Although the role of aesthetics and aesthetic education in everyday life was discussed as early as the ancient philosophers, the psychological mechanisms shaping the aesthetic quotient have hardly been investigated by empirical studies. The aim of this study was to examine the direct relationship between experience and aesthetic competence, and the mediating role of need for cognition. The study involved 201 Polish adults, aged 18 to 76 (M = 26.40; SD = 11.89), 65% of whom were women. The respondents completed anonymous questionnaires on an online platform. The surveys included a metric, the Aesthetic Competence Scale (ACS), the Aesthetic Experience Questionnaire (AEQ) and the Need for Cognition Scale (NCS). A positive correlation coefficient was obtained between all three variables studied, with need for cognition acting as a mediator in the relationship between experience and aesthetic competence. The findings indicate that individuals reporting intense aesthetic experiences have a higher aesthetic competence if this relationship is mediated by a high need for cognitive effort.

Religious and spiritual (R/S) struggles are defined as the occurrence of tension, conflict, or strain that focus on matters of ultimate significance perceived by people as sacred. The widespread prevalence of R/S struggles and the growing demand for research in this area created the need for a brief tool. Recently, the 14-item form of the Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale was developed and validated (Exline et al. in Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 2022a). Given the significance of the empirical research on R/S struggles, we implemented the project of structure verification, internal consistency confirmation, reliability, and nomological validation of the Polish variant of the RSS-14 through three separate studies. With respect to the internal structure of the RSS-14, the CFA from three studies confirmed the good fit of the six-factor model, very similar to the one obtained in the original version of the tool. Moreover, both the total score and the subscales had high reliability and acceptable stability over the three studies. With respect to the nomological analyses, R/S struggles were related negatively to life satisfaction, presence of meaning in life, self-esteem, social desirability, religious centrality, and positively with search for meaning, God’s disengagement, poorer health indicators, sleep problems, stress, and cognitive schemas (this category was the new element of our research). Polish 14-item version of the Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale seems a valuable tool to assess religious strains.

Background/Objectives: Emerging adulthood involves identity exploration, instability, and a sense of being “in-between” adolescence and full adulthood. This study examined whether growth-oriented values (openness to change and self-transcendence) are associated with psychological well-being among emerging adults, and whether meaning in life (presence and search) is related to these variables. Methods: The study included 200 participants (M = 21.90, SD = 2.48). The following measures were used: the Psychological Well-Being Scales, the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, and the Portrait Values Questionnaire. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were conducted. Results: All key variables (psychological well-being, presence of meaning, search for meaning, openness to change, and self-transcendence) were significantly positively correlated (r = 0.27–0.74, p < 0.01). The presence of meaning explained the associations between both openness to change (β = 0.22, 95% CI [0.50, 1.26]) and self-transcendence (β = 0.20, 95% CI [0.36, 0.91]) with psychological well-being, whereas the search for meaning was not a significant intervening variable in either model. Conclusions: These findings highlight the relevance of growth-oriented values and the presence of meaning in understanding psychological well-being among emerging adults. Longitudinal research is needed to clarify the directionality of these relationships.

Background/Objectives: Social media use is central to adolescent functioning, yet problematic engagement is linked to adverse psychosocial outcomes. This study examined the relationship between loneliness and problematic social media use (PSMU), investigating the role of fear of missing out (FoMO) as an underlying mechanism. Methods: The study included 206 Polish adolescents (M = 17.21, SD = 1.16). Participants completed the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale, the Fear of Missing Out Scale, and the de Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale. Correlation, multiple regression, and bootstrapping analyses were performed to test these associations. Results: Loneliness was positively associated with PSMU and specific FoMO dimensions. PSMU correlated with all FoMO dimensions, although the association with fear of social exclusion was weaker. Social comparison anxiety and online monitoring were identified as key factors associated with the indirect path from loneliness to PSMU (β = 0.09, 95% CI [0.03, 0.23] and β = 0.05, 95% CI [0.01, 0.15], respectively). Fear of social exclusion did not show a significant association with loneliness. Conclusions: These findings align with a compensatory framework, suggesting that loneliness is related to PSMU through specific cognitive and behavioral processes related to FoMO. Given the cross-sectional design, these results are exploratory; future longitudinal research is required to establish the directionality and temporal stability of these associations.