Beiträge zur Psychologie der Gestalt

Ohne ZusammenfassungNr. I–IV dieser Beiträge sind in Buchform, Leipzig 1919, und früher in der Zeitschr. f. Psychol. 67, 72, 73, 82. 1913–19 erschienen (vgl. das Literaturverzeichnis am Ende dieser Arbeit).     

A Psychoanalytic Grave Walk—Scenic Memory of the Shoah. On the Transgenerational Transmission of Extreme Trauma in Germany

In this article we describe a phase of a long-term psychoanalysis of a daughter of Shoah Survivors. The article is part of a research project conducted at the Sigmund Freud-Institute in Frankfurt/Main. The focus of the study is on the transmission of extreme trauma from the First to the Second Generation, with special reference to Germany. "Scenic memory of the Shoah" is presented as a concept that stresses the non-verbal, unconscious communication between the generations. The so-called "concretistic" behavior of the Second Generation, which has been described in the literature, is conceptualized here as scenic memory of the traumatic experiences during Nazi persecution, that is, a highly symbolic and metaphorical expression of the extreme trauma handed down to the patient by the parents.     

The relationship between acculturation preferences and prejudice: Longitudinal evidence from majority and minority groups in three European countries

A longitudinal field survey tested the reciprocal effects of acculturation preferences and prejudice among ethnic minorities and majorities. Data were collected at two points in time from 512 members of ethnic minorities and 1143 majority members in Germany, Belgium and England. Path analyses yielded not only the lagged effects of prejudice on acculturation preferences but also the reverse for both majority and minority members. The mutual longitudinal effects between prejudice and desire for culture maintenance were negative, and the mutual effects between prejudice and desire for culture adoption were positive for majority members. The reverse was the case for minority participants. Moreover, the two acculturation dimensions interacted in their effect on prejudice for majority participants but not for minority participants. The effect of desire for culture adoption on prejudice was moderated by perceived intergroup similarity. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Entrepreneurial orientation: A psychological model of success among southern African small business owners

This study examines the relationship of the psychological construct Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) with business success in a sample of N?=?248 southern African business owners. We reintroduce the individual in EO research and show the importance of the person of the entrepreneur for business performance: Hierarchical regression analyses revealed significant relationships between EO components (personal initiative, achievement-, and risk-taking orientation) as well as overall EO and business performance. In addition, confirmatory factor analysis supported a single factor construct of EO that consists of learning, achievement, and autonomy orientation, competitive aggressiveness, innovative and risk-taking orientation, and of personal initiative.

In this study, we develop an individual-based psychological concept of Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) and investigate the relationship between business owners' EO and business performance in southern Africa. EO has primarily been discussed from a firm-level perspective (e.g., ; ). It characterized businesses in their early years and was found to be important for firm success. In contrast, we apply a psychological approach with EO as an interindividual difference variable. Thus, our focus is the business owner and the general relationship between individual EO and performance of southern African small business owners.     

Aha! experiences leave a mark: facilitated recall of insight solutions

The present study investigates a possible memory advantage for solutions that were reached through insightful problem solving. We hypothesized that insight solutions (with Aha! experience) would be remembered better than noninsight solutions (without Aha! experience). 34 video clips of magic tricks were presented to 50 participants as a novel problem-solving task, asking them to find out how the trick was achieved. Upon discovering the solution, participants had to indicate whether they had experienced insight during the solving process. After a delay of 14 days, a recall of solutions was conducted. Overall, 55 % of previously solved tricks were recalled correctly. Comparing insight and noninsight solutions, 64.4 % of all insight solutions were recalled correctly, whereas only 52.4 % of all noninsight solutions were recalled correctly. We interpret this finding as a facilitating effect of previous insight experiences on the recall of solutions.     

Rheological material functions for associating comb-shaped or H-shaped polymers A fractional calculus approach

Abstract

A rheological constitutive equation for associating comb-shaped or H-shaped polymer solutions is derived, which shows a unique power-law zone characterized by two time parameters and one power-law exponent in the terminal relaxation region. The constitutive equation is of fractional integral or fractional differential type and contains two additional parameters. A comparison with experimental data demonstrates very good agreement with the theoretical predictions. The material functions in the frequency domain represent a generalization of the well known Cole-Cole behaviour.     

On extremal axioms

In the paper translated here, Carnap and Bachmann shows that the apparently metalinguistic ‘extremal' axioms that are added to some axiom systems to the effect that the foregoing axioms are to apply as broadly, or as narrowly, as possible may be formulated directly as proper axioms. They analyze such axioms into four fundamental types, with the help of a concept of ‘complete’ isomorphism.     

Decision making under risk condition in patients with Parkinson's disease: a behavioural and fMRI study

We aimed to study whether previously described impairment in decision making under risky conditions in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) is affected by deficits in using information about potential incentives or by processing feedback (in terms of fictitious gains and losses following each decision). Additionally, we studied whether the neural correlates of using explicit information in decision making under risk differ between PD patients and healthy subjects. We investigated ten cognitively intact PD patients and twelve healthy subjects with the Game of Dice Task (GDT) to assess risky decision making, and with an fMRI paradigm to analyse the neural correlates of information integration in the deliberative decision phase. Behaviourally, PD patients showed selective impairment in the GDT but not on the fMRI task that did not include a feedback component. Healthy subjects exhibited lateral prefrontal, anterior cingulate and parietal activations when integrating decision-relevant information. Despite similar behavioural patterns on the fMRI task, patients exhibited reduced parietal activation. Behavioural results suggest that PD patients' deficits in risky decision making are dominated by impaired feedback utilization not compensable by intact cognitive functions. Our fMRI results suggest similarities but also differences in neural correlates when using explicit information for the decision process, potentially indicating different strategy application even if the interfering feedback component is excluded.