Characteristically Lutheran Leanings?

Is there a distinct Lutheran epistemology? I contend that there is. This epistemology, coming from the writings of (and subsequent reflections upon the writings of) Martin Luther, is uniquely poised–due to its emphasis on history, its affirmation of “the ordinary” and embodied life, its ability to have genuine dialogue with “secular” disciplines, and its built–in humility–for addressing the interdisciplinary political, social justice, environmental, and other issues that face us today. Likewise, one is able to embrace this epistemology whether he or she is a geneticist, a priest, a teacher, or a doctor; in fact it is this epistemology that can enable us to discern vocational goals.     

Stationäre integrative Psychotherapie bei Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrom

Multiple chemical sensitivity describes a syndrome of unspecific bodily complaints accompanied by the conviction that these are caused by the presence of chemicals in so small doses that normal persons would tolerate them without any problems. On the basis of a single case study of a patient with self reported MCS, we demonstrate the usefulness and necessity of developing an individual approach towards understanding the patients symptom complex. This approach allowed to plan the treatment steps and as a result the patient became symptomless and reached an improved feeling of general well-being in an eight week multimodal inpatient treatment. Factors that could have affected the outcome of the treatment are discussed. The focus of the treatment was the coping with anxiety induced by physical complaints. Change achieved is reflected in the GBB and SCL-90-R scores, the effects of working on interpersonal problems and dysfunctional relationship patterns are demonstrated by the IIP- and the RPQ-data respectively.     

Force cancellation

Synthese - Peter Hanks and Scott Soames both defend pragmatic solutions to the problem of the unity of the proposition. According to them, what ties together Tim and baldness in the singular...     

Self-Perceived Health among School-Aged Adolescents: a School-Based Study in Southern Brazil

This study identified which aspects regarding the dimensions of quality of life, in terms of body image, relationships with family and friends, rest and free time, school, well-being and lifestyles function as predictors of self-perceived health among school adolescents in the southern Brazil. The sample was composed of 3360 students, ninth graders in public schools in the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre/RS (Brazil). The instruments used were: a) Health Behaviour in School Children, b) Happiness Overall Life, c) Positive and Negative Affect Scale, d) General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), e) Brief Multidimensional Scale of Life Satisfaction in Students (BMSLSS), and f) Subscale of Cohesion of the Family Environment Scale (FES). Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to identify the predictors of perceived health. The results revealed a model with nine predictor variables in the sense that being more satisfied with one’s own body, perceiving one’s eating habits as healthier compared to others of the same age, having a greater sense of happiness in their current life, being able to talk to one’s brothers/sisters about issues of concern, a perception of being thinner compared to other people of the same age, greater consumption of healthy food, greater presence of positive affects and being male contribute to a greater perception of health. The results show that, for this population, the health issues are beyond the concern over physical health or the presence or absence of symptoms, but also encompass behavioral, relational and psychological aspects, as well.

     

Musical structure modulates semantic priming in vocal music

It has been shown that harmonic structure may influence the processing of phonemes whatever the extent of participants' musical expertise [Bigand, E., Tillmann, B., Poulin, B., D'Adamo, D. A., & Madurell, F. (2001). The effect of harmonic context on phoneme monitoring in vocal music. Cognition, 81, B11-B20]. The present study goes a step further by investigating how musical harmony may potentially interfere with the processing of words in vocal music. Eight-chord sung sentences were presented, their last word being either semantically related (La girafe a un tres grand cou, The giraffe has a very long neck) or unrelated to the previous linguistic context (La girafe a un tres grand pied, The giraffe has a very long foot). The target word was sung on a chord that acted either as a referential tonic chord or as a congruent but less referential subdominant chord. Participants performed a lexical decision task on the target word. A significant interaction was observed between semantic and harmonic relatedness suggesting that music modulates semantic priming in vocal music. Following Jones' dynamic attention theory, we argue that music can modulate semantic priming in vocal music, by modifying the allocation of attentional resource necessary for linguistic computation.     

Categorization Deficit in Old Age: Reality or Artefact?

When categorization behaviour is compared between young and elderly adults, results usually show a decrease in taxonomic choices along with an increase in thematic choices. This can be interpreted in two ways: a decline in the ability to perceive and use taxonomic relations, or a modification of conceptual preferences with aging related to a bias stemming from material which favours young adults. We evaluated the second hypothesis by studying whether the salience of categorical associations could explain the differences generally observed between young and elderly adults. This hypothesis was tested on 25 young subjects (M = 45.3 years, SD =5.6 years) and 30 elderly subjects (M = 71.5 years, SD = 7.1 years) using a matching task: individual judgments were used to build triads in which a target was presented along with a strong and a weak associate. In line with our hypothesis, both age groups were influenced by associative strength and type of relation in the same way. Results are interpreted with Baltes’s [1987, Developmental Psychology, 23, 611–626] model.     

Complex semantic processing in old age: does it stay or does it go?

Old adults' (N = 24) and young adults' (N = 24) speed of producing exemplars of semantic categories (i.e., semantic fluency) varying in difficulty was assessed both in a standard condition and in a "set-switching" condition where exemplars had to be produced from 2 categories in an alternating manner. "Retrieval-position function" parameters were used to assess speed of semantic access independent of nonsemantic factors. Results suggested age effects in nonsemantic components but not in semantic retrieval per se. Also, age deficits in set switching were relatively subtle. Findings are discussed with relation to issues of domain specificity of age effects as well as of the role of executive control during semantic retrieval and age differences therein.     

Field perspective deficit for positive memories characterizes autobiographical memory in euthymic depressed patients

Research on autobiographical memory (AM) and the ability to retrieve specific autobiographical events in euthymic depressed patients yielded divergent results. The main goal of the present study was to further explore episodic specificity of AM among fully remitted depressed patients. Twenty euthymic depressed patients and 20 matched healthy controls were given a semi-structured interview, which assesses episodic specificity of positive and negative autobiographical memories regarding event and details' specificity, autonoetic consciousness (remember/know procedure) and visual perspective (field/observer procedure). Results showed an impairment of episodic specificity of AM in euthymic depressed patients. This impairment was explained by a field perspective deficit for positive memories only. These results suggest that euthymic patients continue to exhibit discrepancy between their current self and their self for positive past behaviors, which maintains an unfavorable view of their current self. Specific cognitive interventions may improve the self-relevance of their positive memories.