[Attitude to death and control behavior of medical students--a cross sectional study]. / Todesbezogene Einstellungen und Kontrollüberzeugungen von Medizinstudenten--Eine Querschnittstudie.

Within the scope of a cross-section study the Fear of Death Questionnaire (Hensle 1977), the Semantic Differential of the term Death (Potthoff 1980) and the IPC questionnaire (Krampen 1981) were submitted to n = 186 first- and second-year medical students and to n = 151 third- and fourth-year medical students. This was to trace the question how far the attitude toward death and the locus of control of medical students vary in the course of their education. In comparison with most of other respective publications our paper did not show any significant changes of their attitude toward death and their locuis of control neither. After more detailed analysis of the data discerning consideration of the fear of death questionnaire mentioned above is to be demanded prior to further use in medical fields. At least in view of medical students it's value regarding the construct validity is to be questioned. Concerning the Semantic Differential at least one adjective pair should be eliminated in future.

[Sex differences in illness behavior of patients in a psychotherapeutic outpatient clinic]. / Geschlechterunterschiede im Krankheitsverhalten von Patienten einer psychotherapeutischen Ambulanz.

According to the current literature a study with patients of a psychotherapeutic ambulance of an University hospital was conducted to determine whether sex differences in illness behaviour exist in this special population. The results show that women more than men see their symptoms as an expression of a psychic disturbance. Furthermore they seem to make use of the resources of the lay referral system more intensively and with a different setting of an objective than men. Although women obviously do have less reservations against consulting a helping facility it takes more time comparatively till they contact the first professional helper.

[Aspects of anxiety-fear differentiation]. / Aspekte der Angst-Furcht-Differenzierung.

By exposition of philosophical and general psychological aspects of the differentiation of anxiety and fear an heuristic differentiation according to the following criterias becomes possible: 1. attributes of a (threatening) stimulus constellation, 2. personality specific cognitive and emotive-motivational processes, and 3. reactive rehaviour and action patterns. By means of a model which considers the functions of especially the hippocampus as well as the problems of orientation the differences are to be exemplified neuropsychologically.