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English gets still more relevance as a foreign language as well as an international communication language and thus, the efficiency of its education has also gained more attention. The paper presents partial results of a research study which surveyed an impact of psycho-social factors on the efficiency of educational interactions in English lessons conducted by communication method. The first part of the paper summarizes main principles of the communication approach in English lessons, participants of such interactions, and a role of social skills as a part of professional competences of English teachers. The second part introduces results of English teachers’ educational styles and an analysis of particular interactions in their lessons. The outcomes show how teachers’ social skills affect educational interactions in English lessons conducted by communication method.

The paper introduces psychotherapeutic experience with alcohol addicted homeless clients. The focus of the article is motivation of a client from time perspective, i.e. a development of early, continuous, and final motivation of a client to change one’s life style after an intervention of the centre in Havířov. The author describes pitfalls of such motivation and refers to case studies of various clients. Readers can observe specifics of work with addicted clients without homes via symptoms of individual addiction development. The paper shows influences on clients’ motivation as well as specific features of the cooperation between a therapist and a client.

Leadership style has an impact on efficiency and achievements of an organisation. In the 1970’s Victor H. Vroom and Philip W. Yetton introduced a normative model of leadership, which was supposed to assist a successful leadership selection. Their model was modified in 1988 and 2000. The paper reviews the changes done in the last adaptation – e.g. a new style named “Delegate”. The authors emphasize the change of perspective on decision making quality, which is not more perceived as a situation factor but the most crucial demand on efficiency. The others are: realisation of the decision, time as an expense, and developmental benefits. The differences between the original and current version of the normative model lay in a number of styles (7 instead of original 8) and a range of observed situation factors. The paper version of the assessment method has a form of two matrices. The first one evaluates situation from a perspective of time expenses minimisation. The second one evaluates developmental benefits of employees. The article points to advantages of an electronic version of Vroom’s model assessment. It introduces a newly included “Problem set” to assess managers’ leadership styles. It also offers some hints how to develop manager skills to choose an appropriate leadership style by using the electronic version of the method.

This paper focuses on attractiveness as a social psychology phenomenon, which has a significant influence within social contact. The aim was to observe connections and differences in the assessment of attractiveness and own body image among men and women. As a research method we used our own scale entitled Basic Olomouc Body Rating (BOBR). A research sample included 5616 people. We hypothesized existence of a significant difference between the real and the ideal figure for men, respectively women; and the existence of a significant difference between the ideal figure and the figure marked as “the attractive man”, respectively “the attractive woman”. We used descriptive statistics and paired t-test. The results showed significant differences in the perception of real and ideal figures in both men and women. Men differ in their view on an ideal figure compared to an attractive ideal.

The paper surveys a number of prison inmates with dyslexia. Various foreign studies have proven a link between dyslexia and criminality. They show a higher incidence of dyslexia among prisoners. A similar research was conducted between 2012 and 2013 in Horní Slavkov prison. A sample involved 113 respondents aged 22–65. Data were collected via Raven Standard Progressive Matrices, personal history questionnaires, interviews, and a complex assessment battery on specific learning difficulties. The results in the Czech prison also demonstrated a significantly higher rate of individuals with dyslexia among the imprisoned than in standard population. The sample included 34% of individuals with dyslexia.

Athletes’ stays in moderate altitude (1800–2200 m ASL) have become more common due to their participation in competitions and/or due to their training plans. The article provides a summary of monitoring emotional states in hypoxic environment as possible indicator of athletes’ fatigue. The objective of the article is to review published research focused on both the issues of sport trainings in hypoxia environment and observed mood changes by POMS questionnaire (Profile of Mood States). The introduction of the paper focuses on characteristics of the questionnaire, and studies which solve the same problem in normoxia. Systematic review of the research shows that monitoring mood states can be used as one of the indicators of fatigue also in hypoxic environment. However, a limited number of relevant researches were published. Thus, more research on the topic is needed.

The paper pays attention to stereotypes in the field of employment, particularly stereotypes connected with IT professionals. We observed differences in university students’ perception of IT professionals’ personality. The sample included 159 respondents of two different nationalities: Slovak students (no – 83, average age – 23.28) and Lithuanian students (no – 76, average age – 22.05). The data were collected via an original questionnaire. We did not find any difference between the target groups. We presume that the results can be explained by a strong similarity of both nations and cultures.

The paper introduces principles of dynamic assessment. The author emphasizes differences between the dynamic and static assessment, i.e. the assessment using traditional standardized tools. He further describes some of the dynamic assessment procedures. Attention is particularly drawn to the mediated learning experience theory. The second part of the text summarizes a wide range of researches which used the dynamic assessment approach. Results show that the dynamic assessment offers more complex information on an educational process; it reveals children’s and adolescents’ learning potential in details, and it suggests particular forms of efficient intervention. The author also describes his own dynamic assessment tools, which have been repeatedly used in the course of various researches and proved their effectiveness.

The goal of this paper is to draw attention to stress related growth, to list its determinants and circumstances under which it occurs as well as positive impact it may have after one has gone through a demanding life situation. Closer attention is paid to a growth connected with certain religious variables (such as personal god concept, externalized and internalized religiosity, religious coping). The reason is that religions, opposed to other non-religious variables, are viewed as important sources of an individual growth as they offer coping resources and meaning.

According to global opinion, Austria is one of the countires with lowest unemployment rates. With a respect to the high development level and efficiency of austrian economy the regularly published statistics seem to be close to reality. However a closer view reveals, that even in Austria for long time there are tendencies in decrease of a number of full-blown work contracts on a way to so-called precarisation of the work and creating a large gap between profitability of the factor of work and capital. Presented study follows a development of so-called general index of unemployment in Austria, methodologically based on recommendation of Eurostat and development of level of unemployment registered in Austria based on Statistik Austria information and further it compares basis and methods of research for the purpose of calculation of both indexes. Settling the general index of unemployment into the work-law and social-law framing of Austria and after another correction based on statistic data about so-called hidden reserves on austrian work market this paper shows, that the number of unemployed people, who want to work and are able to accept a job offer immediatelly is, according to latest relevant statistic measurments in Austria, approximately two times higher than is the actual level of the general unemployment index. These findings imply, that actions applied to optimize the local situation on austrian work market, as well as system solutions of unemployment in Austria are efficient in a sense, that real level of unemployment in Austria does not have negative impact on real productivity of austrian economy. Contrarily, thanks to them the so-called consumption is maintained on one side and on the other side the qualification of unemployed people is developped, which is necessary for efficient performace in their future job position and also for creation of inovative and sustainable solutions of our current problems.

Personal financial matters are often considered a taboo in the western society, which leads to rather negative consequences. The aim of the paper is to support communication about money from a psychological perspective. The text provides information on a recently established field of psychology of money and financial psychology. We present several researches which survey experimental and social psychology of money, behavioural finances, financial psychotherapy focused on cognition, motivation, emotions, relationships, well-being and financial satisfaction. The objective is to enhance individual lives, as well as groups, society, and make both micro- and macroeconomics more human.

Paramedical work surely belongs to the most risky professions. Its integral part is the ability to control one’s own thoughts, emotions and impulses, because paramedics are expected to give flawless everyday performance. This is tightly connected with a need to care for one’s own mental and physical health. The paper does not only show the context of rescue work, and thus its fundamental sources of stress and description of selfcare, but the issue is also viewed from the perspective of Baumeister’s ego strength model of self-control. This provides new opportunities for possible explanations of the occurrence of stress related negative consequences in paramedics’ work. Alternatives of subsequent empirical research and practical utilization are discussed.

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.