bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The impact of public research expenditure on agricultural productivity: evidence from developed European countries
Authors: Magrini Alessandro
Published: May 2021

The objective of this paper is to assess the impact of public research expenditure on agricultural productivity in developed European countries. Our research provides original evidence, making possible a comparison with existing studies focused on United States of America (USA). We apply a fixed effects Gamma distributed-lag model to yearly data in 1970-2016 sourced from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). In our results, public research expenditure has a significant impact on agricultural productivity up to 35 years, with peak at 17 years and long-term elasticity equal to 0.172. Based on our model, the countries with the highest internal rate of return of agricultural research expenditure resulted Germany, Spain, France and Italy (24.5-25.2%), followed by Netherlands, United Kingdom, Denmark, Greece, Belgium and Luxembourg (20.5-21.8%). However, only Germany, Denmark and Greece increased agricultural research expenditure in recent years. The estimated internal rates of return are in line with the ones reported by existing studies on USA, and they suggest that developed European countries, just like USA, could benefit from research investments in Agriculture to a much greater extent than they currently do.
How to become a pastry chef: a statistical analysis through the company requirements
Authors: Mariani Paolo , Marletta Andrea
Published: May 2021

The definition of requested requirements by the companies represents one of the key aspects for the entrance of new professional figures. In particular, focusing the attention on food & beverage sector, in this study two job profiles are considered: pastry chef e pastry assistant. Data for this analysis are collected by The AdeccoGroup in Italy in 2016 and 2017. The personal competencies to make capable to face the growing flexibility of the profession are object of specified request cross-sectional to more economic sectors. After a brief description of the database content, the principal objective of the research is to report the most requested requirements for the companies. Other analysis are provided to show possible relationships among these requirements and the previous experience owned by candidates. Finally, a comparison is presented about the competencies requested by the two job figures using descriptive statistics and classification techniques.
Measuring the movement between employment and self-employment: a survey proposal
Authors: Fabbris Luigi , Feltrin Paolo
Published: May 2021

The study concerns the following issues: 1) basic definitions (traditional craftsmanship and commercial work, self-employment, freelance jobs, learned professions, etc.); 2) analysis of the sources on, and the organizations representing the workers of the self-employment compound; 3) medium-to-long term analysis of the main components of the self-employment compound and of the occupation in self-employment companies. We examined various statistical sources on self-employment in Italy, a category including about 5.5 million workers, according to official estimates. We examined the yearly data of the time span from 2009 to 2019, with a concept about 2020, the Covid-19 year. In the examined period, we highlighted a dramatic reduction at employment entry of younger cohorts of less educated people (about one million people), just partly compensated by an increase of new entries of aged and highly educated people. The study concludes with a proposal of a set of questions on self-employment that could be used to adjust the specific part of the questionnaire used by Istat for the survey on the Italian labour forces.
Innovation and sustainability: the Italian scenario
Authors: Cataldo Rosanna , Grassia Maria Gabriella , Mazzocchi Paolo , Quintano Claudio , Rocca Antonella
Published: May 2021

Society and policy makers demand innovation systems oriented towards several goals of sustainable development. Therefore, recent literature has dedicated a growing interest to both innovation and sustainability in the pursuit of environmental, economic and social development; in addition, the emerging topic of ‘sustainable innovation’ (and ‘eco-innovation’) seems to combine the main features of them. The definition of these concepts has been significantly changed during the last decades, and a broad discussion continues today about which indicators should be used to measure innovation, sustainability and their combination. The current paper investigates this relationship, and - in the authors’ opinion - the research question connected to the impact of the innovative product (and service and process) solutions on sustainability can be addressed by means of a stable theoretical framework. To study the interaction between innovation and sustainability, the usage of specific territorial features might represent a useful perspective to manage short-and long-term environmental and economic issues. As for the theoretical model, the present article considers a specific technique suitable for investigating the entire set of characteristics involved in the model. From a public makers and managerial point of view, the possibility of improving the firm’ efficiencies in terms of several dimensions of sustainable innovation represents a relevant topic that must be encouraged.
Multipoint vs slider: a protocol for experiments
Authors: Tomaselli Venera , Cantone Giulio Giacomo
Published: May 2021

Since the broad diffusion of Computer-Assisted survey tools (i.e. web surveys), a lively debate about innovative scales of measure arose among social scientists and practitioners. Implications are relevant for applied Statistics and evaluation research since while traditional scales collect ordinal observations, data from sliders can be interpreted as continuous. Literature, however, report excessive times of completion of the task from sliders in web surveys. This experimental protocol is aimed at testing hypotheses on the accuracy in prediction and dispersion of estimates from anonymous participants who are recruited online and randomly assigned into tasks in recognition of shades of colour. The treatment variable is two scales: a traditional multipoint 0-10 multipoint vs a slider 0-100. Shades have a unique parametrisation (true value) and participants have to guess the true value through the scale. These tasks are designed to recreate situations of uncertainty among participants while minimizing the subjective component of a perceptual assessment and maximizing information about scale-driven differences and biases. We propose to test statistical differences in the treatment variable: (i) mean absolute error from the true value (ii), time of completion of the task. To correct biases due to the variance in the number of completed tasks among participants, data about participants can be collected through both pre-tasks acceptance of web cookies and post-tasks explicit questions.
Life satisfaction of refugees living in Germany
Authors: Mendola Daria , Parroco Anna Maria
Published: May 2021

Since 2015, Germany has been hosting noticeable incoming flows of refugees and asylum seekers, leading, in 2020, the ranking of European countries and being the fifth in the world ranking for the number of hosted refugees. Despite the quality of life of refugees is expected to be improved in the aftermath of their arrival to Germany, refugees are still facing several problems of integration and economic deprivation (e.g., about 90% are unemployed). Hence, it is a worthwhile exercise to study how satisfied they are with their present life. Using a sample of 3,408 individuals from the German IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees (regarding refugees and asylum seekers who came to the country between January 2013 and January 2016), we present some preliminary analyses on the life satisfaction (LS) of these vulnerable individuals. Particularly, satisfaction levels were arranged by quartile and an ordinal regression model was estimated to focus on the association among levels of LS and main socio-demographic characteristics. Syrians experience worst perceived quality of life (LS), such as older and higher educated people, other things being equal. Uncertainty, due to their legal status or to lesser support received by law, may explain that those with dismissed or pending asylum application are less satisfied than refugees. Family arrangements, as expected, has an impact, other things being equal, on the overall life satisfaction: the higher the number of co-residing household members the higher the LS; cohabiting partner of spouse affect positively LS. Noticeably, LS is positively associated with satisfaction in specific domains such as health, privacy in the current living arrangement, and neighbourhood safety. Interesting insights come out for policy design.
Thematic atlas of Italian oncological research: the analysis of public IRCCS
Authors: Cuccurullo Corrado , D’Aniello Luca , Spano Maria
Published: May 2021

This paper has been developed in the frame of the research project “V:ALERE 2019” focused on Italian public-owned Academic Medical Centers. The main aim of the project is to provide evidence, advice, and remarks to help the agents of the public health system to address the many challenges that they face. In recent years, there is an increasing recognition of the potential value of research evidence as one of the many factors considered by policymakers and practitioners. Even more, in the case of medical science, the analysis of research and its impact is indispensable, in light of its implications for public health. The starting point for mapping a research area is to review the related scientific literature because by synthesizing past research findings, it is possible to effectively use the existing knowledge base and advance lines of future researches. In this sense, bibliometrics becomes useful, by providing a structured analysis to a large body of information, to infer trends over time, themes researched, and to show the “big picture” of extant research. In particular, in this work, we focus our attention on the scientific production of the last 20 years of the Scientific Institutes for Research, Hospitalization, and Healthcare (IRCCS “Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico”) specialized in the oncology research. IRCCS are biomedical institutions of relevant national interest that drive clinical assistance in strong relation to research activities. They are committed to being a benchmark for the whole public health system for both the quality of patient care and the innovation skills in the field of the organization. All the analyses were carried out by using the Bibliometrix, an open-source tool for quantitative research in scientometrics and bibliometrics that includes all the main bibliometric methods of analysis.
Frameworks and inequalities in healthcare: some applications
Authors: Renzi Pietro , Franci Alberto
Published: May 2021

Background Social determinants of health (SDOH) have increasingly entered health policy conversations as a growing body of researches, reveal the direct relationship between social determinants and health outcome. In fact, the recent literature is moving from the traditional model that focus on how health affects economic status, to a new view that economic status affects health. Objectives To investigate the principal conceptual frameworks for action on social determinants of health. Another aim is to contribute on the ongoing discourse on feasible measures which could be used to alert regions to inequalities in the distribution of health. Methodology, Italian data are used as a demonstration. Quadrant charts illustrate associations between how much regions spend on health and how effectively health system functions. The relevant inequality measures are used to rank health inequalities. Main results Frameworks have been presented to help communities, health professionals and others begin to better understand and address a variety of factors that affects health. Quadrant analysis technique shows the extent to which spending more on health, translates into better health outcomes, higher quality of care and improve access to care across the Italian regions, whilst also recognition the importance of major risk factors. Conclusions The social inequalities in health and what this means for how we understand and reduce them, as not to date been compressively examined empirically. There is an urgent need to expand our knowledge with comparable data on health determinants and more refined health outcomes. Furthermore, there is a need for feasible inequality measures in the health information systems. The measures used in this study, provide a step to inform and guide the uptake of equity-sensitive policies.
Profiling visitors of a national park in Italy through unsupervised classification of mixed data
Authors: Caruso Giulia , Evangelista Adelia , Gattone Stefano Antonio
Published: May 2021

Cluster analysis has for long been an effective tool for analysing data. Thus, several disciplines, such as marketing, psychology and computer sciences, just to mention a few, did take advantage from its contribution over time. Traditionally, this kind of algorithm concentrates only on numerical or categorical data at a time. In this work, instead, we analyse a dataset composed of mixed data, namely both numerical than categorical ones. More precisely, we focus on profiling visitors of the National Park of Majella in the Abruzzo region of Italy, which observations are characterized by variables such as gender, age, profession, expectations and satisfaction rate on park services. Applying a standard clustering procedure would be wholly inappropriate in this case. Therefore, we hereby propose an unsupervised classification of mixed data, a specific procedure capable of processing both numerical than categorical variables simultaneously, releasing truly precious information. In conclusion, our application therefore emphasizes how cluster analysis for mixed data can lead to discover particularly informative patterns, allowing to lay the groundwork for an accurate customers profiling, starting point for a detailed marketing analysis.
Determinants of spatial intensity of stop locations on cruise passengers tracking data
Authors: D’Angelo Nicoletta , Ferrante Mauro , Abbruzzo Antonino , Adelfio Giada
Published: May 2021

This paper aims at analyzing the spatial intensity in the distribution of stop locations of cruise passengers during their visit at the destination through a stochastic point process modelling approach on a linear network. Data collected through the integration of GPS tracking technology and questionnaire-based survey on cruise passengers visiting the city of Palermo are used, to identify the main determinants which characterize their stop locations pattern. The spatial intensity of stop locations is estimated through a Gibbs point process model, taking into account for both individual-related variables, contextual-level information, and for spatial interaction among stop points. The Berman-Turner device for maximum pseudolikelihood is considered, by using a quadrature scheme generated on the network. The approach used allows taking into account the linear network determined by the street configuration of the destination under analysis. The results show an influence of both socio-demographic and trip-related characteristics on the stop location patterns, as well as the relevance of distance from the main attractions, and potential interactions among cruise passengers in stop configuration. The proposed approach represents both improvements from the methodological perspective, related to the modelling of spatial point process on a linear network, and from the applied perspective, given that better knowledge of the determinants of spatial intensity of visitors’ stop locations in urban contexts may orient destination management policy.
IMPACT OF THE CONFINEMENT ON THE USE OF VIDEO GAMES, GAMING-RELATED MOTIVATIONS: A QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE STUDY
Authors:   University of Tours (France), Bodi Gaëlle , Maintenant Célia ,   University of Tours (France), Pennequin Valérie ,   University of Tours (France)
Published: May 2021

The rapid spread of Coronavirus disease all over the world led to health and political measures in several countries such as spatial distancing, closures of institutions, and so ones. People were invited to stay home with limited outside activities and face-to-face interactions. To pass the time, and to cope with negative feelings, people had to find alternative activities like playing video games. The present study aims to investigate potential changes in gaming behaviors and the associated gaming motivations. To do so, 346 participants were invited to complete a questionnaire during the confinement and to answer the following question: “Why do you play and is there a link with confinement?” Contextual and social motivations seemed to be two of the most important motivations.
THE EXPERIENCE OF INFERTILITY AND QUALITY OF LIFE OF WOMEN UNDERGOING THE IVF PROCESS – A STUDY IN SERBIA
Authors:   Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Nis (Serbia), Opsenica Kostic Jelena , Mitrovic Milica , Panic Damjana
Published: May 2021

"Studies have shown that women facing infertility and undergoing the IVF process generally belong to the mentally healthy group of the population. However, their stress level and emotional reactions vary significantly. Besides, there are women who report higher anxiety and/or depression levels up to six months after an (unsuccessful) IVF process. The aim of this study is to determine the perception of the infertility experience and the functioning of domains particularly affected by overcoming infertility through IVF. Fourteen women were excluded from the study sample due to their secondary infertility: 9 women had already had a child conceived though IVF and 5 had conceived naturally – these respondents have a successful experience of overcoming infertility, as they do not face the possibility of remaining involuntarily childless. The final sample was comprised of 149 women, 23 to 45 years of age (M=35,50, SD=4,48). For 83,9% of the women, the ongoing IVF procedure was the first (38,3), the second (25,5) or the third (20,1) attempt, while the rest of respondents were going though IVF for the fourth to the eighth time. Infertility is considered the worst experience of their life by 67,8% of the respondents. 95,3% of the respondents in the study want psychological counseling, which is not an integral part of the IVF process in Serbia and thus not covered by the national health insurance. The “Fertility quality of Life” (FertiQoL; Boivin, Takefman and Braverman, 2011) Questionnaire was used for the assessment of quality of life. A one sample t-test shows statistically significant differences in experiencing difficulties in the observed domains. The respondents have the lowest scores on the Emotional subscale, meaning that the most pronounced feature is the impact of negative emotions (e.g., jealousy and resentment, sadness, depression) on quality of life. The score on the Social subscale is highest, which means that social interactions have not significantly been affected by fertility problems. In conclusion, the infertility experience is highly stressful for a significant number of women and they are in need of psychological support, especially for overcoming negative emotions. This can be done by defining a new way of life filled with contentment, one that is in accordance with their value systems, despite their experience of infertility."
CONTEMPLATION: THE RATIO OF CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS
Authors:   Samara State University of Social Science and Education (Russia), Akopov Garnik V.
Published: May 2021

"In psychological science, the concept of contemplation is not included in the most important categories of psychology, such as activity, consciousness, personality. The dictionary meanings of the term “contemplation” are ambiguous. In psychology, in addition to the categorical analysis of contemplation (S.L. Rubinstein) and its attribution to fundamental concepts (A.V. Brushlinsky), there are also interpretations of contemplation, which are synonymous to intuition (A. Bergson) and meditation (V.F. Petrenko, Han F. De Wit), insight (preconceptual thinking - T.K. Rulina), mystical states (W. James, P.S. Gurevich). Contemplation, unlike intuition, meditation and insight, does not have a previous reportable history. In our studies, contemplation is considered as an unconscious mental phenomenon that exists in the forms of a process, state, and also the properties of an individual (contemplative personality). Not coinciding with the processes of attention, memory, perception, thinking, etc., contemplation, however, is activated on their basis. The difference lies in the uncontrollability of this process, since its contents are not presented to consciousness. Therefore, contemplation is also different from dreams, experiences, intentions and other internally substantive mental phenomena. Despite the fact that consciousness does not have access to the content of contemplation (access-consciousness), the process itself is realized by man. In this we see the difference between contemplation as unconscious activity and Freudian understanding of the unconscious. Other differences are: involuntary entry and random exit from the state of contemplation; emotional equipotentiality of contemplation, i.e. the invariability of the emotional background of contemplation from the beginning to the exit from it. In ontogenesis, contemplation is most clearly represented in infancy, in youth, and in old age, as well as during periods of age and other life crises. Reminiscences of students record the age range from 11 to 17 years as the most saturated with contemplation; least at the age of 6-8 years (L.S. Akopian). Contemplation as an unconscious activity periodically replaces purposeful activity, contributing to the maturation, correction, transformation of the person’s life meanings in their micro-, meso- and macro-macro dimensions. Contemplation also fulfills the function of partially liberating oneself from an excess of affairs, concerns, plans, aspirations, and other forms of conscious activity. The development of practice-oriented forms of actualization of contemplation will expand the range of psychotherapeutic methods."
FATIGUE AND ANXIETY IN BREAST CANCER: THE RELATIONSHIP WITH INTERPRETATION BIAS
Authors:   Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IOPPN), King’s College London (UK), Vedd Nidhi
Published: May 2021

"Background: Research has highlighted both fatigue and anxiety to be two of the most debilitating symptoms of breast cancer that prevail for years into its survivorship, and suggests that these symptoms influence how people interpret information. Harbouring negative interpretation biases also helps to maintain self-destructive beliefs resulting in increased severity of symptoms and disability in those already affected by the illness. This study is the first utilizing an experimental measure of assessing interpretation bias in a population of breast cancer to investigate the contribution of fatigue and anxiety. Method: A cross-sectional study design was used. 53 breast cancer survivors and 62 female healthy controls were recruited via opportunistic sampling. Participants completed an online questionnaire assessing basic demographics, fatigue via the Chalder Fatigue Questionnaire (CFQ) and anxiety using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Following this, an in-person testing session assessed interpretation bias (IB) using a computerised task. Results: Independent sample t-tests found a non-significant result in the comparison of IB indices between populations (t(112.60) =.28, p=.783; d=.05). Significant differences were observed in mean fatigue and anxiety scores in the breast cancer population compared to the healthy controls. Pearson correlation identified a statistically significant positive correlation between CFQ scores and negative interpretation bias (r=.34, n=53, p=.013), however not for anxiety. Hierarchical multiple regression was calculated to predict negative interpretation biases based on potential confounding variables (age, relationship status and level of education), CFQ, HADS anxiety scores (separately). All four regression models were non-significant. The only significant predictor of negative interpretation bias was fatigue (ß =.39, t(53)=2.71, p=.009). Conclusion: The identified significant correlation between fatigue and negative interpretation bias in this study corroborates findings from existing literature. However other results proved inconsistent with the vast body of research suggesting that breast cancer survivors would make more negative interpretations of ambiguous stimuli on an IB task compared to healthy controls. These results highlight the potential for future research investigating strategies of inherent self-adaptive and coping mechanisms that are or could be adopted by these participants to overcome this cognitive bias."
FEELINGS AND REACTIONS OF MEN AND WOMEN TO THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC IN BRAZIL
Authors:   Psychology Institute - Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil), Coelho Renata da Silva , Dominguez Joice Aparecida Araujo , Rosa Helena Rinaldi , Tardivo Leila Salomão de La Plata Cury
Published: May 2021

"This current study aims to understand the impacts of the pandemic on a group of adult men and women’s mental health. Social distancing, the fear of getting sick, the loss of the loved ones and changes in the family’s routine triggered and favored the difficulties increase in the population's mental health. This study presents data related to the online survey carried out from April to October among men and women in Brazil, through an electronic form, recording the effects of isolation, the main complaints and the feelings that permeate everyone. Both men and women over the age of 18 constitute part of the active population and an age group which assumes many responsibilities and was, on a large scale, affected by the pandemic. Out of the 6,766 people over the age of 18 that participated in the survey, 6,023 were female and 743 were male. Most women were aged between 31 to 40 and most men, 21 to 30. The main feelings reported by the participants appeared in the following order: fear, sadness, irritation, solidarity, overload, hope, loneliness and optimism for women and fear, irritation, sadness, overload, solidarity, loneliness, hope and optimism for men. It was concluded that in the pandemic period, people experienced constant and significant changes in the social and technological fields in an impacting way and without any choice. The pandemic caused intense psychic distress in people, highlighting the need for therapeutic and preventive work to return to activities and for the population’s mental health."
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND ITS IMPACT ON CHILDREN'S SCHOOL PERFORMANCE
Authors:   Graduate Program in Teaching and Formative Processes, São Paulo State University (Unesp) (Brazil), Alves Ediane , Prado Paulo
Published: May 2021

"This research addressed the issue of domestic violence investigating whether and how it affects the school performance of the child who witnesses episodes of violence against the mother in the home. Personal characteristics and other environments in which these children and adolescents are inserted in, such as family, school and community interact with each other and can influence their school performance. Because the school is the second most common space for children, it is in it where family environment is expressed. The main objective of this study was to analyze whether and how domestic violence experienced by children affects their school performance. The data were collected throughout documentary research, one analyzing the information recorded in the files of the Reference and Service Center for Women (CRAM in Portuguese) and the Municipal Education Secretariat (SME). Records were selected from 20 children regularly enrolled in elementary public schools, whose mothers sought the services of CRAM. The dependent variable was school grades, which were analyzed according to a repeated measures design: during the occurrence of domestic violence episodes and after these episodes have ceased. Analyzes were also conducted with the aim of verifying possible effects of other variables, such as school attendance, family socioeconomic status and mothers education level. The results showed that the students had lower school performance after the end of the episodes of violence. No effects of other variables were observed. Factors related to the phenomenon are discussed as possible causes: separation from the father, change of address, custody’s change and others. Considering that the casuistry of this study was composed of students from low-income families, the results point to a kind of ""Matthew effect"", that is, a relationship between violence, poverty and ignorance in which everyone feeds each other forming a cycle quite hard to break. Therefore, it is necessary that public policies be formulated in the scope of education so that students who experience domestic violence receive specialized attention aiming at realizing their learning potential."
THE ROLE OF ACHIEVEMENT GOALS IN MOTIVATIONAL REGULATION AND FLOW IN LEARNING
Authors:   Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Zagreb (Croatia), Ljubin-Golub Tajana
Published: May 2021

"Appropriate self-regulation in motivation and experiencing flow in learning and other academic activities are important factors for success in study and psychological wellbeing. Previous studies suggested that achievement goals have role in student’s motivation for learning, but there is only partial knowledge regarding the role of achievement goals in motivational regulation and academic flow. The aim of this study was to explore: a) the role of achievement goals in motivational self-regulation and study-related flow; b) the incremental role of mastery self-talk motivational strategy in academic flow over the mastery-approach goal; c) the mediating role of mastery self-talk motivational strategy in the relationship between mastery-approach goal and academic flow. It was expected that both mastery-approach goal and mastery self-talk motivational strategy will have positive and incremental role in academic flow, and that the relationship between mastery-approach goal and academic flow would be mediated through using motivational strategy of mastery self-talk. The participants were 113 university undergraduate students studying mathematics (M= 20 years, 61% females). Self-report questionnaires assessing achievement goals, strategies used for self-regulation of motivation, and study-related flow were applied. Data analysis included regression analyses and mediational analyses. Regression analyses revealed that personal goal achievements explained 43% of variance in mastery self-talk strategy, 32% of variance in performance-approach self-talk strategy, 18% of variance in performance-avoidance self-talk strategy, 11% of variance in environmental control strategy, 7% of variance in self-consequating strategy, and 10% of variance in proximal goal strategy. Personal achievement goals explained 45% of variance in academic flow. Mastery-approach goal was predictive for explaining individual variance in most of positive motivational strategies and academic flow. In line with hypothesis, it was found that mastery self-talk mediated the relationship between mastery-approach goal and flow. The results underscore the importance of adopting mastery-approach goal and using mastery self-talk strategy in order to experience study-related flow."
PRACTICAL AND SCIENTIFIC CHALLENGES IN ADAPTING DIGITAL COGNITIVE TESTS IN PROFESSIONAL ENVIRONMENT
Authors:   Faculty of psychology, LPPL UPRES EA 4638, University of Nantes, Payoux Mélany ,   PerformanSe, Nantes (France), Halim Lara Abdel ,   Faculty of psychology, LPPL UPRES EA 4638, University of Nantes (France), Didry Alexandra ,   PerformanSe, Nantes (France), Trenvouez Arnaud ,   PerformanSe, Nantes (France)
Published: May 2021

"Recruiting today is no longer what it used to be. Digital transformation has deeply changed the company, and particularly the recruitment process. The challenges linked to this transformation are two-fold: practical and scientific. Indeed, the world of human resources needs new tools to detect potentials. Research must meet this need by adapting, modernizing and scientifically validating the tools. To predict job performance, cognitive and soft skills, often referred to as ""21st century skills"", are now central to recruitment, talent development and career management. The objective of our study was to create digital versions of cognitive tests, based on reliable and well-known theoretical foundations. We want to present in detail the conception and construct validity of two of our online tests: the first one inspired by the Stroop effect (Stroop, 1935), the second one based on corsi blocks (Corsi, 1972). We hypothesise that the tests we created are positively correlated to the original ones. 91 participants were interviewed, aged between 18 and 58 (average = 34.57 years old, SD = 10.91). The proportion of women was 76.6% (n = 69), compared to 24.4% of men (n = 22). They all answered the original tests first, face-to-face, and a few months later, the digital ones we had created. We observed positive correlations between the two series of results. These very encouraging results will be clarified and discussed. These two new versions shed light on the candidates' attention and memory abilities that should be enriched during an interview focused on soft skills. In fact, the highest predictability is guaranteed by a method which necessarily combines cognitive evaluations and with other types of assessments, such as personality tests (Güler, Bayrak & Ocaks, 2019). This is why it is important to continue research efforts on the adaptation of digital cognitive tests in a professional environment."
PSYCHOLOGICAL TIME AND ECONOMIC MIND OF ENTREPRENEURS. EVIDENCE FROM SMALL BUSINESS OF RUSSIAN INDUSTRIAL REGION
Authors:   Institute of Education and Practical Psychology, Chelyabinsk State University (Russia), Zabelina Ekaterina , Kurnosova Svetlana , Vedeneeva Ekaterina
Published: May 2021

"Entrepreneurs, as the most active social group sensitive to public mood, perhaps feel the changes in the time of life in a digital society (time pressure illusion) most of all. On the other hand, the very internal temporal organization of a person involved in entrepreneurial activity can determine the characteristics of his or her mind and behavior in the economic sphere. The aim of the study is to reveal the impact of the psychological time of the representatives of small businesses on their economic minds. The study involves 109 representatives of small businesses in various fields (wholesale and retail trade, education, tourism, consulting, production, etc.), registered in the Chelyabinsk region and operating in the Russian Federation (mean age 34.9, 42% male). The respondents completed electronic forms of Inventory of Time Value as an Economic Resource (Usunier), Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory, Attitudes towards Time (Nuttin), and Inventory of Polychronic Values (Bluedorn). To diagnose the features of the economic mind of entrepreneurs, the Economic Attitudes Questionnaire (Deyneka & Zabelina, 2018) was used. Regression analysis showed that certain components of psychological time (positive attitude to the past, present and future, the value of time as an economic resource) determine the formation of constructive economic attitudes of small business owners, namely the value of independent economic achievements, willingness to invest, unwillingness to sacrifice vocation and health for money, financial optimism. Thus, the lack of fixation on past failures, a positive attitude towards the present and the future, the ability to transfer time into money create a psychological foundation for the formation of entrepreneurs' attitudes in economic life. The results can be used in the consulting of the future entrepreneurs."
PSYCHOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF THE SLOVAK VERSION OF THE POSTPARTUM BONDING QUESTIONNAIRE FOR NON-CLINICAL SAMPLE
Authors:   Institute of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava (Slovakia), Greškovičová Katarína , Zdechovanová Barbora ,   Faculty of psychology, Paneuropean University (Slovakia), Farkašová Rebeka ,   Faculty of psychology, Paneuropean University (Slovakia)
Published: May 2021

"Bonding represents an emotional tie that one experiences towards one´s own child. There are several instruments to measure the level and quality of bonding. Among them we chose and translated the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire by Brockington et al. (2001) into Slovak language. The aim of this study was to analyse its psychometric qualities. Our non-clinical sample consisted of women (N= 372) 18 and 44 years (M= 29.74; SD= 5.25) who recently gave birth in Slovakian hospitals. Data collection was carried out from September 2015 until March 2018. Participants filled the Postpartum bonding questionnaire by Brockington et al. (2001) and some of them other three tools: Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale by Cox, Holgen and Sagovsky (1987), Depression Anxiety Stress scale-42 (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995) and Parental Stress Scale (Berry & Jones, 1995). The distributions of the items of the bonding were mostly skewed and leptokurtic. Internal consistency is high for the overall Lack of Bonding (?= .897) and varies in factors- ?= .820 for Impaired Bonding, ?= .779 for Rejection and Anger, ?= .506 for Anxiety about Care and ?= .321 for Risk of Abuse. In order to prove convergent validity, we correlated overall Lack of Bonding with depression (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, rs= .251, Depression Anxiety Stress scale-42 depression rs=.404; n=79), stress and anxiety (Depression Anxiety Stress scale-42, stress rs=.392; anxiety rs=.496; n=79) and parental stress (Parental Stress Scale score; rs= .674, n=99). We did not confirm original factor structure via confirmatory factor analysis using principal axis factoring with oblimine rotation. Then, we used principal component analysis with varimax rotation method to reduce the items. 6 components were extracted. Component 1 was comprised of 15 items that explained 35,6 % of the variance with loadings from .306 to .733. Hence, we proposed new item-structure for the Slovak PBQ. We concluded that the Slovak version of the PBQ proved to have good overall reliability. We found evidences for the convergent validity with parental stress, anxiety, stress, and partly depression, because there were two different results. We also suggest creating a shorter version based on the analysis. Among limits we can see tools used for validity evidence and sample without participants for clinical population. We advise to use the Slovak version of the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire as a tool to measure bonding in a research context and to use overall summary index (Lack of Bonding) instead of factors."
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AUTONOMOUS VERSUS EXTERNAL MOTIVATION AND REGULATORY FOCUS
Authors:   Institute of Experimental Psychology, Centre of Social and Psychological Sciences, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava (Slovakia), Bobková Marcela , Lovaš Ladislav ,   Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, Košice (Slovakia)
Published: May 2021

"The objective of the study is to investigate the relationship between different forms of motivation mindsets. The integrative model of motivated behavior (Meyer, Becker, & Vandenberghe, 2004) indicates relations between the forms of motivation identified in the self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) and the regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997, 1998). A concept of goal regulation proposes relations between autonomous versus external motivation and promotion versus prevention focus. The research involved 288 university students. Participants rated their motivation for three personal goals on scales assessing self-concordance (Sheldon & Elliot, 1999). The regulatory focus was assessed by the Regulatory Focus Questionnaire (RFQ, Higgins et al., 2001). It was found that autonomous motivation was significantly positively related to promotion focus. Furthermore, autonomous motivation predicted promotion focus. Between external motivation and prevention focus a significant relationship was not confirmed. However, external motivation significantly negatively correlated with promotion focus."
4 STEPS FOR FIGHTING COVID-RELATED ANXIETY: AN APPLICATION OF VIRTUAL REALITY IN A SMALL COMPANY
Authors:   Lumsa University of Rome (Italy), Mora Diletta , Falco Alessandra ,   University of Padua (Italy), Di Sipio Annamaria ,   University of Padua (Italy), De Carlo Alessandro ,   Lumsa University of Rome (Italy)
Published: May 2021

"The need to effectively fight against work-related stress and anxiety, especially due to the COVID-19 outbreak, is crucial. Employees have been faced with two options: adapting to the online environment or risking contagion in public locations ? both stressful conditions. Therefore, recovery actions were requested by organizations. To understand recovery processes, refer to the Effort-Recovery Model and the Theory of Conservation of Resources. According to the literature, one should not be excessively exposed to work demands, but, conversely, acquire new resources, including personal ones, to recover those that have been lost. Recovery processes can be initiated through what we call recovery experiences. In recent years, literature and practice have been enriched with contributions about the use of virtual reality (VR) as a tool for combating anxiety disorders, reducing stress, and developing soft skills. VR proposes a technology that allows people to be immersed in a virtual environment and to interact with different stimuli: it can be used in combination with psychology techniques to improve health and well-being. A four-step protocol, based on VR, was proposed to a small private company to improve health and performance by learning specific recovery techniques; the protocol aimed to reduce the levels of work-related stress and anxiety, in addition to enhancing personal resources such as resilience, stress management, and self-efficacy. The participants were the employees and managers of the company (N = 14) who were administered a four-week training protocol comprising four one-hour VR-based sessions. Two sessions (the first and the third) focused on body consciousness, while the other two were psychological techniques (“Virtual Three Good Things” and “Best Possible Self”). The obtained data showed a decrease in anxiety and stress and an improvement in personal resources. Data also showed greater effectiveness of the VR-based protocol compared to similar interventions conducted without VR. Qualitative observation is relevant as it shows a great emotional impact of the VR-based protocol, as well as a high perception of efficacy. The limitations of the study are primarily related to the number of participants: further restrictions due to a regional worsening of the pandemic made an intermission necessary. Agreements are already in place with the parent company to encorauge more applications. The objectives and the protocol can be a useful contribution to support employees in managing stress. VR technology can greatly help psychologists to be effective in organizations."
THE MEDIATING EFFECT OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE ON THE BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS AND THE BIG SIX VOCATIONAL INTERESTS
Authors:   University of Library Studies and Information Technologies, 119 “Tsarigradsko shose” blvd., Sofia, Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski”, 24 “Tsar Asen” str.. Plovdiv 4000 (Bulgaria), Mitevska Mayiana , Tsvetkova Paulina
Published: May 2021

"A central theme in the present study is the assumption that the influence on the human behavior is mediated by different internal processes in the career choice. Emotional intelligence is defined as a variable which is a cause for the relationship between personality traits and the choice of a certain career. Three causal paths to the dependent variable were tracked – a path to the direct impact of the emotional intelligence on the career choice, a path to the influence of personality traits on the emotional intelligence as well as a path to the impact of personality traits on the career choice via the emotional intelligence. The aim of the study is to show the mediating role of emotional intelligence in the relationship between personality traits and career choice. A total of 100 Bulgarian secondary and university students (42 males and 58 females), aged 17-40 years, were included in the research. The following measures were used for the purpose of the study - Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire – Short Form (TEIQue-SF), The Big five questionnaire and the Big six method for career choices. The Bulgarian version of the emotional intelligence questionnaire was translated and adapted for Bulgarian sociocultural context by Antonina Kardasheva (Kardasheva, 2012). The Big five questionnaire and the Big six method for career choices were adapted for Bulgarian conditions by S. Karabelyova (Karabelyova, 2015). The results showed that there was a direct positive impact of the emotional intelligence on the relationship between the enterprising type and conscientiousness, the artistic type and neuroticism and a negative impact on the relationship between the conventional type and extraversion. The conclusions derived from the study could be used for further psychological research in the field, as well as for enhancing the knowledge of one’s personality."