Proceedings of the 2nd year of the conference dedicated to health psychology entitled "Mental resilience and health psychology". The conference was held on May 10, 2007 in Bratislava. Processor: PhDr. Dušan Selko, CSc., MPH

Dear colleagues, colleagues - those interested in health psychology, you are receiving the Proceedings of the 2nd conference of the PZ SPS section at the Slovak Academy of Sciences with international participation. It was held on May 10, 2007 in the conference hall of the Children's Faculty Hospital in Bratislava, with the participation of more than 50 experts from Slovakia and the Czech Republic. We approached the preparation of the conference with certain concerns, mainly because we still did not have enough positive references from other colleagues, apart from the circle of enthusiasts with whom we are in regular contact, that the Slovak psychological community would have a deeper interest in this issue.

The central theme of this conference was Mental resilience and health psychology. The concept of psychological resilience as an intervening variable between stress, illness and health is under-researched and not given adequate attention. One of the most important benefits of health psychology for psychology as such, but also for e.g. for public health is the salutogenetic model of health and the concept of psychological resistance in the broadest sense (either in the sense of resilience, hardiness, sense of coherence, etc.). It is interesting that non-psychologists are most aware of this fact. The current state of the health of the Slovak population, populistically highlighted by politicians and sadly noted by health professionals, is a constant and ongoing crisis in our health care system, as if they were recording it for us.

Despite the number of other interesting and attractive topics, when organizing the conference and creating the program, we purposefully drew on the experience from our first conference. We were "surprised" by the processing of the events and impressions of the participants in helping the victims of the January 2006 air disaster, as well as the impact of these events on the members of the rescue team. At the same time, under the influence of newer information - presented in the collection, as well as personal experiences from clinical practice, we decided on this "shabby" topic. Among other things, also because we are aware that our professional community owes a lot to society in the field of research and application of knowledge about psychological resilience in practice. We are not at all happy that the disaster in Nováky fell during the preparation period. We agreed on the urgency and topicality of this topic with our colleagues from the Czech-Moravian section of the PZ, who helped us abundantly in this direction with their active participation.

The variety of topics presented, the focus and the quality of the lectures convinced us that the issue of psychological resilience is very broad, rich and worthy of the attention and attention of not only the psychological community. After a period of stagnation, we expect an acceleration of research in this area as well. We believe that the relative lack of interest in this topic in our country already belongs to the past. The fact that there is interest in PZ among academic officials and clinicians - non-psychologists is gratifying. It is also a challenge to the new generation to avoid the mistakes that our psychology went through and is going through and to learn from the possibility of positive development in this direction, as we see it abroad.

The presented anthology is again not comprehensive, but it documents the current efforts, efforts and orientation of colleagues and individual workplaces from various parts of the former Czecho-Slovakia in a relatively plastic way. We leave it up to the reader to consider and evaluate whether our intention was successful or not. One of our goals - to create a tradition, a discussion forum for experts to meet, exchange experiences that have an impact on both theory and practice, bring more light and improve the awareness of those interested in the issue of health psychology - is beginning to be fulfilled.

At the jubilee psychology days in Trenčín in September, one of the speeches finally expressed the wish that the topic of health psychology be included in the program. Both the organizers of the event and the members of the psychological community themselves can answer why this was not the case.

The initiative of young fellow doctoral students from eastern Slovakia is already beginning to bear fruit for the Slovak psychological community here at home. The effort to establish a Center of Excellence in cooperation with the Slovak Association of Public Health (SAVEZ) and university workplaces in the Netherlands and here is very positive, where a real personnel, intellectual and material base for the development of PZ would be created. Another positive is that Mgr. Andrea Madarásová – Gecková, PhD., is the first full Slovak member of the EPHS and at the same time the representative of Slovakia in this international institution. I also consider the fact that we finally managed to create a working committee of the Section for the second time to be a great contribution of this conference. I believe that the saying: "the more heads, the more sense" should have a positive effect on the work of our section in the near future.

On behalf of the organizing team, I again express the wish that we meet more often and in larger numbers in the future, again in May 2008 at the latest.

Dušan Selko

Contents

EDITOR'S SPEECH Dušan Selko

THE WORLD IS A HUGE PLACE Ivan Štúr

THREE PSYCHOLOGICAL INTRODUCTIONS TO HEALTH ISSUES Damián Kováč

CONSCIENCE AS A SALUTOPROTECTOR OF MENTAL HEALTH Iveta Schusterová

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HARDINESS AND DIFFERENT SOURCES OF RESISTANCE Iva Šolcová, Vladimír Kebza

STRESS, ITS MANAGEMENT, PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS AND IMMUNE FACTORS Iva Šolcová, Vladimír Kebza

PSYCHIC RESILIENCE IN SELECTED SAMPLES OF THE SLOVAK POPULATION Dušan Selko

RATIONAL AND IRRATIONAL COGNITIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF STRESS, MENTAL RESILIENCE AND HEALTH Jana Kordačová

SALUTOGENESIS – REVIEW Marta Horňáková

SALUTOGENETIC CONCEPT OF HEALTH IN COMPLEX HUMAN CARE Monika Stupková

A SENSE OF INTEGRITY: THE PRIVILEGE OF THE RICH OR THE BELOVED? Andrea Madarasová Gecková et al.

COINCIDENCE OF RISK AND PROTECTIVE FACTORS AND LEVEL OF PREDICTION Bohumil Vasina

CONFERENCE "Citizens and Resilience the Balance between awareness and fear" Dušan Selko, Vladimír Kebza, Miroslav Harvan, Miroslav Vicen

CRISIS INTERVENTION AND PSYCHOSOCIAL SUPPORT AS A PART OF URGENT HEALTH CARE IN EVENTS WITH MASS DISABILITY OF PERSONS - experience from Novák Karin Brániková, Andrea Beňušková, Katarína Čajkovičová, Karol Kálig

TYPE D PERSONALITY IN EDUCATORS Robert Ďurka

REFLECTION OF SOME HEALTH DYSFUNCTIONS IN PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT IN SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN Milada Harineková

THE RESPONSIBILITY OF ADOLESCENTS FOR THEIR HEALTH IN THE PREVENTION OF CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES Milada Harineková

MENTAL HEALTH AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE IN PREGNANT WOMEN Lucia Haváčová, Jarmila Pekarčíková

SELECTED PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE "IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME" DIAGNOSIS (COLON IRRITABILE) Mária Tomeková

BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL FACTORS OF THE HOMELESS Monika Bošňáková, Margaréta Kačmariková

HEALTH EDUCATION AND THE TOPIC OF HEALTH AS AN ASPECT OF THE QUALITY OF LIFE OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS Jitka Šimíčková Čížková, Bohumil Vašina, Petr Šišák

COMPLIANCE – ANALYSIS OF THE INTERFERENCE OF THE PATIENT'S OPTICS AND THE DOCTOR'S OPTICS Darina Brukkerová, Ján Gajdošík

© Collective of authors, Bratislava 2007 Processor: PhDr. Dušan Selko, CSc., MPH Issued by: Section of Health Psychology SPS at SAV in Publishing House MAURO Slovakia s.r.o., Bratislava 2007 Graphic processing: ELO – Eduard Lošonský, Jana Satková Print: Zuzana HEDEROVÁ – COLORPRINT, Bratislava ISBN 978–80–968092–4–0