No pain,no gain: cross-lagged analyses of posttraumatic growth and anxiety,depression, posttraumatic stress and prolonged grief symptoms after loss

Background and objectives: Major negative life-events including bereavement can precipitate perceived positive life-changes, termed posttraumatic growth (PTG). While traditionally considered an adaptive phenomenon, it has been suggested that PTG represents a maladaptive coping response similar to cognitive avoidance. To clarify the function of PTG, it is crucial to establish concurrent and longitudinal associations of PTG with post-event mental health problems. Yet, longitudinal studies on this topic are scarce. The present study fills this gap in knowledge.

Design: A two-wave longitudinal survey was conducted.

Methods: Four-hundred and twelve bereaved adults (87.6% women) filled out scales assessing PTG and symptoms of depression, anxiety, prolonged grief, and posttraumatic stress at baseline and 6 months later.

Results: The baseline concurrent relationships between all symptom levels and PTG were curvilinear (inverted U-shape). Cross-lagged analyses demonstrated that symptom levels did not predict levels of PTG 6 months later, or vice versa.

Conclusions: Findings suggest PTG after loss has no substantive negative or positive effects on mental health. Development of specific treatments to increase PTG after bereavement therefore appears premature.     

Stimulus and response anticipation in a serial reaction task

When subjects are confronted with sequences of stimuli that are constructed according to certain rules, they tend to improve their performance in terms of lower error rates and/or faster reaction times as compared to random sequences of the same stimuli, even if they are not able to report the regularities of events.     

Georg Klaus über Kybernetik und Information

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在创造的零点

文章主要探讨了西方艺术创造观的当代转型问题。首先回顾和批判了现代时期盛行的将艺术视为上帝创世的再现与复写的绝对创造观点。随后，从宇宙进化的立场出发，提出了新型的艺术创造理念。其核心意义在于：艺术家的职责，不是以造物主的身份提出所谓的绝对创造宣言，而应以谦卑的态度，将作品视为内在于进化过程本身的东西，由此在艺术与进化特征之间建立特殊的关联。通过上述思考，文章揭示了东西方艺术观念在当代背景下的融合趋势。     

Die biotheoretischen Mängel der Evolutionären Erkenntnistheorie

Journal for General Philosophy of Science - The concept of evolutionary epistemology has been critically discussed by philosophers who have mainly pointed to unacceptable philosophical tenets (cf....     

Wissenschaftstheorie der grazer schule: Meinong und Frankl

Ohne Zusammenfassung