Short- and long-term effectiveness of two communication training modalities with distressed couples

Abstract

Communication training is a widely practiced therapeutic approach for the treatment of marital discord. Although there is some empirical support for the theoretical assumptions underlying constructive communication patterns, it has not yet been ascertained whether changing these behaviors is sufficient in bringing about stable changes in distressed marriages. The present study was designed to investigate the efficacy of this treatment approach in a conjoint and conjoint group modality. Following therapy, conjoint couples (n = 16) when compared with a waiting list control group (n = 17) showed improvement on five of the seven outcome variables. Couples in the conjoint group modality (n = 13) improved on only two of the seven variables. Follow-up assessments one year after treatment showed that initial gains had been substantially reduced. On the basis of these results it is now open to question whether conjoint group treatments are an appropriate treatment modality for even moderately distressed couples.     

Towards a decolonized assessment of the religious other

When confronted by the plurality of religions (and the corresponding plurality of claims to truth), believers usually resort either to absolutism or relativism. The absolutist evaluates the religious other in view of criteria with which the latter does not agree. The religious other is thus being colonized by a hegemony (i.e. enforced homogeneity) of standards. In an attempt to transcend this hegemonic colonization, the relativist, on the other hand, simply surrenders the evaluation of the beliefs and practices of the religious other to subjective arbitrariness. This attempt at the decolonization of the religious other defeats itself, in so far as it deprives us of the right to criticise the beliefs and practices of any other, including the colonizing other. Avoiding both absolutism and relativism calls for an interreligious common scale which will, as such, allow the ‘objective’ or non-arbitrary evaluation of religious beliefs and practices. This scale can only, if at all, be identified through an ongoing interreligious dialogue which respects the particularity, individuality and historicity—or, in short, the non-foundational nature—of both religious and meta-religious beliefs. As such, interreligious dialogue constitutes the first step towards an effective decolonization of the religious other.     

The affective priming effect: Automatic activation of evaluative information in memory

Abstract

Fazio, Sanbonmatsu, Powell, and Kardes (1986) argued that affect may be activated automatically from memory on the mere observation of an affect-loaded stimulus. Using a variant of the standard sequential priming paradigm, it was demonstrated that the time needed to evaluate target words as positive or negative decreased if they were preceded by a similarly valenced prime word, but increased when preceded by a prime of opposite valence. Several aspects of their procedure, however, do not warrant their conclusion concerning the unconditionality of the effect. The present research investigated the generality of this affective priming effect. In Experiment 1, it was tested whether the effect can be generalised to more complex visual material. Stimulus pairs consisted of colour slides. Subjects had to evaluate the targets as quickly as possible. In Experiment 2, the standard word-word procedure was used, but target words had to be pronounced. In both experiments, significant affective priming effects were observed, supporting Bargh, Chaiken, Govender, and Pratto's (1992) assertion that the automatic activation effect is a pervasive and relative unconditional phenomenon. Implications for theories of affect and emotion are discussed.     

Systemische Familien- und Spieltherapie im Krankenhaus

Studies on children after pediatric liver transplantation have shown that patients are confronted with various psychosocial problems due to the illness and long hospitalization. They do not have suitable coping strategies available to handle this situation. A concept of systemic family therapy and play therapy for children in hospital was thus developed. The patients and their families are accompanied during hospitalization, are supported preventively and are helped in developing suitable strategies for coping with the psychosocial stress.     

Comparing mislocalizations with moving stimuli: The Fröhlich effect,the flash-lag,and representational momentum

When observers are asked to localize the onset or the offset position of a moving target, they typically make localization errors in the direction of movement. Similarly, when observers judge a moving target that is presented in alignment with a flash, the target appears to lead the flash. These errors are known as the Fröhlich effect, representational momentum, and flash-lag effect, respectively. This study compared the size of the three mislocalization errors. In Experiment 1, a flash appeared either simultaneously with the onset, the mid-position, or the offset of the moving target. Observers then judged the position where the moving target was located when the flash appeared. Experiments 2 and 3 are exclusively concerned with localizing the onset and the offset of the moving target. When observers localized the position with respect to the point in time when the flash was presented, a clear mislocalization in the direction of movement was observed at the initial position and the mid-position. In contrast, a mislocalization opposite to movement direction occurred at the final position. When observers were asked to ignore the flash (or when no flash was presented at all), a reduced error (or no error) was observed at the initial position and only a minor error in the direction of the movement occurred at the final position. An integrative model is proposed, which suggests a common underlying mechanism, but emphasizes the specific processing components of the Fröhlich effect, flash-lag effect, and representational momentum.     

A matter of design: No representational momentum without predictability

When observers are asked to localize the final position of a moving target, a forward shift of the judged final position is observed. So far, the forward shift has been attributed to the influence of mental continuation of the final target position (representational momentum). However, studies investigating forward displacement have used highly predictable target motion. The direction of target motion and the final target position were often varied between subjects. Thus, observers may have expected the target to travel in a particular direction or vanish at a particular location before a given trial started. In this study, direction of motion and final position were treated as fixed or random factors. The forward shift and the reversal of the shift with time (memory averaging) were absent when both factors were randomized. Thus, the forward shift with implied motion is restricted to repeatedly observed motion sequences that allow for pre-trial motion prediction.     

Misleading postevent information and working memory capacity: an individual differences approach to eyewitness memory

The present study examines how individual differences in working memory capacity relate to the effect of misleading postevent information on memory for the original event. Participants were shown a film of a crime event and were then asked to unscramble a narrative that included misinformation regarding some of the film's details. Additionally, the working memory capacity of the participants was measured using the operation‐word span task. Finally, in a free recall test, participants recalled fewer correct details in the misinformation condition compared to the control condition. This effect was negatively correlated with working memory capacity. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Das Ontologische Dilemma der Normativen Ethik

The Ontological Dilemma of Normative Ethics. This paper pursues two goals. The first is to show that normative ethics is confronted with the following dilemma: to be coherent, this discipline is ontologically committed to acknowledge the existence of objective values, but, to be scientifically respectable, it is committed to repudiate such values. The second goal is to assess the possible solutions to this dilemma. To this end, the following strategies are discussed: Kant’s constructive objectivism, Jürgen Habermas’ “epistemic ersatzism”, Franz von Kutschera’s “confirmation pragmatism”, and David Brink’s “objectivist tour de force”. The paper’s conclusion is that the dilemma cannot be solved because it rests on a clash of intuitions none of which can be given up. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.