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Die Verwendung von Beschreibungsdimensionen wie „Mannlichkeit“und „Weiblichkeit“ setzt generell voraus, a) das Ubereinstimmung zwischen verschiedenen Personen uber bestimmte individuelle Merkmale herzustellen ist, d.h. Definierbarkeit; b) das diese Merkmale erfast, bzw. gemessen werden konnen, d.h. Mesbar-keit und c) das diese Streuungen aufweisen, bzw. quantitativ beschreibbar sind, d.h. Variabilitat.

This paper tries to disentangle the conception of independence as the dominant sociocultural orientation of care giving in Western postmodern societies sometimes referred to as the "Western mind." Mothers and grandmothers in Los Angeles, USA and Berlin, Germany were interviewed about their socialization goals and their ideas of good parenting with respect to a three months old baby using a semi-structured picture card interview technique. The analysis was based on qualitative content analysis. All participants share equally independent and interdependent socialization goals. They also have a common understanding about which care giving practices are important. There is, however, a cultural difference with respect to their conception of care giving. German participants share a holistic view in that they expect breastfeeding, body contact and Beschäftigung ("dealing with the child") to be composed of closeness and stimulation that facilitates relational closeness as well as healthy mental/psychological development. Los Angeles mothers and grandmothers share a functionalistic view (with the exception of breastfeeding) in that they conceive of different care giving practices differently with distinct developmental outcomes (breastfeeding is for health, playing is for stimulating cognitive development, bodily proximity is for soothing). All participants share an understanding that (motor) over-stimulation is not good for children's development. Grandmothers and mothers basically do not differ in their views as the grandmothers seem to have in part adopted their daughters' opinions. Results are discussed with respect to contextual factors, especially women's participation in the labor force. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs060159, Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, Vol 7, No 1 (2006): Learning About Risk

Evolutionary considerations (cf. MacDonald, 1992) suggest that emotional closeness and security of attachment address different functional systems. We assume that maternal sensitivity during early face-to-face interactions is related to later emotional closeness, whereas the contingency of maternal reactions towards the infant’s signals is related to later security of attachment. Forty-three mother-infant dyads were videotaped at home during face-to-face interactions when the infants were 3 months old, and were seen in the strange situation when the infants were 12 months old. Results confirm the assumptions, with significant correlations between early face-to-face sensitivity and later contact seeking, maintaining, and avoiding behaviour of the infant during the reunion episodes of the strange situation. Early maternal face-to-face contingency was related to later security of attachment.

On the basis of the concept of intuitive parenting, the expectation was formulated that a mother's tendency to reflect on her parenting behavior would impede intuitive responses to infant signals. Also, a high quality of parental interactional behavior was expected to be related to fewer problems of the child (e.g., less crying, fewer reported difficulties, fewer health problems). An observational study with 62 mothers and their 3-month-old children confirmed the assumption that reflection about parenting during face-to-face interactions interferes with intuitive behavior. However, in contrast to initial expectations, a high quality of parenting was related, not to fewer, but rather to more health and behavioral problems of the child. Conceptual differentiations of the initial assumptions are discussed.

Background Up to now it has not been systematically investigated in which kind of clinical situations a consultation style based on shared decision making (SDM) is preferred by patients and physicians. We suggest the factorial survey design to address this problem. This method, which so far has hardly been used in health service research, allows to vary relevant factors describing clinical situations as variables systematically in an experimental random design and to investigate their importance in large samples. Methods/Design To identify situational factors for the survey we first performed a literature search which was followed by a qualitative interview study with patients, physicians and health care experts. As a result, 7 factors (e.g. "Reason for consultation" and "Number of therapeutic options") with 2 to 3 levels (e.g. "One therapeutic option" and "More than one therapeutic option") will be included in the study. For the survey the factor levels will be randomly combined to short stories describing different treatment situations. A randomized sample of all possible short stories will be given to at least 300 subjects (100 GPs, 100 patients and 100 members of self-help groups) who will be asked to rate how the decision should be made. Main outcome measure is the preference for participation in the decision making process in the given clinical situation. Data analysis will estimate the effects of the factors on the rating and also examine differences between groups. Discussion The results will reveal the effects of situational variations on participation preferences. Thus, our findings will contribute to the understanding of normative values in the medical decision making process and will improve future implementation of SDM and decision aids.