Singular troubles with singleton socrates

I identify a problem for Kit Fine’s truthmaker semantics for ground: it excludes a range of plausible structures of grounding hierarchies. Specifically, there is an attractive view about the grounds of the existence of individual singleton sets which is inconsistent under the truthmaker account. I then develop a modification of the truthmaker account which avoids this difficulty and show that it preserves most of the desirable features of the original account, such as the propositional logic of ground it yields.     

Schädigungsmechanismen beim sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern

The criminal intervention in child sexual development is carried out in a protean event of increasing exploration of ones own body, also reciprocally with other children and ultimately the development of shame. This process is part of the identity development of children, to which their bodily sexual self-concept also belongs. Against this background, the multitude of sexual activities also of smaller children is presented in order to discuss the question of whether the quality and intensity of the various acts of sexual abuse (manifest violence versus apparently violence-free usurpation) lead to different mental and social sequelae. Thoughts are presented on how this harm could have arisen. Excluded are the particularly complex problems of ideological excessive assaults in religious or pedagogic faith communities. The article is intended as an incentive to discussion.     

Maximum vs. minimum values: Preferences of speakers and listeners for upper and lower limit estimates

Estimates about uncertain quantities can be expressed in terms of lower limits (more than X, minimum X), or upper limits (less than Y, maximum Y). It has been shown that lower limit statements generally occur much more often than upper limit statements (Halberg & Teigen, 2009). However, in a conversational context, preferences for upper and lower limit statements will be moderated by the concerns of the interlocutors. We report three studies asking speakers and listeners about their preferences for lower and upper limit statements, in the domains of distances, durations, and prices. It appears that travellers prefer information about maximum distances and maximum durations, and buyers (but not sellers) prefer to be told about maximum prices and maximum delivery times. Mistaken maxima are at the same time regarded as more “wrong” than mistaken minima. However, this preference for “worst case” information is not necessarily shared by providers of information (advisors), who are also concerned about being blamed if wrong.     

A qualitative study on the development of workplace bullying: Towards a three way model

Up to now, researchers have identified various individual and work‐related factors as potential antecedents of workplace bullying. The aim of the present study is to integrate this line of research in view of explaining how these antecedents may develop into workplace bullying. Key informants, such as union representatives, employees with a confidence role concerning workplace bullying, human resource managers, prevention workers and social service employees, analysed bullying incidents or cases within their organization. We combined the various perspectives on the same incident into one plan. Then, all 87 case plans were united in a global model that reflects the development towards bullying. The results suggested three processes that may contribute to the development of bullying. Firstly, bullying may result from inefficient coping with frustration. Such coping mechanisms are likely to be active for perpetrators, and passive for victims. Secondly, bullying may be the consequence of escalated conflicts. Thirdly, bullying may result from destructive team and organizational cultures or habits. Individual and work‐related antecedents may affect these processes in two ways: they may be at the origin of the three processes, and they may relate to the employees' coping style. Implications for theory and research are discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pathologisches Glücksspielen: Persönlichkeitsmerkmale und forensische Aspekte

Causes and psychological characteristics of pathological gambling are reviewed. Neither the addiction model nor the conception of a “disorder of impulse control” is fitting to comprehend the peculiarity of these hardened conduct disorders. Pathological gambling is a learned pattern of behaviour with a variety of etiological backgrounds. There is no uniform type of “the” pathological gambler. Some kinds of gambling like roulette or horse betting are used to experience arousal and thrill; other forms like german slot machines on the contrary are used to relax and to find relief from depression and boredom. There is a broad spectrum of comorbid disorders, e.g. mood disorders and personality disorders. The paper delineates the overlap with antisocial patterns and the juridical consequences.     

Habgier und Geldfetischismus

Zusammenfassung  Der Beitrag referiert den aktuellen Kenntnisstand über psychologische Ursachen und Einflussfaktoren bei pathologischem Glücksspiel. Weder die Konzeptualisierung nach dem Suchtmodell noch das Konstrukt der Impulskontrollst?rung sind gut geeignet, das Besondere dieser St?rung des Sozialverhaltens zu erfassen. Pathologisches Glücksspielen erweist sich als erlerntes Verhaltensmuster, das auf ganz unterschiedliche Ursachen zurückgehen kann. Es gibt keinen einheitlichen Typus des exzessiven Spielers. Es gibt Formen des Glücksspiels (Roulette, Pferdewetten), die vor allem genutzt werden, um Spannung und Erregung zu erleben, und andere Formen (insbesondere das Spielen an deutschen Geldspielautomaten), die eher zur Ablenkung, Beruhigung und Problemverdr?ngung dienen. Dargestellt wird das breite Spektrum komorbider St?rungen, insbesondere affektiver Erkrankungen und Pers?nlichkeitsst?rungen. Er?rtert werden die überlappungen mit dissozialen Entwicklungen und strafrechtliche Konsequenzen.      

Meta-analytic evidence of the effectiveness of stress management at work

To increase employees’ psychological health and to achieve a competitive advantage, organizations are increasingly introducing flexible work arrangements (FWAs) and stress management training (SMT). This paper provides meta-analytic evidence of the effects of two forms of FWA (flexitime and telecommuting) and three forms of SMT (cognitive-behavioural skills training, relaxation techniques and multiple SMT) on employees’ psychological health, job satisfaction, job performance and absenteeism. Applying the conservation of resource theory, we conjecture that both FWAs and SMT improve all four employee-related outcomes. Quantitative meta-analyses based on 43 primary studies and 22,882 employees show that both FWAs and SMT are positively associated with psychological health and job satisfaction. However, due to a lack of primary studies we were mostly unable to analyse the effects on performance and absenteeism. Although we found a large heterogeneity in the hypothesized relationships, additional moderator analyses of study quality, age, gender, duration and intention of intervention yielded no significant effects. We discuss limitations and implications for practice and for future research.     

Measuring and modeling salience with the theory of visual attention

For almost three decades, the theory of visual attention (TVA) has been successful in mathematically describing and explaining a wide variety of phenomena in visual selection and recognition with high quantitative precision. Interestingly, the influence of feature contrast on attention has been included in TVA only recently, although it has been extensively studied outside the TVA framework. The present approach further develops this extension of TVA’s scope by measuring and modeling salience. An empirical measure of salience is achieved by linking different (orientation and luminance) contrasts to a TVA parameter. In the modeling part, the function relating feature contrasts to salience is described mathematically and tested against alternatives by Bayesian model comparison. This model comparison reveals that the power function is an appropriate model of salience growth in the dimensions of orientation and luminance contrast. Furthermore, if contrasts from the two dimensions are combined, salience adds up additively.