Are the Russians as Unhappy as they say they are?

Since the 1980s, several polls in Russia have included questions about happiness. The responses to these questions were quite similar. Average happiness was low in comparison to other nations and declined over time. Ten years after the fall of communism Russians are less happy than during the communist period.There are doubts about the validity of these self-reports. One source of doubt is that these data may not reflect Russians' self-appraisals adequately, due to distortions in translation and a differential response bias. A second misgiving is that true discontent could be rather superficial, and be largely due to unfavorable comparison with the West and folklore of negativism.These qualms are checked in this article. It appears that the Russians are as unhappy as they say they are, and that they have good reasons to be so. The current unhappiness is not due to the Russian national character, but has more to do with the troublesome transitions taking place in Russian society.     

The Belgian Association for Psychological Sciences: 75th Anniversary

The Belgian Association for Psychological Sciences (BAPS) is a learned society founded in 1947. Its mission is to unite people in Belgium interested in the development and application of psychological sciences. It does so through the publication of Psychologica Belgica, the organisation of an annual scientific meeting, the award of prizes, initiatives to improve the communication among members, and representing researchers and psychologists nationally and internationally. The present paper describes the third 25-year period of BAPS. It reviews the main initiatives and activities of the society from 1997 to 2022.     

Knowledge in the information society

The German Council for Research, Technology and Innovation defines the “information society” as a type of society where the acquirement, storage, processing, exchange, diffusion and utilization of knowledge inclusive of their technological possibilities of interactive communication, here become increasingly important. In this notion, knowledge has become the decisive factor for economic growth and technological advance. As a social scientist I transform the term “information society” into processes of automatization of knowledge, which is called its informatization and computerization. It is argued that these processes affect the societal condition of knowledge in that the part of knowledge relating to the contents diminishes while the importance of the technical and/or formal part increases. In contrast to the claim of many social scientists, this trend does not lead to a superficial or shallow type of knowledge. What is changing is the social requirement of professional skills and qualifications. The great looming question about information society then is: Which knowledge do people need to behave competently, effectively and successfully in a world full of computers? The structure of this article is as follows. First I will have a look at the micro‐level of the composition of knowledge, next I will proceed to the historical shift from subject‐specific knowledge to media‐competence and finally I will talk about the meaning of the evolving dominance of—what I will call “media‐competent experts”.     

EDUCATION IN A GLOBAL SOCIETY: MEETING THE NEEDS OF CHILDREN IN A SOCIALLY TOXIC WORLD

The education of future generations of citizens is the one common theme that connects otherwise culturally, linguistically, ethnically, and politically diverse communities and countries in an increasingly global society. Social systems foster socially toxic environments, instilling a culture of fear while ignoring the importance of preparing youth for advanced citizenship in a global civil society. The author examines the role of education in relation to global events and explores the purposes of education in meeting the needs of tomorrow's children in an evolving, global society. Specifically, education is examined in relation to creating a safe and socially just society.     

EFFECTIVE GLOBAL GOVERNANCE WITHOUT EFFECTIVE GLOBAL GOVERNMENT: A CONTEMPORARY MYTH

Although the recent collapse and dissolution of the Soviet Union has significantly reduced the near-term probability of nuclear disaster, it constitutes wishful thinking to imagine that meaningful and effective global governance is possible in today's world. The term “global governance” suggests and implies a degree of order and control in the international community far beyond that which presently exists, and that in fact could only be achieved by means of a global government. The global governance myth has emerged to help people cope with the uncongenial and presumably unavoidable reality that we are living in a world in which global government is impossible, and in which therefore the international condition is most accurately described as “international anarchy.” A dysfunctional myth is a belief that not only is false, but that discourages and deters thought and action toward overcoming uncongenial realities which are not, in fact, unavoidable. Global governance, in all likelihood, falls into the category of dysfunctional myth.     

1.5 Degrees Celsius: The Metamorphosis of the AMERICAN Way of Life,A Transition in Collective Maturation

A concept of civil society that stresses civil society's role in working with the state to achieve more inclusive, democratic polities provides the context for examining the implications for transnational civil society. In particular, the author examines how this perspective emphasizes the importance of the paradox that civil society cannot be understood independently of a relationship to a state. After explaining the nature of this paradox, the author discusses the various ways this paradox affects the potential for transnational civil society to contribute to more inclusionary democracies that reflect new processes in the social construction of citizenship.     

Artificial Intelligence and the New Alienation of Human Beings

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a revolutionary and overwhelming technology that is yet to immature. While profoundly changing and shaping people and society, AI also splits into its own opposites and develops into a new external alien force. As the basic technical support of the entire society, intelligent technology entails the overt or covert domination of human beings, who are becoming the “vassals” and “slaves” of this high-speed intelligent social system. Various intelligent systems are constantly replacing human work, so that the “digital poor” gradually lose the opportunities and values offered by labor and hence are excluded by the global economic and social system, rendering their existence empty and absurd. The rapid development of intelligent robots has blurred the boundary between humans and machines and had a strong impact on the nature of man and his position as a conscious agent, making “What is man?” and the human-machine relationship prominent issues for our times, challenging the commonplaces of philosophy. We must face up to the existing or imminent risk of alienation, expand our theoretical horizons, innovate theories of alienation in the era of intelligence, take constructive action in terms of the construction of an ideal society and the evolution of man himself, build an ecological system for the joint evolution and growth of human beings and intelligent machines, and achieve liberty of man and the all-round and free development.     

Mass denial in modern society

Abstract

Denial in society is discussed with reference to the media's use of language, and application is made of Breznitz's (1983) model of denial. Particular reference is made to the media reporting of crime and the public reactions to BSE and the ensuing beef crisis. Denial is seen as serving as a protection against anxiety over external threats, and against fears of one's own natural impulse to wish death on others. Denial might serve a useful purpose to protect the individual from unnecessary stress, but can possibly lead to a kind of madness in society.     

Acculturation Attitudes and Sociocultural Adjustment of Sojourner Youth in Israel

Abstract

Among 300 Jewish sojourner youth (age range: 15–18 years) from the Russian Federation, the authors investigated associations of acculturation attitudes, measures of sociocultural adjustment, and length of the encounter with the host society, Israel. All the youth were participating in a 1-3-year program of high school studies in Israel. In the light of J. W. Berry's (1997) acculturation model, the authors examined the assumptions that the participants' adjustment to Israeli society would require readiness to abandon some of their previous identity and to adopt elements of a new identity characteristic of the host society. Lower degrees of separation and higher degrees of integration were positively linked with measures of sociocultural adjustment. The adjustment scores tended to decrease over time spent in Israel.