Komunikace v rodině je jedním z hlavních pilířů fungování rodiny. Narušení komunikace má zásadní vliv na funkčnost rodiny jako systému i na její členy. Mezi taková narušení patří tabu, která jsou přítomna v určité míře v každé rodině. Úroveň i povaha komunikace se v jednotlivých rodinách liší a také se mění uvnitř rodiny v průběhu vývojového cyklu. Jednou takovou vývojovou změnou je období adolescence jednoho z potomků. Adolescent se chce stát dospělým, rodič je nucen na to reagovat. Předmětem našeho výzkumu je rodinná komunikace právě z pohledu adolescenta. Využíváme námi sestavenou škálu rodinné komunikace a škálu FACES II. Účastníci výzkumu – respondenti – vnímají komunikaci v rodině jako vcelku dobrou. Největší výhrady mají v oblastech soukromí a respektu jejich osoby ze strany rodičů. Naopak u rodičů oceňují podporu a důvěřují jim. Největší tabu nacházíme v oblasti komunikace citů, a to jak slovní, tak dotekem. Komunikace s matkou je hodnocena lépe než komunikace s otcem, nejvíce se liší ve vyjadřování citů. Pro dívky je vyjadřování citů důležitější než pro chlapce. Dimenze nově vzniknuvší metody souvisejí s dimenzemi škály FACES II, a tak dobře obrážejí rodinnou komunikaci, potažmo fungování rodiny. and Family communication is an important supposal for the family functioning. One of its disturbing factors is taboo. It affects both, the family system and its members. The niveau of communication varies from family to family, and also according to the phase of the family life-span. One of the important phases is the time when a child is stepping into the adult-life, adolescence. Parents are due to react to the child’s new life position and preferences. In our research, we have answered the questions concerned with the family communication in the eyes of an adolescent. For that, we used FACES II and our own method – Scale of Family Communication. The families of our respondents have been assumed to be rather good-working (both methods have implied that). The adolescents were unsatisfied with their parents’ behaviour concerned with the adolescents’ privacy and respect. They appreciated parents being supportive, and they trusted them. The biggest taboo has emerged in the area of emotion communication. In this area, we also have found the main differences between mother and father when communicating with an adolescent, and between boys and girls. The latter rank the emotion communicating higher. The dimensions of our own method – Scale of Family Communication – correlates with the FACES-dimensions, and therefore, we assume the scale as wellreflecting the family communication, actually the family functioning in whole.
Mammals’ urine contains chemosignals known to affect the sexual behaviour and reproductive physiology of both male and female recipient. Here we demonstrated that male urine can also elicit physiological changes on sexual maturation rates in the Brandt’s voles. In the first experiment we showed that urine from breeding adult male anticipated the puberty on female voles and at opposite delayed puberty on males. The results from the second and third experiments showed a strong agonistic behaviour between male Brandt’s voles compared to that of females. The introduction into social groups of an adult male, but not an adult female, increased the agonistic responses of the resident male. The results suggest a high rate of competition for mating in the male. Therefore, we conclude that a breeding adult male uses chemosignals to differently affect the sexual maturation of pre-pubertal conspecifics as a tactic for reducing competitive mating pressure. Little or no competitive pressure for copulation was seen in the oestrous female, and its urine had no effect on the maturation rate of young Brandt’s voles.
Understanding the diets of predators, prey selection and their impact on prey populations is pivotal to investigations on the ecology of predator and prey species. In this study, we observed a hand-reared European otter (Lutra lutra) foraging in the wild, in order to identify the type of prey captured by the predator. The study was carried out between March and June 2001 in a diverse range of natural otter habitats in Białowieża Forest (NE Poland). We found that tadpoles represented an important part of the otter's diet in June, when their frequency of occurrence and biomass reached 38% and 11%, respectively. During spring, tadpoles were less common than other types of prey, such as adult amphibians, fish, or aquatic Coleoptera. Otter diet varied among months and there were differences in the main prey type captured among water body types. Our results highlight the need to develop methods that enable the identification of tadpoles and other cryptic seasonal food items in riparian predator diets.