The importance of meaningful participation: health benefits of volunteerism for older adults with mobility-limiting disabilities

Volunteerism has been increasingly recognised as a health promotion activity for older adults. However, volunteerism has largely been the domain of those who are in good health with few to no physical limitations, and there is limited information about the experiences of older adults with disabilities. This study explores why older adults with mobility-limiting disabilities engage in volunteer work and their perceptions of the personal benefits of volunteering. Twenty older adults, from three Midwest towns in the United States of America, participated in semi-structured, in-depth, face-to-face interviews. Participants in this study identified as having serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs due to a health condition and had volunteered in the last year. Participants were selected purposively for maximum variation in terms of type of disability/impairment, race, gender and age. The constant comparative method of analysis was used to identify themes from their discussions. When asked about why they volunteer and the personal benefits of volunteering, participants discussed seeking out activities that were meaningful to them for both altruistic and more self-directed reasons. They identified a number of physical and emotional health benefits that they saw as directly and indirectly related to being able to participate in these meaningful activities. Findings from this study suggest that, for older adults with disabilities who are interested in volunteer activities, volunteerism can be a beneficial health promotion activity and a potential mechanism for increasing opportunities for meaningful inclusion and participation in their communities.

Subliminal Messages – Unconsciuosly Perceived Sensations and Study Research on Subliminal Knowledge

Some content can be so well crafted that consumers are not aware that they are actually part of the promotion activity. The message is concealed, transformed, and communicates with consumers with associative connections at the subconscious level. Subconscious communication is a technique that marketers will use more and more, so in the design and realization of promotional activities, they combine the knowledge of other sciences and the latest technological inventions. Subconscious communication is often far more effective than direct addressing, provoking, and causing the desired effect, sometimes completely contrary to what the content posted seems to indicate. Content placed so as to address consumers at the subconscious level is called subliminal messages or subliminal. Very weak signals, stimuli below the threshold of conscious perception are not registered consciously. It is especially important to note that reason cannot resist this type of message because it is not recognized, it is circumvented even in the stage of stimulus. This is the main danger of subliminal messages; bypassing reasoning insert direct information in a mind that cannot be confronted. This is a very unusual method of manipulative persuasion technique for individuals and the masses exposed to the effects of subliminal marketing.

The problems of popularization of science in the Russian Federation in the context of amendments to the legal regulation of educational activity

The subject of this research is the relevant issues pertaining to popularization of science in the Russian Federation. The goal of this article lies in determination of the currently existing key issues of popularization of science in the Russian Federation: 1) the absence of effective response to the transformation of the traditional field of scientific promotion activity (distribution of new forms and methods of such activity); 2) imperfection of the new legal regulation of educational and scientific promotion activity, which may implicitly lead to negative consequences. The conducted research involves in theoretical conceptualization of scientific promotion activity in the digital age the novelties of legislative regulation of educational activity adopted in April 2021 (the so-called Law on Educational Activity). Unlike other works dedicated to the analysis of this law, this article assesses its basic provisions from the perspective of the effectiveness of achieving the goals set in the context of its impact upon the state of popularization of science in the Russian society. It is established that the model for preventing deterioration of the quality of educational content proposed in the Law on Educational Activity is not effective enough and may further reduce the quality of scientific promotion activity. Therefore, the purpose of imposed restrictions may fail to be achieved. The author believes that the more effective way would lie in intensification of the activity of traditional actors of popularization of science, rather than restriction of the activity of nontraditional actors of popularization of science.