Attention allocation in social anxiety during a speech

Cognitive models assume that social anxiety is associated with and maintained by biased information processing, leading to change in attention allocation, which can be measured by examining eye movement. However, little is known about the distribution of attention among positive, neutral and negative stimuli during a social task and the relative importance of positive versus negative biases in social anxiety. In this study, eye movement, subjective state anxiety and psychophysiology of individuals with high trait social anxiety (HSA) and low trait social anxiety (LSA) were measured during a speech task with a pre-recorded audience. The HSA group showed longer total fixation on negative stimuli and shorter total fixation on positive stimuli compared to the LSA group. We observed that the LSA group shifted attention away from negative stimuli, whereas the HSA group showed no differential attention allocation. The total duration of fixation on negative stimuli predicted subjective anxiety ratings. These results point to a negative bias as well as a lack of a positive bias in HSA individuals during social threat.     

Special Issue: Character Strengths,Well-Being,and Health in Educational and Vocational Settings

Applied Research in Quality of Life -     

Identifying thriving Workplaces in Hospitals: Work Characteristics and the Applicability of Character Strengths at Work

In most of their work settings, the health and well-being of hospital physicians are at risk. Trends of work intensification and changing laws in the European Union and beyond have heightened the call for taking a closer look at the workplace and training conditions of hospital physicians. This study aims to identify specific work characteristics (such as autonomy, social support, cognitive demands, and skill adequacy), in order to determine conditions for the applicability of individual character strengths at work and in turn for increased work engagement and well-being. We examined our hypotheses based on cross-sectional (N = 173) and longitudinal self-report data (N = 72) of hospital physicians in Austria. The results identified significant indirect effects of skill adequacy, cognitive demands, autonomy, and social support at work – via the applicability of individual character strengths at work – on work engagement and general well-being. Longitudinal analyses additionally confirmed autonomy as a thriving work characteristic for promoting the applicability of individual character strengths over time (time lag: 6 months). This study revealed the value of enabling and preserving the applicability of character strengths in a hospital work setting and focused – for the first time – on its predicting work characteristics. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of securing skill adequacy early in the training of young physicians and encouraging, as well as, sustaining autonomy in their daily work life.

     

Is it still worth it? Applying expectancy-value theory to investigate the intraindividual motivational process of forming intentions to drop out from university

Motivation and Emotion - The intraindividual process of study dropout, from forming dropout intention to deregistration, is of motivational nature. Yet typical studies investigate interindividual...     

German Readers of Dewey – Before 1933 and After 1945

Few pedagogical theories and practices have met with such strongreactive ambivalence in Germany as Dewey's. As it contained theideas of democracy and pragmatism it clashed with the monarchial andidealistic patterns of school-practice and pedagogic theory right fromthe beginning. On the other hand, reformists of all kinds wereoverwhelmed with enthusiasm. But even in the democratic phases of political development this ambivalence continued. The traditionof setting metaphysical and religious backgrounds stood in the way of a free examination of Dewey. Therefore, the reception has, upuntil now, been signed by mistakes and misinterpretations, but also by a minority of fruitful debates.     

Der Eurasismus als Erbe N. Ja. Danilevskijs? Bemerkungen zu Einem Topos der Forschung

N. Ya. Danilevsky is often mentioned as one of the predecessors of the Eurasian movement without the spheres of similarity and difference being clearly defined. This paper shows that both Danilevsky's theory of cultural-historical types and Eurasianism can be interpreted as philosophies of history based on anti-Darwinian models of thought. However, the idea of convergence through contiguity which constitutes the geographical, linguistic, and cultural unity of Eurasia is not found in Danilevsky. War against Europe as a unifying bond in Danilevsky's Panslavic programme is discussed in Darwinian terms which is in opposition to his own theory of cultural-historical types, whereas self-sufficiency in foreign politics corresponds to the basic principles of Eurasian philosophy of history.