The role of personality, conspiracy mentality, REBT irrational beliefs, and adult attachment in COVID-19 related health behaviors

We investigated irrational beliefs defined in rational-emotive cognitive-behavior therapy (REBT), attachment anxiety and avoidance, and conspiracy mentality as mediators of the relationship between HEXACO and Disintegration traits and COVID-19 health behaviors. Structural equation modeling on a sample of 287 participants, showed that Disintegration (D) was related to all mediating variables, highlighting the importance of D in the emergence of irrational beliefs. Conspiracy mentality mediated the effect of D in low adherence to recommended health behaviors - RHB , negative vaccination behavior, and greater use of pseudoscientific practices - PSP . Attachment anxiety mediated the relationship between high D, high Emotionality (E), and low Honesty (H) and lower adherence to RHB. Higher adherence to RHB predicted positive vaccination behavior, whilst there was no relationship between PSP use and vaccination behavior. REBT irrational beliefs and attachment avoidance were not found to be significant mediators of the relationship between personality traits and COVID-19 health behaviors.

ARTISTIC DETAILS IN PU SUNG-LING’S CREATIVE STYLE

Fiction style in literature means a special speech style that is common in both world fictions in general and in copywriting in particular. It is characterized by high emotionality, a wealth of direct speech, colors, epithets, and metaphors, and it is also designed to influence readers’ imagination and serve as a stimulus to their imagination. Sometimes, in an artistic text, the author expresses his/her feelings in order to form readers’ correct attitude to certain things described. Such an attitude can be either positive or negative. The detail we analyze in our article is an element that serves to draw readers as close as possible to the textual environment being described, to complement the content of the artistic text, and to enrich it with different colors. The article discusses this topic in the example of famous Chinese novelist Pu Sung-ling. His short stories are very popular and have been published in many languages around the world. In the writer’s lifetime and beyond, intellectuals read these short stories, and street storytellers turned them into lively spoken language, the plots in these short stories were presented on stage, reflected in paintings and miniatures. In Pu Sung-ling’s short stories we find the author’s elaboration of details, i.e., specialization in literature. In other words, the main idea of this article is the author's attention to details. As we become acquainted with the analyses related to the details of the work in the stories, we see that this topic is of a special importance in Chinese literature. Although Pu Sung-ling's “Liao Jai's Stories of strange” was written in Venus under the pseudonym Liao Jay, his work also reached such heights because of its simplification of Venetian and the simplification of the vernacular, which was much easier and more methodologically simple. Although Pu Sung-ling is the author of other works, “Lyao Jai’s Stories of strange”, which we cite as examples in the article, was widely known in Pu Sung-ling’s land and later all over the world, gaining people’s interest and respect.

The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: Hexaco profiles affect coping mechanisms and adaptability of response

Our primary objective was to investigate whether HEXACO personality profiles predict different coping strategies during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. We chose a person-centered approach as it enabled visibility of personal structures differentiating between adaptive and maladaptive coping in a nonclinical sample. Latent profile analysis identified three distinct personality profiles, each profile complemented by its specific choice of coping strategies. The Resilient (conscientious extroverts) used strategies focused on the stressor (Problem-focused, Emotion-focused coping, and Humor); the Undercontrolled (conscienceless) turned to Avoidance of problem-solving strategies; the Overcontrolled (emotionally reactive and conscientious introverts) avoided Humor and handling of their own emotions. Combination of Conscientiousness scores differentiated between adaptive and maladaptive resilience. However, high Emotionality in conjunction with Introversion and high Conscientiousness produced both vulnerability and maladaptation. Absence of Avoidance is the paramount feature of adaptive resilience. Thus, personality related variance in stress response is mostly determined by traits responsible for control, proactivity, and affectivity.

Complaints of patients with functional dysorders of voice production accompained by hypotonic condition of the vocal apparatus

Topicality: Hypotonic functional dysphonia, especially a chronic disease (CHFD), is the most common nosology among all functional voice disorders. It is often accompanied by various complications and characterized by a very severe disease course, deteriorating significantly the voice function and general state of health of patients. Materials and Methods: A total of 123 patients with chronic hypotonic functional dysphonia were examined and divided into 4 groups depending on the violation degree in the vocal apparatus. The 1st group included 25 patients with mild disorders in the vocal apparatus, the 2nd group included 33 patients having more severe laryngeal mobility disorders, the 3rd group comprised 34 patients with a complicated disease course (prenodulus state, vocal cords nodules, Mediale Edge thinning), and the 4th group was consisted of 31 patients having such complications as vocal cords nodules, prenodulus state and the larynx vestibular hypertonicity of various degree. Results and Discussion: The complaints of severe hoarseness were reported in 44.0% of cases in Group 1, in 48.5% of cases of Group 2, in 64.7% of cases in Group 3, whereas in Group 4 the severe hoarseness was present in 77.4% of cases. Periodic voice loss was found in 32.0% of Group 1patients, among 42.4% of the patients from Group 2, among 52.9% of the patients from Group 3, and in 67.7% of cases it was reported in Group 4. In the first group, 56.0% of the patients described their complaints in various ways including unpleasant sensations in the larynx, irritation, dryness and a “ball” in the throat, 60.6% of the patients from the second group complained of the same symptoms, 70.6% of the patients from the third one, as well as 74.2% from the fourth group, respectively. Recurrent pain in the larynx, mainly caused by voice loading, was found in 24.0% of Group 1patients, in 30.3% of Group 2 patients, in 41.2% of Group 3 patients and 51.6%of the patients from Group 4. Thus, the severity of these symptoms was increasing simultaneously with deteriorating the vocal apparatus. The 72.0% of Group 1patients, 60.6% of Group 2 patients, 70.6% of Group 3 patients, and 90.3% of Group 4 patients complained of voice fatigue. In the first group, 40.0% of patients complained of intermittent coughing due to voice loading or to the desire “to talk” in the morning, as well as 39.4% of patients from the second group reported the same symptoms, and 44.1% of patients from the third group and 54, 8% from the fourth one, respectively. The neck muscle tension during phonation was experienced by 16% of patients from the first group, 36.4%- from the second group, 52.9%- from the third group and 70.9% of the patients from the fourth one. Therefore, the patients with the larynx vestibular hypertonicity reported they had the most severe sensations. Regarding the complaints of general state of health, the patients of Group 1 complained mostly of headache (52.0%), heaviness in the head (44.0%), irritability and high emotionality (56%). The patients of Group 2 had the most complaints of headache (57.6%), sleep disorders (48.5%), irritability and high emotionality (57.6%). The patients of Group 3 suffered from headache in 67.6% of the cases, from heaviness in the head in 58.8% of the cases, from sleep disorders in 58.8% of the cases, irritability and high emotionality in 70.6% of the cases. And the vast majority of patients from Group 4 complained of headache (77.4%), heaviness in the head (67.7%), sleep disorders (74.2%), irritability and high emotionality (87.1%), meteorological dependence (67.7%). So, the complaints of general state of health, especially with regard to headache, sleep disorders, irritability, high emotionality and meteorological dependence were mostly reported in the patients with HFD having a complicated disease course (Groups 3 and 4). This suggests that the central nervous and cardiovascular systems condition should be taken into account when treating patients with complicated HFD and severe voice disorders. Thus, the data on the examined groups of patients with CHFD show a tendency to an increase in the number of patients’ local health complaints and, especially, general health complaints starting from the first to the fourth group. The patients’ local health complaints include those of severe hoarseness, neck muscle tension, laryngeal pain during phonation and viscous sputum in the vocal cords, and periodic voice loss. Regarding to general health complaints, such as headache, sleep disorders, irritability and meteorological dependence; we can also observe the dynamics of growth in health complaints from the first to the fourth group. The obtained data will contribute to improving the quality of diagnosis in case of functional voice disorders, and can also be used in solving issues related to professional suitability of people of voice profession and medical-labour expert commission. Conclusions: 1. The patients with CHFD in all study groups mostly had such common local health complaints as severe hoarseness, voice fatigue and discomfort (irritation, dryness, viscous sputum, muscle tension) of the vocal apparatus, and also, headache, sleep disorders and irritability as the general state of health is concerned. 2. The frequency and severity of almost all studied health complaints, both general and local, increased from Group 1 (mild CHFD) to Group 4 (complicated severe CHFD) of patients with voice disorders, but, especially, in regard of such local health complaints as severe hoarseness, voice fatigue, neck muscle tension during phonation, sensation of irritation and laryngeal pain and such general health complaints as headache, sleep disorders, meteorological dependence and irritability. 3. The significant number of complaints increases (headache, heaviness in the head, irritability, sleep disorders, meteorological dependence and others) simultaneously with the deterioration of the vocal apparatus, which may indicate a violation of the central nervous system and cerebral circulation in patients with severe disorders of the voice function.

Interindividual Differences in the Sensitivity for Consequences, Moral Norms, and Preferences for Inaction: Relating Basic Personality Traits to the CNI Model

Research on moral decision making usually focuses on two ethical principles: the principle of utilitarianism (= morality of an action is determined by its consequences) and the principle of deontology (= morality of an action is valued according to the adherence to moral norms regardless of the consequences). Criticism on traditional moral dilemma research includes the reproach that consequences and norms are confounded in standard paradigms. As a remedy, a multinomial model (the CNI model) was developed to disentangle and measure sensitivity to consequences ( C), sensitivity to moral norms ( N), and general preference for inaction versus action ( I). In two studies, we examined the link of basic personality traits to moral judgments by fitting a hierarchical Bayesian version of the CNI model. As predicted, high Honesty–Humility was selectively associated with sensitivity for norms, whereas high Emotionality was selectively associated with sensitivity for consequences. However, Conscientiousness was not associated with a preference for inaction.

Characteristics of Social Perception among Teachers with Burnout Syndrome

The article presents the results of a study of the characteristics of individual mechanisms of social perception among teachers with a high level of burnout syndrome. 111 teachers of regular schools aged 21 to 72 years were examined (average age 45.03 ± 11.49). The diagnostic toolkit consisted of: “Diagnostics of the emotional burnout level” (V.V. Boyko); “Test for occupational stress” (T.D. Azarny, I.M. Tyrtyshnikov); "Comprehensive assessment of stress manifestations" (Yu.V. Shcherbatykh); "Emotional Intelligence (EI) Test of Lucin"; “The scale of emotional response” (A. Megrabyan, N. Epstein); methodology "Self-assessment of the level of ontogenetic reflection"; questionnaire “Conflict situations”; ranking grid of stereotyping; the scale of social distance (E. Bogardus). It was demonstrated that the main characteristics of teachers with a high level of emotional burnout are as follows: low indicators of the level of self-esteem of ontogenetic reflection, high emotionality as well as low ability to interpret their emotions and manage them.