Life Aspirations, Generativity and Compulsive Buying in University Students

The study of goal-oriented behaviour, because of its undeniable repercussions on physical and mental health, is one of the target topics of contemporary research. However, the content of life aspirations, emphasised from the self-determination theory, has received little attention from the field of compulsive buying although it plays an important role in the regulation of behaviour and well-being. Generativity, the personal construct that captures the intentions and/or the need to contribute (leave a legacy) to others, has never been analysed with respect to compulsive buying although it has been the source of interest of related fields (responsible consumption). Accordingly, this study seeks to shed light on the role of both constructs (life aspirations and generativity) in compulsive buying among university students. The sample consisted of 1093 Spanish university students classified either as non-compulsive buyers or compulsive buyers. Estimated prevalence of compulsive buying was 7.9%. The results of Student’s test confirm that, besides gender (women report greater propensity to the phenomenon), compulsive buyers score higher and show statistically significant differences with respect to non-compulsive buyers in all extrinsic goals (financial success, image, popularity and conformity) and hedonism. Non-compulsive buyers show significantly higher scores for the intrinsic goals of self-acceptance, affiliation and community feeling and also report a higher generative concern. The logistic regression analysis confirms that being female and the life aspirations of image, popularity and hedonism act as risk factors in compulsive buying in university students while generativity and the importance granted to the intrinsic goals of self-acceptance and affiliation are protective factors. Potential lines of action for this worrying phenomenon are discussed in the light of the findings.

Health and Happiness in the New Urban Agenda: The Central Role of Public Space

The New Urban Agenda—the global urbanization framework agreement adopted by acclamation by all 193 countries of the United Nations—contains no fewer than eight paragraphs on the importance of public space, three of which outline its role in achieving “human health and well-being”, “attractive and liveable cities”, and “physical and mental health”. However, there is an urgent need to translate these and other quality of life aspirations contained in this landmark document into measurable targets, tools, and strategies to achieve outcomes. This paper examines the core theories that connect health and well-being to public space as reflected in the document, surveying some of the most relevant research in the field. It then analyzes the document text to identify a number of potentially useful indicators. Finally, it proposes a framework for data gathering, assessment, and iterative progress in achieving the stated goals, concluding with an overview of emerging research and practice, and proposed next steps.

Vocational Aspiration Of The Undergraduate Students- A Study

Man responds to his environment by active degree of aspiration or aversion by movement towards or a way from flue exciting stimulus. In social life, aspiration is about one's education and occupation plays a major role in shaping one's destiny of life. Aspirations are the target a person sets for him to achieve which creates a 'desire' or 'will' in him. Formation of a strong desire and ambition motivates individual to strive hard to achieve that goal. Such motivation is keenly required if one has to succeed in life. If one goes through the education on a preferred vocation, he can get job satisfaction from the vocation and the individual shall be well placed. Aspiration adds to the efficiency of the person by exhibiting the best in him on the job. Therefore, before providing for education for a vocation, there is a need for planners to try to know which vocations are aspired by the students. Here in this study, different aspects of vocational aspiration was studied with 119 sample students by using simple random sampling technique with the help of self-constructed questionnaire as a tool.

Pro-Efficiency Model of the Organizational Climate

Work is the main part of an adult's life. It significantly influences people's ideas and views, shapes their attitudes and life aspirations. For some, it becomes just a means of livelihood. For others, it is a way of expressing and making their personality real. Work shapes the way people perceive, think and behave.

The images of the Orthodox and the Catholics in the historical novel “The Princess of Ostrog” by Vs. S. Solovyov

The article is dedicated to the study of the religious problems of Vs. S. Solovyov’s historical novel “The Princess of Ostrog”, the central plot conflict of which is an open struggle between the Orthodoxy and the Catholicism that broke out in the 16th century in The Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the process of analysing the designated aspect of the text the author comes to the conclusion that the images of Konstantin, Halshka and Beata Ostrozhsky considered in the paper are a clear embodiment of the three possible life aspirations of the people who lived in the era recreated by the author: the struggle for the Orthodoxy in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania; asserting one’s right to profess the Orthodoxy; propaganda of the Catholicism.

AXIOPSYCHOLOGICAL BASES OF MEANING-LIFE ORIENTATIONS

Метою статті єздійснення рефлексивного аналізу онтофеноменальної сутності особистості, зважа-ючи на її аксіопсихологічні і смисложиттєві пріоритети. Основні завдання пошукування центруються довкола аналітичного окреслення аксіопсихологічних складових частин особистості, дослідження системи сенсів і смислів людини в контексті її життєвих домагань, віднаходження онтофеноменальних формовиявів екзистенційних запитів людського буття. Методи дослідження: аналізу і систематизації наукової літератури, порівняння та узагальнення, науково-психологічного методологування і соціогуманітарного теоретизування. Результати. Ставлення людини до дійсності та соціального довкілля опосередковується внутрішньо прийнятими цінностями, які становлять екзистенційне осереддя її буття. Формування, розвиток і реалізація моральних, інтелектуальних та естетичних запитів й інтересів особистості у процесі її життєдіяльності опосередковуються системою аксіопсихологічних імперативів, вищим ступенем організації яких є система сенсів і смислів людини. Сутнісне розмежування смислу і сенсу полягає в тому, що перше утримує стратегічні шляхи існування людини у її духовному самоплеканні, а друге опосе-редковується чуттєвим, досвідним сприйняттям особою дійсності, що є основою визначення тактичних пріоритетів її життєактивності. Сенси і смисли людини формуються під впливом її вартісної складової і виявляються у вчинку як сутнісному осередді людського існування. У повноцінному вираженні вчинок завжди є формовиявом духовного розвитку суб’єкта зі сталою системою моральних ідеалів, суспільних домагань, персоніфікованих цінностей і вособистіснених смислів. Висновки. Pезультатом взаємодії людини і світу є віднаходження особистістю певних розумових узагальнень і синтезований вияв її життєвих пріоритетів на шляху до чуттєво збагаченої екзистенції, таланту сприймати та повномірно переживати дійсність, надихати сенсом кожний момент, значуще сприймати фрагмент чи цілісну подію свого буття, насичувати його індивідуально неповторним змістом – творити своє Я у відповідності з персоніфікованими смисложиттєвими орієнтирами. Ключові слова: аксіопсихологія, буття, вартості, сенси, смисли, смисложиттєві орієнтації, цін-нісно-смислова сфера. The purpose of the article is to carry out a reflexive analysis of the ontophenomenal essence of the individual, taking into account his axiopsychological and meaning-life priorities. The main tasks of search are centered around the analytical delineation of the axiopsychological constituents of the individual, the study of the system of senses and meanings of the person in the context of his life aspirations, finding ontophenomenal forms of existential inquiries of human being.Research methods: analysis and systematization of scientific literature, comparisons and generalizations, scientific-psychological methodologization and socio-humanitarian theorizing.Results. The relation of human to reality and the social environment is mediated by internally accepted values, which constitute the existential focus of his being. Formation, development and realization of moral, intellectual and esthetic demands and interests of the individual in the process of her life activity are mediated by a system of axiopsychological imperatives, the highest degree of organization of which is the system of human senses and meaning. The essential distinction between meaning and sense is that the first contains strategic ways of human existence in its spiritual self-expression, and the latter is mediated by a sensual, experienced perception of the individual of reality, which is the basis for determining the tactical priorities of his life-activity. The senses and meanings of a person are formed under the influence of his values component and are manifested in an act as an essential focus of human existence. In full expression, an act is always a form of the spiritual development of a subject with a constant system of moral ideals, social aspirations, personified values and personal meanings. Conclusions. The result of the interaction of human and the world is the finding of certain mental generalizations by the personality and the synthesized revealing of her life priorities on the way to the sensually enriched existence, the talent to perceive and fully experience the reality, to inspire the meaning with every moment, to perceive the fragment or whole event of one's being, to sate it with an individually unique content – to create yourself in accordance with personalized meaning-life orientive.Key words: axiopsihology, being, values, senses, meanings, meaning-life orientations, value-semantic sphere.

The Reconfiguration of European Boundaries and Borders: Cross-border Marriages from the Perspective of Spouses in Sri Lanka

Cross-border marriages between citizens with a migration background and spouses from non-EU countries have been politicised and restricted across Europe. This article simultaneously applies the analytical lenses of bordering and boundary work to this issue and de-centres the perspective by investigating the consequences of these restrictions not on Europe, but on a country of origin – Sri Lanka. We show that a particular symbolic boundary against cross-border marriages in European countries legitimises the externalisation of borders to the country of origin. This has important consequences for the female spouses before they even begin their journey to Europe: it challenges their life aspirations, enhances their economic dependency and precarity and directly impacts the marriage system in Sri Lanka. We argue that this situation creates a form of neo-colonial governmentality that perpetuates historically established forms of Western politics of belonging.

Validation of a Portuguese Version of the Aspiration Index for Adolescents (AI)

Intrinsic and extrinsic types of motivation have been widely studied, and their importance on both developmental and educational practices has led to the development of assessment tools. The Aspiration Index scale (AI; Grouzet et al., 2005), which was developed to measure people`s life aspirations, was translated and validated into Portuguese. A sample of 1,359 adolescents, age ranged from 12 to 18 years-old, participated in the present study. Results showed that a factor structure with the eleven subscales of the AI does not fit the data. However we gathered support for a three-factor structure that organized the items in terms of whether aspirations are intrinsically, extrinsically or self-transcendent oriented. Internal consistency and temporal stability yielded good results. The predictive and criterion validities were demonstrated by significant associations with theoretically supported measures of satisfaction with life and father and mother attachment. The multi-group confirmatory factor analysis showed that this structure was invariant across gender. These results suggest that the AI is a reliable measure to assess different types of life aspirations and can be used in future research with adolescents in Portugal.