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- Andershed, Henrik
(författare)
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Antisocial behavior in adolescence : the role of individual characteristics
- 2002
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The main aim of this dissertation is to investigate whether traits on the level of the individual are important in understanding violent, frequent antisocial behavior among adolescents. The first of the four studies included in this dissertation asks whether individual-level explanations are going to be a fruitful approach at all. The other three studies speak to the question which particular individual characteristics are related to violent, frequent antisocial behavior. Two different large samples of 14 to 16-year-old male and female non-referred adolescents were assessed. The adolescents were mainly assessed with self-report questionnaires but information from parents and teachers was also incorporated in one of the samples. Results show that aggressive, antisocial behavior for a subgroup of adolescents cuts across social contexts, indicating that their aggressive behavior is largely dependent on individual characteristics, more than on situational factors. It is further shown that a constellation of personality traits involving a grandiose, manipulative interpersonal disposition, callous, unemotional affective traits, and an impulsive, irresponsible behavioral style, characterizes a subgroup of antisocial adolescents who have more violent, frequent antisocial behavior than antisocial adolescents without this personality constellation. This same subgroup also shows more pronounced problem behaviors of other kinds — early behavioral problems, problems with inhibiting aggressive behaviors, and problems with hyperactivity, impulsivity, and attention. Moreover, the results show that the affective facet of this particular personality constellation, involving callous, unemotional traits, plays an important role in violent, frequent antisocial behavior independently of other antisocial-related dimensions such as impulsivity, hyperactivity, and sensation seeking traits. Importantly, the main findings were similar for males and females. It is concluded that specific personality traits are important to consider when moving further toward an understanding of violent, frequent antisocial behavior and that research on non-referred, community samples of youths can be particularly helpful for this purpose. Implications for prevention and intervention and directions for future research are discussed.
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| 2. |
- Jensen, Eva, 1965-
(författare)
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(Mis)understanding and learning of feedback relations in a simple dynamic system
- 2003
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The work presented in this dissertation has focused on laypeople's understanding of a simple dynamic system. The system in question consisted of a predator-and-prey ecology. A computer simulation was used to portray foxes feeding on rabbits. In the simulated game, the participants were allowed to change the number of foxes once per year, where the task was to establish equilibrium. General performance, reasoning and control behavior was investigated in Study 1. The task was found to be difficult, despite its structural simplicity. Low ability to apply indirect reasoning seemed to be the major obstacle. To reach a constant fox population, the rabbit population had to be adjusted to the appropriate size, and the means for obtaining that is the fox population. This was highlighted in Study 2 by the addition of pictorial hints, describing how the foxes were affected by the rabbit supply. Performance, however, was not influenced by the pictorial aids. The participants were able to understand and use the pictures, if explicitly demanded to, but otherwise they treated the pictures as redundant information. If the foxes are, for example, reduced, they lack sufficient food. To allow for growth of the rabbit population, the foxes might need to, temporarily, be reduced even further. In Study 3, many participants understood how the rabbit supply affected the foxes, yet they failed to resist an "urge" to replace lost foxes (and thereby further reduce the rabbit population). In a second predator-and-prey task, participants previously assisted in their completion of the rabbits-and-foxes task outperformed controls who only performed this second task. The performance superiority, however seemed to stem from learning for only half of the participants who were administered the rabbits-and-foxes task. Learning in about half the participants has proven a stable finding.
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| 3. |
- Trost, Kari
(författare)
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A new look at parenting during adolescence : reciprocal interactions in everyday life
- 2002
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this dissertation I pose the question: Under what conditions are parent-child relationships linked to good, or bad, adolescent adjustment and under what conditions are they not? Study I focused on subjects with multiproblematic adjustment. It was proposed that multiproblematic adjustment in adolescence (as well as in late childhood and early adulthood) has to be seen in terms of individual and family characteristics early in life. The findings confirmed the hypothesis that children characterized by both pre-school conduct problem and poor mother-child relations, later in life showed considerably more problems in different environments than did children with other combinations of conduct problems and mother relations. Studies II-IV aimed at understanding the association between parent-child relationships and adjustment specifically during adolescence. Study II examined how parental trust could be gained, the importance of it, and how it could be linked to adolescent adjustment. Since the trust that parents expressed relative to their children was assumed to be primarily based on the knowledge parents have about their children, three possible sources of parental knowledge were examined (of child’s feelings and concerns, of past delinquency, and of daily activities) along with sources of parental knowledge itself. The results showed that parents’ knowledge of daily activities that came from the child’s spontaneous disclosure was most closely linked to their trust in their child, and parents’ trust, in turn, was associated with good parent-child relations and good adjustment on part of the adolescent. Study III examined how parental control, warmth, and communication in the parent-child relationship are associated with positive and negative adolescent adjustment. Structural equations tests of a theoretical model suggested that the link from parental warmth through parental control to adolescent adjustment was weak compared with the path from parental warmth through child disclosure to adolescent adjustment. Across informants, direct parental control was minimally important, if at all. Study IV examined whether adolescents’ not wanting parental involvement was a normal part of the parent-child relationship during adolescence. It was shown that not wanting parents to be involved generally was a sign of poor adolescent adjustment, even when controlling for problem behaviors and family problems. Person-oriented analyses identified a group of adolescents who wanted low levels of parental involvement, who were normal in terms of family problems and behavior problems and showed evidence of healthy psychological functioning. In view of the small size of this group (11%), and the results from the analyses of linear relations, it was concluded that the combination of adolescents’ desires to manage their own free time and healthy functioning is not as normative as it is normally thought. Overall, the results from these four studies provide a basis for taking a bi-directional approach to understanding the parent-child relationship during adolescence, and in particular examining the child’s active role in his or her development. Furthermore, two new issues were brought up in the present dissertation, 1) a new interpretation of problem aggregation and 2) a new view of the parent-child relationship during adolescence. Directions for future research, practical implications for adolescents, their parents, and the issue of generality are included in the discussion.
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| 4. |
- Wester-Herber, Misse, 1969-
(författare)
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Talking to me? : Risk communication to a diverse public
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis focuses on the process of communication of environmental risks. A basic assumption in this thesis is that even though ambitious risk communication efforts can take place, the intended recipients are left with a feeling of alienation: Talking to me? The thesis presents a review of theories developed in the field of risk communication research and theories concerning risk perception. Results in this thesis are based on the findings in four papers. The first two papers report results from traditional risk communication strategies that have taken place in Sweden in accordance with the Seveso II Directive. The third paper looks at how industry and organizations view participatory strategies that include stakeholders in risk debates. The fourth paper attempts to fuse together placeidentity and risk perception in order to broaden the understanding of environmental conflicts. The main results of this thesis can be summarized under three headings. First that there is no homogenous public in a risk communication context. Instead there seems to be a number of publics that differ in risk perception or have different environmental concerns. Second, strategies that tend to incorporate parts of the concerned public or stakeholders seem to work better than traditional risk communication efforts. Third, if discussion about risk are to be fruitful, the concept of risk needs to be broadened to include concerns that are not directly or apparently linked to issues of health or safety. Instead concerns such as local culture or local attachment need to be included. The purpose of this thesis is to suggest methods for communicating about environmental risks in order to make the affected public feel: Yes, you are talking to me.
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