[Evaluation of the Sexual Sensation Seeking Scale: Results of a Representative German Population Survey].

Previous studies on Sexual Sensation Seeking (SSS) and the Sexual Sensation Seeking Scale (SSSS) were mainly carried out on random samples selected according to age and gender. In this study, the German version of the SSSS was evaluated on a representative survey of men and women, which covers the age range of the adult German population. The quality criteria and the factor structure of the German version of the Sexual Sensation Seeking Scale were examined on a representative sample of N=2420 (54% women, 36% men) aged between 18-93 years (M=50.

Blunted neuroendocrine stress reactivity in young women with eating disorders.

Objective: Stress is known to influence risk and progression of eating disorders (EDs). However, studies investigating physiological and psychological stress responses under laboratory conditions in patients with Anorexia nervosa or Bulimia nervosa are scarce and often produce conflicting findings. We therefore aimed to compare the neuroendocrine and affective stress response in ED inpatients and healthy controls.

IREL - A psychometric instrument for measuring life themes.

Background: Although biographical narratives and work involving the meaning of biographical episodes is a central focus in any psychotherapy, there remains a lack of psychometric instruments for measuring the autobiographical construction as such. We will be presenting a theoretical model of an autobiographical construction of life themes and the Interview of Retrospective Exploration of Life themes (IREL) will be used as the basis of a psychometric instrument. The IREL takes about 90-120 min.

Hope as an emotion of expectancy: first assessment results.

Theoretical Background: Based on deficiencies of present conceptions of hope, an appraisal model is proposed as an alternative approach, in which hope is defined as the expectancy that a possible event, which a person rates positively, will occur in the future. The event depends both on situational and internal factors. This model differentiates between a subjective probability of occurrence and a subjective probability of affiliation.

The Hypomania Checklist (HCL-32): its factorial structure and association to indices of impairment in German and Swedish nonclinical samples.

Background: Bipolar disorders are often not recognized. Several instruments were developed but none primarily focused on hypomania. The Hypomania Checklist (HCL) is aimed at the identification of bipolarity in outpatients.

Is "shy bladder syndrome" (paruresis) correctly classified as social phobia?

Paruresis manifests in an inability to urinate in public restrooms followed by a considerable avoidance behavior. According to DSM-IV TR this disorder is classified as social phobia. A sample of N = 226 subjects completed different questionnaires concerning paruresis, social phobic symptoms, lower urinary tract symptoms and depressive symptoms.

Current and former depression and their relationship to the effects of social comparison processes. Results of an internet based study.

Background: According to cognitive vulnerability stress models of depression, negative cognitions are supposed to be stable characteristics of depressed individuals even between depressive episodes. Depressed people also interpret social information more negatively than healthy people, perhaps even between depressive episodes. Frequency of social comparison processes is correlated with low self-esteem and uncertainty, which is common in depression.

Psychogenic urinary retention ('paruresis'): diagnosis and epidemiology in a representative male sample.

Background: Although research interest in social phobias has expanded during the last decade, a special subtype of social phobia known as paruresis, which manifests in the inability to urinate in public rest rooms, is rarely mentioned. The aim of the present study was to achieve for the first time an estimation of point prevalence in a representative male sample (n = 1,105).

Method: Due to the lack of well-established screening instruments for paruresis, the Paruresis Checklist (PCL) must be tested for reliability and validity.