Ministry to the chronic hemodialysis patient

The beginning point of ministry to those persons suffering from renal failure and turning to hemodialysis in order to sustain life is a sensitive understanding of the total dialysis experience. The minister or chaplain who visits a hemodialysis unit only occasionally will be more effective in bringing his skills to the task by understanding the unique dynamics of the physical, emotional and spiritual adjustment of those who depend on this relatively new therapy. The specific elements of this ministry in terms of those closely involved, professional care givers, families, and patients, are discussed with attention to the factors that tend to make ministry to the hemodialysis patient unique.This article is the result of a one-year chaplain residency at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, in partial fulfillment of clinical requirements for the D. Min. degree in Pastoral Theology and Counseling at the Divinity School, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.     

One-sided nonparametric tests for ordinal data

Baumgartner, Weiss, and Schindler (1998) introduced a novel non-parametric test for the two-sample comparison that is superior to commonly used tests such as the Wilcoxon rank-sum test. A modification of the novel test statistic can be used for one-sided comparisons based on ordinal data. Such comparisons frequently occur in psychological research, and the Wilcoxon test is often recommended for their analysis. Here, the two tests were compared in a simulation study. According to this study the tests have a similar type I error rate, but the modified Baumgartner-Weiss-Schindler test is more powerful than the Wilcoxon test.     

Rewarded remembering: dissociations between self-rated motivation and memory performance

People often claim that they perform better in memory performance tasks when they are more motivated. However, past research has shown minimal effects of motivation on memory performance when factors contributing to item-specific biases during encoding and retrieval are taken into account. The purpose of the present study was to examine the generality of this apparent dissociation by using more sensitive measures of experienced motivation and memory performance. Extrinsic motivation was manipulated through competition instructions, and subjective ratings of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation were obtained before and after study instructions. Participants studied a series of words, and memory performance was assessed by content recall (Experiment 1) and source recall (Experiment 2). Both experiments showed dissociation between subjective ratings of extrinsic motivation and actual memory performance, so that competition increased self-rated extrinsic motivation but had no effects on memory performance, including source recall. Inconsistent with most people's expectations, the findings suggest that extrinsic motivation has minimal effects on memory performance.     

Parenting, achievement strategies and satisfaction in ice hockey

The aim of this study is to understand adolescent players' satisfaction as a function of parenting styles, players' achievement strategies, and their norm breaking behavior. Finnish 14- and 16-year-old ice-hockey players (n=1018) completed a questionnaire measuring their achievement strategies (SAQ; Nurmi, Salmela--Aro & Haavisto, 1995 b), as well as scales of norm breaking and satisfaction, prepared for the present study. The parents (n=979) filled in scales measuring their parenting styles (CRPR; Pulkkinen, 1996) and attitudes towards norm breaking. Results revealed that players from authoritative families who showed a high level of mastery-orientation expressed high satisfaction in playing ice hockey. Results also showed negative associations between authoritative parenting and both task irrelevant and norm breaking behavior. Parents with parental stress and those with authoritarian parenting styles showed positive attitudes to norm breaking behavior, and players from authoritarian and parental stress homes showed norm breaking behavior in ice hockey. There was no association between norm breaking behavior and player satisfaction. Our results contribute to the planning of a coaching system that serves more educational and developmental purposes, and that encourages the desire to play ice hockey as a hobby.     

Rapid serial naming: relations between different stimuli and neuropsychological factors

We report two studies on rapid serial naming (RSN). Study 1 addressed the relations among RSN tasks comprising different stimuli. Separate components for RSN of alphanumeric and non-alphanumeric stimuli, as well as for tasks in which the stimuli alternated between categories were identified. In Study 2, phonological skills, processing speed, motor dexterity, and verbal fluency were found to explain RSN performance. The studies indicate: (1) that RSN tasks vary in their properties according to the stimuli used and according to the way the tasks are arranged, and (2) that RSN tasks are multi-componented.     

Detection of sound rise time by adults with dyslexia

Low sensitivity to amplitude modulated (AM) sounds is reported to be associated with dyslexia. An important aspect of amplitude modulation cycles are the rise and fall times within the sound. In this study, simplified stimuli equivalent to just one cycle were used and sensitivity to varying rise times was explored. Adult participants with dyslexia or compensated dyslexia and a control group performed a detection task with sound pairs of different rise times. Results showed that the participants with dyslexia differed from the control group in rise time detection and a correlation was found between rise time detection and reading and phonological skills. A subgroup of participants with lower sensitivity to rise time detection characterized by low accuracy in syllable-level phonological skills was found within the dyslexic group. Short stimuli containing only one rise time produced associations with phonological skills and reading, even in a language where the perception of rise time contrasts are not crucial for the signaling of phonemic contrast.     

Explizite und implizite psychoanalytische Behandlungspraxis

Zusammenfassung  Die Psychoanalyse wurde mit dem Ziel konzipiert, Verdrängungen dem Bewusstsein zugänglich zu machen und dadurch die Kindheitsamnesie aufzuheben (Freud 1937). Mit der Ausweitung des psychoanalytischen Behandlungsspektrums auf präödipale Störungen und Verbreitung der Objektbeziehungstheorie entwickelte sich allerdings eine alternative Behandlungsstrategie, die Therapie der emotionalen Erfahrung. Der damit verknüpfte Dualismus führte lange zu einer Kontroverse über eine einheitliche psychoanalytische Behandlungstechnik. Nur langsam setzte sich die Erkenntnis durch, dass angemessene Deutungen und ein entwicklungsfördernder Umgang mit der Übertragung zwei therapeutische Ansätze darstellen, die nicht voneinander zu trennen sind.Vor dem Hintergrund der neueren Gedächtnisforschung zeigt sich, dass beide Ansätze sich einerseits ergänzen, andererseits aber auch gegensätzliche Pole im Indikationsspektrum der psychoanalytischen Praxis repräsentieren. Die Einsichtstherapie der klassischen Analyse hat das episodische, explizite Gedächtnis als Bezugspunkt und in dieser Weise auch weiterhin Gültigkeit. Demgegenüber bezieht sich die Therapie der emotionalen Erfahrung auf implizites Erfahrungswissen, das den Kern der Patienten mit einer Entwicklungspathologie ausmacht.In dieser Arbeit wird die implizite psychoanalytische Behandlungspraxis im Umgang mit archaischen Ich-Zuständen erläutert. Dabei wird die Bedeutung der bekannten Behandlungskonzepte Objektverwendung, Metabolisierung und containment hervorgehoben.

---

Explicit and implicit psychoanalytical practice

Psychoanalysis was conceived with the aim of making suppressed experiences available to the consciousness and by means of this, reversing childhood amnesia. In the course of the extension of the psychoanalytical treatment spectrum to pre-oedipal disturbances and the increasing influence of the object relation theory an alternative therapeutic strategy, the therapy of emotional experience, was developed. The related dualism led to a long-lasting controversy about a uniform psychoanalytical technique. The insight that adequate interpretations and beneficial handling of the relationship are two therapeutical approaches which have not to be separated from each other, has been accepted slowly.Against the background of recent memory research it turns out that on the one hand both approaches supplement each other, but on the other hand they are contrasting poles in the indication spectrum of psychoanalytical practice. The therapy of insight of classical psychoanalysis has the explicit memory as a reference point and is therefore still valid. On the contrary, the therapy of emotional experience refers to implicit experience which is the core of developmental pathology.In this paper the implicit psychoanalytical practice, dealing with archaic ego states, is discussed, referring to such well-known concepts as object use, metabolization and containment.

---

---

Nach einem Vortrag zum 50-jährigen Bestehen des Lou Andreas-Salomé Instituts in Göttingen am 30.10.04.

---

Lebensqualität von ärztlichen und psychologischen Psychotherapeuten

In a large empirical cross-sectional study the quality of life of medical and psychological psychotherapists ( n =71, respectively n =103) was examined as well as the influence of the different therapeutic methods used. Instruments used were the Questionnaire on Quality of Life of Physicians (Reimer and Jurkat 2003) respectively the Questionnaire on Quality of Life of Psychologists (Jurkat and Reimer 2003) as well as the SF-36 Health Survey (Bullinger and Kirchberger 1998). The majority of participants in both samples are satisfied with their life. Psychological psychotherapists are comparatively more content with their work situation and judge their own health more positively than their medical colleagues do. Both groups feel their income situation to be a loss in quality of life. A common fear is an even greater bureaucratic burden and financial deterioration. Thus it seems that psychohygienic measures and secure job perspectives may contribute to raising the quality of life of psychotherapists.