bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Relationship between trauma exposure, posttraumatic growth and posttraumatic stress disorder
Authors: Kazlauskas Evaldas , Šimėnaitė Irma , Gailienė Danutė 
Published: January 2019

Objectives: The notion that traumatic experiences may have an impact on the human mind is very old. Recent developments in psychotraumatology shifted the approach to a trauma from a purely negative to a more positive perspective. Research confirmed that traumatic events may lead not only to posttraumatic stress or other disorders but also to positive changes. The present research was based on the concept of Posttraumatic Growth developed by Calhoun and Tedeschi (1996), which is widely known in the field of traumatic stress. Although the number of Posttraumatic Growth (PTG) research is growing rapidly, little is known about Posttraumatic Growth predictors. The present research was designed to find out the links between Posttraumatic Growth, Posttraumatic Stress and initial reactions to the traumatic event. We set up two goals of the study: 1) evaluation of how initial traumatic reactions predict PTG, and 2) assessment of links between PTG and PTSD. Methods: A group of 104 university students exposed to at least one-lifetime traumatic event participated in the study. The average time gap between exposure to a traumatic event and the time of research was 43 months. The intensity of initial reactions to a traumatic event was measured using a 10-item self-rating inventory developed by the authors of the present study. The Subjective Traumatic Experience (STE) inventory consisted of items covering cognitive, emotional and physiological reactions to a traumatic event. Posttraumatic Growth was measured using the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PGI) developed by Tedeschi and Calhoun (1996). Previous research showed satisfactory psychometric properties of the Lithuanian version of PGI (Gailienė & Kazlauskas, 2005). Posttraumatic Stress Disorder was measured using the Lithuanian version of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R). A recent validation of the IES-R on Lithuanian population showed its good psychometric properties (Kazlauskas et al., 2006). Results: Correlation analysis revealed positive correlations among all three variables – PTG, STE and PTSD. Path analysis with two path models from STE to PTG and from STE to PTSD provided an adequate fit to the data χ2(1) = 1.62; p = .20; RMSEA = .077; NFI = .95; CFI = 1.0. Subjective traumatic experiences predicted Posttraumatic Growth (β= .32; T = 3.35) and PTSD (β = .42; T = 4.62). The modified model with correlations between PTG and PTSD added provided an ideal fit, but changes of the model were not significant: χ2difference (1) = 1.62; p > .05. Path analysis was made using LISREL software. Conclusions: The most significant predictor of both PTSD, and PTG was the intensity of initial reactions to a traumatic experience. While we found a weak but significant correlation between PTG and PTSD, the Path analysis has revealed that PTG and PTSD are rather distinct posttraumatic processes, both predicted by a traumatic event.
Changes of Perceived Line Orientation During Prolonged Viewing of Tilted Lines: The Normalization Effect
Authors: Švegžda Algimantas , Dzekevičiūtė Aldona , Kulikowski Janus 
Published: January 2019

J. J. Gibson has noted that during prolonged viewing a line perceptually rotates towards the nearest vertical or horizontal meridian. This is known as the normalization effect, but the phenomenon remains poorly investigated. According to our experimental results, the adapting line perceptually rotates to the nearest of three orientations: vertical, horizontal or diagonal. The orientation of these three lines does not change during prolonged viewing. Furthermore, the orientation of lines tilted by either 22.5° or 67.5° does not change subjectively, either. Any changes in the orientation of these lines cause subjective drift towards the nearest vertical, diagonal (oriented by 45°) or horizontal line.
The Big Five: Pro et Contra
Authors: Kairys Antanas 
Published: January 2019

The field of the personality research is very active these days; probably more research is being conducted than ever. Most of the research studies are conducted referring to the Big Five model. Nevertheless, this model is controversial. Some researchers emphasize the merits of the Big Five model and the others name the shortcomings of the model. The main merits of the Big Five model are: empirical validity, cross-cultural validity, stability of individual differences and practical model value. Still the Big Five model receives criticism. The main critiques are: discussions about lexical hypothesis, orthogonality of factors, problems in cross – cultural research and prognostic value of the Big Five model. Despite the debates, nonetheless, the strongest arguments are for Big Five model. There is more empirical evidence still difficulties arise because of the research procedure or method inaccuracy. Most of the researchers confirmed that it is complicated to extract less than five factors in many research data. Five factors is the optimal number. There also have been determined many associations between Big Five traits and other mental / psychological phenomena. For a long time Big Five was only the research model, but presently initial theoretical interpretations were offered – R. R. McCrae and P. T. Costa Five Factor Theory also D. P. McAdams and J. L. Pals New Big Five. This was a substantial sally – Big Five has a potential to become the real personality theory, but there are still some problems left unsolved – extracted factor relevance to the individual in large samples is unclear, newly posed statements about personality structure lack empirical evidence. Alternative models to the Big Five model are offered: Biggest One, Big Two, Giant Three, HEXACO and Big Seven. Presently alternative models are not in competition with Big Five. Perhaps more promising is a HEXACO model with its theoretical interpretations. Alternative models to Big Five model play another important role – they encourage cross-cultural research, the search of the neurological correlates. Thus Big Five is very dynamic field of personality research, pretending to become very important and influential personality theory. Herewith it is obvious: there is an essential challenge against Big Five model– whether it will become one or not? Establishing Big Five or other close models’ theoretical interpretations give hope, but the final result is still to be expected.
Psychometric properties of Global Transformational Leadership Scale: Lithuanian version
Authors: Stelmokienė Aurelija , Endriulaitienė Auksė 
Published: January 2019

Nowadays, leadership is seen as a research object related to a successful functioning of a modern organization. Transformational leadership is valued as most appropriate in today’s changing business world. But practitioners and researchers are lacking a broadly applicable, concise instrument which would also be reliable and valid to assess leaders’ transformational leadership skills. So, this research has been targeted to evaluate the psychometric properties (reliability and validity) of the Global Transformational Leadership scale Lithuanian version. The research involved 550 Lithuanian employees from various organizations; 112 respondents participated in the first and 438 respondents in the second stage of the research. All participants filled up a questionnaire consisting of the Global Transformational Leadership scale (Carless et al., 2000) and socio-demographic questions. Questions about job satisfaction (Shim et al., 2002), intentions to leave (Meyer and Tett, 1993), N. F. Mott’s proposed situations to evaluate management effectiveness (quoted after Chauhan et al., 2005) and Transformational Leadership Behavior Inventory (Podsakoff et al., 1990) were added to the questionnaire only in the second stage. The results have shown that the Global Transformational Leadership scale is highly reliable (Cronbach α = 0.925). Besides, the stability of the test–retest results (r = 0.868; p < 0.01; t = 0.921; p > 0.05) was an important feature of this scale. Exploratoryand confirmatory factor analyses used in studying the content validity showed that all seven items of the scale explained one factor – transformational leadership. Construct validity was confirmed by strong correlations (r = 0.815; p < 0.01) between the Global Transformational Leadership scale and the Transformational Leadership Behavior Inventory and by proven relations between transformational leadership and subordinates’ higher job satisfaction, lower turnover intentions, and better evaluations of management effectiveness. Thus, the Global Transformational Leadership scale can be characterized as an instrument with appropriate psychometric properties for individual and group analyses for the purpose of research and practice.
Antisocial behaviour genesis from the social information processing perspective
Authors: Valickas Gintautas , Tarozienė Viktorija 
Published: January 2019

Quite numerous research findings show that social information processing underlies different forms of prosocial and antisocial behaviour. Although most of data come from research of children of different age, interest in social information processing and behaviour in later periods of life markedly grows. More and more authors turn to the question of adult social information processing and antisocial behaviour, considering it as a promising field for criminal behaviour forecast and correction. Two aims ofthis paper are: 1) to describe the main developmental features of social information processing from early childhood to late adolescence and early adulthood; 2) to make assumptions on the connections between social information processing and the antisocial (criminal) behaviour of adults. In this article, we review findings of more than two last decades as it is the most intense period for the development of knowledge in this field. Analysis of the literature shows that patterns of social information processing of people with tendencies to prosocial and antisocial behaviour already differ in groups of children. These differences become more vivid in groups of adolescents as they tend to use antisocial thinking strategies more often and in more steps of information processing than younger children. We suppose that adults have similar but even more clear and vivid patterns of specific social information processing and behaviour than adolescents.Social knowledge of adults is more complex, abstract and differentiated to specific social situations in comparison with people of younger age. Moreover, their information processing is more rapid and complex as well as more tendentious and rigid. Automation of information processing might suspend the learning process and be a source of information processing mistakes in new social situations. We assume that adults, in comparison with children, must have a rather stable and effectively working social information processing directly linked to specific forms of prosocial or antisocial behaviour. We hypothesize that because of a longer antisocial (criminal) experience, some specific features of social knowledge and information processing might appear. Therefore, researches of social information processing that underlie specific forms of antisocial (criminal) behaviour seem to be most informative and useful in this field. Moreover, it is still very little known about the role of emotions in antisocial behaviour genesis. There is some eloquent data on their important impact on social information processing underlying antisocial behaviour, but we suppose that this impact might differ in particular stages of development.
Existential approach to group psychotherapy
Authors: Kočiūnas Rimantas 
Published: January 2019

The review discusses a model of working with psychotherapeutic groups, based on the existential psychotherapy paradigm developed by the author and called “existential experience group”. Its main concept is the idea of the human being as being-in-theworld (Dasein). The process of psychotherapy has two major directions, the first being an attempt to understand the problems of participants in the context of the main dimensions – physical, social, psychological and spiritual – of human life, and the second exploration of participants’ life difficulties in the context of “givens” (universal conditions) of existence. The following “givens” are described as essential: “thrownness” in the world, relations to others, the finiteness of life, freedom and responsibility, anxiety, meaning and meaninglessness, experience of time. The existential experience group represents a structured life situation in which participants with their unique life stories and experiences, involved in transactions among themselves and with the therapist, attempt to develop a common group life. The “group life” is a concentrated expression of individual lives of participants. The problems of participants are treated as certain inadequacies of current ways of “being-in-the-world”, as distortions of individual relation to existential “givens”. The group discusses the problems of participants not in relation to their personal life story (though it is given consideration as well), but rather in the context of the collectively created group life. The author discusses the universal objectives of the existential experience group, the main points of its functioning and ways of work. The basic structure of the group work is provided by the most usual norms of groups (openness and sincerity, interrelatedness of freedom and responsibility, sharing responsibility among participants and the therapist, confidentiality and regulated communication of participants outside the group) and also by changes of “developmental periods” of the group (“childhood”, “youth”, “maturity” and “old age”). The contents of sessions of existential experience groups is not planned in advance. It is determined by participants’ therapeutic goals and interpersonal situations arising “here and now”. Also, the position of the therapist in an existential experience group is analysed, since it is a greatly significant part of the psychotherapeutic work. The author stresses the importance of the therapist as phenomenologically oriented, giving priority to the participants’ experience as conceived by themselves. The main attitudes of the therapist are empathy and neutrality. For the therapist, it is critical to remain a real person in the group, a live human being with his own obligations and specific responsibility in the group.In an existential experience group, therapeutic changes are pursued by constantly directing participants to consciously reflect the conditions of humans’ being-in-the-world. Changes in understanding oneself and life are considered most essential.
Perceived size of a line depending on its projection place on the retina
Authors: Dzekevičiūtė A. , Daugirdienė A. , Švegžda A. , Stanikūnas R. , Vaitkevičius H. 
Published: January 2019

It is known that objects located in the centre of the visual field are perceived as larger than the objects located in the periphery (Пиаже, 1978). The image of an object differs from its perception object. The perceived size of an object depends on the size of its image in the visual cortex. This stems from the so-called cortical magnification factor. It is assumed that the same quantity of receptors sends information to the same area of the cortex. But photoreceptors are different – rods and the cones. It is not clear whether the different types of receptors make a different influence on the above-mentioned distortion of mapping. Also, the image of the object on the retina is perceived differently, depending on its location on the retina. Our goal was to explore how this subjective expansion changes while moving away from the centre of the retina, because there are no data on this, phenomenon.
Method. Thirty normal or corrected to normal vision adults participated in the study. Five different length lines (5, 7, 10, 13, 15 degrees) were represented on the computer’s monitor one line at a time. Participants had monoculary bisected lines into two subjectively equal parts fixating sight on a cross located at the given end of the line.Results. The ratio ρ (length of the line near the cross / length of the other part) was calculated. This ratio as a function of the length of the whole line was not monotonic: when the line was short, ρ decreased, but then it began to increase. Three groups of results were formed considering the ratio of the line length (where the function had the extremum point). The largest group (66.67%) had the extremum point when the line length was 7 deg. The second group (23.33%) had the extremum point when the line length was 13 deg. The last group (10%) had not clear extremum point and was excluded from the calculation. Changes of the ρ value cannot be explained by the perceptual instability of the length of the line (Brown, 1953). There could be a correlation between the value of ρ and the density of all receptors in the retina where the line was projected.Conclusions. Humans make a bias while monocular by bisecting a line: the part near the point of fixation is perceived as bigger than the other part. The function of the line size ratio changes not monotonically – it has an extremum point. Most often, the extremum point is observed when the line size is 7 deg. This point is near the point where the density of rods exceeds that of cones. Other subjects show the extremum point when the line size is 13 deg., but the reasons for such a point shift remain unclear. Some subjects have no extremum point.
Costa Rica, el Reino Mosquito y el “mulato intérprete” Francisco Corella (1711-1724)
Authors: Mendiola Daniel Matthew 
Published: January 2019

Este artículo examina las relaciones entre la Costa Rica colonial y el Reino Mosquito, una confederación afroindígena que surgió en la costa caribeña de Centroamérica durante el siglo XVII. El objetivo de esta investigación es analizar el periodo de negociación durante la primera mitad del siglo XVIII, a través del estudio de los intermediarios que manejaban estas negociaciones en la práctica. Una figura central de esta narración es el “mulato intérprete” Francisco Corella, quien fue el principal negociador del año 1711 hasta al menos 1724. Además de contar la historia de estas negociaciones, este artículo demuestra las contribuciones importantes de poblaciones diversas, incluso personas afrodescendientes a la historia de Costa Rica.
The Role of Smooth Myocytes and Macrophages in Development of Complicated Forms of Arterial Atherosclerosis
Authors: Todorov S. S. 
Published: January 2019

Purpose:to conduct morphohistochemical and immunohistochemical study of arterial unstable atherosclerotic plaques for assessment of the state of smooth muscle cells (SMC) and macrophages.Materials and methods.The surgical material of the peripheral arteries (femoral, popliteal, external carotid) was obtained from 50 patients aged over 60 years, followed by morphohistochemical, immunohistochemical studies.Results.Hyperplasia of secretory smooth muscle cells (SMC), and new formation of thin-walled capillary vessels was noted in unstable atherosclerotic plaques. Macrophagic infiltration was detected in the intima of arteries, in places of accumulation of foam cells.Conclusion.Unstable atherosclerotic plaque is a cellular-intercellular process with the participation of lipids, macrophages, and with predominance of SMC and newly formed vessels.
Population Risk of Ischemic Heart Disease Depending on the Volume of Alcohol Consumption by the Population (ЭССЕ-РФ Study in the Kemerovo Region)
Authors: Maksimov S. A. , Cygankova D. P. 
Published: January 2019

Purpose: to assess relationship between the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and associated population risk of ischemic heart disease (IHD) alcohol consumption in the Siberian region (Kemerovo Region).Materials and methods.This work was carried out within the framework of a multicenter epidemiological study “Epidemiology of CardioVascular Diseases in the regions of the Russian Federation” (ЭССЕ-РФ in the Kemerovo region) in 2013. In the final form, the sample size was 1628 individuals aged 25–64 years. We analyzed data on frequency, volume, and type of consumed alcoholic beverages, as well as on the presence of a number of risk factors of cardiovascular diseases and IHD. Alcohol consumption was estimated by the original method, volume of alcohol consumed in a year was categorized as absent (non-drinkers), moderate, medium, and strong. The calculation of the population risk of IHD was carried out according to the author’s methodology, taking into account the prevalence of risk factors and their contribution to the development of IHD.Results. Prevalence of several risk factors among non-drinkers was significantly different (p<0.05) compared with drinkers with varying degrees of alcohol consumption. In men, there were differences in low physical activity, hypertriglyceridemia, excess weight, education, in women – in anxiety, low physical activity, hypertriglyceridemia, educational qualifications, smoking. In nondrinking men, the additional risk of IHD associated with risk factors was slightly reduced (–1.1 %). In groups of moderate, moderate, and strong alcohol consumption, risk of IHD was higher than the population risk by 2.2 %, 0.7 % and 6.5 %, respectively. In non-drinking women high burden of risk factors accounted for additional risk of IHD (4.5 %). In women with moderate and medium alcohol consumption the risk of IHD was 2.5 and 1.9 %, respectively, lower compared with population risk. Abuse of alcohol in women caused significant increase in the burden of risk factors and, accordingly, was associated with high additional risk of IHD (18.7 %).Conclusion. Predominantly linear in men and J-shaped in women relationship between prevalence of risk factors and volume of alcohol consumption accounted for analogous tendencies in population IHD risk. Specific for men is close to linear dependence of additional IHD risk on population IHD risk with insignificant variability in non-drinkers, moderate and medial consumers, and with significant growth in alcohol abusers. Women have a J-shaped relationship: in extreme categories (non-drinkiers and alcohol abusers), the risk of IHD is higher than the population risk, while in the middle categories (moderate and medial consumers) it is lower than the population risk.