Grieving child – review of the selected theoretical approaches

A child’s grievance usually consists in a sudden violation of the emotional attachment and a chronic feeling of the existential threat. This may have a fundamental impact on the further development of the child. Unfortunately, the scarcity of research on the subject, both concerning the perception of the child itself and the process of grief, often involves not only the diagnostic difficulties, but also the selection of therapeutic procedures that can be discussed in terms of evidence-based programs. The subject of this article is a critical review of the theoretical positions related to child mourning, including its complex and traumatic nature.

The case of Little Albert as a child development study

When John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner (1920) conducted their experiment upon conditioned emotional response in Little Albert, they probably didn’t realize that their study would become one of the most popular but also controversial experiments in psychology. Despite its contemporary meaning, the study was only part of a broader scientific project exploring the development of instincts and reflexes in human infants. Moreover, it surely wasn’t planned to be a final report of Watson’s research. Constant interest about the unexplained fate of Little Albert has recently resulted in two scientific historical investigations, which have interpreted his identity and developmental level in different and inconsistent ways. This paper presents outcomes of these two studies, particularly referring to the arguments on the psycho-motor development of Albert B. The results of assessment of the Little Albert’s developmental age, conducted by students as a class exercise on a course of developmental psychology, are also discussed. They might be helpful in the evaluation of different conclusions about Little Albert’s history.

Theory of mind and its measurement in children from 4 to 6 years of age: Reflection on Thinking Test

The paper presents Test Refleksji nad Myśleniem (TRM, Reflection on Thinking Test), designed to investigate the development of reflection on thinking in children above 4 years of age. TRM is composed of nine tasks in the form of illustrated stories. The tasks assess child’s understanding of the 1^st order beliefs (Unexpected Transfer Test and Deceptive Box Test), understanding of deception, ambiguity and interpretation, understanding of surprise and the 2^nd order beliefs. In order to evaluate basic psychometric properties of TRM, data gathered from 259 Polish monolingual children aged 4 to 6 were analyzed. The test correctly differentiates the scores of 4-, 5- and 6-year-olds and displays appropriate measurement invariance. The TRM results are positively correlated with results of tests measuring general cognitive and linguistic abilities in children. Additionally, in accordance with our predictions, the typically developing children obtained significantly higher results than children with specific language impairment. The results confirm that TRM is a reliable and valid instrument that can be used in basic research.

Temperament and social competences of students of art and music schools at the age of late adolescence

The article focuses on the specificity of psychosocial functioning of the music and art schools students. The research presented revealed the differences between the musical and artistic talented adolescents in terms of the temperament traits and social competences. Comparative group consisted of students of general schools. 354 students took part in the study, of which 45% were music schools students, 28% were art schools students, and 27% were the students of general schools. The assumption was made that the profile of education represented by particular groups of art and music schools students is tantamount to having an elevated level of musical or artistic skills. The surveyed students of general schools declared lack of both interest in art and artistic abilities. The results of the research revealed that the students of art and music schools exhibit significantly higher level of endurance (conceived as an attribute of temperament, measured by the Temperament Questionnaire – Formal Characteristics of Behavior by Bogdan Zawadzki and Jan Strelau) than the students of general schools. On the other hand, in terms of social competences (measured by Anna Matczak’s Social Competence Questionnaire) students of art schools exhibit a significantly lower level of ability in the field of social exposure than the students of music schools and general schools.

Health of musically gifted young people in the context of coping with stage fright

The article discusses the health issues of musically gifted young people, who, due to the nature of music education, are exposed to experiencing stage fright, understood as a specific type of stress that does not necessarily has negative impact on health. The purpose of the research was to answer the questions concerning the level of health of secondary school music students and its determinants. The Functional Health Model developed by Helena Wrona-Polańska (2003) was adopted as a theoretical basis, according to which health is a function of creative coping with stress.

Health and stage fright were defined operationally. In the research the standardized interview and questionnaire techniques developed by the author were used. The research group comprised 132 students of secondary music schools.

The results have shown that a quarter of students rate their health as bad, whereas more than half experience high level of stage fright and its symptoms, and cope with stage fright by focusing on emotions. Stage fright and emotional style have turned out to be negative predictors of health. The results point to the need of implementing interventions aimed at promoting the health of young people engaged in music education.

Friendship mediated by the Internet. New phenomena in the social development of teenagers and young adults

Researchers into the impact of web-mediated communication on the quality of close friendship present two views: some provide results indicating positive effect (immediate beginning of a friendship, deepening relationships), while the others point to the risk of trivializing the human relationship. The correlation was investigated between the frequency of online contacts and the perceived quality of friendship in three age groups: late adolescents, emerging adults and young adults (643 subjects in total), as well as the moderating influence of the attitude towards the Internet (open / overwhelmed attitude). The research was carried out with the use of questionnaires Quality of Friendship (KJP)by Magdalena Żurko and Internet Interpersonal Relations (KIRI) by Dorota Chmielewska-Łuczak. A positive relationship occurred in the group of adolescents and the group of emerging adults. The attitude towards the Internet tuned out not to play a moderating role in the tested relationships in any of the age groups.