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1

Problémy s přizpůsobením a prostředí ústavní péče

100%

Novotný J. S.

Psychologie a její kontexty

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2015

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tom 6

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nr 2

37-48

EN

Problem: Residential care environment represents a specific social space that is associated with a number of negative consequences, covering most aspects of children and youth functioning. The paper analyzes of the presence of adjustment problems among adolescents from institutional care environment and compares this results with a population of adolescents who grew up in a family. Methods: The sample consisted of two groups of adolescents. The first group included 285 adolescents currently growing up in an residential care environment, aged 13 to 21 (M = 16.23, SD = 1.643). The second group consisted of 214 adolescents growing up in a family, aged 15 to 20 (M = 17.07, SD = 1.070). We used a questionnaire Youth Self Report. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and MANOVA. Results: Results showed that adolescents in residential care exhibit higher average values in all adjustment problems. Also, in the context of diagnostic categories are the residential care adolescents more frequently in non-normal range (borderline and clinical), primarily in the border range. The greatest differences were reflected in the Thought problems and Rule-breaking behavior. MANOVA showed a significant multivariate effect between groups of adolescents, Hotelling's T = .803, F(8, 490) = 49.202, p <.001, d = .445 (large effect). Univariate analysis further showed a significant effect for Withdrawn/depressed (p = .044, d = .089, small effect), Somatic complaints (p = .002, d = .139, medium effect), Social problems (p = 004, d = .127, a small effect), Thought problems (p <.001, d = .633, strong effect), Attention problems (p <.001, d = .320,strong effect), Rule-breaking behavior (p <.001 , d = .383, strong effect), and Aggressive behavior (p = 015, d = .110, small effect). Results for the dimension of Anxious/depressed were not significant (p = .159). Discussion: The results didn’t confirmed the assumption that more than 30% of residential care adolescents have adjustment problems in the clinical range. Overall, the results do not correspond with previous findings, which describes more frequent presence of various adjustment problems. More frequently occur only the thought problems and rule-breaking behavior. Hyperactivity and cognitive problems are indicated as typical for residential care children, with wider causes in the emotional development. Problems with rule-breaking behavior have most likely a complex background. MANOVA analysis confirmed the finding that there is a significant difference between groups, but in most cases only with small effect. The residential care environment in the Czech Republic thus can be evaluated as functional, regarding its purpose and function. Conclusion: The results showed the differences in the presence of adjustment problems in adolescents growing up in the family and in institutional care, but also pointed to the fact that these differences are in most cases only small. The current state of the residential care environment in terms of adjustment problems can be evaluated as quite positive.

2

Role víry v prožívání smysluplnosti života u vysokoškolských studentů

63%

Křeménková L. , Novotný J. S.

Psychologie a její kontexty

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2015

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tom 6

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nr 1

79-95

EN

Problem: The aim of this paper is to verify the existence of differences in experiencing life meaningfulness of believers and unbelievers and analyze how much faith affects life meaningfulness. Methods: The sample consisted of 213 university students aged 20-29 years (mean age = 23). Respondents were divided into three groups: Christians (N = 80), Buddhists (N = 25), atheists (N = 108). We used a Existential Scale (ES) questionnaire, 46-item tool, detecting a subjective measure of personal meaningful existence in two dimensions: Personality (sub-dimensions Self-distance and Self-transcendence) and Existentiality (sub-dimensions Freedom and Responsibility). Data were analyzed using SPSS. Results: Using independent t–test, it was confirmed that life meaningfulness was significantly lower for unbelievers in dimension Personality, t(180,943) = 7,013), p < ,001 (this represented a strong effect, d = ,983) and ES Total Score, t(175,424) = 4,201, p < ,001 (this represented a medium effect, d = ,592). Subsequent independent one-way ANOVA (using Welch F) indicated that believers demonstrate a higher life meaningfulness in the dimensions Personality, F (2, 84,212) = 32,062, p < ,001, Self–distance, F (2, 69,585) = 8,556, p < ,001, Self–transcendence, F (2, 79,331) = 26,058, p < ,001, and in ES Total Score, F (2, 74,285) = 9,133, p < ,001. A post hoc Games–Howell indicated that believers (Christians and Buddhists) scored significantly higher in Personality (strong effect, ?2 = ,23), Self-transcendence (strong effect, ?2 = ,19), Self-distance (medium effect, ?2 = ,07), and ES Total Score (medium effect, ?2 = ,07) than atheists. In Personality and Self–transcendence Buddhists also scored significantly higher than Christians. A linear regression was further performed. The faith (Christianity and Buddhism) was a significant predictor of life meaningfulness in ES Total Score, dimension Personality and its sub–dimensions. The religion explains 7,6% (R2 = ,076) of ES Total Score variance, 18,7% (R2 = ,187) of Personality variance, 16,9% (R2 = ,169) of Self–transcendence variance, and 6,9% (R2 = ,069) of Self–distance variance. Finally, we analyzed the influence of gender on the relationship between faith and life meaningfulness. A Pearson correlation explored the relationship between faith and life meaningfulness. This analysis was found to be statistically significant in dimension Personality, r(209) = ,433, p < ,001, and ES Total Score, r(209) = ,276, p < ,001, indicating a strong positive relationship. This relationship was then subjected to a first-order partial correlation in order to explore the relationship controlling for the effects of social support. The first-order correlation was found to be statistically significant in dimension Personality, r(209) = ,432, p < ,001, and ES Total Score, r(209) = ,278, p < ,001, indicating that gender doesn’t affect a relationship between faith and life meaningfulness. Discussion: Analysis confirmed the differences in life meaningfulness depending on faith and corresponds with the results of earlier studies (cf. Mahoney & Grace, 1999; Fromm, 2001; Halama, Martos & Adamová, 2010; Yalom, 2006). Faith seems to facilitate understanding of one’s own world as meaningful, and through religious dogma, traditions and rules provides a firm meaningful life framework. Higher scores of meaningfulness at Buddhists can be explained by the fact that Buddhism compared with Christianity more potentiates the possibility of self-development and a positive perception of the world. The influence of faith on the perceived life meaningfulness is however rather smaller, but still significant. This is consistent with previous studies (cf. Byron & Miller-Perrin, 2009). The biggest influence is evident in the dimension Self-transcendence. Faith, therefore, affects more emotional than cognitive aspects. This is consistent with the fact that faith is more a matter of the heart than sense, rather a kind of sensed, animistic beliefs than rational logical conclusions. The research has some limitations. The research sample consist of specific group of university humanities students. More general population may therefore produce different results. Also the concept of faith (religiosity) was measured in simplex way. For future research it would be desirable to accurately distinguish the different forms of faith (spiritual beliefs) and also monitor their intensity. This could provide further/ deeper insight into the issue of relationship between faith and life meaningfulness. Conclussion: Believers and unbelievers university students significantly differ in their experience of life meaningfulness, especially in the domain of Personality. The actual impact of the faith is not too large and ranges from 6,9 to 18,7% of the explained variance of meaningfulness. The research results and lack of studies on certain aspects of this issue indicate the need for further investigation of the topic.

3

Úskalí tvorby dotazníků pro děti a dospívající: zkušenosti z ohniskových skupin

63%

Křeménková L. , Novotný J. S.

Psychologie a její kontexty

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2016

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tom 7

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nr 2

87-98

EN

Diagnosis and assessment is an integral part of psychological practice and research. One of the specific areas is creating of diagnostic tools for assessment of children and adolescents. The aim of this paper is to illustrate some of the difficulties in creating of self-assessment questionnaires for child population, based on the experiences with the process of creating a new questionnaire for pupils of 7th grade of elementary school. We created new “Potential of entrepreneurial competencies questionnaire” (PPK-7T), tool that detects the presence of key prerequisites, abilities and skills of 7th and 8th grades pupils, which can be seen as a starting point (potential) of future entrepreneurial competencies. During the verification of the questionnaire, we implemented two focus groups with 63 primary school pupils (7th grade). The results pointed to several problematic issues of diagnosis in children and adolescents. A large number of items with same content and different formulations made most pupils apparent problems. Pupils reported this repeating items during the questionnaire filling already, and in subsequent debate this issue was one of the most mentioned. Some statements were angry with signs of frustration because of the apparently recurring items. In other situations were pupils so surprised by these items that it has slowed significantly the completing of the questionnaire. Regarding the cognitive abilities, the results showed that pupils are not able to work with the generalizing questions. The vast majority of pupils were not able to determine the general (dominant) trend. In this case, the cognitive abilities of pupils are sensitively set into a detailed analysis of situations (up to literal accuracy), and it is very difficult and problematic to get rid of them. Semantically similar problem appeared for the items that were vague or too general, where pupils were unable to clearly answer. This also applies to items that cover a wide range of possible activities at different times, and/ or are linked to the social environment. Another problem is the tendency of pupils to seek complexity where it isn’t, i.e. look for “trick questions”. Likewise problematic appears the occurrence of foreign words (e.g. “chaotically” or “impulsively”). This problem is multiplied by the fact that most pupils have not the courage to ask for the meaning of unknown words. The construction of scales is also related to the evaluation of questionnaire. In our case the 4-point scale without the mean value was used. A wider scale (e.g. 6-point) is unnecessarily difficult (from developmental perspective), and mean value often leads to its overuse in the moments when the pupils are not sure how to answer. This potential tendency was also confirmed within the focus groups (pupils would have selected mean value if it had been available). In conclusion, it is appropriate to apply some principles for questionnaire items when creating assessment tools for children and adolescents. These principles include use of 1) simple, specific and unambiguous questions/items that minimize the risk of multiple possible interpretations, 2) items with low demands on abstraction and generalization, 3) fewer semantically identical or similar items, and 4) minimal use of foreign terms. The verification of clarity of and understanding the items by respondents shows also as necessary. This can be done e.g. by applying the focus groups.

4

Psychologické souvislosti pracovní smysluplnosti

45%

Paulík K. , Novotný J. S. , Bláha J. , Horváthová P. , Mikušová M.

Psychologie a její kontexty

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2014

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tom 5

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nr 2

3-15

EN

There is a significant shift of approach to the management of organizations and workers in recent decades. This shift in management philosophy is characterized by converting from traditional, conventional (rather bureaucratic) management models to rather humanistic/existential oriented models. This transition comes partly from the understanding that human resources are the most promising and effective way for organization development, partly from a shift in the understanding of the role of organizations in society. The key point of these approaches has become a "meaning" or "meaningfulness" in relation to the work and organization. The importance of work meaningfulness is not only in its potential to increase the competitiveness of organizations, but especially in its major (mostly positive) impacts on the employee himself and his work (and by that the organization and its performance). Work meaningfulness is strongly connected to the work engagement, which represents the active personal participation in the work process, manifested by vigor, active cooperation, willingness to contribute to the company's success and dedication to work. Work engagement seems to be next important factor affecting work attitudes and achievements of employees. The paper gives an overview of various approaches to work meaningfulness and work engagement, on the basis of which authors propose new model of work meaningfulness with overlap to work engagement. The work meaningfulness is not seen as one-dimensional variable, but consists of complex of interacting factors and processes that define an individual perceived meaning and importance of the work. Meaningful work is influenced by three areas. The first is the organizational culture. This is defined as a specific pattern of values, norms, beliefs, attitudes and assumptions that are often not clearly expressed, but affect the way individuals behave in an organization and how things are done. The second area is the work design (and broadly the design of organization). It contains several variables, such as workload, work extent (e.g. number of various activities), the depth of work (the amount of the reasoning behind the necessary processes and results of work), relationships with others, work flexibility, job sharing etc. The last area represents the individual/employee himself, e.g. his personality, intelligence (including emotional), optimism, sense of mastery, self-efficacy, attitudes etc.