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For over 60 years, Colombia has endured violent civil conflict forcibly displacing more than 8 million people. Recent efforts have begun to explore mental health consequences of these contexts, with an emphasis on national surveys. To date few Colombian studies explore mental health and well-being from a lived experience perspective. Those that do, overlook processes that enable survival. In response to this gap, we conducted a life history study of seven internally displaced Colombian women in the Cundinamarca department, analysing 18 interview sessions and 36 hours of transcripts. A thematic network analysis, informed by Latin-American perspectives on gender and critical resilience frameworks, explored women’s coping strategies in response to conflict-driven hardships related to mental well-being. Analysis illuminated that: (1) the gendered impacts of the armed conflict on women’s emotional well-being work through exacerbating historical gendered violence and inequality, intensifying existing emotional health challenges, and (2) coping strategies reflect women’s ability to mobilise cognitive, bodied, social, material and symbolic power and resources. Our findings highlight that the sociopolitical contexts of women’s lives are inseparable from their efforts to achieve mental well-being, and the value of deep narrative and historical work to capturing the complexity of women’s experiences within conflict settings. We suggest the importance of social interventions to support the mental health of women in conflict settings, in order to centre the social and political contexts faced by such marginalised groups within efforts to improve mental health.

What types of vaccines are citizens most likely to accept? We administered a conjoint experiment requesting 15,000 adult citizens across 14 countries from around the world to assess 450,000 profiles of vaccines that randomly varied on seven attributes. Beyond vaccine fundamentals such as efficacy rate, number of doses, and duration of the protection, we find that citizens systematically favor vaccines developed and produced in their own country of residence. These results indicate that a sociological form of vaccine nationalism shapes vaccine acceptance. The extent of preference in favor of vaccines developed and produced within the national borders is particularly large among citizens who identify more strongly with their nation, suggesting nationalism plays a role in explaining the bias in favor of vaccines developed and produced locally. This public opinion bias on vaccine preferences has significant theoretical and practical implications.

The kuluna phenomenon is a social pathology having many causal factors in multidimensional systems such as the microsystem and the macrosystem. So the changing process requires first the prevention by elaborating a public policy with a multisector impact. But many times reaction is applied instead of preventing to avoid gangsters among young in the city of Kinshasa by the public managers. In this article, we give some prerequisites for the elaboration of a multisector public policy and the praxis, concerning legal authorities and the Christian social workers through the churches and other Christian social organizations which are called to work in the sense of a contextual mission, and deal with spiritually in addition to the psycho-sociological questions. The findings of this research show evidence in the hyper military environment of Kinshasa city and the Kuluna phenomenon. Demilitarization of the city is imperative

Introduction: Infectious diseases have had a significant role in shaping human history by engraving a subconscious sense of ‘fear of infection’. The three sequential stages of the rational response to fear- fear, denial, and frustration, have been reported as predominant among quarantined individuals during any outbreak. To our knowledge, this was one of the first studies to assess the impact of the first case of COVID-19 among the neighbouring dwellers. Methods: A semi-qualitative study was conducted through telephonic interviews. Detailed descriptions of the experiences of the inhabitants after coming to know about the first incidence of a patient of COVID-19 in the locality were obtained. Participants were recruited through purposive and snowball sampling. Semi-structured in-depth telephonic interviews were done at a time convenient for participants between April 9 to 11, 2020. Results: Source of information for all the participants was from a neighbour and the participants came to know about the news on 7th of April 2020. All the participants were aware of the correct attitudes and practices of the general public to be followed during the pandemic including hand hygiene, use of face masks, social distancing and adhering to the government lockdown rules. Mixed reactions of panic, fear and confusion were obtained. Most participants were concerned about children and elderly at home, financial constraints due to the blockage of the locality from adjoining areas, everyday hassles that they were about to experience, etc. Despite most participants having minimal fear of contracting the illness themselves, fear of a family member acquiring the same seemed to be significantly higher on hearing the news. ConclusionThe study adds to the existing literature that fear and anxiety during a pandemic are mostly due to the uncertainty related to the disease spread and misinformation. There is a need for phased and well informed lockdown implementation and better knowledge propagation among the general public in order to mitigate unwanted fear and panic among the general public.

Most countries have been struggling with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic imposing social isolation on their citizens. However, this measure carried risks for people's mental health. This study evaluated the psychological repercussions of objective isolation in 1,006 Italians during the first, especially strict, lockdown in spring 2020. Although varying for the regional spread-rate of the contagion, results showed that the longer the isolation and the less adequate the physical space where people were isolated, the worse the mental health (e.g., depression). Offline social contacts buffered the association between social isolation and mental health. However, when offline contacts were limited, online contacts seemed crucial in protecting mental health. The findings inform about the potential downsides of the massive social isolation imposed by COVID-19 spread, highlighting possible risk factors and resources to account for implementing such isolation measures. Specifically, besides some known factors such as physical space availability, the local contagion rate is critical in moderating the link between social isolation and mental health issues, supporting national policies implementing regional tiers of restriction severity.

Background: The issue of rumors associated with COVID-19 has gained importance in Punjab in North India. This is associated with a surge in numbers of patients, reluctance of people to cooperate with health care personnel and the arrest of people for rumor mongering. Methods: We accessed messages with content pertaining to rumors about COVID-19 being forwarded through WhatsApp (a popular messaging app in India). Findings: A content analysis of the messages suggests that they are brief, easily understandable, forwarded in text, audio and video formats. The messages pertain to the nature of COVID-19, the motivations of the government and health care agencies, and that people should avoid getting tested and getting admitted. Interpretation: Messages spread via WhatsApp represent an anonymous, efficient and encrypted vehicle for spreading rumors. There is a need to counter this phenomenon. Funding: None

The tremendous growth and impact of fake news as a hot research field gained the public’s attention and threatened their safety in recent years. However, there is a wide range of developed fashions to detect fake contents, either those human-based approaches or machine-based approaches; both have shown inadequacy and limitations, especially those fully automatic approaches. The purpose of this analytic study of media news language is to investigate and identify the linguistic features and their contribution in analyzing data to detect, filter, and differentiate between fake and authentic news texts. This study outlines promising uses of linguistic indicators and adds a rather unconventional outlook to prior literature. It utilizes qualitative and quantitative data analysis as an analytic method to identify systematic nuances between fake and factual news in terms of detecting and comparing 16 attributes under three main linguistic features categories (lexical, grammatical, and syntactic features) assigned manually to news texts. The obtained datasets consist of publicly available right documents on the Politi-fact website and the raw (test) data set collected randomly from news posts on Facebook pages. The results show that linguistic features, especially grammatical features, help determine untrustworthy texts and demonstrate that most of the test news tends to be unreliable articles.

This article is a review of recent contributions in critical psychology, and its close cousins, critical social psychology, critical community psychology and liberation psychology, to understandings of the human response to climate change. It contrasts critical psychology with mainstream psychology in general terms, before introducing a critical psychological perspective on climate change. Central to this perspective is a critique of the framing of individual behaviour change as the problem and solution to climate change in mainstream psychology, and a related emphasis on identifying ‘barriers’ to pro-environmental behaviour. This framework is argued to be reductive, obscuring or downplaying the influence of a range of factors in shaping predominant responses to climate change to date, including social context, discourse, power and affect. Currently, critical psychologies set out to study the relative contribution of these factors to (in)action on climate change. A related concern is how the psychological and emotional impacts of climate change impact unevenly on communities and individuals, depending on place-based, economic, geographic and cultural differences, and giving rises to experiences of injustice, inequality and disempowerment. Critical psychology does not assume these to be overriding or inevitable psychological and social responses, however. Critical psychologies also undertake research and inform interventions that highlight the role of collective understanding, activism, empowerment and resistance as the necessary foundations of a genuine shift towards sustainable societies.

Within high-income-countries, the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted people from racially minoritised backgrounds. There has been significant research interrogating the disparate impact of the virus, and recently, interest in the long-term implications of the global crisis on young people’s mental health and wellbeing. However, less work explores the experiences of young people from racialised backgrounds as they navigate the pandemic, and the specific consequences this has for their mental health. Forty young people (age 16–25) from Black, mixed and other minority backgrounds and living in London, participated in consecutive focus group discussions over a two-month period, to explore the impact of the pandemic on their lives and emotional wellbeing. Thematic analysis identified seven thematic categories describing the impact of the pandemic, indicating: deepening of existing socioeconomic and emotional challenges; efforts to navigate racism and difference within the response; and survival strategies drawing on communal and individual resources. Young people also articulated visions for a future public health response which addressed gaps in current strategies. Findings point to the need to contextualize public health responses to the pandemic in line with the lived experiences of racialised young people. We specifically note the importance of long-term culturally and socio-politically relevant support interventions. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Mutual aid groups have flourished during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, a major challenge is sustaining such groups, which tend to decline following the initial upsurge immediately after emergencies. The present study investigates one possible motivation for continued participation: the wellbeing benefits associated with psychological membership of groups, as suggested by the ‘social cure’ approach. Interviews were conducted with 11 volunteers in a mutual aid group organised by ACORN, a community union and anti-poverty campaigning organisation. Through qualitative analysis we show that participation provided wellbeing in different ways: positive emotional experiences, increased engagement in life, improved social relationships, and greater sense of control. Participants also reported some negative emotional experiences. Whilst all interviewees experienced benefits from participation, those who viewed their participation through a political lens were able to experience additional benefits such as feelings of empowerment. Moreover, the benefits conferred by a shared political identity appeared to be qualitatively different from the benefits conferred by other forms of shared identity. The interview data is used to hypothesise an overall process by which participants may come to attain a political identity via mutual aid. These findings have implications for how such groups retain their members and how authorities support these groups.

Despite the common public image of homelessness (read: a single “vagrant” person), families with children represent one-third of the homeless population—an especially-serious social problem, since family homelessness has long-term negative impacts on two generations simultaneously. This interdisciplinary study examined the complexities of family homelessness in Fort Worth, Texas. A literature review outlined pathways into family homelessness, shared experiences, and common intervention strategies. An original qualitative study followed, employing a phenomenological approach to interview families in a local rapid-rehousing program. Open-ended question allowed free description of personal realities. Audio-recorded responses were analyzed for relevant themes, commonalities, and variations. Findings suggested that Fort Worth families’ pathways into homelessness are consistent with “life shock theory,” whereby those already financially-strained suddenly experience compounding stresses, leading to homelessness. The study found local and national experiences to be similar; however, it was limited by a convenience sample exclusively comprised of women nearing a housing goal, potentially coloring their outlooks. Finally, the study raised the question whether rapidly-rehoused Fort Worth families are well-positioned for stability. The similarity of participants’ concerns pre- and post-homelessness suggested that some families may transition to a status still “at risk,” rather than “stably-housed.” Considered in the context of previous research, findings supported further interdisciplinary inquiry into how longer-term, post-housing support might promote housing stability.

In Scotland, and United Kingdom, there are stark inequalities in the experience of older age, particularly for those with limited social contact, poorer health, located in deprived neighbourhoods (Centre for Ageing Better 2015). This mixed-methodology research, reports survey findings with n=169 community dwelling older adults in Scotland (average age 79.5), supported with qualitative interviews to evidence the underexplored connection between food insecurity and physiological risk indicators of undernutrition (malnutrition), with psychosocial indicators of healthy ageing. Findings are grounded in collaboration with a third sector social enterprise – Food Train, who provide food shopping and volunteer meal making for those aged 65+. Findings revealed correlations between food insecurity and early indicators of malnutrition risk with poorer wellbeing, and social connectedness. Supported food access mitigates the negative cycle of food insecurity on mental health, via empowerment (locus of control) over one’s life. Qualitative findings suggest that risks of food insecurity may not be financial (food poverty), or attributable to health realities associated with ageing. Rather, psychosocial health and wellbeing diverge as older adults attempt to draw upon available resources, reflective of their own social capital. Mitigators of malnutrition risk includes empowerment through social care located in the third sector, as well as social aspects of food access e.g. social eating, warranting future investigation. These findings are considered post Covid-19, with key policy implications.

There has been an increased panic due to a substantial rise in COVID-19 infections across the globe. Reports are coming that in many of the regions, few people are targeting nationals of certain countries from where the infection originated. Such ignorant behaviour of people would be complicating the situation for different health officials, caregivers and governments. There is an urgent need of tackling the situation and advanced planning.

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is critically impacting health and wellbeing around the world. In addition to physical health problems, COVID-19 is increasingly reported to be associated with mental health problems across populations. Evidence from the current pandemic and earlier infectious disease outbreaks suggests that several psychosocial factors, including fear and susceptibility of infection, stigma, lack of awareness, pre-existing health problems, and poor social support affect the mental health status among the vulnerable individuals and populations. Moreover, social determinants of mental health are disproportionately distributed across populations, which also affect coping with adverse psychosocial conditions. During COVID-19 pandemic, many psychological challenges are aggravating globally, including suicidal behavior. In this correspondence, we discuss a case of suicide of an army soldier in India and the psychosocial epidemiology of suicidal behavior in the context of COVID-19.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has impacted not only physical health but also mental health and wellbeing globally. These impacts can be critically higher among marginalized individuals and populations like farmers in India. While most of them live in poor socioeconomic conditions, recent psychosocial challenges due to the COVID-19 lockdown had brought endless suffering in their lives. In this article, we describe a case of suicide of an Indian farmer amid COVID-19 lockdown, who had debts and could not find laborers during the lockdown leading to a helpless situation committing suicide. In India, nearly 16,500 farmers commit suicide each year, which can aggravate if psychosocial and economic challenges like COVID-19 continues to affect them. We recommend psychosocial interventions among vulnerable farmers alongside strengthening economic support and institutional measures alleviating socioeconomic challenges and minimizing disparities in social determinants of suicidal behavior to prevent suicide among Indian farmers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Folk beliefs and philosophers have long suggested that mastering adversity contributes to growth in wisdom –adaptability to the situation, perspectivism, dialectical thinking, and epistemic humility. But existing research on outcomes of adversity suggests a puzzle. On the one hand, cross-sectional studies have found adversity leads to post-traumatic growth in personal strengths such as wisdom. On the other hand, focus on adverse experiences exacerbates negative emotions and thoughts and undermines health and well-being over time. Our chapter highlights the idea that outcomes of adversity may depend on one’s mindset when reflecting on the adverse experience. Adopting a self-distanced mindset rather than the habitual self-focused or self-immersed mindset is likely to enhance wise characteristics. We review evidence-based advances in the study of daily adversity and wisdom, specifically focusing on utilizing longitudinal and experimental methodologies, and address future questions and clinical implications of self-distanced mindsets for growth in wisdom.

Introduction: Loneliness is a critical psychosocial problem that affects mental health and wellbeing of the individuals and communities. This systematic review synthesized the current evidence on the prevalence and correlates of loneliness from empirical studies conducted in India. Methods: Adopting the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines, eight major databases and additional sources were searched. Studies were evaluated using following criteria: peer-reviewed journal articles, published in English language, presenting any quantitative form of evidence on loneliness, and studies conducted in India among the Indian population. A meta-analysis of the prevalence studies and narrative synthesis of the overall status and factors associated with loneliness were conducted.Results: Among 1290 studies, only 13 met our criteria. All the studies reported a high burden of loneliness among the participants. The pooled prevalence among 3169 participants was 41% (95% confidence interval [CI] 18% - 63%). The burden of loneliness was higher among the elderly participants (44%, 95% CI 5% - 83%) compared to younger participants (24%, 95% CI 22% - 27%). Factors associated with loneliness included aging, family structure, marital status, religious practices, group membership, educational attainment, source and level of income, psychological attributes, and comorbid physical and mental health conditions among the affected individuals. Conclusion: This review identified and evaluated the status and severity of loneliness and its correlates, which may inform future studies examining complex psychopathological and social dynamics associated with loneliness. Lastly, the current evidence necessitates the development of multipronged interventions to address the risk factors and alleviate the burden of loneliness in India.

Conspiracy theories offer unvalidated explanations for important political and societal events and thus are likely to develop around a crisis, such as the Corona pandemic. Research has shown that a general tendency to believe in conspiracy theories—a so-called conspiracy mentality—comes with negative societal consequences, such as decreased social engagement and less trust in authorities. However, this has not been tested for concrete conspiracy theories like the ones around the Corona pandemic. Social engagement and trust in authorities are essential to successfully fight the pandemic. Therefore, we examined the relation between the belief in two Corona-related conspiracy theories and trust in authorities, support for governmental regulations, social engagement, social distancing, and hygiene measures in two studies (total N = 909). Believing in a Political Corona Conspiracy (accusing government and media) showed a stronger (and unique) negative relation to all desired outcomes than believing in a China Corona Conspiracy (accusing China of developing the virus). However, believing in the theories was not related to hygiene measures. Overall, believing in specific conspiracy theories predicts harmful attitudes and behaviours similarly to conspiracy mentality, but to a stronger extent. Findings underscore the relevance of conspiracy theories in the context of the Corona pandemic.

Readiness to implement an innovation (defined as a policy, program, or practice that is new to the organization) is necessary for quality implementation. By deliberately attempting to build readiness, there is potential to improve how programs implementation innovations. This article presents the results of a research synthesis that reviewed 1) how readiness has been addressed in the literature (e.g., are multiple subcomponents addressed in the same study?), 2) how changeable the different components (motivation, innovation-specific capacities, and general capacities) and sub-components of readiness are when deliberately targeted by supportive interventions (tools, training, technical assistance (TA), quality assurance and quality improvement (QA/QI)), and 3) the quality with which support strategies to address readiness are reported. Articles included in the synthesis generally reported targeting some, but not all, of the readiness subcomponents during implementation. Nearly all subcomponents can be increased, although there is variation in the quality of evidence supporting how changeable they are. However, there is little reported data about how well support strategies are implemented, which can inhibit the replication of specific techniques. These results can encourage support system providers who work with community-based organizations to think about how they can address and prioritize subcomponents of organizational readiness when adopting, implementing, and sustaining innovations.

The perception of time plays a fundamental role in the organisation of basic psychological processes, and as such may also influence migrants’ psychological wellbeing. This paper investigates the relationship between the perception of time and immigrants’ psychological adaptation (i.e., affective aspects of migration) based on a sample of 238 Ukrainians residing in Poland. To assess time perception, we drew primarily from time perspective theory, which defines time perspective as a measure of the degree to which individuals non-consciously construe the past, the present, and the future. Psychological adaptation was assessed, focusing on participants’ basic psychological needs satisfaction, their satisfaction with life, and their psychological condition. We observed a relatively strong negative relationship between negative past and fatalistic present time perspectives and psychological adaptation. Additionally, we found that a more balanced and less negative temporal profile was related to significantly better psychological adaptation of immigrants. We discuss these results in light of the cultural validity of time perspective theory, the destructive impact of negative time perspective on migrants’ psychological wellbeing, and the potential applications of time perspective-based therapy in integration interventions for immigrants.

The moral foundations theory (MFT) is an influential multifactorial model that posits how decision-making in the moral context originates from a set of six intuitive moral foundations: care, fairness, authority, loyalty, purity, and liberty. The established measure of these foundations – the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ) – has been used extensively in a range of empirical projects. However, recent analyses of its factor structure and the internal consistency of the each of the foundation clusters have called its validity into question. In this paper, data from a large sample of British voters (N = 428) was used to re-examine the component structure of the MFQ. As opposed to a six-component structure, only three meaningful clusters emerged: traditionalism, compassion, and liberty. Concurrent validity was established via correlations with measures of ‘social change’ and ‘systemic inequality’ insecurities, while significant differences on each of the three components of the revised MFQ (MFQ-r) were observed between the voters of different political parties. Implications for moral foundations theory and its measurement are discussed.

Despite what some may believe, not all Aboriginal students in Canada receive free university education. Many applicants are denied this education opportunity because existing programs are chronically underfunded. The Post-Secondary Student Support Program (PSSSP) is one of such programs. It is financed by the Canadian government and aims to provide First Nations students with funding to access post-secondary education. Although there may be several reasons why this education problem persists, we examined one possibility – psychological barriers to support of Aboriginal education amongst the public. Specifically, we explored five factors: personal prejudice towards Aboriginal peoples, perceived social mobility, meritocratic beliefs, group-level zero-sum beliefs, and political conservatism. Based on previous research, we hypothesized that they would all negatively relate to support for the PSSSP. In a sample of Canadian adults, we found that only two of these factors (higher personal prejudice and political conservatism) uniquely explained less support for the program. Although correlational, this study provides insight into factors that may influence Canadians’ decisions about a potentially impactful opportunity for Aboriginal individuals, in this case, funding to attend university. We discuss the implications of these findings for continued PSSSP support as well as for other programs and policies targeted at marginalized groups.

В современном российском обществе важную роль играет тема национальной государственной идеологии. Это потому, что национальная идея и идеология в целом выступают интегрирующей силой. Анализ проблематики духовной составляющей в традиционной идеологии русской идеи ведёт к обоснованию необходимости трансляции культурной традиции, накопленного поколениями исторического духовного опыта.In modern Russian society, the theme of national state ideology plays an important role. This is because the national idea and ideology as a whole act as an integrating force. An analysis of the problems of the spiritual component in the traditional ideology of the Russian idea leads to the justification of the need to translate the cultural tradition accumulated by generations of historical spiritual experience.

Objective: Dating violence (DV) is a psychosocial problem which impacts the health and wellbeing of affected individuals. Many studies have reported a high prevalence and various determinants of DV; however, there is a gap of consolidated evidence on this problem. This umbrella review aimed to synthesize the current evidence on the prevalence and determinants of DV from systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Methods: We systematically searched ten major databases and additional sources to retrieve systematic reviews or meta-analyses reporting prevalence or determinants of DV, published as peer-reviewed journal articles in English language till October 13, 2019. We extracted and synthesized the findings, reported the prevalence of DV, and categorized the determinants of DV using the socioecological model. Results: We found 16 eligible systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Most of these studies were conducted in developed countries with a majority of adolescent and young adult participants. Studies reported varying prevalence of physical, sexual, psychological/emotional, and technology-assisted DV ranging from 0.1% to 57.5%, 0.1% to 64.6%, 4.2% to 97%, and 5.8% to 92%, respectively. The determinants of DV at different socioecological levels, including individual behavior, substance abuse, psychiatric conditions, experiencing violence and maltreatment; interpersonal factors like family and peer relationships; community and neighborhood characteristics; patriarchy, culture, and socioeconomic equalities were reported. Conclusions: These findings suggest a high burden of DV among young populations, who are vulnerable to various socioecological determinants of DV. Future research should examine how these factors influence DV and multi-level interventions should be adopted to address the same.

This study explored psychological variables associated with disaffiliation from Orthodox Judaism (a covenantal community), and subsequent wellness. A web-based survey (N = 206) assessed factors previously used to study immigrants: push (distress within origin community), pull (toward destination community), and goal attainment. Psychological and emotional wellness, perceived stress, overall health, and loneliness were also assessed. Findings included: 1) strong pull toward opportunities for physical and ideological autonomy; 2) those who experienced more push toward disaffiliation, reported decreased current wellness; 3) goal attainment was associated with increased wellness 4) significant differences in the experiences of disaffiliation between men and women; 5) most who disaffiliated left religion altogether; those who remained religious decreased their participation, few joined non-Jewish faith communities. Results demonstrate that this immigration paradigm can be adapted to advance research on individuals who disaffiliate from covenantal communities.

The neighborhoods that people live in contain a variety of features that color their everyday psychological experience. Whether they feel welcomed by their neighbors, the type of schools they can send their children to, and whether they can find a local job that pays them enough to afford a safe, comfortable home are all examples of ever-present factors that can influence people’s perception of the world and their place in it. Previous work has explored the degree to which individual characteristics, such as personal beliefs and social networks, are associated with judgments about whether society is fair and just. Here, we build upon this work by investigating if these judgments are also associated with the features of the neighborhoods that people live in. Specifically, we hypothesize that neighborhood diversity and socioeconomic indicators will relate to individual beliefs about fairness and social order. We test this hypothesis using two large, open datasets – the Attitudes, Identities, and Individual Differences study data, and the Opportunity Insights Neighborhood Characteristics by County data – and through multi-method modeling techniques. Our work can inform theories of individual perception of, and response to, societal inequity, as well as models of public opinion of social welfare policy.

This document is the summary report of the main findings of the Swiss LGBTIQ+ survey 2019. The authors contributed equally to the work.

Family is the most basic institution of society with several socialization functions. Previously, the traditional “normative” family in Africa was a large household made-up of the extended family. Later, globalization processes led to the institutionalization of the nuclear family arrangement as the “typical” married-couple family setting. Currently, the agents of globalization have popularized and made single-parent families (having child/children without being married), and a two-parent cohabiting family (living with one’s partner without being married) lost some social stigma in many African societies. Single-parenthood and cohabitation are becoming “trendy” family structure in many African societies. Guided by the structural functionalism approach, the influence of globalization on the African family structure was discussed. Data from Demographic Health Surveys, World Family Map and various studies from some sub-Saharan African countries were used to examine the prevalence of the married-couple, cohabiting-couple, and single-parent family structures. Since the family is the most prominent family structure in Africa, the society, governmental and non-governmental agencies, education and religious institutions, as well as clinical and social services, should be attuned to the currently diverse “new normal” family systems to ensure that families thrive.

Intergenerational practice (IP) is an approach within community health promotion, which aims to bring older and younger community members together in collaborative activity. Little research has critically examined the assumptions and values within IP, and their implications for these communities. A sample of 15 IP planning documents were analysed using a social constructionist thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) guided by Prior’s (2008) concept of documents as active agents. Three tensions were identified: a community-led model versus a contact model; old and young as targets versus older people as targets; and process-focused versus outcome-focused evaluation. IP has relied on contact theory as a mechanism of change, which has rooted IP to an overly individualistic practice targeted at older people (rather than all ages). In contrast, the community-led ethos of IP was also evident alongside values of mutual benefit for old and young, and a desire for more process-focused evaluation.

Traditional society of Bangladesh has been enduring explicit transformation. Individuals’ increasing income, flourishing consumer culture, and security in social life as a cumulative force smooths the scope of modern global amenities to come in and grow up amid this changing society. Of them, new age digital communication is vital one. Digital media is encompassing people’s everyday life. Process of acquiring information has also changed remarkably: instead of searching to get one, people now struggle to look for reliable information due to ample information. Cyberspace becomes the cornucopia of fluid information that often baffles the surfers by providing distorted information. Bangladesh has been experiencing digital media-initiated disinformation from the beginning of 2010s. Interest groups are playing with digital disinformation conjoining religious sentiment. As a result, incidents of assault on religious minorities based on digital (dis)information have become frequent. Considering the importance of digital disinformation instigating communalism in Bangladesh, this study explores the nature of contemporary digital communalism and violence on religious minorities. It has been seen that beyond mere religious sentimentalism and sensationalism, historical and political along with several other factors significantly contribute to these atrocities.

Relational models of procedural justice propose that fair procedures from authorities communicate that one is an affirmed member of the society that they represent. Authorities who use principles of procedural justice are more likely to be seen as legitimate, increasing compliance and cooperation from the public. However, ensuring that authority decisions will be accepted is not necessarily a guaranteed outcome of employing fair procedures. The empirical evidence discussed here questions what drives perceptions of authority fairness and decision acceptance by considering how social identities shape fairness perceptions. We argue that understanding these processes is crucial for authorities dealing with complex intergroup-level mediations. We support these claims by presenting an experimental study conducted in the context of post-conflict relations between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. We show that people with more negative outgroup attitudes saw restrictive police actions as fairer when these actions targeted the outgroup (versus ingroup), and more strongly preferred for facilitative police decisions concerning the ingroup (versus outgroup). In contrast, people with positive outgroup attitudes did not evaluate police decisions depending on their own community belonging. The findings suggest that the nature of intergroup relations is a relevant element in responses to authority decisions. We outline new directions to theoretical developments of how authorities can effectively serve social systems that they represent.

We examine the mechanisms of cooperation and community structuring human decisions and behaviour, with the goal of outlining new models taking into account the importance of social emotions underlying human behaviour. We introduce formal definitions for the terms discussed, emphasizing the role of social emotions in human evolution. Following on from the idea that kinship is a central organising factor in human behaviour, we introduce the concept of ‘spheres of belonging’ to designate the structure of kinship, in an attempt to explore its attributes and suggest some of its applications.

Half a century of research on bystander behavior concludes that individuals are less likely to intervene during an emergency when in the presence of others than when alone. By contrast, little is known regarding the aggregated likelihood that at least someone present at an emergency will do something to help. The importance of establishing this aggregated intervention baseline is not only of scholarly interest, but is also the most pressing question for actual public victims—will I receive help if needed? The current paper describes the largest systematic study of real-life bystander intervention in actual public conflicts captured by surveillance cameras. Using a unique cross-national video dataset from the United Kingdom, Netherlands, and South Africa (N = 219), we show that in nine-out-of-ten public conflicts, at least one bystander, but typically several, will do something to help. We record similar likelihoods of intervention across the three national contexts, which differ greatly in levels of recorded violent crime. Finally, we find that increased bystander presence is related to a greater likelihood that someone will intervene. Taken together these findings allay the widespread fear that bystanders rarely intervene to help. We argue that it is time for psychology to change the narrative away from an absence of help and towards a new understanding of what makes intervention successful or unsuccessful.

What is social pressure, and how could it be adaptive to conform to others’ expectations? Existing accounts highlight the importance of reputation and social sanctions. Yet, conformist behavior is multiply determined: sometimes, a person desires social regard, but at other times she feels obligated to behave a certain way, regardless of any reputational benefit—i.e. she feels a sense of should. We develop a formal model of this sense of should, beginning from a minimal set of biological premises: that the brain is predictive, that prediction error has a metabolic cost, and that metabolic costs are prospectively avoided. It follows that unpredictable environments impose metabolic costs, and in social environments these costs can be reduced by conforming to others’ expectations. We elaborate on a sense of should’s benefits and subjective experience, its likely developmental trajectory, and its relation to embodied mental inference. From this individualistic metabolic strategy, the emergent dynamics unify social phenomenon ranging from status quo biases, to communication and motivated cognition. We offer new solutions to long-studied problems (e.g. altruistic behavior), and show how compliance with arbitrary social practices is compelled without explicit sanctions. Social pressure may provide a foundation in individuals on which societies can be built.

Fan groups are communities which develop a shared identity around a specific topic or idea. Hentai fans identify as part of a group which celebrates a medium of illustrated or animated pornography. We examined the associations between hentai fan membership, feelings of ingroup identification, and perceptions of discrimination both toward themselves and other fan groups within the anime community. Hentai fans showed more liking toward other groups but feel more discrimination toward themselves as compared to non-hentai fans, who feel less liking toward other groups and feel less discrimination targeted at their own group. Additionally, hentai fans identify more as fans of hentai than non-hentai fans identify with their respective groups, including anime fans. We also found evidence supporting a serial mediation model wherein higher fandom identification leads to higher feelings of more positive attitudes in fan groups, while feelings of personal discrimination do not correlate with higher positive feelings of prejudice in fan groups. The implications of these results and future directions are also discussed.

Human social groups are central to social organization and pervasively impact interpersonal interactions. While immensely varied, all social groups can also be considered specific instantiations of a common and abstract ingroup-outgroup structure. How much of the power of human social groups stems from learned variation versus abstract commonality? I review evidence demonstrating that from early in development a wide range of intergroup phenomena, most prominently many ingroup biases, follow solely from simple membership in an abstract social collective. Such effects cannot be attributed to rich social learning and so: a) constrain theories seeking to explain or intervene on ingroup bias, and b) provide reason to think that our species is powerfully predisposed towards ingroup favoritism from early in development.

Emerging evidence suggests that arts-based programs are helpful in mental health treatment, however, the research has lacked a cohesive and compelling theoretical framework. This study explored how the psychological mechanisms involved in participating in a choir and a creative writing group relate to a social identity theoretical approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 choir members, and 23 creative writing group members at two time points. A thematic analysis revealed that the programs provided participants with a new group identity and renewed participants’ creative identities. These identities frame how the groups meet psychological needs (belonging, esteem, agency, purpose, and hedonic enjoyment) on both a collective and individual level, thus enhancing wellbeing. Challenges relating to attending and connecting with the group were also identified (experiences of identity incompatibility, anxiety, chronic pain, and practical barriers). These findings conceptualise how arts-based groups can develop empowered identities which provide pathways toward mental health recovery.

Background: Mass gatherings are well-documented for their public health risks, however, little research has examined their impact on mental health or focused on young people specifically. This study explores risk and protective factors for mental health at mass gatherings, with a particular focus on characterizing attendees with high levels of psychological distress and risk taking. Method: Data collection was conducted in situ at “Schoolies”, an annual informal week-long mass gathering of approximately 30,000 Australian school leavers. Participants were 812 attendees of Schoolies on the Gold Coast in 2015 or 2016 (74% aged 17 years old).Results: In both years, attendee mental health was found to be significantly better than population norms for their age-peers. Identification with the mass gathering predicted better mental health, and this relationship became stronger across the course of the mass gathering. Attendees with high levels of psychological distress were more likely to be male, socially isolated, impulsive, and in a friendship group where risk taking was normative. Conclusions: Mass gatherings may have a net benefit for attendee mental health, especially for those attendees who are subjectively committed to the event. However, a vulnerable subgroup of attendees requires targeted mental health support.

Though there are many views on the nature of wisdom, a common thread emerging in philosophical, folk, and scientific discourse is the importance of wise reflection or “reasoning” for sound judgment. In this chapter, we briefly highlight this common thread in historical perspectives on wisdom before moving on to discuss its further development through contemporary personality- and performance-oriented traditions in the empirical study of wisdom. These empirical traditions serve as forerunners to the recent methodological and experimental innovations in the study of wise reasoning. We detail the strengths and weaknesses of existing measures of wisdom, and the subsequent development and validation of the Situated Wise Reasoning Scale to address the limitations of previous approaches. We highlight work demonstrating the importance of the situation for measuring wise reasoning. Further, we address cultural differences in wise reasoning, and highlight ways to boost people’s propensity to reason wisely. Finally, we outline some of the theoretical and practical implications of wise reasoning for wisdom writ large.

In this chapter we explore how master narratives have ethical and moral implications, and how master narratives can provide a way for researchers to look at the intersections of culture, ethics, morality, and individual development. We make this case by advancing three propositions about the relation among master narratives, ethics, and morality: 1) Master narratives are fundamentally about ethics in that they outline and convey culturally held ideas about the nature of a good life; 2) While all master narratives are grounded in ethics, not all master narratives are moral; and 3) Despite proposition 2, master narratives can come to exert moral force. We first describe the master narrative framework, and then follow with a detailed discussion of the three propositions. Our intent is that this integration of master narratives with moral development will help researchers in both areas to think about their work in new ways.

As a result of the U.S. government’s involvement in Native American education, the current experiences of Native American college students are characterized by educational disparities. Higher education professionals are in an ideal position to meet the needs and interests of Native American students; however, most of the literature concerning this population takes a deficit approach. The present paper offers a reconceptualization of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems model as an alternative framework for the experiences of Native American college students. In privileging historical and cultural factors, this reconceptualization demonstrates how transforming educational institutions could influence the experiences of Native American college students.

We present evidence for the strengths of the intellectual virtues that philosophers and behavioral scientists characterize as key cognitive elements of wisdom. Wisdom has been of centuries-long interest for philosophical scholarship, but relative to intelligence largely neglected in public discourse on educational science, public policy, and societal well-being. Wise reasoning characteristics include intellectual humility, recognition of uncertainty, consideration of diverse viewpoints, and an attempt to integrate these viewpoints. Emerging scholarship on these features of wisdom suggest that they uniquely contribute to societal well-being, improve leadership, shed light on societal inequality, promote cooperation in Public Goods Games and reduce political polarization and intergroup-hostility. We review empirical evidence about macro-cultural, ecological, situational, and person-level processes facilitating and inhibiting wisdom in daily life. Based on this evidence, we speculate about ways to foster wisdom in education, organizations, and institutions.

Identity research has proliferated in recent years creating a great need for theoretical clarity about the identity concept, and how to use this clarity to understand identities within specific contexts. The present article addresses this need by discussing theoretical aspects of identity development as they apply to another important, yet broad, developmental context: societies in transition. This article includes a brief background on identity research in developmental psychology, an introduction of key theoretical constructs of identity integration, and then finally application of these constructs to understanding identities in transition. The hope is that this theoretical discussion will stimulate further research on identity development in the context of individual and social transitions.

Humankind faces many problems such as like terrorism, crime, the collapse of the family unit, drug abuse, war, theft, etc., the multidisciplinary research was done to find whether that there are basic and common psychological reasons are or not. So, I have found some fundamental factors that are significantly limited or revers of the human intelligence by some decisions making and those limitations might be due to activating of delusional thoughts and decisions which are declined of intelligence, mainly cause by psychological mind viruses[ MV] in them, as I hypothesis, here. Those issues are been impact on optimal living, psychological, physical and social well-being. So, better practical solutions and preventive methods are needed. The leading psychological limiting factors for intelligence development are known as MV and its’ remedies are healthy mind viruses [HMV]. The intelligent learning, training (meditation) and intelligent decisions might evolve the nature of the brain, nurture and x-micro particle genome [X-MPG], all these six factors seem to be interdepended. The X-MPG might bond with the x-unique micro-particle [X-UMP]. However, the X- UMP might never evolve or change and it might maintain the uniqueness of the conscious state of a person. But, the X-MPG helps to evolve the latent potential level of well-being and optimal living gradually, of the related person. Here, I show the unearthed-core of early Buddhist teachings, training (meditation) and decisions inclusive of the 8-fold path may be an efficient methodology for Intelligence evolution. The evolution of nature, nurture, X-MPG, psychological well-being, and intelligence might be represented in a theoretical 3D graph. If life after death occurs, when clinical death of a person’s finally evolved level and micro quantum key of the X- MPG[ +X- UMP] might be crucial to natural transmission to bond with a matching and vacant zygote/early embryo of its micro quantum particles and its new conscious state, might depend on the lastly evolved genome of the X-MPG. However there are many more mysterious issues to be solved in future researches, so this might not a theory of everything on the main theme.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the ‘neo-homeless’ participants’ lived experiences in the shelters and the streets, within the context and the adversities of the economic crisis in Greece. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 6 participants (4 women and 2 men) at a municipal shelter in Athens, Greece. An Interpretative Phenomenological analysis was used to document their experiences and stories. Research findings revolved around the accounts and the negative effects of neo-homelesness such as detrimental personal consequences, stress, depression, depersonalization , a sense of hopelessness and lack of hope for the future. However, the participants spoke also about positive growth, a deeper apprehension of life’s meanings, and the mobilization of personal and interpersonal resources. ‘Neo-homelessness’ hardship in the shelter was incremental in the experiential conscientization and critical consciousness of the oppression of the social context of crisis and austerity. Implications for the work of counseling psychologists are discussed in terms of working towards empowering persons in homeless trajectories towards resilience in mental health, taking a stance of social justice.

The current understanding of emotional intelligence (EI) is flawed and incomplete. In the present chapter we briefly highlight some of the major controversies surrounding EI, including the lack of agreement on how to define it and measurement inconsistencies. We propose that the key gap in current EI scholarship concerns the lack of awareness of cultural impacts on affective processes that underlie various components of EI abilities. Drawing from prior theoretical models, we overview three components that have been described as encompassing the construct of ability EI: emotion perception, emotion understanding, and emotion regulation. For each of these components, we review the relevant cultural literature and discuss how cultural differences can play a substantial role in our understanding of EI as an overall construct. We conclude by discussing how culture should be incorporated into the application and assessment of EI abilities. Ultimately, we propose that one cannot truly understand and talk about EI without considering the context of culture.

This paper focuses on the conceptual model of an academic course inspired by complexity theory. In the proposed conceptual model, the aim of teaching is to form a learning organization: a knowledge community with emergent properties that cannot be reduced to any linear combination of the properties of its parts. In this approach, the learning of the participants depends not so much on their individual action, as on being the coevolving parts of a self-organized whole. In this design, the role of the educator is to catalyze emergence and to facilitate bottom-up knowledge production. To achieve this, we present a systematic way to orchestrate in-class face-to-face activities in small groups while utilizing common web technologies to facilitate online collective action.

This study examined change in acculturation values and behavior among 310 Chinese American adolescents, and how patterns of change were related to key demographic variables and indicators of positive youth development. Dual process group-based trajectory models of change in U.S. and Chinese values and behaviors indicated a six-group solution for each. The results showed that acculturation value patterns were not related to gender, nativity, or parent education, but were related to family cohesion, self-esteem, general and academic self-efficacy, and GPA. Acculturation behavior patterns were not related to gender but were related to nativity and parent education, and were also related to general self-efficacy and family cohesion. Taken together, our findings suggest that most trajectories of development are associated with positive outcomes, but there are small groups of adolescents that function very well (those who maintain higher behavioral involvement in both) and some not very well, especially those whose behaviors are becoming more disparate over time.

The health and healthcare of vulnerable populations is an international concern. In 2011, a Midwestern state within the U.S. mandatorily transitioned 38,000 Medicaid recipients from a fee-for-service system into a managed care program in which managed care companies were contracted to provide recipients’ healthcare for a capitated rate. In addition to cost savings through reductions in preventable and unnecessary hospital admissions, the goals of the managed care program (MCP) included: (1) access to a more functional support system, which can support high and medium risk users in the development of care plans and coordination of care, and (2) choice among competent providers. The population transitioned was a high-need, high-cost, low-income, and low-power group of individuals. The evaluation research team used focus groups as one of many strategies to understand the experience of users during the first two years of this complex change effort. The article explores empowerment in terms of users and their family caregivers’ ability to make meaningful choices and access resources with regard to their healthcare. Specifically, factors empowering and disempowering users were identified within three thematic areas: (1) enrollment experiences, (2) access to care and (3) communication with managed care organizations and providers. While the change was not optional for users, a disempowering feature, there remained opportunities for other empowering and disempowering processes and outcomes through the transition and new managed care program. The results are from 74 participants: 65 users and 9 family caregivers in 11 focus groups and six interviews across two waves of data collection. MCP users felt disempowered by an initial lack of providers, difficulty with transportation to appointments, and challenges obtaining adequate medication. They felt empowered by having a choice of providers, good quality of transportation services and clear communication from providers and managed care organizations. Recommendations for increasing prospects for the empowerment of healthcare users with disabilities within a managed care environment are presented.