For over twenty years psychologists have been using information and communication technology to design solutions aimed at improving mental health and quality of life of their clients or patients. One of those solutions are internet interventions. Although these interventions are commonly used in other countries, knowledge about them in Poland is limited. The aim of the article is to introduce to the topic of psychological internet interventions by describing the basic functionalities of internet interventions, the context of their use, their classification, areas where they can be applied and challenges related to their future development and wider implementation.

Małgorzata Godlewska from the SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities defines intuition, explains how it works and what stimuli help us tap into its potential.

The literature is undisputed regarding the impact of mental health on public health, and there has been an increase in the use of primary healthcare, in particular, the consultations of general practitioners (GPs), with issues at this level. In the literature on the subject, the psychological intervention has been indicated as a positive factor in reversing this trend, and it is in this context that the present study was developed. We intend to explore the differences in the number of GP consultations prior to and after the psychology consultation in a Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC). To this end, data from 845 healthcare center users were collected between June 2004 and September 2014. Student’s t-test and mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed. The results point out a decrease in the number of GP consultations in the period subsequent to the first psychological consultation. We discuss that psychological intervention seems to have a positive effect, not only in improving the mental health of the population but also in the containment of costs in the health sector. The importance of the role of psychology in PHC was assumed.

Dr. Krystyna Skarżyńska from the PAS Institute of Psychology talks about how Poles perceive their freedom.

This study aimed to compare measures of religiosity and spirituality in the experience of positive and negative emotions. For this purpose, a measure of non-spiritual religiosity (Religious Sense Scale) was developed. Method: The study has been conducted on a sample of 279 participants aged between 19 and 69 (M=24.42, SD=9.463) who completed a questionnaire that included the Religious Sense Scale, the Portuguese version of the Spiritual Well-being Questionnaire and the abridged Portuguese version of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule. Findings: The was found to have excellent metrical properties for the measurement of religiosity or “religious sense”. Religious individuals differ from spiritual ones in the experience of emotions: spirituality tends to a greater experience of positive affect and religiosity to negative affect.

A need to control our environment is apparent from an early age. Where does it stem from?

Mateusz Banaszkiewicz, from the SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw, talks about the effects of thinking and acting automatically, and how to fight destructive habits.

The paper is dedicated to the memory of Professor Jan Strelau, who passed away in Warsaw 4th of August 2020. Professor Jan Strelau was the most prominent and world-wide recognized Polish psychologist and his scientific contribution was essential for psychology of individual differences and studies on temperament. Paper presents the life and scientific achievements of Professor Jan Strelau.

In the article the author discusses peculiarities of three areas of psychologists’ professional activity: conducting scientific research, educating new generations of psychologists, and having a private practice. He particularly stresses the significance of empirical testability of theories for correct and ethical assessment practice (according to Evidence-Based Assessment standard) and therapeutic practice (according to Evidence-Based Practice in Psychology standard). The author also explores the cultural immersion of psychological activity.

The article discusses the issue of proper names defined as symptoms of culture. The first part is of a theoretical character and develops the theory of symptomatology of culture in the context of semiotics (Ch. Peirce), psychology and psychoanalysis (S. Freud and J. Lacan), and onomastics. Symptomatology of culture is a practice of interpreting a certain group of texts of culture and extracting common qualitative traits within them. This is especially in the case of those traits specific to them and often encountered, which could testify to particular serious and deeply-rooted social phenomena leading to their appearance. In the empirical part the author presents a way of using (onymic) symptomatology in practice to research modern culture. She uses the examples of popular psychological and auto-therapeutic guidebooks and treats them as linguistic symptomatic forms of the most significant linguistic and cultural phenomena along with their social causes and functions which are often dysfunctional or abnormal in character. The analysis comprises the most typical conceptual and syntactic constructions encountered in the group.

Job crafting is an employees activity aimed to change and improve own work which serves to find the meaning in job. Activities related to job crafting usually occur beyond the superiors’ knowledge so the feeling of autonomy of a worker may hinder or encourage them to craft job. The study aimed to determine the correlations between organizational rank and job crafting with respect to a mediating role of autonomy and organizational tenure as a moderator. Study 1 (N = 102) showed that people having managerial positions undertake task crafting more often than non-managers. Managers and non-managers are no different with regards to cognitive and relational crafting. Autonomy mediated the relationship between organizational rank and task crafting. Most of the results in study 2 (N = 99) was a replication of the results of study 1. The differences are probably related to a various length of organizational tenure for a current organization. The results of the presented studies indicate the role of autonomy in undertaking job crafting, what is being discussed in the literature worldwide and Polish studies.

In Christian ethical and anthropological discourse, the concept of “human nature” represented one of the main criteria from which norms for social and individual ethics derived. The age of Enlightenment brought about a serious criticism of this concept refusing its metaphysical justification. New opinions prevailed in philosophical and scientific discourse of that time. They rejected existence of common anthropological determinants and supported a thesis claiming that people are primarily formed in society and that the concept of “human nature” entails a risk of abuse of power by promoting only one view of the human being. The presented paper studies the relevance of this concept today and examines it from the perspective of Jonathan Haidt’s social psychology, which, as the author claims, contributes to better understanding of human nature. Standard metaphysical and theological definitions of human nature that prevailed mostly in Christian discourse needs to be extended by including findings from social and exact sciences and use them as a suitable medium for a dialogue in a pluralistic environment, and push the limits of our knowledge about humans.