Suchergebnisse

"The last decades have witnessed a significant increase in several forms of human psychological malfunctioning, aspects that proved to significantly endanger healthy and efficient human adaptation. Mental health indicators (anxiety, depression, reduced levels of happiness), perfectionism, narcissism, and loneliness have significantly increased, despite the significant improvement of existent life-conditions. The market-based competition and reward system in the educational and professional spheres, as well as the perfectionistic expectations specific to the personal life impose high demands on the individual, which usually become sources of significant chronic stress, further impacting the individual's quality of life (psychological and subjective well-being, loneliness). The comparative investigation of the above-mentioned variables in Transylvanian Hungarian and Transylvanian Romanian students would offer us the chance to compare these levels of functioning in two, culturally different samples. Our present study is a continuation and refinement of previous studies, and concentrates on the following major aims: (i) the investigation of the possible differences in narcissism, perfectionism, loneliness, depression, happiness, subjective and psychological well-being in Transylvanian Hungarian and Transylva¬nian Romanian first and second year students; (ii) the investigation of the association patterns between variables in both samples, and (iii) the examination of the role the studied variables play on the major indicators of mental and psychological health (depression and happiness) both in the united sample and on the two samples of students separately. The results of our investigation may be beneficial for the tailoring of future prevention and intervention programs that would target the enhancement of psychological adaptation of Transylvanian students Keywords: narcissism, perfectionism, loneliness, depression, subjective well-being, psychological well-being."

Abstract. The last several decades have witnessed a substantial increase in the number of individuals suffering from both diagnosable and subsyndromal mental health problems. Consequently, the development of cost-effective treatment methods, accessible to large populations suffering from different forms of mental health problems, became imperative. A very promising intervention is the method of expressive writing (EW), which may be used in both clinically diagnosable cases and subthreshold symptomatology. This method, in which people express their feelings and thoughts related to stressful situations in writing, has been found to improve participants' long-term psychological, physiological, behavioral, and social functioning. Based on a thorough analysis and synthesis of the published literature (also including most recent meta-analyses), the present paper presents the expressive writing method, its short- and long-term, intra-and interpersonal effects, different situations and conditions in which it has been proven to be effective, the most important mechanisms implied in the process of recovery, advantages, disadvantages, and possible pitfalls of the method, as well as variants of the original technique and future research directions.

"The changes occurring in modern society can significantly influence individuals' well-being, mental health and even personality traits such as narcissism and perfectionism. Since studies investigating age and gender differences in narcissism and perfectionism have produced mixed results, and the number of studies conducted in Romanian population is scarce, the main aims of this study were to investigate possible age and gender differences in narcissism, perfectionism and several mental-health indicators in a sample of healthy participants, as well as specific association patterns between these variables within each group of participants. Our sample included 465 millennials and 149 participants over 35 years of age. The results indicate that millennials reported significantly lower levels of narcissism and self-oriented perfectionism than the older generations, higher levels of depressive symptoms and lower levels of autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and self-acceptance. Female millennials reported lower levels of narcissistic traits and higher levels of socially-prescribed perfectionism, depressive symptoms, personal growth, and positive relations with others than male participants. Older females indicated significantly higher levels of depressive symptoms and loneliness than male participants. Regarding association patterns, in the group of millennial women narcissism was positively correlated with self-oriented, socially-prescribed perfectionism and subjective well-being, and negatively with loneliness, environmental mastery and purpose in life. In millennial males, we found significant positive correlations only between narcissism and subjective well-being and environmental mastery. Our findings may have important implications for the literature regarding millennials and can contribute to the interventions and prevention programs designed to improve their well-being.

Keywords: millennials, narcissism, perfectionism, mental health indicators, age and gender differences
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"Literature indicates a strong relationship between narcissism and perfectionism, however, there is little information about this relationship in sports, and even less regarding the way gender affects this relationship. Our paper aims to answer the following questions, in a sample of 202 Hungarian physical education students: (i) are there gender differences in narcissism and perfectionism and how large are these differences?, (ii) how strong is the relationship between narcissism and perfectionism?, (iii) does this relationship vary as a function of perfectionism's components?, and (iv) are there any gender differences in the relationship between narcissism and perfectionism? Our results indicate that the male participants attained significantly higher levels of narcissism than the female participants. Furthermore, we found no significant gender differences in any of the three components of perfectionism a low to moderate association between narcissism and Self-oriented perfectionism and Other-oriented perfectionism, while on the entire sample, narcissism did not correlate with Socially-prescribed perfectionism. Analyzing this relationship separately in the two genders, our investigation indicates a moderate association between narcissism and all the three components of perfectionism only in the case of male participants, these relationships being non-significant for the female participants. These findings indicate that narcissism, in this specific population, is just one of the predictors of perfectionism (and maybe not even the most relevant one). We propose that future studies should focus on exploring other predictive factors of perfectionisms.

Keywords: narcissism, perfectionism, gender, sports
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"The Coronavirus-induced pandemic has had a significant impact on the physical and psychological functioning of the entire world's population. Research has indicated that besides the physical threat to health itself, the implications of constant uncertainty, separation from and/or loss of loved ones, loss of freedom to travel, shortage of food and financial resources, disruptions of usual life-routines, changing work and learning habits, further aggravate the effect of initial stressors, leading to increased levels of depressive symptoms, anxiety, PTSD, insomnia, lowered levels of well-being, and confusion. Unfortunately, just as the two-years long pandemic ended, the Ukrainian war started, and the Romanian population, since our country borders Ukraine, has experienced a novel type of stress, that of the possibility of being attacked, affected economically. Almost simultaneously, the online education has returned to classical form of teaching, amidst semester, being another stress factor for students. Our results indicated that the two-year long pandemic was considered as having the greatest impact by almost two-thirds of the students. Furthermore, the lack of self-efficacy component of perceived stress was a constant and strong predictor of all components of well-being (subjective and psychological), and perceived helplessness for subjective well-being. Regarding emotion regulation strategies refocus on planning, positive reevaluation, self- and other blame, withdrawal and actively approaching the source of stress proved to be the most important predictors. The results of our investigation may be beneficial for the tailoring of future prevention and intervention programs that would target the enhancement of psychological adaptation of students. Keywords: stress, depressive symptoms, uncertainty, emotion regulation strategies, subjective and psychological well-being, post COVID-19. "

"Introduction: Previous research investigating the relationship between social support and depression in the LGBT+ community yielded mixed results. Considering that the LGBT+ population has a high prevalence of mental disorders and is frequently victim of discrimination, it would be essential to know if social support is related to the depressive symptoms its representatives face. The main purpose of this meta-analysis was to clarify whether there is a correlation between social support and depression in the LGBT+ population and to identify moderators of this relationship. Methods: EBSCO, PubMed, and PsychNET databases were searched. Studies that reported statistical indicators for the relationship between social support and depression in an LGBT+ sample were included in this meta-analysis. Results: 48 studies were eligible for the meta-analysis. Our results show that there is a significant negative moderate relationship between social support and depression in the LGBT+ community. The heterogeneity of the results in the literature is partially explained by the way social support was defined and measured, by gender, sexual orientation, and ethnicity. Limitations and implications of the current study are discussed. Discussion: Practical implications of these results include promoting social support, and acceptance at individual and social levels, with more emphasis on policies and practices that foster well-being and a positive climate, that encourage information sharing, and offering support related to LGBT+ issues. It is also important to create safe spaces for sexual minority youth. Considering the LGBT+ adults, all these aspects can be implemented as well in work contexts, to promote safe spaces and accepting attitudes in the workspace. Keywords: LGBT+, depression, depressive symptoms, social support, meta-analysis."