Browsing by department "Department of Psychology"
Now showing items 1-20 of 30
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(2008)The early detection of hearing deficits is important to a child's development. However, examining small children with behavioural methods is often difficult. Research with ERPs (event-related potentials), recorded with EEG (electroencephalography), does not require attention or action from the child. Especially in children's ERP research, it is essential that the duration of a recording session is not too long. A new, faster optimum paradigm has been developed to record MMN (mismatch negativity), where ERPs to several sound features can be recorded in one recording session. This substantially shortens the time required for the experiment. So far, the new paradigm has been used in adult and school-aged children research. This study examines if MMN, LDN (late discriminative negativity) and P3a components can be recorded in two-year-olds with the new paradigm. The standard stimulus (p=0.50) was an 80 dB harmonic tone consisting of three harmonic frequencies (500 Hz, 1000 Hz and 1500 Hz) with a duration of 200 ms. The loudness deviants (p=0.067) were at a level of +6 dB or -6 dB compared to the standards. The frequency deviants (p=0.112) had a fundamental frequency of 550 or 454.4 Hz (small deviation), 625 or 400 Hz (medium deviation) or 750 or 333.3 Hz (large deviation). The duration deviants (p=0.112) had a duration of 175 ms (small deviation), 150 ms (medium deviation) or 100 ms (large deviation). The direction deviants (p=0.067) were presented from the left or right loudspeaker only. The gap deviant (p=0.067) included a 5-ms silent gap in the middle of the sound. Altogether 17 children participated in the experiment, of whom the data of 12 children was used in the analysis. ERP components were observed for all deviant types. The MMN was significant for duration and gap deviants. The LDN was significant for the large duration deviant and all other deviant types. No significant P3a was observed. These results indicate that the optimum paradigm can be used with two-year-olds. With this paradigm, data on several sound features can be recorded in a shorter time than with the previous paradigms used in ERP research.
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(2005)The study examined immigrants' attitudes towards acculturation, in other words the social and cultural changes that take place in the adaptation process. The perspective of acculturation studies was also expanded by examining immigrants' cultural values and their experiences of majority's expectations. In addition, special interest was directed to the relations between acculturation attitudes and values and both factors' relevance on psychological well-being. Indian born immigrants were selected as subjects as they are one of the fastest growing ethnic minorities in Finland. This minority has not been included in immigration studies previously. The seventy-five immigrants that participated as subjects represent a highly educated subgroup of Indian born immigrants. The study was carried out with posted questionnaires. Most of the subjects received an inquiry of their motivation to participate by e-mail or phone before the postal questionnaire. The results were in line with previous studies in Finland as the attitudes emphasising cultural integration were dominant. However, attitudes towards marriage, reflecting deeper and less flexible parts of culture, were dominated by separation motives. Immigrants' perceptions of majority's expectations reflected partly the real assimilation wishes demonstrated in previous studies. Against hypotheses, discrepancies between acculturation attitudes and experiences of majority's expectations did not predict immigrants' psychological well-being in a clear way. The highly educated Indian born immigrants emphasised self-direction and universalism in their values. This separates them from the traditional cultural values of India. The hypotheses made of the predictive relations between values and acculturation attitudes were partly confirmed. Also, the assumptions concerning both the stress buffering role of collectivistic values and the positive effect of achievement values on feelings of mastery were confirmed. Despite the limitations in the data, this study strengthens the view that cultural and personal values play a significant role in immigrants' adaptation process. Information about values can benefit individuals making hard decisions and coping with cultural change as well as officials modifying Finnish immigration policy and planning the support system for immigrants.
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(2008)The temperamental traits of Cloninger's personality theory (novelty seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence and persistence) reflect independent systems of central nervous system deciding responses toward new, rewarding and aversive stimuli. Thus, certain temperamental traits and their combinations may predispose to heavy drinking and alcohol dependence. Hence, the aim of the present study was to investigate associations between temperamental traits and the amount of alcohol consumption, frequency of heavy drinking and the maximum number of drinks per occasion. In this study, we investigated also whether these associations are only confounded by between-family differences in genetic and environmental factors. Furthermore the associations between temperamental trait combinations that reflect Cloninger's typology of alcoholism and alcohol use were studied. The subjects (n=401) in the current study were a group of FinnTwin16 study participators, Finnish twins born in 1974-79. Temperament was measured with TCI-R (Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised) a self-report form. The amount of alcohol consumption was asked by Semi-structured interview (Semi-Structured Assessment of Genetics of Alcoholism = SSAGA). The frequency of heavy drinking and maximum number of drinks per occasion were asked by mail form. In accordance with previous studies, novelty seeking had a positive relationship with the amount of alcohol consumption, frequency of heavy drinking and the maximum number of drinks per occasion in both genders. In this study, the association was proven independent of between-family differences in genetic and environmental factors that are associated to both novelty seeking and alcohol use. Surprisingly, reward dependence was negatively related to the maximum number of drinks per occasion in both genders. Persistence had a weak positive relationship with maximum number of drinks per occasion in men. The temperamental trait combinations that reflect Cloninger's typology of alcoholism did not differ from the other combinations in regard to alcohol use as hypothesized. The results confirm the previous finding about the relationship between novelty seeking and alcohol use. Support for Cloninger's typology of alcoholism in regard to combinations of temperamental trait was not achieved in this study.
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(2002)Tutkielma käsittelee nykyisiä kognitiotieteen teorioita käsitteistä ja niiden mallintamista oliokeskeisillä tietämyksen esittämisen menetelmillä. Käsiteteorioista käsitellään klassinen, määritelmäteoria, prototyyppiteoria, duaaliteoriat, uusklassinen teoria, teoria-teoria ja atomistinen teoria. Oliokeskeiset menetelmät ovat viime aikoina jakautuneet kahden tyyppisiin kieliin: oliopohjaisiin ja luokkapohjaisiin. Uudet olio-pohjaiset olio-ohjelmointikielet antavat käsitteiden representointiin mahdollisuuksia, jotka puuttuvat aikaisemmista luokka-pohjaisista kielistä ja myös kehysmenetelmistä. Tutkielma osoittaa, että oliopohjaisten kielten uudet piirteet tarjoavat keinoja, joilla käsitteitä voidaan esittää symbolisessa muodossa paremmin kuin perinteisillä menetelmillä. Niillä pystytään simuloimaan kaikkea mitä luokkapohjaisilla kielillä voidaan, mutta ne pystyvät lisäksi simuloimaan perheyhtäläisyyskäsitteitä ja mahdollistavat olioiden dynaamisen muuttamisen ilman, että siinä rikotaan psykologisen essentialismin periaatetta. Tutkielma osoittaa lisäksi vakavia puutteitta, jotka koskevat koko oliokeskeistä menetelmää.
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(2004)Supervisors’ role in implementing pay systems has become important part of pay systems that aim at supporting the strategy of the organization. This thesis studied supervisor’s role in implementing individual performance-based pay. The study focused on the processes by which supervisors can affect the functionality of a pay system. A pay system is well functioning when the employees and supervisors are satisfied with it and the effects are in line with the objectives for the system. Strategic pay is implemented through performance management processes where goals of the work are aligned with the strategy of the organization. The objective of the research was to create a structural model of the processes by which supervisors could improve the functionality of a pay system. The model is based on theories of knowledge of pay, meaning of pay and procedural justice. To test the model, six hypotheses were generated to study whether knowledge of pay, meaning of pay and procedural justice mediate the relations between supervisor’s role and activity and functionality of the pay system. The data for the study was collected with a survey (N=109) in one Finnish organization from the public sector. The data was analysed by structural equation modelling (LISREL 8.53). The results show that supervisors can improve the functionality of the pay system by performance management process, which is based on mutual trust and open communication. The role of the supervisor is to give feedback and tell how performance is connected to the pay raises. When this is done the pay system is experienced as meaningful, the employees are satisfied with it and it induces effects aspired. In addition, fair procedures in performance appraisal are important for employees to be satisfied with their pay. It is discussed whether power to make decisions and the responsibilities of the supervisors are in balance in this organization.
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(2006)Design embraces several disciplines dedicated to the production of artifacts and services. These disciplines are quite independent and only recently has psychological interest focused on them. Nowadays, the psychological theories of design, also called design cognition literature, describe the design process from the information processing viewpoint. These models co-exist with the normative standards of how designs should be crafted. In many places there are concrete discrepancies between these two in a way that resembles the differences between the actual and ideal decision-making. This study aimed to explore the possible difference related to problem decomposition. Decomposition is a standard component of human problem-solving models and is also included in the normative models of design. The idea of decomposition is to focus on a single aspect of the problem at a time. Despite its significance, the nature of decomposition in conceptual design is poorly understood and has only been preliminary investigated. This study addressed the status of decomposition in conceptual design of products using protocol analysis. Previous empirical investigations have argued that there are implicit and explicit decomposition, but have not provided a theoretical basis for these two. Therefore, the current research began by reviewing the problem solving and design literature and then composing a cognitive model of the solution search of conceptual design. The result is a synthetic view which describes recognition and decomposition as the basic schemata for conceptual design. A psychological experiment was conducted to explore decomposition. In the test, sixteen (N=16) senior students of mechanical engineering created concepts for two alternative tasks. The concurrent think-aloud method and protocol analysis were used to study decomposition. The results showed that despite the emphasis on decomposition in the formal education, only few designers (N=3) used decomposition explicitly and spontaneously in the presented tasks, although the designers in general applied a top-down control strategy. Instead, inferring from the use of structured strategies, the designers always relied on implicit decomposition. These results confirm the initial observations found in the literature, but they also suggest that decomposition should be investigated further. In the future, the benefits and possibilities of explicit decomposition should be considered along with the cognitive mechanisms behind decomposition. After that, the current results could be reinterpreted.
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(2001)Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli edesauttaa emootioiden arkkitehtuurin ymmärtämistä. Kosslynin ja Koenigin (1995) malli johti meidät muodostamaan hypoteesin, jonka mukaan emotionaalinen järjestelmä jakaantuu kahteen erilliseen alijärjestelmään. Toinen näistä järjestelmistä käsittelisi myönteisiä emootioita ja toinen kielteisiä. Ensimmäisen hypoteesimme mukaan oikea hemisfääri olisi erikoistunut kielteisten ärsykkeiden käsittelyyn ja vasen hemisfääri myönteisten ärsykkeiden käsittelyyn. Toinen hypoteesimme käsitteli hemisfäärien välisen asymmetrian muuttumista henkilön emotionaalisen tilan mukaan. Tämän hypoteesin mukaan tietynlaisen emotionaalisen tilan aikaansaaminen syventäisi hemisfäärien välistä asymmetriaa. Tässä yhteydessä puhumme ärsykkeen "kuumasta" käsittelystä. Koetehtävänämme oli myönteisten, neutraalien ja kielteisten ärsykkeiden emotionaalisen latauksen arviointi. Esitimme ärsykkeet joko oikeaan tai vasempaan näkökentän puoliskoon (ns. jaetun näkökentän menetelmä), jolloin saatoimme verrata oikean ja vasemman hemisfäärin suoriutumista sekä itsenäisinä että keskenään. Tulokset eivät tukeneet hypoteesejamme. Mielenkiintoisin esiin noussut ilmiö oli se, että oikea hemisfääri käsitteli neutraaleja ärsykkeitä nopeammin kuin vasen hemisfääri, mutta vain saatettuamme ensin osanottajan myönteiseen emotionaaliseen tilaan.
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(2007)It has been suggested that semantic information processing is modularized according to the input form (e.g., visual, verbal, non-verbal sound). A great deal of research has concentrated on detecting a separate verbal module. Also, it has traditionally been assumed in linguistics that the meaning of a single clause is computed before integration to a wider context. Recent research has called these views into question. The present study explored whether it is reasonable to assume separate verbal and nonverbal semantic systems in the light of the evidence from event-related potentials (ERPs). The study also provided information on whether the context influences processing of a single clause before the local meaning is computed. The focus was on an ERP called N400. Its amplitude is assumed to reflect the effort required to integrate an item to the preceding context. For instance, if a word is anomalous in its context, it will elicit a larger N400. N400 has been observed in experiments using both verbal and nonverbal stimuli. Contents of a single sentence were not hypothesized to influence the N400 amplitude. Only the combined contents of the sentence and the picture were hypothesized to influence the N400. The subjects (n = 17) viewed pictures on a computer screen while hearing sentences through headphones. Their task was to judge the congruency of the picture and the sentence. There were four conditions: 1) the picture and the sentence were congruent and sensible, 2) the sentence and the picture were congruent, but the sentence ended anomalously, 3) the picture and the sentence were incongruent but sensible, 4) the picture and the sentence were incongruent and anomalous. Stimuli from the four conditions were presented in a semi-randomized sequence. Their electroencephalography was simultaneously recorded. ERPs were computed for the four conditions. The amplitude of the N400 effect was largest in the incongruent sentence-picture -pairs. The anomalously ending sentences did not elicit a larger N400 than the sensible sentences. The results suggest that there is no separate verbal semantic system, and that the meaning of a single clause is not processed independent of the context.
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(2005)Previous exploratory studies suggest that pre-attentive auditory processing of musicians differ depending on the strategies they use in music practicing and performance. This study aimed at systematically determining whether there are differences in neural sound processing and behavioral measures between musicians preferring and not-preferring aural strategies including improvising, playing by ear and rehearsing by listening recordings. Participants were assigned into aural (n = 13) and non-aural (n = 11) groups according to how much they employ aural strategies, as determined by a questionnaire. The amplitude, latency, and scalp topography of the memory-related mismatch negativity (MMN) component of the event-related brain potentials were investigated with the so-called ‘optimal’ paradigm probing simple sound feature processing and with the ‘transposed-melody’ paradigm, probing complex sound pattern processing. Further, their behavioral accuracy in sound perception was tested with an attentive discrimination task in the transposed-melody paradigm and with the AMMA musicality test. Results showed that there were group differences both at the pre-attentive and behavioral levels of sound processing. First, in the optimal paradigm, the MMN morphology for the isolated sound features was similar between groups but its MMN amplitude, latency and topography for different sound features differed. Second, in the ‘transposed-melody’ paradigm, MMN was larger for the deviant that changed its contour as compared with the deviant that changed the last tone and thus the interval between the two last tones of the melody. The Contour-MMN amplitude as determined in the beginning of the recordings correlated with the subsequent behavioral discrimination accuracy in attentive condition. However, there were no group differences in the behavioral discrimination both deviants being detected equally well. The Interval-MMN amplitudes decreased especially in the aural group after the attentive condition. Moreover, the Interval-MMN latency in the non-aural group prolonged after the attentive condition as compared to the preceding condition whereas in the aural group the MMN latency shortened. No changes were seen in the Contour-MMN between conditions with either of the groups. Third, the non-aural group outperformed the aural group in the AMMA musicality test (Tonal subtest and Total scores). Additionally, AMMA scores (especially the Rhythm) correlated significantly with the Contour-MMN amplitudes after the attentive condition. Taken together, the present results suggest that practice strategies do not affect musicians' pre-attentive processing of simple sound features but might affect complex sound pattern processing. Complex sound pattern processing related also to the attentive behavioral performance in all musicians. While providing new insights into behavioral and neural differences between musicians preferring different practice strategies, results only partially support previous findings concerning discriminatory accuracy of violation within complex sound pattern learning.
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(2001)Keskeytyksellä tarkoitetaan tehtävän (päätehtävä) kognitiivisen suorituksen katkeamista jonkin ulkopuolisen tekijän aiheuttamana. Päätehtävään palataan keskeytystehtävän jälkeen. Tutkielmassa tarkastellaan keskeytyksen vaikutusta päätehtävää koskeviin muistisisältöihin. Tutkielmassa tehdään katsaus empiiriseen keskeytystutkimukseen. Keskeytykset vaikuttavat mm. päätehtävän suoritusaikaan, -tarkkuuteen sekä -virheisiin. Haitallisuuteen vaikuttavat mm. muistikuormitus keskeytyksen hetkellä ja päätehtävää koskevan representaation uudelleen aktivoimiseksi annetut palautusvihjeet, keskeytyksen kompleksisuus, sen pituus, esiintymisfrekvenssi ja samankaltaisuus päätehtävän kanssa, tehtävien käyttämät modaliteetit sekä henkilön harjaantuneisuus. Tutkielmassa argumentoidaan muistitoimintojen keskeisyyden puolesta keskeytysten kognitiivisessa selittämisessä. Keskeytystutkimusten tuloksille konstruoidaan pitkäkestoisen työmuistin teorian pohjalta selitysmalli, jossa interferenssillä on keskeinen rooli. Pitkäkestoisen työmuistin tehtävänä on tallettaa suoritettavan päätehtävän kannalta olennaista tietoa sellaiseen tilaan, josta se on nopeasti aktivoitavissa lyhytkestoisen työmuistin käyttöön. Asiantuntijat pystyvät tallettamaan tiedon nopeasti pitkäkestoiseen työmuistiin ns. palautusrakenteisiin. Erilaisten muistikoodaus- ja palautusstrategioiden avulla asiantuntija pystyy tehokkaasti tekemään erottelun muistisisältöjen kesken, välttäen näin interferenssin. Tutkielmassa tehdään lisäksi katsaus muisti-illuusioiden tutkimukseen. Useimmat muisti-illuusioista ovat lähtöisin ongelmista muistisisältöjen lähteen monitoroinnissa. Katsauksesta käy ilmi kuinka tietyt muistivirheet liittyvät tiettyihin muistitoimintoihin. Koesarjassa toisaalta testataan selitysmallia, toisaalta sovelletaan muisti-illuusiotutkimuksen käsitteitä. Tarkoituksena on saada lisätietoa keskeytysten muistivaikutuksista. Mikäli keskeytykset tuottaisivat tietynlaisia muistivirheitä, olisi tähän tietoon perustuen mahdollista rajata tarkemmin vastaavat muistitoiminnot. Ensimmäisessä kokeessa koehenkilöt (n=12) varjostivat tietokoneelta auditiivisesti (puhe) ja visuaalisesti (puhujan videokuva) esitettyä tekstiä (pääteksti). Minuutin kuluttua puhe katkesi ja sitä seurasi välittömästi puolen minuutin tauko tai video toisesta tekstistä (keskeytysteksti). Koehenkilöt tekivät vapaan palautuksen päätekstistä. Toisessa kokeessa päätekstejä oli neljä siten, että kunkin jälkeen oli joko tauko tai keskeytysteksti. Koehenkilöt (n=16) palauttivat yhden pääteksteistä. Kolmannessa kokeessa (n=12) varioitiin päätekstin ja keskeytystekstin semanttista läheisyyttä kolmessa käsittelyssä. Muilta osin kokeet olivat kuten ensimmäinen koe. Jokaisessa kokeessa palautuksia analysoitiin vertaamalla niitä vastaaviin pääteksteihin. Palautuksista eriteltiin niiden tarkkuus, virheelliset väittämät (sekaannukset) sekä sarjapositiot. Lisäksi laadullisessa analyysissa sekaannukset luokiteltiin muistivirhetyypeittäin. Erot käsittelyiden välillä palautusten tarkkuudessa olivat tilastollisesti merkitseviä tai lähes merkitseviä kaikissa kokeissa. Toisessa kokeessa havaittiin keskeytyksen aiheuttavan sarjaposition äskeisyyskomponentin heikkenemisen. Ensimmäisessä ja kolmannessa kokeessa sekaannuksien määrässä oli merkitsevä tai lähes merkitsevä ero käsittelyiden välillä. Kolmannessa kokeessa sekoitettiin semanttisesti päätekstin kanssa samankaltaisten keskeytystekstien sisältöjä pääteksteihin. Koesarjan tulokset tukevat annettua selitysmallia. Tarkastelu osoittaa, että interferenssi selittää suurimman osan kokeissa havaituista eroista käsittelyiden välillä. Tulosten pohjalta selitysmallia tarkennetaan huomioimalla erilaisten keskeytystilanteiden rajoittava vaikutus palautusstrategioiden käyttöön. Tarkastelussa kiinnitetään huomiota myös pitkä- ja lyhytkestoisten muistien rooliin keskeytyksessä. Keskeytyksen aiheuttama tiedon syrjäyttäminen näkyy sarjapositioissa, mutta syrjäyttämisen heikentävä vaikutus palautuksen tarkkuuteen on pieni. Lopuksi selitysmallia arvioidaan ja sitä tarkastellaan muistivirhetutkimuksen sekä käytännön sovellusten kannalta.
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(2007)The aim of this study was to build a model and analyze how users move in a virtual environment and to explore the experiential dimensions connected with different ways of moving. Due to the lack of previous research on this subject, this was an explorative study. This study also aimed to identify different ways how users move in virtual environments and the background variables connected to them. It was hypothesized that fluent movement in virtual environments is connected to high presence, skill and challenge assessments. Test participants (n = 68) were mostly highly educated young adults. A virtual environment was built using a CAVE -type virtual reality interface. The task was to search for objects that do not belong into a normal house. The participants' movement in the virtual house was recorded on a computer. Movement was modelled using a cluster analysis of information entropy based movement measurements, acceleration, amount of stops and time spent being stationary. The experiential dimensions were measured using the EVEQ -questionnaire. We were able to identify four different ways of moving in virtual environments. In respect of background variables, the four groups differed only in the amount of weekly computer usage. However, fluent movement in virtual environments was connected to a high sense of presence. Furthermore, participants who moved fluently in the environment assessed their skills as being high and regarded the use of virtual environment as challenging. The results indicate that different ways of moving affects how people experience virtual environments. Consequently the participants' assessment of their skills and level of challenge have an impact on the affective evaluation of the situation at hand. Entropy measures have not been previously applied when studying movement, and in addition the role of movement on the experiential dimensions of virtual environments is an unexplored subject. The movement analysis method introduced here is applicable to other research problems. Finally, this study expands on our knowledge of the special characteristics connected with the experiential dimensions of virtual environments.
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(2002)Työuupumus on kolmitahoinen stressioireyhtymä, jolle on tyypillistä uupumusasteinen väsymys, kyynistyneisyys ja ammatillisen itsetunnon heikkeneminen. Balanssi-hanke perustettiin tutkimaan ja kehittämään ryhmähoitomuotoa vakavaan työuupumukseen. Projektin tavoitteena on selvittää kahden eri ryhmähoitomuodon vaikuttavuutta ja sellaisia yksilöön liittyviä tekijöitä, joilla saattaa olla vaikutusta ryhmähoidon tuloksellisuuteen. Tässä tutkimuksessa selvitettiin mielialan havainnoinnin, tunnistamisen ja säätelyn (Trait Meta-Mood) yhteyksiä työuupumuksen laskuun ryhmähoitojen aikana ja kuuden kuukauden pituisella seurantajaksolla. Emootioilla on useiden eri teorioiden mukaan yksilön sopeutumista edistävä signaalitehtävä. Mieliala kertoo yksilön sisäisestä tilasta, ja sitä voidaan kuvata miellyttävänä, epämiellyttävänä, kiihtyneenä tai rauhallisena. Mielialaa voi tarkastella mielialakokemuksen tai mielialan säätelyn tasolla. Mielialan säätelyn tasolla tarkoitetaan ajatuksia mielialasta. Tällä reflektiivisellä tasolla mielialaa havainnoidaan, tunnistetaan ja säädellään. Oletettiin, että jos mieliala tunnistetaan hyvin ja mielialaa säädellään tehokkaasti, työuupumus vähenee eli työuupumuksen ryhmähoito on tuloksellista. Lisäksi tutkittiin missä vaiheessa mahdolliset yhteydet ilmenevät ja eroavatko yhteydet psykoanalyyttisessä ja toiminnallisessa hoitoryhmässä. Tutkimusaineisto kerättiin 1999-2000. Koehenkilöt (n=99) olivat 31-59-vuotiaita valtion laitosten ja valtion yritysten työuupumuksesta kärsiviä työntekijöitä, miehiä oli 24 ja naisia 75. Lisäksi kerättiin ei-uupuneiden kontrolliryhmä (n = 26, ikä 37 - 58 vuotta), jota hyödynnettiin tässä tutkimuksessa vain uupuneiden ja ei-uupuneiden vertailuihin ennen hoidon alkua. Molempina vuosina uupuneet henkilöt satunnaistettiin toiminnallisiin ja psykoanalyyttisiin hoitoryhmiin. Työuupumus mitattiin 9 kuukautta kestäneen hoidon alussa, lopussa ja puoli vuotta hoidon päättymisen jälkeen. Mielialan havainnointi, tunnistaminen ja säätely mitattiin hoidon alussa, lopussa ja puoli vuotta hoidon päättymisen jälkeen. Tulokset osoittivat, että mielialan tunnistamisen korkea taso ja mielialan säätelyn korkea taso olivat yhteydessä työuupumuksen voimakkaampaan laskuun koko tutkimusjakson ajan. Yhteydet olivat erilaiset eri ryhmähoidoissa hoidon aikana ja seurantajaksolla. Hoidon aikana psykoanalyyttisessä hoitoryhmässä mielialan havainnoinnin lisääntyminen ja mielialan säätelyn tehokkuus olivat yhteydessä työuupumuksen voimakkaampaan laskuun. Toiminnallisessa hoitoryhmässä sen sijaan mielialan tunnistamisen taito oli yhteydessä työuupumuksen voimakkaampaan laskuun hoidon aikana. Seurantajaksolla molemmissa hoitoryhmissä mielialan tunnistamisen taito oli yhteydessä työuupumuksen voimakkaampaan laskuun. Kontrolliryhmässä ei todettu mielialan havainnoinnin, tunnistamisen ja säätelyn taitojen ja työuupumuksen vähenemisen välistä yhteyttä. Tutkimuksen tulokset antavat uutta tietoa sellaisista yksilöllisistä tekijöistä, joilla on työuupumuksen ryhmähoitoprosessia moderoiva rooli. Mielialan hyvin tunnistaminen ja mielialan tehokas säätely saattavat olla sellaisia ryhmäterapiassa opittuja yksilöllisiä voimavaroja, joita työuupumuksesta toipumisessa tarvitaan hoidon päättymisen jälkeen. Koska mielialan hyvin tunnistamisen, mielialan tehokkaan säätelyn ja työuupumuksen ryhmähoidon tuloksellisuuden väliset yhteydet todettiin molemmissa ryhmähoitomenetelmissä, voi olettaa, että molemmat ryhmähoitomenetelmät ovat vakavaa työuupumusta vähentäviä hoitomenetelmiä. Ryhmähoidon aikana opitut mielialan tunnistamisen ja säätelyn taidot auttavat ylläpitämään terapian aikana alkanutta hyvinvoinnin kasvua.
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(2009)Flow experience is often defined either as an experience of high concentration and enjoyment or as a situation, where high challenges are matched with high skills. According to core-emotion theories, the experience of any emotion contains two core emotions: valence and arousal. Through an accurate mathematical model, the present study investigated, whether the experience of concentration and enjoyment is related to situations where both challenge and skills are high and in balance. Further, it was investigated what sort of core emotions are related to differing relationships between challenge and skills. Finally, university students' experiences of their natural study environments were described in terms of core emotions and in terms of relationships between challenge and skills. Participants were 55 university students who participated two weeks research period. Altogether 3367 questionnaire answers were collected with the CASS experience-sampling method, operating in 3G-mobile phones. The relationship between challenge and skills (competence) was defined in an exact way in polar coordinates. An enjoyable and concentrated flow experience was defined as a sum variable of absorption, interest and enthusiasm. Core emotions were calculated with factor analysis from nine emotion variables. As expected, an experience of concentration and enjoyment was, on average, related to the situations where both challenge and skills were high and in balance. This was not, however, the case in every situation. Thus, it should be taken into consideration how flow experience is operationalised in experience sampling studies. When flow experience was defined as a situation of high challenge and high skills, it was often related to high valence and arousal emotions such as excitement or enthusiasm. A happier or a more tranquil enjoyment was related to situations of moderate challenge and high skills. Experiences differed clearly between various natural study environments. At lectures students were often bored or mentally absent, and did not experience challenges. In a small group students were often excited or enthusiastic, and showed optimal balance between challenge and skills. At library students felt satisfied and were engaged in highly challenging work.
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(2008)The thesis aims to link the biolinguistic research program and the results of studies in comceptual combination from cognitive psychology. The thesis derives a theory of syntactic structure of noun and adjectival compounds from the Empty Lexicon Hypothesis. Two compound-forming operations are described: root-compounding and word-compounding. The aptness of theory is tested with finnish and greek compounds. From the syntactic theory semantic requirements for conceptual system are derived, especially requirements for handling morphosyntactic features. These requirements are compared to three formidable theories of conceptual combination: relation theory CARIN, Dual-Process theory and C3-theory. The claims of explanatory power of relational distributions of modifier in CARIN-theory are discarded, as the method for sampling and building relational distributions is not reliable and the algorithmic instantiation of theory does not compute what it claims to compute. From relational theory there still remains results supporting existence of 'easy' relations for certain concepts. Dual-Process theory is found to provide results that cannot in theory be affected by linguistic system, but the basic idea of property compounds is kept. C3-theory is found to be not computationally realistic, but the basic results of diagnosticity and local properties (domains) of conceptual system are solid. The three conceptual combination models are rethought as a problem of finding the shortest route between the two concepts. The new basis for modeling is suggested to be bare conceptual landscape with morphosyntactiic or semantic features working as guidance and structural features of landscape basically unknown, but such as they react to features from linguistic system. Minimalistic principles to conceptual modeling are suggested.
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(2006)Personal goals offer an important aspect of personality and motivation. Personal goals are conscious and subjectively motivated objectives by which a person directs his or her life over time. Personal goals are related to adolescents' subjective well-being. The aim of the present research was to find out, what kinds of groups of adolescents can be formed by the content of personal goals and how these groups differ in goal appraisals, meaningful life events and subjective well-being. The second aim of the study was to detect gender differences and differences between vocational and high school students in goal appraisals, meaningful life events and subjective well-being. Adolescents in upper secondary education (N=1144) were grouped together by the content of their personal goals using a person oriented approach and a cluster analysis. Clusters found in the analysis were named by the centre goal as (1) a property group, (2) a vocation group, (3) a future education and personal relationships group and (4) a self-focused group. Adolescents in the property group put a little effort into their career goal, they were not exhausted in school work and their subjective well-being was average. Adolescents in the vocation group felt progress in their career goal and put effort into it. They had goals related to life-style. They did not feel exhausted and their subjective well-being was average. The future education and personal relationships group put effort into their career goal and considered progressing in it. Personal relationships were important in their lives. They were exhausted in their school work but they did not feel cynicism. Their own health was one of their goals and they felt satisfaction in their life. Adolescents in the self-focused group did not put effort into their career goal nor considered progressing in it. They were exhausted and especially cynical in their school work. They suffered from almost clinically significant depression. They had low life-satisfaction and low self-esteem. The following gender and educational differences were found. Compared with boys, girls felt their career goal was more important and stressful, and girls also put more effort into it. Girls were more exhausted, depressed and they had lower self-esteem than boys. High school students felt more stress with their career goal than vocational school students. High school students were more exhausted, but still they felt more satisfaction with their lives. In practice, to cover adolescents' personal goals is a possibility to find distressed individuals who might be in need for extra support.
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(2007)The main goal of this study was to explore experiences induced by playing digital games (i.e. meaning of playing). In addition, the study aimed at structuring the larger entities of gaming experience. This was done by using theory-driven and data grounded approaches. Previously gaming experiences have not been explored as a whole. The consideration of gaming experiences on the basis of psychological theories and studies has also been rare. The secondary goal of this study was to clarify, whether the individual meanings of playing are connected with flow experience in an occasional gaming situation. Flow is an enjoyable experience and usually activities that induce flow are gladly repeated. Previously, flow has been proved to be an essential concept in the context of playing, but the relations between meanings of playing and flow have not been studied. The relations between gender and gaming experiences were examined throughout the study, as well as the relationship between gaming frequency and experiences. The study was divided into two sections, of which the first was composed according to the main goals. Its data was gathered by using an Internet questionnaire. The other section covered the themes that were formulated on the basis of the secondary aims. In that section, the participants played a driving game for 40 minutes and then filled in a questionnaire, which measured flow related experiences. In both sections, the participants were mainly young Finnish adults. All the participants in the second section (n = 60) had already participated in the first section (n = 267). Both qualitative and quantitative research techniques were used in the study. In the first section, freely described gaming experiences were classified according to the grounded theory. After that, the most common categories were further classified into the basic structures of gaming experience, some according to the existing theories of experience structure and some according to the data (i.e. grounded theory). In the other section flow constructs were measured and used as grouping variables in a cluster analysis. Three meaningful groups were compared regarding the meanings of gaming that were explored in the first section. The descriptions of gaming experiences were classified into four main categories, which were conceptions of the gaming process, emotions, motivations and focused attention. All the theory-driven categories were found in the data. This frame of reference can be utilized in future when reliability and validity of already existing methods for measuring gaming experiences are considered or new methods will be developed. The connection between the individual relevance of gaming and flow was minor. However, as the scope was specified to relations between primary meanings of playing and flow, it was noticed that attributing enjoyment to gaming did not lead to the strongest flow-experiences. This implies that the issue should be studied more in future. As a whole this study proves that gamer-related research from numerous vantage points can benefit from concentrating on gaming experiences.
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(2010)Objectives. School personnel who are exposed to school violence are at risk in developing post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In Finland there have been two such events in recent years, Jokela school shooting on 7.11.2007 and Kauhajoki school shooting about a year later. The aim of the present study was to examine the presence and change in PTSD symptoms during the first year after the Jokela school shooting. A second aim was to study how the initial exposure and treatment affects the symptom levels of PTSD. There were four hypotheses: 1) The PTSD symptoms are higher for the people who were exposed to the school shooting than for the people who did not face the stressor. 2) The PTSD symptoms increase in the follow up for the people at the school which was not attacked because of the second incident brought up the memories from the Jokela school shooting. 3) Those who have greater exposure to the shooting will have higher level of PTSD symptoms at both 4 and 11 months after the shooting than those who were not directly exposed to the shooting. 4) The PTSD symptoms are reduced more in the group that starts treatment right after the traumatic event than in other groups. Methods. A sample of 24 members of Jokela school personnel were examined four months after the incident and 16 were reassessed 11 month after the incident. To study the change and level of symptoms in other schools during the same period, a group with no exposure to the shooting was used as a control group (n=22). The assessment included Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist Specific (PCL-S) and a social and professional support questionnaire. In addition questions about timing of support and experiences of psychological debriefing were asked. Results and conclusions. Most participants in the study group experienced some symptoms of PTSD at both 4 and 11 months. In both measures three participants from the study group fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for PTSD. The study group and control group differed significantly in overall symptom levels. The study group had more PTSD symptoms in the first measure but in the follow-up the study group's PTSD symptoms decreased and the control group's increased. There was a significant change in the study groups PTSD symptom level for those who started treatment right after the traumatic event. The results from this study showed that an exposure to school shooting has long-term effects on school personnel. The findings suggest that it is crucial to plan a comprehensive and long-term treatment for school personnel in the aftermath of school shooting.
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(2006)This study explored the possibilities the psychophysiological methodology offer to flow research. Facial electromyography has often been used to index valence, and electrodermal activity to index arousal, the two basic dimensions of emotion. It was hypothesized that these measures can also be used to examine enjoyment, a basic component of flow experiment. A digital game was used to induce flow, and physiological activity of 32 subjects was measured continuously. Flow State Scale was used to assess flow. Activity of corrugator supercilii muscle, an index of negative valence, was negatively correlated with flow reports, as hypothesized. Contrary to hypothesis, skin conductance level, an index of arousal, was unrelated to self-reported flow. The results for association between flow and zygomaticus major and orbicularis oculi muscle activities, indices of positive valence, were inconclusive, possibly due to experimental design where only tonic measures were available. Psychophysiological methods are recommended for future studies of flow. Specifically, the time series approach may be particularly viable in examining the temporal aspects of flow, an area currently unexplored. Furthermore, it is suggested that digital game research would benefit from psychophysiological study of game-related flow.
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(2008)The objective of the study was to explore the dimensions of group identity in the guilds of World of Warcraft. Previous research shows that social interaction has an important role in playing games for many players. Social identities are an important aspect of self-concept and since group related cues are more salient than personal clues in computer-mediated communication, the social gaming experience was approached through group identity. In the study a new scale will be developed to measure the group identity in games. Secondary goal is to study how different guild attributes affect the group identity and third goal is to explore the connection between group identity and gaming experience and amount of play. Subjects were 1203 guild members and 106 players not in a guild. The data was gathered by an Internet survey which measured group identity with nine scales, gaming experience with three scales and guild attributes with four scales. Also various background data was gathered. The construct of group identity was analyzed with explorative factor analysis. The typical experiences of group identity was analyzed with cluster analysis and effects of guild attributes with multivariate analysis of covariance. As a result of the study a new scale was developed which measured group identity on six dimensions: self-stereotyping, public and private evaluation, importance, interconnection of self and others and awareness of content. Group identity was experienced strongest in elder middle-sized guilds that had formal rules and that emphasized social interaction. The players with strong group identity had more positive gaming experience and played World of Warcraft more per week than the players who were not in a guild or identified to guild weakly. This result encourages game developers to produce environments that enhance group identity as it seems to increase the enjoyment in games. As a whole this study proposes that group identity in guilds is constructed from the same elements as in traditional groups. If this is truly the case, guild membership may have similar positive effects on individual's mental well-being as traditional positively evaluated group memberships have.
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