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Why might someone avoid information that could be useful for making an important decision? Useful information can indicate that some options are better than others for achieving an important goal or averting disaster. A theory is developed here which proposes that decisions feel more important because the consequences of the decisions are more threatening the self-concept. Useful information threatens to reduce a decision maker's decision options, thus constraining their opportunities to act quickly, reduce uncertainty and make the decision in a way that is self-verifying. This occurs while a decision maker is strongly motivated to reduce the uncertainty and the threat to the self-concept generated by the decision making situation. As a result, people become less likely to access useful information when making more important decisions. This is more likely to occur when the decisions includes a substantial threat to more salient identities and core aspects of the decision maker's self-concept. First a study is conducted to develop a measure of the relative strength of a respondent's leadership identity. Then, hypotheses derived from the theory are tested in two experiments. The hypotheses predict that participants making more important decisions will (1) experience stronger feelings, (2) value self-verifying options more and feel more certain after making a decision, (3) prefer fewer options in a subsequent decision task after making more, as opposed to less important decisions, (4) make more important decision more quickly, (5) access less useful information when making more important decisions , (6) feel more certain after avoiding useful information that could indicate an identity validating solution is inferior and less certain if accessing that information, (7) report that decisions associated with stronger feelings are more important, and (8) prefer fewer choices to pick from in a subsequent decision when having made a prior decision with less useful information. The hypotheses are tested in two incrementally differing experimental in which participants make organizational leadership decisions after completing the instrument developed to test the strength of their leadership identity. Contrasting pairs of conditions vary theoretically important elements to make the decisions feel more or less important. Both pairs vary the importance of the decision situation by changing the definition of the situation to increase or decrease the consequences for the participant's leadership identity. The second study similarly varies the decision's importance and adds the opportunity to access various types of useful information prior to making each decision. Findings indicate that decisions feel more important when the outcome includes a credible threat to the maintenance of a highly salient identity. Participant making more important decisions in experiment A felt more certain they were right after making their decisions. They preferred fewer options in a subsequent decision situation which indicates they felt more powerful. In Experiment B Participants were less likely to access useful information when making more important decisions. Participants who did access useful information prior to making a more important decision preferred more options in a subsequent task. This indicates they felt less powerful after making more important decisions with more information. These findings have implications for research on decision making, identity theory, leadership in organizations, and research on emotions, and the role of perceptual control in the resiliency of social structure.

[Abstract]: This research responded to calls in the literature for more studies into subjective components of student stress as well as for innovative studies of appropriate counselling interventions. An innovative, individualised, body-mind intervention was offered to university students experiencing emotional stress overwhelm. Integral to the intervention was an extensive list of feelings, representing the approach-avoidance structure of the motivational system. Feelings qualitatively differentiate emotional experiences, and the list was found to be useful for identifying the feelings around emotional experiences. It was proposed that how one thinks about feelings is a key to resolving emotional stress and would facilitate the flourishing of life.There have been recent calls for development of first-person methodologies for investigating experiences, and, since the intervention was individualised, analysis of the unique data set took a narrative interpretive approach. Narrative data, evoked by the feelings list, were interpreted to formulate students’ “stories of stress” then analysed to study their stressful emotional experiences.This study demonstrates an innovative method for resolving emotional stress. Feelings were identified clearly, prompting students to think differently about emotional experiences. The study also demonstrates a method for researching those experiences of emotion. Analyses of consultants’ notes highlighted inter-connections and relationships between feelings and experiences throughout clients’ life-stories. Analyses of the data demonstrated a way of making sense of “emotional stress” and how the use of the feelings list could facilitate an individual’s thinking differently about experiences and resolving personal issues. For the participants of this study, feelings of grief and guilt were identified more than feelings of fear of loss for the issues discussed, suggesting that student's behaviours were motivated more by guilt than by fear. The study concludes with a discussion of how the research contributes to the counselling field and with suggestions for continuing research.

<p>Studien bygger på en sammanställning av tidigare insamlad och ej bearbetad data. Syftet med studien var att jämföra om det fanns några skillnader kring känslor hos mödrar och fäder till barn med Downs syndrom (DS). 80 mödrar respektive 79 fäder deltog i studien. De fick svara på en enkät gällande känslor under en tidsperiod på tre månader tillbaka. Barnens medelålder var 4,7 år då föräldrarna besvarade enkäten. Enkäten som användes i föreliggande studie bestod av 21 stycken känslouttryck som skulle skattas på en Visuell Analog Skala (VAS) från 0-10. Resultatet visade att mödrar och fäder till barn med DS skattade ”glad” högst och ”förkrossad” lägst. ”Glad”, ”arg” och ”ledsen” var signifikant högre hos mödrarna jämfört med hos fäderna. Fäderna skattade ”bitter/dyster” signifikant högre än mödrarna. För övrigt fanns inga signifikanta skillnader mellan föräldrarna. Totalt skattade mödrar och fäder de positiva känslouttrycken högre än de negativa. Resultatet i studien tyder på att mödrar och fäder till barn med DS inte är i behov av könsanpassad utan istället individanpassad stöttning och vägledning.</p> / <p> This study is based on a compilation of previously collected and unprocessed data. The purpose of the study was to compare whether there were any differences between the feelings of mothers and fathers of children with Down syndrome (DS). 80 mothers and 79 fathers participated in the study. The children´s average age was 4,7 years when the parents answered the questionnaire. They were responding to a questionnaire concerning feelings over a period of three months. The survey that was used in the study consisted of 21 emotional expressions that would be estimated on a Visual Analog Scale (VAS) of 0-10. The results showed that both mothers and fathers of children with DS estimated "happy" highest and "devastated" lowest. "Happy", "angry" and "sorry" was significantly higher in mothers compared to fathers. Fathers estimated "bitter / gloomy" significantly higher than the mothers. Moreover, there were no significant differences between the parents. Both mothers and fathers estimated the positive emotional expressions higher than the negative. The results of the study interpret that mothers and fathers of children with DS are not in need of gender-adapted but personalized support and guidance.</p>

<p>Hovedmålet med avhandlingen var å undersøke risikopersepsjon i den norske befolkningen. I tillegg ble relaterte prioriteringer av sikkerhet og krav om risikoreduserende tiltak undersøkt. Avhandlingen består av en introduksjonsdel og tre artikler. Alle er basert på to spørreskjemaundersøkelser gjennomført i 2004 (n= 1730 og 510).</p><p>Den første artikkelen hadde som hovedmål å undersøke risikopersepsjon. Resultatene viser at transportrisiko er delt i to hovedkategorier: offentlig og privat transport. Bekymring ble funnet å være den viktigste predikatoren på risikopersepsjon. Ved nærmere undersøkelse ble det funnet kjønnsforskjeller hvor kvinner la størst vekt på bekymring relatert til både offentlig og privat transport. For menn derimot var sannsynlighetsvurderinger (dvs. kognitive evalueringer) viktigst for privat transport, mens bekymring var viktigst for offentlig transport. Dette impliserer en forskjell i hvordan risikoen blir oppfattet, og dermed er det ansett som hensiktsmessig å differensiere hvordan risiko blir kommunisert til de ulike gruppene.</p><p>Den andre artikkelen foreslår en modell for potensielle faktorer som kan predikere prioritering av sikkerhet. Effekten av personlighetstrekkene angst, sensasjonssøking og tillit ble undersøkt. I tillegg var føreroptimisme, bekymring relatert til transportrisiko, betalingsvillighet for å redusere risiko og negative holdninger mot regler inkludert i modellen. Bekymring var den viktigste predikatoren for prioritering av sikkerhet. Den foreslåtte modellen forklarte 44% av variansen i sikkerhetsprioriteringer. Denne kunnskapen kan øke suksessen relater til intervensjoner fordi det kan øke sjansen for å treffe de som prioriterer sikkerhet lavt og dermed veilede dem til å forandre sin atferd.</p><p>Den tredje artikkelen undersøker hvorvidt det teorietiske rammeverket til ’risk-as-feelings’ hypotesen kunne brukes til å forklare krav om risikoreduserende tiltak. Modelltilpasningen til den teoretiske modellen var tilfredsstillende og resultatene viste at 30% av variasjonen til krav om risikoreduserende tiltak kunne forklares av denne modellen. Den viktigste predikatoren var atferdsmessige intensjoner om å prioritere sikkerhet. Sannsynlighetsvurdering og evaluering av konsekvenser ble funnet å være viktige for både kognitiv vurdering og følelser.</p> / <p>The aims of the PhD-thesis were to examine perceived risk in the Norwegian public as well as related priorities of safety and demands for risk mitigation. The thesis consists of a theoretical introduction and three papers. They are all based on two questionnaire surveys conducted in 2004 (n=1730 and 510 respectively).</p><p>The first paper aims to explore risk perception. The results showed that transport risks consisted of two main categories: public and private means of transportation. Related to risk perception, worry was found to be the most important predictor. On further scrutiny, a gender difference was found. Females were found to emphasize worry related to both public and private transportation as highest. For men, probability assessments (i.e. cognitive evaluations) were found to be most important to private means of transportation whereas worry was found to be most important for public transportation. This implies a difference in perceived risk, and hence how risk is communicated to the public should dependent on the target group.</p><p>The second paper proposed a model for potential predictors of priorities of safety. Several factors were investigated. First, the personality traits anxiety, excitement-seeking, and trust were included. Further factors were driver optimism, worry related to transport risks, willingness to pay to increase safety, and negative attitudes towards traffic rules. Worry was found to be the most important predictor of safety priorities, and the proposed model explained 44% of the variance in priority of safety. This knowledge gives additional information to improve the success of interventions because it can help targeting those who consider safety a low priority and guide them to modify their behaviour.</p><p>The third paper investigated the applicability of the risk-as-feeling framework to explain demand for risk mitigation. The fit of the data to the theoretical model was found to be satisfactory. The results showed that the risk-as-feelings framework explained 30 per cent of the variance of demand for risk mitigation. Behavioural intentions as priorities were found to be an important predictor of mitigation demands. Probability assessment and consequence evaluation were found to be important to cognitive risk assessment and feelings.</p>

<p><strong>Bakgrund: </strong>Multiple skleros är en neurologisk sjukdom i det centrala nervsystemet vilket beror på en kronisk inflammation. Insjuknandet sker i åldern 20-40 år. <strong>Syfte:</strong> Syftet var att beskriva hur det dagliga livet påverkades för personer med Multiple skleros. <strong>Metod: </strong>En systematisk litteraturstudie har utförts och analyserats med ett induktivt förhållningssätt. Sökningar gjordes i databaser vilket resulterade i 20 artiklar. <strong>Resultat: </strong>MS-drabbade upplevde att vardagen påverkades och arbete, relationer samt fritidsaktiviteter blev lidande. En känslomässig följd av MS var oro och rädsla, att inte veta när nästa förlust skulle drabba dem. <strong>Diskussion: </strong>Ofrivillig<strong> </strong>social isolering ledde till ett stort lidande hos den MS-drabbade, att dessutom förlora fysiska egenskaper bidrog i sin tur till ett annat lidande. MS begränsningarna skapade en sänkt självständighet, som sjuksköterska är det viktigt att vara medveten om svårigheten att ersätta den MS-drabbades förlorade färdigheter. <strong>Slutsats:</strong> Som blivande sjuksköterskor är det relevant att vara medveten om att sjukdomen påverkar hela den MS-drabbades livssituation. För att ge optimal omvårdnad bör sjuksköterskan utgå från den MS-drabbades individuella behov. Trots att den MS-drabbade möter motgångar, har de flesta en otrolig kraft för att kämpa vidare</p> / <p><strong>Background:</strong> Multiple sclerosis is a neurological disease of the central nervous system due to a chronic inflammatory. Onset occurs between the ages of 20-40 years. <strong>Aim:</strong> The objective was to describe how the daily lives of people were affected by Multiple Sclerosis <strong>Method:</strong> A systematic literature study has been conducted were articles analyzed with an inductive approach. Search was made in databases, which resulted in 20 articles. <strong>Results:</strong> MS-affected felt that affected everyday life and work, relationships and leisure activities began to suffer. An emotional consequence of MS was anxiety and fear of not knowing when the next loss affected them. <strong>Discussion: </strong>Involuntary social isolation contributed to a great suffering for the MS-affected and on top of that loose physicals skills also contributed another suffering. MS limits created a reduced independence, it is important to be aware of the difficulty to replace the lost skills of the MS-affected. <strong>Conclusion:</strong> As a future nurse, it is relevant to be aware that the disease affects the whole of the MS-affected life situation. To provide optimal care nurse should be deleted from the MS-affected individual needs. Although the MS-stricken face adversity, most have shown incredible strength to fight on.</p>

Hovedmålet med avhandlingen var å undersøke risikopersepsjon i den norske befolkningen. I tillegg ble relaterte prioriteringer av sikkerhet og krav om risikoreduserende tiltak undersøkt. Avhandlingen består av en introduksjonsdel og tre artikler. Alle er basert på to spørreskjemaundersøkelser gjennomført i 2004 (n= 1730 og 510). Den første artikkelen hadde som hovedmål å undersøke risikopersepsjon. Resultatene viser at transportrisiko er delt i to hovedkategorier: offentlig og privat transport. Bekymring ble funnet å være den viktigste predikatoren på risikopersepsjon. Ved nærmere undersøkelse ble det funnet kjønnsforskjeller hvor kvinner la størst vekt på bekymring relatert til både offentlig og privat transport. For menn derimot var sannsynlighetsvurderinger (dvs. kognitive evalueringer) viktigst for privat transport, mens bekymring var viktigst for offentlig transport. Dette impliserer en forskjell i hvordan risikoen blir oppfattet, og dermed er det ansett som hensiktsmessig å differensiere hvordan risiko blir kommunisert til de ulike gruppene. Den andre artikkelen foreslår en modell for potensielle faktorer som kan predikere prioritering av sikkerhet. Effekten av personlighetstrekkene angst, sensasjonssøking og tillit ble undersøkt. I tillegg var føreroptimisme, bekymring relatert til transportrisiko, betalingsvillighet for å redusere risiko og negative holdninger mot regler inkludert i modellen. Bekymring var den viktigste predikatoren for prioritering av sikkerhet. Den foreslåtte modellen forklarte 44% av variansen i sikkerhetsprioriteringer. Denne kunnskapen kan øke suksessen relater til intervensjoner fordi det kan øke sjansen for å treffe de som prioriterer sikkerhet lavt og dermed veilede dem til å forandre sin atferd. Den tredje artikkelen undersøker hvorvidt det teorietiske rammeverket til ’risk-as-feelings’ hypotesen kunne brukes til å forklare krav om risikoreduserende tiltak. Modelltilpasningen til den teoretiske modellen var tilfredsstillende og resultatene viste at 30% av variasjonen til krav om risikoreduserende tiltak kunne forklares av denne modellen. Den viktigste predikatoren var atferdsmessige intensjoner om å prioritere sikkerhet. Sannsynlighetsvurdering og evaluering av konsekvenser ble funnet å være viktige for både kognitiv vurdering og følelser. / The aims of the PhD-thesis were to examine perceived risk in the Norwegian public as well as related priorities of safety and demands for risk mitigation. The thesis consists of a theoretical introduction and three papers. They are all based on two questionnaire surveys conducted in 2004 (n=1730 and 510 respectively). The first paper aims to explore risk perception. The results showed that transport risks consisted of two main categories: public and private means of transportation. Related to risk perception, worry was found to be the most important predictor. On further scrutiny, a gender difference was found. Females were found to emphasize worry related to both public and private transportation as highest. For men, probability assessments (i.e. cognitive evaluations) were found to be most important to private means of transportation whereas worry was found to be most important for public transportation. This implies a difference in perceived risk, and hence how risk is communicated to the public should dependent on the target group. The second paper proposed a model for potential predictors of priorities of safety. Several factors were investigated. First, the personality traits anxiety, excitement-seeking, and trust were included. Further factors were driver optimism, worry related to transport risks, willingness to pay to increase safety, and negative attitudes towards traffic rules. Worry was found to be the most important predictor of safety priorities, and the proposed model explained 44% of the variance in priority of safety. This knowledge gives additional information to improve the success of interventions because it can help targeting those who consider safety a low priority and guide them to modify their behaviour. The third paper investigated the applicability of the risk-as-feeling framework to explain demand for risk mitigation. The fit of the data to the theoretical model was found to be satisfactory. The results showed that the risk-as-feelings framework explained 30 per cent of the variance of demand for risk mitigation. Behavioural intentions as priorities were found to be an important predictor of mitigation demands. Probability assessment and consequence evaluation were found to be important to cognitive risk assessment and feelings.

Feelings and impressions of a product are important for the decision of purchasing it or not. Designing attractive products therefore requires knowledge about the feelings and impressions the products evoke on the customer and the user. Integrating such affective values in product design requires the introduction of suitable methods into companies’ product design processes, methods which can capture and convert subjective and even unconscious feelings about a product into concrete design parameters. This is sometimes referred to as ‘Affective Engineering’. One methodology in this context is Kansei Engineering, which has been developed in Japan in order to design feelings into products. The aim of this thesis was twofold: Firstly, to improve understanding of the nature of products making emotional impact on the users and customers. Secondly, to identify and improve methods capable of grasping those affective values and translating them into concrete product design solutions. This thesis presents three empirical studies and two methodological papers, relating to warehouse trucks and laminate flooring. The first study was made on user impact of warehouse trucks in three different European countries. A second study dealt with affective values of rocker-switches in work vehicles, such as warehouse trucks. A third study on this truck type compared the old manoeuvring panel evaluated in the previous studies with a newly introduced manoeuvring panel in order to validate the impact of the design improvements made after the first study. Further, a conceptual model on Kansei Engineering methodology was proposed in a methods paper based on the experience from the studies performed in order to provide a structure for performing Kansei Engineering studies. The fifth paper had the purpose of validating and improving the proposed model using laminate flooring as research object. More structured ways of identifying design parameters and relevant product properties was given high priority in the improvement work of the methodology. A model for spanning the Space of Product Properties was presented and applied. This thesis also deals with other improvement areas in the methodology and proposed new developments, including the use of scales, experimental design and validation methods. In conclusion, Kansei Engineering is a concept and a methodology in strong development, a framework in which tools and methods are continuously developed, added and integrated.

Studien bygger på en sammanställning av tidigare insamlad och ej bearbetad data. Syftet med studien var att jämföra om det fanns några skillnader kring känslor hos mödrar och fäder till barn med Downs syndrom (DS). 80 mödrar respektive 79 fäder deltog i studien. De fick svara på en enkät gällande känslor under en tidsperiod på tre månader tillbaka. Barnens medelålder var 4,7 år då föräldrarna besvarade enkäten. Enkäten som användes i föreliggande studie bestod av 21 stycken känslouttryck som skulle skattas på en Visuell Analog Skala (VAS) från 0-10. Resultatet visade att mödrar och fäder till barn med DS skattade ”glad” högst och ”förkrossad” lägst. ”Glad”, ”arg” och ”ledsen” var signifikant högre hos mödrarna jämfört med hos fäderna. Fäderna skattade ”bitter/dyster” signifikant högre än mödrarna. För övrigt fanns inga signifikanta skillnader mellan föräldrarna. Totalt skattade mödrar och fäder de positiva känslouttrycken högre än de negativa. Resultatet i studien tyder på att mödrar och fäder till barn med DS inte är i behov av könsanpassad utan istället individanpassad stöttning och vägledning. / This study is based on a compilation of previously collected and unprocessed data. The purpose of the study was to compare whether there were any differences between the feelings of mothers and fathers of children with Down syndrome (DS). 80 mothers and 79 fathers participated in the study. The children´s average age was 4,7 years when the parents answered the questionnaire. They were responding to a questionnaire concerning feelings over a period of three months. The survey that was used in the study consisted of 21 emotional expressions that would be estimated on a Visual Analog Scale (VAS) of 0-10. The results showed that both mothers and fathers of children with DS estimated "happy" highest and "devastated" lowest. "Happy", "angry" and "sorry" was significantly higher in mothers compared to fathers. Fathers estimated "bitter / gloomy" significantly higher than the mothers. Moreover, there were no significant differences between the parents. Both mothers and fathers estimated the positive emotional expressions higher than the negative. The results of the study interpret that mothers and fathers of children with DS are not in need of gender-adapted but personalized support and guidance.

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka om det finns skillnader i hur män och kvinnor påverkas av annonsbilder. Ser män och kvinnor i generation Y samma saker i annonsbilden, eller finns här olikheter som påverkar deras syn på annonsbilden. Metodik:  Uppsatsen är genomförd utifrån en kvalitativ forskningsansats. Det empiriska underlaget tagits fram utifrån fyra stycken semi-strukturerade intervjuer och två stycken köns-indelade fokusgrupper. Slutsats: Uppsatsens slutsatser är att respondenterna påverkades av annonsbilderna oavsett kön. Männen i studien gav oftare uttryck för känslor kring annonsbilderna som sedan kunde uttryckas i en fantasi. Kvinnorna däremot lät sin fantasi spegla deras syn och tolkning av annonsbilden som i sin tur väckte olika känslor hos dem. / Purpose: The purpose with this thesis is to examen if there are any differences between how men and women are influenced by the advertisement picture. Do men and women in generation Y see the same things in the advertisement picture, or do differences exist that influence their perception of the advertisement picture. Methodology: The research is implemented with a qualitative method. The empirical foundation is grounded in four semi-structured interviews and two gender divided group interviews.  Conclusion: The conclusions are that the advertising pictures, regardless of their gender affected the respondents. The men participating in the study expressed, more often then the women, their feelings about the advertisement picture, which led to an imagination. The women on the other hand gave expression for their imagination around and about the advertisement picture that awoke their feelings about the picture.