The end of History or the end of Democracy? National identity and the future of the nation‐state

Two alternative scenarios on the future of the nation state are presented in order to discuss the concepts of national identity as well as of political system legitimacy. At the core is the question to what extent the nation state will become obsolescent if not obsolete as a function of international interdependence. Fukuyama considers national identity a cultural phenomenon alien to democracy as the ultimate form of government. Guéhenno, in contrast, believes that the erosion of the nation state and of national identity will bring about the end of democracy. The disagreement rests on the assumption whether the political systems will be able to retain their autonomy allowing them to maintain or expand individual liberty and collective freedom.     

Behavioral Problems and Reading Difficulties Among Language Minority and Monolingual Urban Elementary School Students

This study examined the potentially compounding effect of language minority (LM) status on problem behaviors among urban second and third grade-level poor readers. Univariate analyses showed that a disproportionate percentage of both LM and English monolingual (L1) poor readers already displayed clinically significant levels of anxiety, social problems, and oppositional behaviors in the classroom. Analyses of variance, however, demonstrated that LM status was not an additive risk factor for reading difficulties, behavior problems, or lowered self-concept in this sample. No differences were observed between LM and L1 students on a wide range of reading measures, on their teachers’ ratings of internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors in the classroom, or on self-ratings of self-efficacy and social competence. Implications for intervention for all urban students with reading difficulties are discussed.     

The Developmental Trajectory from Amodal Perception to Empathy and Communication: The Role of Mirror Neurons in This Process

In a recent paper entitled “Mirror Neurons. Procedural Learning and the Positive New Experience” (Wolf et al., 2000), data were presented about a special type of neuron, the mirror neuron, originally located by Rizzolatti and his colleagues (1995). These neurons were discussed as they related to a particular developmental view of psychoanalysis, developmental systems self psychology (Shane, Shane, and Gales. 1997).

In this paper, we focus on how this mirror neuron system might contribute to the development of communicative abilities in humans. First we summarize the research findings about mirror neurons and how they apply to humans. We then attempt to demonstrate how the mirror neuron system might be involved in a developmental sequence hypothesized by Kohut (1984), Stern (1985), and others to begin in infancy. We postulate that this trajectory starts with the onset of “amodal perception” (Stern, 1985) and then proceeds to affect resonance, joint attention, and ultimately to symbolization of language. In this paper, we attempt to integrate these concepts with a formulation of empathy and demonstrate what might go awry in developmental disorders when the normative sequence of development described above does not take place.     

Deformation mechanism crossover and mechanical behaviour in nanocrystalline materials

We use molecular dynamics simulations to elucidate the transition with decreasing grain size from a dislocation- to a grain-boundary-based deformation mechanism in nanocrystalline fcc metals. Our simulations reveal that this crossover is accompanied by a pronounced transition in the mechanical behaviour of the material; namely, at the grain size where the crossover occurs (the 'strongest size'), the strain rate under tensile elongation goes through a minimum. This simultaneous transition in both the deformation mechanism and the corresponding mechanical behaviour offers an explanation for the experimentally observed crossover in the yield strength of nanocrystalline materials, from Hall-Petch hardening to 'inverse Hall-Petch' softening.     

Introducing the GASP scale: a new measure of guilt and shame proneness

Although scholars agree that moral emotions are critical for deterring unethical and antisocial behavior, there is disagreement about how 2 prototypical moral emotions--guilt and shame--should be defined, differentiated, and measured. We addressed these issues by developing a new assessment--the Guilt and Shame Proneness scale (GASP)--that measures individual differences in the propensity to experience guilt and shame across a range of personal transgressions. The GASP contains 2 guilt subscales that assess negative behavior-evaluations and repair action tendencies following private transgressions and 2 shame subscales that assess negative self-evaluations (NSEs) and withdrawal action tendencies following publically exposed transgressions. Both guilt subscales were highly correlated with one another and negatively correlated with unethical decision making. Although both shame subscales were associated with relatively poor psychological functioning (e.g., neuroticism, personal distress, low self-esteem), they were only weakly correlated with one another, and their relationships with unethical decision making diverged. Whereas shame-NSE constrained unethical decision making, shame-withdraw did not. Our findings suggest that differentiating the tendency to make NSEs following publically exposed transgressions from the tendency to hide or withdraw from public view is critically important for understanding and measuring dispositional shame proneness. The GASP's ability to distinguish these 2 classes of responses represents an important advantage of the scale over existing assessments. Although further validation research is required, the present studies are promising in that they suggest the GASP has the potential to be an important measurement tool for detecting individuals susceptible to corruption and unethical behavior.     

Supportives Monitoring in der Psychotherapie

Supportive monitoring (SM) is presented as a new intervention concept for the disease management of mental disorders. Following an introductory clarification of terms some related concepts will be outlined and potential strengths of SM will be identified. An application of SM will be introduced that was recently developed for an individualized disease management for patients with recurrent depression. The article closes with a discussion about the challenges for research and practice regarding the development and implementation of SM.     

Response time models of delta plots with negative-going slopes

Delta plots (DPs) graphically compare reaction time (RT) quantiles obtained under two experimental conditions. In some research areas (e.g., Simon effects), decreasing delta plots (nDPs) have consistently been found, indicating that the experimental effect is largest at low quantiles and decreases for higher quantiles. nDPs are unusual and intriguing: They imply that RT in the faster condition is more variable, a pattern predicted by few standard RT models. We describe and analyze five classes of well-established latency mechanisms that are consistent with nDPs--exhaustive processing models, correlated stage models, mixture models, cascade models, and parallel channels models--and discuss the implications of our analyses for the interpretation of DPs. DPs generally do not imply any specific processing model; therefore, it is more fruitful to start from a specific quantitative model and to compare the DP it predicts with empirical data.     

Possibilities of objective assessment of the course of activation in ideomotor training

An active exploration of movement tasks is accompanied with central nervous activation. Its systematical examination needs a teamwork of scientists of various branches of knowledge (i.e. physiology, psychology, sport sciences). Mental training (motor imagination - MI) was chosen as a model for such examinations. In connection with the execution of MI there are characteristic chances of the mean alpha frequency of the EEG, heart rate, respiration rate and skin conductance. The time course of these parameters depends on the number, the duration and the sequence of MI. A graduated submaximal load on ergometer has no influence on the course of the examined parameters. Our investigation allows the conclusion that different activation processes go on within different subsystems during the execution of MI. From a physiological point of view it seems to be necessary that a concrete paradigm of MI must be examined concerning the course of the parameters and, thus, to guarantee the effort of MI.     

Dyslexia, dysnomia, and lexical retrieval: a longitudinal investigation

Results from a 3-year longitudinal investigation of confrontation naming in 98 children (75 average readers, 14 severely impaired readers, 9 bilingual readers) indicate: kindergarten performance on confrontation naming predicts Grade 2 reading performance, particularly reading comprehension; confrontation naming differentiates average from severely impaired readers; and lexical retrieval, not vocabulary knowledge, is the major source of difference between reading groups. Findings on lexical retrieval are integrated with research on naming access speed. The implications of these results for specification of dyslexia subgroups are discussed.