Perception - Evaluation - Interpretation

This volume provides an update on what psychologists know about how judgements are formed. This topic has many applications, and the ones discussed here include: information processing in psychotherapy intake interviews; narative truth and putative child abuse; subjectivity and objectivity in depth-psychological methods of interpretation of the TAT; traffic psychology; the social perception and judgement of foreigners; social cognition and environmentally responsible behaviour; and a comparison of cognitive-affective discrimination tendencies towards cancer and AIDS patients. The book is organized around four main perspectives in this field. The first, "Information, perception and memory", looks at the general aspects of perception and cognitive information processing during judgement formation. The second, "Interaction, dialogue and interpretation", examines judgement formation as form of dialogue and interpersonal inertaction, with special emphasis on psychotherapy.
The applied procedures and approaches, especially with regard to psychodiagnostics, are discussed in the section on assessment, judgement and application, while the last part examines self, environment and evaluation, taking judgement formation as a process of integration within the social context and in specific social situations. This monograph should be of interest to psychologists, both empirical and theoretical researchers in general, health, clinical, organizational, traffic and developmental psychology and psychodiagnostics, and to psychiatrists and other mental health workers.