Die Schematherapie nach Jeffrey Young wird als Protagonistin einer seit einigen Jahren anhaltenden Phase der Evolution verhaltenstherapeutischer Therapieansätze betrachtet. Dabei genießt sie weltweit eine enorme Popularität. Die Publikation der ersten Version der schema therapy datiert auf das Jahr 1990. Bis heute sind einige theoretische Revisionen des zugrundeliegenden Modells Früher Maladaptiver Schemata erfolgt. Mit dieser Forschungsarbeit wird eine Überprüfung zentraler Annahmen des Schemamodells angestrebt. Konkreter werden zwei Anliegen verfolgt. Zum einen wird der erste Versuch im deutschsprachigen Raum unternommen, Youngs Modell mithilfe eines konfirmatorischen Vorgehens in einer klinischen Stichprobe auf seine faktorielle Validität zu überprüfen. Hierzu wird das theoretisch postulierte Faktorenmodell Youngs mit 18 Primär- und fünf Sekundärfaktoren in einer klinischen Stichprobe (N=449) mit einem in einer nicht-klinischen Stichprobe (N=316) gewonnenen empirischen Modell auf Anpassungsgüte verglichen. Zum anderen werden zentrale Aussagen im Hinblick auf die Kriteriumsvalidität überprüft. Bezugnehmend auf das ursprüngliche Ansinnen des Schemamodells, neue Perspektiven für die Psychotherapie von Menschen mit Persönlichkeitsauffälligkeiten zu eröffnen, sollen zentrale Zusammenhangsannahmen Youngs zwischen Frühen Maladaptiven Schemata und Persönlichkeitsstilen analysiert werden. Die Ergebnisse der konfirmatorischen Faktorenanalyse lassen keine klare Überlegenheit des theoretischen Modells gegenüber dem empirischen im Hinblick auf seine Anpassungsgüte erkennen und offenbaren, dass relevante Varianzanteile der untersuchten Variablen in der Stichprobe nicht adäquat durch das Modell erklärt werden können. Die Prädiktion der Persönlichkeitsvariablen durch multiple Regression gelingt im Vergleich für den emotional-instabilen Persönlichkeitsstil überzeugender als für den narzisstischen. Aspekte der diskriminanten Validität erscheinen problematisch. Durch diese Arbeit wird eine konzeptuelle Weiterentwicklung einiger fundamentaler Modellannahmen Youngs nahe gelegt. Die Schemadiagnostik sollte neben dem Selbstbericht durch Fragebogen andere Herangehensweisen berücksichtigen. Die Validität kritischer schemaätiologischer Annahmen sollte durch geeignete prospektive Forschungsdesigns untersucht werden.

This dissertation presents three studies that focus on cultural variation of parenting beliefs within Germany. Countries are often misleadingly taken as cultural units. However, the studies were based on a concept of culture that regards eco-social contexts (i.e., ecological conditions as well as individual characteristics) as the source of specific socio-cultural orientations. These socio-cultural orientations, the so-called cultural models, manifest in individuals’ parenting beliefs and hence can be differentiated across cultural groups. As an important part of parenting beliefs, socialization goals are in the focus of this dissertation. Through socialization goals, parents and other caregivers specify how they want (their) children to be like, that is, the characteristics, qualities, and behaviors that explicitly and implicitly serve as desired developmental endpoints and guide parenting behavior. The cultural variations that are considered in this dissertation concern cultural groups deriving from socio-historical change and migration. Both are regarded as changing individuals’ eco-social context conditions and therefore contribute to the cultural plurality within Germany. More specifically, study 1 addressed similarities and differences in East and West German young adults’ parenting beliefs. Socialization goal preferences of Turkish and Former Soviet Union (FSU) migrant as well as non-migrant mothers were contrasted with early childcare teachers’ preferences in study 2. Furthermore, measurement equivalence of a socialization goal questionnaire was tested across non-migrant, Turkish, and FSU migrant mothers in study 3. As the first study indicated, young adults with East and West German origin did not differ regarding socialization goal preferences but in their intended use of early childcare. Study 2 showed that migrant mothers’ socialization goal preferences were less similar to their children’s preschool teachers than non-migrant mothers’. Though, they were nonetheless as satisfied with the childcare arrangement as the non-migrant mothers. Finally, the two-factor structure of the socialization goal questionnaire was confirmed at the level of metric invariance. However, both factors were differently related to each other across Turkish, FSU, and non-migrant mothers (study 3). Taken together, the results yielded congruent and divergent parenting beliefs across the cultural groups that were included in the three studies. The cultural models that could be inferred from the studies overlapped regarding the importance of pro-social socialization goals, which were unanimously emphasized by mothers, adults, and teachers regardless of their respective cultural background. On the other hand, obedience-related socialization goals revealed culture-specific preferences in case of the migrant and non-migrant caregivers. Altogether, the studies confirmed the currently existing cultural variation of parenting beliefs in Germany due to socio-historical change and migration processes. They point out scientific and practical implications (i.e., regarding instrument development in study 3 and the parent-teacher relationship in study 2).

While a large body of social psychological literature is devoted to studying helping behavior between social groups, the study of gratitude as the most common reaction to help is virtually absent from the intergroup literature. However, gratitude has been a constant theme in the history of intergroup relations, particularly in the history of the systematic oppression of socially disadvantaged groups by socially advantaged groups. The “grateful slave” trope that justified the oppression of Black people in North America or modern narratives of “ungrateful” immigrants in Europe exemplify advantaged groups’ attempts to evoke gratitude among disadvantaged groups to secure their conformity and loyalty, or to receive recognition for apparent benefits they provide - even for equal rights. Not only do these examples question the undisputed positivity of gratitude, but they also suggest that disadvantaged groups’ gratitude expressions might be involved in the regulation of power relations between social groups. The present research introduces the empirical study of gratitude to intergroup relations. The specific aim of this dissertation was to examine how disadvantaged groups’ gratitude expressions in response to advantaged group help might function to promote social inequality. At the same time, the present work addresses gaps within previous research that studies how advantaged group help itself affects status relations. Based on a synthesis of the literature on gratitude and intergroup relations, across three manuscripts, it was examined whether disadvantaged groups’ gratitude expressions, alongside advantaged group help, affect intergroup power relations through a) influencing psychological pathways to social change, b) regulating group-specific needs, and c) enacting and transmitting paternalistic ideology. In Manuscript #1, the novel idea of a potentially harmful side of gratitude expressions for low power groups was tested. Using correlational, experimental, between- and within-subjects designs, the results from five studies showed across different contexts that when low-power group members expressed gratitude for a high-power group member’s help, they were less willing and less likely to protest against the high power group members’ previous transgression. Forgiveness and system justification mediated this pacifying effect, providing insights into the underlying psychological process. In Manuscript #2, results from two correlational studies demonstrate that ideological beliefs can guide advantaged groups to provide help that differs in its potential to bring about social change. Paternalistic beliefs parsimoniously distinguished whether members of the receiving society provide dependency- or autonomy-oriented help to refugees. Both groups indicated that autonomy-oriented help has a higher potential for social change than dependency-oriented help. Reflecting group-specific needs and convictions that underlie paternalism, receiving society members’ concern for a positive moral image of the ingroup was positively related to their willingness to provide dependency-oriented help, and beliefs about refugees’ competence were positively related to their willingness to provide autonomy-oriented help. In Manuscript #3, it was investigated why advantaged group members react negatively to refugee protests and demand more gratitude from the refugees. The results of two experiments showed that refugees’ protest decreased perceptions among receiving society members that they are socially valued, but expressions of gratitude from refugees increased perceptions of being socially valued. Refugees were perceived as more agentic when they protested, however, not when they expressed gratitude. Perceptions of social worth determined receiving society members’ attitudes toward refugees on other dimensions. In a third experiment, the underpinnings of gratitude demands were examined. The results of a third experiment showed that receiving society members, who endorsed paternalistic beliefs, labeled protesting refugees as ungrateful and demanded gratitude from them. In sum, besides theoretically and empirically advancing several areas of intergroup relations (e.g., intergroup helping, intergroup contact, intergroup reconciliation, and paternalism), the present research suggests that gratitude expressions, which occur in intergroup contexts that are characterized by social injustice, can have negative consequences for disadvantaged groups. Implications for theory and social change are discussed, and promising avenues for future research are suggested.

As shown in previous studies Streptomyces lividans enzymatically inactivates fusidic acid by specific esterase FusH giving rise to the 16ß-OH derivative, which sponaneously converts to the lactone.in this work it was shown that S. lividans further modifies fusidic acid and both derivatives, which resulted in several new related substances. The two intermediates (La, Lb) were isolated from the culture filtrate of S. lividans, which was grown in the presence of fusidic acid. The differences in their chemical structures indicate the involvement of multiple enzyme reactions related to hydroxylation, hydration, dehydrogenation and isomerization. Several enzymes were identified and two of them (FusG, FusB) were partially characterized. According to their characteristics and the structures of isolated intermediates, the identified enzymes which are involved in biotranformation are conceivably related to the ones implicated in ß oxidation. The biotransformation of fusidic acid and its derivatives by S. lividans is so far unique, since characterized substances La and Lb have not been found in either fusidic acid-producing or fusidic acid-resistant microorganisms.

Die Rechtsstellung des Markenlizenznehmers basiert auf einer Rechtseinräumung durch den Markeninhaber. Es entsteht eine konkurrierende Berechtigung. Art und Umfang der dem Lizenznehmer zustehenden Rechte bedürfen auf Grund der unvollkommenen Regelung des § 30 Abs. 3 Markengesetz einer Konkretisierung. Die sich daraus ergebenen Probleme und rechtlichen Fragen wurden in dieser Arbeit eingehend untersucht.

Integrated production and distribution scheduling has emerged as an important research topic in the areas of combinatorial optimization and supply chain management. In this thesis we consider problems that occur frequently in the manufacturing of products with a short lifespan or in make-to-order business models, where the production is triggered only if a corresponding customer order is received. The focus is put on the coordination of production and distribution processes to meet the requirements of the customers as closely as possible while at the same time maximizing the revenues of the manufacturer. We analyze a basic production and distribution model and study several extensions in order to incorporate more restrictions from practice. These model extensions lead to complex scenarios that make the class of considered problems very challenging to solve. We address their complexity by developing appropriate heuristic solution methods based on meta-heuristics such as tabu search or iterated local search. Moreover, we evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithms on a set of test instances. Practical applications in which the previously mentioned problems need to be solved include the production and transportation of certain intermediate products like adhesive materials in chemical industry and the delivery of ready-mix concrete from a production plant to several construction sites by a fleet of delivery trucks.

Within the framework of this thesis, three studies are presented that investigated cultural similarities and differences of preschool aged children’s self- and family-drawings. The research was guided by the assumption that besides the basic structure of the drawing, specific drawing characteristics would vary cross-culturally, according to differences in cultural models and the associated understanding of self and others. Based on an ecocultural approach, families were systematically selected from diverse cultural contexts across and within national boundaries, representing three different cultural models: (1) the cultural model of psychological autonomy (characteristic for Western urban middle-class contexts), (2) the cultural model of hierarchical relatedness (representative for non-Western rural traditional contexts), and (3) mixed cultural models of autonomous relatedness (e.g., non-Western urban middle-class contexts, migration contexts). The participating children were of similar age, gender distribution, and had reached comparable structural levels of human figure drawings. Overall, the studies revealed three main findings. First, it could be confirmed that there are basic similarities in children’s graphic development. In line with previous reports, the studies demonstrated that the structural composition of the human figure as well as production principles did not differ significantly across cultures. Second, several content-based drawing features varied with cultural context and the associated cultural model. In particular, figure size, the facial depiction, and gender-specific characteristics could be linked to the culturally shaped understanding of self and others in the respective cultural context. Third, it was shown that the composition of children’s family-drawings corresponded to the structure of families in the particular cultural context, mainly with regard to number and position of family members, figure size- and gender-differentiation. The results are discussed with a focus on the role of general and culture-specific drawing characteristics in preschool aged children’s drawings of self and family. Based on these and former research findings, an integrative framework of children’s self- and family-drawings is proposed in order to shed light on the origin and relationship of the investigated drawing characteristics. Open research questions are pointed out, as well as limitations and practical implications of the study results.

For a long time, water shortages and flooding have been challenges in many parts of China. Meanwhile, the Chinese government announced the change of water management from engineering-oriented approach towards integrated approach in the last decades. However, the announced changes in management approach does not necessarily lead to the wide implementation of institutions, infrastructures and practice. They can be confronted by a strong resistance from the existing management approach. In fact, the development of water resources management is a complex process. Such a complexity raise the following questions: did fundamental changes really take place in the structure of water supply and demand management and flood management in China? If yes, how? In order to answer this question, the author (1) developed conceptual frameworks to enable a detailed and precise analysis of regime development; (2)applied the elaborated conceptual frameworks to explore the development of the water resources management regime in China, at the example of three case studies. These three case studies were: •Flood Management (IFM) took place in the Dongting Lake Area in the middle Yangtze River, •Water allocation in the Yellow River Basin, •The experimentation period of Water Saving Society in China. With the support of the developed framework, the case studies show that fundamental changes, i.e. transitions, have taken place in flood management regime and water supply-demand regime in China, but transitions have not yet completed, due to, namely, the lack of reconfiguration of other regime components and other relevant regimes. In addition, the case studies also depict how the start of transitions were triggered and how informal learning processes influenced regime development. The thesis contributed to sustainability transitions research by developing an operational approach to analyze transitions of water resource management regime and by expanding the empirical basis for transitions research to natural resources management regime in emerging economies.

Gegenstand der Arbeit: Die Erinnerung an die eigene Sterblichkeit – das exklusive Bewusstsein des Menschen als selbstreflexives Lebewesen an die Endlichkeit des eigenen Lebens – ist für ihn ein Aspekt, der aufgrund seines biologisch begründeten Selbsterhaltungstriebs ein hohes Angstpotential in sich birgt. Es beeinflusst uns zumindest implizit in vielfältiger Weise. Insbesondere durch die Medien werden wir häufig mit der eigenen Vergänglichkeit konfrontiert und dennoch scheinen wir nicht in ständiger Angst oder Panik zu leben, was zu der Frage führt: Wie gelingt uns das? Hier bietet die Terror Management Theorie von Solomon, Greenberg und Pyszczynski (1991) einen interessanten und mittlerweile breit erforschten Erklärungsansatz, der sozialpsychologische und evolutionspsychologische Erkenntnisse zu einer integrativen und funktionalen Theorie vereint, in deren Kern die eigene Kultur und deren akzeptierte Mitgliedschaft als Angstpuffer fungieren und die Stärkung der eigenen kulturellen Weltsicht (bzw. Abwertung fremder kultureller Sichten) als Bewältigungsmechanismus funktioniert. Obwohl die Theorie von Terror und Angst ausgeht, misslang bisher in der Terror Management Forschung der Nachweis eines systematischen Einflusses von Befindlichkeiten oder Affekten. Aber welche – wenn auch implizit wirkende – Rolle spielen Affekte im Terror Management Prozess? Dieser Frage widmet sich die vorliegende Arbeit und versucht eine systematische Antwort, indem sie die impliziten affektiven Prozesse durch eine multimethodal angelegte Untersuchung genauer analysiert. Hinzugezogen wird in diesem Zusammenhang außerdem das Persönlichkeitskonstrukt der Persönlichkeits- System- Interaktions- Theorie (PSI- Theorie) von Kuhl (1981). Untersuchungsdesign: Die Überprüfung der Hypothesen erfolgt über Varianzanalysen in einem experimentellen Design mit einer Stichprobe von 138 Personen im Alter von 18 bis 79 Jahren. Methode: Die Hypothesen werden über einen multimethodalen Ansatz geprüft. Neben der klassischen Überprüfung des Mortalitätssalienz- Effekts werden hierzu über verschiedene Parameter neben der expliziten Ebene auch implizite affektive Reaktionen erfasst. In diesem Zusammenhang werden psychophysiologische Reaktionen über das Objective Emotional Assessment (OEA, Boucsein, Schaefer, Schwerdtfeger, Busch & Eisfeld, 1999) erfasst und implizit- kognitive Reaktionen über den Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test (IPANAT, Quirin, Kazén & Kuhl, 2009). Ergebnisse: Im Ergebnis der vorliegenden Untersuchung zeigte sich, dass zwar dem klassischen Mortalitätssalienz- Effekt erhöhter Fremdgruppenabwertungstendenz klar entsprochen wird (p= 0,00), der Affekt jedoch – wie zunächst vermutet – keine bedeutsame Rolle zu spielen scheint. Weder auf kognitiver noch auf physiologischer Ebene ergaben sich in der Experimentalgruppe signifikant erhöhte negative Befindlichkeiten (ps > 0,21). Schlussfolgerung: Ausgehend vom Untersuchungsergebnis werden ein stärker kognitiv orientierter Erklärungsansatz der Terror Management Prozesse unter Hinzuziehung des Einflusses prospektiver Handlungsorientierung sowie Implikationen für weitere Forschungsvorhaben diskutiert.

Random polytopes can be constructed in many different ways. In this thesis two certain kinds are considered - random polytopes as the convex hull of random points and as the intersection of finitely many random half spaces. Concerning these two models different issues are treated.