Research Progress on Psychological Changes of the Elderly under Major Epidemic Situations

People have been developing higher needs in and attentions on health, especially the elderly, whose mental health has drawn a lot attentions, since there was a lot of outbreaks of epidemics, such as, coronavirus disease, SARS, and Ebola, in recent years. As the prevention and control for pandemic goes normally, it has been an important hot issue that how to ease the elderly’s negative emotions from the pandemic, such as fear, anxiety, tension and etc., and strengthen their mental ability to cope. The article is a summary of domestic and abroad progresses of studying on the elderly’s psychological stresses under major pandemic in five years, and aims to be reference for mentally interfering with the elderly’s mental health in the future when there is a pandemic.

General Intelligence: An Analysis of the Saudi Students’ General Mental Ability and Elementary Cognitive Task Performance

Previous studies on human intelligence has revealed that varied factors influence cognitive performance, and some studies have hypothesized the presence of “general intelligence” (g factor) that is responsible for intelligence. However, most studies have been centered on Western cultures. This study thus examines the Saudi students and the g factor hypothesis. A group of Saudi college students participated in a battery of general mental ability tests and elementary cognitive tasks and were assessed for the influence of various factors on cognitive performance. The study results revealed an increase in the average of Saudi students’ intelligence compared to the results of the previous studies, but it did not yield a g factor.

Approaches to defining the concepts of “Reading” and “Authentic materials” in english methodology

The article deals with approaches to defining the concepts of “reading” and “authentic materials” in English methodology. Reading means different things to different people, for some it is recognizing written words, while for others it is an opportunity to teach pronunciation and practice speaking. However, reading always has a purpose. It is something that we do every day, it is an integral part of our daily lives, taken very much for granted and generally assumed to be something that everyone can do. It is said that reading is a skill that is highly values by students and teacher alike. Reading comprehension is a complex process in which the reader used his mental ability to obtain the information.

A RESEARCH OF PSYCHOLOGICAL PECULIARITIES OF THE CORPOREALITY OF YOUNG WOMEN IN THE CONTEXT OF PHENOMENOLOGY

The article offers the results of an experimental study of the psychological characteristics of the corporeality of young women by the phenomenological method. The properties of a woman's consciousness as her phenomenological experience are substantiated. Sensory cognition has been shown to be a true form of cognition, but consciousness interprets phenomena, and phenomenological experience is possible only through reflection specifically aimed at personal subjective experience. It is established that physical experience allows a woman to understand the environment, to integrate into it. The objectives of the study were to determine indicators of psychosomatic potential, competencies of verbalization of the bodily self and the locus of bodily control of young women; generalization of indicators of types of self-awareness and self-reflection of bodily potential of young women. It was found that the sample consisted of women who did not have serious mental disorders, so the mental ability to see in the body the cause and effect of events in the internal and external space of man for these women is quite developed. The positive values ​​of self-awareness and self-reflection of the bodily potential of young women confirmed the positive emotional tone. Such psychological features of corporeality in young women in the context of phenomenology as: indicators of psychosomatic potential, competence of verbalization of bodily self and locus of bodily control, types of self-awareness and self-reflection of bodily potential are determined. The results of the study allowed us to state that the conformal type of self-reflection of bodily potential prevails among women and it can be argued that women aged 20 to 35 years are characterized by an insufficient level of self-reflection of bodily potential. In the future it is necessary to investigate the deep psychological conditionality of physicality in young women.

Perceived Limitations of Walking in Individuals With Cerebral Palsy

Objective Impairments associated with cerebral palsy (CP) can affect gait quality and limit activity and participation. The purpose of this study was to quantify (1) which of 6 factors (pain, weakness, endurance, mental ability, safety concerns, balance) were perceived to limit walking ability the most in individuals with CP and (2) whether age or Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) level is related to that perception. Methods This cross-sectional study queried data from a gait laboratory database. Perceived walking limitation was quantified using a 5-point Likert scale (“never” to “all of the time”). Included were 1566 children and adults (mean age = 10.9 y [SD = 6.8]; range = 3.0–72.1 y) with CP (GMFCS level I: 502; II: 564; III: 433; IV: 67). Results Patients or caregivers perceived balance to limit walking ability to the greatest extent, followed by endurance, weakness, safety, mental ability, and pain. Balance was perceived to always limit walking ability in 8%, 22%, 30%, and 34% of individuals in GMFCS levels I through IV, respectively. Endurance was perceived to always limit walking ability in 5%, 13%, 13%, and 27% of individuals in GMFCS levels I through IV, respectively. There were minor differences in the perceived extent of limitation caused by the factors by GMFCS level. Only weak associations between age and pain, mental ability, safety, and balance were observed (Spearman rho = −0.13 to 0.24). Conclusion Patients or caregivers perceived decreased balance and endurance to most strongly limit walking ability. Efforts should be made to clinically track how both perceived and objective measures of these limiting factors change with age and intervention. Impact Following a patient-and family-centered care model, therapy that places greater emphasis on balance and cardiovascular endurance may have the greatest effect on walking ability for individuals with CP. Future research should quantify which therapeutic, surgical, and pharmacologic interventions minimize these impairments and optimize activity and participation. Lay summary Balance and endurance are perceived to be the greatest factors limiting walking in people with CP. If you have CP, your physical therapist might emphasize balance and cardiovascular endurance to improve your walking ability.

Incremental Validity of Character Strengths as Predictors of Job Performance Beyond General Mental Ability and the Big Five

Over the last decades, various predictors have proven relevant for job performance [e.g., general mental ability (GMA), broad personality traits, such as the Big Five]. However, prediction of job performance is far from perfect, and further potentially relevant predictors need to be investigated. Narrower personality traits, such as individuals' character strengths, have emerged as meaningfully related to different aspects of job performance. However, it is still unclear whether character strengths can explain additional variance in job performance over and above already known powerful predictors. Consequently, the present study aimed at (1) examining the incremental validity of character strengths as predictors of job performance beyond GMA and/or the Big Five traits and (2) identifying the most important predictors of job performance out of the 24 character strengths, GMA, and the Big Five. Job performance was operationalized with multidimensional measures of both productive and counterproductive work behavior. A sample of 169 employees from different occupations completed web-based self-assessments on character strengths, GMA, and the Big Five. Additionally, the employees' supervisors provided web-based ratings of their job performance. Results showed that character strengths incrementally predicted job performance beyond GMA, the Big Five, or GMA plus the Big Five; explained variance increased up to 54.8, 43.1, and 38.4%, respectively, depending on the dimension of job performance. Exploratory relative weight analyses revealed that for each of the dimensions of job performance, at least one character strength explained a numerically higher amount of variance than GMA and the Big Five, except for individual task proactivity, where GMA exhibited the numerically highest amount of explained variance. The present study shows that character strengths are relevant predictors of job performance in addition to GMA and other conceptualizations of personality (i.e., the Big Five). This also highlights the role of socio-emotional skills, such as character strengths, for the understanding of performance outcomes above and beyond cognitive ability.

Investigating the Structure of Intelligence Using Latent Variable and Psychometric Network Modeling: A Commentary and Reanalysis

In a recent publication in the Journal of Intelligence, Dennis McFarland mischaracterized previous research using latent variable and psychometric network modeling to investigate the structure of intelligence. Misconceptions presented by McFarland are identified and discussed. We reiterate and clarify the goal of our previous research on network models, which is to improve compatibility between psychological theories and statistical models of intelligence. WAIS-IV data provided by McFarland were reanalyzed using latent variable and psychometric network modeling. The results are consistent with our previous study and show that a latent variable model and a network model both provide an adequate fit to the WAIS-IV. We therefore argue that model preference should be determined by theory compatibility. Theories of intelligence that posit a general mental ability (general intelligence) are compatible with latent variable models. More recent approaches, such as mutualism and process overlap theory, reject the notion of general mental ability and are therefore more compatible with network models, which depict the structure of intelligence as an interconnected network of cognitive processes sampled by a battery of tests. We emphasize the importance of compatibility between theories and models in scientific research on intelligence.

Empathy for Pain

Empathy is essential for being human for understanding and sharing other people’s affective and mood, including pain. Pain empathy is a mental ability that allows one person to understand another person’s pain and how to respond to that person effectively. The same neural structures as pain and empathy have recently been found to be involved in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. When someone witnesses other’s pain, besides the visual cortex, various parts of the nervous system activate, including the neural network of empathy. Empathy includes not only pain but also other emotions, such as anger, sadness, fear, distress. These findings raised beg the question of whether empathy for pain is unique in its neural correlates. It is essential to know for revealing empathy is a specific context or in a state of chronic pain, depression or anxiety disorders. Because of this, pain empathy has been the central focus of empathy research in social neuroscience and other related fields, highlighting the importance of empathy for pain in daily life. Considering how pain plays a crucial role in the quality of life, determining its network and neurocognitive correlations in the empathy processing may provide a novel therapeutic approach for pain management. This area, which is still under investigation, can provide new information about pain. Under the recent studies and hypothesis, we have aimed to clarify the term of pain empathy, its components, and its neural correlates.