Browsing by department "Institute of Behavioural Sciences"

Introduction: Sleep related problems affect wellbeing extensively. Sleep problems share many common background factors with personality, such as individual way of processing cognitions and emotions. By understanding the interactions between personality and sleep, it is possible to develop better and more individual-friendly ways to treat sleep related problems. In this review, personality is approached from the framework of the Big Five personality traits, which are: extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness. The purpose of this review is to sum up the current results of the research conducted in the field of personality traits and sleep, to direct the future research on the field and to discuss the limitations of the current research. Results: There are interactions between personality traits and sleep. Neuroticism affects the quality and the amount of sleep negatively. However, the causality might go the other way around: sleep deprivation and problems falling asleep might cause later neuroticism. Extraversion has a relationship with better quality of sleep, diminished amount of sleep and fluctuating circadian rhythm between weekdays and weekends. Conscientiousness affects the quality of sleep, the regularity of the circadian rhythm and the morningness of the circadian rhythm. Individuals who have high openness have diminished need for sleep and they have coping-mechanisms that protect them against the negative effects of stress. Agreeableness has a relationship with better sleep in terms of quality and quantity, and with constant circadian rhythm between weekdays and weekends. The personality traits’ interactions include conscientiousness’ protective effect against neuroticism when considering sleep quality. Also, the differences in sleep quantity are statistically best explained with two traits: openness and neuroticism. Discussion: The interaction between personality traits and sleep has been investigated mainly from the point of view of personality traits. When the interactions are studied from the point of view of sleep it is possible to merge the effects of the personality traits and derive preliminary personality trait profiles for different aspects of sleep. The profile for good quality of sleep seems to be high extraversion, high consciousness, high openness, high agreeableness, and low neuroticism. The profile for poor sleep quality is almost reverse: high neuroticism, low extraversion, low consciousness, and low openness. Apart from the quality, it’s also possible to derive subjective sleep deprivation profile: high neuroticism and low extraversion or interestingly high extraversion if only the amount of sleep is being studied. Limitations of the current research in the field include a tendency to use university student samples, self-assessment inventories as the sole information source and the over-simplifying approach of merely studying one personality trait instead of the whole personality profile. Examining the personality trait profiles could lead to more statistically significant results and thus it might increase the practical implications in the field of personality and sleep.

As a result of different on-going conflicts in Europe the refugee crisis has reached new heights. Millions of people are fleeing their homes in hope of finding safer places for them and their families. The on-going crisis has also affected our Finnish society. We need to develop strategies so that we can take care and integrate the people that seek for protection in our country. The integration of refugees is a difficult task that needs a lot of effort and planning. This thesis focuses on the integration of young immigrants. There are several ways of approaching integration, and there are many different ways of trying to enhance the integration of immigrants. Previous studies prove that sports could be a very useful tool when it comes to the integration of immigrants. The aim of this thesis is therefore to investigate if sports can enhance young immigrants integration, and if so, then how. The data was collected through individual interviews with five young immigrants. The interviews focused on the immigrants experiences within sports, and if they experienced that football somehow had affected their integration. The theoretical framework mainly consisted of Erik Erikson’s identity development theory and Henri Tajfel’s social identity theory. This study is qualitative and descriptive to its nature. The results of this study show that sports and in this case football works extremely well when it comes to integrating young immigrants. The young individuals felt that the sport gave them a bigger sense of community and acceptance in the Finnish society. Football also supported the individuals in their identity development and created new and important friendships for the immigrants. The individual’s experiences concerning sport and integration were almost all positive and the study proves that sport and especially football can be a very useful tool when it comes to integrating young immigrants.

Business Coaching has become increasingly common and many companies employ coaches to support their employees’ professional development. Coaching can be seen as a promising activity when it comes to supporting people in work life and helping them in dealing better with different situations at work. Alongside with coaching becoming more popular, the question of how effective coaching is, has emerged. The purpose of this thesis is to study the effect of coaching. In early research, coaching was considered a combination of activities and techniques borrowed from others. Recent research claims that the client has the answers and the coach's role is not socio-educational. Instead the coach guides the client to discoveries through, among others, forward-facing questions. This work is a literature review. A total of 20 articles were analysed, of which 16 articles were selected for the final analysis. In the 16 articles analysed evidence showing that coaching had an effect was found in 70 instances. In 37 of these 70 cases, the effect was related to the client, in 28 cases to the organization the client worked in and in five cases support was found that coaching influenced the bosses’ subordinates. These findings were classified in 16 effect groups based on the type of effect. The study found evidence that coaching has an effect on the individual who participate in coaching and the organization. The clearest effect was the individual's ability to reach set goals. Other areas were, for example, increased job satisfaction and self-awareness. The productivity of the organization may also increase due to coaching.

Gender equality research in Finnish basic education has shown that there are differences between how girls and boys are treated in school. An extension of the Gender Equality Act obligates educational institutions to form school-specific gender equality plans. The purpose of this study is to review gender equality plans that elementary schools have formulated: what problems are discussed, what actions schools have chosen to implement and which shortcomings that can be observed. The study aims to assess how well the plans address the gender issues that research has identified in the school world and whether they can serve as an effective tool for schools in promoting gender equality. The results of the study show that schools have mainly discussed gender norms, sexist name calling and bullying, and focused on how teachers treat students. On the other hand, some key aspects such as gender diversity and differences in performance between genders have been ignored in the gender equality plans. Methods that schools have chosen to implement include exercises with the students, teachers changing their behavior and staff training. There were some clear shortcomings in the plans, the most obvious being some plans not mentioning any measures to promote gender equality.

Inklusion innebär på en skola för alla. En skola där alla välkomnas, oberoende handikapp, inlärnings- eller beteendesvårigheter, kön eller etnicitet. Grundidén är att specialpedagogi-ken inte mera segregeras utan tas in i den allmänna undervisningen. Undervisningen strä-var till att anpassas till individen, inte bara till majoriteten. Alla ska ges möjligheten till en god inlärning. Syftet med den här studien är att utreda hur Helsingforslärare ser på inklusion, hur de anser att den nya läroplanen behandlar inklusion, hur den implementeras i skolorna. I denna feno-menologisk-hermeneutiska studie har svaren på forskningsfrågorna besvarats genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer med fem Helsingfors lärare. Analysen är en innehållsanalys. Teoridelen koncentrerar sig på vad inklusion innebär i skolvärlden. Vidare presenteras pe-dagogens roll i inklusionen. Även läroplanen, som styrdokument analyseras ur inklusionens synvinkel. Resultaten visar att även om de fem lärare som deltog i denna studie är mycket positivt in-ställda till inkluderingen av barn med special behov i den allmänna undervisningen, anser de att resursbristerna har en tydlig negativ inverkan. Den största bristen, enligt lärarna, är att det inte finns tillräckligt med vuxna att stöda inkluderingen av samtliga barn.

The aim of this study was to find out what kind of methods teachers use with children in age three to five that have attention difficulties. This study is qualitative, and to answer my research questions I have interviewed three pedagogues. The interviews where based on my three research questions which read: what characterizes a child with attention difficulties, what kind of methods are used with these children and how does teachers relate to children with attention difficulties. The most central results in this study was which methods teacher prefer to use with children with attention difficulties. Teachers use many kinds of methods with children who has attention difficulties depending on the situation and the child. One thing pedagogues must remember is that every child is unique and have their own difficulties, which means that pedagogues have to see the child’s individual needs and find the right methods for every child individually. The most important methods that came up in this study was to divide the child group in smaller groups and remember to give clear instructions so everyone understands the tasks. It was also common to use different means for example the clock or an hourglass to make it clear for the child how long the child will work with a task. Another thing that came up in the study was that it is very common these days for a child to have attention difficulties and there is almost one child in each group with some kind of attention difficulties. It also emerged that pedagogues can see signs of attention difficulties in a child already at the age of three. Because of that it is important that the teachers that are working with children at the age of three to five, are aware of how common attention difficulties are and know how to give the best support for each child.

The objective of this research was to find out what kind of social practices digital gaming contains, and that how do these practices improve youth involvement. Existing literature handles different participatory appearances of gaming culture, but there is a lack of study where social practices of digital gaming would be scrutinized in the framework of involvement. Therefore this study aims to work as a synthesis, where the social practices of digital gaming are being viewed through the lenses of involvement-theory. This thesis was methodically carried out by descriptive literature review, that contained two main theory-pieces; involvement and the practices of digital gaming. Sources in this thesis are mainly finnish, but there is also international literature that is being cited to – especially in the part of digital gaming practices. My aim in this descriptive literature review is to produce a new standpoint towards the phenomenon that is being scrutinized. The findings of this study indicated that my presumption about the social practices of digital gaming as a way to improve youth involvement holds true; there were features of improving involvement in every nexus of the gaming practices. Different forms of identity-work, collaboration, ways to point out capability and marking trail were emphasized in the nexus of social practices where one participates into the gaming situation by playing or watching. Governing gaming avocations is, on the other hand, a practice-nexus, where commonality and especially different ways of affecting and being impressed are highlighted. The last nexus, where social practices of gaming culture outside the gaming situation are being examined is found to be an area that produces communality, life importance, different ways of affecting and local involvement.

Digitalisation is an integral part of our society and is characterized as rapid, pervasive and continuous. Digitization has recently become relevant within early childhood education. The reason for this is the new basics of the plan for early childhood education which to a greater extent than before emphasizes the importance of multi-literacy, digital competence and the utilization of digital tools in early childhood education The purpose of this bachelor’s thesis is to present how digitalization in early childhood education is discussed in contemporary scientific pedagogical research and, consequently, how this pedagogical research on digitization can be applied in the work of early childhood teachers. In this bachelor’s thesis the aim is to answer the question: How is digitalization discussed in the Finnish scientific pedagogical research from 2016 to this day? The study is qualitative in nature and has been executed as a literature study applying a content analysis method. The data consists of four scientifically reviewed articles published in pedagogical scientific journals in 2017 and 2018. The results of this study can shows that (1) the child's right to sense of belonging functions as a central explanation model for the importance of digitization in early childhood education, (2) traditions are important in the contemporary pedagogical scientific discussion on digitalization in early childhood education, and (3) the issue of perspective taking is central to the discussion about digitization in Finnish early childhood education.

Aims Previous studies have shown that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), borderline personality disorder (BPD) and schizophrenia resemble dissociative identity disorder (DID). Although symptoms in these disorders are similar, their treatment is not, which makes it important to reach for a correct diagnosis. The aim of this review is to clarify differential diagnosis in DID in relation to PTSD, BPD and schizophrenia and find features that are present exclusively in DID. Methods and Results The review included 17 scientific articles. DID-groups had more and more severe symptoms, especially concerning dissociation. Also, the ability to function in everyday life was better in DID-patients. Overall, they had more unusual perceptional experiences, positive and borderline symptoms than PTSD-groups, more amnesia, other psychiatric diagnoses and different kind of usage of defences than within BPD-patients, and more positive symptoms than schizophrenics, differing particularly in the quality of auditory hallucinations. On the other hand, BPD-groups had more borderline personality features whereas schizophrenics were more delusional than DID-patients. Discussion The review was not able to identify any factors that would account exclusively for DID, but the amount of dissociation and severity of symptoms were found as concurrent factors that help to differentiate DID from PTSD, BPD and schizophrenia. However, there are also many subtle differences between specific examined disorders and DID, which have to be taken into consideration. Useful methods in differential diagnosis are structured clinical interviews based on DSM-5, measures of dissociation and observations by significant others. Problems relating to the research of DID will be discussed.

The purpose of this case-study is to show what drama can offer children´s learning at pre-school as a form of an educational activity. The theory in this study is mainly based on Heikkinen (2005) and Toivanen (2014) since they are the leading researchers in Finland at this moment in this field of educational drama. This study is a qualitative case-study based on a group interview with three pre-school teachers who had worked with a drama project at their pre-school. The most central result this study shows is that communication, cooperation, multilitteracity and empathy are the learning areas which drama touches in a playful and versatile way. Another result is the importance of the pre-school teachers approach towards and thoughts of drama for getting a successful drama session. Therefor a conclusion can be made in this study that drama is a cooperative and versatile instrument in pre-school with a strong developmental pedagogy incidence, when the children have an active part in the process . Drama is a rewarding subject for both teachers an children to work with and therefore it should be encouraged. In the new Curriculum reform 2016 drama also has a more significant part in the education, and there for it is important to discuss it