Be Still and You Will Know: A Mixed-Method Study on Solitude and Consideration of Future Consequences Among Youth in Rehabilitation

Although solitude is found to be undesirable to many, systematic practice of it can yield positive psychological outcomes. This mixed-method study explored the process and influence of solitude as a behavioral intervention among youths in a therapeutic community in Hong Kong. Qualitative interviews with 43 youths (67.4% male, mean age = 18.3) revealed that solitude facilitated growth in their sense of personal responsibility, increased perspective-taking, increased respect for rules, change in life attitudes, and growth in consideration of future consequences. A two-wave prospective study ( n = 79, 82.3% male, mean age = 17.4) further demonstrated perceived meaningfulness in solitude predicted an increase in consideration of future consequences, but not in other types of behavioral intervention. This study preliminarily demonstrated solitude has beneficial outcomes among high-risk youths, and meaning-making can facilitate this relationship.

An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis of Chinese Students’ Satisfaction with Postgraduate University Study and Life in New Zealand

<p>Chinese students are one of the largest groups of international students studying in New Zealand. The wellbeing of Chinese students in the New Zealand educational context has aroused interest from educators from both China and New Zealand. This research explores the satisfaction of Chinese students from a cultural perspective. It adopts an interpretive phenomenological approach to investigate Chinese students’ definitions of satisfaction and the role of Chinese culture values, particularly, renqing, guanxi, mianzi in influencing their experience of satisfaction while they living and studying in New Zealand. Data were collected through six in-depth interviews with Chinese postgraduate students at one university. Based their experience studying and living in New Zealand, most of the participants reported very individualized understandings of the term “satisfaction”, They also, described their experiences of adjustments in living and learning, their mismatched expectations and how their life attitudes had affected their experience in New Zealand. While the students do not explicitly acknowledge Chinese values, their influence can be seen in the way the students experience satisfaction with their study in New Zealand. This has implications for institutions in New Zealand as these insights have a potential to inform practices to support these students.</p>

An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis of Chinese Students’ Satisfaction with Postgraduate University Study and Life in New Zealand

<p>Chinese students are one of the largest groups of international students studying in New Zealand. The wellbeing of Chinese students in the New Zealand educational context has aroused interest from educators from both China and New Zealand. This research explores the satisfaction of Chinese students from a cultural perspective. It adopts an interpretive phenomenological approach to investigate Chinese students’ definitions of satisfaction and the role of Chinese culture values, particularly, renqing, guanxi, mianzi in influencing their experience of satisfaction while they living and studying in New Zealand. Data were collected through six in-depth interviews with Chinese postgraduate students at one university. Based their experience studying and living in New Zealand, most of the participants reported very individualized understandings of the term “satisfaction”, They also, described their experiences of adjustments in living and learning, their mismatched expectations and how their life attitudes had affected their experience in New Zealand. While the students do not explicitly acknowledge Chinese values, their influence can be seen in the way the students experience satisfaction with their study in New Zealand. This has implications for institutions in New Zealand as these insights have a potential to inform practices to support these students.</p>

Qualitative content analysis of the New Zealand troopship publications 1914-1920

<p>This study is a qualitative content analysis of the magazines and newspapers produced on New Zealand troopships between 1914 and 1920. It begins with an account of the troopships, the printing of the magazines and the individuals involved. The bulk of the study is concerned with a thematic analysis of the troopship publications from a cultural historical perspective. These themes are; troopship life, army life, attitudes to war, national identity, race and gender. The content analysis and interpretation considers the magazines as media products of a particular social group and examines the ways in which this group represented itself. The roles of official discourse, propaganda and resistance in the troopship publications are analysed and the interactions between these and the functions of the publications are explicated. The conclusion assesses the publications' position in the context of discussions of cultural rupture and continuity and finds that they emphasise the latter.</p>

Qualitative content analysis of the New Zealand troopship publications 1914-1920

<p>This study is a qualitative content analysis of the magazines and newspapers produced on New Zealand troopships between 1914 and 1920. It begins with an account of the troopships, the printing of the magazines and the individuals involved. The bulk of the study is concerned with a thematic analysis of the troopship publications from a cultural historical perspective. These themes are; troopship life, army life, attitudes to war, national identity, race and gender. The content analysis and interpretation considers the magazines as media products of a particular social group and examines the ways in which this group represented itself. The roles of official discourse, propaganda and resistance in the troopship publications are analysed and the interactions between these and the functions of the publications are explicated. The conclusion assesses the publications' position in the context of discussions of cultural rupture and continuity and finds that they emphasise the latter.</p>

A Semantic Analysis of the Top Ten Network Buzzwords of China in 2020 from the Perspective of the Prototype Theory

With the further development of the Internet and the rapid growth of the number of netizens, there are always new network buzzwords appearing during online communication. Most of these buzzwords don’t come out of nowhere but are variants of the extant words or expressions. They inherit, extend or sometimes overturn the original meanings. To some extent, these semantic variations not only influence the language system, expanding the semantic category of words, but also reflect people’s cognition and emotions. Therefore, based on the prototype theory, this paper aims to analyze the semantic variations of the top ten network buzzwords of China in 2020 from three aspects: horizontally, the extension of meanings of the basic-level words; vertically, the emergence of new subordinate-level words; and the combination of the two ways of variation. The analysis of these words shows complex emotions of people, including positive life attitudes, nostalgia to the past and helplessness under huge pressures in real life.

Simulation-based learning shapes real-life attitudes

Humans can vividly simulate hypothetical experiences. This ability draws on our memories (e.g., of familiar people and locations) to construct imaginings that resemble real-life events (e.g., of meeting a person at a location). Here, we examine the hypothesis that we also learn from such simulated episodes much like from actual experiences. Specifically, we show that the mere simulation of meeting a familiar person (unconditioned stimulus; US) at a known location (conditioned stimulus; CS) changes how people value the location. We provide key evidence that this simulation-based learning strengthens pre-existing CS-US associations and that it leads to a transfer of valence from the US to the CS. The data thus highlight a mechanism by which we learn from simulated experiences.

Tragic Optimism as a Buffer Against COVID-19 Suffering and the Psychometric Properties of a Brief Version of the Life Attitudes Scale

The Life Attitudes Scale (LAS) was designed to measure tragic optimism (TO)—a distinct type of optimism that could generate hopeless hope even in dire situations according to existential positive psychology (PP 2.0). This study explains why only a faith-based TO could serve as a buffer against suffering at the Nazi death camps as well as the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In study 1, the results showed that the factorial structure of a 15-item LAS-Brief (LAS-B), which is a short measure of TO, replicated the original structure of the 32-item long version. The five factors (i.e., affirmation, acceptance, courage, faith, and self-transcendence) provided a good data model fit statistics for LAS-B; the measure had adequate-to-strong internal and latent construct reliability estimates. In study 2, the buffering effect of TO on the association between suffering experiences during COVID-19 and life satisfaction in adults was examined. The results of the studies were consistent with our hypothesis that TO as measured by LAS-B serves as a buffer against the impact of COVID-19 suffering on life satisfaction.

Change in Life Attitudes During Inpatient Psychosomatic Treatment

Objectives: This study’s primary aim was to investigate whether meaning-based attitudes to life change during inpatient psychosomatic treatment and the factors influencing the extent of this change. Method: This prospective study ( N = 138) was designed as a naturalistic observation. The effectiveness of treatment was investigated through pre–post comparisons of clinical variables and life attitudes (Life Attitude Profile–Revised) using bivariate tests. Factors influencing the extent of changes in life attitudes were investigated using multivariate regression models. Results: Regarding clinical variables, a small but significant improvement in life attitudes was found, with effect sizes ranging from 0.19 to 0.58. Neuroticism correlated negatively with life attitudes at admission but not significantly with the extent of change in life attitudes. In multivariate models, the extent of the therapeutic relationship and neuroticism correlated positively with the extent of improvement in coherence and self-efficacy. The improvement in self-efficacy was associated with an improvement in life attitudes. Discussion: Although life attitudes are robust characteristics of a person, they change during a hospital psychosomatic treatment, similar to the clinical improvement of symptoms. However, the association between the two is weak. People with stronger neuroticism experience a greater increase in life meaning during hospitalization.