Psychology (e-books)

E-book

Pavol Kačmár

Overview of the Issue and Meta-Analysis of Conducted Research.

The publication focuses on two key constructs – time perspective and goal achievement. After describing both constructs, the authors focused on potential connections that can be found at multiple levels of analysis. For the purpose of empirical verification, they conducted a small-scale meta-analysis synthesizing results across eleven studies. The obtained results highlighted the role of time perspective in selected aspects of goal achievement. The publication is intended to serve as a catalyst for further consideration of the issue, thereby encouraging research aimed at verifying how the acquired knowledge can be expanded to improve the quality of our daily lives in the context of cultivating our approach to time.

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E-book

René Šebeňa

The main goal of this textbook is to introduce selected experimental methods that have been developed to study various psychological processes.

Traditional textbooks on cognitive psychology usually offer a comprehensive system of theoretical knowledge and descriptions of experiments. However, we believe that for a deeper understanding, students need to have their own experience.

This textbook provides instructions on how to demonstrate, visually verify, and thereby better understand selected theories and phenomena through practical exercises. Such direct experience can help in the realization of their own projects.

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E-book

Jozef Bavoľár - Ladislav Lovaš - Simona Ďurbisová

The process of achieving goals is one that has traditionally received significant attention in psychology. This attention is not only directed by researchers focused on motivation, with which the process of achieving goals is classically associated, but also from a wide range of other areas (e.g., emotions, personality). One aspect of goal-directed behavior that has received minimal, if not virtually no, attention is decision-making.

It is surprising to realize that various aspects of decision-making are present throughout the entire process of achieving goals - from evaluating different aspects of multiple alternative goals, through selecting among them, deciding on resource allocation (effort, time, finances, relationships...), continuously monitoring progress, to evaluating the outcome and its impact on future goal-directed behavior.

Even more surprising is that decision-making is directly addressed by one of the dominant theories explaining goal-directed behavior - the theory of mental action phases (mindset theory of action phases; Gollwitzer 1999, 2012). This theory distinguishes the pre-decisional and post-decisional phases as the first two phases of this behavior, separated precisely by the decision about which goal to pursue.

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Tatiana Kimáková - Štefan Tóth - Ivan Uher

The scientific monograph is devoted to active and healthy aging, its basic indicators, involutional changes, or the relationship between healthy aging and lifestyle. Adopting a healthy lifestyle and actively participating in health care for yourself are important elements in all stages of our lives, and therefore in healthy aging. We describe the possibilities of older people to slow down the adverse changes associated with aging through education and educational activities of various types.

The scientific monograph also includes our own research focused on overall health and selected lifestyle risk factors, especially consumption of various food groups, smoking, alcohol, physical activity and stress of participants at the University of the Third Age at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, Slovak and foreign university students at the Medical Faculty of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice. The scientific monograph is appropriate for the scientific community, students of medical and natural sciences, public health for all three degrees of university study.

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E-book

Františka Petriková - Vladimír Lichner - Eva Žiaková

The proposed methodological guide focuses on a self-care questionnaire for the target group of adolescents. The creation of this methodology was prompted by its absence in the conditions of the Slovak Republic. The methodological guide consists of both theoretical and empirical parts.

In the theoretical part, the authors present theoretical foundations for the proposed methodology—self-care among adolescents—and also provide theoretical definitions of components of self-care in this target group. The second, empirical part of the methodological guide is dedicated to validation methods used to verify the questionnaire. It also presents results examining differences or correlations in the presented issues.

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E-book

Silvia Kontírová a kol.

This revised and supplemented text aims to be a comprehensible and practical aid for students of the Master's degree in teaching academic subjects at the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the University of Applied Sciences in Košice taking compulsory courses in pedagogical practice.

Its general part deals with the mission, primary human factors, types and forms of pedagogical practice as one of the compulsory organizational forms of teacher studies and specifics of pedagogical practice in the conditions of UPJŠ.

The special part contains basic information and compulsory documentation of trainees on chronologically arranged types of pedagogical practice at UPJŠ. The authors would be grateful if you would point out any errors and shortcomings of the text to them via e-mail silvia.kontirova@upjs.sk.

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E-book

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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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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E-book

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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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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E-book

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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E-book

Lukáš Šutor (ed.)

Contributions in the field of psychology address current issues such as normative beliefs and attitudes regarding alcohol consumption, the characteristics of loneliness, questions of pupil personality and the perception of teachers’ interaction styles. They also consider hyperexcitability (excessive psychological excitability), research theorems on injustice, and fundamental concepts and their theoretical connections in the field of self-regulation research within the context of executive functions.

In philosophy, the authors focus on selected aspects of works belonging to major currents of world philosophy (Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Plotinus, Descartes, Patočka).

In literary studies (Slovak studies), the topics include modeling the theme of death in prose texts, the depiction of technological progress in space science fiction films, and the translation work of K. Strmeň, Návštevy (Anthology of World Lyric Poetry).

In the field of social work, the authors present contributions on current trends in preventing burnout syndrome in helping professions, the use of logotherapy in foster care, certain factors enabling the emergence, development, and spread of socially pathological phenomena (“cyberbullying”), religiosity and the value of human life, and an empirical analysis of the competencies of social workers in institutional care for people with intellectual disabilities.

The political science contribution analyzes selected institutions and documents within the European system of human rights protection, while the British and American studies paper examines the relationship between metaphor and metonymy in the interpretation of the meaning of new English compounds.

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Eva Žiaková

Proceedings from the Scientific Conference with International Participation held on November 27, 2015 in Košice

Stress is becoming a part of everyday life in developed societies, which negatively affects both the physical and mental state of individuals. The proceedings from the scientific conference with international participation, titled "Forms of Internal and External Factors in Coping with Stress from the Perspective of Theory and Practice in Social Work," are therefore dedicated to the issue of coping with stress from an interdisciplinary perspective.

It addresses the full spectrum of coping issues, ranging from the most internal, specifically defined factors of the C-system of coping in oncology patients, coping with burnout in helping professions, sociological contexts of oncological diseases, through the level of social support that provides individuals with space for managing stress, to the possibilities of coping with stressful situations in various areas of life.