Aktuelle Entwicklungslinien in der Pers?nlichkeitsforschung im Jugendalter

Personality disorders in juveniles are still a controversially discussed topic. The aim of this paper is to describe the recent trend in personality research in adolescence and to outline perspectives in research and assessment. Recent study results have pointed out that personality disorders in juveniles can be reliably assessed with diagnostic instruments that have been developed for adults. At the same time there is a lack of specific instruments that can represent the characteristics during adolescence and that can differentiate personality disorders from youth crises. As some personality disorder dimensions also describe unstable developmental criteria we will focus separately on this differential diagnosis and meaning of stable versus transient personality characteristics in youth. The prevalence of personality disorders seems to be higher in adolescence than in adulthood. The stability, however, is comparable in adolescence and adulthood. Psychopathy as a subtype of the antisocial personality disorder ?C that can also be assessed in juveniles ?C will be discussed regarding its core and behavioral dimensions as well as primary and secondary subtypes. Furthermore, we discuss forensic issues when assessing personality disorders with respect to criminal responsibility. Overall we can show that more diagnostic longitudinal studies are essential in order to clarify under which conditions personality disorders develop, which factors influence its course and which interventions can change them.     

Musiktherapie bei Kindern mit Migräne

Migraine in childhood is a serious health problem with a tendency for chronification. According to the bio-psycho-social model migraine is considered as a disorder generated by multiple factors and requiring an interdisciplinary treatment concept consisting of both medical and psychotherapeutic interventions. Music therapy as a nonverbal, creative arts therapy is especially apt for the treatment of children. A specific treatment concept in music therapy for children with migraine, to be applied within a multidisciplinary framework, and its theoretical background are presented in this article. Music therapy is firmly established within the context of stationary infant psychiatric care. Also, it is presently used as a method of outpatient psychotherapy mainly for children and adolescents. Additionally, music therapy finds frequent use in medical care, special needs education and curative education for children. This article will be limited to the presentation of music therapy as artistic psychotherapy.     

Entrepreneurial Coaching: A Two-Dimensional Framework in Context

Coaching is increasingly used to support entrepreneurs across different stages of the entrepreneurial process. Due to its custom-tailored, active, and reflection-oriented approach, it has been suggested that it is particularly well suited to entrepreneurs’ complex job demands. However, in the entrepreneurial context, the term coaching lacks a clear definition and is frequently used interchangeably with other types of support. We therefore sought to characterize entrepreneurial coaching (EC) and to position it relative to related interventions. We conducted 67 interviews with coaches (n = 44) and early-stage entrepreneurs (n = 23) experienced in EC. Using qualitative content analysis, we specify outcomes, input, process, and contextual factors for EC. Among process factors, we identify seven coach functions that reflect specific coach behaviors. Contextual factors include entrepreneurial job demands and institutional boundary conditions of “embedded” EC. Based on our findings, we position EC within a two-dimensional framework, consisting of the expert- versus process-consultation approach and the individual-work-venture focus. We locate the seven coach functions within this framework. Relative to other interventions, EC stands between classical workplace coaching and start-up consultancy, closer to, yet distinct from, entrepreneurial mentoring and executive coaching. We derive practical implications for coaches, entrepreneurs, and organizational stakeholders and propose directions for future research.     

„Psychopathy“ im Kindes- und Jugendalter

The term psychopathy is defined as a severe personality pathology, which is characterized by extreme aggressive, antisocial and violent behavior as well as affective and interpersonal deficits. In recent years, research into the construct of psychopathy has often focused on the incidence and detection of such pathologies in children and adolescents. In this context, a point of interest is to explore the course and stability of psychopathic personality dimensions throughout youth. Results demonstrate clear evidence for the occurrence of personality traits characteristic for psychopathy in early childhood and adulthood, which facilitates early detection with the aid of age-specific diagnostic instruments.The distinct correlation between psychopathy and severe, repeated and largely treatment refractory violence, which results in substantial public damage, calls for further research in children and adolescents in order to define the construct of psychopathy more precisely, to further illuminate underlying pathologies and consequently develop more specific typologies and effective treatment strategies. To that end, it is of particular importance to correctly capture dimensional factors of psychopathy in youth and to examine their stability throughout stages of adolescent development.     

Depression in early adolescence: Contributions from relational aggression and variation in the oxytocin receptor gene

Interpersonal stress arising from relational aggression (RA)—the intentional effort to harm others via rejection and exclusion—may increase risk for depression in youth. Biological vulnerabilities related to the hormone oxytocin, which affects social behavior and stress responses, may exacerbate this risk. In a community sample of 307 youth (52% female; age range = 10–14 years), we tested whether (1) the association between RA and subsequent depressive symptoms was mediated through social problems and (2) a single nucleotide polymorphism (rs53576) in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) moderated this indirect association between RA and depression, where GG homozygotes are predicted to be more sensitive to the effects of social problems than A‐allele carriers. Youth‐reported RA and depressive symptoms were measured using a structured interview and a questionnaire, respectively. DNA was extracted from saliva collected with Oragene kits. Consistent with the interpersonal theory of depression, the association between relational aggression and subsequent depressive symptoms was mediated by social problems. This indirect effect was further moderated by rs53576 genotype, such that GG homozygotes showed a stronger mediation effect than A‐carriers. These results suggest that rs53576 variants confer vulnerability for depression within the context of interpersonal risk factors, such that youth with the GG genotype may be particularly sensitive to the social consequences resulting from RA.

     

Discrimination of cello string height: musicianship and sex

The aim was to investigate differences by sex and music expertise in performance of a manual proprioceptive skill. Active left hand finger-movement discrimination for differences in string height was examined in a position similar to cello playing. Men and women who were experienced cellists and nonmusicians made active string depression movements and then made absolute judgments regarding which of five string positions were presented. Although no main effect was significant, analysis yielded a sex x musicianship crossover interaction (F(1,51) = 8.4, p = .006) wherein the female cellists performed better than the female nonmusicians, and the reverse occurred for males. These significant differences in active movement discrimination across sex and musicianship may be important in further understanding focal hand dystonia, a disorder wherein the interaction of sex and expertise is observed as a strong preponderance in experienced male musicians.     

Developing a cortex specialized for face perception

Recent developmental functional magnetic resonance imaging studies provide evidence that the cortical specialization for face perception observed in adults emerges only gradually over the first decade of childhood. These developmental results provide a middle-ground view on the long-standing debate in the literature from adults about the specificity or otherwise of face-sensitive areas of cortex. According to this developmental perspective, certain cortical regions become specialized for face perception in adults, partly as a result of a decade or more of experience and partly as a result of initial biases.     

Forced choice reaction time paradigm in children with separation anxiety disorder, social phobia, and nonanxious controls

Cognitive distortions refer to cognitive processes that are biased and therefore yield dysfunctional and maladaptive products (e.g., interpretation bias). Automatic aspects of information processing need to be considered and investigating these aspects requires forms of assessment other than self-report. Studies focussing on the specificity of cognitive biases across different types of anxiety disorders in childhood are rare. Thus, a forced choice reaction time paradigm with picture stimuli was used to assess the interpretation bias in anxious children online. The study investigated disorder-specific interpretation bias in 71 children with separation anxiety disorder (SAD), 31 children with social phobia, and 42 children without mental disorders, aged 5–13 years. Results indicated that children with SAD rated ambiguous separation pictures as significantly more unpleasant and more arousing than nonanxious children. However, no support was found that children with SAD and social phobia interpret ambiguous separation or social pictures in a more negative way than nonanxious children. Furthermore, no group differences were found in reaction times to all picture categories.