jasne i cenne wskazówki dotyczące postępowania. To połączenie wiedzy, mądrości i dobrego stylu czyni z niej pozycję ze wszech miar wartą polecenia. /// Z recenzji prof. dr. hab. Piotra K. Olesia

Diabeł i seryjni mordercy. Rzecz o niebanalności zła

Author(s): Pawel Rzewuski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 2/2015

The article presents an analysis of the ways in which serial killers were depicted by popular literature authors. The image of serial killers which emerges from the interpretation of various criminal novels was confronted with criminological literature. As it seems, the comparision between fictional serial killers and their real counterparts allows us to notice some tendencies in popular literature. Serial killers, as presented in criminal novels, have more in common with the devil himself rather than with the actual serial killers. They tend to fill in some way the gap which has arisen in the consciousness of people living in the secularized societies.

DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTS OF SPECIFIC NEGATIVE EMOTIONS ON INDIVIDUAL RISK PREFERENCE BEHAVIORS UNDER SOCIAL ACCIDENTS: AN ANALYSIS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF AFFECTIVE COMPUTING THEORY

Author(s): Jintao Lu,Naiding Yang,Jinfu Ye,Nasir Mahmood / Language(s): English / Issue: 50/2015

Traditionally studies on the affect of emotions on the behavioral decisionmaking assume that, individuals with negative emotions are risk-seeking. However in real situations, individual decision-making behaviors show different tendencies of risk preference, thus more and more scholars are attracted to analyze the effect of specific negative emotion on individual risk preference behaviors. From the perspective of Affective Computing Theory (ACT), the concepts of mixed negative emotion, emotional space, intensity of mixed negative emotions and threshold of mixed negative emotions were introduced, the questionnaire of emotional state transition based on Markov process was designed, empirical analysis and numerical modeling were adopted to discuss different effects of specific negative emotion on individual risk preference behavior under social accidents. It is concluded that decision-making behaviors of individuals with mixed negative emotions are mostly inclined to risk-aversion under social accidents.

DORASTANIE OSÓB Z NIEPEŁNOSPRAWNOŚCIĄ INTELEKTUALNĄ

Author(s): Zaneta Stelter / Language(s): Polish / Publication Year: 2010

Autorka przedstawia problemy związane z dojrzewaniem dziewcząt i chłopców niepełnosprawnych intelektualnie. Omawia zmiany biologiczne, intelektualne, emocjonalne i społeczne pojawiające się w okresie dojrzewania, wyraziście ukazując spiętrzenie trudności w przypadku tej grupy młodzieży. Ukazuje specyfikę dorastania dziewcząt i chłopców, którzy zmagają się z trudnościami wynikającymi nie tylko z ich możliwości umysłowych, ale nierzadko również z tego, jak są odbierani przez społeczeństwo. Zwraca uwagę na negatywne zjawiska społeczne, takie jak stygmatyzacja, piętnowanie czy wykluczenie. Obok problemów dotykających samych niepełnosprawnych Autorka stara się przybliżyć Czytelnikowi również trudności ich najbliższych, którzy stają przed trudnym zadaniem opieki i wychowywania dziecka upośledzonego umysłowo. Żaneta Stelter obala także mity dotyczące zachowania niepełnosprawnych, m.in. mit „wiecznego dziecka” i mit „bezczynności”.