Gunnar Lemmer

Research note: The winds of change—Multiple identifications in the case of organizational mergers

Within the organizational domain, different foci of social identification can be differentiated. In the context of an organizational merger, identification with the former premerger organization, which often continues as a subunit of the larger whole after the merger, and identification with the larger organization post merger are important aspects of an employees belief system and thus are relevant for work-related attitudes and behaviours. We conducted a cross-sectional questionnaire study among 450 employees of two recently merged hospitals. We hypothesized that both identification with the premerger subunit that still exists as a separate entity after the fusion and identification with the postmerger larger organization will be positively associated with job satisfaction and self-reported citizenship behaviour and negatively correlated with turnover intentions and negative emotions. Furthermore, particularly those employees who are highly identified with both entities should hold more positive attitudes compared to those only weakly identified with both entities. Our hypotheses were largely confirmed. Practical implications for the management of organizational mergers are discussed.

“Who Are These Foreigners Anyway?” The Content of the Term Foreigner and Its Impact on Prejudice

The term foreigners is often used in prejudice research to analyze prejudice toward immigrants, but it is not specified which groups respondents have in mind. In the present study, we analyzed the content of the term foreigner and its impact on prejudice toward foreigners in a German national probability sample (N = 1,763). Results indicated that most respondents think of people with a Turkish migration background, but regional differences between East and West Germany occurred. In addition, the different individual meanings connected with the term foreigner go along with different levels of prejudice against foreigners: Differences in prejudice toward foreigners between East and West Germany are partially due to different groups associated with the term foreigner. Theoretical and practical implications for quantitative prejudice research are discussed.

Exposure and CBT for chronic back pain: An RCT on differential efficacy and optimal length of treatment.

Objective: Our aim was to establish whether Exposure, a specialized tailored treatment for chronic low back pain, has any advantages over cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) among individuals with high fear-avoidance levels. Second, we planned to compare short and long versions of Exposure. Third, we aimed to investigate whether Exposure can be delivered in an outpatient psychological setting. Method: A total of 88 Caucasian participants (55% women) were randomized to three different psychological treatment conditions, Exposure-long, Exposure-short, and CBT. All participants were suffering from chronic pain and elevated levels of pain-related anxiety and disability. The primary outcomes were disability (assessed using two different questionnaires, QBPDS and PDI) and average pain intensity; secondary outcomes included pain-related anxiety, psychological flexibility, coping strategies, and depression. Assessments took place at pretreatment, midtreatment, posttreatment, and 6-month follow-up. Results: Exposure was more effective than CBT at reducing movement-related disability assessed with the QBPDS. Exposure and CBT did not differ in reduction of pain intensity or disability assessed using the PDI. Exposure-short outperformed Exposure-long after 10 sessions, meaning that individuals improved faster when they were offered fewer sessions. Exposure could be safely delivered in the psychological setting. Concerning secondary outcomes, Exposure led to greater improvements in psychological flexibility relative to CBT. CBT was more effective than Exposure at enhancing coping strategies. In Exposure, significantly more participants dropped out. Conclusions: Although being more challenging to patients, Exposure is an effective treatment, which can be delivered in a psychological treatment setting and should be offered as a short-term treatment.

Do preventive interventions for children of mentally ill parents work? Results of a systematic review and meta-analysis

Purpose of review The transgenerational transmission of mental disorders is one of the most significant causes of psychiatric morbidity. Several risk factors for children of parents with mental illness (COPMI) have been identified in numerous studies and meta-analyses. Recent findings Many interventions have been developed for this high-risk group, but data about their efficacy are heterogeneous. Summary The current meta-analysis reports on 96 articles including 50 independent samples from randomized controlled trials quantifying effects of preventive interventions for COPMI. Random effect models resulted in small, though significant Effect Sizes (ES) for programs enhancing the mother-infant interaction (ES = 0.26) as well as mothers’ (ES = 0.33) and childrens (ES = 0.31) behavior that proved to be stable over the 12-month follow-up, except for infants’ behavior. Interventions for children/adolescents resulted in significant small effects for global psychopathology (ES = 0.13), as well as internalizing symptoms (ES = 0.17), and increased significantly over time, with externalizing symptoms reaching significance in the follow-up assessments as well (ES = 0.17). Interventions addressing parents and children jointly produced overall larger effects. Higher study quality was associated with smaller effects. There is a dearth of high quality studies that effectively reduce the high risk of COPMI for the development of mental disorders.

Stress and Resilience in Functional Somatic Syndromes – A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Background Stress has been suggested to play a role in the development and perpetuation of functional somatic syndromes. The mechanisms of how this might occur are not clear. Purpose We propose a multi-dimensional stress model which posits that childhood trauma increases adult stress reactivity (i.e., an individuals tendency to respond strongly to stressors) and reduces resilience (e.g., the belief in ones competence). This in turn facilitates the manifestation of functional somatic syndromes via chronic stress. We tested this model cross-sectionally and prospectively. Methods Young adults participated in a web survey at two time points. Structural equation modeling was used to test our model. The final sample consisted of 3′054 participants, and 429 of these participated in the follow-up survey. Results Our proposed model fit the data in the cross-sectional (χ2(21)  = 48.808, p<.001, CFI  = .995, TLI  = .992, RMSEA  = .021, 90% CI [.013.029]) and prospective analyses (χ2(21)  = 32.675, p<.05, CFI  = .982, TLI  = .969, RMSEA  = .036, 90% CI [.001.059]). Discussion Our findings have several clinical implications, suggesting a role for stress management training in the prevention and treatment of functional somatic syndromes.

Politics, evidence, treatment, evaluation, responsibility – The models PETER and PETER-S

Science and politics are complicatedly related. Here, we will analyse the relationship of social sciences and politics. We will confine ourselves to those cases where science is used to help politics to realise its goals. Adopting from Popper (1935) and Campbell (1969), we will describe a normative model of evidence based policies: PETER – a model of mutual influences and dependencies of Politics, Evidence, Treatment, Evaluation, and Responsibility. The chapter ends with a sketch on the needed competencies to make the model work – the model PETER-S.