Psychological Concepts Research Articles

The Role of Crises in Human Development

Crises are often viewed negatively as disruptions that hinder individuals and social groups. However, crises can also present opportunities for growth and development. This article explores psychological concepts that perceive crises as catalysts for change, motivating individuals to seek help and find constructive solutions in difficult situations. The article examines various psychological theories on crises. It discusses the different ways individuals respond to crises, ranging from effectively managing them to experiencing mental breakdowns. Crises have complex symptoms and causes, influenced by personal and environmental factors such as family, workplace, material status, and social groups. Anxiety is a common characteristic of crises, often reaching a high level before individuals acknowledge the need for concrete actions. Quick fixes like medication provide temporary relief but do not resolve the underlying crisis. Crises often involve conflicts and decision-making, where passivity becomes a negative and destructive choice. The article also explores crises in developmental terms, drawing upon Erik Erikson’s psychosocial development theory and Kazimierz Dąbrowski’s theory of positive disintegration. Erikson identifies specific crises in each stage of development, while Dąbrowski emphasizes the role of tension and disruption in achieving higher levels of personal growth. Not all crises lead to development, and not all changes constitute developmental changes. Developmental changes are irreversible, sequential, autonomous, unidirectional, and goal-oriented. The article categorizes development into continuous, leap, and crisis development, highlighting the transformative nature of crisis-induced changes. The article argues that crises, despite their hardships, should be viewed as opportunities for personal and collective development. By confronting crises and actively seeking constructive solutions, individuals and communities can achieve higher levels of growth and improve their quality of life.

Vermeintlich unvermeidlich: Poetik und Psychologie der Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Abstract The ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ has become an influential concept in contemporary behavioral psychology and economics. It has not yet been systematically introduced to literary studies, however, even though prophecies count among the long-lasting motifs of Western literature. This article aims to differentiate the psychological model of the ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ by first defining its basic narrative structure and identifying various formal realizations of the structure. A second section argues that these variants are historically dependent – they emerge and evolve with time. I will devote special attention to a typically modernist variant, which surfaces around 1900 in short stories by Oscar Wilde, Thomas Mann, and Arthur Schnitzler. These stories evince the general difficulty of distinguishing between the attribution of causality and its modes of narrative representation. As a third section suggests, a poetics of self-fulfilling prophecies might help to appreciate the role that ambiguity and perspectivism play in any cause-and-effect-narratives, may they be fictional or factual. In light of this, the article reflects more generally on the possibilities and challenges of a dialogue between social psychology and literary studies.

Top Ten Tips Palliative Care Clinicians Should Know About the Psychological Aspects of Palliative Care Encounters.

Palliative care clinicians enhance the illness experiences of patients and their families through building therapeutic relationships. Many psychological concepts underlie a clinician's approach to a specific patient. Through high-yield tips, this article highlights ten selected psychological elements that palliative care clinicians often use to support patients. As we all (both clinicians and patients) bring our own histories and unique biographies to the work of palliative care, a more explicit focus on the psychological aspects of this work can enhance our own experience and efficacy as providers. With a thoughtful focus on the psychological aspects of how we engage with patients, palliative care clinicians can offer a more meaningful therapeutic encounter.

Concept, subject and method of legal psychology

A conclusion has been drawn according to which the subject matter of legal psychology is: peculiarities of mental processes during entry and participation of a person in social and legal relations of the relevant sectoral affiliation; peculiarities of influence on the emotional and sensual states of a person of certain legal facts and legally significant events; the process of perception of legal reality by a person, awareness of the rights and obligations granted to him/her, ways and procedure for their implementation, etc.; organisation of a person's behaviour as a participant in social and legal relations. The method of legal psychology has been described as a system of special theoretical and practical tools, methods and measures which allow analysing the components of the subject of legal psychology, studying their regularities and formulating reasonable conclusions and scientific concepts on this basis.
 It has been found out that legal psychology is the science of mental, emotional, and sensual states of a person in terms of his/her participation in legal relations as a subject of law who exercises the relevant rights and performs the duties assigned to him/her.
 It has been noted that legal psychology is inextricably linked to psychology in general as a science of a person and his/her inner world, but is limited to the issues related to law. At the same time, the attention is focused on the need for a broad understanding of the subject matter of legal psychology, since legal psychology studies only those social relations which are regulated by law. It was emphasised that the range of such relations may be extended to include those relations, phenomena and processes which are not directly related to law or legal relations, but which may be of scientific interest to lawyers due to their impact, for example, on the personality of a criminal, determinants of crime, and understanding of a crime victim.

A Mental Health and Well-Being Chatbot: User Event Log Analysis.

Conversational user interfaces, or chatbots, are becoming more popular in the realm of digital health and well-being. While many studies focus on measuring the cause or effect of a digital intervention on people's health and well-being (outcomes), there is a need to understand how users really engage and use a digital intervention in the real world. In this study, we examine the user logs of a mental well-being chatbot called ChatPal, which is based on the concept of positive psychology. The aim of this research is to analyze the log data from the chatbot to provide insight into usage patterns, the different types of users using clustering, and associations between the usage of the app's features. Log data from ChatPal was analyzed to explore usage. A number of user characteristics including user tenure, unique days, mood logs recorded, conversations accessed, and total number of interactions were used with k-means clustering to identify user archetypes. Association rule mining was used to explore links between conversations. ChatPal log data revealed 579 individuals older than 18 years used the app with most users being female (n=387, 67%). User interactions peaked around breakfast, lunchtime, and early evening. Clustering revealed 3 groups including "abandoning users" (n=473), "sporadic users" (n=93), and "frequent transient users" (n=13). Each cluster had distinct usage characteristics, and the features were significantly different (P<.001) across each group. While all conversations within the chatbot were accessed at least once by users, the "treat yourself like a friend" conversation was the most popular, which was accessed by 29% (n=168) of users. However, only 11.7% (n=68) of users repeated this exercise more than once. Analysis of transitions between conversations revealed strong links between "treat yourself like a friend," "soothing touch," and "thoughts diary" among others. Association rule mining confirmed these 3 conversations as having the strongest linkages and suggested other associations between the co-use of chatbot features. This study has provided insight into the types of people using the ChatPal chatbot, patterns of use, and associations between the usage of the app's features, which can be used to further develop the app by considering the features most accessed by users.

On the Meaning of Psychological Concepts: Is There Still a Need for Psychological Concepts in the Empirical Sciences?

When empirical psychology mostly focuses on physiological processes and external behavior that have their own concepts, the meaning of psychological concepts becomes obscure. If there are only physical processes and external behavior, then why are psychological concepts needed in the empirical sciences?Since the late 19th century, empirical psychologists and cognitive scientists have argued that introspective information about normal psychological processes is not reliable. Furthermore, many philosophers consider that the physicalist theory of mind is true, which would imply that psychological concepts are only words without explanatory power. However, without introspection, we would not be able to form concepts about other minds and psychological phenomena and understand the psychological states of other people or animals. The meaning of a psychological concept is neither its use for external behavior nor language use in context.

‘Something Within Me Which Shines’: Knowing and Unknowing God and the Self

ABSTRACT Philosophers of the theory-of-mind have always grappled with how to describe and image human mental processes, given the impossibility of accessing a perspective outside consciousness from which to analyse it. This article considers the history of models of the mind before exploring in detail Meister Eckhart’s conception of psychology, epistemology and ontology. Eckhart’s German Sermons and Talks of Instruction are drawn on to tease out his understanding of the mind/brain and the sensible, rational and intellectual faculties. The article looks especially to Eckhart’s writings on union with the divine and the apophatic struggle to conceive or intelligibly communicate, from the human perspective, the transcendent, timeless and unrestricted knowledge which is the Godhead.

Making the Invisible Visible

Advocates of first-person-perspective-methods (FPPM) claim that any psychological concept must be grounded in a descriptive analysis (first-person-foundationalism). It is often assumed that the concept of the unconscious is incompatible with FPPM, and that its acceptance implies the rejection of first-person-foundationalism. This view is based on the following assumption: either FPPM are generally incapable of engaging with the unconscious, or FPPM are incapable of accounting for the systematic independence of the unconscious. It is the aim of this paper to show that this assumption is wrong. I argue that a) phenomenology has access to the unconscious, b) phenomenology can account for the systematic independence of the unconscious, and c) accepting the concept of the unconscious does imply the rejection of first-person-foundationalism.

Exploring the Lived Experiences of Older Adults in Iran During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Phenomenological Study

Objectives Since older people make up a great percent of the population is Iran, and they experienced higher mental, physical, and emotional pressures due to quarantine and lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, the present study aims to investigate the lived experiences of older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran. Methods &amp; Materials This qualitative phenomenological study was conducted in Fars, Kermanshah, and Tehran provinces of Iran from October 1, 2021 to January 30, 2022. The data were collected through interviewing 16 older adults. Data analysis was done by Smith’s interpretative phenomenology analysis. Results Of 16 older adults, 9 were male and 7 were female, with a mean age of 73 years. Their lived experiences were classified into three main categories: Psychological tensions, resilience (healing) measures, and economic tensions. Conclusion Iranian older people experienced various types of tensions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social distancing and quarantine increased the concerns about their mental health. Therefore, it is very important to identify and analyze the psychological concepts and protective factors along with preparing practical guidelines to protect their mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ригидность в структуре личности: история вопроса и проблема исследования

The –issues of research on rigidity in personality organization – are discussed indepth in this article as the main theoretical and applied aspects of one of the relevant areas of general psychology. In this regard, the reasons for the formulation of the stated problem in its proper psychological aspect are presented and interpreted: the absence of a single categorical and conceptual apparatus; spectral and local organization of scientific rigidity research; “bipolar” character reflecting the convergence process of rigidity and flexibility; the vagueness of the content, boundaries and place of rigidity in the system of psychological concepts, its structural and functional organization, position among other structural components of personality and the relationship with them. As a result of the difficulties associated with the formation of a unified view on the genesis of the concept, justification of the choice of basic definitions, diversification of approaches in the study of rigidity, the allocation of structural components, the concept of rigidity is used and interpreted in various contexts differently. It is shown that the current research on rigidity in the structure of personality aims to solve the important, but narrow issues despite of their high theoretical and practical significance. At the same time, relevant general issues fall out of scientists’ sight and need to be discussed. The rigidity research should be carried out as in the field of general psychology and rigidity should be studied within the section of cognitive processes taking into account its key aspects including dynamics and structural organization. Strate gically, in order to develop theoretical ideas about the psychological concept of rigidity, study its procedural side, analyze key aspects of structural organization and dynamics, it is necessary to make a reasonable choice of both a theoretical and methodological foundation and a theoretical model supplemented by the results of empirical research. Along with this, it is worth drawing attention of the scientific community to the issue of determination the causes of manifestation of personality rigidity. Summarizing the presented materials, the author concludes that rigidity in personality organization should be studied as a general psychology problem.

Penerapan Teori Behavioristik dalam Pembelajaran Agama Katolik Untuk Membentuk Karakter Siswa di Lingkungan Sekolah Dasar

Abtract The writing this article discusses the application of Behavioristic theory in teaching Catholism to shape the character of students in elementary schools. The subject matter in writing this article is about Behavioristic learning theory in shaping student character. The purpose of writing this article is to find out and describe the application of Behavioristic theory in teaching Catholism in elementary schools. Behavioristic theory is a concept of educational psychology in the form of an approach taken by teachers of students. This approach can provide a good stimulus to students. Behavioristic is actually a theory that emphasizes attitudes and changes in behavior as a result of a person’s concrete experience, especially for students. With the implementation of Behavioristic theory, the learning process in elementary schools, especially in Chatolic religious subject, does not make students feel bored and bored in class. In addition, the method used by the author in writing this article is though the method of literature study where each source is taken from journals, books, and notes related to Behavioristic theory. From the result of writing this article, the authors conclude that the application of Behavioristic learning theory in teaching Catholism in elementary schools is one of the benchmarks in developing good attitudes of spirituality and character for students, so that the learning process does not make students become passive.

TEKNIK STRENGTH BOMBARDMENT DALAM PERSPEKTIF BIMBINGAN KONSELING ISLAM

This study is motivated by the lack of literature review regarding the strength bombardment technique. Based on the results of the analysis, there are deficiencies and weaknesses in the concept and implementation of the strength bombardment technique. The implications of deficiencies and weaknesses trigger additional problems experienced by counselees such as anxiety, arrogance, and Suudzhon towards God's destiny. So this paper comes as a development of a strength bombardment technique with the concept of nature as part of Islamic psychology that can be given to the process of providing assistance to Islamic guidance and counseling services. This article discusses strength bombardment techniques, the concept of nature, the concept of nature: Islamic psychology approaches and humanistic existential approaches, Islamic guidance and counseling, to the development of strength bombardment techniques with the nature concept of Islamic psychology. The results of this study indicate that the development of the strength bombardment technique not only solves the counselee's problems but can increase the counselee's piety, increase gratitude, make more sense of the problems experienced and live them with a husnudzhon attitude towards God's destiny.&#x0D;

Understanding The Relationship Between Self-Control and Grit: The Mediating Role of Academic Motivation and Attention Control

Over the past several decades, the psychological concepts of self-control and grit have gained prominence in the research literature. While these constructs have been studied extensively in isolation, there has been growing interest in understanding the relationship between the two constructs and the factors that mediate this relationship. The current study sought to examine the relationship between self-control and grit in a sample of 1079 undergraduate students (67.9% female) from twelve different state universities. Specifically, this study aimed to examine the mediating role of academic motivation and attention control in this relationship. Correlational analyses revealed that self-control and grit were positively associated with each other, as well as with academic motivation and attention control. Mediation analyses using bootstrapping procedures revealed that academic motivation and attention control partially mediated the relationship between self-control and grit. In other words, higher levels of self-control were associated with higher levels of academic motivation, which was associated with higher levels of grit. Similarly, higher levels of self-control were associated with better attention control, which was associated with higher levels of grit. These findings have important implications for understanding the components that contribute to the development of grit and suggest that interventions aimed at enhancing academic motivation and attention control may promote the development of greater grit in individuals.

Islamic Spiritual Rehabilitation Approach (Isra’ Mi’raj) for the Youth Muslim (A Study at Fatoni University)

This research article discusses the Islamic Spiritual Recovery Approach for Muslim teenagers. The results of this study found that the Messenger of God in building a good individual's character must come from a pure heart. Indeed, an insincere heart is empty talk, curses, accusations, revenge and so on. This practice comes out of the psychological concept of Islamic guidance and counseling (IGC). While in the context of education, the formation of teenage students who have good character according to the will of Islam, or what is called the term al-Quran with ulu al-bab and awwabun hafeez, which is to every servant who always returns (to Allah) and keeps (all His rules), it is not possible to arise or be born in the intuition and behavior of a student if the teachers do not act as advisors or are known as mursyid or Nasih . They are required to implement Islamic guidance and counseling (IGC) and Islamic Spiritual Recovery Approach ISRA’ with good and effective skills so that religious teachings can build character and be used as a guide in going through life. Thus, the teacher is a medium to sow and nourish the seeds of faith or Islamic doctrine to students. Teachers are responsible for giving religious lessons to al-mansuh students with cultivation of MI’RAJ through NASIHAH process. Moreover, ensuring that religious knowledge is practiced throughout life, and the counselors characteristics must consistency or ISTIQAMAH. Therefore, the process towards Islamic Spiritual Rehabilitation, healing and the formation of the students' personalities to become perfect human beings is through its main component which is Islamic guidance and counseling psychology (IGC) namely ISRA’ MI’RAJ.

Dyadic approach to maturity to parenthood: multilevel study on attachment in expectant and non-expectant couples

ABSTRACT Objective This study examined links between attachment styles and maturity to parenthood and its dimensions across different age groups of childless young adult couples. The role of developmental factors (age, assuming parental role) for maturity to parenthood was also investigated. Background Relational and individual factors have both been confirmed to be crucial for the transition to parenthood. The concept of maturity to parenthood has been linked to individual values, personality traits, and close relationships. However, the question arises whether maturity to parenthood is related to one of the most crucial concepts in family psychology – attachment. Method Three hundred heterosexual young adult couples aged 20–35 years (M age = 26.20; SD = 3.63) took part. Couples were divided into three groups: 1) 110 couples aged 20–25 (emerging adulthood); 2) 90 couples aged 26–35 (young adulthood); and 3) 100 couples aged 20–35 expecting their first child (third trimester of pregnancy). The main questionnaires used were the Maturity to Parenthood Scale and Close Relationship Experience Scale. Results The results indicated that the more avoidant couples had lower maturity to parenthood. A moderation effect of group (pregnancy) was also observed – the effect of attachment-related avoidance was weaker in expectant couples. Women presented higher overall and behavioural maturity to parenthood than men. Furthermore, higher life satisfaction were associated with greater maturity to parenthood. Conclusion Maturity to parenthood is also created in the dyadic context. When related to lower attachment avoidance, it might greatly facilitate transition to parenthood and future parent – child relations.

Have the concepts of 'anxiety' and 'depression' been normalized or pathologized? A corpus study of historical semantic change.

Research on concept creep indicates that the meanings of some psychological concepts have broadened in recent decades. Some mental health-related concepts such as 'trauma', for example, have acquired more expansive meanings and come to refer to a wider range of events and experiences. 'Anxiety' and 'depression' may have undergone similar semantic inflation, driven by rising public attention and awareness. Critics have argued that everyday emotional experiences are increasingly pathologized, so that 'depression' and 'anxiety' have broadened to include sub-clinical experiences of sadness and worry. The possibility that these concepts have expanded to include less severe phenomena (vertical concept creep) was tested by examining changes in the emotional intensity of words in their vicinity (collocates) using two large historical text corpora, one academic and one general. The academic corpus contained >133 million words from psychology article abstracts published 1970-2018, and the general corpus (>500 million words) consisted of diverse text sources from the USA for the same period. We hypothesized that collocates of 'anxiety' and 'depression' would decline in average emotional severity over the study period. Contrary to prediction, the average severity of collocates for both words increased in both corpora, possibly due to growing clinical framing of the two concepts. The study findings therefore do not support a historical decline in the severity of 'anxiety' and 'depression' but do provide evidence for a rise in their pathologization.

Теоретико-прикладные аспекты категориально-понятийного аппарата юридической психологии

&lt;p style="text-align: justify;"&gt;The article reflects the results of a study of theoretical and applied aspects of the categori-cal and conceptual apparatus of legal psychology from a critical point of view. Conclusions are drawn about the special position of legal psychology as an applied discipline in relation to the legal sciences, in connection with which the priority role in solving its problems is given to legal concepts, which in their essence are self-sufficient and conventional. The conventional nature of legal concepts, built on an agreement between lawyers in the under-standing of certain terms, comes down to the fact that in their content they in some cases do not coincide with the content of general psychological categories and concepts. In terms of scope, they are either narrower or wider than psychological concepts. In this regard, the significant reverse influence of psychological concepts on legal ones, expressed in the re-flection of psychological patterns and mechanisms of psychological and legal phenomena, becomes a laborious and long process, since legal concepts do not aim to reflect the true structure of the world. The features of the categorical-conceptual apparatus of legal psy-chology listed in this study make it possible to more accurately determine the direction of scientific research, correctly understand the needs of legal practice and predict the long-term consequences of the results of one&amp;rsquo;s scientific activity.&lt;/p&gt;

Et Forstyrret Kroppsbilde: Vurdering og Kategorisering av Kroppen I Linnéa Myhres Roman Evig Søndag

"A Distorted Body Image: Valuation and Categorization of the Human Body in Linnéa Myhre’s Novel Evig søndag (Eternal Sunday). The purpose of this article is to analyse the autobiographical novel Eternal Sunday by Linnéa Myhre in order to present the way in which the language reflects the valuation and categorization of the human body. The novel conveys the perspective of a person who suffers from an eating disorder. The way she is describing the human body is affected by the illness, and subconsciously associated with a particular distorted body image, beauty standards and expectations. The theoretical basis is rooted in cognitive linguistics and linguistic categories as proposed by George Lakoff. Cultural and psychological concepts are also taken into the account. Keywords: cognitive linguistics, body image, eating disorders, categorization, Norwegian literature"

Empowering human-AI teams via Intentional Behavioral Synchrony.

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) proliferates across various sectors such as healthcare, transportation, energy, and military applications, the collaboration between human-AI teams is becoming increasingly critical. Understanding the interrelationships between system elements - humans and AI - is vital to achieving the best outcomes within individual team members' capabilities. This is also crucial in designing better AI algorithms and finding favored scenarios for joint AI-human missions that capitalize on the unique capabilities of both elements. In this conceptual study, we introduce Intentional Behavioral Synchrony (IBS) as a synchronization mechanism between humans and AI to set up a trusting relationship without compromising mission goals. IBS aims to create a sense of similarity between AI decisions and human expectations, drawing on psychological concepts that can be integrated into AI algorithms. We also discuss the potential of using multimodal fusion to set up a feedback loop between the two partners. Our aim with this work is to start a research trend centered on exploring innovative ways of deploying synchrony between teams of non-human members. Our goal is to foster a better sense of collaboration and trust between humans and AI, resulting in more effective joint missions.

“They'll take a gun to me before I get that shot”: Rationalization, emotions, and misinformation in COVID‐19 vaccine hesitancy

AbstractVaccine hesitancy—the reluctance, delay, or refusal to vaccinate regardless of availability—is not a new concept in psychology, medicine, or public health. However, given the emotions surrounding the COVID‐19 vaccine, hesitancy has proven difficult to overcome. To‐date, the bulk of available data on vaccine hesitancy are quantitative, leaving room for exploratory investigations into the reasons adults remain unvaccinated. This qualitative study assessed the motivations, beliefs, and perceptions of individuals who have decided to remain unvaccinated against COVID‐19. We had one exploratory research question: What social psychological justifications emerge from vaccine hesitant people's explanations of their decisions to remain unvaccinated? To assess this question, we conducted 18 interviews with unvaccinated adults throughout 2021–2022. The interviews consisted of 20 questions regarding participants' perceptions of the COVID‐19 vaccine and their intentions to get vaccinated. Thematic analysis revealed four main themes in the answers provided by participants: rationalization; identity, beliefs and potential modifiers; emotional responses; and information sources. These results offer insight for future vaccination efforts.