Generic Versus Catholic Hospital Chaplaincy: The Diversity of Spirits as a Problem of Inter-Faith Cooperation

Hospital chaplaincy, in its exposure to clients, colleagues,and care-takers from different faith backgrounds, can be understoodin either generic or catholic terms. The first understanding,often merely implicit in denominationalist approaches, assumesthat some "Absolute" can be prayerfully invoked through themedium of diverse rituals, confessions, and symbols. This positioncombines the advantage of unprejudiced acceptance of other creedsand traditions with the disadvantage of lacking resources fordiscriminating among the spiritualities that may be operativewithin those other creeds and traditions. Catholicism, in linkingtrue spirituality with the one true church as the mystical bodyof the Tri-une God, secures such a criterion but fails to satisfythe tolerance-of-acknowledgement in the secular sense, whichis canonical in contemporary ecumenism. The Orthodox understandingof Catholicism is portrayed as imposing a non-judgemental humilityand repentance which provides a solution to that spiritual-humandilemma of inter-faith cooperation in the hospital.     

Why patients should give thanks for their disease: traditional Christianity on the joy of suffering.

Patristic teaching about sin and disease allows supplementing well-acknowledged conditions for a Christian medicine with further personal challenges, widely disregarded in Western Christianities. A proper appreciation of man's vocation toward (not just achieving forgiveness but) deification reveals the need to cooperate with the Holy Spirit's offer of grace toward restoring man's pre-fallen nature. Ascetical exercises designed at re-establishing the spirit's mastery over the soul distance persons from (even supposedly harmless) passion. They thus inspire the struggle towards emulating Christ's (self-crucifying) kenotic love, and to accept even secularly "undeserved" suffering as spiritually deserved in view of his (forever) lacking fervor in that struggle. Only in the spirit of that love can the evil Adam's sin brought into this world work its therapeutic impact, the eschatological purpose of which explains God's lovingly permitting that evil. This therapeutic impact is physically manifested already in this life through the transforming energies granted the saints of the church.     

Positive maternal interaction behavior moderates the relation between maternal anxiety and infant regulatory problems

Regulatory problems in infancy are determined by different risk factors. This study aims to examine how psychosocial risk factors are connected, and how they impact the early regulatory ability of 3-month-old infants. In a sample of 57 mother–infant dyads, maternal anxiety and infant crying, sleeping and feeding habits were assessed. As a possible moderator, the role of positive maternal behavior was analyzed by videotaping face-to-face interactions. During the interaction, interactive stress was provoked with the face-to-face still-face paradigm (FFSF). Thus, this study differentiated between the effects of maternal behavior in both an ordinary play context, as well as a stressful interaction context. Results revealed that the relation between maternal anxiety and infant regulatory problems in crying and sleeping varied as a function of positive maternal engagement in stressful situations. However, a significant moderation effect influencing infant feeding problems could not be demonstrated. These findings stress the importance of positive maternal interaction behavior in at least some parts of regulatory adjustment of at-risk infants.     

Elternschaft, Krebs und Kindersorgen

Background

The diagnosis of parental cancer may destabilize the whole family, parents and children as well. The Hamburg children of somatically ill parents (COSIP) intervention supports parental skills and adaptation of children to the situation. There is currently no evidence for criteria to determine which family members should be involved in the COSIP intervention, predominantly the parents (parent setting), the children (child setting) or both (family setting).

Aim of the study

Data from a multicentre study were analyzed with respect to the predominant intervention settings, the correlation between setting and aims of intervention as well as variables that predict the involvement of children in the intervention.

Material and methods

A total of 203 documented cases were analyzed. Different variables that had been documented by the therapists were included in a regression analysis model in order to identify predictive variables.

Results

In 142 cases the intervention was carried out in a specific intervention setting. In 57?% of the cases children were involved (32?% family setting and 25?% child setting). A systematic relationship between the reported intervention aims and the intervention setting was not detected. The most powerful predictor was the existence of emotional problems of children as reported by the child itself.

Conclusions

Decision-making on intervention settings should therefore take the assessment of emotional symptoms of children by the means of age-appropriate self-reporting tools into consideration. Further investigations are needed to reveal variables concerning needs, motivation and capabilities of the family members as well as institutional conditions.     

When modesty wins: Impression management through modesty,political skill,and career success—a two-study investigation

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of employees' upward self-presentation through modesty and political skill on their subsequent career success. Study 1 used a predictive design over a 3 year period with 141 employees, controlling for age, gender, and self-esteem. Political skill positively moderated the relationship between employees' upward modesty and career success (attained position, career satisfaction) after 3 years. Study 2 (n = 132 employees) provided construct validation, demonstrating high discriminant validity of the impression management through modesty scale used in Study 1 with a trait-modesty scale, thus attenuating rival explanations of the findings in Study 1. Implications, limitations, and future directions for research are discussed.     

Effects of guided reflexivity and team feedback on team performance improvement: The role of team regulatory processes and cognitive emergent states

The effectiveness of decision-making teams depends largely on the quality of information processing. Prior research has shown that guided team reflexivity and team feedback are important means of advancing team information processing and outcomes. However, the nature of the relationships, and how these relate to team regulatory processes, cognitive emergent states, and ultimately team performance, is currently poorly understood. Drawing on reflexivity and team information-processing theory, we proposed and found that teams that received guided team reflexivity or a combination of both guided reflexivity and feedback showed higher levels of actual reflection than teams that received neither a reflexivity intervention nor feedback. Conditional process analysis showed that the effects of team reflection on team performance improvement were mediated by a path from shared team mental models to shared task mental models and to adaptation. Finally, we also expected that team reflection would be lower in virtual teams than in face-to-face teams. These hypotheses were tested experimentally among 98 student teams that communicated either face-to-face or virtual (via chat) while completing a collective decision-making task. The information distribution among team members constituted a hidden profile. The results supported all our hypotheses, except for the one relating to virtuality.     

Dopamin-Dysregulations-Syndrom bei Morbus Parkinson

Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease with the cardinal symptoms bradykinesia, rigidity and tremor. In 1817, James Parkinson already described in his "Essay on the Shaking Palsy" in addition to the motor symptoms also autonomic, cognitive and behavioral disturbances (Parkinson, An essay on the shaking palsy. Sherwood, Nealy and Jones, London, 1817). Their impact on quality of life has been underestimated until more recent times. Dopamine dysregulation syndrome is an iatrogenic disturbance, characterized by an addictive pattern of dopamine replacement therapy use. Despite good control of motor symptoms, patients often increase doses of dopamine replacement therapy in excess of those normally required. Consequently these behavioral disorders may also result in social and professional problems.     

Age differences in temporal discounting: the role of dispositional affect and anticipated emotions

We examined age differences in temporal discounting, the tendency to devalue delayed outcomes relative to immediate ones, with particular emphasis on the role of affective responses. A life-span sample completed an incentive-compatible temporal discounting task involving both monetary gains and losses. Covariates included demographic characteristics, cognitive functioning, personality traits, affective responses, and subjective health. Advanced age was associated with a lower tendency to discount the future, but this effect reached statistical significance only for the discounting of delayed gains. An examination of covariates suggested that age effects were associated with age differences in mental health and affective responses rather than demographic or cognitive variables.     

Seelische Gesundheitsvorsorge f��r Kinder krebskranker Eltern

Children of cancer patients are increasingly being paid attention to as target group for family-based mental health prevention concepts in psychosocial oncology. Based on the long-term experiences with the concept Children of Somatically Ill Parents (COSIP) for child-centred medical family counselling, which was developed at the counselling service COSIP at the Hamburg University Medical Centre, a specialized manual was developed for the context of psychosocial care in oncology, which is currently being tested in a multi-center approach. In this article the theoretical framework and the practical steps of this manualized concept in caring for families with a parent having cancer are summarized. Characteristic elements are the flexible handling of the three system levels parents, family and child in the counselling setting as well as focussing on previously defined intervention goals which are expected to strengthen the coping resources in the family and the children. Perspectives for clinical practice and research are discussed.