Eavesdropping on Health: A Naturalistic Observation Approach for Social Health Research

This article provides an overview of a novel ecological momentary assessment method called the electronically activated recorder or EAR. The EAR is a portable audio recorder that periodically records snippets of ambient sounds from participants' momentary environments. In tracking moment-to-moment ambient sounds, the EAR yields an acoustic log of a person's day as it naturally unfolds. As a naturalistic observation method, it provides an observer's account of daily life and is optimized for the assessment of audible aspects of participants' daily social environments and interactions. The article discusses the EAR method conceptually and methodologically and identifies three important ways in which it can enrich social health research. Specifically, it can help cross-validate research findings independent of self-reports, calibrate psychological measures against behavioral markers of real-world social functioning, and further our understanding of the role that people's mundane social interactions and language use play in coping and health.     

Traumatische Trauer – ein eigenständiges Krankheitsbild?

Grief is a highly individualized process influenced by intrapsychic, interpersonal and social factors. The definition of normal and pathological grief is complicated by the variety of grief reactions. Empirical research indicates that pathological grief may be concerned considered as a separate entity. Two research groups developed empirically validated criteria with a special focus on the traumatic aspect of grief. The current state of research allows, however, in our opinion not the conclusion, that the proposed diagnostic criteria for complicated (Horowitz et al. 1997) or traumatic grief (Prigerson et al. 1999b) do not enclose all types of grief. Further empirical research on representative samples is necessary to validate previous findings and to differentiate specific subgroups of pathological grief.     

Does the feedback from previous trials influence current decisions? A study on the role of feedback processing in making decisions under explicit risk conditions

Decision situations frequently provide information about the amount of gains and losses and winning probabilities. In decisions under these conditions, also called risk conditions, both the use of feedback and executive functions have been shown to influence the decision‐making process, as revealed in different patient populations. However, the influence of offering feedback in tasks examining decisions under risk conditions has not been investigated experimentally, so far. This was the aim of the present study. For this purpose, a sample of healthy individuals was examined with the Game of Dice Task, a decision‐making task that explicitly provides the rules for gains and losses and in which participants receive feedback after each trial. In addition, a modified version of this task was performed, in which the feedback after each trial and all associated feedback components were removed. Results indicate that participants had a lower performance in the modified Dice Task without feedback. They selected the disadvantageous alternatives more frequently, when they did not receive feedback following their choices. Task performance in either version was correlated with executive functioning. Conclusion: In decisions under risk conditions, both executive functions as well as the use of feedback following previous trials are important components for optimal performance. Results have implications for the interpretation of deficient decision making in patients with neuropsychological impairments as both disturbances in categorization and other cognitive processes as well as emotional dysfunctions can compromise decision making in risky situations.     

Die Kindstötung „in oder gleich nach der Geburt“

§ 217 of the German penal code, which intended a milder punishment for the homicide of an illegitimate child by the mother right after birth than for manslaughter, was abrogated without substitution in 1998. The reasoning behind this move does not convince. We will give a short summary of the history of this law. The privileged status of this crime was primarily justified in view of the denied pregnancy and the consequent state of the mother at the time of birth. Even after abrogation of §217 StGB there has to be differentiated between former reasons for privileged treatment, which now can justify from a juridicial point of view the use of §213 StGB (minor manslaughter), and those pathological states of mind which allow for the establishment of reduced or nullified legal responsibility.     

Children of Prenatally Depressed Mothers: Externalizing and Internalizing Symptoms are Accompanied by Reductions in Specific Social-Emotional Competencies

Studies have shown that child development is negatively affected by prenatal depression. A dysregulated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in the pregnant woman, passed to the fetus, is one discussed key mechanism. Studies, investigating primary-school age children, have found effects on antisocial behavior. Effects on internalizing symptoms were not found, but the analysis did not distinguish between anxiety and depression symptoms. Additionally, until now, no objective test data operationalizing social-emotional competencies have been included. The present study examined: 1.Whether the effects on child externalizing symptoms could be replicated; 2. If there are specific effects on child internalizing symptoms, separated for anxiety and depression; and 3. Are child clinical symptoms reflected in reductions in social-emotional competencies. A sample of 61 prenatally depressed and 143 prenatally not-depressed women and their 6–9 year old children were compared, controlling for key confounders in both the perinatal period and in middle childhood. Children of prenatally depressed mothers had more antisocial behavior and depression symptoms reported by their mothers. The prediction of antisocial behavior scores tended to be more significant for boys than for girls. Child anxiety symptoms were primarily explained by current maternal depressive symptoms. Children of prenatally depressed mothers also showed a reduction in social-emotional competencies, specifically regarding the ability to interpret complex social situations. This study showed that, even in a non-clinical sample, there are distinct effects of prenatal depression on child externalizing and internalizing symptoms which are accompanied by reductions in specific social-emotional competencies. These results emphasize that treatment for depressed pregnant women and/or early support for affected families is worthwhile. Additional work is required to identify the underlying biological mechanisms.     

Lexicality, morphological structure, and semantic transparency in the processing of German ver-verbs: The complementarity of on-line and off-line evidence

Two types of experiments investigate the visual on-line and off-line processing of German ver-verbs (e.g., verbittern 'to embitter'). In Experiments 1 and 2 (morphological priming), latency patterns revealed the existence of facilitation effects for the morphological conditions (BITTER-VERBITTERN and BITTERN-VERBITTERN) as compared to the neutral conditions (SAUBER-VERBITTERN and SAUBERN-VERBITTERN). In Experiments 3 and 4 (rating tasks) participants had to judge whether the target (VERBITTERN) "comes from," "contains a form of," or "contains the meaning of" the root (BITTER) or the root+en substring (BITTERN). Taken together, these studies revealed the combined influence of the three factors of lexicality (real word status), morphological structure, and semantic transparency.     

Planning and realization of complex intentions in traumatic brain injury and normal aging

The realization of delayed intentions (i.e., prospective memory) is a highly complex process composed of four phases: intention formation, retention, re-instantiation, and execution. The aim of this study was to investigate if executive functioning impairments are related to problems in the formation, re-instantiation, and execution of a delayed complex intention. In this context, it was another aim of the study to investigate the executive functioning hypothesis of cognitive aging in prospective memory performance. It was, therefore, explored if age-related prospective memory decline leads to similar decrements in the process of prospective remembering as executive functioning-related decline in young patients with traumatic brain injury. A group of patients with traumatic brain injury with retrospective memory within normal limits but impaired executive functions, a group of healthy older and a group of healthy younger adults completed a complex prospective memory task that allows for the separate assessment of the four phases of the prospective memory process. All groups showed a similarly high performance in the intention retention phase, whereas the patients with deficits in executive functioning and the older participants performed worse than the healthy young participants in the intention formation, re-instantiation and execution phases. The importance of executive functioning for prospective remembering in traumatic brain injury and normal aging is discussed.