Wie können wir in das psychodynamische Erstinterview einführen?

We reflect on which traditional texts are suitable for the introduction into psychodynamic thinking for bachelor students in the faculty of psychology. We come to the conclusion that the use of works known and individually valued by the students from the world and/or trivial literature are suitable to allow students to carry out fictive preliminary conversations with their heroes from novels or films.     

Aktueller Stand der Gruppenpsychotherapieforschung

In view of an increasing importance of group therapies and the intention in healthcare politics to support group treatment, it seems appropriate to provide a review of the current research efforts in this field. In this review, several research traditions are described with a clear focus on the effectiveness of group treatment. Both systematic narrative reviews and recent meta-analyses clearly demonstrate that group treatment of various disorders is equally as effective as individual psychotherapy. Besides outcome research there are other developments in the field, such as the improvement of manualized and focused group therapies even outside cognitive behavioral concepts. Studies related to feedback in groups, specific patient characteristics (especially alexithymia and attachment) as well as the construction of new measures seem to be characteristic for group research during recent years. There is still a need for research related to group dynamics and process aspects of small groups as well as the group leaders and their behavior. In total, research on group psychotherapy has clearly progressed, which justifies the support of this treatment setting.     

INCIDENTAL LANGUAGE LEARNING:

Abstract —Two experiments investigated the performance of first-grade children and adults on an incidental language-learning task. Learning entailed word segmentation from continuous speech, an initial and crucial component of language acquisition. Subjects were briefly exposed to an unsegmented artificial language, presented auditorily, in which the only cues to word boundaries were the transitional probabilities between syllables. Subjects were not told that they were listening to a language, or even to listen at all; rather, they were engaged in a cover task of creating computer illustrations. Both adults and children learned the words of the language. Moreover, the children performed as well as the adults. These data suggest that a statistical learning mechanism (transitional probability computation) is able to operate incidentally and, surprisingly, as well in children as in adults.     

HUMANISM AND THE MEANING OF LIFE

This paper addresses two related questions: 1. Does human life have a purpose? and 2. Is human life intrinsically valuable? Clearly human beings have personal, communal and common purposes, but we cannot know whether there is an external transcendent purpose in addition to these. However the argument that mundane purposes are meaningless without transcendent purposes, though valid, rests on false premises. There are four ways of explaining the intrinsic value of life. The first (pantheism) is the idea that human life is sacred because everything is sacred. A second is that life is intrinsically valuable because something else is valuable and indeed sacred – the idea, for instance, that mankind is made in the image of God. The third is that human life lacks value because of its contrast with the sanctity of the gods. The humanistic explanation is that human life as such has intrinsic value. There are (at least) six reasons for holding that human life is intrinsically valuable; these reasons are given.     

Dyadic association between aggressive pretend play and children’s anger expression

This study investigates the association between children’s peer-reported expression of anger and their pretend play with aggressive/negative themes observed during spontaneous play with classmates. Participants comprised 104 Chinese children (M_age = 8.98 years, SD = 0.97, 49% girls) and were filmed playing in peer dyads with toys. Aggressive and non-aggressive negative pretend themes were coded at five-second intervals for 10 minutes. Children’s expression of anger in real situations was reported by peers. Analysis using actor–partner interdependence modelling (APIM) revealed significant partner effects, indicating that children were more likely to engage in pretend play with aggressive themes when they were playing with a partner who was perceived by their peers as more easily angered. It was also found that boys were more likely to engage in pretend play with both aggressive and non-aggressive negative themes compared with girls.     

Developmental Characteristics of Disparate Bimanual Movement Skills in Typically Developing Children

Mastery of many tasks in daily life requires role differentiated bimanual hand use with high spatiotemporal cooperation and minimal interference. The authors investigated developmental changes in the performance of a disparate bimanual movement task requiring sequenced movements. Age groups were attributed to changes in CNS structures critical for bimanual control such as the corpus callosum (CC) and the prefrontal cortex; young children (5–6 years old), older children (7–9 years old), and adolescents (10–16 years old). Results show qualitative changes in spatiotemporal sequencing between the young and older children which typically marks a phase of distinct reduction of growth and myelination of the CC. Results show qualitative changes in spatiotemporal sequencing between the young and older children, which coincides with distinct changes in the growth rate and myelination of the CC. The results further support the hypothesis that CC maturation plays an important role in the development of bimanual skills.     

Learning harmony: the role of serial statistics

How do listeners learn about the statistical regularities underlying musical harmony? In traditional Western music, certain chords predict the occurrence of other chords: Given a particular chord, not all chords are equally likely to follow. In Experiments 1 and 2, we investigated whether adults make use of statistical information when learning new musical structures. Listeners were exposed to a novel musical system containing phrases generated using an artificial grammar. This new system contained statistical structure quite different from Western tonal music. Our results suggest that learners take advantage of the statistical patterning of chords to acquire new musical structures, similar to learning processes previously observed for language learning.     

A strange hand: On self-recognition and recognition of another

This article provides a phenomenological analysis of the difference between self-recognition and recognition of another, while referring to some contemporary neuroscientific studies on the rubber hand illusion. It examines the difference between these two forms of recognition on the basis of Husserl’s and Merleau-Ponty’s work. It argues that both phenomenologies, despite their different views on inter-subjectivity, allow for the specificity of recognition of another. In explaining self-recognition, however, Husserl’s account seems less convincing. Research concerning the rubber hand illusion has confirmed that self-recognition involves more than an immediate experience of oneself. Merleau-Ponty’s later work, describing self-recognition as the result of assimilative identification, will be used to explain the possibility of illusion between one’s “hereness” and “thereness”. The possibility of this illusion is inherent to self-recognition, while it is lacking in recognition of another.

Space for emotion in the spaces of activism

This paper explores the role of emotions in activism. Although, increasingly, researchers have examined what emotions inspire or deter different forms of political and social movement activism, this paper takes a new direction by considering what spaces, practices and emotional stances are necessary to sustain individual and collective resistance in the long-term. We argue that we need to sustain activism through emotional reflexivity, building sustaining spaces to create space for emotion in activism. Using empirical examples from different forms of autonomous (anti-capitalist) activism in Britain, the role and importance of emotions to the sustainability of activism is explored. In particular, we consider the role of different spaces in sustaining activists through the cycles of protest, what spaces of activism can be opened up by a closer attention to emotions, and how the spaces in which protest and other activist practices take place shape the emotional and affective engagements of participants. As autonomous forms of activism attempt to prefiguratively enact new post-capitalist social relations in the here and now, we suggest there is still some way to go in changing affective relationships within many of these groups.