Age of anxiety and depression revisited: A meta-analysis of two European community samples (1964-2015)

Background/Objective: Based on studies using established psychometric scales, Twenge and coworkers have shown substantial increases in trait anxiety, depressive symptoms and neuroticism in North American population samples since the 1950s. Similar analyses for European samples have not yet been conducted. Our study therefore examined whether similar secular trends exist in German-speaking and British non-clinical samples together with possible connected societal factors. Method: A literature search identified 131 studies (N = 63,269) using the STAI, BDI or EPI in non-clinical samples between 1964 and 2015. Seven societal factors from national statistics were included. We conducted meta-analyses with displayed means and moderation analyses of publication year for all scales. Results: In contrast to North America results, anxiety, depression and neuroticism showed no increase in the two European populations. Publication year correlated negatively with and moderated trait anxiety (GER) and neuroticism (UK). Most societal factors were highly correlated with year of publication. Trait anxiety and neuroticism were significantly predicted by age at marriage and unemployment rate in German-speaking countries. Conclusion: The difference in secular trends between European and North American samples may indicate society specific developments connected to different societal factors.     

Methodenstreit in der Nationalökonomie

Methodenstreit in Economics. This essay offers an account of the Methodenstreit in economics between first Menger and Schmoller and later Max Weber and again Schmoller. It is argued that, for Schmoller, two issues were central; to use economics (widely conceived) as an instrument for economic policy and notably social policy: and to base the science empirically with all the modern methods available. In contrast, the Austrian position had a different view of economics as a science, seeing it more as a system of ideas, which implies a radically different use of empirical evidence. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Psychoanalyse und Psychotherapie, Bildung und Erziehung

Psychotherapy and psychoanalysis form a contrast – in particular in German-speaking countries – comparable to that between education and “Bildung”: psychotherapy and education intentionally and purposefully influence the patient or pupil whereas psychoanalysis and “Bildung” pursue the ideal of a development process which is to a great extent free from outside influences. The present paper aims to show that these seemingly contrasting pairs have been artificially differentiated into extremes. Both are supposed to solve the following paradoxes: the educational paradox “How is freedom possible under constraint?” and the psychoanalytical paradox “How is independence possible under dependency?” It might, however, be possible to overcome the unfruitful contrast in both cases and to keep the feared paradox in abeyance.     

To believe or not to believe? The joint impact of faultlines and pro-diversity beliefs on diplomats’ performance

Diversity faultlines can have a detrimental impact on team performance. To test whether this impact depends on leaders’ and members’ pro-diversity beliefs, we examined 41 leaders and 219 members of teams working for the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Findings indicated that the negative impact of diversity faultlines on team performance was weakest when leaders and members held strong pro-diversity beliefs. However, we did not find support for the assumed two-way interactions between faultline strength and leaders’ or members’ pro-diversity beliefs or the mediating effect of Leader-Member Exchange. Our results highlight the joint impact of leaders’ and members’ pro-diversity beliefs for attenuating the negative consequences of diversity faultlines on team performance.     

The Emotional Timeline of Unemployment: Anticipation,Reaction, and Adaptation

Unemployment continues to be one of the major challenges in industrialized societies. Aside from its economic and societal repercussions, questions concerning the subjective experience of unemployment have recently attracted increasing attention. Although existing studies have documented the detrimental effects of unemployment for cognitive (life satisfaction) and affective well-being, studies directly comparing these two dimensions of subjective well-being and their temporal dynamics in anticipation of and response to unemployment are absent from the literature. Using longitudinal data of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and applying fixed effects regressions, we investigate changes in cognitive and affective well-being prior to and after job loss. Extending previous studies, we use discrete emotion measures instead of affect balance indicators to assess affective well-being. Our results support existing findings that unemployment leads to decreases in life satisfaction and that the unemployed do not adapt towards previous levels of life satisfaction. We also find that individuals more often experience sadness and anxiety, and less often happiness when transitioning into unemployment. Importantly, changes in affective well-being are less enduring compared to the changes in life satisfaction.     

Caricature generalization benefits for faces learned with enhanced idiosyncratic shape or texture

Recent findings show benefits for learning and subsequent recognition of faces caricatured in shape or texture, but there is little evidence on whether this caricature learning advantage generalizes to recognition of veridical counterparts at test. Moreover, it has been reported that there is a relatively higher contribution of texture information, at the expense of shape information, for familiar compared to unfamiliar face recognition. The aim of this study was to examine whether veridical faces are recognized better when they were learned as caricatures compared to when they were learned as veridicals—what we call a caricature generalization benefit. Photorealistic facial stimuli derived from a 3-D camera system were caricatured selectively in either shape or texture by 50 %. Faces were learned across different images either as veridicals, shape caricatures, or texture caricatures. At test, all learned and novel faces were presented as previously unseen frontal veridicals, and participants performed an old–new task. We assessed accuracies, reaction times, and face-sensitive event-related potentials (ERPs). Faces learned as caricatures were recognized more accurately than faces learned as veridicals. At learning, N250 and LPC were largest for shape caricatures, suggesting encoding advantages of distinctive facial shape. At test, LPC was largest for faces that had been learned as texture caricatures, indicating the importance of texture for familiar face recognition. Overall, our findings demonstrate that caricature learning advantages can generalize to and, importantly, improve recognition of veridical versions of faces.     

Die psychosomatische Triangulierung

Zusammenfassung   Das Konzept der psychosomatischen Triangulierung bietet einen entwicklungsorientierten Ansatz für das Verst?ndnis psychosomatischer Symptombildungen. Der Begriff wurde von Peter Kutter eingeführt, stie? jedoch, im Gegensatz zum Konzept der frühen Triangulierung, nicht auf bleibende Resonanz. Geht es in Kutters Modell der psychosomatischen Triangulierung um ein Geschehen im Dreieck zwischen dem Kind, dem K?rper des Kindes und der Mutter, in dem sich das Kind seinen K?rper aneignet und damit einen Schritt der Abl?sung von der Mutter vollzieht, so tritt im Dreieck der frühen Triangulierung der Vater oder ein anderer Dritter von au?en zur Mutter-Kind-Dyade hinzu und erm?glicht Losl?sung und Individuation. Es wird zun?chst gezeigt, dass der Begriff der psychosomatischen Triangulierung zweierlei bezeichnen kann, zum einen als gelungene psychosomatische Triangulierung einen Entwicklungsschritt, zum anderen bei einer misslungenen frühen Triangulierung eine Notl?sung, in der der K?rper an die Stelle des Dritten tritt. Eine Untersuchung der mit der Aneignung des eigenen K?rpers verbundenen Vorg?nge der Affektspiegelung und der Symbolisierung erweitert dann das Konzept der psychosomatischen Triangulierung und erm?glicht eine Verknüpfung mit den therapeutisch relevanten Vorstellungen über Prozesse der semiotischen Regression und Progression. Es zeigt sich, dass unabh?ngig davon, ob der K?rper in der psychosomatischen Symptombildung symbiotisch, übergangsobjekthaft oder symbolisch verwendet wird, die Suche nach M?glichkeiten, eine dyadisch abgeschlossene Konstellation zu einer triadischen zu erweitern, zu semiotischer Progression und Entwicklung führen kann.

---

Psychosomatic triangulation

Abstract   The concept of psychosomatic triangulation provides a developmentally based perspective in order to understand the dynamics of psychosomatic symptoms. Originally introduced by Peter Kutter, this concept lacked – in contrast to that of early triangulation – a long-lasting resonance. Whereas Kutter's model focused on the triangle of child, the child's body and the mother, in which the child gradually acquires its own body and thus undertakes steps towards the separation from the mother, in the process of early triangulation the father, or another significant third person, joins the mother-child dyad and facilitates separation and individuation. First, it will be shown that the concept of psychosomatic triangulation means two things: on the one hand it is a successful psychosomatic triangulation as a developmental step, on the other hand it can also mean a stop gap solution if early triangulation has failed and the body takes the role of a third person. A survey of processes of affect reflection and symbolisation which develop on the way to acquiring the body, widens the concept of psychosomatic triangulation and provides us with a deeper understanding of ideas of regression and progression which are mainly clinically relevant. It will be shown that regardless of whether in psychosomatic symptom formation the body is used in a symbiotic, transitional or symbolic way, the search for possibilities to widen the dyadic constellation into a triadic one can lead to semiotic progression and development.

     

Some Aspects of Polyadic Inductive Logic

We give a brief account of some de Finetti style representation theorems for probability functions satisfying Spectrum Exchangeability in Polyadic Inductive Logic, together with applications to Non-splitting, Language Invariance, extensions with Equality and Instantial Relevance.