Psychology (e-books)

E-book

Ondrej Kalina

The publication provides a systematic overview of the core models of systemic therapy and its theoretical as well as practical foundations. The opening chapters of the textbook outline the historical development of psychotherapeutic approaches and the shift toward the systemic paradigm, which emphasizes the importance of relationships, context, and circularity in understanding psychological phenomena.

The core of the text focuses on the philosophical foundations of systemic therapy, particularly general systems theory, cybernetics, constructivism, and social constructionism, all of which have significantly shaped the understanding of reality, knowledge, and the therapeutic process. Subsequent chapters address biological and social foundations, including the concepts of autopoiesis, cognition, and communication, and their relevance to the functioning of social systems. The publication further elaborates on the practical implications of these theoretical frameworks, especially in relation to causality, language, and the construction of social reality. Systemic understanding of problems is presented as a dynamic and relational process maintained through interactional patterns within the system.

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E-book

Oľga Orosová - Beáta Gajdošová (eds.)

This publication considers social, economic, political, and psychological indicators of emigration behavior and emigration intentions as appropriate predictors of future behavior.

Theories of motivation and theories of behavioral intentions and their effectiveness are popular in migration research. On the other hand, the Health Belief Model and its adaptation in the research of emigration intentions bring a relatively new and perspective view on this topic.

According to the results presented in this publication, the factors that attract students to emigration (pull factors) are language skills and career opportunities abroad, the desire for change and new experiences, perceived feasibility of emigration, and self-efficacy.

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E-book

Magdaléna Halachová - Denisa Rovenská

The monograph theoretically analyzes the virtual environment and its aspects, offers insight into the identity of the child in the virtual environment, the necessity of social support and the diversity of social relationships in the real world and virtual reality.

Furthermore, it contains the fundamental training program designed to minimize the risks of the virtual reality, because adolescents are often exposed to risks uncontrollably. For that reason it focuses on adolescent and empowering optimal self-image, as well as creating and maintaining real social networks.

The set of experiential-educational activities is conceptually divided into two main areas. The first one is content-focused on the adolescent, his/her psychological capability including opinions, attitudes, emotions, competences, and self-reflection.

The second one focuses on interpersonal real and virtual relationships, the recognition of the advantages and disadvantages of internet communication and face-to-face interaction, and last but not least for more optimal use of the Internet and preference for real social interaction.

Authors

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E-book

Vladimír Lichner - Dušan Šlosár

The scientific monograph focuses on the issue of adolescent risk behaviors on the internet in the form of its problematic use in the context of valid theories and practices of a social work. Text of the monograph is divided into four parts.

The first part focuses on the multidisciplinary definition of a risk behavior on the internet. It offers an up-to-date literary overview of the issue through the latest, especially foreign, theoretical knowledge.

The second part focuses on the problematic use of the internet in contexts of valid origins of the social work. The third part focuses on the presentation of the most important psychosocial factors correlating with the problematic internet use in the adolescent´s group. The theoretical knowledge is supplemented by the authors research into the present factors.

The final part is application-oriented and focuses on the possibilities that the social work offers at the praxis level to prevent and solve the presented problems.

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E-book

Lucia Tóthová - Eva Žiaková

The current time is fast, hasty, with strongly asserted women's emancipation, absorbed by information and communication technologies that overcome distances but create them at the same time. The lifestyle of humans is changing, many diseases are on the rise, and cancer is becoming a "trend of the present". Claims on man, and especially on women, are now too great. Women perform multiple roles and perform many tasks. They become caregiving mothers, understanding and surrendered wives, workers with professionalism and flexibility, and idols the myth of beauty too. Due to the overlapping of the traditional gender division of labor, the life of women takes place on several levels. Their work day does not end when they leave the job, but they continue to care for their household and their own family. Besides all, they strive to fulfill not only personal expectations, but also the expectations of the family, social environment and society, reject failure and strive for perfectionism.

In our lives, situations that affect and burden us more or less appear. Even though we can not in control everything and everyone, we are able to control situations that are of direct concern to us. In life, we encounter problems in employment, financial problems, illness or death of near. As well as negative, also positive situations affect us. Each responds to each situation different ways.

Monograph is one of the ways in which we aim to draw attention to the so "C-coping style" as a maladaptive way of managing the burden that is typical of oncological ill patients. It is one of the possible concepts that affect the manifestation of breast cancer. Based on this, we have focused on the used coping strategies and we consider the life events to be a significant burden in the lives of cancer patients. The research is aimed at synthesizing the life events and the coping strategies used to coping them, conceived as a risk behavior of patients with breast cancer. As the coping of the burden can be different between men and women, the monograph is intended predominantly for women, to which we have also focused in realized research. They can be patients with oncological diagnosis, but also women who want to prevent this disease by use effective coping life events. We also believe that the monograph will enrich everyone who is interested in the same target group.

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E-book

Ján Hvozdík

With great interest, I read the proposal for the reissue of the monograph by Prof. PhDr. Ján Hvozdík, DrSc., Základy školskej psychológie (Foundations of School Psychology). It was an honor for me to be part of the editorial board for the new edition of the textbook.

The reissue comes at a time when school psychology seems to be experiencing a renaissance in its application. This is no coincidence, as the professor’s conception of school psychology as a theoretical-applied and integrated psychological discipline strives not only directly but also indirectly, through the pedagogical practice of teachers, to influence specific situations in educational practice within the school environment. From my perspective, I also appreciate the attention given in the textbook to the ever-relevant topic of self-directed learning, that is, the autodidactics of pupils and students. School psychology has become a core subject, within which its specializations are also realized.

It is worth mentioning the fact that, under the conditions of totalitarianism, the professor was not a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and yet he made significant contributions to the development of school counseling, both in theory and in practice, which commands respect and admiration. The reissue of the textbook is not an apology but rather a celebration of his positive contributions.

prof. PhDr. Ján Grác, DrSc.

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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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E-book

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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