Self‐Concept Clarity and the Management of Social Conflict

ABSTRACT: In 4 studies we examined the relationship between self‐concept clarity and conflict management. Individuals with higher self‐concept clarity were overall more active and showed more cooperative problem‐solving behavior than people with low self‐concept clarity. There were no relationships with contending or yielding. The positive relationship with cooperative behavior was mediated by less rumination (Study 2) and moderated by conflict intensity (Study 3). Specifically, it applied to relatively mild conflicts (Study 3). Finally, Study 4 extended these findings to the group level: Dyad members with higher self‐concept clarity engaged in problem solving, whereas dyad members with lower self‐concept clarity did not. We conclude that higher self‐concept clarity associates with proactive problem solving in social conflict.     

Angststörungen bei Patienten mit implantiertem Kardioverter-Defibrillator (ICD)

Patients with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) often show anxiety disorders as comorbid psychologycal disturbances. In a short review we discuss psychosocial aspects of the ICD-implantation. A case study of a 38 year old patient in inpatient treatment is presented for illustration of a cognitive-behavioral treatment method. The psychotherapeutic treatment was carried out in close cooperation with the clinic for cardiology.     

A State-Trait Analysis of Job Satisfaction: On the Effect of Core Self-Evaluations

Une recherche récente qui portait sur les fondements caractériels de la satisfaction au travail s’est focalisée sur le rapport entre la satisfaction professionnelle observée et le noyau central des autoévaluations (CSE). Cette étude s’est occupée d’une part de la relation entre la variance‐trait de la satisfaction au travail et le CSE et d’autre part de la structure des variables CSE. En faisant le choix d’un modèle de mesure longitudinal, nous avons d’abord recherché si le CSE était suffisamment stable, cela à partir d’une analyse secondaire de quatre périodes successives. Les résultats montrent une forte stabilité du CSE (.87 sur deux ans). Nous avons ensuite opéré une scission état‐trait de la satisfaction professionnelle de façon à dissocier la variance‐trait de la satisfaction au travail de la variance instable. Le facteur stable de satisfaction professionnelle fut mis en rapport, par régression, avec les variables CSE, en utilisant plusieurs modèles de CSE (une sommation, un facteur latent ou un concept global). D’après les résultats, il vaut mieux traiter les variables CSE comme une sommation, et cette série rend compte de presque toute la variance stable de la satisfaction professionnelle (84%). En outre, seuls l’affectivité négative et le locus of control interne avaient un impact significatif, alors que l’estime de soi et l’efficience personnelle n’en avaient pas. On conclut que la conception actuelle du CSE comme concept supraordonné englobant quatre dimensions est défendable, mais trop générale pour les recherches sur la satisfaction professionnelle; il est plus satisfaisant et suffisant d’analyser à la fois l’affectivité négative et le locus of control. Recent research that looked into the dispositional base of job satisfaction focused on relating observed job satisfaction to core self‐evaluations (CSE). This study was concerned with (a) the relation between the trait variance of job satisfaction and CSE and (b) the structure of the CSE‐variables. Using a longitudinal measurement model in a secondary analysis of four waves of a longitudinal study we first tested whether CSE are sufficiently stable over time. Results indicate a high stability of CSE (.87 across 2 years). We then performed a state‐trait decomposition of job satisfaction in order to separate trait variance of job satisfaction from changing variance. The stable job satisfaction factor was regressed on CSE‐variables, using different models of CSE (a collective set, a latent factor, or an aggregate concept). Results were in favor of treating the CSE‐variables as a collective set, and this set explained almost all stable variance of job satisfaction (84%). Moreover, only negative affectivity and internal locus of control had a significant impact, whereas self‐esteem and self‐efficacy had not. It is concluded that current conceptualisations of CSE as a superordinate concept underlying its four dimensions is possible but overly broad in job satisfaction research; collective consideration of LOC and NA is better and sufficient.     

Unemployment and aggression: the moderating role of self-awareness on the effect of unemployment on aggression

In February 2005, the unemployment rate in Germany surpassed the 10% mark. Derived from the revised version of the frustration-aggression hypothesis [Berkowitz, 1989], the present studies investigated the association between unemployment and aggression, as well as the moderating role of the self in this context. Because previous research on unemployment and aggression has been plagued by the cause-and-effect issue, the present research employed both an experimental and a correlational field approach. Three studies revealed that participants who expected to be unemployed after their degree (Studies 1 and 3), or who were currently unemployed (Study 2), reported stronger aggressive inclinations than participants who expected not to be unemployed or who were not unemployed at the time of data collection. However, this aggression-eliciting effect of expected or real unemployment only occurred for participants with low self-awareness. Participants who could actualize their self prior to reporting on aggression were not differently affected by different expectations or states of unemployment.     

The frequency effect in second-language visual word recognition

A lexical decision experiment with Dutch-English bilinguals compared the effect of word frequency on visual word recognition in the first language with that in the second language. Bilinguals showed a considerably larger frequency effect in their second language, even though corpus frequency was matched across languages. Experiment 2 tested monolingual, native speakers of English on the English materials from Experiment 1. This yielded a frequency effect comparable to that of the bilinguals in Dutch (their L1). These results constrain the way in which existing models of word recognition can be extended to unbalanced bilingualism. In particular, the results are compatible with a theory by which the frequency effect originates from implicit learning. They are also compatible with models that attribute frequency effects to serial search in frequency-ordered bins (Murray & Forster, 2004), if these models are extended with the assumption that scanning speed is language dependent, or that bins are not language specific.     

Grundstrukturen der Jugenddelinquenz

The article is about extent, development and offence structures of juvenile delinquency. Delinquency of young intensive offenders, young migrants and young women as well as of groups of young offenders is described and some aspects to explain juvenile delinquency are discussed.     

Time-based and event-based prospective memory across adulthood: underlying mechanisms and differential costs on the ongoing task

The authors investigated the phenomenon that performance in an ongoing task declines when individuals must carry out a prospective memory (PM) task. This effect is referred to as the PM interference effect. The authors examined whether the PM interference effect differs between event-based and time-based PM tasks and whether it is increased among the elderly. The authors also investigated adult age differences in PM performance and the potential underlying mechanisms of the age deficits in PM. They found that the PM interference effect was greater in event-based than in time-based tasks. However, aging was not associated with an increase in PM interference effects. Age differences in PM performance were more exaggerated in time-based than event-based PM, but they were not mediated by age differences in traditional cognitive ability measures. In time-based PM, age showed a unique adverse effect even after controlling for the ability to externally monitor the time, leading to the possibility that aging disrupts time-based PM because of deficits in internally processing the time.     

Expectancy confirmation in spite of disconfirming evidence: The case of price increases due to the introduction of the Euro

People in Germany overwhelmingly believe that the Euro introduction caused an overall price increase, however, no such increase actually took place. To investigate whether this disparity could be based on biased perceptions of the average price trend, four studies were conducted. Participants received two menus from a restaurant (one ‘old’ menu with German Mark (DM) prices and one ‘new’ menu with Euro prices) and were asked to estimate the price trend (in per cent). In all of these studies, price trend judgements were biased towards rising prices. If the prices had in fact been raised, the magnitude of this price increase was overestimated. If the prices had remained stable, significant price increases were perceived. And if the prices had fallen, they were perceived as having remained stable. The bias was systematically related to participants' expectations concerning price increases. A ‘selective outcome correction’ hypothesis proved to best fit the data: incorrect calculation outcomes that are in line with one's expectations are overlooked, whereas incorrect inconsistent outcomes are detected and corrected. The results imply that expectations can influence judgements even when clear disconfirming evidence is available that can be compared with an objective standard, thus leaving no room for interpretation. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

THE ROLE OF COGNITION AND FEELING IN RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

Abstract Inquiry into religious experience is informed by conceptualizations of emotion. Although a long history of theoretical and empirical work has provided considerable insight into the philosophical, psychological, and (more recently) neurobiological structure of emotion, the role of cognition and feeling in religious emotional states remains poorly conceived, and, hence, so does the concept of religious experience. The lack of a clear understanding of the role of emotion in religious experience is a consequence of a lack of an adequate interdisciplinary account of emotions. Our primary aim here is to examine the consequences of a properly interdisciplinary understanding of emotions for the analysis of religious experience. To this end, we note points of convergence between psychological, philosophical, and neuroscientific accounts of emotion and between such accounts and reports on the neurobiology of religious experience, in particular two recent human brain imaging studies. We conclude that emotions are richer phenomena than either pure feeling or pure thought and that, rightly understood, emotion affords religious experience its distinctive content and quality. Accordingly, we argue that religious experience cannot be reduced to pure feeling or pure thought. Rather, on our analysis, religious experience emerges as “thinking that feels like something.”     

Der bewegliche Mensch

Zusammenfassung. Diese Arbeit unterscheidet drei Konzepte der Identit?t (substanzielle, formale und qualifizierte Identit?t) und ordnet sie verschiedenen intellektuellen Traditionen zu. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit verdient der systematisch wichtigste Identit?tsbegriff, die „qualifizierte Identit?t.” Hingewiesen wird auf die Schwierigkeiten, die sich aus einer rein „narrativen” Fundierung dieser Identit?t ergeben; im Kontrast hierzu wird die Notwendigkeit betont, Identit?t in einem „dramatischen” Kontext zu sehen. Von dort her ergeben sich wichtige Vorgaben zur Ausrichtung therapeutischer Intervention. Die Vernachl?ssigung jenes dramatischen Kontexts führt zu einer Einengung des Identit?tsbegriffs, die besonders deutlich bei den Aporien der „Selbstverwirklichung” zutage tritt. Abschlie?end wird auf einige Gefahren hingewiesen, die sich aus der individualistischen Verzerrung des Identit?tsbegriffs in modernen Gesellschaften ergeben; von besonderer Bedeutung sind hier die soziale Erosion, aus der sich eine Krise im Verh?ltnis zwischen den Generationen ableitet, sowie – in engem Zusammenhang damit – das K?rperbild, das dem modernen Jugendkult zugrunde liegt.

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The human being in movement. Modern identity from a philosophical point of view

Summary. This paper draws a distinction between „substantive”, „formal”, and „qualified” identity, and gives hints at the intellectual traditions linked to these different accounts. The systematically most advanced concept of identity, i.e., „qualified identity”, deserves particular attention. With regard to the „making” of this identity, both its „narrative” foundation and its „dramatic” contextualization need to be discussed. The author hints at systematic problems involved in a merely „narrative” (re-)construction of identity and pleads for a „dramatic” contextualization of identity. Following this „dramatic” turn, the focus for therapeutic intervention is to be elucidated in a new way. Whereas a „dramatic” approach to identity allows to encompass the social context, an individualistic approach leads to serious distortions; this becomes evident in the aporetic figure of „self-realization”, which is reflected in the erosion of social relations, the struggle between generations, and the modern body-image of „youthfulness.”