Peter Tavel

ObjectiveLong-term isolation, including lockdowns and quarantines, may have a distressing effect on anyone experiencing it. Adolescent brain architecture is very sensitive to environmental adversities, and the mental health development of adolescents may be particularly vulnerable during the pandemic era. In order to better understand the triggers for perceived adolescent stress during the COVID-19 lockdown, the present study aimed to assess the effects of social well-being and changes in time use during the lockdown, as well as the family COVID experience of adolescents.MethodsThe sample for this study comprised n = 3,440 adolescents. Bayesian correlations between PSS, health and well-being variables were assessed. PSS was then modeled as an outcome variable in a series of nested Bayesian multilevel regression models.ResultsThe negative impact of the COVID-19 lockdown was more apparent in girls. PSS was moderately correlated with adolescent health and well-being. The strongest predictor of higher level of PSS was frequent feeling of loneliness. On the contrary, lower level of PSS was most associated with having someone to talk to.ConclusionLong-term social isolation of adolescents could be harmful to their mental health. Psychological coping strategies to prevent the consequences of social isolation and development of mental health problems should be promoted on the individual, family, and even community level.

The personality traits of social work leaders are important factors influencing ethical decision-making in organisations. The lack of empirical evidence with regard to the relationship between personal authenticity and ethical decision-making in social work stimulated the present study. Two hundred thirty-eight leaders (81.9% female) from organisations working in various fields of social work were administrated with the Authenticity Scale, Managerial Ethical Profile, and conducted two free association tasks with the cue words authenticity and self. Authenticity was positively correlated with ethical decision-making. In contrast, authenticity was not correlated with the tendency to make decisions in an effort to maximise economic profit for the organisation. The results of the present study have important practical implications for the social work sector. The positive correlation of authenticity with ethical decision-making indicates that positive reinforcement of authenticity in leaders could possibly lead to supporting ethical decision-making within an organisation. Therefore, supporting authenticity in leaders working in social work may also help foster quality services and prevent unethical behaviour.

Spirituality and spiritual well-being are connected with many areas of human life. Thus, especially in secular countries, there is a need for reliable validated instruments for measuring spirituality. The Spiritual Well-Being Scale is among the world’s most often used tools; therefore, the aim of this study was its psychometrical evaluation in the secular environment of the Czech Republic on a nationally representative sample (n = 1797, mean age: 45.9 ± 17.67; 48.6% men). A non-parametric comparison of different sociodemographic groups showed a higher disposition for experiencing spirituality among women, older people, and divorced persons. Based on confirmatory factor analysis, negatively worded items were excluded using a polychoric correlation matrix. The new version of the scale consisting of 11 items had good internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.85; McDonald’s ωt = 0.91). The two-factor model of this shortened version, with factors corresponding to the Religious and the Existential subscales of the Spiritual Well-Being Scale, shows a satisfactory fit with the data, where the loadings of all items ranged from medium to high. Thus, this study offered a new version of the tool, convenient for measuring spiritual well-being in secular conditions.

Childhood trauma is associated with many interpersonal and psychosocial problems in adulthood. The aim of this study was to explore the associations with a spiritual area of personality, namely religious and spiritual struggles (R/S struggles). A nationally representative sample of 1,000 Czech respondents aged 15 years and older participated in the survey. All types of CT were associated with an increased level of all six types of R/S struggles, with the highest values for demonic struggles. Thus, the findings of this study might be important for clinical practice and pastoral care as well as a further research.

Many cultural variations in emotions have been documented in previous research, but a general theoretical framework involving cultural sources of these variations is still missing. The main goal of the present study was to determine what components of cultural complexity interact with the emotional experience and behavior of individuals. The proposed framework conceptually distinguishes five main components of cultural complexity relating to emotions: 1) emotion language, 2) conceptual knowledge about emotions, 3) emotion-related values, 4) feelings rules, i.e. norms for subjective experience, and 5) display rules, i.e. norms for emotional expression.

The widely accepted two-dimensional circumplex model of emotions posits that most instances of human emotional experience can be understood within the two general dimensions of valence and activation. Currently, this model is facing some criticism, because complex emotions in particular are hard to define within only these two general dimensions. The present theory-driven study introduces an innovative analytical approach working in a way other than the conventional, two-dimensional paradigm. The main goal was to map and project semantic emotion space in terms of mutual positions of various emotion prototypical categories. Participants (N = 187; 54.5% females) judged 16 discrete emotions in terms of valence, intensity, controllability and utility. The results revealed that these four dimensional input measures were uncorrelated. This implies that valence, intensity, controllability and utility represented clearly different qualities of discrete emotions in the judgments of the participants. Based on this data, we constructed a 3D hypercube-projection and compared it with various two-dimensional projections. This contrasting enabled us to detect several sources of bias when working with the traditional, two-dimensional analytical approach. Contrasting two-dimensional and three-dimensional projections revealed that the 2D models provided biased insights about how emotions are conceptually related to one another along multiple dimensions. The results of the present study point out the reductionist nature of the two-dimensional paradigm in the psychological theory of emotions and challenge the widely accepted circumplex model.

Successful Ageing A Survey of the Most Important Theories The issues of good and successful ageing are the subject of scientific research. Successful ageing is the attempt to achieve a state of inner satisfaction and happiness in spite of the negative effects associated with old age: loss, external and internal destabilization, etc. Successful development in old age has many forms. It can generally be defined as an attempt to achieve the greatest profit with the smallest loss. The problem is establishing the universal criteria of successful ageing. It is possible to restrict the study to the observation of individual factors which are either objective or subjective, long-term or short-term, specific or universal or static versus dynamic. The problem is creating a theory that will explain all the processes and consequences of old age—none of the theories has so far succeeded in doing this. Life satisfaction as a subjective criterion of successful ageing has been most emphasized in two contradictory theories: activity theory and disengagement theory. Other theories are: growth theories, cognitive theories, dynamic theories, SOC model, cultural anthropological theories, the interaction model of longevity, etc.

Der Begriff “Wille zum Sinn” ist bei Frankl ein Schlüsselbegriff. Frankl überschritt die Grenzen der Psychologie, um die menschliche Existenz besser zu verstehen, die Einzigartigkeit der Person des Menschen, seine Freiheit und, wie er es selber benennt, sein “noogenes Wesensniveau”. Er stellt sich die existenzielle Frage, die der Mensch sich selber stellt. Um den Begriff “Wille zum Sinn” besser zu verstehen, brauchen wir eine breitere Erklärung. Da ist der Wille, das Streben, die Bemühung des Menschen um eine sinnvolle Existenz. Der Sinn betrifft die Objektivität, die entdeckt werden soll. Weder gibt der Mensch sich den Sinn noch bildet er ihn sich selber. Der Mensch ist auf der Suche nach dem Sinn. Den Sinn entdeckt der Mensch mit Hilfe des Gewissens. Deshalb ist es nötig, ein Bemühen um die Kultivierung des Gewissens anzustreben. Die Frage nach dem Sinn stellt nicht der Mensch, sondern das Leben selbst. Das Leben fragt den Menschen in der Form der Wirklichkeiten. Eine Antwort des Menschen ist ein Übernehmen von Verantwortlichkeit. Der Sinn ist einzigartig und unwiederholbar. Das rührt her von der Einzig_artigkeit der Person und der Einmaligkeit der Situation. Der Sinn des Lebens ist in Bezug auf das Ziel. Der Mensch glaubt an den Sinn, ob er sich dessen bewu t ist oder nicht. Alles im Leben des Menschen hat einen grö eren Sinn. Das Leben kann sinnvoll durch die Arbeit werden, wenn diese Arbeit nicht egozentrisch ausgeführt wird. Einen Sinn des Lebens kann dem menschlichen Leben auch ein Erlebnis vermitteln oder gar ein Erlebnis der Liebe, welches das wertvollste Erlebnis dar_stellt. Dem menschlichen Leben kann man einen Sinn nicht nur durch Arbeiten und Erleben geben, sondern auch durch eine Fähigkeit zum Leiden, wenn der Mensch eine gute und menschenwürdige Position in der Situation des Leidens und des Schmerzes einnimmt. Mi erfolg des Lebens, Mangel an Lust oder an positiven Erlebnissen sind kein Zeichen für Sinnlosigkeit

The ontological turn or ontologically-oriented approach accentuates the key importance of intercultural variability in ontologies. Different ontologies produce different ways of experiencing the world, and therefore, participation in alternative realities is very desirable in anthropological and ethnological investigation. Just the participation in alternative realities itself enables researchers to experience alterity and ontoconceptual differences. The present study aims to demonstrate the power of ritual in alteration, and to show how co-experiencing rituals serves to uncover ontological categories and relations. We argue that the experience of alterity in everyday activities is of a different quality than the experience of alterity when participating in rituals. Transcendent reality is accessible during rituals. It serves as source of potentialities. These potentialities are actualized in ritual and entangled with people's everyday existence. Furthermore, we argue that participating in ritual enables the researcher to step into the alterity of alterity, and to get nearer to the origins of ontologies. Ritual participation also invokes the extension of consciousness and provides a collectively shared cognition, opening up the ontological dimension and enabling access to existential experiences and concepts. In these settings, relations between people and the world can be recognized and investigated.