Neue Entwicklungen in der allgemeinen psychoanalytischen Psychosomatik

Psychoanalysis has played a pivotal role for developments in psychosomatics both on a conceptual and an institutionalization level. In contemporary psychosomatics there is a focus on conceptual models that concentrate on psychic structure, the processing of emotions and embodiment. Alongside these, the questions arise on how psychoanalytic views on psychosomatic disorders in a more classical sense will develop further and their relevance for current developments. This article gives a brief historical overview of some central concepts in psychoanalytic psychosomatics and shows how these are resumed in what can be distinguished as six aspects of contemporary psychoanalytic psychosomatics. This is demonstrated by a brief case report. The article closes with some proposals for the clinical practice.     

Revealing Hidden Curvilinear Relations Between Work Engagement and Its Predictors: Demonstrating the Added Value of Generalized Additive Model (GAM)

Previous studies measuring different aspects of the quality of life have, as a rule, presumed linear relationships between a dependent variable and its predictors. This article utilizes non-parametric statistical methodology to explore curvilinear relations between work engagement and its main predictors: job demands, job control and social support. Firstly, the study examines what additional information non-linear modeling can reveal regarding the relationship between work engagement and the three predictors in question. Secondly, the article compares the explanatory power of non-linear and linear modeling with regard to work engagement. The generalized additive model (GAM), that makes possible non-linear modeling, is compared with the widely used simply linear generalized linear model (GML) procedure. Based on the survey data (N = 7,867) collected in eight European countries in 2007, the article presents the following main results. GAM clearly fitted the data better than GLM. All investigated job characteristics had curvilinear relationships with work engagement, although job demands and job control relationships were almost linear. Social support had a clear U-shaped curvilinear connection to work engagement. Interactions between the three job characteristics were also found. Interaction between job demands and social support was curvilinear in shape. Finally, GAM proved to be a more practical and efficient tool of analysis than GLM in situations where there are reasons to assume curvilinear relationships, complex interactions effects between predictors.     

Adorno on Kant,Freedom and Determinism

Abstract: In this paper I argue that Adorno's metacritique of freedom in Negative Dialectics and related texts remains fruitful today. I begin with some background on Adorno's conception of ‘metacritique’ and on Kant's conception of freedom, as I understand it. Next, I discuss Adorno's analysis of the experiential content of Kantian freedom, according to which Kant has reified the particular social experience of the early modern bourgeoisie in his conception of unconditioned freedom. Adorno argues against this conception of freedom and suggests that freedom is always conditioned by our embodiment and by our social and historical situation. Finally, I turn to Adorno's criticism of Kant's discussion of freedom and determinism in the Critique of Pure Reason and argue that while his philosophical argument against Kant fails, his metacritical argument remains suggestive. Scepticism about freedom arises when the standpoint of theoretical reason encroaches upon the standpoint of practical reason and assimilates persons to things.     

Rapid Automatized Naming and Learning Disabilities: Does RAN Have a Specific Connection to Reading or Not?

This work is an extension of a study by Waber, Wolff, Forbes, and Weiler (2000 Waber, D. P., Wolff, P. H., Forbes, P. W. and Weiler, M. D. 2000. Rapid automatized naming in children referred for evaluation of heterogeneous learning problems: How specific are naming speed deficits to reading disability?. Child Neuropsychology, 6: 251–261. [Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) in which the specificity of naming speed deficits to reading disability (RD) was examined. One hundred ninety-three children (ages 8 to 11) evaluated for learning disabilities were studied. It was determined how well rapid automatized naming (RAN) discriminated between different diagnostic groups (learning impaired [LI] with and without RD) from controls and from each other. Whereas Waber et al. concluded that RAN was an excellent tool for detecting risk for learning disabilities in general, the results of the present study point to a more specific connection between RAN and RD.     

Ambivalence over emotional expression in major depression

High ambivalence over the expression of emotions (AEE) has consistently been associated with high levels of depression in previous research. However, there is a lack of studies examining this construct and its associations in a clinical sample of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Therefore, the present study compared 76 MDD with 77 non-depressed controls (NC) regarding AEE. As expected, MDD reported greater AEE as compared to ND. Furthermore, levels of AEE and levels of depression were positively correlated in the MDD group. These findings extend previous work and underline the importance of AEE as a central construct in depression. Targeting AEE in treatments of depression may help to modify maladaptive interpersonal patterns of emotional expression.     

Priming effects in prospective memory

Abstract

The objective of this study was to examine whether an increased activation of knowledge structures facilitates memory for future actions. Priming effects were manipulated by giving subjects a category fluency task for half of the target categories used in the subsequent prospective memory task. In this task, younger and older adults performed an action whenever an instance of a given semantic category occurred in the context of a free association task. The degree of retrieval support was varied by using typical and atypical category instances as targets. Although reliable priming effects were observed for both age groups, the magnitude of priming interacted with the degree of retrieval support. Older adults showed priming effects for typical targets only, whereas the opposite pattern of results was obtained for younger adults. These findings indicate that, in addition to retrieval-related factors, the operations performed at the time of planning also contribute to optimal prospective remembering.     

Executive functions in decision making: An individual differences approach

This individual differences study examined the relationships between three executive functions (updating, shifting, and inhibition), measured as latent variables, and performance on two cognitively demanding subtests of the Adult Decision Making Competence battery: Applying Decision Rules and Consistency in Risk Perception. Structural equation modelling showed that executive functions contribute differentially to performance in these two tasks, with Applying Decision Rules being mainly related to inhibition and Consistency in Risk Perception mainly associated to shifting. The results suggest that the successful application of decision rules requires the capacity to selectively focus attention and inhibit irrelevant (or no more relevant) stimuli. They also suggest that consistency in risk perception depends on the ability to shift between judgement contexts.     

Examining the Growth Trajectories of Physical Education Students’ Motivation,Enjoyment, and Physical Activity: A Person-Oriented Approach

The study examined the growth trajectories in 757 (M age = 12.71) Finnish middle school students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation along with their enjoyment and physical activity. In addition, the study aimed to examine the role of intrinsic and extrinsic physical education motivation in the development in adolescents’ enjoyment and physical activity by identifying adolescents’ subgroups. Adolescents’ enjoyment and physical activity declined, intrinsic motivation was stable, and extrinsic motivation increased across middle school. Adolescents with highest levels of intrinsic motivation and moderate to high levels of extrinsic regulation had the highest levels of enjoyment and physical activity.     

Predictors of Self-Reported Prospective and Retrospective Memory in a Population-Based Sample of Older Adults

In this article, the authors examined predictors of self-reported everyday memory failures using the Prospective and Retrospective Questionnaire (PRMQ; Smith, Della Sala, Logie, &; Maylor, 2000 Smith, G. V., Della Sala, S., Logie, R. H. and Maylor, E. A. M. 2000. Prospective and retrospective memory in normal ageing and dementia: A questionnaire study. Memory, 8: 311–321. [Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) in a population-based sample of older adults (age range = 60–90 years; N = 250). The results showed that a higher frequency of reported failures was associated with lower scores on the personality dimension of self-directedness as assessed by the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI; Cloninger, Dragan, Svrakic, &; Przybeck, 1993 Cloninger, R. C., Dragan, M. S., Svrakic, D. M. and Przybeck, T. R. 1993. A psychobiological model of temperament and character. Archives of General Psychiatry, 50: 975–990. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and more depressive symptoms on the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977 Radloff, L. S. 1977. The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1: 385–401. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). However, PRMQ scores showed no relationships with objective memory ability, as reflected by a series of retrospective memory measures and a measure of prospective memory. Neither were the PRMQ scales associated with general cognitive functioning as assessed by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE; Folstein, Folstein, &; McHugh, 1977). Taken together, the results indicate that within the older population, self-reported memory as assessed by the PRMQ may reflect mood-state and personality factors rather than individual differences in memory and cognitive ability.     

Wittgenstein and the Criticism of Religion A Case Study

This article discusses the relevance of Wittgenstein's remarks on the doctrine of predestination for an understanding of his approach to religious matters. On the one hand, Wittgenstein held that this doctrine involves distorted concepts and is ethically and religiously nonsensical. On the other, he stated that others may find it “good and godly.” He seems to suggest that personal experience shapes the genuine meaning of the doctrine of predestination. The points that emerge cast light on tensions prevailing between Wittgenstein's conception of meaning as essentially a social and inter-subjective matter and his individualist perspective in the matter of religion. These issues lie at the heart of the dispute over Wittgenstein's views on the possibility of a philosophical criticism of religion.