Der Exzess einer Tugend

Querulous behavior and querulous paranoia are seldom in forensic settings, but produce major problems because of the chronicity and severity of the disorders. Aspects of psychopathology and differential diagnosis are discussed, especially characteristics of volition, of cognition and of behavior control. Regarding criminal responsibility the capacity of understanding the wrongfulness of behavior will usually not be severely impaired. In cases of strong deformation of personality structure with transition into paranoid disorder the capacity for behavior control may be significantly diminished. Irresponsibility will only occur in the rare cases of psychotic disorders. Because of a poor prognosis detention in forensic hospitals may be necessary when threats and manifest aggressive behavior occur.     

Zusammenhang zwischen Art der strafbaren Handlung und Suizid in Haftanstalten der USA

Does the nature of the criminal charge or conviction influence whether a jail or prison inmate will take his life? In the United States several nationwide surveys provide relevant information for answering this question. Studies of jail suicides in 1979, 1985 and 1986 respectively indicated that most inmates who committed suicide were charged with nonviolent offenses including drug related or minor offenses. In more recent national surveys the rate of suicide among jail inmates charged with violent offenses was triple that for those charged with nonviolent offenses. Offenses with the highest rates of suicide were kidnapping, rape and homicide. In prisons, where the rate of suicide is much lower than in jails, the rate of suicide for violent prisoners was twice that for nonviolent prisoners. Violent offenses with the highest rates of suicide in prisons included kidnapping, homicide, sexual assault and assault. Discussion addresses the discrepant results between the early surveys of jail suicides and the more recent surveys of suicides in jails and prisons. Further explored are possible explanations for the earlier predominance of nonviolent offenses among suicide victims, the recently elevated rates among violent offenses, and the elevated rates among specific criminal offenses. Commentary is also given to the practical implications of these findings.     

OGAMA (Open Gaze and Mouse Analyzer): Open-source software designed to analyze eye and mouse movements in slideshow study designs

In the present article, a new software is introduced that allows the recording and analyzing of eye- and mouse-tracking data from slideshow-based experiments in parallel. The Open Gaze and Mouse Analyzer (OGAMA) is written in C#.NET and has been released as an open-source project. Its main features include slide-show design, the recording of gaze and mouse data, database-driven preprocessing and filtering of gaze and mouse data, the creation of attention maps, areas-of-interest definition, and replay. Eyetracking and/or presentation soft- and hardware recordings in ASCII format can be imported. Data output is provided that can be used directly with different statistical software packages. Because it is open source, one can easily adapt it to suit one’s needs.     

Psychotherapeutenausbildung aus Sicht der Absolventen

Background

A survey was performed to assess the current situation in education and to identify critical issues 10 years after the inception of the psychotherapy act in Germany.

Methods

In August 2008 all non-medical psychotherapists who had graduated since 2002 according the psychotherapy act were invited to take part in the survey and a total of 863 persons participated. The answers from 666 could be evaluated corresponding to a participation rate of 20%.

Results

A total of 57.6% of the graduates had completed a full-time training and approximately 50% of the graduates had completed the training within the allotted time. In the majority of cases evaluation occurred only for the theoretical courses. During the practical work (PT I) 36.8% of the graduates did not receive any salary or remuneration, 82% had their own field of activity and of these 38% treated patients without the presence of qualified tutor.

Conclusions

The training often lasts longer than intended, the financial situation in the PT I is exceptionally critical and in clear contrast to the field of activity in this section of training. Further detailed results will be presented and discussed.     

Building information systems as universalized locals

We report on our experiences in a participatory design project to develop ICTs in a hospital ward working with deliberate self-harm patients. This project involves the creation and constant re-creation of socio-technical ensembles that satisfy the various, changing and often contradictory and conflicting needs in this context. Such systems are shaped in locally meaningful ways but nevertheless reach beyond their immediate context to gain wider importance and to be integrated with the larger environment. currently working on a participatory design project developing IT systems for psychiatrists working in a toxicology ward of a large general hospital. His research focuses on the local co-production of technologies which he currently explores in a production management context. His research interests lie in the field of human factors and interactive systems design, particularly approaches to IT systems design and development, the relationships between work and technology, and inter-disciplinary approaches to the design of dependable computing systems. carrying out a number of ethnomethodologically informed studies in a variety of applications. He holds a Ph.D. in ethnomethodology from the University of Manchester and is currently involved in research on computer-aided prompting systems for radiological work. He has interests in ethnomethodology, CSCW, SSK and the philosophy of social sciences. where he convenes an interdisciplinary research programme on ‘the social shaping of technology’.     

Krankheitsbewältigung und Psychotherapie bei körperlichen und chronischen Erkrankungen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

What predicts anti‐Roma prejudice? Qualitative and quantitative analysis of everyday sentiments about the Roma

The present research focused on two primary goals: (a) identifying the content of sentiments about the Roma to which Hungarians are exposed during everyday family conversations, and (b) determining which types of everyday sentiments about the Roma most strongly predict Hungarian respondents’ anti‐Roma prejudice. Content analyzing open‐ended responses from a representative sample of Hungarians (N = 505), we found that more than 76% of the respondents reported being exposed to negative stereotypes about the Roma, 27% to threats posed by Roma, and 16% to overt dehumanization of Roma; additionally more than 20% reported hearing no positive sentiments about the Roma in everyday family conversations. We then examined which negative and positive sentiments most strongly predicted respondents’ anti‐Roma prejudice (using measures of social distance and modern racism). Higher social distance scores were predicted by a lack of positive sentiments, whereas lower social distance scores were most strongly predicted by unambiguously positive sentiments expressed during family conversations. Higher modern racism scores were further predicted by sentiments expressing dehumanization, threat, and violence against Roma. Together, these results attest to the extremity of anti‐Roma sentiments expressed regularly by Hungarians, and suggest how exposure to specific sentiments may foster anti‐Roma hostility. Moreover, these findings provide guidance regarding the specific negative anti‐Roma sentiments that should be combated to enhance the effectiveness of anti‐prejudice interventions.     

Do chimpanzees anticipate an object’s weight? A field experiment on the kinematics of hammer-lifting movements in the nut-cracking Taï chimpanzees

When humans are about to manipulate an object, our brains use visual cues to recall an internal representation to predict its weight and scale the lifting force accordingly. Such a long-term force profile, formed through repeated experiences with similar objects, has been proposed to improve manipulative performance. Skillful object manipulation is crucial for many animals, particularly those that rely on tools for foraging. However, despite enduring interest in tool use in non-human animals, there has been very little investigation of their ability to form an expectation about an object’s weight. In this study, we tested whether wild chimpanzees use long-term force profiles to anticipate the weight of a nut-cracking hammer from its size. To this end, we conducted a field experiment presenting chimpanzees with natural wooden hammers and artificially hollowed, lighter hammers of the same size and external appearance. We used calibrated videos from camera traps to extract kinematic parameters of lifting movements. We found that, when lacking previous experience, chimpanzees lifted hollowed hammers with a higher acceleration than natural hammers (overshoot effect). After using a hammer to crack open one nut, chimpanzees tuned down the lifting acceleration for the hollowed hammers, but continued lifting natural hammers with the same acceleration. Our results show that chimpanzees anticipate the weight of an object using long-term force profiles and suggest that, similarly to humans, they use internal representations of weight to plan their lifting movements.