Prayer Beliefs and Change in Life Satisfaction Over Time

A considerable number of studies have focused on the relationship between prayer, health, and well-being. But the influence of some types of prayer (e.g., petitionary prayer) has received more attention than others. The purpose of this study is to examine an overlooked aspect of prayer: trust-based prayer beliefs. People with this orientation believe that God knows that best way to answer a prayer and He selects the best time to provide an answer. Three main findings emerge from data that were provided by a nationwide longitudinal survey of older people reveals. First, the results reveal that Conservative Protestants are more likely to endorse trust-based prayer beliefs. Second, the findings suggest that these prayer beliefs tend to be reinforced through prayer groups and informal support from fellow church members. Third, the data indicate that stronger trust-based prayer beliefs are associated with a greater sense of life satisfaction over time.     

Assessment Center Practices in South Africa

Despite the popularity of assessment centers (AC) in South Africa, no recent study exists that describes AC practices in that region. Given this research gap, we conducted a survey study that analyzes the development, execution, and evaluation of ACs in N=43 South African organizations. We report findings regarding AC design, job analysis and job requirements assessed, target groups and positions of the participants after the AC, number and kind of exercises used, additional diagnostic methods used, assessors and characteristics considered in constitution of the assessor pool, observational systems and rotation plan, characteristics, contents, and methods of assessor training, types of information provided to participants, data integration process, use of self‐ and peer‐rating, characteristics of the feedback process, and features after the AC. Finally, we compare the results with professional suggestions to identify pros and cons in current South African AC practices and offer suggestions for improvement.     

Facetten eines „deutschen“ Gegenübertragungsproblems

Departing from two case vignettes of psychoanalytic treatments of foreign children of parents who had collaborated with the Germans during the second world war, we are pondering whether there is a specific form of German counter transference defense, making it impossible to allow destructive narcissistic transference offers full of relish through the patients out of the fear that their activation in the analyst might end up in shame and horror as in the previous generations. The nearly complete renunciation to work analytically on the Nazi and Wartime could be described as a secret agreement of the protagonists, finding its justification in keeping out this delightful destruction. The consequences of this abandonment are the disability to establish a solid oedipal position and a regression to the anal world, being characteristic for both postwar German states including much of the analytic work.