Global Positive Change Research Articles

Трансляция традиционной китайской культуры в философию новой эпохи

The global positive change in public opinion about China has been constantly growing in recent years. However, there is still some misunderstanding of China and the Chinese culture in the world due to ideological and cultural differences. The relevance of the development of theoretical innovations and their application in practice to disseminate traditional culture is an essential moment of state and public life in China. The article represents the natural transmission of traditional Chinese culture, the characteristics of which are clearly reflected within moral civilization and affirmed in the philosophy of a new stage of modern Chinese society development called the ‘New Era’. The importance of traditional spiritual culture of Chinese people in the process of realizing the value of human life towards the development of socialism whereas the Chinese specificity is shown. Historical and retrospective analysis determines the role of the stages of civilization and personalities in the formation of the spiritual values system of the Chinese nation. The semiotic method, as a basic one, is aimed at interpreting the elements of traditional Chinese culture, in particular the symbolic system. The article highlights the main spiritual characteristics and defines the meaning of the traditional Chinese culture in modern culture, defines the specific feature of the concept of ‘cultural gene’ as the Chinese spiritual culture, covering varied and differentiated content and characteristics of the Chinese national culture and defining the difference between the Chinese nation and other ethnic groups in the world. The value of harmonious and unified relations between a man and nature in the Chinese culture is considered using the example of bamboo, a typical traditional symbol that actively transfers traditional cultural information into modern everyday life in China and determines the continuity of the foundations of Chinese moral philosophy. The analysis of the expansion of Chinese cultural symbols to the west is given and the main problems in the work on the popularization of Chinese cultural symbols abroad are identified. The contemporary Chinese culture is represented as an open system that recreates a comprehensive hands-on process that effectively enhances the influence of the Chinese culture.

National Values of Ukraine: Essence, Diversity, Consolidation Potential

The study is devoted to understanding the essence, set, typology and dynamics of national values of Ukraine in their heuristic meaning for the development of a modern democratic state. Particular attention is paid to the consolidating, unifying, and solidarity functions of national values, while recourse to the historical experience allows us to seek heuristic models of their productive use in modern Ukraine. The Constitution of Ukraine solemnly proclaims that a person, their life and health, honor and dignity, inviolability and security are recognized in Ukraine as the highest social value. Thus, man is the highest national value, for which the whole system of regulatory relations is built both within the state and in its relations with external partners. Man as a national value appears mainly in three hierarchical dimensions: individuals, communities, and the nation as the aggregate content of all citizens of the state. Accordingly, there is a semantic and voluminous load of national values at all three levels, from personal-existential, interpersonal, and inter-group to synergetic requirements of security, development and prosperity. The essential structure of the value being depends on the content of its basic components: axiologemes, predictors, attitudes, domains and the world in general. Ukrainian society has been the object of such influence for many centuries, which resulted in its value domain to have been significantly violated, requiring purposeful efforts of the independent state to revive and harmonize it. Current value trends have been monitored since 1981 in the framework of the European Values Survey and the World Values Survey. Global positive changes in the social development of the world community were identified, in particular the correlation between the values of self-expression and the activity of democratic institutions of civil society. The proposed research model is based on the comparison of indicators of different countries on such principles: traditional values – secular-rational values; values of survival – values of self-expression. From the second half of the 1990s, Ukraine has been included in both projects, which allows identifying positive and negative trends in social transformations to compare them with global trends.

ЕКОМОДА ЯК ПЕРСПЕКТИВНИЙ НАПРЯМ ПІДВИЩЕННЯ ЯКОСТІ УПРАВЛІННЯ НА ПІДПРИЄМСТВАХ ЛЕГКОЇ ПРОМИСЛОВОСТІ

The article considers the issues of eco-fashion as a promising area for improving the safety and quality of human life, saving the planet from environmental catastrophe and improving the quality of management in light industry enterprises. The issue of the impact of the fashion industry on the environment has long been a problem of global importance. According to a study by the United Nations Environment Program, the fashion industry is responsible for 20% of global industrial wastewater and 10% of carbon emissions, which is more than all international flights and shipping combined. Textile dyeing is recognized as the second source of water pollution in the world, and to make a typical pair of jeans requires about 8,000 liters of water. The modern thoughtful consumer wants not only to wear fashionable things – clothes and shoes. He also draws attention to the proper working conditions of workers in the factory where fashion products are made, the business ethics of the manufacturer, his compliance with environmental policy and others. To ensure responsible production and consumption of fashion products, measures are proposed for producers and consumers of fashion products. Improving product quality, using modern materials and technologies, implementing responsible supply chain management, freecycling, upcycling, recycling, creation and certification of environmental management systems in the fashion industry that meet the requirements of the international standards – is a consistent way to solve environmental problems humanity, which in the long run will lead to global positive changes, improving the quality of life of citizens and economic prosperity of countries. To date, a significant number of enterprises and organizations have developed, implemented and certified an environmental management system that meets the requirements of the international standard ISO 14001. The article provides data on the number of certified environmental management systems in the world in general 14001 for 2013–2020 Humanity’s responsibility to the environment is when people consume moderately, while the quality of life increases, and producers do not increase the production of goods and use environmentally friendly technologies.

ІДЕНТИФІКАЦІЯ ТА КЛАСИФІКАЦІЯ ГЛОБАЛЬНИХ ВИКЛИКІВ

Global challenges complex affect the system of international relations, interstate relations, the nature of interaction between economic entities within the state and between economic entities of different states, requiring a radical transformation and modification of the modern global system and the actions of its actors. The aim of the research is to identification, classification of global challenges by strength of impact and probability of occurrence to further determine their impact on the economic entities behavior and the formation of relationships between them. The subject of the research is the global challenges, the strength of their impact and the probability of occurrence and change in time. The methods of the research: logical-substantive method, method of comparison, methods of induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis. The hypothesis of the research. There is a need to identify and classify global challenges to further determination of their impact on the nature of behavior and the system of relationships of economic entities in the context of global challenges. The statement of basic materials. The concepts of global challenge, global problem, global risk, global crisis, global catastrophe are considered. It is proposed to consider the global challenge as a situation facing a large number of people who are not able to solve it on their own in an adequate time and they need to join efforts to solve it, which can create a global threat that will result in global problems, risks, crises and catastrophes, and be an incentive for global positive change. The classification of global challenges is proposed, which includes geopolitical, social, economic, biological, demographic, climatic, technological, informational, cultural. The originality and practical significance of the research lies in the systematic classification of global challenges in order to further determination of the impact of each group of global challenges on changes in both interstate relations and the nature of interaction between individual entities. Conclusions and perspectives of further research. The proposed by the author classification of global challenges on the basis of the annotated critical analysis of scientific literature, which is presented by 7 groups of global challenges such as geopolitical, social, economic, biological, demographic, climatic, technological, informational, cultural – will be the basis for global challenges impact determining on the nature of behavior and the system of relationships of economic entities in the context of global challenges.

Direct and indirect effects of alcohol expectancies through drinking motives on alcohol outcomes among students in Vietnam

ObjectiveTo investigate whether the links between alcohol expectancies (tension reduction; global positive change; improved cognitive and motor abilities; and change in social behavior) and alcohol outcomes (drinking volume, 6+ drinks, alcohol problems, and symptoms of alcohol dependence) are mediated by drinking motives (social, enhancement, conformity, and coping). MethodA multi-stage sampling strategy was used in four Vietnamese provinces, resulting in a final sample of 4756 students (43.2% females) with mean age 20.6 (SD 1.8) years. Structural equation models, including indirect effects, were estimated for women and men separately. ResultsOverall, there were many cases of full mediation (indirect effects range from −0.006 to 0.083 and p-values from <0.05 to <0.001) and little indication of partial mediation (indirect effects range from −0.009 to 0.025 and p-values from <0.05 to <0.001). In both men and women, coping motives most frequently mediated the influence of expectancies on alcohol outcomes. Among men, enhancement motives and, to a lesser extent, social motives also played a role in mediating the effects of expectancies on alcohol outcomes. Among women, full mediation was found far less often and less consistently. ConclusionBy confirming that, in Vietnam, motives mediate the link between expectancies and drinking behavior, this study supports the cultural robustness of a key assumption of the motivational model (i.e. that drinking motives are more closely associated with alcohol use than expectancies). Enhancement, coping and social motives are most frequently found as mediators among male students whereas coping motive only is most frequently found as a mediator among female students. As most of the effects of expectancies were mediated by motives, drinking motives appear to be a promising factor for interventions.

The Role of Alcohol Expectancies in Drinking Behavior among Women with Alcohol Use Disorder and Comorbid Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Understanding how alcohol expectancies relate to alcohol use among individuals with concurrent alcohol use disorder (AUD) and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is important to understanding and treating this comorbidity. This study examined the role of positive and negative alcohol expectancies and PTSD symptoms in drinking behavior in a comorbid female sample. Participants were women (n = 33; 56% Caucasian) seeking AUD and PTSD treatment in an outpatient community co-occurring disorders program. Hypotheses related to drinking days and alcohol problems outcomes were evaluated using negative binomial hierarchical regression. PTSD symptoms were associated with fewer reported days of alcohol-related problems. Negative expectancies related to negative changes in social behavior associated with drinking days and cognitive and motor impairment associated with problems. Both the general positive expectancies score and specific global positive change subscale were uniquely associated with drinking and alcohol-related problems days after controlling for PTSD symptom severity and negative expectancies scores. Results suggest that both negative and positive expectancies about alcohol’s effects are important correlates of drinking behavior among women with AUD and PTSD, with positive expectancies playing a potentially more salient role on use and consequences than symptom severity and negative expectancies.

Uso de álcool e expectativas do beber entre universitários: uma análise das diferenças entre os sexos

O estudo analisou comparativamente o consumo de álcool e expectativas do beber de homens e mulheres, verificando a relação entre as variáveis. Contou-se com uma amostra de 238 universitários, que responderam aos instrumentos AUDIT e AEQ-A. Homens apresentaram prevalência significativamente maior de uso de álcool no ano, uso problemático e binge. Expectativas de transformações globais positivas e de melhora no desempenho sexual foram maiores entre os homens. Houve correlação positiva entre expectativas e a gravidade de problemas associados ao consumo de álcool para ambos os sexos, no entanto, essa relação foi significativa apenas para os homens. Resultados indicam que diferenças das expectativas do beber entre os sexos podem ter um importante papel em ações de prevenção mais precisas e eficazes sobre o uso de álcool de homens e mulheres.

P-84 - Why do women with PTSD and SUD use substances? a study of expectancies

An emerging literature suggests a complex relationship between PTSD and self-reported reasons for using substances (also known as “expectancies,” or “the beliefs that individuals hold about the effects of substances on their behavior, moods, and emotions”). We studied this topic in a sample of 52 women with current posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorder (SUD), using a cross-sectional design. Both PTSD and SUD tended to be chronic and severe, with the PTSD mostly arising from childhood repeated physical and/or sexual trauma. Measures included the Alcohol Effects Questionnaire (Rosenhow et al., 1995), the Cocaine Expectancy Questionnaire (Jaffe & Kilby, 1994), as well as a new subscale of 12 items designed to address key PTSD symptoms (e.g., “I use substance(s) to relieve flashbacks of PTSD”). Results indicated two main findings. First, of the 12 subscales we evaluated, the most highly rated expectancy subscales were: paranoia, grandiosity/euphoria, sexual enhancement, global positive changes, power and aggression, and PTSD. Relatively lower were: desire for drugs, social expression, social and physical pleasure, cognitive and physical impairment, relaxation/tension reduction, and careless unconcern. Second, our PTSD subscale showed significant correlations with just three subscales: power and aggression (r=.43), global positive changes (r=.41), relaxation/tension reduction (r=.31). Discussion includes the importance of recognizing the varied reasons for using among women with PTSD/SUD (of which PTSD symptoms are just part of the picture, and not necessarily the most important reason). We also address measurement and sampling issues, and limitations of our design.

Green Water Technologies and Resource Management for Water System Heat-Transfer Applications in the Built Environment

In recent years it has become self-evident to many of us that we need to protect and restore our changing environment. By “environment” we are generally referring to our surroundings—our biophysical environment, which in earlier times meant the four classical elements, earth, fire, water, and wind, and later came to include the quintessence or the aether—air or space. Today we tend to refer more to the nitrogen, carbon, and hydrologic cycles. Also, today we consider our environment to additionally mean the exchange of mass energy or other properties that affect our life cycle and that of other organisms. But in our everyday world there is another environment—the built environment—which encompasses the design, construction, management, and use of buildings, neighborhoods, cities, parks, and systems that provide our individual and global surroundings, and the setting for all sustainable human activity. As all built environments depend upon energy, water, and other natural resources from the earth's biophysical environment for their very existence, it might be hoped that our biophysical and built environments (see Figure 1) can coexist in some form of commensal symbiosis, whereby we humans and our built environment benefit while the biophysical environment is unaffected. However, unless significant global positive change comes soon, it is looking increasingly like a parasitic relationship, where humans collectively benefit at the expense of the natural world.

Parental History of Anxiety and Alcohol-Use Disorders and Alcohol Expectancies as Predictors of Alcohol-Related Problems

Research has consistently identified a family history of alcoholism as a risk factor for alcohol-related problems, and global positive expectancies have been found to moderate this association. High rates of comorbidity between alcohol use and anxiety disorders suggest that a family history of anxiety disorders may also increase risk. Further, expectations of negative reinforcement (e.g., tension reduction) have been found to moderate the influence of anxiety-related traits. The current study sought to extend previous research by examining the influence of parental history of alcoholism, anxiety disorders, and the combination, as predictors of alcohol-related problems. Expectancies of global positive changes and tension reduction were hypothesized to moderate the influence of parental history of alcoholism and anxiety, respectively. Direct interviews with parents assessed their history of alcoholism and anxiety for 144 offspring (ages 18-32; 53.5% male) creating four groups: those with a parental history of alcoholism (27.80%), anxiety (22.20%), both alcoholism and anxiety (33.30%), and no history of psychopathology (16.70%). Established measures assessed the offsprings'alcohol expectancies, alcohol use, and alcohol-related problems. Although expected interactions between parental alcoholism and global positive expectancies and between parental anxiety and tension-reduction expectancies were not found, global positive expectancies were associated with alcohol-related problems among the group with parental history of both alcoholism and anxiety. The results suggest that the relation between parental history of alcoholism and global positive expectancies observed in previous studies may be strongest among individuals with a comorbid parental history of alcohol and anxiety disorders. Incorporating expectancies into interventions targeting individuals with a comorbid parental history of alcohol and anxiety disorders may have utility.

Consommation d’alcool et attentes d’effets positifs chez les jeunes adultes : approche typologique avec la méthode de classification TwoStep

The present study investigates the heterogeneity of the population of young adult drinkers with respect to alcohol consumption and Positive Alcohol Expectancies (PAEs). Based on the positive relationship between both kinds of variables, PAE is commonly viewed as a potential motivational factor of alcoholic addiction. Empirical analyses based on the regression of alcohol consumption on PAEs suppose that the observations are statistically homogeneous with respect to the level of alcohol consumption, however. We explored the existence of moderate drinkers with a high PAE profile, and abusive drinkers with a low PAE profile. 1,017 young adult drinkers, mean age=23 +/- 2.84, with various educational levels, comprising 506 males and 511 females, were recruited as voluntary participants in a survey by undergraduate psychology students from the University of Toulouse Le Mirail. They completed a French version of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identifiction Test (AUDIT) and a French adaptation of the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (AEQ). Three levels of alcohol consumption were defined using the AUDIT score, and six composite scores were obtained by averaging the relevant item-scores from the AEQ. The AEQ scores were interpreted as measurement of six kinds of PAEs, namely Global positive change, Sexual enhancement, Social and physical pleasure, Social assertiveness, Relaxation, and Arousal/Power. The TwoStep cluster methodology was used to explore the data. This methodology is convenient to deal with a mix of quantitative and qualitative variables, and it provides a classification model which is optimized through the use of an information criterion as Schwarz's Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC). The automatic clustering suggested five clusters, whose stability was ascertained until 75% of the sample size. Low drinkers (n=527) were split into one cluster of low PAEs (I1) and, interestingly, one cluster of high PAEs (I3, 46%). High drinkers (n=344) were split into one cluster of intermediate PAEs (II4) and one cluster of high PAEs (II5, 52%). Interestingly again, abusive drinkers (n=146) remained a single group (III2), exhibiting high PAEs. Clusters I3 and III3 comprised a significant proportion of males. Constraining the algorithm to find 6 clusters did not affect class III2, but split low drinkers into three clusters. Although the present results should be considered cautiously because of the novelty of TwoStep cluster methodology, they suggest a group of moderate drinkers with high PAEs. Also, abusive drinkers express high PAEs (except for 2 cases). Statistical homogeneity of moderate drinkers with respect to PAE variables appears as a dubious assumption.

Alcohol Expectancies and Drinking Behavior in Adults with Social Anxiety Disorder and Dysthymia

Previous research has found a positive relationship between social anxiety disorder and alcoholism, and that certain alcohol outcome expectancies are related to drinking behaviors. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among drinking behaviors and alcohol expectancies in treatment-seeking individuals diagnosed with social anxiety disorder or dysthymia, as well as normal controls. No significant differences were found across the 3 groups in alcohol consumption. As expected, socially anxious participants had higher social assertiveness expectancies than both participants with dysthymia and normal controls. Participants with social anxiety disorder had greater tension reduction and global positive change expectancies than the normal controls, but did not differ from participants with dysthymia. Additionally, the increased social assertiveness, tension reduction, and positive change expectancies were found to predict amount of drinking per month for socially anxious participants. Implications for understanding the relationship between social anxiety disorder and alcoholism are discussed.

The Role of Alcohol Expectancies and Alcohol Consumption Among Sexually Victimized and Nonvictimized College Women

The present study investigated alcohol expectancies, alcohol consumption, sexual assertiveness, and the number of consensual sexual partners as potential risk factors for sexual assault among three groups of college women: nonvictimized, moderately victimized, and severely victimized. Women with severe victimization histories (attempted or completed rape), compared with nonvictims, reported more consensual sexual partners, less perceived assertiveness in their ability to refuse unwanted sexual advances, greater weekly alcohol consumption, and more positive outcome expectancies for alcohol including tension reduction, sexual enhancement, and global positive change. In addition, for both victimized and nonvictimized women, consumption of alcohol and expectancies of social enhancement following alcohol use independently accounted for a significant portion of the variance of sexual activity following alcohol consumption. Findings are discussed with respect to research aimed at reducing sexual assault among women who are at highest risk for sexual violence.

Alcohol expectancies in a Native American population.

Native Americans, as a group, have a high prevalence of alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence, although specific risk factors for alcoholism among this population have yet to be clearly identified. One set of factors that may contribute to the development of alcoholism are expectations of alcohol's effects. Previous research has shown that heavy drinkers and alcoholics have higher alcohol-related expectancies. Some studies have also shown an association between alcohol expectancies and a positive familial history of alcoholism. To examine factors that are related to expectations of alcohol's effects in a Native American population, this study evaluated healthy, nonalcoholic Mission Indian men between the ages of 18 and 25 years using the short form of the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (AEQ). The influence of recent drinking history, family history of alcoholism, and degree of Native American heritage on alcohol-related expectancies was determined using regression analyses for the total AEQ score and for each of the six AEQ subscales. Recent drinking history accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in the total score, as well as scale I (global positive changes) and scale VI (arousal and power) of the AEQ. Degree of Native American heritage and family history of alcoholism did not account for a significant amount of variability in alcohol expectancies. These results suggest that, consistent with findings in other populations, alcohol expectancies are related to drinking patterns in Mission Indians. However, no association with two other potential risk factors were found in this sample of Native Americans.

Expectancies relate to symptoms of alcohol dependence in young adults

A significant relationship between the Alcohol Dependence Scale (ADS, Skinner & Allen, 1982) and positive expectancies for alcohol use (AEQ, Brown et al., 1987) is reported that has implications for educational programmes designed to promote sensible drinking. Expectancies predicted current drinking and dependence scores among a sample of young adults that contained 14.6% of subjects scoring above the cut-off point on the ADS. AEQ scores were found to predict ADS scores over and above current drinking and the AEQ subscales successfully differentiated between heavy drinking and dependent drinking. Canonical correlations revealed that for males higher scores on Increased social assertiveness, Sexual enhancement and Arousal and power were related to higher symptoms of loss of control over drinking. The picture was more complex for females in that three canonical variates were found. First, personal expectancies elevated across all the subscales of the AEQ were related to Loss of control. Secondly, females with high scores on Global positive changes and Sexual enhancement showed more symptoms of obsessive drinking and finally, females with higher Arousal and power expectancies but lower Sexual enhancement also had higher scores on the Perceptual withdrawal subscale from the ADS.

Extroversion, anxiety and the perceived effects of alcohol.

To test the hypothesis that personality characteristics are related to alcohol-effect expectancies, 256 (115 men) college students were divided into groups on the basis of self-reported alcohol consumption and anxiety and introversion scores on the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire. Three-way multivariate analyses of variance were conducted to determine expectancy differences by drinking behavior, personality characteristics and sex. Alcohol expectancy scores were found to vary with drinking behavior and personality measures. Elevated expectancy scores were associated with higher quantity-frequency measures of drinking; however, no significant sex differences were obtained. Extroverted students expected more social and physical pleasure, more relaxation and less arousal with drinking. Students with higher levels of trait anxiety expected more global positive changes, sexual enhancement, social assertion and arousal. The association of drinking behavior and personality with expectancies appears to be independent and additive.

Correlates of alcohol consumption: Sex, age, and expectancies relate differentially to quantity and frequency

Expectations of the effects of alcohol have been related to drinking behaviiors for both problem and nonproblem drinkers. The present investigation expanded on previous research by considering age, sex, and alcohol expectancies as differential predictors of frequency and quantity of drinking. Subjects, 157 males and 168 females, completed alcohol expectancy, drinking habits, and demographic questionnaires. Results showed significant sex differences in predictors of drinking frequency. Males who reported most frequent drinking tended to have stronger expectations of increased Social and Physical Pleasure, Global Positive Changes, and Sexual Enhancement. On the other hand, frequent consumption among females was best predicted by stronger expectations that alcohol would reduce tension. The amount consumed per drinking occasion was predicted by the same two expectancy factors for males and females: Social and Physical Pleasure and Social Assertion. Age was an important contributing predictor of quantity and frequency for females only. Results indicated the importance of investigating the mediating role of expectancies (a) within sex and (b) with respect to frequency versus quantity of drinking behavior.

Expectations for reinforcement from alcohol use in a clinical sample.

To examine differences in expectations for reinforcement from alcohol use between a clinical sample of adult alcoholics and general medical controls, subjects were administered the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire and were interviewed in a structured format assessing levels of alcohol intake. Alcoholic inpatients were found to expect more global positive changes, social assertiveness, social and physical pleasure and tension reduction from alcohol than did general medical controls. The findings were highly consistent with the results of other recent research examining the relation of alcohol expectancies to drinking patterns in alcoholics.