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The purpose of this theoretical paper is to organize and elaborate on the conception of stages in the ritualization of experience. Erikson frames the ritualization as a process of playful adaptation that individualizes formal and informal ritual practices. Despite the many inspirations Erikson brought to psychology and play theory, the relation between ontogenesis, ritualization, and playfulness is not fully explored. This paper advocates the important role of playfulness during human development drawing on conclusions from contemporary research and play theory. Subsequently, the eight stages of ritualization are put in a context of ego integrity construction. According to Erikson, play forms the mental space in mind and reality that enables ego to develop mastery over reality and achieve greater coherence. The later stages of life are emphasized here to propose the potential role of playfulness in successful aging and coping with death. Playfulness is then discussed as an idealistic principle of general development and as the specific style of ego integrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As in the previous paper, the authors investigated the history of post-war Czech and Slovak psychology based predominantly on archival sources. In the present article, they focused on the topic of graduate education in psychology and how it changed through the decades. The trends in various areas are mapped and the differences from the current state of the art are articulated, together with the role of historical context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents an overview of the basic principles of motivation of human behaviour from a multidisciplinary perspective. It particularly highlights the overlapping fields of psychology and physiology. The authors try to systematize insights into the prevailing theory of motivation in psychological disciplines and provide some possible explanation of recent complicated situation in this area. The paper further attempts to facilitate orientation in this complex issue. However, due to the complexity of the issue of motivation theory, it primarily focuses on finding a unified approach but does not aspire to offer a complete review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study summarizes current theoretical knowledge about a rather new field of adventure therapy, which started in Anglo-Saxon countries approx. twenty years ago. The paper introduces fundamental historical sources and moments that were crucial when potential therapeutic and educational resources of adventure were analyzed. The aim of the paper is to show the impact of adventure therapy within the framework of current psychotherapy and/or kinesiotherapy, which is accepted by psychiatrists and its effectiveness is currently scientifically evaluated. The final part of the paper describes current development and perspectives of adventure therapy, and mentions congresses which have been held on the topic. The Czech Republic plays an active role in this development as it has been chosen to organize the 6th International Adventure Therapy Conference in 2012. This event (along with European Health Psychology Conference) is one of the most important professional events in the field of psychology and psychotherapy held in the Czech Republic in 2012. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following a previous study (Slaměník, Hurychová, 2010), we currently broaden the concept of close interpersonal relationships by an overview of several methods which have been constructed to measure the closeness of a relationship. The paper analyses the impact of such methods when particular features of close relationships prior to each method are considered. We also present results of a rather simplified version of prototypical approach. The aim was to compare whether the features of close interpersonal relationships described in foreign professional papers match with perceptions of close relationships observed in Czech population. The comparison shows a high level of agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the main physical and physiological determinants of human performance during a spaceflight and also addresses so far insufficiently discussed psychological context of being in this extreme environment. The greatest attention is paid to the issue of microgravity, radiation and circadian rhythms, with emphasis on the adaptive changes in physiological and psycho-physiological processes. The study explores the issue of data acquisition and the quality of information processing under the condition of isolation and confinement from natural stimuli and indicators. In this way, the paper further deals with the signals available to crew members about the changes in their cognitive, affective and motivational processes. The paper claims that besides the physiological and psycho-physiological adaptation to the space environment, psychological adaptation necessarily goes on at the same time. It is concluded that the in-depth qualitative investigation of the psychological adaptation could provide a more complete understanding of the accommodation of cognitive, affective and motivational processes during spaceflights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the lexicon and its structure is an essential indicator of the level of language acquisition and cognitive development. This paper summarizes the basic methods used in the research on lexical development, namely the analysis of spontaneous speech production, experimental procedures and vocabulary testing. Parental report inventories are examined in detail, focusing on the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (MAB CDI). The structure, psychometric characteristics and usage of the MAB CDI are described. The paper reports on the design and results of the first pilot study of MAB CDI for toddlers (16 - 30 months) in Czech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper gives an overview of current developments in discourse analysis, including its most prominent trends, protagonists, theories, and concepts. The paper emphasizes diversity of approaches to discourse analysis and gives specific examples of their application to research in health psychology, feminist psychology, and counselling and psychotherapy. In this way, the paper aims to document the relevance of discourse analysis for psychological research and, by implication, for psychological theory and practice. The debate includes Potter's and Wetherell's approach to discourse analysis, rhetorical psychology, discursive psychology, conversation analysis, poststructural discourse analysis and critical discursive psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes selected current attitudes towards the study of moral reasoning. The study refers certain key philosophical bases of moral reasoning in connection/regard to psychological concepts. The authors critically challenge the philosophical background (Kant, Mill, Bentham, Rawls, Arendt, etc.) that is either specifically expressed or covertly assumed. The study argues for the measurement of moral reasoning and methodological approaches concerning this research area. The authors recommend conducting a validation study of frequently used methods for measuring moral reasoning, especially Defining Issues Test and the Moral Judgment Test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims on the issue of negative consequences of playing MMORPG and their relation to gaming addiction. The sample was composed of 786 respondents (685 males and 101 females) with a mean age of 21 years. The newly created questionnaire presence of negative consequences (using the items from PRIME-MD questionnaire) and a shortened version of the gaming addiction questionnaire (Lemmens, Valkenburg, Peter, 2009) were used. The results showed the presence of a number of adverse consequences. In the area of health problems we observed mainly neglect of sleep (48%), back pain (21.5%) and neglect of food (17.8%). As the most problematic areas seem the social and work life, where a quarter of respondents reported neglect of family and friends (24.9%), complaints of neighborhood about excessive gaming (24.7%) devoting of all free time to playing (22.5%), preference for playing in front of other work/school activities (29.5%). Less than a fifth of the respondents also reported feelings of anger towards those who are disturbing them while playing (16.9%) and worsening of work/study performance (15.3%). Correlation analysis showed a strong relationship between all negative consequences and gaming addiction (r = ,444 - ,577), as well as moderately strong relationship between negative consequences and the number of hours played per week (r = ,293 - ,388). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper first introduces concepts of intimacy and close relationships separately. It defines specific features of intimacy in partner, family and friend relationships. The empirical research, carried out via the prototypic method, focused on understanding of intimacy among Czech population and its relevance to outcomes of similar foreign researches. Our empirical findings confirmed current state of knowledge. We consider them as a specific contribution to a definition of intimacy and its more accurate role in close interpersonal relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is known that there is a very powerful and detailed methodology for a reliability analysis of tests that are used for the measurement in psychological diagnostics. However, there are also various diagnostic classification procedures in which observed variable is measured only on a nominal scale. For such classifications, the information about their reliability is available very rarely. Of course, one reason for this is the fact that there is no sufficiently developed methodology for the nominal classification, unlike for the test measurements. The analysis of reliability in these cases is usually based on the Cohen-Fleiss kappa conception, i.e. the concordance analysis of two or more replications of classification. The aim of this paper is to present new, innovative methods of the analysis of reliability of classification procedures, based on a probabilistic model of error in classification. This model is based on analogous principles as the „true-error" model of classical test theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the view of family resilience through the prism of known concepts of Masten (childhood period), Lerner (adolescence), and Antonovsky (old age). It describes the interconnection of personal resilience and family resilience, namely through the studies of Antonovsky and Walsh, stressing the incorporation of spiritual factors (Pergament) of family resilience into the research. These factors represent an important field of interest of both the researchers and family therapists today. The connections between the research results and the psychological practice as well as the brief comments concerning the related resilience models are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents Lightner Witmer as a founding personality of psychology applied in practice. It follows his professional career and put it into the historical context of development of both the society and psychology in the U.S.A. On the basis of authentic materials, the author describes the Witmer's clientele and his description of the clinical method. His founding article from the year 1907 is mentioned more extensively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presented work deals with experience and sensation seeking tendency as an important phenomenon of quality of life of present days society. The paper contains a brief introduction into this field. It describes a questionnaire method, which enables measuring of the sensation seeking tendency. This scale is known in the country of its origin, the United States of America, and in the world as the Sensation Seeking Scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on neuropsychological studies of perception laterality executed in Slovakia. Above all, adaptations and variants of methods for investigating auditory, visual, and haptic laterality are described, possibilities of their application in neuropsychological diagnostics are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, thematically covering the border between cognitive psychology and analytic philosophy, focuses on the psychological and philosophical aspects of possible applications of basic one- and two-dimensional models on the issue of semantic content of mental representations, being monitored in particular two main lines. One concern is to outline the debate between extensionalism and externalism on one hand and intensionalism and internalism on the other hand. The second interest lies in the effort to evaluate the semantic concepts in terms of their acceptability to psychology, given its emphasis on the phenomenological nature of the mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on mutual relations of the belief in a just world and various life satisfaction aspects. More specifically, the function of the belief in a just world in relation between depressivity and experienced psychosocial stress is explored. Structural model assuming mediational effect of personal and general belief in a just world on relation between depressivity and psychosocial stress was successfully verified. Study sample consisted of 266 15-years-old Czech adolescents (136 girls, 130 boys), participating on international project "ELSPAC" (European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood). Results show partial mediation effect of personal belief in justice and only a marginal mediation effect of general belief in justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An unconscious phantasy, a concept that was first advanced by Melanie Klein, is crucial for an understanding of the psychodynamic in psychoanalysis; it offers a portrayal of the ubiquity of a capacity for relatedness between internal objects and how this is mediated by the self in its relationship to external objects. Consequently, by attributing a dynamic quality and a relational role to objects, it is only with phantasies that we truly step into the domain of object-relations. A dual nature of unconscious phantasies, their defensive role on one side and their wish-fulfilling role on the other, can be observed to the utmost in a relationship setting between two individuals where phantasies in fact contribute to a construction of their couple fit and colour their interaction dynamics. In this paper the author introduces some clinical implications of the understanding of the concept of unconscious phantasies by presenting a clinical illustration of a psychotherapeutic work with a couple. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reflects on psychological research on spirituality. It takes issue with the purpose of such research and with psychological definitions of spirituality. It deals with the question what type of psychology is required, and makes some recommendations for empirical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with common activity of parents and children as one of the effective educational instruments developing mastering diverse kinds of activities and supporting the favourable emotional climate in family. It continues the previously published text "Educational interaction of parents and children and its transformations" that is supplied by further research data. The results brought factual data concerning the proportion of commonly executed activities in adolescent boys and girls with their parents and proposed the conditions for their effective implementation. It shows that favourable emotional relations of parents and adolescents are important for the implementation of common activities. Common activity of parents and children represents an important socialization and educational factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]