Personal Successes Research Articles

Mental health and resilience in young people on Saint Helena Island.

This study explored the mental health needs and strengths of young people (aged 11-18 years) living on the remote island of Saint Helena (SH). 24 young people and their carers completed standardised inventories assessing mental health and resilience, of whom 15 of the young people and their carers participated in semi-structured interviews enquiring into mental health awareness, contributing factors to young people's mental health and resilience, as well as experience with local mental health services. Descriptive data were reported based on the quantitative measures and thematic analysis was applied to the interview transcripts. A number of young people were found to meet criteria for mental health problems while they showed high levels of resilience. The themes derived from young people's interviews were broadly centred around mental health boosters, including personal successes, social interactions, engagement in pleasurable activities and use of anxiety management strategies; and around limitations of living in SH in terms of limited resources and difficulty in maintaining trust in the community. From the carers, the themes revolved around awareness of mental health needs and strengths in young people, perceived barriers to access support mainly due to apprehensions around stigma and anonymity. Recommendations for improvement of mental health provision are made.

Remembering the good and bad and the self and others in a culturally modulated self-memory system

ABSTRACT Wang and Conway (2006, Autobiographical memory, self, and culture. In L.-G. Nilsson, & N. Ohta (Eds.), Memory and society: Psychological perspectives (pp. 9–27). Psychology Press) posit that remembering takes place in a culturally modulated self-memory system in which working self-goals are shaped by society and, in turn, influence the encoding and construction of memories in a culturally canonical fashion. The current research examined the self-goal of competence, which manifests through self-enhancement versus self-improvement motivations, in influencing remembering in different cultural contexts. We conducted two cross-cultural studies to examine memories for personal successes and failures (Study 1) and autobiographical and vicarious experiences (Study 2) in connection with individuals’ positive self-views. European Americans recalled a greater number of success than failure memories (Study 1) and US participants recalled a greater number of autobiographical than vicarious memories (Study 2), which was further associated with positive self-views at the individual level. In contrast, Asian (Study 1) and Chinese participants (Study 2) recalled even-handedly the different types of memories, and the memory retrieval was unrelated to individuals’ self-views. We discuss the findings in light of the different manifestations of the competence goal in shaping memory in the culturally modulated self-memory system.

Backgrounds and perspectives of San Antonio street sleepers

BackgroundThe question of what brings someone to homelessness and keeps them there has many varied and complex answers. The authors believe the answers lie within the persons experiencing homelessness (PEH). MethodsThis is an interpretive approach study based on convenience sampling of the San Antonio, TX, unsheltered population, utilizing semi-structured interviews from January 2022 through November 2022. ResultsThe six most common themes that emerged from the subjects’ backgrounds were 1) jail or prison time or other personally significant legal issues; 2) personal substance abuse or addiction struggles; 3) physical and mental health challenges as an adult; 4) disdain of shelters and preference for rough sleeping; 5) a problematic childhood; 6) did not enjoy school as a child or young adult. ConclusionTo gain more insight into a situation as complex as the state of homelessness, researchers should meet with those on the frontline of this epidemic and hear first-hand their personal histories, challenges, successes, and suggestions. Though not a novel approach, the researchers found limited previous literature in regard to approach, scope and in relation of causation related to homelessness, especially about the U.S. unsheltered population. The ultimate goal is for such research to help guide outreach services and legislation related to PEH.

Anxiety and enjoyment of older learners of English in Chinese Universities of the third age

ABSTRACT This paper investigated a research area worthy of greater attention: foreign language classroom anxiety (hereafter FLCA) and enjoyment (hereafter FLE) of older adults learning English as a foreign language in Chinese Universities of the Third Age. Understanding the largely overlooked emotional involvement of older language learners contributes to sustaining their motivation in lifelong learning for more remarkable personal growth and successes. Based on the survey of 587 Chinese older learners of English between the age of 50 and 80, paired sample t-test showed that more FLE was reported than FLCA. The results of Welch’s ANOVA suggested that those who were better educated had less FLCA and those who believed themselves healthier had more FLE. The language performance evaluation (i.e. relative standing in class and English mastery) affects both FLE and FLCA. Further interviews with 34 older participants revealed three major sources of FLE, including the language use in life situations, the favorable attitude toward FL learning in the cognitive, aesthetic cultural and pragmatic aspects and the social interactions in the U3As. FLCA occurs when the language performance is perceived as dissatisfying and when aspects of mental health (e.g. worsening memory) impede effective learning. Although FLCA and FLE had only a very weak correlation, Chinese older adult learners commented on a shared belief that anxiety usually precedes and subsequently enhances enjoyment in learning, indicating a sign of emotional resilience later in life. This paper demonstrates a need for understanding the emotions in language learning across life stages and socio-cultural contexts.

Revisiting the determinants of happiness from a grounded theory approach

PurposeThis study aims to examine the lay notions of happiness and determine the factors that influence one’s experience of happiness.Design/methodology/approachThis study used a qualitative technique to understand better how happiness is conceptualised. This study uses a purposive sample to select a diverse and representative sample (N = 357). Participants responded to an open-ended questionnaire designed to elucidate their understanding of happiness. The data is analysed using grounded theory and a bottom-up approach.FindingsHappiness is defined as a harmonious state where the individual’s physiological and psychological needs are satisfied in the past, present and future, leading them to live a meaningful and contented life. However, several factors may affect an individual’s level of happiness. Family and friends; health and wellness; personal and professional successes; recreation and personal traits all contributed to the feeling of happiness. On the other hand, factors impeding happiness include unfavourable surroundings, work and play impediments, strained relationships and undesirable behavioural characteristics. The authors compare and contrast these findings to the current empirical literature and hypotheses.Originality/valueDespite the substantial study, no uniform definition of happiness exists. The existing body of knowledge is dominated by western viewpoints, which are not necessarily congruent with their eastern counterparts. This study presents a thorough and culturally unique understanding of happiness. This understanding would enable academics, policymakers and educators to develop successful policies that promote happiness. Additionally, this study aid future researchers to develop new measures that enable cross-regional and cross-national comparisons of happiness dynamics

“We built it” in the past, but “let's build it together” in the future: The roles of temporal framing and social justice orientation in shaping attributions for personal success

Political debates over how to address economic inequality are often rooted in rhetoric about whether or not success is self-made. Attributions for personal successes invoke self-relevant motivational processes and may pose barriers to ideological consensus on economic policy. This research examined the relationship between attributions for personal successes and social justice orientation (an ideological orientation toward providing for the economic welfare of others) as well as the impact of two contextual factors: past/future-framing and thinking about political discourse about inequality. Temporal framing was expected to shift the motivational incentives available for acknowledging the role of external factors; although it may feel good to take personal credit for past successes already achieved, there may be stronger incentives to acknowledge the situational factors that shape uncertain future successes. Studies 1–4 found that individuals low in social justice orientation were reluctant to make external attributions for their past achievements, but that thinking about poverty and successes they hoped to achieve in the future increased their external attributions to levels observed among people high in social justice orientation. The willingness to make greater external attributions for future successes appeared to be motivationally-driven: it yielded affective benefits (Study 5), was seen as desirable (Study 6), and emerged when personal financial vulnerability was primed (Study 7). Attributional shifts were in turn associated with greater support for social justice. These findings suggest that thinking about successes not yet attained may establish a sort of Rawlsian “veil of ignorance” that can encourage individuals to recognize the power of situations and the needs of others.

A Discursive Contextualisation of Hustling in Nigerian Hip-Hop

Abstract One of the endearing qualities of the Hip-Hop genre is its penchant for crass materialism where artistes lyrically brag about their successes while unabashedly flaunting the ostentatious proceeds of their newfound fame. This resonates with the contemporary constructs of individualism and self-realisation in line with social expectations. However, beyond the photo ops, these artistes indeed go the extra mile in achieving success. In this article, the portraiture of hustling, which indexes survival in any form, is explored. Fifteen purposively selected songs by Nigerian Hip-Hop artistes constitute the data. For one, many of the popular Hip-Hoppers defied the stranglehold of poverty before recording personal successes. They thus reference the street as a domain of hustling and recount their experiences. Different contextual or social orientations of hustling in Nigeria are discursively constructed by the artists. It is framed as a prerequisite for achieving success (regardless of how!); as a necessity to meet familial responsibility; and as combat with perceived enemies. Additionally, Nigerian Hip-Hop artistes annex hustling as a psychological/mental activity as well as a metaphor for God’s blessings. The study concludes that hustling typifies the underground economy and the almost limitless extent to which Nigerian Hip-Hoppers work for their successes.

National Icon and Cultural Ambassador: Zoltán Kodály in the Musical Life of State Socialist Hungary

Abstract In my paper, I wish to raise questions pertinent to the changing position of the composer, ethnomusicologist and musical educationalist Zoltan Kodály in the musical and cultural life of the Stalinist and post-Stalinist periods of Hungarian state socialism. Owing to his folkloristic and conservative musical style, and also his identity as “an educator of the people,” Kodály established his status as a fellow traveller of statesocialism in the early 1950s. The easiest way in Hungarian composition to satisfy the expectations of the political power, as inspired by Zhdanov’s aesthetics, was to follow the style of Kodály. At the same time, Kodály sustained his reputation as a “genuine” national icon whose music was capable of expressing, even if in riddle form, anti-Stalinist sentiments in the eyes of various political and cultural circles, especially after 1953. In spite of the fact that Kodály did not take any active part in the political struggles in the revolution of 1956, he was named as a candidate for head of state by important revolutionary forces. Following the suppression of the revolution, the restored state socialist political power revised its practices in the field of art. The fact that the new cultural policy gave up the idea of a unified Hungarian art which is “national in form and socialist in content,” resulted in a temporary weakening of Kodály’s position. Kodály’s status was precarious, subjected to a challenge by avant-garde trends in composition and competing paradigms of musical education. From the early 1960s, however, when both the Western and Eastern political systems proposed strategies for long-term coexistence, Kodály gained a new function from the perspective of the political power. In Western cultural circles Kodály sustained a reputation as one of the great European humanists, and his music educational method generated a strong professional interest globally, and particularly in the usa. My paper also examines the cultural political impact of Kodály’s visit to Moscow in 1963. Kodály seems to have functioned as a mediator across the political divide. He had achieved great personal successes during his tours to the political West, and this reinforced his position in Hungary.

Revisiting the Falklands-Malvinas Question: Transnational and Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Revisiting the Falklands-Malvinas Question: Transnational and Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Reflection of a Second Year Medical Student: Navigating Medical School with Chronic Illness

The medical school journey is one that many are familiar with. However, there lacks familiarity amongst medical students and healthcare professionals about the stories of those who navigate this journey while struggling with chronic health issues. This article will detail a personal story about navigating medical school with chronic illness. In reflecting on simultaneously navigating a medical school and personal health journey, the struggles and successes experienced as well as the lessons learned will be highlighted. The importance of acknowledging, embracing, and sharing these stories will be emphasized through this reflection and a review of similar stories published in medical literature.

Hiding success.

Self-promotion is common in everyday life. Yet, across 8 studies (N = 1,687) examining a broad range of personal and professional successes, we find that individuals often hide their successes from others and that such hiding has relational costs. We document these effects among close relational partners, acquaintances, and within hypothetical relationships. Study 1 finds that targets feel less close to and more insulted by communicators who hide rather than share their successes. Study 2 finds that hiding success harms relationships both when the success is eventually discovered and when it is not. Studies 3 and 4 explore the mechanism underlying these relational costs: Targets infer that communicators have paternalistic motives when they hide their success, which leads them to feel insulted. Studies 5-7 explore the contextual cues that elicit inferences of paternalistic motives, such as private (vs. public) settings (Study 5), direct (vs. indirect) questions (Study 6), and close (vs. distant) relationships (Study 7). Across our studies, we also explore the emotional and impression-management consequences of hiding success. Although the relational consequences of hiding success are universally negative, the emotional and impression-management consequences are mixed. Whereas previous research highlights the negative consequences of sharing one's accomplishments with others, we find that sharing is superior to hiding for maintaining one's relationships. Thus, we shed new light on the consequences of paternalism and the relational costs of hiding information in everyday communication. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The Wardle Family and Its Circle: Textile Production in the Arts and Crafts Era

Brenda M. King’s The Wardle Family and Its Circle: Textile Production in the Arts and Crafts Era is a welcome addition to literature already available on textile history of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Told through the accomplishments of the extended Wardle family, the book charts personal and family successes in both business and personal affairs. These often impressive accomplishments, seemingly so vital to the achievements of some of the most notorious Arts and Crafts designers, have until now been overlooked. This text, which unifies a family history within a much broader crafting context, is hugely significant in establishing one family’s influence on textile design and manufacturing at this time. Admirers of the Arts and Crafts movement will no doubt be aware of works produced by William Morris, Walter Crane, and Arthur Lasenby Liberty. Perhaps they will also know of the companies that surrounded their success. Yet, what...

Peculiarities of entrepreneurship motivation and factors of its development

The research paper is devoted to investigation of actual and practical problems of entrepreneurship motivation. These sense of entrepreneurship is decided; entrepreneurship features and motivation factors that influence its development are defined; analyze is of the business activities main reasons are presented; the entrepreneur ship motivation structure is shown; basic types of entrepreneurship motivation and dynamics of motivation in the development of business activity are analyzed; relationship between business and personal successes presented. The authors note that when studying the motivation of entrepreneurial activity, it is important to apply a content-hierarchical approach, which allowed to explore the hierarchy of motives and, revealing the structural links between motives, to identify the structure of motivation. It is substantiated that the direct motives of entrepreneurial activity include: motives of commercial success; motives of freedom and independence; motives of initiative and activity; motives for innovation and risk. In particular, the indirect motives of entrepreneurial activity include: motives of self-realization; motives of respect and self-esteem; motives of social contacts and group affiliation; motives of compulsion. At the meso level of the analysis the organizational factors of motivation of business activity are allocated: sphere of business activity; experience of the entrepreneur; number of employees of a private enterprise; organization structure; organizational culture; labor and social relations, etc. Socio-demographic and personal factors of motivation of entrepreneurial activity are determined at the micro level. Socio-demographic factors include: age of the entrepreneur, gender of the entrepreneur, marital status, education.

Bernard J. Miller: MD, ScD. (Hon), FACS: Lifelong Surgeon-Scientist and Critical Contributor to the Gibbon Heart-Lung Machine.

Bernard J. Miller, MD, ScD. (Hon), FACS, is known as a critical contributor for his work in the John H. Gibbon, MD, laboratory for his work on the heart-lung machine (HLM). In this setting, Dr. Miller developed the fluid control servo system, which was necessary to prevent malfunctioning of the HLM and prevent air emboli. Additionally, Dr. Miller assisted in conceiving and testing the left ventricular vent, the positive-negative pressure ventilator, and the HLM oxygenator; these inventions were all the product of extensive collaboration between the International Business Machines Corporation and the members of Dr. Gibbon's laboratory. Furthermore, Dr. Miller was a surgical assistant and perfusionist in the first successful open-heart surgery. Herein, we seek to describe Dr. Miller's story and his contributions to the HLM, as well as the contributions that were developed by the laboratory at that time. Additionally, we describe critical events leading up to the first successful use of the HLM on May 6, 1953, including a previously unreported use of the HLM for partial bypass of the right heart at Pennsylvania Hospital in 1952. Finally, we present the rest of Dr. Miller's professional and personal successes after his work on the HLM ended.

Suffering, stereotypes, and psychosis: the representation of Jewish femininity in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

ABSTRACTDespite its progressive discussion of mental health, gender, and politics, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has a complicated relationship with Jewishness. Through Naomi Bunch and Audra Levine, the series endorses the Jewish Mother and Jewish-American Princess stereotypes, depicting both women as one-dimensional caricatures of Jewishness that embody the mid-twentieth century understanding of Jewish femininity perfected and disseminated by Jewish male authors like Philip Roth and Herman Wouk. While the protagonist, Rebecca Bunch, does embody many characteristics of what Nathan Abrams defines as the “New Jewess with Attitude,” the series’ overt implication that her mental health struggles result from her genetic “Jewish suffering” suggests that her professional and personal successes occur in spite of her Jewishness. Analyzing pertinent scenes and musical numbers, this paper argues that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is ultimately myopic in its portrayal of Jewish femininity, simultaneously embracing the stereotypes that have come to define the mainstream cultural representation of Jewish women and introducing a new paradigm that connects Jewish femininity with psychosis.

Leadership for Youth Empowerment Within a Family-Based Community Program

This article examines the perceptions of students who observed their adult family members’ participation and also participated in Connection and Access through Technology (CAtT), a family-oriented community-based program that taught technology skills to adult family members of school-aged children. This qualitative study applies conceptions of empowerment, for youth and community settings, to understand how program structures promoted immigrant Latino family members’ empowerment. In CAtT, parents gained technology skills, which they applied to their daily lives and to their children’s schooling, and developed leadership skills. Students experienced a sense of belonging, agency, competence, and leadership through increasing technology skills and having opportunities to contribute to the program, including through teaching others. Witnessing positive experiences of adult family members in the program also represented possibilities for children’s personal successes. Findings suggest that leaders’ ability to recognize and employ nontraditional parental involvement that builds on families’ cultural characteristics results in fostering student empowerment. Exposure to programs such as CAtT, which empower Latino immigrant families and which have the potential to alter traditional structures, is essential in the development of leaders for social justice and culturally responsive leadership.

Joining the Choir: Religious Membership and Social Trust Among Transnational Ghanaians, by NICOLETTE D. MANGLOS-WEBER

Nicolette D. Manglos-Weber’s Joining the Choir is about how trust works in a transnational Ghanaian evangelical community, Evangel Ministries, between Chicago and Accra. The title is drawn from the opening anecdote in which Manglos-Weber speaks to a “colleague” at church. They are both in the choir together, and they talk about the difficulties of the interviewee’s life in Chicago as someone on leave from graduate school and driving a taxi. This anecdote showcases Manglos-Weber’s positionality as an ethnographer: she is among the trusted, a status that she deftly maneuvers within throughout the book. In so doing, Joining the Choir is not only about transnational migrants between Ghana and the United States and the religious infrastructure by which social networks among them are developed. Following Manglos-Weber on her research journey, it is also about the intellectual discipline that is required to conduct research in networks where only insiders are trusted. With the research question focused on how trust works, Manglos-Weber takes the reader on a very engaging sociological journey that moves from in-group competition to spiritual questions about how faith, as a practice in a realm that is more-than-material, brings people together. The impetus that draws Ghanaians to the United States, she establishes from the outset, is aspiration; they are, as she terms them, “aspirational migrants.” Thus, a culture of competition pervades their communities, both in terms of emphasizing personal economic successes in social interactions and differentiation from the racial formations of African Americans in the city. Evangel Ministries connects this competitive community as a transnational hub, especially for young Ghanaians who aspire toward class advancement through migration. Pentecostal religion gives them a family and a sense of belonging, sometimes a holding zone for temporary setbacks where they can lay claim to a future hope of success. In this way, the community generates social trust by appealing to the aspirations of Ghanaians in their midst, presenting them with personal examples and public advertisements of success as they move as a community toward that future. Indeed, much as Manglos-Weber’s account of Ghanaians in Chicago can feel functionalist, the vivid ethnographic scenes of charismatic worship and inspirational preaching lead to a final chapter that moves beyond functionalism and gestures to the possibility of faith as an ontological state, a site of being where trust is more than a mechanism.

Marszałek Wielki Koronny Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski wobec Sejmu 1683 roku i problemu wojny z portą osmańską

In 1683 Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski was one of the most important politicians in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was part of anti-royal opposition, which was against alliance with Austria and war against Ottoman Empire. Lubomirski’s letters date before Warsaw Sejm indicates that he supported war against Muscovy. During Sejm he fulfilled his role as Grand Marshal, but at the same time he worked towards French interests. When the king and his supporters managed to defeat political opposition, Lubomirski switched sides and claimed that he never supported the king’s opponents. He then participated in signing a treaty with Austria and also enlisted few military units to take part in war against the Turks. After 1683, Sejm - for the time being - limited his political activities. Despite political defeat, he managed to achieve some personal successes – became owner of the town of Jazdów (Ujazdów), while his brother Hieronim was nominated for the office of Crown Court Marshal.

The Boundaries of the Djamaat: The Particular Features of Dangestan’s Translocal Communities in the Context of Migration Flows Within the Russian Federation

This paper analyses the contemporary structure and functioning of Dagestan’s rural communities in a context of internal Russian migration, particularly to the cities of Western Siberia. The concepts of transnationalism and translocality are deployed as a theoretical framework to analyse the migrant and his social world without detaching ourselves from the donor community, the djamaat. It is argued that the Dagestan rural community, in the course of the migration processes of recent decades, can no longer be viewed merely as a local social entity. A new translocal community has emerged, organized on the principle of the 'Global Village', that consists of migrants, their family members and non-migrants remaining in the home villages. Translocal migrants, existing simultaneously in several geographically separated points, continue to construct their identity and their social networks, a process that fosters a sense of belonging to a Dagestani village. The donor rural community is an important space where migrants can demonstrate personal successes and new entrepreneurial and philanthropic economic activities. Migrants invest not only in their own households but also help their native villages as a whole through entrepreneurial activity and financial support. In addition, the key moments of life remain rooted in the village. Migrants prefer to find a marriage partner from their home village. The home village is also seen to be the only acceptable burial place for deceased migrants. A major role in the consolidation of a translocal djamaat is played by Internet resources such as social networks and messenger programmes, which construct social networks and maintain communication among fellow countrymen in real time. This preference for preserving ties to one’s rural locality even after resettlement out of the village and the Republic of Dagestan, as well as the maintenance of translocal links, allow us to speak of a new social entity: the translocal community.

What Do Refugee Mothers Want in Urban US School Science: Learning from the Perceptions of Science of Three Somali Mothers

This paper examines the perceptions of three Somali mothers on science, science topics taught in urban US schools and the challenges that they encountered in dealing with science and their own social and cultural practices. The article focuses on Somali mothers, who were highly interested in articulating how science and science professions could be a path to both the personal and community successes and how science could positively affect Somali girls in the areas of women’s health. As an exploratory case study research, we used grounded theory approach to understand Somali mothers’ perceptions of science. We interviewed the mothers over a year and analyzed data as an iterative and systematic process. The findings of the study show that the Somali mothers perceived science from everyday usefulness points of view rather than science knowledge alone, thus home-science connections were critical to them as Somali mothers. They perceived science as an empowering tool for girls so they could make important decisions about women’s reproductive health issues. A broader implication of this study could be for urban science teachers and educators to modify their science instructional and curricular decisions so science learning is connected to Somali students’ culture and empowers girls.