Social sciences

Jozef Bavoľár - Ján Ferjenčík - Pavol Kačmár

Učebnica pokročilých štatistických metód v behaviorálnych s sociálnych vedách je určená študentom týchto vied, ako aj tým, ktorí sa vo svojej výskumnej praxi stretávajú s riešením stredne náročných výskumných otázok, pre zvládnutie ktorých nie je postačujúca znalosť základných štatistických metód. Učebnica na nich stavia, jej jadro však tvoria štatistické metódy, ktoré sa sústredia najmä na zachytenie multivariačných vzťahov. V úvodnej kapitole sú uvedené základné princípy testovania nulových hypotéz ako základ uvádzaných metód, pričom sú zohľadňované najnovšie trendy zamerané na otvorenosť a replikovateľnosť výskumov. Každá z nasledujúcich kapitol je venovaná vybranej metóde, prípadne skupine metód. V úvodných kapitolách sú to lineárna a logistická regresia, na ktoré nadväzuje sledovanie mediačných a moderačných efektov. Druhý veľký celok tvoria metódy skupinového porovnávania, kde sú vysvetlené rôzne alternatívy analýzy rozptylu (jednovchodná, viacvchodná, pre nezávislé výbery, opakovaná, zmiešaná), ich neparametrické alternatívy, multivariačná analýza rozptylu a analýza kovariancie. V záverečných kapitolách sú najprv prezentované dve metódy zachytávajúce podobnosti či vzťahy medzi objektmi (zhluková analýza, faktorová analýza), následne sú uvádzané princípy modelovania štrukturálnymi rovnicami. V každej kapitole je po vysvetlení účelu metódy a jej základných princípov demonštrované jej použitie na konkrétnom príklade, ponúkané sú aj návody pre výpočet v troch štatistických programoch – SPSS, Jamovi a JASP. Snahou autorov je poskytnúť učebnicu, kde záujemcovia aj bez hlbšieho matematického základu budú schopní porozumieť prezentovaným štatistickým postupom, zvoliť si pre nich ten najvhodnejší, a následne ho aj použiť na svojich dátach.

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Mária Mičaninová - Ivica Hajdučeková (eds.)

In the framework of the project VEGA of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic 1/0330/12 The Function of Metaphor in the Philosophy of Shlomo ben Yehuda ibn Gabirol and Shihab al-Din Yahya al-Suhrawardi, project leader Assoc. Prof. Mária Mičaninová, CSc., under the patronage of the rector of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, The Slovak Republic, Prof. MUDr. Ladislav Mirossay, DrSc., and of The Department of Philosophy and History of Philosophy of the Faculty of Arts of the same University, took place on 4th – 5th October 2013 an International conference on The Function of Metaphor in Medieval Neoplatonism. Two days´conference was opened by Dean of the Faculty of Arts of P. J. Šafárik University, Prof. PhDr. Ján Gbúr, CSc.,in the presence of Prof. PhDr. Vladimír Leško, CSc., Head of The Department of Philosophy and History of Philosophy, and of foreign guests and students of the University.

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Marianna Sedláková a kol. 

The worksheets, based on the direct specific needs of teaching medical students in Košice, respect the real situation of teaching Slovak as a foreign language at UPJŠ.

They also reflect the relatively high number of Slavic students, especially from neighboring countries, who, although just beginning with the Slovak language, are at a higher communicative level compared to students from non-Slavic countries. Therefore, a special part of the worksheets with exercises is dedicated to them, which includes special exercises and dictionaries aimed at eliminating Slovak-Polish or Slovak-Ukrainian interference phenomena. Since some non-Slavic students come from the Czech language environment, we also add a glossary of the most common different expressions in Slovak, Czech, and, for the aforementioned reasons, Polish and Ukrainian. In the part intended for all students, both Slavic and non-Slavic, communicatively focused exercises for practicing grammatical phenomena predominantly at the A1 and A2 communication skill levels (according to the Common European Framework of Reference) prevail, and last but not least, exercises thematically focused on medicine and healthcare.

The texts from the thematic area are, of course, supplemented with realia of the city of Košice. As a functional supplement in the working material, we also publish test samples.

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Eva Žiaková (ed.)

Proceedings of the Scientific Conference with International Participation within the VEGA Project No. 1/0282/12 Interdisciplinary Analysis of the Meaning of Life and Its Components in Socially Significant Groups of Adolescents in Terms of Its Formation and Possible Intervention.

The introductory word is a very good opportunity for us to jointly evaluate what we have managed to achieve in addressing our common scientific research task focused on the study of the meaning of life in socially at-risk groups of adolescents. First and foremost, we asked ourselves what we have discovered about the meaning of life so far, that is, what we know about it.

The second question we asked was: what surprised us about the results we have obtained so far. The third question was about what we want to do to resolve the discrepancy between what we have discovered and what we want to achieve.

The final question in evaluating the solution of the scientific research task was: what do we (not) know about the meaning of life of adolescents and want to know in the future, or what should we focus on to develop the most effective logotherapeutic and sociotherapeutic methods for social workers working with socially at-risk groups of adolescents.

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Miroslav Mydlík - Katarína Derzsiová

"Nikdy som nebol chorý na pľúca, no nečakane, asi tak v auguste, som na Občianskej plavárni vypľul čosi červené. Chvíľu som sa na to pozeral, no vzápätí som na to zabudol", píše Franz Kafka v liste Milene Jesenskej.
Kto bol Franz Kafka, spisovateľ, ktorý ovplyvnil literatúru 20. storočia? Prečo boli Tatranské Matliare pre neho také dôležité? Prečo musel zomrieť taký mladý? To všetko sa dozviete v knihe autorov, doplnenej medzníkmi života Franza Kafku a mnohými neznámymi fotografiami, ktoré nemajú iba literárne historický pohľad.

Táto kniha je rozšíreným vydaním knihy Miroslav Mydlík - Katarína Derzsiová: Tuberkulóza pľúc Franza Kafku; Vplyv choroby na jeho literárnu tvorbu z roku 2017. Jej prvým autorom bol profesor vnútorného lekárstva, ktorý sa pokúsil spojiť medicínu so svetovou literatúrou, ktorej sa intenzívne venoval od študentských čias po celý svoj život. Mal veľký záujem o literárne diela Franza Kafku, o vtedajšie možnosti liečby tuberkulózy pľúc v jednotlivých sanatóriách, cez ktoré nás táto kniha sprevádza. So spoluautorkou osobne navštívil mnohé miesta, kde Franz Kafka býval, o čom svedčí autentická fotodokumentácia. Z literárneho hľadiska sa zameral na vplyv choroby na Kafkovu literárnu tvorbu, ktorý sa postupujúcou chorobou prehlboval.

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Iveta Jeleňová - Gabriela Kravčáková (eds.)

Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference, October 16, 2014, Košice

In mid-October 2014, the second annual conference "Human Capital and Society" was held, organized by the Department of Social Studies of the Faculty of Public Administration at P. J. Šafárik University in Košice, in collaboration with another department of the faculty, the Department of Economics and Management of Public Administration. Today, you have before you the proceedings encompassing contributions presented by participants of this conference. In preparing it, the editors had to deal with the diversity of the participants' profiles, which was reflected in the authors' approaches to the issues they addressed, and subsequently had the contributions reviewed by experts from various fields. The individual contributions address traditional topics, as well as newer and emerging themes, reflecting current problems and questions related to human capital, organizational behavior, and primarily, public administration.

At the conference, researchers specializing in management, psychology, political science, social work, sociology, anthropology, linguistics, as well as individuals who do not belong to just one scientific discipline, came together. It was interesting to see how people from different disciplines view the same phenomenon. The conference demonstrated that an interdisciplinary approach can highlight the shortcomings in identifying and understanding problems from the perspective of just one discipline.

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Eugen Andreanský

The presented monograph aims to critically map the understanding of the concept of possible worlds.

The first chapter describes the formation of the semantics of possible worlds, along with indicating some problems it brings, which were incisively revealed primarily by W. V. O. Quine. In the next two chapters, the work focuses on more modern views on the nature of possible worlds, with the main attention given to the dichotomy between the possibilist and actualist approach to the question of modalities, alongside which it is necessary to assess other distinctions (essentialism - anti-essentialism, realism - reductionism (or ersatzism or fictionalism), naturalism - non-naturalism, etc.). Increased attention in the work is specifically devoted to the possibilism of D. Lewis and the actualist concepts of S. Kripke, A. Plantinga, R. M. Adams, N. Rescher, D. Armstrong, and J. Hintikka.

An unconventional approach to the issue of possible worlds is captured in the fourth chapter. It is primarily dedicated to the significant concept of Jaakko Hintikka, which works with the notion of epistemic possible worlds and documents the inclination towards the modification and relativization of modal discourse. The conclusion provides an evaluation of the discussion that touches on the main problems associated with considerations of possible worlds.

In the presented monograph, some representative concepts of possible worlds, or possible individuals, are clarified, and the overall process is indicated from assessing possible worlds as ideal logical constructs through their relativization by separate domains of individuals for individual worlds and further through the relationship of attainability to financial, impossible, and non-standard possible worlds.

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Kristína Bosáková

Attempting to confront Gadamer's teachings not only with the giants of Greek philosophy but also with Hegel and Heidegger is no easy task. However, Gadamer's entire historical-philosophical work is most prominently associated with these ancient thinkers and the two geniuses of German philosophical thought. Therefore, there is no avoiding it. Without this confrontation, all my efforts would be, in a certain sense, futile. Whether and how I succeed is another question. Every reader will surely form their own judgment.

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Beata Gajdošová

It is impossible to be in contact with a person-centered approach and not be influenced by it. Carl Random Rogers was and is still perceived as one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century (Cook, et al., 2009).

He was the first psychologist to be awarded twice by the American Psychological Association during his lifetime; in 1957 for his contributions to psychotherapy research and in 1973 for distinguished professional contributions. He developed his own psychotherapeutic approach, client-centered therapy, where unlike existing psychotherapeutic approaches, the healing power lies in the relationship between the client and the therapist, not in the applied method.

Rogers and his colleagues were the first to record, transcribe, and publish complete cases of therapeutic conversations and initiated systematic research in the field of psychotherapy. By using the term client instead of patient and seeking sources of change within the person, he created a non-medical model of help as part of the helping professions (Capuzzi, Gross, 2001). The self-theory created by Rogers is a theory that is included in many contemporary psychology texts (Cloninger, 2003; Feist, Feist, 2001; Ryckman, 2004).

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Bernadeta Fabová - MikulአJančura (eds.)

Collection of Studies from the 2nd Scientific Conference of Young Historians (Doctoral Students and Researchers), organized by the Department of History of the Faculty of Arts at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, in cooperation with the Faculty of Arts at Masaryk University in Brno, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Silesian University in Opava, and the Faculty of Arts at the University of Miskolc, held on October 29-30, 2012 in Košice.

The collection is the output of the second annual scientific conference of young historians (doctoral students and researchers), organized at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice. The central theme of the event was the focus on intersections of shared history. The ten studies map various intersections of the history of the V4 countries, as well as the broader Central European region, in the time span from the 13th to the 20th century. The individual studies cover a wide range of areas from the medieval road network, military and urban history, through economy, education, issues of national identity, the relationship between the state and the church, to demographic questions.

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Ladislav Šoltés - Rudolf Pullmann

Etika a filozofia mravnosti sa dostáva do popredia záujmu všetkých oblastí súčasného života. Biológia a medicína sú vedné odbory tak úzko späté s najvyššími hodnotami, ako je život a zdravie človeka, teda život na našej Zemi vôbec, že sa medicínska etika a bioetika stali predmetom veľkej pozornosti a záujmu expertov rôznych profesií, svetových organizácií (OSN, Rada Európy, Svetová zdravotnícka organizácia...), farmaceutických firiem..., výučby študentov medicíny i lekárov.
Väčšina učebníc medicínskej etiky je orientovaných filozoficky, čo je logické, pretože etika je filozofickou disciplínou. Autori publikácie sa však rozhodli skôr pre medicínsku interpretáciu aplikácie etických problémov a dilemu do vybraných medicínskych disciplín.

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Vladimír Leško - Pavol Tholt (eds.)

Proceedings of the Fourth International Philosophical Symposium History of Philosophy as a Philosophical Problem, held on 14-15 October 2010

The Philosophical Proceedings is the final presentation of the results of the work of the research teams of the research projects VEGA 1/0650/08 - Heidegger and the History of Philosophy and VEGA 1/4679/07 - Jan Patočka's Asubjective Phenomenology and the History of Philosophy solved at the Department of Philosophy and the History of Philosophy of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Applied Sciences in Košice.

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Vladimír Leško - Pavol Tholt (eds.)

Proceedings of the Third International Philosophical Conference Hegel in the Contexts of Heidegger's and Patoček's Philosophy, held on 1-2 October 2009.

The Philosophical Proceedings is a presentation of the results of the work of the research teams of the research projects VEGA 1/0650/08 - Heidegger and the History of Philosophy and VEGA 1/4679/07 - Jan Patočka's Asubjective Phenomenology and the History of Philosophy solved at the Department of Philosophy and the History of Philosophy of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Applied Sciences in Košice.

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Vladimír Leško - Zlatica Plašienková (eds.)

In 2007, the philosophical world commemorated an extraordinary anniversary - two hundred years since the first publication of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's brilliant work The Phenomenology of Spirit (1807). Of course, we can have different value scales of the most important philosophical works written in the history of philosophy, but the above-mentioned work of Hegel should certainly not be absent from the top places in them. Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit decisively changed the philosophical discourse of the 19th century and greatly influenced philosophy in the 20th century. Few of the great philosophers after Hegel could afford to pass over the philosophical work of the 1807 supreme representative of German classical philosophy and not draw, either positively or critically, on his philosophical legacy.

The philosophical conference entitled Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit" and the Present, dedicated to Hegel's work Phenomenology of Spirit, was prepared by the Department of Philosophy and History of Philosophy of the Faculty of Arts of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice in cooperation with the Slovak Philosophical Association at the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava on October 4, 2007 and was organized by the Slovak Philosophical Association in Košice.

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Vladimír Leško - Katarína Mayerová (eds.)

The main aim of the present work is to try to capture the decisive mode of Heidegger's philosophical understanding of the central problem of Greek philosophy, the problem of being, in the teachings of Anaximander, Heracleitus, Parmenides, Plato, and Aristotle. The authors of each section present their own understanding of Heidegger and his distinctive philosophical reception of Greek philosophy. In this context, it should be noted that the authors themselves sought their own point of view. With Heidegger's work in general, it is almost impossible to find the same interpretive consonance. This is also true for his reception of the Greek heritage. However, it is all the more professionally provoking for further philosophical investigations.

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Vladimír Leško - Zlatica Plašienková (eds.)

Philosophical Proceedings Kant in the Contexts of Husserl's and Heidegger's Philosophy is a presentation of the results of the Second International Philosophical Conference, which took place on November 5-7, 2008 at the UPJŠ in Košice.

The conference was prepared by the Department of Philosophy and History of Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, UPJŠ in very close cooperation with the Slovak Philosophical Association at the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. The structure of the presented proceedings was divided into three basic parts. The first part contains the papers that were presented at the conference and constitute a crucial part of the content of our proceedings. The individual papers are arranged in the order in which they were presented at the conference. The second part of the proceedings contains the speeches from the inauguration ceremony of the award of the honorary title of Doctor honoris causa to Milan Sobotka and Teodor Münz. In the third part, a photo-documentation is published in which the ceremonial academic act of conferring the honorary degree of Doctor honoris causa is captured. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

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Vladimír Leško - Milovan Ješič - Eugen Andreanský

The philosophical work of Immanuel Kant, the founder of German classical idealism, is one of those which, by the strength of its theoretical legacy, is permanently inspiring even in contemporary philosophical activities. This is an indisputable fact that cannot be seriously objected to. The philosophical teachings of Edmund Husserl, the founder of phenomenology, his successor Martin Heidegger, as well as several representatives of analytic philosophy, are proof of this fact. The above fact led the authors of this work to the idea of devoting a separate collective monograph to the indicated problem. 

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Vladimír Leško - Milovan Ješič - Pavol Tholt

The philosophical work of the most significant Czech philosopher of the 20th century, Jan Patočka (1907–1977), stands out for its unique intellectual originality.

Even at the time of its creation, it significantly transcended the narrow boundaries of the contemporary Czechoslovak spiritual space and uniquely connected our country with the most advanced philosophical teachings of Western thought, in which Husserl's phenomenology and Heidegger's fundamental ontology played a dominant role. Certainly, it would be a great mistake to reduce the decisive position of Patočka's philosophical work merely to the reception and critical-creative elaboration of Husserl's and Heidegger's philosophy.

In this context, we cannot overlook the decisive contribution of Eugen Fink, who introduced Patočka to the intricacies of Husserl's and Heidegger's philosophy. Both thinkers then continued in a lifelong creative philosophical dialogue. However, it is also necessary to mention Patočka's intense interest in the works of Scheler, Ingarden, Landgrebe, as well as Sartre and others.

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Vladimír Leško

The book is the result of long-term contemplation on the relationships between the history of philosophy and its reflection in more or less systematic, or non-systematic forms of philosophizing of the most significant philosophical teachings of the 19th and 20th centuries (Hegel, Schelling, Marx, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Fink, Patočka, and Gadamer).

The primary goal of the work is to present the most significant historical-philosophical teachings of the 19th and 20th centuries in the formation and fulfillment of strong and weak models of the philosophy of the history of philosophy in the concepts of Hegel, Schelling, Marx, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Fink, Patočka, and Gadamer.

The results of the philosophy of the history of philosophy are presented here as a metatheoretical movement within historical-philosophical thinking, whose aim is not to empirically describe the historical-philosophical process, but to understand and explain it as an inseparable part of the most significant philosophical problems – what is philosophy, what is metaphysics, and the question of being.

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Ladislav Lovaš - Katarína Vasková (eds.)

Proceedings from the International Conference "Work and Organizational Psychology 2012"

On May 23-24, 2012, the twelfth annual international conference "Work and Organizational Psychology 2012" was held in the historic premises of P.J. Šafárik University in Košice. The continuous series of conferences dedicated to work and organizational psychology began in 1999 (the first was titled "Work Psychology - Theory and Practice" and was held in Zlatá Idka). Since 2009, it has alternated between the Czech and Slovak Republics.

The conference was organized by the Department of Psychology of the Faculty of Arts at P.J. Šafárik University in Košice. Co-organizers of the event were the Institute of Social Sciences of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Applied Psychology of the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences at Comenius University in Bratislava, and the Institute for VV and VTOS in Košice. Within the traditional focus of the conference, which is basic and applied research in the field of work psychology, a total of 37 contributions were presented (25 papers and 12 posters).

A substantial part of the plenary presentations, papers, and posters forms the content of this proceedings.

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Soňa Lovašová - Katarína Šiňanská - Magdaléna Halachová  - Vladimír Lichner (eds.)

The central theme of the conference is violence in social work. Violence in social work appears in various forms, whether it involves working with clients who are victims of different types of violence or dealing with aggressive clients where the social worker themselves becomes the victim. Violence in society is rapidly increasing, and social work is a science that must necessarily adapt to society; this is its essence. Therefore, managing aggressive situations in any form is an important part of a social worker's personal skill set.

Unfortunately, protecting social workers from violence will gradually become a necessity, and in the future, we may not avoid training in self-defense and reducing aggression as part of professional preparation or lifelong education.

The aim of this collection is to present the issue of violence in social work from various perspectives to both the professional and lay public. We hope that this serious problem will receive increasing attention and that the individual contributions will help readers understand the extent of the problem of violence in social work.

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Milan Olejník

The history of ancient Greece and Rome represents the culmination of achievements made by ancient civilizations in political, economic, and social spheres, as well as in understanding humanity and the world, and in art. The Greeks were the first in human history to establish a system where a certain part of society—full-fledged citizens—had the opportunity to freely participate in political decisions. They could vote, be elected to offices within the political system, and discuss issues affecting community life.

A high level of education and the pursuit of rational explanations for natural phenomena enabled the Greeks to reach a level of knowledge that European nations only achieved in the modern era. Greek accomplishments in sculpture, architecture, and literature remain an inspiration to this day.

Despite a gap of more than two millennia, their thinking and actions are relatable; their victories and defeats resonate with us, offering lessons even today.

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Henrich Hrehor - Martin Pekár (eds.)

(Košice, Kraków, Miskolc, Opava) : From the Middle Ages to the End of the 18th Century.

Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference, Košice, June 28–29, 2012

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Magdaléna Halachová - Vladimír Lichner - Katarína Šiňanská (eds.)

Proceedings of Contributions from the Scientific Conference Held on April 25, 2013, in Košice

The proceedings of contributions from the scientific conference were created as part of the national round of the Student Scientific and Professional Activities event in the field of study 3.1.14 Social Work, which took place on April 25, 2013, in Košice.

The central theme of the proceedings focuses on addressing various problem areas within social work as both an academic discipline and a practical activity. These contributions were prepared by students and young researchers under the guidance of experienced professionals. The topics covered in the proceedings include issues such as social services, field social work, school social work, and similar areas. Additionally, they highlight the dangers of socio-pathological phenomena such as truancy, drug addiction, poverty, bullying, and more.

The presented results clearly demonstrate the importance of social work and other helping professions in working with specific client groups.

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Róbert Stojka

The aim of the presented monograph is primarily to introduce Patočka's concept of the philosophy of history as comprehensively as possible, although I am aware that this is by no means an easy task. This difficulty arises not only because, as already mentioned, there is currently no extensive and exhaustive work on this topic.

While there is a relatively large number of studies devoted to Patočka's concept of the philosophy of history, none of them, however, examine this concept from a comprehensive perspective as a unified whole – most focus on specific partial issues (and there are many) stemming from this concept. This fact, incidentally, serves as clear evidence to me that this is undoubtedly a highly demanding topic.

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Pavol Tholt

The work presented in the following text is an attempt to analyze Patočka's perspective on the emergence and essence of mathematical natural science in the 17th century. During this period, Patočka's attention was particularly drawn to Descartes' philosophy and Cartesianism, as well as the philosophies of Galileo, Bacon, and Leibniz.

Patočka himself devoted continuous and exceptional attention to these questions, as evidenced by several monographic works and numerous articles and studies he wrote on the subject.

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Zuzana Dankulincová (ed.)

Proceedings from the 8th Nationwide Conference on Health Psychology with International Participation, May 15, 2013, Košice, Slovak Republic

The Proceedings of Scientific Works Health Psychology in a Multidisciplinary Perspective on Health provides an overview of diverse topics addressed by experts in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, covering a broad scope of the discipline of health psychology.

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Jozef Bavoľár

Decision-making is an everyday activity for us, whether it involves decisions about routine matters such as what to have for breakfast or more significant choices like selecting a career after finishing school. Due to the far-reaching consequences that a single decision can have on our entire lives, this area has received considerable attention in psychology. After all, the classic goals of psychology—describing, explaining, and predicting human behavior—are essentially attempts to understand decision-making and identify and describe the factors influencing it. Fundamental psychological disciplines such as the psychology of emotions and motivation, cognitive psychology, social psychology, and personality psychology all strive to achieve this understanding.

The presented text primarily adopts a cognitive approach, focusing on the processes of information processing and utilization. Since there are very few events in the future we can be completely certain about, key concepts include terms expressing uncertainty about the future, such as uncertainty, risk, objective probability, and subjective probability.

The central question thus lies in processing information from the environment and utilizing it in the decision-making process.

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Ladislav Lovaš - Margita Mesárošová (eds.)

Over the past two decades, psychologists have shown increased interest in the issues of self-regulation and self-control. The prepared publication is, in a sense, part of this process. Its foundation was the conference "Psychological Aspects of Self-Regulation and Its Contexts," held on October 14–15, 2010, in Košice. The event was organized by the Department of Psychology and the Department of Educational Psychology and Health Psychology at the Faculty of Arts, P. J. Šafárik University.

The publication of a collection of scientific papers with the same title fulfills the aim of presenting oral presentations and posters in an expanded form. The contributions are thematically divided into three sections: "Self-Control and Its Contexts," "Coping with Problematic Situations," and "Personality and Risk Behavior."

The publication and the conference that served as its basis were supported by the grant agency VEGA of the Ministry of Education and the Slovak Academy of Sciences as part of projects 1/0785/09 "Personal and Situational Factors of Self-Control" and 1/0310/10 "Social-Psychological Determinants of Healthy Psychosocial Development and Realization of Developmental Potential in Gifted and Disadvantaged Children and Adolescents."

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Jaroslav Marcin - Viktória Marcinová a kol.

This little book started out in a way that probably many other scholarly publications do: When the five of us met as doctoral students and instructors in the Department of British and American Studies, we soon realized that our research overlapped on a number of points. Most prominent among those was our interest in political or politicallymotivated discourse and the study of myths and manipulation that it employed. 

In the end, we decided to pool the results of our research together in order to create a more complex picture, providing a variety of perspectives and voices. In our endeavor, we were greatly aided by the financial support we received from a grant offered by the Šafárik University. The outcome of these efforts is the five chapters of this brief, but hopefully informative and insightful monograph.

In Chapter 1, Viktória Marcinová deals with the impact of totalitarian ideology on the translation of so-called “capitalist” drama during the first stage of normalization in Slovakia (1948-1968). In Chapter 2, the focus shifts to political discourse and manipulation in a democracy, as Jaroslav Marcin takes a closer look at the wartime rhetoric of American presidents. USA remains the focus also in Chapter 3, but this time the question, addressed by Martina Martausová, will be one of the myth of the American Dream and its presentation in post-9/11 United States. A similar idea, though in a different geographical-cultural context, is dealt with in Chapter 4, where Božena Velebná identifies myths of Scottish identity as portrayed in historic films. Finally, in Chapter 5, Eduard Soták will take a look at the role of the mass media within the topic of politically-motivated discourse and spread of political ideology.

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Silvia Kontírová a kol.

Pedagogical practice is an organizational form of higher education training for prospective teachers, implemented through mandatory pedagogical practice subjects.

These subjects have an integrative and practical-training character, building upon the theoretical and practical instruction provided to students at the faculty. They are conducted within the scope defined by curricula in the conditions of specialized workplaces (training schools) and under the supervision of qualified professionals (training teachers). Unlike other higher education subjects, pedagogical practice primarily provides students with opportunities for independent creative teaching in real school environments.

The practical activities of students in training schools are characterized as supervised, monitored, and evaluated by designated entities.

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Gabriela Kravčáková - Jana Lukáčová - Taťjana Búgelová

The first study, which concentrates on the characteristics of teachers' work, describes broader theoretical foundations and defines basic concepts related to work.

It also provides an analysis of the work of university teachers, identifying several shortcomings. The research findings revealed significant differences in the time demands of tasks performed by teachers and in the perceived importance of these tasks. Teachers utilize their working time fund beyond 100%, and it can be expected that the teacher population considers their tasks as rather important to definitely important. There is a relationship between the estimated time demands of certain tasks and the perceived importance of these tasks. Based on the findings, conclusions and proposals for intervention measures are formulated, and a construct of key competencies of university teachers is presented, which includes basic, social, pedagogical, research, and managerial competencies.

The second study analyzes the level of satisfaction, self-fulfillment, competencies in teachers' work, and the prestige of the teaching profession in relation to gender, academic rank, seniority, and the specific field of expertise.

The third study, which deals with the topic of teacher career, provides an overview of theoretical foundations of career.

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