Self-Regulation Techniques in Vietnamese Zen Truc Lam Monastery

To find some answers in self-regulation field, we were living and meditating together with Vietnamese monks and nuns. We came to Vietnamese Truc Lam zen monastery together with eleven people, mainly students of psychology from Gdansk University. We stayed three weeks in monastery, and were the first European group, which received the permission from local state administration to stay in closed part of monastery, only used by monks and nuns to practice meditation and living. We got special clothes, special lessons of meditation and the basic outline of the philosophy of science

Nie ma buddy bez Buddy

The main purpose of the article is to present the exclusive aspect of Enlightenment as the ultimate goal of spiritual fulfillment within the Buddhist path. The article presents the idea that without the Buddha's Teachings, or the first enlightened person, you cannot achieve Buddhahood or the abstract principle of Enlightenment. The article describes an overview of the most important Buddhist concepts and terminology, as well as the modern psychological findings in the field of neurological brain activity. Both traditional and modern paths of reaching Enlightenment were presented. The final conclusions are that the state of buddha can only be achieved naturally in the long process of traditional meditation, following all initiation procedures and the classic Buddha Teachings (Dharma) implemented in a living social relationship network (Sangha), but modern technology in the field of psychology can be used as support and acceleration of the entire Enlightenment process

The Mediational Role of Relational Psychological Contract in Belief in a Zero-Sum Game and Work Input Attitude Dependency

The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediational role of relational psychological contract in social beliefs and work input attitude dependency. We analyzed data taken from employees (N = 258) in four different organizations operating in the Pomeranian market. A mediation analysis showed a strongly mediating role of psychological contract in the negative relationship between perception of life as a zero-sum game (BZSG) and work input. The motivational effect of the relational psychological contract, that is the role of job security, interesting work, a career in the company, opportunities for promotion and other HRM practices prevail over the significance of personal beliefs, especially when these are negative. If the company lacks the appropriate HRM systems then day-to-day social exchanges can be crucial in modifying the social beliefs of the employee

The noetic perspective and information processing

The aim of the present research was to investigate the cognitive representations of the noetic perspective (spirituality) and the influence of the activation of these representations on information processing. The article presents the results of three experiments on groups of students (N = 186), using the lexical decision task (LDT) paradigm. In two of these experiments the depth of information processing was also measured by a memory test. The typical result for LDT procedure was not confirmed – the noetic perspective did not cause faster recognition of words related to this perspective. However, the activation of the noetic perspective in the condition of activated attention manifested itself in a better memory of noetic words and in the transfer of positive affect to related noetic objects

Wpływ aktywizacji perspektywy noetycznej na przetwarzanie informacji

Celem prezentowanego artykułu było ukazanie istnienia reprezentacji umysłowych duchowości oraz możliwości aktywizacji tych reprezentacji poprzez transcendencję poza Ja, zdefiniowaną jako perspektywa noetyczna. Przedstawiono wyniki trzech eksperymentów z udziałem studentów (N = 186), w paradygmacie decyzji leksykalnych (LDT). W dwóch z nich testowano ponadto głębokość przetwarzania informacji, mierzoną za pomocą testu pamięciowego. Nie potwierdzono wyniku typowego dla procedury LDT – perspektywa noetyczna nie powodowała szybszego roz-poznawania słów z nią powiązanych niż słów z nią niepowiązanych. Natomiast aktywizacja perspektywy noetycznej w warunku zaangażowania uwagi przejawiła się lepszym zapamiętaniem zaktywizowanych przez nią treści oraz transferem pozytywnego afektu na skojarzone z nią obiekty

Distinguishing social cynicism from belief in a zero sum game: Confirmatory factor analysis of the social axioms scale

Social axioms – generalized beliefs about the social world – have been a prominent topic in cross-cultural psychology for decades. Recent research has expanded the taxonomy of social axioms from the original five axioms to include a sixth axiom, Belief in a Zero Sum Game (BZSG). As yet, however, there exist no studies evaluating the empirical separability of BZSG from the conceptually similar social axiom of Social Cynicism (SC). Here, we present the first factor analytic investigation of the separability of SC and BZSG in the short form of the Social Axioms Survey in a sample of 730 United States residents. Across all analyses, we find that the two axioms are factor analytically separable, yet strongly positively correlated, suggesting that researchers can (with care) proceed with research using the short form Social Axioms Survey to disentangle the causes, consequences and correlates of these two social axioms

A test of construct isomorphism of the Belief in a Zero-Sum Game scale: A multilevel 43-nation study.

BACKGROUND:We examined the equivalence of the individual and the country-level factor structure of the Belief in a Zero-Sum Game (BZSG) scale, a tool designed to measure antagonistic beliefs about social relations (i.e., perceived social antagonism) in the struggle for limited resources. AIMS:In this article we focused on a test of construct isomorphism in a multilevel modeling approach. It was hypothesized that the BZSG measure satisfies all requirements for a strong level of configural isomorphism, and thus that it is useful to investigate BZSG at both the individual and the country levels. The relationships between the BZSG at a country level with other macro-socio-economic indicators were also investigated. METHOD:Multilevel confirmatory factor analysis (MCFA) was carried out on a cross-country sample composed of 11,368 participants from 43 different countries. We also used the country-level latent BZSG factor in each country as an indicator of a property that we attributed to a particular culture: cultural dimension (collectivism-individualism), macroeconomic indicators (GDP per capita and GNI per capita) and macrosocial indicators (Human Development Index and Democracy Index) describing societies. RESULTS:The results revealed an isomorphic factor structure of perceived social antagonism (measured by BZSG scale), defined in terms of the equivalence factor structure at the both individual and country levels. Furthermore, the relationship between the perceived social antagonism, gross national income per capita, and collectivism were confirmed. CONCLUSIONS:Our study supports the usefulness of the BZSG scale for cross-cultural comparison, in the case of its isomorphic structure. At the country level, antagonistic beliefs emerge in hierarchical collectivist societies with lower income. The main contribution of this article is the presentation of the test of construct isomorphism. We made an effort to present a full perspective on construct isomorphism putting together two different but very recent approaches

Similarities and differences in values between Vietnamese parents and adolescents

Background The purpose of this study was to analyse similarities and differences in the motivational value system of Vietnamese parents and adolescents, in the context of Schwartz’s value theory. Also, the transmission of values between two generations was studied. Participants and procedure The study was performed in three different cities of Vietnam – Hanoi, Hue and Ho Chi Minh City – on adolescents, their fathers and mothers (N = 2226). The hierarchy of values was measured with a Vietnamese version of the Portrait Value Questionnaire (PVQ-40). Additionally, expectations of parents toward children and preferences of children were measured with a list of 28 features and attitudes prepared for the study. Results The results show that both parents and their adolescent children highly respect universalism, conformity, and benevolence in contrast to power and stimulation, which is still typical for a collectivistic culture. The differences arise in higher-order values: while parents value conservatism (security, conformity and tradition), their children prefer more openness to change (self-direction and hedonism) values, which is typical for a more individualistic culture. The results also reveal that parents in Vietnam expect and transfer to children some attitudes and features such as studiousness, filial piety and diligence, but not riskiness, desire or humour. Although adolescents are aware of their parents’ expectations, they do not fully accept them. Conclusions The results provide hints for parents to plan their strategy on appropriate education of their children, in the current context of global integration and cultural changes