Showing papers in "Zeitschrift Fur Psychologie-journal of Psychology in 2010"

Dissociation Following Traumatic Stress Etiology and Treatment

Abstract: We postulate that the cascade ''Freeze-Flight-Fight-Fright-Flag-Faint'' is a coherent sequence of six fear responses that escalate as a function of defense possibilities and proximity to danger during life-threat. The actual sequence of trauma-related response dispositions acted out in an extremely dangerous situation therefore depends on the appraisal of the threat by the organism in relation to her/his own power to act (e.g., age and gender) as well as the perceived characteristics of threat and perpetrator. These reaction patterns provide optimal adaption for particular stages of imminence. Subsequent to the traumatic threats, portions of the experience may be replayed. The actual individual cascade of defense stages a survivor has gone through during the traumatic event will repeat itself every time the fear network, which has evolved peritraumatically, is activated again (i.e., through internal or external triggers or, e.g., during exposure therapy).When a parasympathetically dominated ''shut- down'' was the prominent peri-traumatic response during the traumatic incident, comparable dissociative responses may dominate responding to subsequently experienced threat and may also reappear when the traumatic memory is reactivated. Repeated experience of traumatic stress forms a fear network that can become pathologically detached from contextual cues such as time and location of the danger, a condition which manifests itself as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Intrusions, for example, can therefore be understood as repetitive displays of fragments of the event, which would then, depending on the dominant physiological response during the threat, elicit a corresponding combination of hyperarousal and dissociation. We suggest that trauma treatment must therefore differentiate between patients on two dimensions: those with peritraumatic sympathetic activation versus those who went down the whole defense cascade, which leads to parasympathetic dominance during the trauma and a corresponding replay of physiological and dissociative responding, when reminded. The differential management of dissociative stages (''fright'' and ''faint'') has important treatment implications.

The Person and the Variable in Developmental Psychology

Abstract: A brief theoretical and methodological overview is given of the person-oriented and the variable-oriented approach, how these are commonly used in longitudinal research, and what one should take into consideration before choosing either approach. An empirical research example is also given where the association was studied between, on the one hand, attention control – activity level in early adolescence and, on the other hand, persistent versus adolescence-limited criminality. Key topics discussed include properties that variables must have to be suitable for the study of individual pattern development, the problem-method match, and prediction versus understanding.

Actions speak louder than words: The benefits of ethical behaviors of leaders.

Abstract: Ethical scandals in business have led to calls for more ethical or moral leadership. Yet, we still know very little about what characterizes ethical leadership and what its positive consequences actually are. We argue that the major question is not about what leaders value, but rather whether their ethical values are regularly reflected in behavioral patterns across situations and situational challenges. To address this, we have begun to build the Ethical Leadership Behavior Scale, which is based on behaviors reflecting concrete manifestations of ethical values (e.g., fairness, respect) across occasions and situational barriers. A study with 592 employees of 110 work units in two departments provided a first test of this scale and demonstrated that the level of ethical leadership behavior predicts important work-related attitudes (job satisfaction, work engagement, affective organizational commitment) and outcomes (health complaints, emotional exhaustion, absenteeism).

Understanding and Treating Unwanted Trauma Memories in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract: Distressing and intrusive reexperiencing of the trauma is a hallmark symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; American Psychiatric Association, 1994). However, unwanted memories of trauma are not a sign of pathology per se. In the initial weeks after a traumatic experience, intrusive memories are common. For most trauma survivors, intrusions become less frequent and distressing over time. A central question for understanding and treating patients with PTSD is therefore what maintains distressing intrusive reexperiencing in these people. Three factors appear to be important: (1) memory processes responsible for the easy triggering of intrusive memories, (2) the individuals’ interpretations of their trauma memories, and (3) their cognitive and behavioral responses to trauma memories.

Easier When Done Than Said! Implicit Self-Esteem Predicts Observed or Spontaneous Behavior, but Not Self-Reported or Controlled Behavior

Abstract: Evidence for the criterion validity of indirect self-esteem measures is still limited, with only some studies finding effects of implicit (ISE) independent of explicit (ESE) self-esteem. This may be due to the fact that studies predicting actual behavior are particularly rare. The present study contributes evidence to the predictive validity of the Implicit Association Test and a recently developed self-judgment task under cognitive load. We used criteria beyond self-report: experimenter ratings of anxiety, linguistic aspects of anxiety, and spontaneous self-confident behaviors. Using paired criteria, we tested a double dissociation of ISE and ESE. Results supported our hypothesis: ISE predicted self-confident behaviors or aspects of anxiety that ESE was not able to predict, and vice versa. Thus, differential predictive validity of both measures of self-esteem was demonstrated. With behavioral criteria that tapped into impulsive processes, ISE was a better predictor than ESE was.

Overgeneralization of conditioned fear in the anxiety disorders putative memorial mechanisms

Abstract: According to many conditioning accounts of clinical anxiety, the central pathogen can be found in aberrant acquisition or extinction of learned fear to neutral stimuli (i.e., conditioned stimuli [CS]) paired with an aversive unconditioned stimulus (US). While overresponding to the CS is an important candidate source of anxiety pathology, both clinical observation and mounting experimental data implicate generalization of fear to stimuli resembling the CS as an equally promising candidate (e.g., Grillon & Morgan, 1999; Lissek et al., 2005; Lissek et al., 2010; Mineka & Zinbarg, 1996). Important to the current issue on ‘‘Trauma and Memory,’’ generalization of fear to stimuli resembling those present during a traumatic event is a core feature of the posttraumatic stress response (American Psychiatric Association, 2000) and is likely influenced by conditioning-dependent modifications to the neural representation of the CS stored in memory. The current paper (1) summarizes the connection between conditioned-fear generalization and pathologic anxiety including a recent empirical example demonstrating the link and (2) explores memorial substrates of conditioned generalization and the ways they are related to overgeneralization of the kind seen in anxiety pathology.

What is the value? Economic effects of ethically-oriented leadership

Abstract: In recent years a number of leadership constructs have been introduced to the literature that comprise explicit reference to the leader's ethical behavior including transformational, ethical, authentic, and spiritual leadership. These types of leadership have been posited to have a positive impact on employees and the organizations they are part of, and research has pointed to positive relations with work-related attitudes. So far, however, the question whether or not these leadership styles are also related to objectively determined organizational performance has remained unanswered. Thus, the purpose of this article is to review the empirical literature on the relation between ethically-oriented leadership and economic performance. Findings indicate that ethically-oriented leadership is in fact economically effective.

Convergence of direct, indirect, and objective risk-taking measures in gambling. The moderating role of impulsiveness and self-control

Abstract: Based on dual-process models, we assumed that risk taking depends on implicit and explicit risk attitudes and risk propensity. Specifically, we predicted that the convergence between these indicators would depend on the impulsiveness versus reflectiveness of risk behavior. Two objective personality tests (OPTs) of risk taking that measure risk behavior in standardized situations were employed. We predicted that the impulsive OPT would depend more on implicit risk dispositions. The reverse effect pattern was expected for the reflective OPT. Next, we expected that self-control would amplify the weight of explicit dispositions and attenuate that of implicit dispositions. At Time 1, two direct questionnaire measures of explicit risk proneness, three indirect measures of implicit risk proneness, and a self-control measure were administered. At Time 2, participants participated in a reflective and an impulsive gambling OPT. The assumed pattern of effects was obtained. We conclude with a discussion of future res...

Using Community Data to Test the Discriminate Validity of Ethnic/Racial Group IATs.

Abstract: The present study used a multi-method, multi-measure, multi-group approach to investigate the discriminant validity of prejudice-related Implicit Association Tests (IATs). Community members from three ethnic/racial groups in the US completed IATs and explicit measures of attitudes toward African Americans and Latinos, with Whites used as the comparison group. The results of this study provided strong support for the discriminant validity of the IATs by showing, (a) expected patterns of variation among the three participant groups that were unique to each IAT, (b) unique relations between responses on each IAT and corresponding (same-group) explicit measures of prejudice, and (c) invariance across the three participant groups in the degree to which the attitude measures loaded on two latent factors, indicating distinct attitudes toward African Americans and Latinos.

Three Indirect Tasks Assessing Implicit Threat Associations and Behavioral Response Tendencies Test-Retest Reliability and Validity

Abstract: Anxiety disorders are characterized by biased implicit threat associations, which can be measured by indirect reaction time tasks. These tasks might provide a useful tool in the assessment of individual diagnoses and therapeutic changes. However, sufficient psychometric properties of the applied tasks are a prerequisite for these applications. Therefore, we comparatively investigated the reliability and validity of an Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (EAST), an Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT), and an Affective Priming Task (APT) by presenting the same tasks twice within 1 week. Data show retest reliabilities of around r = .42 for the EAST, r = .35 for the AAT, and r = .63 for the APT. Internal consistencies varied between .44 and .49 for the EAST, .66 and .70 for the AAT, and .53 and .76 for the APT. Validity correlations with self-report questionnaires ranged between r = .43 and r = .59, being lowest for the EAST and highest for the AAT. We argue that while these instruments might not be applicable to indivi...

Stability and Constancy of Bully-Victim Behavior

Abstract: The present paper (1) focused on variables to investigate the stability of bully-victim behavior over time and constancy across settings in preadolescent and adolescent boys and girls and (2) looked at persons to examine whether patterns of change were the same or different between bully-victim groups identified. Data were drawn from two independent short time longitudinal studies. In Study 1, 100 adolescents (59% female) aged 15–19 years (M = 16.4 years) were asked about their bully-victim behavior in school before and after the summer break. In Study 2, 116 preadolescents (49% female) aged 9–15 years (M = 12.2) were asked about their bully-victim behavior in school and in a summer camp. While adolescents did not enter a new group after the summer break, preadolescents entered a new group in the summer camp. On the whole sample level, both over time and across settings bullying showed moderate to high stability and a decrease. Victimization was moderately stable over time but rather unstable across setti...

Do business ethics pay off?: The influence of ethical leadership on organizational attractiveness.

Abstract: The ability to attract highly qualified employees constitutes a significant competitive advantage, and is ultimately linked to an organization's economic success. Creating and maintaining organizational attractiveness is therefore crucial to organizations. While previous research has demonstrated that an organization's ethical conduct (e.g., corporate social responsibility) enhances its attractiveness for potential employees, there is no empirical evidence on whether the ethical behavior of an organization's leaders can also affect organizational attractiveness. Using both experimental and correlational data we investigate the influence of leader ethical behavior on organizational attractiveness and examine the underlying mechanisms behind this relationship. In line with our hypotheses, ethical leader behavior leads to significantly higher ethical leadership ratings and to significantly higher ratings of organizational attractiveness. Furthermore, higher ethical leadership ratings were associated with stronger intentions to pursue employment with the respective organization. This effect was simultaneously mediated by organizational prestige and the general attractiveness of the organization.

Searching for the Anatomy of Dissociative Amnesia

Abstract: Brain damage was traditionally seen as the product of a neurological disease or injury. Nevertheless, modern brain imaging techniques have provided increasing evidence for alterations in brain tissue and metabolism for a number of psychiatric disorders. Though for a while “dissociated” (Spiegel, 2006) from the clinical and scientific arena, dissociative disorders have in the last several years received a renewed interest among several groups of researchers, who embarked on the work of disentangling their neural correlates. We review data from our own research as well as others, which point to distinct changes in brain regions underlying dissociative amnes(t)ic disorders. These changes may consist of overall reductions in brain metabolism or more selective alterations primarily in the right temporo-frontal cortices. Recent evidence with refined magnetic resonance imaging techniques furthermore reveals selective fiber degenerations in these regions. While these changes may persist and probably even intensif...

Prejudiced or Just Smart?: Intelligence as a Confounding Factor in the IAT Effect

Abstract: Implicit Association Tests (IATs) are well-known measures of implicit cognition, particularly attitudes. Previous studies reported that IATs are affected by method-specific variance: IAT effects of more intelligent people may appear smaller due to their reduced task-switch costs. In contrast, based on a theoretical framework that assumes IAT effects to depend on successful recoding of the congruent IAT task, larger IAT effects are expected for more intelligent people. We tested the hypothesis that intelligence can bias IAT effects with different IATs. General processing speed was also assessed. Two studies indicated faster and more intelligent participants to have larger IAT effects in some, but not all, IATs.

Conducting Person-Oriented Research

Abstract: In this topical issue, four articles present state-of-the-art scholarship concerning person-oriented research. The articles, authored by the teams of Bergman and Andersson; Schmidt, Perels, and Schmitz; Mutz and Seeling; and Strohmeier, Wagner, Spiel, and von Eye, cover an interesting range of topics and methods. Before introducing readers to these articles, we present an introduction to concepts of person-oriented research, from a conceptual and philosophy of science perspective (an overview taking a broader perspective, including the relation of person-oriented research to holistic thinking, can be found in the Bergman and Andersson article).

Prejudice Implicit Association Test Effects

Abstract: Self-concept is accessible information that can be used when facing a demanding task. Based on findings suggesting that effects observed in Implicit Association Tests (IATs) could be partially explained by the procedural features of the task, we investigated the role of participants’ self-inclusion in target categories for group IATs. We propose that IAT constraints lead participants to use self-relevant heuristics related to their membership of target categories in order to respond rapidly, which contributes to IAT group preferences. Thus positive IAT effects should dramatically diminish if participants were induced not to use self-related heuristics. Study 1 showed that when mapping outgroup names and idiosyncratic characteristics of participants onto the same category during the IAT task, the IAT effect no longer occurs. Study 2 replicated these findings when associating outgroup-participants’ idiosyncratic characteristics prior to the completion of the standard IAT. Therefore inhibiting the use of sel...

How to Perform Idiographic and a Combination of Idiographic and Nomothetic Approaches

Abstract: The aim of the study is to combine and compare person-oriented and nomothetic approaches to analyze longitudinal data with time series analyses and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). Based on the evaluation of an intervention study both approaches were used to compare individual and group data. In this study, a training was implemented to foster students’ self-regulation and selected results were presented at the individual and group level for the variables planning and motivation. To analyze data with time series analysis, cross-correlations and trend analyses were conducted. Cross-correlations revealed similar results on the aggregated and individual level whereas trend analysis indicated different results of these two levels. Results of HLM analyses for longitudinal data suggested that students’ motivation has more influence than the type of training group on students’ planning. The findings demonstrate that individual and group-level results differ and that both methods have different focuses. This m...

Memory and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract: In this issue of the Zeitschrift fur Psychologie / Journal of Psychology we have assembled a number of articles and comments that deal with the relationship of trauma and memory, with an emphasis on the role of memory mechanisms in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). There is uniformity in the assumption that memory is severely altered by traumatic events, but memory deficits may also contribute to the development of stress-related disorders. Although there is agreement that in PTSD memory mechanisms are at the core of the disorder, there is disagreement on the nature of the pathology and to what extent additional factors such as appraisal of the deficit are of importance. As Ehlers (2010) notes, there is clear evidence of a preponderance of emotional memories that are often sensory, fast, tied to very aversive moments of the traumatic experience, experienced as immediate rather than past, and related to non-declarative learning processes such as Pavlovian conditioning and priming. Whereas these memories seem to predominate, generalize (see Lissek & Grillon, 2010), and fail to extinguish (Wessa & Flor, 2007), episodic memories of the trauma and life in general seem to be affected, be it by fragmentation (Brewin, 2007), lack of connectedness (Michael, Ehlers, Halligan, & Clark, 2005), or overgeneralization (Schonfeld, Ehlers, Bollinghaus, & Rief, 2007). Early theories about memory mechanisms in PTSD suggested that the documented reduction of hippocampal volume in PTSD might lead to a dissociation of declarative and non-declarative memories (Elzinga & Bremner, 2002). However, these alterations are not as straightforward as it might seem since it could be shown that recall of trauma-related materials is similar in traumatized persons with and without PTSD (Wessa, Jatzko, & Flor, 2006). Retrieval-induced forgetting is also not significantly different in PTSD versus non-PTSD subjects as shown by Koessler and colleagues (2010). Diener, Flor, and Wessa (2010) demonstrate a specific deficit in encoding but not retrieval of episodic memory that is associated with hyperarousal symptoms. This suggests that a very thorough analysis of memory mechanisms is needed and that categories such as declarative/non-declarative or episodic versus semantic need to be further differentiated and specific aspects of these memory processes – such as elaboration, connectedness, or trauma-relevance – need to be considered. For example, the reduced hippocampal volumes could also lead to reduced context conditioning, which is also a form of emotional associative learning, whereas cue conditioning, which is more amygdala-dependent, seems to be enhanced. We (Lang et al., 2009) and others (Alvarez, Biggs, Chen, Pine, & Grillon, 2008; Marschner, Kalisch, Vervliet, Vansteenwegen, & Buchel, 2008) have shown that the hippocampus is involved in context conditioning in human beings and we have preliminary data that indicate impaired context conditioning in persons with small hippocampal volumes (Pohlack, Liebscher, Ridder, Lipinski, & Flor, 2009). A detailed examination of contextual memory in PTSD seems therefore warranted. Context is also important for extinction learning where the organism has to learn to associate the conditioned stimuli with a certain context, no longer with a danger. Bouton and colleagues (2006) and others have emphasized the important role of context for extinction. Disordered context conditioning might therefore not only contribute to the feeling of ‘‘nowness’’ that characterizes the intrusions of PTSD patients and to the inability to feel safe (since safe and dangerous contexts cannot be properly differentiated) but may also impair the extinction of the cue-conditioned fear response since the extinction context has not been associated to the cues. This reasoning is in line with the proposal by Schauer and Elbert (2010), who argue that it is important to consider the peritraumatic defense processes that are activated and that subgroups of patients can be identified that are at different positions in the defense cascade. They specifically emphasize that memory processes are substantially different if persons are putting on a peritraumatic sympathetic activation versus those who went down the entire defense cascade where a parasympathetic dominance and dissociation prevail. This depends on the type of trauma and possibilities of the organism for optimal response. Extinction learning is especially hampered by dissociative

Intrusive Memories and Modality-Specific Mental Imagery in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is characterized by vivid intrusive memories of the trauma. Among these, visual sensations of the trauma are most commonly reported. However, intrusions may involve other senses as well (e.g., acoustic, olfactory, or bodily sensations). It has been proposed that enhanced mental imagery may predispose individuals with traumatic experiences to intrusions and ultimately to PTSD. A total of 58 victims of interpersonal violence with current (n = 20), past (n = 19), and no lifetime PTSD (n = 19) as well as non-traumatized controls (n = 23) were assessed with the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ) and a modality-specific imagery questionnaire. Moreover, the sensory quality of the traumatic intrusions was assessed in traumatized participants. Participants with recovered PTSD displayed less overall mental imagery than the other three groups who were indistinguishable. No relation was found between the modality-specific mental imagery and the sensory quality of the...

Value Performance: On the Relation Between Corporate Culture and Corporate Success

Abstract: In spite of a considerable body of literature, the relations between aspects of corporate culture and corporate success are not clear. This is due to the complexity and inconsistency concerning corporate culture and success. Most studies tend to focus on codified norms but less on implicit assumptions and values according to Schein (1990, 2009), and on positive but not negative cultural impacts. The research situation implies that managers do not pay enough attention to cultural issues. The success relation was investigated in an explorative study using a weighted sample of 2,873 persons from 46 German companies who participated in an online questionnaire designed to cover all levels of corporate culture. The impact of explorative analyzed corporate culture's construct to success was assessed by correlations and regressions. Results indicate that corporate responsibility with respect to external stakeholders as well as to employees, accompanied by participative leadership, are crucial cultural conditions for corporate success.

Does Remembering Cause Forgetting in Chronically Stressed People? : A Study of Ugandan Civil War Refugees With and Without PTSD

Abstract: People suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often have reduced episodic memory performance as well as intrusions and flashbacks of traumatic events. Hippocampal and prefrontal dysfunctions are assumed to be responsible. Using a modified retrieval-induced forgetting paradigm, we investigated episodic memory performance in a group of German participants and in civil war victims with and without PTSD in Northern Uganda. Retrieval-induced forgetting is an adaptive mechanism in memory and refers to the fact that retrieval of target elements impairs subsequent recall of related material. Retrieval-induced forgetting depends on medio-temporal and prefrontal functions and acute stress eliminates the effect. Here, using a pictorial retrieval-induced forgetting paradigm, retrieval-induced forgetting was found in a German group, but not in Ugandan refugees, neither in those with nor without PTSD. As both groups were exposed to multiple, often severely traumatic events, stress exposure in both Ugandan ...

Classical Conditioning in Borderline Personality Disorder With and Without Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract: Conditioning studies in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) revealed intact acquisition and within-session extinction for patients with low acute dissociation and impaired acquisition for patients with high acute dissociation. In Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) delayed short-term extinction as well as reduced discrimination learning was found. Controlling for acute dissociation, with a subgroup analysis of BPD patients with and without comorbid PTSD we aimed to further understand the influence of both disorders on altered conditioning processes. Aversive differential conditioning was assessed in 33 non-medicated female patients meeting DSM-IV criteria for BPD (15 with and 18 without co-occurring PTSD). An aversive sound served as unconditioned stimulus (US), and two neutral pictures as conditioned stimuli (CS+, CS−). Conditioning was assessed by skin conductance responses (SCRs) and ratings of valence and arousal. BPD patients without PTSD revealed a significant differentiation between CS+ and CS− ...

Learning and Consolidation of Verbal Declarative Memory in Patients with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract: Impairments in declarative memory have been reported in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Fragmentation of explicit trauma-related memory has been assumed to impede the formation of a coherent memorization of the traumatic event and the integration into autobiographic memory. Together with a strong non-declarative memory that connects trauma reminders with a fear response the impairment in declarative memory is thought to be involved in the maintenance of PTSD symptoms. Fourteen PTSD patients, 14 traumatized subjects without PTSD, and 13 non-traumatized healthy controls (HC) were tested with the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) to assess verbal declarative memory. PTSD symptoms were assessed with the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale and depression with the Center of Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Several indices of the CVLT pointed to an impairment in declarative memory performance in PTSD, but not in traumatized persons without PTSD or HC. No group differences were observed if recal...

A Nomothetic Version of the Brunswikian Lens Model: A Variable- and Person-Oriented Approach

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to discuss new methodological developments, starting with Schilling and Hogge (2001), aimed at establishing a nomothetic version of the Brunswikian lens model based on multilevel models (multilevel latent class regression). This genuinely person-oriented approach simultaneously allows the idiographic assessment of individual judgment processes and the nomothetic examination of evidence of generalization across individuals. Data of a pilot project on forest persons’ subjective judgment of the quality of wood (“Forstlicher Gotterblick”) are used to demonstrate the proposal: In a paper-pencil test, 29 forest persons (forestry students and foresters) each estimated the internal wood quality of 40 trees on a 6-point rating scale using information provided about six well-known external wood properties for each tree. Two judgment strategies were identified (“Take-The-Best” and random) which could also be assigned to two different types of subjects (“novices” vs. “experts”). Summari...

The Divergence of Implicit and Explicit Consumer Evaluations

Abstract: This research extends findings that implicit and explicit attitudes may diverge to a consumer evaluation task using multiple measures of implicit evaluation: Evaluative Movement Assessment (EMA; Brendl, Markman, & Messner, 2005) and Evaluative Priming (Fazio, Jackson, Dunton, & Williams,1995). These measures were significantly associated with each other for both positive and negative implicit attitudes. Neither measure predicted explicit liking of the product or explicit intention to purchase the product. We believe this to be the first such demonstrated divergence in a naturalistic, unconditioned consumer evaluation context. Implicit activation of the product’s emotional benefit (e.g., “relaxation”), as assessed in a lexical decision task (LDT), was not associated with the EMA or evaluative priming, but was significantly associated with both explicit emotional state (e.g., relaxation) and explicit purchase intention; the latter effect was not mediated by explicit emotion.

Ethics and Economic Success A Contradiction in Terms

Abstract: People in Germany might think you’re joking if you were to tell them that you study Business Ethics. Either Business, or Ethics. This basically sums up the deep-seated belief in European culture that business andmorals aremutually exclusive. Tipping the balance toward ethics means less economic efficiency, while an increase in business profits means less moral integrity. That is why in the Bible it is easier for a camel togo throughaneedle’s eye than for amanofwealth toget into the kingdom of God, why Plato devoted many pages of his dialog on The Republic to how to regulate the market, why for Aristotle, an economist is someone who lacks the telos of human existence, why Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica took nearly one hundred pages to explain how aneconomic trade canbe turned into a fair trade,why it is clear to Karl Marx that capitalism is the absolute embodiment of immorality, why for Max Weber there is no room for ethics within the iron bounds of competition and why, last but not least, the Nobel Prize winner, Milton Friedmann, can say that the only ethics of businesses is to increase profits. Those who are currently reflecting on the connection between business success and being ethical should not lose sight of the cultural standard just described, especially bearing in mind the realities of the economic situation we face today. Corruption, the effects of the financial crisis, and management criminality are just a few of those realities that are dominating the headlines. Emotionally churned-up debates about the greed and coldheartedness of the business world’s elite managers, about criminal and questionable management methods to the detriment of the owner, customer, and society, go hand in hand with scenarios that depict our decline in values, eliciting pleas for the return of the honorable businessman of the Middle Ages. The reputation and credibility of whole sectors and to a certain extent the market economy system itself is at stake. But as so often, appearances are deceptive. Generally speaking, there can be no economic success in moral anarchy. This has also been experienced in economic history and is apparently reflected in the recently developing cultural distrust for business. Unfortunately, science up to now has also been unable to provide clarity here. On a scientific level there is simply no clear and causal evidence that good ethics means good business. Results from studies carried out so far have not been methodologically conclusive due to an inconsistent definition of indicators: findings often turn out to be contradictory. However, insights currently gained by many companies indicate: a corporate strategy that is oriented toward values and implementing them at an operational level is an essential prerequisite today for economic success in modern and globally operating companies and their management. If the interplay of the economy and ethics were to be a success story it would consequently not result from a causal automatism but rather be a question of the morally sensible design of the governance structures of a company’s management. Here are a few empirical explanations for this apparently counterfactual belief. The economic scandals of the most recent past have shown that illegal and immoral behavior is a value-destroyer in the most direct sense of the word. A lack of values in management or the application of undesired values poses a risk to the existence of companies. It is a moral risk from behavior that should be an integral part of modern risk management and corporate governance. The US and British legal systems have drawn their consequences. They have set behavioral standards for the fulfillment of companies’ due diligence requirements and demand that value management systems be installed to ensure they are complied with. Compliance is worth it. Noncompliance means the organization and its representatives can incur massive risks. In this respect, character, credibility, and integrity are central leadership qualities and represent future topics to be encountered in manager training programs. However the impressionof the direction takenby theUSA and UK to strengthen business ethics is a rather bureaucratic one, and that is putting itmildly. Exculpation bywayof extensive documentation appears to be the logic behind the system: code of ethics, code of conduct, compliance officer, SOX, COSO framework, compliance program, integrity management, whistle blowing, ethics hotline – are just some of the Anglicisms that are rapidly proliferating at present and are not welcomed on all executive floors in the business world.

The Humanistic Management Network

Abstract: The Humanistic Management Network is an international, interdisciplinary, and independent network that promotes the development of an economic system in service of human dignity and well-being. We are cooperating with scholars, practitioners, and policy makers across the world to promote the idea of a ''life-conducive'' economic system. With over 200 members and partner organizations across the world (official chapters exist in Brazil, Columbia, Japan, Mexico, Switzerland, Germany, and the United States), we believe in the power of change through dialog and insight.

Facilitation of Fear Extinction and Psychotherapy by D-Cycloserine

Abstract: I can’t get the memories out of my mind! The images come flooding back in vivid detail, triggered by the most inconsequential things, like a door slamming or the smell of stir-fried pork. Last night, I went to bed, was having a good sleep for a change. Then in the early morning a storm front passed through and there was a bolt of crackling thunder. I awoke instantly, frozen in fear. I am right back in Viet Nam, in the middle of the monsoon season at my guard post. I am sure I’ll get hit in the next volley and convinced I will die. My hands are freezing, yet sweat pours from my entire body. I feel each hair on the back of my neck standing on end. I can’t catch my breath and my heart is pounding. I smell a damp sulfur smell. Suddenly I see what’s left of my buddy Troy, his head on a bamboo platter, sent back to our camp by the Viet Cong. Propaganda messages are stuffed between his clenched teeth. The next bolt of lightning and clap of thunder makes me jump so much that I fall to the floor.

Non-Idiographic Emotional Script-Driven Imagery in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract: Abnormal emotional responses to standardized emotional stimuli in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) implicate problems in emotional processing less obviously linked to traumatic experiences. However, the personal meaningfulness and association of standardized emotional stimuli with specific episodic memories in PTSD participants has not been investigated. This paper takes the position that emotional processing of standardized stimuli cannot be divorced from the personal meaning these stimuli are ascribed, such as via the priming of episodic memory. Women with PTSD reported greater priming of episodic memories within the context of emotional imagery of standardized scripts, and episodic recall predicted emotional responses to script-driven imagery. Furthermore, greater priming of episodic recall during imagery of fear-anxiety scripts was associated with less response within the ventral medial prefrontal cortex. Clinical, theoretical, and methodological issues are discussed.