Pathogens Are Linked to Human Moral Systems Across Time and Space

Infectious diseases have been an impending threat to the survival of individuals and groups throughout our evolutionary history. As a result, humans have developed psychological pathogen-avoidance mechanisms and groups have developed societal norms that respond to the presence of disease-causing microorganisms in the environment. In this work, we demonstrate that morality plays a central role in the cultural and psychological architectures that help humans avoid pathogens. We present a collection of studies which together provide an integrated understanding of the socio-ecological and psychological impacts of pathogens on human morality. Specifically, in Studies 1 (2,834 U.S. counties) and 2 (67 nations), we show that regional variation in pathogen prevalence is consistently related to aggregate moral Purity. In Study 3, we use computational linguistic methods to show that pathogen-related words co-occur with Purity words across multiple languages. In Studies 4 (n = 513) and 5 (n = 334), we used surveys and social psychological experimentation to show that pathogen-avoidance attitudes are correlated with Purity. Finally, in Study 6, we found that historical prevalence of pathogens is linked to Care, Loyalty, and Purity. We argue that particular adaptive moral systems are developed and maintained in response to the threat of pathogen occurrence in the environment. We draw on multiple methods to establish connections between pathogens and moral codes in multiple languages, experimentally induced situations, individual differences, U.S. counties, 67 countries, and historical periods over the last century.

Advanced Training in Web-Based Psychology Research

This article describes Advanced Training Institutes (ATIs) and workshops on psychological experimentation conducted via the Internet. These programs, conducted since 2002, presented instruction that evolved over the decades to reflect changes in Web-based methods and techniques. The need for instruction in the methods and methodology of Web-based research has increased over the years, as more researchers adopted these methods without necessarily learning the methodological lessons developed from theory and experience. Links to instructional materials created for the workshops are provided. From events and trends that played out over time, including the story of methods that were once state-of-the-art and are no longer functional today, lessons hard-won from the past can be used to anticipate and plan future directions in Web-based experimentation.

Professional pedagogical formation of the competence of the teacher-manager

Recent studies have considered the practical aspect of professional and pedagogical competence formation of students of pedagogical specialties as future managers of the educational environment. Aim of the research is to develop theoretical foundation, methodology and psychological experimentation of psychological and pedagogical conditions for formation professional competence of managers in educational system. The research methods include description and classification, semantic data interpretation, methods of graphical representation of data, ranking as well as content analysis. The received results can be used in the development of competence of psychological and pedagogical field of knowledge, ability to have an active influence on the development process and self-development of social and valuable characteristics of the personality of future expert of the educational environment. Key words: Competence; Communicative competence; Pedagogical education; Multilevel training; Teacher-manager.

Substantiation of Psychological Assistance in Changing the Attitude of Adolescents to Significant Others

The article describes the experience of organizing psychological assistance in changing the attitude of adolescents to significant others. In the process of socio-psychological experimentation, the for-mation of relationships with significant others is considered as the leading activity of a teenager. The author, on the basis of the conducted empirical research, highlighted the stages of the consultative process aimed at initiating support for the adolescent’s awareness of his own system of constructs. The result of this process is to reconstruct the adolescent’s attitude to a significant other through the adolescent’s clarification of the similarities and differences in psychological characteristics between him and the other person.

Representative Learning Design and Functionality of Research and Practice in Sport

Egon Brunswik proposed the concept of “representative design” for psychological experimentation, which has historically been overlooked or confused with another of Brunswik’s terms, ecological validity. In this article, we reiterate the distinction between these two important concepts and highlight the relevance of the term representative design for sports psychology, practice, and experimental design. We draw links with ideas on learning design in the constraints-led approach to motor learning and nonlinear pedagogy. We propose the adoption of a new term, representative learning design, to help sport scientists, experimental psychologists, and pedagogues recognize the potential application of Brunswik’s original concepts, and to ensure functionality and action fidelity in training and learning environments.