The Psychologist: Practice & Research Journal

Dear Colleagues,

It is with great pleasure that we announce the opening of article submissions for a special issue of the scientific journal of the Portuguese Order of Psychologists, The Psychologist: Practice & Research Journal, dedicated to the subject: "Resilience and psychological vulnerability in the context of financial insecurity and global challenges: contributions of psychology to the promotion of individual and community well-being".

 

The latest report on Poverty and Social Exclusion in Portugal (Observatório Nacional de Luta contra a Pobreza, 2023) states that one-fifth of the population residing in Portugal was at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2021 (13th position among the 27 the European Union countries). Since then, the European context of macroeconomic and geopolitical instability has posed additional challenges to fighting against financial precarity, with a sharp reduction in families’ purchasing power over a short period, associated with an increase in interest rates on home loans and precarious employment conditions (namely for early adulthood). To this scenario we should add a recent pandemic and a continued concern about climate change and potential short-term changes in employability profiles, with the accelerated advent of artificial intelligence. This complex fabric of concerns (at both individual and community levels) prefigures what we can consider as a high-demanding psychosocial exposome (Santos & Sousa, 2023) requiring significant cognitive and emotional activation and, for this reason, associated with potential reduced rational decision-making capacity and, ultimately, with a potential increased risk of low subjective and psychological well-being.

In this context, the scientific knowledge inherent to psychology, in its different areas/specialties, plays a more-than-ever relevant role in promoting resilience and well-being at the individual level (especially for those under increased vulnerability), and in defining policies that may promote collective and sustainable well-being.

We invite researchers, academics, clinicians, and students from different areas of psychology (or related fields) to submit works (editorial letters, essays, original articles, review articles) exploring the following areas and questions (among possible others):

• The psychological impact of financial insecurity or poverty in different population groups during economic instability, considering social inequalities and inequities.
• Strategies that promote psychological resilience in dual precarity conditions (i.e., difficulty in acquiring or maintaining housing combined with precarious employment conditions).
• Associations between financial uncertainty or other scarcity events, mental health, and decision-making processes.
• The combined effect of exposure to global threat narratives, financial and/or employment insecurity, on the perception of security and well-being, from a life cycle perspective.
• Psychological intervention and public policies aiming to mitigate the impact of global threats (geopolitical, financial, ecological) at both individual and vulnerable group levels.
• Phenomena associated with conditions of financial insecurity, including domestic violence, and migration, and how these are associated with psychological determinants and effects.

We want this special issue of PPRJ to be a repository of psychological knowledge applied to (anticipated or existing) scarcity themes, as well as guiding tracks for designing interventions and policies that promote psychological robustness in adverse circumstances.

Manuscripts will be selected based on criteria of scientific rigor, originality, relevance, and contribution to understanding psychological determinants and effects associated with the perception of precarity and instability, as well as identifying determinants of effective interventions in promoting resilience. Contributions can be theoretical (essays, narrative reviews) or empirical (cross-sectional, longitudinal, experimental studies).

Five submitted manuscripts will be recognized in a symposium dedicated to the theme at the XIII Congresso Ibero-americano de Psicologia e 6º Congresso da Ordem dos Psicólogos Portugueses, with the awarding of five Mentions of Honor, by the Congress's Scientific Committee. Among these five manuscripts, one will be awarded (500 euros) by the Congress's Scientific Committee as the best manuscript submitted to PPRJ within this initiative.

Submission guidelines:

Manuscripts should be submitted in Portuguese, Spanish, or English.

The manuscript should not exceed 5000 words (excluding the title, abstract, and references; and a maximum of five tables and/or figures).

Submitted manuscripts should follow APA (American Psychological Association) guidelines.

All works must comply with ethical standards in psychological research and scientific publication.

Submissions are due by June 15^th, 2024, through the journal's online submission platform.

 

Relevant dates: