Conscious and Preconscious Uses of Memory in Patients with Depressive and Somatoform Disorders

This study investigated whether conscious and preconscious memory features contribute to discrimination between depressive and somatoform disorders. Thirty-one participants fulfilling the diagnostic criteria for a somatoform disorder and 28 participants fulfilling the criteria for depression were examined within the framework of the process–dissociation paradigm using neutral, health-threatening, and general threatening words in a lexical decision task. Parameters of conscious memory, preconscious memory, and chance were used to compare memory features of both the groups. There was an inverse relationship between conscious and preconscious memory effects for health-threatening stimuli in the group of patients with somatoform disorders but not in the group of depressive patients. Patients with somatoform disorders showed a significantly lower level of conscious memory for health-threatening stimuli than depressive participants. Compared to depressive patients, a more dynamic relationship between decreased conscious and increased preconscious memory for health-related stimuli seems to be characteristic for patients with somatoform disorders.     

Subjektive Einschätzung der eigenen Gesundheit und gesundheitsrelevantes Verhalten bei niedergelassenen Psychologischen Psychotherapeuten

From June until August 2004 we asked 488 established psychological psychotherapists in selected German federal states for a subjective evaluation of their own health, their utilization of the health care system and their health-related behavior. It turned out that the psychotherapists mainly reported a good state of health although their reported state of health was more negative than in the general population with equal age and level of education. This finding is surely connected with specific mental, physical and existential burdens of their profession as well as with specifics of the “psychotherapist personality”. The psychotherapists’ evaluations highly depend on age, but not significantly on sociodemographical criteria like gender and place of establishment (East/West Germany). Also the affiliation to a therapy school (psychoanalysis, depth psychological funded psychotherapy, behavior therapy) is irrelevant for the subjective evaluation of one’s own health. Concerning the annual number of consultations and disability days the psychotherapists are clearly below average. They report a lot of attentiveness about their health and practice a health-benefical behavior. In this case they make higher demands on themselves than the general population.     

Otherness and the problem of evil: How does that which is other become evil?

In seeking to answer the question “How does that which is other become evil?” the author provides a discussion of four entwined aspects of the issue at stake; (1) difficulty in achieving clarity on the grammar of evil; (2) genocide as a striking illustration of otherness becoming evil; (3) the challenge of postnationalism as a resource for dealing with otherness in the socio-political arena; and (4) the ethico-religious dimension as it relates to the wider problem of evil.     

Gender, Internet use, and sexual behavior orientation among young Nigerians.

This study examined the influence of gender and Internet use on the sexual behavior orientation of young adults in Nigeria. Using an ex-post-facto design, data were collected from a total of 231 participants. Results of the hierarchical regression model provided support for the influence of gender and Internet use on sexual behavior orientation among young Nigerians. Further, results also revealed an interaction effect; as the use of the Internet increased, male participants reported a greater extent of risky sexual behavior orientation than their female counterparts. The findings were explained in the context of the theoretical foundations of the study, while practical implications for combating youths' risky sexual behavior orientation were highlighted.     

Contexts of the commitment–citizenship link: A test of economic volatility in a dual organization setting

Research interest on the commitment–performance link persists, and recent efforts have focused on investigating the contextual factors due to the mixed outcome of the empirical studies. However, very limited study has examined the influence of economic factors including economic volatility, and none in the dual setting of the organization and the union. This study investigated the contextual influence of perceived inflation—an economic volatility construct—on commitment and extra-role performance. Exchange theory, with support from psychological contract and equity theories, was used to postulate two parallel, but competing models of the organization and the union. Using a sample of 247 unionized employees in southern U.S.A., the study tested the moderating effect of perceived inflation on the relation between commitment and citizenship intent. The results revealed three-way interactive effects in both models, in a dual commitment setting. Thus, the economic volatility construct acts as a situational constraint on the link between the attitudinal-based commitments and citizenship intent, but in the contexts of obligation and cost-based commitments to the organization and the union respectively. The implications of these mitigated effects are discussed.     

Metacognition during unfamiliar face matching

Kruger and Dunning (1999) described a metacognitive bias in which insight into performance is linked to competence: poorer performers are less aware of their mistakes than better performers. Competence-based insight has been argued to apply generally across task domains, including a recent report investigating social cognition using a variety of face-matching tasks. Problematically, serious statistical and methodological criticisms have been directed against the traditional method of analysis used by researchers in this field. Here, we further illustrate these issues and investigate new sources of insight within unfamiliar face matching. Over two experiments (total N = 1077), where Experiment 2 was a preregistered replication of the key findings from Experiment 1, we found that insight into performance was multi-faceted. Participants demonstrated insight which was not based on competence, in the form of accurate updating of estimated performance. We also found evidence of insight which was based on competence: the difference in confidence on correct versus incorrect trials increased with competence. By providing ways that we can move beyond problematic, traditional approaches, we have begun to reveal a more realistic story regarding the nature of insight into face perception.     

Van Inwagen and the Quine-Putnam indispensability argument

In this paper I do two things: (1) I support the claim that there is still some confusion about just what the Quine-Putnam indispensability argument is and the way it employs Quinean meta-ontology and (2) I try to dispel some of this confusion by presenting the argument in a way which reveals its important meta-ontological features, and include these features explicitly as premises. As a means to these ends, I compare Peter van Inwagen’s argument for the existence of properties with Putnam’s presentation of the indispensability argument. Van Inwagen’s argument is a classic exercise in Quinean meta-ontology and yet he claims – despite his argument’s conspicuous similarities to the Quine-Putnam argument – that his own has a substantially different form. I argue, however, that there is no such difference between these two arguments even at a very high level of specificity; I show that there is a detailed generic indispensability argument that captures the single form of both. The arguments are identical in every way except for the kind of objects they argue for – an irrelevant difference for my purposes. Furthermore, Putnam’s and van Inwagen’s presentations make an assumption that is often mistakenly taken to be an important feature of the Quine-Putnam argument. Yet this assumption is only the implicit backdrop against which the argument is typically presented. This last point is brought into sharper relief by the fact that van Inwagen’s list of the four nominalistic responses to his argument is too short. His list is missing an important – and historically popular – fifth option.