Dietrich Klusmann - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Dietrich Klusmann
BMC medical education, Jan 11, 2017
The validity of selection tests is underestimated if it is determined by simply calculating the p... more The validity of selection tests is underestimated if it is determined by simply calculating the predictor-outcome correlation found in the admitted group. This correlation is usually attenuated by two factors: (1) the combination of selection variables which can compensate for each other and (2) range restriction in predictor and outcome due to the absence of outcome measures for rejected applicants. Here we demonstrate the logic of these artifacts in a situation typical for student selection tests and compare four different methods for their correction: two formulas for the correction of direct and indirect range restriction, expectation maximization algorithm (EM) and multiple imputation by chained equations (MICE). First we show with simulated data how a realistic estimation of predictive validity could be achieved; second we apply the same methods to empirical data from one medical school. The results of the four methods are very similar except for the direct range restriction f...
PloS one, 2016
Cheating is a common phenomenon in high stakes admission, licensing and university exams and thre... more Cheating is a common phenomenon in high stakes admission, licensing and university exams and threatens their validity. To detect if some exam questions had been affected by cheating, we simulated how data would look like if some test takers possessed item preknowledge: Responses to a small number of items were set to correct for 1-10% of test takers. Item difficulty, item discrimination, item fit, and local dependence were computed using an IRT 2PL model. Then changes in these item properties from the non-compromised to the compromised dataset were scrutinized for their sensitivity to item preknowledge. A decline in the discrimination parameter compared with previous test versions and an increase in local item dependence turned out to be the most sensitive indicators of item preknowledge. A multiplicative combination of shifts in item discrimination, item difficulty, and local item dependence detected item preknowledge with a sensitivity of 1.0 and a specificity of .95 if 11 of 80 i...
Eur Arch Psychiat Clin Neuros, 1986
The present study investigates the relationship between ecological factors and the community tenu... more The present study investigates the relationship between ecological factors and the community tenure patients with functional psychoses. Data were gathered from the records of three psychiatric hospitals in the city of Hamburg. The analysis controls for the effects of sociodemographic variables and variables pertaining to the last inpatient treatment. Variations in readmission rates can be explained by the latter to a certain extent, but only poorly by sociodemographic variables and hardly at all by ecological factors. These findings are discussed with respect to the methodological limitations of the study and as substantive results. Two lines of interpretation are offered. Firstly, equal readmission rates may have been caused by different sets of ecological factors; secondly, patients released from mental hospital may be relatively insusceptible to the impact of ecological factors. Die Untersuchung konzentriert sich auf die Beziehung zwischen ökologischen Faktoren und der Dauer des Verbleibs in der Gemeinde bei Patienten mit funktionellen psychotischen Erkrankungen. Zugrunde liegen Daten aus den Basisdokumentationen dreier psychiatrischer Krankenhäuser in der Stadt Hamburg. In der Auswertung wird der Einfluß zweier Variablengruppen kontrolliert: Soziodemographische Variablen und Variablen, die sich auf den letzten stationären Aufenthalt beziehen. Letztere können die Variation der Wiederaufnahmerate zu einem gewissen Teil erklären, soziodemographische Variablen nur wenig und ökologische Variablen so gut wie gar nicht. Dieses Ergebnis wird hinsichtlich der methodischen Begrenzungen der Untersuchung diskutiert. Die inhaltliche Diskussion verfolgt zwei Erklärungsansätze: a) Gleiche Wiederaufnahmeraten können durch unterschiedliche Konstellationen ökologischer Faktoren bedingt sein und b) Patienten, die aus dem psychiatrischen Krankenhaus in die Gemeinde zurückkehren, sind möglicherweise für die Wirkungen ökologischer Faktoren relativ unempfanglich.
European Archives of Psychiatry and Neurological Sciences, Feb 1, 1988
Patients' concepts of the causes of their functional psychoses were investigated by means of an o... more Patients' concepts of the causes of their functional psychoses were investigated by means of an open-ended question and a 30-item checklist. While patients, like professional experts, endorsed a multifactorial aetiological concept, they clearly favoured psychosocial explanations over biological ones There was some variation according to diagnosis, with schizophrenic patients tending to attribute the development of their illness more often to esoteric influences or to their family environment and patients with affective psychoses assuming biological factors or psychosocial stress to be the cause of their illness The aetiological concepts did not vary with the duration of illness Our findings do not support the "psychological mindedness" hypothesis, which postulates that there is a greater inclination to adopt psychological explanations among women, younger people, the better educated or people from urban areas as compared with men, older people, the less educated or people from rural areas.
Zeitschrift für Gerontologie
Multigenerational households with widowed persons aged 70 and more have been studied in order to ... more Multigenerational households with widowed persons aged 70 and more have been studied in order to determine the relationship between the following two groups of variables: (a) variables in the aged person describing the existence and degree of an organic mental impairment due to a dementive process and of other signs of physical illnesses. (b) variables in her daughter or daughter in law consisting of selfratings of psychosomatic complaints and of attitude-scales. Results were as follows: (a) If there were indications of personality changes due to an organic brain syndrom the relatives had a lower degree of life-satisfaction and more frequently suffered from psychosomatic symptoms and interpersonal stress than those, whose old relatives showed an unaltered personality. (b) A great number of comparisons failed to show any statistical differences. Especially severe physical illness, organic brain syndrome and the need for physical care were not related to life satisfaction, psychosomatic complaints, stress due to emotional involvement and the attitude towards home-care. Our attempt to explain the missing correlations led to the following factors: the small size of the sample, self-selection of the sample and possibly inappropriate operationalisation and measurement of variables. In respect to these results the ongoing study will be modified in some details: There will be a qualitative analysis of transcribed semi-structured interviews. The proportion of families with severely demented relatives will be increased. In an additional step we shall examine families, who have decided to transfer their old member into an institution.
Das Schisma zwischen Biologie und Sozialwissenschaften ist nicht neu, aber der Erfolg und das neu... more Das Schisma zwischen Biologie und Sozialwissenschaften ist nicht neu, aber der Erfolg und das neue Selbstbewußtsein der biologischen Forschung fordern derzeit die Sozialwissenschaften heraus, wie nie zuvor. Ein Kampfwort in diesem Szenario ist der Begriff "Essentialismus", meist als das Gegenbegriff zu "Konstruktivismus". Essentialismus wird in zwei Bedeutungen gebraucht: teleologische Kausalität und strikte Determinierheit durch biologische Faktoren. Diese Bedeutungen werden im Folgenden auf ihre Tragfähigkeit untersucht. Essenz und Telos Der Begriff der Essenz entstammt der Philosophie Platons und wurde später von Aristoteles und seinen Nachfolgern modifiziert. In platonischer Bedeutung ist die Essenz einer Sache das Ideal, das schon vor der Sache selbst existiert hat und von dem sich diese Sache in ihrer realen Existenz immer weiter entfernt. Für Aristoteles dagegen ist die Essenz in der Sache selbst. Sie ist ihr immanent als ihr Entfaltungsprinzip. Die Sache strebt zu sich hin, zu ihrem Telos, ist in diesem Sinne also auch ihre letzte Ursache. Alle Dinge der Natur sind ständig in Bewegung und sie bewegen sich hin zu ihrem Telos. Während dieser Bewegung offenbaren sie immer deutlicher ihr wahres Wesen, die kommen gleichsam zu sich selbst, denn ihr Telos ist ihre Essenz. In den Worten K. Poppers: Aristotle makes sensible things move towards their final causes or ends, and these he identifies with their Forms or essences. And as a biologist, he assumes that sensible things carry potentially within themselves the seeds, as it were, of their final states, or of their essences. This is one of the reasons why he can say that the Form or essence is in the thing, not, as Plato said, prior and external to it. For Aristotle, all movement or change means the realization (or "actualisation") of some of the potentialities inherent in the essence of a thing.
Aktuelle Gerontologie
In the course of a geriatric-sociological field-investigation 140 families were studied, which li... more In the course of a geriatric-sociological field-investigation 140 families were studied, which live with an old relative and take care of him in case of disease. 45 of the old persons suffered from a dementive syndrome of medium or severe degree. All the information obtained in these 45 families (precoded-interviews, questionnaires, free-interviews, follow-up contacts, group-work with care-taking relatives) was inspected regarding the question whether the families, when dealing with the diseased family-member, showed one or more of the following reactions: 1. Reactions of despair 2. Sympathy for the experience of decreasing efficiency 3. Dementia and neurotic interaction 4. Activating care 5. Pedagogic efforts 6. Inclusion of children 7. Readiness and avoidance of contact 8. Readiness to spoil the demented relative - The results show, that the relatives make altogether great efforts ehen caring for their demented family members; this refers to psychic energy as well as to material means.
Aktuelle Gerontologie
Multigenerational household with widowed elderly above the age of 70 have been studied by intervi... more Multigenerational household with widowed elderly above the age of 70 have been studied by interviewing the aged person and his/her daughter/daughter in law. The sample is described according to household composure and some sociodemographic characteristics. Data analysis focused on the relationship between variables in the elderly person and variables in the daughter/daughter in law. Psychic and somatic well-being in the relatives can be predicted by the degree of competence/dependency in the aged family member, but less so with a general health assessment. Organic brain conditions in the aged parents seem to have most adverse effects on the daughter/daughter in law when they are of a moderate degree.
Psychiatrische Praxis
In 1980 the psychiatric clinic of the University of Hamburg took charge of a catchment area withi... more In 1980 the psychiatric clinic of the University of Hamburg took charge of a catchment area within the city of Hamburg. From this year on the clinic decided to provide half of its in-patient and day clinic capacity (that is 71 beds and 10 day clinic places) for a population of 139,000 living in this region. The effects of this decision are discussed on three levels: - changes in the patient population - opinions and attitudes of the clinic personnel - implications for the organizational structure The proportion of in-patients from the catchment area increased from 20% to 45% due to the clinic taking charge of this region. This increase did not much change the characteristics of the total in-patient population admitted to the clinic, except for a shift towards more older patients and more patients with a diagnosis of dementia or organic psychosis. Around two thirds of the clinic personnel held a predominantly positive view of the clinic's decision to establish a catchment area. Contrary to some hopes the internal structure of the clinic did not change much in response to its newly acquired responsibility for the catchment area. Nevertheless a period of one year seems too short for such changes to occur.
GMS Zeitschrift für medizinische Ausbildung, 2011
The University Hospital in Hamburg (UKE) started to develop a test of knowledge in natural scienc... more The University Hospital in Hamburg (UKE) started to develop a test of knowledge in natural sciences for admission to medical school in 2005 (Hamburger Auswahlverfahren für Medizinische Studiengänge, Naturwissenschaftsteil, HAM-Nat). This study is a step towards establishing the HAM-Nat. We are investigating parallel forms reliability, the effect of a crash course in chemistry on test results, and correlations of HAM-Nat test results with a test of scientific reasoning (similar to a subtest of the "Test for Medical Studies", TMS). 316 first-year students participated in the study in 2007. They completed different versions of the HAM-Nat test which consisted of items that had already been used (HN2006) and new items (HN2007). Four weeks later half of the participants were tested on the HN2007 version of the HAM-Nat again, while the other half completed the test of scientific reasoning. Within this four week interval students were offered a five day chemistry course. Parallel...
Psychiatrische Praxis, 1995
Computer programs to aid qualitative research are offered in increasing numbers. Most programs pr... more Computer programs to aid qualitative research are offered in increasing numbers. Most programs provide basic features like the decomposition of large bodies of text, labelling of text units by category names, retrieval and search for key words. More advanced features are graphical displays of the categories, secondary texts, statistical output and a multi-user interface. The benefits and dangers of these programs for the process of doing qualitative research are discussed.
European archives of psychiatry and neurological sciences, 1986
The present study investigates the relationship between ecological factors and the community tenu... more The present study investigates the relationship between ecological factors and the community tenure patients with functional psychoses. Data were gathered from the records of three psychiatric hospitals in the city of Hamburg. The analysis controls for the effects of sociodemographic variables and variables pertaining to the last impatient treatment. Variations in readmission rates can be explained by the latter to a certain extent, but only poorly by sociodemographic variables and hardly at all by ecological factors. These findings are discussed with respect to the methodological limitations of the study and as substantive results. Two lines of interpretation are offered. Firstly, equal readmission rates may have been caused by different sets of ecological factors; secondly, patients released from mental hospital may be relatively insusceptible to the impact of ecological factors.
Oxford Handbooks Online, 2012
The most frequent conflict within human mateships is the conflict between male sexual persistence... more The most frequent conflict within human mateships is the conflict between male sexual persistence and female sexual resistance. This conflict is nearly absent in the formation phase of a mateship and intensifies with time. It is rooted in sex-specific evolved programs encountering each other: a female program to secure male assistance and simultaneously remain open to new matings and a male program to guard paternity and to seek frequent copulation as a precaution against sperm competition. Mate value, the threat of infidelity, and attachment, moderate the conflict. Attachment motivation can be seen as a part of mating strategy or as a motivational system of its own, conflicting with demands of strategic flexibility. The theoretical framework of mating strategy accommodates many observations about sexual motivation within human mateships. However, sexual therapy has not yet taken much advantage of this body of knowledge. This might result from the different traditions of the respective scientific communities. It may also reflect a more substantial role of attachment than of mating strategy for the sexual life of a couple, since sexual therapy often focuses on issues of attachment,
Zeitschrift für Sexualforschung, 2011
BMC Medical Education, 2011
Background Knowledge in natural sciences generally predicts study performance in the first two ye... more Background Knowledge in natural sciences generally predicts study performance in the first two years of the medical curriculum. In order to reduce delay and dropout in the preclinical years, Hamburg Medical School decided to develop a natural science test (HAM-Nat) for student selection. In the present study, two different approaches to scale construction are presented: a unidimensional scale and a scale composed of three subject specific dimensions. Their psychometric properties and relations to academic success are compared. Methods 334 first year medical students of the 2006 cohort responded to 52 multiple choice items from biology, physics, and chemistry. For the construction of scales we generated two random subsamples, one for development and one for validation. In the development sample, unidimensional item sets were extracted from the item pool by means of weighted least squares (WLS) factor analysis, and subsequently fitted to the Rasch model. In the validation sample, the ...
BMC medical education, Jan 11, 2017
The validity of selection tests is underestimated if it is determined by simply calculating the p... more The validity of selection tests is underestimated if it is determined by simply calculating the predictor-outcome correlation found in the admitted group. This correlation is usually attenuated by two factors: (1) the combination of selection variables which can compensate for each other and (2) range restriction in predictor and outcome due to the absence of outcome measures for rejected applicants. Here we demonstrate the logic of these artifacts in a situation typical for student selection tests and compare four different methods for their correction: two formulas for the correction of direct and indirect range restriction, expectation maximization algorithm (EM) and multiple imputation by chained equations (MICE). First we show with simulated data how a realistic estimation of predictive validity could be achieved; second we apply the same methods to empirical data from one medical school. The results of the four methods are very similar except for the direct range restriction f...
PloS one, 2016
Cheating is a common phenomenon in high stakes admission, licensing and university exams and thre... more Cheating is a common phenomenon in high stakes admission, licensing and university exams and threatens their validity. To detect if some exam questions had been affected by cheating, we simulated how data would look like if some test takers possessed item preknowledge: Responses to a small number of items were set to correct for 1-10% of test takers. Item difficulty, item discrimination, item fit, and local dependence were computed using an IRT 2PL model. Then changes in these item properties from the non-compromised to the compromised dataset were scrutinized for their sensitivity to item preknowledge. A decline in the discrimination parameter compared with previous test versions and an increase in local item dependence turned out to be the most sensitive indicators of item preknowledge. A multiplicative combination of shifts in item discrimination, item difficulty, and local item dependence detected item preknowledge with a sensitivity of 1.0 and a specificity of .95 if 11 of 80 i...
Eur Arch Psychiat Clin Neuros, 1986
The present study investigates the relationship between ecological factors and the community tenu... more The present study investigates the relationship between ecological factors and the community tenure patients with functional psychoses. Data were gathered from the records of three psychiatric hospitals in the city of Hamburg. The analysis controls for the effects of sociodemographic variables and variables pertaining to the last inpatient treatment. Variations in readmission rates can be explained by the latter to a certain extent, but only poorly by sociodemographic variables and hardly at all by ecological factors. These findings are discussed with respect to the methodological limitations of the study and as substantive results. Two lines of interpretation are offered. Firstly, equal readmission rates may have been caused by different sets of ecological factors; secondly, patients released from mental hospital may be relatively insusceptible to the impact of ecological factors. Die Untersuchung konzentriert sich auf die Beziehung zwischen ökologischen Faktoren und der Dauer des Verbleibs in der Gemeinde bei Patienten mit funktionellen psychotischen Erkrankungen. Zugrunde liegen Daten aus den Basisdokumentationen dreier psychiatrischer Krankenhäuser in der Stadt Hamburg. In der Auswertung wird der Einfluß zweier Variablengruppen kontrolliert: Soziodemographische Variablen und Variablen, die sich auf den letzten stationären Aufenthalt beziehen. Letztere können die Variation der Wiederaufnahmerate zu einem gewissen Teil erklären, soziodemographische Variablen nur wenig und ökologische Variablen so gut wie gar nicht. Dieses Ergebnis wird hinsichtlich der methodischen Begrenzungen der Untersuchung diskutiert. Die inhaltliche Diskussion verfolgt zwei Erklärungsansätze: a) Gleiche Wiederaufnahmeraten können durch unterschiedliche Konstellationen ökologischer Faktoren bedingt sein und b) Patienten, die aus dem psychiatrischen Krankenhaus in die Gemeinde zurückkehren, sind möglicherweise für die Wirkungen ökologischer Faktoren relativ unempfanglich.
European Archives of Psychiatry and Neurological Sciences, Feb 1, 1988
Patients' concepts of the causes of their functional psychoses were investigated by means of an o... more Patients' concepts of the causes of their functional psychoses were investigated by means of an open-ended question and a 30-item checklist. While patients, like professional experts, endorsed a multifactorial aetiological concept, they clearly favoured psychosocial explanations over biological ones There was some variation according to diagnosis, with schizophrenic patients tending to attribute the development of their illness more often to esoteric influences or to their family environment and patients with affective psychoses assuming biological factors or psychosocial stress to be the cause of their illness The aetiological concepts did not vary with the duration of illness Our findings do not support the "psychological mindedness" hypothesis, which postulates that there is a greater inclination to adopt psychological explanations among women, younger people, the better educated or people from urban areas as compared with men, older people, the less educated or people from rural areas.
Zeitschrift für Gerontologie
Multigenerational households with widowed persons aged 70 and more have been studied in order to ... more Multigenerational households with widowed persons aged 70 and more have been studied in order to determine the relationship between the following two groups of variables: (a) variables in the aged person describing the existence and degree of an organic mental impairment due to a dementive process and of other signs of physical illnesses. (b) variables in her daughter or daughter in law consisting of selfratings of psychosomatic complaints and of attitude-scales. Results were as follows: (a) If there were indications of personality changes due to an organic brain syndrom the relatives had a lower degree of life-satisfaction and more frequently suffered from psychosomatic symptoms and interpersonal stress than those, whose old relatives showed an unaltered personality. (b) A great number of comparisons failed to show any statistical differences. Especially severe physical illness, organic brain syndrome and the need for physical care were not related to life satisfaction, psychosomatic complaints, stress due to emotional involvement and the attitude towards home-care. Our attempt to explain the missing correlations led to the following factors: the small size of the sample, self-selection of the sample and possibly inappropriate operationalisation and measurement of variables. In respect to these results the ongoing study will be modified in some details: There will be a qualitative analysis of transcribed semi-structured interviews. The proportion of families with severely demented relatives will be increased. In an additional step we shall examine families, who have decided to transfer their old member into an institution.
Das Schisma zwischen Biologie und Sozialwissenschaften ist nicht neu, aber der Erfolg und das neu... more Das Schisma zwischen Biologie und Sozialwissenschaften ist nicht neu, aber der Erfolg und das neue Selbstbewußtsein der biologischen Forschung fordern derzeit die Sozialwissenschaften heraus, wie nie zuvor. Ein Kampfwort in diesem Szenario ist der Begriff "Essentialismus", meist als das Gegenbegriff zu "Konstruktivismus". Essentialismus wird in zwei Bedeutungen gebraucht: teleologische Kausalität und strikte Determinierheit durch biologische Faktoren. Diese Bedeutungen werden im Folgenden auf ihre Tragfähigkeit untersucht. Essenz und Telos Der Begriff der Essenz entstammt der Philosophie Platons und wurde später von Aristoteles und seinen Nachfolgern modifiziert. In platonischer Bedeutung ist die Essenz einer Sache das Ideal, das schon vor der Sache selbst existiert hat und von dem sich diese Sache in ihrer realen Existenz immer weiter entfernt. Für Aristoteles dagegen ist die Essenz in der Sache selbst. Sie ist ihr immanent als ihr Entfaltungsprinzip. Die Sache strebt zu sich hin, zu ihrem Telos, ist in diesem Sinne also auch ihre letzte Ursache. Alle Dinge der Natur sind ständig in Bewegung und sie bewegen sich hin zu ihrem Telos. Während dieser Bewegung offenbaren sie immer deutlicher ihr wahres Wesen, die kommen gleichsam zu sich selbst, denn ihr Telos ist ihre Essenz. In den Worten K. Poppers: Aristotle makes sensible things move towards their final causes or ends, and these he identifies with their Forms or essences. And as a biologist, he assumes that sensible things carry potentially within themselves the seeds, as it were, of their final states, or of their essences. This is one of the reasons why he can say that the Form or essence is in the thing, not, as Plato said, prior and external to it. For Aristotle, all movement or change means the realization (or "actualisation") of some of the potentialities inherent in the essence of a thing.
Aktuelle Gerontologie
In the course of a geriatric-sociological field-investigation 140 families were studied, which li... more In the course of a geriatric-sociological field-investigation 140 families were studied, which live with an old relative and take care of him in case of disease. 45 of the old persons suffered from a dementive syndrome of medium or severe degree. All the information obtained in these 45 families (precoded-interviews, questionnaires, free-interviews, follow-up contacts, group-work with care-taking relatives) was inspected regarding the question whether the families, when dealing with the diseased family-member, showed one or more of the following reactions: 1. Reactions of despair 2. Sympathy for the experience of decreasing efficiency 3. Dementia and neurotic interaction 4. Activating care 5. Pedagogic efforts 6. Inclusion of children 7. Readiness and avoidance of contact 8. Readiness to spoil the demented relative - The results show, that the relatives make altogether great efforts ehen caring for their demented family members; this refers to psychic energy as well as to material means.
Aktuelle Gerontologie
Multigenerational household with widowed elderly above the age of 70 have been studied by intervi... more Multigenerational household with widowed elderly above the age of 70 have been studied by interviewing the aged person and his/her daughter/daughter in law. The sample is described according to household composure and some sociodemographic characteristics. Data analysis focused on the relationship between variables in the elderly person and variables in the daughter/daughter in law. Psychic and somatic well-being in the relatives can be predicted by the degree of competence/dependency in the aged family member, but less so with a general health assessment. Organic brain conditions in the aged parents seem to have most adverse effects on the daughter/daughter in law when they are of a moderate degree.
Psychiatrische Praxis
In 1980 the psychiatric clinic of the University of Hamburg took charge of a catchment area withi... more In 1980 the psychiatric clinic of the University of Hamburg took charge of a catchment area within the city of Hamburg. From this year on the clinic decided to provide half of its in-patient and day clinic capacity (that is 71 beds and 10 day clinic places) for a population of 139,000 living in this region. The effects of this decision are discussed on three levels: - changes in the patient population - opinions and attitudes of the clinic personnel - implications for the organizational structure The proportion of in-patients from the catchment area increased from 20% to 45% due to the clinic taking charge of this region. This increase did not much change the characteristics of the total in-patient population admitted to the clinic, except for a shift towards more older patients and more patients with a diagnosis of dementia or organic psychosis. Around two thirds of the clinic personnel held a predominantly positive view of the clinic's decision to establish a catchment area. Contrary to some hopes the internal structure of the clinic did not change much in response to its newly acquired responsibility for the catchment area. Nevertheless a period of one year seems too short for such changes to occur.
GMS Zeitschrift für medizinische Ausbildung, 2011
The University Hospital in Hamburg (UKE) started to develop a test of knowledge in natural scienc... more The University Hospital in Hamburg (UKE) started to develop a test of knowledge in natural sciences for admission to medical school in 2005 (Hamburger Auswahlverfahren für Medizinische Studiengänge, Naturwissenschaftsteil, HAM-Nat). This study is a step towards establishing the HAM-Nat. We are investigating parallel forms reliability, the effect of a crash course in chemistry on test results, and correlations of HAM-Nat test results with a test of scientific reasoning (similar to a subtest of the "Test for Medical Studies", TMS). 316 first-year students participated in the study in 2007. They completed different versions of the HAM-Nat test which consisted of items that had already been used (HN2006) and new items (HN2007). Four weeks later half of the participants were tested on the HN2007 version of the HAM-Nat again, while the other half completed the test of scientific reasoning. Within this four week interval students were offered a five day chemistry course. Parallel...
Psychiatrische Praxis, 1995
Computer programs to aid qualitative research are offered in increasing numbers. Most programs pr... more Computer programs to aid qualitative research are offered in increasing numbers. Most programs provide basic features like the decomposition of large bodies of text, labelling of text units by category names, retrieval and search for key words. More advanced features are graphical displays of the categories, secondary texts, statistical output and a multi-user interface. The benefits and dangers of these programs for the process of doing qualitative research are discussed.
European archives of psychiatry and neurological sciences, 1986
The present study investigates the relationship between ecological factors and the community tenu... more The present study investigates the relationship between ecological factors and the community tenure patients with functional psychoses. Data were gathered from the records of three psychiatric hospitals in the city of Hamburg. The analysis controls for the effects of sociodemographic variables and variables pertaining to the last impatient treatment. Variations in readmission rates can be explained by the latter to a certain extent, but only poorly by sociodemographic variables and hardly at all by ecological factors. These findings are discussed with respect to the methodological limitations of the study and as substantive results. Two lines of interpretation are offered. Firstly, equal readmission rates may have been caused by different sets of ecological factors; secondly, patients released from mental hospital may be relatively insusceptible to the impact of ecological factors.
Oxford Handbooks Online, 2012
The most frequent conflict within human mateships is the conflict between male sexual persistence... more The most frequent conflict within human mateships is the conflict between male sexual persistence and female sexual resistance. This conflict is nearly absent in the formation phase of a mateship and intensifies with time. It is rooted in sex-specific evolved programs encountering each other: a female program to secure male assistance and simultaneously remain open to new matings and a male program to guard paternity and to seek frequent copulation as a precaution against sperm competition. Mate value, the threat of infidelity, and attachment, moderate the conflict. Attachment motivation can be seen as a part of mating strategy or as a motivational system of its own, conflicting with demands of strategic flexibility. The theoretical framework of mating strategy accommodates many observations about sexual motivation within human mateships. However, sexual therapy has not yet taken much advantage of this body of knowledge. This might result from the different traditions of the respective scientific communities. It may also reflect a more substantial role of attachment than of mating strategy for the sexual life of a couple, since sexual therapy often focuses on issues of attachment,
Zeitschrift für Sexualforschung, 2011
BMC Medical Education, 2011
Background Knowledge in natural sciences generally predicts study performance in the first two ye... more Background Knowledge in natural sciences generally predicts study performance in the first two years of the medical curriculum. In order to reduce delay and dropout in the preclinical years, Hamburg Medical School decided to develop a natural science test (HAM-Nat) for student selection. In the present study, two different approaches to scale construction are presented: a unidimensional scale and a scale composed of three subject specific dimensions. Their psychometric properties and relations to academic success are compared. Methods 334 first year medical students of the 2006 cohort responded to 52 multiple choice items from biology, physics, and chemistry. For the construction of scales we generated two random subsamples, one for development and one for validation. In the development sample, unidimensional item sets were extracted from the item pool by means of weighted least squares (WLS) factor analysis, and subsequently fitted to the Rasch model. In the validation sample, the ...