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The paper aims to define the concept of "felt sense", introduced in psychology and psychotherapy by E. T. Gendlin, in order to clarify its relation to bodily sensations and its difference from emotions. Gendlin's own definition, according to which the felt sense is a conceptually vague bodily feeling with implicit meaning, is too general for this task. Gendlin's definition is specified by pointing out, first, the different layers of awareness of bodily feelings and, second, the difference between bodily readiness for action and motivation for action. According to the more precise definition, the felt sense is the awareness of readiness to act carried by the configuration of bodily sensations. The felt sense differs from emotions because it is not able to motivate the action for which it makes us ready. The article also discusses the intuition that led to the founding of Gendlin's psychotherapeutic technique and compares it with the psychoanalytic concept of working through resistance during therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the problem that the socalled mentally ill people do not have a free relationship with their feelings. This lack limits their contacts with their existential possibilities. There is investigated the complicated connection betweenn the existential attonement on one side, and the feelings on the other side. The sense of feeling is seen to be the information about the fulfillment of the individual's own possibility of autentic existence. There is introduced the concrete procedure of therapy in regard with feelings. The paper emphasises the positive influence of group setting on the therapy of feelings. Work with feelings in daseinsanalysis is not conceived as a mere psychological technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main focus of this paper is the research of emotions by means of the International Affective Picture System. It is a set of photographs which according to the authors' assumptions differ in two basic dimensions of emotions - valence and arousal. The paper discusses the studies carried out using this system, theoretical context of this approach, its theoretical and methodological limitations and possible starting points. The authors believe that this system is primarily based on the necessity to study the semantic content of pictures, or in other words, on a psychosemantic approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How emotions influence decision making is an important question because emotions are present not only in the most important decisions in the life. The previous research concentrated rather on the role of negative emotions and that is why the goal of the paper is to counterpoint the role played by positive emotions in decision making from the position of its situational influences as well as particular dispositional personality characteristics like cognitive style or ability to regulate emotions because people who are able to regulate their emotions in the desirable way have an advantage. The first part of the study is devoted to the relation between emotions and cognitive processes and the specific influence of positive emotions on decision making. In the second part, several alternatives of interaction of positive emotions and personality and possible impacts on decision making are presented. In the conclusion, the findings indicating that making use of emotions as information for decision making brings rather positive consequences for human life are summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. The primary objective of the study was to verify the stereotype that Slovaks are "more emotional" than Czechs. In the present paper authors compared the emotionality of Czech and Slovak undergraduates: study focused on the frequency of experienced emotions and on the preferred strategy of emotional expression. Authors assumed that the samples of Czech and Slovak undergraduates would not differ in terms of frequency of emotions but that they would differ in terms of their regulatory strategies. Sample and settings. The Czech (N = 107) and Slovak (N = 144) undergraduates recorded emotional valence, frequency of their emotional experience and their preferred expression of the emotion into a specific questionnaire (an inventory of 80 emotions obtained in previous investigations). Statistical analysis. The collected data was processed based on the average frequency of responses for each emotion. For the comparison of Czech and Slovak frequency of experienced emotion, authors used the t-test for two independent samples and to compare the expressive strategies the chi-square test for comparing the observed and expected values. For the correlation of emotions, authors used the nonparametric Spearman rho correlation coefficient. Results. The results have shown that the emotional connotations are predominantly similar in both samples; however analyses found different connotations for the emotion of pride, which correlated more strongly with negative emotions rather than positive in the Czech sample. Students in the Slovak sample experienced emotions slightly more often than Czech respondents. The samples differ significantly in terms of emotion regulation: the Slovak undergraduates express emotions more openly as compared to Czech students who often deamplify their emotional expressions. Study limitations. The limitations of this study are the facts that the samples were not representative and that the Slovak undergraduates were not involved in the construction of the used inventory of emotions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the conclusions of the pilot study of efficacy of particular therapeutic approach in eating disorders treatment. The multifamily therapy is a frequently used kind of work with these patients abroad. Prague centre of specialized care for eating disorders uses this model under the supervision since 2004. Except of optimisation of therapeutic programme it is important to assess its efficacy. For the first study, the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods was chosen. Ten fields were evaluated in the sample consisting of 20 families for testing the hypothesis that the multifamily therapy is an efficient form of eating disorders treatment and its influence is different in group of parents and group of patients. Next goal was to evaluate the chosen methods for the continuation of the study and its connecting to international research in multifamily therapy and comparative studies of efficacy of multifamily therapy and on-line supporting parents groups. The most prominent effect of the therapy was found in symptoms of eating disorders and emotional stability, especially in decrease of depressive symptoms. The general influence of multifamily therapy on family atmosphere, on reduction of tension and anxiety in relation to the future was stated. In further key fields (quality of life, patients' self-concept), significant positive changes were found. The pilot study represents the basis for further research in multifamily therapy of eating disorders. The conclusions support the internationally recognized efficacy of this therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]