German translation and psychometric evaluation of the Body Appreciation Scale

This paper examined the psychometric properties of the German version of the Body Appreciation Scale (BAS), a novel scale for the assessment of positive body image. Based on a community sample of 156 women and 144 men in Austria, results showed good internal reliability and construct validity for the BAS scores, as well as a unidimensional factor structure for both women and men. Specifically, Cronbach's alpha was high for both women ( = .90) and men ( = .85), and the BAS was correlated with the body esteem scale and self-esteem. In addition, women with lower BMIs reported greater body appreciation, but no such association was found for men. Finally, there were small sex differences in BAS scores, with men scoring more positively than women (Cohen's d = 0.26). The German BAS, a useful indicator of positive body image among Austrian adults, should prove valuable for the assessment of body image in German-speaking countries.     

Lexically restricted utterances in Russian, german, and english child-directed speech

This study investigates the child-directed speech (CDS) of four Russian-, six German, and six English-speaking mothers to their 2-year-old children. Typologically Russian has considerably less restricted word order than either German or English, with German showing more word-order variants than English. This could lead to the prediction that the lexical restrictiveness previously found in the initial strings of English CDS by Cameron-Faulkner, Lieven, and Tomasello (2003 ) would not be found in Russian or German CDS. However, despite differences between the three corpora that clearly derive from typological differences between the languages, the most significant finding of this study is a high degree of lexical restrictiveness at the beginnings of CDS utterances in all three languages.     

Validation of the German version of the Driver Skill Inventory (DSI) and the Driver Social Desirability Scales (DSDS)

The psychometric properties of the new German versions of the Driver Skill Inventory (DSI) and the Driver Social Desirability Scales (DSDS) were examined. The DSI is a self-report measure assessing perceptual-motor skills and the safety motive as two important aspects of driving behavior. Self-report measures, however, are susceptible to socially desirable responding (SDR) which is why both general and specific driving-related SDR scales have been developed: Based on the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR), the DSDS taps Driver Impression Management and Driver Self-Deception as two important aspects of SDR. In two validation studies with less experienced (N = 130) and experienced drivers (N = 1199), both inventories showed the expected two-factor structure and satisfactory internal consistency. In Study 1, self-ratings were compared with and confirmed by peer-ratings. In both studies, we accumulated evidence of convergent and discriminant validity for the German version of the DSI by correlating it with demographic, driving-specific, and personality measures, including the Big Five, Type A behavior, and sensation seeking. The DSI seemed to be only marginally contaminated by SDR.     

西方心理学中两种文化的对立及其思考

西方心理学中科学文化与人文文化的对立由来已久,构成了西方心理学的发展史。两 种文化的冲突表现在心理学科学观、人性观、本体论和方法论四个方面,这种冲突造成了西方心理学目前的困境。作者认为,西方心理学中两种文化冲突的存在揭示了大力发展理论心理学的必要性和紧迫性,也是心理学统一的前提,并对心理学的本土化有可资借鉴的经验。     

EEG phase synchronization during semantic unification relates to individual differences in children’s vocabulary skill

As we listen to speech, our ability to understand what was said requires us to retrieve and bind together individual word meanings into a coherent discourse representation. This so‐called semantic unification is a fundamental cognitive skill, and its development relies on the integration of neural activity throughout widely distributed functional brain networks. In this proof‐of‐concept study, we examine, for the first time, how these functional brain networks develop in children. Twenty‐six children (ages 4–17) listened to well‐formed sentences and sentences containing a semantic violation, while EEG was recorded. Children with stronger vocabulary showed N400 effects that were more concentrated to centroparietal electrodes and greater EEG phase synchrony (phase lag index; PLI) between right centroparietal and bilateral frontocentral electrodes in the delta frequency band (1–3 Hz) 1.27–1.53 s after listening to well‐formed sentences compared to sentences containing a semantic violation. These effects related specifically to individual differences in receptive vocabulary, perhaps pointing to greater recruitment of functional brain networks important for top‐down semantic unification with development. Less skilled children showed greater delta phase synchrony for violation sentences 3.41–3.64 s after critical word onset. This later effect was partly driven by individual differences in nonverbal reasoning, perhaps pointing to non‐verbal compensatory processing to extract meaning from speech in children with less developed vocabulary. We suggest that functional brain network communication, as measured by momentary changes in the phase synchrony of EEG oscillations, develops throughout the school years to support language comprehension in different ways depending on children's verbal and nonverbal skill levels.     

The development of 3- to 9-month-old infants in two cultural contexts: Bayley longitudinal results for Cameroonian and German infants

Based on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development III, this study provides the results of a longitudinal study on the development of Cameroonian Nso farmer and German middle-class infants. Complete longitudinal data were available for 253 infants (69 from Cameroon and 184 from Germany) with Bayley assessments at 3, 6 and 9 months. The results show large differences between Cameroonian Nso and German infants with regard to gross motor and language development. The developmental sequence within each Bayley scale is more in line with the original Bayley sequence for German than for Cameroonian Nso infants as is indicated by Goodman scalogram analyses. Path analyses show some basic similarities between the developmental paths across ages for Cameroonian Nso and German infants, but more interconnections between the scales in the German sample. The results underline the need to adjust developmental scales to the cultural background of the infants to be tested.     

Toward the Unification of Molecular and Molar Analyses

Three categories of behavior analysis may be called molecular, molar, and unified. Molecular analyses focus on how manual shaping segments moment-to-moment behaving into new, unified, hierarchically organized patterns. Manual shaping is largely atheoretical, qualitative, and practical. Molar analyses aggregate behaviors and then compute a numerical average for the aggregate. Typical molar analyses involve average rate of, or average time allocated to, the aggregated behaviors. Some molar analyses have no known relation to any behavior stream. Molar analyses are usually quantitative and often theoretical. Unified analyses combine automated shaping of moment-to-moment behaving and molar aggregates of the shaped patterns. Unified controlling relations suggest that molar controlling relations like matching confound shaping and strengthening effects of reinforcement. If a molecular analysis is about how reinforcement organizes individual behavior moment by moment, and a molar analysis is about how reinforcement encourages more or less of an activity aggregated over time, then a unified analysis handles both kinds of analyses. Only theories engendered by computer simulation appear to be able to unify all three categories of behavior analysis.     

F. A. Trendelenburg and the Neglected Alternative

Despite his impressive influence on nineteenth-century philosophy, F. A. Trendelenburg's own philosophy has been largely ignored. However, among Kant scholars, Trendelenburg has always been remembered for his feud with Kuno Fischer over the subjectivity of space and time in Kant's philosophy. The topic of the dispute, now frequently referred to as the ‘Neglected Alternative’ objection, has become a prominent issue in contemporary discussions and interpretations of Kant's view of space and time. The Neglected Alternative contends that Kant unjustifiably moves from the claim that we have a priori intuitions of space and time to the sceptical conclusion that space and time are exclusively subjective. Most current discussions trace the objection back to Trendelenburg and often use him to motivate the objection. However, to date Trendelenburg's actual arguments and reasons for rejecting the Kantian view of space and time have not been sufficiently uncovered; my goal here is to fill this lacuna. By better understanding what Trendelenburg actually argued, we will be in a better position to assess whether the Neglected Alternative objection against Kant is successful. But in addition, Trendelenburg's own system is of independent philosophical interest, and my work here will shed light on one part of it.     

Sources of influence on the professional development of psychologists and psychiatrists in Norway and Germany

Background: There are many professional psychotherapists, but no psychotherapy profession. The psychotherapists’ professions vary between countries, the most frequent being psychiatry and clinical psychology.

Aim: As these professions have different basic training and also may be impacted differently by other factors, we wanted to study potential differences as to perceived influences on their development as psychotherapists across career level, theoretical orientation, and gender.

Methods: More than 2500 Norwegian and German psychiatrists and psychologists reported data on their professional development in the DPCCQ/2000, a lengthy multi-part survey instrument developed within the ‘Collaborative Research Network’ of the Society for Psychotherapy Research. The four groups were compared for differences, and a series of multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the impact of profession on a variety of aspects of therapist experiences.

Results: Although a few therapist experiences (e.g. teaching, treating patients, institutional conditions) had a significantly different impact between the two professions, as a main effect, they only accounted for less than 1% or the variance.

Conclusion: Profession seems to have little influence on perceived development as a psychotherapist, and it is reasonable to conclude that other therapist qualities, often personal qualities, are more important for therapeutic processes and outcomes.     

Clinical implications of The Red Book: Liber Novus

In this presentation I consider whether the importance of Spirit in Liber Novus may render the task of its clinical application peculiarly problematic. Freud's experimentation on himself is briefly compared with Jung's self-experimentation of which Liber Novus is the record. Taking up the theme of the vas from Gaillard's paper, I refer to Jung's two major contributions to the elaboration of the Freudian frame: the necessity for the analyst to have been analysed, and the positive value of countertransference. In an epilogue, I briefly discuss a dream related to the preparation of this report for publication, emphasizing the theme of the disturbing effects of Spirit as a key theme both in Liber Novus itself and in any attempt to assimilate it on the part of the contemporary analyst.