Psychological Challenges of Unification - Selected Results and Thoughts on Korea

A number of early warning signs for the break-down of a political system like North Korea are presented, inspired by recent research in psychological science. Taking post-unification Germany as an exemplary case, the times soon after the turnabout and the mid2000s are considered in light of our own research. The focus is on the new challenges people were confronted with, which resources helped them to cope with strain and stress, and what all this meant for well-being. Concerning the 1990s, key drivers of behavior and its change were the changed institutions that resulted in rather quick adaptation to the new rules. Nevertheless, personal resources such as self-efficacy, gained under the old system, made a difference. In the 2000s, it was the uncertainties about life planning, rooted in the unification aftermath and effects of globalization and economic jeopardy, which shaped behavior. When confronted with challenges, people typically responded by active engagement, and if supported by internal control beliefs this helped to protect well-being in spite of the difficult situation. Under especially dire circumstances, however, disengagement was positive because it spares resources for alternative action. For the situation on the Korean Peninsula the German research results made plausible that policy interventions can use many entry points in the system of coping with social change, from opportunities to personal skills, to ease the challenges of living in a new country. Further, it demonstrates that a unification scenario inspired by the German model would require acculturation in both parts of the country, not only in the North. And finally, one has to consider lasting deficiencies in crucial agency factors due to growing up in an environment characterized by scarcity of adequate living conditions for large segments of the population

Current Trends in Research on Behavioral Development in the Federal Republic of Germany

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.The state and perspective of developmental psychology in the Federal Republic of Germany is analyzed with respect to (a) professional education, (b) resources for research, (c) actual fields of research, and (d) media of professional communication. Current trends of research were investigated by a combination of multi-category content analyses of national (and international) journal publications, and survey data with respect to research interests and planned studies of German developmentalists. Included among the main trends are: (a) an increasing emphasis on longitudinal studies, sometimes combined with short-term interventions; (b) a growing interest in studies representative of natural conditions; (c) although still relatively rare, some of the studies employ a developmental perspective not only for persons but also for relations between persons and changes in environmental factors; (d) areas of heaviest concentration are cognitive development, social as well as personality development, with a trend towards more molar concepts of action-regulating systems instead of small-range models; (e) a growing number of studies on youth and adolescence; (f) new efforts towards a systematic elaboration of the application perspectives of developmental psychology. Professional education as well as research in developmental psychology was highly influenced by a 6-year program from the Volkswagen foundation. As a result, one could observe an increase in quantity as well as an improvement in quality both of teaching and research. Two further steps are now being planned: (a) a post-graduate program, the first one in German psychology, will start in 1983; (b) further efforts to broaden symmetric international communication and cooperation will be undertaken

Development as action in changing contexts: perspectives from six countries

"In diesem Artikel werden fünf aktuelle Beiträge besprochen, die sich empirisch mit der Interaktion zwischen wandelnden sozio-historischen Kontexten und der individuellen Anpassung und Entwicklung auseinander setzen. Die Beiträge von John Bynner, Rand Conger und Mitarbeitern, Cigndem Kagitcibasi, Jungsik Kim und Mitarbeitern sowie von Ingrid Schoon werden auf dem Hintergrund eines Modells zur Entwicklung im sozialen Wandel diskutiert. Es wird argumentiert, dass Forschung zum sozialen Wandel den politischen und sozialen Kontext berücksichtigen muss und dass es dabei notwendig ist, die für die Interaktion zwischen Makro und Mikro stehenden Bedingungen zu identifizieren und zu untersuchen. Solche Forschung ist dann nicht nur geeignet um die Disziplin als solche zu bereichern oder um das Modell der Entwicklung im Kontext voranzutreiben. Sie ist auch von Relevanz um sozialpolitische Interventionen in Zeiten des raschen sozialen Wandels zu begründen." (Autorenreferat)"This paper reviews five recent contributions that empirically investigate the interaction between changing socio-historical contexts and individual adaptation and development. The contributions by John Bynner, Rand Conger and colleagues, Cigdem Kagitcibasi, Jungsik Kim and colleagues and Ingrid Schoon are discussed against the backdrop of a generic model of social change and human development. It is argued that research on social change has to consider the larger political and social context and needs to identify and to study conditions that represent the processes of macro-micro-interaction. Such research will not only enrich the scientific inquiry in this field and promote theorizing about development-in-context, but also is of relevance for social policies in times of rapid social change." (author's abstract

"Für Politik relevant" bedeutet mehr als nur "Forschung mit Anwendungsbezug": Kommentar zu Guy Bodenmann

'Der Kommentar zu Bodenmanns Beitrag versucht an Beispielen zu zeigen, dass es mehr als korrelativer Evidenz zum Zusammenhang von familiären Risikobedingungen und problematischen kindlichen Verhaltensweisen bedarf, wenn man als Forscher politische Entscheidungen zur Planung von Interventionen beeinflussen will. Zuvorderst muss eine klare Ursache-Wirkungs-Beziehung mit geeigneten Designs belegt werden. Weiterhin sind Informationen über die Veränderbarkeit der Risikobedingung, etwa die von Bodenmann angeführte elterliche Sensitivität erforderlich, man benötigt Kenntnisse zu möglichen Schwelleneffekten mit Blick auf das Problemverhalten, Abschätzungen der Kostenwürdigkeit, sowie Einsichten in mögliche Nebeneffekte der Intervention und alternativer Ziele und Maßnahmen.' (Autorenreferat)'In this commentary on Bodenmann's paper, the author tries to exemplify that in order to be relevant to the formulation of social policies, researchers need to offer more than correlative evidence on potential family antecedents of children's behaviour that are deemed problematic for the development of competence. Rather, a clear cause-effect relation has to be established via adequate design. Moreover, policy makers need information on the malleability of the antecedent condition, such as parental sensitivity mentioned by Bodenmann, knowledge about potential thresholds for effective intervention, cost-effect estimates, and insights into potential side effects and alternative solutions to the targets and measures originally suggested.' (author's abstract

Between Here and There: Patterns and Predictors of Transnationalism among Three Immigrant Groups in Germany

The increasingly global world is giving rise to the new form of immigrant movement called transnationalism, characterized by immigrants’ close ties with both host and home nations as well as frequent trips between the two countries. Despite lively theoretical discussion of transnationalism there is very little empirical research on patterns and predictors of transnational migration. The current study investigates predictors of group and individual variability in transnationalism within three largest immigrant groups in Germany: ethnic Germans, Russian Jews, and Turks. Impacts of context of exit and entry, demographic variables, and sociocultural retention variables on transnationalism are investigated. Results show that ethnic groups are indeed different in the frequency of visiting the country of origin, and demonstrate the importance of cultural and identification variables in predicting betweenindividual variability in transnationalism

Verhaltensgenetische Beiträge zur Identifikation von Kontexteffekten auf die Entwicklung von Kindern und Jugendlichen: ein State-of-the-Art-Bericht

'Ein zentrales Problem der Erforschung von Kontexteffekten auf die menschliche Entwicklung besteht darin, dass Effekte der Umwelt methodisch nur schlecht von Effekten der Erbanlagen zu trennen sind. Verhaltensgenetische Studien bieten hierfür Lösungsansätze. Der vorliegende Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über verhaltensgenetische Konzepte, die das Verständnis von Kontextwirkungen auf die psychische Entwicklung erweitert haben (geteilte und nicht geteilte Umwelt, Genom-Umwelt-Korrelation und Genom-Umwelt-Interaktion). Anschließend werden verhaltensgenetische Untersuchungsdesigns vorgestellt und sechs wichtige Befunde der Verhaltensgenetik über Kontexteffekte zusammengefasst. So zeigen Studien, dass die von den Kindern nicht geteilte Umwelt im Mittel wichtiger für die Entwicklung ist als die geteilte Umwelt, dass Umweltmerkmale - wie Elternverhalten - genetisch beeinflusst sind, und dass Zusammenhänge zwischen Umwelt- und Verhaltensmerkmalen häufig von genetischen Dispositionen beeinflusst werden. Abschließend werden Schlussfolgerungen für die künftige Forschung zu Kontexteffekten auf die Entwicklung abgeleitet.' (Autorenreferat)'Research on the role of ecological contexts in human development is challenged by the fact that environmental effects cannot easily be separated from genetic effects. However, behaviour genetics provides some solutions to that problem. The present article starts with an overview about theoretical concepts from behaviour genetics that have enlarged the understanding of context effects on psychological development (shared and nonshared environment, genome-environment-correlations, and genome-environment-interactions). Then, we discuss behaviour genetic research designs and six important results regarding context effects. For example, studies show that effects of the nonshared environment on psychological development are, on average, larger than effects of the shared environment. Further, characteristics of the children's environment, such as parental behaviour, are influenced by genes. The covariance between environmental characteristics and behavioural measures is, in part, based on genetic dispositions. Finally, conclusions are drawn regarding future search for context effects on psychological development.' (author's abstract)

Negotiating the demands of active ageing: longitudinal findings from Germany

The challenges of population ageing and globalisation have been addressed by many welfare states in terms of active ageing policies, which in turn confront individuals with new demands such as keeping up to date with technological developments. The purpose of this paper is to analyse how individuals negotiate the demands of active ageing. The outcome variable was change in primary and secondary control strategies with regard to demands of active ageing over the course of one year. In a German sample of N=602 men and women aged 55-75 years, we found a strong preference for engagement with these demands and a low preference for disengagement. Furthermore, a higher load of demands of active ageing was associated with an increase in engagement with these demands. However, when people perceived their everyday surroundings as unfavourable, their disengagement with demands of active ageing increased. Higher internal control beliefs concerning demands of active ageing were associated with an increase in engagement and a decrease in disengagement. We conclude that individuals strengthen their efforts to master demands of active ageing when they believe that they can control them. When the everyday ecology seems unfavourable, though, strategies are preferred that enable people to avoid a presumably lost cas