Online app to develop positive affect in adolescents - Positive Approaches to Life: A Smartphone-Administered Self-Help Program for Adolescents

<p>Psychological well-being has traditionally been viewed as the absence of psychopathology. However, there is an increasing focus on the development of psychological skills and resources, which may both promote psychological well-being and buffer the impacts of stress. There is a promising amount of research demonstrating that brief, positive, psychological interventions are effective in increasing psychological well-being and reducing psychopathology in individuals (Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009). While the mechanisms behind successful positive psychology interventions (PPIs) are not well understood, it has been posited that positive, intentional activities may effect change by increasing positive emotions, cognitions and behaviours, which in turn lead to positive psychological outcomes. These interventions have traditionally targeted adults, and thus substantially fewer interventions have been conducted with adolescent samples (Mitchell & VellaBrodrick, 2009). Additionally, successful programmes have often not been widely implemented due to high resource cost for therapists and teachers. Researchers have suggested it might be worthwhile to improve methodological designs by using nontraditional approaches of delivery, i.e. smartphones, for psychological interventions (Munoz, 2012). The present study was designed to: 1) to investigate whether a smartphone technology delivering positive, intentional activities had a significant influence on levels of well-being in an intervention group when compared to a control group; and 2) to construct a mediational model to inform the relationships between core constructs of psychological well-being and emotions (e.g., subjective happiness, adaptive coping, and resilience). The study included 72 participants, aged 10-15 years, who were recruited from six schools in the wider Wellington region. Participants operated a smartphone-based application that required them to complete four modules designed to cultivate positive emotions. Contrary to predictions, two multivariate repeated measures analyses of variance (MANOVA) indicated that participants who completed the app did not display increases in positive emotion or of positive psychological outcomes compared to the control group. The mediational model showed that adaptive resources might lead to greater psychological well-being in adolescents. In particular, the model indicated that higher adaptive coping resources lead to increased psychological well-being through the variable of increased resilience. These results indicate that adaptive coping strategies may play a key role in positive adolescent development. The limitations of the study are discussed and recommendations were made for future research to determine the efficacy of smartphone applications in psychological research with adolescents.</p>

Online app to develop positive affect in adolescents - Positive Approaches to Life: A Smartphone-Administered Self-Help Program for Adolescents

<p>Psychological well-being has traditionally been viewed as the absence of psychopathology. However, there is an increasing focus on the development of psychological skills and resources, which may both promote psychological well-being and buffer the impacts of stress. There is a promising amount of research demonstrating that brief, positive, psychological interventions are effective in increasing psychological well-being and reducing psychopathology in individuals (Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009). While the mechanisms behind successful positive psychology interventions (PPIs) are not well understood, it has been posited that positive, intentional activities may effect change by increasing positive emotions, cognitions and behaviours, which in turn lead to positive psychological outcomes. These interventions have traditionally targeted adults, and thus substantially fewer interventions have been conducted with adolescent samples (Mitchell & VellaBrodrick, 2009). Additionally, successful programmes have often not been widely implemented due to high resource cost for therapists and teachers. Researchers have suggested it might be worthwhile to improve methodological designs by using nontraditional approaches of delivery, i.e. smartphones, for psychological interventions (Munoz, 2012). The present study was designed to: 1) to investigate whether a smartphone technology delivering positive, intentional activities had a significant influence on levels of well-being in an intervention group when compared to a control group; and 2) to construct a mediational model to inform the relationships between core constructs of psychological well-being and emotions (e.g., subjective happiness, adaptive coping, and resilience). The study included 72 participants, aged 10-15 years, who were recruited from six schools in the wider Wellington region. Participants operated a smartphone-based application that required them to complete four modules designed to cultivate positive emotions. Contrary to predictions, two multivariate repeated measures analyses of variance (MANOVA) indicated that participants who completed the app did not display increases in positive emotion or of positive psychological outcomes compared to the control group. The mediational model showed that adaptive resources might lead to greater psychological well-being in adolescents. In particular, the model indicated that higher adaptive coping resources lead to increased psychological well-being through the variable of increased resilience. These results indicate that adaptive coping strategies may play a key role in positive adolescent development. The limitations of the study are discussed and recommendations were made for future research to determine the efficacy of smartphone applications in psychological research with adolescents.</p>

Defining and Characterising Clusters in Palaeolithic Sites: a Review of Methods and Constraints

Spatial analysis studies in Palaeolithic archaeology arise as indispensable research tools for understanding archaeopalaeontological sites. In general terms, spatial studies have been specialised in the description of the distribution of materials and in the definition of accumulation areas, with the aim of distinguishing intentional activities or studying postdepositional processes. In recent decades, the development of GIS tools has enabled huge strides forward in the field of spatial archaeology research, such as spatial inferential statistics. These tools are particularly useful in the identification and location of clustering from statistical criteria, facilitating the subsequent analysis of accumulations through other archaeological, taphonomic and spatial techniques, such as fabric analysis or directional distribution. The cluster analysis, and its contextualisation considering all the archaeological and stratigraphical variables, allows the inference of some of the processes and factors that could have taken part in the accumulation of materials, as well as assessing how this affected the composition and preservation of the archaeological assemblage. The present article reviews the more traditional and innovative methods for studying horizontal distribution patterns and the objective definition of clusters, highlighting the parameters, uses and limitations of these techniques. We present an application of these methods to different Palaeolithic sites, going through different scenarios, such as location (open-air vs. cave), context, scale (large vs. small area), excavation methodology and spatial record methods.

Epistemic and poietic intentional processes

We examine the intentional processes that correspond to conceptualizations of activities performed by subjects with the intention of achieving an objective. Taking as its basis a general framework of intentional processes, two types of such process are considered: epistemic ones, aimed at acquiring knowledge about something, and poietic ones, aimed at bringing about something. The “something” is understood as anything that the processes can pertain to: a physical, mental or abstract object, a phenomenon, a state of affairs, etc. The generic features of such processes are discussed, with focus on: (1) features that are common for epistemic and poietic intentional processes as well as on features that differentiate them, (2) the dynamic and static features of the processes, and on (3) issues involved in controlling the progression of the processes towards intended objectives. The latter issue is the essential part of our considerations, the two former establish the necessary conceptual framework. The presented analysis aims at shedding light on these aspects of human intentional activities which can be considered virtually independent of any specific area of human intentional activity, be it natural sciences, humanities or technology.

Expressive Embodiment: Hegel, Habitual Agency and the Shortcomings of Normative Expressivism

In this paper I tackle the normative re-appropriation of the legacy of Charles Taylor's expressivist understanding of Hegel's theory of action. I argue that a normative understanding of Hegel's expressivist notion of agency by interpreters such as Robert Pippin, Terry Pinkard, Michael Quante and Robert Brandom, has been obtained at the price of losing sight of the principle of embodiment and of its relevance for our and Hegel's understanding of social action. I aim at relocating Hegel's notion of expressive embodiment at the core of his explanation of action. Rather than following Taylor's hermeneutical reconstruction of the principle of embodiment, I try to reconstruct it by putting at its core the notion of habit formation with the help of conceptual tools taken from contemporary embodied cognition approaches. I first discuss the Anthropology and argue that habit, understood as a sensorimotor embodied life form, is not only an enabling condition for agency, but in fact an ontological constitutive condition for all its levels of manifestation. According to this reading, the Hegelian approach to embodiment offers a model that not only assigns to habit a positive constitutive role in the formation of human mindedness, but also overcomes the dualism between habitual motor routine and intentional activities. If we approach Hegel's understanding of agency from this vantage point, we can gain a perspective which allows us to appreciate a naturalist strand of Hegel's expressivism about action and to free it from certain basic anti-naturalistic assumptions of contemporary normative expressivist interpretations of Hegel on social action.

Happiness Among Malaysian Adolescents: The Role of Sociodemographic Factors and Everyday Events

The purpose of this study is to examine how sociodemographic factors and everyday events are related to adolescent’s happiness in Malaysia. A total of 1,766 adolescents from 20 secondary schools in peninsular Malaysia completed a questionnaire on demographic background information and Malay version of Oxford Happiness Questionnaire. Participants were also requested to identify everyday events that made them happy in the last 6 months. Univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) was run to determine effects of gender, ethnicity, religion, and location on happiness. None of the main effects and interactions were significant. Correlation analysis revealed that household income, income of father, education of father, education of mother, and academic performance were significantly associated with adolescent’s happiness. Analysis of the everyday events that were reported to induce happiness suggested these events as related to domains considered salient in an adolescent’s life, including family, friends, and school. Everyday events are also related to intentional activities. Findings provide better understanding of the key demographic factors and everyday events that contribute to happiness of adolescents in Malaysia. Findings particularly suggest the importance of intentional activities in increasing happiness among adolescents.

Secure Data Transmission in Cloud Computing using Message Storage & Retrieval Algorithms

Our economic assets are limited, yet our valuation necessitates seems to be boundless. The requirement meant for valuation remedies continues growing inconclusively, no matter the accessibility of assets, the requirement for further continues. Now the cloud does its job, Cloud Computing (CC) acquires its title as a metaphor for the web. In general, the web is spoken to within the system figure like a cloud. The cloud symbol speaks to the entire so as to further objects to facilitate the system function. Various businesses is being gradually moving to the utilization of CC, since CC vows toward slash functional as well as investment expense also all the further significantly consent to Software sectors center around intentional activities as an alternative of maintaining the information hub operating. Guaranteeing the protection of CC is a key aspect within the CC condition, like clients frequently piles up touchy data through cloud repository suppliers, yet those suppliers might be dishonest. On the way to guarantee the protection as well as rightness of users information within the cloud, this document recommends another pattern on behalf of information safety in CC.

FITRAH SEORANG PEREMPUAN TERHADAP KARIR, RUMAH TANGGA DAN PENDIDIKAN

Anatomical and physiological differences also cause differences in selective behavior and ability to intentional activities aimed at and directed at the nature of women themselves. Not to mention the current challenges that require a woman to remain in her nature and wrestle into a career, a household and still have education in managing her household. This can be observed in our surroundings, cities or developing countries regarding the nature of a woman who continues to struggle in her career and does not forget her household and is always required to have education in her expertise, as the main madrasa for her children and not forgetting her religion as a Muslim woman by doing everything according to the teachings of Islam itself.

The Political Economy of War and Violence in Africa: A Hegelian and Marxist Interpretation

African history tells us of a world dominated by capitalism whose supreme value is profitability; a world where profit is the unsurpassable human achievement. This political economy, quite literally, means the production and redistribution of mass violence across the continent. In such a world, all human relations have turned into merchandise. A manifestation of this appears in the attitude of “having” such that to “be” is reduced to “have.” This capitalist process turns objects into nature, and nature into objects, particularly in Africa, where people have become victims of the fetish of merchandise, as well as the perpetuators. Analyzing the structural violence created by colonial power dynamics from a Marxian and Hegelian perspective reveals the opposite of passivity for all involved. The colonial powers searched for profit, intellectualized the necessity of profit, and formed and perpetuated a dialectic of social relations in such a way that they related to profit. These intentional activities reduced desire, joy, and fear into social relations driven by the profit motive. The legacy of these dynamics arises from history and are best understood in that context. Although history has a certain inertia and velocity, the movement of these issues are dialectical and leave the possibility for choice open, so various actors have taken diverse paths. Some post-colonial African leaders joined the world of profit and led their countries to violence and wars. Others resisted but were overwhelmed by the democratic dictatorship of merchandise. Wars and mass violence in Africa are the result of both the colonial structural violence caused by the search for profit and the choices many African leaders made to follow merchandised and clientelized types of relationships with their own people. The historical (Real, Retold, and Radical), genealogical, and ontological histories were the driving forces that caused the violence and resulted in contemporary African bloodshed.