Sense Of Vitality Research Articles

Exploring Ghanaian adolescents’ meaning of health and wellbeing: A psychosocial perspective

There is presently no internationally agreed upon set of indicators for assessing adolescent health and what “health and wellbeing” means to adolescents. The psychosocial context of family, friends, and school plays a crucial role in the construction of health and wellbeing by adolescents. In spite of this, not much is known about the meaning Ghanaian adolescents attach to their health and wellbeing and the role of stress and social support in the construction of this meaning. This study explores how perceived social support and stress influence the construction of the meaning of health and wellbeing to Ghanaian adolescents. Eleven respondents purposively selected from 770 males and females participated in semi-structured interviews, which were transcribed verbatim and analysed with thematic analysis. Findings pointed to the fact that health and wellbeing was largely construed as “ability to perform daily functions,” such as ability to take critical decisions and a general sense of vitality and mental strength. These were influenced by perceived social support (“encouragement and advice” and “religiosity or spirituality”) and stress (“teasing, strictness, quarrels, and arguments”). These findings suggest that effective communication, mutual respect, and support from significant others, in the midst of stressful life events, contribute substantially to a holistic construction and meaning of health and wellbeing by Ghanaian adolescents.

Helping traumatized people survive: a psychoanalytic intervention in a contaminated site.

Psychoanalytic literature on extreme traumatization usually distinguishes between natural catastrophes and man-made catastrophes. While the first ones are usually sensed as nature’s ferocity, fate, or God’s will, the second ones are experienced as a volountary and violent attack aimed at disrupting other human beings. In this paper we focus on man-made disasters caused by a profit-driven logic. When traumatization is due to irresponsible actions perpetrated by the owners of the major economic resource of a community, it deeply affects the identity of the group, entailing the loss of basic trust and lively parts of the Self. In such a situation, where the whole community is severely traumatized, psychoanalytic group therapy seems to be the most suitable setting: it allows to place the historization of the event and the creation of multiple narratives of somato-psychic suffering. Trust and faith are two crucial factors in the encounter with patients lacking a sense of vitality. The working through of each one through the group field is an essential forerunner to the construction of a recovered sense of faith and reliability that precedes the onset of a true new-beginning.

Portuges, Catherine and Hames, Peter (eds). Cinemas in Transition in Central and Eastern Europe after 1989 (review)

REVIEWS 763 by avant-garde camera operators during the 1920s. Cavendish is particularly attentive to the cameraman’s lighting choices. He points out, for example, that the intense ‘natural’ beauty of the apples in Dovzhenko’s Earth was the product of Demuts´kyi’s skill with artificial lights, mirrors, and the monocle (single-element soft-focus) lens (p. 274), while Tisse’s use in The General Line of ‘core lighting’ (‘sources striking the face from the sides and slightly from the rear’) was intended to add drama and ‘an impression of naturalism’ to the faces of the untrained actors the practice of typage had brought onto the set (p. 109). Seeking to soften the focus of his portrait shots, Golovnia placed a thin layer of gauze over the lens at times in Mat´ (p. 149). Anybody who teaches early Soviet film will want to consult Cavendish’s detailed, technical descriptions of the devices employed by particular cameramen for particular films. Indeed, attentive description is Cavendish’s forte, and for the most part he avoids interpretation, almost as if answering Susan Sontag’s plea in Against Interpretation for ‘essays which reveal the sensuous surface of art without mucking about in it’ (New York, 1966). As a final note, there are forty-seven small illustrations included between the Conclusion and the Filmography, but with a book of this kind, which pays such close attention to visual details, many more illustrations would have been very welcome and helpful. Without images to which a reader can refer, some of Cavendish’s descriptions and comparisons fall flat (through no fault of their own). We are given no frames at all, for example, from Evreiskoe schast´e, which means that Cavendish’s comparison of Tisse’s work on this film to his work on Bronenosets Potemkin (a comparison made tempting by the use in both films of the Odessa Steps) is particularly hard to follow. It would have been lovely, though undoubtedly expensive, to have the illustrations embedded, with helpful captions, in the text, to help the reader understand the different ‘signatures’ of these masterful and creative cameramen, finally given the attention they deserve in this excellent and inspiring book. Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures Anne Nesbet Department of Film and Media University of California, Berkeley Portuges, Catherine and Hames, Peter (eds). Cinemas in Transition in Central and Eastern Europe after 1989. Temple University Press, Philadelphia, PA, 2013. viii + 279 pp. Notes. Index. $94.50. Beginning with Wajda’s trailblazing war trilogy, East and Central European cinema enjoyed a relative international vogue through the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, distinguished by formal audacity, subtle symbolism and political critique. SEER, 92, 4, OCTOBER 2014 764 Catherine Portuges and Peter Hames’s new collection, Cinemas in Transition in Central and Eastern Europe after 1989, explores what happened once that international spotlight dimmed on the region’s cinema — an era ironically coinciding with renewed openness and reintegration with the West. This thorough investigation of institutional and artistic changes reveals that the dismantling of the Communist system has often presented filmmakers with hindrances as grave as the ‘repressive’ apparatus of old, and that globalization and economic ‘freedom’ have brought threats of cultural uniformity. Yet the potential pessimism is offset by a sense of the resilient vitality of the cinemas and film cultures described. As one contributor puts it here, locally made movies ‘still matter’ to their native audiences, even if filmmakers no longer enjoy ‘demigod’ status and no longer address viewers with the imperious highart authority of the past. Eight chapters cover eight different cinematic contexts, each written by an appropriate scholarly expert (Portuges and Hames themselves cover Hungarian and Czech and Slovak cinema respectively). Half of these contexts do not exist in the same national configuration as they did before 1989, and if the inclusion of a reunified East Germany may seem contentious, Barton Byg’s chapter not only takes as its central question the continued existence of ‘East German cinema’ but convincingly detects a dark, interrogative and reflexive — if not always geographically grounded — residue of the ‘East’ in contemporary German film. Shared characteristics are evident between the contexts explored. Clearly the transition to capitalism has been plagued by...

Recreating a Vibrant City Center in Response Urban Environments by Using AHP Model (Case Study: Qazvin City Historical Context in Iran)

In this age of transition from decades of turmoil and instability in urban areas, urban centers validate their prestige and importance as a commercial, cultural and recreational center. Urban centers as the housing and shelter for millions of people and visitors will facilitate and improve human interaction. Since the city is very complex, existence and attendance of cycles of declining and wane, reform and reconstruction are obvious. At the best form, appearance of a city will be realized from its center & heart. Recently, in western countries, having vibrant and dynamic urban centers has caught the attention of many scholars. Actually creating an environment where social interaction is high and gives people a sense of vitality. On the other hand, to include such dynamism in context of an urban center, it needs adequate respondents. Therefore, in this paper, at firs the criteria for responsive environments, characters of a vibrant city center and the main & common features between them is introduced, using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), criteria are weighted and prioritized. The results show that, sustaining the above criteria and codifying proposed policies and strategies, helps to recreate the historic core of Qazvin city.

Satysfakcja i poczucie własnej wartości u kobiet w różnych typach związków

In view of the numerous reports, suggesting a negative effect of the informal relation (cohabitation) to the functioning of individuals attempt to obtain answers to questions or wives and woman in informal relations shows different levels of satisfaction of the relationship (intimacy, disappointment, similarity, self-realization, support, commitment and depreciation) and the severity of self-esteem (in general self-esteem, competence, a sense of popularity, a sense of being loved, leadership skills, self-control, moral self-acceptance, a sense of physical attractiveness, vitality, identity integration, and strengthen self-defense)? The study of two groups of women who remain in cohabitation relationships and marriages (n = 30), using the Multidimensional Self-Assessment Questionnaire by E. J. O’Briena and S. Epstein in adapting D. Fecenec; Matching Marriage Questionnaire by M. Plopa and Marital Communication Questionnaire by A. Kaźmierczak and M. Plopa showed that the wives and woman in informal relationships did not differ in the severity of self-esteem. The non-married cohabiting and married showed similar levels of severity: a general self-esteem, competence, popularity, being loved, leadership skills, self-control, moral self-acceptance, sense of physical attractiveness, vitality and mental integration. Women in informal relationships showed different levels and severity of satisfaction from the relation in which they live. The similarity and intimacy partners were rated as higher in unmarried women in informal relationship compared with married women. This means that the tested relationships in the perception of cohabiting women in informal relationships were characterized by a significantly higher level of involvement of the partners in the development of the relationship in comparison with married women.

The role of motivational climate for sense of vitality in organized youth grassroots football players: Do harmonious and obsessive types of passion play a mediating role?

The role of motivational climate for sense of vitality in organized youth grassroots football players: Do harmonious and obsessive types of passion play a mediating role?

Anger and Health in Dementia Caregivers: Exploring the Mediation Effect of Optimism

Although previous studies indicate a negative association between caregivers' anger and health, the potential mechanisms linking this relationship are not yet fully understood. The aim of this study was to explore the potential mediating role of optimism in the relationship between anger and caregivers' physical health. Dementia caregivers (n = 108) were interviewed and filled out instruments assessing their anger (reaction), optimism and health (vitality). A mediational model was tested to determine whether optimism partially mediated the relationship between anger and vitality. Angry reaction was negatively associated with optimism and vitality; optimism was positively associated with vitality. Finally, the relationship between angry reaction and vitality decreased when optimism was entered simultaneously. A non-parametric bootstrap approach confirmed that optimism significantly mediated some of the relationship between angry reaction and vitality. These findings suggest that low optimism may help explain the association between caregivers' anger and reduced sense of vitality. The results provide a specific target for intervention with caregivers.

VITALITY AFFECTS IN DANIEL STERN'S THINKING-A PSYCHOLOGICAL AND NEUROBIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE.

The goal of the present article is to deepen the theme of vitality, the topic of Daniel N. Stern's last book, Forms of Vitality, published in 2010, which further conceptualized the vitality affects originally proposed in his book The Interpersonal World of the Infant, published in 1985. Vitality forms characterize personal feelings as well dynamics of movements. They are therefore related to feelings of agency and efficacy, and may be shaped and influenced by early interactions between caregivers and infants. In this ambit, infants experience a sense of personal efficacy and a hedonic pleasure when they are recognized and confirmed by their caregivers. The interactional perspective is further discussed considering psychoanalytical contributions and recent infant research. However, vitality, as Stern (2010) highlighted, is grounded in the body and more specifically in the brain. From a neurobiological perspective, we discuss the role of mirror neurons by considering inter subjective exchanges and infantile matching experiences, which influence the sense of vitality.

Patients' perceptions of quality of life during active treatment for locally advanced rectal cancer: the importance of preoperative exercise

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to explore advanced rectal cancer patients' perceptions of quality of life (QoL) during participation in a pre-surgery structured exercise program. Patients (n = 10) participated in repeated semi-structured in-depth interviews which covered four broad QoL domains (i.e., physical, psychological, social, and spiritual well-being). Patients' personal accounts of QoL were explored prior to (0weeks), midway (3weeks), and at completion (6weeks) of the program. Data were analyzed using strategies grounded in a phenomenological approach. Participation in the program facilitated positive changes in QoL over time by (1) fostering a greater sense of vitality, (2) cultivating a positive attitude, (3) enhancing social connections, and (4) fostering a strong sense of purpose in life for these patients. Based on these data, preoperative exercise programs can be effective in promoting QoL among patients diagnosed and treated for locally advanced rectal cancer during a particularly difficult time in the cancer trajectory. Additional research is needed to develop and evaluate implementation strategies to facilitate the delivery of preoperative exercise programs as part of routine care in this population.

A social work study on the effect of spiritual intelligence and psychological capital on sense of vitality

Article history: Received January 20, 2013 Received in revised format 2 May 2013 Accepted 20 May 2013 Available online May 23 2013 This paper performs a social work study on the effect of spiritual intelligence and psychological capital on sense of vitality among elementary school teachers in two regions of city of Esfahan, Iran. The proposed study uses three standard questionnaires of psychological capital questionnaire (PCQ), Spiritual Intelligence Self-Report Inventory (SISRI-24) and sense of vitality and distributes them among 263 teachers selected, randomly. The results of the survey have been analyzed using Pearson correlation as well as stepwise regression techniques. The results of the Pearson correlation tests have shown that the components of psychological capital questionnaire and spiritual intelligence have meaningful relationship with sense of vitality (P<0.01). The survey have also confirmed that psychological capital and spiritual intelligence have meaningful effects on teachers’ personal characteristics.

AB1114 Juvenile idiopathic arthritis: Can mother mood be a determinant factor in the child illness management?

BackgroundJuvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) is a chronic disease that causes children to have swelling, pain, and stiffness in their joints. JIA occurs before the age of 16. In particular child’s...

Physical Activity and the Science of Successful Aging

Successful aging encompasses more than just the prevention of disease and disability; the truly well-lived life is demonstrated by a sense of vitality and independence, freedom from bodily pain, and the continued involvement in meaningful activities. While physical inactivity and sedentary behaviors accelerate the aging process, deliberate exercise and other forms of activity delay and/or prevent the onset of age-related pathologies such as frailty, osteoporosis, sarcopenia, and cardiovascular disease. This review surveys the evidence that supports the position that physical activity is a necessary component for the development and maintenance of the physiological resources that are foundational to physical and cognitive functioning and ‘living well’ in one's later years.

Meredith Monk: Between the Cracks

MEREDITH MONK: BETWEEN THE CRACKS1 JANICE MOWERY BEYOND THE NOTES: AN INTRODUCTION EREDITH MONK DEFIES classification. Her body of work spans half a century and has a unique and consistent style, a language all her own.2 Monk’s creative process is meticulous, intriguing, and unconventional . Her music seems deceptively simple, but is very complex and rigorously worked out. She describes herself “as a composer of music and of images and then movement.”3 An inventor, Monk works “as a mosaicist, building [her] pieces out of modules of music, movement, character, light, image, text, and object.”4 Her music “exists between the bar lines and beyond the notes.”5 She works “between the cracks” on the microscopic scale “‘where the voice starts dancing, where the body starts singing, where theater becomes cinema,’”6 and she works “between the cracks” on the macroscopic scale, between and beyond forms as well as between different mediums. But, what does it mean to M 80 Perspectives of New Music work “between the cracks”? How does the voice dance? How does music exist “between the bar lines and beyond the notes”? These descriptive phrases are found in abundance in reviews, interviews, and articles about Meredith Monk, but they are of little help in understanding Monk and her music unless we can gain some kind of meaning from them. A journey through writings by and about Monk, as well as a brief expedition through Part I of her opera, Atlas, will provide an opportunity to explore what it means to be between the cracks, to hear how the voice dances, to discover the music beyond the notes, and to investigate Monk’s creative process with the intention of gaining a deeper understanding of and appreciation for her music. Monk does not consider herself a storyteller; her works are not narrative. What she communicates is not a story, but something beyond a story. Monk communicates something of substance with meaning, mood, images, landscape, and an underlying sense of vitality.7 Her opera, Atlas, inspired by the life of Alexandra DavidN éel, goes beyond the telling of a life story, taking us on a spiritual journey. As with Monk’s other works, there is an interconnectedness: aural, visual, visceral, physical, and spiritual. Consider the visual perception of the body and the aural perception of the voice. Body and voice, however, are not separate. We cannot ignore the body. Gestures and the movement of the body can be as much a part of the performance as is the voice.8 The interconnected body and voice reflect, or perhaps symbolize, the interconnection and interdependence between all other elements, resulting in that “something of substance,” the underlying sense of vitality. Monk’s performers move beyond simply performing toward becoming the work itself. In Atlas, Monk sets up this transformation using costume, movement, and sound in “Agricultural Community (Thresher),” for example. At first we see only the explorers passing through what appears to be a field dotted with piles of straw. The piles of straw come to life, as they are actually on the backs of the performers (first seen seated and hunched over). The ensemble is wearing capes of straw. The motions of their dance are as though they are harvesting, and their song is open, inviting, and swishes with a pastoral quality. They are both harvesting and being harvested, and they share their daily routine with the travelers, inviting them into their community . The aural, visual, visceral, physical, and spiritual elements all work together in this scene conveying both substance and underlying vitality, a sense of the great depth of the complex humanity of this intimate, vital community. Even in Monk’s solo performances she communicates universal human energy. She expresses her spirituality, life philosophy, and her unique sense of history in her solo pieces, as Meredith Monk: Between the Cracks 81 well as in her works for larger ensembles.9 Communicating something beyond mere emotion is her intent, her primary motivation. She communicates human energy, embracing and including those emotions we cannot name, those deep, forgotten memories at the core of each of us.10 Monk projects humanness not only in sound,11 but in all aspects of her...

Rola karbocysteiny w leczeniu zapaleń zatok przynosowych

Chronic sinusitis is one of the most common presenting complaints of all doctor visits in the United States and Europe, with more than 13% of people affected in any given year. This disease has a wide range of impact on communities. Patients with recurrent or chronic sinusitis report a deteriorative sense of general health and vitality, when compared to general population. In our Department we perform about 600 functional endoscopic sinus surgeries (FESS) per year. Chronic rhinosinusitis represents a spectrum of inflammatory and infectious processes concurrently affecting the nose and paranasal sinuses. Among chronic paranasal sinusitis one must single out paranasal sinusitis with and without polyps. In the paranasal sinusitis patomechanism the blockage of natural ostium plays one of the most important roles. The closure of sinus proper ventilation passages leads to the triggering of many pathological occurrences within mucous membrane of this region. The treatment of paranasal sinusitis is diversified and involves a surgical procedure as well as anti-inflammatory and antiallergic drugs (medications) and mucolytics. Its purpose is to clear the nose through the elimination of bacterial infection, liquidating and removal of lying discharge and the restoration of the proper muco-ciliary transportation, and through this the improvement of local condition and faster recovery. In this work the usage of carboxycysteine to treat paranasal sinus conditions has been presented.

Thriving at work: toward its measurement, construct validation, and theoretical refinement

Summary Thriving is defined as the psychological state in which individuals experience both a sense of vitality and learning. We developed and validated a measure of the construct of thriving at work. Additionally, we theoretically refined the construct by linking it to key outcomes, such as job performance, and by examining its contextual embeddedness. In Study 1, we conducted second‐order confirmatory factor analyses in two samples, demonstrating initial support for the two‐dimensional structure of thriving. We provided evidence for the convergent and discriminant validity of thriving in relation to theoretically related constructs, such as positive and negative affects, learning and performance goal orientations, proactive personality, and core self‐evaluations. In Study 2, across two different samples, we further assessed construct validity by establishing a relationship between thriving and career development initiative, burnout, health, and individual job performance, explaining significant variance beyond traditional attitudinal predictors, such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Finally, in Study 3, we focused on understanding the contextual embeddedness of thriving. We found differences in reports of thriving across two points in time, when substantial changes are occurring in peoples’ work lives and across contexts (i.e., work and non‐work). Implications for theory and practice, as well as directions for future research, are discussed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Urban Vitality in Dutch and Chinese New Towns. A comparative study between Almere and Tongzhou

Urban Vitality in Dutch and Chinese New Towns. A comparative study between Almere and Tongzhou

Urban Vitality in Dutch and Chinese New Towns. A comparative study between Almere and Tongzhou

Urban Vitality in Dutch and Chinese New Towns. A comparative study between Almere and Tongzhou

Urban Vitality in Dutch and Chinese New Towns. A comparative study between Almere and Tongzhou

Urban Vitality in Dutch and Chinese New Towns. A comparative study between Almere and Tongzhou

Physical functioning: The mediating effect on ADLs and vitality in elderly living in residential care facilities. “Act on ageing”: A pilot study

The present study aims at verifying whether participation in a physical activity programme has positive effects on the daily life autonomy and vitality of elderly people living in residential care facilities by the mediation of their physical well- being. Fifty-one institutionalised individuals took part in the study. The control group included 11 people (84.26, ± 7.4 years), whereas the experimental group was made up of 40 people (85 ± 6.6 years). The experimental group was involved in a physical activity programme twice a week. The 36-Item Short Form Health Survey Questionnaire, the Activities of Daily Living Scale, and the Tinetti Test were administered to the participants. The linear regression method as well as Sobel’s formula were used for the analysis. The results show that participation in a physical activity programme has positive effects on autonomy in bathing and on the participants’ sense of vitality due to the mediation of physical functioning. These results confirm the importance of physical activity for the elderly populations living in residential care facilities.

Thriving at work: Toward its measurement, construct validation, and theoretical refinement

SummaryThriving is defined as the psychological state in which individuals experience both a sense of vitality and learning. We developed and validated a measure of the construct of thriving at work. Additionally, we theoretically refined the construct by linking it to key outcomes, such as job performance, and by examining its contextual embeddedness. In Study 1, we conducted second‐order confirmatory factor analyses in two samples, demonstrating initial support for the two‐dimensional structure of thriving. We provided evidence for the convergent and discriminant validity of thriving in relation to theoretically related constructs, such as positive and negative affects, learning and performance goal orientations, proactive personality, and core self‐evaluations. In Study 2, across two different samples, we further assessed construct validity by establishing a relationship between thriving and career development initiative, burnout, health, and individual job performance, explaining significant variance beyond traditional attitudinal predictors, such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Finally, in Study 3, we focused on understanding the contextual embeddedness of thriving. We found differences in reports of thriving across two points in time, when substantial changes are occurring in peoples' work lives and across contexts (i.e., work and non‐work). Implications for theory and practice, as well as directions for future research, are discussed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.