Positive Reformulation Research Articles

Nietzsche, Nishitani, and Laruelle on Faith and Immanence

Abstract This article explores the use of the concept of “faith” in three non-Christian philosophers. The study begins with Nietzsche, who, while deeply critical of Christian belief throughout his work, offers a positive reformulation of the term in a few key texts. From here, the discussion proceeds to two authors who are deeply influenced by Nietzsche, François Laruelle, and Nishitani Keiji. Laruelle’s recent turn to non-theology sees him engaging directly with Christian theological material and presenting a distinction between a positive form of “faith” in contrast from standard religious “belief,” a distinction I suggest bears close resemblance to Nietzsche’s approach, especially in relation to the Apostle Paul. Finally, Nishitani offers his own account of faith, one inspired primarily by the Buddhist notion of faith, but also referencing Christian theology and specifically the practice of Paul, while also connecting with Nietzsche. The connecting theme for all three thinkers is rooted in Zarathustra’s encouragement to be “faithful to the earth,” a non-transcendent, immanent formulation of faith. Faith, in Nishitani and Laruelle especially, is non-doctrinal, non-dogmatic, and non-intellectual; it is, instead, practical, an immanent existence, a way of life resulting in a different form of connection with the world around us.

Особенности психического состояния, совладающего поведения и их взаимосвязь у студентов в ситуации резких социальных перемен

The article presents the results of a study of the characteristics of the mental state, self-regulation, coping strategies and the interrelationships between them among university students during the period of drastic social changes that occurred in the winter and spring of 2022 and continue to influence people's lives at the present time. The relevance of the study is determined by the need to implement support for boys and girls to ensure their effective solution of life tasks and further progressive development against the background of modern social challenges. 86 full-time undergraduate students took part in it. The results of the study showed that the tension, comfort, and level of subjective well-being of students are in the middle range, but boys and girls need emotional support from others and assistance in processing unpleasant experiences. Through a rich set of coping strategies (planning, positive reformulation and personal growth, active coping, search for emotional social support, acceptance, concentration on emotions and their active expression), young people search for opportunities for self-realization in a situation of drastic social changes. Positive reformulation and personal growth, active coping, suppression of competing activities, and the search for emotional social support allow boys and girls to maintain a high level of subjective well-being and a positive attitude, while avoiding problems and denial leads to the opposite result. Interest plays the role of a motivational resource for the effective adaptation of young people, and emotional tone provides the energy level necessary for processing unpleasant emotions and carrying out constructive actions in difficult circumstances.

Stress and Coping Strategies among Women in Late Motherhood.

Background: The shifting reproductive age of women is reflected in European populations. Pregnancy in women older than 35 years is considered high-risk and can be an additional source of stress. The aim of this study was to assess the perceived stress of women experiencing late motherhood and the coping strategies used. Methods: The study was conducted in Poland by means of a diagnostic survey, using the COPE (Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced) Inventory, the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), the Berlin Social Support Scales (BSSS), and a self-administered questionnaire. The study included 310 women who gave birth to their first child after the age of 35 and 313 respondents in a control group who gave birth before this age. Results: Based on the results, there were no statistically significant differences in feelings of stress among women who gave birth to their first child after the age of 35 (M = 18.33) compared to the control group (M = 18.14). However, statistically significant differences were observed regarding stress coping strategies. Conclusions: Women giving birth after the age of 35 were more likely to use strategies including active coping, planning, positive reformulation, acceptance, turning to religion, and seeking instrumental support.

Coping Strategies and Burnout Among Medical and Social Workers Providing Services to People with Limited Mobility

INTRODUCTION. The centerpiece of the development of occupational burnout is the individual’s ability to cope with stressful situations. AIM. To determine ways to cope with stress among employees of healthcare organizations and social service institutions providing services to low-mobility population groups, as well as to assess the correlations between individual coping strategies and burnout symptoms. MATERIALS AND METHODS. The study involved 81 employees of healthcare organizations (group 1) and 88 employees of a social service institution (group 2). We used COPE (Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced Inventory) questionnaire adapted by T.O. Gordeeva et al. to determine ways of coping with stress; Maslach Burnout Questionnaire adapted by N.E. Vodopyanova to determine symptoms of occupational burnout. RESULTS. Employees of a social service institution more often than the staff of healthcare organizations had high levels of coping strategies: positive reformulation and personal growth (in 80.7 % and 60.5 % respectively, p = 0.002), active coping (in 76.1 % and 58 %, p = 0.012), planning (in 76.1 % and 53.1 %, p = 0.002). At the same time group 1 representatives 2.1 times more often than group 2 representatives had high values of the integral index of occupational burnout: 50.6 % against 23.9 % (χ2 = 12.997, p 0.001). DISCUSSION. Ineffective coping-strategies, correlating with the levels of occupational burnout symptoms, appeared to be concentration on emotions and their active expression, mental disengagement from the problem, behavioural disengagement from the problem, and denial. Among the effective ones are active coping, planning, positive reformulation and personal growth. CONCLUSION. Burnout symptoms were more frequent in the surveyed sample of the healthcare workers than in the workers of social service institutions and were associated with insufficiently active use of effective ways of coping with stress.

The relationship between military amputees' coping strategies and their educational and professional characteristics

Introduction. Coping strategies used in overcoming crisis situations is an important component of stress-overcoming behavior, or coping behavior of the individual. Aim: to empirically investigate the relationship between coping strategies used by military amputees and their educational and professional characteristics. Methods: the COPE scale (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub), passport questionnaire, statistical methods (descriptive statistics, correlation analysis (Pearson's correlation coefficient)). Results. It was found that the majority of respondents used active and productive coping strategies such as «coping planning» and «positive reformulation and personal growth», and almost every second respondent used «acceptance» and «active» coping strategies. A significant number of the military used various passive and unproductive coping strategies to avoid solving problems. There was a statistically significant relationship between the coping strategies used by military amputees and their educational and professional characteristics. Conclusions. The obtained results can be helpful in developing military amputees' psychosocial rehabilitation technology.

Жизнестойкость, самоактивация и копинг-стратегии матерей в условиях инвалидности ребенка как вызова

<p>Aim. The study is focused on studying the manifestations of resilience, self-activation and coping strategies of mothers depending on the type of challenge, assessment of its strength and the presence/absence of disability in their children. Materials and methods. The study involved women (N=271) aged 24 to 55 years, including 156 mothers of healthy children and 115 mothers of children with disabilities. A socio-biographical questionnaire and a package of techniques were used: Self-activation technique (M.A. Odintsova, N.P. Radchikova); Resilience test (E.N. Osin, E.I. Rasskazova); SORET questionnaire (E.I. Rasskazova, T.O. Gordeeva, E.N. Osin). Results and conclusions. The relationship between the social and demographic characteristics of mothers and their assessments of the situation of the call is revealed. Less constructive coping strategies (mental withdrawal from the problem, denial, behavioral care, etc.) are more often used by mothers with a high assessment of the strength of the challenge; positive reformulation, humor and planning are more often used with low assessments of the strength of the challenges, regardless of the presence of disabled children in the family. Mothers raising children with disabilities are characterized by lower rates of physical activation, the level of which is lower with high estimates of the strength of the challenge.</p>

Depression, anger and coping strategies of students in polish medical faculties

IntroductionStress related to high expectations towards students, a large amount of knowledge necessary to assimilate in a brief period of time, and peer pressure are an important factor in the deterioration of the mental state of medical students. As a consequence, it can lead to burnout and even the development of mental disorders such as depression. Mechanisms of coping with difficulties play an extremely important role in moderating this risk. For this reason, it was of the interest what strategies medical students adopt in the face of everyday stress and how it affects their well-being and functioning.ObjectivesThe objective was to determine how medical studies impact mental health of students and what coping strategies are used by them to mitigate the negative influence of stress associated with high expectations, peer pressure and overwork.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted among students of polish medical faculties using an online questionnaire. Risk of depression was assessed using validated BDI inventory, aggression using STAXI inventory and evaluation of coping strategies was conducted with Brief-COPE inventory.ResultsStudy was conducted among 329 participants. The majority of respondents were female (71.4%; n=235) and average age in the whole population equaled 22.46 years (95%CI: 22.1-23.01). There was no statistically significant difference in age between females and males. Average outcome in BDI equaled 13.84 (95%CI: 12.8-14.8) with higher levels among females (13.84 vs. 12 p<0.05). 165 (49.6%) students had a score above threshold for the increased risk of depression while 32 (9.63%) for severe symptoms of it. In case of aggression average outcome of STAXI equaled 24.89 (95%CI: 22.6-27.1). There was a statistically significant correlation between STAXI and BDI (r=0.3; p<0.05). In terms of the coping mechanisms in terms of coping strategies, a clear advantage of approach strategies was observed (65.36% of respondents). In the multiple regression analyses coping strategies did not influence neither STAXI nor BDI outcomes.ConclusionsWhat draws attention are the high level of depression among the surveyed students, where over 50% show results above the cut-off point for an increased risk of a depressive episode. The advantage of approach strategies is also interesting, especially in terms of planning strategies and positive reformulation. Interestingly coping strategies in the analysed population did not constitute a significant protective factor in relation to the severity of the depressive symptoms and agression. Meanwhile, the sense of satisfaction and contentment with the chosen direction was a very good protective factor in terms of the severity of depressive symptoms.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

A simplified completely positive reformulation for binary quadratic programs

In this paper, we propose a simplified completely positive programming reformulation for binary quadratic programs. The linear equality constraints associated with the binary constraints in the original problem can be aggregated into a single linear equality constraint without changing the feasible set of the classic completely positive reformulation proposed in the literature. We also show that the dual of the proposed simplified formulation is strictly feasible under a mild assumption.

Features of subjective well-being and coping strategies in women during periods of soft and hard social transitivity

The relevance of the study is determined by large-scale, overlapping, multidirectional changes throughout the world over the past few years, which create a situation of social transitivity with heterogeneous periods. The concept of social transitivity is analyzed, in which heterogeneous periods are distinguished. The aim of the work is an empirical study of the specifics of subjective well-being, psychological defenses and coping strategies in women in situations of hard and soft social transitivity. The study involved 318 women (N=318), living in different cities of Russia aged from 26 to 55 years. The study was conducted in 2022 in two stages — during periods of soft and hard transitivity. The results obtained prove the importance for subjective well-being, psychological defenses and the choice of coping strategies for experiencing a person’s current situation as a crisis. The specificity of the links between subjective well-being and psychological defenses and coping strategies has been revealed both for groups with different experiences of the current situation and for different periods of transitivity. It is shown that rigid transitivity erases almost all differences between those who assess the current situation of social transitivity as a crisis and those who for whom it is not. It has been established that the greatest contribution to the maintenance of subjective well-being is made by the psychological defense “denial”, and these connections have their own specifics in two groups for different periods of transitivity. Few links were found between coping strategies and subjective well-being, among them positive links between the coping strategy “positive reformulation and personal growth” and subjective well-being in a group of women who assess the situation as a crisis, and the number of these links decreases in a situation of rigid transitivity. The results obtained contribute to the development of the problem of the psychological well-being of an individual in a situation of social and personal transitivity.

Conic formulation of QPCCs applied to truly sparse QPs

We study (nonconvex) quadratic optimization problems with complementarity constraints, establishing an exact completely positive reformulation under—apparently new—mild conditions involving only the constraints, not the objective. Moreover, we also give the conditions for strong conic duality between the obtained completely positive problem and its dual. Our approach is based on purely continuous models which avoid any branching or use of large constants in implementation. An application to pursuing interpretable sparse solutions of quadratic optimization problems is shown to satisfy our settings, and therefore we link quadratic problems with an exact sparsity term Vert {{mathsf {x}}}Vert _0 to copositive optimization. The covered problem class includes sparse least-squares regression under linear constraints, for instance. Numerical comparisons between our method and other approximations are reported from the perspective of the objective function value.

Features of coping behavior in injured athletes

Coping behavior plays a significant role in the recovery of an injured athlete. Identifying the features of coping behavior can make an invaluable contribution to the development of such a problem as the psychological rehabilitation of an athlete. The objective of this study was to examine the features of coping behavior of injured athletes. The study sample consisted of 279 professional athletes of various sports, who, for the purposes of the study, filled out the following questionnaires: a balanced scale of life satisfaction (basic needs) and a scale of emotional state of E.Diener and a COPE questionnaire designed to measure situational coping strategies and dispositional styles. Depending on the gender, the classification of the sport, the number and severity of injuries, the athlete gravitates towards different coping strategies. We have found a link between the general well-being of the injured athlete and coping strategies such as positive reformulation, emotional focus, and humor. Based on the results of the one-way analysis of variance, we partially confirmed our hypothesis that there are differences in the coping strategies used by athletes representing different categories: gender, sport classification, number of injuries, and severity of injury. The performed correlation partly confirmed our assumption that there is a relationship between the general well-being of the injured athlete and the coping strategies used. Despite the fact that the correlation coefficients showed low values, we believe that this is due to the heterogeneity of our sample.

УКРАЇНСЬКОМОВНА АДАПТАЦІЯ ШКАЛИ ДОБРОЯКІСНОЇ ТА ЗЛОЯКІСНОЇ ЗАЗДРОСТІ (BEMAS): АНАЛІЗ ПСИХОМЕТРИЧНИХ ПОКАЗНИКІВ

The aim of the work is to test and validate the Benign and Malicious Envy Scale (BeMaS) (Lange & Crusius, 2015) among a Ukrainian sample. The study involved 484 people aged 17 to 58 years (M = 24.5), 17.2% men and 82.8% women. The α-Cronbach index for BeMaS is 0.83 for the benign envy scale and 0.84 for the malignant envy scale, indicating a high level of homogeneity. As a result of exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory CFA analysis, two factors were identified in the BeMaS methodology: benign and malignant envy. The two-factor structure is consistent with conceptualizing envy not as a unidimensional construct, but as a two-dimensional construct that includes a benign and a malicious form of envy. Researchers suggest distinguishing malicious envy, which is characterized by hostility toward others of higher status, and benign envy, which motivates people to self-improvement instead of causing feelings of ill will (Crusius and Lange, 2014; Falcon, 2015). Both subscales were found to be reliable and internally consistent. The test reliability of BeMaS testifies to the high level of reliability of the Ukrainian version. The benign envy scale shows direct correlations with constructive coping (positive reformulation, personal growth, active coping, use of emotional social support), and personal resilience. Instead, the malicious envy scale has direct correlations with destructive coping strategies, including negative venting, denial, behavioral avoidance, and self-blame, as well as a direct correlation with depression and an inverse correlation with resilience. Both benign and malicious envy scales are directly related to narcissistic personality strategies: admiration and rivalry. BeMaS has a two-factor structure, good internal, discriminant, and predictive validity, and can serve as a measure of envy in Ukrainian.

Emotional and behavioral components of infertility-related stress experienced by infertile women

The article is devoted to the study of infertility-related stress experienced by infertile women. We studied such components of the stress of infertility as anxiety, depression, coping strategies, emotional schemes, as well as the psychological component of the quality of life. The aim of the study was to study the characteristics of individual components of the stress of infertility, such us anxiety, depression, emotional schemas and coping strategies. The following research methods were selected: A. Becks Anxiety Scale, A. Becks Depression Scale; questionnaire of the study of the quality of life in infertility FertiQoL J. Boivin; R. Leahy Scale of Emotional Schemes Questionnaire (LESS II); COPE coping strategies questionnaire in adaptation by T.O. Gordeeva, E.N. Osin, E.A. Rasskazova, O.A. Sychev, V.Yu. Shevyakhova. 33 women with infertility (main group) and 33 women without infertility and not planning pregnancy in the near future were studied. The results of the study revealed such characteristics of women with infertility as insufficient satisfaction with the quality of life, subjectively felt emotional discomfort, insufficient social support and some dissatisfaction with marital relations. At the same time, subclinical levels of anxiety-depressive symptoms are accompanied by a general tension of emotional schemes, the prevalence of such schemes, Feelings of guilt for their own emotions, Lack of meaningfulness, Invalidation of emotions by others, Predicted duration of emotions, Tendency to ruminate, A simplified idea of emotions. Behavioral strategies in a stressful situation in women with the stress of infertility are characterized by inflexibility, a tendency to avoidance and denial, and the rare use of positive reformulation and humor. The study revealed the presence of various supporting stress factors of infertility characteristic of women suffering from infertility: insufficient satisfaction with the quality of life, subjectively felt emotional discomfort, insufficient social support and dissatisfaction with marital relations. At the same time, subclinical levels of anxiety-depressive symptoms are accompanied by a general tension of emotional schemes and limited behavioral strategies in a stressful situation.

God’s Providence and the Plurality of Religions

The ‘Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together’, co-signed on 4 February 2019 by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, Ahmad Al-Tayeb, states: ‘The pluralism and the diversity of religions, colour, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings.’ The article presents the starting points of correct hermeneutics of this statement. It points out that it is a positive reformulation of the anti-discrimination human rights declarations, which list the criteria according to which people cannot be discriminated. It shows the compatibility of the statement with the Quran, which presupposes a plurality of successive and graded revelations of God and religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It then represents the reactions with which Catholic theologians responded to the statement: the accusation of the Pope of heresy; the claim that while God’s creative will has instilled a natural religion in human beings, it does not positively seek a plurality of religions; the claim that non-Christian religions are an evil by which God allows to achieve greater good; the claim that all religions are wanted by God’s Providence in what is true, good, and beautiful in them as the preparation for the salvation of man in the encounter with Christ. In the end, it discusses the idea of St. John Paul II, who, for several years before the creation of the Abu Dhabi declaration, combined this last idea with the work of the Holy Spirit.

Hopelessness and externality as predictors of experiencing anger during COVID-19 lockdown in Russia

Introduction Following Italy and many other European countries Russia entered a nationwide lockdown in March 2020. Since quarantine had impact on mental health (Gualano et al., 2020, Stanton et al., 2020), this study aimed to study the psychological predictors of low mental health and anger in Russian university students. Previous studies have shown that young people are most vulnerable part of population during Covid-19 pandemic (Pervichko et al., 2020).Objectives The purpose of this research was to assess the effects of externality and hopelessness on anger and irritation during COVID-19 lockdown.Methods The sample comprised 120 university students (86% women, M=18.84, SD=1.58) from Moscow. Online survey has been conducted in April 2020. Measures included Russian externality-internality scale based on Rotter’s scale and three new scales specific for COVID-19 pandemic developed for this study to assess feeling of hopelessness (α = 0.72), anger (α = 0.70) and positive reformulation (α = 0.84).ResultsAnger shows significant correlations with hopelessness (r=0.43; p<0.001), externality (r=0.29; p<0.01) and positive reformulation (r=–0.41; p<0.001). Structural equation modeling confirms theoretical model according to which the effect of externality on anger is mediated by hopelessness and positive reformulation (negatively) (indirect effects sig. at p<0.01, χ2 = 1.32; df = 1; p = 0.251; CFI = 0.995; TLI = 0.969; RMSEA = 0.052.ConclusionsConclusions. Anger and irritation regarding the necessity to stay at home during COVID-19 lockdown may be caused by external locus of control which effect on anger is mediated by hopelessness and limited capacities for positive reframing.

Personal traits and coping strategies in compliance with COVID-19 preventive measures

IntroductionThere is no much data on the psychological predictors of compliance with Covid-19 preventive measures (self-isolation, social distancing, etc.), that are one of the most effective ways to combat the spread of the diseaseObjectivesThis study is aimed to examine the role of personal traits in compliance with the Covid-19 preventive measures, and to identify the psychological features of those who are unmotivated to comply with quarantine.MethodsThe study involved 256 participants aged from 16 to 73 years from Russia, and was conducted in March-April 2020.The coping strategies questionnaire (COPE), Big five personality questionnaire were used.ResultsCompliance with the coronavirus preventive measures is positively associated with such personality traits as conscientiousness and friendliness, and productive coping strategies (active coping, planning, positive reformulation, acceptance). Another significant predictors of compliance with restrictive measures are explaining the reasons for the spread of coronavirus by lack of responsibility of people and violation of quarantine measures (positive predictor), as well as downplaying the risk of the disease (negative predictor).ConclusionsCluster analysis identified two most common motivational profiles: unmotivated and motivated.Unmotivated people are less willing to comply with Covid-19 preventive measures. Unmotivated people trust various sources of information less often, use unproductive coping strategies (denial), and are more likely to believe that the coronavirus is used to hide the presence of other problems in the society and to increase the control over citizens by the state.

Doubly nonnegative relaxations are equivalent to completely positive reformulations of quadratic optimization problems with block-clique graph structures

We study the equivalence among a nonconvex QOP, its CPP and DNN relaxations under the assumption that the aggregate and correlative sparsity of the data matrices of the CPP relaxation is represented by a block-clique graph G. By exploiting the correlative sparsity, we decompose the CPP relaxation problem into a clique-tree structured family of smaller subproblems. Each subproblem is associated with a node of a clique tree of G. The optimal value can be obtained by applying an algorithm that we propose for solving the subproblems recursively from leaf nodes to the root node of the clique-tree. We establish the equivalence between the QOP and its DNN relaxation from the equivalence between the reduced family of subproblems and their DNN relaxations by applying the known results on: (1) CPP and DNN reformulation of a class of QOPs with linear equality, complementarity and binary constraints in 3 nonnegative variables. (2) DNN reformulation of a class of quadratically constrained convex QOPs with any size. (3) DNN reformulation of LPs with any size. As a result, we show that a QOP whose subproblems are the QOPs mentioned in (1), (2) and (3) is equivalent to its DNN relaxation, if the subproblems form a clique-tree structured family induced from a block-clique graph.

Effect of Formulation, Labelling, and Taxation Policies on the Nutritional Quality of the Food Supply.

Food formulation, labelling, and taxation policies may encourage food (re)formulation. However, most literature focuses on their impact on consumer behaviours. This review summarizes the impact of various nutrition policies on food (re)formulation. Food (re)formulation targets (particularly mandatory policies) have been associated with positive reformulation of targeted products. Limited evidence (mostly from Health Star Ratings and the Tick) demonstrates that some labelling policies effectively incentivize food reformulation. No peer-reviewed evidence has examined warning labels and taxes on sugar in drinks, but limited grey literature evaluation suggests that those policies have stimulated reformulation to some extent. The effect of nutrition policies on food (re)formulation is insufficiently studied. The impact of such policies on (re)formulation is likely greater when they are mandatory, aligned with other regulations, and thoroughly monitored and evaluated. Policies targeting (re)formulation have important limitations and broader food system policies will additionally be needed to significantly improve diets.

Notoriously hard (mixed-)binary QPs: empirical evidence on new completely positive approaches

By now, many copositive reformulations of mixed-binary QPs have been discussed, triggered by Burer’s seminal characterization from 2009. In conic optimization, it is very common to use approximation hierarchies based on positive-semidefinite (psd) matrices where the order increases with the level of the approximation. Our purpose is to keep the psd matrix orders relatively small to avoid memory size problems in interior point solvers. Based upon on a recent discussion on various variants of completely positive reformulations and their relaxations (Bomze et al. in Math Program 166(1–2):159–184, 2017), we here present a small study of the notoriously hard multidimensional quadratic knapsack problem and quadratic assignment problem. Our observations add some empirical evidence on performance differences among the above mentioned variants. We also propose an alternative approach using penalization of various classes of (aggregated) constraints, along with some theoretical convergence analysis. This approach is in some sense similar in spirit to the alternating projection method proposed in Burer (Math Program Comput 2:1–19, 2010) which completely avoids SDPs, but for which no convergence proof is available yet.

Completely positive reformulations of polynomial optimization problems with linear constraints

A polynomial optimization problem (POP) is an optimization problem in which both the objective and constraints can be written in terms of polynomials on the decision variables. Recently, it has been shown that under appropriate assumptions POPs can be reformulated as conic problems over the cone of completely positive tensors; which generalize the set of completely positive matrices. Here, we show that by explicitly handling the linear constraints in the formulation of the POP, one obtains a generalization of the completely positive reformulation of quadratically constrained quadratic programs recently introduced by Bai et al. (Math Program 1–28, 2016).