Search results for: psychological contract

Authors: Barbara Behre, Verolien Cauberghe, Dieneke Van de Sompel

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Sustainable consumption is on the rise, yet it has still not entered the mainstream in several industries, such as the fashion industry. In online fashion contexts, sustainability cues have been used to signal the sustainable benefits of certain garments to promote sustainable consumption. These sustainable cues may focus on the ecological or social dimension of sustainability. Since sustainability, in general, relates to distant, abstract benefits, the current study aims to examine if and how psychological distance may mediate the effects of exposure to different sustainability cues on consumption outcomes. Following the framework of Construal Level Theory of Psychological Distance, reduced psychological distance renders the construal level more concrete, which may influence attitudes and subsequent behavior in situations like fashion shopping. Most studies investigated sustainability as a composite, failing to differentiate between ecological and societal aspects of sustainability. The few studies examining sustainability more in detail uncovered that environmental sustainability is rather perceived in abstract cognitive construal, whereas social sustainability is linked to concrete construal. However, the construal level affiliation of the sustainability dimensions likely is not universally applicable to different domains and stages of consumption, which further suggest a need to clarify the relationships between environmental and social sustainability dimensions and the construal level of psychological distance within fashion brand consumption. While psychological distance and construal level have been examined in the context of sustainability, these studies yielded mixed results. The inconsistent findings of past studies might be due to the context-dependence of psychological distance as inducing construal differently in diverse situations. Especially in a hedonic consumption context like online fashion shopping, the role of visual processing of information could determine behavioural outcomes as linked to situational construal. Given the influence of the mode of processing on psychological distance and construal level, the current study examines the moderating role of verbal versus non-verbal presentation of the sustainability cues. In a 3 (environmental sustainability vs. social sustainability vs. control) x 2 (non-verbal message vs. verbal message) between subjects experiment, the present study thus examines how consumers evaluate sustainable brands in online shopping contexts in terms of psychological distance and construal level, as well as the impact on brand attitudes and buying intentions. The results among 246 participants verify the differential impact of the sustainability dimensions on fashion brand purchase intent as mediated by construal level and perceived psychological distance. The ecological sustainability cue is perceived as more concrete, which might be explained by consumer bias induced by the predominance of pro-environmental sustainability messages. The verbal versus non-verbal presentation of the sustainability cue neither had a significant influence on distance perceptions and construal level nor on buying intentions. This study offers valuable contributions to the sustainable consumption literature, as well as a theoretical basis for construal-level framing as applied in sustainable fashion branding.

Keywords: construal level theory, environmental vs social sustainability, online fashion shopping, sustainable fashion

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Authors: Yuanyuan Wang, Chun Hui

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Drawing on social capital theory, this article discusses how individuals may utilize network ties to come up with creativity. Social capital theory elaborates how network ties enhances individual creativity from three dimensions: structural access, and relational and cognitive mechanisms. We categorize network ties into strong and weak in terms of tie strength. With less structural constraints, weak ties allow diverse and heterogeneous knowledge to prosper, further facilitating individuals to build up connections among diverse even distant ideas. On the other hand, strong ties with the relational mechanism of cooperation and trust may benefit the accumulation of psychological capital, ultimately to motivate and sustain creativity. We suggest that differential ties play different roles for individual creativity: Weak ties deliver informational benefit directly rifling individual creativity from informational resource aspect; strong ties offer solidarity benefits to reinforce psychological capital, which further inspires individual creativity engagement from a psychological viewpoint. Social capital embedded in network ties influence individuals’ informational acquisition, motivation, as well as cognitive ability to be creative. Besides, we also consider the moderating effects constraining the relatedness between network ties and creativity, such as knowledge articulability. We hypothesize that when the extent of knowledge articulability is low, that is, with low knowledge codifiability, and high dependency and ambiguity, weak ties previous serving as knowledge reservoir will not become ineffective on individual creativity. Two-wave survey will be employed in Mainland China to empirically test mentioned propositions.

Keywords: network ties, social capital, psychological capital, knowledge articulability, individual creativity

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Authors: Mohammad Didar Hossain

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Background/Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between productive engagements and the psychological well-being of older adults in the U.S by analyzing cross-sectional data from a secondary dataset. Specifically, this paper analyzed the associations of 4 different types of productive engagements, including current work status, caregiving to the family members, volunteering and religious strengths with the psychological well-being as an outcome variable. Methods: Data and sample: The study used the data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). The HRS is a nationally representative prospective longitudinal cohort study that has been conducting biennial surveys since 1992 to community-dwelling individuals 50 years of age or older on diverse issues. This analysis was based on the 2016 wave (cross-sectional) of the HRS dataset and the data collection period was April 2016 through August 2017. The samples were recruited from a multistage, national area-clustered probability sampling frame. Measures: Four different variables were considered as the predicting variables in this analysis. Firstly, current working status was a binary variable that measured by 0=Yes and 1= No. The second and third variables were respectively caregiving and volunteering, and both of them were measured by; 0=Regularly, 1= Irregularly. Finally, find in strength was measured by 0= Agree and 1= Disagree. Outcome (Wellbeing) variable was measured by 0= High level of well-being, 1= Low level of well-being. Control variables including age were measured in years, education in the categories of 0=Low level of education, 1= Higher level of education and sex r in the categories 0=male, 1= female. Analysis and Results: Besides the descriptive statistics, binary logistic regression analyses were applied to examine the association between independent and dependent variables. The results showed that among the four independent variables, three of them including working status (OR: .392, p<.001), volunteering (OR: .471, p<.003) and strengths in religion (OR .588, p<.003), were significantly associated with psychological well-being while controlling for age, gender and education factors. Also, no significant association was found between the caregiving engagement of older adults and their psychological well-being outcome. Conclusions and Implications: The findings of this study are mostly consistent with the previous studies except for the caregiving engagements and their impact on older adults’ well-being outcomes. Therefore, the findings support the proactive initiatives from different micro to macro levels to facilitate opportunities for productive engagements for the older adults, and all of these may ultimately benefit their psychological well-being and life satisfaction in later life.

Keywords: productive engagements, older adults, psychological wellbeing, productive aging

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Authors: Deena Moustafa

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The purpose of this paper is to describe the sources of parenting stress in mothers of Dual Diagnosis children (n =60) and examine the relationship between parenting stress and maternal psychological status (depression and well-being), also examine if there is any difference between the previous variables in different disabilities associated with Autism. A descriptive correlational design was used. Data were collected via online questionnaires. The study finds that there was no significant relationship between Autism Parenting Stress Index (APSI) scores and types of disability which associated with Autism, although Mothers with deaf autistic reported more parenting stress, Similar findings were found regarding Depressive Symptoms, as there was no significant relationship between (CESD-R) scores and types of disability which associated with Autism, also study finds that there was a significant correlation of the (APSI) with the (CESD-R) Mothers with higher overall parenting stress reported more depressive symptoms. Likewise, there was also a significant correlation between the (APSI) and the (RPWB) Mothers reporting more parenting stress also reported lower levels of well-being.

Keywords: parenting stress, maternal psychological statues, mothers of dual diagnosis, autism

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Authors: Jihee Jang, Seowon Yoon, Gaeun Son, Minjung Kang, Joon Yeon Choeh, Kee-Hong Choi

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Background: Self-report multiple choice questionnaires have been widely utilized to quantitatively measure one’s personality and psychological constructs. Despite several strengths (e.g., brevity and utility), self-report multiple-choice questionnaires have considerable limitations in nature. With the rise of machine learning (ML) and Natural language processing (NLP), researchers in the field of psychology are widely adopting NLP to assess psychological constructs to predict human behaviors. However, there is a lack of connections between the work being performed in computer science and that psychology due to small data sets and unvalidated modeling practices. Aims: The current article introduces the study method and procedure of phase II, which includes the interview questions for the five-factor model (FFM) of personality developed in phase I. This study aims to develop the interview (semi-structured) and open-ended questions for the FFM-based personality assessments, specifically designed with experts in the field of clinical and personality psychology (phase 1), and to collect the personality-related text data using the interview questions and self-report measures on personality and psychological distress (phase 2). The purpose of the study includes examining the relationship between natural language data obtained from the interview questions, measuring the FFM personality constructs, and psychological distress to demonstrate the validity of the natural language-based personality prediction. Methods: The phase I (pilot) study was conducted on fifty-nine native Korean adults to acquire the personality-related text data from the interview (semi-structured) and open-ended questions based on the FFM of personality. The interview questions were revised and finalized with the feedback from the external expert committee, consisting of personality and clinical psychologists. Based on the established interview questions, a total of 425 Korean adults were recruited using a convenience sampling method via an online survey. The text data collected from interviews were analyzed using natural language processing. The results of the online survey, including demographic data, depression, anxiety, and personality inventories, were analyzed together in the model to predict individuals’ FFM of personality and the level of psychological distress (phase 2).

Keywords: personality prediction, psychological distress prediction, natural language processing, machine learning, the five-factor model of personality

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Authors: Kgopa Bontle, Tholen Sodi

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Climate change poses a major threat to the well-being of both people and the environment, with subsistence farmers most affected as they rely on local supply systems that are sensitive to climate variation. This study documented psychological resilience factors associated with climate change adaptations by subsistence farmers in Maruleng Municipality, Limpopo Province. A qualitative study was conducted to examine the notions of climate change by subsistence farmers, the psychological resilience factors, the strategies to cope with climate change, adaptation methods, and the development of subsistence farmers’ psychological resilience factors model. Data were collected through direct interactions with participants using a grounded theory research design. An open-ended interview was used to collect data with a sample of 15 participants selected through theoretical sampling in Maruleng Municipality. The participants were both Sepedi and Xitsonga speaking from 2 villages, mostly unemployed, pensioners and dependent on social grants. The study included both males and females who were predominately the elderly. The research findings indicate that farmers have limited knowledge of what climate change is and what causes it. Furthermore, the research reflects that although their responses were non-scientific but sensible enough to know what they were dealing with. They mentioned extreme weather, which includes hot days and less rainfall and changes in seasons, as some of the impacts brought by climate change. The results also indicated that participants have learned to adapt through several adaptation strategies, including mulching, changes in irrigation time slots and being innovative. The resilience factors that emerged from the study were a passion for farming, hope, enthusiasm, courage, acceptance/tolerance, livelihood and belief systems. Looking at the socio-economic factors of the current study setting argumentation leads to the conclusion that it is important that government should assist the subsistence farmers as it was observed from the participants that they felt neglected by the government and policymakers as they are small scale farmers and are not included like commercial farmers.

Keywords: climate change, psychological resilience factors, human adaptation, subsistence farmers

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Authors: Hugo M. Gonzales, Ke Ni Chai, Deanne Mary King

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International students are underrepresented in Australian health literature, and this population is especially vulnerable to the well-documented negative impacts associated with racial microaggressions in their adjustment to settling in the new society, as well as to the many challenges they already face as international students. This study investigated the prevalence of racial microaggressions among international students and their impact on stress and psychological well-being. This research was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been documented to contribute to anti-Asian racism. Participants included 54 international students, of which 72% were Asian. The Racial and Ethnic Microaggressions Scale (REMS), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and the Perceived General Wellbeing Indicator (PGWBI) were used to measure the participants’ responses. All participants reported experiencing racial microaggression in the last six months, and significant correlations and regression models were found between REMS, certain elements of the PSS scale, and time in Australia. Despite the small sample size, this research corroborated outcomes from recent studies and provided insight into the prevalence and impact of racial microaggressions among such populations, highlighting the need for further exploration.

Keywords: racial microaggressions, international students, racism, REMS, microaggressions in Australia, stress, psychological wellbeing

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Authors: Guanqun Shi, Xueqing Zhang

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The frequent occurrence of failures in PPP projects which caused great loss has raised attention from the government as well as the concessionaire. PPPs are complex arrangements for its long operation period and multiple players. Many types of risks in PPP projects may cause the project fail. The insurance is an important tool to transfer the risks. Through a comparison and analysis of international government PPP guidelines and contracts as well as the case studies worldwide, we have identified eight main insurance principles, discussed thirteen insurance types in different stages. An overall procedure would be established to improve the practices in PPP projects.

Keywords: public private partnerships, insurance, contract, risk

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Authors: Simona Capossela, Ramona Schaniel, Singer Franziska, Aquino Fournier Catharine, Daniel Stekhoven, Jivko Stoyanov

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A spinal cord injury (SCI) is a traumatic life event that often results in ageing associated health conditions such as muscle mass decline, adipose tissue increase, decline in immune function, frailty, systemic chronic inflammation, and psychological distress and depression. Psychological, oxidative, and metabolic stressors may facilitate accelerated ageing in the SCI population with reduced life expectancy. Research designs using biomarkers of aging and stress are needed to elucidate the role of psychological distress in accelerated aging. The aim of this project is a feasibility pilot study to observe changes in stress biomarkers and correlate them with aging markers in SCI patients during their first rehabilitation (longitudinal cohort study). Biological samples were collected in the SwiSCI (Swiss Spinal Cord Injury Cohort Study) Biobank in Nottwil at 4 weeks±12 days after the injury (T1) and at the end of the first rehabilitation (discharge, T4). The "distress thermometer" is used as a selfassessment tool for psychological distress. Stress biomarkers, as cortisol and protein carbonyl content (PCC), and markers of cellular aging, such as telomere lengths, will be measured. 2 Preliminary results showed that SCI patients (N= 129) are still generally distressed at end of rehabilitation, however we found a statistically significant (p< 0.001) median decrease in distress from 6 (T1) to 5 (T4) during the rehabilitation. In addition, an explorative transcriptomics will be conducted on N=50 SCI patients to compare groups of persons with SCI who have different trajectories of selfreported distress at the beginning and end of the first rehabilitation after the trauma. We identified 4 groups: very high chronic stress (stress thermometer values above 7 at T1 and T4; n=14); transient stress (high to low; n=14), low stress (values below 5 at T1 and T4; n=14), increasing stress (low to high; n=8). The study will attempt to identify and address issues that may occur in relation to the design and conceptualization of future study on stress and aging in the SCI population.

Keywords: stress, aging, spinal cord injury, biomarkers

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Authors: Zaiton Osman, Imbarine Bujang, Azaze-Azizi Abdul Adis, Grace Phang Ing, Mohd Rizwan Abdul Majid, Izyanti Awang Razli

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Retirement forces older workers to disconnect with their previous behavioural patterns and economic position. Transition and adjustment from working life to retirement places create psychological pressure and financial distress on older workers, especially those with dependent children. Bridge employment provides a solution for older workers to continue working after retirement while transitioning into retirement slowly and smoothly. As losing the job role has a significant impact on the psychological well-being of retirees, engageing in bridge employment helps to fulfill the important psychological functions of older workers by providing an adaptive style to retirement. This study investigates the influence of retirement planning and job satisfaction on bridge employment. A self-administered questionnaire was used in this study and a total of 523 samples were collected for nine major district in Sabah. Data were analysed using Partial Least Square (PLS) method wersion 2.0. The result shows a significant relationship between retirement planning and job satisfaction on bridge employment, explaining 4.7% the variance in bridge employment and job satisfaction was found to be the strongest predictor of bridge employment.

Keywords: ageing population, retirement planning, job satisfaction, bridge employment

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Authors: A. Seham A. Elgamal, Reham H. Saleh

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Chronic kidney disease became a global health problem worldwide. Therefore, in order to maintain a patient’s life and improve the survival rate, hemodialysis is essential to replace the function of their kidneys. However, those patients may complain about multiple physical and psychological stressors due to the nature of the disease and the need for frequent hemodialysis sessions. So, those patients use various strategies to cope with the stressors related to their disease and the treatment procedures. Cross-sectional, descriptive study was carried out to achieve the aim of the study. A convenient sample including all adult patients was recruited for this study. Hemodialysis Stressors Scale (HSS) and Jalowiec Coping Scale (JCS) were used to investigate the stressors and coping strategies of 89 hemodialysis patients, at a governmental hospital (King Khalid Hospital-Jeddah). Results of the study revealed that 50.7% experienced physiological stressors and 38% experienced psychosocial stressors. Also, optimistic, fatalistic, and supportive coping strategies were the most common coping strategies used by the patients with mean scores (2.88 + 0.75, 2.87 + 0.75, and 1.82 + 0.71), respectively. In conclusion, being familiar with the types of stressors and the effective coping strategies of hemodialysis patients and their families are important in order to enhance their adaptation with chronic kidney diseases.

Keywords: copying strategies, hemodialysis, physiological stressors, psychological stressors

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Authors: Faheemah N. Mustafaa, Tamarie Macon, Tabbye Chavous

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A major concern of university leaders worldwide is how to create environments where students from diverse racial/ethnic, national, and cultural backgrounds can thrive. Over the past decade or so in the United States, African American women have done exceedingly well in terms of college enrollment, academic performance, and completion. However, the relative academic successes of African American women in higher education has in some ways overshadowed social challenges many Black women continue to encounter on college campuses in the United States. Within predominantly White institutions (PWIs) in particular, there is consistent evidence that many Black students experience racially hostile climates. However, research studies on racial climates within PWIs have mostly focused on cross-sectional comparisons of minority and majority group experiences, and few studies have examined campus racial climate in relation to short- and longer-term well-being. One longitudinal study reported that African American women’s psychological well-being was positively related to their comfort in cross-racial interactions (a concept closely related to campus climate). Thus, our primary research question was: Do African American women’s perceptions of campus climate (tension and positive association) during their freshman year predict their reports of psychological distress and well-being (self-acceptance) during their sophomore year? Participants were part of a longitudinal survey examining African American college students’ academic identity development, particularly in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. The final subsample included 134 self-identified African American/Black women enrolled in PWIs. Accounting for background characteristics (mother’s education, family income, interracial contact, and prior levels of outcomes), we employed hierarchical regression to examine relationships between campus racial climate during freshman year and psychological adjustment one year later. Both regression models significantly predicted African American women’s psychological outcomes (for distress, F(7,91)= 4.34, p < .001; and for self-acceptance, F(7,90)= 4.92, p < .001). Although none of the controls were significant predictors, perceptions of racial tension on campus were associated with both distress and self-acceptance. More perceptions of tension were related to African American women’s greater psychological distress the following year (B= 0.22, p= .01). Additionally, racial tension predicted later self-acceptance in the expected direction: Higher first-year reports of racial tension were related to less positive attitudes toward the self during the sophomore year (B= -0.16, p= .04). However, perceptions that it was normative for Black and White students to socialize on campus (or positive association scores) were unrelated to psychological distress or self-acceptance. Findings highlight the relevance of examining multiple facets of campus racial climate in relation to psychological adjustment, with possible emphasis on the import of racial tension on African American women’s psychological adjustment. Results suggest that negative dimensions of campus racial climate may have lingering effects on psychological well-being, over and above more positive aspects of climate. Thus, programs targeted toward improving student relations on campus should consider addressing cross-racial tensions.

Keywords: higher education, psychological adjustment, university climate, university students

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Authors: Baohua Yu

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Despite widely reported 'Mainland-Hong Kong conflicts', recent years have witnessed progressive growth in the numbers of Mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong’s universities. This research investigated Mainland Chinese students’ intercultural communication in relation to cross-cultural adaptation in a major university in Hong Kong. The features of intercultural communication examined in this study were competence in the second language (L2) communication and L2 Willingness to Communicate (WTC), while the features of cross-cultural adaptation examined were socio-cultural, psychological and academic adaptation. Based on a questionnaire, structural equation modelling was conducted among a sample of 196 Mainland Chinese students. Results showed that the competence in L2 communication played a significant role in L2 WTC, which had an influential effect on academic adaptation, which was itself identified as a mediator between the psychological adaptation and socio-cultural adaptation. Implications for curriculum design for courses and instructional practice on international students are discussed.

Keywords: L2 willingness to communicate, competence in L2 communication, psychological adaptation, socio-cultural adaptation, academic adaptation, structural equation modelling

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Authors: Alena Nesterenko, Svetlana Petrikova

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Research evaluation is one of the most important elements of self-regulation and development of researchers as it is impartial and independent process of assessment. The method of expert evaluations as a scientific instrument solving complicated non-formalized problems is firstly a scientifically sound way to conduct the assessment which maximum effectiveness of work at every step and secondly the usage of quantitative methods for evaluation, assessment of expert opinion and collective processing of the results. These two features distinguish the method of expert evaluations from long-known expertise widespread in many areas of knowledge. Different typical problems require different types of expert evaluations methods. Several issues which arise with these methods are experts’ selection, management of assessment procedure, proceeding of the results and remuneration for the experts. To address these issues an on-line system was created with the primary purpose of development of a versatile application for many workgroups with matching approaches to scientific work management. Online documentation assessment and statistics system allows: - To realize within one platform independent activities of different workgroups (e.g. expert officers, managers). - To establish different workspaces for corresponding workgroups where custom users database can be created according to particular needs. - To form for each workgroup required output documents. - To configure information gathering for each workgroup (forms of assessment, tests, inventories). - To create and operate personal databases of remote users. - To set up automatic notification through e-mail. The next stage is development of quantitative and qualitative criteria to form a database of experts. The inventory was made so that the experts may not only submit their personal data, place of work and scientific degree but also keywords according to their expertise, academic interests, ORCID, Researcher ID, SPIN-code RSCI, Scopus AuthorID, knowledge of languages, primary scientific publications. For each project, competition assessments are processed in accordance to ordering party demands in forms of apprised inventories, commentaries (50-250 characters) and overall review (1500 characters) in which expert states the absence of conflict of interest. Evaluation is conducted as follows: as applications are added to database expert officer selects experts, generally, two persons per application. Experts are selected according to the keywords; this method proved to be good unlike the OECD classifier. The last stage: the choice of the experts is approved by the supervisor, the e-mails are sent to the experts with invitation to assess the project. An expert supervisor is controlling experts writing reports for all formalities to be in place (time-frame, propriety, correspondence). If the difference in assessment exceeds four points, the third evaluation is appointed. As the expert finishes work on his expert opinion, system shows contract marked ‘new’, managers commence with the contract and the expert gets e-mail that the contract is formed and ready to be signed. All formalities are concluded and the expert gets remuneration for his work. The specificity of interaction of the examination officer with other experts will be presented in the report.

Keywords: expertise, management of research evaluation, method of expert evaluations, research evaluation

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Authors: Chunhua Ma

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Background: There is a relationship between cultural identity and psychological health. Resilience is an important factor of psychological health, and cultural identity will protect the resilience. The research showed that the cultural identity, resilience, and self-concordance of students from different cultures. It should be a theoretical basis to improve mental health of different nationalities students. And the role of resilience factors for adults’ cultural identity and self-concordance was deserve studied. Aims: The current study aimed to examine the relationship between cultural identity and self-concordance among Chinese academician from 3 minorities, postulating mediating by resilience. Methods: This study used cross-sectional and correlational design. Participants were 328 Chinese aged between 18 and 25 years. Data was collected via self-reports including both closed and opened questions. Results: Linear regression analysis controlling for age, gender, the result showed that: (a) Cultural identity was related to self-concordance, resilience was related to self-concordance and cultural identity was related to resilience, (b) Resilience mediated the link between cultural identity and self-concordance, respectively. Discussion: Our findings suggested that resilience and cultural identity are important factors in self-concordance. If minority college students realized the heterogeneous culture, it would alleviate their psychological conflict, stimulate their strength potential and improve their self-concordance.

Keywords: cultural identity, resilience, self-concordance, mediating effect

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Authors: R. Edward Minchin Jr.

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The U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Every Day Counts Program (EDC) has resulted in state DOTs putting evermore emphasis on speeding up the delivery of highway and bridge construction projects for use by the driving public. This has resulted in an increase in the use of alternative construction delivery systems such as design-build (D-B), construction manager at-risk (CMR) or construction manager/general contractor (CM/GC), and adding alternative technical concepts (ATCs) to traditional design-bid-build (DBB) contracts. ATCs have exhibited great potential for delivering substantial benefits like cost savings, increased constructability, and quicker project delivery. Previous research has found that knowledge of project constructability was lacking in state Department of Transportation (DOT) planning, programming, and environmental staffs. Many agencies have therefore relied on a set of ‘acceptable’ design solutions over the years of working with their local resource agencies. The result is that the permitting process for several government agencies has become increasingly restrictive with the result that the DOTs and their industry partners lose the ability to innovate after a permit is approved. The intent of this paper is to report on the research team’s progress in this ongoing effort furnish the United States government with a uniform set of guidelines for the application of constructability reviews during all phases of project development and delivery. The research uses surveys and interviews to determine which states have implemented formal programs to ensure that the constructor is furnished with a set of contract documents that affords said constructor with the best possible opportunity to successfully construct the project with the highest quality standards, within the contract duration and without exceeding the construction budget. Once these states are identified, workshops are held all over the nation, resulting in the team learning the best current practices and giving the team the ability to recommend new practices that will improve the process. The plan is for the FHWA to encourage or require state DOTs to use these practices on all federally funded highway and bridge construction projects. The project deliverable is a Guidebook for FHWA to use in disseminating the recommended practices to the states.

Keywords: alternative construction delivery, alternative technical concepts, constructability, construction design plans

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Authors: Yonguk L. Park, Jeonghoon Seol

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The Republic of Korea is facing a special situation as it is the only divided country in the world. Even though Korea is facing such unstable circumstances in terms of a foreign diplomacy situation, Korea is one of the countries who, in concern for world peace, have been sending troops overseas. The troops spend more than a year at sea and may suffer from different types of psychological disorders. The purpose of this study is to try to find factors that promote psychological well-being of troops and improve their psychological health. We investigated the effect of dispatch sailors’ occupational calling and social support on anxiety before they are sent overseas and also examined the interaction between occupational calling and social support on anxiety. One hundred thirty-eight dispatched sailors participated in this study, wherein they completed the Korean calling scale, multifaceted social support scale, and anxiety scale –Y form. We analyzed the data using hierarchical regression. The results showed that after controlling gender, marital status, and the previous experiences of dispatch, those who have a higher level of occupational calling and perceived social support experienced a low level of anxiety before they are sent (β = -.276, β = -.395). Furthermore, we examined the interaction effect. If the troops’ perceived social support is high, they experience a low level of anxiety—even if they have a low level of occupational calling. This study confirms that both occupational calling and social support reduce the level of anxiety of the troops. The research provides meaningful information in understanding those who serve in the Navy’s distinctive situations and contributes to improving their psychological well-being. We suggest that sailors undergo training to have a higher occupational calling and healthy relationships with friends, families, and co-workers who provide emotional and social support.

Keywords: navy, occupational calling, social support, anxiety

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Authors: Mayantoinette F. Watson

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During such an unprecedented time of the largest public health crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, nursing students are of the utmost concern regarding their psychological and physical well-being. Questions are emerging and circulating about what will happen to the nursing students and the long-term effects of the pandemic, especially now that hospitals are being overwhelmed with a significant need for nursing staff. Expectations, demands, change, and the fear of the unknown during this unprecedented time can only contribute to the many stressors that accompany nursing students through laborious clinical and didactic courses in nursing programs. The risk of psychological distress is at a maximum, and its effects can negatively impact not only nursing students but also nursing education and academia. The high exposures to interpersonal, economic, and academic demands contribute to the major health concerns, which include a potential risk for psychological distress. Achievement of educational success among nursing students is directly affected by the high exposure to anxiety and depression from experiences within the program. Working relationships and achieving academic success is imperative to positive student outcomes within the nursing program. The purpose of this study is to identify and establish influences and associations within multilevel factors, including the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychological distress in nursing students. Neuman’s Systems Model Theory was used to determine nursing students’ responses to internal and external stressors. The research in this study utilized a mixed-methods, convergent study design. The study population included undergraduate nursing students from Southeastern U.S. The research surveyed a convenience sample of undergraduate nursing students. The quantitative survey was completed by 202 participants, and 11 participants participated in the qualitative follow-up interview surveys. Participants completed the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS4), and the Dundee Readiness Educational Environment Scale (DREEM12) to measure psychological distress, perceived stress, and perceived educational environment. Participants also answered open-ended questions regarding their experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Statistical tests, including bivariate analyses, multiple linear regression analyses, and binary logistics regression analyses were performed in effort to identify and highlight the effects of independent variables on the dependent variable, psychological distress. Coding and qualitative content analysis were performed to identify overarching themes within participants’ interviews. Quantitative data were sufficient in identifying correlations between psychological distress and multilevel factors of coping, marital status, COVID-19 stress, perceived stress, educational environment, and social support in nursing students. Qualitative data were sufficient in identifying common themes of students’ perceptions during COVID-19 and included online learning, workload, finances, experience, breaks, time, unknown, support, encouragement, unchanged, communication, and transmission. The findings are significant, specifically regarding contributing factors to nursing students’ psychological distress, which will help to improve learning in the academic environment.

Keywords: nursing education, nursing students, pandemic, psychological distress

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Authors: Saidia Houari

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The current coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) is a special and unusual reality. It can affect people physically, but also psychologically. Indeed, in such a context, many people will experience reactions of stress, anxiety and depression, and Sports is known to be a great in improving the effectiveness of the nervous system and mental health. Professor Ango Frubuze“many studies proved that sports play an important role in fighting psychological tension and some other psychological problems, such as depression and sleep difficulties, but on condition of practicing them properly,choosing the kind that generates comfort and happiness for man “ .The sports university professor in the German city of Cologne added that the effort exerted during the exercise works on restoring balance to the stress hormones like cortisol.The case report provides an insight into the COVID-19 current situation and represents a picture of the current state of mental health and an overview of novel coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreaks in some countries of the world. Some procedures taken to combat the coronavirus. We proposed the practice of physical activities during the quarantine period, and we showed their importance and their positive effects.

Keywords: COVID-19, psycholiqical impacts, stress, physical activities

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Authors: Syed Irfan Raza Naqvi, Zheng Jiangbin, Ahmad Moshin, Pervez Akhter

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Currently, the IoT system depends on a centralized client-servant architecture that causes various scalability and privacy vulnerabilities. Distributed ledger technology (DLT) introduces a set of opportunities for the IoT, which leads to practical ideas for existing components at all levels of existing architectures. Blockchain Technology (BCT) appears to be one approach to solving several IoT problems, like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum, which offer multiple possibilities. Besides, IoTs are resource-constrained devices with insufficient capacity and computational overhead to process blockchain consensus mechanisms; the traditional BCT existing challenge for IoTs is poor scalability, energy efficiency, and transaction fees. IOTA is a distributed ledger based on Direct Acyclic Graph (DAG) that ensures M2M micro-transactions are free of charge. IOTA has the potential to address existing IoT-related difficulties such as infrastructure scalability, privacy and access control mechanisms. We proposed an architecture, SLDBI: A Scalable, lightweight DAG-based Blockchain Design for Intelligent IoT Systems, which adapts the DAG base Tangle and implements a lightweight message data model to address the IoT limitations. It enables the smooth integration of new IoT devices into a variety of apps. SLDBI enables comprehensive access control, energy efficiency, and scalability in IoT ecosystems by utilizing the Masked Authentication Message (MAM) protocol and the IOTA Smart Contract Protocol (ISCP). Furthermore, we suggest proof-of-work (PoW) computation on the full node in an energy-efficient way. Experiments have been carried out to show the capability of a tangle to achieve better scalability while maintaining energy efficiency. The findings show user access control management at granularity levels and ensure scale up to massive networks with thousands of IoT nodes, such as Smart Connected Buildings (SCBDs).

Keywords: blockchain, IOT, direct acyclic graphy, scalability, access control, architecture, smart contract, smart connected buildings

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Authors: Rui Xing, Xiaowen Zhao, Hao Huang, Chang Liu

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Creativity is regarded as vital for new ventures' development since the whole process of entrepreneurship is rooted in the creation and exploration of new ideas. The entrepreneurial leader is central to the entrepreneurial team, who plays an especially important role in this process. However, few scholars have studied the impact entrepreneurs' leadership styles on the creativity of entrepreneurial teams. In this study, we integrate the historically disjointed literatures of leadership style and team creativity under entrepreneurship circumstance to understand why and when entrepreneurs' different leadership style relates to team creativity. Focus on answering the following questions: Is humility leadership necessarily better than narcissism leadership at increasing the creativity of entrepreneurial teams? Moreover, in which situations humility leadership or narcissism leadership is more conducive to the entrepreneurial team's creativity? Based on the componential theory of creativity and entrepreneurial cognition theory, we explore the relationship between entrepreneurs' leadership style and team creativity, treating team cognitive diversity and environmental uncertainty as moderators and psychological empowerment as mediators. We tested our hypotheses using data gathered from 64 teams and 256 individual members from 53 new firms in China's first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. We found that there was a significant positive relation between entrepreneurs' humble leadership and psychological empowerment, and the more significant the positive correlation was when the environmental uncertainty was high. In addition, there was a significant negative relation between entrepreneurs' narcissistic leadership and psychological empowerment, and the negative relation was weaker in teams with a high team cognitive diversity value. Furthermore, both entrepreneurs' humble leadership and team psychological empowerment were significantly positively related to team creativity. While entrepreneurs' narcissistic leadership was negatively related to team creativity, and the negative relationship was weaker in teams with a high team cognitive diversity or a high environmental uncertainty value. This study has some implications for both scholars and entrepreneurs. Firstly, our study enriches the understanding of the role of leadership in entrepreneurial team creativity. Different from previous team creativity literatures, focusing on TMT and R&D team, this study is a significant attempt to demonstrate that entrepreneurial leadership style is particularly relevant to the core requirements of team creativity. Secondly, this study introduces two moderating variables, cognitive diversity and environmental uncertainty, to explore the different boundary conditions under which the two leadership styles play their roles, which is helpful for entrepreneurs to understand how to leverage leadership to improve entrepreneurial team creativity, how to recruit cognitively diverse employees to moderate the effects of inappropriate leadership to the team. Finally, our findings showed that entrepreneurs' humble leadership makes a unique contribution to explaining team creativity through team psychological empowerment.

Keywords: entrepreneurs’ leadership style, entrepreneurial team creativity, team psychological empowerment, team cognitive diversity, environmental uncertainty

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Authors: Mehran Barani Shikhrobat, Roger Flanagan

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The construction planning and scheduling based on using the current tools and techniques is resulted deterministic in nature (Gantt chart, CPM) or applying a very little probability of completion (PERT) for each task. However, every project embodies assumptions and influences and should start with a complete set of clearly defined goals and constraints that remain constant throughout the duration of the project. Construction planners continue to apply the traditional methods and tools of “hard” project management that were developed for “ideal projects,” neglecting the potential influence of complexity on the design and construction process. The aim of this research is to investigate the emergence and growth of complexity in project planning and to provide a model to consider the influence of complexity on the total project duration at the post-contract award pre-construction stage of a project. The literature review showed that complexity originates from different sources of environment, technical, and workflow interactions. They can be divided into two categories of complexity factors, first, project tasks, and second, project organisation management. Project tasks may originate from performance, lack of resources, or environmental changes for a specific task. Complexity factors that relate to organisation and management refer to workflow and interdependence of different parts. The literature review highlighted the ineffectiveness of traditional tools and techniques in planning for complexity. However, this research focus on understanding the fundamental causes of the complexity of construction projects were investigated through a questionnaire with industry experts. The results were used to develop a model that considers the core complexity factors and their interactions. System dynamics were used to investigate the model to consider the influence of complexity on project planning. Feedback from experts revealed 20 major complexity factors that impact project planning. The factors are divided into five categories known as core complexity factors. To understand the weight of each factor in comparison, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) analysis method is used. The comparison showed that externalities are ranked as the biggest influence across the complexity factors. The research underlines that there are many internal and external factors that impact project activities and the project overall. This research shows the importance of considering the influence of complexity on the project master plan undertaken at the post-contract award pre-construction phase of a project.

Keywords: project planning, project complexity measurement, planning uncertainty management, project risk management, strategic project scheduling

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Authors: Anagha Pavithran Vattamparambil, Niranjana Regimon

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Dalit and tribal communities in India have the largest suicide rate; however, the current literature does not reflect this reality. While existing research acknowledges socio-cultural risk factors, it fails to discuss structural issues pertaining to marginalized communities in India. Furthermore, the language is framed in an individualistic manner which denies room for recognizing systemic violence and injustice among causative agents of suicide. We aim to examine the representation of Dalit and tribal identities and their experiences of marginalisation as a contributive factor of suicide, as well as discuss the epistemic injustice involved in its exclusion. Electronic searches of PubMed, PsychInfo, and Web of Science databases will be carried out from inception till January 2023 to conduct a systematic scoping review of peer-reviewed articles; it will include all studies involving psychological autopsy in India. A narrative synthesis will be performed to gain insight into the inclusion of the experiences of Dalits and Tribals, the absence of which indicates a lacking understanding of suicide in India. It is also expected to highlight the alienation of lived experiences and narratives of marginalisation from mainstream discourse on suicide that constitutes epistemic injustice. There is a complex interplay of psychological, socio-cultural, economic, and political factors for suicide in the Indian setting. But, political and systemic issues are often downplayed in suicide etiology, including casteist assault, rape, violence, public humiliation, and discrimination which deserves more research attention.

Keywords: dalits, marginalisation, psychological autopsy, suicide, tribals

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Authors: Ejoke U. P., Smitha Dev., Madwuke Ann, DuPlessis E. D.

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The study examines the relationship between psychological capital (PsyCap) and social well-being among international faculty members in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE has become a significant destination for global academic talent, yet challenges related to social integration, acceptance, and overall well-being persist among its international faculty. The study focuses on the predictive role of PsyCap, encompassing hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism, in determining various dimensions of social well-being, including social integration, acceptance, contribution, actualization, and coherence. Additionally, the research investigates the potential moderating or mediating effects of institutional support and Faculty Job-Status position on the relationship between PsyCap and social well-being. Through structural equation modeling, we found that institutional support mediated the positive relationship between PsyCap and SWB and the permanent Faculty job-status position type strengthens the relationship between PsyCap and SWB. Our findings uncover the pathways through which PsyCap influences the social well-being outcomes of international faculty in the UAE. The findings will contribute to the development of tailored interventions and support systems aimed at enhancing the integration experiences and overall well-being of international faculty within the UAE academic community. Thus, fostering a more inclusive and thriving academic environment in the UAE.

Keywords: faculty job-status, institutional-faculty, psychological capital, social well-being, UAE

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Authors: Tong Mei Yan

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Introduction: The experience of infertility could be excruciating but has not received much attention in Hong Kong. The strong Confucian culture pressures couples to continue their family lineage resulting in women facing more stress than men in the social-cultural milieu. In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) treatment is one of the common ways to deal with the problem. Abundant literature exists the psychological trajectories of people receiving IVF treatment in Europe, the USA and other east Asian societies but not in Hong Kong. Aim: This study aims to highlight the circumstances and needs of the women before, during and after IVF treatment through examining their lived experiences. It is hoped that the public, once informed of regarding their tribulations and needs , would support the adequate provision of the required psychological support . Methods: Qualitative analysis was adopted in this study. In-depth interviews were conducted with six women who have undergone at least one complete cycle of IVF treatment within the past five years. Data was analyzed through thematic analysis and narrative analysis. Results: 4 broad themes were found, including (i) emotional responses; (ii) experiences in medical consultation; (iii) impacts of the treatment; and (iv) their coping strategies. Additionally, specific events in three cases were chosen for narrative analysis to further examine their unresolved emotional distress and the ethical issues. Conclusion: IVF treatment distressed the interviewees immensely, both physically and psychologically, with the negative emotions outweighing their physical strains, a result unexpected by all of the interviewees. The pressure for lineage continuation, the demanding treatment process and the dearth of support from health professionals all contribute to their emotional pain which could linger for both successful and unsuccessful cases. Although a number of coping strategies were attempted, most of them completely failed to ease their psychological tension. The findings of this study therefore evidence the need for psychological support for this population. A service model to cater their needs of IVF treatment before, during and after treatment is therefore proposed.

Keywords: coping strategies, emotional experiences, impacts of IVF, infertility, IVF treatment, medical experiences

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Authors: Bahman Gorjian

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The notorious COVID-19 is known as an illness that is caused by a novel coronavirus. Since its breakthrough, most governments have decided to temporarily close educational institutions in an attempt to reduce the spread of this disease. Distance education in Iran, like other countries, started from the beginning of the pandemic and caused the closure of schools and universities as an immediate response to control the spread of the virus. The present study followed two aims: First, to investigate if Iraqi M.A students majoring in TEFL who have been studying in Iranian universities during the pandemic believe that COVID-19 had negative/positive effects on their educational achievement; and second, to find how frequently these Iraqi M.A students have experienced psychological problems (e.g., anxiety, numbness, nightmares, nervousness) during the COVID-19. The participants were both male and female students who were admitted for M.A. TEFL courses at 4 Iranian Universities (Abadan Brach, Ahvaz Branch, Science and Research Branch, and Shiraz Branch of Islamic Azad University) for the winter academic term of 2020. The start of their classes coincided with the global outbreak of COVID-19. They were invited to take part in the present study through snowball sampling and were asked to provide their views on two questionnaires. The instruments used for gathering the data were the educational achievement questionnaire and self-rating anxiety scale. The results of the analysis suggested that the participants believed in the negative effects of COVID-19 on their education; the results also suggested COVID-19 affected participants’ psychological states. The discussed findings may have implications for international students and experts interested in the online education system.

Keywords: COVID-19, distance education, Iraqi M.A. students, teaching English as a foreign language, educational impacts, psychological impacts

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Authors: Abdeljalil Beniiche

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The limitation with smart contracts is that they cannot access external data that might be required to control the execution of business logic. Oracles can be used to provide external data to smart contracts. An oracle is an interface that delivers data from external data outside the blockchain to a smart contract to consume. Oracle can deliver different types of data depending on the industry and requirements. In this paper, we study and describe the widely used blockchain oracles. Then, we elaborate on his potential role, technical architecture, and design patterns. Finally, we discuss the human oracle and its key role in solving the truth problem by reaching a consensus about a certain inquiry and tasks.

Keywords: blockchain, oracles, oracles design, human oracles

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Authors: Horesh Reinman Netta

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Early research on child sexual abuse (CSA) attempted to assess its possible effects. Researchers found that victims of CSA are prone to a host of emotional disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, dissociative disorders, anxiety disorders and suicidality later in life. The study examined the development of symptoms over a two-year period at base line and after six months. Factors including the age at the onset of abuse, the gender of the abused child and academic achievements were also examined. Other variables examined include the complex association among self-disclosure, self-esteem, the child’s attachment and coping styles, and psychological adjustment. The abused child’s domestic environment has been found to have a relevant impact on the psychological outcomes of CSA. The study examined inter-parental conflicts, cohesion in the child’s home, parental attachment styles and psychopathology. To the best of our knowledge, no investigation of this nature has yet been performed. Hence, the study makes a major contribution to research in this field. In addition, a combined examination of abuse characteristics, child characteristics, domestic environment and therapeutic history will facilitate enhanced understanding of the interactions among CSA, mediating factors and psychological outcomes.

Keywords: sexual abuse, follow up, victimization, children

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Authors: F. Ruiz-Fuster

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Arnold’s redefinition of human motives can sustain a psychology of education which emphasizes the beauty of knowledge and the exercise of intellectual functions. Thus, education instead of focusing on skills and learning by doing would be centered on ‘the widest reaches of the human spirit’. One way to attain it is by developing children’s inherent interest. Arnold takes into account the fact that the desire to know is the inherent interest which leads students to explore and learn. She also emphasizes the need of exercising human functions as thinking, judging and reasoning. According to Arnold, the influence of psychological theories of motivation in education has derived in considering that all learning and school tasks should derive from children’s needs and impulses. The desire to know and the curiosity have not been considered as basic and active as any instinctive drive or basic need, so there has been an attempt to justify and understand how biological drives guide student’s learning. However, understanding motives and motivation not as a drive, an instinct or an impulse guided by our basic needs, but as a want that leads to action can help to understand, from a psychological perspective, how teachers can motivate students to learn, strengthening their desire and interest to reason and discover the whole new world of knowledge.

Keywords: academic motivation, interests, desire to know, educational psychology, intellectual functions

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Authors: Aroona Hashmi

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An economic recession can lead people to feel more insecure about their financial situation. The series of events leading into a recession can be especially distressing for Educated Youth. One of the most salient factors linking economic recession to psychological distress is unemployment. It is proved that a large number of educated young people are facing higher unemployment rate in Pakistan. Young people are likely to get frustrated at the lack of opportunities made available to them. If the young population increases more rapidly than job opportunities, then number of unemployment is likely to increase. The aim of present study was to investigate the relationship between economic instability, growing rate of aggression and frustration among educated youth. The study aimed to find out the impact of increased economic instability on the learning abilities of the students. Data was gathered from six university students of Punjab, Pakistan. The sample of the study consisted of three hundred male and female university students. The data was analyzed by applying Chi -square test. The results of the research indicate that there is a significant relationship between low household income and growing rate of aggression among educated youth. The increasing trend of economic instability significantly influences the learning abilities of the students. The study concludes that feeling of deprivation produce frustration and could be expressed through aggression. Therefore, if factors that are responsible for youth unemployment in Pakistan are addressed, psychological effects will be reduced. The right way of tackling the youth bulge is to turn the youth into a productive workforce. There is a dire need to transform the education system to societal needs. At the same time creating demand for the young workforce is achieved through dynamic changes in the economic structure.

Keywords: psychological effects, economic recession, educated youth, environmental factors

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