Adult education, discrimination and false sciences in the november article recommendation
Contents
- Quality of life, social support, and adherencein female patients with thyroid disorders
- Groups with disabilities and with impaired working ability in the world of work – from the point of view of adult education
- Preparation of adult educators to advise older students
- Understanding the drivers of anti-Roma discrimination on the rental housing market
- The emerging evidence on the association between symptoms of ADHD and gaming disorder
- The Imbalance of Wanting and Liking Contributes to a Bias of Internal Attention Towards Positive Consequences of Tobacco Smoking
- Escape From Uncertainty
- Examining alternative pedagogical spaces
- The moderating effect of resting heart rate variability on the relationship between pain catastrophizing and depressed mood: an empirical study
- The neuropsychological profile of work addiction
Quality of life, social support, and adherencein female patients with thyroid disorders
In the recent domestic research, 885 women living with thyroid disease were asked about topics closely related to mental health. The research results draw attention to the fact that the degree of social support - i.e. the activity of the patient's social environment, friends, family, partner, even the activity of their doctor or psychologist - partly explained the relationship between adherence (willingness to follow the doctor's instructions) and quality of life relationship. In the case of women living with thyroid disease, the presence of supportive, active, and supportive social relationships is therefore extremely important, as this may be related to taking medications regularly, following lifestyle changes (diet, sports) and following medical instructions. Through this, a better quality of life can be achieved for patients.
Groups with disabilities and with impaired working ability in the world of work – from the point of view of adult education
Nowadays, the retraining and further training of disadvantaged and undereducated social groups, including the disabled and those with altered work ability, and increasing their employment is a current and important task from both a social and economic point of view, which poses a great challenge for vocational and adult education and economic organizations. These groups, due to their health and usually disadvantaged socio-cultural situation, have specific learning needs, not only during childhood but also during their adult learning. Their employment rate is significantly lower than the employment indicators of the economically active population and is at a lower level than their suitability and education would allow.
Interviews conducted with leaders of civil organizations representing persons with disabilities and managers of companies providing favorable IT services to the employment of the target group confirmed the results of previous research: the obstacles to employment is caused by the prejudices of employers, the frequent discriminatory decisions, and the lack of information about the employment of this target group (Cseh, 2014; Balázs-Földi, 2018). The interview study draws attention to the importance of sensitizing society, the inclusive workplace environment, the personal and material conditions of training, the importance of introducing special, customizable learning methods in adult learning, and the importance of introducing the crediting of knowledge-acquired-anywhere, as soon as possible.
Preparation of adult educators to advise older students
This qualitative study focuses on the professional development aspects of adult educators who teach languages to older learners by using one-to-one counselling. Open-ended questionnaires were used to explore participating adult educators’ reflective practice during and after the professional development program. We used a grounded theory approach and network analysis in this research. The scaffolded reflective practice that adult educators experienced in the program contributed to their development of learner self-awareness. Junior-and mid-career educators underscored the significance of peer- and instructor supported feedback. In the case of older adult educators, instructional clarity and organisation were identified as particularly crucial in aiming to directly link theory to practical applicability of learner autonomy development. Deepening adult educators’ understanding about instructional approaches that enhance effective learning may also contribute to developing their own learning skills and competences.
Understanding the drivers of anti-Roma discrimination on the rental housing market
The aim of our study is to assess the drivers of discriminatory behaviors of real-estate agents and private landlords toward prospective Roma tenants, relying on qualitative data from Hungary. Though there is a broad literature on the forms and frequency of discrimination, we know much less about the question of why people discriminate. Previous research suggests that discrimination on the basis of ethnicity is widespread in Hungary. To understand the drivers of discrimination, we analyzed: (a) the sources and justifications of discrimination of Roma people on the rental housing market among real-estate agents and private landlords, the actors making decisions about tenants (b) mapped the social embeddedness of discrimination, and (c) assessed the resilience of discriminatory intentions by analyzing the reactions to a 3-min advocacy video showing discrimination of Roma people on the rental housing market. We conducted and analyzed five online group discussions with 18 real estate agents and landlords advertising properties for rent in different regions of the country. Our qualitative study revealed that discrimination of Roma people is understood to be a widespread and socially acceptable practice driven by the need to avoid risks attributed to Roma tenants based on widely held stereotypes about them. We identified certain specificities in the justification and argumentation strategies of real-estate agents in comparison to private landlords. By providing counter-information presenting the perspective of Roma tenants, negative views could be challenged on the emotional level and also by shifting the group dynamics, strengthening the viewpoint of those without prejudice. We discuss our findings with regards to the possibilities of interventions against discrimination in societies in which neither social norms nor state institutions expect the equal treatment of the members of ethnic minority groups.
The emerging evidence on the association between symptoms of ADHD and gaming disorder
The co-existence of gaming disorder (GD) with other mental health problems has been widely reported. Despite the growing research interest in the comorbidity of GD with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), to date, no quantitative synthesis has been performed. The present study comprised a systematic literature search using Scopus, Science Direct, Web of Science, and PubMed databases. Three types of studies were included in the analyses: studies reporting (i) correlation coefficients between the symptoms of GD and ADHD, (ii) means, and standard deviations for comparison of GD severity between ADHD/non-ADHD individuals, and (iii) comparison of ADHD severity between GD/non-GD individuals. The results indicated a moderate relationship between GD and ADHD symptom severity when both subdomains of ADHD were combined (r = 0.296), and also when only inattention (r = 0.306) or hyperactivity (r = 0.266) symptoms were analyzed, which was also confirmed in a structural equation model meta-analysis. Studies showed a large average difference comparing the GD symptom severity of ADHD and non-ADHD individuals (g = 0.693), or ADHD symptom severity of GD and non-GD individuals (g = 0.854). In some cases, higher estimates of association were reported among studies that (i) had a higher proportion of males, (ii) assessed problematic internet use among predominantly videogame player samples rather than assessing only GD, and (iii) had been more recently published. The present review shows that this is an emerging field demonstrating significant results in cross-sectional correlational studies. However, future research should apply more rigorous methodologies to investigate the relationship further (e.g., longitudinal studies and studies using professional/clinical ratings and diagnosis). These results suggest that screening and treatment for ADHD among individuals with gaming disorder is necessary, and individuals with ADHD should be made aware of their higher susceptibility to gaming disorder.
The Imbalance of Wanting and Liking Contributes to a Bias of Internal Attention Towards Positive Consequences of Tobacco Smoking
Previous studies have shown that addiction is associated with an attentional bias towards external stimuli. However, it is currently unclear whether this bias extends to internal attention. The aim of the present study was to address this question within the Incentive Sensitization theory framework. To this end, structural equation models delineating the relationships between nicotine dependence, the imbalance of wanting and liking (WmL), personal relevance of smoking consequences, and antismoking intention were tested using online survey data of 826 tobacco users. Consistent with previous findings, WmL was disrupted with increasing nicotine dependence. The key finding was that a moderate positive correlation was observed between WmL and personal relevance of positive consequences, which suggests that dependence-related attentional bias might not only relate to the processing of external stimuli but also to what an individual considers important, which is linked to the distribution of internal attention. However, such attentional bias might not apply to all smokers to the same extent, based on the comparison of latent profiles of smokers. The findings indicate that the bias of internal attention may play a significant role in both the initiation of smoking cessation, as well as in the likelihood of relapse. This suggests that including a more diverse array of topics in health communication could be beneficial, given the varying emphasis on smoking consequences among different profiles.
Escape From Uncertainty
In times of high anxiety, uncertainty, and existential fears, people tend to embrace any – even false – promises of social and epistemic security. The advantage of conspiracy theories in crises in general, and during the COVID-19 pandemic in particular, was that they provided – scary but robust deductive theories – causal explanations on who and why created, let free and controlled the spread of the coronavirus. This way, conspiracy theories can help in the symbolic coping with new threats. At the same time, conspiracy theories as a form of collectively motivated cognition are emerging on the basis of group identities, and these “tribal myths”, bound to group membership, can be psychologically reassuring when survival is at stake. But the price of this psychological comfort can be high: many studies (including our empirical research) have found that conspiracy the-ories can undermine rational individual responses to the pandemic. Beliefs in malevolent and secret plots by scientists, politicians, and background powers are undermining people’s willingness to vaccinate themselves – putting their lives at much greater risk.
Examining alternative pedagogical spaces
The learning environment also plays an important role in developing student’ skills: the architecture of the school, the layout of the school, the natural and infrastructural environment of the school, the design of classrooms. The study investigated the pedagogical spaces in which 21st century skills development is implemented in alternative schools.
The moderating effect of resting heart rate variability on the relationship between pain catastrophizing and depressed mood: an empirical study
Previous research indicated that pain catastrophizing—a negative emotional and cognitive response toward actual or anticipated pain—could contribute to pain intensity and could be associated with depressive symptoms not just in chronic pain patients but in healthy population as well. Accumulated evidence suggests that resting heart rate variability (HRV) as a putative proxy of emotion regulation could moderate the association of self-reported pain catastrophizing and depressed mood. In the present cross-sectional study, we investigated these associations in a healthy young adult sample controlling for the effect of trait rumination. Seventy-two participants (58 females, mean age = 22.2 ± 1.79 years ranging from 19 to 28 years old) completed the Pain Catastrophizing Scale, the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale and the Ruminative Response Scale. Resting HRV was measured by time domain metric of HRV, the root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD). The results showed that the relationship between pain catastrophizing and depressive symptoms is significantly moderated by resting HRV (indexed by lnRMSSD). Specifically, in participants with higher resting HRV there was no significant relationship between the two investigated variables, while in participants with relatively low or medium HRV pain catastrophizing and depressed mood showed significant positive association. The relationship remained significant after controlling for sex, age and trait rumination. These results might indicate that measuring pain catastrophizing and depressive symptoms is warranted in non-clinical samples as well and higher resting HRV could have a buffer or protective role against depressive symptoms.
The neuropsychological profile of work addiction
The objective of this study was to examine, for the first time, the neuropsychological aspects of work addiction, with a specific emphasis on the cognitive factors identified by theoretical models. While previous research has highlighted self-reported obsessiveness and impulsiveness in work addiction, this study sought to go beyond self-report measures by employing also neuropsychological reaction time tasks to assess executive functions. A total of 101 participants were categorized into two groups based on their Work Addiction Risk Test scores: a high-risk group (HWA; n = 39) and a low-risk group (LWA; n = 62) for work addiction. Executive functions were assessed using Go/No-Go, Digit Span, Counting Span, N-back, and Card Sorting Tasks. The findings revealed that the HWA group had poorer inhibitory control and achieved lower scores on the more complex working memory task involving updating (2-back). However, they exhibited unaltered cognitive flexibility and outperformed the LWA group on the 1-back task associated with maintenance and storage of information and sustained attention. Higher levels of impulsiveness and compulsiveness were observed in the HWA group, consistent with previous studies. These findings highlight the role of inhibition and working memory in work addiction, potentially contributing to challenges such as inefficient working strategies and impaired social functioning. This study offers valuable insights into the neurocognitive aspects of work addiction, deepening our understanding of this phenomenon.