Meta-cognitive models have been utilized to explore the relations between worry and generalized anxiety disorder, as well as, the associations between rumination and depression. However, relatively few studies have focused on the role of meta-cognitive variables and social phobia symptoms. It is possible that individuals with social phobia follow a pattern of thinking similar to that of those who experience depressive rumination and worry. Specifically, it may be that individuals with social phobia hold positive beliefs about their highly negative prolonged post-event evaluations of social interactions. The primary goal of this study was the development and assessment of the Positive Beliefs about Post-Event Processing Questionnaire (PB-PEPQ). Further, it was predicted that post-event processing would mediate the relationship between positive beliefs about post-event processing and social phobia symptoms. The findings from this study suggested that the PB-PEPQ is a valid and reliable construct. Additionally, the findings provide initial evidence for a cognitive model in which individuals who tend to hold positive beliefs about post-event processing, tend to engage in post-event processing which may increase social phobia symptoms.

Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Diagnostik unerwünschter Gedanken sowie der Spezifität von Gedankenunterdrückung bei phobischen Patienten. Zwei Fragebogenverfahren zum Thema Sorgen sowie ein Instrument zur Erfassung von Strategien im Umgang mit intrusiven Gedanken wurden bezüglich der Gütekriterien der deutschen Übersetzung in einer klinischen Stichprobe evaluiert. Dabei handelt es sich um den Worry Domains Questionnaire (WDQ), der Sorgeninhalte erhebt, den Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ), der die Intensität von Sorgen erfasst, und den Thought Control Questionnaire (TCQ) zur Erfassung der Gedankenkontrollstrategien. Die Verfahren wurden bei 440 Psychotherapie-Patienten zu drei Meßzeitpunkten eingesetzt. Hinsichtlich der inneren Konsistenz und der Retest-Reliabilität ergeben sich für alle Instrumente zufriedenstellende bis gute Kennwerte. Die Validität ist nur für den PSWQ als gut zu bezeichnen. Beim WDQ zeigen sich Probleme hinsichtlich der Trennung von Sorgen und sozialer Ängstlichkeit, während der TCQ wohl eher Aspekte allgemeiner Psychopathologie als spezifische Strategien erfasst. Eine zweite Studie befasste sich mit intentionaler Gedankenunterdrückung. Die paradoxen Effekte dieser Bemühungen wurden wiederholt mit psychischen Störungen, vor allem mit Angststörungen, in Verbindung gebracht. Dabei ist ein wichtiges Thema, ob die Gedankenkontrollfähigkeit nur für störungsspezifische Inhalte oder generell beeinträchtigt ist. Die vorliegende Studie verglich Patienten mit Agoraphobie und Patienten mit Sozialphobie mit einer gesunden Kontrollgruppe. Alle Personen mussten Gedanken an ein neutrales Kontrollthema sowie zwei störungsspezifische Themen unterdrücken. Es zeigte sich ein störungsspezifischer Effekt bei den Agoraphobikern. Sozialphobiker scheinen hingegen ein generelles Defizit ihrer mentalen Kontrolle aufzuweisen. Zusätzlich erwies sich soziale Ängstlickeit innerhalb einer Reihe psychopathologischer Variablen als stärkster Prädikator für Schwierigkeiten bei der Gedankenunterdrückung. Ingesamt weisen einige Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit darauf hin, dass Gedankenunterdrückung ein wichtiges Merkmal der Sozialphobie sein könnte. / The work conducted aimed at evaluating instruments investigating unwanted thoughts as well as determining the specifity of thought suppression in phobia. German translations of two questionnaires measuring worry as well as an instrument, measuring strategies used in dealing with unwanted thoughts, were evaluated in a clinical sample. We used the Worry Domains Questionnaire (WDQ), measuring contents of worry, the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ), measuring the intensity of worry, and the Thought Control Questionnaire (TCQ), investigating strategies in thought control. The instruments were administered at three points in a sample of 440 patients receiving psychological treatment. Concerning internal consistency and retest-reliability all questionnaires showed acceptable to good results. Validity is only good concerning PSWQ. WDQ has problems in differentiating worry and social anxiety, where as TCQ seems to measure general psychopathology more than specific strategies. The second study investigated intended thought suppression. Its paradoxical effects have been linked to psychological disorders, namely anxiety disorders. One important issue is if thought suppression is impaired only for thoughts related to the disorder or if the ability for mental control is generally impaired in anxiety patients. This study compared groups of agoraphobics and social phobics with healthy controls. All subjects had to suppress a neutral topic and two topics related to the central fear of the two disorders. We found a rather specific deficit in thought suppression for the agoraphobics. Social phobics seem to be characterized by a general impairment of mental control. In addition, among several psychopathological variables, social anxiety proved to be the strongest predictor for problems with thought suppression. Taken together, there are several indicators that thought suppression may be an important feature of social phobia.

People use shortcuts to make decisions to efficiently deal with a large volume of information. Linear thinking is one shortcut and it contributes to exponential growth bias which means underestimation of exponential growth values. This study examined differences in exponential growth bias in the context of the stock market and COVID-19 cases. Moreover, this research analyzed correlation between exponential growth bias and worry for health and for the economy in the contexts of COVID-19 and stock market. A total of 120 participants completed an online survey in which they were randomly assigned to the COVID-19 or stock market group. A 2 x 3 repeated measures ANOVA showed no significant differences depending on the group. Moreover, ANOVA showed that bias increased in line with the increase in the percentages analyzed for both groups. Exploratory Pearson analysis showed that there was a significant negative correlation between worry for the economy and exponential growth bias of 15% and 40% growth scenarios in COVID-19 group. There were no significant correlations between worry for the economy or health in the stock market group. The conclusion is that people use shortcuts which leads them to biased decision- making. For example, when calculating exponential values, people think linearly and it leads them to exponential growth bias, what in practice results in estimating values lower than they are. Interventions, as education with aim to reduce exponential growth bias are proposed for the future research.

Emotions are an integral part of the human experience and their interpretation can provide valuable but also misleading clues about oneself and other people’s state of mind. Negative emotional states can be perceived as uncomfortable and – when experienced chronically – can develop into anxiety and mood disorders. The more pervasive these disorders the more severely they affect and disable a person’s everyday functioning and often their sleep as well. According to Lang and colleagues (1998), emotions may be expressed verbally, behaviorally, and physiologically, i.e., emotions can be reported, observed, and objectively measured. Each measurement approach provides important, unique, and often conflicting information that can be used in the assessment and treatment evaluation of psychological disorders affecting the emotions. Autonomic measures have been used to indicate the physiological components of emotions, such as those along the worry-anxiety-fear-panic spectrum. Worry has been shown to suppress cardiac responses to imaginal feared material (see Borkovec, Alcaine, & Behar, 2004) and reduce autonomic variability (Hoehn-Saric, McLeod, Funderburk, & Kowalski, 2004; Hoehn-Saric, McLeod, & Zimmerli, 1989). Results for panic and anticipatory anxiety are less conclusive but theoretically these states should go along with increased autonomic arousal. Abnormal autonomic arousal might also be present during sleep as both panic disorder and worrying have been associated with sleeping difficulties. However, most empirical research has been confined to the laboratory where high internal validity is achieved at the cost of poor ecological validity. Thus, the purpose of this doctoral dissertation is to extend and validate laboratory findings on worry, anticipatory anxiety, and panic using ambulatory monitoring. Twenty-four hour monitoring not only can give valuable insights into a person’s daytime emotional experience but also allows observing how these emotions might affect their sleep in their natural environment. In the following chapter, the reader will be introduced to a conceptual framework that ties together worry, anxiety, fear, and panic, and related anxiety disorders (section 2.1), to autonomic arousal and electrodermal and cardiac arousal in particular (section 2.2), to sleep and its relation to autonomic arousal and anxiety disorders (section 2.3), and to ambulatory monitoring (section 2.4). After illustrating the aims of this thesis (chapter 3), chapters 4 to 6 present the results of three empirical studies conducted as part of this doctoral research. The first study deals solely with electrodermal monitoring and how it is affected by confounding variables in an ambulatory context (chapter 4). The next study then seeks to investigate the relationship between electrodermal arousal and anticipatory anxiety and panic in a sample of panic disorder patients and healthy controls. The last study focuses primarily on the effect of trait and state worry on subjective and objective sleep and electrodermal and cardiac arousal in a group of high and low worriers. Chapters 7 to 9 summarize and integrate the findings from these three empirical studies, discuss methodological limitations, and provide an outlook into future research.

Bakgrund: Unga vuxna är en målgrupp som inte främst tillhör en riskgrupp för allvarliga konsekvenser av COVID-19 gällande sjuklighet och dödlighet. Den globala pandemin kan ha fler konsekvenser på hälsan, där unga vuxna kan ses som en sårbar grupp. Med grund i “Risk perception model” och “Trust determination theory”, vilka kan härleda att en effektiv riskkommunikation under en pandemi är beroende av ett högt myndighetsförtroende och att förstå befolkningens oro, vill denna studie undersöka dessa områden samt eventuella samband och skillnader mellan olika grupper. Syfte: Att undersöka eventuellt samband mellan hög upplevd oro och lågt myndighetsförtroende bland unga vuxna samt eventuella skillnad bland grupper som bakgrundsvariablerma kön, ålder, utbildning och utländsk bakgrund, samt påverkansfaktorerna olika personliga erfarenheter av COVID-19 och inställning till vaccin. Metod: För denna kvantitativa tvärsnittsstudie skapades en enkät i Easyquest och publicerades i olika Facebook-grupper under en vecka i November 2021. Enkäten bestod av 19 frågor där frågorna om upplevd oro och myndighetsförtroende mättes på likert-skala (1-5). Vissa variabler kom i analysen att dikotomiserades till grupper, eller omkodas till index i SPSS vilka testades för intern reliabilitet med Cronbach's Alpha. Vidare genomfördes sambandsanalys med myndighetsförtroende och upplevd oro med Spearmans korrelation (rs , p &lt; .05) och hypotesprövning med eventuella skillnader mellan grupper med chi-2-test (X 2 , p &lt; .05). Resultat: Av n=152 deltagare, var n=40 män och n=105 kvinnor. 48% uppger att myndighetsförtroendet har minskat och 68% menar att deras mentala hälsa har påverkats negativt under COVID-19-pandemin. Den andel som upplever högt förtroende för följande myndigheters hantering av COVID-19-pandemin är för; Hälso- och sjukvården 62%, Folkhälsomyndigheten 44%, MSB 34%, Regeringen 19%. Resultatet för upplevd oro visar att den är högst för framtida smittsamma sjukdomar följt av samhällsförändringar. De med personliga erfarenheter av närståendes sjukdom i COVID-19 upplever en högre oro för; långvariga hälsokonsekvenser, X 2 (1, N = 149) = 4.409, p = .036, och framtida smittsamma sjukdomar X 2 (1, N = 149) = 5.127, p = .024. De som är negativt/tveksamt inställda till COVID-19 vaccin upplever högre oro och lägre myndighetsförtroende för flera av de testade variabler (X 2 &lt;p &lt; .005). Statistiskt signifikanta samband uppmättes mellan lågt myndighetsförtroende och hög oro för; samhällsförändringar rs -.247, (p = .002), vaccinationsbiverkningar rs -.480, (p &lt; .001), och konspirationsteorier rs -.368 (p &lt; .001). Slutsats: Myndighetsförtroende och upplevd oro är föränderliga över tid och kontext och studien är endast en tvärsnittsstudie. Resultatet kanske inte helt kan generaliseras på den undersökta populationen, men studien pekar mot att unga vuxna har lägre myndighetsförtroende än den vuxna populationen generellt. Den upplevda oron är högst för områden som förändringar i samhället och framtida smittsamma sjukdomar. Personliga erfarenheter av COVID-19 kan i vissa fall påverka den upplevda oron och de som är tveksamma till vaccin har även ett lägre myndighetsförtroende och en högre upplevd oro för flera uppmätta indikatorer. Statistiskt signifikant samband uppmättes mellan lågt myndighetsförtroende och hög nivå av oro för; samhällsförändringar, konspirationsteorier och vaccinationsbiverkningar. / <p>Betyg i Ladok 220323.</p>

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The purpose of the following is to study whether there are gender differences in the sense of personal responsibility during the coronavirus pandemic. By using quantitative data from Ipsos,various quantitative methods were used to study whether these potential differences can be explained by factors such as level of concern, risk perception, social trust, institutional trust, and political ideology. All analyses have been conducted while considering control variables such as age, education, and income to ensure transparent results. The findings from the survey have been analyzed using Yvonne Hirdman's theories, focusing on the "gender contract." The theoretical framework assumes that there are differences between men and women in their behavior during crises, since previous research has indicated such assumptions. The results of this study indicate that there in fact are gender differences in personal responsibility during the Covid-19 pandemic,which shows that worry, risk perception and ideology could be a part of the explanation of these differences.

Climate change is perceived as one of the most serious threats to humanity. Overthe last decade self-reported anxiety has increased in the Swedish population,especially among children and young adults. In the context of perceived secularity of the Swedish population, the existential questions in the community and inindividuals might be difficult to address. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative study was to explore existential perspectives within the scope of climate anxiety, and how young adults cope withthe existential concerns. The study also investigated how professionals support young people experiencing existential questions connected to climate change. The design of the study is holistic including micro, meso and macro levels. Empirical data was collected within the framework of the project Terra-Pi/Klimatkraft, developing methods to support young people to better deal with climate-related thoughts and feelings. Phenomenologically inspired interviews were conducted with three young adults and two professionals whose work involves dimensions of young people´s climate worry. An observation was conducted at a Climate Power Group meeting in the project. Further, the study investigated the meaning of existential health, resilience and climate change in the proposal for a new national strategy for mental health, through a content analysis and an interview with anexpert at the Public Health Agency of Sweden. In this study, a deductive thematic analysis was performed to explore the applicability of the “givens of existence” (Yalom 1980), developmental resilience theory (Masten 2021; Ungar 2021) and the connection between meaning making, health and culture according to psychology of religion in Scandinavia. Participants described experiences of existential dimensions adhered to death anxiety, existential quilt, meaninglessness and meaning, existential isolation and future orientation/temporality. Most important coping strategies were climate activism, support from attachment relationships and finding a personal meaning.The project Terra-Pi/Klimatkraft boosts important protective factors for resilience in the participants, and supports the capacity of the professionals to do so. The proposal for a new national strategy for mental health confirms the connection between existential issues and mental health as well as the importance of increased knowledge and interventions within that field. Society would benefit from social actors providing spaces, contexts and competence for addressing existential issues that the climate crisis evokes.

Sammanfattning: Bakgrund: Främre korsbandsskada är en allvarlig men vanlig skada inom idrott som resulterar i psykologiska konsekvenser, en av dessa är oro för att skada sig igen och detta kan påverka deras återgång till idrott negativt. Oro och andra psykologiska konsekvenser mäts vanligtvis med det smärtcentrerade frågeformuläret Tampa scale of kinesiophobia (TSK), även fast idrottare med korsbandsskada sällan upplever smärta senare i rehabiliteringen. Re-injury anxiety inventory (RIAI) belyser ångest och andra psykologiska faktorer inom rehabilitering (RIAI-R) och återgång till tävlingssammanhang (RIAI-C) som idrottare kan uppleva. Detta frågeformulär finns dock inte på svenska, vilket gör att svenska fysioterapeuter saknar ett självskattningsformulär som mäter ångest för att skada sig igen. Syfte: Att översätta och tvärkulturellt anpassa RIAI från originalspråket engelska till svenska och testa den på en mindre målgrupp. Metod: Kvalitativ och kvantitativ studiedesign. Fem-steg: Steg 1: Översättning av enkät: Steg 2: sammanfogning av översättningarna från steg 1. Steg 3: Återöversättning till originalspråk. Två separata översättningar genomfördes vid steg: 1 och 3. Steg 4: en expertkommitté granskade den sammanfogade versionen. Steg 5: Prefinala versionen testades genom intervjuer med 13 personer som hade genomgått främre korsbandsrekonstruktion (ACLR) och slutliga korrigeringar gjordes i enlighet med detta för att skapa den slutliga versionen. En korrelationsanalys med 18 personer genomfördes även av RIAI-SE och TSK. Resultat: Den prefinala versionen bestod efter intervjuerna och en svensk version RIAI-SE skapades. RIAI-SE och TSK jämfördes, det visade ingen signifikant korrelation P&gt;0,093.  Slutsats:  Översättningen och kulturella anpassningen av originalformuläret RIAI, resulterade i en svensk version, RIAI-SE. Inga korrelationer mellan RIAI-SE och TSK bekräftar att de mäter olika begrepp. RIAI-SE kan komma att användas av fysioterapeuter på svenska idrottare med allvarliga skador efter att verktyget har visat sig ha god validitet och reliabilitet.

Abstract Title: The Ticking of the “Biological Clock”: Worry about Future Fertility in Nulliparous Women By: Karen Kersting, M.A., M.S. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2013. Major Director: Kathleen M. Ingram, J.D., Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology Department of Psychology Modern women are waiting until later in their lives to have children than women of previous generations, a trend influenced by a number of factors including financial stability, dating norms, and career goals and responsibilities. As women age, their fertility may decline in ways that make it less likely that they will be able to become pregnant and increase the odds having a child born with a birth defect. Some women are known to experience worry about whether they will be able to become pregnant when they are ready to try. The primary purpose of this study was to assess how much women are worrying, what demographic and cultural factors predict higher levels of worry, and if worry about future fertility is related to symptoms of distress. Through online recruitment, 598 nulliparous women between the ages of 25 and 40 years completed a cross-sectional, self-report survey. Mean scores on measures of future fertility worry revealed a low-to-moderate, but consistently present level of worry. As hypothesized, multiple regression analysis showed that higher levels of endorsement of the personal importance of motherhood were related to higher levels of future fertility worry, as was age and the interaction of age and importance, but to a lesser extent. Knowledge of fertility was not related to increased worry. Additionally, higher levels of future fertility worry were shown to be related to higher levels of symptoms of depression and symptoms of anxiety. And an open-ended question revealed that women hold a variety of reasons for not wanting to become pregnant presently, including career, relationship, and financial concerns. Overall, the study contributes rigorous findings to a previously unstudied research question and population: How much do nulliparous women who have not experienced infertility worry about their fertility? And what influences that worry? The findings imply that media, researchers, practitioners, the general public, and even women themselves may have held errant assumptions about the thoughts and feelings of nulliparous women, and that worry about fertility is complex, generally moderate, and closely related to personal values.