This research examines the efficacy and productivity disparities between pre- and post-pandemic educational approaches, navigating the intricate challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic in Indian higher education. Focused on stakeholders within education institutions, 582 responses were acquired through stratified random sampling using Google Forms. Meticulous SPSS analysis reveals a significant decline in productivity, particularly among 367 female respondents. The study underscores nuanced health challenges faced by learners and educators, including compromised vision, persistent distractions, and diminished attention spans. It advocates for integrating online pedagogical methods into mainstream academic practices, suggesting strategic models like flipped classrooms and blended learning. Emphasizing the need for a technologically adept pedagogical landscape, the study implicates an antiquated educational policy framework for inadequate responses to technological advancements. Recommendations stress proactive policy adjustments and the imperative of equipping educators and students with essential technological proficiencies to adeptly navigate unforeseen educational challenges.

This study examines the mediational roles of team resilience and team efficacy in the relationship between team work engagement and team counterproductive work behaviours (CWB). Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, we develop this dual mediation model using a longitudinal three-wave design with a sample of 293 team members in 87 teams. The results of our study reveal that team work engagement was not significantly associated with team CWB. However, team work engagement was significantly positively related to team resilience and team efficacy, which in turn, were significantly negatively associated with team CWB. Moreover, both team resilience and team efficacy mediated the relationships between team work engagement and team CWB. This study is novel for empirically establishing the underlying mechanisms underpinning the relationship between team work engagement and team CWB, thus, advancing team work engagement theory. The implications of these findings for building highly engaged and resilient teams are discussed.

The State Self-Esteem Scale has not been studied in Spanish population yet. The first objective was to test the factor structure and internal consistency of the State Self-Esteem Scale (long and short versions, SSES-20 and SSES-6) in a Spanish-speaking sample. The second objective was to assess the convergent and discriminant validity by examining its relationships with variables such as trait self-esteem, social desirability, depression, and anxiety. The whole sample was composed of 713 Spaniards (79.4% female; Mage = 24.75 years). Results suggest that the bifactor model with a general factor and three subdimensions better fit the data in the SSES-20. For the SSES-6 version, the hierarchical model with three correlated first-order factors and a common superior factor was found to be the best fit for the data. All dimensions showed moderate to excellent reliability. All factors were positively associated with trait self-esteem and social desirability, and inversely associated with depression and state anxiety. Lastly, performance, appearance, and social state self-esteem dimensions from the SSES-20 positively predicted depression and state anxiety using linear regression models. Both the Spanish SSES-20 and SSES-6 showed adequate psychometric properties within this sample, suggesting potential generalizability to different Spanish samples.

With the worldwide COVID-19 outbreak, the gig economy, the lightning-fast technological advancements, workforce diversity, the emergence of freelance virtual contributors, and the blurring of work-life boundaries, a new collective leadership model called “Shared Leadership” became imperative. In this context, the virtual teams may experience conflicts that must be resolved constructively so that the team members can assume their duties and demonstrate excellent positive team behaviour, including team performance. The Team must be in an “empowered mental state” to achieve this. The existing literature acknowledges that Shared Leadership (SL) is an antecedent for Team Empowerment (TE). However, these studies hardly examine the mental process through which SL leads to TE. The literature explains the role of psychological capital as the mediating factor between SL and employees’ positive job outcomes like team citizenship behaviour and team performance, which are physical and behavioural outcomes. This article fills an essential gap in the literature by examining the involvement of Team Psychological Capital (TPC) in helping SL to develop TE. Here, data was collected from 402 virtual team members belonging to 48 teams from various Indian industries. By conducting partial least squares structural equation modelling and looking at the Team as the unit of analysis, the Study showed that Team psychological capital partially mediates the relationship between SL and TE. Based on the results, the authors recommend that managers focus on decentralized Leadership and take steps to develop TPC for creating a high-empowered team.

The study aims to deepen the understanding of the rise of radical nationalism and the politicization of religion in the 21st century as this marks the battleground for an ideological formation that contributes to the growth of fascism and its far-right nationalist movements in the transitional period of war-torn societies. Myanmar, Bosnia, and Iran are selected to represent the case study analyses as they disclose the ways in which the existence of multi-ethnic societies of those countries have been struggling to deal with the politics of ethnocentrism and the politicization of religion that have been contributing to the rise of ethno-fascist ideology and political violence. These challenges perpetuate prolonged identity-based conflicts that hinder long-term peace building efforts for the promotion of social reconciliation among the warring parties and the manifestation of democratic practices and pluralism in the early stage of the transitional period.

Research on social and personality psychology of political ideology has focused largely on Western democracies. To understand the extent to which this work can generalize beyond the social and political contexts in which they are studied, we conducted two studies in India (total N = 2836). First, we developed and validated a scale to measure ideology in India and identified two sociocultural factors: adherence to norms and to hierarchy; economic ideology was unreliable. Last, we identified the correlates of political ideology in India drawing from theoretical and empirical work on social and political psychology. This work adds to social psychological literature as an initial step in theory development to study political ideology in one Global South context.

This study utilizes game theory for a descriptive-explanatory analysis of the U.S.-Taliban conflict, emphasizing its pivotal role in shaping strategic interactions. Diverging from prevalent realism, liberalism, and constructivism perspectives, it highlights game theory's overlooked significance. The analysis reveals hesitancy among stakeholders to cooperate due to perceived short-term costs, hindering peaceful resolution. Emphasizing long-term dividends post-U.S. withdrawal, the study underscores missed opportunities for cost savings and troop safety. U.S. policy displays strategic confusion, blending non-zero-sum pursuits with military force, a bluffing strategy for maximum gains. Despite recognizing the conflict's complexity, the study advocates game theory, especially the prisoner's dilemma, for understanding strategic choices. The article explores game theory's relevance in conflict resolution, focusing on the 2001-2020 Afghanistan conflict, offering guidance from this theoretical framework.

A document by Chuanman You. Click on the document to view its contents.

This paper examines the connection between post-conflict violence and crime incentives. The argument is that violence should increase after the peace signature due to the regulatory role of illegal actors in a war economy.  Colombia made history by signing a peace agreement with the FARC guerrillas, which was hailed as one of the most inclusive and progressive ever but also marked a significant shift towards a less repressive counternarcotics policy.  Contrary to expectations, the peace agreements led to a rise in homicide rates in areas previously controlled by FARC. By integrating multiple datasets and using comparative interrupted time series, this paper reveals a significant change in homicide rates in municipalities with previous FARC presence after the peace accords. The rise in post-conflict violence in these municipalities is ascribed to the combination of FARC withdrawal and unanticipated crime incentives, which does not necessarily imply the failure of the counternarcotics policy.

The purpose of this study is to explore the mediating mechanism of peer attachment in regulating internet addiction among rural adolescents. The method used the Likert five point self-report scale for field sampling, SPSS 25.0 software for data analysis, two tailed Pearson correlation analysis, and regression analysis. As a result, peer attachment has a direct impact of 0.36 on internet addiction and 0.48 on loneliness. Loneliness has a direct impact of 0.52 on internet addiction, with a mediating effect of loneliness is 0.249(0.48*0.52) ,it is a partial mediator. The impact of the interaction between high and low shyness and high and low peer attachment on loneliness is 0.44 and 0.12, respectively. In the moderated mediating effect, the indirect moderating effect of high shyness was 0.26, low shyness was 0.11, and the difference between the two groups was 0.15.Conclusion:Peer attachment has a positive impact on internet addiction among rural adolescents. Loneliness plays a mediating role in peer attachment and internet addiction. Shyness plays a differential regulatory role in the relationship between peer attachment and individual loneliness, and the indirect impact of peer attachment on internet addiction will be enhanced or weakened by the strength of the mediating effect of shyness’s differential regulation of loneliness.

Anti-religious propaganda in the former Soviet Union was efficient; with a majority of young people being nonbelievers. Atheism was easily accepted after the 1917 revolution because religiosity was not as deeply ingrained as it is sometimes supposed. A commentary on the politicization of religion in Russia in the context of the war in Ukraine is provided here. The hypothesis is proposed that a majority of today’s churchgoers, priests and church officials in Russia are atheists or agnostics, habitually following prescribed ideologies. Selected psychological and healthcare-related aspects are discussed. The Ukraine war, having thwarted the internationally agreed status quo, has triggered conflicts in different parts of the world. An optimal solution would be a global leadership, centered in most developed parts of the world, based on the principles of mercy and mutual help. This might be the last opportunity to avoid a major catastrophe.

With the current shortage of school bus drivers in many states, access to education is at risk for the many students who get to and from school by bus. Despite the critical role drivers play, little is known about why they stay in their jobs, and what can be done to keep them. To learn more about school bus driver retention, 301 drivers in 32 districts in New York were surveyed. Drawing on an overarching model of person-environment fit, perspectives of job satisfaction, meaningful work and public service motivation were used to explore what aspects of the driver role relate to turnover intention. Findings indicated lower turnover intention when drivers reported higher extrinsic satisfaction, when they found their work to hold personal significance, and when they saw their work as a source of broader meaning for their lives. Drivers also viewed themselves as making a difference in the lives of students and considered themselves a significant part of their education. They also indicated that pay and benefits were important in their decision to stay or leave. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for school leadership practice and future research.

This study aimed to identify rational and irrational beliefs and coping mechanisms that were expressed spontaneously by a sample of Palestinian refugees (n = 35) during conditions of asylum and displacement after the wars of 1948 and 1967. The participants ranged in age from 17 to 33 years when they sought refuge in Jordan and lived in camps. The coding of the interviews into separate sentences and paragraphs showed that 93.8% of the participants expressed irrational beliefs while 51.3% expressed rational beliefs. In addition, 78.2% of the participants used and employed coping skills focused on emotions, while 49.8% used coping skills focused on solutions. The most common irrational beliefs were generalizations about others (85.5%) and exaggeration (63.7%). This study provides the first information about the rational and irrational beliefs of a sample of Palestinian refugees in Jordan in addition to the coping strategies they employed to overcome the conditions of asylum, which can be used in treating similar cases. This study is one of the first studies worldwide to explore the extent of rational and irrational beliefs among a sample of Palestinian refugees in Jordanian camps. Keywords: rational, irrational, beliefs, coping strategies, refugees

Psychological abuse (PA) is one of the dimensions of counterproductive work behaviors (CWB). Such abuse directed towards the members of the organisation harm them emotionally or psychologically. Abuse by individuals to harm others with whom they work is much more prevalent than extreme acts of aggression involving physical assaults in work settings. These behaviors with non-violent, non-physical and psychological consequences are referred as ‘Emotional Abuse’ (Keashly and Harvey, 2005). These behaviors are gaining importance as they are getting more prevalent and costly for organisations and their members. Extant literature informs that these behaviors are caused by stressful work conditions such as role conflict, role ambiguity and interpersonal conflicts among others, mediated by negative emotions. However, these behaviors have not been explicitly examined in relation with discrete negative emotions. Hence in this study, we examine the influence of discrete negative emotions and the perception regarding organisational control environment on psychologically abusive behaviors. The results indicate specific discrete negative emotions and the factors of POCE significantly influences psychological abuse.

Inhibitory control has high significance in sports context in terms of performance and injury prevention. Although it steps in during complex maneuvers such as change of direction and deceleration, it is vastly tested using computerized tests which require a simple finger movement. This study aims to develope and assess the test-retest reliability of an alternative stop signal task which is specific to lower extremities and may provide an example in transition to mobile settings. Ten healthy and physically active participants performed the effector-specific stop signal task developed with the Fitlight System™ with a one-week-interval. Four different stop signal delays were adopted which were constant within the blocks. The main outcomes were determined as reaction time, stop signal reaction time and response accuracy. The effect of delay and time was explored using a 4x2 ANOVA. The test-retest reliability of each outcome was assessed using intraclass correlation coefficient. The findings showed a significant main effect of delay and a significant interaction of delay and time. The overall reliability of the reaction time, stop signal reaction time and response accuracy was substantial, whereas differences were observed among stop signal delays. Our findings may show that the suggested effector-specific stop signal task may provide a reliable SSRT estimation during a stepping movement. Further studies should consider different positions and tasks to increase ecological validity.

This paper explores the integration of machine learning with adaptive theory in social science research, highlighting a methodological evolution crucial for understanding complex social phenomena. I examine the synergistic potential of combining machine learning's data-driven analysis with adaptive theory's iterative, flexible nature. The paper outlines the methodological fit of adaptive theory in social sciences, emphasizing its accommodation of complexity and contextual variability. I discuss the theoretical implications of incorporating machine learning, including its role in hypothesis testing and the development of social theories. The paper further navigates through the research process, illustrating how initial broad concepts refine into structured inquiries via inductive exploration and deductive forecasting using machine learning techniques. Finally, I address the challenges and opportunities presented by this integration, such as model interpretability and ethical considerations, while forecasting future research directions. This integration marks a significant step in enhancing the depth, dynamism, and responsiveness of social science methodologies.

This article consists of presenting the most significant findings obtained within the framework of the Support Program for Teaching Researchers “PROAPI2021” of the Secretariat of Research and Technological and Institutional Linkage of the National University of Avellaneda in Argentina. The research program was carried out during 2022 in the town of Avellaneda in the province of Buenos Aires in Argentina, with the aim of diagnosing the experience of companies and SMEs that implemented teleworking in times of pandemic. Most of the companies, and especially those related to the manufacturing industry, had no previous experience with teleworking, and avoided implementing the modality as much as possible. This situation was manifested by ignorance or fear of starting something new and uncertain.

It has been well established that leadership is the key driver in success of organisations. Therefore, understanding leadership, and finding styles that deliver improvements in leadership enable leaders to enhance their skills, which will significantly contribute to having an improved performance of the organisation. There has been ample research on various theories of leadership. Leadership is meaningless unless it has people who are the followers. Furthermore, while people constitute many nations however, studies have demonstrated that the majority of the population of the world adhere to some type of religion. Therefore, the study of leadership of founders of religions is of interest. How did they lead? What was the source of inspiration on how to lead? What was the style of their leadership? Is it possible to develop a leadership based on their practices? Finally, could their leadership be applied to organisations? In this context, the term ‘Divine Leadership’ is created. Subsequently, historical texts and literature were reviewed to ascertain if this leadership could be defined in an academic context. Furthermore, evaluation of any leadership is essential process in assessing the value that it may bring to society or organisations. Therefore, it was necessary to define characteristics that could be assigned to such leadership. The research led to development of a novel leadership theory, where due to the scope only five dimensions were assigned. The study has continued in developing a theoretical model in line with quantitative research on the effectiveness of this leadership in enhancing performance of organisations.