Article
Cross-Cultural Validation of Fear of Happiness Scale Across 14 National Groups
A survey of the cultural notions related to happiness and the existing empirical evidence indicate
that some individuals endorse the belief that happiness, particularly an immoderate degree of
it, should be avoided. These beliefs mainly involve the general notion that happiness may lead
to bad things happening. Using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis and multilevel modeling,
this study investigates the measurement invariance, cross-level isomorphism, predictive validity,
and nomological network of the fear of happiness scale across 14 nations. The results show that
this scale has good statistical properties at both individual and cultural levels. The findings also
indicate that this scale has the potential to add to the knowledge about how people conceive of,
and experience, happiness across cultures.
The paper reviews contemporary research of group helping behavior - help for some members of outgroup or outgroup as a whole. Various forms of selfish helping (help, contrary to stereotypes, defensive help) and factors of intensity of the helping behavior are analyzed. In conclusion, describes the limitations of existing studies
The article was devoted the analysis adaptation strategies of the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches to the new social and political conditions in the last decades. The author comes to the conclusion that Russian Orthodox Church chooses strategy of conservation to the new social and political conditions and Roman Catholic Church makes decision to follow democratic adaptation strategies.
Meaningful life is emotionally marked off. That’s the general point that Johansen (IPBS: Integrative Psychological & Behavioral Science 44, 2010) makes which is of great importance. Fictional abstractions use to make the point even more salient. As an example I’ve examined Borges’ famous fiction story. Along with the examples of Johansen it provides an informative case of exploring symbolic mechanisms which bind meaning with emotions. This particular mode of analysis draws forth poetry and literature in general to be treated as a “meaningful life laboratory”. Ways of explanation of emotional effect the art exercises on people, which had been disclosed within this laboratory, however, constitute a significant distinction in terms that I have designated as “referential” and “substantive”. The former appeals to something that has already been charged with emotional power, whereas the latter comes to effect by means of special symbolic mechanisms creating the emotional experience within the situation. Johansen, who tends to explain emotions exerted by the art without leaving the semiotic perspective, is drawn towards the “referential” type of explanation. Based upon discussions in theory of metaphor and Robert Witkin’s sociological theory of arts it is demonstrated an insufficient of “referential” explanation. To overcome a monopoly of “referential” explanation of emotional engagement, in particular, in literature, means to break away from the way of reasoning, stating endless references to “something else”, presupposing the existence of something already significant and therefore sharing its effects.
The distractive effects on attentional task performance in different paradigms are analyzed in this paper. I demonstrate how distractors may negatively affect (interference effect), positively (redundancy effect) or neutrally (null effect). Distractor effects described in literature are classified in accordance with their hypothetical source. The general rule of the theory is also introduced. It contains the formal prediction of the particular distractor effect, based on entropy and redundancy measures from the mathematical theory of communication (Shannon, 1948). Single- vs dual-process frameworks are considered for hypothetical mechanisms which underpin the distractor effects. Distractor profiles (DPs) are also introduced for the formalization and simple visualization of experimental data concerning the distractor effects. Typical shapes of DPs and their interpretations are discussed with examples from three frequently cited experiments. Finally, the paper introduces hierarchical hypothesis that states the level-fashion modulating interrelations between distractor effects of different classes.
This article describes the expierence of studying factors influencing the social well-being of educational migrants as mesured by means of a psychological well-being scale (A. Perrudet-Badoux, G.A. Mendelsohn, J.Chiche, 1988) previously adapted for Russian by M.V. Sokolova. A statistical analysis of the scale's reliability is performed. Trends in dynamics of subjective well-being are indentified on the basis the correlations analysis between the condbtbions of adaptation and its success rate, and potential mechanisms for developing subjective well-being among student migrants living in student hostels are described. Particular attention is paid to commuting as a factor of adaptation.