<p>In the present thesis the stepping, placing and head turning responses in healthy humanfullterm newborns are investigated. The main focus is put on a study of these newbornresponses in relation to functional asymmetries, while at the same time exploring anddiscussing different factors that possibly can affect the outcome of such studies. Study I aims to examine one such factor in relation to underlying mechanisms controlling leg movements in focusing on the effects of glucose on newborn stepping and placing responses. The results revealed that glucose, as well as an inactive state, resulted in less pronounced stepping responses and difficulties in eliciting them. There was also a tendency towards a similar finding for placing in that both glucose and an inactive state were associated with a less vigorous placing response, although this could not be proved significant. However, there was no effect of glucose on expressions of laterality in either ofthe responses studied. A theoretical debate in progress concerns whether different newborn functional asymmetries can be said representing a single neural system for lateralization or multiple sub-systems rooted in different neural mechanisms (Grattan, De Vos, Levy, & McClintock, 1992). In order to look closer at this issue in relation to newborn head- and leg preferences, Study II was designed to investigate the presence of side biases in newbornstepping and placing responses (lower-body), together with head turning preference (upperbody), and whether observed lateral biases of the upper- and lower body are congruent with each other. No evident lateral bias could be found for either response in terms of the first foot moved or direction of head turning. Furthermore, asymmetries in head turning did not correspond to asymmetries in leg movements, in support for multiple sub-systemsrather than a single lateralized system. However, a lateral bias was found for onset latency in relation to the first foot moved in both stepping and placing. The findings are discussed in relation to underlying neural mechanisms for lateral biases in leg movements and the important role of a thorough methodology in investigating newborn responses.</p>

<p>The aim of this licentiate thesis was to examine consequences of chronic stress for stressrelated diseases and to investigate the chronic stress – cognition relationship. In the first study data covering ten years was used from the Betula Prospective Cohort Study (Nilsson et al., 1997). Based on the ratings on a stress scale, matched samples between 40 and 65 years of age were divided into a high and low stress group. The reported incidence of cardiovascular, diabetes, psychiatric, tumor, and musculoskeletal diseases wasassessed five and ten years after a baseline assessment. The incidence of diseases five years after baseline assessment showed no differences between the groups. After ten years, there was a higher incidence of psychiatric diseases in the high stress group as well as a significant effect for tumors. These results indicated that moderately elevated stress levels may have an impact on psychiatric diseases, especially depression, and possibly also some tumor diseases, but it was concluded that prolonged moderate stress does not appear to be very harmful to health in general. In the second study cognitive performance was studied in chronic stress outpatients and matched controls. A battery of cognitive tests assessing processing speed, attention, episodic-, semantic- and working memory was used. Performance decrements for thechronic stress patients were found in episodic memory, particularly in learning across repeated trials, and in tasks requiring divided attention under either encoding or retrieval of words. Performance differences were also seen in aspects of working memory, mental tempo, semantic access (letter fluency) and prospective memory. It was concluded that executive functioning may be suboptimal in chronic stress patients and that letter fluency and prospective memory tests can be useful as clinical tools when evaluating chronic stressstates. Taken together, the findings indicate that there is no clear association between moderately elevated chronic stress and increased incidence of stress related diseases, whereas certain cognitive functions such as executive functioning appear vulnerable to chronic stress.</p>

<p>Numerous studies have analyzed the critical factors for training in surgical endoscopy to ensure high performance and increased patient safety. There are, however, surprisingly few studies that focus on the role of cognitive abilities, especially considering the fact that an estimated 50% of allmedical errors that lead to permanent disability and death are the result of cognitive failures (Gawande, Zinner, Studdert & Biennen, 2003). This thesis provides initial outlines of two cognitive abilities that may underlie endoscopic simulator performance. In study 1 we addressed how high-level visual-spatial ability of surgical novices is related to performance of two simulatortasks with and without anatomical graphics and haptic feedback, differing in visual-spatial complexity. In study 2 we investigated whether visual and verbal working memory are related to the outcome of task performance scores in simulated laparoscopic cholecystectomy and gastroscopy training. Taken together, the results suggest that visual-spatial ability and working memory are significantly related to endoscopic simulator performance scores and that anincreased cognitive workload enhances the individual differences found. These findings can be used to better implement endoscopic surgical curriculum since novice trainees can be identified early and they might benefit from supplementary education in specific surgical tasks.</p>

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<p>Arbetstillfredsställelse är ett komplext begrepp. Denna studie undersökte hur kommunikation, ledarskap, delaktighet och motivation inverkar på arbetstillfredsställelsen, samt granskade ett eventuellt samband mellan arbetstillfredsställelse och lönsamhet. En enkätundersökning genomfördes på två likvärdiga företag, där lönsamheten skiljde företagen åt. Deltagarna i studien var samtliga anställda på respektive företag, förutom VD, N=150. Tre vedertagna mätinstrument användes och samtliga anpassades till studiens syfte. Resultatet kunde inte påvisa någon signifikant skillnad mellan företagen vad gällde arbetstillfredsställelse. Därigenom kunde heller inget samband verifieras mellan arbetstillfredsställelse och lönsamhet. Den starkaste prediktorn till arbetstillfredsställelse var kommunikation, följt av ålder, motivation och ledarskap. Resultatet visade att yngre individer trivs sämre på arbetet än äldre, vilket får anses som ytterst intressant.</p>

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<p>Arbetsmotivation och arbetstillfredsställelse har ett nära samband med varandra. Faktorer av betydelse, för den enskilde medarbetarens upplevelse, är påverkan av arbetets art och inställning till den närmsta chefen. Den personligt upplevda tillfredsställelsen påverkas av chefen och har på individen ett inflytande som inte kan bortförklara arbetsprestationen (Pool, 1997). En enkätundersökning med 60 deltagare, där hälften var anställda i offentlig respektive privat sektor, utgjorde grunden för denna studie. För att beskriva arbetets art användes den skala som arbetats fram av Hackman & Oldham (1975). Vid relaterande av arbetstillfredsställelsen till variablerna arbetets art, chefens inverkan visade att arbetets art var den avgörande variabeln. Resultatet visade att påverkan var större i den privata sektorn jämfört med den offentliga.</p><p>Keywords: leadership, work motivation, job satificancy</p>

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<p>Psykologin tar upp två perspektiv gällande shoppingmani. Det kliniska fokuserar på själva utförandet och det kognitiva fokuserar på betydelsen av produkten. Dessutom finns teorier som placeras emellan där vikten läggs vid både agerandet och produktens värde. Tjugoen medlemmar från en rikstäckande förening för shoppingberoende och 20 högskolestudenter i Mellansverige fick fylla i en enkät. Syftet med undersökningen var att undersöka i vilken utsträckning föreningsmedlemmarna fanns representerade inom perspektiven, se hur materialistiska värderingar skiljer sig åt mellan perspektiven samt mellan deltagargrupperna. Inga signifikanta skillnader fanns mellan grupperna. Denna tendens går emot alla tidigare teorier, förmodligen beror detta på den svaga första delen i undersökningen. Fokus bör därför riktas på att det inte finns någon skillnad mellan föreningsmedlemmar och studenter.</p><p>Key words: clinical perspective, cognitive perspective, compulsive buying disorder, shopping, materialism</p>