Verstehen gegen Erklären

Journal for General Philosophy of Science - Es wird versucht (hermeneutisches) Verstehen psychologisch-prozessual zu artikulieren. Welche mentalen Prozesse sind bei einem Verstehen menschlichen...     

Attentional biases for threatening faces in children: vigilant and avoidant processes

The authors examined the processing of threat-related information in childhood anxiety with the emotional Stroop task and the dot probe task. In study 1, a nonclinical sample of 112 pupils (mean age = 9 years) performed pictorial versions of both tasks. For each task, an index indicating a bias for threat processing was computed. Positive correlations were found between these indices and anxiety. When compared with the original emotional Stroop index, the absolute value of the emotional Stroop index was a better predictor of anxiety. It was possible to replicate this result in study 2 with 80 pupils (mean age = 8.6 years). Results are discussed with regard to vigilance and avoidance as basic mechanisms underlying performance on the tasks.     

Inhibition and decay of motor and nonmotor priming

Motor responses can be facilitated by congruent visual stimuli and prolonged by incongruent visual stimuli that are made invisible by masking (direct motor priming). Recent studies on direct motor priming showed a reversal of these priming effects when a three-stimulus paradigm was used in which a prime was followed by a mask and a target stimulus was presented after a delay. A similar three-stimulus paradigm on nonmotor priming, however, showed no reversal of priming effects when the mask was used as a cue for processing of the following target stimulus (cue priming). Experiment 1 showed that the time interval between mask and target is crucial for the reversal of priming. Therefore, the time interval between mask and target was varied in three experiments to see whether cue priming is also subject to inhibition at a certain time interval. Cues indicated (1) the stimulus modality of the target stimulus, (2) the task to be performed on a multidimensional auditory stimulus, or (3) part of the motor response. Whereas direct motor priming showed the reversal of priming about 100 msec after mask presentation, cue priming effects simply decayed during the 300 msec after mask presentation. These findings provide boundary conditions for accounts of inverse priming effects.     

Die therapeutische Allianz

Zusammenfassung  Im Teil 2 wird zunächst auf die kontroverse Auffassung eingegangen, dass Allianzbrüche unvermeidbar und für den Therapieerfolg nützlich sind. Dann wird der Versuch unternommen, eine Abgrenzung zu anderen Konstrukten vorzunehmen, die entweder als Moderatoren oder als prinzipiell ähnliche Zugänge zu sozialen Interaktionen aufzufassen sind. So wird z. B. in der Sozialpsychologie relativ häufig eine sehr ähnliche Thematik unter anderen Sichtweisen behandelt. Darüber hinaus gibt es auch noch weitere erwähnenswerte Zugänge, die empirische Untersuchungen einer Verbindung mit therapeutischer Allianz lohnenswert erscheinen lassen. Es wird die Schlussfolgerung gezogen, dass therapeutische Allianz, vorzugsweise als Begleitvariable zu interpretieren, ein mehrdimensionales Konstrukt ist, das unterschiedliche Verlaufsmuster aufweist, und dessen funktionale Validität weiter erforscht werden sollte.

Time course of free-choice priming effects explained by a simple accumulator model

Unconscious visual stimuli can be processed by human observers and modulate their behavior. This has been shown for masked prime stimuli that influence motor responses to subsequent target stimuli. Beyond this, masked stimuli can also affect participants' behavior when they are free to choose one of two response alternatives. This finding demonstrates that an apparently free-choice between alternative behaviors can be subject to influences that are outside of awareness. We report three experiments which exhibit that the temporal dynamic of free-choice priming effects corresponds to that of forced-choice priming effects. Forced-choice priming effects were relatively robust against variations of prime stimuli but sensitive to physical features of target stimuli. Free-choice priming effects, in contrast, depended largely on the stimulus-response compatibility of the prime. A simple accumulator model which accounts for forced-choice response priming can also explain free-choice priming effects by the assumption that unconscious stimuli can initiate motor responses when participants are engaged in a speeded choice-reaction time task. According to our analyses free-choice priming results from a response selection mechanism which integrates conscious and unconscious information from external, stimulus driven sources and also from internal sources.     

Rights, Liability, and the Moral Equality of Combatants

According to the dominant position in the just war tradition from Augustine to Anscombe and beyond, there is no ??moral equality of combatants.?? That is, on the traditional view the combatants participating in a justified war may kill their enemy combatants participating in an unjustified war??but not vice versa (barring certain qualifications). I shall argue here, however, that in the large number of wars (and in practically all modern wars) where the combatants on the justified side violate the rights of innocent people (??collateral damage??), these combatants are in fact liable to attack by the combatants on the unjustified side. I will support this view with a rights-based account of liability to attack and then defend it against a number of objections raised in particular by Jeff McMahan. The result is that the thesis of the moral equality of combatants holds good for a large range of armed conflicts while the opposing thesis is of very limited practical relevance.     

A longitudinal application of three health behaviour models in the context of skin protection behaviour in individuals with occupational skin disease

Occupational skin disease (OSD) is common, associated with poor prognosis and poses a significant burden to the individual and society. We applied the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), the prototype-willingness model (PWM) and the health action process approach (HAPA) to the prediction and explanation of occupationally relevant skin protection behaviour in individuals with OSD. We used a longitudinal design. In this study, 150 individuals participating in a 3-week inpatient tertiary prevention programme completed measures assessing the constructs of the TPB, PWM and HAPA at admission (T?0), discharge (T?1) and once the individual had returned to work and worked for 4 consecutive weeks (T?2) (n?=?117). Intention was measured at T?0 and skin protection behaviour at T?2. Path analysis was used to assess the longitudinal associations of the models’ constructs with intention and skin protection behaviour. TPB as well as PWM variables accounted for 30% of variance in behaviour, HAPA variables for 33%. While not all predictions were confirmed by the data, all three models are able to inform us about the formation of skin protection intention and behaviour in individuals with OSD. The findings are discussed in light of future interventions and research.     

Consciousness mediated by neural transition states: How invisibly rapid motions can become visible

When observers view a rapidly moving stimulus they may see only a static streak. We report that there can be a transient percept of motion if such a moving stimulus is preceded or followed by a stationary image of that stimulus. A ring of dots was rotated so rapidly observers only saw a continuous outline circle and could not report its rotation direction. When an objectively stationary ring of dots preceded or followed this rotating ring, the stationary ring appeared to visibly launch into motion from a standstill or visibly rotate to a halt, principally in the same direction as the actual rapid rotation. Thus, motions too rapid to be consciously perceived as motion can nonetheless be processed by the visual system, and generate neural transition states that are consciously experienced as motion percepts. We suggest such transition states might serve a unifying function by bridging discontinuous motion states.     

Adolescents with high mental toughness adapt better to perceived stress: A longitudinal study with Swiss vocational students

A mindset of mental toughness enables an individual to cope successfully with the pressures and demands of life. This 10-month study prospectively examined the association between mental toughness and stress resilience in 865 students (M = 17.86 years, 42.7% girls) from two vocational schools. Within each school, separate cluster analyses identified groups with different profiles of risk (assessed with perceived stress) and adaptation (operationalized with depressive symptoms and life satisfaction). Four clusters emerged characterizing students with well-adjusted (low risk, good adaptation), maladjusted (elevated risk, bad adaptation), deteriorated (low initial risk, worsening adaptation) and resilient profiles (elevated initial risk, improving adaptation). The latter two clusters reported similar levels of mental toughness at baseline, but resilient adolescents scored significantly higher on mental toughness at follow-up. After controlling for possible confounds, baseline toughness levels predicted depressive symptoms and life satisfaction over time. This study shows that mental toughness operates as a stress resilience resource. Mental toughness is, therefore a topic of interest for health specialists working with adolescent populations.     

Some Personality Correlates of Business White-Collar Crime

On présente dans cet article les résultats de la première étude transversale européenne portant sur les dimensions de la personnalité en relation avec les délits financiers commis par les cols blancs. Ce travail est un prolongement de la recherche de Collin & Schmidt (1992) sur les délits des cols blancs aux Etats‐Unis. Les données ont été récoltées auprès de 150 cadres en poste dans des sociétés commerciales allemandes et de 76 délinquants en col blanc anciennement cadres. Les répondants ont rempli des échelles papier crayon mesurant l’hédonisme (l’Echelle de Valeurs de Schwartz), le sens des responsabilités (NEO‐FFI), le narcissisme (DSM‐III‐R), la désirabilité sociale (Crowne & Marlowe), et le self‐control comportemental. L’analyse de régression logistique montra que 69% de la variance était commune aux deux groupes. Le délit financier commis par un col blanc dépend du sexe (les hommes sont surreprésentés), d’un faible self‐control comportemental, d’un hédonisme élevé, d’un fort narcissisme et d’un sens des responsabilités affirmé quand la désirabilité sociale est statistiquement contrôlée. Ce résultat concernant le sens des responsabilités est toutefois en contradiction avec l’interprétation que Collins et Schmidt donnent de leurs travaux (1993). On peut supposer que les délinquants en col blanc haut placés combinent malhonnêteté et sens des responsabilités élevé. In this paper the results of the first cross‐sectional study in Europe examining personality correlates of white‐collar crime in business are presented. This study is an extension of Collins and Schmidt's (1993 ) research on white‐collar crime in the United States. The data were obtained from 150 managers currently active in German corporations and 76 white‐collar criminals who formerly held such positions. Participants filled out paper and pencil scales measuring hedonism (Schwartz Value Scale), conscientiousness (NEO‐FFI), narcissism (DSM‐III‐R), social desirability ( Crowne & Marlowe, 1960 ), and behavioral self‐control. The logistic regression analysis accounted for 69 per cent of the variance between the two groups. Business white‐collar crime is predicted by gender (males higher rates than females), low behavioral self‐control, high hedonism, high narcissism, and high conscientiousness after statistically controlling for social desirability. The results concerning conscientiousness, however, contradict the interpretation of findings reported by Collins and Schmidt (1993 ). It is argued here that high‐ranking white‐collar criminals in business combine low integrity with high conscientiousness.