2021

Background: Many studies have proven that promotion focus corresponds to the logic of individualistic culture, while prevention focus is characteristic of collectivistic culture. Armenia, as a post-Soviet country, has not been included in cross-cultural studies, since it is not viewed as a typically collectivistic or individualistic society.

Objective: To investigate how promotion and prevention regulatory foci can predict subjective well-being, as conditioned by individualistic–collectivistic cultural orientations within Armenian society, and to reveal the links between regulatory focus and subjective well-being within Armenian culture, considering the effect of personality–culture fit.

Design: We carried out two studies. In Study 1, regression analysis was conducted to reveal how promotion and prevention foci predicted different aspects of subjective well-being. In Study 2, mediation analysis was conducted to reveal how vertical and horizontal collectivism and individualism mediate the linkage between a promotion or prevention focus, and different aspects of subjective well-being.

Results: Regression analysis replicated the findings of other studies, showing that promotion focus has a great predictive role in subjective well-being, while prevention focus neither predicts or obviates different aspects of subjective well-being. Mediation analysis indicated that vertical collectivism had a partially mediating effect on the linkage between promotion and cognitive, emotional, and psychological aspects of subjective well-being. Vertical individualism had a mediating effect on the linkage between prevention and social well-being.

 Conclusion: Vertical collectivism is a consistent pattern in people experiencing subjective well-being when they behave in a promotion-based way in different settings in the Armenian cultural context.

Background. Personal authenticity, the ability to be true to oneself, is traditionally studied from the perspective of its protective role for the individual and is only beginning to be studied in relation to the surrounding world. In this study, we suggest that authentic people may be more aware and concerned about their environment then less authentic people. The theoretical foundations for our work were: the person-centered approach; subject psychology; and modern research on pro-environmental behavior.

Objective. We presented our understanding of personal authenticity within Russian subject psychology, developed the standardized instruments necessary for carrying out our main aim, and explored the links between authenticity and pro-environmental behavior in both person-centered and subject psychology.

Design. Four hundred thirty (430) Russian students (M_age = 19.19; SD_age = 1.22; 79.5% women) participated in the study. Authenticity was measured both by the revised Russian version of the Authenticity Scale, and a new tool, the Moscow Authenticity Scale, which was developed on the basis of subject psychology. To measure pro-environmental behavior, we created a new instrument called the Ecological Lifestyle Scale, which included Social Activities and Ecological Self-restraint subscales.

Results. Using the two new scales, the Moscow Authenticity Scale and the Ecological Lifestyle Scale, along with a modification of the Authenticity scale, we found that authenticity, considered within the framework of subject psychology, provided a more nuanced picture of the relationship between personal authenticity and pro-environmental behavior than the person-centered model did. Women were more likely to exercise pro-environmental behavior than men; however, the connections between personal authenticity and pro-environmental behavior were stronger in the male group.

Conclusion. Authenticity is associated with pro-environmental behavior but does not predict it accurately enough. Future research on moderating or mediating variables is suggested.  

Background. The school environment influences a child's well-being in different ways, not only by education but also by forming social roles, habits, and stress responses. It provides the sources of stress as well as the sources of resilience.

Objective. This study examines the variety of coping strategies of adolescents attending different educational institutions and the different trajectories in the adaptation process in different educational environments.

Design. This paper examined the coping strategies, optimism, and subjective well-being of students in different educational environments. Three schools were represented, and 646 adolescents between 12-17 years old participated in the study. The measures included the Ways of Coping Checklist, The Life Orientation Test, and The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale.

Results. Coping strategies used by students attending different schools significantly differ in their intensiveness of use and age distribution. However, optimism and subjective well-being are higher among older adolescents and do not depend on the educational environment.

Conclusion. The differences in the coping strategies preferred by the adolescents in different types of schools reflect their adaptation to the different environmental demands, which is confirmed by the same level of subjective well-being and optimism in different environments. However, their repertoires of coping strategies are not analogous: the students in high-rated schools use more various and more constructive coping strategies than students in low-rated schools. We may assume that their resilience and ability to cope with stress outside of school may also differ, which, in turn, can influence their further life trajectories and ability to cope with difficulties in life, perpetuating existing social inequality.  Early and middle adolescents in all types of schools show a lower level of well-being and optimism than older students, which may indicate their higher psychological vulnerability and need for adult attention and support compared to older adolescents.

Background. The construct of attributional style refers to the specific ways people explain events, both positive and negative. Previous research has shown that optimistic attributional style (OAS) for negative events was reliably associated with low rates of depression. On the contrary, an optimistic attributional style for positive events is a separate phenomenon associated mainly with well-being, but these relationships remain underexplored.

Objective. This study aimed to explore the predictive power of OAS-Positive, its relationships with subjective well-being, and possible personality mediators related to positive functioning. We hypothesized that the abilities to feel grateful and savor positive life events mediate the relationship between optimistic thinking about positive outcomes and subjective well-being.

Design. A сross-sectional design was implemented. The participants were 271 adults from Moscow and Moscow Region (M age = 32.42, SD=12.9).

Results. The results of regression analysis showed that both life satisfaction and subjective happiness depended on gratitude, self-esteem, and dispositional optimism, but only happiness was predicted by savoring the moment. The results of structural equation modeling were consistent with the hypothesis since the structural model revealed that the effects of OAS-Positive on subjective well-being were fully mediated by gratitude and savoring the moment, as well as self-esteem and dispositional optimism. The mediated effects of OAS-Negative through self-esteem and gratitude were inconsistent, and its total indirect effect on subjective well-being was not significant.

Conclusion. This research provides preliminary evidence that optimistic thinking about positive life events promotes subjective well-being through a system of positive psychological traits and attitudes which include gratitude and savoring the moment. 

Background. Recently, research on psychological well-being and its dynamics and predictors in adolescence, has gained special attention, due to the importance of well-being for mental and physical health, as well as for success in different activities. Self-regulation (SR) is considered a significant resource for maintaining psychological and school-related subjective well-being.

Objective. The purpose of our study was to identify the role of conscious SR in maintaining pupils' satisfaction with school life, and to assess the contribution of conscious SR to the development of psychological well-being in adolescence.

Design. Two three-year longitudinal studies were carried out on samples of young adolescents in Russian schools (N = 148; N = 132; 10-13 years). The studies utilized methods for assessing conscious SR, psychological well-being (PWB), and school-related subjective well-being (SWB), the latter being the cognitive component of life satisfaction.

Results. Our research revealed differences in the dynamics of PWB and SWB levels in adolescents during their transition from primary to basic secondary school. It also identified the specifics of longitudinal relationships between conscious SR, PWB, and SWB in adolescence. We showed that there was a reciprocal relationship between them. However, the most significant cross-longitudinal effects were established between SR and school-related SWB. These effects changed over time: at the beginning, well-being acted as a significant factor of self-regulation, while later self-regulation acted as a significant resource for maintaining adolescent well-being in the subsequent years.

Conclusion. School-related SWB is characterized by the most pronounced trajectory of change, while PWB is characterized by greater stability and insignificant growth. Our three-year longitudinal study demonstrated that the link between self-regulation and well-being is consistently reproduced. Conscious self-regulation is a significant resource for both the psychological and school subjective well-being of adolescents.

Background. The reasons and consequences of people’s activity on social networks have not been sufficiently studied. Most studies have focused on identifying the dangers and risks associated with posting self-portraits on social networks, but it is an open question as to whether such behavior serves to increase people’s psychological well-being.

Objective. We asked ourselves what are the main motives for publishing selfies and whether online activity contributes to psychological well-being.

Design. Our study involved 96 respondents from Moscow, mainly psychology students, who provided information about their activity on social networks, and completed questionnaires on their motivation, social support, and psychological well-being.

Results. Three main motives for publishing selfies were identified: 1) to increase self-esteem; 2) maintain social contacts; and 3) preserve and exchange information. The higher the ratio of selfies taken to preserve information, the higher was the user’s psychological well-being. We found significant differences between the characteristics of those participants with high and low activity, and larger and smaller numbers of "friends" in social networks. For those with high activity, their sense of psychological well-being was largely determined by interaction with others. For these persons, communication (including with virtual contacts) was the important resource of well-being. The other group was less dependent on others, and for them, psychological well-being was not related to their activity on social networks.

Conclusion. Our results confirm the connection between the personality traits and characteristics of the respondents' network behavior and their psychological well-being. The study showed that the type of correlation constellation differs between groups of respondents depending upon how much or how little they are oriented toward social support.

Background. Personal authenticity is a person’s ability to be oneself and coherent in both his/her personality and the circumstances of his/her life (time, place, and life-calling). The sense of one’s true self plays an essential role in peoples’ psychological well-being and life goals. Currently, the theory of authenticity is included in existential psychology, the person-centered approach, and the psychology of the subject, but all of these approaches have some methodological limitations.

Objective. The aim of the current study was to explore the everyday presentations of the true self among the primary school children and adolescents. It was expected that in adolescence, these representations are more differentiated and mature than at an earlier stage of life.

Design. In the exploratory research, 330 respondents took part, including 163 primary school children (74 girls, 87 boys, ages 7 to 11; M = 9.4) and 167 adolescents (78 girls, 89 boys, ages 12 to 17; M = 14.3). A special interview consisting of 11 open and closed-ended questions was developed. The inductive method of content analysis was used.

Results. Differences were found in the frequencies of the categories used by primary school children and adolescents. Older respondents described their true selves in more detail; their evaluations were more positive and often included their social life as an inseparable part of themselves, whereas descriptions by the younger children were more sparse, ambiguous, and individualistic.

Conclusion. The results obtained can help identify the substantial stages of the genesis of the true self. To develop authenticity, these facts should be taken into consideration.

Background. A rich vocabulary supports human achievements in socio-economic activities, education, and communication. It is therefore important to clarify the nature of language acquisition as a complex multidimensional process. However, both the psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms underpinning language learning, as well as the links between them, are still poorly understood.

Objective. This study aims to explore the psychological and neurophysiological correlates of successful word acquisition in a person’s native language.

Design. Thirty adults read sentences with novel nouns, following which the participants’ electroencephalograms were recorded during a word-reading task. Event-related potentials in response to novel words and alpha oscillation parameters (amplitude, variability, and long-range temporal correlation dynamics) were analyzed. Learning outcomes were assessed at the lexical and semantic levels. Psychological variables measured using Amthauer’s test (verbal abilities), BIS/BAS scales (motivation), and the MSTAT-1 (ambiguity tolerance) and alpha oscillation parameters were factored.

Results. Better recognition of novel words was related to two factors which had high factor loadings for all measured alpha oscillation parameters, indicating the role of attention networks and respective neural activity for enabling information processing. More successful learners had lower P200 amplitude, which also suggests higher attention-system involvement. Another factor predicted better acquisition of word meanings for less ambiguity-tolerant students, while the factor which pooled logical conceptual thinking ability and persistence in goal-reaching, positively correlated with acquisition of both word forms and meanings.

Conclusion. The psychological factors predominantly correlated with word-learning success in semantic tasks, while neurophysiological variables were linked to performance in the recognition task.

Background. All life strives to be well, but not all life is well. This suggests that cognition aimed at improving and protecting well-being might share a common core across all life forms: core cognition

Objective. In this first of a two-part theoretical article, we systematically specify the evolutionary core cognition of well-being from the perspective of general living agents. In Part 2 we apply this to identity development and the theoretical approaches to well-being. This first part aims to identify the strategies and conditions for the creation and protection of generalized well-being and describes associated behavioral ontologies.

Results. We defined a set of key terms that, together, specify core cognition. This set comprises quite naturally concepts like agency, behavior, need satisfaction, intelligence, authority, power, and wisdom, which are all derived from the defining properties of life. We derived coping and co-creation as two essentially different, but complementary, behavioral ontologies. Coping is for survival and targeted problem solving and aims to end the need for its activation. Co-creation is for thriving and problem prevention and aims to perpetuate its activation. Co-creation can explain the growth of the biosphere. While both strategies are essential, the successful interplay of their strengths leads to the dominance of one of them: co-creation. Absence of success leads to a dominance of coping: a coping-trap and a strong urge to curtail behavioral diversity. We summarize the key terms of core cognition and the ontologies in two tables with defined terms.

Background. Free will belongs to the category of phenomena that are actively discussed in scientific discourse but are neither verified nor proven false. Free will is studied in philosophy, neuroscience, and psychology. We discuss this pluralism, multiplicity of perceptions, and the parties’ arguments in the theoretical part of this article. We approach the existing polemics from the point of view of a person who is in the moment of making a decision and taking responsibility for it. The usual paradoxes are mitigated if we consider free will through the concepts underlying everyday consciousness.

Objective. Our aim is to introduce into the discussion of free will an understanding of its nature as a construct of everyday consciousness, one which acts as a factor in increasing the personal maturity of vital decisions. We also discuss the arguments of the various meta-positions in the dispute about free will.

Design. Our empirical research was designed as a modification of the experiments on imposed attitudes. The sample consisted of 340 people ages 30–50 years.

Results. The level of maturity of actions by the subjects who received the set for determinism was lower than that of the subjects who received the set for free will (U 5133; p = 0.014).

Conclusion. Our study showed that the stronger a person’s belief in free will, the more personally mature that person’s choices – actions – are; and that the more active that belief in free will, the more effective are their efforts to overcome social pressure.

Background. The development of high-quality human capital is an important objective that involves value orientations, cultural dimensions and psychological characteristics of activity. This article presents a cross-cultural comparison of value orientations and psychological parameters of activity among youth from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Latvia.

Objective. The study addressed three questions: (1) Are there values and attitudes related to the readiness for activity among youth in the three countries? (2) Are there any differences between values and parameters of the psychological system of activity in the Russian, Kazakhstani and Latvian samples? (3) What values and attitudes predict the youth’s readiness for activity in each country?

Design. University students from Russia, Kazakhstan and Latvia were invited to participate in the study. The study sample was selected according to age, sex and period of living in the country. Value orientations, cultural dimensions and attitudes were measured by the VSM, WVS, Basic Values Realisability questionnaires. The PRF, Q-LES-Q, SHS, Self-Organization of Activity, DTR, and SWLS questionnaires were applied to evaluate the psychological parameters of activity. To analyse the relationship between value orientations and psychological parameters of activity, we used analysis of variance, Pearson's correlation coefficient and stepwise linear regression.

Results. The cross-cultural variance was established for most values and cultural dimensions in the Russian, Kazakhstani, and Latvian samples, but Personal readiness for activity only differed on the tendency level between the Kazakhstani and Latvian samples. Different values and attitudes accounted for near 57% of the Personal readiness for activity index in Russia and Latvia, but just less than 29% in Kazakhstan.

Conclusion. The activity of university students from Russia depends on their need for achievement and level of happiness. In the Kazakhstani and Latvian samples, the most important factor was the quality of life enjoyment and satisfaction index

Background. Media reports on armed fights or terror attacks introduce reminders of death into people’s daily lives. When people feel non-specific threats (mortality salience) or specific threats (intergroup threats), they may demonstrate unfavorable attitudes toward national outgroups. The issue is mostly analyzed today in line with Terror Management Theory and Intergroup Threat Theory.

Objective. To examine such threats in the Russian context, and the impact of mortality salience (MS) on attitudes toward national outgroups that induced different levels of perceived intergroup threat.

Design. In two studies, participants watched films and completed questionnaires about social distance, social thermometer, and trust toward “more or less threatening” countries. In Study 1, 120 Russian students were assigned to six groups via experimental design: 3 (MS: terrorist attacks in Europe, terrorist attacks in Russia, or a control group watching a video about dental treatment) x 2 (country: Ukraine and Belarus). In Study 2, 122 participants were similarly divided into six groups, evaluating attitudes toward the USA and China.

Results. Study 1 showed that MS mostly increased unfavorable attitudes toward a country perceived as more threatening (Ukraine) than toward one perceived as less threatening (Belarus). Study 2 indicated the same effect on attitudes toward both more (the USA) and less (China) threatening outgroups.

Conclusion. The results identified contradictory tendencies in MS effect, in line with Terror Management Theory and Intergroup Threat Theory. The findings could be used in improving relationships from an international perspective.

Background. This article analyzes the relationship between sensory-emotional experience inthe process of semantic description of vague visual figures,and the level of conceptual (categorical and generative) abilities.

Objective. The objective of our study was, first, to show the differences in the degree and features of activation of elements of sensory-emotional experience in the process of constructing the meanings of vague visual figures; and, second, to show the relationship of these differences with the level of categorical and generative abilities.

Design.We studied 102 older adolescents ages 15-16 years. The research program included the following methods: 1) "Description of vague figures" (E.Yu. Artemyeva's technique change,1980; 1999); 2) "Generalization of three words" (Kholodnaya, 2012; Kholodnaya et al., 2019); and 3) "Conceptual synthesis" (Kholodnaya, 2012; Kholodnaya et al., 2019).

Results. Our results showed that generative abilities play the leading role in determining the degree of severity and diversity of different modalities in forming visual meanings, as compared with categorical abilities. The transition simulation hypothesis explains the results. However, the embodied character of mental modeling (simulation) is not determined “bottom-up” by the individual’s bodily state or the activity of corresponding brain zones. On the contrary, conceptual (namely, generative) structures determine the form of the conceptual representations from the "top down."

Conclusion. Generative abilities represent the highest level of organization of personal conceptual experience, which acquires a multimodal quality, due to the integral nature of conceptual (generative) structures.

Background. Spatial ability (SA) is a robust predictor of academic and occupational achievement. The present study investigated the psychometric properties of 10 tests for measuring of SA in a sample of talented schoolchildren.

Objective. Our purpose was to identify the most suitable measurements for SA for the purpose of  talent identification, educational assessment, and support.

Design. Our sample consisted of 1479 schoolchildren who had demonstrated high achievement in Science, Arts, or Sports. Several criteria were applied to evaluate the measurements, including an absence of floor and ceiling effects, low redundancy, high reliability, and external validity.

Results. Based on these criteria, we included the following four tests in an Online Short Spatial Ability Battery “OSSAB”: Pattern Assembly; Mechanical Reasoning; Paper Folding; and Shape Rotation. Further analysis found differences in spatial ability across the three groups of gifted adolescents. The Science track showed the highest results in all four tests.

Conclusion. Overall, the study suggested that the Online Short Spatial Ability Battery (OSSAB) can be used for talent identification, educational assessment, and support. The analysis showed a unifactorial structure of spatial abilities. Future research is needed to evaluate the use of this battery with other specific samples and unselected populations.

Background. The most significant features for clinical diagnosis of schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) are cognitive-perceptual and disorganized symptoms. Experimental study of visual perceptual processes is important to elucidate the psychological mechanisms of cognitive-perceptual impairment in SPD.

Objective. To research the performance of visual perceptual tasks in SPD.

Design. Series I and II presented the subjects with visual perceptual tasks with different types of instructions (vague, verbal, or visual perceptual cues). The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-R) was also administered. The participants were 39 SPD patients, 36 obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) patients (F.21.8, F.60.5 in ICD-10, respectively), and 102 healthy controls.

Results. SPD patients had a significantly lower number of correct answers in conditions of vague instruction and verbal cues in Series I of a visual-perceptual task in comparison with healthy subjects (р ≤ 0.01). With visual perceptual cues in Series II, patients with SPD had the same number of correct answers as controls, whereas OCPD patients had the same number of correct answers as controls with verbal cues in Series I. SPD patients had significantly lower scores in most verbal and nonverbal WAIS-R subtests in comparison with controls. SPD patients differed from OCPD patients in that they had lower scores in the “Information” (p ≤ 0.05) and “Comprehension” (p ≤ 0.05) subtests.

Conclusion. With visual-perceptual cues, SPD patients were able to achieve normative results in the performance of visual-perceptual tasks, whereas patients with OCPD demonstrated lower productivity. In SPD patients, the basic impairments were associated with difficulties in inhibition of peculiar responses, stability of a subjective manner of performance and inability to revise it, low orientation to the model, and slipping into subjective associations with the stimuli.

Background. People with alcohol-addicted parents are at risk of psychoactive addictions, co-dependency, and suicidal behavior. Most studies of these people are aimed at confirming the inevitability of the impact of negative childhood experiences on their lives, and thus do not seek to identify resource factors which would allow them to overcome the negative emotions they experienced. 

Objective. The purpose of this study was to create a model of resource factors which would allow people with alcohol-addicted parents to overcome the negative emotions they experienced. 

Design. The participants were 58 healthy individuals (17 men and 41 women; M=25.2; SD=4.4) whose parents were alcohol addicts (they were participants in the 12-step recovery program "Adult Children of Alcoholics"), and 50 healthy individuals (15 men and 35 women, M=24.2; SD=3.7) whose parents were not alcohol addicts. The participants completed the questionnaires "Interpersonal Guilt," "Family Emotional Communication," and "Coping Strategies," and were interviewed on the resource factors which allowed them to overcome negative emotions. We used the content analysis of the interviews and latent variable modeling to analyze the questionnaires.

Results. The model of resource factors (CFI=0.895, RMSEA=0.064) showed that the rules set by the parental dysfunctional family (the taboo on the expressing emotions, and external well-being) were associated with being unable to recognize current negative emotions and with avoiding problems. The ability to recognize negative emotions was connected with the participant’s willingness to accept responsibility for his/her life. The resource factors which allowed these subjects to overcome their negative emotions included: communication with relatives and friends; keeping a diary of emotions; and participating in recovery programs.

Conclusion. Our model of resource factors explains the mechanism connecting dysfunctional family rules with the resource factors and negative emotions experienced by people with alcohol-addicted parents. 

Background. The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) has demonstrated good psychometric properties among different populations, but there is no known data on its validity among Russian-speaking medical students. The CBI-Student Survey focuses only on fatigue, but measures exhaustion in four different life domains: Personal Burnout (PB), Studies-Related Burnout (SRB), Colleague-Related Burnout (CRB), and Teacher-Related Burnout (TRB).

Objective. To investigate the psychometric properties of the Russian version of the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory–Student Survey (R-CBI-S).

Design. A cross-sectional study was carried out among 771 medical students at Astana Medical University (Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan). Statistical analyses included test-retest reliability, internal consistency, item analysis, convergent and concurrent validity, and confirmatory factor analysis. Concurrent validity was evaluated by bivariate correlations of R-CBI-S with anxiety, depression, and satisfaction with the study.

Results. Test-retest reliability showed an ICC of 0.81. All item-total correlations for the total scale were positive (range 0.31–0.76). The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.94 (0.896 for PB, 0.884 for SRB, 0.874 for CRB, and 0.926 for TRB). The Barlett’s sphericity test result was significant (p < 0.001), and the KMO measure of sampling adequacy exceeded 0.947. Convergent validity analysis results: PB (AVE = 0.52, CR = 0.87), SRB (AVE = 0.50, CR = 0.87), CRB (AVE = 0.51, CR = 0.86), TRB (AVE = 0.56, CR = 0.88). The R-CBI-S achieved good levels of goodness-of-fit indices (RMSEA = 0.0611; CFI = 0.940; TLI = 0.933).

Conclusion. The test results indicated that the R-CBI-S scale appears to be a reliable and valid instrument. The R-CBI-S may be a useful tool in future research to identify burnout factors based on specific life domains for developing effective prevention measures among medical students.

Background. Dissociation is a generally recognized phenomenon in psychology and psychiatry; however, questions are still not fully resolved about the difference between pathological and normal dissociation, as well as the role of dissociation, depending on its aetiology, in the formation of clinical manifestations of mental disorders.

Objective. To complement the existing data about the significance of dissociation in non-psychotic mental disorders.

Design. Using the Dissociative Experience Scale (DES), we screened 62 patients (13 male and 49 female) from the Non-Psychotic Conditions Inpatient Department of the Udmurt Republican Clinical Psychiatric Hospital (Izhevsk, Russia). Nineteen of the patients had mental disorders of organic aetiology and 43 patients had mental disorders of psychogenic aetiology.

Results. Dissociation at the pathological level was detected in 12.9% of the patients, all of them female. Among patients with psychogenic disorders, the proportion of patients with pathological dissociation was more than three times that of patients with organic disorders. Among the particular dissociative phenomena, absorption had the highest average severity, both in the general sample and in each aetiological group of patients, while dissociative amnesia had the lowest average severity. The highest levels of dissociation were found in young female patients who had never been married. In patients with psychogenic disorders, the average dissociation severity was significantly higher than in the general population, while in patients with organic disorders it was significantly lower.

Conclusion. The dissociation phenomenon may play a significant symptom-forming role in young women suffering from non-psychotic mental disorders of psychogenic aetiology. In the case of organic mental disorders, the severity of dissociative manifestations decreases even below the conditionally normal level, which may indirectly indicate the destruction of dissociative physiological mechanisms by an organic brain process.

Background. Spearman’s law of diminishing returns (SLODR) states that intercorrelations between scores on tests of intellectual abilities were higher when the data set was comprised of subjects with lower intellectual abilities and vice versa. After almost a hundred years of research, this trend has only been detected on average.

Objective. To determine whether the very different results were obtained due to variations in scaling and the selection of subjects.

Design. We used three methods for SLODR detection based on moderated factor analysis (MFCA) to test real data and three sets of simulated data. Of the latter group, the first one simulated a real SLODR effect. The second one simulated the case of a different density of tasks of varying difficulty; it did not have a real SLODR effect. The third one simulated a skewed selection of respondents with different abilities and also did not have a real SLODR effect. We selected the simulation parameters so that the correlation matrix of the simulated data was similar to the matrix created from the real data, and all distributions had similar skewness parameters (about -0.3).

Results. The results of MFCA are contradictory and we cannot clearly distinguish by this method the dataset with real SLODR from datasets with similar correlation structure and skewness, but without a real SLODR effect. Theresults allow us to conclude that when effects like SLODR are very subtle and can be identified only with a large sample, then features of the psychometric scale become very important, because small variations of scale metrics may lead either to masking of real SLODR or to false identification of SLODR.

Background. Psychological burnout is a state of psychological and physical fatigue that shows the effect of work stress on the individual and  negatively affects his/her attitudes towards work. The current study was motivated by the assumption that people who work directly with students with special needs are at the forefront of professions that can create feelings of frustration, and thus may be vulnerable to psychological burnout.

Objective. To identify the level of psychological burnout among professionals working with children with motor disabilities, and how these levels differ according to gender, workplace, years of experience, and the number of children the employees treat.

Design. The sample comprised 195 staff members at the Al-Hussein Society for the rehabilitation of the Physically Challenged and the Cerebral Palsy Foundation in Amman, Jordan. The researchers used the Maslach Burnout Inventory, which consists of three dimensions: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and the lack of a sense of personal accomplishment.

Results. We found a low level of psychological burnout among those who work with children with motor disabilities. The level of psychological burnout was low for two dimensions: lack of a sense of personal accomplishment and depersonalization, whereas it was average for emotional exhaustion. The results showed statistically significant differences in the degrees of psychological burnout in its three dimensions according to the employee’s workplace, with higher levels at the Cerebral Palsy Foundation. However, no statistically significant differences were found among the participants due to gender, years of experience, or the number of children they treat.

Conclusion. The low levels of psychological burnout among professionals who work with children with motor disabilities might be due to the psychological and professional support they receive from their institutions.