scholarly journals Appraisals of Wildlife During Restorative Opportunities in Local Natural Settings

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Johansson ◽  
Anders Flykt ◽  
Jens Frank ◽  
Terry Hartig

Many call for a broad approach to valuation of nature’s contribution to people, one that provides a contextualized understanding of what may be experienced as a value in different cultures, groups and settings. In the present paper we address contributions of nature to psychological well-being as realized through restorative processes during encounters with wildlife. Although restorative benefits of nature experience have received much consideration, sparse attention has been given to the role of the presence or absence of different animals in the settings investigated. The presence of a liked species may increase appreciation for and engagement with a natural setting, but fear of encountering some species may counter the desire to visit a setting with otherwise high restorative quality. This paper proposes a psychological framework for understanding how wildlife may contribute to or hinder people’s opportunities to restore in local natural settings. The framework addresses the transaction between the individual and their surroundings, making use of an appraisal theory of emotion and theories about the restorative benefits of nature experience. We focus upon encounters in landscapes shared by humans and wildlife, and we elaborate on our reasoning with scenarios from Sweden involving local people’s appraisal of wolves and roe deer. An integrated understanding of the psychological processes at work would facilitate communication and decision-making about the contribution of wildlife in nature conservation and management.

Author(s):  
Jane M. Hoey

The newly developing countries desire not only political independence but also economic progress for their people—a progress which they can see, and are now aware of, in the rest of the world. The role of the developed countries is to extend aid to the needy. Moral foundations underlie the donor's contributions, but they are more than that, they are the means for acquiring support for international aid in the donor's country. The United States must assume the leader ship among' the free nations in granting aid; she must accept this role because of her economic achievements and technologi cal advantages. Donators of such aid should take cognizance of the complementary character and interrelatedness of economic and social development. For economic development, however much it is sought, is not an end in itself, rather the aim is the well-being and happiness of the individual. Such a goal neces sitates economic aid accompanied by social aid. Social welfare can also be a vehicle to achieve peace, inasmuch as people-to- people relationships generate brotherly love—the only lasting foundation for peace.—Ed.


Author(s):  
Daniela Di Santo ◽  
Calogero Lo Destro ◽  
Conrad Baldner ◽  
Alessandra Talamo ◽  
Cristina Cabras ◽  
...  

AbstractPositivity (i.e., the individual tendency to positively approach life experiences) has proven to be an effective construct applied in positive psychology. However, individuals’ self-regulation may have contrasting effects on positivity. We specifically examined whether positivity could be partially explained through two aspects of motivation concerned with self-regulation: locomotion (i.e., a motivational orientation concerned with movement) and assessment (i.e., a motivational orientation concerned with comparison and evaluation). Furthermore, based on previous literature that found a link between these aspects and narcissism, we examined whether “adaptive” and “maladaptive” dimensions of narcissism could mediate the effects of locomotion and assessment on increased or decreased positivity. Narcissism was defined by previous research as adaptive or maladaptive insofar as it leads or does not lead to increased psychological well-being. We estimated a mediation model with multiple independent variables and multiple mediators in a cross-sectional study with self-reported data from 190 university students. We found that both locomotion and assessment were associated with adaptive narcissism, which in turn was positively associated with positivity. However, assessment was also associated with maladaptive narcissism, which in turn was negatively associated with positivity. Relationships between aspects of self-regulation, narcissism, and positivity can have significant implications which will be discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-54
Author(s):  
Zoha Adel Mahmoud

institution is one of the highest institutions that have the task of providing the development needs of the community of specialists in various fields, in addition to being the centers of scientific research and applied to ensure economic and social progress It enriches decision makers with expertise and skills and thus controls political performance. In any society, the university can not play its full role in social change without interaction between the individual on the one hand and the social environment on the other, Social and interdependent Ah syndrome change, they strengthen the skills, and enrich the spirit of innovation of the individual, and raise the level of social progress. It helps to improve the conditions of the poor segments of the population and facilitates the employment opportunities of the individuals imposed by the society as they meet the needs of the individual and society of different professions, thus providing an opportunity for production and thus have a positive impact on the standard of living to achieve the well-being of the individual and the citizen. The interest reflected on the progress, such as Germany, which was interested in it became one of the main reasons that led to the rise of Germany from the ruins of the Second World War as well as the State of Malaysia, which moved from developing countries to the second world countries by changing the plan Colleges and institutes of universities. In 2020, Malaysia will be among the developed countries. In these countries, higher education, vocational training and training are viewed as a basis for life supplementation and are seen as a major means of improving and upgrading society. If we are to explore the dimensions of education in the 21st century, one of the pillars of education is learning for action, Usually involves the acquisition of skills and the linking of knowledge to practice as an essential part of the training and rehabilitation of the individual for practical life. Hence, such new trends in linking educational preparation to work have been imposed by the labor market and the working life in its new forms. Production and service facilities, The advanced, assumed graduates who can be employed and absorbed can contribute to the development of competitiveness, to provide innovations and creations to achieve the competitive advantage of the enterprise, and to improve production and productivity based primarily on the acquisition and application of knowledge. Gamerdinger reveals that the new technology does not accelerate the possibilities for sound economic policies and increasing global trade, and this requires strategies to develop work related to the development of human performance, and in order to face the state of chronic unemployment globally, education policies are headed towards the so-called reverse conversion as many graduates of specializations Literaries choose vocational and technical education in technical and community colleges. Unemployment in the Arab world carries certain characteristics that must be taken into account when developing the solutions available to them. The most important of these characteristics are: Unemployment is a youth phenomenon. Weak professional experience available to the unemployed. Lack of targeted planning for the labor market. The large gap between the outputs of higher education for youth and the requirements of the labor market. The most important recommendations aimed at enhancing the role of universities in Iraq are: 1 - the operation of labor graduates of technical and technical institutes in the industrial field in order to promote them and eliminate unemployment and increase the hard currency as an important category of Iraqi society, which contributes actively to the renaissance of the country. Linking the Ministry of Industry and Commerce with the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research to be managed by the Minister of Education alone. The Ministry is keen on the funds of the Iraqi people and contributes to the development of the industrial and commercial sectors with the help of professors and university students. 3 - the need to match the needs of the market and education outputs to reduce unemployment, in addition to the vocational education has become an urgent need at this stage to keep pace with the needs of life in society away from the negative view of this education. 4 - Increasing the number of technical workshops and providing them with the means of material in order to provide the university student maximum desired learning. Enhancing the role of higher education in building a broader partnership and cooperation with various other community institutions (public, private and private sector). 6 - Re-admission plan in universities by making the number of admissions in scientific colleges more than the number of admissions in the humanitarian colleges. 7 - Attracting foreign investment companies to invest natural resources in Iraq such as phosphate, natural gas, oil, oil shale, uranium, silica and geothermal energy for the recovery of the economy and the trend towards domestic consumption.


2021 ◽  
pp. 177-182
Author(s):  
E Miletínová ◽  
J Bušková

Sleep is essential component of life. Even though the research in this field develops constantly, there are still many aspects of this rather complex process that remains to be fully clarified. One of these aspects, reason why we actually sleep, is perhaps the most crucial. In this mini review we aim to address this question and discuss potential functions of sleep. Many recent scientific papers are currently available that covers similar topic. We tried to summarize these recent findings. There are certainly many ways how to approach this rather complex issue. Our article will specifically focus on role of sleep in neuronal development, synaptic plasticity, memory consolidation or mental health in general. Its role in immune system functioning will also be mentioned. Moreover, we will also consider more general functions of sleep, such as well-being of the organisms or securing survival of the individual. In conclusion, we will highlight possible main function of sleep.


Author(s):  
Valerie Tiberius

What is the possible role of adversity in promoting the development of wisdom and well-being? This chapter focuses on examining psychological discussions of post-traumatic growth and discusses whether and how we would expect suffering, adversity, or trauma to push an individual in positive and negative ways, with an emphasis on multiple dimensions of psychological well-being. The chapter interweaves insights from the philosophical literature to arrive at a better understanding of whether and to what degree post-traumatic growth is likely to occur or if growth following adversity is part of the cultural narrative that does not effectively translate to the individual.


2018 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 301-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maksim Rudnev ◽  
Aleksandra Savelkaeva

This article takes a postmodernization perspective on support for the right to euthanasia by treating it as an expression of a process of value change, as a preference for quality over quantity of life. Using the data from the fifth wave of the World Values Survey, this study attempts to answer the question of whether the mass support for the right to euthanasia is an expression of autonomy values rather than just a function of a low religiosity. Multilevel regressions demonstrate that both traditional religiosity and autonomy values have a high impact at the individual level, while at the country level only the effects of traditional religiosity are significant. Autonomy values have stronger association with attitudes to euthanasia in countries with higher levels of postmaterialism. Multilevel path analysis demonstrates that the effect of religiosity is partially and weakly mediated by the values of autonomy at both levels. Although religiosity was found to have a much stronger impact, the independent effect of autonomy values suggests that mass support for the right to euthanasia is a value-driven preference for quality over quantity of life. We conclude by suggesting that the fall in traditional religiosity might emphasize the role of values in moral attitudes regulation.


2021 ◽  
pp. 194855062199059
Author(s):  
Joo Hyun Kim ◽  
Yerin Shim ◽  
Incheol Choi ◽  
Eunsoo Choi

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose an unprecedented challenge for the world as people strive to cope with this significant threat to their well-being. This intensive longitudinal study of the first 94 days of the COVID-19 outbreak in South Korea (Phase 1: initial outbreak, Phase 2: intense social distancing) examined individuals’ changes in well-being, in relation to their use of coping strategies and fear of infection. A sample of 10,464 South Koreans participated in surveys during Phase 1 and Phase 2, resulting in 35,846 observations. Multilevel growth models revealed a decrease in well-being while different coping strategies moderated the individual rate of change in well-being. Although preventive measures were associated with a greater decrease in well-being, cognitive appraisal and behavioral strategies predicted stable well-being during the pandemic. Coping strategies further mediated the association between fear of infection and deterioration of well-being.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Nadina R Luca ◽  
Marsha Smith ◽  
Sally Hibbert

‘Social eating initiatives’ are a specific type of community-based food service that provides opportunities for people to eat together in local spaces using surplus food. These initiatives provide a meal that is fresh, affordable and more environmentally friendly than fast or convenience foods. In this research, we build upon the food well-being model to explore how food consumption is experienced in these community settings and the role of social eating projects in shaping the different dimensions of people’s foodscapes. We adopted a community-based participatory approach and engaged in a series of dialogues with staff volunteers and coordinators at four ‘social eating initiatives’. We also conducted 45 interviews with service users and volunteers at three sites in the Midlands region.   The role of community-based food initiatives responding to hunger by utilising surplus food to feed local populations is often conceptualised critically. The conjoining of food insecurity and surplus food appears to instrumentally feed customers and reduce food wastage, but in ways that are stigmatising, and which position customers as passive recipients of food charity. However, closer attention to the experiences of staff, volunteers and customers at these spaces, reveals them as sites where knowledge and experience of food is being developed with this contributing to a sense of well-being beyond nutrition. Shared food practices and eating together contribute to social capital and are important dimensions of food well-being that are significantly restricted by food insecurity. The ‘food well-being’ model envisages a shift in focus from health, defined as the absence of illness, towards well-being as a positive relationship with food at the individual and societal level. In the concluding remarks of this article, it is suggested that this holistic conception is required to understand the role and function of social eating initiatives.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 28-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.N. Tatarko

The results of meditational analysis role of outgroup social capital when testing the integration hypothesis are presented. We considered how acculturation strategies, individual social capital and subjective well-being of persons living in a multicultural environment are related. The sample included representatives of three ethnic groups, living in the Republic of Dagestan: Avars (N=105), Dargins (N=121), and Russians (N=100). We used a modified method of "resource generator" to study the individual social capital. Also we used a Russian version of Berry's method of assessing acculturation strategies and subjective well-being. The obtained empirical data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. We hypothesized that the choice of integration strategy does not only promote harmonious intergroup relationships, but also has positive effects on well-being on the individual level. Those who choose the integration strategy end up with stronger social capital that works as a protective factor against various negative life events, promoting the overall well-being. However, our hypothesis was supported with Russians only, with Avars and Dargins it was supported with some restrictions. The results of this study shed light onto the socio-psychological mechanisms of integration of ethnic groups in a multicultural region, where integration is closely linked with mutual help and support across the ethnic boundaries.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-44
Author(s):  
E.S. Polishchuk

of psychological well-being features in students with different levels of role victimization. Role victimization shall be understood to mean such a strategy of victim relations, which is based on the individual predisposition to produce a particular playing or social type of victim behavior (playing and social role of the victim) (M.A. Odintsova). The article presents the analysis of psychological well-being of students with different levels of role victimization (N = 82, average age 21 years). "Auto-viktim» (N = 28), "victim» (N = 31), "non-viktim» (N = 23) groups were formed according to the level and nature of manifestations of the role victimization, and a comparative analysis of the level of psychological well-being and perception of the image of the world in these groups was made. The study shows that while level of role victimization increases, psychological well-being of students reduces and negative attitude toward the world forms. "Auto-viktim" students while facing difficulties play the role of victim, and "victim" students use social role. "Non-viktim" students have positive self-esteem, they are optimistic, easy to set goals and reach them. Also the article present an analysis of the peculiarities of the psychological well-being, the perception of image of the world, the level of role victimization in groups of male and female youth.


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