ON THE STRUCTURE OF PERSONAL MATURITY OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

The article sets out a problem aimed at determining the structure of personal maturity in the period of early adulthood. The theoretical study revealed a lack of unanimity in terms of interpreting and conceptualizing the concept of personal maturity and defining its structural and content elements. The empirical study involved humanitarian students from the first to the third courses (females (103) and males (22) aged 17-20 years). As a result of the exploratory factor analysis procedures, an integrative variable of personal maturity has been calculated which is considered as a set of cognitive (self-understanding, positive thinking), emotional (self-sympathy) and behavioral characteristics (autonomy, sociability). The personality of a mature subject in the period of early adulthood can be described as distinguished by an optimistic view of the world and a deep understanding of his or her identity combined with positive emotions and self-attitude and the ability to maintain personal boundaries even creating close relationships with others. The considered algorithm for calculating the integral variable can be applied in studies aimed at studying latent psychological phenomena.

Dialectics of Alienation and Abnormality

This chapter portrays dialectically intertwined issues of alienation (in the Frommian sense of estrangement from self and others), abnormality, anxiety, and authenticity. Giddens theorizes that modern society is undergoing a ‘transformation of intimacy’, where love and sex are freed from patriarchal traditions, and people increasingly value ‘pure relationships’ where authentic connection is the only motive and can be fully realised. We claim that this desire for authenticity extends beyond this in the society of the selfie, the persistent unrequited thirst for it directly clashes with the alienated status quo. ‘Authenticity strain’ haunts the social terrain with loneliness, anomie, and the threat of volatility and transgression of personal boundaries. The desire for authenticity, and the moral sense that surrounds it, dovetail with the frustrated voyeurism of life under the spectacle in the age of Web 2.0. Fromm says that the inability to genuinely connect with other people can inspire people toward sadomasochism instead, which primes them for authoritarian social movements. And once again we turn to Foucault, to describe his theories about the designation of ‘abnormal’ people. Today, the fear of abnormalities of self and Other, both inner and outer—of becoming or falling victim to predatory, psychologically unhinged Others such as cyberstalkers, violent obsessives, pedophiles with fake avatars, mass shooters, etc.—has become a rampant new nightmare. It is a nightmare that fuels a common desire for greater protection from ‘deviants’ and outsiders through an increase of coercive force, i.e., for authoritarianism.

Working and learning from home during COVID-19: International experiences among social work educators and students

This research seeks to explore the experiences of social work educators and students working and learning from home. The findings, from an international survey sample of 166 educators and students, showed that the respondents faced issues with private and personal boundaries, felt the impact of working and learning from home on both physical and emotional levels, and experienced challenges to what was expected of them. The respondents primarily used two types of coping mechanisms to manage these challenges. These findings contribute to a broader discussion of the impact of working and learning from home and are relevant for education administrators responsible for their employees’ and students’ well-being.

Characteristics that act in young people as psychological prerequisites to avoid psychological intimacy in relationships

The article empirically substantiates the hypothesis about the severity of the characteristics of avoiding psychological intimacy in young people: low autonomy, self-doubt, the presence of an avoidant type of attachment, counter-dependence, the experienced lack of intimacy in relationships with significant adults in childhood and the needs for isolation and security in subjective perceptions of psychological intimacy. These characteristics were compared in two groups of boys and girls aged 20-25 years, the sample was 60 people. Methods were used: "Questionnaire of interpersonal dependence" (p. Girshfield, adapted by O.P. Makushina), the questionnaire "The experience of close relationships" by K. Brennan and R.K. Fraley, adapted by T.V. Kazantseva, the test for counter-dependence (B.K. Weinhold, D.B. Weinhold). The severity of closeness by significant adults in childhood, the peculiarities of subjective ideas about psychological closeness were revealed by the method of conversation and through the creation of a drawing "The image of the desired relationship". The results of the study showed that the differences between the groups are significant in all parameters stated in the hypothesis (p ≤ 0.01). Subjective ideas about intimacy differ in the severity of the needs to be the center of your world in a relationship; in community; in observing personal boundaries; (p ≤ 0.01); to feel safe in a relationship (p ≤ 0.05).

Digitification: Why the World Community Needs a New Term

For many people, the process of assessing one person to another is negative and can be defined as objectification, due to subjective perception and social attitudes. But in society, there is still a need to assess the attributes of the subject and therefore, in order to separate a bad assessment from a good one and not cause a public outcry, it is necessary to introduce a new term digitification, which carries a neutral connotation and does not violate people's personal boundaries. Such a term will make it possible to separate the concepts of objectification and digitification, not to confuse them and not to ascribe to each other inappropriate characteristics. Digitification is the process of assessing the attributes of a certain person on a voluntary basis by another person or artificial intelligence, based on objective criteria created for a particular rating system. Moreover, rating systems are different and have different functions, and therefore the rating system must be correctly selected in order to be more accurate and effective. Various online services and trading platforms have their own rating systems, their business is successful and relationships with customers are well established. Moreover, there is a whole state in the world in which the rating system is an integral part of society and it also shows good results. This article was created with the aim of introducing a new term digitification into everyday life that can change the course of human thinking for the better and open up new possibilities in the field of measurement systems through ratings and reviews.

Managing the toll of sex work with bounded agency: Perspectives of ex-sex workers

The present study builds upon qualitative narratives of ex-sex workers to explore if these women felt they had maintained a positive sense of self during involvement in sex work and, if so, how. Specific objectives were to identify strategies they used to protect their self-concept and better understand the challenges they faced in their efforts to keep sex work within their comfort zone. Fourteen participants were recruited in six different cities from the province of Quebec (Canada) and interviewed twice in 2016. Findings suggest that women were very aware of the effects sex work could have on their self-concept because of the stigma surrounding it, but also because of ambivalent experiences with clients and pimps. As a result, they used various strategies to protect their sense of self, the main one being the making and following of rules that govern sex work activities. Yet, our findings show that the protective quality of these self-concept protection strategies is limited, as women observed that they compromised with personal boundaries at various occasions during their pathways. They made strong associations between these compromises and a progressive fragilization of their sense of self.

PRIVACY, COVID-19 AND ONLINE TEACHING: A COMPARATIVE STUDY IN ESTONIA, FRANCE AND ISRAEL

The COVID-19 crisis is a potential watershed moment for privacy with profound long-term effects on the organization and practices of work, education, and civic engagement. In this study we focus on the profound re-negotiation of mediated personal boundaries in times of mass lockdowns and social distancing. To understand how these new social conditions might be playing out in the field of privacy, we interviewed 90 faculty in higher education in Estonia, France and Israel. Participants were asked about changes in their ICT use for personal and work purposes, with the practice of distance teaching serving as a common experience for the discussion of possible changes in their views and practices of privacy. Our findings point to the precedence of $2 considerations of privacy over $2 considerations. In other words, interviewees had very little to say about the broader forms of data collection by their employers, the state, or commercial companies that are enabled by the adoption of new ICTs. They did, though, have much to say about their mediated relations with students and colleagues, and were very much concerned with self-presentation and impression management as well as with sustaining meaningful teaching situations. In general, the prism of privacy unearths the hidden social structures of teaching and interacting online.

Boundary Objects: Engaging and Bridging Needs of People in Participatory Research by Arts-Based Methods

Background: Participatory health research (PHR) is a research approach in which people, including hidden populations, share lived experiences about health inequities to improve their situation through collective action. Boundary objects are produced, using arts-based methods, to be heard by stakeholders. These can bring about dialogue, connection, and involvement in a mission for social justice. This study aims to gain insight into the value and ethical issues of boundary objects that address health inequalities. A qualitative evaluation is conducted on three different boundary objects, created in different participatory studies with marginalized populations (mothers in poverty, psychiatric patients, and unemployed people). A successful boundary object evokes emotions among those who created the objects and those encountering these objects. Such objects move people and create an impulse for change. The more provocative the object, the more people feel triggered to foster change. Boundary objects may cross personal boundaries and could provoke feelings of discomfort and ignorance. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to ethics work. Boundary objects that are made by people from hidden populations may spur actions and create influence by improving the understanding of the needs of hidden populations. A dialogue about these needs is an essential step towards social justice.

Aggressions on Social Networks: What Are the Implications for Healthcare Providers? An Exploratory Research

Incidents of violence by healthcare users against staff have been considered as sentinel events. New forms of aggression, i.e., cyberbullying, have emerged with the advent of social networks. Medical literature includes some reports about workplace cyberbullying on nurses and young doctors by colleagues/supervisors, but not by users. To investigate cyberbullying on healthcare providers via social networks, we carried out an exploratory quali-quantitative study, researching and analyzing posts and comments relating to a local Health Trust (ASL5) in Italy, published from 2013 until May 2020 on healthcare worker aggressions on social networks on every local community’s Facebook page. We developed a thematic matrix through an analysis of the most recurring meaning categories (framework method). We collected 217 texts (25 posts and 192 comments): 26% positive and 74% negative. Positive posts were shared about ten times more than negative ones. Negative comments received about double the “Likes” than the positive ones. Analysis highlighted three main meaning categories: 1. lack of adequate and functional structures; 2. negative point of view (POV) towards some departments; 3. positive POV towards others. No significant differences were observed between the various categories of healthcare workers (HCW). Geriatric, medical wards and emergency department were the most frequent targets of negative comments. All the texts referred to first-line operators except for one. Online violence against HCW is a real, largely unknown, problem that needs immediate and concrete attention for its potentially disastrous consequences. Compared to traditional face-to-face bullying, it can be more dangerous as it is contagious and diffusive, without spatial, temporal or personal boundaries.