Jehovah's Witnesses in Eastern Germany: ‘Reconfigurations’ of Identity

Abstract

The aim of the article is to look at the process of ‘reconfiguration’ of Jehovah's Witnesses' identity in the area which comprises the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) and societal and state responses to it. Over 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall Jehovah's Witnesses are one of the largest minority religions in eastern Germany. Being a religious minority in a region that is both stigmatised by the socialist past and considered the most secular part of Europe raises a number of issues. Among these, the question of the identity of the movement and its societal reception plays a crucial role. During the time of the GDR Witnesses built their identity against the state and its functionaries. Persecutions not only destroyed or changed the lives of many members but also strengthened them. Moreover, being a victim of the socialist system provided a basis to build upon after the Unification. A 16-year struggle for the status of public law corporation in the ‘new’ state – accomplished in 2006 – only reinforced such identification. Nowadays, however, Witnesses in the former GDR have to face a new challenge: building a reliable identity not in opposition to the state or upon their role as victims, but only on the basis of their religion.     

Social support from friends predicts changes in memory specificity following a stressful life event

ABSTRACT

Exposure to negative life stress has been associated with difficulty retrieving memories for specific autobiographical events, with important consequences for the emergence of emotional disorders. We examined whether social support can protect against the effects of negative events on memory specificity. University students (N?=?143) were assigned to groups based on whether or not they experienced a negative stressor, operationalised as whether or not their recent exam performance was in line with their expectations. After receiving their exam results (T1), and one month later (T2), participants completed measures of memory specificity, their attitudes towards themselves and the occurrence of other stress-related events. Participants also completed a general measure of perceived social support from friends, family, and significant others, and an equivalent measure for social support related to performance. For participants who experienced an exam-related stressor, reduced performance-specific social support from friends was associated with reduced memory specificity at T2, even when accounting for T1 memory specificity, individual differences in attitudes towards self, the experience of additional stressors, and gender. No such relation was present for participants who did not experience a stressor. These findings provide new understanding of the influence of social variables on autobiographical memory specificity.     

社会距离知觉对道德判断的影响研究

理论上,人们对不同个体行为是否违背道德的判断是完全一致的。本研究提出,人们对社会距离线索的知觉会影响对道德行为的判断。研究设计了两个实验,分别从社会距离直接启动和社会距离线索启动的角度对这一假设进行了检验。结果发现,较近的社会距离启动及社会距离线索都能促使个体采取更温和的道德判断,功利主义的色彩比较浓厚,而较远的社会距离启动促使个体采用更加严格的道德判断,表现出道义论倾向。文章最后讨论了这一结果对未来研究的意义。     

Cultural influences on terror management: Independent and interdependent self-esteem as anxiety buffers

Terror management theory (TMT) proposes that self-esteem serves as a defense against the fear of death. Previous research has suggested that independent self-esteem is more salient in individualist cultures, whereas interdependent self-esteem is more salient in collectivist cultures. Thus, we hypothesized that in collectivist cultures, independent self-esteem would play a lesser role and interdependent self-esteem a greater role in terror management, compared to individualist cultures. The results support this prediction. In Study 1, personal self-esteem was negatively associated with death anxiety in samples from a Western (Austria) and Eastern (China) culture. However, both self-liking and self-competence were negatively associated with death anxiety among Austrian participants, but only self-liking (and not self-competence) was so among Chinese participants. Surprisingly, collective self-esteem was not significantly correlated with death anxiety. Yet, Study 2 showed that among Chinese participants, relational self-esteem was negatively associated with death anxiety. Study 3 examined the roles of relational versus personal self-esteem in moderating the effects of mortality salience on worldview defense. Among Chinese participants, relational rather than personal self-esteem increased the defense of worldviews centered on collectivist-Chinese values following mortality salience (Study 3a). In contrast, among Austrian participants, personal rather than relational self-esteem attenuated the effect of mortality salience on the defense of individualist-Austrian worldviews (Study 3b). Self-esteem serves a terror management function in both collectivist and individualist cultures; however, the differences between cultural worldviews determine the type of self-esteem that is more relevant to terror management processes.     

Construct Validity of the Social Physique Anxiety Scale in a French Adolescent Sample

The present study explored the validity of constriction as an indicator of depression. Twenty-five patients displaying constriction in their Bender records and 25 patients not showing this indicator were compared with regard to MMPI Depression scores. A significant difference was found between D scores of these two groups (p<.05), supporting the validity of the indicator as an index of depression. Constriction was found to be infrequent, occurring in only 5.5% of the patient records. Although the indicator seems to be of some value as an indicator of depression its utility is lessened due its low rate of occurrence.     

Responsividad y condicionamiento semántico en relación con el ciclo menstrual

Resumen

El trabajo examina el efecto de cambios internos atribuibles al ciclo menstrual en la responsividad y condicionamiento psicofisiológico de un grupo de mujeres normales con ciclos naturales. Los sujetos fueron examinados Premenstrualmente (PM) o Intermenstrualmente (IM), utilizando como variables dependientes medidas psicofisiológicas (Conductancia de la Piel y Tasa Cardíaca) y cuestionarios. Los sujetos IM mostraron mayor responsividad y habituación en la actividad cardíaca y menores latencies de recuperación en la conductancia de la piel ante estimulación auditiva intensa, así como mayor condicionamiento en la conductancia de la piel (respuestas al segundo intervalo) que los sujetos PM. Las medidas actuales y retrospectivas de estados emocionales mostraron mayor afecto negativo (fatiga y tensión) en los sujetos PM y en l a fase premenstrual. Estos resultados son comparados con los de estudios similares realizados con pacientes fóbicas y son discutidos en términos de diferentes estados emocionales y de activación fisiológica asociados a las fases menstruales examinadas.     

La falacia de la validación personal: Más efectos placebo

RESUMEN

En este artículo se pone a prueba la influencia de efectos placebo en la aceptación de informes evaluativos y diagnósticos por los sujetos. Tras introducir brevemente el tema y plantear las hipótesis, los autores describen el método y los resultados de su investigación. En la discusión explican que estos resultados sugieren que la aceptación del diagnóstico que ofrece un profesional es un fenómeno general independiente de las características personales de los individuos que lo reciben, poniendo en entredicho el fenómeno de la validación personal y, al mismo tiempo, interactúa con determinadas características profesionales de los sujetos, ligadas a imágenes de personalidad a las que son más propensos. Los autores también analizan una limitación importante de su trabajo, el tamaño reducido de la muestra, y finalizan destacando que es el contenido del informe, más que el tipo de pruebas o profesionales, lo que parece afectar diferencialmente a distintos grupos profesionales.