Philosophy of Education in a Poor Historical Moment: A Personal Account

Under the post-metaphysical sky “old” humanistic-oriented education is possible solely at the cost of its transformation into its negative, into a power that is determined to diminish human potentials for self-exaltation. Nothing less than total metamorphosis is needed to rescue the core of humanistic genesis: the quest for edifying Life and resistance to the call for “home-returning” into the total harmony that is promised to us within nothingness.     

Assessing Facets of Mindfulness in the Context of Work: The Mindfulness@Work Scale as a Work-Specific,Multidimensional Measure of Mindfulness

The mindfulness at work literature lacks a multi-faceted measure of mindfulness that is applicable in the work context. Building on predominantly clinically oriented, multi-faceted mindfulness measures, we aimed to develop and validate such a measure and to provide first insights into differential validities of mindfulness subfacets for work outcomes. Data from seven work samples (overall n = 4,977) provided support that (a) a 4-factor structure representing the subfacets of Describing, Nonreactivity, Nonjudging, and Act with Awareness replicates across samples; (b) subfacets and overall scale have good internal consistency and retest reliability; (c) the measure demonstrates convergent and discriminant validity; (d) it demonstrates criterion-related validity for well-being, motivational, and interpersonal work outcomes; (e) the Mindfulness@Work Scale explains variance in outcome variables above a unidimensional measures of mindfulness supporting its incremental validity. Furthermore, relative weights and incremental validity analyses revealed differential validities of subfacets of the Mindfulness@Work Scale in relation to positive psychological states versus psychological distress. Overall, findings suggest that the Mindfulness@Work Scale has good psychometric properties and that a differentiation of subfacets provides novel insights into the role of mindfulness for work outcomes.     

The Role of Differentiation of Self in Predicting Rumination and Emotion Regulation Difficulties

Contemporary Family Therapy - The present study examined the predictive power of differentiation of self on rumination and emotion regulation difficulties. The participants (n?=?300),...     

Grandiose narcissism,depression and suicide ideation in Chinese and German students

Current Psychology - In Western cultural context, grandiose (overt) narcissism has been shown to be either unrelated or negatively related to negative mental health (depression, suicide ideation)....     

Pain perception,distress tolerance and self-compassion in Turkish young adults with and without a history of non-suicidal self-injury

Current Psychology - Individuals with a history of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) tend to have altered pain perception and difficulty in regulating their emotions. Previous work on NSSI has relied...     

Preference for Human (vs. Robotic) Labor is Stronger in Symbolic Consumption Contexts

Advances in robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence increasingly enable firms to replace human labor with technology, thereby fundamentally transforming how goods and services are produced. From both managerial and societal points of view, it is therefore important to understand demand‐side incentives for firms to employ human labor. We begin to address this question by examining for which products and services consumers are more likely to favor human (vs. robotic) labor. In six studies, we demonstrate that consumers prefer human (vs. robotic) labor more for products with higher (vs. lower) symbolic value (e.g., when expressing something about one's beliefs and personality is of greater importance). We theorize that this is because consumers have stronger uniqueness motives in more (vs. less) symbolic consumption contexts (and associate human labor more strongly with product uniqueness). In line with this account, we demonstrate that individual differences in need for uniqueness moderate the interaction between production mode and symbolic motives and that a measure of uniqueness motives mediates the effect of consumption context on preferences for human (vs. robotic) production.     

Teachers’ perceived time pressure,emotional exhaustion and the role of social support from the school principal

Social Psychology of Education - Many teachers experience high levels of work-related strain due to time pressure, which over time can lead to various health problems, such as emotional exhaustion....     

Psychometric properties and measurement invariance of Depression,Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS-21) across cultures

Cross-culturally measurement invariant instruments are useful for the assessment of mental symptoms across cultures. The current study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS-21) (DASS) across Pakistan and Germany. German participants were recruited through an online survey (N = 1323), while Pakistani participants were recruited through online survey or paper-and-pencil survey (N = 1841). The DASS-21 showed good reliability, construct and structure validity in both countries. The DASS-21 indicated partial weak (stress subscale) and partial strong measurement invariance (depression and anxiety subscales) between both countries. Latent mean comparison of depression and anxiety symptoms between Pakistani and German students indicated that Pakistani university students experience more symptoms of depression and anxiety. Results suggest that the DASS-21 could be used in Pakistan and Germany, but caution should be taken when making direct comparisons between the two countries.     

Motivation and anxiety for dental treatment and dental attendance: The roles of the locus of causality personality and treatment styles

The purpose of the present study was to test a self-determination theory model with the following hypotheses: (1) Patients’ autonomous causality personality orientation and oral health care professionals’ autonomy-supportive treatment styles, as perceived by patients, would both be positively indirectly associated with dental attendance through patients’ autonomous motivation for dental treatment. (2) Patients’ controlled causality personality orientation and oral health care professionals’ controlling treatment styles, as perceived by patients, would both be positively indirectly associated with avoidance of making a dental clinic appointment through patients’ anxiety for dental treatment. A sample size of about 200 patients was estimated to be acceptable in detecting moderate effect sizes (independent variables: 5–6; power: .80; p < .05). Student patients (N = 226) responded to a survey with validated questionnaires. Using LISREL, both hypotheses were supported. In addition, patients’ perception of a controlling treatment style moderated the controlled personality—dental anxiety relation, so that a lower controlling treatment style mitigated dental anxiety substantially among patients with a high control orientation. Effect sizes were moderate to large. Analyses (Z-scores) also revealed that the autonomous personality is more strongly linked to situational autonomous motivation than situational autonomy support, whereas a controlled personality and a perceived controlling treatment style are equally and significantly associated to dental anxiety. Both patient personalities and oral health care professionals’ treatment styles are substantially linked to autonomous motivation and anxiety for dental treatment, which are relatively strongly associated with dental attendance and avoiding dental clinic appointments, respectively.