Goals and everyday problem solving: examining the link between age-related goals and problem-solving strategy use

Qualitative interviews on family and financial problems from 332 adolescents, young, middle-aged, and older adults, demonstrated that developmentally relevant goals predicted problem-solving strategy use over and above problem domain. Four focal goals concerned autonomy, generativity, maintaining good relationships with others, and changing another person. We examined both self- and other-focused problem-solving strategies. Autonomy goals were associated with self-focused instrumental problem solving and generative goals were related to other-focused instrumental problem solving in family and financial problems. Goals of changing another person were related to other-focused instrumental problem solving in the family domain only. The match between goals and strategies, an indicator of problem-solving adaptiveness, showed that young individuals displayed the greatest match between autonomy goals and self-focused problem solving, whereas older adults showed a greater match between generative goals and other-focused problem solving. Findings speak to the importance of considering goals in investigations of age-related differences in everyday problem solving.     

Neuropsychological Functioning in Children with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been associated with deficits in the areas of verbal memory and learning, executive functioning, working memory, and attention in adults. Findings have been less consistent in the few studies examining neuropsychological functioning in childhood PTSD, which are often limited by comparing children with PTSD to children without trauma histories, making it unclear whether observed neuropsychological deficits are related to trauma exposure or to PTSD symptomatology. In an ethnically diverse sample of 62 children who witnessed intimate partner violence (n = 27 PTSD+ and 35 PTSD?), children with PTSD exhibited slower and less effective learning, heightened sensitivity to interference, and impaired effect of rehearsal on memory acquisition on the California Verbal Learning Test – Children's Version, a word list learning task. Both groups performed in the below average range on measures of executive functioning, attention, and intellectual ability.     

Sexualit?t und Internet

On the discussion about sexual internet activities, the professional and public discourses have been strongly polarized for a long time. Currently the trend is that online sexuality is to be seen in a differentiated and empirical manner. Next to undesired (e.g. assault by internet platform) or indirect (e.g. due to excessive pornography use by partners) confrontations with online sexuality, there is a broad spectrum of self-initiated sexual use of the internet. These are, for example reception of information sites, exchange of experiences, utilization of online sexual consultation and romantic relationships. On the other hand clinically relevant problems could accompany sexual internet use, such as cybersex addiction. Because of the mediatization in society ambulant patients in the psychotherapeutic practice are more informed about sexual internet use. For psychotherapists it is important to know the internet-specific details and the potential risks and chances for sexual behavior in order to know how to deal with the situation and if necessary to integrate the internet into the spectrum of web-based sexual therapeutic options.     

Linking safety knowledge to safety behaviours: a moderated mediation of supervisor and worker safety attitudes

The thousands of deaths and disabilities due to workplace accidents and injuries each year emphasize the importance of safety research. Despite occupational safety research that has contributed to identifying antecedents of safety, little is known about why and how safety knowledge leads to safety behaviours and how personal and situational factors interact to promote occupational safety. Using a multilevel, multisource, and time-lagged research design, the present study investigates whether safety knowledge affects safety behaviours through safety attitudes and further tests whether supervisory safety attitudes can impact the strength of these relationships and play a role as moderators of the proposed mediated relationship. Data were collected from workers (N = 177) and supervisors (N = 42) in a construction company in the energy industry at two time points. Results indicate full support for the moderated mediation model, demonstrating that worker safety attitudes partially mediate the relationship between safety knowledge and safety behaviours. Moreover, when supervisors had positive attitudes towards safety, both the direct relationship between worker safety attitudes and safety behaviours and the indirect relationship between safety knowledge and safety behaviours were more positive compared to when supervisors had negative safety attitudes. Theoretical and practical implications for occupational safety are discussed.     

Gender-stereotyped preferences in childhood and early adolescence: A comparison of cross-sectional and longitudinal data

Children are exposed to a gender-specific environment on an everyday basis through media, books, school supplies and especially toys. Children’s movies and television programs were found to portray protagonists’ occupational and private roles in a very traditional, gender-stereotypical way. The present two studies aimed to investigate gender-specific preferences in childhood and early adolescence. Cross-sectional data (study 1) were compared to longitudinal one (study 2) as we specifically aimed to investigate changes in gender preferences over time. A person-oriented approach, namely Configural Frequency Analysis was applied, to categorically analyze the relationship and development of gender-stereotyped preferences throughout childhood and early adolescence. Consistent with former studies, study 1 showed that gender-stereotypical preferences increased by age, for boys to a higher extent than for girls. By the age of twelve, these preferences had decreased supporting the theory of Kohlberg that children’s gender-stereotypic preferences continuously grow until around six years of age to finally lower thereafter. Gender-specific preferences generally became much more flexible over time.     

Station?re Psychotherapie und Medien

Background

According to several studies the application of different media in inpatient psychotherapy and psychiatry has proven to be a useful and effective addition to conventional methods of intervention. This study is the first to catalogue the current spread of media in inpatient treatment as well as the evaluations of media-supported interventions by therapists and patients.

Sample and method

In a representative survey conducted in all psychiatric and psychosomatic clinics in North-Rhine/Westphalia (response: 40 psychologists/doctors and 289 patients from 39 clinics) media equipment, usage of media in different areas, evaluation of and satisfaction with the media usage were measured by a questionnaire which was constructed especially for this purpose.

Results

A widespread usage and acceptance of media could only be found in some areas. The study identified large differences in equipment standards and media usage depending on the type of media, the area of usage and the specific clinic.

Conclusion

Recommendations for the further development and optimization of media usage in inpatient psychotherapy are derived from the results of this study.     

Evaluation of a DVD-based self-help program in highly socially anxious individuals--pilot study

High social anxiety is a risk factor for the incidence of social anxiety disorder (SAD). Early diagnosis and intervention may prevent more severe psychiatric courses. Self-help programs may be a convenient, accessible, and effective intervention. This study examined the efficacy of a newly developed self-help program for SAD in individuals with subthreshold social anxiety. A total of 24 highly socially anxious individuals were randomly assigned to a DVD-based self-help program or to a wait-list control group. The self-help program is based on the cognitive model according to Clark and Wells (1995; adapted to German by Stangier, Clark, & Ehlers, 2006) and comprises eight sessions. ANOVAs based on an intention-to-treat model were used for data analyses. The self-help program was well accepted; just one person withdrew during the intervention. There were significant Time × Group interactions on all primary outcome measures. For the intervention group moderate to high within-groups effect sizes up to Cohen's d = 1.05 were obtained. Between-groups effect sizes ranged from 0.24 to 0.65 in favor of the active intervention. The newly developed DVD-based self-help program seems to be a promising intervention for highly socially anxious individuals as it reduces social anxiety symptoms.