Europe’s Journal of Psychology (PsychOpen)
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The Helping by Clicking Types Questionnaire (HCTQ): The Development of a Measure to Assess Different Patterns of Helping by Clicking
No full textRecently, there has been an increase in the number of aid campaigns launched via social media. The paper explores the phenomenon called “helping by clicking,” which consists in clicking “Like” to support a charitable campaign or cause. The main aim of the paper is to present a new measure: The Helping by Clicking Types Questionnaire (HCTQ), assessing the patterns of helping by clicking. In developing the questionnaire, we relied on the theory of reciprocal altruism. The study included two samples of n = 349 and n = 1,006 participants. The HTCQ consists of 19 items making up three subscales: People, Environment, and Animals. The present research included two independent studies. Study 1 was conducted to determine the psychometric properties of the questionnaire, while Study 2 was conducted to verify the previous results and to test the usefulness of the questionnaire in distinguishing individuals with different patterns of helping by clicking. The measure was designed to assess three aspects of helping: helping people, helping the environment, and helping animals via social media. The study showed that the HCTQ was suitable for measuring patterns of helping by clicking. All HCTQ factors had good Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients. The HCTQ concerns a new and largely unexplored area of helping that involves the use of modern technologies. It reveals people’s motivations for helping
Influence of Vigilance Performance on Lifeguard Gaze Behaviour
No full textThe present study sought to examine the gaze behaviours exhibited by lifeguards with different levels of experience while performing a task focused on detecting drowning incidents across extended periods. The results indicated a gradual decline in detection performance over time, regardless of the lifeguards' levels of experience. Analysis of the participants' gaze behaviours unveiled that this decline was associated with alterations in both the number and duration of fixations. The results indicated that lifeguards with greater experience maintained higher levels of detection performance and fixation numbers for extended durations, while exhibiting consistent fixation durations throughout the task, in contrast to their less experienced counterparts. These findings offer initial indications that lifeguards with more experience may possess an attentional advantage during tasks requiring sustained vigilance
Internet Addiction and Psychological Distress: Can Social Networking Site Addiction Affect Body Uneasiness Across Gender? A Mediation Model
No full textIntroduction: The Internet, with its unlimited information, revolutionary communication capabilities, and innovative potential to expand knowledge, is ubiquitous throughout the world, but it also has significant implications for users’ mental health. Given the not yet clearly defined and distinguishable nosographic categories of online addiction and the resulting difficulties in describing the impact on users’ mental health, the present cross-sectional study aimed to gain new insights into the relationship between Internet addiction (especially social networking site [SNS] addiction), psychological distress, and physical discomfort, as well as gender differences in impact among users. Method: A sample of 583 Italian speakers (50.8% males; 48.7% females) with a mean age of 30.96 (SD = 12.12) completed an online survey in July 2021. A set of psychometric self-report instruments was administered to assess the study variables. Mediation analyses were performed for both the whole sample and across genders. Results: The study found that men exhibited higher levels of Internet addiction and craving than women, but no differences were found for SNS addiction. Furthermore, indicators of psychological distress (i.e., anxiety, depression, stress, loneliness, insomnia, and self-esteem) mediated the association between SNS addiction and body uneasiness, with slight differences across genders. Conclusion: This paper contributes to the existing literature on online addictive behaviors by also highlighting gender differences. The findings underscore the need for educational experiences that can prevent problematic use of the Internet and SNSs
Social Support and Adherence to Self-Care Behavior Among Patients With Coronary Heart Disease and Heart Failure: A Systematic Review
No full textCardiovascular diseases stand out as the foremost cause of mortality on a global scale and encompass conditions that require long term self-care. Coronary heart disease and heart failure are two cardiovascular conditions that require significant lifestyle modifications. Adherence to self-care is a multifaceted phenomenon, and is influenced by various factors that include social, economic, disease-related and healthcare system-related factors. A key factor in adherence to self-care in chronic illnesses is social support. To explore this relationship between social support and adherence to self-care, a systematic review was carried out across Scopus, EBSCO host and ProQuest from October 2022 to February 2023 using predefined search criteria. Studies from inception to February 2023 were considered for the review, ultimately incorporating a total of 11 studies. Six studies had an adult population with coronary heart disease while the remaining five had adults with heart failure. All the studies reported a significant positive correlation between social support and adherence to self-care. Our findings revealed that social support plays a significant role in promoting self-care, emphasizing the need for a holistic understanding of self-care to develop effective interventions. Along with self-report measures, objective measures should be used to assess adherence accurately. There is a need for scales that assess all aspects of self-care, as well as the development of new interventions and teaching strategies to facilitate the individual’s self-care journey. In addition, family members and trusted resources should be involved in encouraging self-care, and interventions should target both patients and their family members
Babies in the Corporeal Turn: The Cognitive Embodiment of Early Motor Development and Exploration in the Brazilian Context of Early Childhood Education
No full textThe corporeal turn in developmental psychology has rekindled interest regarding how early motor development contributes to and enhances cognitive development across the first years of life. By highlighting embodied perceptual-motor engagement with the world, embodied cognitive learning emphasizes the importance of experience and perceptual-motor mechanisms in modulating the development of person-environment systems. The field currently calls for research that combines such conceptual frameworks with the complex everyday material and sociocultural landscapes that resource infants' developmental trajectories. We, therefore, aim to connect the conceptual refinement of bodily-anchored exploration to the contextual reality of everyday settings of early childhood education (ECE)—here situated in the Brazilian context—as relevant social and cultural suppliers and modulators of the developmental trajectories of babies. Secondarily, we ponder on the premises of national pedagogical curricula and their role in mediating the quality of experiences and systems of person-environment relations more closely. Cultural-historical psychology, in dialogue with the principles of Ecological Psychology, constitutes the theoretical framework that underpins the microgenetic analyses conducted. By analyzing episodes of exploratory actions of a focal baby situated in the ECE context, we seek to apprehend motor-perceptual indicators of embodied cognitive processing by considering the modes of appropriation entailed in episodes of embodied exploration. We reflect on pedagogical implications considering official national documents of early childhood education. This work contributes by providing complementary insights into the nature of infants' everyday sociocultural embodied experiences and their development in pedagogically oriented settings
Materiality and Cognitive Development: Contemporary Debates and Empirical Studies in Early Childhood
No full textSociodemographic Variables and Psychological Distress of Moroccan College Students
No full textBecause college students are an important category of the population highly vulnerable to mental health problems, this study aims to investigate the sociodemographic variables associated with the increase in psychological distress levels among Moroccan college students. Participants (N = 1147; mean age 20.00, SD = 2.6; 703 females and 444 males) completed a survey, which included a sociodemographic questionnaire and the Arabic version of the Brief Symptoms Inventory (BSI). Non-parametric tests were conducted to explore the data. Non-parametric tests revealed that being female, having a physical illness, experiencing depression and anxiety, having sleep problems, and living with only their mother or with a family member other than their parents are associated with a significant increase in the level of psychological distress. In summary, specific sociodemographic factors exert a notable influence on the psychological distress levels experienced by college students. Consequently, it is imperative to intensify research endeavors aimed at delving into the intricacies of college students’ mental health and its correlated ramifications
Academic Achievement in University Students: The Role of Perfectionism and Academic Hardiness
No full textThe aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between two personality factors, namely perfectionism and academic hardiness, and academic achievement. Nine hundred sixty-six undergraduate students from diverse disciplines in Greece made up the entire sample. In addition to two self-reported questionnaires about their achievements, perfectionism, and academic toughness, they were asked to complete one demographic questionnaire. The study revealed statistically significant positive correlations between the adaptive form of perfectionism and academic achievement and negative primarily correlation between the maladaptive form of perfectionism and academic achievement. The dimensions of academic hardiness (challenge, commitment, control) were also found to be positively correlated with the students’ performance. Regarding the predictive role of these two factors for academic achievement, the results indicated that the adaptive form of perfectionism (high standards) and two dimensions of academic hardiness (challenge and commitment) are positive predictors, while the maladaptive form of perfectionism (discrepancy) is a negative predictor. Implications of the above results are discussed
Growth Mindset Is Associated With Mastery Goals in Adulthood
No full textGrowth mindsets, the belief that intelligence can grow with effort and training, have been associated with the adoption of mastery goals in children and adolescents. However, it is unknown whether these two factors are also correlated in adults. We conducted two online studies among three hundred participants to challenge this association. Results from (1) zero-order correlations, (2) structural equation modeling and (3) out-of-sample predictions converged on the finding that growth mindset was associated with the adoption of mastery goals in mathematics. This association generalized across different ways of measuring mindsets. Taken together the results provided new evidence for the idea that mindset and goal achievement are intrinsically related concepts, which remain associated across different life stages and generalize across populations
Material Engagement Shaping Participation of Children on the Autism Spectrum: Embodiment and Subjectivity in Small-Group Learning
No full textThis study investigated the material engagement and their affordances for participation of children on the autism spectrum (AS) in small-group learning. Framed by a methodology called Idea Diary that fosters social interactions in classroom environments, our focus was on understanding how and when the construction and manipulation of the diary supported children’s participation and knowledge construction in small groups. This investigation was guided by the intersection of the theory of subjectivity developed by Fernando González Rey and enactive accounts of cognition. This framework provided the view of the singularity in the communicative process of children on the AS and the necessary support for examining the mechanisms of engagement that led to children’s participation. We present two case studies of 9–10-year-old boys. Data consists of the diaries produced and used by children and video recordings of children’s interactions during small-group discussions. Our analytical approach included a qualitative semiotic analysis of the materials and a micro-analysis of the social interactions. The results showed, first, that children on the AS continuously engaged in the construction of the diary, expressing elements of their subjectivity—experiences, ideas and the system through which they interact with the world. Repetition framed children’s productions and signalled engagement. Second, material engagement enabled participatory sense-making, which in this study appeared in creating new communicative resources between the child on the AS and their peers and in adapting the narratives, approximating children’s perspectives in conversations. Although contextualised within a specific pedagogical practice, the study contributes to advancing our understanding of the role of material engagement in social participation in learning situations involving children on the AS, particularly relevant in educational psychology and education