Psychological Space Research Articles

The Multiple Dimensions of Space: Spatial Narrative Types and Socio-Cultural Mapping in New Century Chinese Novels

This study explores how spatial narratives in new-century Chinese novels reflect and engage with China's rapidly changing socio-cultural landscape. Since the mid-1990s, China's accelerated marketization and globalization have profoundly altered traditional lifestyles and public aesthetics, significantly influencing literary creation. How do contemporary Chinese novelists employ spatial narratives to represent these changes, and what insights do these narratives offer into modern Chinese society? Employing textual analysis grounded in Lefebvre's spatial theory and Soja's Thirdspace concept, this paper examines the manifestations and functions of physical, psychological, and social spaces in new-century Chinese novels. Findings reveal diverse and complex spatial narratives: fragmented physical spaces reflecting globalization's impact, psychological spaces highlighting identity recognition anxiety, and social spaces exposing modern society's alienation and class disparities. This study contributes to a deeper application of spatial narrative theory in Chinese literary research, offering new analytical tools for understanding modern literature and its reflection of social changes. It provides insights into the characteristics and trends of new-century Chinese social culture, promoting further research and theoretical development in related fields.

The conditionality of the sovereignty of the psychological space of the individual by coping strategies and mechanisms of psychological protection for people from single-parent and large families

The article presents the results of an empirical study of the relationship between the sovereignty of the psychological space of personality, coping strategies and mechanisms of psychological protection of personality. Respondents who grew up in families with different numbers of children demonstrate the specific features of their coping behaviors and mechanisms of psychological protection in relation to indicators of the sovereignty of the psychological space of the individual.

Lessons of soviet psychology

The work is devoted to the analysis of the collection of works “Soviet psychology: the stage of the history of science and mentality” // Responsible. ed. A.L. Zhuravlev, D.V. Ushakov, A.V. Yurevich. Moscow: Publishing house “Institute of Psychology RAS”, 2024. The main ideas presented in 21 articles of this book are highlighted. By studying a retrospective analysis of the works, seven main lessons for modern psychology are formulated, allowing us to see the significance of the Soviet period for the development of science. The first lesson is that despite the ideological pressure and attempts to unify psychology, it implemented the principles of postmodernity and metamodernity, characteristic of modern methodology, with great anticipation. Many ideas and theories were ahead of their time and are relevant and are still being developed today. Lesson two is the formation of psychology as a recognized scientific discipline, which was institutionalized, organized, and acquired a qualifying status. The third lesson teaches us that the space of scientific psychology must be restored: the gaps are closed by the discovery of forgotten names, their achievements and their contribution to the development of scientific thought are analyzed. The development and solution of scientific problems in psychology is rooted in the Soviet period, determining the continuity of scientific knowledge — this is the fourth lesson. The fifth lesson shows us that applied psychology developed intensively during the Soviet period and many of its achievements remain relevant today. The sixth lesson follows from an analysis of the psychology of Soviet people. A real, balanced analysis points to the ambivalence of the characteristics of Soviet people, the limitations of their economic mentality, the presence of double morality, denunciations, and fear of power. Finally, the modern psychological community should not forget what price many scientists paid for their beliefs, what destruction of entire directions in psychology was experienced. The Soviet period of development of Russian psychology is more diverse and ambiguous than previously imagined. The completed project of analyzing the Soviet period of psychology from the perspective of modern science showed its high efficiency and promise. Filling the gaps in the history of Russian psychology is not only fundamental for science, but it is also a moral duty to the generation of Soviet scientists.

A Study on Izzy’s Existential Predicament and Growth in Little Fires Everywhere from the Perspective of Spatial Criticism

Little Fires Everywhere is a novel written by contemporary writer Celeste Ng in 2017. The novel portrays a stubborn and sensitive, brave and bold little girl—Izzy. She has been living in a repressed physical space for a long time, suffering from the control and contempt of family members as well as the isolation and ostracism of teachers and classmates in the social space, which eventually led to the alienation of her psychological space. Later, in the process of communicating with her tenant, Izzy’s shriveled heart is ignited. She sees different lifestyles, captures the meaning of life, and begins to defend freedom and seek her true self in an extremely rebellious way. Finally, she achieves transformation and growth in psychological space and achieves self-redemption in a rigid world. This paper employs spatial criticism theory to analyze the existential predicament Izzy confronts in various spaces and her resistance from three dimensions: the mundane physical space, the oppressive social space, and the estranged psychological space. The aim is to illuminate to readers that only through persistent rebellion can individuals shatter the constraints of space and attain true freedom in the face of repression and injustice.

Design of Indoor and Outdoor Space Environment in Kindergartens based on Children’s “Three Natures”

Nature is the natural source of children, the mind is the psychological activity of children’s self-awareness and understanding of the world, and personality is the stable social quality formed by children in social interaction and practice. Adhere to the “three characteristics” of children as the foundation of kindergarten space creation, in line with the laws of children’s physical and mental development, deepen children’s interaction with the environment and deepen their understanding of the world and themselves. The specific methods that can be adhered to in practice are as follows: follow nature and create a natural material space, inspire the mind and create a warm and harmonious psychological space; respect individuality and present a rich interactive exploration space.

Reclaiming Space: Postcolonial Ecocriticism in Toni Morrison’s ‘Sula’

This article delves into the exploration of space in Toni Morrison’s novel Sula through the lens of postcolonial ecocriticism. Titled “Reclaiming Space: Postcolonial Ecocriticism in Toni Morrison’s Sula”, the article aims to analyze how the concept of space is portrayed in the novel, particularly in relation to themes of colonization, identity, and environmental degradation. By employing a postcolonial ecocritical perspective, the article seeks to uncover the ways in which the characters in Sula navigate and reclaim physical, social, and psychological spaces in the aftermath of colonialism. Key questions addressed in the article include: a). How does Morrison depict the relationship between space, power, and identity in Sula? b). In what ways do the characters in the novel challenge or conform to colonial structures through their interactions with space? c). How does the novel’s portrayal of the natural environment reflect broader themes of postcolonialism and ecological consciousness?

Organisational neurotypicalness: fighting unintentional ableism in working spaces

Places of work and educational settings are dominated by neurotypical leadership and policy, yet within those settings we are working with, and teaching, significant numbers of autistic individuals. Powerful organisational misunderstandings exist regarding what an autistic person looks like and what support they are likely to need, compounding a lack of a safe psychological space where individuals are likely to share their autistic identity. Autistic people find themselves working in conservative spaces where difference can be viewed with suspicion, which increases the need for masking with calamitous results on wellbeing and mental health. This current issue commentary examines the wider impact of the continual suppression of ‘self’ on autistic individuals and how organisational behaviours can be unintentionally ableist in their support of those individuals. It also explores the constructive impact of allyship, and how positive transformation comes from micro interactions within compassionate and caring teams, building an environment that nurtures wellbeing and allows difference to shine.

Конструктивное поведение в ситуации межличностного конфликта: сущностные свойства, функциональная структура и значимые индикаторы

The introduction justifies the topicality of studying and importance of conceptualization and operationalization of the social and psychological phenomenon of constructive behavior in conflict situations. The theoretical analysis involved three main stages. The first stage focused on identification of the subject matter and functional structure of constructive behavior in an interpersonal conflict situation. The conceptualized phenomenon is understood as a functional system of conscious, creative activity of an individual, the overall target and meaning focus of which is connected with searching for and formation ways and means of developing and implementing the program, integrated and arranged as a whole, of coordinated executive interactions with a partner to satisfy one’s own and the partner’s meaningful interests when contradictions arise within common, shared social and psychological space. The second stage dealt with consideration of the major characteristics of constructive behavior in an interpersonal conflict situation. The range of these characteristics includes subjectness, proactivity, purposefulness, creativity, eco-sensitivity, syntonicity, concordance, integrativeness, productivity, supra-situational supersubject non-opposition. The third stage of the scientific analysis sought to compare constructive behavior with other forms of reacting in an interpersonal conflict situation. The given qualitative comparative analysis yielded the indicators of constructive behavior in an interpersonal conflict situation that can be used as the basis of subsequent operationalization and development of appropriate psychodiagnostic tools. In conclusion, the author summarizes the scientific analysis undertaken and gives a complete definition of constructive behavior in an interpersonal conflict.

Exploring the mother tongue: insights into psychoanalytic practice

ABSTRACT This paper delves into the potential within psychoanalytic psychology to forge a new language between patient and analyst, facilitating a reconnection with parts of the psyche immobilized and numbed by overwhelming experiences. Through various clinical illustrations, the discussion centers on the concept of the mother tongue as a psycho-sensory experience capable of crafting a psychological space for storing and processing experiences. Rooted in psychoanalytic theory, these reflections are significantly supported by scientific findings from Infant Research, which, via empirical studies, underscores the vital role of the vocal interplay between mother and infant in developing a mental framework that can endure and conceptualize emotions.

Determinations of the Strategic Military Actions on Economic Actions in the Conditions of Information Technology and Nonlinear Warfare

Abstract In this article, we refer to the impact of strategic military actions on the economic domain, in the context of nonlinear warfare, hybrid warfare, and the use of information technology, focused and based on the conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, triggered in February 2022. Initially, the war seemed to be a blitzkrieg strategy, but in reality, the special military operation of the Russian Federation was a secondary component of the generalized economic warfare led by the BRICS countries against Western economies. Thus, the military action is essentially attrition-based with limited military objectives and more spatial conquests in the critical infrastructure zones of maritime and energy transport. It interesting and represents a novelty the comparison between the classical theory of war of the Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz and the doctrine of nonlinear warfare of the Russian general Valery Gerasimov, which highlights the transition from classical and conventional kinetic warfare to other modern forms of unconventional conflict (economic, political, diplomatic, psychological). The concept of fourth-generation warfare emphasizes the use of technique and technology, promoting flexibility and adaptability on a large scale, while the fifth-generation war, currently ongoing between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, is a continuation at another level and focuses on indirect actions and strategic economic objectives, expanding the battlefield much more into the virtual and psychological space. The article offers a comprehensive analysis of how modern warfare combines different domains to achieve strategic objectives in an increasingly interdependent world and provides an integrated perspective on its evolution, emphasizing the need for complex and multidimensional approaches.

Picture and Hieroglyphic Texts in Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt

Hieroglyphic writing arose in Egypt during the proto/early dynastic period of the formation of the early monarchical state and, along with monumental architecture, is a symptom of radical changes in the political, economic and ideological spheres of society. In the context of semiotics, culture as a sign system considers all its contents as texts that store and transmit knowledge from generation to generation. In the space of depth psychology, a set of texts reveals the level of collective consciousness of culture bearers as collective intelligence and memory. Writing in Egypt arose as an instrument of supreme power, reflecting its nature, functions and social status in the context of mythological ideas and ritual practice. The earliest sources of hieroglyphic writing derived from images were royal annual tablets dedicated to the activity of the kings. As annals, they reflected in the Palermo Stone and its associated fragments. However, the annals are inseparable from cult practice and religious and mythological ideas about the ancestors and gods who stood at the foundation of ancient Egyptian culture.

Madness and Resistance under the Flashback and Juxtaposition—Spatial Narration in The Bell Jar

The Bell Jar, the only novel by American poet and writer Sylvia Plath, vividly portrays the marginalized experience of American women in the mid-20th century and depicts the struggles of female intellectuals in constructing their own identities.This paper, by using the concepts of flashback and juxtaposition in spatial narration theory, explores three key aspects: the physical spatial changes in the whole story, the interplay between psychological and physical spaces under flashbacks and juxtaposition, and the protagonist Esther’s resistance against the male-dominated society and her awakening of female consciousness in the bell jar. It analyzes how Esther’s psychological space evolves within the ever-shifting physical spaces, leading to her feelings of helplessness, despair, and madness. Furthermore, it examines how through her rebellious madness, Esther achieves her awakening of female consciousness, constructs her own identity as a female intellectual, and raises her voice in a male-dominated society oppressive at the time.

Well-being in newly qualified doctors: exploring the value of peer-led reflective sessions

IntroductionFollowing the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing pressures within the National Health Service, there has been an increasing concern about the well-being of junior doctors in the UK. Newly qualified doctors...

More space needed: Social disconnectedness predicts the aversion to crowdedness

AbstractFeelings of belongingness threat are common nowadays. The lack of social support received from friends and family leads to social disconnection. Our objective is to investigate the effect of unmet need to belong on preference for crowdedness. Expecting the prospects to interact and reconnect with others, socially disconnected consumers may be more receptive to crowdedness. By contrast, social disconnection may sensitize consumers to potential social threat and thus drive them away from the crowds. To find out how socially disconnected consumers react to crowdedness, three quasi‐experiments with more than 1500 participants (Mage = 35.9, 64% female) from an online panel were conducted. Our findings support the latter hypothesis. We manipulate the crowdedness of the service setting, while the natural variation of social disconnectedness was captured by measuring participants' unmet need to belong. Socially disconnected consumers are averse to social crowding (Studies 1 and 2). Specifically, regression analyses reveal that crowdedness has a negative impact on attitude and word‐of‐mouth recommendation. Importantly, the effect of crowdedness is found exaggerated by unmet need to belong. Disconnected consumers avoid social crowding since they may consider getting too close an invasion of personal space. The findings on preference for space are extended to time in Study 3. In particular, busyness interacts with unmet need to belong such that disconnected consumers avoid busy schedules in package tours. Findings from the three studies together suggest a general preference for more psychological space when need to belong is not met.

Analysis of Environmental Art in the Interior Design Concepts

Interior space in the concept of art, mainly refers to the art of generalized acts, works of art are in the aesthetic characteristics of the concept of factors. It deconstruction, the common structure composed of colorful indoor environment, indoor deconstruction of the main structure is defined in the indoor "re-re-group structure," a re-interpretation of the "structure" and the extension of criticism. This extension of critical activities with the reunification of East and West is to be re-transformation, the original interior space, structure to be broken, the reorganization in an attempt to view art on the basis of established new visual order and psychological space.

The cognitive and psychological mechanism of Chinese oxymoron “tough women”

Oxymoron refers to juxtaposing two words that are semantically contradictory to each other in language communication, which makes them have rhetorical connection, and achieves the modification effect of binary opposition through the antonym relationship in semantic components, and which makes the expression profound and more tense. Based on the theory of cognitive linguistics, this study analyzes the formation mechanism of the oxymoron “tough women” from the perspective of “reality-cognition-language” and discusses the cognitive and psychological mechanism of its formation. Conceptual blending theory is used to form the oxymoron conceptual integration prominent model of “tough women”. It is found that the formation of the word “tough women” has a long historical reasons. From ancient times to modern times, because women’s social status changes with the changes of objective social forms, based on physical experience and psychological perception of different times, people form their concepts about the “tough women”. Dynamic cognitive processing of “female” is carried out to form an abstract image schema of modern “tough women”, which integrates the traditional weak characteristic domain of women and the strong male characteristic domain in psychological space, and a theoretical model of conceptual integration of oxymoron is put forward.

The universal law of generalization holds for naturalistic stimuli.

Shepard's universal law of generalization is a remarkable hypothesis about how intelligent organisms should perceive similarity. In its broadest form, the universal law states that the level of perceived similarity between a pair of stimuli should decay as a concave function of their distance when embedded in an appropriate psychological space. While extensively studied, evidence in support of the universal law has relied on low-dimensional stimuli and small stimulus sets that are very different from their real-world counterparts. This is largely because pairwise comparisons-as required for similarity judgments-scale quadratically in the number of stimuli. We provide strong evidence for the universal law in a naturalistic high-dimensional regime by analyzing an existing data set of 214,200 human similarity judgments and a newly collected data set of 390,819 human generalization judgments (N = 2,406 U.S. participants) across three sets of natural images. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Practitioner perspectives on the use of acceptance and commitment therapy for bereavement support: a qualitative study

BackgroundThere is currently a high demand for bereavement support coupled with inconclusive findings as to the efficacy of existing approaches. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) aims to improve human functioning and has shown efficacy across a wide range of conditions. ACT may be a promising means of supporting bereaved people, yet evidence on the use of ACT for bereavement support is lacking. The aim of this study is to explore how ACT is currently used for bereavement support and practitioner perspectives of how it helps following bereavement.MethodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted online via MS Teams with practitioners experienced in using ACT for bereavement support. Data were analysed thematically guided by a framework approach.ResultsNine participants were recruited. Three themes were identified: (i) creating psychological space around grief; (ii) using psychological space for value-directed action in the midst of grieving, and (iii) adapting ACT for bereavement support. Practitioners indicated that ACT improves clients’ relationship with distressing internal experiences. Metaphors and mindfulness techniques were used to encourage acceptance of grief responses, taking perspective on distressing thoughts and images, and contact with the present moment. Better relationships with distressing experiences were regarded as less psychologically taxing, improving coping and well-being, while providing the psychological space to engage in value-directed action. Values exploration, sometimes using metaphors and exercises, was seen as supporting the bereaved person to rediscover a sense of purpose and engage in meaningful activities alongside their grief. Practitioners used ACT flexibly, integrating other interventions, and adapted ACT to the perceived sensitivities of bereaved people, and age-related and developmental factors.ConclusionACT is used to support people who have been bereaved to live effectively with the difficult thoughts and feelings associated with grieving and to enable them to gradually identify, reconnect with, and act in line with their values after loss.

Chronotopes of didactic communication in modern university

Introduction. The article is devoted to the scantily explored problem of (re) organization of spatial-temporal (chronotopic) aspects of didactic communication in a modern university. The author notes the fact that researchers rarely address this problem.Purpose setting. The purpose of the research is to introduce the concept of the chronotope of didactic communication and describe the leading modes structuring the chronotope of didactic communication in a modern university.Methodology and methods of the study. The research method is a theoretical analysis of chronotopes of didactic communication in a modern university. The initial theoretical premise of the study is the idea of a complex, systemic nature of didactic communication, in which spatial and temporal characteristics are associated with the very organization of educational and pedagogical interactions in a modern university and influence the choice of educational forms and methods of impact.Results. There is a high importance of factors of space and time of educational interaction in the ideas of teachers and students regarding didactic communication in a modern university. The fact of the influence of spatial and temporal features of educational interaction on the process of understanding the subject content by students and on the very organizational scheme of didactic interactions in a modern university is noted.Conclusion. Chronotopes of didactic communication are systems of spatial and temporal organization of didactic communication, correlation of physical and psychological spaces and time of didactic communication, management of psychological mechanisms of orientation of participants of educational interaction in space and time of didactic communication. These systems are different for traditional and modern educational systems, the development of university professional education is in the direction of greater consideration of the psychological space and time of didactic interaction.

The Visual Psychological Space of Chinese Traditional Landscape Painting Creators in the New Media Background

Abstract Based on the connection between visual psychology and landscape painting, the article investigates the spatiality characteristics of images and the visual balance factors affecting the creation of landscape paintings. By applying a vector median filter, this study successfully removes noise from color landscape painting images and uses vectors to represent these noise-reduced images. Lab color model was constructed and combined with cluster analysis technique to calculate the color difference between image pixel points. Binarization of the image is achieved by preprocessing the segmented image. The study estimated and analyzed landscape paintings’ aesthetic characteristics and quantitative values. The results show that among the 30 selected landscape paintings, the percentage of white space area is more than 0.4 is 36.67%, while the rate of less than 0.4 is 63.33%. Among the landscape painting creators who participated in the study, the mean of the total scores of the experienced ones on the four visual psycho-spatial abilities was 83.39, which was 14.217 points higher than that of the inexperienced group. This indicates that the method proposed in this paper is very effective in assessing the visual psychospatial abilities of landscape painting creators, and that the creators can improve their creative skills after long-term training.