The object of this project is to investigate people’s fear of crime. By means of three studies, the dissertation illustrates how the fear of crime is understood in Anglo-Saxon and Nordic research, by a group of interview subjects and also how this fear is depicted in Stockholm’s daily press. In the research, fear of crime is viewed as an individual problem that is not linked to exposure to crime. Instead the fear is explained by reference to individual factors, situational factors and societal conditions. The views described in the research have changed over time, with inter alia an increasing number of groups being described as experiencing fear. The interview study is based on 28 in-depth interviews with persons living in different areas of Stockholm. In summary, the interview subjects are not afraid of crime, and they say they do not think about crime in the course of their daily lives. They may perceive fear in certain situations, in specific locations and when faced with unknown people. These situations are characterised by a lack of control, which tends to be linked to the fear of crime. This fear also appears clearly to be influenced by the media. In the press, the fear of crime is not only depicted in relation to public places, but also in the home and at the workplace. The absence of police is described as one of the reasons for this fear. It is also acceptable for men to express a fear of crime in the newspaper articles. The descriptions expressed in the interviews and in the press reflect some of the theories propounded on the risk society. Risk appears to be perceived as separate from fear. A reduction in crime would therefore be likely to lead to a reduction in the risk of exposure to crime, but not always in the fear of crime. This fear may instead probably be reduced by measures that increase people’s sense of control.

This work was conducted in an effort to better understand the role that activational mechanisms in memory play in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders. The affect of word stimuli characteristics, such as affective valence and semantic association with worry, on the association between inhibition and trait worry was investigated under different types of induced thought. Previous research has demonstrated that worry is associated with negative affect, and that worry may be semantically organized in memory. Based on these findings, it was hypothesized that words would be differentially inhibited in association with trait worry when worry was induced compared to neutral thought. Stimuli characteristics including the positive or negative affective valence of words, and their semantic association with common domains of worry were expected to moderate the relationship between inhibition and trait worry. In order to investigate these hypotheses, 86 undergraduate students from the University of Texas at Austin completed a series of memory tasks designed to measure inhibition for either negative or positive words, both associated and unassociated with worry. They underwent either idiopathic worry or neutral thought induction prior to completing each memory task, and completed questionnaires assessing trait worry and thought suppression. The findings provide partial support for the hypotheses. Higher levels of trait worry were associated with less inhibition of negative words, but more inhibition of positive words semantically associated with worry. Contrary to predictions, differential induction of worry did not affect the relationship between inhibition and trait worry. The research and clinical implications of these findings are discussed. / text

Andelen individer med eftergymnasial utbildning ökar på arbetsmarknaden samtidigt som antalet arbetstillfällen inom vissa akademiska yrken inte ökar i samma takt. Denna studie syftade till att undersöka om förekomsten av oro bland högskolestudenter inför eventuell arbetslöshet hade något samband med självkänsla och kontrollupplevelse. Studien avsåg även att undersöka huruvida tidpunkt för avslutad utbildning och utbildningsinriktning hade någon betydelse för studenternas nivå av oro. En enkätundersökning med 101 deltagare mellan 19 och 59 år genomfördes. Resultatet visade att det fanns en signifikant skillnad i orosnivån mellan studenter när det gällde hur lång tid de hade kvar på sin utbildning. Studenter med längre studietid kvar oroade sig mindre. Denna undersökning kan hjälpa till att belysa studenters oro inför en allt hårdare arbetsmarknad.

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Patients with the same underlying concern express this with different styles that predict preference for physician responses. One hundred primary care patients imagined having chest pain and selected from a videotape, the most likely response which they would tell their physician: (1) symptoms only - no disclosure of underlying concern; (2) symptoms and a "Clue" to an underlying concern; or (3) symptom with an explicit concern. Depending on their preferred expression, they were presented videotaped doctors responses to that disclosure and ranked their response preferences. Patients stating they would present with symptoms only (17%) preferred a biomedical question response; patients selecting a symptom and a clue (43%) were equally comfortable with a biomedical question, facilitation or, an exploration of the clue. Of patients presenting with an explicit concern (40%), most wanted the physician to acknowledge and explore the origins of that concern.

Homelessness has been a problem in the United States as early as the 1700s and kinship care networks provided emergency shelters and assistance to victims, neighbors, and family members. Previous studies on homelessness have focused primarily on the causes and effects of the phenomenon or on people who were not able to work due to mental or physical disabilities. The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to explore and understand the lived experiences of 24-55 year old homeless individuals who are able to work but who used homeless shelters in Charlotte, North Carolina, thus helping fill a gap in the literature. The theoretical foundation of the study was functionalism. Snowball sampling was used to find five participants and data were collected using semi-structured interviews based on Rubin and Rubin's approach to interviewing. Data were analyzed using Sada's multiple stage process based on Husserl. All participants experienced worry, boredom, hopelessness, and fear of other residents. Participants also unanimously said shelters cannot be considered long-term homes. Knowledge of these experiences could enable shelter providers to develop programs and services aimed at helping residents feel safer and able to stay for longer periods of time when needed as well as ways to reduce worry, boredom, and hopelessness. This would help promote positive social change by giving residents the ability to take more advantage of counseling and job training programs for those who want to find ways to get out of the condition of homelessness.

No description available.

No description available.

Sleep problems are common among college students and are associated with numerous negative outcomes including anxiety, depression, executive dysfunction, and poor academic performance. When sleep is limited, individuals may suffer impaired cognitive capacities, such as reduced memory and difficulty focusing attention. Difficulty with these cognitive functions can result in difficulty disengaging from negative thoughts, thereby contributing to negative mood. Poor sleep contributes to negative mood states, but few studies have examined in what way poor sleep may exacerbate negative mood. The purpose of this study was to examine cognitive factors as explanatory variables between sleep and state affect. Participants were undergraduate students from a university in the Midwest. Participants (N = 150, completed baseline questionnaires and wore an actigraphy watch for one night. They returned to the lab the following day to complete additional self-report measures and a computerized cognitive control task. Participants were primarily female (66.67%, n = 100) and white (67.33%, n = 101). To test the hypothesis that the relationship between sleep and affect is explained by cognitive factors, a path analytic model was fit to the data. It was hypothesized that cognitive factors (i.e., Posner task performance, repetitive negative thinking, and self-report attention control) would explain the relationship between sleep (as measured by objective total sleep time and self-report sleepiness) and state affect. The hypothesized model yielded poor global and local fit to the data. While several direct effects emerged in the model, no indirect effects were statistically significant. The model was re-specified, adding paths where large magnitude correlational residual statistics coincided with statistically significant standardized residual statistics. The final model yielded good global and local fit to the data, with primary modifications being added covariances among control variables (e.g., GAD-7 and PHQ-8 scores) with cognitive factors. Overall, the results of this study indicate that the relationship between sleep and next-day affect is complex and cannot be simply explained by cognitive factors. However, the current study found several significant relationships among study variables, suggesting that sleep, cognitive functioning, and emotion are highly related constructs that warrant further study. Future research should examine alternative models incorporating these constructs to find a comprehensive model with utility that can explain the relationships among these constructs.

Bakgrund: Generaliserat ångestsyndrom (GAD) är en vanlig diagnos med negativa konsekvenser såväl på individ- som samhällsnivå. För att som fysioterapeuter kunna fånga upp den här typen av patienter och då ha god kunskap om olika träningsformer som tillförlitlig behandling ansågs det fördelaktigt att undersöka det vetenskapliga underlaget för styrketräning som behandlingsmetod. Syfte: Syftet med denna litteraturstudie var att undersöka det vetenskapliga underlaget för effekten av styrketräning, i jämförelse med annan eller ingen intervention, som behandlingsmetod för att minska oros- och ångestsymtom hos vuxna mellan 18-64 år med GAD. Metod: En litteraturstudie av randomiserade kontrollerade studier där populationen var vuxna mellan 18-64 år med GAD. Sökningar genomfördes i databaserna PubMed, Cochrane, PEDro och Psycinfo. Fyra studier inkluderades och granskades sedan med PEDro. Den sammanvägda tillförlitligheten av resultatet av tre studier bedömdes med hjälp av GRADEstud. Resultat: Det vetenskapliga underlaget för styrketräning som behandling för personer med GAD är för begränsat för att kunna dra några starka slutsatser. Alla inkluderade studier visade dock på reducering av oros- och ångestsymtom, som båda är kännetecknande symtom för GAD. Konklusion: Det sammanvägda resultatet indikerar på att styrketräning skulle kunna vara en alternativ behandlingsmetod för denna patientgrupp. Mer forskning behövs dock för att kunna utvärdera effekten av styrketräning som behandling för personer med GAD. / Background: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a common diagnosis with negative consequences both on an individual and societal level. In order for physiotherapists to be able to catch these patients and then have good knowledge of different forms of exercise as reliable treatment, it was considered beneficial to investigate the scientific basis for resistance exercise training as a treatment method. Objective: The aim of this literature review was to investigate the scientific basis for the effect of resistance exercise training, in comparison with other or no intervention, as a treatment method to reduce worry and anxiety symptoms in adults aged 18-64 with GAD. Method: A literature review of randomized controlled trials where the population was adults between 18-64 years old with GAD. Searches were conducted in the databases PubMed, Cochrane, PEDro and Psycinfo. Four studies were included and reviewed with PEDro. The combined reliability of the results of three studies was assessed using GRADEstud. Results: The scientific basis for resistance exercise training as a treatment for people with GAD is too limited to be able to draw any strong conclusions. However, all included studies showed a reduction in worry and anxiety symptoms, both of which are characteristic symptoms of GAD. Conclusion: The combined results indicate that strength training could be an alternative treatment method for this patient group. However, more research is needed to be able to evaluate the effect of strength training as a treatment for people with GAD.