Rozwój systemu sprawowania opieki u matek w świetle teorii przywiązania społecznego

Development of mother’s caregiving system in perspective of social attachment theory This paper presents theoretical framework of mother’s caregiving system, that is the goal-corrected behavioral system reciprocal to attachment. It is guided by mental representations of self as a caregiver, child as an object of protection and mutual relation. Caregiving representational system is influenced by the adult’s history of attachment and current experiences with the child, his/her characteristics and social-contextual factors. Development of the caregiving system from childhood to adulthood, and particularly during transition to parenthood, is presented

Identity challenges of women taking care of children in same-sex relationships. The Vivienne Cass theory approach

Development of the contemporary post-industrial society entails the increasing diversity of family life models. People, making individual choices in this field, face new challenges related to identity formation. In the text presented this issue is discussed on the example of women bringing up children in same-sex relationships. The article presents basic information on the same-sex parenting, underlines the importance of the idea of identity integration in psychology and stresses the lack of contiguity between theories of parental identity development and these ones of homosexual and bisexual identity development. An extensive discussion of the Vivienne Cass’s theory of sexual orientation identity development is the basis for the approximation of potential discrepancies in the identity system of non-heterosexual women taking parental roles. Two main factors relevant to the processes of identity formation were distinguished: the order of the development of the sexual orientation identity and parental identity (the planned and reconstructed families differ in this regard) and the way of establishing and maintaining the relationship with the child (other challenges are faced by biological and social mothers). In the summary, questions requiring future empirical exploration were notified

The Minority Stress of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Parents. Specificity of Polish Context

Previous research on LGB parenting is dominated by comparing the LGB families to traditional families with heterosexual parents. Little is known about personal experiences of LGB parents and psychological consequences of nonheterosexual parenting in a heteronormative environment

Rozwój systemu sprawowania opieki u matek w świetle teorii przywiązania społecznego

This paper presents theoretical framework of mother’s caregiving system, that is the goal-corrected behavioral system reciprocal to attachment. It is guided by mental representations of self as a caregiver, child as an object of protection and mutual relation. Caregiving representational system is influenced by the adult’s history of attachment and current experiences with the child, his/her characteristics and social-contextual factors. Development of the caregiving system from childhood to adulthood, and particularly during transition to parenthood, is presented

Psychology Students Attitudes towards Working with the Nonheterosexual Families with Children

Artykuł omawia badanie 97 studentów 2 ostatnich lat psychologii na Uniwersytecie im. A. Mickiewicza w Poznaniu. Zastosowano autorską ankietę, w której pytano studentów o wyobrażone sytuacje zawodowe wymagające kontaktu z rodziną lesbijek, o postawę wobec nich oraz proszono o jej uzasadnienie. Jakościowa analiza 182 komentarzy pozwoliła wyodrębnić 4 kategorie uzasadnień: psychologiczne (oparte zwłaszcza na teorii systemowej i teorii przywiązania społecznego), prawne, biologistyczne oraz światopoglądowo-religijne. Wyjaśnienia psychologiczne towarzyszyły głównie postawie otwartej i akceptującej, a pozostałe zwykle służyły uzasadnieniu większego dystansu do kobiet bądź rezygnacji z interwencji. Ważnym problemem jest mała wiedza studentów na temat funkcjonowania tego typu rodzin, wynikająca z nieobecności tematu w programie studiów psychologicznych. Końcowe sugestie dotyczą możliwości przygotowania psychologów do pracy z tego typu rodzinami poprzez wzbogacenie głównego programu i wymagań etycznych studiów psychologicznych o dwa obszary: najnowsze doniesienia z badań nad rodzicielstwem osób LGB oraz dyskusje i refleksje nad dylematami etycznymi, dzięki czemu studenci mogliby uzyskać większy wgląd we własne przekonania i ich znaczenie dla pracy psychologicznej oraz lepiej radzić sobie z konfliktami wewnętrznymi.The survey involved 97 psychology students at the Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznań, Poland). The author used a questionnaire in which students imagined professional situations requiring contact with nonheterosexual families, they declared their attitudes, and then commented on it. Qualitative analysis of 182 comments enabled to identify four categories of reasons: 1) psychological (mainly based on the systems theory and the social attachment theory), 2) based on law, 3) biologistic and 4) based on religion or worldview. Psychological explanations accompanied mostly the open, accepting attitude, while remaining reasons were used to justify the distance towards women or the resignment of the intervention. The article discusses the results of the study with reference to the requirements of psychologists’ professional ethics. Tittle knowledge of students about these families, due to the absence of the subject in the curriculum of psychological higher education is an important issue of the research. The final suggestion concerns the possibility of preparing psychologists to work with such families by supplementing the main program of psychological studies with two subject areas. First of all, the introduction of the latest results of researches on LGB parenting into psychological curriculum is essential. Secondly, the university should provide the opportunity for discussion and reflection on ethical dilemmas, so that students could achieve greater insight into their own beliefs, comprehend their implications for psychological work and cope with internal conflicts

The experience of child abuse of teenage mothers and their caregiving representations

Teenage motherhood is often an indirect effect of abusive experiences of young mother in her childhood and a risk factor for less optimal development of the mother-child relation. The quality of maternal caregiving representations plays a significant role in the development of both, mother-child relation and child attachment quality. In the present study I asked the question to what extent the early age of childbirth of mother is also linked to the quality of maternal caregiving representation. Two groups of preschool children’s mothers were compared in terms of the frequency of their childhood abusive experiences and their caregiving representations (trust, helplessness & and attempt to control, distancing in caregiving relation). Mothers who gave birth under the age of 18 years (N = 34) reported more experiences of emotional, physical, sexual abuse and negligence and demonstrated a lower level of trust in caregiving relation and a higher level of helplessness and attempts to control as compared to those who gave birth at the age of 25 or later (N = 36). To establish predictors of the caregiving representations quality, the stepwise linear regression analysis was performed. The sum of abusive experiences in childhood and the age of the child were main predictors of the caregiving representations quality. The age of childbirth was a significant (but the weakest) predictor only in the case of helplessness and attempts to control in caregiving relation. The results and limitations of the study were discussed and the directions for further research were indicated

Homophobia a s a source of threats to children and youth safety at school

Zapewnienie bezpieczeństwa dzieci i młodzieży jest podstawą realizowania edukacyjno-wychowawczych zadań szkoły. Homofobia leżąca u podłoża zachowań przemocowych, ale i przemilczeń czy zaniechań sprzyjających podtrzymywaniu uprzedzeń zagraża bezpiecznemu rozwojowi psychospołecznemu uczniów i uczennic. W niniejszym tekście termin homofobia rozumiany jest jako negatywna postawa wobec osób, grup i relacji homoseksualnych (poziom indywidualny) oraz – szerzej – jako podzielana przez ogół społeczeństwa wiedza odnosząca się do generalnego traktowania homoseksualności jako gorszego wariantu seksualności (poziom społeczny). Artykuł ilustruje przejawy homofobii możliwe do zaobserwowania w szkole, przedstawia też wyniki badań prowadzonych przez polskie organizacje pozarządowe na temat przemocy motywowanej homofobią oraz odwołuje się do koncepcji stresu mniejszościowego, by wyjaśnić większe nasilenie psychopatologii i częstsze podejmowanie prób samobójczych przez młodzież LGBT+ w porównaniu z heteroseksualnymi rówieśnikami. Tekst kończy refleksja nad przyczynami trudności we wprowadzaniu działań antydyskryminacyjnych uwzględniających przesłankę orientacji seksualnej do szkół. Należą do nich: niewystarczające kompetencje kadry pedagogicznej, systemowe zaniedbania polityki równościowej i uwarunkowania społeczno-kulturowe.Ensuring the safety of children and youth is the basis for the implementation of educational tasks of the school. Homophobia underlying the violent behaviors, but also concealments or omissions favorable to maintaining prejudices, jeopardizes the safe psychosocial development of students. In this text, the term „homophobia” is understood as a negative attitude towards homosexual people, groups and relationships (an individual level) and – more broadly – as a knowledge shared by society which refers to generalized treatment of homosexuality as a worse variant of sexuality (social level). The article illustrates the manifestations of homophobia observable at school, it also presents the results of research conducted by Polish NGOs on homophobic violence and finally it uses the concept of minority stress to explain the greater intensity of psychopathological symptoms and suicidal behaviors in the homosexual youth compared to heterosexual peers. The article ends with the reflection of difficulties and resistence against anti-discrimination activities at schools. Insufficient competences of the teaching staff, systemic negligence of equality policy and socio-cultural factors are considered to be the main obstacles

The challenges of adolescent homosexuality in the context of Erik’s Erikson’s biopsychosocial development theory

Classical concepts of human development elaborated in the 20th century do not take into consideration the normative development of homosexual people. On the other hand, the depathologization of homosexuality has resulted in an increase of knowledge about gays’ and lesbians’ performance and health. The process of homosexual identity formation, usually beginning in adolescence, has been recognized and well described in the field of psychology. However, this knowledge is rarely integrated with general theories of human development. The article presents the developmental challenges of adolescence and points out the limitations and possibilities of Erikson’s theory in incorporating the experiences of homosexual adolescents. The authors discuss the specific difficulties minority adolescents face growing up in a heteronormative culture and the main stages of homosexual identity formation. The article ends with a reflection on the possibility of integrating the concept of homosexual identity development with Erik Erikson’s theory of identity crisis and its potential solutions in adolescence

Construction of Stereotypical Images of Men and Women in Selected Polish Scholarly Publications in the Field of Psychology

The authors analyze selected contemporary Polish academic publications on psychology in order to demonstrate how the concept of gender is constructed in them. They refer to the premises of Kenneth Gergen’s social constructionism, and Ludwik Fleck’s description of connections in common knowledge. In presenting the bases of constructionist ideas, they concentrate on the process of creating knowledge in the social sciences, its interaction with common knowledge, and the significance of gender categories. They also describe the activities that have been undertaken since the 1980s—on the basis of western psychology—to eliminate negative gender stereotypes from scientific and scholarly works. The nature of the errors and shortcomings that could appear at successive stages of the research process forms a departure point for analyzing examples of stereotypical images of men and women in peer-reviewed empirical works published in Poland after 2000. The summary refers to the Polish regulations in regard to the professional ethics of psychologists and in respect to conducting scientific research

Łuszczyca jako czynnik ryzyka dla zakłóceń w ja cielesnym – moderująca rola płci

Przykre doznania skórne (świąd, ból) oraz lęk przed stygmatyzacją stanowią potencjalne czynniki ryzyka dla zakłóceń w obszarze doświadczeń cielesnych i obrazu ciała u pacjentów z łuszczycą. Celem badania było sprawdzenie, czy osoby chore na łuszczycę przejawiają więcej zakłóceń w obszarze Ja cielesnego w porównaniu z grupą kontrolną i czy płeć moderuje związek między zachorowalnością na łuszczycę a negatywnymi skutkami dla Ja cielesnego. 109 pacjentów z łuszczycą w wieku 16-70 lat i 104 osoby z grupy kontrolnej wypełniły Kwestionariusz Ja Cielesnego. Do oceny nasilenia symptomów łuszczycy użyto PASI. Osoby chore na łuszczycę w porównaniu z grupą kontrolną wykazywały większą liczbę zakłóceń w regulacji emocji i potrzeb fizycznych oraz w poczuciu tożsamości cielesnej, ponadto w mniejszym stopniu akceptowały swój wygląd. U kobiet (ale nie u mężczyzn) łuszczyca okazała się czynnikiem ryzyka dla zakłóceń percepcji doznań, rozumienia i radzenia sobie z emocjami oraz poczucia tożsamości cielesnej. Zmiany w Ja cielesnym były niezależne od wieku zachorowania i nasilenia symptomów (PASI)