Factors influencing the choice of friends : analysis of bulgarian friendship networks = Factores que influyen en la elección de amigos : análisis de redes de amistad búlgara

Este artículo presenta los resultados de una investigación que tiene lugar en 2006 usando un análisis sobre la red de amigos. Se estudian las relaciones de 223 pares de amigos. Había reciprocidad en las nociones de los que respondieron sobre el hecho de cómo percibían a sus amigos y cómo estos les percibían a ellos —como hombres o mujeres, como jóvenes, como habitantes de una ciudad, como vecinos, familiares, a través de características personales dominantes, como extranjeros, como europeos. Usualmente los amigos tenían la misma ocupación y el mismo estatus social. La identidad étnica, territorial Europea y de género influenciaban la elección de amigos y el desarrollo de la amistad. Los miembros de la mayoría étnica en Bulgaria mantenían amigos principalmente con los miembros del grupo étnico y con gente que declaró la misma religión, mientras que la gente de minorías étnicas mantuvo más frecuentemente amigos con miembros de los grupos étnicos externos y con gente de diferentes religiones. La identidad europea unificó a los miembros a encontrar cosas más comunes entre ellos cuando tenían diferentes identidades étnicas. La identidad territorial y la identidad de género dominaban más en las amistades de la gente joven que de los mayores.________________________________This paper presents the results from a research carried out in 2006 in Bulgaria by using the analysis of friendship network. The studied relationships were between 223 couples of friends. There was reciprocity in the respondents' notions about the fact how they perceived their friends and how their friends perceived them — as men/women, as young people, as inhabitants of a city, as neighbours, as relatives, through dominant personal qualities, as foreigners, as Europeans. Usually the friends had the same occupation and the same social status. The ethnic, territorial, European and gender identity influenced the choice of friends and the development of the friendship. The members of the ethnic majority in Bulgaria maintained friendships mainly with the members of the ethnic in-group and with people

Reasons for facebook usage: Data from 46 countries

Seventy-nine percent of internet users use Facebook, and on average they access Facebook eight times a day (Greenwood et al., 2016). To put these numbers into perspective, according to Clement (2019), around 30% of the world\u2019s population uses this Online Social Network (OSN) site. Despite the constantly growing body of academic research on Facebook (Chou et al., 2009; Back et al., 2010; Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010; McAndrew and Jeong, 2012; Wilson et al., 2012; Krasnova et al., 2017), there remains limited research regarding the motivation behind Facebook use across different cultures. Our main goal was to collect data from a large cross-cultural sample of Facebook users to examine the roles of sex, age, and, most importantly, cultural differences underlying Facebook use

Sex differences in mate preferences across 45 countries: A large-scale replication

Considerable research has examined human mate preferences across cultures, finding universal sex differences in preferences for attractiveness and resources as well as sources of systematic cultural variation. Two competing perspectives—an evolutionary psychological perspective and a biosocial role perspective—offer alternative explanations for these findings. However, the original data on which each perspective relies are decades old, and the literature is fraught with conflicting methods, analyses, results, and conclusions. Using a new 45-country sample (N = 14,399), we attempted to replicate classic studies and test both the evolutionary and biosocial role perspectives. Support for universal sex differences in preferences remains robust: Men, more than women, prefer attractive, young mates, and women, more than men, prefer older mates with financial prospects. Cross-culturally, both sexes have mates closer to their own ages as gender equality increases. Beyond age of partner, neither pathogen prevalence nor gender equality robustly predicted sex differences or preferences across countries

Sentimentality and Nostalgia in Elderly People in Bulgaria and Greece – Cross-Validity of the Questionnaire SNEP and Cross-Cultural Comparison

Sentimentality and nostalgia are two similar psychological constructs, which play an important role in the emotional lives of elderly people who are usually focused on the past. There are two objectives of this study - making cross-cultural comparison of sentimentality and nostalgia among Bulgarian and Greek elderly people using a questionnaire, and establishing the psychometric properties of this questionnaire among Greek elderly people. Sentimentality and nostalgia in elderly people in Bulgaria and Greece were studied by means of Sentimentality and Nostalgia in Elderly People questionnaire (SNEP), created by Gergov and Stoyanova (2013). For the Greek version, one factor structure without sub-scales is proposed, while for the Bulgarian version of SNEP the factor structure had four sub-scales, besides the total score. Together with some similarities (medium level of nostalgia and sentimentality being widespread), the elderly people in Bulgaria and Greece differed cross-culturally in their sentimentality and nostalgia related to the past in direction of more increased sentimentality and nostalgia in the Bulgarian sample. Some gender and age differences revealed that the oldest male Bulgarians were the most sentimental. The psychometric properties of this questionnaire were examined for the first time in a Greek sample of elders and a trend was found for stability of sentimentality and nostalgia in elderly people that could be studied further in longitudinal studies

Structural characterization of 1,8-naphthalimides and in vitro microbiological activity of their Cu(II) and Zn(II) complexes

Two new 1,8-naphthalimide derivatives (NI1 and NI2) have been synthesized and characterized. The photophysical properties of the new compounds have been investigated in organic solvents of different polarity. It has been shown that both compounds are solvent depended. Cu(II) and Zn(II) complexes of NI2 were obtained and characterized by IR-NMR, fluorescence and EPR spectroscopy. The influence of different metal cations on the fluorescence intensity has been investigated in acetonitrile solution. Antimicrobial composite PLA-metal complexes materials have been obtained for the first time. Microbiological activity of both metal complexes has been investigated in vitro against different Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and two yeasts. The various antimicrobial activities and the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of both complexes have been determined. The microbiological activity of composite materials PLA-metal complexes in thin polymeric film has also been investigated. The results suggest that the new metal complexes could find application in designing new antimicrobial preparations to control the spread of infections.COST CA15114 “Anti-MIcrobial Coating Innovations to prevent infectious diseases (AMICI)” is acknowledged for supporting the networking.Peer Reviewe

The function of love:A signaling-to-alternatives account of the commitment device hypothesis

Love is commonly hypothesized to function as an evolved commitment device, disincentivizing the pursuit of romantic alternatives and signaling this motivational shift to a partner. Here, we test this possibility against a novel signaling-to-alternatives account, in which love instead operates by dissuading alternatives from pursuing oneself. Overall, we find stronger support for the latter account. In Studies 1 and 2, we find that partner quality relative to alternatives positively predicts feelings of love, and love fails to mitigate the negative effects of desirable alternatives on relationship satisfaction—contradicting the classic commitment device account. In Study 3, using a longitudinal design, we replicate these effects and find that changes in partner quality relative to alternatives predict changes in love over time. In Study 4, we replicate the relationship between love and relative partner quality across 44 countries. In Study 5, we find a nearly one-to-one correspondence between the extent to which partner-directed actions are diagnostic of love and reductions in romantic alternatives' attraction to the actor. These results suggest that love may not act as a commitment device in the classic sense by disincentivizing the pursuit of alternatives but by disincentivizing alternatives from pursuing oneself.</p