Success factors for farming collectives

As the most intensive form of partnership in agriculture, farming collectives (FCs) place high demands on their participants. Based on a census of Swiss farming collectives, three success indicators are formed. The first and second describe interpersonal and economic success respectively, whilst the third encompasses overall success. Factors influencing success are determined by means of multiple regressions. Five predictor variables (compatibility with co-operation partner, trust, information quality, attitude of social environment, and relationship/kinship circle of the cooperation partner) accounted for 44 per cent of the variance in interpersonal success. Economic success was far more difficult to explain (R2 = 0.11). Even so, the influence of “soft” factors, even on the economic success of a farming collective, is striking. Above all, trust and the human and structural compatibility of the cooperation partners play an important role for all three types of success. The co-operation agreement, agricultural consultation, the number of participating people on the farm, and the investments made may be ranked as less important than previously assumed.farming collective, economic satisfaction, interpersonal conflicts, Agribusiness,

Recovery from Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms: A Qualitative Study of Attributions in Survivors of War

This study was funded by a grant from the European Commission, contract number INCO-CT-2004-50917

Owning an overweight or underweight body: distinguishing the physical, experienced and virtual body

Our bodies are the most intimately familiar objects we encounter in our perceptual environment. Virtual reality provides a unique method to allow us to experience having a very different body from our own, thereby providing a valuable method to explore the plasticity of body representation. In this paper, we show that women can experience ownership over a whole virtual body that is considerably smaller or larger than their physical body. In order to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying body ownership, we use an embodiment questionnaire, and introduce two new behavioral response measures: an affordance estimation task (indirect measure of body size) and a body size estimation task (direct measure of body size). Interestingly, after viewing the virtual body from first person perspective, both the affordance and the body size estimation tasks indicate a change in the perception of the size of the participant’s experienced body. The change is biased by the size of the virtual body (overweight or underweight). Another novel aspect of our study is that we distinguish between the physical, experienced and virtual bodies, by asking participants to provide affordance and body size estimations for each of the three bodies separately. This methodological point is important for virtual reality experiments investigating body ownership of a virtual body, because it offers a better understanding of which cues (e.g. visual, proprioceptive, memory, or a combination thereof) influence body perception, and whether the impact of these cues can vary between different setups

Basic human values in the Swiss population and in a sample of farmers

Basic human values were investigated in Swiss farmers. The main objective was to take a first step toward elucidating the structure and profile of basic human values in farmers. Data from the first three rounds (2002, 2004, 2006) of the European Social Survey were used. Value orientations were assessed with Shalom H. Schwartz’s 21-item Portrait Values Questionnaire (2003b). The value orientations of the farmers (n = 125) were compared with those of the general Swiss population (n = 5,055) in terms of structure. In addition, the farmers’ scores in four higher-order value types were compared with those of the general population, managers of small enterprises (n = 103), and production and operations managers (n = 155). The structure of Schwartz’s four higher-order value types were replicated in the Swiss population as well as in the farmer sample. The farmers showed the highest score in conservation, followed by self-transcendence, self-enhancement, and lastly, openness to change. Their value profile differed from that of the general population and that of both groups of managers. According to the farmers’ value profile, recent agricultural policy strategies to promote farmers’ ecological behavior may not be structured and marketed in a manner which is in line with their basic values

The structure of conscious body self-perception

What are the basic constituents of conscious body self-perception (BSP)? This question concerns the structure of conscious BSP and has so far received little attention. Studies on aspects of BSP such as bodily self-identification, self-localization or agency suggest that these aspects may be critical components of conscious BSP. However, none of the existing studies have investigated the relationship of these aspects to each other, i.e., whether they can be identified to be distinguishable components of the structure of conscious BSP. In multiple experiments we stroked the back of healthy individuals while they watched the back of a distant virtual body being synchronously stroked with a virtual stick. Subsequently, we have measured changes of the conscious BSP of our participants by means of a newly developed psychometric self-assessment questionnaire and two perceptual tasks. By analyzing the structure of the responses to our questionnaire we have found that conscious BSP has three distinct components: bodily self-identification, spatial presence, and agency (Dobricki de la Rosa, 2013, PLoS One, e83840 ). Moreover, we have found that changes in these BSP components are accompanied by alterations in our perceptual measures

Kinder der Relativität: Humanexperimentelle Untersuchungen zu Modulationen visueller Strukturen

Kinder nehmen die Welt anders wahr als Erwachsene. Die entwicklungspsychologische Forschung hat wiederholt den Nachweis erbracht, dass optischen Illusionen von verschiedenen Altersgruppen unterschiedlich wahrgenommen werden. Damit konnte gezeigt werden, dass sich die visuelle Wahrnehmung im Zuge der biologischen Entwicklung verändert. Es stellt sich aber die Frage, ob das Alter im aktiven Prozess der visuellen Kognition ebenfalls eine Rolle spielt. Dies kann durch die systematische Veränderung der normalen Wahrnehmung von gesunden Erwachsenen untersucht werden, indem ein Veränderter Wachbewusstseinszustand (VWB) induziert wird. Basierend auf Daten zu Entwicklungsverläufen kann dann bestimmt werden, ob die veränderte Wahrnehmung von optischen Illusionen als eine Veränderung des mentalen Alters interpretiert werden kann. Der Autor Martin Dobricki hat die Hypothese überprüft, dass es in einem Veränderten Wachbewusstseinzustand zu systematischen Veränderungen der Wahrnehmung von optischen Illusionen kommt, welche entweder als eine Regression auf die Entwicklungsstufe der Kindheit (mentale Altersregression) oder als eine Progression interpretiert werden können

(Post-traumatic) embitterment disorder: critical evaluation of its stressor criterion and a proposed revised classification.

BACKGROUND: In 2003, the German psychiatrist Michael Linden proposed the new mental disorder concept of "post-traumatic embitterment disorder (PTED)". PTED is defined as the mental reaction to a critical event that is normal, but not everyday, such as conflict at work. The patient sees this event as unjust and as a violation of basic beliefs. The principal aspect of the reaction pattern is a prolonged feeling of embitterment. AIM: In the present paper, the concept of PTED is systematically evaluated. Moreover, future developments in terms of diagnostic systems of mental disorders (ICD-11, DSM-V) are addressed. RESULTS: The evaluation of critical points concerning PTED revealed that the question of whether PTED is a mental disorder of the post-traumatic type cannot be finally answered. It is not possible to specify an empirical criterion by means of which traumatic and non-traumatic life events can be differentiated. An empirical criterion for determining the traumatic nature of a given event depends on whether this event has already been classified as traumatic (i.e. circular argument). CONCLUSIONS: For the purpose of a clear classification of embitterment disorders, the new concept of adjustment disorders of Andreas Maercker and co-workers is introduced. Based on the criteria and their findings, the best and most viable possibility to classify embitterment disorders in accordance with the current adjustment disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder definitions of ICD and DSM is by regarding embitterment disorders as a subtype of adjustment disorders