Burnout among Finnish and Chinese university students
This study is motivated by earlier studies, which suggest that the level of student burnout is different in the culturally distinct Finnish and Chinese university systems, but which are based on different research instruments for the two groups. The sample studied consisted of 3,035 Finnish students and 2,309 Chinese students. Because of the cross‐cultural nature of this study the level of structural equivalence of SBI between the cultural groups was examined and the effect of different response styles on the results was taken into account. Both standard and robust statistical methods were used for the analyses. The resu...
Source: Scandinavian Journal of Psychology - August 1, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Elina Hernesniemi, Hannu R äty, Kati Kasanen, Xuejiao Cheng, Jianzhong Hong, Matti Kuittinen Tags: Health and Disability Source Type: research
Individual difference factors and beliefs in medical and political conspiracy theories
This study examined the relationship between a series of individual difference measures and belief in political and medical conspiracy theories. Participants (N = 323) rated 20 conspiracy theories (10 medical, 10 political) and completed a set of questionnaires. Belief in political conspiracies was strongly positively correlated with belief in medical conspiracies. Belief in both conspiracy types was correlated with low self‐esteem, low Conscientiousness, more right‐wing political views, younger age, and greater belief in the benefits of Alternative Medicine. It was also correlated with religiousness and gender. Low Em...
Source: Scandinavian Journal of Psychology - August 1, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Natasha Galliford, Adrian Furnham Tags: Personality and Social Psychology Source Type: research
Automatic thoughts as a predictor of internalizing and externalizing problems in Chinese adolescents: A test of the cognitive content ‐specificity hypothesis with age effects
The main aim of the current study was to test the cognitive content‐specificity hypothesis across internalizing and externalizing problems in Chinese adolescents. The participants consisted of 2,158 adolescents aged 11–19 years from three middle schools, and they completed a number of measures assessing a wide range of automatic thoughts and syndromes related to internalizing and externalizing problems. Multivariate regression analyses demonstrated that thoughts about social threats, personal failure and hostility were the strongest predictors of anxiety, depression, and externalizing problems, respectively. Age was a ...
Source: Scandinavian Journal of Psychology - July 25, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Meng Yu, Wei Xu, Qiuyuan Xie, Yawen Zhu, Gregory s. Chasson, Jianping Wang Tags: Cognition and Neurosciences Source Type: research
The design of the MBT ‐G adherence and quality scale
Few group psychotherapy studies focus on therapists' interventions, and instruments that can measure group psychotherapy treatment fidelity are scarce. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the reliability of the Mentalization‐based Group Therapy Adherence and Quality Scale (MBT‐G‐AQS), which is a 19‐item scale developed to measure adherence and quality in mentalization‐based group therapy (MBT‐G). Eight MBT groups and eight psychodynamic groups (a total of 16 videotaped therapy sessions) were rated independently by five raters. All groups were long‐term, outpatient psychotherapy groups with 1.5 hours ...
Source: Scandinavian Journal of Psychology - July 18, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Espen J. Folmo, Sigmund W. Karterud, Kjetil Bremer, Kristoffer L. Walther, Elfrida H. Kvarstein, Geir A. F. Pedersen Tags: Personality and Social Psychology Source Type: research
Seeing the big picture: Broadening attention relieves sadness and depressed mood
We examined whether the broadened attentional scope would affect people's sad or depressed mood with two experiments, enlightened by the meaning of “seeing the big picture” and the broaden‐and‐build model. Experiment 1 (n = 164) is a laboratory‐based experiment, in which we manipulated the attentional scope by showing participants zoomed‐out or zoomed‐in scenes. In Experiment 2 (n = 44), we studied how depressed mood and positive and negative emotions were affected when participants watched distant versus proximal scenes for eight weeks in real life. Healthy participants in Experiment 1, who were induced to f...
Source: Scandinavian Journal of Psychology - July 18, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Li Gu, Xueling Yang, Liman Man Wai Li, Xinyue Zhou, Ding ‐Guo Gao Tags: Health and Disability Source Type: research
Child and family ‐related predictors of psychological outcomes in children adopted from abroad; what is the role of caregiver time?
International adoptees need to cope with stressful transitions and to develop secure attachment with their caregivers at the same time. Although most children adopted from abroad adjust fine, they are at increased risk of psychological problems. We investigated whether both child and family‐related factors are associated with later psychological problems and whether the length of time spent at home after adoption before daycare moderates these associations among internationally adopted children in Finland (FinAdo, Finnish Adoption Study). The sample consisted of 1,265 children (708 girls, 557 boys) who arrived in Finland...
Source: Scandinavian Journal of Psychology - July 18, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Niina Rita, Marko Elovainio, Hanna Raaska, Pekka Lahti ‐Nuuttila, Jaakko Matomäki, Jari Sinkkonen, Helena Lapinleimu Tags: Development and Aging Source Type: research
Activation of semantic information at the sublexical level during handwriting production: Evidence from inhibition effects of Chinese semantic radicals in the picture ‐word interference paradigm
Using a non‐alphabetic language (e.g., Chinese), the present study tested a novel view that semantic information at the sublexical level should be activated during handwriting production. Over 80% of Chinese characters are phonograms, in which semantic radicals represent category information (e.g., 椅 ‘chair,’ 桃 ‘peach,’ 橙 ‘orange’ are related to plants) while phonetic radicals represent phonetic information (e.g., 狼 ‘wolf,’ 朗 ‘brightness,’ 郎 ‘male,’ are all pronounced /lang/). Under different semantic category conditions at the lexical level (semantically related in Experiment 1; seman...
Source: Scandinavian Journal of Psychology - July 18, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Xuqian Chen, Yuanlan Liao, Xianzhe Chen Tags: Cognition and Neurosciences Source Type: research
Age slowing down in detection and visual discrimination under varying presentation times
The reaction time has been described as a measure of perception, decision making, and other cognitive processes. The aim of this work is to examine age‐related changes in executive functions in terms of demand load under varying presentation times. Two tasks were employed where a signal detection and a discrimination task were performed by young and older university students. Furthermore, a characterization of the response time distribution by an ex‐Gaussian fit was carried out. The results indicated that the older participants were slower than the younger ones in signal detection and discrimination. Moreover, the diff...
Source: Scandinavian Journal of Psychology - June 1, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Carmen Moret ‐Tatay, Lenin‐Guillermo Lemus‐Zúñiga, Diana Abad Tortosa, Daniel Gamermann, Andrea Vázquez‐martínez, Esperanza Navarro‐Pardo, J. Alberto Conejero Tags: Development and Aging Source Type: research
Dietary patterns are associated with the prevalence of alexithymia
The objective was: (1) to examine the associations between dietary patterns and alexithymic features; and (2) investigate whether these possible associations are explained by depressive symptoms in a cross‐sectional study among the Finnish general population aged 25–65 years. The study population was a part of the population‐based Kuopio Depression Study (KUDEP) conducted in central‐eastern Finland (n = 1747). Dietary data were collected using a food frequency questionnaire and dietary patterns from 22 predefined food groups, which were extracted by factor analysis. Alexithymia was assessed using the 20‐item To...
Source: Scandinavian Journal of Psychology - June 1, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Kirsi Honkalampi, Anu Ruusunen, Heimo Viinam äki, Heli Koivumaa‐Honkanen, Minna Valkonen‐Korhonen, Soili M. Lehto Tags: Health and Disability Source Type: research
Self ‐control depletion impairs goal maintenance: A meta‐analysis
Initial exertion of self‐control has been suggested to impair subsequent self‐regulatory performance. The specific cognitive processes that underlie this ego depletion effect have rarely been examined. Drawing on the dual‐process theory of executive control (Engle & Kane, ; Kane & Engle, ), the current meta‐analysis revealed that initial self‐control exertion impairs participants’ capacities of maintaining the task goal but its effect on capacities of resolving response competition is in need of further investigation. Our results are more consistent with recent theoretical views that consider ego deplet...
Source: Scandinavian Journal of Psychology - June 1, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Junhua Dang, Fredrik Bj örklund, Martin Bäckström Tags: Cognition and Neurosciences Source Type: research
Characteristics of inner reading voices
This study examined the phenomenological characteristics of inner speech during silent reading (inner reading voices or IRVs), a type of inner speech that may be particularly amenable to empirical study. A survey was conducted in the general population to assess IRV frequency, location, number, identity, and controllability, and auditory qualities of IRVs. Of 570 survey respondents, 80.7% reported sometimes or always hearing an inner voice during silent reading, and the remaining 19.3% reported always understanding words being read without hearing an inner voice. Results indicated that IRVs are a routine experience for man...
Source: Scandinavian Journal of Psychology - June 1, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Ruvanee P. Vilhauer Tags: Cognition and Neurosciences Source Type: research
Using the regulation of accuracy to study performance when the correct answer is not known
We examined memory performance in multiple‐choice questions when correct answers were not always present. How do participants answer when they are aware that the correct alternative may not be present? To answer this question we allowed participants to decide on the number of alternatives in their final answer (the plurality option), and whether they wanted to report or withhold their answer (report option). We also studied the memory benefits when both the plurality and the report options were available. In two experiments participants watched a crime and then answered questions with five alternatives. Half of the quest...
Source: Scandinavian Journal of Psychology - June 1, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Karlos Luna, Beatriz Mart ín‐Luengo Tags: Cognition and Neurosciences Source Type: research
The personality basis of aggression: The mediating role of anger and the moderating role of emotional intelligence
High neuroticism and low agreeableness have been found to predict higher levels of aggression through an increase of negative emotions such as anger. However, previous research has only investigated these indirect associations for physical aggression, whereas evidence for such indirect effects on other types of aggression (i.e., verbal or indirect aggression) is currently lacking. Moreover, no previous work has investigated the moderating role of Ability Emotional Intelligence (AEI), which may buffer against the effects of anger on aggression. The present study (N = 665) directly addresses these gaps in the literature. The...
Source: Scandinavian Journal of Psychology - June 1, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Esperanza Garc ía‐Sancho, Kristof Dhont, José M. Salguero, Pablo Fernández‐Berrocal Tags: Personality and Social Psychology Source Type: research
Conscientiousness but not agreeableness mediates females ’ tendency toward being a morning person
This study backed our hypothesis that conscientiousness might play a more pronounced role than the intrinsic diurnal rhythm concerning the sex differences in chronotype. (Source: Scandinavian Journal of Psychology)
Source: Scandinavian Journal of Psychology - May 22, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Arash Rahafar, Ina Castellana, Christoph Randler, Juan Manuel Ant únez Tags: Personality and Social Psychology Source Type: research
Why did adolescents have sleep problems after earthquakes? Understanding the role of traumatic exposure, fear, and PTSD
To examine the relationships between trauma exposure, fear, post‐traumatic stress disorder, and sleep problems in adolescents, 746 adolescent survivors of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China were assessed at 1 year (T1) and 1.5 years (T2) after the earthquake using a trauma exposure questionnaire, a fear questionnaire, a child posttraumatic stress disorder symptom scale, and a subscale on child sleep problems. The results showed that T1 trauma exposure were not directly associated with sleep problems at T1 and T2, but played a positive role in sleep problems at both T1 and T2 indirectly through T1 posttraumatic stress ...
Source: Scandinavian Journal of Psychology - May 22, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Xiao Zhou, Xinchun Wu, Qiuyan Chen, Rui Zhen Tags: Health and Disability Source Type: research
