Reduced intergroup differentiation as a result of self-categorization in overlapping categories. A quasi-experiment

A quasi-experiment was conducted to examine the effects of self-categorization in overlapping categories on intergroup differentiation. ‘Old aged women’ was used as the first, ‘sports’ as the additional category. It could be shown that intergroup differentiation was significantly reduced under crossed categorization conditions. Implications for social compensation strategies are discussed.     

Coping with the exposure to torture

This paper describes approaches taken at the International Rehabilitation and Research Centre in Copenhagen to helping torture victims and their families cope with the exposure to and aftermath of torture.     

Radikaler Konstruktivismus und Konstruktionismus

Both radical constructivism and constructionism are naturalized approaches to epistemology. They try to fertilize results from biology and psychology for epistemological aims. They both refuse epistemological realism as unsustainable metaphysics. This raises the problem of the range of the naturalistic approach to epistemology. Constructivism, in both forms, turns out to be untenable because it runs in an aporia: it must borrow from realism either, or it must qualify its own position as a metaphysical one. But therewith, constructivism would be blamed to be metaphysical itself.     

The formation of prejudicial judgements as an interaction between heuristic processes and social identity of the judge: The case of traffic accident participation

This study empirically tested the assumption that in prejudical judgements cognitive processes are mediated by group anchoring. This assumption was supported in the case of estimations about participation in traffic accidents by different groups.     

Foundations of a new system of probability theory

The aim of my book is to explain the content of the different notions of probability.Based on a concept of logical probability, which is modified as compared with Carnap, we succeed by means of the mathematical results of de Finetti in defining the concept of statistical probability.The starting point is the fundamental concept that certain phenomena are of the same kind, that certain occurrences can be repeated, that certain experiments are identical. We introduce for this idea the notion: concept K of similarity. From concept K of similarity we derive logically some probability-theoretic conclusions:If the events E() are similar —of the same kind - on the basis of such a concept K, it holds good that intersections of n of these events are equiprobable on the basis of K; in formulae: E(₁)...E( _{n K} E('₁)...E(' _n , _{i j} ,' _j ' _j for ij On the basis of some further axioms a partial comparative probability structure results from K, which forms the starting point of our further investigations and which we call logical probability on the basis of K.We investigate a metrisation of this partial comparative structure, i.e. normed -additive functions m _K, which are compatible with this structure; we call these functions m _K measure-functions in relation to K.The measure-functions may be interpreted as subjective probabilities of individuals, who accept the concept K.Now it holds good: For each measure-function there exists with measure one the limit of relative frequencies in a sequence of the E().In such an event, where all measure-functions coincide, we speak of a quantitative logical probability, which is the common measure of this event. In formulae we have: l _K (h _n lim h _n )=1 in words: There is the quantitative logical probability one that the limit of the relative frequencies exists. Another way of saying this is that the event ^* (h_n lim h _n) is a maximal element in the comparative structure resulting from K.Therefore we are entitled to introduce this limit and call it statistical probability P.With the aid of the measure-functions it is possible to calculate the velocity of this convergence. The analog of the Bernoulli inequation holds true: m _K (¦h _n –P¦)1–1/4n².It is further possible in the work to obtain relationships for the concept of statistical independence which are expressed in terms of the comparative probability.The theory has a special significance for quantum mechanics: The similarity of the phenomena in the domain of quantum mechanics explains the statistical behaviour of the phenomena.The usual mathematical statistics are explained in my book. But it seems more expedient on the basis of this new theory to use besides the notion of statistical probability also the notion of logical probability; the notion of subjective probability has only a heuristic function in my system.The following dualism is to be noted: The statistical behaviour of similar phenomena may be described on the one hand according to the model of the classical probability theory by means of a figure called statistical probability, on the other hand we may express all formulae by means of a function, called statistical probability function. This function is defined as the limit of the relative frequencies depending on the respective state of the universe. The statistical probability function is the primary notion, the notion of statistical probability is derived from it; it is defined as the value of the statistical probability function for the true unknown state of the universe.As far as the Hume problem, the problem of inductive inference, is concerned, the book seems to give an example of how to solve it.The developed notions such as concept, measure-function, logical probability, etc. seem to be important beyond the concept of similarity.The present work represents a summary of my book Grundzüge zu einem neuen Aufbau der Wahrscheinlich-keitstheorie [5], For this reason, I have frequently dispensed with providing proof and in this connection refer the interested reader to my book.     

Altering information to gain action control: Functional aspects of human information processing in decision making

In recent approaches to social judgment, information distortion has been discussed primarily as a violation of individual rationality, due to unintentionally occurring biases. In contrast to this view, it is argued that frequently individuals make purposive use of selective changes in information processing in order to avoid indecisiveness. In this sense, selective changes in information processing may be considered a functional requirement of a volitional process which protects the current intention (or tentative decision) from being replaced by competing behavioral tendencies. On the basis of J. Kuhl's theory of action control (1981, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 155–170; 1982, in W. Hacker, W. Volpert, & M. von Cranach, Eds., Cognitive and Motivational Aspects of Action, Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1984, in B. A. Maher, Progress in Experimental Personality Research, Vol. 13, New York: Academic Press) it was predicted that subjects having a high score on the action-control scale (i.e., action-oriented subjects) should show a stronger tendency to increase the attractiveness rating of a tentatively preferred decision during the process of decision making than subjects scoring low on that scale (i.e., state-oriented subjects). To test this assumption, students searching for an apartment were offered 16 apartments along with a list containing information about the alternatives. The subjects had to rate the attractiveness of each apartment twice before they were asked to indicate which apartments they would like to rent. The results confirmed the predictions. It was found that action-oriented subjects increased the divergence of their attractiveness ratings from the first to the second point of evaluation, whereas state-oriented subjects did not.     

CONCRETE TRANSITIVITY OF LENGTH: A METHOD OF ASSESSMENT

The problem of assessing concrete transitivity of length is explored with a non-verbal design employing nine sets of three sticks each. A training phase is used to establish the relevant variable to which the subjects must attend, to obtain a bead. A test phase consists of eight trials, in which the elements A, B, and C, are displayed in a systematic variation. A subject is said to display transitivity, when he more than five times in the eight trials chooses the largest of three sticks, A, on the basis of the information A > B and B 7< C. In a group of 20 children, varying in age between 52 and 80 months, half of the group, which is socio-economically upper-middle class, displayed transitivity. However, the youngest child displaying transitivity with six correct test-trials was 5 1/2 years old. The youngest child displaying transitivity with eight correct trials was 6 1/4 years old.     

Built Space and the Interactional Framing of Experience During a Murder Interrogation

Human interaction and communication involve space in multiple ways. This paper examines the spatial and interactional order of a covertly video-taped police interrogation. When the participants enter the interrogation room and become engaged in the interrogation process, the room itself is a constraint and a resource for interaction. While interacting within a built environment, the participants appropriate their material surroundings in ways that constitute a spatial order and make possible certain arguments. This paper examines how the physical structure of the interrogation room is differentially appropriated, used, and filled in by the participants'; territorial and postural manoeuvers over the course of their interaction; and how the spatial structures thus created by the bodily appropriation of the physical locale are subsequently formulated by talk and thereby used as a metaphorical resource to frame the participants' situated experience. Through this embedded process, the interrogators move the suspect toward confession.