English Syntax in a Nutshell.A frame-to-chain approach.

E-book

Magdaléna Hovanová - Dušan Šlosár

The monograph addresses the issues surrounding functional families, dysfunctional families, and those affected by crises. It analyzes various determinants that lead to family dysfunction and identifies factors contributing to family crises and the destabilization of family relationships. Special attention is given to working with dysfunctional families, particularly through family rehabilitation, methods, forms, and procedures employed mainly by helping professionals.

Additionally, the monograph explores contemporary forms of couple cohabitation and the factors that have caused changes in this area. Families are examined from the perspective of helping professions, including psychology, sociology, adult education, health care, law, and economics. These various perspectives create a comprehensive view of the examined issues and establish a multidisciplinary space for addressing problems within the family system. A functional family is seen as the foundation of society; therefore, society must create tools to assist families that are unable to resolve issues affecting their functionality.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

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).

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Marianna Sedláková a kol.

The textbook is intended for students of Slovak studies to study the subject of didactics of Slovak as a foreign language.

Its core consists of relevant knowledge gained from the didactics of Slovak as a foreign language, with references to other professional literature. The textbook also includes practical guides for teaching specific language phenomena in schools with Hungarian as the language of instruction or in schools where students predominantly have a mother tongue other than Slovak, such as Romani. Essentially, it involves transforming knowledge acquired and verified in teaching adult foreigners, mainly at universities, into a didactic context for the second level of elementary school and high school, with appropriate emphasis on teaching Slovak as a foreign language at the first level of elementary school as the starting point for the educational process.

The textbook builds on the findings of real research on the state of teaching Slovak as a foreign language in elementary and secondary schools in eastern Slovakia, conducted in projects (EXPERT and DiSaC) implemented at UPJŠ in Košice from 2012 to 2015.

Download the e-book for free(pdf)

E-book

Tatiana Žiaková - Dušan Šlosár

The last decade marks not only the average life expectancy increase in healthy population, but also life expectancy increase in group of people with intellectual disorders/disabilities. Due to their diagnosis that defines and classifies them into specific categories, people with intellectual disability are finding themselves in a constant confrontation with obstacles negatively affecting the saturation of their existential needs. It creates mostly educational, social, cultural, psycho-social and economical disadvantage in the context of their lives. Consequently, their active potential is weakened, making it unable for them to influence public affairs in society from a position of an adult or elderly citizen. Building up on this condition, the focus of this monograph is on understanding and explanation of prevailing concept of social inclusion and related concepts of social exclusion. These concepts influence the way we tend to define and think about the character of society, as such.

Simultaneously, we are examining that the quality of coexistence between dominant population and people with intellectual disabilities is dependent on the development of attitudes and opinions of major population towards this specific minority. These attitudes reflect the extent of social tolerance and at the same time serve as a quantification of moral values and equity in the society, whether it concerns any type of small everyday help or professional and institutionalised long-term support.

This monograph focuses on presenting professional care for people with mental disability in form of social services as a dominant type of support in our local environment. We show that the quality of social services inevitably depends on degree of professional competences social workers possess. The significance of professional competences social workers are capable of using is reflected in the degree of the competence and adequacy of their performance. The primary aim, in relation to which professional competences should be accustomed, is to enhance meaningfulness and dignity in life of mentally disabled receivers of the social services.

Competences of social workers are a dynamic phenomenon that modifies along the development of society and also with the frequently altering needs of people with intellectual disability as receivers of the social service. For this reason we designed the presented research to reflect our goal to reappraise the scope of professional competences and define the required professional functions of social workers working with people with intellectual disability.

This monograph is dedicated not only to professionals working with this group of people but also aims at answering basic questions to practical issues that families with a intellectualy disabled member are coming into contact with.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

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.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

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.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

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.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Ján Juščák - Milan Darák

 The aim of the monograph was to analyze and address the issue of educational systems within children's and youth organizations, with an emphasis on those focused on the age category of children up to 15 years.

The starting point was an analysis of the current state of the educational environment in terms of the systemic nature of education and the basic categories of the educational system. The collected available materials on the educational systems of selected (most representative) children's and youth organizations in the Slovak Republic were subsequently processed according to a unified methodology and using generally accepted pedagogical terminology.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Monika Hricová

Introduction to clinical psychology is designed as a teaching text. It is intended primarily for students of psychology at the bachelor degree. The publication offers the basic knowledge needed in the study of clinical psychology. It represents the theoretical basis for the following courses Clinical Psychology, Psychodiagnostics and Psychotherapy in the master's degree.

The text is divided into two parts. The first part deals with general issues of clinical psychology: its parts, history, professional practice of clinical psychologist, classification of mental disorders, or the specifics of research in clinical psychology. It covers also the topics of ethical work and the conditions of education of future clinical psychologists. The second part is focused on the issue of clinical-psychological practice in psychodiagnostics, the specifics of clinical-psychological work with patients with somatic diseases and disabilities. The publication does not describe psychopathology, psychodiagnostics and psychotherapy of mental disorders.

The aim of the publication is to acquaint students with the basic general knowledge necessary for building knowledge in the field of clinical psychology and its practice. To offer the necessary theoretical and practical basis for follow-up clinical psychological subjects and follow-up study in this area.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

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.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Ján Šimko - Dušan Šlosár

The monograph is dealing with the issue of homosexuality and homophobia in the context of social work and it is divided into five chapters, which are devoted to individual fields of the tackled issue. The first chapter is describing the phenomenon of homosexuality in the society; the focus is put on human sexuality and sexual orientation. The following chapter is clarifying the formation of homosexual identity in connection to coming out and it describes its frequently utilized models. The third chapter is devoted to the concepts of heteronormativity and heterosexism in the social context.

Furthermore, the chapter is dealing with the formation of attitudes towards this issue from the point of view of religion and masculinity. Another chapter is describing homophobia as the result of heteronormativity, stereotypes and prejudice.

In the last chapter, the authors are introducing selected social work theories dealing with the homosexual minority, the approaches to LGBT+ community and suggestions towards elimination of homophobia within the social work environment.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Mikuláš Jančura

The presented annotated source edition represents the first systematic attempt to process selected documents related to the history of personal automobilism in Slovakia during the interwar period. It addresses a notable research and publication gap in Slovak historiography, where the topic of automobilism has long remained marginal. Although research in this field has progressed over the last two decades, Slovak scholarship still lags behind Czech historiography. The main ambition of the edition is to present a broad selection of sources to highlight key thematic lines in the development of personal automobilism. The sources are divided into two main thematic groups: economic-legislative issues and cultural-social dimensions. Special attention is given to car accessibility, infrastructure, legal frameworks, visual advertising, and the activities of motoring associations. The typologically diverse corpus includes archival records, printed materials, visual sources, and photographs. The edition builds on a 2017 authorial monograph, expanding it with new insights and sources. It draws from collections housed in the National Archives in Prague, the Slovak National Archive, and various regional archives. The work also benefits from the application of modern methodological approaches, such as Business History and cultural history. The project was carried out under the scientific grant VVGS-2022-2431 at the Faculty of Arts, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice. Its results are closely linked to the teaching activities of the research team. The edition is the result of several stages – from heuristics, selection, and processing to peer review and publication. The publication contributes to a vivid understanding of the historical aspects of automobilism and expands knowledge of modernization processes in Slovakia. It also offers potential for use in educational practice and further academic research.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Peter Getlík

The main goal of the monograph "Moving Towards Cognitive Adaptation Studies: Adaptation as Play" was to orient current research in adaptation studies towards the empirically responsible cognitive branch of non-radical constructivism.

This intention results from the rapid progressive differentiation of adaptation studies research, which has mainly manifested itself in this area in the last two decades. With the model of adaptation as play in a cognitive-scientific perspective, author provides the possibility of predicting the nature (also in a broader sense) of the experience of adaptation. Since the form of this experience significantly shapes the products of the adaptation process into their final form, the model of adaptation as play can be applied even in the interpretation of individual adaptations. In the monograph, the author synthesized the model of adaptation as play based on the knowledge of various disciplines. In the field of cognitive sciences, he saw help from the starting points of philosophy, linguistics, informatics, psychology, anthropology, biology and neuroscience – especially affective neuroscience, which also deals with the emotional dimension of the play.

In the intersection with the essential interdisciplinary components of adaptation research, he also used the knowledge of classical and cognitive variations of literary science, film science (also theatrology) and media studies to a large extent. Consistent with other similar results of cognitive sciences, it turns out that even seemingly serious adaptations, like in many aspects of our culture, have a ludic base.

Download the e-book for free  (pdf)

Stanislav Hvozdík 

Obdobie staršej dospelosti predstavuje dôležitú ľudskú skúsenosť. Poradenstvo môže prispieť k tomu, aby to bola formatívna a osobnosť rozvíjajúca skúsenosť. Poradenstvo chápeme ako takú aplikáciu osobnosti do oblasti jej konania, ktorá rozvíja jej bytie. Vychádzame z aplikácie vývinu do poradenstva a naväzujeme na prácu Úvod do poradenskej psychológie, ktorá bola publikovaná skôr. V týchto učebných textoch sme rozpracovali podrobnejšie kapitolu, poradenstvo starším dospelým. Publikovaná práca môže prispieť k porozumeniu a podpore tohto dôležitého obdobia v živote človeka.

Autor

E-book

Jana Nezkusilová - Margita Mesárošová (eds.)

Proceedings of Extended Abstracts from Interdisciplinary Scientific Conference

Conference proceedings comprise extended abstracts from contributions that were presented during the conference Negative consequences of performing helping professions II – Psychological, social and health aspects of performing helping professions, which was held on 12th of June 2019 in Košice.

The conference was organized as one of the outputs of the research project APVV 14-0921 Self-care as a factor of coping with the negative consequences of the practicizing the helping professions. Abstracts present either original research by the authors or summaries of the authors' findings in their long-term research activities focused on helping professions. One of the ambitions of the conference was to create a space for dialogue between academics and professionals working in helping professions. The interdisciplinary character of the conference has brought new ideas and perception of this issue, which has also been reflected in the rich response during the discussions. Professionals from field of psychology, social work, occupational medicine and behavioral medicine participated actively or passively in the conference.

Thus, the enriching aspect of the resulting proceedings is the interconnection of applied and theoretical studies related to wide range of helping professions.

Download the e-book for free  (pdf)

E-journal

Juraj Schenk et al.

The scientific journal Sociálne a politické analýzy (Social and Political Analyses) serves as an interactive electronic platform for communication and the presentation (publication) of experts and their work in the fields of basic and applied research and analyses within sociological, psychological, political, and methodological contexts. It is a medium focused on intensively supporting research activities and analyses within an interdisciplinary framework, facilitating the exchange of experiences, fostering collaboration, and revitalizing the production of scientific work in this area.

The publication section of the journal offers space for works such as:

- Original sociological, psychological, and political studies and analyses in any areas of social life

- Methodological studies

- Research reports

- Studies from qualification theses Research and analysis projects

- Reviews

Download the e-journal for free (pdf)