Mathematics anxiety – where are we and where shall we go?

In this paper we list ten fairly undisputed claims about Mathematics Anxiety (MA) and propose where MA research should focus on. The areas future MA research should focus on comprise (a) theoretical clarifications on what MA is, and what constitutes its opposite pole, (b) construct validity – specifically relations between self-descriptive, (neuro)physiological and cognitive measures, (c) discrepancy between state and trait MA and its theoretical and practical consequences, (d) prevalence of MA and call for establishing external criteria for estimating prevalence and proposal of such criteria, (e) exploring role of MA in different groups, e.g., highly anxious and high match performing individuals, (f) classroom applications of MA knowledge, (g) effects of MA outside educational settings, (h) consequences of MA on mental health and well-being.

Design and Analysis of a Tendon-driven Snake-arm Robot Based on Spherical Magnet

The tendon-driven snake-arm robot can achieve multiple degrees of freedom (DOF) bending motion with a compact structure, which enables the robot to be widely applied in confined environments. However, if a conventional tendon-driven snake-arm robot is subject to a lateral force on the distal end, it will experience passive compliance. In this paper, a 2-DOF rolling joint is proposed based on the opposite-pole attraction of spherical magnets, which has a relatively simple structure than traditional joints. By serial connecting the 2-DOF rolling joints, a novel snake-arm robot is designed utilizing a tendon-driven approach. The kinematic model and workspace of the snake-arm robot are obtained, and the bending motion is validated. Based on the kinematic model, it is theoretically proved that the proposed robot can avoid passive compliance. In addition, this feature is verified through load experiments on the developed prototype.

Language representation in the Spanish, Italian and French versions of Xiaolu Guo’s A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers: On the translation of ungrammatical idiolect and language-based jokes

Xiaolu Guo’s A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers is a novel in which language has a special protagonism. The main character, Z, is a Chinese girl who goes to London to improve her basic English. Her idiolect is thus characterised by a great quantity of linguistic errors of different types. This lack of proficiency in English makes cross-cultural communication really difficult. Therefore, language becomes in this novel not only a characterisation tool, but also an essential aspect of the plot. Moreover, it is also a paramount source of humour, since there is plenty of jokes based, for instance, on puns, many of which derive from Z’s lack of linguistic competence. The main objective of this paper is to analyse language representation in the source text as well as in the Spanish, Italian and French versions of the novel from the perspective of relevance theory. Out of the three versions, the Spanish one reflects the highest interpretive resemblance in this regard, whereas the Italian one occupies the opposite pole of the scale. With regard to the translation of wordplay, the pragmatic scenario is normally maintained in the TT, although there are statistically significant differences between the three versions and across different types of puns.

“THE BOOK OF SECTS AND CREEDS” BY AL-SHAHRASTANI AS AN ISMAILI SOURCE: SWITCH THE PARADIGM IN HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY

Muhammad ibn `Abd al-Karīm al-Shahrastani is a well-known source in the West about Islamic and non-Islamic religious teachings. His “Book on Sects and Creeds” has so far been considered in the history of philosophy among the Asharite doxographic works. At present, the evaluation of this work in the history of philosophy is radically changing: from the Asharite doxography its evaluation is shifted to the opposite pole - Isma’ili heresiography. The paper presents historical and biographical facts, as well as a brief description of the main works that allow us to include al-Shahrastani in the Isma’ili context. It analyzes the Shahrastani's preface to Kitab al-milal wa-n-nihal, which clearly shows the coherence of this section, including the methodology and structure of the treatise indicated by the author himself, with other Isma’ili books, in particular with the “Chapter on Shaytan” from Kitab al-Shajar Abu Tammam. Using the example of the switching of this book evaluations, we want to argue against the point of view that insists on the conservatism of the philosophical canon ostensibly created and observed by the history of philosophy, and to show that the history of philosophy research, although it depends on speculative interpretations, is fundamentally an empirical work, essentially dependent on the facts which role played by the sources, and the decisive factor in changing the "paradigm" in history of philosophy or the philosophical canon is primarily our trust in the sources and their careful reading in various contexts.

Features of socialization і individual expectation features

The article considers the features of socialization and individual expectations of the individual as components of its spheres of life. It is shown that the peculiarities of the subject's self-attitude determine the attitudes to life. Transforming, creative activity is one pole. The opposite pole - passivity, expectations, dependence. The result of psychological "tightness" is a feeling of failure. To solve the corrective tasks of forming an active life position, it is important that this transformative, corrective process begins with the analysis and work with self-assessment judgments. Individuals who have, in general, a fairly positive experience of social adaptation and self-realization will tend to form positive, flexible, realistic and concrete expectations. At the same time, individuals who have experienced numerous disappointments and conflicts in the past will be more likely to have negative, rigid, unrealistic and diffuse expectations in their respective fields of activity. Accordingly, the selected indicators are expressed in the features of the expectations of the individual in such areas as significant interpersonal relationships, ideas about their own potential and prediction of the future. The role of individual expectations (as components of cognitive development), as well as their relationship with the process of self-determination of the individual, which provides an opportunity to develop new, more effective programs of socio-psychological adaptation of the younger generation. Key words: specialty, socialization, examination, life.

The concept of a positive body image in modern foreign psychology

Research into the problem of body image has more than a century of history, most of which is associated with the study of negative attitudes towards the body and related psychopathology - eating disorders, body dysmorphic disorders, etc. In the last decade there has been a growing tendency in this area to shift the emphasis to the study of a positive body image, just as in psychology in general there are more and more works performed in the paradigm of positive psychology, which calls for abandoning the concept of disease and searching for new approaches based on the positive potential of the individual. This review presents the main stages in the study of the problem of body image in foreign psychology, the origin and development of ideas about a positive body image as a special construct that is not the opposite pole in the general “negative-positive” continuum, the key works of leading researchers who have formed the concept of a positive body image as an independent entity, the main components of a positive body image, methodological tools used to assess a positive body image, and the results of studies of a positive body image in various social groups. The modern perspectives of research in the field of body image are presented in accordance with the views of leading foreign experts.

Structuralism’s casus. Article second

This article concludes the series of publications on structuralism. In the three previous articles, the hypothesis that structuralism cannot be understood and appreciated outside of what can be called “modern humanism” was first expressed and substantiated. In this article, structuralism, understood in its ontogeny and phylogeny, is related to the horizon of modern epistemology and philosophy of science. Moreover, modern epistemological models must themselves be taken seriously, i. e. methods of modern comparative epistemology. Thus, the map of theories of structuralism is more complicated to see than with a strictly institutional approach. One of the poles of this whole is radically constructivist models (the most complete constructivist model of structuralism today is the concept of N. Poselyagin). The opposite pole is the realistic understanding of structuralism proposed in this series of publications. A number of models reveal fundamental complexity, revealing a realistic background under the layer of constructivist rhetoric. Thus, the theory of structuralism of the greatest epistemologist and methodologist of science P. Serio turns out to be dual. Corrections to the archeology of M. Foucault’s knowledge inevitably lead his theory to the realistic pole.

THE NAMING OF LOCI AND CHARACTERS IN NARRATIVES ABOUT FORCED EVICTION FROM THE INUNDATION ZONE

The article analyses the names of loci and characters in the memoirs about forced relocation from flood zones due to the construction of hydroelectricity. This is a continuation of the study of resettlement vocabulary, that is nominative constructions of different types (tokens, phrases, idioms, phraseologies, descriptive frames), which function in the migrants’ memories and represent the verbal image of forced resettlement. The nomination in the memoirs reveals the special vision of the experienced event by its participants, classifies their gained experience. In the studied autobiographical narratives, the most common location nominations are the names of the spatial objects in the flooded places and in the new place. In this semantic category of nomination, as well as in other analysed categories, the following regularity operates: the more nominative density of this or that territory indicates the more mastered, native locus. In the studied texts the different density of the spatial nomination of these two contextually oppositional loci is striking. Thus, a telling feature is the presence of numerous microtoponyms in stories about the lost territory and the almost complete absence of such nominations in the description of the new settlement. Descriptions of the resettlement place are concise, stingy, with a tangible contrast in favour of the lost place. In the memories of people who have personally gone through all the stages of resettlement, the arrangement of characters often occurs through the opposition ‟we — the perpetrators of resettlement” (in memories about preparation and resettlement) and through the opposition ‟we — neighbours” (in memories about adaptation to a new place). A typical place of memories is the presentation of the resettled village community as friendly and cohesive. Autonomy of direct participants in forced evictions is most often formed from the verb creative basis переселяти (resettlement): переселенці, переселенські люди, переселені (migrants, displaced people, displaced persons). At the opposite pole of the contextual semantic opposition ῾immigrants — performers of resettlement’ are numerous characters who are direct performers. The figures of people are folklorized — most often old men and women, who had been refusing to move until the last minute. Today, these images have been symbolizing the people’s resistance to the forced migration.

Lied versus Oper – Pole musikalischer Gattungen bei Oscar Bie

A comparison of Oscar Bie’s monographies Die Oper and Das deutsche Lied shows that opera and ‘Lied’ are two extremes in Bie’s understanding of musical genres. While opera according to Bie is an “impossible work of art” which arises from countless contradictions, the low-conflict ‘Lied’ forms an opposite pole. Bie’s perception influences the way he deals with the two genres in writing: while opera is suitable for an adequate feuilleton, ‘Lied’ is not. Bie’s comparison gives him the possibility to break with established patterns of genres. It becomes apparent that for him opera takes on a special role in that it represents the culmination of the basic features of music. As a critic, Bie demands utmost congruence between object and written representation. Writing about music means to be an artist who deals with the same work of art but in another medium.

Examining the Conceptual and Empirical Distinctiveness of Agreeableness and “Dark” Personality Items

Objective: A growing research literature has focused on what have been termed “dark” personality traits/constructs. More recently, the “dark factor” of personality has been proposed as a unifying framework for this research (Moshagen et al., 2018). To date, little work has rigorously investigated whether the traits/constructs investigated in the context of the dark factor can be captured by existing models of normative personality, namely Agreeableness from the Five-factor Model. Thus, the “dark factor” may be an instance of the “jangle” fallacy, where two constructs with different names are in fact the same construct. Method: We used a preregistered approach that made use of bass-ackwards factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and nomological network analysis to investigate the distinction between the D factor and Agreeableness. Results: Agreeableness and the D factor were similar in their coverage of antagonistic personality content, strongly negatively related (latent r = -.90), and showed near perfect profile dissimilarity (rICC = -.99). Conclusion: The results suggested that the D factor can be understood as the opposite pole of Agreeableness (i.e., antagonism) and not as a distinct construct. We discuss the implications for researchers interested in continuing to advance the study of antagonistic personality traits.