Diagnostik in der Psychotherapie

Diagnostic approaches in psychotherapy are accompanied by a continuous and unchanged discussion concerning fundamental questions. Because of its many functions diagnostics in psychotherapy has to take psychiatric, psychological, orientation-specific models and methods of assessment into consideration. Following the publication of the fifth edition of the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-5) the increasing danger of a further increase in the number of psychiatric disorders is evident. In this article the principles of current psychiatric diagnostics and psychodynamic psychotherapy are presented and discussed. Furthermore, the dangers associated with the increased medicalization and over-diagnosis are highlighted. Against this background consideration is given to the risks for patients and societal aspects.     

The Adaptive Use of Recognition in Group Decision Making

Applying the framework of ecological rationality, the authors studied the adaptivity of group decision making. In detail, they investigated whether groups apply decision strategies conditional on their composition in terms of task‐relevant features. The authors focused on the recognition heuristic, so the task‐relevant features were the validity of the group members' recognition and knowledge, which influenced the potential performance of group strategies. Forty‐three three‐member groups performed an inference task in which they had to infer which of two German companies had the higher market capitalization. Results based on the choice data support the hypothesis that groups adaptively apply the strategy that leads to the highest theoretically achievable performance. Time constraints had no effect on strategy use but did have an effect on the proportions of different types of arguments. Possible mechanisms underlying the adaptive use of recognition in group decision making are discussed.     

The good,the bad and the ugly thing to do when sharing information: Revealing,concealing and lying depend on social motivation,distribution and importance of information

Research on information sharing in group decision-making has widely assumed a cooperative context and focused on the exchange of shared or unshared information in the hidden profile paradigm (36 and 37), neglecting the role of information importance. We argue that information sharing is a mixed-motive conflict setting that gives rise to motivated strategic behavior. We introduce a research paradigm that combines aspects of the traditional information sampling paradigm with aspects of a public good dilemma: the information pooling game. In three experiments, we show that information sharing is strategic behavior that depends on people’s pro-social or pro-self motivation, and that people consider information sharedness and information importance when deciding whether to reveal, withhold, or falsify their private or public information. Pro-social individuals were consistently found to honestly reveal their private and important information, while selfish individuals strategically concealed or even lied about their private and important information.     

How Does Your Doctor Talk with You? Preliminary Validation of a Brief Patient Self-Report Questionnaire on the Quality of Physician–Patient Interaction

The quality of physician–patient interaction is increasingly being recognized as an essential component of effective treatment. The present article reports on the development and validation of a brief patient self-report questionnaire (QQPPI) that assesses the quality of physician–patient interactions. Data were gathered from 147 patients and 19 physicians immediately after consultations in a tertiary care outpatient setting. The QQPPI displayed good psychometric properties, with high internal consistency and good item characteristics. The QQPPI total score showed variability between different physicians and was independent of patients’ gender, age, and education. The QQPPI featured high correlations with other quality-related measures and was not influenced by social desirability, or patients’ clinical characteristics. The QQPPI is a brief patient self-report questionnaire that allows assessment of the quality of physician–patient interactions during routine ambulatory care. It can also be used to evaluate physician communication training programs or for educational purposes.     

The role of nucleus accumbens dopamine in outcome encoding in instrumental and Pavlovian conditioning

Considerable evidence suggests that dopamine in the core subregion of the nucleus accumbens is not only involved in Pavlovian conditioning but also supports instrumental performance. However, it is largely unknown whether NAc dopamine is required for outcome encoding which plays an important role both in Pavlovian stimulus-outcome learning and instrumental action-outcome learning. Therefore, we tested rats with 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) induced dopamine depletion of the NAc core for their sensitivity to outcome devaluation in a Pavlovian and an instrumental task. Results indicate that 6-OHDA-lesioned animals were sensitive to outcome devaluation in an instrumental task. This finding provides support to the notion that NAc core dopamine may not be crucial in encoding action-outcome associations. However, during instrumental conditioning lever pressing rates in 6-OHDA-lesioned animals were markedly lower which could reflect an impaired behavioral activation. By contrast, after outcome-specific devaluation in a Pavlovian task, performance in 6-OHDA-lesioned animals was impaired, i.e. their magazine-directed responding was non-selectively reduced. One possibility to explain non-selective responding is that NAc core DA depletion impaired the ability of conditioned stimuli to activate the memory of the current value of the reinforcer.     

When do we simulate non-human agents? Dissociating communicative and non-communicative actions

There is strong evidence that we automatically simulate observed behavior in our motor system. Previous research suggests that this simulation process depends on whether we observe a human or a non-human agent. Measuring a motor priming effect, this study investigated the question of whether agent-sensitivity of motor simulation depends on the specific action observed. Participants saw pictures depicting end positions of different actions on a screen. All postures featured either a human or non-human agent. Participants had to produce the matching action with their left or right hand depending on the hand presented on the screen. Three different actions were displayed: a communicative action (emblem), a transitive (goal-directed) action and an intransitive action. We found motor priming effects of similar size for human and non-human agents for transitive and intransitive actions. However, the motor priming effect for communicative actions was present for the human agent, but absent for the non-human agent. These findings suggest that biological tuning of motor simulation is highly action-selective and depends on whether the observed behavior appears to be driven by a reasonable goal.     

Populism and religion: On the politics of fear

Our societies of fear go along with an increase of populist movements in politics. This article explains the basics of populism and shows how easily it joins highly likely political friend‐enemy patterns. Anthropologically, we have to deal with parochial altruism undergirded by a static type of religion. A further step deals with the relationship between politics and fear by referring to terror management theory and its insight into the relationship between mortality and fear. The concluding part addresses ways out of fear and in what way a dynamic type of religion helps to avoid scapegoating and political enmity.