Differential diagnostic value of the Diagnostic Test for Cerebral Damage in clinical practice

The paper considers the effective inclusion in differential diagnosis of DCS in decisions involving groups of patients not yet primarily exposed to the process. 55 patients were involved in two samples taken within the group as a whole. One of the samples is characterised as being unambiguously diagnosed neurotic without there being any neurologic-psychiatric or other (internal medical) findings (no organic brain injury, no symptoms of seizure, no cerebro-vascular insufficiency CVI, etc.). The other sample comprehended patients with a clear CVI diagnosis, minor EEG findings, and with or without internal medical findings. By applying a specific "index of instability" resulted in an assured diagnostic distinction.     

Further development and restandardization of an approach to the diagnosis of aggressive social behavior in childhood

The present paper continues and concludes an investigation into the restandardization of a first attempt, checked in respect of content and method, at the diagnosis of aggressive social behavior initially concentrating on the 9-11 age group. The work has its origin in a paper by Petermann and Petermann (1980), which we consider could be of significance to gradual restandardization, both in methodological research and in practical clinical application. A previous article demonstrated under various aspects the fundamental suitability of the attempt to restandardization. Arising out of this and the present analysis, some fundamental consequences, both in content and in method, of a fuller development and the therapy oriented employment of the attempt are discussed.     

Impact of Ethnicity,Gender, and Previous Experience on Juror Judgments in Sexual Harassment Cases1

To examine the influence of gender, having been the target of sexual harassment, and ethnicity on jury decisions, 215 respondents reviewed 17 sexual harassment cases ranging on a continuum from relatively innocent to severe. Respondents indicated their perception of the offensiveness of the cases as well as whether they would vote for the plaintiff or for the defendant. Jurors voting for the plaintiff also indicated whether monetary damages should be awarded. Results of the study indicate that gender and prior experience with sexual harassment affect the outcomes in sexual harassment cases when behaviors can be classified as ambiguous. Results were mixed for the influence of gender and having been sexually harassed for relatively innocent and severe cases. No ethnicity effects were found. A discussion of the legal implications of these findings is included.     

Clowning—An opportunity for ministry

Experiences over five years interacting with patients as the clown Jingles and the experiment and experience of one afternoon as the clown Hairie in a hospital led the authors to reflect on the deeper meaning of clowns, their appearance during the centuries, their impact on people and relation to ministry. The presence of a clown changes the atmosphere and dynamics; clowns touch people in their deep feelings and may free them to laugh, to cry, or to play. Relating to others in lively ways brings up questions about the connections between the clown and God.     

Diagnosis of asocial, aggressive behavior--experiences with Petermann and Petermann's "EAS"

This article describes the testing and first application under standardized conditions of Petermann and Petermann's psychometric test for assessing aggressive social behaviour in specific situations among children aged 9 to 11 years in the GDR. Experience gained in using the test is reported, and orientational scores are given as a first step towards restandardization for this age span. The possibility of standardizing the test for application in the GDR is discussed, and proposals are made to broaden the test (especially by the development of an appropriate scoring scale). The connections between the scores and a few other important test variables are discussed, and the author shows clearly that the results of the test and the answers given depend on the "tendency to social desirability".     

Task-dependent evaluative processing of moral and emotional content during comprehension: An ERP study

Recently, we showed that when participants passively read about moral transgressions (e.g., adultery), they implicitly engage in the evaluative (good–bad) categorization of incoming information, as indicated by a larger event-related brain potential (ERP) positivity to immoral than to moral scenarios (Leuthold, Kunkel, Mackenzie, & Filik in Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience, 10, 1021–1029, 2015). Behavioral and neuroimaging studies indicated that explicit moral tasks prioritize the semantic-cognitive analysis of incoming information but that implicit tasks, as used in Leuthold et al. (Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience, 10, 1021–1029, 2015), favor their affective processing. Therefore, it is unclear whether an affective categorization process is also involved when participants perform explicit moral judgments. Thus, in two experiments, we used similarly constructed morality and emotion materials for which their moral and emotional content had to be inferred from the context. Target sentences from negative vs. neutral emotional scenarios and from moral vs. immoral scenarios were presented using rapid serial visual presentation. In Experiment 1, participants made moral judgments for moral materials and emotional judgments for emotion materials. Negative compared to neutral emotional scenarios elicited a larger posterior ERP positivity (LPP) about 200 ms after critical word onset, whereas immoral compared to moral scenarios elicited a larger anterior negativity (500–700 ms). In Experiment 2, where the same emotional judgment to both types of materials was required, a larger LPP was triggered for both types of materials. These results accord with the view that morality scenarios trigger a semantic-cognitive analysis when participants explicitly judge the moral content of incoming linguistic information but an affective evaluation when judging their emotional content.