Ressourcenaktivierung bei Patienten

Background

Starting from Klaus Grawe’s draft of a general psychotherapy, the patient’s resources and resource-activating interventions have received increasing attention in empirical research.

Objective

The effectiveness of standardized writing instructions for the activation of patients’ resources before participating in internet chat aftercare groups for psychosomatic patients was examined.

Method

In a randomized controlled trial writing instruction for the activation of patients’ resources was given in 52 out of 102 internet chat aftercare sessions. The effects of this minimal intervention on the patients’ activity and the number of positive emotion words expressed during the chat session were examined. Additionally, the effects on patients’ self-esteem, attachment, orientation, control and well-being after the group sessions were assessed.

Results

Patients reported higher levels of self-esteem, orientation, control and well-being after chat sessions with a resource-activating intervention. No differences between intervention and control groups were detected on the text-based variables activity and number of positive emotion words.

Conclusions

Standardized minimal interventions for the activation of patients’ resources seem to be promising for enhancing the effectiveness of therapeutic Internet chat groups.     

Darwin,Schleiden, Whewell,and the “London Doctors”: Evolutionism and Microscopical Research in the Nineteenth Century

This paper discusses some philosophical and historical connections between, and within, nineteenth century evolutionism and microscopical research. The principal actors are mainly Darwin, Schleiden, Whewell and the “London Doctors,” Arthur Henfrey and Edwin Lankester. I demonstrate that the apparent alliances—particularly Darwin/Schleiden (through evolutionism) and Schleiden/Whewell (through Kantian philosophy of science)—obscure the deep methodological differences between evolutionist and microscopical biology that lingered on until the mid-twentieth century. Through an understanding of the little known significance of Schleiden’s programme of microscopical research and by comparing certain features of his methodology to the activities of the “London Doctors,” we can identify the origin of this state of affairs. In addition, the outcome provides an insight into a critique of Buchdahl’s view on Schleiden’s philosophical conception.     

Psychogenic amnesia – A malady of the constricted self

Autobiographical–episodic memory is the conjunction of subjective time, autonoetic consciousness and the experiencing self. Understanding the neural correlates of autobiographical–episodic memory might therefore be essential for shedding light on the neurobiology underlying the experience of being an autonoetic self. In this contribution we illustrate the intimate relationship between autobiographical–episodic memory and self by reviewing the clinical and neuropsychological features and brain functional imaging correlates of psychogenic amnesia – a condition that is usually characterized by severely impaired retrograde memory functioning, in absence of structural brain damage as detected by standard imaging. We demonstrate that in this disorder the autobiographical–episodic memory deficits do not exist in isolation, but occur with impairments of the autonoetic self-consciousness, emotional processing, and theory of mind or executive functions. Furthermore functional and metabolic brain alterations involving regions that are agreed upon to exert crucial roles in memory processes were frequently found to accompany the psychogenic memory “loss”.     

Bibliometric reflections on the history of consumer research

This article analyzes citation data for over 7000 articles published in the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, and Journal of Consumer Research between 1936 and the end of 2009 to address five questions relating to the history of consumer research: What types of articles have been influential in consumer research? Does consumer research have sleeping beauties and shooting stars? How do consumer researchers achieve impact? Has consumer research become more or less influential over time? And finally, how much do older articles inform current consumer research?'     

An investigation of brain processes supporting meditation

Meditation is an ancient spiritual practice, which aims to still the fluctuations of the mind. We investigated meditation with fMRI in order to identify and characterise both the “neural switch” mechanism used in the voluntary shift from normal consciousness to meditation and the “threshold regulation mechanism” sustaining the meditative state. Thirty-one individuals with 1.5–25 years experience in meditation were scanned using a blocked on–off design with 45 s alternating epochs during the onset of respectively meditation and normal relaxation. Additionally, 21 subjects were scanned during 14.5 min of sustained meditation. The data were analysed with SPM and ICA. During the onset of meditation, activations were found bilaterally in the putamen and the supplementary motor cortex, while deactivations were found predominately in the right hemisphere, the precuneus, the posterior cingulum and the parieto–temporal area. During sustained meditation, SPM analysis revealed activation in the head of nucleus caudatus. Extensive deactivations were observed in white matter in the right hemisphere, i.e. mainly in the posterior occipito–parieto–temporal area and in the frontal lobes. ICA identified 38 components including known baseline-resting state components, one of which not only overlaps with the activated area revealed in the SPM analysis but extends further into frontal, temporal, parietal and limbic areas, and might presumably constitute a combination of frontoparietal and cinguloopercular task control systems. The identified component processes display varying degrees of correlation. We hypothesise that a proper characterisation of brain processes during meditation will require an operational definition of brain dynamics matching a stable state of mind.     

A hidden markov model-based analysis framework using eye-tracking data to characterise re-orientation strategies in minimally invasive surgery

Natural Orifice Translumenal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES) represents a new paradigm in minimally invasive surgery whereby an operator uses a flexible instrument to navigate within an anatomical space. The flexible instrument is introduced via a natural body orifice such as the mouth to perform an operative intervention controlled by the surgeon without making incisions in the anterior abdominal wall. It differs from laparoscopic (traditional keyhole) surgery in two main ways: (1) the instruments used in NOTES are not rigid as in laparoscopic surgery and not specifically designed for this application; and (2) there are no incisions in the anterior abdominal wall. Disorientation during NOTES is a significant problem because as in laparoscopic surgery the operator typically uses a 2D camera-monitor interface for visualisation by the camera at the site of the operation. Furthermore, the positional cue offered by the external component (outside the body) of the camera is absent, and camera navigation is more cumbersome. When the operator is disorientated, it is important to be able to re-orientate quickly to minimise potential surgical errors. It is hypothesised that when surgeons become disorientated, there exist discrete patterns in psychophysical behaviour which are associated with effective re-orientation, and that these patterns are recognisable. In this study, we examine visual re-orientation behaviour in 18 subjects using eye-tracker data in a model comprised of selective image manipulation of everyday objects in a box trainer. We characterise effective behaviour using a fixation sequence similarity-based hidden Markov model. We show that the output of this algorithm is reliable in differentiating visual behavioural sequences, and that there are specific behavioural patterns and strategies associated with successful re-orientation in this model. Good re-orientation strategy appears to rely on identification and focus on a central object within the scene and judging position of its surrounding peripheral objects, suggesting integration of both geometric and feature information in a systematic way. Using selective, inconsistent feature cues for re-orientation were associated with less effective performance.     

Der schwierige Weg der Dritten Gewalt zwischen Freiheit und Sicherheit

The Federal Constitutional Court is searching for a legal instrument with which it can enforce the entitlement to freedom of those sentenced to lengthy prison terms when leniency is not shown due to the passivity of correctional facilities. Increasingly – and in contrast to the 1990s – judicial ministries urge correctional facilities to be conservative with respect to decisions on privileges due to the prioritization of aspects of public security (trial vs. expectation clauses). The courts responsible for the execution of civil judgment need successful experiences in the liberalization of the enforcement of sentences in order to give a positive legal prognosis. With its most recent decision, the Federal Constitutional Court affirmed its determination to aid the inmates’ entitlement to freedom if the penal system does not relax sentences. From a criminological perspective, it is already the case that the relevance of leniency tests for the creation of prognoses is questioned. A sentence enforcement chamber of the regional court in Aachen recently ordered the release of a prisoner after 35 years without any leniencies. Specialists’ appraisals were given priority over the judicial correctional facility’s judgment. Under consideration of the advantages and disadvantages of denied privileges the paper calls for stronger constitutional access for the courts responsible for the enforcement of sentences.     

Psychiatrische Versorgung im europäischen Strafvollzug

Objective and methods:

We analysed administrative national data regarding mental health care and psychiatric prevalence in the penitentiary systems of 24 European countries. Data was provided by national experts via questionnaire.

Results:

There is a mixed approach for prison mental health care in European countries that either rely on separated psychiatric prison services or collaborate with specialized forensic or general mental health care services. Care provision in general is assessed as deficient. At all decisive points of detention, adequate screening or diagnostic routines are lacking. As a consequence, nothing is known about the prevalence of mental disorders in European prisons. At the moment, only a very limited number of secondary indicators are available for describing the problem.

Conclusion:

There is an urgent need for improving the reporting routines on mental disorders in prison inmates as a first step for improving substantially the mental health care provision for prisoners in European countries.     

The structure of vocational interests in Germany: Different methodologies, different conclusions

The cross-cultural generalizability of vocational interest structures has received significant attention in recent years. This article adds to this research in four respects. First, data from a context that has not previously been investigated (Germany) was analyzed. Second, students at different stages of their educational career were examined. Third, the interest structure in male and females was compared. Fourth, two methods—the randomization test of hypothesized order relations (RTOR) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)—were applied to three competing structural conceptions: Holland’s circular representation, Gati’s hierarchical model, and Rounds and Tracey’s alternative hierarchical model. RTOR supported all three representations, whereas CFA supported only Holland’s model. CFAs indicated that the interest structure is reasonably invariant between high school and university students, but that the configurations for high school females and males differ. Substantive and methodological implications are discussed.     

Students' daily emotions in the classroom: Intra‐individual variability and appraisal correlates

Background. Recent literature on emotions in education has shown that competence‐ and value‐related beliefs are important sources of students' emotions; nevertheless, the role of these antecedents in students' daily functioning in the classroom is not yet well‐known. More importantly, to date we know little about intra‐individual variability in students' daily emotions. Aims. The objectives of the study were (1) to examine within‐student variability in emotional experiences and (2) to investigate how competence and value appraisals are associated with emotions. It was hypothesized that emotions would show substantial within‐student variability and that there would be within‐person associations between competence and value appraisals and the emotions. Sample(s). The sample consisted of 120 grade 7 students (52%, girls) in 5 randomly selected classrooms in a secondary school. Method. A diary method was used to acquire daily process variables of emotions and appraisals. Daily emotions and daily appraisals were assessed using items adapted from existing measures. Results. Multi‐level modelling was used to test the hypotheses. As predicted, the within‐person variability in emotional states accounted for between 41% (for pride) and 70% (for anxiety) of total variability in the emotional states. Also as hypothesized, the appraisals were generally associated with the emotions. Conclusions. The within‐student variability in emotions and appraisals clearly demonstrates the adaptability of students with respect to situational affordances and constraints in their everyday classroom experiences. The significant covariations between the appraisals and emotions suggest that within‐student variability in emotions is systematic.