Search results for: feelings

Authors: Jui Hsuan Hung, Jeng Yi Tzeng

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Engineering education in the higher education is always male dominated. Therefore, women learning in this environment is an important research topic for feminists, gender researchers and engineering education researchers, especially in the era of gender mainstreaming. The research topics are from the dialectical discussion of feminism and science development history, gender issues of science education, to the subject choice of female students. These researches enrich the field of gender study in engineering education but lack of describing the detailed images of women in engineering education, including their learning, obstacles, needs or feelings. Otherwise, in order to keep up with the industrial trends of emphasizing group collaboration, engineering education turns from traditional lecture to creative group inquiry pedagogy in recent years. Creative project based learning is one of the creative group inquiry pedagogy which the engineering education in higher education adopts often, and it is seen as a gender-inclusive pedagogy in engineering education. Therefore, in order to understand the real situation of women learning in engineering education, this study took place in a course (Introduction to Engineering) offered by the school of engineering of a university in Taiwan. This course is designed for freshman students to establish basic understanding engineering from four departments (Chemical Engineering, Power Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management). One section of this course is to build a Hydraulic Robot designed by the Department of Power Mechanical Engineering. 321 students in the school of engineering took this course and all had the reflection questionnaire. These students are divided into groups of 5 members to work on this project. The videos of process of discussion of five volunteered groups with different gender composition are analyzed, and six women of these five groups are interviewed. We are still on the process of coding and analyzing videos and the qualitative data, but several tentative findings have already emerged. (1) The activity models of groups of both genders are gender segregation, and not like women; men never be the ‘assistants’. (2) The culture of the group is developed by the major gender, but men always dominate the process of practice in all kinds of gender composition groups. (3) Project based learning is supposed to be a gender-inclusive learning model in creative engineering education, but communication obstacles between men and women make it less women friendly. (4) Gender identity, not professional identity, is adopted by these women while they interact with men in their groups. (5) Gender composition and project-based learning pedagogy are not the key factors for women learning in engineering education, but the gender conscience awareness is.

Keywords: engineering education, gender education, creative project based learning, women learning

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Authors: Julia A. Ermakova

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This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of a physical rehabilitation program for postpartum women. The program was developed with the purpose of restoring physical performance in women during the postpartum period. The research employed a variety of methods, including an analysis of scientific literature, pedagogical testing and experimentation, mathematical processing of study results, and physical performance assessment using a range of tests. The program recommends refraining from abdominal exercises during the first 6-8 months following a cesarean section and avoiding exercises with weights. Instead, a feasible training regimen that gradually increases in intensity several times a week is recommended, along with moderate cardio exercises such as walking, bodyweight training, and a separate workout component that targets posture improvement. Stretching after strength training is also encouraged. The necessary equipment includes comfortable sports attire with a chest support top, mat, push-ups, resistance band, timer, and clock. The motivational aspect of the program is paramount, and the mentee's positive experience with the workout regimen includes feelings of lightness in the body, increased energy, and positive emotions. The gradual reduction of body size and weight loss due to an improved metabolism also serves as positive reinforcement. The mentee's progress can be measured through various means, including an external assessment of her form, body measurements, weight, BMI, and the presence or absence of slouching in everyday life. The findings of this study reveal that the program is effective in restoring physical performance in postpartum women. The mentee achieved weight loss and almost regained her pre-pregnancy shape while her self-esteem improved. Her waist, shoulder, and hip measurements decreased, and she displayed less slouching in her daily life. In conclusion, the developed physical rehabilitation program for postpartum women is an effective means of restoring physical performance. It is crucial to follow the recommended training regimen and equipment to avoid limitations and ensure safety during the postpartum period. The motivational component of the program is also fundamental in encouraging positive reinforcement and improving self-esteem.

Keywords: physical rehabilitation, postpartum, methodology, postpartum recovery, rehabilitation

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Authors: Matt Stichter

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Moral development requires learning from one’s failures, but that turnsout to be especially challenging when dealing with moral failures. The distress prompted by moral failure can cause responses ofdefensiveness or disengagement rather than attempts to make amends and work on self-change. The most potentially distressing response to moral failure is a shame. However, there appears to be two different senses of “shame” that are conflated in the literature, depending on whether the failure is appraised as the result of a global and unalterable self-defect, or a local and alterable self-defect. One of these forms of shame does prompt self-improvement in response to moral failure. This occurs if one views the failure as indicating only a specific (local) defect in one’s identity, where that’s something repairable, rather than asanoverall(orglobal)defectinyouridentity that can’t be fixed. So, if the whole of one’s identity as a morally good person isn’t being called into question, but only a part, then that is something one could work on to improve. Shame, in this sense, provides motivation for self-improvement to fix this part oftheselfinthe long run, and this would be important for moral development. One factor that looks to affect these different self-attributions in the wake of moral failure can be found in mindset theory, as reactions to moral failure in these two forms of shame are similar to how those with a fixed or growth mindset of their own abilities, such as intelligence, react to failure. People fall along a continuum with respect to how they view abilities – it is more of a fixed entity that you cannot do much to change, or it is malleable such that you can train to improve it. These two mindsets, ‘fixed’ versus ‘growth’, have different consequences for how we react to failure – a fixed mindset leads to maladaptive responses because of feelings of helplessness to do better; whereas a growth mindset leads to adaptive responses where a person puts forth effort to learn how to act better the next time. Here we can see the parallels between a fixed mindset of one’s own (im)morality, as the way people respond to shame when viewed as indicating a global and unalterable self-defect parallels the reactions people have to failure when they have a fixed mindset. In addition, it looks like there may be a similar structure to pride. Pride is, like shame, a self-conscious emotion that arises from internal attributions about the self as being the cause of some event. There are also paradoxical results from research on pride, where pride was found to motivate pro-social behavior in some cases but aggression in other cases. Research suggests that there may be two forms of pride, authentic and hubristic, that are also connected to different self-attributions, depending on whether one is feeling proud about a particular (local) aspect of the self versus feeling proud about the whole of oneself (global).

Keywords: emotion, mindset, moral development, moral psychology, pride, shame, self-regulation

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Authors: Clarence Dissanayake, Anishka A. Hettiarachchi

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Landscape architecture needs to encompass a placemaking process carefully composing and manipulating landscape elements to address perceptual needs of humans, especially aesthetic, psychological and spiritual. The objective of this qualitative investigation is to inquire the impact of elements of rock and water combination on landscape perception and related feelings, emotions, and behavior. The past empirical studies have assessed the impact of landscape elements in isolation on user preference, yet the combined effect of elements have been less considered. This research was conducted with reference to the verity of qualities of water and rock through a visual landscape quality assessment focusing on landscape qualities derived from five visual concepts (coherence, historicity imageability, naturalness, and ephemera). 'Kaludiya Pokuna' archeological site in Anuradhapura was investigated with a sample of University students (n=19, male 14, female 5, age 20-25) using a five-point Likert scale via a perception based questionnaire and a visitor employed photographic survey (VEP). Two hypothetical questions were taken into investigation concerning biophilic (naturalness) and topophilic (historicity) aspects of humans to prefer a landscape with rock and water. The findings revealed that this combination encourages both biophilic and topophilic aspects, but in varying degrees. The identified hierarchy of visual concepts based on visitor’s preference signify coherence (93%), historicity (89%), imageability (79%), naturalness (75%) and ephemera (70%) respectively. It was further revealed that this combination creates a scenery more coherent dominating information processing aspect of humans to perceive a landscape over the biophilic and topophilic aspects. Different characteristics and secondary landscape effects generated by rock and water combination were found to affect in transforming a space into a place, full filling the aesthetic and spiritual aspects of the visitors. These findings enhance a means of making places for people, resource management and historical landscape conservation. Equalization of gender based participation, taking diverse cases and increasing the sample size with more analytical photographic analysis are recommended to enhance the quality of further research.

Keywords: landscape perception, visitor’s preference, rock and water combination, visual concepts

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Authors: Lindsay Foreman

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Introduction: Goals have become synonymous with the quest for the good life and the pursuit of happiness, with coaching and positive psychology gaining popularity as an approach in recent decades. And yet mental health is on the rise and the leading cause of disability, wellbeing is on the decline, stress is leading to 50-60% of workday absences and the need for action is indisputable and urgent. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to better understand two things we cannot see, but that play the most significant role in these outcomes - what we think and how we feel. With many working on the assumption that positive thinking and an optimistic outlook are necessary or valuable components of goal pursuit, this study uncovers the reality of the ‘inner-game’ from the coachees perspective. Method: With a mixed methods design using a Q Method study of subjectivity to ‘make the unseen seen’. First, a wide-ranging universe of subjective thoughts and feelings experienced during goal pursuit are explored.. These are generated from literature and a Qualtrics survey to create a Q-Set of 40 statements. Then 19 participants in professional and organisational settings offer their perspectives on these 40 Q-Set statements. Each rank them in a semi-forced distribution from ‘most like me’ to ‘least like me’ using Q-Sort software. From these individual perspectives, clusters of perspectives are identified using factor analysis and four distinct viewpoints, have emerged. Findings: These Goal Pursuit Viewpoints offer insight into the states and self-talk experienced by coachees and may not reflect the assumption of positive thinking associated with achieving goals. The four Viewpoints are 1) the Positive View, 2) the Realistic View 3) The Dreamer View and 4) The Conflicted View. With only a quarter of the Dreamer View, and a third of the Positive view going on to achieve their goals, these assumptions need review. And with all the Realistic View going on to achieve their goals, the role of self-doubt, overwhelm and anxiousness in goal achievement cannot be overlooked. Contribution: This study offers greater insight and understanding of people's inner experiences as they pursue goals and highlights the necessary and normal negative states associated with goal achievement. It also offers a practical tool of 40 ‘Clarity Card’ Q-set statements to help coaches and coachees explore the current state and help navigate the journey towards goal achievement. It calls into question whether goals should always be part of coaching, and if values, identity, and purpose may play a greater role than goals

Keywords: self-talk, mental health, inner critic, inner coach

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Authors: Jiyoung Lee, Andrew D. Gershoff, Jerry Jisang Han

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Most extant research on consumer privacy concerns and their willingness to share personal data has focused on contextual factors (e.g., types of information collected, type of compensation) that lead to consumers’ personal information disclosure. Unfortunately, the literature lacks a clear understanding of how consumers’ incidental psychological needs may influence consumers’ decisions to share their personal information with companies or brands. In this research, we investigate how social exclusion, which is an increasing societal problem, especially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, leads to increased information disclosure intentions for consumers. Specifically, we propose and find that when consumers become socially excluded, their desire for social connection increases, and this desire leads to a greater willingness to disclose their personal information with firms. The motivation to form and maintain interpersonal relationships is one of the most fundamental human needs, and many researchers have found that deprivation of belongingness has negative consequences. Given the negative effects of social exclusion and the universal need to affiliate with others, people respond to exclusion with a motivation for social reconnection, resulting in various cognitive and behavioral consequences, such as paying greater attention to social cues and conforming to others. Here, we propose personal information disclosure as another form of behavior that can satisfy such social connection needs. As self-disclosure can serve as a strategic tool in creating and developing social relationships, those who have been socially excluded and thus have greater social connection desires may be more willing to engage in self-disclosure behavior to satisfy such needs. We conducted four experiments to test how feelings of social exclusion can influence the extent to which consumers share their personal information with brands. Various manipulations and measures were used to demonstrate the robustness of our effects. Through the four studies, we confirmed that (1) consumers who have been socially excluded show greater willingness to share their personal information with brands and that (2) such an effect is driven by the excluded individuals’ desire for social connection. Our findings shed light on how the desire for social connection arising from exclusion influences consumers’ decisions to disclose their personal information to brands. We contribute to the consumer disclosure literature by uncovering a psychological need that influences consumers’ disclosure behavior. We also extend the social exclusion literature by demonstrating that exclusion influences not only consumers’ choice of products but also their decision to disclose personal information to brands.

Keywords: consumer-brand relationship, consumer information disclosure, consumer privacy, social exclusion

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Authors: Sasibhushan Yengala, Nelson Muthu, Subramani Kanagaraj

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The abstract reports on the design related to a modular and affordable standing cum sitting device to meet the requirements of paraplegic patients of the different physiques. Paraplegic patients need the assistance of an external arrangement to the lower limbs and trunk to help patients adopt the correct posture while standing abreast gravity. This support can be from a tilt table or a standing frame which the patient can use to stay in a vertical posture. Standing frames are devices fitting to support a person in a weight-bearing posture. Commonly, these devices support and lift the end-user in shifting from a sitting position to a standing position. The merits of standing for a paraplegic patient with a spinal injury are numerous. Even when there is limited control on muscles that ordinarily support the user using the standing frame in a vertical position, the standing stance improves the blood pressure, increases bone density, improves resilience and scope of motion, and improves the user's feelings of well-being by letting the patient stand. One limitation with standing frames is that these devices are typically function definitely; cannot be used for different purposes. Therefore, users are often compelled to purchase more than one of these devices, each being purposefully built for definite activities. Another concern frequent in standing frames is manoeuvrability; it is crucial to provide a convenient adjustment scope for all users. Thus, there is a need to provide a standing frame with multiple uses that can be economical for a larger population. There is also a need to equip added readjustment means in a standing frame to lessen the shear and to accommodate a broad range of users. The proposed Versatile Standing cum Sitting Device (VSD) is designed to change from standing to a comfortable sitting position using a series of mechanisms. First, a locking mechanism is provided to lock the VSD in a standing stance. Second, a dampening mechanism is provided to make sure that the VSD shifts from a standing to a sitting position gradually when the lock mechanism gets disengaged. An adjustment option is offered for the height of the headrest via the use of lock knobs. This device can be used in clinics for rehabilitation purposes irrespective of patient's anthropometric data due to its modular adjustments. It can facilitate the patient's daily life routine while in therapy and giving the patient the comfort to sit when tired. The device also provides the availability of rehabilitation to a common person.

Keywords: paraplegic, rehabilitation, spinal cord injury, standing frame

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Authors: Kateryna Nykytchenko

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Modern fiction and non-fiction writers commonly use their own lexical and stylistic devices to capture a reader’s attention and bring certain thoughts and feelings to his reader. Among such devices is the appearance of one of the neologic notions – individual author’s formations: occasionalisms or nonce words. To a significant extent, the host of examples of new words occurs in chick lit genre which has experienced exponential growth in recent years. Chick Lit is a new-millennial postfeminist fiction which focuses primarily on twenty- to thirtysomething middle-class women. It brings into focus the image of 'a new woman' of the 21st century who is always fallible, funny. This paper aims to investigate different types of occasional word-formation which reflect cognitive mechanisms of conveying women’s perception of the world. Chick lit novels of Irish author Marian Keyes present genuinely innovative mixture of forms, both literary and nonliterary which is displayed in different types of occasional word-formation processes such as blending, compounding, creative respelling, etc. Crossing existing mental and linguistic boundaries, adopting herself to new and overlapping linguistic spaces, chick lit author creates new words which demonstrate the result of development and progress of language and the relationship between language, thought and new reality, ultimately resulting in hybrid word-formation (e.g. affixation or pseudoborrowing). Moreover, this article attempts to present the main characteristics of chick-lit fiction genre with the help of the Marian Keyes’s novels and their influence on occasionalisms. There has been a lack of research concerning cognitive nature of occasionalisms. The current paper intends to account for occasional word-formation as a set of interconnected cognitive mechanisms, operations and procedures meld together to create a new word. The results of the generalized analysis solidify arguments that the kind of new knowledge an occasionalism manifests is inextricably linked with cognitive procedure underlying it, which results in corresponding type of word-formation processes. In addition, the findings of the study reveal that the necessity of creating occasionalisms in postmodern fiction novels arises from the need to write in a new way keeping up with a perpetually developing world, and thus the evolution of the speaker herself and her perception of the world.

Keywords: Chick Lit, occasionalism, occasional word-formation, cognitive linguistics

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Authors: Piyush Hajela

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Public spaces in Indian market places are vibrant, colorful and carry latent dimensions that make them attractive and popular gathering spaces. These markets satisfy the household needs of the people and also their social, cultural and traditional aspirations. Going to a market place for shopping in India is a great source of entertainment for the people. They would love to spend as much time as possible and stay for longer durations than otherwise required. It is this desire of the people that generates public spaces. Much of these public spaces emerge as squares, plazas, corners of varied shapes and sizes at different locations, and yet provide a conducive environment. Such public spaces grow organically and are discovered by the people themselves. Indian markets serve people of different culture, religion, caste, age, gender which keeps them alive all the year round. Indian is a diverse country and this diversity is reflected clearly in the market places. They hold the people together and promote harmony across cultures. Free access to these market places makes them magnets for social interaction. Public spaces are spread across a city and more or less have established their existence and prominence in a social set up. While few of them are created, others are discovered by the people themselves in their constant search for desirable interactive public spaces. These are the most sought after gathering spaces that have the quality of promoting social interaction, providing free accessibility, provide desirable scale etc. The paper aims at identifying these freely accessible public spaces and the dimensions within it that make these public spaces hold the people for significant duration of time. The dimensions present shall be judged through collective response of human senses in form of safety, comfort and so on through the expressions of the participants. The aim therefore would be to trace the freely accessible public spaces emerged in Indian markets and evaluate them for human response and behavior. The hierarchy of market places in the city of Bhopal is well established as, city center level, sub city-center level, community level, local and convenient level market places. While many city-centers are still referred to as the old or traditional or the core area of the city, the others are part of the planned city. These different levels of market places are studied for emerged public spaces. These emerged public spaces are then documented in detail for unveiling the dimensions they offer through, photographs, visual observations, questionnaires and response of the participants of these public spaces.

Keywords: human comfort, enclosure, safety, social interaction

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Authors: Jimmy K. C. Lam, Carrie Wong

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One of the key goals on Learning and Teaching as documented in the University strategic plan 2012/13 – 2017/18 is to encourage active learning, the use of innovative teaching approaches and technology, and promoting the adoption of flexible and varied teaching delivery methods. This research reported the recent visited to Prof Eric Mazur at Harvard University on Peer Instruction: Collaborative learning in large class and innovative use of technology to enable new mode of learning. Peer Instruction is a research-based, interactive teaching method developed by Prof. Eric Mazur at Harvard University in the 1990s. It has been adopted across the disciplines, institutional type and throughout the world. One problem with conventional teaching lies in the presentation of the material. Frequently, it comes straight out of textbook/notes, giving students little incentive to attend class. This traditional presentation is always delivered as monologue in front of passive audience. Only exceptional lecturers are capable of holding students’ attention for an entire lecture period. Consequently, lectures simply reinforce students’ feelings that the most important step in mastering the material is memorizing a zoo of unrelated examples. In order to address these misconceptions about learning, Prof Mazur’s Team developed “Peer Instruction”, a method which involves students in their own learning during lectures and focuses their attention on underling concepts. Lectures are interspersed with conceptual questions called Concept Tests, designed to expose common difficulties in understanding the material. The students are given one or two minutes to think about the question and formulate their own answers; they then spend two or three minutes discussing their answers in a group of three or four, attempting to reach consensus on the correct answer. This process forces the students to think through the arguments being developed, and enable them to assess their understanding concepts before they leave the classroom. The findings from Peer Instruction and innovative use of technology on teaching at Harvard University were applied to the first year Textiles and Fashion students in Hong Kong. Survey conducted from 100 students showed that over 80% students enjoyed the flexibility of peer instruction and 70% of them enjoyed the instant feedback from the Clicker system (Student Response System used at Harvard University). Further work will continue to explore the possibility of peer instruction to art and fashion students.

Keywords: peer instruction, education, technology, fashion

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Authors: Daniel Gredig, Annabelle Bartelsen-Raemy

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Social work professionals should underpin their decisions with scientific knowledge and research findings. Hence, research is used as a framework for social work education and research courses have become a taken-for-granted component of study programmes. However, it has been acknowledged that social work students have negative beliefs and attitudes as well as frequently feelings of fear of research courses. Against this background, the present study aimed to establish the relationship between student’s fear of research courses, their research orientation and interest in research courses. We hypothesized that fear predicts the interest in research courses. Further, we hypothesized that research orientation (perceived importance and attributed usefulness for research for social work practice and perceived unbiased nature of research) was a mediating variable. In the years 2014, 2015 and 2016, we invited students enrolled for a bachelor programme in social work in Switzerland to participate in the study during their introduction day to the school taking place two weeks before their programme started. For data collection, we used an anonymous self-administered on-line questionnaire filled in on site. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and structural equation modelling (generalized least squares estimates method). The sample included 708 students enrolled in a social work bachelor-programme, 501 being female, 184 male, and 5 intersexual, aged 19–56, having various entitlements to study, and registered for three different types of programme modes (full time programme; part time study with field placements in blocks; part time study involving concurrent field placement). Analysis showed that the interest in research courses was predicted by fear of research courses (β = -0.29) as well as by the perceived importance (β = 0.27), attributed usefulness of research (β = 0.15) and perceived unbiased nature of research (β = 0.08). These variables were predicted, in turn, by fear of research courses (β = -0.10, β = -0.23, and β = -0.13). Moreover, interest was predicted by age (β = 0.13). Fear of research courses was predicted by age (β = -0.10) female gender (β = 0.28) and having completed a general baccalaureate (β = -0.09). (GFI = 0.997, AGFI = 0.988, SRMR = 0.016, CMIN/df = 0.946, adj. R2 = 0.312). Findings evidence a direct as well as a mediated impact of fear on the interest in research courses in entering first-year students in a social work bachelor-programme. It highlights one of the challenges social work education in a research framework has to meet with. It seems, there have been considerable efforts to address the research orientation of students. However, these findings point out that, additionally, research anxiety in terms of fear of research courses should be considered and addressed by teachers when conceptualizing research courses.

Keywords: research anxiety, research courses, research interest, research orientation, social work students, teaching

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Authors: Mohsine Jebbour

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Motivation and classroom interaction are of prime significance for second/foreign language learning to take place effectively. Thus, a considerable amount of motivation and classroom interaction helps ensure students’ success in and continuation of learning the TL. One way to enhance students’ motivation and classroom interaction in the Moroccan EFL classroom then is through the use of self-disclosure. For the purposes of this study, self-disclosure has been defined as the verbal communication of positive personal information including opinions, feelings, experiences, family and friendship stories to classmates and teachers. This paper is meant to demonstrate that positive self-disclosure can serve as an effective tool for helping students develop favorable attitudes toward the EFL classroom (i.e., English courses, teacher of English, and classroom activities) and promoting their intrinsic motivation (IM to know and IM toward stimulation). A further objective is that since self-disclosure is reciprocal, when teachers of English reveal their personal information, students will uncover their personal matters in return. This will help ensure effective classroom participation, foster teacher-student communication, and encourage students to practice and hence improve their oral proficiency (i.e., the speaking skill). A questionnaire was used to collect data in this study. 164 undergraduate students (99 females and 65 males) from the department of English at the faculty of letters and humanities, Dher el Mehraz, Sidi Mohammed Ben Abd Allah University completed a questionnaire that assessed self-disclosure in relation to motivation (i.e., attitudes toward the learning situation and intrinsic motivation) and classroom interaction (i.e., teacher-student interaction, participation, and out-of-class communication) on a 1 to 5 scale with (1) Strongly Disagree and (5) Strongly Agree. The level of agreement on the positive dimension of self-disclosure was ranked first by the respondents. The hypothesis set at the very beginning of the study, which posited that positive self-disclosure is essential to enhancing motivation and classroom interaction in the EFL context, was confirmed. In this regard, the findings suggest that implementing self-disclosure in the Moroccan EFL classroom may serve as an effective tool to have positive affect of teacher, class and classroom activities. This in turn will encourage the learners to attend classes, enjoy the language learning activity, complete classroom assignments, participate in class discussions, and interact with their teachers and classmates. It is hoped that teachers benefit from the results of this study and hence encourage the use of positive self-disclosure to develop English language learning in the Moroccan context where opportunities of using English outside the classroom are limited.

Keywords: EFL classroom, classroom interaction, motivation, self-disclosure

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Authors: Piyush Hajela

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The significance of public spaces is on a rise in Indian cities as a strong interaction space across cultures and community. It is a pertinent gathering space for people across age and gender, where the face keeps changing with time. A public space is directly related to the social dimension, people, comfort, safety, and security, that, it proposes to provide, as inherent qualities. The presence of these and other dimensions of space, together with related equitable environments, impart certain quality to a public space. The higher the optimum contents of these dimensions, the better the quality of public space. Public is represented by PEOPLE through society and community, and space is created by dimensions. Society contains children, women and the elderly, community is composed of social, and religious groups. These behave differently in a different setting and call for varied quality of spaces, created and generated. Public spaces are spread across a city and have more or less established their existence and prominence in a social set up. While few of them are created others are discovered by the people themselves in their constant search for desirable interactive public spaces. These are the most sought after gathering spaces that have the quality of promoting social interaction, providing free accessibility, provide desirable scale etc. The emergence of public space dates back to the times when people started forming communities, display cultures and traditions publicly, gathered for religious observations and celebrations, and address the society. Traditional cities and societies in India were feudal and orthodox in their nature and yet had public spaces. When the gathering of people at one point in a city became more frequent the point became more accessible and occupied. Baras (large courts, Chowks (public squares) and Maidans (large grounds) became well-known gathering spaces in the towns and cities. As the population grew such points grew in number, each becoming a public space in itself and with a different and definite social character. The author aims at studying the various dimensions of public spaces with which a public space has power to hold people for a significant period of time. The human senses here are note referred to as taste, sight, hearing, touch or smell, but how human senses collectively respond to when stationed in a given public space. The collectives may reflect in dimensions like comfort, safety, environment, freedom etc. Various levels of similar other responses would be studied through interviews, observations and other scientific methods for both qualitative and quantitative analysis.

Keywords: society, interaction, people, accessibility, comfort, enclosure

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Authors: Dr. Rebecca Kimelman

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Teaching students to self-advocate has become a central topic in special education literature and practice. However, many special education programs do not address this important skill area. To this end, I created and implemented the Self Advocacy Made Easy (S.A.M.E.) program of instruction, intended to enhance the self-advocacy skills of young adults with mild to moderate disabilities. The effectiveness of S.A.M.E., the degree to which self-advocacy skills were acquired and demonstrated by the students, the level of parental support, and the impact of culture on the process, and teachers’ beliefs and attitudes about the role of self-advocacy skills for their students were measured using action research that employed mixed methodology. Conducted at an overseas American International School, this action research study sought answers to these questions by providing an in-depth portrayal of the S.A.M.E. program, as well as the attitudes and perceptions of the stakeholders involved in the study (thirteen students, their parents, teachers and counsellors). The findings of this study were very positive. The S.A.M.E. program was found to be a valid and valuable instructional tool for teaching self-advocacy skills to students with learning disabilities and ADHD. The study showed participation in the S.A.M.E. program led to an increased understanding of the important elements of self-advocacy, an increase in students’ skills and abilities to self-advocate, and a positive increase in students’ feelings about themselves. Inclusion in the Student-Led IEP meetings, an authentic student assessment within the S.A.M.E. program, also yielded encouraging results, including a higher level of ownership of one’s profile and learning needs, a higher level of student engagement and participation in the IEP meeting, and a growing student awareness of the relevance of the document and the IEP process to their lives. Without exception, every parent believed that participating in the Student-Led IEP led to a growth in confidence in their children, including that it taught them how to ‘own’ their disability and an improvement in their communication skills. Teachers and counsellors that participated in the study felt the program was worthwhile, and led to an increase in the students’ ability to acknowledge their learning profile and to identify and request the accommodations (such as extended time or use of a calculator) they need to overcome or work around their disability. The implications for further research are many, and include an examination of the degree to which participation in S.A.M.E. fosters student achievement, the long-term effects of participation in the program, and the degree to which student participation in the Student-Led IEP meeting increases parents’ level of understanding and involvement.

Keywords: self-advocacy, learning disabilities, ADHD, student-led IEP process

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Authors: Chenchieh Chang

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Objectives: This study had two objectives. First, it used affective events theory to investigate the relationship between workplace bullying and the intention to resign in nurses, a topic rarely explored in previous studies. Second, according to the conservation of resource theory, individuals encountering work incidents will utilize resources that are at their disposal to strengthen or weaken the effects of the incidents on them. Such resources include social support that comes from their bosses, colleagues, family, and friends. To answer the question of whether different social supports exert distinct effects on alleviating stress experienced by nurses, this study examined the moderating effects of different social supports on the relationship between workplace bullying and nurses’ intention to resign. Method: This study was approved by an institutional review board (code number: 105070) and adopted purposive sampling to survey 911, full-time nurses. Results: Work-related bullying exerted a significant and positive effect on the intention to resign, whereas bullying pertaining to interpersonal relationships and body-related bullying nonsignificantly affected intention to resign. Support from supervisors enhanced the effect of work-related bullying on an intention to resign, whereas support from colleagues and family did not moderate said effect. Research Limitations/Implications: The self-reporting method and cross-sectional research　design adopted in this study might have resulted in common method variance and limited the ability to make causal inferences. This study suggests future studies to obtain measures of predictor and criterion variables from different sources or ensure a temporal, proximal, or psychological separation between predictor and criterion in the collection of data to avoid the common method bias. Practical Implications: First, businesses should establish a friendly work environment and prevent employees from encountering workplace bullying. Second, because social support cannot diminish the effect of workplace bullying on employees’ intention to resign, businesses should offer other means of assistance. For example, business managers may introduce confidential systems for employees to report workplace bullying; or they may establish consultation centers where employees can properly express their thoughts and feelings when encountering workplace bullying.

Keywords: workplace bullying, intention to occupation leave, social supports, nurses

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Authors: Elcin Timur Cakmak, Ayse Oguzlar

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This study presents the results of the tweets sent by Twitter users on social media about the Russia-Ukraine war by bigram and trigram methods. On February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a military operation against Ukraine, and all eyes were turned to this war. Many people living in Russia and Ukraine reacted to this war and protested and also expressed their deep concern about this war as they felt the safety of their families and their futures were at stake. Most people, especially those living in Russia and Ukraine, express their views on the war in different ways. The most popular way to do this is through social media. Many people prefer to convey their feelings using Twitter, one of the most frequently used social media tools. Since the beginning of the war, it is seen that there have been thousands of tweets about the war from many countries of the world on Twitter. These tweets accumulated in data sources are extracted using various codes for analysis through Twitter API and analysed by Python programming language. The aim of the study is to find the word sequences in these tweets by the n-gram method, which is known for its widespread use in computational linguistics and natural language processing. The tweet language used in the study is English. The data set consists of the data obtained from Twitter between February 24, 2022, and April 24, 2022. The tweets obtained from Twitter using the #ukraine, #russia, #war, #putin, #zelensky hashtags together were captured as raw data, and the remaining tweets were included in the analysis stage after they were cleaned through the preprocessing stage. In the data analysis part, the sentiments are found to present what people send as a message about the war on Twitter. Regarding this, negative messages make up the majority of all the tweets as a ratio of %63,6. Furthermore, the most frequently used bigram and trigram word groups are found. Regarding the results, the most frequently used word groups are “he, is”, “I, do”, “I, am” for bigrams. Also, the most frequently used word groups are “I, do, not”, “I, am, not”, “I, can, not” for trigrams. In the machine learning phase, the accuracy of classifications is measured by Classification and Regression Trees (CART) and Naïve Bayes (NB) algorithms. The algorithms are used separately for bigrams and trigrams. We gained the highest accuracy and F-measure values by the NB algorithm and the highest precision and recall values by the CART algorithm for bigrams. On the other hand, the highest values for accuracy, precision, and F-measure values are achieved by the CART algorithm, and the highest value for the recall is gained by NB for trigrams.

Keywords: classification algorithms, machine learning, sentiment analysis, Twitter

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Authors: E. Didaskalou, C. Roussi-Vergou, E. Andreou, G. Skrzypiec, P. Slee

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There has been growing interest lately, in the study of victimization among adolescent students in Greece and elsewhere with a view to improve school policies concerning anti-bullying practices. Researchers have recently focused on investigating the relationships between the extent of students’ victimization and the distinct mechanisms that they employ for coping with this particular problem. In particular, the emphasis has been placed on exploring the relationship between the coping strategies students use to counteract bullying, their sense of belonging at school, and extent of their victimization. Methods: Within the research framework outlined above, we set out to: a) examine the frequency of self-reported victimization among secondary school students, b) investigate the coping strategies employed by students when confronted with school bullying and c) explore any differences between bullied and non-bullied students with regard to coping strategies and school belongingness. The sample consisted of 860 from fifteen secondary public schools in central Greece. The schools were typical Greek secondary schools and the principals volunteered to participate in this study. Participants’ age ranged from 12 to 16 years. Measures: a) Exposure to Victimization: The frequency of victimization was directly located by asking students the question: ‘Over the last term, how often have you been bullied or harassed by a student or students at this high school?’ b) Coping Strategies: The ‘Living and Learning at School: Bullying at School’ was administered to students, c) School belongingness was assessed by the Psychological Sense of School Membership Scale, that students completed. Results: Regarding the frequency of self-reported victimization, 1.5% of the students reported being victimized every day, 2.8% most days of the week, 2.1% one or more days a week, 2.9% about once a week, 22.6% less than once a week and 68.1% never. The coping strategies that the participants employed for terminating their victimization included: a) adult support seeking, b) emotional coping/keep away from school, c) keeping healthy and fit, d) demonstrating a positive attitude towards the bully, d) peer support seeking, e) emotional out bursting, f) wishful thinking and self-blaming, g) pretending as if it is not happening, h) displaying assertive behaviors and i) getting away from the bullies. Bullied from non-bullied children did not differ as much in coping, as in feelings of being rejected in school. Discussion: The findings are in accordance with accumulated research evidence which points to a strong relationship between student perceptions of school belongingness and their involvement in bullying behaviors. We agree with the view that a positive school climate is likely to serve as a buffer that mitigates wider adverse societal influences and institutional attitudes which favor violence and harassment among peers.

Keywords: school bullying, school belonging, student coping strategies, victimization

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Authors: Sarwat un Nisa

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One of the remarkable gifts that a human being is blessed with is the ability to speak using a combination of sounds. Different combinations of sounds combine to form a word which in turn make a sentence and therefore give birth to a language. A person can either be a monolingual, i.e., can speak one language or bilingual, i.e., can speak more than one language. Whether a person speaks one language or multiple languages or in whatever language a person speaks, the main aim is to communicate, express ideas, feelings or thoughts. Sometimes the choice of a language is deliberate and sometimes it is a habitual act. The language which is used to put our ideas across speaks many things about our cultural, linguistic and ethnic identities. It can never be claimed that bilinguals are better than monolinguals in terms of linguistic skills, bilinguals or multilinguals have more than one language at their disposal. Therefore, how effectively two languages are used by the same person keeps linguists always intrigued. The most prominent and common features found in the speech of bilingual speakers are code switching and code mixing. The aim of the present paper is to explore these features among the adolescent speakers of Kashmir. The reason for studying the linguistics behavior of adolescents is the age when a person is neither an adult nor a child. They want to drift away from the norms and make a new norm for themselves. Therefore, how their linguistics skills are influenced by their age is of great interest because it can set the trend for the future generation. Kashmir is a multilingual society where three languages, i.e., Kashmiri, Urdu, and English are regularly used by the speakers, especially the educated ones. Kashmiri is widely used at home or mostly among adults. Urdu is the official language, and English is used in schools and for most of the written official correspondences. Thus, it is not uncommon to find these three languages coming in contact with each other quite frequently. The language contact results in the code switching and code mixing. In this paper different aspects of code switching and code mixing are discussed. Research Method: The data were collected from the different districts of Kashmir. The informants did not have prior knowledge of the survey. The situation was spontaneous and natural. The topics were introduced by the interviewer to the group of informants which comprised of three participants. They were asked to discuss the topic, most of the times without any intervention of the interviewer. Along with conversations, the informants also filled in written questionnaires comprising sociolinguistic questions. Questionnaires were analysed to get an idea about the sociolinguistic attitude of the informants. Percentage, frequency, and average were used as statistical tools to analyse the data. Conclusions were drawn taking into consideration of interpretations of both speech samples and questionnaires.

Keywords: code mixing, code switching, Kashmir, bilingualism

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Authors: Karen V. Lee

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The background and significance of this study involves an autoethnographic story that shares research results about how music and movies influence the suicide of a new music teacher working in a public school. The performative narrative duet demonstrates how music and movies highlight social issues when the new teacher cannot cope with allegations surrounding professional issues. Both university advisors are drawn into deep reflection about the wider political issues that arise around the transition from the student-teacher internship process to the teaching career with the stark reality of teaching profession in the 21st century. This performance of story and music creates a transformative composition of reading, hearing, feeling while provoking visceral and emotional responses. Sometimes, young teachers are forced to take a leave of absence to reflect upon their practice with adolescents. In this extreme circumstance, the outcome was suicide. The qualitative research method involves an autoethnographic story as the author is methodologist, theoretician, and participant. Sub-themes surround film, music education and how movie resources have influenced his tragic misguided decision regarding social, emotional, physical, spiritual, and practical strategies to cope with the allegations. Major findings from this story demonstrate how lived experiences can resonate the importance of providing more education and resources to new teachers. The research provides substantive contribution, aesthetic merit, as the impact of movies and music influences the suicide. The reflexive account of storied sensory experiences situated in culture settings becomes a way to describe and seek verisimilitude by evoking lifelike and believable feelings from others. Sadly, the circumstance surrounding the story involving the allegations of a teacher sexually harassing a student is not uncommon in society. However, the young teacher never received counseling to cope with the allegations but instead was influenced by music and movies and opted for suicide. In conclusion, stories share the implications for film and media studies as music and movies can encourage a moral mission to empower individuals with despair and emotional impairment to embrace professional support to assist with emotional and legal challenges encountered in the field of teaching. It is from media studies that education and awareness surrounding suicide can disseminate information about the tragic outcome.

Keywords: music, movies, suicide, narrative, autoethnography

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Authors: Priyanka V. Janbandhu, Santosh B. Phad, Dhananjay W. Bansod

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The current changing scenario of the family is a compelling aged group not only to be alone in a nuclear family but also to join the old age institutions. The consequences of it are feeling of neglected or left alone by the children, adding a touch of helpless in the absence of lack of expected care and support. The accretion of all these feelings and unpleasant events ignite a question in their mind that – who is there for me? The efforts have taken to highlight the issues of the elderly after joining the old age home and their perception about the current life as an institutional inmate. This attempt to cover up the condition, adjustment, changed lifestyle and perspective in the association with several issues of the elderly, which have an essential effect on their well-being. The present research piece has collected the information about institutionalized elderly with the help of a semi-structured questionnaire. This study interviewed 500 respondents from 22 old age homes of Pune city of Maharashtra State, India. This data collection methodology consists of Multi-stage random sampling. In which the stratified random sampling adopted for the selection of old age homes and sample size determination, sample selection probability proportional to the size and simple random sampling techniques implemented. The study provides that around five percent of the elderly shifted to old age home along with their spouse, whereas ten percent of the elderly are staying away from their spouse. More than 71 percent of the elderly have children, and they are an involuntary inmate of the old age institution, even less than one-third of the elderly consulted to the institution before the joining it. More than sixty percent of the elderly have children, but they joined institution due to the unpleasant response of their children only. Around half of the elderly responded that there are issues while adjusting to this environment, many of them are still persistent. At least one elderly out of ten is there who is suffering from the feeling of loneliness and left out by children and other family members. In contrast, around 97 percent of the elderly are very happy or satisfied with the institutional facilities. It illustrates that the issues are associated with their children and other family members, even though they left their home before a year or more. When enquired about this loneliness feeling few of them are suffering from it before leaving their homes, it was due to lack of interaction with children, as they are too busy to have time for the aged parents. Additionally, the conflicts or fights within the family due to the presence of old persons in the family contributed to establishing another feeling of insignificance among the elderly parents. According to these elderly, have more than 70 percent of the share, the children are ready to spend money indirectly for us through these institutions, but not prepared to provide some time and very few amounts of all this expenditure directly for us.

Keywords: elderly, old age homes, life style changes and adjustment, India

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Authors: J. B. Athavale, Sean Clarke

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Introduction According to ancient Indian scriptures, a person’s consciousness includes the physical body, the vital energy sheath (Pranshakti), the mental body (which includes one’s feelings and emotions), the intellectual body (which refers to one’s decision-making ability), and the Soul (which is the God Principle that resides in every person). Apart from the physical body, all the other aspects are subtle in nature. In today’s world, much attention is given to one’s physical appearance and intellectual prowess. While there have been improvements in the attention given to mental health, its complete nature is not understood, and in many cultures, mental ill health is considered taboo and looked down upon. Regarding the spiritual well-being of a person, our spiritual research has shown that people’s understanding and efforts are mostly lacking and superficial as they do not conform to Universal Spiritual Principles. Also, true well-being occurs only when all the bodies are healthy. Methodology The spiritual research team at the University has found that the spiritual aspect of a person’s life affects all the physical, psychological, and intellectual bodies of a person resulting in ill health. Cleansing these bodies at a spiritual level is essential to regain well-being. Using Aura and Energy Scanners and advanced sixth sense, we studied what causes spiritual impurity in various bodies and how to cleanse them. We measured the spiritual vibrations of a person and how they get affected due to various daily activities. For example, we studied the difference in a person’s aura before and after applying chemical-based makeup vs. natural makeup. Key Findings From the various spiritual research experiments we conducted, we found that: • All our actions and our thoughts affect our various bodies and have the potential to change the aura for the better or worse. • When there is an increase in negative vibrations around a person, negative energies from the subtle dimension are more likely to affect a person. • As the person’s spiritual level increases, the positivity in their aura also increases, and it is much easier to cleanse the various bodies spiritually. • Spiritual practice is like a general spiritual tonic that increases the positivity in one’s aura. The benefits of this are that it leads to mental stability and intellectual clarity. • Spiritual healing remedies augment any spiritual practice to obtain a faster healing effect. Conclusion Taking care of oneself spiritually has a positive halo effect on all one’s bodies. Spiritual cleansing is required regularly if one wants to attain a state of well-being. Spiritual practice and spiritual healing lead to spiritual growth, stability of mind, and less stress and reactions. Spiritually purer people affect the environment positively, and there is less unrest and more harmony between man and nature.

Keywords: body, spirituality, cleansing, consciousness

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Authors: Wafaa Kamal Isaac

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This paper attempts to shed light upon the stereotypical images of marginalized black women as shown through the poetry of Rita Dove. Meanwhile, it explores how stereotypical images held by the society and public perceptions perpetuate the marginalization of black women. Dove is considered one of the most fundamental African-American poets who devoted her writings to explore the problem of identity that confronted marginalized women in America. Besides tackling the issue of black women’s stereotypical images, this paper focuses upon the psychological damage which the black women had suffered from due to their stripped identity. In ‘Thomas and Beulah’, Dove reflects the black woman’s longing for her homeland in order to make up for her lost identity. This poem represents atavistic feelings deal with certain recurrent images, both aural and visual, like the image of Beulah who represents the African-American woman who searches for an identity, as she is being denied and humiliated one in the newly founded society. In an attempt to protest against the stereotypical mule image that had been imposed upon black women in America, Dove in ‘On the Bus with Rosa Parks’ tries to ignite the beaten spirits to struggle for their own rights by revitalizing the rebellious nature and strong determination of the historical figure ‘Rosa Parks’ that sparked the Civil Rights Movement. In ‘Daystar’, Dove proves that black women are subjected to double-edged oppression; firstly, in terms of race as a black woman in an unjust white society that violates her rights due to her black origins and secondly, in terms of gender as a member of the female sex that is meant to exist only to serve man’s needs. Similarly, in the ‘Adolescence’ series, Dove focuses on the double marginalization which the black women had experienced. It concludes that the marginalization of black women has resulted from the domination of the masculine world and the oppression of the white world. Moreover, Dove’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ investigates the African-American women’s problem of estrangement and identity crisis in America. It also sheds light upon the psychological consequences that resulted from the violation of marginalized women’s identity. Furthermore, this poem shows the black women’s self-debasement, helplessness, and double consciousness that emanate from the sense of uprootedness. Finally, this paper finds out that the negative, debased and inferior stereotypical image held by the society did not only contribute to the marginalization of black women but also silenced and muted their voices.

Keywords: stereotypical images, marginalized women, Rita Dove, identity

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Authors: Tatjana Kochetkova

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This paper explores the pivotal role of environmental education, specifically outdoor education, in facilitating a psychological connection to nature among young adults. This research aims to contribute to building an empirical and conceptual basis of ecopsychology by providing a picture of psyche-nature interaction. It presents the results of the four-day connection-to-nature workshop. It intends to find out the effects of the awareness of nature on subjective well-being and perception of the meaning of life. This led to finding a battery-recharging effect of nature and the influence of nature at four levels of awareness: external physical perception, internal (bodily) sensation, emotions, and existential meaning. The research on the psychological bond of humans with the natural environment, the subject of ecopsychology, is still in its infancy. However, despite several courageous and fruitful attempts, there are still no direct answers to the fundamental questions about the way in which the natural environment influences humans and the specific role of nature in the human psyche. The urge to address this question was the primary reason for the current experiment. The methodology of this study was taken from the study of Patterson, and from White and Hendee. The methodology included a series of assignments on the perception of nature (the exercises are described in the attachment). Experiences were noted in a personal diary, which we used later for analysis. There are many trustworthy claims that contact with nature has positive effects on human subjective well-being and that it is of essential psychological and spiritual value. But, there is a need for more support and theoretical explanation for this phenomenon. As a contribution to filling these gaps, this qualitative study was conducted. The aim of this study is to explore the psychological effects of short-term awareness of wilderness on one’s subjective well-being and on one’s sense of the meaning of life. This specific study is based on the more general hypothesis that there are positive relationships between the experience of wilderness and the development of the self, feelings of community, and spiritual development. It restricted the study of the psychological effects of short term stay in nature to two variables (subjective well-being and the sense of meaning of life). The study aimed at (i) testing the hypothesis that there are positive effects of the awareness of wilderness on the subjective sense of well-being and meaning in life, (ii) understanding the nature of the psychological need for wilderness. Although there is a substantial amount of data on the psychological benefits of nature, we still lack a theory that explains the findings. The present research aims to contribute to such a theory. This is an experiment aimed specifically at the effects of nature on the sense of well-being and meaning in life.

Keywords: environmental education, psychological connection to nature, subjective well-being, symbolic meaning of nature, emotional reaction to nature, meaning of life

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Authors: Berta Rodrigues Maia, Mariana Marques, Frederica Carvalho

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Introduction: Personality traits play is related to many forms of psychological distress, such as body dissatisfaction. Aim: To explore the associations between appearance schemas and personality traits. Method: 494 Portuguese university students (80.2% females, and 99.2% single), with a mean age of 20.17 years old (SD = 1.77; range: 18-20), filled in the appearance schemas inventory-revised, the NEO personality inventory (a Portuguese short version), and the composite multidimensional perfectionism scale. Results: An independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare the scores in appearance schemas by sex, with a significant difference being found in self-evaluation salience scores [females (M = 37.99, SD = 7.82); males (M = 35.36, SD = 6.60); t (489) = -3.052, p = .002]. Finally, there was no significant difference in motivational salience scores, by sex [females (M = 27.67, SD = 4.84); males (M = 26.70, SD = 4.99); t (489) = -1.748, p = .081]. Having conducted correlations separately, by sex, self-evaluation salience was positively correlated with concern over mistakes (r = .27), doubts about actions (r = .35), and socially prescribed perfectionism (r = .23). moreover, for females, self-evaluation salience was positively correlated with concern over mistakes (r = .34), personal standards (r = .25), doubts about actions (r = .33), parental expectations (r = .24), parental criticism (r = .24), organization (r = .11), socially prescribed perfectionism (r = .31), self-oriented perfectionism (r = .32), and neuroticism (r = .33). concerning motivational salience, in the total sample (not separately, by sex), this scale/dimension significantly correlated with conscientiousness (r = . 18), personal standards (r = .23), socially prescribed perfectionism (r = . 10), and self-oriented perfectionism (r = .29). All correlations were significant at a level of significance of 0.01 (2-tailed), except for socially prescribed perfectionism. All the other correlations (with neuroticism, extroversion, openness, agreeableness, concern over mistakes, doubts about actions, parental expectations, and parental criticism) were not significant. Conclusions: Females seem to value more their self-appearance than males, and, in females, the salience of appearance in life seems to be associated with maladaptive perfectionism, as well as with adaptive perfectionism. In males, the salience of appearance was only related to adaptive perfectionism. These results seem to show that males are more concerned with their own standards regarding appearance, while for females, other's standards are also relevant. In females, the level of the salience of appearance in life seems to relate to the experience of feelings, such as anxiety and depression (neuroticism). The motivation to improve appearance seemed to be particularly related, in both sexes, to adaptive perfectionism (in a general way concerning more the personal standards). Longitudinal studies are needed to clarify the causality of the results. Acknowledgment: This study was carried out under the strategic project of the Centre for Philosophical and Humanistic Studies (CEFH) UID/FIL/00683/2019, funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).

Keywords: appearance schemas, personality traits, university students, sex

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Authors: Liat Shamri-Zeevi, Neta Ram-Vlasov

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Today the world as a whole is attempting to cope with the COVID-19, which has affected all facets of personal and social life from country-wide confinement to maintaining social distance and taking protective measures to maintain hygiene. One of the populations faced with the most severe restrictions is seniors. Various studies have shown that creativity plays a crucial role in dealing with crisis events. Painting - regardless of media - allows for emotional and cognitive processing of these situations, and enables the expression of experiences in a tangible creative way that conveys and endows meaning to the artwork. The current study was conducted in Israel immediately after a 6-week lockdown. It was designed to specifically examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of life of elderly women as reflected in their artworks. The sample was composed of 21 Israeli women aged 60-90, in good mental health (without diagnosed dementia or Alzheimer's), all of whom were Hebrew-speaking, and retired with an extended family, who indicated that they painted and had engaged in artwork on an ongoing basis throughout the lockdown (from March 12 to May 30, 2020). The participants' artworks were collected, and a semi-structured in-depth interview was conducted that lasted one to two hours. The participants were asked about their feelings during the pandemic and the artworks they produced during this time, and completed a questionnaire on well-being and mental health. The initial analysis of the interviews and artworks revealed themes related to the specific role of each piece of artwork. The first theme included notions that the artwork was an activity and a framework for doing, which supported positive emotions, and provided a sense of vitality during the closure. Most of the participants painted images of nature and growth which were ascribed concrete and symbolic meaning. The second theme was that the artwork enabled the processing of difficult and /or conflicting emotions related to the situation, including anxiety about death and loneliness that were symbolically expressed in the artworks, such as images of the Corona virus and the respiratory machines. The third theme suggested that the time and space prompted by the lockdown gave the participants time for a gathering together of the self, and freed up time for creative activities. Many participants stated that they painted more and more frequently during the Corona lockdown. At the conference, additional themes and findings will be presented.

Keywords: Corona virus, artwork, quality of life of elderly

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Authors: Ahmad Abu-Akel, Emilie De Montpellier, Sophie Von Bentivegni, Lyn Luechinger, Alessandro Ishii, Christine Mohr

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Convergent and divergent thinking are two main components of creativity that have been viewed as complementary. While divergent thinking refers to the fluency and flexibility of generating new ideas, convergent thinking refers to the ability to systematically apply rules and knowledge to arrive at the optimal solution or idea. These creativity components have been shown to be susceptible to variation in subclinical expressions of autistic and schizotypal traits within the general population. Research, albeit inconclusively, mainly linked positive schizotypal traits with divergent thinking and autistic traits with convergent thinking. However, cumulative evidence suggests that these trait dimensions can co-occur in the same individual more than would be expected by chance and that their concurrent effect can be diametric and even interactive. The current study aimed at investigating the concurrent effect of these trait dimensions on tasks assessing convergent and divergent thinking abilities. We predicted that individuals with high positive schizotypal traits alone would perform particularly well on the divergent thinking task, whilst those with high autistic traits alone would perform particularly well on the convergent thinking task. Crucially, we also predicted that individuals who are high on both autistic and positive schizotypal traits would perform particularly well on both the divergent and convergent thinking tasks. This was investigated in a non-clinical sample of 142 individuals (Males = 45%; Mean age = 21.45, SD = 2.30), sufficient to minimally observe an effect size f² ≥ .10. Divergent thinking was evaluated using the Alternative Uses Task, and convergent thinking with the Anagrams Task. Autistic and schizotypal traits were respectively assessed with the Autism Quotient Questionnaire (AQ) and the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences (O-LIFE). Regression analyses revealed that the positive association of autistic traits with convergent thinking scores was qualified with an interaction with positive schizotypal traits. Specifically, positive schizotypal traits were negatively associated with convergent thinking scores when AQ scores were relatively low, but this trend was reversed when AQ scores were high. Conversely, the positive effect of AQ scores on convergent thinking progressively increased with increasing positive schizotypal traits. The results of divergent thinking task are currently being analyzed and will be reported at the conference. The association of elevated autistic and positive schizotypal traits with convergent thinking may represent a unique profile of creative thinkers who are able to simultaneously draw on trait-specific advantages conferred by autistic and positively schizotypal traits such as local and global processing. This suggests that main-effect models can tell an incomplete story regarding the effect of autistic and positive schizotypal traits on creativity-related processes. Future creativity research should consider their interaction and the benefits conferred by their co-presence.

Keywords: autism, schizotypy, convergent thinking, divergent thinking, comorbidity

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Authors: Eric Bates

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Higher education is recognised as being of critical importance in Ireland and has been linked as a vital factor to national well-being. Statistics show that Ireland has one of the highest rates of higher education participation in Europe. However, student retention and progression, especially in Institutes of Technology, is becoming an issue as rates on non-completion rise. Both within Ireland and across Europe student retention is seen as a key performance indicator for higher education and with these increasing rates the Irish higher education system needs to be flexible and adapt to the situation it now faces. The author is a Programme Chair on a Level 6 full time undergraduate programme and experience to date has shown that the first year undergraduate students take some time to identify themselves as a group within the setting of a higher education institute. Despite being part of a distinct class on a specific programme some individuals can feel isolated as he or she take the first step into higher education. Such feelings can contribute to students eventually dropping out. This paper reports on an ongoing initiative that aims to accelerate the bonding experience of a distinct group of first year undergraduates on a programme which has a high rate of non-completion. This research sought to engage the students in dynamic interactions with their peers to quickly evolve a group sense of coherence. Two separate modules – a Research Module and a Communications module - delivered by the researcher were linked across two semesters. Students were allocated into random groups and each group was given a topic to be researched. There were six topics – essentially the six sub-headings on the DIT Graduate Attribute Statement. The research took place in a computer lab and students also used the library. The output from this was a document that formed part of the submission for the Research Module. In the second semester the groups then had to make a presentation of their findings where each student spoke for a minimum amount of time. Presentation workshops formed part of that module and students were given the opportunity to practice their presentation skills. These presentations were video recorded to enable feedback to be given. Although this was a small scale study preliminary results found a strong sense of coherence among this particular cohort and feedback from the students was very positive. Other findings indicate that spreading the initiative across two semesters may have been an inhibitor. Future challenges include spreading such Initiatives College wide and indeed sector wide.

Keywords: first year experience, student retention, group work, presentation workshops

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Authors: Catherine Begin, Jeanne Berthod, Manon Truchon

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In Quebec, there are more than 8,000 community organizations throughout the province, representing more than 72,000 jobs. Working in a community setting involves several particularities (e.g., contact with the suffering of users, feelings of powerlessness, institutional pressure, unstable funding, etc.), which can put workers at risk of fatigue, burnout, and psychological distress. A 2007 study shows that 52% of community workers surveyed have a high psychological distress index. The Ricochet project, founded in 2019, is an initiative aimed at providing various care and services to community workers in the Quebec City region, with a global health approach. Within this program, mindful self-compassion training (MSC) is offered at a low cost. MSC is one of the effective strategies proposed in the literature to help prevent and reduce burnout. Self-compassion is the recognition that suffering, failure, and inadequacies are inherent in the human experience and that everyone, including oneself, deserves compassion. MSC training targets several behavioral, cognitive, and emotional learnings (e.g., motivating oneself with caring, better managing difficult emotions, promoting resilience, etc.). A mixed-method evaluation was conducted with the participants in order to explore the effects of the training on community workers in the Quebec City region. The participants were community workers (management or caregiver). 15 participants completed satisfaction and perceived impact surveys, and 30 participated in structured interviews. Quantitative results showed that participants were generally completely satisfied or satisfied with the training (94%) and perceived that the training allowed them to develop new strategies for dealing with stress (87%). Participants perceived effects on their mood (93%), their contact with others (80%), and their stress level (67%). Some of the barriers raised were scheduling constraints, length of training, and guilt about taking time for oneself. The qualitative results show that individuals experienced long-term benefits, as they were able to apply the tools they received during the training in their daily lives. Some barriers were noted, such as difficulty in getting away from work or problems with the employer, which prevented enrollment. Overall, the results of this evaluation support the use of MSC (mindful self-compassion) training among community workers. Future research could support this evaluation by using a rigorous design and developing innovative ways to overcome the barriers raised.

Keywords: mindful self-compassion, community workers, work stres, burnout, wellbeing at work

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Authors: Nawras Kurzom, Avi Mendelsohn

Abstract:

The effects of background music on learning and memory are inconsistent, partly due to the intrinsic complexity and variety of music and partly to individual differences in music perception and preference. A prominent musical feature that is known to elicit strong emotional responses is musical tension. Musical tension can be brought about by building anticipation of rhythm, harmony, melody, and dynamics. Delaying the resolution of dominant-to-tonic chord progressions, as well as using dissonant harmonics, can elicit feelings of tension, which can, in turn, affect memory formation of concomitant information. The aim of the presented studies was to explore how forming declarative memory is influenced by musical tension, brought about within continuous music as well as in the form of isolated chords with varying degrees of dissonance/consonance. The effects of musical tension on long-term memory of declarative information were studied in two ways: 1) by evoking tension within continuous music pieces by delaying the release of harmonic progressions from dominant to tonic chords, and 2) by using isolated single complex chords with various degrees of dissonance/roughness. Musical tension was validated through subjective reports of tension, as well as physiological measurements of skin conductance response (SCR) and pupil dilation responses to the chords. In addition, music information retrieval (MIR) was used to quantify musical properties associated with tension and its release. Each experiment included an encoding phase, wherein individuals studied stimuli (words or images) with different musical conditions. Memory for the studied stimuli was tested 24 hours later via recognition tasks. In three separate experiments, we found positive relationships between tension perception and physiological measurements of SCR and pupil dilation. As for memory performance, we found that background music, in general, led to superior memory performance as compared to silence. We detected a trade-off effect between tension perception and memory, such that individuals who perceived musical tension as such displayed reduced memory performance for images encoded during musical tension, whereas tense music benefited memory for those who were less sensitive to the perception of musical tension. Musical tension exerts complex interactions with perception, emotional responses, and cognitive performance on individuals with and without musical training. Delineating the conditions and mechanisms that underlie the interactions between musical tension and memory can benefit our understanding of musical perception at large and the diverse effects that music has on ongoing processing of declarative information.

Keywords: musical tension, declarative memory, learning and memory, musical perception

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Authors: S. Nakayama

Abstract:

For non-native English speakers, using English modal auxiliary verbs appropriately can be among the most challenging tasks. This research sought to identify differences in modal verb usage between Japanese non-native English speakers (JNNS) and native speakers (NS) from two different perspectives: frequency of use and distribution of verb phrase structures (VPS) where modal verbs occur. This study can contribute to the identification of JNNSs' interlanguage with regard to modal verbs; the main aim is to make a suggestion for the improvement of teaching materials as well as to help language teachers to be able to teach modal verbs in a way that is helpful for learners. To address the primary question in this study, usage of nine central modals (‘can’, ‘could’, ‘may’, ‘might’, ‘shall’, ‘should’, ‘will’, ‘would’, and ‘must’) by JNNS was compared with that by NSs in the International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English (ICNALE). This corpus is one of the largest freely-available corpora focusing on Asian English learners’ language use. The ICNALE corpus consists of four modules: ‘Spoken Monologue’, ‘Spoken Dialogue’, ‘Written Essays’, and ‘Edited Essays’. Among these, this research adopted the ‘Written Essays’ module only, which is the set of 200-300 word essays and contains approximately 1.3 million words in total. Frequency analysis revealed gaps as well as similarities in frequency order. Specifically, both JNNSs and NSs used ‘can’ with the most frequency, followed by ‘should’ and ‘will’; however, usage of all the other modals except for ‘shall’ was not identical to each other. A log-likelihood test uncovered JNNSs’ overuse of ‘can’ and ‘must’ as well as their underuse of ‘will’ and ‘would’. VPS analysis revealed that JNNSs used modal verbs in a relatively narrow range of VPSs as compared to NSs. Results showed that JNNSs used most of the modals with bare infinitives or the passive voice only whereas NSs used the modals in a wide range of VPSs including the progressive construction and the perfect aspect, both of which were the structures where JNNSs rarely used the modals. Results of frequency analysis suggest that language teachers or teaching materials should explain other modality items so that learners can avoid relying heavily on certain modals and have a wide range of lexical items to reflect their feelings more accurately. Besides, the underused modals should be more stressed in the classroom because they are members of epistemic modals, which allow us to not only interject our views into propositions but also build a relationship with readers. As for VPSs, teaching materials should present more examples of the modals occurring in a wide range of VPSs to help learners to be able to express their opinions from a variety of viewpoints.

Keywords: corpus linguistics, Japanese learners of English, modal auxiliary verbs, International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English

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