Contemporary Psychology Research Articles

Complexity and psychology / Complejidad y psicología

This article explores the effects that complexity theory could have on the development of contemporary psychology. It specifically identifies the definition of the object of study, the main descriptors — the matter of mutually exclusive dichotomies — the method of knowing — the relationship between the objective and the subjective — and, finally, the problem of determinations. In all these dimensions, a brief discussion is given on the changes taking place in contemporary psychology, and on how complexity theory can help us systematize and clarify the relationship between the objective and the subjective.

The Role of Yoga in Enhancing Decision Making: A Research Perspective

This research explores the impact of yoga on enhancing decision-making abilities from a comprehensive research perspective. “Yoga, an ancient practice encompassing physical postures, breathes control, and meditation”, has gained attention in contemporary psychology and neuroscience for its potential cognitive benefits. This research aspires to analyze relationship among “Yoga practice & decision-making processes”, examining how regular “yoga practice” may influence cognitive functions relevant to decision making. The implications of these findings for personal well-being, professional performance, and organizational effectiveness are discussed, emphasizing the importance of integrating yoga-based interventions into educational, clinical, and corporate settings. Finally, avenues for future research are proposed, including longitudinal studies to examine “long-term provoke of yoga practice” on decision making and randomized controlled trials to establish causal relationships. Overall, this research underscores the multifaceted benefits of yoga in enhancing cognitive functions and informs strategies for optimizing decision-making processes in diverse contexts.

Investigating the Impact of Film and TV Scenes on Adolescents’ Attitudes towards Love: A Case Study of Character Image Construction

With the widespread influence of movies, many young individuals have sought inspiration for romantic love from television and film. A healthy perspective on love is essential for the development of adolescents. This research employs semiotic analysis of the TV series Empresses in the Palace to investigate the views on love held by the female protagonist Zhen Huan and male protagonist Guo Jun Wang, as well as their potential impact on young viewers. The findings indicate that Zhen Huan and Guo Jun Wang’s romantic relationship aligns with numerous criteria advocated by contemporary psychology for nurturing intimate relationships. Notably, Guo Jun Wang’s character stands out for providing Zhen Huan with nurturing and healing rather than a transformative, dominant assistance that could completely alter her life. In contrast to traditional portrayals in most TV shows and films where women play supporting roles in romantic relationships, Empresses in the Palace presents audiences with a distinctly male character, challenging gender stereotypes and demonstrating that women can also exhibit clarity, independence, rationality, and control within romantic partnerships. This study encourages future television and film productions to diversify character representations and introduce fresh perspectives to audiences.

An exploration of physics envy with implications for desiderata of psychology theories.

There is a trepidation, anxiety, or intuition, which has persisted for more than a century, that psychology theories are less anchored in fundamental laws than physics theories. Rather than attempt to refute the concern, the present work accepts it and tries out candidate explanations. These pertain to empirical laws, parsimony, scope, reductionism, falsifiability, mathematical operations (multiplication vs. addition), internal coherence, ceteris paribus stipulations, and purposeful omission of relevant factors (idealization). The conceptions underlying these explanations are not strictly independent, but they point to different distinctive features that might account for the unequal status of physics and psychological science and to different means of improving contemporary psychology. Although the available evidence for or against these candidate explanations is scarce and relies mainly on a few telling examples, we conclude that the last of our candidate explanations-reliance on idealized universes-works best and leads to the most insights about what psychology might learn from physics and what research strategies might foster the ideal of theory-driven psychological science in the future. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Intergenerational Storytelling and Positive Psychosocial Development: Stories as Developmental Resources for Marginalized Groups

Academic We articulate an intergenerational model of positive psychosocial development that centers storytelling in an ecological framework and is motivated by an orientation toward social justice. We bring together diverse literature (e.g., racial-ethnic socialization, family storytelling, narrative psychology) to argue that the intergenerational transmission of stories about one’s group is equally important for elders and youth, and especially important for groups who are marginalized, because stories provide a developmental resource for resistance and resilience in the face of injustice. We describe how storytelling activities can support positive psychosocial development in culturally dynamic contexts and illustrate our model with a case study involving LGBTQ+ communities, arguing that intergenerational storytelling is uniquely important for this group given issues of access to stories. We argue that harnessing the power of intergenerational storytelling could provide a culturally safe and sustaining practice for fostering psychosocial development among LGBTQ+ people and other equity-seeking populations. Public Understanding one’s identity as part of a group with shared history and culture that has existed through time is important for positive psychological functioning. This is especially true for marginalized communities for whom identity-relevant knowledge is often erased, silenced, or distorted in mainstream public discourses (e.g., school curricula, news media, television, and film). To compensate for these limitations around access, one channel for the transmission of this knowledge is through oral storytelling between generations of elders and youth. Contemporary psychological science has often assumed that such storytelling occurs within families, but when families cannot or would not share such knowledge, youth suffer. We present a model of intergenerational storytelling that expands our ideas around who counts as “family” and how knowledge can be transmitted through alternative channels, using LGBTQ+ communities as a case example.

Allport, Aristotle and Aquinas: An interdisciplinary definition of personality

Countless definitions of personality have been proposed throughout history. As a consequence, contemporary psychology lacks a definition that elicits broad consensus and avoids ambiguity. To overcome this difficulty it seems beneficial to draw on the field of philosophical anthropology, as an epistemologically prior and more general discipline. Understanding that a single manuscript cannot achieve consensus, an interdisciplinary contribution is proposed through a dialogue between two definitions of personality. On the one hand, that elaborated by the father of personality psychology, Gordon Allport, which is the best known and most cited of all. On the other hand, the one developed by Martín Echavarría, inspired by the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition. From this interdisciplinary dialogue, a variant of Echavarría's definition and a brief definition of personality are proposed. It is expected that this contribution would not only help to the study of personality, but also to the interdisciplinary development of the discipline of psychology.

From Tradition to Transformation: Bharatanatyam Explored through Feminist and Psychological Contexts

This study explores the evolution and contemporary significance of Bharatanatyam, an Indian classical dance form. It examines the evolution of the dance form, focusing on the portrayal of stories, emotions, and characters. The research also reimagines the Ashta-Nayikas, the eight main female archetypes in classical dance, through the lens of contemporary psychology. The study uses qualitative data analysis, including media studies, historical texts, and in-depth interviews, to reveal the dynamic interaction between modernity and tradition. The study highlights the dance form’s innate resilience and the need for dance artists to develop coping mechanisms to navigate the intricacies of tradition and modernity.

Integrating dialectical tensions in mindfulness‐informed counseling

AbstractThis article explores integrating mindfulness within psychotherapy through dialectical humanism. The author integrates Buddhist, Jewish, and contemporary psychology perspectives to explore three dialectical tensions in psychotherapy: striving versus acceptance, becoming versus being, and relevancy versus regularity. The author offers integrative mindfulness techniques for counselors to use with clients.

A concept in flux and starved of the metaphysical: desecularizing emotion.

Despite being of undisputed importance, there is no consensus on what emotions are, with the majority of research that constructs ideas about them being colored by a particular worldview. This conceptual article examines the case for conducting an Islamic analysis of emotion. It might seem a peculiar area to examine; what would be the need to analyze such a universal psychological concept through the lens of a particular religion? Three points are used to argue for this endeavor. To begin with, this article highlights the relative instability of the term; there is yet no universally agreed upon definition of what emotions are, and which human processes they contribute to. As the concept is still being defined, there is merit in engaging with the discussion, particularly given the relative absence of metaphysics from the debate. Secondly, specificities relating to emotions and how they have conceptualized are considered. This section delves into the way in which variable factors, such as culture, language, and worldview, influence how emotions manifest. The overarching point argued for here is that how emotions are experienced, and even which emotions are experienced, are shaped by factors that are not consistent across time and space. Accordingly, different worldviews will formulate different "emotional palates" and "emotional ideologies"; different groups of people will understand and engage with emotions differently. Thirdly, a broader discussion ensues pertaining to the nature of science, psychology, and their relationship with secularity. This discussion includes critique of the idea that forces such as secularism and scientific materialism have been "discovered" and are therefore value-neutral. Accordingly, understandings of emotions to have emerged from the Academy, and contemporary psychology, are value-laden. This section also looks at the origins of science in order to determine whether it is inherently atheistic or areligious, and therefore antagonistic to a religious worldview. The section also challenges the apparent secularity of psychology and key psychologists. A range of other facets pertaining to how the emotions have been conceptualized, such as their relational core, their interaction with moral faculties, and their enmeshment with what is important to individuals and groups, are also considered.

Behavioral plasticity in aneural organisms.

Few contemporary psychologists would probably object to the notion that cognitive processes contribute to behavioral plasticity (learning) and are intimately linked to brain function. However, growing evidence suggests that behavioral plasticity is present in organisms lacking neurons (i.e., aneural organisms). This possibility would imply that at least some cognitive processes might have preceded the evolution of nervous systems. Evidence of learning in aneural organisms is reviewed within a mechanistic framework emphasizing four levels of analysis: psychological, neurobiological, neurochemical, and cell-molecular. Learning phenomena ranging from habituation to conditioning have been reported in some aneural organisms, and some key examples are reviewed with attention to evidence of underlying mechanisms. Species comparisons are framed in terms of the central evolutionary concepts of homology and homoplasy. This evidence raises the question of what new behavioral capacities were supported by the evolution of neurons that were not possible before. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Canonical Narratives as a Tool of Analysis in Psychology

In this article, I develop the concept of canonical narratives, drawing on Jerome Bruner’s (1915-2016) later writings on the central role of culture in shaping human psychology. I argue that we can develop the concept of canonical narratives past its initial purpose in explaining how folk psychology acquires meaning for individuals and develop the concept into a tool of analysis that can shed new light on the broader dialectic between academic psychology and social-cultural environments. I examine the role of canonical narratives in contemporary psychology by focusing on the narrative that human beings are best conceptualized as machines. I argue that not only are psychology’s constructs shaped by social-cultural environments, which have been well established but that their meanings are, to some extent, established through a dialectic with canonical narratives.

An Exploratory Study of the Trait "Friendliness and Gregariousness" In the Religious Domain and their Relation to Human Well-being

This research investigates the characteristics of "Friendliness and Gregariousness "in the context of religion and their complex relationships to the welfare of people. The study emphasizes how crucial friendliness and gregariousness are to promoting healthy social dynamics. The intricate ways in which these characteristics are expressed within religious frameworks are revealed by the qualitative content analysis. By analyzing how the religious emphasis on friendliness and gregariousness coincides with scientific evidence on the positive effects of social connectivity on mental and emotional health, the research bridges the gap between religious beliefs and contemporary psychology theories. The study aims to contribute significant new data to the growing corpus of knowledge regarding the connection between friendliness and well-being by employing an interdisciplinary approach. The purpose of the study is to identify timeless principles that may lead people in many cultural and religious contexts toward a more satisfying and harmonious existence by investigating the universality of these features across different religious traditions.

Reflection to freedom: Return of a fundamental discourse in Contemporary Psychology

In the following article, we take a look into the contribution of Ernö and Birk (2024), “Rethinking Freedom for Contemporary Psychology”. During that process, the central statements of their article are first highlighted and then challenged/re-elaborated. The goal is to underline the importance of their contribution to our current scientific stances and the context that we retrace in ourselves as researchers while questioning and extending certain stances. A crucial point of the following commentary is the exploration of a diverse potential behind the construct of freedom that is much more complex than being simply reduced to only social or individual layers. We may not be able to find that swiftly an answer to what freedom means, but we can gain with our current understanding central insights into how we use our daily life the vision of freedom, in its temporary and fluid characteristics.

'Surgery is my only hope': A qualitative study exploring perceptions of living with obesity and the prospect of having bariatric surgery.

The health benefits of bariatric surgery are well documented; however, the occurrence of weight-regain after surgery, along with the development of mental health difficulties poses a question of how contemporary psychology could assist to prepare people living with obesity prior to undergoing bariatric surgery. This research explored individuals' (in the immediate pre-operative and post-operative population) attitudes, beliefs and experiences towards obesity and their journey to bariatric surgery. Seventeen adult participants (males n = 4; age range: 26-64 years) were recruited and participated in a semi-structured interview. Twelve individuals participated prior to undergoing bariatric surgery. Five individuals participated in the early post-operative period (<3 months post-surgery). People living with obesity displayed high optimism for positive outcomes, with participants hoping that bariatric surgery would be different to previous attempts at weight regulation, with there being a clear shift in the locus of control for weight management from self to healthcare professionals. Whilst this is adaptive, there was the presence of seemingly unrealistic optimism, with many pre-surgery participants not relaying the realistic possibility of post-surgery weight-regain. Despite the optimism individuals feel about bariatric surgery, participants felt that the psychological factors influencing eating behaviours are not being addressed by healthcare. These findings suggest that mindfulness, mindful eating, and self-compassion approaches should be incorporated into clinical practice to support weight regulation and adaption to physiological changes after bariatric surgery.

Rethinking freedom for contemporary psychology

The purpose of this paper is to rethink the topic of freedom for contemporary psychology. Freedom, within psychological research today, is a neglected, even slightly old-fashioned term. In this paper, we explore the practical, normative, and political dimensions of freedom as a psychological concept. We begin by tracing out key understandings of freedom from political theory, before discussing how thinkers such as Skinner, Maslow, Fromm, and May understood the different dimensions of freedom. We then discuss a governmental perspective on freedom, drawn from the work of Nikolas Rose, before finally turning to the sociocultural psychology of L. S. Vygotsky. We contend that freedom is not merely the absence of constraints but a complex interplay between agency, responsibility, and social connections. Our paper argues that the modern emphasis on negative freedom, characterized by reduced interference and obligations, has resulted in a paradoxical situation where individuals feel overwhelmed and seek escape from freedom. By revisiting the insights of Erich Fromm and other scholars, we emphasize the need for positive freedom, which involves voluntary connections with others and active participation in shaping society. We argue that psychology’s mandate should be to facilitate the exploration of alternative avenues that lead to flourishing and self-actualization.

The Influence of the Daimōn in Ancient Philosophy upon Contemporary Psychology

This paper explores the relevance of the Hellenic daimōn as the root meaning of the Latin genius or the English ‘genius’, with its influence upon contemporary psychology in the context of a wider philosophical quest to ‘know thy Self’. Sufficient evidence has emerged from multiple bodies of work by various thinkers to suggest that past and present intellectual lineages should be adequately interconnected as mutually informing outlooks. Additionally, this article points out that scholarship alone is insufficient and that it needs the practical application of philosophy in order to render more accurate perspectives on knowledge. As our predecessors have shown, appropriate educational and legal systems need to be in place to encourage and to effectively support philosophy with its interdisciplinary vision towards a new paradigm for human excellence.

Апробация и валидизация методики «Индекс автономного функционирования» (IAF) на российской выборке

&lt;p&gt;One of the key issues in contemporary psychology is a correlation between determinism and indeterminism in understanding human behaviour. Autonomy as self-determined behaviour, as an individual's autonomous choice of behaviour, is one of the most significant and sought-after constructs in the study of personality functioning. In E. Deci and R. Ryan's self-determination theory (SDT), the need for autonomy is one of the basic innate needs of the personality, and this confirms the need for a person to feel as an actor, an initiator, the cause of one's own life and to act in harmony with one's integrated Self. The article presents the procedure of adaptation of the Russian-language version of the &amp;ldquo;Index of Autonomous Functioning&amp;rdquo; (IAF) developed within the macro-theory of self-determination by E. Deci and R. Ryan. The methodology assesses the need for autonomy, including such characteristics as authorship in life, self-interest and susceptibility to external control. In the article we studied the results of reliability and accuracy assessment (Cronbach's coefficient &amp;ndash; 0,774) on a sample of 689 university students in Saint Petersburg. The structure of the questionnaire had three scales: authorship, susceptibility to control, and interest. Correlation analysis confirmed the correlation of the scales with other methods of measuring autonomous behavior, such as "Subjective Quality of Choice", "The Existence Scale", "World Assumptions Scale" and "Stolin Self-Relationship Questionnaire". Testing of diagnostic sensitivity of the Russian version of the questionnaire showed positive results, revealing significant level differences between three clusters: respondents with high, medium and low autonomous functioning index, as well as significant differences in gender and level of education of the respondents. A positive correlation was found between the overall IAF score, the interest-taking subscale, and the age of respondents (within Russian sample). According to the results, the Russian-language version of the &amp;ldquo;Index of Autonomous Functioning&amp;rdquo; has good psychometric characteristics and can be used as a qualitative research tool.&lt;/p&gt;

The Origin of Mindfulness Revisited: A Conceptual and Historical Review

Mindfulness, a psychological construct gaining significant attention in contemporary psychology, originates in ancient traditions. This study aims to shed light on the inception of mindfulness by exploring its profound roots to achieve a deeper understanding of the evolutionary journey of ancient wisdom. Through comprehensive conceptual and historical review, the origin of mindfulness is revisited, uncovering its multifaceted essence. Mindfulness was expounded by referring to its original Pali term, sati, which was decoded to memory. The conventional description of mindfulness differs from its modern interpretation, as the Buddhist viewpoint emphasizes its role in alleviating unnecessary suffering by nurturing a comprehension of the minds mechanisms and the fundamental nature of the material world to pave the way to attain inner tranquility and liberation and awakening.

Din Maneviyat Tartışmaları Açısından Hilmi Ziya Ülken’in ‘Anadolu Tarihinde Dini Ruhiyat Müşahedeleri’ İsimli Makalesinin Değerlendirilmesi

One of the pioneering works in the history of religious psychology in Turkey is the article titled "Observations of Religious Psychology in Anatolian History." This article was published on June 1, 1924 (Hijri-1340) in the 13th-14th issue of the Mihrap Magazine and was written by Hilmi Ziya ULKEN. The presentations in this work were created, taking into account current topics in the psychology of religion, based on both the Ottoman Turkish original and the contemporary translation of the article. With this study, a contemporary interpretation of this century-old Ottoman Turkish article was made to understand its intended message, and its relevance to the present day was addressed. In this article, Ulken examines the lives and some mystical experiences of two historical mystical figures by presenting historical sources. It becomes apparent from Ulken's article that the importance of mystical experiences in Anatolian culture has continued throughout its historical process. The Anatolian people have placed value on metaphysical and Sufi/mystical elements. Ulken attempts to demonstrate that the mystical experiences in Anatolia are rooted more in Shaman culture than Buddhist culture and that this tradition continued during the Ottoman era. What Ulken described a century ago in this article reminds us that the quest for meaning and spirituality in contemporary psychology of religion is universal. On the other hand, in the West, some individuals searching for spirituality have stated that they do not belong to any particular religious tradition, leading to debates about changing the name of psychology of religion to "spiritual psychology." However, Ulken's attempt to show that the quest for spirituality in Anatolia, although occasionally reflecting Shaman culture, is not independent of religious traditions, demonstrates that spirituality in Anatolia is not divorced from religion, in contrast to the West. In conclusion, when examining debates in Western psychology of religion, it is important to focus on the universality of the field and make better use of past works and historical figures in Anatolian culture, rather than simply imitating Western developments. This article by Ulken is one of the Works that can help in in this regard. Key Words: Hilmi Ziya Ulken, Religious Spirituality, Mysticism, Search for Meaning, Spirituality.

Mental health based on ecological psychology on college students with personality disorder

BackgroundIn the current field of contemporary psychology, ecological psychology has become a new theoretical orientation, believing that everything in the ecosystem interacts and is interrelated. Depressive Personality Disorder (DPD) is a common and severe mental illness that is common among college students worldwide. Exploring the factors influencing depression among college students from the perspective of ecological psychology, with a focus on the effects of attachment anxiety, self-esteem cognition, and academic adaptation on depression among Chinese college students.Subjects and MethodsIn this study, 452 college students from Nanjing University in Jiangsu Province were assessed by Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), Adult Attachment Scale (AAS) and Self-esteem and Academic Adjustment Scale (SES). Amos software was used to conduct confirmatory factor analysis on the survey results.ResultsThere were significant differences in the dimensions of academic adaptation, self-esteem and adult attachment (P=0.000, P&lt;0.05), and there were significant differences between gender and total score of depression (t= -2.098, P&lt;0.05). Attachment anxiety not only predicts depression directly but also indirectly through self-esteem. Academic adaptation not only predicts depression directly but also influences depressive anxiety through the mediating effects of self-esteem and attachment.ConclusionsAcademic adjustment, depression disorder, attachment anxiety and self-esteem were significantly correlated with depression disorder in college students. Self-esteem plays a mediating role between attachment anxiety and depression, and attachment anxiety and self-esteem play a mediating role between academic adaptation and depression.Acknowledgement2021 Research Project on Internet Ideological and Political Work in Guangdong Colleges and Universities (No. GDWL21YB99).