Psychological Theory Research Articles

ФОРМИРОВАНИЕ ЛИЧНОСТИ ТЕРРОРИСТА: АНАЛИЗ ФАКТОРОВ И ВОЗДЕЙСТВИЕ

The presented scientific article provides an in-depth analysis of the psychological and social aspects of the formation of a terrorist's personality. The research is rooted in modern theories of psychology, criminology and sociology, as well as the results of empirical research conducted in this field. The authors of the article focus on the dynamics of the formation of a terrorist personality, paying attention to individual psychological characteristics and the influence of the socio-cultural context. The central element of the study is the analysis of the factors that contribute to the transition from conventional beliefs to radical ideologies. Supported by modern theories and concrete empirical research data, the authors raise important questions related to the formation of a terrorist's personality. Their work identifies key points in the process of radicalization, which not only expands our understanding of this complex phenomenon, but also creates the basis for developing effective strategies in the fight against terrorism. The combination of theoretical approaches and empirical data makes this study a full-fledged contribution to understanding the formation of a terrorist's personality. The analytical method used by the authors reveals the depth of psychological and social factors that play a crucial role in the complex process of forming a terrorist personality.

Malady of the Mind: Mapping Dimensions of Mental Disorder through Narratological Lens in Jonathan Rosen’s The Best Minds

This paper proffers mapping Mental Disorders by employing a narratological lens in Jonathan Rosen's The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions focusing on the volatility of emotions, malady of mental disorder through the spectrum of narratology and positing conundrum to the mind. It emphasizes how the mechanism of storytelling mirrors the intricacies of mental disorders in myriad ways. The study involves interdisciplinary techniques combining the psychological theories of Marsha Linehan and Otto Kernberg with relation to literary analysis embodying narratological elements. A narratology is an imperative tool in Literature for shaping psychological representations. It analyzes how the mental disorder is intertwined into the narrative depicting the thematic undertones, structure of plot development, and shaping the identities of the characters. The research encompasses a broader discourse to bridge the gap between the psychological underpinnings of mental disorders and their literary insights.

Older Adult Education in the Context of Psychological Theories of Ageing

In gerontology, the essence of ageing is traditionally equated with decline and degradation, it is considered a purposeful process of loss of the body's adaptive capacity. Psychologists, in particular representatives of behaviorism, deny this position, instead they consider ageing to be an integral part of the general process of human development. Theories of ageing have progressed from focusing on individuals’ declines and losses in later phase of their life course to considering ageing as a continuous process of human development. Psychological theories of ageing are crucial to understanding older adults as learners ‒ their needs, abilities, motivation of learning and expectations from educational activity. They help us to develop comprehensive approaches to building an effective educational environment and improving the learning process of that age and social group aiming to adapt that environment to the needs of older adult learners. The article analyzes the main provisions of psychological theories of ageing, which substantiate the importance and even the necessity of involving older adults in educational activities, because firstly, mental activity contributes to the preservation and even development of a person’s intellectual capabilities until old age; secondly, in older people (compared to young people), changes in the ability to learn are insignificant and relate rather to the sphere of perception, attention, motivation, and the physiological state of the body; and thirdly, older people have a growing need for a sense of security, which has a significant impact on their quality of life and is largely realized through communication and learning activities. Based on the main tenets of psychological theories of ageing, in our research we consider older adults as a resource and human capital. We believe that the approach to the problem of ageing and old age from the resource perspective, which is based on the ideas of theories of activity and lifelong personality development, allows us to justify the need for education of older adults and is the basis of educational gerontology.

The Influence of Peer Pressure on Students: Cause, Effect, and Strategies for Intervention

Peer pressure is a powerful social influence that affects students' behavior, attitudes, and academic performance. This research paper explores the causes and effects of peer pressure among students, with a particular focus on its implications in the educational context. Drawing on established psychological theories such as Social Learning Theory and Social Identity Theory, the paper reviews existing literature on the topic and identifies key factors contributing to peer pressure, including the desire for acceptance, social media influence, and the role of school culture. The negative effects of peer pressure, such as academic underperformance, emotional stress, and risky behaviors, are discussed, alongside the less commonly acknowledged positive effects, such as improved motivation in some cases. Furthermore, the paper presents strategies for educators to mitigate the harmful impacts of peer pressure, including fostering open communication, building student self-esteem, and creating a supportive school environment. By examining both the causes and solutions, the study aims to provide educators with actionable insights to address peer pressure in schools and promote a healthier, more inclusive learning atmosphere.

Psychological Explanations for Surveillance Technologies in Crime Prevention

The growth of surveillance technology in relation to crime prevention raises questions about the effectiveness of such tools in altering behavior. This essay provides an examination of surveillance technology through psychological theories and propose that ideas such as social-identity theory and shame culture help to explain where surveillance technology may succeed or fail to prevent crime.

An exploration of physics envy with implications for desiderata of psychology theories.

There is a trepidation, anxiety, or intuition, which has persisted for more than a century, that psychology theories are less anchored in fundamental laws than physics theories. Rather than attempt to refute the concern, the present work accepts it and tries out candidate explanations. These pertain to empirical laws, parsimony, scope, reductionism, falsifiability, mathematical operations (multiplication vs. addition), internal coherence, ceteris paribus stipulations, and purposeful omission of relevant factors (idealization). The conceptions underlying these explanations are not strictly independent, but they point to different distinctive features that might account for the unequal status of physics and psychological science and to different means of improving contemporary psychology. Although the available evidence for or against these candidate explanations is scarce and relies mainly on a few telling examples, we conclude that the last of our candidate explanations-reliance on idealized universes-works best and leads to the most insights about what psychology might learn from physics and what research strategies might foster the ideal of theory-driven psychological science in the future. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The Role of Choice and Descriptive Norms in Attenuating Reactance to BPA Risk Messages: A Conceptual Replication

ABSTRACT The current study examined behavioral recommendations to reduce Bisphenol A (BPA) exposure through the lens of psychological reactance theory. This study conceptually replicated previous work by [Reynolds-Tylus, T., Martinez Gonzalez, A., & Quick, B. L. (2019). The role of choice clustering and descriptive norms in attenuating psychological reactance to water and energy conservation messages. Environmental Communication, 13(7), 847–863. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2018.1461672)] by examining two antecedents to psychological reactance: choice and descriptive norms. Participants (N = 607) were randomly assigned to one of five message conditions in a 2 (choice: choice, no choice) X 2 (descriptive norm: high vs. low) factorial design with a no message control. Results indicated that messages providing choice (vs. no choice) within a cluster of environmental health behaviors decreased freedom threat perceptions. As expected, reactance was negatively associated with intention to reduce BPA exposure. Descriptive norm (high vs. low) was unrelated to freedom threat but indirectly influenced behavioral intention to reduce BPA exposure as mediated through perceived descriptive norm. Our results speak to the importance of replication in communication research and provide evidence-based message design advice for environmental health campaigns. Findings are discussed in terms of the theoretical and practical contributions of the current study.

A test of moderated serial mediation model of compulsive buying among Gen Z fandoms moderated by trash talking

Purpose The study aims to identify the factors that influence young consumers’ compulsive buying, particularly Gen Z consumers who exhibit fandom qualities such as sharing the same interests and being willing to collaborate with others. This study investigates the direct and indirect impact of brand love and brand addiction on the relationship between social media addiction and compulsive buying. Design/methodology/approach The study collected data from 338 Gen Z fandoms. The snowball sampling approach is used to determine and collect data from the sample. To test for hypotheses, the study used the PROCESS macro with bootstrapping techniques to explore the direct and indirect relationships, as well as the moderated serial mediation model in this study. Findings The study found that social media addiction influences compulsive buying via the hierarchical linkages between brand love and brand addiction. Trash talking functions as a stimulant, amplifying the effect of brand addiction on compulsive buying. Research limitations/implications The data were collected from young Thai consumers; thus, the generalizability aspect of the research is limited and needs to be tested in different countries and cultures. Originality/value This research provides several key contributions to the understanding of compulsive buying behavior among Gen Z, particularly within the context of a developing country. By integrating the stimulus-organism-response framework and psychological theories, this study offers a nuanced understanding of how social media addiction influences emotional and behavioral outcomes. Previous studies have primarily focused on these variables in isolation. The study fills this gap by demonstrating the sequential pathway through which social media addiction translates into compulsive buying behavior via brand love and brand addiction.

Self-control of states: bridging social psychology to international relations discourses.

Why do states respond non-coercively in the face of crisis? Existing scholarship within international relations has stagnated in its conclusions regarding understanding this occurrence. This perspective article attempts to bridge the self-control theory of social psychology to provide a more nuanced understanding of why states self-refrain themselves from taking aggressive retaliatory foreign policies in state-to-state crises. It argues the importance of cognitive-affective units, such as encodings, expectancies, beliefs, goals, values, and self-regulatory plans, as the sociological interpretation of why states are committed to pursuing delayed rewards. It builds upon existing sociological theories adopted in international relations scholarship, such as state identities and role conceptions, and further considers the social psychology variables detrimental in self-control theories, and argues for its relevance to decompose the ability of a state to prioritize delayed gratification over immediate awards in tensions faced.

Testing the validity of the broaden-and build theory of positive emotions: a network analytic approach.

The Broaden-and-Build Theory of positive emotions is one of the best known and applied theories in Positive Psychology. It argues that positive emotions initiate an upward movement by opening up the mind and broadening thoughts and thus represents a counter model to the vicious circle-models of clinical psychology. The number of studies directly testing this theory in all components is scarce, ambiguities in the model impede clear inference. To draw a conclusive picture on within-model processes, we applied network modeling on the components of the theory across two studies (N 1 = 312; N 2 = 302). In both studies, the positive relationship between positive emotions, resources and life outcomes is well-supported, yet the role of broadening, as an intermediary component within these is questioned. As the broadening component consistently deviated from the model's predictions and thus did not contribute to the model as expected in either study, the validity of the Broaden-and-Build Theory in its current conceptualization is challenged, and our results point to the need to reassess the role of broadening.

How do medical students' expectations shape their experiences of well-being programmes?

Medical schools have a duty of care to support their students' health and well-being. Student support studies have tended to focus on outcomes in respect of effectiveness and satisfaction. In contrast, little is known about how student expectations of support may shape their experiences and engagement with support mechanisms, as well as the relationships students have with those offering support (including the institution itself). To address this gap in knowledge, we explore how medical students' expectations of student support systems shape, and are shaped by, institutional rules and processes. We employed a qualitative case study approach using an institutional ethnography informed methodology. Our context was a medical school that provides a well-advertised, formal institutional support system where students are assigned a personal tutor. Data collection included interviews with medical students (n = 13) plus document analysis (public facing artefacts and internal policies/guidelines related to the support system). We applied the lens of psychological contract theory to guide abductive analysis of interview and text data. Students expected a strong support system to be provided by the medical school and the personal tutors. However, their experiences did not always align with their expectations. Some felt excluded by the system while others regarded the relationship with their personal tutor as more transactional than relational. Where their expectations were unmet, students responded by reducing their engagement with the formal support system and creating their own peer-support network that supplemented existing formal support. Student expectations matter in shaping their experiences of support systems. Where expectations are unmet, students may disengage and/or find alternatives. This may be easier for some students compared with others. More understanding of the relationship between expectations and engagement with support can inform the development of institutional support structures that meet the needs of all students across time.

Research on the Innovative Path of Ideological and Political Education Psychology

Ideological and political education psychology is a discipline that applies psychological theories and methods to study the psychological activity patterns of ideological and political education teaching objects, and belongs to a branch of applied psychology. Due to the late start of ideological and political education psychology, there are still unresolved issues in its current development status. How to achieve innovative development of ideological and political education psychology is a problem that ideological and political education workers in the new era should consider.

NICK DUNNE’S DISLOYALTY IN GILLIAN FLYNN'S GONE GIRL

This study discusses about Nick Dunne’s disloyalty in Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl. In analysing the data from Dunne’s character, this study applies descriptive qualitative method and psychological theory which is aimed to explain the portrayal, causes, and effects of Nick Dunne’s disloyalty. There are three categories of the findings as the result of this study, the type of Dunne’s disloyalty, the causes of Dunne’s disloyalty and the effects of Dunne’s disloyalty. The type of Dunne’s disloyalty is romantic love affair. The causes of Dunne’s disloyalty are desire of novelty, poor communication, insecurity, and lack of intimacy. There are two kinds of effects from Dunne’s disloyalty, namely effect on the doer and effect on the victim. The effects of Dunne’s disloyalty on the doer, Dunne himself, include suffering from guilt and shame, inner conflict, identity crisis, self-doubt, fear of repercussion, desire of personal growth and change, and lack of intimacy with his wife. The effects of Dunne’s disloyalty on the victim, Amy, include anguish from betrayal and emotional trauma, loss of self-esteem, trust issues, emotional roller coaster, self-blame, fear of repeating betrayal, and lack of intimacy.

The Western psychologization of global development: A cultural and decolonial approach

Euro-American psychology’s strong focus on the individual mind and behavior has become a fundamental part of global development agendas. Concepts like self-regulation, self-actualization, self-efficacy, and behavior change decorate the development discourse. Scholars term this phenomenon the “psychologization of development.” The main driver of this focus is likely rooted in the hegemonic belief that Western psychological theories are universally applicable. Yet, the discipline’s embeddedness in Euro-American imperialism, globalization, and neoliberalism makes its theories particularly un-universal and unfit in many contexts. Nevertheless, people in non-Western societies are increasingly subjected to development interventions targeting their individual behavior. Using examples from research in sub-Saharan Africa of how articulations of harmful witchcraft may increase because of development interventions that promote individualized ways of being and thinking, this article prompts a cultural and decolonial perspective to reimagine other ways of doing development.

Ethical leaders’ search for meaning: Ancient Confucian wisdom in Modern East Asia

In secular Western societies, individuals often embark on an autonomous quest for meaning in life, which, however, can lead to frustration. In contrast, many East Asian ethical leaders draw on age-old teachings to find fulfillment—an underexplored topic that merits further investigation. By analyzing ancient Confucian tenets and the discourses of modern Confucian leaders, this paper unveils three key aspects of the Confucian meaning of life: The Heavenly Way (the comprehension that good begets good), the Heavenly Mandate (the purpose of doing good), and the Heavenly Nature (the significance of one’s inherent goodness). From a psychological perspective, this “Confucian meaning framework” has persisted for millennia because its elements not only exhibit internal consistency and structural robustness but also fulfill humanity’s psychological needs for meaningfulness, transcendence, justice, self-improvement, competence, altruism, relatedness, morality, moral autonomy, and self-esteem. Therefore, ancient Confucian wisdom effectively counters the contemporary existential vacuum in modern East Asia. This paper highlights the crucial role of cultural heritage in our existential quests, opening new avenues for blending philosophical insights with psychological research. It also illustrates the power of psychological theories to explain the lasting influence of certain ancient cultures on modern life, demonstrating the intriguing interplay between culture and psychology.

A machine-learning model of academic resilience in the times of the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence drawn from 79 countries/economies in the PISA 2022 mathematics study.

Given that students from socio-economically disadvantaged family backgrounds are more likely to suffer from low academic performance, there is an interest in identifying features of academic resilience, which may mitigate the relationship between disadvantaged socio-economic status and academic performance. This study sought to combine machine learning and explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) technique to identify key features of academic resilience in mathematics learning during COVID-19. Based on PISA 2022 data in 79 countries/economies, the random forest model coupled with Shapley additive explanations (SHAP) value technique not only uncovered the key features of academic resilience but also examined the contributions of each key feature. Findings indicated that 35 features were identified in the classification of academically resilient and non-academically resilient students, which largely validated the previous academic resilient framework. Notably, gender differences were shown in the distribution of some key features. Research findings also indicated that resilient students tended to have a stable emotional state, high levels of self-efficacy, low levels of truancy and positive future aspirations. This study has established a research paradigm essentially methodological in nature to bridge the gap between psychological theories and big data in the field of educational psychology. To sum up, our study shed light on the issues of education equity and quality from a global perspective in the times of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Analisis Semantik Konsep Rezeki dalam Tafsir Al-Misbah dan Implikasinya dalam Konteks Kognitif dan Etis

This study examines Quraish Shihab’s interpretation of the concept of rizq in Tafsir al-Misbah through the lens of Jean Piaget’s cognitive development theory and Lev Vygotsky’s socio-cognitive theory. The academic problem addressed is how the concept of rizq, involving effort, prayer, and social interaction, can be understood from the perspective of cognitive development and social ethics. The study aims to fill the gap in tafsir analysis by incorporating psychological approaches, particularly in understanding how theological thoughts on rizq influence cognitive development and the formation of individual ethics. The research method used is textual analysis of Tafsir al-Misbah with theoretical approaches from Piaget and Vygotsky, exploring both cognitive and ethical aspects in the process of acquiring rizq. The novelty of this research lies in applying psychological developmental theories to tafsir analysis, a rarely undertaken approach in Quranic exegesis studies. The results indicate that Quraish Shihab's interpretation of rizq encompasses cognitive aspects that encourage logical and abstract thinking about effort and prayer, as well as ethical aspects that emphasize social responsibility and integrity in the pursuit of sustenance. This tafsir promotes the development of a proactive mindset and a strong ethical awareness through social interaction within the community.

ScamGen: Unveiling psychological patterns in tele-scam through advanced template-augmented corpus generation

Telephone scams, with their profound psychological impact, often compel victims to make hasty and severe decisions. Studying these scams is challenging due to the scarcity of comprehensive datasets, a result of the private nature of telephone interactions. In this paper, we introduce ScamGen, a template-based data augmentation technique designed to enhance Chinese telephone scam data. ScamGen leverages psychological insights to generate diverse and realistic scam scenarios, focusing on the psychological dynamics between scammers and victims. This novel approach integrates psychological theory with data augmentation, diverging from traditional methods by emphasizing scammer–victim interactions. Our method begins with a multi-source data collection framework, compiling an initial seed dataset of tele-scam samples. Using sentence- and word-level perturbations, we expand this seed data to create a comprehensive and diverse dataset covering a wide range of scam scenarios. Rigorous evaluations demonstrate that ScamGen outperforms large language models in generating high-quality, varied datasets. Additionally, we develop five deep learning models for intent detection on this dataset, with BERT achieving the highest precision at 86.68%. The dataset, which will be made publicly available, marks a significant step toward understanding scammer tactics and improving tele-scam detection systems.

Cultural Evolutionary Psychology as Generalization by Recursion

AbstractCultural evolutionary psychology (CEP) accounts for the cultural evolution of cognition. It is based on evolutionary psychology and cultural evolutionary theory and aims at a synthetic attempt which is achieved by what we want to call ‘generalization by recursion’. We argue in this paper that the evolutionary psychology program as a whole could greatly benefit from CEP’s generalization. As we will show, there is one theoretical element in particular, that CEP relevantly generalizes in contrast to its predecessors. It comes from cultural evolutionary theory and has been referred to as the ‘dual inheritance argument’. CEP’s novelty consists in showing that not only cognitive products (‘grist’) but also cognitive mechanisms (‘mills’) are subject to cultural evolution and provides lots of empirical evidence for this claim. This account is ‘recursive’, because CEP’s generalization of the dual inheritance argument theoretically employs a recursive feedback-loop between cultural learning and cultural evolution. We also argue that this account might be considered to supersede unificatory and reductionistic efforts of its competitors, because it is stronger than purely structural or analogical unification while at the same time it is not too strong in order to fall prey to implausible reductionism.

PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF TEACHING LEADERSHIP IN FOREIGN RESOURCES

Teaching leadership skills involves more than just using effective methods and techniques; it also requires having a thorough understanding of the psychological theories that explain human behavior, focusing on key elements like self-awareness, motivation, emotional intelligence, and conflict resolution. The article examines foreign research studies on successful psychological techniques for teaching leadership in higher education. It embraces the importance of developing effective leadership programs, the role of experiential and collaborative learning, development of ethical learning environments and learning opportunities. The significance of a psychologically informed approach to education is highlighted by the necessity for educators to understand the psychological concepts, such as motivation, social dynamics, and cognitive development, that shape instructional practices.