Remembering more nouns than verbs in lists of foreign-language words as an indicator of syntactic phonetic symbolism.

In lists with words from languages not known to the subjects (students of the University of Essen, Germany, and in one experiment Polish teachers in North Poland), nouns were remembered more often than verbs, and the effect was not dependent on the length of the words. The effect was clearer with languages with a strong (Swahili) or medium (Hungarian, Turkish) tendency to marcation and less with languages with a tendency for weak marcation (Japanese). We interpreted this effect as influenced by syntactic phonetic symbolism, assuming there is a phonologic and prosodic difference between nouns and verbs.

Psychotherapy with multiple-sclerosis patients.

We wanted to find out if psychotherapy may influence the course of the physical aspects of multiple sclerosis and the consequences of psychotherapy for coping processes. 46 patients diagnosed with multiple sclerosis who had chosen to undergo a 1-yr. group psychotherapy treatment were compared with a control group of 24 multiple-sclerosis patients without such treatment. They were given the Giessen test (personality test), the Achievement Capacities Questionnaire by Kesselring, an intensive interview as well as the content analysis scales of verbal behavior by Gottschalk and Gleser. The various tests were carried out at each of four times of measurement with a 2-yr. follow-up. There were significant changes in the area of relationships and aggressive loosening (interview) between the Therapy and Control groups. Several changes were also found with regard to physical symptoms (Achievement Capacities Questionnaire) in the Therapy group compared to the Control group, e.g., increases in physical mobility and decreases in care of the body. The decreases appear to be a known effect of therapy with psychosomatic disorders. We interpret it psychoanalytically as resistance against releasing anxiety of counter-cathected motives which multiple sclerosis helps to keep unconscious. In a follow-up, the Therapy group showed greater optimism and physical improvements, e.g., decrease in feeling cold and lack of energy. Some positive changes appeared in both groups, such as, for example, an improvement of cognitive impairment (Gottschalk & Gleser). It appears that the attention from the research itself may have affected both groups because some members of both groups were in contact and hence the Control group was also informed about the research project and its underlying hypothesis.

[Social-emotional and cognitive markers in children of divorce and in children from 2-parent families--a cross sectional study]. / Sozial-emotionale und kognitive Merkmale von Scheidungskindern und Kindern aus Zwei-Eltern-Familien--ein querschnittlicher Vergleich.

Related to the research of the effects of separation and divorce on children there is a lack of empirical studies in Germany. The following cross-sectional field-study directly investigate 48 children from divorced and 32 children from two-parent-families regarding socio-emotional and some cognitive characteristics (nonclinical samples). Projective and semi-projective tests were the preferred instruments. One of the main questions was related to frustration behavior, measured by the Rosenzweig-Picture-Frustration Test (childrens form). This test was used for the first time by a population of German children of divorce. Children of divorce showed a special frustration behavior, a so called M-profile showing many impunitive reactions. They avoid direct conflicts or struggle and try to deny the frustration. Also the subtests of the Hamburg-Wechsler-Intelligence test for children (HAWIK) show clearly that children from divorced families obtain much poorer test values in contrast to children from two-parent homes.

Learning test on expressive phonetic symbolism.

We asked 249 students to learn three different vocabulary lists, each containing 19 word pairs (Indonesian, Suaheli, and one mixed list composed of items from 13 different languages) in three versions: "normal" (factual classification), "reversed" (opposite classification), and "disarranged" (word meaning imputed in a completely different dimension). That those word-pairs with "normal" classification would lead to best learning was not generally confirmed but was corroborated for favourable learning conditions (items at the top of the list, items at the beginning of the questioning, easy to learn items), whereas the effect of phonetic symbolism combined with "normal" presentation proved rather abstruse. We assume that in the latter cases encoding worked rather automatically, and additional information used energy. The encoding process uses so much energy that further information is not useful under unfavourable learning conditions. We found a relation between performance on each mode of presentation and sex. Independent of presentation mode, learning depends on age, sex, membership in a seminar, and subject matter studied. Therefore, we examined the distribution of these in our nine groups (three languages by three versions). Since no statistically relevant differences in distribution arose, our results do not have to be qualified.

[Methodologic decisions in evaluation of psychotherapy]. / Methodische Entscheidungen in der Evaluation von Psychotherapie.

Psychotherapy research makes demands on evaluation studies in regard to content and methodology. These demands, however, are difficult to realize. The expense of a study results in a multidimensional matrix consisting of: the different sources of data, number and extent of the measures on theoretically derived assessment levels, the number of times measures are repeated, and the sample size. Decisions for research methods should be deduced explicitly from the goal of the evaluation study as well as from the goals of the evaluated therapy. Alternatives for the choice of operationalization, test designs, data evaluation and presentation will be reviewed and discussed.

[Working mothers and their significance for the children from the viewpoint of clinical psychology]. / Die Berufstätigkeit von Müttern und ihre Bedeutung für die Kinder aus der Sicht der Klinischen Psychologie.

The possible effects of maternal employment on children were investigated. Whereas 30 years ago especially behavior disorders were found to be correlating, today the situation is more differentiate. Results suggest, that the effects of maternal employment have changed the years. The effects depend on the degree of the mother's satisfaction with her work, the sex of the children, social class, children's age, residential area, substitute care, the possibility to conciliate working and private needs as well as the attitude of society regarding working mothers. The part of the father in this connection is controversial. Lately unconscious motives of working (e.g. career drive resulting from early familial conflicts, marriage problems) or non-working (e.g. fear of occupational conflicts) mothers are regarded more intensively. Correlations are especially found to sex role understanding of the children, as well as to intelectual development and emotional stability dependent on further factors.