Polish Psychological Bulletin

Studies based on the most common diagnostic categories do not bring conclusive results concerning the overlapping and distinctive features of anxiety and depression, especially in the areas of attentional functioning, structure of affect, and cognitive emotion regulation. However, a new typology has been proposed which treats anxiety and depression as personality types (Fajkowska, 2013). These types – arousal and apprehension anxiety as well as valence and anhedonic depression – are constructed based on two criteria: specific structure and functions (reactive or regulative). The present paper critically examines the empirical evidence related to this approach. The data mostly confirmed the prediction that the similarities and differences in attentional and affective functioning among the anxiety and depression types would be related to their shared and specific structural and functional characteristics. The new typology turned out to be suitable for integrating the existing research findings by relating them to the structure and functions of anxiety and depression. As a result, it is useful in explaining some of the inconsistencies in literature, as it allows to identify the overlapping and distinctive features of the anxiety and depression types. It also helps to understand the mechanisms contributing to the development and maintenance of anxiety and depression, which might be useful in diagnosis and treatment. However, even though Fajkowska’s approach is an important contribution to the understanding of anxiety and depression, it is not exhaustive. Its limitations are discussed, along with proposed modifications of the theory, as well as further research directions.

Previous research reported about high comorbidity between asthma and neurodevelopmental disorders. Recently, asthma was associated also with executive functions poorness. The current study aimed to investigate the verbal and visual memory performances among fifteen asthmatic kindergarten children compared to the performances of other fifteen healthy kindergarten children. The results showed that the asthmatic group revealed poor performances in the immediate short term verbal memory and the verbal working memory tests but not in the verbal learning test as it was compared to the healthy group. In addition, the asthmatic group revealed poor performances in the visual memory tasks compared to the healthy group. The results were explained in light of the assumption that poor executive functions might be interfere the process of managing the attentional resources which are needed through the process of memory encoding and retrieval.

It is nearly impossible to study behaviour effectively without any reference to its context. This is because it is generally known in the psychological literature that behaviour is partially a product of its environment. This suggests that many behavioural processes may be universal but there are significant variations in their manifestations. For instance, love may be a universal process but its manifestation varies from one society to another. Given that ethical decision-making is a behavioural process, it stands to reason that its manifestation will vary from one culture to another. It is against this premise that this paper seeks to demonstrate that despite the existence of the ‘universal’ normative ethical principles, ethical decisions will be expected to vary across cultural space and even evolve with time. This paper achieves this objective by employing typical ethical dilemmas that Ghanaian psychologists and other health professionals encounter to show how and why what is ethical in one culture becomes unethical in the Ghanaian context and what is unethical in the Ghanaian context becomes ethical in another culture.

Cheerleading is a new sport, practiced in 110 nations; since 2016 enjoys provisional Olympic status. Its leaders claim that it is a “happy” sport, but research on its psychological effects is lacking. In this field-study we examined core-affect, positive-affect, and negative-affect in 65 cheerleaders before, during, after, and one-hour after a cheerleading training. Core-affect was more positive during and immediately after training, but it tapered off one hour following the training when feeling states were still more positive than at baseline. Negative-affect declined linearly from baseline to one-hour following training when it became significantly lower than its previous values. Positive-affect showed quadratic dynamics, in parallel with arousal, being higher during and immediately after training than during baseline, or one-hour after training. These results demonstrate for the first time that cheerleading is a “happy” sport, which apart from the skill-development also yields positive psychological emotions both during and after training.

Self-control is a complex and multifaceted construct that can be regarded as an individual trait that follows its own developmental trajectory. In the presented study we used NAS-50 for the assessment of self-control in adolescents and young adults. Since the questionnaire has not been used before in underage participants we tested its reliability in adolescent and adult samples. We also investigated possible age and gender differences in self-control abilities as well as relations between NAS-50 and behavioral measures of cognitive control and impulsivity. Although the sample was quite small, the reliability of the questionnaire was similar to the results achieved by its authors. According to the predictions in the literature we did not find relations between NAS-50 and behavioral measures of cognitive control and impulsivity. We also did not observe significant age differences in the assessment of self-control abilities. The theoretical relevance of our results is discussed.

O b j e c t i v e s: The aim of study was to investigate the association between anxiety, depression, stress and determinants of quality of life among Iranian students.

M e t h o d s: The questionnaires were completed by 275 students. The random sampling was conducted in two phases, the stratified sampling which some classes were selected among different classes of faculty of health and at the second phase, in each class the number of students who had the requirements to enter in the study were selected randomly. the logistic regression to find out the association between demographic characteristics with the quality of life was run and according to the normality status of the distribution of data the parametric or non-parametric tests were used.

R e s u l t s: In the univariable model, the students that were living in their own homes had the odds of 2.18 times more than the others to have a higher quality of life level (95% CI: 1.07–4.45). In the multi variable model the anxiety and stress were significantly related to the quality of life and for increasing each 1 unit in the amount of anxiety and stress the odds of a better quality of life decreases 0.19 and 0.03 respectively. Even after adjusting for other covariates – in the multivariable model – both anxiety and stress were associated with the quality of life.

C o n c l u s i o n: It is useful for the universities to understand different aspects of the students’ lives which are under the influence of stress, anxiety and depression, and also determining the resources from which they are originated.

Virtual reality (VR) technology now provides players with immersive and realistic experiences as never before. Spatial presence plays a crucial role in the introduction of immersive experience in a VR environment. Spatial presence is a special feeling of personal and physical presence in the displayed environment. In this study, we found that the first-person perspective (1PP) was more effective in raising the sense of spatial presence that induces immersive experience compared to the third-person perspective (3PP) in a VR shooting game. Moreover, eye blink rate was significantly higher in the 1PP compared with the 3PP. The 1PP game setting was more realistic than the 3PP setting, and may have raised participants’ sense of immersion and facilitated eye blink. These results indicate that eye blink rate is increased by the sense of spatial presence, and can be a good measure of subjective immersive experience in a VR environment. Neuroscientific evidences suggest that dopaminergic system is involved in such emotional experiences and physiological responses.

Semi-structured individual in-depth interviews were conducted to explore and compare which social norms with regard to the debt-incurring process are important to Poles with various experiences of indebtedness. Thematic analysis within a constructionist framework identified the social norms important in the borrowing process for Poles and revealed, as expected, a number of differences between people with various indebtedness experiences. Model borrowers have a significantly different approach to debt than unreliable debtors and non-borrowers. Model borrowers seem to be oblivious to the negative sides of loans as well as indicate fewer reasons for justifying not repaying obligations than others. For unreliable debtors, loans are a quick way to solve financial problems. They borrow money out of necessity rather than to finance any larger, long-term investments and have their own private rules for borrowing. Non-borrowers, although aware of borrowers’ higher standard of living, emphasize that debt is associated with permanent stress and psychological burden. Model borrowers, unlike the others, declare that in their immediate vicinity are only those who use and pay their loans in a timely manner.

O b j e c t i v e s: Pill-takers seem to have some deficiencies in developing problem-solving styles, in which it plays an important role in their mental health. The present study has aimed to examine the role of problem-solving styles in individuals who have suicidal behavior by taking pills.

M e t h o d s: This research is a case-control study in which 100 people who had attempted to commit suicide by taking pills and had gone to the toxicity emergency room of the Razi Educational and Therapeutic center in Rasht city, were compared with 100 normal people who were selected as the control group. These two groups of people were compared with each other in terms of their problem-solving styles (which is measured using Cassidy and Long problem solving styles questionnaire).

R e s u l t s: After adjusting the effects of the confounding variables, i.e. level of education, marital status, residential status, history of psychiatry and alcohol addiction, it became clear that pill-takers group in comparison with the control group scores significantly higher in the non-adaptive problem-solving styles i.e. helplessness, problem-solving control, and avoidance styles (P < 0.0001) and also lower scores in adaptive styles, i.e. creative, confidence and approach styles (P < 0.0001). The interactive effects of group membership and gender were not significant in any of the problem-solving styles (P < 0.05).

C o n c l u s i o n s: Problem-solving styles are regarded as important risk factors when it comes to attempting to commit suicide by taking pills. Thus, it is essential to teach problem-solving styles to at-risk patients in order to preventing suicidal behavior.

The aim of the present study was to explore the role of temporal intelligence in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ self-regulation and self-efficacy. To this end, a general temporal intelligence (GTI-S) scale was designed based on the subconstructs of time in the literature. The scale, along with the learning self-regulation questionnaire (SRQ-L) and the English self-efficacy scale was administered to 520 EFL learners. To validate the GTI-S, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was run. The results of Pearson product-moment correlations demonstrated significantly positive relationships between temporal intelligence and controlled self-regulation, automatic self-regulation and self-efficacy (p<.05). Moreover, the findings of multiple regressions revealed that Linearity of Time, Economicity of Time, and Multitasking are the most important subconstructs of time with relation to these variables.