A typology of religious attitudes among young people in Germany

Issues like faith and Church, religion and religiousness are not valued particularly highly among the young. At the same time a search for the meaning of life and an orientation in one’s own behaviour still seem to be significant and transcendent focal points are being sought to deal with these issues. This article questions the value that religion, faith and the Church have for young people on the basis of empirical data. Five types of religious orientation of young people are identified: a churchly Christian type, an autonomously Christian type, a conventionally religious type, an autonomously religious type and, finally, a non‐religious type. The empirical data are taken from a study of about 800 pupils in the Grade 11 (age 16–17 years) from grammar schools (Gymnasien) in Germany.     

Therapeutic processes in group therapy: Intersections between general change mechanisms and motivational stages of change from patient perspective

Intersections between Grawe’s General Psychotherapy and Prochaska’s Transtheoretical Model were investigated in group therapy in a longitudinal design. It was assumed that general change mechanisms have an impact on patients’ stages of change. Specifically, the main hypotheses were that experiential change mechanisms (ECM; clarification of meaning, problem actuation, emotional bond and group cohesion) should be especially relevant for early stages of change (precontemplation and contemplation), whereas behavioral change mechanisms (BCM; resource activation, mastery/coping and task and goals) should be especially relevant for late stages of change (action and maintenance). Therefore, 140 outpatients attending different types of group therapy, with a typical duration of 8 sessions, were investigated. Patients completed the Form for the Evaluation of Therapeutic Processes in Group Therapy (FEPiG), the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment, short version (URICA-S) and several symptomatology measures (BDI-II, BSCL and IIP-32) at two measuring times. Intersections were analysed through correlational analyses, cross-lagged panels and a path-analytic model, supporting the hypotheses. Specifically, results suggested that experiencing ECM at t1 predicted higher levels of reported contemplation at t2. Patients experiencing higher levels of BCM at t1 reported higher levels of action at t2. Clinical implications of the results are discussed.     

Augmented visual, auditory, haptic, and multimodal feedback in motor learning: A review

It is generally accepted that augmented feedback, provided by a human expert or a technical display, effectively enhances motor learning. However, discussion of the way to most effectively provide augmented feedback has been controversial. Related studies have focused primarily on simple or artificial tasks enhanced by visual feedback. Recently, technical advances have made it possible also to investigate more complex, realistic motor tasks and to implement not only visual, but also auditory, haptic, or multimodal augmented feedback. The aim of this review is to address the potential of augmented unimodal and multimodal feedback in the framework of motor learning theories. The review addresses the reasons for the different impacts of feedback strategies within or between the visual, auditory, and haptic modalities and the challenges that need to be overcome to provide appropriate feedback in these modalities, either in isolation or in combination. Accordingly, the design criteria for successful visual, auditory, haptic, and multimodal feedback are elaborated.     

Phylo- and ontogenetic fears and the expectation of danger: differences between spider- and flight-phobic subjects in cognitive and physiological responses to disorder-specific stimuli

To compare specific phobias with an assumed phylogenetic or ontogenetic origin in responses to fear-relevant (FR) stimuli, 17 spider- and 17 flight-phobic participants were exposed to pictures of spiders, flight accidents, or mushrooms randomly followed by either a startling noise or nothing else. While both groups showed a disorder-specific expectancy bias, only spider-phobic participants exhibited a disorder-specific covariation bias. Spider-phobic participants also showed enhanced skin conductance responses (SCRs), event-related brain potentials (ERPs), and startle responses triggered by disorder-specific FR pictures while flight-phobic participants showed only disorder-specific enhanced SCRs. In sum, our direct comparison between ontogenetic and phylogenetic phobias revealed that the former is characterized by biased and enhanced responses triggered by disorder-specific FR stimuli presumably based on a biological preparedness.     

Patienten mit einer wahnhaften Depression in der Maßregel nach § 63 StGB

Delinquency of depressed patients numerically plays a minor role in criminal or civil law. Compared with the high prevalence of affective disorders in the general population, the frequency of patients in forensic psychiatric hospitals with the respective disorder as a main diagnosis is low. The spectrum of possible crimes committed by depressed subjects essentially comprises disease-characteristic offences, amongst which cases of extended suicide or attempted suicide are the foremost and most tragic offences. Based on 2 case reports notions of extended suicide as well as questions of forensic assessment are discussed.     

马克思主义与文化理论

马尔库什是东欧新马克思主义重要流派——布达佩斯学派的主要成员之一,早年与赫勒等人师从卢卡奇进行哲学和社会学研究。上个世纪70年代,由于政治原因,他被迫移居国外。马尔库什因与赫勒、费赫尔合著的《对需要的专政》以及专著《马克思主义与人类学》等理论研究而闻名。在本文中,他从马克思关于文化问题论述中所涉及到的三个概念——"基础与上层建筑","意识形态"和"文化生产"入手,对三者的内涵、价值及存在的悖论进行了个人阐述。     

Sources of Kant’s Cosmopolitanism: Basedow,Rousseau, and Cosmopolitan Education

The goal of this essay is to analyse the influence of Johann Bernhard Basedow and Rousseau on Kant’s cosmopolitanism and concept of cosmopolitan education. It argues that both Basedow and Kant defined cosmopolitan education as non-denominational moral formation or Bildung, encompassing—in different forms—a thin version of moral religion following the core tenets of Christianity. Kant’s encounter with Basedow and the Philanthropinum in Dessau helps to understand the development of Kant’s concept of cosmopolitanism and educational theory ‘in weltbürgerlicher Absicht’. Rousseau’s role is more complex: he clearly influenced Kant; he is usually considered a precursor of modern nationalism and national education; and recent studies have stressed the cosmopolitan dimension of his educational programme. I claim that the dilemma of education according to Rousseau is that one has to choose between education of homme or education of citoyen, and that there is no way to avoid or go beyond this stark alternative. Kant’s reinterpretation of Rousseau is favourable and creative and has found many followers up to the present, but is misleading, as he ignores the dilemma and imposes his own conception of cosmopolitanism, of cosmopolitan education and of (possible) progress in history on Rousseau while claiming that this was actually Rousseau’s message.