Mehr Studienanfänger: Mehr Studienabbrecher?

Ziel dieser Studie ist es, die allgemeine Studiensituation in Deutschland näher zu untersuchen und zu erläutern. Dabei wird insbesondere auf die Hauptursachen von Studienabbrüchen sowie auf die Arbeitsmarktintegration der betroffenen Personen eingegangen. Im Detail wird analysiert: Wie sich u. a. die Studienanfänger- und Studienabbruchquoten an deutschen Universitäten und Fachhochschulen entwickelt haben? Welche die Hauptursachen für die steigenden Studienabbruchquoten sind? Inwiefern eine erfolgreiche Arbeitsmarktintegration der Studienabbrecher gelingen kann? --

Two notions of de se in desire reports

I argue that de se-interpretations of infinitival complements in attitude reports may involve different notions of de se depending on the type of attitude predicate: ascriptive de se or evaluative de se. While in the case of ascriptive de se, the infinitival denotation is predicated to be true of every centered world in a set of Hintikka-alternatives, in the case of evaluative de se the infinitival denotation is used to characterize a set of centered worlds of which desirability above a certain threshold is predicated. The standard explanation for the de se-constraint on PRO does not carry over to the case of evaluative de se. The grammar of de se has a second source: de se measure functions

good as a predicate of worlds

The paper proposes a new semantics for good-predications involving finite if -and that-clauses. The proposal combines a standard semantics for conditionals with a standard semantics for the positive form of gradable adjectives and a minimal semantics for modal good. The predicted truth-conditions and conditions of use solve the mood puzzle presented in the first part of the paper. The remainder of the paper defends the classical notion of comparative goodness in terms of a comparison between possible worlds against Lassiter (2017)’s challenge

Emotions in the psychology of aesthetics

Ever since Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (1714–1762) introduced the concept of aesthetics, the prevailing idea has been that the fine arts provide an alternative source of knowledge to the traditional sciences. Art, however, has always been closely associated with emotions. Taking Baumgarten’s treatise on poetry as a point of departure, I argue that Baumgarten laid the ground for a conception of art that emphasizes emotion rather than cognition with a particular appeal to psychology to provide principles of aesthetic appreciation of art. This appeal is met here with a phenomenological discussion of a series of precepts within contemporary emotion theories, which provides the necessary and sufficient conditions for a psychological theory of aesthetic appreciation of art

Making suggestions at business meetings

In problem solving and decision making discussions, proposals and suggestions are crucial elements of the interaction. In analysis it is not a straightforward task to identify the acts of 'suggesting'. Traditional speech act typologies are inadequate because they tend to assume that categorical boundaries exist between different act types. In this thesis, therefore, I first establish a method of identifying SUGGESTIONS. I suggest that we use a system network in which different copattemings of paradigmatic choices constitute different types of directive acts. From the potential choices in the network, SUGGESTIONS are defined as acts in which the speaker proposes a future action which is optional and presented as beneficial or desirable to the addressee, the group, or the company in general (often all three at the same time). Next, I investigate how these elements, in particular the evaluative meanings of benefit and desirability, are marked linguistically. The indicators are primarily lexical while some coincide with modal expressions indicating other modal meanings (e.g. necessity, obligation, ability, etc.). The modal meanings of benefit/desirability and other modal meanings conflate, modifying the latter in the process. Meanings of benefit and desirability in lexical choices are generally only recoverable through reference to textual context (i.e. what previous speakers have said about the topic in question) and the situational context of the speech event (i.e. business meetings and relevant values). Status and tact influence the constellation of modal meanings. The values, roles and expectations linked to the speech event also explain the structure and shape of the chain of suggestions. Studies of other types of speech events have revealed common structural patterns (e.g. preferred responses to specific acts). The freest parts of meetings (i.e. not the opening, closing, or reporting sessions) are however characterised by a lack of such structure. Surprisingly often a SUGGESTION is not met by a direct evaluation of the SUGGESTION but just with another speaker's SUGGESTION. It turns out that what structures the discussions, instead, are values recoverable from the textual context which is itself anchored in the situational context. In other words, evaluative meanings of benefit/desirability, which are formulated by speakers, are based on values from the business culture. These values link up the contributions made by speakers across the entire meeting (or series of meetings) and create coherence. Interpersonal meaning is thus involved in coherence and text building; a textual function is derived from the interpersonal function

An anti-intellectualist treatment of German wissen (‘know’)

German wissen (‘know’) can embed both finite clauses (‘wissen-FIN’) as well as infinitives (‘wissen-INF’). Based on novel empirical observations, we argue that wissen-INF cannot be reduced to the standard analysis of wissen-FIN, i.e. that wissen with infinitival complements does not involve a propositional attitude. As cross-linguistic evidence suggests that German wissen is not ambiguous, it follows that wissen-FIN cannot denote a propositional attitude, either. Accordingly, we require a new, uniform meaning for wissen. We derive this meaning by first considering wissen-INF, arguing that it combines semantic properties of ability modals with semantic properties of implicative verbs and enough to-constructions. We then show that these properties can also be used to characterize wissen-FIN, as long as certain nonstandard assumptions are made about the denotation of the complement. This gives us a new, unified analysis of wissen and also helps to explain some properties of this verb (with both kinds of complements) that traditional analyses cannot account for

Mindfulness: an upward spiral process to combat depression Abstract

Many studies proved detrimental effects of depression at the workplace in terms of reducing employee performance, increased absenteeism and other psychological, physical and mental distress. Organizations are driving specific interventions and training services to reduce potential negative outcomes of depression (Holmes, 2016; Utley, 2018) and one such intervention that needs to be researched is mindfulness (Bear, 2003). The proposed model intends to examine the role of mindfulness in reducing depression. The model proved that change in mindfulness significantly brings change in positive reappraisal and depression. Further positive reappraisal partially mediates the relationship between mindfulness and depression and the change in rumination does not decrease depression. By implementing mindfulness programmes, managers could make a significant difference and help employees to fight depression. Mindfulness develops into a resource over a period of time and helps employees to be engaged in the work, increase their performance, job satisfaction, productivity, and develop overall wellbeing.Introduction: Many studies proved detrimental effects of depression at the workplace in terms of reducing employeeperformance, increased absenteeism and other psychological, physical and mental distress. Organizations are drivingspecific interventions and training services to reduce potential negative outcomes of depression and one such interventionthat needs to be researched is mindfulness. We postulate that a depressed individuals when engage in mindfulnesspractice, increases positivity and set an upward spiral processes that broaden the potentials that originate in mind andimproves coping potential through positive reappraisal. Material and methods: The participants (N = 155) enrolled in 8 week’s Mindfulness Based Symptom Management(MBSM) program were contacted to take part in the study, 105 participants volunteered to take part in the study. Thestudy used SPSS Amos to test the model. Results and conclusions: The results indicate that mindfulness change reduces depression and the relation betweenmindfulness and depression was mediated partially through positive reappraisal. The study also tests competing modelwith change in rumination, although mindfulness program helped participants in reducing rumination it did not mediatethe relationship