Existential Orientation Research Articles

The synthesis of the Gospel and life as a goal of evangelization

The article presents selected examples of the synthesis of the Gospel and life, which is the goal of contemporary evangelization. In implementing the prophetic purpose, it was emphasized that the proclamation of the Word of God is to illuminate and transform human existence. In implementing the priestly function, the focus was on celebrating the Eucharist, revealing it as a source of human strength and energy, a school of sacramental perception of life and appreciation of matter, as well as a space for forming a new man. In the implementation of the priestly function, however, attention was paid to the presence of the Church in the world and the Christian lifestyle, which is closely related to the promotion of man and the quality of his life. The study emphasizes that the existential orientation of evangelization establishes the proper relationship of the Church with the world. It involves accepting the world, dialogue with it, and transforming it in the spirit of the Gospel.

더 나은 기술수업 만들어가기를 위한 실행연구 - 노마드 중학교 사례를 중심으로 -

This study aimed to understand what constitutes better technology classes in middle school technology education and to uncover the essence of quality technology education. Employing the action research method, with the teacher assuming the role of a researcher, the study explores the process of planning, implementing, reflecting on, and re-implementing lessons for class improvement. Conducted at G Nomad Middle School, a public alternative education specialized middle school, from March 2022 to December 2023 across four semesters, the study collected and analyzed data such as class recordings, student interviews, teacher's reflective journals, and class outputs to understand the essence of better technology classes. Key findings of the study are as follows: First, as an initial step in understanding the field to create better technology classes, the researchers gained insights into how students at Nomad Middle School perceived technology classes, which were described as playful classes, uninteresting classes, and classes where only some students participate. Second, the process for creating better technology classes was categorized into themes such as inviting students to participate in class through dialogue, providing opportunities for reflection through online portfolio writing, connecting class with students' lives, providing customized assignments and assistance to students, teaching classes that reflect students' preferences, incorporating career-related aspects into classes, and providing time and space for technological activities. Third, implementation resulted in observable changes in the classes, transforming them into classes that connect text and context, classes that foster immersion through reflective thinking, and classes that recognize each other's existence. Fourth, the educational significance of creating better technology classes was discussed within the context of three educational essences: interpretive interaction between learning and teaching, existential orientation towards better human formation, and dialectical dialogue process. This study offers valuable insights for technology teachers striving to enhance their classes and researchers exploring the essence of effective technology classes.

Undergraduate Management Course that Promotes Existential Development for Business

The modern workplace is broken because it retains a singular focus on shareholder value maximization. This orientation creates a variety of health hazards for workers. However, there are emerging approaches that promote more positive work climates. This report evaluated an undergraduate management course designed to address this issue by advancing principles derived from humanistic management practices. A sample of 234 women and 285 men who were enrolled in a Principles of Management course participated in this new curriculum. Students completed measures of the Numinous (i.e., ultimate existential orientation), personal well-being, conflict management, and empathic listening skills pre- and post- semester. Results indicated significant, positive changes across these four outcome variables. A cross-lagged panel analysis indicated that scores on the Numinous measure appeared to have a causal impact on the personal wellbeing scales. Training programs of this nature may be helpful in providing a long-term solution to improving the quality of the workplace.

Living Theology in a Pluralistic Latin America: An Exploration of Ecclesial Base Communities through the Lens of Social Imaginaries

The geography, histories, and ethnic composition of the Latin American continent pose a great challenge when attempting to identify and describe the region’s constitutive religious traditions and experiences. This task is further complexified by the hybridity, fluidity, and porosity of the region’s cultural groups. However, there is an aspect of Latin American religiosity that shares a significant family resemblance across the continent: the small community settings in which religiosity often emerges and consolidates as a worldview, commonly known as Ecclesial base communities. Informed by liberation theology, these communities are a uniquely generative experiment in social, political, and religious life. Scholarly accounts of liberation theology fail to identify key aspects of how Ecclesial base communities generate ways of being, knowing, and making meaning. While many of these accounts depict liberation theology as a socio-political discourse of theological origin, they do not unearth the multidirectional interaction between political practice and theological thought at the heart of these communities. In this paper, I aimed to fill this gap in the literature by reframing liberation theology as a set of social imaginaries, making use of Paul Ricoeur’s theories of memory and cultural imagination to provide the philosophical ground to understand the lived theology of Ecclesial base communities. In doing so, I maintain that liberation theology is not only a theoretical discourse that emerges from these communities, but also the inarticulate background of their ways of thinking, communicating, and living, one that provides an existential orientation through which Latin Americans can provide coherence to their collective action and recognize their own capacity to change their reality of oppression.

Sense and Sensibility: IARPT's Four Existential Orientations

Sense and Sensibility: IARPT's Four Existential Orientations

Social and Humanitarian Support for the Professional Development of an Employee of the Internal Affairs Bodies

The object of research in the article is the process of professional development of an employee of the internal affairs bodies in the system of higher professional education. The subject of the study is the social and humanitarian support of the process of professional development of an employee of the internal affairs bodies. Social and humanitarian support is understood as the process of creating psychological and pedagogical conditions for optimizing the interaction of psychological and pedagogical support for self-actualization of the student's personality as a necessary condition for an in-depth understanding of modern problems of social and humanitarian knowledge and the existential orientation of the teacher's personality. The axiological component of this interaction is the creation of specific situations in the educational activities of the future employee of the internal affairs bodies, which requires him to psychologically move away from the state of learned helplessness, imitation of the understanding of the lack of subjectivity. The novelty of the research lies in the combination of problem-based learning and the student's psychological preparedness for action in extreme situations. This combination is achieved by combining modern psychological knowledge and practices with the social construction of the reality of the educational environment. The interaction of educational psychologists, professional psychologists, consultants and teachers of social and humanitarian disciplines is based on a departure from the existing reality that deforms the personality of the educational environment of higher education institutions of the power profile. The main method here is a philosophical dialogue between the student, the teacher-psychologist and the teacher of social and humanitarian disciplines. The main goal of this dialogue is the creation of groups-meetings aimed at creating a facilitative (helping) environment for self-actualization of the student's self, as a necessary psychological and pedagogical component of his professional maturity.

СОЦИАЛЬНО-ГУМАНИТАРНОЕ ОБЕСПЕЧЕНИЕ СОТРУДНИКОВ ПРАВООХРАНИТЕЛЬНЫХ ОРГАНОВ В ПЕРИОД ПРОФЕССИОНАЛЬНО-ЛИЧНОСТНОГО СТАНОВЛЕНИЯ

The paper is devoted to the idea of law enforcement officers’ social and humanitarian support during their professional and personal development. The professional development of an officer's personality begins in the period of his/her training in an educational organization of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia and is an important part of life because during this period he/she gains the necessary professional knowledge, skills and abilities which will practically influence the result of his/her activities. It is important to note that during that period significant business and personal qualities are formed as well as moral guidelines that show the person’s attitude to work and people, and therefore, it is important to pay special attention to the formation of business, personal and moral qualities during the officer’s professional and personal development. In this regard, the idea of social and humanitarian support for officers is proposed. An officer’s social and humanitarian support during the training period is understood as creating conditions for the development of a conscious understanding of the profession and his/her role in it, formation of the best human qualities, motivation for self-education and self-study. Such conditions imply a dialogue interaction between the teacher and the student, psychological and pedagogical assistance and support. The author outlines the main essence of social and humanitarian support and possible ways of its implementation. At the end of the paper, the importance of the implementation of social and humanitarian support in the period of officers’ professional and personal development is emphasized. The practical significance lies in the fact that the implementation of officers’ social and humanitarian support during the training period in an educational organization of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia will make it possible to qualitatively change the educational environment, create conditions for the development of spiritual and moral maturity, the existential orientation of the individual to self-actualization, professional and personal development.

На пути к технизации живого и собственно человеческого: от прагматики к мечте

Introduction. The universality of modern technol- ogy testifies to a certain mode of its existence. It manifests itself in the fact that there is practically not a single segment of the modern world, not a single sphere of culture where technology has not spread its influence - direct or indirect / anony- mous. On the basis of the study, the authors come to the conclusion that technology is both a tradition and a logic built into the tradition, and the realiza- tion of a special existential orientation, an embodi- ment of a special kind. The purpose of the study is to reveal whether its essence is connected only with the pragmatic func- tion of technology, or whether there is a special symbolic beginning in technology, which takes technology beyond the scope of rational use. Methods. The authors apply the structuralist method that makes it possible to reveal structures behind the everyday understanding of technology that can generate semantic layers. The structuralist method is complemented by the phenomenological method, since the identified structures constitute the symbolic foundations of technical reality. The phenomenological method makes it possible to reveal the “hidden care” of a person, the target reason for the existence of technology. Scientific novelty of the research. The article reveals the deep meaning of the target cause of the technique. The technical is aimed at overcom- ing natural barriers, creating artificial natures, with its own special logic of existence. The material properties of things allow the permeability and conditionality of all qualitative obstacles. Quantita- tive homogeneity, the permeability of all qualities makes the boundaries between the types of living things conditional. There is no line of demarca- tion not only within life (the theory of evolution is based on this), but also between the living and the non-living. It is possible that there is no boundary between the temporal and the immortal. Results. The desire of mankind to overcome time is embodied in the being of technology. Mankind strives to conquer nature, to overcome all the bar- riers that the natural world continues to put up, in order to bypass natural laws to enter the realm of absolute freedom, which connects with immortal- ity. The created technical things themselves have certain laws for implementing a technical idea and limit technical creativity, but the meaning of technical creation is to overcome any restrictions. Man is a technician, because he is the self-willed transformer of the world. There is a revolutionary charge in technology that changes the world to hu- man request. The technique embodies the struggle of a desperate being with the rejection of his fate, his mortal fate. Conclusions. Despite the fact that science positions itself as rational, sober knowledge, nevertheless, the old dream of overcoming the barrier of death has not gone away. At the present stage, technol- ogy is trying to realize this dream through imple- menting safety, comfort, quality medical care, and an increase in life expectancy. Everything technical is centered on the problem of “life and death”.

KNOWING SLOWLY: UNFOLDING THE DEPTHS OF MEANING

AbstractThe article explores an aspect of spiritual intelligence characterized as a lifelong search for meaning. Slow knowing involves wrestling with perplexity. Periods of such tarrying gradually facilitate an unfolding of meaning. More than just the content of one's knowledge, it is the relationship, the how or manner of one's relationship with meaning that grounds the spiritual generativity of the seeking. Slow knowing is presented as an existential orientation, a lifelong process akin to ongoing conversion. Part 1 distinguishes such slow knowing from other senses of slow in current discourse (Kahneman's fast/slow thinking framework, and meditative concepts of slow mind). Part 2 explores slow knowing through the lenses of lectio divina and the use of metaphor in religious language. Slow knowing is characterized as having both individual and social dimensions. The article concludes with the concern that the conditions needed for slow knowing—and thus for spiritual intelligence—are undermined by the hasty pace of contemporary life.

The Feminine Body and the Culture of Care

Can we speak of a feminine approach to caring for the body? If there is such an approach, how does culture influence or even construct it? Do we need a new culture of care in the medical field? What can a woman’s contribution be to transform culture in this area? In this analysis, I take the human body and its way of being in the world as my starting point, so that we could speak, using Sartrean terminology, of a ‘psychical body’. Then I consider the symbiosis that occurs during pregnancy, and I speak of it as a ‘relational modality’, that gives an ‘existential orientation’ to women, whether or not they are biological mothers. Finally, I show some implications of this relational modality for the culture of care.

Spiritual Transcendence and Psychological Time Perspective Drive Religious Non-Affiliation More than the Big 5 Personality Domains

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of psychological time perspective and spiritual transcendence as predictors of one’s belief status (e.g., religious believer vs. non-believer). The underlying assumption was that individual differences in engaging with broad existential issues would determine whether or not religious belief would be of value. Using a sample of 373 believers and 316 non-believers (411 women and 293 mean, mean age = 35.49), information on spiritual transcendence, Big Five Personality dimensions, and psychological time perspective was collected and the correlational and underlying structural relationships were evaluated. The results indicated that belief status was related to levels of spiritual transcendence (particularly Prayer Fulfillment), time perspective (particularly Present Fatalistic), and both measures of existential orientation, but not personality. SEM analyses indicated that time perspective was the root cause of both subjects’ numinous orientations, which in turn impacted belief status. The theoretical implications of these findings were discussed.

System of professional-digital competencies of a teacher ofahigher pedagogical educational institution

The article is devoted to the problem of substantiation of the integral target orientation of preparation of future teachers of institutions of higher pedagogical education for professional activity in the conditions of digitalization of society: systems of their professional-digital competences. The main conceptual idea is put forward: professional-digital competencies of a teacher of a higher pedagogical educational institution are in isomorphic dependence on his/her professional functions and form a holistic system - a reference model of the target landmark of the digitalized educational process in graduate and postgraduate studies. The integral-functional dimension describes the procedure for establishing a holistic set of updated teacher functions in the digital educational environment ofa pedagogical university. The set of the following criteria for their search is outlined: 1) the specifics of thefunctional content of the types of teaching activities, taking into account the process of digitization of higher education; 2) the subject of the teacher's relations with future teachers and public life; 3) the nature of the relevant links. According to all criteria in their unity, three core professionally defined functions are defined: heuristic-digital, managerial-digital and self-development-digital. To these are added purely instrumental general professional - executive-digital, technical-digital and the function of compliance with digital security.
 The differences between the concepts of "professional-digital" and "digital" competence are emphasized. The concept of the system of professional-digital competencies of a teacher of a higher pedagogical educational institution as a holistic and interconnected set of their components, adequate to his/her certain professional functions in the digital environment, is formulated. The following relevant system of competencies is defined: heuristic-digital aspect (competencies in the areas of pedagogical innovations, digital content of personal and professional development, in particular, worldview and existential orientation, etc.); managerial and digital aspect (competence of the teacher of diagnostic and prognostic, motivational, design, organizational, stimulating and control functional and managerial nature); self-development-digital aspect (important for personal, professional and professional-cultural development of the teacher's competence); aspect of digital culture (digital competencies, highlighted in the literature, important for information retrieval, reception, processing and output, use of basic and application software, solving technical problems, personal data protection, copyright, etc.)

ПЕРЕОЦЕНКА СМЫСЛОЖИЗНЕННЫХ ОРИЕНТАЦИЙ КАК ДЕТЕРМИНАНТА ПОСТТРАВМАТИЧЕСКОГО РОСТА ЖЕНЩИН – ЖЕРТВ СЕМЕЙНОГО НАСИЛИЯ

The article presents the data of an experimental study, aimed at identifying the possibilities to achieve a reassessment of meaningful life orientations by women who experienced family violence. To study life-meaning orientations, the technique "Test of life-meaning orientations" by D. A. Leontiev was used. The program of psychological assistance tested during the experiment was developed based on general psychological principles that reflect the existential orientation of the impact. The reassessment of meaningful life orientations was carried out through increasing the possibilities of understanding the process of one's own life as interesting and rich; developing the ability to accept one's own experience and responsibility for one's life and for one's choices. During the experiment, the effectiveness of the work was established. Psychological counseling for women victims of family violence, in the format of helping them re-evaluate their meaningful life orientations, is a determinant of post-traumatic personal growth. This is expressed in forming a new, conscious system of their values, meanings and goals, developing an adequate assessment and productive analysis of the traumatic experience, rethinking the traumatic situation as a significant lesson in their lives that brings positive changes, restoring zest for life, i.e. it increases level of meaning to their lives.

Exploring associations between existential isolation, quest religiosity, and well-being

ABSTRACT The current work examined the association between existential isolation and religious quest orientation (i.e., spiritual belief uncertainty). First, Study 1 measured existential isolation and quest religiosity along with several measures of social isolation. Replicating past research, existential isolation was positively related to alienation and loneliness but negatively associated with belonging needs and social desirability. More importantly, however, quest religiosity was associated with reduced existential isolation. Building on these results, Study 2 sought to understand how existential isolation and quest religiosity related to well-being by using path modeling. We found that greater quest religiosity was related to lower existential isolation, which in turn, predicted increased psychological and spiritual well-being. These results suggest a complex relationship between existential isolation among the religiously skeptical, and that their openness and acceptance may help them cope with isolation and enjoy psychological benefits.

To the problem of formation of sence-of-life orientations of mature personality


 
 
 The article is devoted to the research of the problem of formation of sence-of-life orientations of a mature personality: the theoretical analysis of the concept of personal maturity, the essence of sence-of-life orientations in the life of an adult personality is presented; the relevance and motivation of research in the direction of humanistic-existential paradigm are substantiated; processes of understanding the life experience of the individual, his role in the formation of a mature personality, the activation of its internal resource are emphasized. An empirical study and analysis of its results on the formation of sence-of-life orientations of the individual in adulthood are presented; the principles of psychological influences in the process of psychological support are presented: social determinism, freedom of choice, personal congruence, responsibility, individual approach, empathy, invaluable attitude to the client. In the course of the research hypotheses were put: the deepening crisis of the existence of a mature personality is mediated by personal experience of living out difficult life situations and overcoming them. The main purpose of crisis counseling as a special help of the individual, is to promote an in-depth understanding that only person is able to make choices, to take responsibility for their life. In the course of research and implementation of psychological influence, the methodological principles of humanistic and existential orientation, which determined professional interaction, were reflected. The essence of psychological care, which we see in the integration of the experience of psychotherapeutic meetings in the real life of the client, is determined. In the perspective of research, the formation of a stable resistance of the individual to stress, adaptation to the situation of frustration and, in particular, the search for new meanings of existence, improving the quality of life.
 
 

FACTOR STRUCTURE OF THE LIFE-MEANING ORIENTATIONS TEST IN THE STUDENTS SAMPLE

The internal consistency and structure of questions of the life-meaning orientations test - the most popular tool for measuring the consciousness of life and the existential orientation of a person - have been studied. Its diagnostic value is undeniable, but the procedure for distributing assessments by subscales raises a number of questions: some items are included in two or three scales at once, and the content of individual items does not correspond to the characteristics of the subscale in which they are included. The vagueness of the factorial structure is explained by the fact that the methodology is based on a one-dimensional approach, which initially did not imply the differentiation of individual components. A survey of 93 students aged 17-24 was carried out, while two versions of the keys to the method, published in 2000 and 2020, were used in parallel. The general indicator of students' life awareness has an average interval of 103.16 ± 18.73, is characterized by a normal distribution and high internal consistency. The factorial structure of variables is not similar to any of the models previously described in methodological sources. The measurement of the meaningfulness of life in the student sample is influenced by five factors that together determine 62.7% of the empirical distribution: 1) the existential fullness of the personality's existence; 2) a sense of controllability and orderliness of life; 3) the success of self-identification (awareness of oneself, one's goals and life purpose); 4) a positive and open perception of one's own life; 5) joyful expectations from the future. The obtained factors only partially reflect the structure of LSS as a mental education of a higher order. First of all, they reveal the peculiarities of understanding their own life in the student population. The study asks the question of the psychological factors that determine the existential characteristics of a person at different stages of life.

Psychological Distress and Social Integration of Elderly People With Physical Disabilities

Background and Objectives: Poor physical health can affect the performance of everyday life activities and integration into society. The extent of disability or its influence on the life of an individual is related to his/her physical and social environment. This study aimed to examine the psychological existential orientation and social integration of elders with physical disabilities. Methods: Forty-six people with physical disabilities (with Mean±SD age of 73.7±10.6 years and age range of 53-93 years) were examined regarding psychological existential orientation, social integration, and health-related quality of life, using an extensive questionnaire set, including questionnaire on assistive technology, the Brief Symptom Inventory, and health-related quality of life. Results: The results showed that poor physical health can negatively impact the psyche and integration of the sample into society. Also, the subjects indicated a strong desire for more integration into society, however, they did not significantly participate in society in the last two weeks. Conclusion: Poor health and dependence on the environment in daily life can negatively influence the psychological and social situation and also limit social integration.

Deontological Feeling: The Tranquil, the Familiar and the Body.

This paper contributes to filling a lacuna in recent research on common normative backgrounds. On the one hand, discussions of common normative backgrounds tend to underexpose the role the feeling body plays in relation to the agent’s recognition of deontic powers (obligations, compelling reasons or rights). On the other hand, discussions of bodily background orientations and their role in the agent’s sensitivity to practical significance tend to underexpose the recognition of deontic power. In this paper, I argue that bodily background orientations can contribute to an agent’s sensitivity to deontic power. Developing further on Ratcliffe’s conceptualization of existential feelings, I propose that a person’s bodily background orientation implies responsiveness to an ethically significant kind of affordance. In order to flesh out this theoretical claim, I draw on empirical material concerning a specific existential orientation labelled as “quietism.” Reconstructing its central patterns, I explicate the bodily dimension involved in the quietist orientation as well as the way in which it shapes the responsiveness to felt demands in terms of preserving tranquillity and protecting the familiar. Finally, I discuss the broader theoretical implications of my claim and suggest to categorize ethically relevant bodily background orientations such as the one implicated in the quietist orientation as deontological feelings.

Palestinian struggle, South Africans and Jewish Israelis

What role does religion play (or not play) in transnational activism in the context of prolonged violence? The narrow strip of land known as Palestine and Israel has special significance to three of the world’s largest faith traditions – Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. The motivations of 21 South African and Jewish Israeli activists in support of the Palestinian struggle offer an inductive, contextual perspective on the interplay between differences in religiosity and shared aims and values in this context. These respondents to a case study in empirical ethics hold tensions of difference and yet navigate between religious and other existential orientations in their praxis of solidarity with the marginalised. The article discusses how and why the activists, despite their different convictions, share similar views of the positive and negative roles played by religion in the Palestinian struggle.

ПСИХОЛОГИЧЕСКИЕ АСПЕКТЫ ТАТУИРОВАНИЯ ТЕЛА У СОВРЕМЕННОЙ МОЛОДЕЖИ

The study of young people who apply tattoos and without them is discussed in the article. If earlier tattooing was considered as a destructive subculture of the criminal world, today the attitude of young people to tattoos has become a self-expression, a sign of their subculture. However, following the fashion most often has psychological aspects and mechanisms. The hypothesis of the study was the assumption that the perception of the body image, the characteristics of identity and selfattitude, self-presentation and existential orientation of young people with and without tattoos will have an internal relationship and significantly differ from each other. The study involved 112 young people with and without tattoos. Differences were found between the characteristics of young people with and without tattoos, such psychological aspects of the desire for tattooing were revealed, such as: perception of the body as a carrier of information, rather than the perception of the body in its holistic context; identification of young people with tattoos correlates with feminine characteristics and creative roles; high self-presentation, adequate self-esteem and low self-attitude; low level of comprehension and existential fulfillment.