Contributions of the German “Expression Psychology” to nonverbal communication research

An attempt is made to survey research on nonverbal behavior performed by German speaking Expression Psychologists. In this first part of a series of articles (other parts will cover research on facial expression, body movement, and speech and voice) theories and concepts of this nearly unknown branch of psychology are reviewed and discussed. Topics include the nature of expressive behavior, the relation between states/traits and expressive behavior, and the perception of expressive behavior.... we should now concentrate on searching for new avenues of approach, particularly in the study of human social communication, without worrying too much about rigid conformity with the canons of experimental respectability. We need more ideas, not more experiments; any provocative theory would be preferable to the inductive collecting of bits and pieces that has become our respectable habit. (Israel & Tajfel, 1972, p. 4)Editor's Note: The subsequent three parts of this series, to be published in consecutive issues of theJournal, further explore this area of theory and research often little known to American psychologists. Comments and contributions about the series are welcomed.     

Wilfried Kerntke (2004): Mediation als Organisationsentwicklung

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Sanctuary Cities: Policies and Practices in International Perspective

Sanctuary cities in the USA, UK, and Canada aim to accommodate illegalized migrants and refugees in their communities. The concept of the “sanctuary city,” however, is highly ambiguous: it refers to a variety of different policies and practices, and focuses on variable populations in different national contexts. In this article, I examine the international literature to show how urban sanctuary policies and practices differ between national contexts and assess whether there are common features of sanctuary cities. I uncover legal, discursive, identity‐formative, and scalar aspects of urban sanctuary policies and practices. These aspects assemble in ways that differ between countries. The article concludes by raising important practical and theoretical questions about urban sanctuary.     

Effects of distortion of spatial and temporal resolution of video stimuli on emotion attributions

Whether recognition of emotion from facial expression is affected by distortions of pictorial quality has rarely been tested, with the exception of the influence of picture size on emotion recognition. On the other hand, this question is important for (low-cost) tele-communication and tele-conferencing. Here an attempt is made to study whether emotion recognition from facial expression is impaired when video stimuli are distorted both with respect to spatial (pixel) resolution and with respect to temporal resolution (refreshment rate).N=56 stimuli, in which professional actors encoded 14 different emotions, were presented to groups of judges (N=10 in each condition) in six different distortion conditions. Furthermore, judges were confronted with a control condition, presenting the non-distorted stimuli. Channel of information (close-up of the face versus full body recording) was in addition manipulated. Results indicate (besides main effects for type of emotion encoded and for channel) that emotion recognition is impaired by reductions of both spatial resolution and temporal resolution, but that even very low spatial and temporal resolutions result in recognition rates which are still considerably above chance expectation. Results are discussed with respect to the importance of facial expression and body movement in communicating emotions, and with respect to applied aspects concerning tele-communication.     

The immigration–crime relationship: Evidence across US metropolitan areas

Despite popular commentary claiming a link between immigration and crime, empirical research exploring this relationship is sparse. Especially missing from the literature on immigration and crime is a consideration of how immigration affects rates of crime at the macro-level. Although individual-level studies of immigrant criminality and victimization tend to demonstrate that immigrants typically engage in less crime than their native-born counterparts, the effect of immigration on aggregate criminal offending is less clear. In this research, we attempt to address this weakness in the literature by examining the effects of aspects of immigration on crime rates in metropolitan areas. We combine 2000 US Census data and 2000 Uniform Crime Report data to explore how the foreign-born population influences criminal offending across a sample of metropolitan areas. After controlling for a host of demographic and economic characteristics, we find that immigration does not increase crime rates, and some aspects of immigration lessen crime in metropolitan areas.     

Wie wirken „Subkulturen der Gewalt“? Das Zusammenspiel von Internalisierung und Verbreitung gewaltlegitimierender Normen in der Erklärung von JugendgewaltHow do “Subcultures of Violence” lead to violence? The interplay of internalization and prevalence of norms legitimizing violence in the explanation of youth violence

Both the internalization and the prevalence of violence-legitimizing norms are empirically related to acts of violence. The action-theoretic processes, though, that generate these relationships are not well understood. Based on subcultural approaches to violence formulated in social psychology, ethnology and sociology the current study identifies two action-theoretic processes that relate violence-legitimizing norms to acts of violence: conforming to internalized norms in applicable situations on the one hand; and status considerations on the other hand. The model of frame selection is applied to integrate these processes into a general theory of action. Hypotheses are tested using data from a school-based survey in Germany (N?=?2635). Multi-level regression models on measures of violent intentions in a factorial survey, as well as on response times to this factorial survey, are reported. The results confirm the expected interplay of internalization of violence-legitimizing norms, prevalence of these norms, and situational provocation in explaining violent intentions and the time respondents needed to answer the factorial survey.     

Qualifikationsanforderungen und Schulungsansätze für Ausbildungssupervisoren im Bereich der Psychotherapie – ein Überblick

Supervision is a central domain of professional education and clinical practice. Supervisiors features for qualification as well as formal training and standards have been largely neglected. In this article, the proposals of different psychotherapeutic societies concerning the features for qualification were discussed. Additionally some training concepts were presented. Suggestions for future development in this area are addressed, including the need to refine further and operationalized competences, develop expectations for accreditation and lizensure regarding supervision competencies.