Numerous studies indicate that observing or knowing about another's action automatically activates the same motor representations that are active when we perform the other's action by ourselves. We investigated how affect influences this mirror mechanism. Based upon findings that positive affect encourages and negative affect impairs spreading activation, we hypothesised that positive affect should increase and negative affect decrease the automatic co-representation of other individuals' actions during jointly performed tasks. Recent research has shown that joint-action effects in a go/no-go variant (...) of the Simon task provide a good index for co-representing another's action. Participants performed such a Simon task together with another person after the induction of neutral, positive, or negative affect. Consistent with our predictions, the joint Simon-like effect was strongest after positive affect induction and absent after negative affect induction. These results represent the first evidence of affect-induced differences in the mirroring of another's action and suggest that affect influences one of our essential abilities for successful social interactions. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungEthik-Cafés in der geriatrischen Langzeitpflege dienen auch der ethischen Weiterbildung und sollen den Beteiligten in ungezwungener Atmosphäre einen offenen Diskurs über moralische Fragen mit Bezug zum Arbeitsalltag ermöglichen. In der Literatur werden ihnen diverse Eigenschaften wie Verbesserung der Analysefähigkeit und der Kommunikation, Erhöhung der ethischen Sensibilität und der Entscheidungskompetenz und weitere zugeschrieben. Diese Eigenschaften resultieren vorwiegend aus theoriegeleiteten Modellen. Gegenstand dieser Studie ist die empirische Untersuchung der Wirksamkeit von Ethik-Cafés innerhalb der Pflegezentren Mattenhof-Irchelpark, Zürich. Des Weiteren geht die Studie der (...) Frage nach, ob sich die subjektiven Einschätzungen der Eigenschaften von Pflegenden und anderen Berufsgruppen unterscheiden. Zur Erfassung der Eigenschaften wurde ein Fragebogen konstruiert, in dem die Teilnehmenden während der Erhebungszeit 16 Aussagen zu bewerten hatten. Die Bewertung konnte mittels einer 5-stufigen Likert-Skala angegeben werden. In einer Untergruppe wurde zwischen „Pflege“ und „Nicht-Pflege“ unterschieden. Zusammenfassend konnte festgestellt werden, dass die postulierten Eigenschaften mit einer sehr hohen Zustimmung bestätigt werden. Die Ethik-Cafés leisten nach Meinung der Befragten einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Befähigung des Personals, schwierige Situationen klarer zu analysieren, ethisch sensibler zu entscheiden und die getroffene Entscheidung zu begründen. Die Interdisziplinarität der Ethik-Cafés fördert das Verständnis für die Sichtweisen und Argumentationen der verschiedenen Bereiche und Hierarchien. Die Unterschiede der Berufsgruppen sind teilweise hoch-signifikant. Es kann festgehalten werden, dass die im Fragebogen attribuierten Eigenschaften von der Pflege generell stärker und bedeutsamer wahrgenommen werden. (shrink)

The concept of the "unlevel playing field" is critiqued for its tendency to take the prevailing masculinist managerial paradigm for granted. Rather than assume that both men and women should assimilate to corporate masculinity, feminist alternatives are suggested. The pervasiveness of the masculine ethic and the "myth of meritocracy" in organizations are reviewed, with the space shuttle Challenger disaster serving as a focal point to demonstrate the dysfunctionality of masculine management and the rationale for feminist-based organizational transformation to promote not (...) only gender equity, but more effective and ethical organizational behavior. (shrink)

Pope Francis wants a reform of the church and he sees Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador as a model bishop, one who smells like his sheep and who was fully committed to a poor church for the poor. Pope Francis and Archbishop Romero agree that the basis for church reform must be the gospel. As Jesus did not preach himself but the kingdom of God, the church must be at the service of the kingdom, she is the sacrament of (...) the kingdom. The first addressees of the good news of the kingdom of God were the poor, so there is an intrinsic relationship between the church and the poor. Church reform means that the church becomes more like Jesus Christ serving the poor, the needy and the marginalized. There is an intrinsic relationship between church reform and the signs of the times. The Second Vatican Council established a new relationship between the church and the world. Of key importance for this are the signs of the times as signs of the presence and the plans of God in history. Archbishop Romero's deepest and most creative spiritual and theological insight is his association of the passion of the Salvadoran people with the suffering servant of God and the crucified Christ. He spoke of a crucified people. (shrink)

In recent decades, the prevalence of negative communication has intensified across the world. In this article, we seek to understand the mechanisms that spread negativity about a unified Europe. We study the specific conditions under which negative party communication boosts media visibility, focusing on the role of country-specific party conflicts on European Union integration. Our analysis is based on content analysis data of parties’ press releases and media coverage in the 12 weeks preceding the 2014 European Parliamentary elections in seven (...) countries. We find that EU-negative party communication by and large does not matter for party visibility in the media, though the results provide scant evidence that cross-national differences relate to a country’s party conflict. (shrink)