Social skills are crucial for humans for being part of a social community. They help us to interact with our environment, to communicate with others in social interactions, but also to learn further abilities from others. However, babies need to develop them first. A large body of literature has emphasized the role of the social environment in infant’s development of social skills. Theoretical accounts have highlighted that the caregiver-child relationship serves as the cradle of learning in early childhood. The current (...) thesis focused on maternal responsiveness as key aspect of caregiver–child interaction that support infant’s development of imitation, empathy, and prosociality. The stage of infancy is particularly interesting as experience with the caregivers settle the ground for children’s later interactions in their social environment. Despite a large body of research on children’s social skills in general, yet only few studies have investigated the relationship of the occurrence of specific social skills based on the influence of maternal behaviour within the first two years of life. To this end, three studies were conducted, two focusing longitudinally on the development of imitation and empathic responding and one investigating cross-sectionally the mechanism of action between maternal sensitivity and children emotional helping. The first study investigated the influence of maternal sensitivity and maternal imitation on children’s imitation behaviour. In particular, the study examined the influence of maternal sensitivity and maternal imitation behaviour on children’s spontaneous imitation behaviour and children’s imitation abilities at 18 months. To this end, mothers and their childrens natural imitation behaviour in a playing situation as well as maternal sensitivity were assessed. Beyond that, children’s imitative skills in several tasks at 18 months were measured. Results revealed that maternal sensitivity was related to children’s spontaneous imitation as well as children’s imitation abilities. Furthermore, the relation between maternal sensitivity and children’s imitation abilities was mediated by maternal imitation behaviour at 14 months, but not at 10 months. The study supports the notion that imitation is a learned ability and is impacted by mothers’ own imitation behaviour as well as maternal sensitivity. The second study investigated the onset of empathy as well as the influence of internal and external factors. In particular, the study examined children’s reactions to others’ emotion as well as maternal sensitivity, child’s negative emotionality, and children’s self-recognition within the first two years. To this end, mothers’ behavior was observed in play interactions and children’s empathic reactions to emotional displays were assessed at 6, 10, 14, and 18 months. Intraindividual changes models revealed that more sensitive maternal behavior at 6 months predicted changes in empathic reactions from 10 to 14 months positively. Before that maternal sensitivity had no effect on the empathic reactions, which were not clearly distinguishable from reactions towards a laughing person. The study supports the notion that maternal sensitive behavior plays a significant role in young children’s development of empathy. The third study investigated the relation of maternal sensitivity and emotional helping in toddlers. In particular, the study examined whether maternal sensitivity and children’s emotional helping was linked by children’s empathy or children’s compliance. To this end, mothers’ sensitivity was observed in play interactions and children’s behaviour regarding empathy, compliance, and emotional helping were assessed in three experimental tasks at 18 months. Mediation models revealed that empathy, but not compliance mediated the link between maternal sensitivity and children’s emotional helping. The study supports the notion that maternal behavior plays a significant role in young children’s ability to help others. Taken together, the current thesis offers notable insights into the specific relations of mother-child interaction and young children’s acquisition of social skills. Our results suggest that high-qualitative interactions with caregivers are crucial for children’s imitation abilities (Study 1) and for children’s empathic abilities (Study 2). Furthermore, through acquired empathic abilities, maternal behaviours influence new social skills as prosocial behaviour (Study 3). This speaks to the importance of maternal behaviour for the acquisition of social skills. While maternal sensitivity and maternal mirroring are important factors in infant’s acquisition of imitative abilities, maternal sensitivity plays additionally a crucial role for socio-emotional abilities like empathy and emotional helping. The current work has important implications for theories of child development by suggesting associative learning to be crucial for learning social skills such as imitation and empathy in mother-child interaction. In conclusion, the current thesis contributes to a better understanding of the role of mother-child interaction in young children’s acquisition of social skills and provides implications for research on infant’s and toddler’s social development. (shrink)

Recent technological advancements in computerized text and speech analysis as well as machine learning methods have sparked a growing body of research investigating the algorithmic recognition of affect from the ubiquitous digital traces of natural language data and corresponding affect-linked language variations. Also, commercial interest to leverage these new data using AI for affect inferences is on the rise. However, due to the challenges associated with collecting data on subjective affect experience and corresponding language samples, previous research studies and commercial (...) products have mostly relied on data sets from labelled text or enacted speech and, thereby, are focused on affect expression. This work leverages new smartphone-based data collection methods to collect self-reports on in-situ subjective affect experience and corresponding language samples in the wild to investigate between-person differences and within-person fluctuations in affect experience. The present dissertation aims to achieve three goals: (1) to investigate if between-person differences and within-person fluctuations in subjective affect experience are associated with and predictable from cues in spoken and written natural language, (2) to identify specific language characteristics, such as the use of specific word categories or voice parameters, that are associated with and predictive of affect experience, and (3) to analyze the influence of the context of language production on the associations and predictions of affect experience from natural language. This work is comprised of two empirical studies that analyze self-reports on subjective affect experience and natural language data collected with smartphones. Study 1 investigates predictions of between-person differences and within-person fluctuations in subjective momentary affect experience in more than 23000 speech samples from over 1000 participants in two data sets from Germany and the United States. In contrast to voice acoustics, which contain limited predictive information for affective arousal, state-of-the-art word embeddings yield significant above-chance predictions for affective arousal and valence. Moreover, interpretable machine learning methods are used to identify those voice features (i.e., loudness and spectral features) that are most predictive of affect experience. Finally, the work suggests that affect predictions from voice cues from semi-structured free speech are superior to those from read-out predefined sentences and that the emotional sentiment of the spoken content has no effect on affect predictions from voice cues. Study 2 analyzes patterns in written language data logged through smartphones' keyboards to investigate how between-person differences and within-person fluctuations in affect experience manifest in and are predictable from logged text data across different time frames and communication contexts. From a data set of more than 10 million typed words, features regarding typing dynamics, word use based on word dictionaries, and emoji and emoticon use are computed. From the data, distinct affect-linked language variations across communication contexts (private messaging versus public posting) and time frames (trait, weekly, daily, momentary) are identified (e.g., the use 1st person singular). Predictions of affect experience from machine learning algorithms, however, are not significantly better than chance. Results of this study highlight the challenges of using occurrence-counts, such as word dictionaries, for the assessment of subjective affect experience. By leveraging novel smartphone-based experience sampling and on-device language data collection in everyday life, the present dissertation shows how characteristics of spoken and written language are associated with and predictive of subjective affect experience. Thereby, this work highlights the utility of smartphones for investigating subjective affect experience in natural language in the wild, overcoming the caveats of prior research methods. Prediction results, however, challenge the optimistic prediction performances reported in prior works on the recognition of affect expression experience. Using statistical methods from the areas of description, prediction, and explanation, the present dissertation also reveals specific affect-linked language characteristics. Finally, results underline the relevance of the context of language production on language characteristics and corresponding affect predictions. The promising applications and potential future directions of this technology come with multiple challenges with regard to the conceptualization of affect, interdisciplinarity, ethics, and data privacy and security. If these challenges can be overcome, natural language analysis based on data collected with smartphones represents a promising tool to monitor affective well-being and to advance the affective sciences. (shrink)

The present dissertation is divided into five Chapters. As an introduction, Chapter 1 characterises hate speech, the harm it creates and its audience. Throughout our investigation, we defend the idea that hate speech is a harmful mechanism used in intergroup disputes for social dominance (Charles-Toussaint & Crowson, 2010; Duckitt & Sibley, 2017; Hoover et al., 2021). Moreover, it targets people based on their actual or perceived "race", colour, descent, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, language, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation (...) and other identity features (Mihajlova et al., 2013). Therefore, its proliferation threatens coexistence within diverse societies, where people from various identities and backgrounds live together. Following Speech Act theory, which defines "illocutionary" speech acts as those that do something by saying something (e.g., marrying someone by saying "Yes, I do"), we feature hate speech as such an act (Langton, 2018a; Maitra, 2012), defending the idea that its power to harm others is directly linked with its capacity to perform various harmful actions through speech. By saying, "We do not want your kind here!", "Go back home!" or "Stop Islamization of our country!" along with other paradigmatic hate speech, we perform several actions: We rank minorities or disfavoured groups as inferior (Langton, 2012; Langton, 2018a; Langton, 2018b; Maitra, 2012), direct bystanders to side with hate speakers, order people to leave if they do not conform with the speaker's standard of a good citizen (Fraser, 2023; Lepoutre 2021; Waldron, 2012), encourage like-minded fellows to take action against targeted groups and, sometimes, perform several or all those actions at a time (Lewiński, 2021). Importantly, we defend the idea that most hate speech not only causes harm but constitutes harm to its targets (Langton, 2018a): whether ranking a group as inferior, blaming minorities for circumstances outside of their control, directing disfavoured groups to leave or legitimating particular treatment of them through hate speech, these all hurt people (Langton, 2018a). In addition, those actions can cause feelings of humiliation, helplessness, isolation, low self-esteem or anger (Fattoracci & King, 2023; King et al., 2011), harming people psychologically and physiologically to varying degrees (Eisenberger, 2015). Moreover, we characterise hate speech as highly context-dependent (Moreno & Pérez Navarro, 2021). This quality contributes to it being perceived as directed at different subjects, expanding its audience and the people it harms, going beyond its direct targets to also include bystanders and society at large. Depending on the context, the audience of hate speech may be any of us. Notwithstanding, as its audience, we all play a relevant role in determining, modulating and countering the actions a hate speech act can perform. Therefore, a good starting point to address this phenomenon should count on all of us, as potential audience, to identify whether and to what extent we perceive hate speech as harmful and the conditions under which a response contributes to reducing its harm. Following an experimental moral philosophy approach to substantiate our characterisation for hate speech and its harm, we conducted two studies testing ordinary people's intuitions in those regards, reproduced in Chapters 2 and 3. Chapter 2 reproduces a Registered Report published in May 2023 in Scientific Reports (Springer Nature), co-authored with Prof. Dr. Ophelia Deroy. In this study, we tested whether people are intrinsically averse to verbal harm compared to other kinds of hate actions (nonverbal, bodily actions) and to what extent. Considering that bystanders rarely report hate speech incidents and the legal, theoretical and social hesitancy to punish them, we hypothesised that people would be more lenient against hate speech than nonverbal hate actions, which share intentions and consequences. We conducted an experiment with 1309 British citizens who read descriptions of verbal and nonverbal incidents stemming from identical hateful intent, which created the same consequences. We asked them how much punishment the speaker (perpetrator) should receive, how likely they would be to denounce such an incident and how harmful the actions were. The results contradicted our pre-registered hypotheses and the predictions of dual moral theories, which hold that intention and harmful consequences are the sole psychological determinants of punishment. Instead, participants consistently rated verbal hate incidents as more deserving of punishment and denunciation, and as being more damaging than nonverbal incidents. The difference remained even when we shifted the scenarios to let participants know that the targets suffered no negative consequences (e.g., the target was deaf and so could not hear the racist remark). We explain this difference through the concept of action aversion (Miller et al., 2014) in opposition to outcome aversion, suggesting that lay observers perceive something inherent to speech that makes them assess it as more harmful and deserving of punishment and denunciation as opposed to other nonverbal hate actions, regardless of its consequences. Later, in Chapter 4, we interpret the intrinsic feature captured by folk intuitions in hate speech as the ability to harm by saying (i.e., constituting harm, and not only causing it) and to target different people simultaneously (e.g., direct-targets and random bystanders), which remains even when the speakers do not manage to harm their direct targets. Chapter 3 reproduces a paper submitted to the scientific journal Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, currently under review. Co-authored with Prof. Dr. Ophelia Deroy, Dr. Justin Sulik and Mr. Clemens von Wulffen, it explores people's perception of the role played by silent or opposing bystanders in reducing the harm caused by hate speech. We depart from two widespread assumptions: a prevailing passive attitude towards hate speech and the consideration of bystanders' opposition when facing a hate incident as helpful in mitigating its harm, something that has been stressed by governmental authorities, sociologists, and philosophers (Ayala & Vasilyeva, 2016; Langton, 2018b). We explore whether and under what conditions ordinary people perceive a silent response when facing a hate speech incident as increasing the harm it creates, and how opposing speech may reduce that harm. Across two online experiments with UK participants using custom visual vignettes, we provide empirical evidence that bystanders' expression of opposition can modulate how harmful these incidents are perceived to be, but only as part of a collective response: one that is expressed by a substantial majority of bystanders, which suggests the existence of a social norm against hate speech. Experiment 1 (N=329) shows that recognising the role played by silent or opposing bystanders who witness a hate speech incident depends on whether participants could take from the context the current social norm about how to respond to hate speech. In scenarios with three bystanders, participants recognised those who show opposition as reducing the harm created by the hate speech, while regarding those who remain silent as increasing that harm. However, in scenarios where the hate incident occurred in front of only one bystander, thus not allowing participants to recognise the social norm in place, they assessed hate speech incidents as equally harmful, regardless of whether the single bystander showed opposition or remained silent. Experiment 2 (N=269) shows this is not simply a matter of numbers but rather one of norms: only unanimous opposition reduces the public perception of the damage created. Based on our results, we advance an empirical norm account: group responses to hate speech modulate its harm by indicating either a permissive or a disapproving social norm, which may guide bystanders' responses. Our account and results show the need to complement individual responses with collective strategies (Chater & Loewenstein, 2022) against hate speech and other similar phenomena in which individual efforts seem not to suffice (e.g., climate change or global pandemics). In Chapter 4, we return to our philosophical assumptions regarding hate speech to revise them in light of our empirical work. First, we interpret participants' stronger aversion to hate speech found in Chapter 2 as the recognition that an intrinsic feature of hate speech acts is to perform various harmful actions through speech. These actions not only cause harmful effects, but also are harmful themselves and can target distinct people simultaneously. This is a result which other acts of hate cannot achieve and which is captured by folk intuitions. In addition, the need for collective responses and robust social norms in modulating hate speech harm, highlighted in Chapter 3, make us venture a new characterisation of hate speakers, challenging the idea that they are merely individuals or “lone wolves”, and instead casting them as members of a group. Accordingly, we defend the idea that it is a mistake to consider hate speech purely from the perspective of individual rights to free expression and discussion. The mistake is to treat harmful group speech with normative — and thus social — implications as an individual matter. Once hate speech actions, whether actual or perceived, become accepted by the majority, they risk mutating into policy options, susceptible of being supported by economic or populist lobbies interested in ascension to power through social confrontation. Although further developing this idea is largely beyond the scope of the present dissertation framework, we argue that harmful group speech with policy aspirations against disfavoured and minoritarian groups should not be granted freedom of speech protection under equal conditions alongside individual speech. Furthermore, we highlight the pressing need to challenge the assumption that ordinary people are lenient toward hate speech and other forms of hatred and intolerance. It is crucial to recognise and harness people's capacity to discern the harm caused by such practices and involve them in collective responses against hate speech. By doing so, we can effectively counter harmful discourses and foster tolerance and respect for diversity, thereby promoting peaceful coexistence within diverse societies. Finally, Chapter 5 provides a comprehensive summary of our research, highlighting its key findings and their implications. (shrink)

Background: There are no universal treatment standards for patients within opioid maintenance treatment programs in forensic psychiatric hospitals. Currently, the maintenance treatment in forensic psychiatries is composed of various different cri-teria. Additionally, the offered therapeutic interventions, such as sanctions for drug relapses and rule violations, are individualized for each patient. However, the goal should be to implement a standardized treatment approach in order to treat opioid addicts more efficiently. For this reason, this paper will investigate the effects of maintenance therapy (...) on the therapeutic process of patients placed in forensic psy-chiatric hospitals according to bavarian Criminal Code § 64 StGB. The aim is to aid the advancement of addiction medicine, accompanied by an improvement of the therapeutic approaches within a forensic psychiatric setting. Methods: A total of 144 participants from 11 psychiatric prisons in Bavaria were in-cluded in this study. For this purpose, existing data of the clinic documentation sys-tems were used. The non-substituted participants at the time of data collection were compared as a control group with the substituted participants of the experimental group with regard to baseline characteristics, duration of placement, dropout rate, number of lock-up levels reached, downgrades, as well as willingness to participate in therapy and number of rule violations. Results: The samples differed clinically only in the frequency of failed detoxification attempts, which was significantly higher in the substitution group (median 1 vs. 3, p = 0.008). No significant differences were found with regard to the duration of ac-commodation, the dropout rate, the number of detoxification levels reached, the number of downgradings, the number of extensions of individual detoxification lev-els, and general therapy participation (occupational therapy, sports therapy, occupa-tional therapy, etc.). In the group of relapsed participants, significantly more relapses were recorded among the non-substituted participants (median 3 [1; 4–5] vs. 1 [1; 2–3] relapses, p = 0.008). In addition, nonsubstituted participants had more rule viola-tions than substituted participants (median 1 [1; 2]) vs. 2 [1; 3], p = 0.026, r = 0.298). Discussion: Although substituted participants in this study did not differ from the control group with regard to clinical parameters, such as length of stay, positive ef-fects of substitution therapy on the course of therapy in the correctional facility can still be derived. The subgroup studies of participants with rule violations and recidi-vism indicate that substitution therapy could have a positive effect on the course of therapy, especially with regard to the number of recidivism and rule violations. How-ever, further investigations are necessary here. (shrink)

How we perceive and react to the environment is not fixed; instead, it changes dynamically. This variability can be attributed to various factors operating at conscious and subconscious levels. Interoception, the processing of internal bodily signals such as heartbeats, has been found to modulate perception and action. However, the findings are partly inconsistent, and the underlying neural mechanisms are largely unclear. Sense of agency, the feeling of control over our actions and their outcomes, has also been found to shape our (...) actions. Nevertheless, whether and how changes in our sense of agency influence our capacity to regulate behavior flexibly are largely unknown. The present thesis investigates the effects of cardiac interoception and the sense of agency on visual perception and action regulation. It includes five studies with behavioral and electrophysiological data from healthy human participants. The Influence of Cardiac Interoception on Visual Perception (Study I and Study II) In Study I, we investigated the perceptual effects and electrophysiological mechanisms of cardio-visual integration by coupling the color change of a visual target with participants' heartbeats in dynamically changing displays. Participants' task was to identify the orientation of the visual target. We found that (i) reaction times increased when the target change coincided with strong cardiac signals (during systole), compared to when the target change occurred at a time when cardiac signals were relatively weak (during diastole); (ii) the co-occurrence of the target change and cardiac signals modulated the ERP amplitude and the beta power in an early period (~100 ms after stimulus onset), and decreased the lateralized N2pc amplitude and the lateralized beta power in a later period (~200 ms after stimulus onset). Our results suggest that the multisensory integration of anticipated cardiac signals with a visual target negatively affects its detection among multiple visual stimuli, potentially by suppressing sensory processing and reducing attention toward the visual target. In study II, we investigated the spontaneous shifts of attention between the internal and external environment across the cardiac cycle. Two groups of flickering dots moved continuously and changed direction dynamically within the same spatial location of the screen. However, only the direction change of one group of dots was coupled with participants' heartbeats. Participants' task was to detect a brief color change in the moving dots. We found that (i) compared to the visual dots whose direction change occurred randomly within the cardiac cycle, the dots coincided with strong cardiac signals (during systole) induced decreased SSVEP power, while the dots that coincided with weak cardiac signals (during diastole) induced increased SSVEP phase synchronization; (ii) the coupling of visual stimuli to the systole led to a larger HEP but a smaller N2 component evoked by the color change; (iii) the increase in HEP amplitude was related to the decrease in N2 amplitude. Our results suggest cardiac signals automatically redirect attention from external to internal domains. Both studies reveal the interplay between cardiac processing and visual processing and support the spontaneous shifts of attention between interoception and exteroception across the cardiac cycle. The Influence of Cardiac Interoception on Action Regulation (Study Ⅲ) In study Ⅲ, we investigated how cardiac signals influence response inhibition in a stop-signal task by coupling the occurrence of the stop signal with participants' heartbeats. The stop signal signified the cancellation of the prepotent motor response. We observed prolonged stop-signal reaction times, reduced stop-signal P3 amplitudes, and higher HEP amplitudes when the stop signal was presented during cardiac systole, compared to presentation randomly within the cardiac cycle. Furthermore, these effects were independent of the emotional attribute of the stop signal (emotional facial expression change or non-emotional color change). Our results suggest that the co-occurrence of the action-relevant external cue and cardiac signals makes it harder to cancel the prepotent motor behavior. This effect may be attributed to inhibited perceptual processes of the visual cue, heightened readiness for action, or impaired inhibitory control ability during systole. This study reveals the impact of cardiac signals on response inhibition and supports the attentional trade-off mechanism between interoception and exteroception. The Influence of Sense of Agency on Action Regulation (Study Ⅳ and Study Ⅴ) Both Study Ⅳ and Study Ⅴ investigated the effect of the sense of agency on subsequent action regulation by adopting modified go/no-go tasks. The first experiment of Study Ⅳ modulated participants' sense of agency by varying the occurrence of action outcomes (present vs. absent) both locally on a trial-by-trial basis and globally regarding the overall probability of action outcomes within a block of trials (high vs. low). When participants' previous action led to an outcome (i.e., a happy face) compared with no outcome, they responded more accurately and faster to go cues, reacted less accurately to no-go cues, and made go decisions more frequently and faster to free-choice cues. These effects were even stronger when action outcomes occurred more frequently in a given block or several previous trials. The second experiment of Study Ⅳ further demonstrated that the effects of outcome presence on subsequent action regulation were independent of the emotional valence of the action outcome (a happy or an angry face). Taken together, Study Ⅳ provides behavioral evidence that a higher sense of agency as induced by the presence of action outcomes enhanced action readiness and suppressed response inhibition. Study Ⅴ manipulated participants' sense of agency by varying the presence, predictability, and emotional valence of a visual outcome for a given motor action. Consistent with the results of Study Ⅳ, when participants unexpectedly did not receive any visible outcome following their action, they exhibited slower responses and lower hit rates to the subsequent go signal but higher rates of successful inhibition to the subsequent no-go signal, regardless of the emotional valence of the expected action outcome. Furthermore, enhanced inhibitory tendencies were accompanied by reduced N2 and P3 amplitudes, midfrontal theta power, and theta synchronization between midfrontal and medial-to-parietal areas, indicating that less top-down control is required for successful response inhibition after experiencing a low sense of agency. These findings suggest that feeling less in control in a preceding trial makes it easier to implement inhibitory control in the current trial. Both studies reveal the facilitatory effect of sense of agency on subsequent action readiness and its inhibitory effect on subsequent response inhibition, and they uncover how the automatic evaluation of action effectiveness shapes our ability to regulate actions flexibly. General Conclusions Overall, the present thesis suggests that fluctuations in internal bodily signals can influence perception and action, indicating a strong link between mind and body. Additionally, the effectiveness of motor action can shape subsequent action tendencies. These findings shed new light on the theory of embodied cognition. (shrink)

It is astonishing that we humans are able to have, act on and express moral beliefs. This dissertation aims to provide a better philosophical understanding of why and how this is possible especially when we assume metaethical expressivism. Metaethical expressivism is the combination of expressivism and noncognitivism. Expressivism is the view that the meaning of a sentence is explained by the mental state it is conventionally used to express. Noncognitivism is the view that the mental state expressed by a moral (...) sentence is a noncognitive, desire-like state. The central question of this dissertation is this: "How can metaethical expressivists explain that we are able to express moral beliefs?" The shortest answer this dissertation will give is the following: "by becoming `dispositional expressivists´." Dispositional expressivists hold that moral beliefs are dispositions to be in certain mental states that resemble desires. More precisely, a central thesis of this study is that to hold a moral belief is to be disposed to be in a desire-like, noncognitive state where this state has some specific structure. This dissertation arrives at and justifies this thesis by making a number of steps. It starts with preparing the ground by developing a general theory of what it is for a sentence to express a mental state. Roughly, this theory states that for a sentence to express a mental state is for that sentence to be conventionally used to perform a speech act which counts as sincere only if the user or speaker is in that mental state. This theory of expressing satisfies all the constraints that must be satisfied for it to be compatible with the purposes of metaethical expressivism. The next step is to provide a solution to the most notorious semantic problem confronting metaethical expressivism, the problem of explaining how sentences containing moral words can have compositional meaning and stand in logical relations also known as the Frege-Geach or embedding problem. Building on the research of Mark Schroeder, a new expressivist semantics, called `Attitude Semantics´, will be developed for a first-order language. The motivating idea underlying attitude semantics is that expressivists can avoid the problematic feature of so-called `biforcation´ if they treat the structures of the mental states expressed by moral sentences as well as that expressed by non-moral sentences as being isomorphic. In order to give those structures a philosophically interesting interpretation, it will be suggested that we treat sentences as expressing dispositional states. As a toy example we will treat the sentence `murder is wrong´ as expressing the disposition to be for blaming for murder. After dealing with the Frege-Geach problem, I turn to the metaethical expressivists' project of quasi-realism. Two major goals of this project are to explain how moral sentence can be truth-apt and how the states expressed by them can be regarded as moral beliefs. In order to establish those goals I critically examine a number of theories of truth-aptness by providing counterexamples to them. I then present my own theory which says that a sentence is truth-apt iff and because there is a conventional way to use it to express a belief. What is new about this theory is that it treats expressing a belief as being explanatorily more basic than being truth-apt. Belief, according to this theory, explains truth-aptness, not vice versa. This has the important consequence that it shows that what I call the `orthodox strategy´ of quasi-realists is mistaken and needs to be inverted: expressivists must `earn the right´ to moral belief before they can establish that moral sentences are truth-apt, and not the other way round. The second part of this dissertation is then concerned with the question of what it is to hold a moral belief and how they can figure in rational reasoning. In short: it is concerned with earning the right to moral belief. After discussing the major problems confronting a noncognitivist theory of belief, most importantly what I call the `tightrope problem´, I argue for a dispositional form of noncognitivism about moral belief that combines elements from Eric Schwitzgebel's dispositionalism about belief and Sebastian Köhler's `conceptual role expressivism´. This dispositional noncognitivism perfectly matches and justifies the dispositionalist interpretation of the expressivist semantics developed before. In order to fully earn the right to moral belief, however, metaethical expressivists must also deal with several epistemological objections concerning the rationality of moral belief. The first objection I deal with comes from Derek Baker and is directed against Mark Schroeder's specific development of expressivism. I deal with this objection because my own theory bears close resemblance to Schroeder's theory and so it might be worried that it confronts the same issues. Fortunately, we will see that Baker's objection rest on a number of mistaken assumptions and so neither applies to Schroeder's expressivism nor to the version which I defend in this study. The other epistemological objection to metaethical expressivism I deal with is Cian Dorr's famous wishful-thinking objection. In contrast to previous replies to this objection I attack it by directly questioning the central assumption on which it rests, namely that reasoners can never be justified in basing a factual belief on a desire-like state. I argue that this is false, and that under certain conditions reasoning from desire-like mental states to factual beliefs is justified. My argument shows that even if holding a moral belief is being in a desire-like noncognitive state, basing factual belief on a moral belief can give one an epistemic reason for the factual belief. Hence, even if moral thoughts are wishes, moral thinking is not wishful thinking. I take my arguments to earn the dispositional expressivist the right to moral belief. By the previously defended theory of truth-aptness in terms of belief, this allows the dispositional expressivists to conclude that moral sentences are also truth-apt. This finishes the quasi-realist project of this dissertation. In the last part of this dissertation I switch gears and present two unnoted problems for metaethical expressivists having to do with explaining moral motivation. Both arguments are surprisingly simple. The first one is this: if motivation requires a belief as well as a desire (Humeanism), and moral judgments motivate by themselves (internalism), then moral judgments cannot be desires only. If this argument is sound, it shows that the famous `motivation argument´ not only entails the falsity of cognitivism, but also the falsity of noncognitivism. The second argument is the following: moral judgments when combined with suitable external desires motivate to act (externalism), but if motivation requires belief as well as desire (Humeanism), then moral judgments cannot be desires only. I discuss several ways in which noncognitivists might want to deal with those problems, but leave it as an open question whether those solutions will ultimately be viable. Overall, this dissertation makes serious contributions to the research program of metaethical expressivism. It makes proposals for how to solve a number of notorious problems, such as the Frege-Geach problem in semantics and the wishful-thinking problem in epistemology. Besides this, however, it also raises two new problems for metaethical expressivism in the philosophy of action. For those reasons this dissertation will be of interest for anyone who wants to defend or criticize expressivism in metaethics, and more generally, anyone who wants to better understand our astonishing ability to express moral beliefs. (shrink)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) profoundly affects how people communicate, work, and perceive the world. While autonomous AI systems are the focal point in societal and academic discussions, advisory AI systems, which influence human decisions but don't undertake independent actions, often remain unexplored. Examples range from automated purchase recommendations to medical diagnoses. This dissertation seeks to understand what advisory AI systems truly are. Are they capable of autonomous, human-like action? Or can they be reduced to inert tools? And what happens when advisory (...) AI systems are closely linked with human perception, especially through Augmented Reality and sensory augmentation? Does their ontological status change? This dissertation concludes that, regardless of their implementation, advisory AI systems occupy an ontological status between tools and humans. They are more than just tools but less than humans. (shrink)

The smartphone has become an important personal companion in our daily lives. Each time we use the device, we generate data that provides information about ourselves. This data, in turn, is valuable to science because it objectively reflects our everyday behavior and experiences. In this way, smartphones enable research that is closer to everyday life than traditional laboratory experiments and questionnaire-based methods. While data collected with smartphones are increasingly being used in the field of personality psychology, new digital technologies can (...) also be leveraged to collect and analyze large-scale unobtrusively sensed data in other areas of psychological research. This dissertation, therefore, explores the insights that smartphone sensing reveals for psychological research using two examples, situation and affect research, making a twofold research contribution. First, in two empirical studies, different data types of smartphone-sensed data, such as GPS or phone data, were combined with experience-sampled self-report, and classical questionnaire data to gain valuable insights into individual behavior, thinking, and feeling in everyday life. Second, predictive modeling techniques were applied to analyze the large, high-dimensional data sets collected by smartphones. To gain a deeper understanding of the smartphone data, interpretable variables were extracted from the raw sensing data, and the predictive performance of various machine learning algorithms was compared. In summary, the empirical findings suggest that smartphone data can effectively capture certain situational and behavioral indicators of psychological phenomena in everyday life. However, in certain research areas such as affect research, smartphone data should only complement, but not completely replace, traditional questionnaire-based data as well as other data sources such as neurophysiological indicators. The dissertation also concludes that the use of smartphone sensor data introduces new difficulties and challenges for psychological research and that traditional methods and perspectives are reaching their limits. The complexity of data collection, processing, and analysis requires established guidelines for study design, interdisciplinary collaboration, and theory-driven research that integrates explanatory and predictive approaches. Accordingly, further research is needed on how machine learning models and other big data methods in psychology can be reconciled with traditional theoretical approaches. Only in this way can we move closer to the ultimate goal of psychology to better understand, explain, and predict human behavior and experiences and their interplay with everyday situations. (shrink)

The main goal of this dissertation is to provide a solid foundation for a formalization of Inference to the Best Explanation (IBE). This foundation consists of three major components. First, an intuitively adequate and formally precise model of causal explanation. Secondly, an intuitively adequate and formally precise measure of (causal) explanatory power. And third, an intuitively adequate and formally precise criterion of proportionality that is able to identify the most appropriate level of specificity for a causal explanation. While the first (...) component makes it possible to generate and identify causal explanations reliably, the second and third components make it possible to evaluate the strength or quality of causal explanations, which is crucial for identifying the best of a set of competing causal explanations. (shrink)

Technologies become increasingly present in people’s daily lives and oftentimes adopt the role of social counterparts. People have conversations with their smart voice assistants and social robots assist with the household or even look after their users’ mental and physical health. Thus, the human-technology relationship often resembles interpersonal relationships in several ways. While research has implied that the human-technology relationship can adopt a social character, it needs to be clarified in what ways and regarding which variables the human-technology relationship and (...) interpersonal relationships are comparable. Moreover, the question arises to what extent interaction with technology can address users’ social needs similar to a human counterpart and therefore possibly even affect interpersonal interaction. In this, the role of technology anthropomorphism, that is, the attribution of humanlike qualities to non-human agents or objects needs to be specified. This thesis is dedicated to the relevance of the human-technology relationship for interpersonal relationships with a focus on social needs. In the frame of this overarching research aim, the studies included in this thesis focus on the dynamics of the human-technology relationship and their comparability to interpersonal relationships (RQ1), the potential of human-technology interaction to address users’ social needs or substitute their fulfillment through interpersonal interaction (RQ2) as well as the role of technology anthropomorphism regarding these relationships (RQ3). First, focusing on trust, which is integral for the relationship with a technology that is experienced as a counterpart, two consecutive experimental studies (study 1.1/1.2) were conducted. Based on a human-robot interaction, they explored trust development in the human-technology relationship as well as to what extent determinants known to affect interpersonal trust development are transferable. Moreover, they focused on the role of technology anthropomorphism in this relationship. In this, a positive effect of technology competence, that is, its ability to achieve intended goals (study 1.1), as well as technology warmth, that is, its adherence to the same intentions and interests as the trustor (study 1.2), on trust in the technology emerged. Thus, relevant determinants for trust development in the human-technology relationship were highlighted, also implying a transferability of essential dynamics of trust development from interpersonal relationships. Furthermore, perceived technology anthropomorphism appeared to affect the positive interrelation of perceived technology competence and trust in the technology (study 1.1) as well as the interrelation of perceived technology warmth and trust in the technology (study 1.2). These insights support a relevance of perceived technology anthropomorphism in trust dynamics within the human-technology relationship, but also in the transferability of corresponding dynamics from interpersonal relationships. Similarly, in another study (study 2) the transferability of dynamics was explored for the variable of social connectedness, also key for relationship development and potentially relevant for the effect of interaction with technology on users’ social needs. Therefore, a two-week human-technology interaction with a conversational chatbot was investigated. In this, possibly relevant characteristics of the technology, such as its perception as anthropomorphic or socially present, and the user, for example, the individual tendency to anthropomorphize or the individual need to belong, were focused. Moreover, a possible effect of social connectedness to the technology on the desire to socialize with other humans was explored. As findings showed that duration and intensity of participants' interaction with the technology throughout the two-week study-period positively predicted felt social connectedness to the technology, similarities to dynamics of interpersonal relationship development were highlighted. Furthermore, the relevance of technology anthropomorphism in the development of a human-technology relationship as well as its comparability to dynamics of interpersonal relationships was underlined. Namely, the more intense individuals interacted with the technology, the more anthropomorphic they perceived it, and therefore felt more socially connected to it. Similarly, the longer and more intense individuals interacted with the technology, the more socially present they perceived it, and in turn felt more socially connected to it. While contrary to expectations, no interrelation between the felt social connectedness to the technology and the desire to socialize with other humans emerged, this relationship was explored further within studies 3.1, 3.2 and 4. Two consecutive experimental studies (study 3.1/3.2) explored the potential of anthropomorphic technologies to fulfill social needs as well as how individually perceived anthropomorphism correlates to these needs. While in both studies social exclusion and technology anthropomorphism were manipulated, we applied a different manipulation of anthropomorphism for each study. Whereas in one study (study 3.1) participants answered anthropomorphic (vs. non-anthropomorphic) questions regarding their own smartphone, in the other study (study 3.2) they were confronted with smartphone designs with anthropomorphic (vs. non-anthropomorphic) design cues. In both studies, no effects of anthropomorphism and social exclusion on behavioral intention or willingness to socialize were found. Yet, study 3.1 showed a positive correlation between willingness to socialize and perceived technology anthropomorphism. Results of study 3.2 further supported this relationship and additionally showed that this relationship was particularly strong for individuals with a high tendency to anthropomorphize, when the technology came with anthropomorphic design cues regarding its appearance. Thus, findings imply a relationship between social needs and anthropomorphism and further hint at a relevance of individual and contextual strengthening factors. To complement these findings and foster a deeper understanding of the human-technology relationship as well as its potential to address users’ social needs, a qualitative interview study was conducted (study 4). Findings highlight a potential of anthropomorphic technologies to address users’ social needs in certain ways, but also underline essential differences between the quality of human-technology interaction and interpersonal interaction. Examples are the technology’s missing reactions in interaction with the user on a content, physical, and emotional level as well as the absence of satisfaction of users’ social needs through interaction with technology. Additionally, insights hint at a social desirability bias, as interaction with technology that resembles interpersonal interaction appears to often be subject to rather negative reactions by third parties. After an overview of the empirical studies included in this thesis and their brief summaries, their research contribution is discussed. This is followed by an elaboration of overall theoretical and practical implications of this thesis. Theoretical implications focus on how this work contributes to but also extends theoretical and empirical work in the frame of the “computers are social actors” paradigm and particularly highlights the role of technology anthropomorphism as a phenomenon in this regard. Beyond the exploration of a social character of the human-technology relationship, this thesis offers insights on the potential of the human-technology relationship to address users’ social needs to an extent that interpersonal relationships can be affected. Implications for practitioners involve insights on design examples to support the development of essential determinants of the human-technology relationship. They also offer a more abstract invitation to reflect on the design and application contexts of technologies to foster a responsible handling with technology in peoples’ daily lives. Finally, the thesis concludes with a discussion of general limitations and directions for future research. (shrink)

Successful compensation is key to successful rehabilitation of patients with neuropsychological disorders. But what exactly do we mean by “successful compensation”? In this thesis I wish to address this question by examining compensation strategies of two different patients. First, I will characterize in detail the autonomous form of compensation developed by a patient who learned to live independently despite suffering from a severe form of amnesia. I will argue that this case can teach us important lessons about the possibilities, preconditions (...) but also the limitations inherent to supporting patients in conquering the everyday challenges posed by impaired memory. Second, I will examine one specific treatment approach and its potential to help patients compensate for their neuropsychological deficits and their psychiatric sequelae. This study focuses on a patient with panic disorder and neuropsychological deficits in emotional experience and emotion perception after amygdalohippocampectomy. She was treated with an individualized form of cognitive behavioural therapy. This second case will inform us about the preconditions and promise of the use of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for the treatment of psychological problems emerging in the context of neurological conditions. These case reports help to understand how behavioural, psychological, and psychiatric factors after brain injury influence rehabilitation strategies and to identify important factors for successful rehabilitation outcome. (shrink)

The study of social, ethical, and political issues from a naturalistic perspective has been pervasive in social sciences and the humanities in the last decades. This articulation of empirical research with philosophical and normative reflection is increasingly getting attention in academic circles and the public spheres, given the prevalence of urgent needs and challenges that society is facing on a global scale. The contemporary world is full of challenges or what some philosophers have called ‘existential risks’ to humanity. Nuclear wars, (...) natural and/or engineered pandemics, climate change, global totalitarianism, and emergent technologies, are some of the challenges mentioned by many authors devoted to the study of long-term potential risks for the survival of the human species. However, while there are many reasons to be a pessimist about the future of humanity, there is also a lot of ink wasted in showing that the world today is far better than we had in the past and also that there have been many instances of social and moral progress in the last centuries. Some authors have even claimed that “we have made more progress over the last 100 years than in the first 100,000”. According to ‘our world in data’, some of the most relevant advances of humanity in the last centuries have to do with the reduction of poverty and/or inequality, better health and security, the decline of violence and war, and the development of democracy and institutional mechanisms to guarantee individual freedom and rights. Yet, there is a more concrete concern that our world faces nowadays, and requires a particularly detailed analysis. In a few words, the advance in information and communication technologies, the huge volume of people migration because of prevalent instances of global inequality, and the reality of an interconnected world that just mirrors an extensive history of massive human intergroup relations open the question about the feasibility of social and moral progress in the contexts of diverse, multicultural, and unequal societies. This makes it crucial to reflect not only on whether human societies may keep advancing on a path of social progress, but how this can be achieved by addressing the challenges of inequality and potential intergroup conflict. This concern closely relates to the further consolidation of democratic values and the achievement of a more generalized consideration of the equal moral value of human individuals far from group, ethnic, or collective distinctions. This vision of progress follows the moral convictions that have been considered right and worthy to be pursued by most ethical theories explored by philosophers and social scientists so far. This work aims to contribute to the study of the mechanisms and feasibility of social and moral progress grounded on the precept of human equality and is guided by the idea that social and moral progress in a plural world requires the accomplishment of a more democratic and tolerant society. These forms of progress have already been defined by philosophers Allen Buchanan and Russel Powell as inclusivist forms of moral progress. According to these authors, inclusivist moral progress is featured by the transformation of moral judgments, motivations, and norms guided by the rejection of “group-based restrictions on moral standing and moral status” (2018). The work of Buchanan and Powell is fundamental for the argumentation developed in this work since they have pioneered a more complex debate in the field of evolutionary social sciences and philosophical anthropology. In brief, these authors have inquired how human nature, conceptualized by the advances in evolutionary thinking and the empirical sciences, is related to our moral convictions and the possibilities that we have to establish certain forms of social and moral progress. The work of Buchanan and Powell contributes to the debate on moral progress by incorporating empirically-informed concepts and arguments. With this objective in mind, they develop their discussion around a generalized tension between exclusivist and inclusivist forms of moral progress. This tension revolves around the question of whether and to what extent human moral concerns, motivations, and norms, are limited or bounded by social identities, group thinking, or collective values. This question is at the center of this work. In other words, I aim to answer whether and to what extent the nature of our social and moral cognition hinders or enables the development of inclusivist forms of morality and moral progress. As I mentioned so far, the distinction between exclusivist and inclusivist forms of morality has a practical implication and facilitates the reflection on the mechanisms and feasibility of concrete forms of progress based on the precept of human equality, which is the road to progress that we should follow according to most ethical theories. The distinction between exclusivist and inclusivist morality is not used here as a form of summarizing highly divergent descriptive approaches to morality, but as a way to address the practical implications of morality research, particularly around the question of the feasibility of social forms of progress based on the precept of equality and tolerance. My objective then has less to do with offering a conceptualization of human morality or with the proposition of a new ethical perspective. Instead, I aim to identify, from an empirically informed perspective, what enables the achievement of egalitarian forms of social progress, to subsequently offer a normative reflection about what we should do if we want to accomplish such inclusivist forms of progress. This task is of great relevance, having in mind that some theoretical proposals on the matter have claimed that human prosocial behavior and morality are constrained by exclusivist fixed tendencies as a product of our evolutionary history. According to these views, human morality is a group-centered cognitive and behavioral expression that has severe limits in its scope and extent, which hinders in the end the emergence of inclusivist forms of moral concerns and behaviors. These claims align with the philosophical intuition about the ‘dissociation of empathy’, or the fact that human individuals tend to express empathy and sympathy preferably for members of their group whereas their empathic and moral concern and recognition for outgroup individuals tend to be reduced or eliminated in real-life social interactions. Multiple theorists have expressed, however, that these assumptions are wrong for empirical and philosophical reasons, which results in a serious challenge to the conception of human morality as exclusivist by nature. Furthermore, simple intuition and practical experience constantly show us that human individuals can develop and endorse a broad spectrum of moral considerations and adopt an arguably inclusivist stance concerning the kind of persons or agents that deserve moral concern. Moreover, and adopting a historical perspective, the expansion of cultural and commercial exchanges, the consolidation of democracy, the development of welfare states, or the emergence of institutions based on the concept of universal human rights, have partially driven human progress based on the impartial concern for the well-being of persons. These historical instances of cultural evolution and institutional design have shown that it is feasible to promote behaviors and attitudes grounded in impersonal prosocial and inclusivist principles. This optimistic perspective, however, still begs the question of the exact relationship between social, cultural, and historical contexts, and the emergence of certain behavioral expressions of inclusivist morality. This is crucial since a great number of human individuals around the world still do not make part of these instances of social progress, and some authors have suggested that such instances of social and moral progress are particularly favored by the contexts of the WEIRD world, that is the world of Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic societies. Some of these approaches consider moral inclusivity a ‘luxury good’ and follow the ‘dependency thesis’ according to which the expression of moral inclusivity depends on the presence of very concrete material conditions that trigger inclusivist and impersonal prosocial tendencies that human beings are not able to express in threatening contexts without physical security. This thesis is problematic for various reasons and has led to incomplete explanations about the enabling and causal factors of inclusivist moral progress, as well as unsatisfactory suggestions about what we should do to foster the accomplishment of more generalized instances of progress based on inclusivist concerns. In an attempt to contribute to this debate, the main objective of this thesis is to offer an alternative proposal about the nature of human morality and a more detailed reflection on what we should do if we want to further accomplish such instances of progress. More precisely, this work adopts a particular developmental and constructivist vision of human morality to answer the question of how feasible it is to reach generalized forms of social progress based on the precepts of moral inclusivity. Furthermore, it offers some ideas about what are the most adequate and favorable conditions to foster such progress both at the individual and the collective level. At this point, a preliminary clarification of some starting points is necessary. In the first place, and contrary to what other authors have proposed when debating moral progress from an empirically-based approach, my perspective adopts a radical developmental and constructivist perspective, following particularly the conceptual and empirical ideas of the social-domain theory in moral psychology. From this perspective, morality is a domain of normative and social knowledge that develops and emerges in human interactions. Moral concerns, judgments, and norms are not only the result of the expression of innate adaptive intuitions, nor the product of social conformity and a simple process of mirroring the normativity that communities have established to organize their social life. Human individuals, instead, construct moral concerns and judgments during their situated interactions. More specifically, the constructivist tradition claims that we need to research how moral concerns, judgments, and reasons emerge in social interactions and how human beings construct the content of their moral knowledge in the first place. Based on these ideas, morality is defined here as the result of a constructive process through which human individuals, by the means of constant interactions on a background of mutual respect and recognition, develop evaluative concerns about how we ought to treat others, and how to ‘care’ and ‘respect’ others’ well-being, needs, and vulnerabilities. This developmental-constructivist theory of human psychology contributes to an alternative understanding of the origins of moral variability and informs a very particular normative stance about the most desirable contexts needed for the urgent accomplishment of inclusivist forms of morality in contemporary societies. This is so given that the very same definition of morality adopted presupposes the feature of inclusivity. The main objective of this work is then to argue, based on a developmental perspective, what are the most favorable conditions to foster the development of moral inclusivity and what we should do to accomplish concrete instances of moral progress that truly help us to overcome our most urgent moral challenges. The whole thesis is organized as follows. In part I, I show how received visions about human social evolution have informed conceptions of morality as an adaptive function evolved to solve the challenges of cooperative life. Based on these assumptions, some theories argue that human morality is limited by the boundaries of group thinking, and always obeys the mandates of collective interests and the will of the majority. However, this conception has problematic implications from a normative and ethical perspective. The aim of Chapter 1 is to present this introductory debate in detail. In chapter 2, I consider a relevant amount of scientific evidence that helps to consolidate a more optimistic and inclusivist perspective about the starting conditions of human prosocial behavior. Later, I will summarize some ideas offered to explain the possible evolutionary mechanisms that led to the consolidation of these inclusivist capacities. However, I will also show how evolutionary theories that share the same adaptationist foundations but initially seem relevant to explain the feasibility of moral inclusivity, result incomplete when considering the complexity of moral behavior and its ethical implications. Part II is devoted to presenting a developmental alternative to the adaptationist versions around the starting conditions of morality. In this section, I first summarize the epistemological, conceptual, and empirical basis of a constructivist perspective already proposed by several authors in the last decades. This is the goal of chapter 3. More precisely, I adopt the conceptualization of morality established by the social-domain theory school and clarify its conception of the situated development of moral concerns, motivations, and norms. All these ideas are essential for my argumentation on the feasibility of inclusivist moral progress offered later. Chapter 4 provides a more detailed idea of constructivist thinking about moral development, by analyzing one particular dimension: the development of moral concerns for fairness and the sense of justice in distributive dilemmas. In Part III, I assume a constructivist perspective on morality to contribute to the philosophy of moral progress. In particular, I discuss the implications of such a perspective for the conceptualization of human moral nature and discuss what are the most favorable conditions for moral inclusivity to emerge. Answering that question is of enormous relevance since favoring the transition of human societies towards more inclusivist forms of moral concern and behavior supposes a more generalized accomplishment of our most urgent moral convictions. Previous developmental or culturally-sensible attempts to explore this issue are already on the market. As mentioned before, most authors have approached the topic by situating the cultural evolution and development of (inclusivist) moral progress in the WEIRD world. For instance, some of these authors claim that very concrete material conditions (mostly present in the Western World) have been necessary for triggering inclusivist and impersonal prosocial tendencies that human beings are not able to express in threatening contexts without physical security. Despite their interest in explaining inclusivist morality and the feasibility of inclusivist forms of progress following a naturalistic and culturally situated approach, these theories are problematic for two main reasons. In the first place, most of the authors that explain moral progress tend to focus exclusively on the consolidation of liberal values in the Western world and the underlying adoption of laws, social-epistemic practices, and public narratives about tolerance and inclusivity, as unequivocal signs of inclusivist morality. Nevertheless, there is an enormous distance between the institutional and public support of inclusivist moral values or the construction of public images of tolerance and inclusivity, and the real materialization of impersonal moralities in situated social interactions. Secondly, the variability of human moral behavior is far bigger than most of the theories in moral psychology and moral progress tend to assume. Accordingly, inclusivist and exclusivist forms of morality may develop simultaneously in similar or divergent geographical and socio-ecological environments, including those with harsh conditions such as competition for scarce resources, potential intergroup conflict, and risks of disease transmission. In addition, harsh environmental conditions are usually present in almost all societies around the globe, and the presence of socio-ecological conditions such as physical security and prosperity, predominant in highly resourced populations, do not prevent the existence of exclusivist moral tendencies. My model explores a different perspective on the relationships between cultural, institutional, and historical factors, and the situated development of human morality. This supposes a clear distinction from previous approaches to the matter since it offers a different view on what we should do to pursue further instances of inclusivist social progress. In the fifth chapter, I first analyze the proposals of some defenders of the ‘dependency’ theory. The attention is focused on the ‘Evolutionary Developmental Model’ proposed by Buchanan and Powell (2018). Based on a critique of this approach, I will argue that to explain the evolution and development of human morality in its multiple manifestations, it is essential to put focus on social interactions. This also involves a different perspective on human-environment relations that in line with a constructivist worldview makes an innovative contribution to the philosophy of moral behavior and moral progress. Later, in the sixth chapter, I will define my alternative relational view of inclusivist morality and I will offer my view on how to establish favorable conditions that make inclusivist morality possible. Complementing the constructivist approach, my conception is based on the essential role of equality and individuality and on how moral inclusivity is favored if moral concerns do not develop driven by the accomplishment of group-centered, binding, and communitarian concerns and values. In brief, my relational model suggests that the accomplishment of moral inclusivity not only depends on the overall achievement of certain levels of physical security or economic prosperity. Instead, its development is favored by transforming the interactional contexts in which moral concerns towards autonomy and individuality emerge. In arguing so, I will need to start with a critique of contemporary situated and embodied approaches in ethics. Then, I will show how societies guided by the accomplishment of group-centered values of power, dominance, and relational inequality tend to express exclusivist moral behaviors, while individualistic societies tend to be more inclusivist. Starting from this diagnosis, my final attempt is then to reflect on which are the best conditions for the moral valuation of individuality to emerge and what we should do to promote the accomplishment of moral inclusivity at the societal level. (shrink)

Pace the ancient Philosopher Plato’s believe, to know good, means to do good. Current empirical research has found a gap between moral judgment and behavior, though (Blake, 2018; Smith et al., 2013). The moral self-concept (MSC) is seen as a bridge between this moral judgment-behavior gap (Blasi, 1983; Hardy & Carlo, 2011). Yet, little is known about its early development and internal dimensions or stability. The present thesis investigates the development of the MSC in early to middle childhood. It contains (...) explicit and implicit interviews and behavioral observations that assess the MSC and prosocial behaviors in child appropriate manners. In the first chapter, I will introduce relevant concepts and theories, and give an overview of how the self-concept and prosocial behaviors develop. I will turn to the question of why it is that children act prosocially, and what psychological mechanisms contribute to development of prosocial behaviors. To address these questions, I introduce broader theories of moral development and relevant conceptualizations. In particular, a rationalist, nativist and constructivist view are explained and discussed. As studies on the early MSC are few and far between, studies from other domains of the self-concept can help to predict the structure and development of the MSC. Previous research on the early MSC does not allow conclusions about the independence of the MSC from other self-concept domains, as previous research has not assessed the MSC in relation to other self-concept domains. Furthermore, research does not provide sufficient data about the invariance of the MSC. In relation to prosocial behaviors, I discuss different trajectories: According to the self-perception approach (Bem, 1972), the self-concept forms as a consequence of own behavior. According to the self-consistency approach (Blasi, 1983), the self-concept impacts own behavior. According to the reciprocal model (Marsh & Craven, 2006; Marsh, Trautwein, et al., 2005), the self-concept and behavior impact each other. In this thesis, I aim to investigate four questions: How does the MSC relate to other self-concept domains? Research on this questions is important in order to gain knowledge about the (in-)dependence of the MSC. What is the internal structure of the MSC? As prosocial behaviors are suggested to be three-fold (Dunfield, 2014; Paulus, 2018) and the self-concept should relate to behavior, the MSC should be three-fold as well. How stable is the MSC in early childhood? Research on other self-concept domains suggests moderate to low stability of self-concepts in early childhood. This stability and invariance need to be investigated for the MSC as well. Lastly, I will address the question, of how the MSC relates to prosocial behavior. I aim to investigate the early MSC as a piece of the puzzle that can meaningfully relate to prosocial behavior. Thus, we get closer to bridging the gap between judgment and behavior. Study one investigated the structure of the MSC and its relation to prosocial behavior in a cross-sectional sample. It aimed to answer the question if 1) the MSC differs from other self-concept domains, 2) it resembles the structure of prosocial behavior and 3) it relates to prosocial behavior meaningfully. To test these questions, I invited 127 four- to six-year-old children (study 1.1). The children responded to a puppet-interview covering domains including the physical, verbal and moral self-concept. The items concerning the MSC contained helping, sharing and comforting. Besides the explicit measure, children participated in an implicit association task (IAT), which assessed their association between good vs. bad and self vs. other. Furthermore, children were observed in situations in which they could help, share and comfort. An exploratory factor analyses revealed that 1) the MSC is separate from the other self-concept domains; 2) the MSC was divided into the three areas of sharing, comforting and helping. A regression analysis revealed that 3) the explicit and not implicit MSC related meaningfully to sharing and comforting behavior, but not helping behavior. Study 1.2 confirmed the result from question 2) with a confirmatory factor analysis with a separate sample (N = 314). The results are in line with the hierarchical, multidimensional model of self-concept. Open questions remain: how stable is the MSC in early childhood? I aimed to answer this question in study two. Furthermore, I showed meaningful relations between prosocial behaviors and MSC, yet the direction of its relation remained unclear. I aimed to address this question in study three. In study two, the focus was the development of the MSC. I investigated the structure of the MSC by conducting a confirmatory factor analysis for a three-dimensional model, testing its invariance, reliability and correlational structure over time. To do so, I conducted a longitudinal study with measurements 18 and 21 months after the first measurement. The 133 children of the sample were aged between four and six years at the first measurement. I assessed the MSC via a puppet-interview. The results showed a stable three-dimensional MSC, containing the dimensions helping, sharing and comforting. This underscores the stability of the early MSC and the measure. In study three, I investigated the developmental relations between the early MSC and prosocial behaviors. In particular, I aimed to show that the constructs are stable across time and that they related to each other. I expected that prosocial behaviors would predict subsequent MSC from the first to the second measurement (self-perception). Then, once the MSC has formed, the MSC would predict subsequent behavior (self-consistency). A cross-lagged panel analysis was conducted on the same sample as the previous studies, as the participants also partook in prosocial situations during each measurement. Results showed moderate stability of the MSC dimensions and prosocial behaviors. Contrary to our hypothesis, self-perception effects became only marginally significant, but sharing MSC at the second measurement predicted sharing behavior at the third measurement. The study shows how stable individual differences in prosocial behavior and MSC are, already in early childhood. Furthermore, these results support the self-consistency approach. I discuss the results in relation to the rationalist, nativist and constructivist approach. The results support the understanding of children as active agents, which is in line with the social-cognitive constructivist approach. Moreover, the results support the direction of self-consistency in relation to MSC and prosocial behaviors, which is a further sign that the MSC develops and stabilizes in early childhood. (shrink)

Everyday human life is characterized by social interactions, for which understanding and anticipating others’ actions play a crucial role. Furthermore, planning one’s movements in an anticipatory manner allows for acting smoothly and efficiently by avoiding time-consuming corrective movements. This thesis aimed to investigate how prospective processing of others’ actions as well as of children’s own actions develops over early childhood. One key focus was to examine the prospective processing of actions of varying degrees of complexity. Four empirical studies were conducted (...) to expand our understanding of this topic by focusing on the following three aspects. First, Study 1 examined two possible mechanisms underlying children’s visual anticipations (as a key measure of prospective action understanding) during perceiving others’ simple actions. It aimed at answering the question of whether simulation theories or lower-level perceptual mechanisms account for children’s visual anticipations of others’ simple grasping actions. Three-year-olds’, 4-year-olds’, 10-year olds’, and adults’ (N = 98) prospective action processing was assessed by their anticipatory gaze shifts within an eye-tracking study. Participants observed a hand reaching for one out of two objects while the motor kinematics of the reaching hand varied depending on whether it reached for a close or far object. Results revealed that none of the children age groups used the motor kinematics to correctly visually anticipate the target object. Instead, they showed a looking bias to the close object. This indicates that lower-level perceptual mechanisms (following the general movement of the reaching hand and being attracted by a salient object) and not motor simulation (matching the observed action onto their own motor repertoire) accounted for children’s visual anticipations of simple other’s simple grasping movements. Second, the roles of automatic and controlled processes for children’s prospective processing of others’ actions as well as for their prospective action planning were examined. The results of Study 1 mentioned above indicated that children’s visual anticipations were triggered rather automatically. The second experiment of Study 1 assessed participants’ (N = 80) verbal predictions of the grasping actions described above. It turned out that 10-year-olds used kinematic cues to verbally predict the action target and that 4-year-olds learned to do so over the trials, whereas neither of the age groups correctly visually anticipated the action in the first experiment. These findings suggest that a more sophisticated understanding of other’s actions might initially require explicit, controlled processing of the situation. This conflicts with the predominant view in developmental psychology that children show an implicit understanding of others’ actions before showing an explicit understanding later in ontogeny. Furthermore, Study 2 examined the role of automatic and controlled processes for children’s prospective action planning in a large sample (N = 246) of 2- to 14-year-old children and adults. Two conceptually different object manipulation tasks were assessed to investigate whether anticipatory movement planning develops as general capacity and to what extent participants rely on the habitual use of the object or plan their grasping movement in a controlled manner. The results suggest that anticipatory movement planning might develop as a general capacity. Furthermore, the findings are indicative of an increase of controlled processes for prospective action planning in early childhood, while the developmental pattern of the interplay of automatic and controlled processes was task-specific. In sum, Study 2 highlights the developmental dynamics of the interplay of habitual and controlled processes in children’s own prospective action planning. Third, Study 3a and 3b examined in more detail how the ability to prospectively process hierarchical actions develops in early childhood and whether it is related to children’s processing of hierarchical structures in the language domain. In Study 3a, 3- to 6-year olds and adults (N = 111) were asked to verbally predict actions that required a means (sub-action) to achieve an actor’s stated overarching goal. This task also served as one out of three complex action tasks in Study 3b, which investigated 3- to 6-year-old children’s (N = 130) hierarchical structure processing across the action and language domain. Overall, the results suggest that children’s ability to predict hierarchical actions increases over early childhood (Study 3a, 3b). Furthermore, Study 3b indicates that the processing of hierarchical structures might develop as a domain-general capacity and highlights the role of working memory for hierarchical structure processing. Taken together, this thesis contributes to research on how young children prospectively understand others’ actions and how they prospectively plan their own actions. First, it provides evidence that low-level perceptual mechanisms rather than motor simulation account for young children’s visual anticipations of simple grasping actions (Study 1). Second, it points to substantial developments of controlled prospective processing over early childhood, which is supposed to be essential for processing more complex situations and actions (Study 1, 2, 3a, 3b). Lastly, children’s development of prospectively processing hierarchical action and language structures seems related and might be explained by working memory (Study 3b). (shrink)

Emotions are an essential aspect of human life. They help us to evaluate the importance of an event, to act quickly in a variety of situations, and to communicate with others in social interactions. However, the intensity or duration of emotional responses may not always be adaptive in a given situation or social context. Thus, the ability to regulate emotions is crucial for ones’ well-being, mental health, and socio-emotional functioning. A vast body of literature has emphasized the role of the (...) social environment in children’s development of emotion regulation. Theoretical accounts have emphasized the significance of experiences within caregiving relationships that contribute considerably to the development of (mal-) adaptive emotion regulation (Cassidy, 1994; Kopp, 1989; Sroufe, 1996a). The current thesis focused on attachment security (Ainsworth et al., 1974; Bowlby, 1969/82; Cassidy, 1994) and maternal emotional availability (Biringen, 2008; Biringen et al., 2014) as two key aspects of caregiver–child relationship quality that support children’s development of adaptive emotion regulation. Despite a large body of research on child emotion regulation, not all stages of emotion regulation have been addressed equally in young children. The stage of attentional regulation is particularly interesting as attentional distraction is one of the earliest regulation strategies that emerge. Yet, only few studies have investigated young children’s attentional regulation in response to facial expressions. Furthermore, the stage of behavioral regulation is particularly important in difficult social interactions with others. However, young children’s behavioral regulation in frustrating situations has so far not been researched in cooperative interactions with others. Considering the importance of the domain of emotional development for later developmental outcomes, the current thesis focused on the role of attachment and maternal emotional availability for young children’s attentional and behavioral regulation. For that purpose, three studies were conducted, focusing on two age groups, that is, preschool and toddler period. The first study investigated the relation of attachment security and attentional regulation in preschoolers. In particular, the study examined the relation between preschoolers’ attachment security and their visual attention to facial emotional expressions. To this end, 5-year-olds’ generalized attachment representations and their attention duration to pictures of negative and positive facial expressions were assessed. Results revealed that secure attachment was related to prolonged attention to fearful, sad, and neutral facial expressions. The study supports the notion that attachment security plays a significant role in young children’s attention to emotional information. The second study investigated the relation of maternal emotional availability and attentional regulation in toddlers. In particular, the study examined the reciprocal relations of maternal sensitivity and non-intrusiveness and children’s visual attention to emotional facial expressions. To this end, mothers’ behavior was observed in play interactions and children’s attention to negative and positive facial expressions were assessed at 12 and 24 months. Cross-lagged panel analyses revealed that more sensitive behavior at 12 months predicted prolonged attention to sad and happy expressions at 24 months, while less intrusive caregiving at 12 months predicted prolonged attention to sad expressions at 24 months. Concurrent maternal emotional availability had no effect on toddlers’ attentional regulation. The study supports the notion that maternal sensitive behavior plays a significant role in young children’s attention to emotional information. The third study investigated the relation of maternal emotional availability and behavioral regulation in toddlers. In particular, the study examined whether maternal sensitivity and non-intrusiveness contribute to children’s behavior in difficult cooperative interactions beyond child cognitive skills and temperament. To this end, mothers’ sensitivity and non-intrusiveness were observed in play interactions and children’s behavior to interruptions in two difficult cooperative interactions was assessed at 24 months. Results revealed that maternal intrusiveness was related to child disengagement from the task and approach to the mother. Yet, active help seeking was predicted only by toddler cognitive skills, while reengagement of the experimenter was predicted neither by maternal nor by child characteristics. The study supports the notion that maternal behavior plays a significant role in young children’s use of specific behavioral strategies in frustrating situations. Overall, the current thesis supports specific relations of caregiver–child relationship aspects and young children’s attentional and behavioral regulation. In the preschool period and the toddler period, attachment security (Study 1) and maternal emotional availability (Study 2) are related to children’s attention to emotional facial expressions. Yet, effects are more pronounced in relation to negative emotions and for influences of attachment security and sensitivity. Furthermore, in the toddler period, dimensions of maternal emotional availability contribute differently to the development of attentional and behavioral regulation strategies. While sensitive caregiving is an important factor in toddlers’ attention to positive and negative emotions, intrusive caregiving plays a crucial role for toddlers’ attentional avoidance of negative emotions and for their behavioral disengagement form difficult interactions. In conclusion, the current thesis contributes to a better understanding of the role of caregiver–child relationship quality in young children’s emotion regulation and provides implications for research on child socioemotional development. (shrink)

In this dissertation, I took sides with virtue ethicists and argued that virtue is possible despite the mounting empirical evidence of how situational features impact human behavior. The main innovation I bring into the character debate is the idea that humans are creatures with various species-specific and socio-cultural constraints, and that this dimension should be integrated into theorizing about virtue. To do this, I extended and refined the concept of human limitations, to encompass not only natural disasters, as Aristotle did (...) it, but also contain psychological and socio-cultural elements that impose limits to the way we see the social world and navigate it. Respectively, so was my argument, the idea of virtue should be refined as well, as an aspiration of creatures like us, and not those of heroes with a divine power or even half-gods. In a nutshell, I proposed to rethink three core concepts: moral failure, human limitations, and moral virtues. (shrink)

Conceptualization of mental disorders and changes in their diagnostic criteria have been present in research and practice for a long time. Recently, network analysis has been suggested as an alternative approach to explore the emergence of mental disorders. Namely, according to the network approach, symptoms and their associations are crucial for the development and maintenance of mental disorders. Estimated symptom networks provide an insight into the set of symptoms that characterize certain disorders and can help identify the core symptoms of (...) the specific disorder, such as post-traumatic stress disorder. The first evidence of the presence of post-traumatic stress symptoms comes from a few thousand years before Christ. Nevertheless, PTSD was first included in the diagnostic classification system in 1980. To date, there are still ongoing debates related to the number and types of symptoms that should be included in the diagnostic criteria. Those debates are best reflected in the different diagnostic criteria for PTSD in the current versions of the two major diagnostic systems: the fifth version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the eleventh version of the International Classification of Diseases. According to the most recent meta-analysis, since the first PTSD network study in 2015, more than 70 cross-sectional studies have been identified across non-clinical, subclinical, and clinical samples. Overall, there were inconsistent findings, which could be attributed to the heterogeneity of the sample. Furthermore, in contrast to cross-sectional studies, only a few studies investigated temporal dynamics between PTSD symptoms within a day using the experience sampling method. Next to network approach which generally investigates symptom interrelations, it is also possible to examine specific association by focusing on the specific symptoms and/or processes. For example, the association between repetitive negative thinking and negative affect was found across different mental disorders, including PTSD. There is an emerging question whether based on this association, it is possible to identify people of risk for psychopathology. This dissertation includes four empirical studies that address several issues. First, Study I tested whether trauma type is one of the potential moderators that could explain inconsistent findings in PTSD cross-sectional network literature to date. Specifically, it was investigated whether characteristics of the two trauma types influence the symptom constellation in the cross-sectional PTSD networks across PTSD patients. Edges that repeatedly emerged in the previous PTSD network studies were replicated. Furthermore, results showed that two networks globally differed. Additionally, specific edges that differed between symptom networks of the two trauma types were identified. Results implicate that trauma type contributes to the inconsistent findings of the cross-sectional PTSD network literature to date. Second, PTSD symptom dynamics within the day were investigated using the experience sampling method for 15 days in a row, four time per day. Namely, Study II was designed to investigate temporal PTSD networks and contemporaneous PTSD networks. This study focused on PTSD patients who were in the diagnostic phase but had not yet started with the trauma focused treatment. Results implicated the importance of estimating both contemporaneous and temporal networks, as they differed in important ways. In the temporal network, it was identified that changes in hypervigilance predicted changes in the most symptoms at the next assessment. As the focus of the second study was on the within-day dynamics, items related to sleep disturbances were excluded since they only referred to sleep at night and were assessed just once in the morning. Therefore, Study III focused specifically on the temporal association of trauma-related sleep disturbances, namely insomnia symptoms and nightmares, on PTSD symptoms in the following day. This study analyzed the same sample as in Study II. Multilevel model analyses showed that insomnia and nightmares were significant predictors of PTSD symptomatology on the following day, but that this association was unidirectional, as PTSD symptoms did not significantly predict insomnia and nightmares. Finally, Study I investigated generally interrelations between PTSD symptoms. In addition, it is possible to specifically examine dynamic symptom associations by focusing on the specific symptoms interaction and explore their predictive value. Therefore, Study IV used a statistical clustering algorithm, specifically focusing on the association between RNT and NA, in order to investigate the predictive value of this association. Study IV looked at three experience-sampling data sets across a young population. The analysis showed that two groups of individuals were repeatedly identified. One group had a higher bidirectional association between RNT and NA than the other group. Additionally, results implied that it is possible to identify individuals at risk of developing depressive symptoms during the 3-month follow-up based on the interaction between dynamic associations between RNT and NA and levels of NA over the experience sampling phase. Lastly, this dissertation outlines limitations and as well as practical and methodical directions for future research in the ESM and network analysis field generally and for PTSD in particular. Overall, the obtained results from this dissertation and the implications for future research should contribute to the general improvement of the diagnostic process and to treatment, specifically for PTSD patients. (shrink)

Laypeople’s trust in science might be obstructed by their stereotypical views of researchers as highly competent, yet only moderately warm. To counter this perception of lacking warmth, researchers could engage in self-disclosing science communication, potentially promoting their affective trustworthiness, and, thus, laypeople’s trust in science. However, such self-disclosure could also have adverse effects by violating expectations of appropriateness, professionalism and objectivity. This dissertation draws on theory about stereotypes, trust in science, and self-disclosure, and applies it to science communication. It includes (...) three manuscripts and eleven empirical studies demonstrating small and ambivalent effects of researchers’ self-disclosure on laypeople’s trust in science, it explores potential boundaries of these effects, and it provides important insights into the conceptualization of trust in science. I discuss limitations as well as theoretical and practical implications of this research program and, finally, I highlight further directions for future research. (shrink)

As material resources are limited, partiality is sometimes unavoidable. Thus, even young children have to decide how to distribute their resources. At the same time, they experience that others’ prosocial behavior is also selective – affecting their expectations about others’ behavior. In this thesis I focus on children’s selective sharing behavior and selective sharing expectations in friendships. We know from previous research that children start to share selectively with their friends between 3 and 5 years. Around the same time children (...) also start to expect others to share more with their friends than with disliked peers or strangers. However, why and how young children first start to show partial sharing behavior is still not fully resolved. The current thesis explores the underlying mechanisms and motives for young children’s preferential sharing with friends compared to their sharing with disliked peers or strangers. In addition, the thesis investigates whether preschoolers also expect their own friends to share with them and whether these expectations relate to children’s social behavior and their decision to rely on others. The current thesis compares and partially tests three – not necessarily exclusive – models, which could explain children’s selective sharing with friends. That is, affective processes, strategic motives, or a norm to share with friends could explain children’s partiality. Social- interactionist and constructivist theories suggest that affection and shared experiences could be responsible for children’s selective sharing behavior. However, from an evolutionary or cognitive standpoint it would be rational to share more with friends because the chance to get something in return is higher than with other peers. This strategic explanation would also be in line with classical theories on friendship, which imply that preschoolers’ friendships are still mostly self-serving. And lastly, Model 3 proposes that preschoolers might share more with their friends out of a sense of interpersonal obligation. Study 1 and 2 examined the mechanisms underlying children’s selective sharing with friends. Study 1 shows that children’s selective sharing with friends is not subserved by strategic motives. Additionally, the results of Study 1 stress the role of the past relationship with a friend, making an affective explanation more likely. More importantly, the children in Study 2 justified their preferential sharing with friends mostly with positive affect, lending additional support to Model 1. Study 2 also provides some support for the idea that a feeling of obligation might add to the effect of affective processes on young children’s selective sharing. Thus, the results of the current thesis support the importance of affective processes and shared experiences for children’s selective sharing with friends and speak against strategic considerations as motivating factors. Study 3 investigated children’s sharing expectations in a first person scenario. The results show that children’s selective reliance on their friends’ sharing develops in the preschool period. Four- to 5-year-old but not 3-year-old children rely more on their friends than on their non-friends to share with them. Young children’s increasing reliance on their friends’ sharing demonstrates children’s developing understanding how relationships influence the intentions and behavior of others. This is an important ability because it allows children to choose cooperative interaction partners, maximize their gain and avoid exploitation. In Study 3 older preschoolers were also willing to risk getting no resources by relying on their friend, thus indicating that children’s expectations manifest in their behavior. In sum, during the preschool years, children’s friendships seem to become affectionate, trusting, and reciprocal relationships in which both friends expect and provide prosocial support. Thus, young children’s friendships might be less superficial and self-serving than previously implied by classical studies. (shrink)

The ability to temporarily hold information in visual working memory is an important cognitive function as it is not only crucial in everyday life but also in other domains, such as educational settings and academic performance. Even though VWM has been shown to be a stable construct in general, it can be influenced by other factors. For instance, previous research has demonstrated that emotional states or emotional stimuli can influence VWM performance. However, up to date there is a striking lack (...) of research on whether a VWM task, which is used to measure VWM, may induce emotional experiences itself, and whether they in turn affect VWM performance. Some authors have speculated that a standard VWM task arouses emotions in participants and that these task-induced emotions are related to VWM performance. The aim of the present thesis was therefore to establish if and how emotions, should they occur because of the VWM task itself, are linked with individuals’ VWM performance. To meet this objective an interdisciplinary approach was taken and well-established findings from educational psychology were applied to a core cognitive research question, namely that of VWM. In a first qualitative study, by adapting a qualitative method of inquiry, the think-aloud technique, results revealed that the task induced different positive and negative emotions, such as joy and anger, which varied on the inter-individual as well as on the intra-individual level. The emotional experiences seemed to be tied to the implicit achievement requirement of the VWM task. To investigate whether these task-induced emotions were linked to VWM performance, two quantitative studies were carried out. Here, findings revealed that VWM performance was positively linked to joy, and negatively linked to anger, frustration and boredom on the inter-individual and intra-individual level. Notably, these emotions were also affected by an experimental manipulation of task difficulty. This research is the first to demonstrate that a task designed to measure VWM in itself triggers emotions, specifically achievement emotions, which, in turn, are linked with VWM performance. The findings from the studies highlight the relevance of achievement emotions as potentially confounding variables for interpreting VWM scores as resulting from typical laboratory-based paradigms for measuring VWM capacity. Given the relevance of these findings for research on VWM, cognitive research in general and other fields of research in which VWM plays a role, for example academic performance, another aim of the present thesis was to consider further factors, such as achievement goal orientation, which may affect the link between task-induced achievement emotions during a VWM task, and VWM performance. Therefore, a registered report was designed which aims to replicate and further explore the findings from Studies 1 through 3 on the one hand and on the other hand consider the role of further variables in the achievement-emotion-VWM-relationship. Specifically, it is hypothesized that task-induced achievement emotions will correlate with VWM performance and that this link is mediated by subjective task performance. Further, as goal orientation is thought to be strongly related to achievement emotions, it is hypothesized that the emotion-performance links are moderated by performance goal orientation. Finally, it is hypothesized that achievement emotions, performance goal orientation, and task difficulty interact in predicting VWM. N = 225 participants will be recruited to perform the continuous color-report task. Participants’ achievement emotions and subjective task performance will be obtained by self-report after the VWM task. It is expected that the findings from the registered report will further highlight the relevance of achievement emotions as a potentially confounding variable for interpreting an individual’s VWM ability. (shrink)

Theory of mind, the ability to attribute mental states to ourselves and others, is crucial for human social interaction and has been argued to fully develop around the age of 4. However, recent research suggests that children can perform rudimentary, preverbal ToM inferences at an earlier age, indicating a discrepancy between this early, implicit ToM and a later mastery of explicit ToM tasks. Already in the second year of life children show competence in grasping what an agent knows and does (...) not know in preverbal communication, whereas explicit performance on ToM tasks can only be observed around the age of 4. One possible explanation is that children require an additional representational resource in order to be able to associate their preverbal understanding with explicit terms that can be used to denote it in standard ToM tasks. The purpose of this thesis is to extend research on ToM in the third year of life by investigating one possible representational resource, namely mental state language. Mental state language is considered crucial for ToM development as it is the first explicit means by which children can verbalize mental states and it plays an important role for both precursors and subsequent mastery of explicit ToM tasks. However, how exactly mental state language production reflects children's awareness and comprehension of mental states remains understudied. Harris, Yang, and Cui have argued that children use mental state terms early on and possess basic representations of their own knowledge and ignorance. Since both mental state terms and basic representations appear to be present at the same time, one might assume that children already possess associations between them. However, experimental tasks that investigate mental state verbs like `know' and `think' are only able to find competence to differentiate between them around the age of 5. Thus, the extent to which the appropriate use of mental state terms in conversation reflects comprehension of the denoted mental states remains unclear. Given that mental state language develops around the second and third year of life, one may gain insight into the role it plays for a transition from implicit to explicit competence by investigating abilities which, according to our current understanding, develop around the same time and show both preverbal and verbal aspects. Perspective-taking and implicit false-belief understanding are such abilities. Children show early preverbal perspective-taking competence at the age of 24 months, but only develop verbal perspective-taking competence around the age of 3. Previous work has identified a relationship between mental state language and verbal perspective-taking at the age of 30 months, but no study has investigated this relationship in connection to preverbal perspective-taking. Also in the area of falsebelief understanding studies have mostly investigated the relationship between mental state language and explicit false-belief tasks, but no study has examined how mental state language may relate to an implicit false-belief task. Finally, mental state language has been found to correlate with a number of different competencies, among them inhibitory control and general language, but no study has systematically investigated which of these competencies serve as precursors that predict children's later mental state language production. Determining precursors is relevant for understanding crucial aspects of mental state language development and how it might relate to children's preverbal representations of mental states. The aims of the present thesis were thus to investigate the relationship between children's mental state language production and their comprehension of mental state terms and mental states, to determine the role that mental state language production may play in preverbal and verbal perspective-taking and implicit false-belief understanding and finally, to identify the basic linguistic and cognitive skills that contribute to the development of mental state language. These aims were pursued through 2 studies. In study 1, children were assessed at two time-points. Once they were tested at the age of 24 months with measures of general language, cognitive and motoric development and inhibition skills. An additional time they were tested at 27 months in order to assess children's mental state language production, their preverbal and verbal perspective-taking skills, meta-cognitive awareness of ignorance, implicit false-belief understanding and finally a task that measured their ability to infer a speaker's need for information from a statement about knowing or not knowing the location of an item and a speaker's desire for an object from statements about wanting or not wanting a particular object. The aim was to determine the concurrent relationship of children's mental state language production and their ability to comprehend and use these terms on experimental tasks, to identify the concurrent relationship between mental state language and preverbal and verbal perspective-taking and implicit false-belief understanding and finally to determine which developmental skills at the age of 24 months are significant predictors of children's later mental state language production. Study 1 showed that 27-month-olds were already able to produce mental state terms and showed a basic understanding of their own knowledge and ignorance, but failed to show comprehension of epistemic mental state terms in experimental tasks. Thus, despite their early competence in producing epistemic mental state terms, children's comprehension of these terms appeared to be limited. The results of the first study also identified that mental state language production was related to children's own verbal level-1 visual perspective-taking, in particular to usage of the verb `know/don't know' in several naturalistic contexts, independent of general language. There was also continuity from children's preverbal understanding of perspectives to their ability to report their own perspective in a verbal task. However, there was no relationship between preverbal understanding of perspectives and mental state language production according to a parental questionnaire, suggesting that early preverbal understanding of perspectives is not related to the mere production of mental state terms unless children already produce these terms in appropriate contexts. In relation to implicit false-belief understanding, children's performance suggested that they followed a simple strategy of looking at the last object location instead of demonstrating false-belief understanding. Finally, study 1 also identified sentence production, inhibition and fine motor skills at 24 months as significant predictors of children's later production of mental state language at 27 months. In study 2, children's ability to infer a speaker's need for information was investigated further by administering a pragmatic inference task from study 1 to 2-, 3- and 5-year-olds and determining at which age children showed competence. Study 2 showed that despite being able to draw the right pragmatic inferences for the mental state verb `want' at the age of 2, only at the age of 5 children were able to draw the right pragmatic inferences for the mental state verb `know/don't know'. The overall results of this thesis implied that the crucial aspect of mental state language is not mere production of the verbs, but children's experience with a variety of contexts in which mental state verbs can be used, corresponding with a socioconstructivist approach to cognitive development. The number of naturalistic contexts related to children's metarepresentations of their own ignorance, to their ability of inferring a speaker's desire and their ability to verbalize their own perspective, thus suggesting that the conversational input children receive is one of the main ways in which mental representations become explicit. Furthermore, the theoretical view that children's preverbal competence may be better explained by a production rule approach instead of early conceptual understanding is discussed. (shrink)

Communication about socio-emotional issues can come with a range of pleasant or undesirable experiences for those involved. For example, while we might be eager to share with someone the news about our most recent achievement, telling them we will cancel our long-planned trip definitely puts us in a certain distress. In advance of such conversations, people anticipate their course and potential impact, and accordingly pursue communicational strategies that minimize negative and maximize positive experiences and outcomes. One powerful means in this (...) endeavor is the deliberate choice of communication channels that support those strategies. As mediated channels differ from face-to-face conversations in several regards and to varying degrees, they are perceived more or less suited for the pursuit of different communication goals. The present thesis is thus dedicated to the psychological question of why people choose particular channels in socio-emotional situations, how their choices differ between contexts, and how those choices could be influenced. The included set of six studies follows this structure of interrelated research questions. A first qualitative study explored the variety of reasons people refer to when choosing channels for socio-emotional communication and associates them with channel characteristics or contextual factors. Qualitative responses are linked to existing theoretical concepts and further transposed into an integrative model of different reasons behind communication channel choices. Basically, three sets of categories are identified in pragmatic, symbolic, and control-based reasons. Pragmatic reasons comprise choices out of convenience or habit that happen rather casually. Symbolic reasons pertain to choices that occur consciously but are largely predetermined by the respective situation. Control-based reasons are classified as reasons that stem from the intention to deliberately influence the communication process. These control-based reasons are further distinguished into categories of interaction control, i.e., reasons focusing on the synchronicity of channels, and emotion control, i.e., reasons focusing on the richness of channels. These two kinds of control-based reasons represent instances of strategic channel choice, which are the main focus of subsequent studies presented within this thesis. A potential psychological mechanism behind the strategic choice of channels is the intention to utilize their varying degree of subjective buffer, which regulates the interactional and emotional intensity of communication. This buffer effect of channels is defined as their subjective capacity to provide a psychological shield between individuals that mitigates emotional exposure and facilitates deliberate disclosure. Communication channels with a higher buffer effect therefore support face-saving impression management and the pursuit self-presentational goals. Studies 2.1 - 2.4 explored under which contextual circumstances people tend to strategically choose communication channels with higher buffer effects. This occurred when senders were to deliver negative messages and when the socio-emotional issue focused on themselves. The same preferences were shown by receivers, i.e., they chose channels with a higher buffer effect if the message was negative and focused on themselves. I ascribe these tendencies in channel choices to a generally increased salience of self-presentational goals in socio-emotional communication, especially when the issue is negative and revolves around oneself. In close relationships, however, effects of valence were inverted, such that senders chose channels with lower buffer effects in negative situations, while the opposite held true in distant relationships. There was no effect regarding the locus of the issue in either of the relationship conditions. I attribute this moderating effect of interpersonal closeness to the increased relevance of relational goals in close relationships. A general decline in the relevance of self-presentational goals might also explain why people in a work context chose channels with higher buffer effects for communicating negative messages to recipients of a superior or equal hierarchical status, while there was no difference for subordinates. An additional study explored the possibility to influence channel choice without changing the socio-emotional context itself by manipulating an individual’s regulatory focus. Following a regulatory focus induction, people’s channel choices in a potential conflict situation were assessed. The induction of a prevention focus led to the choice of channels with higher buffer effects and to a lower probability of choosing richer communication media, even when controlled for chronic regulatory focus and interpersonal closeness. This exploration constitutes a first example of how communication channel research could advance its implications by not only examining determinants and outcomes of channel choices but also ways to intentionally influence them. Following the overview of empirical studies and their concise summary, I elaborate on how they add to previous research and why widely applied media theories are frequently not suited to predict channel choices in socio-emotional situations. In order to not further the proliferation of theories in the field, I point out how the delivered insights can be integrated into the different stages of the impression management model, on which several of the present studies are predicated on. Subsequently, I present practical implications that may be derived from these works and refer to exemplary technical implementations that can serve as an orientation in this endeavor. This thesis concludes with a discussion of its limitations and directions for future research that go beyond what is already covered by the constituent works. (shrink)

This thesis consists of five main chapters including three independent studies, focusing on reward-based distractor interference and reward-association. In particular, the thesis addresses at which attentional processing stages the reward-based distractor interference takes place, as well as whether and how the reward association is learned on different levels. In the first chapter, I introduced a general background of attention, associative learning, and relations between reward associative learning and attention. In the end, I highlighted the open issues that this thesis aimed (...) to address. Chapter II aimed to answer the question at which processing stage the reward-based distractor interferes with the ongoing task. The study adopted the visual additional singleton search task but extended it to visual-tactile search. A classical finding of the reward-based distractor interference is that a reward-associated color feature, which appears as a task-irrelevant distractor, albeit it is not salient, captures attention and impedes task-relevant response. However, it is unclear at which attentional processing stage the reward-driven capture effects occur. To identify the distractor interference at the pre-attentional searching stage or post/focal- attentional decision-making stage, three experiments were conducted. Instead of a circular search display used in a standard attentional capture paradigm, this study used a horizontal search display to maximize potential attentional capture and disengagement. The results revealed that the reward-based distractor interference was only observed when the target and reward-based distractor were on the same side, indicating the interference likely occurred at the post/focal- attentional decision-making stage. To confirm this, Experiments 2 and 3 adopted the crossmodal search paradigm, in which the search stage and post-selective identification stage took place in different modalities. Such design enabled us to distinguish whether the interference effect occurs at the searching stage or the post/focal-attentional decision-making stage. The results further corroborated that the reward-driven capture effects occur at the post/focal-attention stage. Chapter III focused on the question related to the level of reward associative learning. Most previous studies on reward-based attentional capture implicitly used feature-based reward association, particularly on the feature level, e.g., color-reward association. This leaves the question open regarding whether the associative reward could be established at the level of response mapping or task-set mapping. Two experiments were designed to address this question. In Experiment 1, high/low rewards were associated with both the two colors and the left/right response in the training phase, and the reward-associated color became one of the task-irrelevant distractors in the test phase. We failed to find any evidence on the reward-response association. However, the results showed the distractor with previously reward-associated features facilitated search, indicating a better distractor handling in the test phase. In Experiment 2, the reward was associated with task-sets in the training phase and the task-sets kept the same in the test phase, while the search task was changed. The results suggested that reward-associated learning facilitated distractor handling and task-set learning. Chapter IV tackled the open research question - whether reward associative learning could take place at the multi-conjunction level. The question is important, given that previous studies on reward-based attentional capture only investigated associative learning of a single feature. As reward association in daily life is usually complex, Study 3 aims to explore whether reward learning can be established through reward assignments with conjunction features and whether the interference of distractors with previously reward-associated features can be observed in a similar way as previous studies shown on single-feature-based reward-driven capture effects. Reward learning was found locally trial-by-trial throughout the whole learning process, however, it was hard to establish a reliable conjunction reward association. Furthermore, there was no reward-based distractor interference in the test phase. The findings suggest that conjunction reward-association is difficult, though a short-lived trial-to-trial conjunction reward learning can be established. The final Chapter V discussed the findings of these three studies and their inter-relations. And I summarized how these findings could contribute to the debate of reward-based distractor interference. In summary, this thesis helps to improve our knowledge about reward-based distractor interference, particularly on the identification of the processing stage of distractor interference and what can be associated with reward in reward associative learning. (shrink)

Over the last decades, childhood maltreatment has emerged as a major risk factor for the development and maintenance of transdiagnostic psychopathology. Notably, higher prevalence rates of maltreatment have been found for nearly all mental disorders, with particularly high numbers for post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, borderline personality disorder and anxiety disorders. Furthermore, childhood maltreatment has been associated with an earlier onset of mental disorders, a more severe and chronic course of disease as well as reduced rates of psychological treatment benefit. However, (...) the pathways that underlie this relationship are still unknown. It has been shown that various factors, for example biological alterations, play a role in the relationship between childhood maltreatment and mental disorders. Research investigating the influence of psychological factors, such as emotional reactivity and emotional regulation, attachment or post-traumatic stress symptoms is rare. These investigations are highly relevant in order to identify potential targets for psychological interventions. First approaches in this line of research examine specific transdiagnostic treatments for early traumatization, such as Imagery Rescripting. However, as childhood maltreatment is suspected to be associated with a broad array of mental disorders, it might not be explained by a single underlying mechanism. Instead, multiple pathways are probable to mediate the relationship between childhood maltreatment and transdiagnostic psychopathology. Therefore, the major aim of this thesis is to make a first step in filling this research gap by investigating the underlying psychological mechanisms between childhood maltreatment and psychopathology in clinical studies. Studies I and II were conducted with a clinical sample of patients with obsessive compulsive disorder. Preliminary research, though limited by small sample sizes and inconsistent findings, showed that childhood maltreatment might play a role in OCD. In order to replicate and expand on these findings we aimed to examine the association of childhood maltreatment and OCD more closely. Study I primarily examined the subtypes of childhood maltreatment influencing OCD and additionally the impact of childhood maltreatment on the success of psychological OCD treatment. We found three main results: First, increased prevalence rates of childhood maltreatment among our OCD patient sample in comparison to a general German population sample. Second, childhood maltreatment severity was related to greater OCD symptom severity, with the most robust relationship for the maltreatment subtype of emotional abuse. Third, individuals with higher levels of childhood maltreatment reported greater OCD symptoms at pre-treatment, post-treatment, and 6 months after their inpatient stay, compared to patients without maltreatment experiences. However, in contradiction of our hypothesis, childhood maltreatment did not influenced treatment benefit. Based on the findings, study II aimed to examine the underlying mechanisms of the detected association between childhood maltreatment and OCD symptoms. Potential mediating factors were chosen based on the following criteria: evidence for association with childhood maltreatment, evidence for association with OCD, and existing plausible theoretical explanation for this mediator as an underlying mechanism. Therefore, we predicted that, emotion regulation difficulties, rumination, an insecure attachment style, dissociation, and post-traumatic stress symptoms are potential mediators between the association of childhood maltreatment and OCD symptom severity. In line with our hypotheses, these factors all mediated the relationship between childhood maltreatment and OCD symptom severity. However, regarding insecure attachment styles, the subtype of avoidant attachment was not linked to either childhood maltreatment or OCD symptom severity, suggesting that in OCD an anxious attachment is more prominent. Study III investigated the specific role of emotional reactivity as an underlying mechanism between childhood maltreatment and major depression in a clinical sample of patients with major depression. Whereas in the literature for major depression the findings regarding heightened emotional reactivity are inconsistent, childhood maltreatment was widely associated with increased emotional reactivity. We therefore hypothesized that the severity of childhood maltreatment is related to higher emotional reactivity among depressive patients. Hence, self-reported and physiological emotional reactivity was measured while presenting audio recordings with neutral, negative and individualized childhood trauma-related scripts. In line with our hypothesis, depressive patients with higher levels of childhood maltreatment reported heightened emotional reactivity to the childhood trauma-related script and the negative script compared to the neutral script. In particular, they rated the negative script as more aversive and distressing. Additionally, they showed more re-experiencing and dissociation experiences in response to the negative script. Equally, the trauma-related script was perceived as more aversive and distressing. Furthermore, it resulted in greater levels of arousal and showed more avoidance as an emotional regulation strategy. In contrast to our hypothesis, no effect of childhood maltreatment on physiological responsiveness emerged. Overall, there is a growing body of literature showing that childhood maltreatment is a transdiagnostic risk factor for various mental disorders. However, few researchers have addressed the question of how this early vulnerability to psychopathology develops and persists. This thesis aimed to expand on current knowledge of the underlying pathways of the relationship between childhood maltreatment and psychopathology in two different mental disorders. The study findings presented in this thesis provide first evidence that heightened emotional reactivity and difficulties in emotion regulation, together with rumination might play a role. Moreover, post-traumatic stress symptoms, even those deemed subclinical, such as hyperarousal, avoidance and dissociative symptoms might be mediating factors between childhood maltreatment and transdiagnostic psychopathology. Since we found indications that re-experience might also play a role in mediating this relationship, future work will concentrate on exploring this factor in more detail. Additionally, further work is needed to investigate the cause of high divergence between self-report emotional reactivity and psychophysiological reactivity. From a methodological perspective, problems in assessing childhood maltreatment retrospectively with the childhood trauma questionnaire will be discussed. Moreover, implications for a theoretical transdiagnostic model and methodological approaches, as well as directions for future research on the underlying pathways of childhood maltreatment and psychopathology are outlined. (shrink)

Transcranial direct current stimulation is a safe and efficient intervention for treating major depressive disorder. However, research has suggested heterogeneity of response between patients. The emerging field of precision psychiatry aims to use statistical modeling of multi-modal data to tailor treatment to the single patient. To this end, more in-depth analysis of randomized controlled trials will be relevant due to limited availability of other large datasets with high phenotypic detail and to develop tools for personalization within counterfactually controlled environments to (...) distinguish specific vs. non-specific patterns in treatment data. Previous research has aimed at identifying patient-related factors associated with better response. However, most analyses have operated on the group-level, ignoring natural clusters within the patients' constituting factors, their individual trajectories of symptom improvement, and their presented symptoms. Furthermore, group-based modeling strategies were limited to explanatory approaches using in-sample hypothesis-testing, that are ill-suited to prognosticate outcomes of single patients. This dissertation provides a methodological framework for reevaluation of existing clinical trial data to provide future investigations with more differentiated units of analysis and to complement explanatory approaches with predictive modeling strategies enabling prediction of single-patient outcomes. Using data from a landmark 3-arm clinical trial paradigmatic for a rigorously controlled experimental design the dissertation provides three blueprint studies for modeling heterogeneity of tDCS response: Study 1 characterized response to tDCS by considering patient-individual dynamics of symptom change over the course of treatment. Distinct trajectories of tDCS response could be identified, representing patient subgroups with varying strength and speed of improvement. These results suggest development of individualized treatment protocols and exploration of prolonged treatment courses. Study 2 reevaluated the efficacy of tDCS, in distinct, naturally occurring clusters of depressive symptoms. Using unsupervised machine learning, a global depression measure was parsed into 4 distinct symptom clusters. Analysis of cluster-scores showed superiority of tDCS and escitalopram over placebo in core depressive symptoms, but only tDCS was superior in improving sleep and only escitalopram was superior in improving guilt/anxiety symptoms, suggesting treatment selection based on patients' symptom profiles. In Study 3 supervised ML algorithms were employed to predict response to tDCS. In this proof-of-concept approach, response could be predicted above chance on the single-patient level, but overall accuracy was modest. Features employed for model training were explored using interpretable ML methods. Trained algorithms were provided to the field for expansion as well as tests of generalizability and incremental utility. The presented studies illustrate how in-depth secondary analyses of clinical trial data can aid personalization of treatment. The provided methodological framework can be expanded and generalized to other contexts and interventions that show heterogeneity of treatment effects. Yet, the empirical studies also epitomize challenges precision psychiatry is faced with, including low data availability, low outcome granularity, and limited external validation opportunities. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of challenges and future directions resulting from infrastructural demands in data acquisition, data management, data sharing, and interdisciplinary collaboration. (shrink)

Observers can learn the locations where salient distractors appear frequently to reduce potential interference. The effect that observers appear to learn the spatial distribution of salient but task-irrelevant distractors in the visual environment to reduce the interference caused by such distractors was referred to as ‘statistical learning of distractor locations’. Emerging studies agreed that the observed reduction of distractor interference is largely attributable to better suppression of distractor in frequent locations, however, concerning how this spatial distractor suppression is implemented within (...) the functional architecture of search guidance, and how the learned suppression is processed in the brain to reduce the interference, remains debated and poorly understood. The line of studies of the current dissertation, therefore, explores the cognitive and neural mechanism underlying spatial distractor suppression based on statistical learning. Using psychophysical experiments, the first two studies examined a series of potentially ‘confounding’ factors that might lead to different theoretical conclusions concerning the locus of learned spatial distractor suppression in different studies. We found that irrespective of whether a salient singleton distractor is more likely to occur at multiple locations within a subregion of the display or at a specific location, observers are both likely to adopt the priority-map-based suppression strategy and dimension-based suppression strategy to reduce interference of distractor in the frequent region. Notably, a critical factor determining which strategy is adopted is whether the distractor and non-distractor items swap colors randomly across trials: without color swapping, observers are more likely to acquire a dimension-based suppression; with color swapping, they prefer to develop a priority-map-based suppression in the first beginning, and potentially shift to dimension-based suppression later with the course of learning. The third study employed functional magnetic resonance imaging techniques with the distractor-location learning paradigm with two types of distractors defined in either the same- or different- visual dimension relative to the target. We disclosed that statistical learning of distractor locations involves suppression down to the level of the early visual cortex to reduce distractor interference, potential different neural mechanisms of spatial distractor suppression between distractors defined in a different and the same dimension to the target. With different-dimension distractors, higher-level, dimension-specific filtering mechanisms plays a role to reduce the interference; with same-dimension distractors, interference reduction relies on cutting down lower-level sensory signals. (shrink)

According to many scholars, prosociality, in particular altruism and empathic concern, is considered an important motivational factor both in adulthood and in the development of morality. So far, a large number of studies have addressed the development of children’s first-party prosociality and their third-party understanding of moral norms separately. In particular, there is much evidence that during the second year of life, young children develop empathic concern and sympathy for others in need in prosocial situations. Moreover, recent findings suggest that (...) 18-month-old infants already show some rudimentary forms of norm understanding in at least dyadic conventional situations. This rudimentary norm understanding is interpreted as second-personal normative expectations. Finally, 3-year-old children not only have descriptive expectations about morality, but also normative ones as suggested by their enforcement of moral norms as unaffected bystanders. However, the interrelation between prosociality and morality, in particular the prosocial motivational source of the early sense of morality remains unclear. This thesis aimed to investigate the developmental origins of morality in young children. In particular, it examines the relation between the two main aspects of uniquely human cooperation – prosociality and morality – from a developmental perspective. These two aspects are of particular importance, not only because they each play a key role in maintaining the unique human capacity for large-scale cooperation but also because of their close relation to each other. The present thesis therefore focused on three guiding questions that are essential for the ontogeny of morality and its relation to young children’s prosocial motivation to understand, adhere to, and enforce moral norms: What are the developmental origins of morality? What is the underlying prosocial motivation for children's normative appreciation of morality? What is the scope of morality? Study 1 investigated the developmental origins of morality in 18-month-old infants. A novel eye-tracking paradigm was used to examine whether infants differentiate between prototypical moral and conventional violations. In a between-subjects-design, children watched the same video clip whose audio stream differed according to condition. In the first two conditions, an instructor told an observer to destroy a picture with a particular tool chosen from two available tools. In the moral violation condition, the instructor forbade the observer to destroy the picture at all. In all three conditions, the observer then grasped tool B and destroyed the picture, which led to three different situations. Infants differentiated between two types of conventional norm situations in their anticipatory looking. Moreover, they showed a larger relative increase in pupil dilation in response to a moral violation than to a conventional violation. These findings suggest that 18-month-old infants have third-party descriptive expectations about the distinction between conventional and moral violation situations. Moreover, they provide the first evidence that empathic concern may be a decisive capacity for the distinction between these two violation situations. Study set 2 looked at the underlying prosocial motivation for the appreciation of morality as a normative notion in 3-year-old children. In three experiments, children were given a third-party fairness task and two different prosocial tasks. To investigate whether the children have a proper norm understanding of fairness by looking not only at norm adherence, but also at norm enforcement, a spontaneous protest paradigm was used. In Experiment 1, children protested and corrected unequal allocations, suggesting a normative understanding of third-party fairness. Experiment 2 assessed whether children’s normative expectations about fairness have a moral dimension. To do so, children observed a distributor who followed or violated an authority’s command to allocate resources unequally. Again, despite the authority’s dictate to act unequally, children protested more against unequal versus equal allocations. In Experiment 3, results show that children enforced fairness norms by altruistic punishment in the sense of restorative justice. While in Experiment 1 and 2 I found a positive relation of protest behavior and emotional sharing, in Experiment 3 children’s altruistic punishment was associated with their own costly sharing behavior. Finally, in Study 3, I explored the scope of morality in 5-to 6-year-old children in a typical intergroup context. Here, I investigated whether decategorization – a candidate mechanism to overcome in-group bias by emphasizing the individual person – would lead preschoolers to treat in-group and out-group members equally when sharing resources in a dictator game. I found that preschoolers shared more resources with an in-group than with an out-group recipient when social category membership was emphasized. When individuating information was emphasized, however, children shared the same with in-group and out-group individuals. Taken together, the empirical studies of this dissertation provide a novel overview of the prosocial roots of children's developing morality. In particular, the present findings suggest that the ability to feel sympathy may be critical for the development of the moral-conventional distinction and that 18-month-old infants, at minimum, have third-party descriptive expectations about that distinction. The ontogeny of fairness norms can be characterized as moral in that it is associated with 3-year-old children’s developing concern for the welfare of others in different contexts. The presentation of out-group members as individuals may be a powerful tool to reduce in-group bias and to foster equal treatment of in-group and out-group members in 5- to 6-year-old preschool children. (shrink)

In this thesis, I attempt to reconcile two alternative approaches to justice: distributive and relational egalitarianism. When examining the two accounts, I claim that relational egalitarianism has distributive egalitarian implications. This implies an extensional overlap between the two accounts, namely a correspondence between the normative outcomes of relational and distributive egalitarianism. This work is addressed primarily to relational egalitarian scholars, as well as others who are convinced by the value of relational equality as a worthy moral and political ideal. My (...) aim is to prove that their goal implies embracing equality of distribution beyond relational equality. When making the case that relational egalitarians should take equality seriously, I claim that they should refrain from embracing distributive principles other than – or incompatible with – principles of distributive equality. This statement entails both a negative and a positive thesis. On the negative side, we should be critical toward the prominent tendency within the relational egalitarian debate, as influenced by the work of Elizabeth Anderson, to reject claims of distributive egalitarian justice in favour of sufficientarian claims of distribution. On the positive side, distributive equality is required by the logic of relational egalitarianism, although its normative significance exists independently of it. While presenting my statements, I provide support for the externalist understanding of relational equality as most recently advanced by Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen, through which the egalitarian character of someone’s relation depends on features external to their relation, such as on the distribution of the relevant currency among them. Whether or not individuals relate to one another as equals – I maintain – depends not merely on the internal feature of their relation, that is, on how they perceive or regard one another, but also, significantly, on how goods such as resources, welfare or opportunities are distributed among them. On my account, individuals are only equals when they recognize each other as equal in status and grant one another an equal share of the justice-relevant good. In defending my thesis, I critically engage with the literature on both distributive egalitarianism and relational egalitarianism. In particular, in the first part, I reconstruct the egalitarian debate and its approach to equality as either a relational or a distributive ideal. In the second part, I question such either/or relation by arguing that relational equality implies distributive equality, because arbitrary distributive inequality violates the deliberative constraint of relating as equals. I strengthen this claim by looking at the particular instantiation of distributive inequality in the field of education, and unveil its theoretical implications while supporting the project of reconciling distributive egalitarian and relational egalitarian approaches to justice. In my view, relational and distributive egalitarianism are compatible theories within one and the same egalitarian framework. Their normative outcomes are – at least in part – equivalent. (shrink)

This thesis studies the role of conceptual content in inference and reasoning. The first two chapters offer a theoretical and historical overview of the relation between inference and meaning in philosophy and psychology. In particular, a critical analysis of the formality thesis, i.e., the idea that rational inference is a rule-based and topic-neutral mechanism, is advanced. The origins of this idea in logic and its influence in philosophy and cognitive psychology are discussed. Chapter 3 consists of an analysis of the (...) relationship between inference and representation. It is argued that inference has to be studied from a pluralistic per- spective due to its dependence on different formats of representing information. The following four chapters apply conceptual spaces, a formal theory of concepts within cognitive semantics, to three concept-based inference-types. First, an explication of Sellars notion of material inference is advanced. Later, the model is extended to account for nonmonotonic inference by studying the role expectations in reasoning. Finally, a conceptual space-model of category-based induction is presented. This model predicts most of the empirical properties of this psychological phenomenon and subsumes some of the previous theories in psychology. It is stated that the explanatory fruitfulness of this new approach is evidence for the failure of the formality thesis and calls for a unified model of rational inference that puts semantics at center stage. The last chapter of the thesis discusses how inference and concepts interact in scientific reasoning, which makes constant use of hybrid symbolic structures for representing conceptual information. Stephen Toulmin’s notions of method of representation and inferential technique are developed and applied in a case study about the emergence of the notion of instantaneous speed during the passage from geometrical physics to analytical mechanics. It is claimed that this analysis provides support to the pluralistic perspective for theorizing about reasoning. (shrink)

When it comes to the metaethical task of explaining and making sense of what it is that we are doing while doing ethics, the subject of moral objectivity occupies an important and special place within that task. Thus, it is often agreed that being able to explain and justify the objective features of common moral practice is one of if not the most important task for any metaethical theory to undertake. In this dissertation, I tackle the issue of ethical objectivity (...) on behalf of metaethical constructivism. To be more precise, my aim is to make plausible, strengthen, and defend the constructivist original contribution to contemporary metaethics by developing a novel constructivist account on the objectivity of ethics. While the account that I develop herein presents a novel and independent approach to the subject of moral objectivity on behalf of constructivism, it also places itself between the two other positions within the constructivist camp that openly strive to secure ethical objectivity – namely Kantianism on the one hand, and the more recently developed Humean objectivist view on the other. It is for the latter reason that I call my own view the hybrid view. (shrink)

In the current study it was investigated whether a maternal depressive disorder influences the mother-infant-interaction in infancy and the later ToM-understanding. Therefore, it was examined if there is a relationship between early mother-infant-interaction and later ToM-understanding. To our knowledge this is the first study that investigated gender as moderator for this relationship and that investigated if the infant’s ability of self-regulation is a predictor for ToM-understanding. It was examined if boys and girls of depressed mothers differ concerning their ability of (...) self-regulation. 53 mother-child dyads were studied over the period of 4 years, 20 mothers had a postpartum or lifetime depression, 33 mothers didn’t have any mental disorder. The mother-child-interaction was studied using the Face-to-Face-Still-Face-Paradigm. In preschool age ToM understanding was measured by using content-false-belief- and location-false-belief tasks. There was no difference between the mother-infant-interaction and ToM understanding between the experimental group and the control group. Furthermore, neither a relationship between early mother-infant-interaction and later ToM understanding nor a moderating influence of gender were found. Only the behavior of self-regulation during an interactive stress situation in FFSF was a marginal significant predictor for later ToM understanding for all participants. Furthermore, a significant difference between boys and girls was found within the experimental group. Girls of depressive mothers showed more behavior of self-regulation during an interactive stress situation than boys. Further research about the relationship between self-regulation in infancy and ToM understanding is needed. (shrink)

Leaders must support their followers’ and teams’ innovation to maintain the competitive advantage of their organisation. Rosing, Frese, and Bausch proposed that leaders can facilitate follower and team innovation through Ambidextrous Leadership, which consists of the following subcomponents: Opening Leader Behaviour for the support of idea generation, Closing Leader Behaviour for the support of idea implementation, and temporal flexibility, that is, the leader’s ability to flexibly switch between OLB and CLB as situationally required in innovation processes. This thesis aims to (...) contribute to the study of AL by further validating the concept and showing if and how exactly AL relates to different measures of follower and team innovation. In particular, the thesis addresses the following research needs that arise from the AL literature. First, existing studies have measured AL as the combination of OLB and CLB but have not yet specified nor measured temporal flexibility. Second, AL must yet prove that it is distinguishable from existing leadership constructs and that it predicts innovation outcomes beyond these. Third, although innovation work is often carried out by teams, evidence for the positive relationship of AL with team innovation is insufficient and mediators, which explain this relationship, remain unclear. This thesis consists of four empirical studies that address these shortcomings. In Study 1, I explored manifestations of temporal flexibility in the form of the observable Temporal Flexibility Behaviour using data from qualitative interviews. The interviews revealed manifestations of TFB through which leaders orchestrate and stimulate followers’ switching between idea generation and implementation. In Study 2, I used these findings and cross sectional data from employees to develop a reliable 6-item TFB scale, which I then combined with existing scales for OLB and CLB to introduce a conceptually complete AL measure for questionnaire based research. In Study 3, I used new cross-sectional data from employees to investigate the convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity of AL in relation to established leadership constructs and to test whether adding TFB to OLB and CLB increased the predictive power of the AL measure with regard to follower innovation outcomes. Results indicated that AL, measured with and without TFB, has convergent and discriminant validity in relation to transformational leadership, contingent rewards, Leader-Member-Exchange, consideration, and initiating structure. The incomplete measure of AL predicted follower innovation outcomes beyond the established leadership constructs. However, adding TFB to OLB and CLB did not consistently increase the predictive power of AL. In Study 4, I used cross sectional data from work teams to test if AL also positively relates to team innovation and whether adding TFB to OLB and CLB increases the predictive power of the AL measure for team innovation. I found that AL was positively related to team innovation and that adding TFB increased the predictive power of the AL measure, which shows the relevance of TFB. Team Climate for Innovation mediated the relationship. In sum, the thesis provides an extension of existing AL measures and new evidence for the validity of AL in its proposed domain of application, that is, follower and team innovation. (shrink)

Human cooperation and group living are based on societies in which individuals not only care about their own interests but share common norms and values – such as morality and prosocial behavior. As early as the 18th century, Immanuel Kant postulated autonomy as the key to human morality. Kant explained that a rational agent with a free will would necessarily make moral – not immoral – decisions. However, the fundamental question of how moral behavior acquires normative weight remains unresolved until (...) the present day, especially when moral behavior entails personal costs for the individual. This dissertation builds on Kant’s thesis and aims to investigate important building blocks of moral autonomy at preschool age. Therefore, children’s own prosocial decisions as well as their normative and descriptive expectations about others’ prosocial actions are assessed and linked to fundamental underlying mechanisms such as cultural learning and collective intentionality. Study 1 assessed whether preschoolers enforce agreed-upon prosocial ver-sus selfish sharing norms in a group dictator game. Three- and 5-year-old children and two hand puppets had the opportunity to agree on how to distribute re-sources between themselves and a group of passive recipients. The findings sug-gest that preschoolers understand prosocial, but not selfish, agreements as binding even though prosocial sharing norms are associated with personal costs. Study Set 2 assessed in two experiments whether observed choice increases the children’s own prosocial sharing behavior. In Experiment 1, children observed an adult model who was provided with costly choice, non-costly choice, or no choice. As a next step, children were given the opportunity to decide how many stickers they would like to share with a sad animal puppet. Experiment 2 aimed to investigate possible age effects. The study design was reduced to condition and, a second test trial was added. Taken together, the results of Study Set 2 suggest that 5-year-old’s prosocial sharing behavior increases when previously having observed someone who intentionally acts prosocially at a personal cost. Study 3 investigated preschoolers’ descriptive expectations about the causal agent of prosocial and selfish actions, based on agents’ prior history of voluntary versus involuntary prosocial behavior. The results show that children at the age of 5.5 years use information about the circumstances and intentions of previous actions to generate descriptive expectations about other’s future prosocial behavior. From 4 years of age, children distinguish between an agent who shares voluntarily and an agent who shares only involuntarily. Taken together, this dissertation shows that preschool aged children infer and enforce prosocial – but not selfish – sharing norms. They engage in prosocial sharing which is affected by observed choice and they form descriptive expectations about others tendency to behave prosocial or selfish on the base of knowledge about the agents prosocial versus selfish intentions. (shrink)

The neuropeptide oxytocin has been suggested to facilitate social cognition and behavior. Therefore, published literature mainly focuses on the study of OT in a social context or in relation to others. But how we think, act and feel in social situations might strongly depend on our own state of being – the self. Thus, the present three studies examine the effects of OT on self-related processing and cognition. The first study explores the idea that OT might decrease self-related information processing, (...) even when individuals are specifically exposed to being self-aware. We could show that public self-awareness was increased when participants were placed in front of a mirror. Moreover, in the placebo group, lower scores in self-esteem were associated with increased self-awareness. This was not the case in the OT group in which self-esteem was unrelated to self-awareness. The results suggest that OT might function as a buffer against the negative consequences of enhanced self-related processing. The second study of this dissertation explores OT’s effects on self-related processing in a more physiological approach. Participants were to conduct a heartbeat perception task in front of a mirror and we hypothesized OT to inhibit interoceptive awareness. Usually, people become more attuned to bodily responses in front of a mirror due to increased self-awareness. In line with the concept of de-individuation under OT, we could show that heartbeat accuracy, and thus interoceptive accuracy, was increased among participants under placebo who were placed in front of the mirror, but no such effect occurred after treatment with OT. The third study provides empirical evidence testing OT’s effect on situational self-awareness when attentional focus is shifted, either to external sensory perception or explicit self-related cognition, using a categorization vs. introspection task. The results suggest that situational self-awareness was reduced after OT treatment compared to placebo, when participants had previously been instructed to introspect about their feelings. In sum, all findings support the idea of OT being significantly involved in self-related processing and cognition by enhancing de-individuation. (shrink)

This dissertation is an investigation of temporality and time in light of Bernhard Waldenfels’ responsive phenomenology. Both intentionality, a classical concept in the phenomenolgy of Husserl, and responsivity, a concept developed by Waldenfels, are approaches to the riddle of time. Time is the main concern of metaphysical and religious discourse and must be taken into account in every consideraton of freedom. The dissertation consists of three main parts, which are divided into 49 chapters. In the First Part, “Otherness and Corporeality,” (...) I analyze Waldenfels’ specific approach to the rethinking of the self by highlighting the experience of the other/the alien. The experience of the other makes a conclusive self-identification impossible. Due to its response to the demand of the other in the broadest sense, a self is generated. The self and the other co-originate, which is always a process and brings to light the significance of the sentient or lived body of a self. The sentient body, in which intentional consciousness is situated and embodied, is the “primal memory” and is therefore intrinsically related to an ultimate revelation of intentionality as the basic working principle of consciousness; this leads to consciousness’ being enclosed in and a slave to its own intentional stucture. With this as background, I understand Waldenfels’ demonstration of and emphasis on responsivity as an insight into freedom despite the fundamental intentionality of consciousness. In Part Two, “Temporality and Responsivity,” I set forth the profundity of the concept of responsivity with regard to temporality. Responsivity implies a freedom that necessarily takes the basic temporality of existence into account. In my discussion I touch on the analyses of consciousness found in modern biological psychology and traditional Buddhism. I stress that both intentionality and responsivity are based on temporality, which is the source not only of enslavement, but also of freedom. With Part Three, “Temporality and Responsivity as Related to the Problem of Religious Dialog,” I approach the topic of the religious in the lifeworld. The religious is rooted in everyday life in the lifeworld. The basis for religious dialog is not the scriptures of world culture, which are necessarily characterized by specific intentional structures. Everyday life, thanks to its temporality, is full of inexhaustible possibilities. A responsive life is of itself religious because it is open to the creativity of reality. (shrink)

Background: Interdisciplinarity is one of the current trends in the scientific world today, that began with the uneasiness about the loss of the unity of science. This trend also opens possibilities for explaining complex phenomena more comprehensively and creating more advanced applications and implementations of scientific theories. One of the biggest challenges to conducting interdisciplinary research is theoretical integration, how can we combine theories from various disciplines such that the combination is fruitful? Method: This dissertation attempts to answer this challenge (...) by analyzing the intertheoretical connections of some theories from various disciplines for some real interdisciplinary research. The structuralist metatheory of science is applied as the basic theory to model the intertheoretical connections formally. This research begins with modeling the scientific theories in question before modeling the intertheoretical connections and some modifications needed. This research focuses on some researches in cognitive science that involve psychology, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence. The first research is the research conducted by van Veen et al., who research the activity of neurons in a brain's field called dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex during a phase of dissonance between cognitions. This research serves as a context for the analysis of intertheoretical reduction between the Festinger theory of cognitive dissonance and the Hawkins-Kandel computational neuroscientific theory. The other research is the consonance model of simulation built by Shultz and Lepper, which implements the Hopfield network to build a simulation of the cognitive dissonance. The third research is the connectionist model of simulation built by van Overwalle and Jordens, which implements the two-layers feed-forward perceptron and the delta rule as its learning rule to build a simulation of forced compliance dissonance. Result: Through this research, the author concludes that the structuralist metatheory of science can be applied for modeling and analyzing intertheoretical connections in the same discipline and between disciplines in real scientific research. The structuralist metatheory of science enables us to model and analyze the structure of the theories and their intertheoretical connections with great detail and brings very fruitful results. This research delivers some results not only for the structuralist theory science itself but also for the philosophy of science in general and interdisciplinary researches, especially cognitive science. First, by analyzing the models, a revision of the definition of intertheoretical specialization, and specialization of the concept of theory-holon according to the structuralist theory of science, called the V-pattern and strategy for combining scientific theories, are proposed. These V-pattern and strategy can serve as a tool for combining scientific theories. Second, unlike other approaches on intertheoretical reduction such as the GNS model, the structuralist metatheory of science does not intend to formulate a generalized model of reduction nor focus only on intertheoretical reduction. It provides us powerful tools for modeling various intertheoretical relations, including intertheoretical reduction, case by case. Although the intertheoretical reduction in the structuralist model is more epistemological than ontological, the structuralist models show how the reduction has empirical claims and intended applications by applying the r* function that maps the T-theoretical level to T-non-theoretical level. Third, related to the notion of the unity of science, this dissertation still sees that the unity of science is still a plausible and essential agenda for the philosophy of science and the scientific world in general. This dissertation's idea of the unity of science proposed does not assume essentialism, reductionism, and epistemological monism. This dissertation sees that the unity of science is closely related to scientific practice. Fourth, for interdisciplinary research, primarily cognitive science, this dissertation proposes an approach to model and analyze intertheoretical connections for any scientific research or any philosophical school in philosophy of science related to the idea of intertheoretical relation. This dissertation is the first example of such modeling and analysis. (shrink)

Pain serves the protection of the body. Consequently, noxious stimuli or, more precisely, the thereby induced neurophysiological processes commonly lead to pain perception. Identical noxious stimuli, however, do not always translate into the same pain experience depending on multiple factors. To acknowledge this variability, the distinction between nociception as the neural process elicited by noxious stimuli and pain as subjective multifactorial experience is essential. During longer-lasting experimental pain and chronic pain, nociception and pain can substantially dissociate. Moreover, longer-lasting experimental pain (...) resembles chronic pain regarding certain perceptual features such as prolonged pain duration and intensity fluctuations. Thus, longer-lasting experimental pain offers the opportunity to gain new insights into both the differential neural representation of noxious stimuli and pain and the neuronal mechanisms associated with the state of longer- lasting pain. We applied 10 minutes of painful heat stimulation to the left and right hand of 39 healthy participants while we recorded continuous pain ratings, electroencephalography, and autonomic responses. Data were analyzed in three distinct projects aiming at different aspects of neuronal mechanisms underlying longer-lasting pain. Project 1 assessed whether stimulus intensity as proxy of nociception and pain intensity relate to distinct patterns of oscillatory brain activity. EEG recordings revealed that increases in stimulus intensity were reflected by suppressions of alpha and beta oscillations in sensorimotor areas contralateral to the stimulated hand. In contrast, increases in pain intensity were associated with enhanced gamma oscillations in the medial prefrontal cortex. More importantly, the encoding of stimulus intensity by alpha and beta oscillations in the sensorimotor areas was spatially specific, i.e. depended on the stimulus location, whereas the encoding of pain intensity by gamma oscillations in the medial prefrontal cortex was independent of stimulus location. Thus, prefrontal gamma oscillations might reflect higher- order aspects of noxious stimuli, such as salience, valence, and motivational aspects rather than precise sensory features. Project 2 investigated the relationship between stimulus intensity, pain intensity, autonomic responses, and brain activity. Skin conductance measures, as markers of sympathetic activity, co-varied more closely with stimulus intensity than with pain intensity. Correspondingly, skin conductance measures were related to suppressions of alpha and beta oscillations in the sensorimotor area contralateral to the stimulated hand. These finding suggest that skin conductance measures are in part directly elicited by nociceptive processes and, thus, at least partially independent of perceptual processes during longer-lasting pain. Hence, these observations corroborate concepts of pain in which sensory, motivational, and autonomic processes partially independently contribute to the experience of pain. Finally, project 3 incorporated the systematic and comprehensive assessment of oscillatory brain activity, functional connectivity, and graph- theory based network measures during the state of longer-lasting pain. Longer-lasting pain was associated with suppressions of oscillatory brain activity at alpha frequencies in addition to stronger connectivity at alpha and beta frequencies in sensorimotor areas. Furthermore, sensorimotor areas contralateral to stimulation showed increased connectivity to a common area in the medial prefrontal cortex at alpha frequencies and built a sensorimotor-prefrontal network during longer-lasting pain. This network might be involved in the integration of sensory, cognitive, and motivational-affective information and, consequently, in the translation of a noxious stimulus into a subjective pain experience. All three projects contribute to a better understanding of neuronal mechanisms underlying longer-lasting experimental pain, which serves as an experimental model for chronic pain. Since the treatment of chronic pain has remained insufficient and unsatisfactory, the current results might provide EEG-based targets for urgently needed new treatment approaches, such as non-invasive brain stimulation and neurofeedback. (shrink)

Understanding how packaging communication guides consumers in evaluating the environmental performance of a product is essential to promoting sustainable consumption. Previous studies suggest that while consumers are unable to verify the veracity of environmental information and the actual environmental impact of a product, they use packaging communication to evaluate packaging and product quality subjectively. However, few studies focus on the aspects of efficient and credible green marketing communication and the role of communication channels used. This situation applies, in particular, consumers (...) who have high environmental consciousness but are skeptical, as they must balance the need for reliable product knowledge with a high sensitivity to the often ambiguous references to the environmental compatibility of a product. Three experimental studies were conducted to investigate the challenges of an effective GMC using different communication channels and their combined effects on different environmentally conscious target groups. The first study investigates consumers’ responses to nonverbal packaging elements—graphical surface design and packaging material—regarding the perceived environmental friendliness of the product. The results showed that individuals with HEC tended to use packaging material to evaluate environmental friendliness and associated a package’s graphical design with greenwashing. This study contributed to the literature by expanding on the knowledge about the effects of nonverbal packaging on different types of environmentally conscious consumers and demonstrating that there are gradations in nonverbal communication channels concerning how strongly consumers are linking these channels to attempts of greenwashing. Building on these findings, in study 2, the effect of the communication channel specificity on consumers’ environmental skepticism and attention during product presentation and effects on conveying product environment was investigated. The results revealed a complex interplay between communication channel specificity and the involvement of the environmental target groups—HEC and low environmental consciousness —on consumers’ skepticism and the evaluation of environmental friendliness. Study 2 contributes to the literature by providing a framework that may be used to address how channel specificity affects the reception of the marketing message by the intended audience, the ways the marketing message is presented, and how individual perspectives and expectations are formed. Within the elaboration likelihood model, the role of both verbal and nonverbal communication channels has been tested, revealing a theory-conform demand for elaboration, which depends on consumers' environmental consciousness. That is, when environmental information is provided verbally, text-based communication channels translate it into low skepticism for both HEC and LEC consumers. However, nonverbal, pictorial communication proved to be persuasive only for LEC consumers; HEC consumers exhibited high levels of skepticism, which, in turn, decreased perceived environmental friendliness. In addition to the direct effect of the differently specific communication channels, the analysis of combined verbal and nonverbal communication channels provides promising starting points for effective GMC, which is addressed in-depth in study 3. Study 3 explored the combined effects of an associative environmental communication channel when used in conjunction with a content congruent and incongruent specific communication channel. When these effects in the two consumer groups were compared, the results showed that the use of environmental information transmitted via an associative communication channel, along with environmental information presented via a specific communication channel, reduces skepticism among HEC consumers. However, when environmental information presented through the associative communication channel is presented in isolation, HEC consumers show a high degree of skepticism; that is, HEC consumer responses to nonverbal packaging elements interacted with verbal justification contexts, which is the specific verbal information. In accordance with ELM, this suggests a joint effect of central and peripheral processing of environmental information among HEC consumers. In contrast, this joint effect of elaborated processing revealed no significant impact on LEC consumers' skepticism. The results of the three studies are relevant for marketing practitioners. Effective marketing strategies for different environmentally conscious target groups and an inclusive approach were deduced, and the implications for future research were presented. (shrink)

How do people behave in interpersonal interactions? And why do they behave the way they do? In this thesis, I present a novel social-cognitive account of role-taking explaining how fixed positions affect our emotions, thoughts, and behavior in interactions. The basic notion of Role-Taking Theory is that actors represent roles in form of mental schemata, and that role-taking activates the role-specific mental schema. In its application, Role-Taking Theory was used to explain third-party reactions to conflicts. As a result, this thesis (...) entails three manuscripts currently under review for publications: one theoretical, and two empirical. In the theoretical article, we explain the core premises of RTT, discuss RTT’s contributions over and above existing theory, apply RTT to interpersonal conflicts, and outline future directions. In the two empirical articles, we report first empirical tests of hypotheses deriving from RTT’s assumptions. In sum, the manuscripts provide answers to how the number of constituting roles can be identified in any interpersonal interaction, how features of identified roles can be derived, how features of roles affect actors due to role-taking, why some actors take over certain roles in conflicts more frequently than others, why some actors benefit from taking over certain roles in conflicts more than others, why actors sometimes stick to roles even when this comes with costs, and – ultimately – how all these mechanisms tied to role-taking explain when and why interactions stabilize or destabilize. In a final chapter at the end of this thesis, the incremental contributions of these manuscripts over and above existing literature are discussed both in its novel theoretical rationale as well as in empirical insights. In sum, I argue that RTT’s universality and precision are apt for sustained empirical and theoretical work in the future. However, RTT is still in an early developmental stage, and thus, I prepare the next steps by analyzing the present state, outlining the most critical challenges in theory development, and identify the most promising directions for future research. (shrink)

This dissertation thesis about diversity management consists of three articles. The first article defines the terms diversity and diversity management and introduces four diversity dimensions: age, disability, gender and nationality/culture. The second article shows from a universal point of view the implementation and institutionalization of diversity management. The third article focuses on one specific diversity dimension which is nationality/culture and analyzes executives’ recruiting decisions of hiring culturally diverse applicants. For the first and third article, data was collected in a large (...) automotive company. The second article is a benchmark study of 22 large companies in Germany. Overall, 54 qualitative interviews were conducted and analyzed with qualitative content analysis. (shrink)

Future professionals should be prepared for scientific reasoning, i.e., to construct and apply scientific knowledge, in order to analyze and solve problems in their professional practice. Yet, future practitioners’ scientific reasoning skills often seem to be deficient when solving practical problems. This dissertation explores to what extent collaboration may foster the engagement of future practitioners in scientific reasoning: i.e., in epistemic processes and in referring to scientific content knowledge. Therefore, two studies were conducted to compare collaborative and individual problem solving (...) of pre-service teachers regarding their scientific reasoning. Study 1 investigates the effect of group heterogeneity with respect to problem solving scripts on scientific reasoning. Study 2 explores to what extent Epistemic Network Analysis can serve as a methodological approach for measuring scientific reasoning. As part of Study 1, pre-service teachers solved an educational problem either as individuals or as pairs. Collaboration showed a mixed effect on scientific reasoning processes: pairs engaged more in explaining and reasoning about the problem and drew more conclusions, while individuals engaged more in generating solutions. Additional analyses showed that the more heterogeneous pairs were regarding their members’ problem solving scripts the more they engaged in hypothesizing and evaluating evidence and the less they engaged in generating solutions. Finally, pairs less often referred to scientific content than individuals did during problem solving. Study 2 further analyzed the data by applying Epistemic Network Analysis. This method has the advantage of analyzing patterns of connections between epistemic processes, i.e., epistemic networks of scientific reasoning. The central epistemic process for pairs was evidence evaluation, which they frequently used in combination with hypothesizing and communicating and scrutinizing. On the other hand, the most characteristic process in individuals’ scientific reasoning was solution generation, which very often co-occurred with hypothesizing and evidence evaluation. The overall results indicate that if the aim is to develop a more reflective understanding of the problem, future practitioners should collaborate with each other, especially in heterogeneous settings. However, they should be supported to share knowledge regarding scientific theories and evidence as well as to reach a mutual understanding on the problem after a certain time so as to be able to have the capacity of generating solutions. Moreover, the different effects of collaboration on the process and content aspects of scientific reasoning imply that scientific reasoning might not be a unidimensional construct, and its process and content levels should be differentiated in future research. A further important methodological implication is that the process aspect of scientific reasoning can be analyzed as a network of interconnected skills and such analysis might bring more explanatory value than the mere reliance on frequencies of occurrences of isolated activities. (shrink)

This dissertation is concerned with motivating, developing and defending nontransitive theories of truth over Peano Arithmetic. Its main goal is to show that such a nontransitive theory of truth is the only theory capable of maintaining all functional roles of the truth predicate: the substitutional and the quantificational roles. By the substitutional roles we mean that the theory ought to prove p iff it proves that p is true and that it proves all instances of the T-schema p iff 'p' (...) is true. A theory fulfils the quantificational role if its axioms governing the truth-predicate are strong enough to mimick as much second-order quantification as possible. Where the literature on classical theories of truth has focused primarily on the fulfilment of the quantificational role, the nonclassical literature is very much obsessed with the substitutional roles. The problem of having a theory of truth fulfilling both the substitutional and quantificational role are paradoxes of truth such as the Liar. Where the Liar is a sentence which informally says about itself that it is not true, we can show that it is both true and not true, which typically allows us to conclude any formula whatsoever. This problem is overcome in the current approach by blocking the use of transitivity principles under certain conditions. (shrink)

Different theories of emotions have been introduced since the 19th century. Even though a large number of apparent differences between these theories exist, there is a broad consensus today that emotions consist of multiple components such as cognition, physiology, motivation, and subjectively perceived feeling. Appraisal theories of emotions, such as the Component Process Model by Klaus Scherer, emphasize that the cognitive evaluation of a stimulus or event is the driving component of the emotion process. It is believed to cause changes (...) in all other components and hence to differentiate emotion states. To test the CPM and gain more insights into the multi-componential emotion process, the present thesis examines two emotion sub-processes – the link between the cognitive and the feeling component and the link between the cognitive and the physiological component – by using different predictive modeling approaches. In study 1, four theoretically informed models were implemented. The models use a weighted distance metric based on an emotion prototype approach to predict the perceived emotion of participants from self-reported cognitive appraisals. Moreover, they incorporate different weighting functions with weighting parameters that were either derived from theory or estimated from empirical data. The results substantiate the examined link based on the predictive performance of the models. In line with the CPM, the preferred model weighted the appraisal evaluations differently in the distance metric. However, the data-derived weighting parameters of this model deviate from theoretically proposed ones. Study 2 analyzed the link between cognition and physiology by predicting self-reported appraisal dimensions from a large set of physiological features using different linear and non-linear machine learning algorithms. Based on the predictive performance of the models, the study is able to confirm that most cognitive evaluations were interlinked with different physiological responses. The comparison of the different algorithms and the application of methods for interpretable machine learning showed that the relation between these two components is best represented by a non-linear model and that the studied link seems to vary among physiological signals and cognitive dimensions. Both studies substantiate the assumption that the cognitive appraisal process is interlinked with physiology and subjective feelings, accentuating the relevance of cognition in emotion as assumed in appraisal theory. They also demonstrate how computational emotion modeling can be applied in basic research on emotions. (shrink)

This doctoral thesis addresses a group of conceptual instruments that are central to Aristotle's philosophy, namely, the concepts of pros hen, homonymy, synonymy and multivocity. These instruments are crucial to many of Aristotle's works as he devotes himself to analysing the key notions in each of his investigations using these instruments. Despite the undisputable importance of these instruments, they display severe interpretative problems, which this thesis critically evaluates. The currently established view on the relationship between homonymy and multivocity is discussed (...) and then reassessed in order to approach the definition of the so-called pros hen structure. This approach takes into account a so-far undescribed distinction of types of examples Aristotle uses and sheds new light on the assessments of the role of the pros hen structure in Aristotle’s philosophy and the theories on development in Aristotle’s thought. Niels Tolkiehn studied Philosophy and Systematic Musicology at the University of Hamburg. He continued his studies as a doctoral student at the Munich School of Ancient Philosophy, a graduate school of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Supervised by Prof. Dr. Christof Rapp, he was awarded his doctoral degree in 2019 with this dissertation. (shrink)

The present study has two main purposes: First, investigating the role of sensory-processing sensitivity, describing inter-individual differences with regard to people’s sensitivity to positive and negative environmental stimuli through a deeper level of information processing, in the teaching work place. Second, it aims at revealing further insight into the association between SPS and different mental disorders as well as variables of therapeutic success. The teaching profession is widely accepted as being complex and highly demanding with many expectations and requirements, so (...) the high level of stress found across teachers is thus not surprising. Nonetheless, teachers can only efficiently fulfill their important tasks and have a positive influence on students if they are mentally healthy. Given empirical findings supporting an increased stress level across teachers, numerous studies have investigated the conditions and processes behind the onset of mental ill-health and developed various prevention programs to support teachers in dealing with their perceived stress. Looking through the research area, a clear focus on behavior and personality-related characteristics of teachers is present, including, for example, various dysfunctional cognitions, coping behavior or the Big Five personality traits. Although other studies consider environmental aspects of the work place as well, such as noise or schedules, the integration of these two entities is still a research gap. This is true despite recent developments emphasizing the perspective of person-environment interactions, particularly in the field of stress. The present study takes up this gap by introducing the temperament trait of SPS into the field of teacher professionalism and health research, representing a holistic way of analyzing person-environment interactions as it focuses on individuals’ reactivity to certain environmental conditions and stimuli. Embedded into the project “Risiko-Check für das Lehramt”, two teacher samples participated in the study: a non-clinical sample of teachers, who were actively teaching in the school context and a clinical sample of teachers, who received inpatient treatment and were diagnosed with mental disorders during the data collection process. Both groups filled out the same questionnaire, which included different scales measuring aspects of the teaching environment and personality-related variables of teachers. For a small sub-group of the teachers in the clinical sample, additional clinically-relevant data, such as measures of therapeutic success or additional measures of mental disorders, was also available. In line with the first goal of the study, results reveal further evidence for the validity of the construct: SPS was successfully differentiated from other variables measuring psychological well-being, including Depression, Anxiety, and Stress. The second aim represents the investigation of the role of the temperamental trait of SPS in the teaching context. Of particular interest are the perception of certain workplace-demand characteristics unique to this profession and the extent to which certain characteristics related to SPS are activated in teachers in their everyday lives. Findings suggest that highly sensitive teachers feel more attuned to the students, who need help, but, at the same time, have more difficulties with regard to the characteristics that are very open and include a certain degree of flexibility. Those are for example, maintaining an efficient work-life balance, dealing with their tasks and deciding when certain demands are fulfilled, lack of feedback, and the various expectations teachers are confronted with. In spite of these difficulties, they perceive themselves as similarly successful as non-highly sensitive teachers. Additionally, SPS mediates the relationship between different demands and teachers’ perceived stress. Three ways this is possible are an increased frequency of applying dysfunctional cognitions, coping strategies, and lower self-efficacy. Research questions in line with the third general goal of the present study include a more detailed investigation of the association with clinically relevant variables; the difference between mentally ill teachers and those teaching actively; and evidence for the presence of the Vantage Theory framework in clinical contexts, describing increased effect of positive and supporting environments, such as those found in therapeutic interventions. In general, participants in the clinical sample reach higher mean scores on the scale measuring SPS than participants in the non-clinical sample. Additionally, investigating the symptoms of teachers in the clinical sample, highly sensitive teachers show more severe symptoms of anxiety and depressive disorders. Finally, in line with one of the hypotheses stated in this context, results support the presence of vantage sensitivity in this study. While almost all patients show improvements in their general functioning and clinical global impression at release, patients with high levels of SPS are found to benefit even more from the treatment, on average, than patients with lower levels of SPS. This is true for the majority of symptoms that are associated with SPS, which include phobic anxiety, anxiety, and depressive disorders. Finally, the fourth objective of the present study aims at broadening the findings by investigating the hypothesis of the existence of different sensitivity types. Then, all theoretical and empirical models as well as existing findings and those generated in the present study are taken together in order to develop an overarching model for the development of stress in teaching, including SPS as one facet. Results of a cluster analysis including the highly sensitive teachers of both samples disclose the existence of three sensitivity types that differ significantly with regard to their core areas of certain characteristics of SPS. While one group reaches comparably high scores across facets, the remaining two sensitivity types show a particular focus, either the facet Aesthetical sensitivity or the two factors Low sensory threshold and Ease of excitation. The majority of the clinical sample is found to be more aesthetically sensitive, whereas most teachers in the nonc-clinical sample are assigned to the group with comparably higher scores across facets. Furthermore, these sensitivity types differ with regard to their work-life balance and dysfunctional cognitions as well as coping strategies in a such way that the Aesthetically sensitive type reach mean scores that can be interpreted as most functional when compared to the remaining types. Finally, with regard to a general model of stress development for teaching, despite the final model not reaching statistical indices indicating a fit to the data of the present study, comparisons of regression weights reveal support for the significant role of SPS in comparison to already-established variables. In summary, the findings of the present study close various research gaps and have multiple implications. First, they reveal evidence for the fact that SPS could add valuable information when implemented into research on teacher professionalism and teacher stress, which has diverse implications for the political, administrational and individual level. Secondly, they broaden the research field of SPS by revealing more insight into the associations between SPS and mental ill-health as well as evidence in support of vantage sensitivity, suggesting that patients with higher levels of SPS benefit more from therapeutic interventions than patients with lower levels. Limitations of the present study are discussed critically and suggested approaches for further research studies are described. (shrink)

Social psychology depends on assumptions about the cultural context in which an experiment takes place. Cross-cultural psychology identifies and explains differences not accounted for in these assumptions. However, comparability does not come easy; there are numerous challenges that come with expanding the surrounding context both in the development of theory and execution of methods. This dissertation will review the history of cross-cultural psychology and strive to experimentally rectify some of its shortcomings. Part one will take on the theory behind one (...) of the most researched cross-cultural topics: collectivism, which is traditionally contrasted to individualism. I further differentiate between relational and categorical collectivism, and investigate similarities and differences at a country level as well as at the individual level of self-construal. Part two will address methodological issues in cross-cultural psychology: 1) by looking at the mode in which data is collected; comparing paper/pencil, web/computer-based, and smart-phone, and finding differences across modes which are not explained by country or age alone, and 2) by exploring the fundamental comparability of psychological measures with invariance testing, and by using different methods of testing, such as multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis and alignment, for measurement invariance with the goal to facilitate comparing measures across numerous countries. In conclusion, these experimental explorations both improve and draw attention to the limitations in cross-cultural social psychology. (shrink)

Organizations more and more attempt to utilize employee survey data for evidence-based management and organizational change. However, employee survey models are often underdeveloped in structure and seldom systematically validated, what limits their value for these purposes. The aim of the presented thesis was to address this gap with three studies developing, validating and applying the first published integrative science-based employee survey process model. Based on a review of scientific employee survey models, in the first study, seven potential process models are (...) proposed. These models are comparatively tested by applying structural-equation-modelling to a meta-analytical synthesis of N = 123 meta-analyses from psychology, management science and business research. We find evidence for a mediation model with two general dimensions of employees’ perceived work environment affecting their job attitudes and organizational outcomes. In the second study, this model is validated in three large-scale empirical field studies. The studies support causality of the models’ structural assumptions as well as its generalizability to an analysis on work unit level. With the third study, a case example of working with survey data generated with the newly developed model to acquire evidence for EbM in practice is presented. Overall, the research contributes to the employee survey literature by developing a first all-around scientifically sound employee survey model with validated causal model structure and offering first evidence for the relevance of multi-level modeling in employee survey models. Further, it contributes theoretically to the understanding of people outcomes and organizational adaptability emergence from employees’ work environment perceptions. In sum, this thesis provides a survey model with which organizations can apply survey data for EbM to improve organizational development and managerial decision-making. (shrink)

Multitasking behavior and working memory training are important topics in psychological science. The present thesis systematically investigated the underlying cognitive constructs of multitasking behavior and the cognitive strategies related to transfer effects of working memory training, which were described in two empirical studies. In the first study, we examined the underlying cognitive constructs associated with the concept of multitasking behavior. Although prior investigations have revealed cognitive abilities to be important predictors of multitasking behavior, few studies have been conducted on the (...) relation between executive functions and multitasking behavior. In this regard, the current investigation explored the importance of EFs, working memory capacity, relational integration, and divided attention to multitasking behavior. A sample of 202 young adults completed a battery of EFs, three WMC tests, three relational integration tests, two divided attention tests, and a multitasking scenario. Our study provided several key findings. First, in direct replication attempts, we could replicate the multitasking behavior model and partially replicate the three-factor and nested factors EFs models. Second, the regression analyses revealed that updating, inhibition, relational integration, and divided attention had strong contributions in explaining multitasking behavior variance, whereas shifting and WMC did not show any explanatory power beyond these constructs. Finally, using structural equation modeling, we found that the general EF ability representing variance common to shifting, updating, and inhibition highly overlapped with multitasking behavior. Our results are of value not only to shed light on the relevant cognitive correlates of multitasking behavior but also to position multitasking behavior in an established framework of cognitive abilities. Additionally, by providing strong empirical evidence in favor of cognitive constructs of multitasking behavior, this study builds the necessary groundwork for steering future research to elucidate the etiology of underlying relations between these specific cognitive correlates and multitasking behavior. The second study inspected how transfer occurs on material-specific tasks, rather than other task types within the working memory training framework. Despite numerous attempts of using training interventions to increase WMC, the role of cognitive strategy in explaining the transfer effects is not yet experimentally investigated. We hypothesized that transfer would occur when a similar cognitive strategy is applied in solving both the trained and transfer tasks. According to this idea, we examined the strategic approach by directly using tasks that allow for specific strategies and tasks that do not. In particular, training with verbal and numerical materials should show transfer to figural material, and the other way around. Additionally, differences between visual and verbal cognitive strategies could lead to differential transfer effects on working memory tasks. Eighty young adults received training on two working memory operations: storage and processing, and relational integration with four different materials verbal/numerical/figural /figural, and another 17 served as active control group and 8 as passive group. Before and after 12 days of adaptive training, performance on the storage and processing, and on the relational integration tasks was assessed. Linear-mixed effects modeling revealed four important findings. First, following training, there were reliable improvements on the performance of trained storage and processing, and relational integration tasks, compared to the active control group. However, such training did not generalize to measures of the same working memory operation with different materials in most cases. Second, the only transfer effect was observed between numerical and figural material within relational integration tasks, thereby confirming our hypothesis. Third, no transfer was detected between storage and processing, and relational integration. Finally, there was no direct evidence supporting the influence of cognitive strategies on transfer effects. Together, the present findings provide strong evidence for growing theories of multitasking behavior and working memory training, emphasizing the importance of cognitive underpinnings of multitasking behavior and specifying the efficacy of working memory intervention only on material-specific tasks, which may be emerged from the acquisition of task-specific cognitive strategies. Although the current investigation did not yet provide clear evidence about the strategic approach, the combination of material-specific mechanisms with a general boost in the underlying cognitive strategies provides an important and interesting perspective for future work. (shrink)

In this thesis, we introduce “Argueware”. This is a concept for an instructional group awareness tool which aims at supporting social interactions in co-located computer-supported collaborative argumentation settings. Argueware is designed to support the social interactions in the content and in the relational space of co-located collaborative argumentation. The support for social interactions in the content space of collaboration is facilitated with the use of collaborative scripts for argumentation as well with the use of an argument mapping tool. The support (...) for social interactions in the relational space of collaboration is facilitated with the use of different awareness mechanisms from the CSCL and the CSCW research fields. In this thesis, we examined how different awareness mechanisms facilitate the regulation of collaborative processes in the relational space of collaborative argumentation. Moreover, we studied how they affect the perceived team effectiveness and group performance in the content space of collaboration. Thereby, we studied also the effects of the design of the awareness mechanisms on the application of the mechanisms and the user experience with them. In line with the design-based research paradigm, we attempted to simultaneously improve and study the effect of Argueware on collaborative argumentation. Through a series of design-based research studies we tested and refined the prototypes of the instructional group awareness tool. Moreover, we studied the ecological validity of dominant awareness and instructional theories in the context of co-located computer-supported collaborative argumentation. The underlying premise of the Argueware tool is that a combination of awareness and instructional support will result in increased awareness of collaboration, which will, in turn, mediate the regulation of collaborative processes. Moreover, we assume that successful regulation of collaboration will result in high perceived team effectiveness and the group performance in turn. In the first phase of development of the Argueware tool, we built support of the content space of collaborative argumentation with argument scaffold elements in a pedagogical face-to-face macro-script and an argument mapping tool. Furthermore, we extended the use of the script for supporting the relational space of collaboration by embedding awareness prompts for reflecting on collaboration during regular breaks in the script. Following, we designed two variations of the same pedagogical face-to-face macro-script which differ with respect to the type of group awareness prompts they used for supporting the relational space of collaboration i.e. behavioral and social. Upon designing the two script variations, we conducted a longitudinal, multiple-case study with ten groups of Media Informatics master students where each group was conceptualized as a case. Students collaborated every time for arguing to solve one different ill-structured problem and for transferring their arguments in the argument mapping tool Rationale. Thereby, we intended to investigate the effects of different awareness prompts on collaborative metacognitive processes i.e., regulation, reflection, and evaluation the relation between collaborative metacognitive processes and the quality of collaborative argumentation as well as the impact of the two script variations on perceived team effectiveness and what was experience with the different parts of the script variations in the two groups and how this fits into the design framework by Buder. The quantitative analysis of argument outcomes from the groups yield no significant difference between the groups that worked with the BAS and the SAS variations. No significant difference between the script variations with respect to the results from the team effectiveness questionnaires was found either. Prompts for regulating collaboration processes were found to be the most successfully and consistently applied ones, especially in the most successful cases from both script variations and have influenced the argumentation outcomes. The awareness prompts afforded an explicit feedback display format through discussion. The prompted explicit feedback display format was criticized for running only on subjective awareness information on participation, contribution efforts and performance in the role. This resulted in evaluation apprehension phenomena and evaluation bias. The awareness prompts for reflection and evaluation did reveal frictions in the plan making process in the least successful groups. Problems with group dynamics but were not powerful enough to trigger the desired changes in the behaviors of the students. The prompts for evaluating the collaboration in both script variations had no apparent connection to argumentation outcomes. The results indicated that dominant presence phenomena inhibited substantive argumentation in the least successful groups. They also indicated that the role-assignment influenced the group dynamics by helping student’s making clear the labor division in the group. In the second phase of development of the Argueware tool, the focus is on structuring and regulating social interactions in the relational space of collaborative argumentation by means of scripted roles and role-based awareness scaffolds. We designed support for mirroring participation in the role and support for monitoring participation, coordination and collaboration efforts in the role. Moreover, we designed additional support for guiding participation in the role i.e., role-based reminders as notifications on smartwatches. In a between-subjects study, ten groups of three university students each worked with two variants of the Argueware for arguing to solve one ill-structured problem and transferring their arguments in the argument mapping tool Rationale. Next, to that, students should monitor their progress in their role with the role-based awareness visualization and the self-assessment questionnaire with the basic awareness support and the enhanced awareness support. Half of the groups worked only with the role-based awareness visualization and the self-assessment questionnaire while the other half groups received additional text-based awareness notifications via smartwatches that were sent to students privately. Thereby, we tested the use of different degrees of awareness support in the two conditions with respect to their impact on a) self-perceived awareness of performance in the role and of collaboration and coordination efforts, b) on perceive team effectiveness, c) group performance. We hypothesized that students in EAC will perform better thanks to the additional awareness reminders that increased the directivity and influenced their awareness in the role. The mixed methods analysis revealed that the awareness reminders, when perceived on time, succeeded in guiding collaboration. Students in the EAC condition improved their awareness over time. These results indicated that enhanced awareness support in the form of additional guidance through awareness reminders can boost the awareness of students’ performance in the role as well as the awareness of their coordination and collaboration efforts over time by directing them back to the mirroring and monitoring tools. Moreover, students in EAC exhibited higher perceived team effectiveness than the students in BAC. However, no significant differences in building of shared mental models or performing in mutual performance monitoring were found between the groups. However, students in BAC and EAC did not differ significantly with respect to the formal correctness or evidence sufficiency of their group argumentation outcomes. Moreover, technical difficulties with the smartphones used as delivery devices for the awareness reminders hindered the timely perception of the reminders and thus their effect on participation. Finally, the questionnaire on the experience with the different parts of Argueware system indicated the need for exploring further media for supporting the awareness reminders to avoid the overwhelming effects of the multiple displays of the system and enhancing higher perceptiveness of the reminders with low interruption costs for other group members. The rather high satisfaction with the use of the role-based awareness visualization and the positive comments on the motivating aspects of monitoring how the personal success contributes to the group performance indicate that the group mirror succeeded in making group norms visible to group members in a non-obtrusive way. The high interpersonal comparability of performances without moderating the group ‘s interaction directly in the basic awareness condition was proven to be the favored design approach compared to the combination of group mirror and awareness reminders in the enhance awareness condition. In the third phase of development of Argueware, we focused on designing and testing different notification modes on different ubiquitous mobile devices for facilitating the next prototype of a notification system for role-based awareness reminders. Thereby, the aim of the system was again to guide students’ active participation in collaborative argumentation. More specifically, we focused on raising students’ attention to the reminders and triggering a prompter reaction to the contents of the reminders whilst avoiding a high interruption cost for the primary task in the group. These goals were translated into design challenges for the design of the role-based awareness notification system. The system should afford low interruptions, high reaction and high comprehension of notifications. Notification systems with this particular configuration of IRC values are known as "secondary display" systems. Next, we designed three low-fidelity prototypes for a role-based notification system for delivering awareness reminders: The first ran on a smartwatch and afforded text-based information with vibration and light notification modalities. The second ran on smartphone and afforded text-based information with vibrotactile and light-based notification modalities. Finally, the third prototype run on a smart-ring which afforded graphical- based information with and light and vibration notification modalities. To test the suitability of these prototypes for acting as “secondary display” systems, we conducted a within-subjects user study where three university students argued for solving three different problem cases and producing an argument map in each of the three consecutive meetings in the Argueware instructional system. Students were assigned the roles of writer, corrector and devil`s advocate and were instructed to maintain the same role across the three meetings. In each meeting, students worked with a different role-based awareness notification prototype, where they received a notification indicating their balloon is not growing bigger after five minutes of not exhibiting any role-specific behaviors. The role-based awareness notification prototypes aimed at introducing timely interventions which would prompt students to check on their own progress in the role and the group progress as visualized by the role-based awareness visualization on the large display. Ultimately, this should prompt them to reflect on the awareness information from the visualization and adapt their behaviors to the desired behavior standards over time. Results showed that students perceived the notifications from all media mostly based on vibration cues. Thereby, the vibration cues on the wrist were considered the least disruptive to the main task compared to the vibration cues on finger and the vibration cues on the desk. Students also declared that vibration cues on wrist prompted the fastest reaction i.e., attending to notification by interacting with the smartwatch. These results indicate that vibration cues on the wrist can be a suitable notification mechanism for increasing the perceived urgency of the message and prompting the reaction on it without causing great distraction to the main task, as studies previous studies showed before. Based on very limited qualitative data on light as notification modality and awareness representation type no inferences could be made about its influence on the cost of interruption, reaction and comprehension parameters comprehensiveness. The qualitative and quantitative data on the experience with different media as awareness notification systems indicate that smartwatches may be the most suitable medium for acting as awareness notification medium with a “secondary display” IRC configuration. However, this inference needs to be tested in terms of a follow up study. In the next study, the great limitations of study need to be repaired. Finally, the focus should be on comparing notification modalities of one medium based on a larger set of participants and with the use of objective measurements for the IRC parameter values. Finally, we draw conclusions based on the findings from the three studies with respect to the role of awareness mechanisms for facilitating collaborative processes and outcomes and provide replicable and generalizable design principles. These principles are formed as heuristic statements and are subject to refinement by further research. We conclude with the limitations of the study and ideas for future work with Argueware. (shrink)

This doctoral thesis examines the influence of mixed-language and humorous advertising slogans on different German target groups. The advertising slogans concerned are written in a foreign language, native language or both and partly include wordplays. It is examined which advertising slogan stays best in mind for which target group. Results are explained with humour theory, relevance theory and frame-shifting.

Since children with a parent suffering from depression are at heightened risk of developing psychiatric disorders themselves, they are a target group for preventive interventions and as such a major public health priority. The cognitive-behavioural, family-, and group-based prevention program “Raising Healthy Children” has shown promising findings in reducing the prevalence of depression and general psychopathology in a sample of children of depressed parents in the United States of America. The overarching aim of the current thesis is the evaluation of (...) a German adaption of RHC prevention program. The current study is in this form unique, because the program was not evaluated yet outside the research group on an international level. In the first step I investigated whether the psychopathology of children of depressed parents is associated with parental depression, number of stressful experiences the child experienced and the parental socio-economic status. For baseline differences, data of 77 families were available, which were included in the analyses. There was no evidence that children of depressed parents differ at baseline in depressive symptoms in relation to parent depression severity, number of depressive episodes, the number of stressful experiences or the SES. But evidence emerged that offspring’s externalising problem behaviour is related to the number of parental depressive episodes, and offspring’s general psychopathology is related to the number of stressful life events. No relation between SES and offspring’s mental health could be demonstrated. In a second step, I examined whether the prevention program is effective in reducing child’s depression in the short-term. By investigating preliminary data on incidence of depression at 15 months after baseline, I also investigated the extent to which the intervention prevented depression in the long-term. Further key aims were to see whether the program is effective in reducing child’s general psychopathology, and whether the program is effective in enhancing child’s knowledge of depression as well as whether it is effective in changing the parenting style in a positive direction in the short- and medium-term. The study was conducted as randomised controlled trial. The 77 families were randomised to receive the twelve session intervention vs. waiting list. Intervention outcomes suggested that the program has positive effects from child’s perspective on child’s internalising and mixed psychopathological symptoms. However, the parental view did not confirm these findings. Parent reports indicate that independent of group both symptom scales improved over a period of nine months. No evidence was found that the program shows benefits on child’s depression, knowledge of depression or child’s perception of parenting style. The knowledge of depression rather enhanced in short-term independent of participation. A feedback evaluation suggested that the general acceptability of the prevention program is high. The baseline findings indicate that the psychopathology of children of depressed parents is influenced by some, but not all, parental factors. Although I could not demonstrate the prevention effect of the program for depression prevention, I could show that some general psychopathological symptoms of children can be reduced by the program. The study provides an important step in the development of more effective prevention, which is exigently required. (shrink)