Intersexualität oder Störung der Geschlechtsentwicklung

Intersexuality is suspected when a person either lacks the gender-typical attributes or they are too pronounced or if the attributes of both genders are present in one individual. Intersexuality is an umbrella term for a multitude of diagnoses having different causes, different disease patterns and different developments. Some of them are described in this article, such as the adrenogenital syndrome showing virilisation phenomena with a 46,XX chromosome set or reduced virilisation with a 46,XY chromosome set in the case of an androgen insensitivity syndrome, disturbances of androgenic biosynthesis or gonadal dysgenesis mostly with a feminine gender role. Examples of treatment situations from the psychotherapeutic practice are presented.     

Preparing lane changes while driving in a fixed-base simulator: Effects of advance information about direction and amplitude on reaction time and steering kinematics

Reaction times (RTs) of aiming movements are typically shorter when responses are prepared by informative precues. Aside from RT facilitation, response preparation can also modify the velocity profile of the movement trajectory. In this study we assess the preparatory effects of advance information about direction and number of lanes in a lane change task. Consistent with the findings of previous studies with aiming movements, prior information reduced RT and affected the velocity profile of the steering angle. The velocity profile was mainly shortened around the first peak steering wheel angle, and this finding is in line with the movement integration hypothesis. The results suggest that the findings from basic research can be generalized to driving tasks.     

What is so frightening about spiders? Self‐rated and self‐disclosed impact of different characteristics and associations with phobia symptoms

Spider phobia is a common and impairing mental disorder, yet little is known about what characteristics of spiders that spider phobic individuals find frightening. Using screening data from a clinical trial, we explored which characteristics that spider‐fearful individuals (n = 194) rated as having the greatest impact on fear, used factor analysis to group specific characteristics, and explored linear associations with self‐reported phobia symptoms. Second, a guided text‐mining approach was used to extract the most common words in free‐text responses to the question: “What is it about spiders that you find frightening?” Both analysis types suggested that movement‐related characteristics of spiders were the most important, followed by appearance characteristics. There were, however, no linear associations with degree of phobia symptoms. Our findings reveal the importance of targeting movement‐related fears in in‐vivo exposure therapy for spider phobia and using realistically animated spider stimuli in computer‐based experimental paradigms and clinical interventions such as Virtual Reality exposure therapy.     

When and how social movements mobilize action within and across nations to promote solidarity with refugees

When and how do social movements form to mobilize action across national boundaries? In the context of the 2015 movement to support Syrian refugees, we develop an integrative model of transnational social movement formation shaped by pre-existing world-views (social dominance orientation and right-wing authoritarianism) and social media exposure to iconic events, resulting in an emergent group consciousness (“we are”, “we believe”, “we feel”). Group consciousness is, in turn, the proximal predictor of solidarity with refugees. Participants were from six countries: Hungary (N = 267), Romania (N = 163), Germany (N = 190), the United Kingdom (N = 159), the United States (N = 244) and Australia (N = 344). Multi-group structural equation models confirmed that group consciousness, shaped by individual differences and exposure to events through social media, was the proximal predictor of solidarity. The subjective meaning of group consciousness varied across samples, reflecting national differences. Results support the importance of considering individual and national differences, and group processes in understanding emergent social movements.     

Ergebnisse der Katathymimaginativen Psychotherapie

The goal of this study was to examine the effect of guided affective imagery therapy in an outpatient setting.At first, 140 patients were recruited.Unfortunately, there were many drop-outs at the beginning of the study as well as at later assessments.The data of 66 patients could be evaluated.The patients were assessed at the beginning of the therapy, after 25 sessions, at the end of the therapy and 18 month after the end of the therapy. Because of too many drop-outs, the originally planned waiting-control-design was realized only to some extent.The diagnoses of the patients consisted mainly of neurotic disorders,many of them with a dysthymia. Data were gathered by standardized questionnaires. There were marked effects of the therapies at the end of the treatments and also at the follow-up evaluation.Effect sizes were larger than 0.8 in somatic symptoms, mood, depression and life satisfaction.On the one hand, therefore, these therapies had been very effective. On the other hand, it became obvious during the course of the study, how difficult it is to conduct such a design with many therapists in a private practice and without financial support.     

An Emancipatory Topology of Desire

Abstract

In this article, I explore how the emancipatory potential of the human capacity to desire and be desired can contribute to more inclusive, sustainable, and convivial futures. I differentiate four manifestations of desire: (1) the consuming aspect of desire with acts of deliberate noncapitalist desire, (2) the arousing aspect of desire encouraging acts of playful profanation, (3) the identity-shaping aspect of desire enabling acts of radical unbecoming, and (4) the future-shaping aspect of desire associated with acts of courageous deviantness. Examples of practices that highlight the emancipatory potential of the different manifestations are discussed.     

Collective Affordances

Abstract

This article develops an ecological framework for understanding collective action. This is contrasted with approaches familiar from the collective intentionality debate, which treat individuals (with collective intentions) as fundamental units of collective action. Instead, we turn to social ecological psychology and dynamical systems theory and argue that they provide a promising framework for understanding collectives as the central unit in collective action. However, we submit that these approaches do not yet appreciate enough the relevance of social identities for collective action. To analyze this aspect, we build on key insights from social identity theory and synthesize it with embodied and ecological accounts of perception and action. This results in the proposal of two new types of affordances. For an individual who enacts her “embodied social identity” of being a member of a particular collective, there can be what we call embodied social identity affordances. Moreover, when several individuals dynamically interact with each other against the background of their embodied social identities, this might lead to the emergence of a collective, which we understand as a dynamically constituted and ecologically situated perception-action system consisting of several individuals enacting relevant embodied social identity affordances. Building on previous work in social ecological psychology, we suggest that there can be genuine collective affordances, that is, affordances whose subject is not an individual, but a collective.