Integrative Beratung

An integrative psychological and psychotherapeutic model of counseling is presented, which is derived from scientifically accepted psychotherapy approaches and can be described as the ABCDE model of counseling. In this model, Alliance refers to the stable and helping alliance between counselor and client. Behavioral strategies are incorporated that are theoretically grounded in behavioral interventions. Dysfunctional attitudes and thinking styles are analyzed and modified on the level of the Cognitions involved. The Dynamics of psychological and social conflicts are illuminated by understanding of the transference/countertransference situation. Existential elements are basic life themes such as personal growth and creativity. These elements are connected in a recursive way and combined under a resource-oriented and solution-focused perspective. Within the different stages of the counseling process they may vary in importance with hermeneutic understanding serving as a background of communication.     

The Berlin Affective Word List Reloaded (BAWL-R)

The study presented here provides researchers with a revised list of affective German words, the Berlin Affective Word List Reloaded (BAWL-R). This work is an extension of the previously published BAWL (V?, Jacobs, & Conrad, 2006), which has enabled researchers to investigate affective word processing with highly controlled stimulus material. The lack of arousal ratings, however, necessitated a revised version of the BAWL. We therefore present the BAWL-R, which is the first list that not only contains a large set of psycholinguistic indexes known to influence word processing, but also features ratings regarding emotional arousal, in addition to emotional valence and imageability. The BAWL-R is intended to help researchers create stimulus material for a wide range of experiments dealing with the affective processing of German verbal material.     

The Affective Style Questionnaire: Development and Psychometric Properties

Affective style is an individual difference variable that refers to tendencies for regulating emotions. The emotion research literature has consistently identified three general strategies to handle emotional reactions: some strategies are aimed at re-adjusting affect to adapt successfully to situational demands; other strategies are intended to conceal or suppress affect; and a third approach is to tolerate and accept emotions, including unwanted and aversive reactions. We conducted two studies to develop a self-report measure to assess these affective styles. In the first study (n = 434), a list of 127 items related to this construct was administered. A factor analysis supported three factors: habitual attempts to conceal or suppress affect (Concealing subscale; 8 items), a general ability to manage, adjust, and work with emotions as needed (Adjusting subscale; 7 items), and an accepting and tolerant attitude toward emotions (Tolerating subscale; 5 items). The scale showed satisfactory internal consistency. Furthermore, the respective subscales showed different patterns of relations with existing instruments measuring similar constructs. Findings were cross-validated in an independent sample (n = 495). The factor structure and results of psychometric analyses were replicated. The final 20-item Affective Style Questionnaire is a brief instrument to measure individual differences in emotion regulation.     

Moderne Antidepressivatherapie

In den letzten drei Jahrzehnten ist es, mit der Entwicklung der so genannten selektiven Serotonin-Wiederaufnahmehemmer (SSRI), zu einer Revolution in der Behandlung der Depression gekommen. Mit dieser Produktgruppe war es erstmals m?glich, depressive Erkrankungen mittels einfacher Strategien (1 × 1 Dosierung) bei hoher Effektivit?t durchzuführen. So haben die Antidepressiva einen Siegeszug um die Welt angetreten und geh?ren heute zu den am h?ufigsten verschriebenen Medikamenten überhaupt. Gerade dadurch wurde eine neue ?ra moderner, antidepressiver Pharmakotherapie eingeleitet. Einer der wesentlichen Effekte dürfte darin liegen, dass in den industrialisierten Staaten seit der Einführung der SSRI die Suizidraten rückl?ufig sind - was eine sensationelle Entwicklung moderner Behandlungsstrategien in der Psychiatrie reflektiert.     

Stuck in the middle: the many moral challenges with bariatric surgery

Bariatric surgery is effective on short- and medium-term weight loss, reduction of comorbidities, and overall mortality. A large and increasing portion of the population is eligible for bariatric surgery, which increases instant health care costs. A review of the literature identifies a series of ethical challenges: unjust distribution of bariatric surgery, autonomy and informed consent, classification of obesity and selecting assessment endpoints, prejudice among health professionals, intervention in people's life-world, and medicalization of appearance. Bariatric surgery is particularly interesting because it uses surgical methods to modify healthy organs, is not curative, but offers symptoms relief for a condition that it is considered to result from lack of self-control and is subject to significant prejudice. Taking the reviewed ethical issues into account is important when meeting persons eligible for bariatric surgery, as well as in the assessment of and decision making on surgery for obesity.     

The Importance of Culture in Cognitive and Behavioral Practice

The contributions of this special series highlight the importance of culture in cognitive-behavioral therapies. People who grow up in different cultures not only think about different things, but also seem to think differently. In other words, culture seems to shape and determine a person’s way of perceiving and reasoning. Therefore, cognitive-behavioral therapies need to be adapted to the client's cultural background and beliefs. This maximizes the likelihood that treatment strategies that have been found to be effective in one culture are also effective in another culture.     

Simple Co‐Occurrence Statistics Reproducibly Predict Association Ratings

What determines human ratings of association? We planned this paper as a test for association strength (AS) that is derived from the log likelihood that two words co‐occur significantly more often together in sentences than is expected from their single word frequencies. We also investigated the moderately correlated interactions of word frequency, emotional valence, arousal, and imageability of both words (r's ≤ .3). In three studies, linear mixed effects models revealed that AS and valence reproducibly account for variance in the human ratings. To understand further correlated predictors, we conducted a hierarchical cluster analysis and examined the predictors of four clusters in competitive analyses: Only AS and word2vec skip‐gram cosine distances reproducibly accounted for variance in all three studies. The other predictors of the first cluster (number of common associates, (positive) point‐wise mutual information, and word2vec CBOW cosine) did not reproducibly explain further variance. The same was true for the second cluster (word frequency and arousal); the third cluster (emotional valence and imageability); and the fourth cluster (consisting of joint frequency only). Finally, we discuss emotional valence as an important dimension of semantic space. Our results suggest that a simple definition of syntagmatic word contiguity (AS) and a paradigmatic measure of semantic similarity (skip‐gram cosine) provide the most general performance‐independent explanation of association ratings.