Exploring types of career orientation: A latent class analysis approach

Career literature has been discussing the decline of the traditional career. Despite this debate, systematic information on the prevalence of contemporary career types is lacking. Two studies with large samples of employees aimed to determine types of career orientation, to explore their prevalence, and to validate these types by testing hypotheses relating each of the career orientations to work attitudes and sociodemographical variables. In study 1 (N = 835), we identified four types of career orientation – traditional/promotion, traditional/loyalty, independent, disengaged – applying exploratory latent class analysis. These were confirmed in study 2 (N = 737) with confirmatory latent class analysis. The variables associated with the career orientation types mostly followed the predicted pattern. Almost two thirds reported a traditional career orientation, while one fifth each expressed an independent and a disengaged orientation. This finding shows that people’s career orientation does not reflect the changes that many authors argue have been occurring.     

More Appreciation of Life or Regretting the Test? Experiences of Living as a Mutation Carrier of Huntington’s Disease

Little is known about how the knowledge of being a mutation carrier for Huntington’s disease (HD) influences lives, emotionally and socially. In this qualitative study 10 interviews were conducted to explore the long term (>5 years) experiences of being a mutation carrier. The results showed a broad variety of both positive and negative impact on the carriers’ lives. The most prominent positive changes reported were a greater appreciation of life and a tendency to bring the family closer together. On the other hand, some participants expressed decisional regrets and discussed the negative impact this knowledge had on their psychological well-being. The knowledge variously served as either a motivator or an obstacle in pursuing further education, career or investment in personal health. Deeper understanding of people’s reactions to the certainty of knowing they will become affected with HD is essential for the genetic counseling team in order to provide appropriate support.     

Deployment of attention in clinical depression during symptom remission

The purpose of the current study was to investigate deployment of attention in clinically depressed patients during the process of symptom remission. Previous research indicates a non-depressed protective bias in attention whereas depressed individuals evidence no bias. A deployment-of-attention task based on negative, positive, and neutral adjectives was administered twice to 15 inpatients with major depression and 15 normal controls, at about 6 weeks apart. From test 1 to test 2, severity of patients' depressive symptoms improved significantly. Acutely depressed patients tended to show an attentional bias towards negative information whereas partially remitted patients manifested no attentional bias. Non-depressed individuals attended less to negative information than (acutely and partially remitted) depressed patients. Non-depressed participants but not depressed patients avoid negative information demonstrating a protective processing bias. Depressed patients are not characterized by a shift towards a pronounced protective pattern during symptom remission.     

Diagnostik und Therapie Dissoziativer (Identitäts-) Störungen

In North America, dissociative disorders have gained a central position in psychiatric research of the last 20 years. Their most severe form, the dissociative identity disorder has been explored with utmost thoroughness. The dissociative identity disorder seems to be a complex posttraumatic disorder with a central etiological role of sexual traumatizations in early childhood. Critics, however, expressed their doubts about the validity of the posttraumatic model and the psychiatric diagnosis itself. They assume it to be a matter of the cultural and suggestive impact of the media and of improper psychotherapy. In the present article evidence is provided about the arguments of the socio-cognitive model being scientifically unsubstantiated. A bulk of empirical results supports the assumption that dissociative identity disorder and similar diseases regularly occur both in North America and Europe, but they are rather rarely diagnosed. Therefore, it seemes both to make sense and be necessary to develop diagnostic and treatment programs for dissociative identity disorders and to promote their implementation.     

Traumatische Trauer – ein eigenständiges Krankheitsbild?

Grief is a highly individualized process influenced by intrapsychic, interpersonal and social factors. The definition of normal and pathological grief is complicated by the variety of grief reactions. Empirical research indicates that pathological grief may be concerned considered as a separate entity. Two research groups developed empirically validated criteria with a special focus on the traumatic aspect of grief. The current state of research allows, however, in our opinion not the conclusion, that the proposed diagnostic criteria for complicated (Horowitz et al. 1997) or traumatic grief (Prigerson et al. 1999b) do not enclose all types of grief. Further empirical research on representative samples is necessary to validate previous findings and to differentiate specific subgroups of pathological grief.     

Implicit affectivity and rapid processing of affective body language: An fMRI study

Previous research has revealed affect‐congruity effects for the recognition of affects from faces. Little is known about the impact of affect on the perception of body language. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship of implicit (versus explicit) affectivity with the recognition of briefly presented affective body expressions. Implicit affectivity, which can be measured using indirect assessment methods, has been found to be more predictive of spontaneous physiological reactions than explicit (self‐reported) affect. Thirty‐four healthy women had to label the expression of body postures (angry, fearful, happy, or neutral) presented for 66 ms and masked by a neutral body posture in a forced‐choice format while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants' implicit affectivity was assessed using the Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test. Measures of explicit state and trait affectivity were also administered. Analysis of the fMRI data was focused on a subcortical network involved in the rapid perception of affective body expressions. Only implicit negative affect (but not explicit affect) was correlated with correct labeling performance for angry body posture. As expected, implicit negative affect was positively associated with activation of the subcortical network in response to fearful and angry expression (compared to neutral expression). Responses of the caudate nucleus to affective body expression were especially associated with its recognition. It appears that processes of rapid recognition of affects from body postures could be facilitated by an individual's implicit negative affect.     

What to Do with a Second Chance in Life? Long-Term Experiences of Non-carriers of Huntington’s Disease

Little is known about how people’s lives are influenced when going from a 50% risk status of Huntington’s disease (HD) to no risk after performing predictive testing. In this study, 20 interviews were conducted to explore the long-term (>?5 years) experiences after receiving predictive test results as a non-carrier of HD. The results showed a broad variety of both positive and negative reactions. The most prominent positive reaction reported was feelings of relief and gratitude, of not carrying the HD mutation for themselves and for their children. Also, the non-carrier status promoted in some individuals’ significant life changes such as a wishing to have (more) children, pursuing a career or breaking up from an unhappy relationship. However, negative reactions on their psychological well-being were also described. Some had experienced psychological pressure of needing to do something extraordinary in their lives; others expressed feelings of guilt towards affected or untested siblings, resulting in sadness or clinical depression. The new genetic risk status could generate a need of re-orientation, a process that for some persons took several years to accomplish. The results of the present study show the importance of offering long-term post-result counselling for non-carriers in order to deal with the psychological consequences that may follow predictive testing.