Das Profilstudienprogramm: <Emphasis Type="Italic">Konfliktberatung für Pädagoginnen und Pädagogen</Emphasis> des Instituts für Psychoanalyse an der Universität Kassel. Ein psychoanalytisch-pädagogischer Ansatz

Zusammenfassung  Der Aufsatz stellt das Profilstudienprogramm ‚Konfliktberatung für P?dagoginnen und P?dagogen‘ an der Universit?t Kassel vor. Dabei handelt es sich um ein freiwilliges Studienangebot für Lehramtsstudierende. Die Ausbildungsziele werden auf Grundlage von aktuellen Untersuchungsergebnissen zu den Gründen von Frühpensionierungen im Lehrerberuf im Kontext von psychosozialen Belastungen und berufsrelevanten Pers?nlichkeitsmerkmalen erl?utert. Im Anschluss daran werden die Bedeutung der Berufswahlmotivation sowie die Schulung der F?higkeit zur Selbstreflexion als ein wesentlicher Teil der Professionalisierung im Lehreramtsstudium hervorgehoben. Die verschiedenen Seminarbausteine werden vorgestellt. Abschlie?end wird die Bedeutung des Profilstudienprogramms für die Lehrerbildung diskutiert.

Eskalierendes Commitment gegenüber Mitarbeitern: Ein Rahmenmodell

Zusammenfassung:  Oft werden zus?tzliche Ressourcen in Mitarbeiter investiert, obwohl sie die in sie von ihren Vorgesetzten formulierten Erwartungen nicht erfüllen, und augenscheinlich die Trennung von ihnen die angemessene Entscheidung w?re. Ein solches Verhalten kann als „eskalierendes Commitment“ bezeichnet werden (Staw, 1997). In diesem Beitrag wird untersucht, welche Konsequenzen es hat, dieses „Festhalten“ an wenig geeigneten Mitarbeitern tats?chlich als „eskalierendes Commitment“ zu beschreiben. Hierzu werden zum einen Erkenntnisse aus der bisherigen Forschung zum eskalierenden Commitment herangezogen, zum anderen werden ausgehend von Kernmerkmalen einer Arbeitsbeziehung vier weitere Faktoren diskutiert, die eskalierendes Commitment gegenüber Mitarbeitern verst?rken k?nnen: (1) Sympathie, (2) Prognoseungewissheit bzgl. des vermuteten Potentials des Mitarbeiters, (3) dem Mitarbeiter unterstellte Motivationsprobleme und (4) M?glichkeiten zur Reinterpretation der Anforderungen an den Mitarbeiter. Abschlie?end werden Deeskalationsstrategien diskutiert

Keineswegs ein Märchen aus Tausend und einer Nacht – Replik auf Kai Arzheimers Kommentar zu meinem Aufsatz „Passt die Türkei zur EU und die EU zu Europa? Eine Mehrebenenanalyse auf der Basis der Europäischen Wertestudie“

Zusammenfassung   Die Ergebnisse meiner Studie zur Akzeptanz von EU-Grundprinzipien in der Türkei und in der EU sowie die gelieferten Erkl?rungsmodelle für Einstellungsunterschiede zweifelt Kai Arzheimer in diesem Heft an. Dass die Befunde, die auf Sekund?ranalysen der Europ?ischen Wertestudie beruhen, keinesfalls als „M?rchen“ abzutun sind, wie Arzheimer durch seine Fragestellung im Titel andeuten will, werde ich in meiner Antwort auf seinen Kommentar belegen. Vielmehr sind sie Hinweis darauf, dass es noch bedeutende Einstellungsdifferenzen zwischen der Türkei und der EU im Hinblick auf die Unterstützung von EU-Grundprinzipien wie Religionsfreiheit und Gleichberechtigung gibt, w?hrend gleichzeitig die türkische ?ffentlichkeit die Demokratie und das Prinzip der Rechtsstaatlichkeit unterstützt. In einem Mehrebenenmodell, das sowohl den kulturellen Kontext als auch den Modernisierungsgrad einbezieht, wurden die Gründe für eine eventuelle Sonderstellung der Türkei überprüft.

The scoring rules in an endogenous election

Plurality rule is mostly criticized from being capable of choosing an alternative considered as worst by a strict majority. This paper considers elections in which the agenda consists of potential candidates strategically choosing whether or not to enter the election. In this context, we examine the ability of scoring rules to fulfil the Condorcet criterion. We show for the case of three potential candidates that Plurality rule is the only scoring rule that satisfies a version of the Condorcet criterion in two cases: 1) when preferences are single-peaked and, 2) when preferences are single-dipped.

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The economics of gay and lesbian couples: Introduction to a special issue on gay and lesbian households

This article presents a simple conceptual framework integrating three couple-related outcomes analyzed in this volume: wage differentials in earnings related to couple formation, household formation (including cohabitation and registration as Registered Domestic Partnership), and intra-household allocation of income. It also discusses some of the articles’ main findings.

Exploring the Racial Identities of Black Immigrants in the United States

This study draws upon immigrant incorporation theories to investigate whether native origin trumps skin color in shaping the racial identities of black migrants. Using survey data from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality, six groups of black migrants are compared across two racial identity dimensions: racial group identification and racial group consciousness. The results demonstrate that while black migrants, with the exception of Puerto Ricans, develop a shared racial group identity with native-born blacks over time, the meaning they attach to being black in America varies by native origin.

Efficiency Wages,Productivity and Simultaneity: A Meta-Regression Analysis

This study reports a meta-analysis of 75 estimates of the efficiency-wage effect. It reveals a strong efficiency-wage effect that depends upon whether researchers control for potential simultaneity between wages and productivity. Studies that control for simultaneity tend to report stronger effects. Clear evidence of publication selection is also found. E24, J30.

The inverse plurality rule—an axiomatization

Under the ‘inverse plurality rule’, voters specify only their least preferred alternative. Our first result establishes that this rule is the only scoring rule that satisfies the minimal veto condition (MV). We then prove that the inverse plurality rule is characterized by MV and the four well known conditions that characterize scoring rules; namely, Anonymity (A), Neutrality (N), Reinforcement (RE) and Continuity (CO). Our new characterization result is related to the characterizations of approval voting and of the widely used plurality rule. We finally show how the axiomatization of the inverse plurality rule can be extended to the axiomatization of elementary scoring rules (vote for t-alternatives scoring rules). We are indebted to two anonymous referees for their most useful comments.

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Informalization and contemporary manners: The Wouters studies

This is a discussion of two books by Cas Wouters, Sex and Manners: Female Emancipation in the West 1890–2000 (London: Sage, 2004), and Informalization: Manners and Emotions since 1890 (Sage, forthcoming 2007, English version).

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Religion and Trends in Euthanasia Attitudes among U.S. Adults, 1977–2004

Though many studies address the role of religion in predicting social attitudes over time, none has examined this relationship specifically for euthanasia. Using a large, nationally representative data source, this study seeks to address this void. Our findings indicate that considerable differences exist among religious denominations regarding the legalization of euthanasia. Specifically, we note a liberalizing trend for all included denominations. We also demonstrate substantial differences in the rates of liberalization, particularly in comparison to conservative Protestants. We conclude with an assessment of our findings relative to previous studies on religion and public opinion.

On the influence of extreme parties in electoral competition with policy-motivated candidates

We study and compare equilibrium platforms in models of unidimensional electoral competition with two and four policy motivated parties. We first analyze the plurality game, where the party getting the most votes is elected and implements its proposed platform. Restrictions on the set of credible announcements are needed to get existence of equilibria. Comparing equilibria with two and four parties, we obtain that moderate parties react to the introduction of extreme parties by proposing the same or more extreme equilibrium platforms. We then study the proportional system, where the policy implemented is a weighted sum of the proposals, with the voting shares as weights. Here, the existence of extreme parties leads moderate ones to choose more centrist platforms. We finally test the robustness of our results with respect to, first, the enlargement of the strategy space to entry decisions and, second, to asymmetric distributions of voters' blisspoints.

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Reduced prizes and increased effort in contests

We study the general class of two-player public-policy contests and specify the asymmetry condition under which a more restrained government intervention that reduces the contestants’ prizes has the “perverse” effect of increasing their aggregate lobbying efforts.

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Do Reservation Wages Really Decline? Some International Evidence on the Determinants of Reservation Wages

Using cross-country data, we investigate the determinants of reservation wages and their course over the jobless spell. Higher unemployment benefits lead to higher reservation wages. Further, again consistent with the basic search model, repeated observations on the same individual provide scant evidence of declining reservation wages.

The Feeble Strength of One? Interdependence, Strategic Interaction, and the Decentralization of Collective Bargaining

This paper contributes to research examining class formation processes among capitalists by analyzing the fracturing of multiemployer collective bargaining associations in the U.S. coal mining and steel industries. The paper evaluates three theories of bargaining decentralization and offers an alternative account. Analyzing both the earlier stability of multiemployer bargaining and its subsequent decline, the paper attributes decentralization to changes in relationships of interdependence and power among unionized firms. While broad processes of economic restructuring gave rise to these shifts, social processes involving conflict and negotiation determined the specific direction of institutional change.

Efficient nonanthropocentric nature protection

This paper analyzes nature protection by a social planner under different ‘utilitarian’ social welfare functions. For that purpose we construct an integrated model of the economy and the ecosystem with explicit consideration of nonhuman species and with competition between human and nonhuman species for land and prey biomass. We characterize and compare the efficient allocations when social welfare is anthropocentric (only consumers have positive welfare weights), when social welfare is biocentric (only nonhuman species have positive welfare weights) and when social welfare is nonanthropocentric (all species have positive welfare weights). Not surprisingly, biocentric social welfare calls for suspending all economic activities. It is more important, however, that both anthropocentrism and nonanthropocentrism make the case for nature protection through different channels, though. Our analysis suggests that one may dispense with the concept of nonanthropocentric social welfare provided that in the anthropocentric framework the consumers' intrinsic valuation of nature is properly accounted for.

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Altruistic and Vicarious Fear of Crime: Fear for Others and Gendered Social Roles

Fear for others as distinct from personal fear is an understudied phenomenon. Relying on qualitative data, this paper explores gender differences in fear for others and identifies differences linked to social roles. For men, a paternal protector role characterized fears expressed mostly for their wives. For women, a maternal caretaker role characterized fears expressed for their children, elderly parents, and siblings. This paper offers a new way to conceptualize fear for others based on making distinctions between the object of fear and active or nonactive responses: kinship-based altruistic fear, kinship-based vicarious fear, general altruistic fear, and general vicarious fear.

The crisis of neoliberalism and the future of international institutions: A comparison of the IMF and the WTO

The current crisis of neoliberalism is calling into question the relevance of key international institutions. We analyze the origins, nature, and possible impacts of the crisis through comparing two such institutions: the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Both originated in the post-World War II U.S.-led hegemonic order and were transformed as part of the transition to global neoliberalism. We show that while the IMF and the WTO have been part of the same hegemonic project, their distinct institutional features have put them on significantly different trajectories. Historical differences in the two institutions’ systems of rules have placed the IMF in a more vulnerable position than the WTO, which provides clues to the future contours of global economic governance.

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The Native in the Garden: Floral Politics and Cultural Entrepreneurs

Although sociological research has examined how state symbolism binds citizens together and creates allegiance, little attention has been paid to how such symbols are selected. We investigate the adoption of state flowers in the United States. Seemingly unproblematic processes surrounding the selection of floral emblems can, under certain circumstances, involve heated symbolic politics. The default option of selecting a native flower, naturalizing the state, can be overcome by materialist or cultural interests that invest cultivated flowers with symbolic potency. In-depth case studies of three states where battles were waged over the state flower reveal that the battle lines were material and symbolic, demonstrating that apparently “authentic” representations of nature can be trumped by factional and subcultural interests.

The Therapeutic Action of Play in the Psychodynamic Treatment of Children: A Critical Analysis

This paper critically appraises the therapeutic action of play in psychodynamic child therapy and identifies obstacles to utilizing play therapeutically with children. An examination of the functions of action and verbal means of communication as well as their roles in shaping therapeutic relationships in treating children is provided in light of recent theoretical advances. The significance of engaging children directly through play and for redressing the balance between action and verbalization in child therapy is discussed.

The response of household parental investment to child endowments

The theoretical and empirical literature on parental investment focuses on whether child-specific parental investments reinforce or compensate for a child’s initial endowments. However, many parental investments, such as neighborhood quality and family size and structure, are shared wholly or in part among all children in a household. The empirical results of this paper imply that such household parental investments compensate for low endowments, as proxied by low birth weight.