Focus Groups as a Questionnaire Pretest for Surveys in Cross-Cultural and Cross-National Comparative Research

As a research method, focus groups have methodological advantages for understanding the views and behavior of group members or for understanding the social system as a whole, since it covers the interaction between people, groups, and the interpersonal environment quite well that widely recognized in the social sciences. These advantages are introduced in the context of mixed-methods, including conducting a survey together with focus groups as a pretest questionnaire in a comparative perspective in cross-national and cross-culture research. Focus groups provide to reach construct equivalence and elaborate an appropriate context-oriented language for questionnaire questions. Using the focus groups in this way can be an effective approach to overcoming the initial limited ability of surveys to valid measure more complex socially constructed concepts, the meaning of which can vary significantly from one group to another, especially from a comparative perspective in cross-national and cross-culture research. Using focus groups, data is collected in a more natural way, that is, more close to the real world, while the generalization is ensured by a detailed description of specific conditions, participants, and research environment. In addition, the discussion group is a miniature thinking society, and unlike dyadic interviews or surveys, focus group discussions give participants the opportunity to express their opinions, discuss their views and opinions with other participants, listen to other peoples opinions, disagree or to develop thoughts by reasoning out loud - this is similar to what happens in real life. This increased awareness about the described advantages of the approach for cross-cultural and cross-national comparative research likely contributes to its more active employ.

How Adolescents and Adults Learn About Changes in the Trustworthiness of Others Through Dynamic Interaction

Whether to trust or distrust another individual is a complex interpersonal challenge, especially when such individuals behave inconsistently. It is still unclear as to how individuals learn and adapt to fluctuations in the trustworthiness of others and how this process changes from adolescence to adulthood. To address these issues, we implemented repeated rounds of a trust game within the context of a complicated and changeable interpersonal environment. Specifically, adolescents and adults played the role of trustors who had to decide whether to invest money in two anonymous partners carrying the risk of no reciprocation. Unbeknownst to participants, these two partners had different trustworthiness profiles: one partner initially yielded a higher initial return rate (70%) while the other initially yielded a lower initial return rate (30%). Crucially, over repeated rounds, these two partners gradually changed their responses to the point where, finally, return rates were both neutral (50%). Results indicated that all participants showed less updating in the negative direction in response to good-to-neutral partners while more updating in the positive direction in response to the bad-to-neutral partner. Compared to adults, this behavioral disparity in responses to good-to-neutral and bad-to-neutral partners was less pronounced in adolescents. Based on the computational modeling approach, the potential mechanisms underlying their behavioral patterns were revealed: the higher learning rate promoted flexible adaptions in participants to untrustworthy trustees as they changed to neutral. The less pronounced distinction between good-to-neutral and bad-to-neutral partners in adolescents was related to their lower learning rate. Overall, our study extends the understanding of trust behavior to a fluctuating social context and highlights the role of social learning in social emotion and interaction.

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ GROWTH GOALS, OPPORTUNITIES FOR GOAL FULFILLMENT, AND PERCEIVED UNIVERSITY AND MESOSYSTEM SUPPORT

This study assessed the relationship between students’ growth goals and perceived opportunities to achieve these goals in Latvia and the perceived support from the university and the mesosystem. Socialization models emphasize that the setting of personal goals occurs in continuous interaction with the sociocultural context, which includes perceived opportunities to achieve these goals and the interpersonal environment. Both – perceived support from close people (mesosystems) and perceived support from the university – are significant for students. The study involved 432 university students between 18 and 49. We have assessed the extent to which students’ goals regarding education, work, and personal growth are predicted by perceived opportunities to achieve these goals in Latvia and by the perceived support from parents, relatives, friends, classmates, teachers, and the university as an institution. The results of structural equation modeling revealed that personal growth goals are positively predicted by all three elements - the perceived opportunities to achieve these goals and the perceived academic and mesosystem support. The support of the classmates was connected to the support of the mesosystem that indicates the importance of friendly relations among students. Students’ growth goals were the most closely associated with the perceived support in their specific environment – the university. In general, the results confirm the complex interaction of personal growth goals with the social and cultural environment in particular circumstances.

Behavior-analytic intervention for women with fibromyalgia and insomnia: a single subject design

This study evaluated the effects in the pain and sleep, and the clinic significance after an analytic-behavioral intervention to manage the condition of the physical and interpersonal environment related to pain. Four women with fibromyalgia and insomnia participated in a study with intervention withdrawal multiple baseline design and initial, intermediate, final, and follow-up assessments. Self-report instruments were used to assess pain intensity and disability, sleep quality, and insomnia severity, besides the actigraphy. Data showed that the intervention (20 sessions) was effective in reducing the sleep and pain problems in all participants by shifting two participants from clinical to non-clinical status in sleep indicators. The gains were maintained or increased in follow-up measures. However, the results should take into consideration the clinical condition and other variables that may have individually impacted the results.

Keeping “In Touch”: Demographic Patterns of Interpersonal Touch in Later Life

Touch is an important element of human social interaction linked to various dimensions of well-being, but we know little of how it is distributed among older adults. This study considers whether greeting/affectionate touch is a function of characteristics such as race, gender, and socioeconomic status. Data come from Wave 1 (2005–2006) of the NSHAP study from the United States. Results reveal that women experienced more frequent touch relative to men, net of several features of the interpersonal environment. Mediation analyses revealed that gender differences in associations with touch were partially explained by women’s greater participation in formal and informal social activity. No patterns were detected related to race, education, or wealth. This study situates greeting/affectionate touch as a form of corporeal non-verbal interaction that offers a unique lens into patterns of social connection. We close by considering what this form of interaction means in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Clustering of Health and Wellness Tourists Based on Tourism Motivation

In this paper, exploratory factor analysis, cluster analysis and other methods are used to study the health and wellness tourists based on tourism motivation, the results showed that: (1) the motivation of health and wellness tourism can be divided into three push motives: knowledge and experience, social and health, exploration and reflection; three pull motives: food and cultural activities, supporting facilities and information, natural and interpersonal environment. (2) According to the motivation, there are four types of tourists: seeking knowledge and health and wellness, facility service and environmental experience, exploration and reflection, and nearby travel. (3) There are significant differences among the four different types of health and wellness tourists in age, education level, occupation and monthly income.

KONSEP PENDIDIKAN KARAKTER DITINJAU DARI PERSPEKTIF PSIKOLOGI ISLAM

The journal examines about the character education concept in terms of the Islamic Psychology Perspectives. What the intention of knowing on the character education concept in terms of Islamic psychology. This study was carried out using the library research methode (Library Research). The result of this research indicate that character education is oriented towards behavior, commandable morals and manners that contain agreed manners in the interpersonal environment. And than character education can be done by fostering social, morals and religious value merged, so that attitude, mentality, morals, and personality according to teaching of the Islamic religion.

Who Reports Low Interactive Psychology Status? An Investigation Based on Chinese Coal Miners

In mine safety and health research, psychological issues have always been neglected. This paper aims to identify the psychological perceptions of workers with respect to the mine environment and interpersonal environment across the whole production system. A survey was designed that measured the miners’ demographic details and perceptions of two affect-based interactions; three resource-based interactions for the manager, supervisor, co-worker; and three actual environment interactions. A total of 642 frontline coal miners from six mines located in six provinces in China completed the survey. The main results indicated that that miners reported low psychology status, especially those over 51 years old, with a monthly income of 2000–4000 and junior school education. Second, there was a high proportion of inferior value in environmental interactions. Meanwhile, the miners’ interactions with their co-workers were perceived as the most positive and those with their managers as the least in interpersonal interactions. Third, there were significant differences in sub-dimension interactions (actual environment, resource-based, affect-based interactions) that certainly existed in these interactive roles. Additionally, the dissociated type of miners with manager and supervisor (low resource and affect-based interaction) reached 23.99~24.45%. This study revealed the inner psychological risk factors for safety and health work in coal mines and provides an essential guideline for mining industries.