Neuropsychological,Psychological, and Vocational Assessment of High Achievers in a Medicolegal Context

High achievers are a unique subset of persons referred for neuropsychological and psychological assessments in medicolegal contexts, including personal injury, disability, and workers’ compensation cases. Literature in this area is limited and poorly integrated, and neither a conceptual model nor best evidence-informed practices for the assessment of high achievers in the medicolegal context have yet emerged. Construct and methodological issues also hamper the ability of assessors to accurately and fairly assess this specialist group, which is particularly troubling in high-stakes forensic assessments. This paper reviews the current methodological issues involved in the assessment of high achievers and proposes an integrated, multimethod assessment model based on a particular vocational group, namely that of business leaders and entrepreneurs, that draws from available empirical research in different fields of psychological inquiry.     

Treatment-Related Reductions in Disability Are Associated with Reductions in Perceived Injustice Following Treatment of Whiplash Injury

Emerging evidence suggests that perceived injustice is a risk factor for poor recovery outcomes in individuals with whiplash injuries. The present study examined the relative contributions of treatment-related reductions in pain severity, depressive symptoms, and disability in the prediction of reductions in perceived injustice in individuals with whiplash injury. The study sample consisted of 71 individuals (43 women and 28 men) who sustained whiplash injuries in motor vehicle accidents and who were enrolled in a treatment program designed to promote functional recovery following whiplash injury. For the purposes of this study, only individuals who scored above the risk threshold on a measure of perceived injustice were included in the study sample. Participants completed measures of pain severity, disability, depressive symptomatology, and perceived injustice prior to treatment and after treatment. Change scores were computed for study variables. The results revealed that reductions in pain severity and disability were correlated with reductions in perceived injustice. Regression analyses revealed that only reductions in disability contributed significant unique variance to the prediction of reductions in perceived injustice. Clinical and theoretical implications of the present findings are discussed.     

Psychometric Properties of a Brief Instrument to Assess Perceptions of Injustice Associated with Debilitating Health and Mental Health Conditions

The present study examined the psychometric properties of a shortened and simplified version of the Injustice Experience Questionnaire (IEQ). The instructional set of the original IEQ was modified to make it better suited to the context of debilitating health and mental health conditions that do not necessarily arise as a result of injury. The number of items was reduced from 12 to 5, and the response scale was simplified. The Injustice Experiences Questionnaire – Short Form (IEQ-SF) was administered to individuals diagnosed with a chronic musculoskeletal (MSK) condition (N?=?88) or major depressive disorder (MDD) (N?=?87). The internal consistency of the IEQ-SF was acceptable. The IEQ-SF was significantly correlated with measures of pain severity, depressive symptom severity and disability in both samples. Individuals with MDD scored higher on the IEQ-SF than individuals with MSK. The IEQ-SF was shown to be sensitive to treatment-related reductions in perceived injustice. Preliminary analyses suggest that the IEQ-SF is a reliable and valid measure of disability-related injustice perceptions associated with debilitating health and mental health conditions.     

青年的概念

文章讨论了"青年"概念的使用和有用性,讨论了年轻人被概念化的方式,探讨了青年向成年过渡的假设,提出将青年概念看作是一个社会过程的观点.青年时期是重要的,它是成年的临界点,同时它又有很大的问题.媒体话语中的青年流行概念不仅再现了青年而且实际上建构了青年的经历和意义.     

Hopes and Realities in Relations Between Russia and Japan: Is a Breakthrough Possible?

During the last 5 years, Russia and Japan have been able to widen and deepen bilateral ties in many spheres, including politics, economics, and culture. At the same time, the further qualitative improvement of bilateral relations is hampered by strong influence of an enduring negative historic memory of Japanese society toward Russia mostly due to the so-called Northern Territories syndrome. The formation of Russia’s image in Japan is also strongly influenced by a number of time-limited factors, such as the state leader’s popularity, single-moment events, empiric experience, and others (Streltsov 43). In this paper, the author traces the recent history of the territorial dispute between two countries and then attempts to evaluate the influence exerted by four time-limited factors: the triple disaster in Japan (as an example of the implications of natural disasters), the two leaders’ political aspirations, mutual trust, and popularity at home (as related to the personal features of President Putin and Prime Minister Abe), on the two countries’ approach toward signing a peace treaty and solving the territorial dispute. According to the author’s hypothesis, the strategic vision of Putin and Abe and their trustworthy relationship are playing the key role in improving ties between the two countries. Moreover, due to its importance for these ties, this paper considers the geopolitical environment of the Russo–Japan relations and the current state and perspective for bilateral energy cooperation. Finally, the author turns to an evaluation of whether a long-overdue compromise on the territorial dispute could be reached anytime soon.     

Seeking a New Role: Japan’s Middle East Policy under Shinzo Abe

With his frequent travels to the Middle East, more than all other Japanese leaders in the past, Shinzo Abe had been destined to ineluctably play a distinctive role in redefining his country’s foreign policy approach toward the region. Essentially, when Abe returned to power for a second time in late 2012, he succeeded to subsequently establish a relatively stable and long-term government which strived to critically reappraise some highly contentious elements of Japan’s internal and external policies. Reassessing Japan’s conventional low-profile orientation to the Middle East was particularly a major objective of the Abe government because the region had turned out to be closely and dubiously connected to some pivotal political and security reforms which Abe had long pursued to achieve domestically. By primarily doubling down Japan’s political engagement in different parts of the Middle East, therefore, Abe took advantage of what his country had capitalized in the region in more recent times to especially accelerate the accomplishment of some other political and security he favored ardently.     

Budgeting for Social Security Or: When Are Savings Really Savings?

Policy and budgetary debate about Social Security is greatly affected by understandings of how the program is financed and, therefore, what steps would make it more affordable in the future. Unfortunately, both the standard justifications for and criticisms of buildups in the Social Security trust funds do not reflect the extent to which such buildups in fact would help finance future program costs. This article argues for a different standard, based explicitly on the fiscal capacity of the federal government and the effect of the government's obligations to pay interest on that capacity. I explain how both this definition of the role of the trust funds, and a broader understanding of fiscal capacity, would affect analysis of Social Security's condition and of possible reforms.     

Parteiendemokratie im Wandel — Reaktionsstrategien von politischen Parteien

Ohne Zusammenfassung Rezension zu: Peter Mair, Wolfgang C. Müller und Fritz Plasser (Hg.): Parteien auf komplexen W?hlerm?rkten. Reaktionsstrategien politischer Parteien in Westeuropa. Wien: Signum 1999, 403 S., DM 88,-.