Radek Trnka

Radek Trnka
Prague College of Psychosocial Studies · Science and Research Department

PhD, contact: trnkar@volny.cz

About

68
Publications
69,785
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644
Citations
Introduction
I am a Professor at the Prague College of Psychosocial Studies, Czech Republic. In the broadest sense, my research is focused on the exploration of human emotions, consciousness, psychotherapy, Indigenous healing, and creativity within the field of psychology. Thanks to science, I have met many really interesting and original people that greatly inspire my professional, as well as private, life.
Additional affiliations
September 2008 - December 2022
Prague College of Psychosocial Studies
Position
  • Senior Researcher

Publications

Publications (68)
Article
Full-text available
Building on past constructive criticism, the present study provides further methodological development focused on the elimination of bias that may occur during first-person observation. First, various sources of errors that may accompany introspection are distinguished based on previous critical literature. Four main errors are classified, namely a...
Poster
Full-text available
This infographics shows three general models of how the Indigenous cultures understand consciousness. The Indigenous conceptualizations of consciousness vary widely between different cultural groups. This variability may be considered to be the result of different, culture-specific ways of Indigenous understanding of inner processes and the psyche,...
Article
Full-text available
Different cultures show different understandings of consciousness, soul, and spirit. Native indigenous traditions have recently seen a resurgence of interest and are being used in psychotherapy, mental health counselling, and psychiatry. The main aim of this review is to explore and summarize the native indigenous concepts of consciousness, soul, a...
Article
Context: The decolonial turn in psychology criticizes conventional Western psychotherapeutic frameworks and seeks to decolonize therapeutic practices by considering diverse cultural perspectives. Indigenous healing has been increasingly used in the psychotherapy of ethnic communities, but also in the psychotherapy of Western clients. The research q...
Article
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SuperAging deserves special attention from researchers in the field of the psychology of aging, because it denotes the preservation of multiple cognitive abilities in very old age. Currently, very little is known about lifestyle factors that could be related to SuperAging. The main goal of the present narrative review was to bring together availabl...
Chapter
Full-text available
The chapter summarizes the conceptual foundations of, and research on, emotional creativity (EC). Emotional creativity is defined as a pattern of cognitive abilities and personality traits related to originality and appropriateness in emotional experience. Emotional creativity is related to personality traits (e.g., openness to experience), positiv...
Chapter
This chapter will explore the intersections of creativity and the experience of moral emotions. Moral emotions, related to the moral judgments and decisions, may shape one's creative thoughts and actions, but may also be consequences of one's creative behavior. The available empirical evidence shows several intersections of creativity and moral emo...
Article
An increasing number of recent studies in the field of special needs education have recognised the importance of factors supporting school preparation and inclusion of students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Recent studies have also highlighted the need for further detailed investigation of the lived school experience in clin...
Article
Full-text available
A growing body of research has been focusing recently on the life and well-being of students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and also on the well-being of their teachers. However, there is a need for in-depth, qualitative insights into ADHD issues from the teachers’ perspectives. Therefore, the main aim of this qualitative stud...
Article
A growing body of a literature recognises the importance of special educational needs (SEN) of adolescents with attention-deficit /hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Therefore, there is a current need for more in-depth insights into the factors that may help meet the SEN, well-being, and educational inclusion of ADHD students. The aim of this qualitati...
Article
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Objective There is evidence that experiencing childhood trauma and life stressors across the lifespan together with lower resilience is associated with chronic pain-related conditions. The aim of this study was to explore the potential mediating role of resilience in the relationship between childhood trauma and long-term pain and to explore a poss...
Article
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The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic elicited huge stress responses in most world populations, and at this time psychotherapy is an important protective service against this stress. However, a somewhat neglected question is: How stressful was the COVID-19 outbreak for psychotherapists themselves? The main aim of the present study was to inve...
Article
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Sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) is a common human neurobiological trait that is related to many areas of human life. This trait has recently received increased public interest. However , solid scientific research on SPS is lagging behind. Progress in this area is also hindered by a lack of comprehensive research tools suitable for a rapid asse...
Article
Patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) suffer from a wide range of non-motor symptoms, including cognitive deficits and impairment of emotional processing. The present study aimed to explore in PD patients compared to healthy adults the relationship between cognitive performance and emotional creativity (EC), defined as a set of cognitive abilities...
Article
Emotion concepts are representations that enable people to make sense of their own and others’ emotions. The present study, theoretically driven by the conceptual act theory, explores the overall spectrum of emotion concepts in older adults and compares them with the emotion concepts of younger adults. Data from 178 older adults (⩾55 years) and 176...
Article
Full-text available
The Guilt and Shame Experience Scale (GSES) is a new, brief self-report instrument for assessing experiences of guilt and shame. It includes two distinct scales: feelings of shame and feelings of guilt. The present report focuses on results from a final validation study using a nationally representative sample of 7899 adolescents (M age = 14.5 ± 1....
Article
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Tobias-Renstrøm and Køppe (2020) show the several conceptual limits that new materialism and postmodern subject models have for psychological theory and research. The present study continues this discussion and argues that the applicability of the ideas of quantum-inspired new materialism depends on the theoretical perspectives that we consider for...
Article
Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NS), such as depression, apathy, hallucinations, etc., as well as changes in creativity in older age, are telltale marks in the development of such neurodegenerative diseases as Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal lobar degeneration, Lewy body disease, and Parkinson’s disease. Both NS and creativity are important non-cogn...
Article
Full-text available
Psychotherapists around the world are facing an unprecedented situation with the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). To combat the rapid spread of the virus, direct contact with others has to be avoided when possible. Therefore, remote psychotherapy provides a valuable option to continue mental health care during the COVID-19 pand...
Poster
Full-text available
The four most frequent categories of fear (N = 1,000) accompanying the first stage of outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic were determined as follows: a) fear of the negative impact on household finances, b) fear of the negative impact on the household finances of significant others, c) fear of the unavailability of health care, and d) fear of an insu...
Article
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Previous research has shown that cognitive creativity decreases in older adulthood. However, the impact of age on emotional creativity remains unknown. The main aim of the present study was to explore how emotional creativity differs across adulthood. A total of 407 participants (251 women, 156 men) consisting of older, midlife and younger adults w...
Article
Full-text available
Fear, anger and hopelessness were the most frequent traumatic emotional responses in the general public during the first stage of outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in the Czech Republic (N = 1,000). The four most frequent categories of fear were determined: (a) fear of the negative impact on household finances, (b) fear of the negative impact on th...
Article
Full-text available
Emotional creativity (EC) is a pattern of cognitive abilities and personality traits related to originality and appropriateness in emotional experience. EC has been found to be related to various constructs across different fields of psychology during the past 30 years, but a comprehensive examination of previous research is still lacking. The goal...
Poster
Full-text available
This study explored the relationships of neuroticism with subjective assessments of 10 discrete negative emotions. One hundred eighty seven university students from 19 to 34 years (males = 85, females = 102) completed the Eysenck Personality Scales. Further, they evaluated the valence of 10 given negative emotions - disgust, anger, sadness, fear, c...
Poster
Full-text available
Recent research has consistently found that women experience anger as frequently and as intensely as men, but men are more likely to express anger. Upon closer inspection, expressions of anger are also targeted more frequently towards men than towards women. Why? There are four possible explanations, a) women are more interpersonally sensitive and...
Article
Full-text available
Objectives: Recent research has begun to pay attention to the experiences of guilt and shame in different realms of human life. However, there is an urgent need to develop valid instruments for measuring these emotional experiences. The main aims of this study are to introduce a newly developed tool, the Guilt and Shame Experience Scale (GSES), and...
Article
Full-text available
The family environment is associated with religiosity and spirituality as well as many aspects of adolescent lives, including their health behaviour. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess family environment associations with adolescent religious attendance (RA), i.e., weekly participation in religious services, and spirituality in a highly...
Article
Full-text available
The personality traits of social work leaders are important factors influencing ethical decision-making in organisations. The lack of empirical evidence with regard to the relationship between personal authenticity and ethical decision-making in social work stimulated the present study. Two hundred and thirty-eight leaders (81.9% female) from organ...
Presentation
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This paper is a shortened version of an invited lecture held at the University of Copenhagen (Department of Anthropology) on 28 March 2019.
Article
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Objectives: There is a growing body of literature that focuses on the associations between spirituality and different areas of human life. Therefore, the need for having valid instruments for measuring spirituality is also increasing. The aim of this study was to psychometrically evaluate the Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (DSES) in Czech conditi...
Article
Full-text available
Little is known about the relationship between emotional creativity and age-related cognitive decline. This study explored how deficits in some cognitive abilities are related to emotional creativity, i.e., cognitive abilities relating to originality and appropriateness in emotional experience. One hundred and eighty-seven older adults (mean age =...
Article
Full-text available
Emo youth subculture bases its subcultural identification mostly on symbols of death, dying, suicide and other kinds of morbid content. The main goal of the present study was to explore attitudes toward suicidal behaviour and self-injury in emo adolescents. Semistructured in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 14 emo adherents, accompa...
Article
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Many cultural variations in emotions have been documented in previous research, but a general theoretical framework involving cultural sources of these variations is still missing. The main goal of the present study was to determine what components of cultural complexity interact with the emotional experience and behavior of individuals. The propos...
Article
Full-text available
Parkinson's disease (PD) is often accompanied by significant changes in emotionality, such as apathy, anhedonia, anxiety and depression. The present review summarizes the empirical evidence, including amygdala changes and psychological changes in emotionality in people suffering from PD. Seventeen empirical full-text articles including research on...
Conference Paper
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The philosophy of mind concerns much about how novelty occurs in the world. The very recent progress in this field inspired by quantum mechanics indicates that symmetry restoration occurs in the mind at the moment when new creative thought arises. Symmetry restoration denotes the moment when one's cognition leaves ordinary internalized mental schem...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The ontological turn or ontologically-oriented approach accentuates the key importance of intercultural variability in ontologies. Different ontologies produce different ways of experiencing the world, and therefore, participation in alternative realities is very desirable in anthropological and ethnological investigation. Just the participation in...
Preprint
Free download of e-book: https://www.academia.edu/28881906/Quantum_Anthropology_Man_Cultures_and_Groups_in_a_Quantum_PerspectiveThe book offers a fresh look on man, cultures, and societies built on the current advances in the fields of quantum mechanics, quantum philosophy, and quantum consciousness. The authors have developed an inspiring theoreti...
Book
Full-text available
The book offers a fresh look on man, cultures, and societies built on the current advances in the fields of quantum mechanics, quantum philosophy, and quantum consciousness. The authors have developed an inspiring theoretical framework transcending the boundaries of particular disciplines in social sciences and the humanities. Quantum anthropology...
Chapter
Full-text available
The chapter reviews the main explanations and interpretations for differences between cultures in mean levels of neuroticism. The relationships between neuroticism and cultural dimensions are also presented to provide a complex overview of current cross-cultural investigation in neuroticism. Three paradigmatic questions of current cross-cultural re...
Article
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The role of emotional creativity in practicing creative leisure activities and in the preference of college majors remains unknown. This study aims to explore how emotional creativity measured by the Emotional Creativity Inventory (ECI; Averill, 1999) is interrelated with the real-life involvement in different types of specific creative leisure act...
Article
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People construe reality by using words as basic units of meaningful categorization. The present theory-driven study applied the method of a free association task to explore how people express the concepts of the world and the self in words. The respondents were asked to recall any five words relating with the word world. Afterward they were asked t...
Article
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Problematic computer use is the use of computer technology that may be health-endangering and may cause immediate or later negative physical or psychological health outcomes or disturb well-being in users. The main purpose of this study was to review current empirical research on coping strategies which adolescents apply in the context of problemat...
Article
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The widely accepted two-dimensional circumplex model of emotions posits that most instances of human emotional experience can be understood within the two general dimensions of valence and activation. Currently, this model is facing some criticism, because complex emotions in particular are hard to define within only these two general dimensions. T...
Chapter
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The presented study introduces a new theoretical model of collapse for social, cultural, or political systems. Based on the current form of quantum anthropology conceptualized by Heidi Ann Russell, further development of this field is provided. The new theoretical model is called the spiral model of collapses, and is suggested to provide an analyti...
Article
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The paper reflects a long-term ambiguity in the theoretical concept of affective phenomena. The focal point of this study is the conceptualization of the term "affect" with regard to the other affective phenomena (specifically emotion and mood). Our definition of affect is substantially different than existing Czech terminology and we define affect...
Article
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Facial expression is one of the core issues in the ethological approach to the study of human behaviour. This study discusses sex-specific aspects of the recognition of the facial expression of fear using results from our previously published experimental study. We conducted an experiment in which 201 participants judged seven different facial expr...
Chapter
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This chapter introduces a research-based conceptual framework for the study of the inner psychosocial reality of business enterprises. It is called the Inner Organizational Ecosystem Approach (IOEA). This model is systemic in nature, and it defines the basic features of small and medium-size enterprises, such as elements, structures, borders, socia...
Article
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Qualitative data acquired within the recent Czech part of the independent, multi-site collaborative research project Corrective Experiences are the core basis of this paper. Eight post-treatment interviews with clients of individual therapies were analysed with a special focus on the role of cultural beliefs and cultural expectations in the clients...
Article
Full-text available
Recent research has consistently found that women experience anger as frequently and as intensely as men, but men are more likely to express anger. Upon closer inspection, expressions of anger are also targeted more frequently towards men than towards women. Why? There are four possible explanations, a) women are more interpersonally sensitive and...
Chapter
Full-text available
This chapter aims to demonstrate the dynamic aspects of inequalities forming within the family and friendship networks. The Velvet Revolution in 1989 triggered strong transformation processes in Czech society. Since that time, many changes in social relations have emerged in both the public and private spheres. The example of Czech society will be...
Article
Full-text available
Past empirical research has neglected the relationship of neuroticism and semantic perception of different emotions. Therefore, this study explored relationships of neuroticism with subjective assessments of 10 discrete negative emotions. One hundred eighty seven university students from 19 to 34 years (males = 85, females = 102) completed Eysenck...
Article
Full-text available
Coping strategies belong undoubtedly to the most relevant variables for human performance and health. The Stress Coping Style Questionnaire SVF 78 has previously received critical remarks for the lack of theoretical foundations and unclear interrelationships between included strategies of coping. The present study verifies the factor structure of S...
Chapter
Full-text available
Previous research has revealed that the construction of a general dimensional model of emotional experience could be quite difficult challenge. Past attempts were built on empirical evidence and employed the judgment of facial expressions, the factor analysis of questionnaire data, multi-dimensional scaling techniques, or also, the analogy with the...
Chapter
Full-text available
The chapter is focused mainly on the process of strategy choice for emotion regulation or coping. I will outline issues such as the social rootedness of emotional experience, the communicative value of emotional exchange in relation to regulation strategies, and the role of imagination in emotional regulation. Further, I will also pay attention to...
Article
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Evolution of social structure influenced the ways in which individuals relate to the core or the periphery of given social network. The present theoretical outline discussed differences in the use of various evolutionary strategies from the perspective of different positions within the social structure in humans. Two groups of strategies were discu...
Chapter
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The present review summarizes the current research on anger coping and experiencing. We proceeded step by step, starting from the structure of anger coping, covering the influence of anger coping on somatic health, the influence of anger coping on psychic health, and finally we discussed the interpersonal domain of anger coping, including dyadic in...
Article
The phenomenon of self-inflicting pain through wounding of the body surface is usually subsumed in the category of "self-harm" and, most often, it is considered to be a psychopathological symptom. However, in the adolescents who cut their skin on the hands and arms, the intention to harm themselves, that might be interpreted in terms of related psy...
Article
Full-text available
The influence of the sex of the expresser was examined in relation to correct perception of facial expressions by the receiver. Two hundred and twenty-seven college students (114 women, 103 men) judged seven facial expressions, anger, contempt, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise, by choosing the appropriate emotion name from a list of...
Article
Full-text available
Progressive methods of data evaluation based on recent artificial neural networks are introduced to the field of psychology in the current study. Artificial neural networks techniques work on different basis than the classical statistical methods. Particularly, the Kohonen's Self-Organizing Map (SOM), the Modified Group Method of Data Handling (GMD...
Article
Full-text available
Paleoanthropology can provide a lot of important information about body size, sexual dimorphism, locomotion, hand function, feeding ecology etc. of the last common ancestor of great apes and early hominids (LCA). But the fossils can reveal only limited information about LCA social organization or social behaviour. Reconstructions of the communicato...

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