BEFORE BABEL: REFLECTIONS ON READING AND TRANSLATING FREUD

The author offers some thoughts on reading and teaching Freud, on translating Freud, on translation in general, and on a possible kinship between translation and the psychoanalytic process. His reading of Freud's works, and the years he spent translating them into Hebrew and editing Hebrew editions of his writings, have made a deep and salient impression on his personal psychoanalytic palimpsest. The author began this labor prior to his psychoanalytic training and has no doubt that, to this day, the experience greatly shapes not only his attitude toward Freud himself, but also the nature of how he listens to patients and the way he thinks and writes about psychoanalysis.     

Validity of the German Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI‐G) in an Australian sample

Test anxiety (TA) is a prevalent issue among students that can result in deleterious consequences, such as underachievement. However, a contemporary measure that has been validated for use with Australian students seems to be lacking. This study, therefore, investigated the suitability of the German Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI‐G) for use with Australian university students. While the original TAI‐G contains 30 items and was designed to measure four factors (worry, emotionality, interference, and lack of confidence), differing factorial models have been supported in the literature using either the original or a shortened 17‐item version of the measure. These differing TAI‐G models were tested and compared in the current study via confirmatory factor analysis using 224 Australian university students. As expected, results supported the superior fit of the 17‐item four‐factor model. Additionally, the convergent validity of the measure was supported since measures of self‐esteem, self‐efficacy, and general anxiety were all found to correlate significantly with the TAI‐G in the hypothesised directions. Finally, the finding that all of the TAI‐G subscales had acceptably high reliabilities led to the conclusion that the 17‐item TAI‐G is a valid and reliable measure of TA in an Australian university population.     

Morality and political orientations: An analysis of their relationship

Groups are social constructions with differences. People spontaneously attempt to explain differences between groups. Stereotypes often play this explanatory role. Specifically, group members tend to attribute different essences to social categories. Given widespread ethnocentrism, it is not surprising that individuals reserve “the human essence” for their ingroup, while other groups are attributed a lesser humanity. This phenomenon is called infra‐humanisation and happens outside people's awareness. Secondary emotions (e.g., love, hope, contempt, resentment) are considered uniquely human emotions in contrast to primary emotions (e.g., joy, surprise, fear, anger) that are shared with animals. The research programme summarised in this chapter demonstrates through various paradigms that members of groups not only attribute more secondary emotions to their ingroup than to outgroups, but are also reluctant to associate these emotions with outgroups. Moreover, people behave less cooperatively with an outgroup member who expresses himself with secondary emotions than with an ingroup member who uses the same terms. Interestingly, infra‐humanisation occurs for both high‐ and low‐status groups, even in the absence of conflict between groups.     

When Freud headed for the East: Aspects of a Chinese translation of his works

Working on the basis of a resumé of the Chinese translations to date of individual works by Sigmund Freud and critiques of these as secondary translations from the English, the particular difficulties of translating into a non‐Indo‐European language with an isolating and analytical writing system are presented. By way of introduction, reference is made to English and French‐language contributions to the issues of translation.     

Emigration,Nationalism and Church Identity in Europe: The Legacy of the German St Raphael Society in International Catholic Migration Assistance

At the very time that historians have pin-pointed a turn to hyper-nationalism in Germany, a nationalist German Catholic association for emigrant care (St Raphael Society) started its gradual transformation into an international support network. Migration as concept and reality reminded the German Catholic nationalists that a) the nation resides outside its political borders and b) one must show empathy for all strangers in strange lands. The article situates the Society within the context of the German Caritas Association and International Catholic Migration Commission.     

The Illness/Injury Sensitivity Index: Validation of a German Version of the ISI-R

Three fundamental fears—anxiety sensitivity, fear of negative evaluation, and illness/injury sensitivity—are considered integral components of anxiety-related psychopathology and also bear connections with chronic pain. Scales measuring the first two fears, the Anxiety Sensitivity Index and the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale, have been translated into German; however, the nine-item Illness/Injury Sensitivity Index-Revised (ISI-R) that measures fears of injury and illness has not been available in German language yet. The aim of this study therefore was a translation of the ISI-R into German language and an initial validation of the translated scale in two different samples. The German ISI-R was translated by both professionals and laypersons, and a final version was decided on by consensus. In Study 1, participants included 96 undergraduate students (85% women) who completed the German version of the ISI as part of a larger study. An exploratory factor analysis with oblique rotation was conducted and suggested a two-factor-solution with one factor representing fears of illness and the other fears of injury. This factor structure was confirmed via a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in Study 2. Participants included 117 community members (79% women). Convergent validity was supported using a visual analogue scale for fear of illness in both samples and the German translation of the Whiteley Index in Study. Overall, the results supported the German translation of the ISI-R. Comprehensive results, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.     

Personality,work, and satisfaction: evidence from the German Socio-Economic Panel

Previous studies in positive psychology have indicated that work satisfaction is an important determinant of individual well-being. Research has suggested that people are most satisfied with their work when they are doing what they are drawn to naturally. We provide further evidence on this issue from a large representative data set, the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). The 2005 wave of the SOEP contains a battery of personality questions as well as detailed information on personal life and work life. We extract the Big Five personality factors and one character strength: vitality. The main results are based on regression analysis. The analysis supports the hypothesis that certain personality clusters are more predominant in some occupations than in others. Furthermore, an alignment between personal profile and occupational profile tends to be related positively to satisfaction. These results indicate that ignoring mental aspects of work has its price in terms of well-being. They also highlight the importance of studying the way we structure work and harness personality and individual strengths within positive psychology.

To find out what one is fitted to do and to secure an opportunity to do it is the key to happiness.

John Dewey

The fixed person for the fixed duties who in older societies was such a godsend, in the future will be a public danger.

Alfred North Whitehead     

Grammatical gender in German: A case for linguistic relativity?

The “principle of linguistic relativity” holds that, by way of grammatical categorization, language affects the conceptual representations of its speakers. Formal gender systems are a case in point, albeit a particularly controversial one: Previous studies obtained broadly diverging data, thus giving rise to conflicting conclusions. To a large extent, this incoherence is related to task differences and methodological problems. Here, a priming design is presented that avoids previous problems, as it prevents participants from employing gender information in a strategic manner. Four experiments with German native speakers show priming effects of the prime's grammatical gender on animate and nonanimate targets, an effect for the prime's biological gender on animate targets, but no effect for the prime's biological gender on nonanimate targets, and thus speak against an effect of language on thought for German gender.     

Perceived ethical leadership: Its moderating influence on employees’ organisational commitment and organisational citizenship behaviours

This study investigated the extent to which employees’ perception of ethical leadership moderated their organisational commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour. A non-probability purposive sample (N = 839; females = 32%) of employees in a railway organisation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) participated in the study. They completed the following measures: the Organisational Commitment Scale (OCS), the Organisational Citizenship Behaviour Questionnaire (OCBQ) and the Ethical Leadership Scale (ELS). Stepwise hierarchical regression analysis was utilised to determine the influence of employees’ perceptions of the relationships between their self-reported organisational commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour. The results indicated employee perceptions of the integrity, fairness and honesty aspects of ethical leadership to explain their affective, continuance and normative aspects of organisational commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour. The results also showed that employee perceptions of high ethical leadership influenced their willingness to engage in positive organisational commitment such as psychological attachment, work continuance, normative commitment and also their organisational citizen behaviours such as altruism, conscientiousness, courtesy and civic virtue. By implication, leaders with high ethical conduct have the potential to positively stimulate the commitment of employees towards supporting the organisational values and mission.     

Workplace ethics culture and work engagement: The mediating effect of ethical leadership in a developing world context

This study examined the mediating effect of ethical leadership on the relationship between workplace ethics culture and work engagement among employees in a railway transport organisation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The sample consisted of permanently employed staff in a railway organisation in the DRC (n = 839; females = 32%). The employees were required to complete the Ethical Leadership Scale (ELS), the Ethical Corporate Virtue model (ECV) and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES). Mediating regression analyses were conducted to predict work engagement from workplace ethics culture, partialling out ethical leadership. The results show that workplace ethics culture had a significantly positive effect on work engagement. The results further indicated that workplace ethics culture, through the mediation of perceived ethical leadership, had a significantly positive effect on the work engagement dimensions of vigour, dedication and absorption. The findings provide evidence that ethical leadership plays a crucial role in shaping workplace ethics culture and employees’ level of work engagement in an emerging country work setting.