Georges Steffgen

Anger and aggression are seen as interdependent aspects of human experience, standing in a narrow interrelation. Therefore, one often finds psychological anger intervention programs with the explicit purpose of directly or indirectly changing aggressive behavior. Furthermore, there is a multiplicity of trainings for the reduction of aggression in which the intention is to reduce aggression by changing the experience or regulation of anger. Some researchers place importance on the proximity and potential overlapping variance of these constructs when expanding theoretical models regarding anger and aggression. On the other hand, some investigators allude to evident differences in the experience and expression of anger and aggression, from which diverse paths to establish changes in these different constructs would be expected. Therefore, a basic question stemming from these different findings and approaches is whether anger treatment necessarily reduces aggressive behavior. As a first step towards answering this question, the notions of anger and aggression will be defined and differentiated in this review. Furthermore, the theoretical relationship between these two concepts will be thoroughly investigated. We will subsequently highlight different approaches for modifying anger processes on the one hand and aggressive behavior on the other. With reference to findings of comparative and meta-analytic studies, the specific effectiveness of intervention programs regarding anger is characterized. A summary of specific indication criteria and target groups also is presented. This article will then be concluded with a summary of principles for anger treatments that should be considered for reduction of aggressive behavior

Child poverty features on the agenda of the European Union (EU) since many years. In 2013, a Recommendation on “Investing in children: breaking the cycle of disadvantage” argued that “preventing the transmission of disadvantage across generations is a crucial investment in Europe’s future” (European Commission, 2013). Most recently, the Recommendation on the European Child Guarantee proposed by the European Commission in March 2021 confirmed the importance of the fight against child poverty at the EU level.In terms of the monitoring of child poverty, the EU made a step forward in March 2018 by adopting a child-specific deprivation indicator. This allowed to go beyond the simple age group breakdowns of social indicators to monitor children’s living conditions and to capture the actual living conditions of children, which may differ from that of their parents.This chapter analyses the determinants of child deprivation in Luxembourg, using this new child deprivation indicator adopted a...

Im Rahmen einer Informationsveranstaltung des arbeitsmedizinischen Dienstes des luxemburger Finanzdienstleistungssektors wurden 29 Bankangestellte, die Opfer von Überfällen waren, hinsichtlich posttraumatischer Belastungsreaktionen untersucht. Ziel des Beitrages ist es, ein ökonomischen und rationelles Verfahren zur Diagnose der „Posttraumatischen Belastungsstörung“ vorzustellen. Die Diagnosen ergaben, dass über ein Drittel der Befragten (34,5%) als hoch belastet anzusehen sind. Diejenigen, die mehr als einen Banküberfall miterlebt haben, weisen dabei im Durchschnitt eine höhere Zahl an posttraumatischen Symptomen auf. Eine hohe Komorbidität der PTBS mit Somatisierungs- und Angstreaktionen ist ebenfalls zu verzeichnen. Die Befunde belegen zudem, dass der auf Grundlage des „Diagnostischen Interviews bei Psychischen Störungen“ entwickelte Diagnose-Fragebogen sich als nützliches sowie aussagekräftiges Verfahren erweist. Weitergehende Analysen und Erprobungen sind jedoch erforderlich. Aufgrund der Ergebnisse der Untersuchung wurde für den luxemburgischen Bankensektor ein umfassendes Präventionsprogramm zu PTBS etabliert

Workplace bullying (WB) is a serious phenomenon that has serious detrimental effects on victim’s health, attitudes, and work-related behavior (Nielsen & Einarsen, 2012). WB is seen as an escalated conflict, where both parties engage in increasing overt acts of aggression (e.g., Einarsen et al., 2011). This perspective is supported by one of the most robust finding in WB and aggression literature, the association between experienced workplace aggression and enacting in workplace aggression (e.g., Baillien et al., 2016). However, there are only a few studies that have researched the mechanism between these phenomena (Samnani & Singh 2012). Self-determination theory (SDT) might explain this link. As need frustration is linked to less self-control (Vansteenkiste & Ryan, 2012), the frustration of the need for relatedness might also lead to increased aggressive behavior. Drawing on SDT, we propose that bullying exposure thwarts employee’s need for relatedness that increase aggressive behavior. Thus, the aim of our study was to test this mediation in a longitudinal design with short time intervals (i.e. monthly). A six-wave online survey design with monthly time lag was employed and data were collected among U.S. employees. The sample consists of 1,595 respondents (55.8% females, n=890, ageM = 36.9, ageSD =10.3). Workplace bullying exposure was assessed with the S-NAQ (Notelaers et al., 2018). Being a perpetrator of bullying was measured by the same nine items of the S-NAQ, however, formulated in an active manner (e.g., Baillien et al., 2011). Finally, frustration of the need for relatedness was assessed with the Psychological Needs Thwarting Scale (Bartholomew et al., 2011). Cross-lagged mediation analysis within a path modeling framework only partially confirmed the proposed model: WB exposure was significantly related to a change in frustration of relatedness. However, frustration of relatedness did (most of the time) not increase WB perpetration, but WB exposure. These longitudinal findings underline the vicious circle nature of WB exposure

Treatment of the ADHD types (hyperactive-impulsive, inattentive, and combined) in children has rarely been studied separately, although their prognostic courses differ widely. In addition, data show that improvements in hyperactivity/impulsivity are hard to achieve. Thus, we focused on treatments tailored to hyperactivity/impulsivity. We examined meta-analyses and systematic reviews within the inter- and intra-individual treatments and found that psychoeducation and training for parents, school-based interventions, reinforcement strategies, and neurofeedback consistently showed small to moderate effect sizes in reducing hyperactivity/impulsivity in children. Conversely, emotional self-regulation, social skills, and cognitive trainings showed unsatisfactory results. In summary, we found that the quality of usual care can be surpassed when the designated interventions are purposefully combined into a multimodal treatment program.

The present study examined the effects of a move to a new physical learning environment – Belval Campus – on the students’ satisfaction with the course program in psychology. It was hypothesized that the move to a new and modern University campus with better study facilities increases course climate, learning promotion, and skill acquisition. Participants were 538 undergraduate students who completed the Bachelor Evaluation Questionnaire, which assessed the perceived quality of the course program as well as five infrastructure and equipment aspects of the new campus. Findings show that students were more satisfied with the classrooms, the capacity of the rooms, and the library facilities, but there was no increase in perceived course climate, learning promotion, and skill acquisition of the students after 6 months nor after 18 months from the move. The implications of these findings for the need to change physical learning environments are discussed and recommendations for the design of learning environments are presented

The increase of cross-cultural studies and intervention programs, based on the self-determination theory, highlights the urge for validated scales to ensure high-quality research, particularly in the domain of physical education. The present study aimed at evaluating the psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the revised Perceived Locus of Causality Scale (PLOC-R) in physical education and the Behavioral Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire (BREQ-II) during leisure-time translations from English into German and French among youth. Data obtained from 1808 Luxemburgish students supported the five-factor structure of the translated PLOC-R as well as for the BREQ-II and showed good internal reliability as well as concurrent, discriminant, and nomological validity. Measurement invariance analyses across the two languages revealed configural, metric, and partial scalar invariance for both questionnaires. The findings provide promising evidence for the reliability and validi...

Tracing back to the early stages of scientific psychology in Luxembourg, past and recent developments in the academic and applied fields of psychology are chronicled for one of the smallest member states of the European Union. In addition, the institutional- ization of psychology with regard to professional associations and in the context of the newly created University of Luxembourg is depicted. Based on survey data, the major occupational fields and the present situation of professional psychologists are described. Reflections concerning the future perspective of psychology as an academic discipline as well as a profession and an overview of the legal regulations concerning psychology in Luxembourg complete the report.

Der folgende Beitrag setzt sich mit der Frage auseinander, ob in Luxemburg bei Kindern und Jugendlichen aus sozioökonomisch benachteiligten Familien verstärkt Gewalterfahrungen auftreten. Im Rahmen der Auseinandersetzung mit dieser Frae wird in einem ersten Schritt das Armutsrisiko für Kinder und Jugendliche in Luxemburg dargelegt. In einem zweiten Schritt werden dann die für Luxemburg vorliegenden empirischen Befunde zu den Gewalterfahrungen von Kindern und Jugendlichen aufgeführt. Auf dem Hintergrund der aufgezeigten Lage sowie soziologischen und sozialpsychologischen theoretischen Annahmen werden dann Schlussfolgerungen zur aktuellen Situation in Luxemburg gezogen und diskutiert

Introduction: Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) seem to have lower emotion regulation competence than typically developing individuals; they use more frequently suppression than reappraisal (Samson, Huber, & Gross, 2012). Additionally, low levels of resting heart rate variability (HRV) have been associated with poor social functioning and emotional rigidity (Butler, Wilhelm, & Gross, 2006), which characterize individuals with ASD. Therefore, it is hypothesized that typically developing individuals with more autistic traits use more frequently suppression instead of reappraisal and have lower resting HRV. Methodology: 66 students (age: M=21.73, SD=2.49) participated in the study. Firstly, participants resting HRV was measured for 5 minutes. Afterwards, participants watched 5 videos of one minute long each (Gross & Levenson, 1995). Two videos were used to elicit disgust and three were neutral. After each video, participants completed a questionnaire about the emotions felt during the video (Ekman, Friesen, & Ancoli, 1980; adapted by Gross & Levenson, 1993). Finally, participants completed the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ; Baron-Cohen et al., 2001), and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ; Gross & John, 2003). Results: Participants who used more frequently suppression had more autistic traits (M=20.13, SD=4.73) than those who used more frequently reappraisal (M=15.06, SD=4.50; t(64)=3.80, p<.001). Furthermore, the more autistic traits participants had, the more they rated their emotions during the disgust-eliciting videos as pleasant (r(57)=.295, p<.05), and the more they reported feeling positive emotions (r(63)=.262, p<.05). However, no correlation was found regarding negative emotions. Concerning resting HRV participants with more autistic traits had higher HRV (r(47)=.29, p<.05). Conclusions: Similarly to individuals with ASD, typically developing individuals with more autistic traits used more frequently suppression, demonstrating less emotion regulation competence. The reported higher rates of pleasantness during the disgust-eliciting videos and the overall experience of more positive emotions can be interpreted as a lack of cognitive empathy (Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright, 2004). The unexpected resting HRV result might be explained by differences in the pattern of physiological responding (Zahn, Rumsey, & Kammen, 1987)