Distinctiveness as a marker of identity formation

Individual distinctiveness is theorized to characterize an adaptive identity, but its importance remained underexplored. In two studies, we investigated the nomological networks of two common conceptualizations of distinctiveness: general and comparative distinctiveness. We compared these to the network of identity formation’s best-validated marker: commitment. Findings from two samples of young adults living in the Netherlands (n = 320) and in the US (n = 246) both revealed that general distinctiveness marked adaptive identity formation and greater psychosocial well-being. Moreover, general distinctiveness had unique predictive value over commitment strength. Comparative distinctiveness from important others uniquely indicated lowered social well-being. Our findings illustrate that careful attention should be paid to the conceptualization of distinctiveness, because distinctiveness is an important but complex concept.     

Gender and well-being in the Czech Republic

American women are stressed by network events and men by economic events outside the home, with women internalizing distress symptoms and men externalizing them. This gender pattern of stress-distress in the United States was tested in the 1990–1991 Czech Republic with a two-wave panel based on 294 households, 90% of which are Czech. This analysis is restricted to the 192 respondents who completed questionnaires in the second wave, 1991. The country was in the shock phase of its transition from state socialism to democracy and a market economy, and people were experiencing economic hardship and uncertainty. Czech women and men reported similar exposure to economic and network stress and were similar in their vulnerability to stress (mastery and social support) as well. Women reported higher levels of internalized distress symptoms (depression, anxiety, and somatization) than men, but there were no significant gender differences in externalized symptoms (hostility). The effects of economic and network stress on the distress symptoms were the same for women and men. Mastery buffered the relationship between economic stress and somatization and hostility, but social support was not a buffer between the stressors and distress, and these were true for both men and women. Interpretations of the results rest on the convergence of gender roles in the Czech Republic since 1948, which exposed Czech women and men equally to the shock phase of the post-communist transformation.Research for this paper was supported by the National Institutes of Mental Health (MH50369), NATO, and IREX, with funds provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the U.S. Department of State. Partial support was provided by Iowa State University and the Agriculture University of Prague as well. Lorenz was also funded by the Iowa Agricultural and Home Economics Experimentation Station. None of these organizations is responsible for the views expressed.     

Experimental Assessment of Cheating Prevalence in the Czech Republic as an Example of a Post-Communist Country

Dishonest behavior presents a serious problem in many countries’ institutions and was found to be relatively widespread in post-communist countries. We focus on the prevalence of cheating in a sample from such country, the Czech Republic, and individual characteristics influencing dishonest behavior. We used a die rolling task where participants can cheat on their reward to determine whether anonymity conditions increase the frequency of cheating. Participants playing alone did not cheat significantly more than the control group throwing dice publicly. We did not find that gender, cognitive abilities, risk and social preferences robustly predicted the rate of cheating.     

Psychology in the Czech lands: Bohemia,Czechoslovakia, and the Czech Republic

The article provides a comprehensive review of Czech psychology—its history and its current state. It enumerates significant psychologists who were Czech, born in Bohemia or who were instrumental for the development of psychology in the region. The article also enumerates Czech psychological associations along with their main representatives, journals, and academic facilities involved in education and research in psychology. It is pointed out that the origins of psychology as a science are in the Central Europe—the first laboratory of W. Wundt was in Leipzig, Germany; S. Freud was born in Bohemia, in the Moravian city of Příbor and he practiced in Vienna, Austria. The Czech capital Prague will also become the capital of the psychological science in 2020 when it will be hosting the 32nd International Congress of Psychology (ICP 2020).     

Work as a source of identity: The implications of unemployment

The significance of work in the life of the individual is examined, and the implications of unemployment are explored, especially in the light of the possibility that it may become endemic through technological developments. Although beneath the significance of work there is also much ambivalence towards it, it is argued that work is central to an individual's self-concept, as a source of values and of structure to life. The potential of leisure as a psychologically adequate alternative to work is questioned     

The self as a theorist: Individual differences in identity formation

The purpose of this article is to present an integrative review of research on identity development and personal construct theory. Within a constructivist framework, identity is conceptualized as both a self-formulated theory about oneself and an orientation toward self-theorizing. This identity-as-theorist view includes normative (dogmatic), diffuse (ad hoc), and information (scientific) orientations. These orientations are mapped onto the classifications generated by Mania's identity status paradigm. It is argued that structural differences in the extent to which personal theoretical constructions are differentiated, interconnected and hierarchically integrated will be associated with identity status. Evidence supporting this position is presented, and directions for future research are discussed.     

Internet addiction disorder and chatting in the Czech Republic.

This study analyzes connections between online chatting and the Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD). In the research are compared two groups of respondents--Czech online chat users and Czech university students. The set of answers designed by Kimberly Young, of the University of Pittsburgh, was the common base for research. The research showed that IAD is known among university students, that some of them spend an enormous time on the Internet, and that many of them feel it is a problem. The research also clearly showed that the most serious chat users more often have problems with IAD than other university students.     

Identity configurations: a new perspective on identity formation in contemporary society

This paper deals with the theoretical construct of "identity configuration." It portrays the different possible ways in which individuals configure the relationship among potentially conflicting identifications in the process of identity formation. In order to explicate these configurations, I analyzed narratives of identity development retold by individuals describing personal identity conflicts that arise within a larger context of sociocultural conflict. Thirty Jewish modern orthodox young adults were interviewed regarding a potentially conflictual identity issue (i.e. their religious and sexual development). Their deliberations, as described in the interviews, were examined, and four different configurations were identified: a configuration based on choice and suppression; an assimilative and synthesizing configuration; a confederacy of identifications; and a configuration based on the thrill of dissonance. The different configurations are illustrated through exemplars, and the possible implications of the concept of "configuration" for identity theory are discussed.     

Municipalities and Regions as Good Places to Live: Index of Quality of Life in the Czech Republic

Quality of life is associated with the term good life; when we evaluate the quality of life, we evaluate how good it is. The central element of the objective (spatial) dimension of quality of life is the phenomenon of a good place as a place in which there is lived a good life to a varying degree. The paper aims to calculate the index of quality of life at the micro-level of all 6251 municipalities in the Czech Republic based on the indicators of a gold standard and derived indices of higher hierarchical levels of districts and regions and expression of their spatial differentiation. The calculation of the index of quality of life implies that the quality of life in villages is generally higher than in the cities; however, the highest is in large cities with a population of over 100,000 and in small towns with a population of 5000 to 10,000. Quality of life in the Czech Republic is substantially spatially differentiated at all hierarchical levels.     

Zen Buddhism and the intrinsic value of nature

Part IIt is a perennial theme in the literature on environmental ethics that the exploitation of the environment is the result of a blindness to (or perhaps a refusal to recognize) the intrinsic value of natural beings. The general story here is that Western traditions of thought have tended to accord natural beings value only to the extent that they prove useful to humans, that they have tended to see nature as only instrumentally valuable. By contrast, it is said that a new, environmentally friendly understanding of the world would value nature ‘for its own sake’, would conceive natural beings as having intrinsic value. In the light of such an understanding, the oak tree, for instance, would be seen not merely as a source of timber or shade or as a decoration for the front lawn, but as valuable ‘in itself’, as having an intrinsic value that ought to be respected (see further, O'Neill 1993, chapter 2).     

Infant attachment in the Czech Republic: Categorical and dimensional findings from a post-communist country

Infant attachment remains virtually unexplored in former Eastern Bloc countries. The dimensional approach to infant attachment, which could ease common obstacles in cross-cultural attachment research, necessitates more empirical support. This study explores infant attachment in the Czech Republic, a post-communist country with a unique family policy, using both the categorical and the dimensional models. It also compares the Czech infant attachment distribution to infant attachment distributions in other countries and compares infant attachment distributions in European countries to the Baltimore study sample. In the Strange Situation Procedure, forty-nine (74 %) out of sixty-six mother-infant dyads (35 boys, M = 13.8, SD = 0.9) received the B classification. Despite the generous family policy and cultural emphasis on close mother-infant relationships, the Czech distribution of insecure categories did not differ from the Baltimore study sample. Out of other post-communist countries, only the infant attachment distribution in former East Germany differed from the Czech and the Baltimore study samples due to a lower proportion of type B and a higher proportion of type A infants. There were also more type A infants in the Italian sample. Interactive behavior scales accurately predicted attachment categories in 91 % of cases. Contact-maintenance and proximity-seeking scales substantially improve the assessment of insecure resistant behavior. Our findings support the universality and normativity of attachment and the utility of the dimensional approach.     

Counseling in the Czech Republic: History,Status, and Future

This article reviews the history and current status of counseling in the Czech Republic. Recommendations for advancement of the profession in a postcommunist era are offered, including the incorporation of social justice principals for the benefit of Gypsies and immigrants, collaboration between Czech and non‐Czech counselors, and counseling research with the Czech people.     

Adolescent identity formation: a Swedish study of identity status using the EOM-EIS-II

The aim of this study was to examine ego identity status among Swedish adolescents using the EOM-EIS-II. Identity status scores and distributions were examined for 222 (108 female, 114 male) Swedish high school students. Identity status differences were found between genders. There was a greater likelihood of female adolescents being categorized as moratoriums than were males, and there was a greater likelihood of males being categorized as diffusions than were females. Statistically significant differences were found between genders on the following subscales: moratorium, foreclosure, and diffusion. No statistically significant differences were found between females and males on the identity achievement subscale. To achieve a preliminary construct validation of the results from the EOM-EIS-II, four of the 222 participants were also assessed using Marcia's identity status interview. A fairly good accordance between the interview assessment of identity status and the EOM-EIS-II assessment were found. Interview results showed differences between the interviewers on each subscale (IA, M, F, and D). The same differences were detected on three of four subscales when assessing these individuals' identity statuses using the EOM-EIS-II.     

British Buddhism and the new age

This article examines the relationship between Buddhism and the New Age movement in Britain. The main substance is a report of the varying attitudes towards the New Age movement discovered in literary sources, and (mainly) from interviews and correspondence undertaken during 1993/4. The article suggests that a pattern emerges from the developments of the last few decades; that the common ancestor in Theosophy is an important influence on the relationship; that some significant similarities and differences can be observed when generalising about Buddhism and the New Age movement; and that the interaction of the two may lead to interesting developments in the future.     

Differences between students' estimated and attained grades in a first-year introductory psychology course as a function of identity development

Two hundred sixty-eight first-year university students were surveyed about the state of their identity development and their perceptions regarding chances for academic success in an introductory psychology course. In general, it was found that students who had an adult identity had a more accurate assessment of their chances for success in the course and also used more efficient study strategies. Students who had not completely formed an adult identity, however, were more inaccurate in estimates of their final grades and also seemed to use less productive study strategies. It was concluded that those who have formulated an adult identity might have also developed a more complete understanding of both themselves and their situation. Implications of the findings for further research regarding the effects of identity development on university life, as well as the implications for academic intervention programs, are discussed.     

Relationships between identity domains and life satisfaction in minority and majority youth in Albania,Bulgaria, Czech Republic,Kosovo, and Romania

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between identity domains (educational and relational identity) and life satisfaction in a cross-national perspective, by targeting minority (Roma) and majority youth in Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Kosovo, and Romania. Based on the three-factor identity formation model, we investigated the interplay between three identity processes (i.e., commitment, in-depth exploration, and reconsideration of commitment) and life satisfaction. Participants were 1860 adolescents aged 12–19 years from Albania (n = 350), Bulgaria (n = 398), the Czech Republic (n = 293), Kosovo (n = 542), and Romania (n = 277). They completed self-reports of the Utrecht-Management of Identity Commitments Scale (U-MICS) and the Life Satisfaction Scale (SWLS). We adopted a structural equation modelling approach to test (a) measurement invariance of identity and life satisfaction models across groups and (b) associations between identity domains (educational and relational) and life satisfaction. Findings indicated measurement invariance for identity and life satisfaction measures across cultural groups. In the total sample, life satisfaction was consistently associated with high commitment, high in-depth exploration, and low reconsideration of commitment in the educational identity domain. Sample-specific associations highlighted important cultural differences. Implications of these findings for identity and well-being in minority and mainstream youth across the countries under investigation are discussed.     

确立汉藏佛教为中国佛教的身份认同是推进藏传佛教中国化的重要途径

在2020年召开的中央第七次西藏工作座谈会上,习近平总书记指出,要积极引导藏传佛教与社会主义社会相适应,推进藏传佛教中国化.推进藏传佛教中国化,对于信仰藏传佛教的藏族、蒙古族等民族的同胞们更深入了解中华优秀传统文化,实现西藏的长治久安,都具有十分重大和迫切的现实意义.如何根据积极引导宗教与社会主义社会相适应的要求,逐步...