Abstract: In 2018, the European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations (EFPA) published a report summarising the evidence on Internet- and mobile-based psychological interventions (IMIs) for the prevention and treatment of mental health disorders. Given the rapid developments in this field, an updated narrative review was conducted to provide a broad overview of the literature addressing multiple perspectives on the use of IMIs. The review outlines the definition, types, purposes, and current evidence of IMIs; examines the emerging role of AI; and discusses practical considerations, including limitations and challenges (e.g., adverse effects, legal and ethical issues), implementation barriers, inequalities and inclusion, and their current use in routine care. Results across these domains paint a nuanced picture, summarising the potential as well as the pitfalls of IMIs. In the discussion, key conclusions emerge: IMIs that include therapist guidance tend to achieve higher adherence and more reliable clinical outcomes, while matching support to users’ needs is crucial for scalability. Tailoring content and sustaining engagement are critical determinants of success. Effective implementation of IMIs requires careful attention to ethical concerns and thoughtful integration of AI. Practical barriers, such as limited access and the digital divide, must also be addressed to ensure these interventions are adopted fairly and equitably. Overcoming these challenges will require continued cooperation among researchers, clinicians, users, policymakers, and IT stakeholders.
Abstract: The technological evolution has renewed interest in vocational psychology in how digital tools, including artificial intelligence (AI), can be ethically and effectively integrated into guidance and counseling practice. This systematic literature review, conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines, explores the current state of the art in applying AI to career guidance and counseling. Three keywords, two databases, and three eligibility criteria were defined. Of 50 identified articles, 27 met the inclusion criteria and were reviewed. The findings highlight the applications of AI, the underlying theoretical frameworks, its effectiveness, and the ethical issues, as well as implications for research and professional practice. Overall, the evidence portrays a transformative yet still maturing field in which AI enhances engagement and decision-making in career development. However, its responsible integration ultimately depends on empirical rigor, ethical grounding, and a sustained commitment to human-centered values.
: This integrative article presents the concept of "Questionnaire Experience" (QX), whose conception is based on the principles of the concept of "User Experience" (UX). QX aims to improve the quality of psychometric tests, similar to how UX seeks to improve the design of interactive products. QX provides information to test developers that go beyond the traditional and well-established psychometric criteria such as convergent, divergent, and criterion-related validity, reliability, and sensitivity. QX is not only expected to be beneficial in the domain of usability and UX but to psychology in general. To illustrate the applicability of QX in research and practice, the article presents a respondent-centered methodological approach that outlines how a set of scales can be employed to assess the multifacetted character of the concept comprising several dimensions (e.g., respondent workload, respondent motivation, and questionnaire completion time). Finally, some propositions are made of how to quantify QX and integrate the concept into traditional questionnaire development approaches.
: Mathematics anxiety constitutes a persistent psychological barrier that undermines learners' engagement, persistence, and performance in mathematics across educational levels. While a growing body of research has examined the potential of technology-supported learning environments to address mathematics anxiety, the conceptual structure and psychological orientation of this literature have not yet been systematically synthesized from a bibliometric perspective. The present study provides a bibliometric and thematic review of peer-reviewed research on mathematics anxiety and technology-supported learning published between 1988 and 2025. Following PRISMA guidelines, publications indexed in Web of Science and Scopus were analyzed using Bibliometrix (R-Biblioshiny) to map publication trends, conceptual clusters, and international collaboration patterns. The results indicate a marked increase in research activity in recent years, accompanied by a progressive diversification of thematic emphases. Bibliometric evidence reveals a shift from predominantly performance-focused perspectives to psychologically informed frameworks that foreground self-efficacy, motivation, and affective regulation, while maintaining strong conceptual links with achievement-related outcomes. Collaboration networks further highlight a concentration of research activity in a limited number of high-income countries, alongside emerging contributions from other regions. By integrating bibliometric evidence with established psychological theory, this review clarifies how mathematics anxiety has been increasingly conceptualized within technology-enhanced learning contexts and underscores the importance of theoretically grounded, developmentally sensitive, and culturally inclusive research agendas for designing emotionally responsive digital learning environments.
Abstract: The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine has created unprecedented mental health challenges, with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) prevalence reaching critical levels among civilians, refugees, and military personnel. Traditional trauma-focused therapies, while effective, are often difficult to implement in war conditions due to their duration, resource intensity, and emotional burden. The Reconsolidation of Traumatic Memories (RTM) Protocol, a brief, imagery-based intervention grounded in memory reconsolidation theory and research, offers a scalable alternative. This article examines the RTM Protocol’s implementation in Ukraine, including professional training, adaptations for frontline and hospital settings, and its integration into the Armed Forces’ psychological support framework. We discuss procedural modifications for high-risk environments, hybrid delivery models for continuity of care, and strategies to overcome stigma and logistical barriers. Additionally, the paper explores the RTM Protocol’s application for Ukrainian refugees across Europe and outlines the rationale for developing a Child Version of the RTM Protocol to address trauma in children. Emerging evidence suggests that RTM reduces intrusive symptoms, improves sleep, and restores functionality within three to five sessions, even under disrupted conditions. Its brevity, minimal verbal disclosure, and compatibility with remote delivery make RTM uniquely suited for humanitarian and military contexts. These findings underscore the RTM Protocol’s potential as an evidence-based, adaptable intervention for mitigating trauma in Ukraine and similar conflict-affected regions.
: Morbid curiosity, defined as interest in negative or threatening information, elicits a broad spectrum of responses, from deliberate engagement to avoidance, and contributes to threat preparedness, emotional regulation, and the construction of personal meaning. This review synthesizes psychological, cognitive, and media research to address longstanding inconsistencies in the literature, including mixed evidence regarding sensation seeking and enjoyment of horror. These contradictions suggest that morbid curiosity is a heterogeneous construct rather than a unitary trait. To resolve these inconsistencies, we propose the Dual-Dimension Spectrum Model (DDSM), which conceptualizes morbid curiosity along two dimensions: motivational orientation (regulation-oriented vs. stimulation-oriented) and intensity of emotional arousal (low vs. high). This framework delineates six subtypes - knowledge-seeking, sensation-seeking, ideological, fear-driven, sublimation-driven, and distraction-motivated individuals - offering enhanced conceptual clarity and a coherent structure for individual differences in engagement with aversive content. By reframing morbid curiosity as a multidimensional spectrum, the model advances theoretical precision and provides a foundation for future empirical fine-grained research.
: War exposure represents a severe stressor associated with increased risk of post-traumatic stress symptoms, emotional dysregulation, and suicidal ideation. In the current context, the ongoing Russian occupation of Ukraine provides a relevant setting in which to examine these processes. This study analyzes the joint effects of age, suicidal ideation (SI), and exposure to death-related stressors on psychological resilience among civilians residing in Ukraine during the conflict. Using a wartime civilian sample, a moderated moderation model was conducted to test whether the association between age and resilience varies as a function of SI and exposure to death-related events. The analysis revealed a significant three-way interaction. Age was positively associated with resilience only among individuals reporting suicidal ideation who had not been exposed to death-related stressors. In contrast, among individuals who reported both suicidal ideation and exposure to death-related events, age was not significantly associated with resilience. These findings indicate that the relationship between age and resilience is conditional upon both psychological vulnerability and trauma exposure. The results highlight the importance of considering developmental factors and exposure to severe stressors when designing mental health interventions in war-affected populations.
: Since 2014 and particularly following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, large segments of the population have been exposed to prolonged armed conflict, military occupation, and repeated cycles of displacement and deoccupation. These conditions have generated substantial mental health needs while simultaneously undermining the capacity to deliver psychological services, especially in temporarily occupied and recently deoccupied territories. This narrative review synthesizes international and Ukrainian peer-reviewed psychological and psychiatric research, official governmental statistics, and international reports on mental health needs and service delivery in occupied and postoccupied territories, using practice-based material from Ukraine as an illustrative case. The review examines (a) mental health needs among populations affected by occupation and postoccupation conditions; and (b) structural, ethical, and practical challenges of delivering psychological services in these contexts. Available evidence indicates a high prevalence of trauma-related symptoms, depression, anxiety, and complex stress reactions among adults and children, alongside significant disruptions to mental health infrastructure and workforce capacity. Direct empirical research conducted in occupied territories remains limited, necessitating reliance on proxy populations such as internally displaced persons and returnees. To complement population-level findings, the review incorporates practice-based evidence from approximately 400 individual consultations and 20 group sessions conducted in deoccupied territories of northern and eastern Ukraine in 2022. These interventions, grounded in a person-centered therapeutic approach, illustrate the feasibility and clinical relevance of brief, crisis-oriented psychological support in postoccupation settings. The findings underscore the need for flexible, ethically adaptive, and community-embedded mental health interventions integrated into broader postoccupation recovery and reintegration frameworks.
: Eye-tracking methods have become a valuable tool for reading research, as they provide significant evidence on the behavioral and cognitive performance of developing readers. They also help identify reading behavior patterns among children with neurodevelopmental conditions, such as reading difficulties (RD) or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In this paper, we reviewed relevant literature (73 empirical studies) from 2008 to 2023 (15 years). We documented how reading performance was measured through eye-tracking methodology among typical and atypical readers across various languages. To ensure a rigorous and transparent review, we adhered to the PRISMA framework, defined keywords, established inclusion and exclusion criteria, conducted data extraction, and employed a multi-phase selection process. We focused on research samples, stimulus designs, independent variables, eye-tracking systems, and metrics. The results indicated that research involving typically developing children mainly included participants from primary school and employed various eye-tracking methods, with English being the most studied language. Studies on children with RD and ADHD varied significantly in participants' sample sizes, languages, and experimental designs. The discussion emphasizes the need for standardized data-collection procedures to enhance the reliability and comparability of findings, thereby supporting the development of effective interventions and instructional methods for reading difficulties.
: In 1913, the Prussian Academy of Sciences established a research station on Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain) to study great ape intelligence. Directed by Wolfgang K & ouml;hler from 1914 to 1920, the station produced landmark demonstrations of chimpanzee problem-solving, laying the foundation for the field of comparative psychology. When the station closed in 1920, six surviving chimpanzees (Sultan, Rana, Chica, Grande, Tercera, and Tschego) were transferred to the Berlin Zoological Gardens. This article reconstructs their fate in Berlin through an analytical process, drawing on newly uncovered archival records, correspondence, zoo reports, press accounts, and biological remains. We address three key questions: (1) How did transitioning from an enriched island environment to a frigid zoo setting affect the apes? (2) How did early 20th-century scientific paradigms influence the design and interpretation of post-Tenerife research with the chimpanzee troop? (3) What ethical concerns arise from the colony's experiences in Berlin? Our findings reveal that nearly all the apes died within a few years, likely from a dysentery-like illness. Their final years included unprecedented and ethically questionable research under current standards, such as the first isolation-rearing study in primates. We conclude by reporting our rediscovery of the preserved remains of five troop members at the Museum f & uuml;r Naturkunde Berlin. This historical reconstruction honors the legacy of these individuals while acknowledging their history of trauma and helplessness.
: Some languages, such as German, assign a (grammatical) gender to every noun. In many of these languages with grammatical genders, the generic masculine form (GM) is a linguistic convention in which the grammatical masculine form is used to refer to (groups of) individuals when gender is irrelevant or unknown, or at least one male individual is present. In recent decades, it has been argued that the GM might lead to linguistic imbalances in favor of men, potentially discriminating against women and non-binary individuals. For this reason, gender-fair language (GFL) alternatives have been proposed although they are often criticized. The aim of this systematic review was to examine the effects of GFL on different outcomes in German as an exemplary grammatical gender language. The findings of 41 experimental studies suggest that GFL does not significantly impede comprehensibility, motivation, reading time, text aesthetics, or quality. At the same time, studies indicate that GFL can positively affect the mental representation of women and non-binary individuals, motivational outcomes and perceptions of professions, job advertisements, and candidates - particularly benefiting women and girls. Future research should aim to corroborate these findings with diverse samples of participants (e.g., regarding age) and further grammatical gender languages. Practical implications, such as implementing GFL in public communications and educational settings, are discussed.
: Conversational agents (CAs) are increasingly used to promote mental health, well-being, and social inclusion among adolescents. Despite growing interest, a comprehensive understanding of their effectiveness within an ecological perspective remains limited. This scoping review explored the existing literature on the impact of chatbots and virtual assistants on adolescents aged 10-25 years, adopting an ecological perspective. Following PRISMA guidelines, 56 studies published between 2011 and 2024 were identified across six electronic databases. Data extraction and thematic analysis highlighted that the majority of studies targeted symptom reduction (e.g., anxiety, depression), using CBT-based approaches and showing short-term positive effects. Fewer studies addressed social inclusion and well-being through positive psychology and mindfulness frameworks. Methodological heterogeneity limited longitudinal designs, and the dominance of Western samples was identified as a common limitation. Conversational agents show promise in promoting adolescent mental health and social inclusion. Future research should prioritize longitudinal designs, culturally sensitive adaptations, and standardized outcome measures to enhance the robustness and generalizability of findings.
: Dating apps have become an increasingly prominent context for romantic and sexual interactions, and their use has attracted growing research attention in scientific literature. In light of this, the present systematic review investigated the association between adult attachment styles and dating app use. Following the updated 2020 PRISMA guidelines, a systematic search was conducted across three electronic scientific databases (Scopus, PubMed, and PsycINFO), resulting in eight peer-reviewed empirical studies that met the inclusion criteria. Across the eight studies, anxious attachment was consistently associated with more frequent dating app use, emotionally driven motives (e.g., connection, self-esteem), and higher levels of engagement in problematic dating app use. In contrast, findings on avoidant attachment were mixed: while some studies reported lower use and interest in dating apps, others showed positive associations with specific motives such as escapism, self-regulation, or instrumental interaction. In some cases, avoidant attachment was also associated with problematic use. Secure attachment appeared to be associated with a more regulated, intentional use. These findings support the relevance of attachment theory in understanding online relational behaviors and highlight implications for clinical interventions targeting emotionally dysregulated dating app use.
: This study examines the complex interactions between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), attachment styles, and alcohol consumption, and their contribution to the development of aggressive behaviors in adulthood. The research is grounded on the premise that childhood is a critical period for emotional and psychological development, with adverse events such as abuse and neglect significantly shaping future behavioral trajectories. ACEs are strongly associated with the development of insecure attachment styles and substance use, both of which directly contribute to the manifestation of aggressive behaviors in adulthood. The findings of this review enhance the understanding of the developmental trajectory from childhood trauma to adult aggression, underscoring the importance of integrated interventions that focus both on preventing adverse experiences and providing continued support for those already affected. By emphasizing the need for early identification and targeted assistance for at-risk individuals, this research highlights the necessity of comprehensive approaches to address the complex relationships between early adversity, attachment, and behavioral outcomes in adulthood. The implications for public health and social services are significant, with recommendations aimed at mitigating the long-term effects of ACEs on aggression.
: Digital competency is becoming increasingly vital in psychological practice, yet consensus is lacking on the specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for effective technology integration in psychological care and therapeutic settings. Existing frameworks primarily focus on telepsychology and telehealth, neglecting broader psychological practice. This scoping review addresses this gap by synthesizing relevant literature, identifying key digital competencies, evaluating existing frameworks, and highlighting gaps to inform the development of an integrated competency framework for psychologists. A PRISMA-ScR guided research was conducted in August 2024 across seven major databases: Scopus, Web of Science, ProQuest One Academic, ScienceDirect, PubMed, Taylor & Francis Online, and EBSCOhost. Two independent reviewers screened 577 articles, of which 19 met the inclusion criteria. Thematic analysis identified eleven digital competencies, hierarchically grouped into five key domains: technical, ethical and legal, digital practice, training and research, and infrastructure and equity. By mapping these competencies and highlighting gaps in existing frameworks, this study provides a structured basis for developing standardized competency models. This ensures that future frameworks incorporate the necessary skills and knowledge for psychologists to navigate evolving technologies, AI integration, and cross-cultural digital practice effectively.
: The role of safety in psychotherapy has gained increasing attention, particularly in relation to attachment theory. Scholars have suggested that attachment theory may provide the ground to explain psychotherapy change across theoretical orientations. This paper aims to contribute to this strand by proposing an attachment-informed transtheoretical model of change based on a relational-developmental view of safety informed by different disciplinary sources. A relational-developmental view of safety is first summarized, followed by an overview of empirical findings on safety and psychotherapy change. These are then used to propose a transtheoretical model of therapeutic change organized around the concept of the safety zone (SZ) that identifies a sequence of four common change principles (attend the client's SZ, move toward the boundaries of the client's SZ, expand the client's SZ, and consolidate the expansion of the client's SZ). The paper concludes by discussing future research and its implications for psychotherapy practice, training, and research.
