Högskolan i Skövde

SMS-lån är ett samhällsproblem där olika aktörer är inblandade. Utifrån treforskningsmetoder; kvantitativ- och kvalitativ undersökning samt innehållsanalys av tidningsartiklarna, har synsättet på fenomenet vidgats. Undersökningspopulationen som består av unga SMS-låntagare mellan 18-25 år, var en väldigt svår grupp att nå. Av allt att döma berodde detta på att de är en utsatt och sårbar grupp med ekonomiska svårigheter. SMS-lånet är ett snabbt och lättillgängligt lån vilket stärker ungdomarnas tendens att agera utifrån begär, som i enlighet med Maslows motivationsteori saknar en kognitiv förbindelse. Variationen var stor mellan respondenterna i fråga om vad pengarna användes till, där en del befann sig i den nedersta delen i behovstrappan för att kunna tillgodose de fysiologiska behoven, medan andra konsumerade över sina tillgångar. Låneföretagens systematiska marknadsföring förenklar för ungdomar att ta ett sådant lån med korta återbetalningstider. De ungdomar som inte betalar tillbaka lånet i tid hamnar i ekonomiska svårigheter, vilket påverkar deras liv för flera år framåt i tiden.

Early neuropathological changes characteristic of late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) involve brain stem and limbic structures that regulate neurovegetative functions, including sleep-wake rhythm. Indeed, sleep pattern is an emerging biomarker and a potential pathophysiological mechanism in LOAD. We hypothesized that cognitively asymptomatic, middle-aged offspring of patients with LOAD (O-LOAD) would display a series of circadian rhythm abnormalities prior to the onset of objective cognitive alterations. We tested 31 children of patients with LOAD (O-LOAD) and 19 healthy individuals without family history of Alzheimer's disease (control subjects, CS) with basic tests of cognitive function, as well as actigraphy measures of sleep-wake rhythm, cardiac autonomic function, and bodily temperature. Unexpectedly, O-LOAD displayed subtle but significant deficits in verbal episodic memory (Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test delayed recall 10.6 +/- 0.4 vs. 8.6 +/- 0.6, t = 4.97, df = 49, p < 0.01) and language (Weschler's vocabulary 51.4 +/- 1.3 vs. 44.3 +/- 1.5, t = 2.49, df = 49, p < 0.001) compared to CS, even though all participants had results within the clinically normal range. O-LOAD showed a phase-delayed rhythm of body temperature (2.56 +/- 0.47 h vs. 3.8 +/- 0.26 h, t = 2.48, df = 40, p = 0.031). Cognitive performance in O-LOAD was associated with a series of cardiac autonomic sleep-wake variables; specifically indicators of greater sympathetic activity at night were related to poorer cognition. The present results suggest sleep pattern deserves further study as a potential neurobiological signature in LOAD, even in middle-aged, at risk individuals.

While Facebook usage intensity (FBUI) and compulsive buying tendency (CBT) have individually received increased research attention, very little is known about the mechanisms through which FBUI affects CBT. This study proposes and tests a multiple mediation model in which the effect of FBUI on CBT is mediated by personality characteristics (envy, self-esteem, and self-promotion). The study also explores the moderating effect of depression on these mediated relationships. The results of a self-administered survey of 393 Bangladeshi adults support the proposed moderated mediation model. The effect of FBUI on CBT is mediated by envy and self-esteem independently. The FBUI indirectly affects CBT through serial mediators: 1) envy and self-esteem; 2) envy and self-promotion. These serial mediating effects are moderated by depression. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. 

The way man divides his thoughts and sorts them into different boxes, is a cognitive activity which works alike for every person. We split peoplesexterior attributes and characteristic qualities into stereotypes or prejudicemind patterns and treat them along those.

This study examines through a qualitative method what twelve respondents (six women and six men) between the ages 16-21, think about “intense” conceptions, which may show stereotype or prejudice ways of thinking. There spondents have been chosen regardless ethnic or economic background andare all enrolled in an upper secondary school located centrally in a Swedish big city.

The purpose is to find out if there are any differences between how some young men and some young women spontaneously think in stereotypical orprejudice patterns. The result is interpreted on the basis of the social cognitive perspective and from out of theories about how people create schemes andprototypes to separate individuals and groups from each other.

This study suggests that men more easily express their stereotypes and prejudice, while women more often seem to be careful with their stereotypes and prejudice, and end up redefining them. Further in the discussion, aspects involving how the society, if not becoming aware of stereotypes and prejudice, can affect the people representing those stereotypes.

Underlättar kongruens mellan sinnestillstånd och påstående (vad gäller dess värdeladdning) vid bedömning av ett påståendes sanningshalt? Denna fråga uppkom via studier av embodiment och lögner, forskning från de båda områdena påvisar nämligen att olika ”kroppsliga signaler” kan hjälpa oss att avslöja om andra människor ljuger. Frågan har undersökts via en faktoriell design med repeterade mätningar där deltagarna försattes i olika sinnestillstånd varpå de utsattes för olika stimuli och fick göra olika bedömningar. Resultatet visade att kongruenta betingelser varken underlättar eller påskyndar vid bedömning av ett påståendes sanningshalt, däremot erhölls ett signifikant resultat som indikerade att kongruenta betingelser ökar människans konfidensnivå (högre grad av säkerhet vad gäller att en korrekt bedömning gjorts) vid bedömning av falska påståenden.

Online games allow players all over the world to interact with each other in new ways in virtual worlds. Through the creation of visual representations of the players they can communicate and express themselves beyond the limits of the physical world. In this phenomenological study we investigate how and if LGBT individuals experience that they can express sexuality and gender identity in the online roleplaying game Final Fantasy XIV and if the game community affects this experience. With qualitative methods players of Final Fantasy XIV were interviewed to capture this experience and through a queer theoretical lens critically examine the norms of the game. These experiences were also analysed from a dramaturgical perspective and a focus on identity theories. The results suggest that the player, despite restrictions, find new and creative ways of expressing their sexuality and gender in the game world. The players do this by constructing alternative identities and perform with their avatars on the stage that is the virtual world. The community is a major part of this as the accepting atmosphere is perceived to encourage openness.

Recent research suggests that the well-being of both individuals and society in general may have a neurobiological basis linked to empathy. This raises the issue of available routes for enhancing empathy (through interventions such as education, training, pharmacology, etc.). One of the most important features of the human brain, especially of the brains of children and teenagers, is its plasticity. Millions of children and teenagers spend many hours every day playing computer games. Many computer games include different forms of violence and aggression and there has been extensive research that indicates that there is a correlation between playing these games, aggression, and reduced disposition to pro-social behaviors. However, much less research has been conducted on the potential effects of pro-social and non-violent computer games. Since there is not yet a comprehensive model of the possible causal relationships between playing such games and neuropsychological function, neuroendocrine function (e.g. oxytocin release), empathy, pro-social behaviors, and individual and societal well-being, we provide a basic theoretical framework for empirical research on these issues. The aim of this framework is ultimately to establish not only correlational evidence, but to allow the development of experimental protocols to meaningfully examine the causal relationships and mechanisms.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka om individer som skiljer sig med avseende på social värdeorientering (SVO) bedömer rättvisa på olika sätt beroende på om det gäller dem själva eller någon annan. 96 studenter, 48 män och 48 kvinnor, deltog i ett scenarioexperiment. Resultaten visade inga signifikanta effekter av SVO, vilket indikerar att samarbets- och självinriktade individer inte skilde sig vid bedömningar av procedural rättvisa i situationer som berörde dem själva och andra. Analysen visade att manipulationen var effektiv. Variansanalysen på upplevd rättvisa, tillfredställelse, beslutsacceptans och protestintention visade att ”voice” (deltagande) hade en signifikant effekt. Analysen visade även en interaktion mellan deltagande och perspektiv på tillfredställelse. En slutsats är att om individen inte kan påverka det beslut som faktiskt fattas är det viktigt att individen upplever att han/hon har haft möjlighet att ge sin syn på saken, oavsett om det handlar om individen själv eller en annan person.

Denna uppsats har undersökt om tacksamhet kan påverka vårt moraliska beteende, genom att se över studier som gjorts inom psykologi och kognitiv neurovetenskap. Tidigare forskning har fokuserat mestadels på hur det kognitiva resonerandet påverkar ens moral. På senare tid har forskningen allt mer betonat specifika emotioners avgörande roll för om man agerar efter moraliska normer eller inte. Dessa emotioner benämns som moraliska emotioner. En av dessa moraliska emotioner är tacksamhet. Tacksamhet har i studier visats fungera som en moralisk barometer, stärka välgörares fortsatta moraliska beteende samt fungera som ett moraliskt motiv. Den neurala grunden för tacksamhet är ännu relativt outforskad. Emotioners generella påverkan på moraliskt beteende samt positiva emotioners tendenser till agerande (eng: action tendencies) kan dock ses som ett steg till ökad förståelse om hur tacksamheten påverkar vårt moraliska beteende.

Syftet med denna uppsats var att ta reda på om, och i så fall på vilket sätt, attityder till arbetet påverkats av strukturella förändringar och reformer som genomsyrat svensk förskoleverksamhet under de senaste tio åren. Genomförandet av studien skedde med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer med sex stycken kvinnliga förskollärare på två olika förskolor. Förskolorna var båda kommunalt drivna samt belägna i samma upptagningsområde. Resultatet visade på att attityderna till själva arbetssituationen är blandade. Några respondenter ansåg, i jämförelse med tidigare, att deras arbetssituation är mer splittrad idag och i vissa fall upplevdes den som stressig. Orsaken till brist i kontinuitet och stress härleddes av dem till både strukturella förändringar men även till viss del till reformer. Andra respondenter konstaterade att det skett förändringar, så som fler barn, men att det inte hade inverkan på deras arbetssituation. Oavsett hur de såg på förändringarna uppgav respondenterna att de, trots förändringar, antingen gjorde så gott de kunde eller gjort ett aktivt val att inte låta förändringarna påverka dem negativt. De respondenter som ansåg att förändringarna inte påverkat dem negativt härledde dessa tankar till aktiva val, av dem själva enskilt och i arbetslaget. Det aktiva valet innebar att omdefiniera sin situation för att kunna klara av att arbeta i en inte alltid optimal miljö.

Anspänning, oro och stress är tre begrepp som har studerats länge, vilket har gett upphov till flertalet modeller, teorier och domäner där dessa begrepp har studerats och fortfarande studeras. I denna uppsats så kommer dessa tre begrepp bland annat att redogöras för var för sig med koppling till mätmetoder, idrott och kognitiv neurovetenskap. Syftet med uppsatsen är att beskriva hur idrottsprestationer kan påverkas av anspänning, oro och stress för att utifrån det kunna redogöra för evidensbaserade metoder som kan appliceras för att främja en idrottsprestation. Först kommer anspänning att redogöras för, anspänning följs sedan av oro som i sin tur följs av stress som sista begrepp. Avslutningsvis så behandlas även problematik och möjligheter för dessa begrepp inom forskningsfältet och dess tillämpningsområden.

When two successive, spatially overlapping, targets (S1 and S2) are presented on a blank background, S2 typically dominates in explicit perception. We tested whether S2 dominance is also found for the conditions of presenting S1 and S2 in a stream of irrelevant objects. Successive target letters were presented within a stream of invariant stimulus items (capital Is). The stream items were presented either as a perceptually continuous object where both type and token appeared invariant (60-Hz stream) or as a flickering stream of successive replicas of the invariant stationary object where the type appeared invariant but the token appearance seemed intermittent (20-Hz condition). Compared to the control condition where targets were presented on a blank background we found that (1) recognition rate was lower for targets embedded in a perceptually continuous type-and-token object (60 Hz), but was unchanged for targets in a perceptually flickering sequence of the invariant-object tokens (20 Hz); (2) S1 recognition rate was higher compared to S2 recognition rate within the first epoch of stream (0-150 ms) while within the later stream-epochs S2 dominated over S1 as usual; (3) the overall difference in recognition rates between S1 and S2 was decreased. The results are discussed in the theoretical context of visual masking and attentional blink.

Studien syftar till att undersöka sambandet mellan tonårsflickans identitet och kroppsuppfattningen. Även roller i kompisgruppen kommer att tas upp och då framförallt rollen som den tyste i gruppen. Genom en enkätstudie undersöktes 37 elever från högstadiet och 68 elever från gymnasiet. Sambandet mellan positiv personlig identitet och en normal kroppsuppfattning undersöktes. Resultatet visade att personer med positiv (M=1,20, SD=0,41) eller neutral (M=1,15,SD=0,36) personlig identitet hade en bra kroppsuppfattning medanpersoner med negativ (M=1,55, SD=0,51) personlig identitet hade en mindre bra kroppsuppfattning. Undersökningen visade ingen signifikant skillnad mellan högstadiet och gymnasiet i fråga om identitet och kroppsuppfattning. Vi antar att skillnader i identitet och kroppsuppfattning beror mer på individuella skillnader än vilken åldersgrupp man tillhör.

Syftet är att beskriva och analysera hur såväl medarbetare som coach (chef) upplever utvecklingssamtal. Syftet har avgränsats till tre frågeområden: Vilken typ av frågor/problem tas upp? Finns det här någon skillnad mellan vad chef och anställd prioriterar? Vilka är fördelarna och nackdelarna med utvecklingssamtal? För att få svar på våra frågor har vi intervjuat anställda vid ett företag som under en längre tid använt sig av återkommande utvecklingssamtal. Resultaten har därefter analyserats utifrån ett symboliskt interaktionisk perspektiv där vi sökt lyfta fram den betydelse som samtalet tillskrivs i det aktuella företaget samt hur man här sökt hantera de förväntningar olika positioner är förknippade med. Resultaten visar att såväl anställda som chefer är nöjda med de samtal som hålls på företaget trots att vi kan se en skillnad i vad man prioriterar för frågor. En av förklaringarna är att båda parterna ges möjlighet till förberedelse och att man har för avsikt att behandla alla frågor som upplevs som viktiga. En annan förklaring är den status företaget tilldelar individens roll i företaget och att utvecklingssamtalet är något som bör prioriteras. Trots kritiska röster ser vi här en stor potential för utvecklingssamtalet som en plattform att skapa en gemensam förståelse och förtroende mellan parterna, som kan ses som en förutsättning för att interaktionen mellan parterna ska bli så optimal som möjligt.

Air pollution is a localised issue but negatively influences health and finance globally. Conurbations and regional governments struggle to find the best policy solutions to meet air quality limit levels while competing over resources and attempting to secure growth. As such, methods to increase the adoption of effective pollution-focused policies are warranted. This thesis has set out to create a framework for understanding the relationship between behaviour change of policy makers and the adoption of new air quality policies at regional levels of government. Chapter four of this thesis looked into the quality and results of previous literature through a systematic review (study 1), investigating how previous interventions have attempted to promote policy adoption. Within chapter five, a vignette study with policy practitioners (study 2; n = 15) was conducted to evaluate the use of intervention functions. Alongside the vignette study, an online questionnaire looked at perceived barriers to policy adoption. Data from both were amalgamated using thematic analysis. Finally, in chapter six, the use of interventions to promote air quality policy and the state of current UK air quality policy was reviewed (study 3). Collectively these studies have contributed to the understanding of how intervention functions influence policy intention formation and policy adoption. The combined outcomes of these studies suggest a) a need for increased education of policymakers and b) for councils to share learning and take inspiration from each other. Throughout the studies, key barriers to policy intentions and policy adoption were investigated, the most prominent being economic and administrative barriers. Within chapter seven, results are summarised and directions for future research and practice are suggested.

Syftet med denna kvalitativa studie är att undersöka en grupp unga vuxnamänniskors förhållningssätt till dagens ökade valfrihet och väljande. Det empiriska materialet består av intervjuer med ungdomar i åldern 20-24 år och har analyserats mot bakgrund av resonemang om individualisering, valfrihet och väljande förda av A.Giddens, Z.Bauman, U.Beck och B.Schwartz. Gällandehantering av valmöjligheter utgår arbetet ifrån teorier om kognitiva dissonans, ontologisk trygghet samt lokus av kontroll. Även tidigare forskning om ungdomars förhållningssätt till valmöjligheter behandlas. Studiens huvudresultat visar att ungdomarna bl.a. upplever utbudet av alternativa vägar att välja bland gällande exempelvis studieprogram, yrke, bostadsort eller resmål som meningsfullt och identitetsskapande. Vidare anses att informationssökande gällande olika alternativ tar mycket tid och kraft i anspråk, vilket kan vara påfrestande. Utbudet av varor och tjänster gör att det uppstår en känsla av press då man förväntas vara aktiv och finna det ”bästa alternativet”. Ungdomarna upplever att deras psykiska välmående påverkas av valalternativ först när de blir alltför många till antalet. Stress upplevs då på grund av önskan om att göra det bästa valet.

Relational victimization typically emerges first during the elementary school period, and has been associated with increased levels of internalizing symptoms in children. Individual differences in autonomic nervous system functioning have been suggested as a potential factor linking social stressors and internalizing symptoms. The aim of this study was therefore to examine whether heart rate and heart rate variability mediated the association between relational victimization and internalizing symptoms in 373 mainstream elementary school children. Children were assessed in 2015 (T 0 ; Grades 3-5, M age = 9.78 years, 51% boys) and reassessed in 2016 (T 1 ). Heart rate and heart rate variability were assessed during a regular school day at T 1 . A multi-informant (teacher and peer report) cross-time measure of relational victimization, and a multi-informant (self- and teacher report) measure of internalizing problems at T 1 was used. Results showed that heart rate variability, but not heart rate, mediated the association between relational victimization and internalizing symptoms. This study provides tentative support that in children from a general population sample, a psychobiological factor may mediate the association of relational victimization with internalizing symptoms.

Boken redovisar en systematisk grund för filosofen och sociologen G. H. Meads identitetspsykologi som komplement till utvecklings­psykologin. Fokus ligger på 1) en övergripande analys av hur den personliga identiteten skapas och formas, 2) lekens centrala roll i den processen, och 3) dess följeslagare språket, som i början av livet har just karaktären av lek. Förskolan är ett drivhus för dessa processer, som alla tre i dag är mer aktuella än någonsin.

Boken lämpar sig för alla som med intresse ägnar sig åt förskole­barns utveckling, i första hand förskollärarutbildning.

Dagens hjärnforskning har öppnat dörren på vid gavel för att kunna intensivstudera hur miljön påverkar och bygger om hjärnan.

Socialpsykologen Lars-Erik Berg vill damma av socialisationsbegreppet.

Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva och ge djupare förståelse för hur unga vuxna arbetslösa i Västra Götalands län upplever sitt identitetsskapande och sin levnadssituation. I denna studie utfördes tio kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med respondenter i åldrarna 18-29 år. Då vi anser att identiteten är social valde vi i vår studie att utgå från Symbolisk interaktionism, med underliggande teorier som definitionen av situationen (Charon, 2004; Svensson, 1992), den generaliserade andre (Mead, 1976), spegeljaget (Mortensen, 2003) och stämplingsteorin (Goffman, 1972; Becker, 1963). Att vara arbetslös påverkar många olika delar av livet och är av allra högsta grad avgörande för hur individen upplever sin levnadssituation och sitt identitetsskapande. Det som framkommit pekar främst på vikten av de sociala interaktionerna gällande arbetslöshet samt dess betydelse för individen. Slutsatsen är att vi inte kan förstå en individs upplevelser av sin levnadssituation och identitetsskapande utan att se till helheten. Vi har funnit att upplevelsen av sig själv och identitetsskapandet har förändrats i en situation av arbetslöshet.

En god arbetsmiljö kan anses vara nyckeln till en välfungerande verksamhet. Arbetsmiljö som begrepp är dock oerhört komplext där många olika problemaspekter samverkar och påverkar arbetsplatsens miljö. Vissa arbetsmiljörelaterade problem kan härröras till egenskaper som inte tillåter individen att utnyttja sina kognitiva förmågor och benämns därmed som kognitiva arbetsmiljöproblem. Andra faktorer som tekniska arbetsverktyg som skall vara de anställda behjälpliga, kan i de fall de brister, också påverka och störa tankeprocesserna hos individen. Den här rapportens syfte är att utveckla en förståelse om hur komplexa arbetsmiljöer samt interaktion med teknik kan skapa en stress som i förlängningen kan leda till kognitiva arbetsmiljöproblem och teknikstress. En kvalitativ fallstudie utfördes för att få en holistisk överblick över arbetsflödet. Studien genomfördes på en avdelning på ett äldreboende med hjälp av datainsamlingsteknikerna observation och intervju. Resultatet tyder på att kognitiva arbetsmiljöproblem och teknikstress är nära sammanlänkande och förutom tidigare identifierade kognitiva arbetsmiljöproblem, framträdde även en ny dimension.

Alla barn har en rättighet att känna sig trygga i skolan och inte bli utsatta för kränkande behandling eller mobbning. Mobbning är ett problem som måste uppmärksammas alltmer eftersom det inte alltid tas på allvar trots att varje skola har någon form av antimobbningsplan. Mobbning kan uttryckas i form av fysisk, psykosocial och verbal mobbning. Vårt syfte med undersökningen är att lyfta fram barns uppfattning om mobbning. Då lyder vår problemformulering som följer: Hur uppfattas mobbning av barn i årskurs fem på sex olika skolor? Vårt intresse ligger i att utföra vår undersökning i årskurs fem på sex olika skolor som aktivt arbetar med olika program mot mobbning. Undersökningen är inte avsedd som en jämförande studie. Vår metod är kvalitativ i form av en helt anonym enkätundersökning med öppna frågor då vi anser att ämnet är alltför känsligt för att använda vid intervjuer. Svaren vi får är inte ämnade att föra statistik utan syftet är att analysera och tolka barnens svar för att skapa en förståelse av deras uppfattning. Vi har valt att i analysen av enkätsvaren använda oss av symbolisk interaktionism, social identitetsteori, rollteori och aggression som gruppfenomen.

Posttraumatic symptoms, including nightmares, are more prevalent in World War II survivors than in the general population, but how war experiences have affected subsequent dream content in specific survivor populations remains less explored. In the present study, we used self -reports collected in 1973 from Polish Auschwitz survivors (N = 150; 45 women) to investigate the prevalence of posttraumatic symptoms, classified according to the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Furthermore, we classified main themes, central emotions, and threatening events in the dreams (N = 632) of the survivors, comparing dreams recalled from before, during, and after the war. Of the respondents, 12.7% described experiencing all diagnostic criteria for PTSD. War-related themes were less common in dreams dreamt before than during the war but were most common after the war. Themes related to family and freedom were most likely to appear in dreams dreamt during than before or after the war. The most often occurring emotion was fear, and dreams from after the war were likely to contain more negative and less positive emotions than dreams dreamt during the war. The likelihoods of reporting threatening events and threats involving aggression were higher in dreams dreamt during than before the war and in dreams dreamt after than during the war. In conclusion, PTSD symptoms were common in Polish Auschwitz survivors 30 years after World War II, and the themes, emotions, and threatening events in their dreams seem to reflect lifelong posttraumatic dreaming. We interpret the results as lending support for the threat simulation theory of dreaming.

Episodic memories of emotionally salient and personally significant events are often incorporated into dreams, although rarely replayed identically to the original waking event except in replicative posttraumatic nightmares. We investigated, in five Swedish female 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami survivors, how episodic memories of the catastrophe were reflected in their dreams after trauma, both in retrospectively recalled nightmares and bad dreams, and in prospective dream diaries completed several months after the catastrophe. We also assessed whether the emotional and threatening dream content differed between the trauma and a matched control group. Based on the threat simulation theory, we predicted that the trauma group dreams would portray notable similarities with elements related to the original tsunami trauma, and that the trauma group would demonstrate a higher prevalence of negative emotional states, and a higher frequency of threatening dream events as well as more severe threats in their dreams. Only the first hypothesis was partially supported, with retrospective nightmares bearing higher similarity to the trauma experience than the prospective dream diary dreams. However, we observed no statistically significant differences in emotional or threatening dream content between the groups, suggesting that the trauma group participants were not suffering from significant posttraumatic dreaming at the time of systematic dream data collection. Yet, specific features of the trauma group dreams might be interpreted as remnants of episodic tsunami-related memories: Their dreams had a higher percentage of life-threatening events depicting realistic but improbable threats, and an analysis of water-related themes evidenced stressful themes related to waves.

Women in general seem to have a complicated relationship with their bodies and their body image. A small percent of the female population develop a serious pathological eating pattern which is characterized by a disturbed image of body size and shape. This disturbance has been investigated by many researchers and the quest of finding the underlying neural correlates has progressed enormously during the last decade. The relationship between disturbed eating patterns and body image distortions is highly complicated. The purpose of this review article is to give an overview of current research literature and scientific results. The aim is to find a framework for the phenomenon of body image distortions among both healthy and non-healthy women. Differences between genders and how food intake affects body image will also be addressed. The focus lies on behavioral traits and the underlying neural correlates, with focus on both the perceptual and the cognitive-affective component.

Uppsatsens syfte är att genom ett symboliskt interaktionistiskt och ett social konstruktionistiskt perspektiv öka förståelsen för hur personer som anser att de överskrider de dikotomiska kategorierna man/kvinna konstruerar sitt genus. Samt problematisera om och hur individer kan frångå dessa kategorier i skapandet av genus. Studien grundades på sju djupintervjuer med personer som upplevde att de överskred eller inte identifierade sig med kategorierna man/kvinna. Som teoretisk grund gällande identitetskonstruktion och socialisation har vi främst använt oss av Berger och Luckmann (1991) samt tolkningar av Mead (Berg, 1992; 2007). För att få en djupare insikt kring genuskonstruktion har teorier av Butler (2007) samt Connell (2003; 1996) använts. Konstruktionen av könsidentiteten är en ständigt pågående process som är i ständigt behov av upprätthållelse. Upprätthållandet sker till stor del genom identifikation och bekräftelse samt uttryck, så som språk och yttre attribut. Då samhället har ett mycket dikotomiskt synsätt gällande kön/genus så krävs av respondenterna ett aktivt ställningstagande för att de ska kunna avvika från det normativa. Respondenterna kan dock inte helt frångå de dikotomiska kategorierna då de måste förhålla sig till dem i mötet med andra människor. Eftersom de avviker från det normativa får de också svårare att upprätthålla könsidentiteten då den inte uppmuntras av samhällsnormen och det därmed blir svårare att få bekräftelse och hitta identifikationsobjekt. Vi menar att denna uppsats ger den socialpsykologiska diskursen gällande genus, en bredare syn på identitets- och genuskonstruktion utanför normen, då vi uppfattar detta som underrepresenterat inom den socialpsykologiska forskningen.

Older adults need to participate in the digital society, as societal and personal changes and what they do with the remaining time that they have in their older years has an undeniable effect on motivation, cognition and emotion. Changes in personality traits were investigated in older adults over the period 2019–2021. Technology enthusiasm and technology anxiety are attitudes that affect the relationship to the technology used. The changes in the score of technology enthusiasm and technology anxiety were the dependent variables. They were investigated with personality traits, age, gender, education, whether someone lives alone, cognitive function, digital social participation (DSP) and health literacy as predictors of the outcome. The Edwards-Nunnally index and logistic regression were used. The results indicated that DSP, lower age, lower neuroticism and higher education were indicative of less technology anxiety. High DSP and high extraversion are indicative of technology enthusiasm. DSP and attitude towards technology seem to be key in getting older adults to stay active online. 

Denna databas omfattar beteendedata från 61 barn diagnostiserade med Autismspektrumtillstånd (AST). Insamlat data kommer från en storskalig studie på autismterapi med stöd av robotar. Databasen omfattar över 3000 sessioner från mer än 300 timmar terapi. Hälften av barnen interagerade med den sociala roboten NAO, övervakad av en terapeut. Den andra hälften, vilka utgjorde kontrollgrupp, interagerade direkt med en terapeut. Båda grupperna följde samma standardprotokoll för kognitiv beteendeterapi, Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). Varje session spelades in med tre RGB-kameror och två RGBD kameror (Kinect) vilka analyserats med bildbehandlingstekniker för att identifiera barnets beteende under terapin. Den här publika versionen av databasen innehåller inget inspelat videomaterial eller andra personuppgifter, utan omfattar i stället anonymiserat data som beskriver barnets rörelser, huvudets position och orientering, samt ögonrörelser, alla angivna i ett gemensamt koordinatsystem. Vidare inkluderas metadata i form av barnets ålder, kön, och autismdiagnos (ADOS).

We welcome you to the 16’th SweCog conference! After the 2020 meeting had to be cancelled, due to the unusual circumstances of facing a worldwide pandemic, we look forward to finally meet again, although the pandemic makes us meet virtually and not in person. 

Fittingly, an emerging theme of this year’s meeting is virtual reality. A technology which creates new ways of interacting with each other and with the world. It is not only a subject of active research, but increasingly also a medium for new creative experiments or applications, as evidenced by one of our keynote speakers this year. VR has become now a more widely available tool in different areas of research, and probably has made its full and final impact not yet. 

SweCog 2021 also features a nod to the word usability day. As technology becomes increasingly present in our daily lives, not the least emphasized through the pandemic, we believe that cognitive science has an important role as a field of research informing the design of usable digital artifacts. As the University of Skövde stands as one example of the close relation between cognitive science and user experience design, we take the opportunity to celebrate the topic of Cognitoon and UX. 

This meeting has been organized jointly by the Interaction lab and the Cognitive Neuroscience lab of the University of Skövde. We are glad to see this interaction happening between the two labs and the two fields. We hope this is not perceived as an “invasion” of the brain scientists documenting the failure of cognitive science as a field (see Nunez et al., 2019), but rather a collaborative move of finding synergies in our research. In this spirit, we hope our meetings continue to bring people together from different parts of Sweden, from different departments, and maybe also from more different disciplines, to discuss our latest research. And despite our enthusiasm for virtual reality, we sincerely hope the next meeting will allow us to meet again in person. 

Proactive eye-gaze (PEG) is a behavioural pattern where eye fixations precede actions, such as reaching. With the proliferation of eye-tracking technology, PEG shows promise for predicting human actions, which has many applications, for example, within industrial human-robot collaboration (HRC). This study investigates PEG in repetitive assembly tasks. Eye-tracking data from four experienced workers were recorded and analysed. The study recorded 57 assembly sessions, identifying 3793 fixations, of which 35% were proactive gazes. The mean PEG interval was 795 ms. Contrary to the hypothesis, PEG was found to be as strong, if not stronger, in repetitive tasks compared to previous studies investigating PEG in other contexts. These findings suggest PEG could be a reliable predictor of worker actions in repetitive tasks, enhancing coordination in HRC.

Syftet med denna studie är att attribuera effekten av rättvist ledarskap på arbetstillfredsställelse då det saknats specifik forskning inom området. Studien genomfördes i ett verksamhetsområde inom kriminalvården. Studien syftade även till att undersöka effekten av rättvist ledarskap på turnover intention och förekomsten av psykosomatiska besvär hos de anställda. Totalt 103 kriminalvårdare besvarade enkäten som mätte ovan nämnda variabler. Resultaten visade ett signifikant positivt samband mellan samtliga former av rättvisa och arbetstillfredsställelse. Resultaten visade vidare ett samband att rättvist ledarskap leder till en minskning av psykosomatiska besvär och minskad grad av turnover intention.

Objective: Vaccines are an effective means to reduce the spread of diseases, but they are sometimes met with hesitancy that needs to be understood. Method: In this study, we analyzed data from a large, cross-country survey conducted between June and August 2021 in 43 countries (N = 15,740) to investigate the roles of trust in government and science in shaping vaccine attitudes and willingness to be vaccinated. Results: Despite significant variability between countries, we found that both forms of institutional trust were associated with a higher willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Furthermore, we found that conspiratorial thinking and anti-expert sentiments predicted reduced trust in government and science, respectively, and that trust mediated the relationship between these two constructs and ultimate vaccine attitudes. Although most countries displayed similar relationships between conspiratorial thinking and anti-expert sentiments, trust in government and science, and vaccine attitudes, we identified three countries (Brazil, Honduras, and Russia) that demonstrated significantly altered associations between the examined variables in terms of significant random slopes. Conclusions: Cross-country differences suggest that local governments’ support for COVID-19 prevention policies can influence populations’ vaccine attitudes. These findings provide insight for policymakers to develop interventions aiming to increase trust in the institutions involved in the vaccination process.

In general, dreams are a novel but realistic simulation of waking social life, with a mixture of characters, motivations, scenarios, and positive and negative emotions. We propose that the sharing of dreams has an empathic effect on the dreamer and on significant others who hear and engage with the telling of the dream. Study 1 tests three correlations that are predicted by the theory of dream sharing and empathy: that trait empathy will be correlated with frequency of telling dreams to others, with frequency of listening to others’ dreams, and with trait attitude toward dreams (ATD) (for which higher scores indicate positive attitude). 160 participants completed online the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire and the Mannheim Dream Questionnaire. Pearson partial correlations were conducted, with age and sex partialled out. Trait empathy was found to be significantly associated with the frequency of listening to the dreams of others, frequency of telling one’s own dreams to others, and attitude toward dreams. Study 2 tests the effects of discussing dreams on state empathy, using an adapted version of the Shen (2010) state empathy scale, for 27 pairs of dream sharers and discussers. Dream discussion followed the stages of the Ullman (1996) dream appreciation technique. State empathy of the dream discusser toward the dream sharer was found to increase significantly as a result of the dream discussion, with a medium effect size, whereas the dream sharer had a small decrease in empathy toward the discusser. A proposed mechanism for these associations and effects is taken from the robust findings in the literature that engagement with literary fiction can induce empathy toward others. We suggest that the dream acts as a piece of fiction that can be explored by the dreamer together with other people, and can thus induce empathy about the life circumstances of the dreamer. We discuss the speculation that the story-like characteristics of adult human dreams may have been selected for in human evolution, including in sexual selection, as part of the selection for emotional intelligence, empathy, and social bonding.

This study replicated and extended a previous finding that the discussion of dreams increases the level of empathy toward the dreamer from those with whom the dream is discussed. The study addressed mediating variables for the empathy effect. Participants who already knew each other were recruited in dyads and were assigned dream-sharer and discusser roles. Each dyad used the Ullman dream appreciation technique to explore the relationship of the sharer’s dreams to recent experiences in the sharer’s life, with a maximum of 4 dream discussions per dyad (mean length of dreams = 140.15 words, mean discussion length = 23.72 min). The empathy of each member of a dyad toward the other was assessed using a 12-item state empathy questionnaire. A total of 44 participants (females = 26, males = 18, Mage = 26.70) provided empathy scores at baseline and after each dream discussion. For below median baseline empathy scorers, empathy of discussers toward their dream-sharer increased significantly as a result of the dream discussions, with medium effect size, η² = .39. Dream-sharers had a nonsignificant increase in empathy toward their discusser. Change in empathy was not linear across successive discussions, and was not related to length of dream reports, nor length of discussions. These findings of postsleep, social effects of dreaming, with possibly a group bonding function, go beyond theories of dreaming that have a within-sleep emotional or memory processing function for the individual. 

Background: While research has shown that sleep disorders are prevalent among people with dementia, the temporal relationship is unclear. We investigated whether atypical sleep characteristics were associated with incident dementia while accounting for baseline cognitive functioning.

Methods: Screening Across the Lifespan Twin Study (SALT) participants were 11,247 individuals from the Swedish Twin Registry who were at least 65 years at baseline (1998-2002). Sleep and baseline cognitive functioning were assessed via the SALT telephone screening interview. Data on dementia diagnoses came from national health registers. Cox regression was performed to estimate hazard ratios (HR) for dementia.

Results: After 17 years of follow-up, 1,850 dementia cases were identified. Short (≤ 6 hours) and extended (> 9 hours) time-in-bed (TIB) compared to the middle reference group (HR=1.40, 95% CI=1.06-1.85, HR=1.11, 95% CI=1.00-1.24, respectively) and rising at 8:00AM or later compared to earlier rising (HR=1.12, 95% CI=1.01-1.24) were associated with higher dementia incidence. Bedtime, sleep quality, restorative sleep, and heavy snoring were not significant predictors. Findings stratified by baseline cognitive status indicated that the association between short TIB and dementia remained in those cognitively intact at the start.

Conclusions: Short and extended TIB as well as delayed rising among older adults predicted increased dementia incidence in the following 17 years. The pattern of findings suggests that extended TIB and late rising represent prodromal features whereas short TIB appeared to be a risk factor for dementia.

Objectives The few studies of shift work and late life cognitive functioning have yielded mixed findings. The aim of the present study is to estimate the association between shift-work experience and change in cognitive performance before and after retirement age among older adults who were gainfully employed.

Methods Five hundred and ninety five participants with no dementia were followed up for a mean of 17.6 standard deviation (SD) 8.8 years from a Swedish population-based sample. Participants had self-reported information on any type of shift-work experience (ever/never) in 1984 and measures of cognitive performance (verbal, spatial, memory, processing speed, and general cognitive ability) from up to 9 waves of cognitive assessments during 1986–2012. Night work history (ever/never) from 1998–2002 was available from a subsample (N=320). Early adult cognitive test scores were available for 77 men.

Results In latent growth curve modeling, there were no main effects of "any-type" or night shift work on the mean scores or rate of change in any of the cognitive domains. An interaction effect between any-type shift work and education on cognitive performance at retirement was noted. Lower-educated shift workers performed better on cognitive tests than lower-educated day workers at retirement. Sensitivity analyses, however, indicated that the interactions appeared to be driven by selection effects. Lower-educated day workers demonstrated poorer cognitive ability in early adulthood than lower-educated shift workers, who may have selected jobs entailing higher cognitive demand.

Conclusion There was no difference in late-life cognitive aging between individuals with a history of working shifts compared to those who had typical day work schedules during midlife.

During roughly forty years of a woman’s life-span, the fertile female human body prepares itself monthly for the possibility of pregnancy. Science has shown that the fluctuation of the sex steroids progesterone and estrogen have a crucial role in the female body's physiology, determining the menstrual cycle and its general phases. This biological dance of hormones governing the cycle influences a lot of physical, mental and cognitive aspects of life for a fertile ovulating woman. Although the question of whether these changes also affect women's cognitive performance is still unclear, some evidence has been gathered that could bring us closer to answers. Recent research findings show that this hormonal interplay might have a significant role in cognitive and psychological development - modulating brain activity, cognitive performance, higher cognition, emotional status, sensory processing, appetite and more. This thesis aims to uncover to what extent the menstrual cycle affects brain functions, neurobiology, mood, well-being and cognitive performance in menstruating cisgender women.

There have been many attempts to explain the experience of anxiety during different types of performance situations. There are several different views on the brain mechanisms of anxiety. The traditional view has its focus on amygdala but recent research questions this view. In this essay the focus is on how two recent theories, namely the two-system model (LeDoux & Pine, 2016) and the attentional control theory (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos & Calvo, 2007) has changed the theoretical landscape of the brain mechanisms behind the experience of anxiety. The two-system framework model claim that the subjective experience of anxiety uses the same cortical circuits as executive functions involved in attention and working memory. Whereas the attentional control theory argues, that due to the limited attentional capacity, increasing the subjective experience of anxiety would result in less capacity for executive functions involved in working memory and attention resulting in impaired performance. This review shows that research on the relationship between the subjective experience of anxiety and performance is inconsistent and researchers possess different views on what gives rise to the experience. Some data indicate that the amygdala is crucial for the subjective experience of anxiety while other data suggest that other cortical circuits have a much more prominent role. If the cortical circuits are strongly involved in the subjective experience of anxiety, this would be strong support for the attentional control theory and the two-system framework model.

In daily life there are numerous experiences and events that divert people's attention and cause stress, which may be linked with aspects of ill-being and lowered well-being. Mindfulness meditation may alleviate such issues. Mindfulness can be summarized as a form of awareness and attention in the present that is characterized by an open-minded and non-judgemental perspective, and meditation as a group of practices that engage many of the same processes and may involve mindfulness. There is evidence that both mindfulness and mindfulness meditation are associated with activity in brain regions relating to, for example, attention, emotion-regulation, and bodily awareness. Consequently, mindfulness meditation was hypothesized in the present study to improve attention as measured by the Attention Network Test, and decrease negative affect as measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule when compared to a control condition. The mindfulness meditation instructions employed were largely based on the work of Kabat-Zinn (1982). 14 participants were recruited to the study, and 7 of them completed the experiment. 3 participants were randomized to the experimental group, and 4 to the control group. Results were largely contrary to the hypotheses, with only executive attention having statistical significance (p < .05) and supporting one hypothesis. Although effect sizes were on average large for the variables of the study, the small sample size may have limited the power and increased the risk for type-II errors.

I ordet förlåtelse ingår det många olika tolkningar beroende på vem det är som definierar. I vårt arbete har vi valt att inrikta oss på förhållandet mellan offret och förövaren när det gäller grova gärningar som mord, övergrepp och misshandel. Vår frågeställning är om det är möjligt att förlåta onda gärningar fullt ut? Kan ett offer förlåta en förövare fullt ut som genom sina onda handlingar har orsakat offret lidande? Finns det någon rättvisa med tanke på den obalans som uppstår genom ondskefulla gärningar. Vi har valt att utgå ifrån rättvise teorin eftersom samhället har en rättvisa som grund när det gäller brott och straff. Vi har använt kvalitativmetod och har valt att göra två informantintervjuer med personer som i sitt dagliga arbete kommer i kontakt med förlåtelse. Vi intervjuade även personer som hade genomgått en förlåtelseprocess och vi analyserade intervjuerna utifrån vår definition på förlåtelse fullt ut som är

… att människor inte ska uppleva någon aggression, bitterhet, rädsla, sårbarhet, ångestfylldhet till förövaren/gärningen och återfått förtroendet till förövaren när de har förlåtit fullt ut.

Förlåtelse, försoning, hämnd och rättvisa är de begrepp som vi har funnit spegla respondenternas syn på området. Enligt vår förförståelse anser vi att det inte går att stryka ett streck över eller glömma svåra kränkningar. Vi menar att det inte går att förlåta fullt ut.

Attention is a cognitive mechanism that guides our perception in order to prioritize the limited resources to the most relevant information while ignoring distracting information. Attention can be voluntarily deployed to stimuli during tasks or goals, or the features of the stimulus can capture our attention either by being salient or being emotionally induced. Emotions affect multiple different cognitive processes such as attention because emotional stimuli can be relevant for defending or sustain life. This relationship between attention and emotion indicates that there should be interactive but distinct networks between these cognitive mechanisms as well as a modulative effect on perceptional and attentional systems. Emotions were in general demonstrating a facilitation affect on attentional and saccadic processes as well as broadening or narrowing the scope of attention. The reason behind emotions impact on attention was proposed to be for eliciting a change in the application of resources in order to solve the limited capacity problem and possibly to protect and sustain life. Inconsistent findings as well as limitations for emotional attention studies are discussed.

Uppsatsens vill belysa assyriska ungdomars identitetsskapande och hur detta utförs med två olika kultursystem, och dessutom visas skillnader mellan könsrollerna. Urvalet avgränsas till svenskfödda assyriska ungdomar i 18 - 25 årsåldern. Dessa har oftast levt med en kollektivistisk kultur och en individualistisk kultur redan i primär socialisation. Tidigare forskning som har relevans för uppsatsen presenteras och handlar om assyriska ungdomars livssituation, assyriska genusroller och invandrarungdomar i Sverige. Teoretisk utgångspunkt för uppsatsen är symbolisk interaktionism, med teorier runt socialisationsprocessen, social identitet samt etnisk minoritet i kulturmöte. Metoden för undersökningen är kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer. Detta tillvägagångssättets för - och nackdelar diskuteras och genomförande, etiska principer och valet av fem respondenter förklaras. Intervjuresultat ges i ett eget avsnitt för att visa tendenser och mönster som respondenterna uppvisar i intervjumaterialet. Dessa resultat diskuteras vidare genom att de kopplas till teori och tidigare forskning i ett sista kapitel. Uppsatsen avrundas med egna reflektioner och förslag på framtida forskning.

Keywords: Identity, culture belong, Assyrian youths, ethnical minority.

The great amount of METH abuse all over the world causes enormous social and criminal justice problems. In the human brain the abuse of METH causes implications on both structures and functions given rise to acute as well as long term symptoms. In this essay the effects of METH abuse is described in the manner of the drug mechanism such as the impact on neurotransmitters, structural deficits with decreased and increased volumes and the implication on attention, memory, decision  making and emotions. Results from studies showing brain structural and cognitive impairments in METH abusers and in prenatal METH exposed children.

During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the COVIDiSTRESS Consortium launched an open-access global survey to understand and improve individuals’ experiences related to the crisis. A year later, we extended this line of research by launching a new survey to address the dynamic landscape of the pandemic. This survey was released with the goal of addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion by working with over 150 researchers across the globe who collected data in 48 languages and dialects across 137 countries. The resulting cleaned dataset described here includes 15,740 of over 20,000 responses. The dataset allows cross-cultural study of psychological wellbeing and behaviours a year into the pandemic. It includes measures of stress, resilience, vaccine attitudes, trust in government and scientists, compliance, and information acquisition and misperceptions regarding COVID-19. Open-access raw and cleaned datasets with computed scores are available. Just as our initial COVIDiSTRESS dataset has facilitated government policy decisions regarding health crises, this dataset can be used by researchers and policy makers to inform research, decisions, and policy.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: the association between late-life obesity and late-life cognitive abilities is poorly understood. We studied the association between body mass index (BMI) and cognitive change in longitudinal population-based study spanning over the ninth decade of life.

SUBJECTS/METHODS: in total, 475 participants free of dementia at baseline from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921 (mean age: 79.1 years, SD: 0.6) were included. Height and weight were assessed at baseline. BMI was calculated as kg/m(2). Cognitive abilities were assessed at age ∼11 years and at age ∼79, ∼83, ∼87 and ∼90 years.

RESULTS: latent growth models showed that men being overweight and obese had a 0.65 (SD: 0.3) and 1.10 (SD: 0.5) points less steep decline in general cognitive ability (as measured by the Moray House Test) for each year than people of normal weight. These associations were to some extent confounded by childhood intelligence. No other association between BMI and cognition was significant, either for men or women. People who were obese in old age had significantly lower childhood intelligence (m = 43.6, SD: 1.3) than people who were normal in weight (m = 47.0, SD: 0.8) and persons being overweight (m = 47.5, SD: 0.8), F (472, 3) = 3.2, P = 0.043.

CONCLUSIONS: the current study shows weak or no evidence for an association between BMI in old age and cognitive function, especially not when childhood intelligence is controlled for. Lower intelligence at the age of 11 years predicted obesity at the age of 79 years.

The purpose of this qualitative study is to create an understanding for if and how nonverbal communication and the learned gender structure influence interactions during employment interviews for executive posts. The study is conducted from a social constructivist perspective where it is argued that the individual is created through social interactions. In order to obtain understanding for social gender structure and nonverbal communication in social interactions observation has been utilized as a method. In addition an observation matrix based on nonverbal behavior and masculine and feminine hexis has been established. The results include both the specific individual’s and the general interactions that took place during the employment interviews. The focus in the analysis, however, concentrates on the interactions between individuals. By focusing on interactions between individuals we are able to capture the nonverbal communication and in addition, how learned gender structures influence the interactions. In the analysis we arrived at the conclusion that both nonverbal communication and gender, to a certain degree, affect the interactions on the employment interview.