“I’m Going to be Successful Someday”: Women’s Personal Projects to Improve Their Lives, and Implications for Clarifying the Nature of Agency in Criminological Theories of Desistance

Women’s agency to construct prosocial lives remains understudied in criminology. This qualitative inquiry explores the nature and outcomes of women’s personal projects, which reflect their agency. In up to five interviews, 401 women on probation and parole explained efforts to improve their lives. Psychological theory on personal projects guided analysis that revealed information on project meaning and facilitators and barriers to project pursuit. Women shared a motivation to avoid trouble and establish prosocial lives. Outcomes were improved by social support and prosocial opportunities. Findings have implications for defining and analyzing agency in desistance research and for correctional responses to women.

Personal Projects’ Appraisals and Compulsive Buying among University Students: Evidence from Galicia, Spain

The appraisal of goal-related constructs, generally, and of personal projects (PP) in particular, is one of the most solid research paths with regard to subjective well-being and health. In the last few years, the appraisal of PP has been linked to such problems as excessive alcohol and marijuana use, but no study has been conducted in the field of compulsive buying (CB). In this study, using Little’s personal-projects-analysis (PPA) methodology, the differences in university students were analyzed in both broad domains (meaning, structure, community, efficacy, and stress) and specific appraisal dimensions in groups with low (n = 293), moderate (n = 191), and high (n = 41) compulsive-buying propensities. The results confirm that the high-propensity group presented the highest significant levels in the domain of stress and the lowest in efficacy, meaning, and structure. As to appraisal dimensions, the group with a high propensity to CB attained statistically lower appraisals in the dimensions of importance, enjoyment, self-identity, absorption, control, time adequacy, progress, and outcome of their projects; the appraisal of the level of stress, difficulty, and conflict increased as the level of involvement in CB increased. These findings have major implications for the design of prevention and intervention programs for this behavioral problem.

When Work Conflicts With Personal Projects: The Association of Work-Life Conflict With Worker Wellbeing and the Mediating Role of Mindfulness

The negative emotional and health effects of work-life conflict (WLC) have been demonstrated in numerous studies regarding organizational psychology and occupational health. However, little is known about WLC’s relationship with positive wellbeing outcomes, including emotional, psychological, and social aspects of workers’ thriving. Furthermore, the mediating processes underlying the effects of WLC remain mostly unknown. The current study investigated the associations of perceived time- and strain-based WLC with positive mental health and thriving at work, as well as the mediating role of mindfulness in these associations. It is argued that WLC causes reduced mindfulness capacities among workers, which is in turn associated with lower positive wellbeing given the importance of mindfulness in emotion regulation. A sample of 330 workers based in Québec, Canada, completed an online survey including a measure of strain- and time-based interference with personal projects (i.e., the goals and activities that define the daily life of an individual) and validated scales of wellbeing outcomes and mindfulness. Results of structural equation modeling revealed negative associations between time- and strain-based WLC with positive mental health and thriving at work. Work-life conflict was related to lower mindfulness, which played a mediating role in the associations between time-based WLC with positive mental health and thriving at work, as well as strain-based WLC with positive mental health. The mediation was complete for the time-based WLC and positive mental health association, but partial for the other mediated pathways, highlighting the need for more research to identify additional mediators. These results highlight that beyond resulting in negative emotional/health outcomes often studied in previous research, WLC may be associated with workers’ reduced potential to live a fulfilling life, in general and in the workplace. Recommendations (e.g., mindfulness intervention to promote emotional regulation, personal project intervention) for workplace policymakers and practitioners are identified.

Relationship of personal projects and meaningful orientations in youth and adolescence

The problem of personal projects is brought to the forefront of scientific research by the very process of renewing a modern transitive society, which requires young people to be independent and responsible for their decisions and life choices. In this connection, the purpose of the research presented in the paper is to study the differences in the connections between the indicators of personal projects and the life-meaning orientations of the individual at the stages of adolescence and youth. The sample consisted of 148 people (64 boys and 84 girls aged 16 to 30). In use were used: the methodology Analysis of personal projects (B.R. Little in the adaptation of E.Yu. Ryazantseva), as well as the test of life-meaning orientations. Statistical analysis was performed in SPSS (version 22) using the Mann Whitney U test (for metric variables). The identification of links between metric indicators was carried out using correlation analysis (Spearmans coefficient). It was shown that a relationship was found between the indicators of personal projects (difficulty, visibility, control, responsibility, values, time adequacy, autonomy) and life-meaning orientations. At the age of 1617, young people are oriented towards outside support. For young people aged 18-25, the search for their identity becomes significant, where both the support of relatives and friends and their inner resources are important. At an older age (2630 years), the degree of individual independence in the implementation of their projects increases, the dependence on socio-cultural resources decreases, the number of connections between personal projects and indicators increases: goals in life, locus of control life.

authenticity as an inarticulate ideal in the contemporary discourse of good childhoods

This paper consists of an initial investigation about the meaning of a good childhood following the ethical ideal of authenticity. In this introduction to a philosophy of childhood and authenticity, the central theme is to investigate how the authenticity ideal is already presupposed in the contemporary discourse on what constitutes a good childhood. In the emerging field of philosophy of childhood, the capacities of children for agency, autonomy, and committing and the fundamental role of parents in guaranteeing possibilities to exercise them are being increasingly highlighted, together with a discourse that there are some intrinsic goods of childhood. These developments parallel contemporary reconstructions of authenticity as an ethical ideal. Current debates emphasize the importance of a person finding, creating and constructing their originality, and how to realize it. At the same time, this search must recognize demands emanating from something more than human desires: from one’s culture and community. The parallel dynamics between these two discourses - children-parent and individual-society - point to a direction that applying the concept of authenticity to the construction of novel interpretations and practices of a good childhood can bring fruitful results. After examining such parallels, some of these practices that emerge from the analysis of good childhoods as authentic childhood are pointed out, such as the importance of cultivating children’s moments of caring and committing, and the development of personal projects. The paper concludes by exploring some limitations of the applied methodology and how it can be a strength in future research on this topic.

Phoenix: Rebirth of the fashion image

The objective of this practice-based master's research project is to explore how theory on photography, communication, and mythology can be illustrated by the format, layout, and design of a 120 page alternative fashion publication in such a way that it provides insight into the relationship between mythology and the fashion image and an alternative perspective on the fashion image that goes beyond profit-driven motives. This project explores methods of collaboration and creativity by appropriating various works, personal projects, and those of contributors and collecting them into one context: The Phoenix publication. The methods of appropriation, détournement, meta and corpse exquisite are used in the creation of this project in terms of individual submissions, layout, formatting, and the understanding of the publication as a whole.

Phoenix: Rebirth of the fashion image

The objective of this practice-based master's research project is to explore how theory on photography, communication, and mythology can be illustrated by the format, layout, and design of a 120 page alternative fashion publication in such a way that it provides insight into the relationship between mythology and the fashion image and an alternative perspective on the fashion image that goes beyond profit-driven motives. This project explores methods of collaboration and creativity by appropriating various works, personal projects, and those of contributors and collecting them into one context: The Phoenix publication. The methods of appropriation, détournement, meta and corpse exquisite are used in the creation of this project in terms of individual submissions, layout, formatting, and the understanding of the publication as a whole.

Phoenix: Rebirth of the fashion image

The objective of this practice-based master’s research project is to explore how theory on photography, communication and mythology can be illustrated by the format, layout and design of a 120 page alternative fashion publication in such a way that it provides insight into the relationship between mythology and the fashion image and an alternative perspective on the fashion image that goes beyond profit-driven motives. This project explores methods of collaboration and creativity by appropriating various works, personal projects, and those of contributors and collecting them into one context: the Phoenix publication. The methods of appropriation, détournement, meta, and corpse exquisite are used in the creation of this project in terms of individual submissions, layout, formatting, and the understanding of the publication as a whole.

Phoenix: Rebirth of the fashion image

The objective of this practice-based master’s research project is to explore how theory on photography, communication and mythology can be illustrated by the format, layout and design of a 120 page alternative fashion publication in such a way that it provides insight into the relationship between mythology and the fashion image and an alternative perspective on the fashion image that goes beyond profit-driven motives. This project explores methods of collaboration and creativity by appropriating various works, personal projects, and those of contributors and collecting them into one context: the Phoenix publication. The methods of appropriation, détournement, meta, and corpse exquisite are used in the creation of this project in terms of individual submissions, layout, formatting, and the understanding of the publication as a whole.