The Effect of the Psychological Sense of Community on the Psychological Well-Being in Older Volunteers

Ageing populations across Europe are increasing. Communities have an important role in not only engaging this segment of the population but also in helping them to make them feel "part of something" (local or global) in order to favour their psychological well-being. The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of volunteering and being connected in one's community on well-being. The present paper will test an older volunteers' psychological well-being model. 143 older volunteers completed measures of religiousness, sense of global responsibility, psychological sense of community, generativity, motivation to volunteer and a profile of mood states. Data show that a psychological sense of community has a key role in the study of older volunteerism due to its impact on well-being. Service agencies and administrations can develop campaigns to sustain older volunteerism in order to increase well-being and reduce social costs

Predictability of Big Five Traits in high school teacher burnout. Detailed study through the disillusionment dimension

This research aimed to investigate the theme of burnout syndrome in high school teachers. In particular, the objective was to verify if the five personality traits can be considered predictors of the four dimensions of burnout. The sample consisted of 171 teachers, 49 males and 122 females. For the burnout measurement, the Link Burnout Questionnaire (LBQ) was used, and for the personality measure, the Big Five Questionnaire (BFQ) was used. As predictive factors for the development of the negative polarity of Psychophysical Exhaustion, the results identify both Energy and Emotional Stability. For Relational Deterioration, the same traits emerge due to the dimension of Professional Inefficiency. For the LBM’s Disillusion dimension, there was no corresponding predictive BFM trait, but by reducing the statistical error via analysis of regression with fixed effects, Agreeableness and Emotional Stability were predictive. The research confirms the relationship between personality and burnout, but future studies should both analyse the influence exerted by the contextual factors on the onset of the syndrome and deepen the research on the mental model

STEPS TOWARDS A UNIFIED THEORY OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY: THE PHASE SPACE OF MEANING MODEL

none6noThe hypothesis of a general psychopathology factor (p factor) has been advanced in recent years. It is an innovation with breakthrough potential, in the perspective of a unified view of psychopathology; however, what remains a controversial topic is how its nature might be conceptualized. The current paper outlines a semiotic, embodied and psychoanalytic conceptualization of psychopathology – the Phase Space of Meaning (PSM) model – aimed at providing ontological grounds to the p factor hypothesis. Framed within a more general model of how the mind works, the PSM model maintains that the p factor can be conceived as the empirical marker of the degree of rigidity of the meaning-maker’s way of interpreting experience, namely of the dimensions of meanings used to map the environment’s variability. As to the clinical implications, two main aspects are outlined. First, according PSM model, psychopathology is not an invariant condition, and does not have a set dimensionality, but is able to vary it locally, in order to address the requirement of situated action. Second, psychopathology is conceived as one of the mind’s modes of working, rather than the manifestation of its disruption. Finally, the puzzling issue of the interplay between stability and variability in the evolutionary trajectories of patients along with their life events is addressed and discussed.openVenuleo, C.; Salvatore, G.; Andrisano-Ruggieri, R.; Marinaci, T.; Cozzolino, M.; Salvatore, S.Venuleo, C.; Salvatore, G.; Andrisano-Ruggieri, R.; Marinaci, T.; Cozzolino, M.; Salvatore, S

Internet Addiction: a prevention action-research intervention

The aim of this paper was to present an action-research intervention for the prevention of Internet addiction (IA) in schools. Applying a pre-experimental research design model, a total of 90 young subjects (45 males and 45 females) were treated using a peer education programme. The Internet Addiction Test was used as a screening tool pre- and post-treatment and analysed using a paired t-test. The results showed a significant positive difference in the post-treatment values for both males and females. This research highlights the link between IA and cultural and social aspects of the disease in addition to discussing the difficulties of IA prevention.&nbsp

Theory of Mind: Overcoming the Dichotomy Between Culture and Nature

No abstract available

CLOCKS, WATCH OR SOMETHING ELSE?

Starting from different words to define apparently the same object, this paper focuses on the semantic power put into the daily object of a clock or watch. People usually relate the notion of time to these objects. However, a more careful analysis allows to understand how these objects are bearers of polysemy. This polysemy is reduced during the declination of the daily use of pictures, a pretext of a newtext, opening a different context. In this case, it could be occur that some things relate to time telling more when it associated to timeless, as a sign of never-ending

Semiotics and Social Representation: A Figure-and-Ground Relationship of Mutual Cultivation

The link between semiotics and social representations theory (Duveen& Lloyd, 1999) provides the seeds for a theoretical framework that could explore social psychological phenomena with particular emphasis on the developmental dynamics of their changes. The consideration of the dynamic nature of the process of representation draws our attention to the situated nature of human experience in cultural and historical context, at the crossroads of personal and societal influences on human nature. The challenge this poses to social scientists is the development of a conceptual framework that can address both theoretical and empirical concerns that emanate from a focus on dynamicity. We believe that the study of semiotics may provide further methodological tools for understanding and studying social representations in the course of their production and evolution. This special issue aims at expanding the interconnection between semiotics and social representation theory by looking at three points of mutual cultivation. We propose three contributions in this special issue that articulate the issue of dynamicity as the meeting point between these two approaches. In particular, the reciprocal connection between the process of social representation and the process of personal presentation is examined in a contribution by Jaan Valsiner, with special regard to the empirical study of the development of social representations. In a second contribution, Alberto Rosa examines the methodological implications required in such an undertaking, with a focus on the interplay between the subjective and the intersubjective use of culturally situated sign-systems. Finally, Sergio Salvatore examines the semiotic nature of social representations in light of idiographic methods of researc

Psychology in Social Science and Education

The objective of this chapter is to provide skills in the analysis of the relationship between individual, social, and educational contexts. To do this, some of the theories of context in the literature are examined, which propose different inter- pretative models useful to understanding the relationship between context and human action. In this paper, the concept of context is understood in terms of a complex cultural construct and represents the theoretical-conceptual background of this chapter. Following socio-constructivist theories, it is shown how the mind is influenced by context. Moreover, we provide theoretical-methodological tools that are necessary, in our opinion, to analyze the individual-mind-context relationshi