Dialectical materialism and political theology: Two views of the future

In a wide variety of publications,¹ Johannes B. Metz programatically represented a new political theology of subject, society, history, and future. This theology participates intensely in the lively, ongoing discourse on the political and theological actuality and significance of the critical theory of society, religion and future set forth by the Marxist, Walter Benjamin.² The purpose of this study is to illuminate several connections between Benjamin's critical theory and Metz's political theology, particularly with respect to the present stage of development in advanced capitalistic society and to their future.     

Turning stressors into something productive: an empirical study revealing nonlinear influences of role stressors on self‐efficacy

This study suggests that stressors can be productive for self‐efficacy and that the influence of stressors on self‐efficacy is nonlinear. Analyses were conducted with ordinary least squares regression on a dataset covering responses from 311 deans in Swedish secondary schools. Results support the hypothesized U‐shape relationship between role conflict and self‐efficacy and the inverted U‐shape relationship between role ambiguity and self‐efficacy. Thus, findings offer evidence for nonlinear effects of stressors on the level of incumbents' self‐efficacy. This research has implications for further research focused on the association between role stressors and self‐efficacy.     

Effects of Spatial and Motor Demands in Handwriting

Four experiments were conducted to study response programming in handwriting tasks. Twelve right-handed subjects wrote acoustically presented words and phrases, and their handwriting was digitally recorded. Changes in latency, movement time, trajectory length, and pen pressure were studied as a function of response complexity (i.e., word length, complexity of initial letter, and spacing distance). The lengthening of the spatiotemporal parameters preceding the more complex structures is interpreted to be a reflection of the effects of mental load. The results further indicate that the choice of a programming strategy is dependent on the structural complexity of the task. Writing pressure decreased as a function of increased sequence length. The findings support a hierarchical model of handwriting.     

Measuring Postural Sway in Sitting: A New Segmental Approach

Global measures of trunk sway are traditionally used even though the trunk comprises a multiple number of segments. The authors’ aim was to measure the seated sway of typically developing children using a multisegment approach. Twenty typically developing children divided into 2 groups, older and younger than 10 years old, participated in this study. The children sat unsupported for 30 s while their posture and sway were quantified using stereophotogrammetry. The tendency in both age groups was to sit with a backward tilted pelvis and a kyphotic trunk. The sitting position was most varied in the younger group. Marker sway amplitude and velocity in sitting were age dependent, with reduced sway amplitude and velocity with increased age for all segments. Anteroposterior intersegmental angular sway was not age dependent. The difference in marker sway in the anteroposterior direction for the younger group appeared to result from an equally stable trunk supported on a less stable pelvis. Mediolateral marker sway and intersegmental angular sway showed a clearer age dependency. Trunk postural control does not appear to differ between children older and younger than 10 years old, but sagittal plane pelvic stability can explain the increased sway reported in younger children.     

New trends in gender and mathematics performance: a meta-analysis

In this article, we use meta-analysis to analyze gender differences in recent studies of mathematics performance. First, we meta-analyzed data from 242 studies published between 1990 and 2007, representing the testing of 1,286,350 people. Overall, d = 0.05, indicating no gender difference, and variance ratio = 1.08, indicating nearly equal male and female variances. Second, we analyzed data from large data sets based on probability sampling of U.S. adolescents over the past 20 years: the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth, the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, the Longitudinal Study of American Youth, and the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Effect sizes for the gender difference ranged between -0.15 and +0.22. Variance ratios ranged from 0.88 to 1.34. Taken together, these findings support the view that males and females perform similarly in mathematics.     

Kandidaten in psychotherapeutischer Ausbildung

In the context of the discussion about a reform of psychotherapeutic training in Germany the question arises, which factors influence the decision of psychologists and physicians for a particular training. 343 candidates in psychodynamic, behavioural or psychoanalytic training were asked about their motives for the training, their professional objectives in general and their satisfaction with their choice of training. The candidates' decision for a particular training was associated with personal attitudes and professional goals, with the given information about psychotherapeutic treatment within their studies and with their field of study. For the most part, the respondents are not satisfied with the quality and quantity of information on psychotherapeutic treatment within their studies. Candidates in analytic training are altogether more satisfied with their choice of training and do not plan to start an additional psychotherapeutic training as often as candidates in behavioral training. The consequences of these results in particular for the medical and psychological curricula (a more balanced representation of psychotherapeutic methods) are discussed.     

TRANSCENDENTALISM OR EMPIRICISM? A DISCUSSION OF A PROBLEM RAISED IN E. O. WILSON'S BOOK CONSILIENCE

Abstract. E. O. Wilson writes that the “choice between transcendentalism and empiricism” is this century's “version of the struggle for men's soul” (1998, 240). The transcendentalist argues for theism—that there is a God, a creator of the world. The empiricist instead makes the point that the notion of God, including morality and ethics, are adaptive structures of human evolution. Before entering the debate of the transcendentalist/empiricist controversy I analyze how things exist and suggest that all that is exists as united diversity, as identity in difference. I argue that oneness by itself is intangible because wholes are concrete only through their tangible parts. I briefly discuss this understanding of existence in the realm of art to show that transcendence and immanence are not mutually exclusive but constitute each other. I conclude that existence, the hypostasis of unity in diversity, might be seen as a gift from absolute existence. In this view, the world might reveal itself as a gift that reflects the trinitarian existence of the Giver.     

Fokusbezogene psychodynamische Psychotherapie

The OPD-based diagnostics allows to formulate the psychodynamically significant aspects of the unconscious conflict, of the structural limitations and of the dysfunctional relational dispositions. Considering the relative weight of the conflict- and the structural dynamics we are able to differentiate three types of disturbances: the conflict type, the structural type and the miscellaneous type. For these three types of disturbances the therapeutic consequences for setting and therapeutic attitude, for the hierarchy of the foci, and the working through of dysfunctional relational dispositions and at last for the conflict- vs. structure-related interventions are discussed. The Heidelberger Umstrukturierungsskala enables us to the focus-related documentation and evaluation of the progress and the result of the therapy.