Supervision zwischen Differenz und Triangulierung

The author outlines some aspects helpful for a better understanding of supervision processes, which focus on difference, e.g. between perspectives of the analyst and the supervisor and take place in a triadic setting. Based on his experience he assumes that this triangulation allows for a differentiation high enough to effectively work on the treatment deliverer’s countertransference. In order to shed some light on this assumption the term “difference” as well as the history of the terms “difference” and “differentiation” are discussed. Furthermore, the concept of early triangulation as understood in developmental psychology is introduced and applied to the process of supervision. An exemplary report of a supervision session with a psychoanalyst in training follows which is intended to underline how supervisory work on countertransference processes within the framework of difference and triangulation can benefit the patient.     

A multitrait–multimethod study of assessment instruments for complex problem solving

Recently published studies on Complex Problem Solving (CPS) suggest that assessments of CPS using multiple complex systems are only moderately related to tests of classical cognitive abilities. Further, CPS assessments show incremental validity beyond tests of other cognitive abilities when predicting relevant outcomes. However, these empirical accounts have relied on single CPS assessment instruments. We do not know whether these findings will generalize to the construct level across different CPS assessment instruments. To answer this question, we tested a sample of N = 339 German university students who completed three CPS assessment instruments based on multiple complex systems (MicroDYN, the Genetics Lab, and MicroFIN) and the matrices subtest of the Intelligence Structure Test as measure of reasoning. Students further reported their school grades. Analyses including latent multitrait–multimethod models provided support for the conceptualization of CPS as a complex cognitive ability. Results indicated that different CPS assessment instruments showed sufficient convergent validity (with a consistency mostly between .50 and .60). In addition, we found evidence for the divergent validity of CPS from reasoning (reasoning predicted two CPS facets, knowledge and control, β_KNOW = .49 and β_CON = .53, respectively). In the prediction of academic achievement, CPS explained variance in natural science grades after we controlled for reasoning (β_CPS = .22), whereas social science grades were not predicted. Our findings suggest that the validity of CPS generalizes across different measurement instruments.     

Our world is more than physics: a constructive – critical comment on the current science and theology debate

“Critical realism” is one of the most important positions in the current science and theology debate. An analysis of its origin and meaning leads to the question if this position mostly propagated by physicist-theologians could miss an intrinsic feature of the personal dimension of reality. A deeper meaning of the personal dimension sets human science apart. Taking into account social science's insight that persons responsible for their conclusions and actions drive the process of science, the moral dimension of science has to be emphasized. To integrate these aspects into a coherent position, a more differentiated epistemological model is needed. The solution proposed in this paper is to modify critical realism to constructive-critical realism. Theologically interpreted, constructive-critical realism remembers humankind's purpose to shape nature in cooperation with God and with the means of culture toward increasing realization of freedom in relationship. The argument is widely influenced by an analysis of the works of John Polkinghorne.     

Nomnetric scaling of loudness and pitch using similarity and difference estimates

In Experiment 1, nonmetric analyses of estimates of similarity and difference were used to generate a scale of loudness for 1,200-Hz tones varying in intensity. For both similarity and difference estimates, loudness was found to grow approximately as the 0.26 power of sound pressure. In Experiment 2, nomnetric analyses of estimates of similarity and difference were used to generate a scale of pitch for 83.3-dB pure tones varying in frequency. For both similarity and difference estimates, pitch was found to vary with frequency in accordance with the mel scale.     

Learning where to feed: the use of social information in flower-visiting Pallas’ long-tongued bats (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Glossophaga soricina</Emphasis>)

Social learning is a widespread phenomenon among vertebrates that influences various patterns of behaviour and is often reported with respect to foraging behaviour. The use of social information by foraging bats was documented in insectivorous, carnivorous and frugivorous species, but there are little data whether flower-visiting nectarivorous bats (Phyllostomidae: Glossophaginae) can acquire information about food from other individuals. In this study, we conducted an experiment with a demonstrator-observer paradigm to investigate whether flower-visiting Pallas’ long-tongued bats (Glossophaga soricina) are able to socially learn novel flower positions via observation of, or interaction with, knowledgeable conspecifics. The results demonstrate that flower-visiting G. soricina are able to use social information for the location of novel flower positions and can thereby reduce energy-costly search efforts. This social transmission is explainable as a result of local enhancement; learning bats might rely on both visual and echo-acoustical perception and are likely to eavesdrop on auditory cues that are emitted by feeding conspecifics. We additionally tested the spatial memory capacity of former demonstrator bats when retrieving a learned flower position, and the results indicate that flower-visiting bats remember a learned flower position after several weeks.     

Personality Disorders in Older Adult Inpatients with Chronic Mental Illness

It has been hypothesized that some types of personality disorders tend to remit with age whereas others may become more prominent. The present study determined the prevalence and nature of 13 personality disorders with a self-report inventory (Coolidge Axis II Inventory) in an older group of chronically mentally ill inpatients (N = 30, mean age = 63 years) and a younger group of similar patients (N = 30, mean age = 39 years). All patients met DSM-IV criteria for either Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, or recurrent severe Major Depression with psychotic features. The prevalence rate of personality disorders was high for both groups: 58% for the older sample and 66% for the younger group. The younger group was more likely to be diagnosed Antisocial, Borderline, Passive-Aggressive, Sadistic, and Schizotypal, but the groups were not different in the rates of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. This study supports the hypothesis that some personality disorders remit with age. However, no evidence was found to suggest that other personality disorders become more prominent in older adult psychiatric populations. Suggestions for future research are offered.     

The study of emotional processes in communication: I. Measuring emotionalization in everyday face-to-face communicative interaction

The drawbacks of traditional research into emotional processes have led us to develop a set of methodologies for investigating them in everyday face-to-face communication. The conceptual basis of these procedures is a model of the eliciting conditions of emotional processes as well as a conceptualization of the emotional processes themselves. On the basis of the assumption of conversation as a rule-governed process, one can describe its default temporal, formal, and functional features, for which we use the MAS EDIT and SEQ programs, and the minimal model of communicative exchange, respectively. Violations of these default rules can be identified as unexpected/temporally unpredictable events eliciting emotionalization. The nature of emotionalization is determined by the psychological principle of “standard and deviation.” Its investigation under natural conditions requires the following: A noninvasive method of data acquisition (including procedures for rejecting faulty or missing values), measurement (high-resolution recording of physiological, psychomotor, and vocal variables), and the (nonstatistical) construction of an inventory or “relevant effects” (contrastive and template analysis). Finally, we depict three routes of investigating time courses of activation changes as dependent and independent variables and as a target of modification and reflection.