Altruistische Reziprozität. Theoretische Überlegungen und experimentelle Evidenz

Altruistic reciprocity means the unconditional tendency of ego to return any experienced action, no matter if the receiver is the same person ego has received the action from or not. Altruistic reciprocity is one candidate for the explanation of cooperation in anonymous, complex societies. In order to fulfill this function, altruistic reciprocity must work also with costly actions that are not socially controlled and directed to an anonymous third party. However, the experimental evidence shows no altruistic reciprocity if it is costly and directed to a third party. It remains unclear if there is costly and directed altruistic reciprocity. Reciprocity as a catalyzer of cooperation seems to be restricted to two situations: 1) Situations with social control where reciprocity is operative by social norms and/or strategic considerations. 2) Anonymous situations where reciprocity is cost-free and directed to the donor. Therefore, reciprocity seems not suitable as a motivator for cooperation in real anonymous situations, e.g. in a second-order free-rider problem.     

Kritische Ereignisse und private Überschuldung

This article investigates in how far critical life events (e.g. unemployment) as well as financial shocks triggered by such events affect the probability of private households to enter over-indebtedness (shock hypothesis). Second, we examine if the effect of such events is mitigated by coping measures set by the household after the critical event and/or financial shock has occurred (coping hypothesis). Third, we test if the effect of critical events/financial shocks also depends on the household structure and its financial circumstances (vulnerability hypothesis). To test these hypotheses, we use panel data from the ECHP (1995–2001) and EU-SILC (2004–2008) for Austria. We estimated multivariate panel regression models which allow controlling for unobserved, time-invariant factors. Results suggest that financial shocks have a positive and significant effect on the likelihood of becoming over-indebted, while we did not find evidence for a direct effect of critical life events on over-indebtedness after controlling for unobserved time-constant factors in the fixed effects regression specifications. Regarding the coping hypothesis, evidence for a diminishing moderation effect of cost-saving strategies by households is weak but robust. Similarly, there is some evidence to support the vulnerability hypothesis—but only for some of the indicators chosen to reflect household vulnerability. Overall, our results indicate that causes to enter over-indebtedness cannot be exclusively reduced to either exogenous shocks or behavioral factors.     

Religion und Gesellschaft – Aktuelle Perspektiven

Increasing public attention to religious questions has in the past years re-invigorated the sociology of religion. As an introduction to the present special issue we outline some institutional and intellectual developments of German language sociology of religion since the post-war period. We furthermore highlight five current trends of the subdiscipline that pertain to the concept of religion, to debates over secularization, to methodological questions of sociological explanation, to interdisciplinary research on religions under conditions of globalization, and to the refinement of quantitative as well as qualitative research methods. Having argued that these trends attest to an increasingly global-comparative approach, we conclude with some research perspectives for future sociology of religion.     

Wie beeinflussen Geschlecht und Bildungsherkunft den Übergang in individuelle und strukturierte Promotionsformen?

The recent expansion of structured doctoral programs in Germany aims on reducing social selectivity in access to doctoral studies. Therefore, this article firstly explores if gender and educational background differences differ on the transition to individual and structured doctorates. Secondly, it examines the underlying mechanisms that may account for these differences. Analyses are based on data from the DZHW graduate panel studies. Findings confirm that the effects of educational background on entering a structured doctoral program or grant program are lower than those found on transition to individual doctorates, where doctorates are pursued within a research assistant position or as an external doctoral candidate. Gender only influences the transition into a PhD within a research assistant position. Mediator analyses show that this gender difference can largely be explained by subject choices, student assistant jobs and parenthood. For educational background differences, performance differences also explain a big part of the effects. To what extend these mechanisms contribute to unequal entry chances, however, varies between different formal PhD contexts.     

Interkulturelle Arbeit und Kommunikation – Gibt es das?

The concept of intercultural communication seems to be a meaningless concept, because it does not point out a specific difference between intercultural and other kinds of communication. Yet its general use makes sense because it helps to become aware that, figuratively speaking, every attempt to communicate is a journey into an unknown foreign country where people like us, are just living in very different way than we are. The concept of intercultural communication is a reminder that every communication is a meeting between two or more equally valuable unknown cultures. Because they are so different, unknown and equally valuable, they first have to respectfully get acquainted with each other, which is not easy, because they only can see each other with their own cultural concepts. Therefore communication is very unlikely to be successful.     

Teamarbeit und Gesundheit – Der Einfluss von Teammerkmalen auf Stressbewältigung und Gesundheit bei Un- und Angelernten

To date, research on teamwork and health is sparse. This accounts for teams with low-qualified workers in particular. In this paper a work psychological model for resource and stress management in teams and a study with teams of low-qualified workers are presented (N?=?265 in 33 teams). Results of multi-level analyses show, that team resources in the social work system and understaffing in teams as a team stressor have significant influence on collective coping and explain team differences. Further, team resources in the technical work system, i.e. the quality of teamwork design have significant influence on psychosomatic complaints. These influences go beyond the influences of socio-demographic variables and individual job stressors and job resources.     

Mixed Methods – Stand der Debatte und aktuelle Problemlagen

While mixed methods research is already much advanced and institutionalized in textbooks, handbooks and its own journal on an international level, the German-language debate on mixed methods lags behind. Thus, this introductory paper starts with outlining the history and key concepts of mixed methods designs as well as the current state of the international debate. Next, we explain the aims and concept of this special issue as well as the crucial arguments of the single papers in the overall context of the special issues. Namely, the debate in this special issue of the Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie circles around the following four topics: philosophical, methodological and methodical foundations of mixed methods research; mixed methods designs and mixed methods sampling; modes of combining data and issues of validity; and process-oriented analysis, longitudinal analysis and evaluation. Based on the observations that, firstly, both the international social science research community and social problems are globalizing and, secondly, that social research itself is changing, especially by the increasing relevance of social media and big data, the paper concludes with suggestions for future research.     

Religion und Bildungserfolg im Migrationskontext – Theoretische Argumente,empirische Befunde und offene Fragen

Religion has received extensive attention as a factor influencing immigrants’ integration. This paper examines the role of religion in explaining ethnic educational inequalities in Germany. Due to a general lack of research in this field, the paper provides an overview of existing empirical findings, specifies theoretical arguments on how religious affiliation, belief and participation possibly affect educational achievement among children of immigrants. Using data from the first wave of the “Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in four European Countries” collected in 2010/11 the paper tests key arguments on the influence of religion on the educational attainment among 14-year-old immigrant and non-immigrant students at German schools. Compared to other religious groups, Muslims display lower rates of educational achievement. However, this can be largely explained by their social background and is independent from their levels of individual religiosity. Interestingly, individual religiosity has a positive effect on the educational achievement among Protestant students, whether with or without a migration background.     

Mitarbeiterintegration und Mitarbeiterbindung von Organisationen – Wie integrieren und binden Organisationen ihr Personal?

This article in the journal “Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Organisationspsychologie (GIO)” provides a brief overview of a semantic integration mechanism how organizations can succeed in integrating and attach their employees. Every organization has basic assumptions about human behavior. These assumptions or images about people, whether implicitly present or explicitly reflected, essentially determine the behavior of the organization and its personnel management. In terms of research theory, the work is based on the system theoretical considerations of Niklas Luhmann. Organizations are fictitious units that are constructed in communication. The employees of organizations belong to the environment of the organization and are structurally linked to it through their employee role. Structurally coupled means the members of an organization are able to influence the structure of the organization. The central result of this article is the identification of a semantic integration mechanism that functions as a membrane that generates resonance both in the social system of organizations and in the psychological system of structurally coupled employees. In the current changing world of work, this mechanism can help organizations to attach their employees to the organization. The empirical data come from a research project on the identity and functional logic of training organizations.     

Arbeitsteilung,Berufsorientierung und Partnerschaftsstabilität – Ehen und nichteheliche Lebensgemeinschaften im Vergleich*

The central finding of this paper is that the link between the division of labour and the risk of separation differs depending on the type of relationship. Marriages tend to be destabilised by the wife’s participation in the labour force and stabilised by the traditional division of labour. Empirical evidence of this is manifest in a positive effect of the wife’s income and a negative effect of the husband’s relative income on the likelihood of separation. In contrast to this, unmarried long-term relationships are stabilised by egalitarian division of labour. This is evident from the absence of negative effects of an employment of the female cohabiter on stability of relationship. Furthermore, in unmarried cohabitations the relative income of the man increases the risk of a separation. In addition to the income ratio, homogamous attitudes have explanatory value. Cohabitations are stable when both partners are career-oriented. This finding points to an egalitarian gender-role-orientation among unmarried men. It also implies that an egalitarian orientation has an impact on the living arrangement which needs to be accepted by both partners – for instance when family planning and timing of marriage are concerned.     

Islam in Europa – Integration durch Recht und ihre Grenzen

The integration of Islam has largely occurred through independent legal systems. This article follows some waymarks and recurrent conflicts in this process, compares an individual rights and corporate recognition path of legal integration with respect to their possibilities and limits; and points to tensions between law and politics that result from extended legal integration. What stands out is the elasticity of legal institutions toward a religion that in no small measure must be an irritation to them.     

Agilität und Organisationsentwicklung – Ziemlich beste Freunde?

Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Organisationspsychologie (GIO) - Mit Wandel umzugehen ist seit jeher eine zentrale Herausforderung der Unternehmensführung....     

Deutsch-polnisches Training: Persönliche und professionelle Erfahrungen mit Bikulturalität und Interkulturalität – Anspruch und Wirklichkeit

This report contains several experiences and authentic examples taken from highly professional German-Polish and Polish-German coaching groups. Accordingly, ideas are in part presented from a very personal point of view. Running “Intercultural activities” is very much praised in a world that becomes more and more globalized. But how do these activities work out in practice? The author’s goal is to explain the cultural differences in order for managers to be able to work effectively in international projects. The author illustrates her method and her goals by giving characteristic examples. She talks about demands as far as the personality of the coach is concerned, as well as about interferences within the coaching situation. A prevailing common culture in Europe does not (yet) exist which makes it even more important to talk about differences openly so that they can be understood and be overcome. Useful experiences are shared which shall help to build a ‘working’ trust level between representatives of different cultures. Cultural factors of power usage are described which show how power can be applied in different ways. The influence of language problems is also analyzed in detail. Finally, this paper shows that the most important is to keep an atmosphere based on cooperation: only when such an atmosphere is accepted as a natural daily routine can contacts among participants of different cultures be established as among equals and it is then possible to overcome the challenges related to differences of cultures.     

Online-Befragungen im Kontext von Lehrevaluationen – praktisch und unzuverlässig

Online-surveys enjoy increasing popularity and they seem to be especially suited for evaluating the quality of teaching in academic courses. The fact remains, however, that the reliability of their results has hardly been tested. Compared to the results of a written questionnaire carried out with the same university-courses online-surveys demonstrate grave deficiencies. These imperfections render their results useless: 1. Students’ participation in the onlinequestioning is—compared to their participation in the written questionnaire—considerably lower (in several courses too low to be of any analytical use). 2. In the case of all courses and analysed questions the results diverge from those of the written questionnaire which achieved census-quality. Rankings based on these two proceedings differ widely. This occurs regardless of them being set up in individual lists or in groupings. 3. There are clear indications that the way respondents answer online-questionnaires is less reliable than in paper&pencil methods. Although online-surveys benefit by being cost-efficient their methodological shortcomings raise important questions about their reliability for judging the quality of academic teaching.     

Entscheidung unter Unsicherheit – Familiengründung und -erweiterung im Erwerbsverlauf

The current investigation analyses the impact of income and economic uncertainty on women’s family formation and expansion. Analyses based on the data of the German Socio-economic Panel reveal that partner income and income security have positive effects on the propensity toward family formation. Conversely, downward mobility in the partner’s career inhibits second birth transitions. Partner resources could be interpreted as social capital facilitating the realisation of the desire for children. Furthermore, the investigation shows that only persistent occupational uncertainty has negative effects on first birth transitions valid equally for men and women. Consequently, results suggest that women are not backtracking from the labour market in reaction to experiences of uncertainty and exclusion. This indicates that women’s occupational establishment is an important condition of family formation. In conclusion, the analysis documents that individual economic und social situation rather than potential economic incalculabilities associated with higher unemployment rates.