Nutritional Choices, New Health Approaches and Anti-speciesist Thinking

Nutritional choices are affected by culture, tradition and above all by the narrative we adopt for human history. The article gives an overview of the (pseudo)scientific beliefs, psychological factors and ethical orientations that affect nutritional choices. Among the various food theories today, great importance is given, for example, to the so-called Paleolithic diet, which consists of proposing a dietary model based on blood groups, which are assumed to have developed throughout different periods of the natural evolution of Homo sapiens, which were characterized by peculiar alimentary regimes. Moreover, psychological determinant drivers affect food choices and could lead to pathological eating behaviors (e.g., anorexia, overeating, binge eating). Finally, the ethical aspects of nutrition are closely correlated to vegetarianism, which in turn embraces an anti-speciesist thinking and recognizes the need for humans not to inflict unnecessary suffering on animals. Vegetarianism, anti-speciesism and ecologism often represent different aspects of the same issue: a lifestyle that testifies the need for a change in traditional paradigms, in the interest of humankind and the future of life on our planet.

Levels of the Unconscious: Instincts, Archetypes, Unconscious Attitude

The article shows the role of instincts, archetypes, an unconscious attitude as the content of the unconscious sphere, and also identifies correlation and the relationship between them. The problem: to find ways of influencing culture on unconscious psychological determinants is also solved. Three levels of the unconscious have been distinguished, each level of which is inaccessible to consciousness and has its own nature of formation and affects the behavior and consciousness of the individual, where the relationship between these components of the unconscious plays a dominant role. From deep levels of the unconscious to awareness, formation of the meaning and behavior of the individual, an unconscious psychological determinant (instincts, archetypes, unconscious attitudes) and the relationships between them play a major role.

Unconscious Attitude as Psychological Determinant at School Age

The article shows the results of a theoretical and experimental research on the study of an unconscious attitude at school age. The given data shows that educational activities and systematic long-term sports activities at school age improve the process of differentiation of the subject’s attitude, transforming a static attitude into a dynamic one. An unconscious attitude, acting as a psychological determinant, affects the success of educational activities and the sportsmanship of athletes and schoolchildren. Formed psychological determinants of the unconscious sphere in the development of the personality of schoolchildren, act as psychological factors and conditions (independent variable) that affect the success of educational activities and sportsmanship.

The Phenomenon of Unconscious in the Psyche and the Spiritual Formation of an Adolescent Boys and Girls

The article shows the peculiarities of the unconscious sphere and their importance in the formation of the spiritual sphere of the personality of adolescent and teenage years on the basis of instinct, archetypes and unconscious attitudes. The problem of instincts must be approached from the perspective of methodology, understanding it as a mental, unconscious phenomenon. The psychological side is currently central and important for youngsters and teenagers. Fantasies, images, desires, inducements, which can be based on archetypes and unconscious mindsets, play a special role in the formation of the spiritual sphere of the personality in adolescent and teenage years. The sexual instinct of teenagers should be treated as an unconscious phenomenon with enormous potential. The factor of ‘humanizing’ instincts in general and sexual instinct in particular, is the formation of personality archetypes, which include fantasies, images, desires, inducements of teenagers and their connection with the archetype, as a psychological determinant being the main function. In adolescence and youth, mental energy sublimates. Psychological determinants of the unconscious sphere at teenage and junior age can cause imagination, creativity, to define it as subject in a social situation of development, identification of the personality, to assist formation of personal qualities, interaction in a group of people and the ability to achieve goals. In prepubescent years and adolescent age there are appear a desire for freedom, an effort to find meaning, creative activity, a desire for integrity, love, value, an appeal to and unity with the spiritual, higher divine world, which are manifested as signs of the archetype ‘selfhood’.

Cultural and Historical Approach of L. S. Vugotsky and Creativity in the Problem of Research of the Unconscious

The article shows the results of a theoretical and experimental research on the study of psychological determinants associated with creativity in adolescence. There are certain relationships between the unconscious and creativity. The extroverted and introverted attitudes, psychical functions: thinking, feelings, sensations, intuition and other psychological personal qualities serve as independent factors. The data showing that mental functions can develop and become dominant both in extrovert and introvert attitudes are presented. According to creative indicators, where intuition dominates over sensation and feelings, in comparison with other functions, the highest indicators for non-verbal and verbal creativity are found. In adolescence, there is a tendency for largely influence of thinking on verbal creativity. According to creative indicators, the thinking type shows high verbal and non-verbal creativity under the dominance of intuition over sensation. Feelings are closely related to the verbal and non-verbal creativity of students. According to creative indicators, the extrovert sensitive type, in comparison with other types, has the highest rates of non-verbal and verbal creativity. An essential sign accompanying non-verbal creativity (both originality and uniqueness) of the rates (examined persons) is intuition. Intuition, as it turned out, is a key attribute and psychological determinant of the formation of originality and uniqueness, as well as non-verbal creativity.

Is it up to them? Individual leverages for sufficiency

Sufficiency is one important strategy for sustainable development. At an individual level, we need a better understanding of the relationship between sufficiency attitude and CO2 footprint. In this paper, we analyze sufficiency as a psychological determinant of low-carbon lifestyles and introduce an empirical measurement scale for individual sufficiency attitudes.Sufficiency aims at a total reduction of resource consumption, which is urgently needed to achieve our climate and sustainable development goals. This paper explores individual attitude towards a sufficiency-oriented lifestyle as a driver of a low carbon footprint. Survey data of 310 participants was analyzed to test whether individual sufficiency attitude manifests in people’s carbon footprint. The results provide evidence for this relationship but its strength varies between behavioral domains ‐ that is, heating, electricity, food consumption, everyday mobility, air travel. Potential structural and individual barriers to reducing CO2 emissions are discussed as possible factors that could explain differences between the behavioral domains. We argue that intrapersonal factors matter for sustainable lifestyles but that policy-making and structural change should complement and facilitate voluntary endeavors to achieve low-carbon lifestyles.

Unconscious Fear and Shadow Archetype of Personality in Adolescents and Youths

The Shadow archetype as an unconscious psychological determinant indicates the manifestation of anxiety, unconscious fear and depression of teens, boys and girls. Under the dominance of the Shadow archetype of personality, some individual adolescents show signs of anxiety, depression, and this state begins to dominate their Ego, an archetype that testifies to Self-identity and Self-awareness of the ‘I’, which can lead to loss of control over their behavior. Young students — boys show a correlation between the anima scales and the self. ‘Self’ as an archetype of personality, affecting the development and formation of personality of an individual, indicates the existence of a strong direct relationship between these scales, that is, with high Self-indicators of ‘Self’, high indicators of the anima scale are demonstrated. A statically significant relationship is found between the ego and Self-scales, as well as between the Shadow and Self-scales. With high indices of the ‘Self’, with the development and formation of individuality of the individual, high indices of Ego scales and Shadow are demonstrated.

The research about psychological determinants of the civil identity formation in adolescence

The article presents the theoretical model of the study of civil identity. The model of the civil identity research is presented as the ratio of two indicators: the status of civil identity and the content of its structural components (cognitive, emotional-evaluative, need-motivational). At the cognitive component level the psychological determinant of the civil identity formation is determined as the ability to conceptualization in the field of civil problems; at the emotional-evaluative level – the combination features of positive / negative civil identity valence and the personality reflexivity level; at the emotional-evaluative component level – the nature structural organization of the adolescents’ civic activity motivation. As the result of the empirical research it is revealed that the process of the status of civil identity formation is due to the selected psychological determinants and is characterized by the following regularities: the transition from lower statuses (diffuse and predefined) to higher (moratorium and reached) is accompanied by the progressive change of the development of the ability to conceptualize, the changes in the motives of the structural connections content and the young people’s civil activity motivation structure differentiation, and the differences in the priority type of emotionalevaluative attitude to civic identity.