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  • Hämäläinen, Ella (2019)
    Tavoitteet. Imetyksellä tiedetään olevan lyhyt- ja pitkäaikaisia suotuisia terveysvaikutuksia. Imetykseen liittyvissä suosituksissa asetetaan tavoitteeksi täysimetys kuuden kuukauden ikään saakka, mutta tämä ei toteudu Suomessa. Keinoja imetyksen tukemiseksi tulisi kehittää ja huomioida myös erityistä tukea tarvitsevat vauvat ja perheet. Downin syndrooma on yksi yleisimmistä kromosomihäiriöistä ja sitä on tutkittu suhteellisen paljon. Downin syndroomaan tiedetään liittyvän erilaisia rakenteellisia ja kehityksellisiä tekijöitä, jotka voivat vaikeuttaa imetystä. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoitus on selvittää imetykseen liittyviä vaikeuksia vauvoilla, joilla on Downin syndrooma. Samalla on tarkoitus selvittää sitä, miten vanhempia voitaisiin tukea imetyksen onnistumiseksi. Menetelmät. Tutkimus on integroiva kirjallisuuskatsaus. Tiedonhaut tehtiin Scopus ja Pub-Med-tietokantoihin hakulausekkeella (”down syndrome”) AND breastfeeding. Tutkimusaineistoksi valikoitui kahdeksan vertaisarvioitua artikkelia. Tutkimusartikkeleista etsittiin vastauksia molempiin tai jompaankumpaan tutkimuskysymyksistä. Tutkimuskysymys 1: Millaisia imetykseen liittyviä vaikeuksia tyypillisesti esiintyy vauvoilla, joilla on Downin syndrooma? Tutkimuskysymys 2: Miten vanhempia voidaan tukea imetyksen onnistumiseksi? Tulokset ja johtopäätökset. Tutkimusartikkeleista nousi esille kolme pääteemaa, joihin imetyksessä esiintyvät vaikeudet jakautuivat. Nämä teemat olivat äitiin liittyvät imetyksen vaikeudet (terveydentila, kokemukset, elämäntilanne, maidonerityksen puute/pelko), vauvaan liittyvät imetyksen vaikeudet (imemisen vaikeudet, väsymys/unisuus) ja olosuhteisiin liittyvät imetyksen vaikeudet (erillään olo vauvasta). Suurimmat vauvaan liittyvät imetyksen vaikeudet olivat 0-3 kuukauden iässä ja oli viitteitä siitä, että vaikeudet helpottivat 6-9 kuukauden iässä. Tärkeimpinä vanhempien tukemisen keinoina imetyksen onnistumiseksi esille nousivat ohjaus, tuki ja tietotaito (tiedon saannin merkitys, vanhempien väsymys). Vanhemmat tarvitse-vat tukea uudessa elämäntilanteessa imetyksen onnistumiseksi, jos lapsen terveydentila sallii imetyksen. Terveydenhuollon henkilökunnalla on merkittävä rooli tiedon jakamisessa ja vanhempien tukemisessa imetyksen onnistumiseksi. Vanhempien imettämisen vaikeuksien kohtaamiseen liittyviä kokemuksia selvittämällä voidaan mahdollisesti kehittää entistä parempia käytänteitä vanhempien tukemiseen imetyksessä.
  • Parvio, Minna (2018)
    Individualism and collectivism, known amongst cultural psychology, have been long studied in relation to mental health. On one hand, it has been studied whether there is a relationship between depression and individualism or collectivism on a cultural level. On the other hand it’s equally interesting whether there is a relationship between depression and individualism and collectivism on an individual/personal level, also known as idiocentrism and allocentrism. It seems cultural level collectivism or individualism is not a risk factor or a protective factor for depression. However, a conflict between cultural orientation and personal orientation appears to be positively related with depression. Allocentrics living in individualistic cultures get depressed easier than allocentrics in collectivistic cultures or idiocentrics in individualistic cultures. People with individual tendencies get depressed for different reasons than people with collectivistic tendencies. Individualists are more sensitive to failures and disappointments related to success and personal goals, whereas collectivists are more sensitive to lack of social support or negative social feedback such as rejection, lack of approval or lack of intimate relationships. These different predispositions for depression show already a on genetic level.
  • Oksanen, Pihka (2024)
    Abstract: Aim: Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) remains a debated mental health disorder, though it is recognized in diagnostic manuals such as DSM-V and ICD-10. A notable aspect of DID is inter-identity amnesia, often reported by patients but inconsistently observed in experimental settings. This study aims to review experimental research on long-term memory dysfunction in DID. The first aim is to review if inter-identity occurs objectively or if it is only subjective and does that vary across different memory parts. The second aim is to review if there are other characteristic impairments in long-term memory in DID. Methods: The systematic literature search was conducted in OvidMedline using keywords “experimental”, “DID”, “dissociative identity disorder”, “inter-identity amnesia”, and “long-term memory” and their combinations. In addition, the references of the found articles were checked. The 14 articles published between 2002–2022 were included. Results and conclusions: Based on this review, the inter-identity amnesia is not objective in DID. Instead, it seems to be subjective and occur in all long-term memory parts. However, DID patients seem to have a distinct simulation style differing from healthy simulators. In addition to the inter-identity amnesia, the long-term memory seems to be impaired in other ways in DID. The most evident impairments in long-term memory in general seem to be that DID patients perform overall worse in all kinds of long-term memory tasks and that they have slower reaction times in semantic and procedural memory tasks. It remains unclear if the other impairments are connected to patients simulating subjective inter-identity amnesia. Subjective inter-identity amnesia and the other impairments of long-term memory should be further studied in everyday life context.
  • Liljama, Emmi (2021)
    Tavoitteet. Internalisoidun stigman muodostuminen voidaan nähdä prosessina, jonka aikana yksilö sisäistää julkisen stigman mielenterveysongelmista itseensä. Yhden mallin mukaan internalisoitu stigma sisältää vieraantumisen, stereotypioiden hyväksymisen, syrjinnän kokemuksen, sosiaalisen vetäytymisen ja stigman resistanssin eli kyvyn vastustaa stigmaa. Mielenterveyden häiriöistä kärsivät ovat alttiita internalisoidun stigman syntymiselle ja sillä on havaittu olevan yhteys erilaisiin ongelmiin, kuten psykiatristen oireiden vakavuuden pahenemiseen. Yleisimmin käytetty internalisoidun stigman mittari on ollut The Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness (ISMI). Kaksisuuntainen mielialahäiriö on mielenterveyden häiriö, jossa voi esiintyä maanisia, hypomaanisia, sekamuotoisia tai masentuneita sairausjaksoja. Maanisten tai hypomaanisten jaksojen vakavuuden perusteella sairaus voidaan jakaa tyyppiin I ja II. Tässä katsauksessa käsitellään internalisoitua stigmaa kaksisuuntaista mielialahäiriötä sairastavilla, koska aiheesta on vielä vähän kirjallisuutta. Katsauksen tavoitteena on perehtyä internalisoidun stigman esiintymiseen, siihen liittyviin ilmiöihin ja hoitoon kaksisuuntaista mielialahäiriötä sairastavilla henkilöillä. Menetelmät. Katsauksessa käytettiin Scopus ja PUBMED -tietokantoja. Scopuksessa hakusanoina käytettiin "internalized stigma" tai "self-stigma*" ja "bipolar disorder". PUBMED-tietokannassa hakusanoina olivat "internalized stigma*" tai "self-stigma" ja "bipolar disorder". Tulokset ja johtopäätökset. Internalisoitua stigmaa esiintyi merkittävällä osalla kaksisuuntaista mielialahäiriötä sairastavilla henkilöillä, enemmän kuin ADHD:ta sairastavilla mutta vähemmän kuin skitsofreniaa sairastavilla. Tämä voi selittyä erilaisista julkisista stigmoista ADHD:ta tai skitsofreniaa sairastavilla kuin kaksisuuntaista mielialahäiriötä sairastavilla. Internalisoidulla stigmalla vaikutti olevan yhteyksiä alhaisemman elämänlaadun tekijöiden kanssa, kuten itsetunnon heikkouteen. Internalisoidun stigman vaikutus itsetuntoon ja itsetunnon vaikutus internalisoituun stigmaan voi olla monitahoinen. Internalisoidulla stigmalla oli yhteys internalisoiviin persoonallisuuspiirteisiin ja korkeammat ISMI-pisteet korreloivat oireiden vakavuuden ja korkeampien masennuspisteiden kanssa. Masennuksen kuuluessa internalisoiviin oireisiin sillä masennuksella voi olla selkeämpi yhteys internalisoivaan stigmaan kuin manialla. Psykoedukaatiosta oli lupaavaa näyttöä internalisoidun stigman hoitoon kaksisuuntaista mielialahäiriötä sairastavilla potilailla. Tämän katsauksen heikkouksia olivat muun muassa tutkimusten pienet otoskoot ja pitkittäistutkimuksen puute, tulevaisuudessa olisikin hyvä tutkia aihetta suuremmilla otoskoilla ja erilaisilla tutkimusasetelmilla.
  • Taskinen, Anette (2019)
    The treatment of social anxiety disorder with internet delivered cognitive-behavior therapy has been studied for the past two decades, but still reviews of studies on the subject could not been found in the databases used in this study. The goal of this review was to examine the efficacy of iCBT in treating social anxiety disorder and to review the treatment protocols used in the efficacy studies. A systematic literature search was conducted in the databases available through EBSCOhost (ia. CINAHL, MEDLINE, eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) & eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost)) with the search term ”((((internet OR web) AND (cognitive behav* therapy)) OR iCBT) AND (social phobia OR social anxiety disorder)))”. Studies which examined the efficacy of iCBT in treating social anxiety disorder with an RCT trial comparing it to waiting list or treatment as usual conditions were included in the review. The search revealed 11 studies filling these requirements, in which three separately developed treatment protocols were studied. Guided iCBT significantly reduces the symptoms of social anxiety disorder and it was significantly more efficacious in reducing symptoms than waiting list, also clinically significant improvement was considerably more common in people receiving the treatment. Only a few studies comparing iCBT to live therapies were found, and even though they had promising results, conclusions could not be made based on two studies. The treatment protocols were similar to each other and there were no substantial differences noted in the efficacies of the different treatments. Treatment satisfaction was high which supports the role of iCBT as an acceptable treatment option. There was variation between the studies in the time therapists used per patient, but even the longest average time therapists used indicated that the therapists used their time more efficiently compared to live treatments. There was a lot of variation between the studies in adherence and completion rates, and the maintenance of adherence should be attended to also in future treatment protocols.
  • Corander, Carla (2021)
    Aims: Major depression is associated with substantial individual and societal burden due to its high prevalence. Current treatments are estimated to only reduce about one-third of the economic burden of depressive disorders. Depression prevention could be an alternative means to alleviate this disease burden. However, current face-to-face prevention programs have several limitations including limited health care resources and mental health stigma. Internet and mobile based (IM) preventions could potentially overcome the limitations of face-to face prevention programs. The aim of this review is to introduce different types of IM-preventions of depression and to evaluate effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of these prevention programs. Methods: A literature search was conducted on pubmed database and google scholar using search terms “depression prevention” and “internet and mobile based” with terms “cost-effectiveness” and “adherence”. Results and conclusions: The results of this review indicate that major depression could be prevented with IM-preventions. The length of an effective treatment is most likely 5-8 weeks and it usually includes human support while less effective treatment is most likely self-help based. The importance of human support can be attributed to the adherence to the treatment and enhancing adherence is particularly important in populations with more severe symptoms. Indicative, selective and universal preventions are equally effective. It is not possible to compare different approaches since nearly all preventions utilise cognitive-behavioural techniques and are internet-based. Studies that examine the cost-effectiveness of depression prevention are far and between, but according to one study internet and mobile based prevention of depression could be a cost-effective alternative to the primary healthcare services. The available evidence suggests that it would be fruitful to try internet and mobile based depression prevention in a context of a workplace or a school but there is inadequate evidence for national prevention programs.
  • Wahlstedt, Henri (2018)
    There are now internet-based interventions for most of the common mental health disorders, and the evidence for their effectiveness indicates that these treatments are a promising way to improve the availability of mental health services. Given that there are, however, only few interventions for psychotic disorders, the objective of this review was to describe the content of these interventions and to assess their effectiveness. The reviewed web-based interventions for psychotic disorders consist of psychoeducation, social support and therapeutic exercises. Multimedia content was utilized in psychoeducation, and moderated internet forums were an essential part of interventions that offered social support. The therapeutic sessions consisted of independent exercises, which emphasized ways to recognize harmful thoughts and develop coping skills. The interventions were considered feasible and helpful for the most part. There is also promising evidence for treatment effects, especially with regard to depression and psychosocial functioning. Due to methodological deficiencies, however, the evidence is scarce. In the future researchers should focus on systematic research with strong methodological quality. It is also important that the development of these interventions is user-centered. In addition, there is remarkable variation as far as effectiveness is concerned, and the underlying causes should be unraveled.
  • Paatero, Hanna (2022)
    Tavoitteet. Interoseption on esitetty olevan autonomisen hermoston toimintaa koskeva subjektiivinen aistimus, joka muodostaa pohjan yksilön omalle arviolle siitä, miltä kehossa kullakin hetkellä tuntuu. Interoseption poikkeavan toiminta on liitetty moniin sairauksiin. Viime vuosina on tutkittu interoseptioon kohdistuvia interventioita, joilla voitaisiin hoitaa ahdistuneisuushäiriöitä. Hoidon tavoitteena on tällöin potilaan yleisen ahdistuneisuusherkkyyden väheneminen, jolloin voitaisiin vaikuttaa laajemmin ahdistuneisuuden eri muotoihin. Käytetyin interoseptioon kohdistuva hoitomuoto on ollut interoseptiivinen altistaminen. Kirjallisuuskatsauksen tarkoituksena oli perehtyä siihen, minkälaisia interoseptioon kohdistuvia interventioita on kokeiltu ahdistuneisuushäiriöiden hoidossa ja minkälaisia ovat olleet näiden interventioiden tulokset. Menetelmät. Tutkielmaa varten on haettu aineistoa Google Scholar- ja Scopus -tietokannoista sekä Helka:n kokoelmista hakusanoilla interoception, interoceptive, interoceptive interventions, interoception AND intervention, interoceptive exposure, anxiety AND intervention, anxiety sensitivity AND interoception, mental health AND interoception, pychopathology AND interoception. Lisäksi on etsitty julkaisuja edellä mainitulla tavalla löydettyjen julkaisujen lähdeluetteloista. Tulokset ja johtopäätökset. Tutkimuksissa käytettiin yleisimmin interoseptiivistä altistamista. Interoseptiivinen altistaminen sisälsi fyysistä toimintaa sekä erilaisia tapoja hengittää, jolloin tarkoituksena oli altistaa potilas niille tuntemuksille, joita tämä koki ahdistavina. Lisäksi käytettiin erilaisia rentoutuskeinoja, tarkoituksena parantaa potilaan interoseptiivistä kyvykkyyttä. Tutkimuksissa käytetyt interventiot olivat melko yksinkertaisia toteuttaa ja hoitotuloksia voitiin saada nopeasti. Rajoitetusti niistä oli saatavilla myös hoidon pitkäaikaista vaikuttavuutta tukevaa seurantatietoa. Kaikissa tutkituissa interventioissa yleinen ahdistuneisuusherkkyys väheni merkitsevästi. Tulokset vahvistivat aiempaa käsitystä, että nämä interventiot vaikuttavat ahdistuneisuuden muodosta riippumatta yleiseen ahdistuneisuusherkkyyteen ja siten vähentävät potilaan ahdistuneisuutta. Myös niissä tutkimuksissa, joissa mitattiin interoseptiivisen kyvykkyyden muutoksia, todettiin kyvykkyyden lisääntyminen samanaikaisesti ahdistuneisuusherkkyyden vähenemisen kanssa. Interoseptioon kohdistuvat interventiot näyttäisivät mahdollistavan sen, että samalla hoidolla voisi hoitaa monenlaista ahdistuneisuusoireilua. Näin ollen potilaan tilanne saattaisi kohentua nopeammin. Koska interoseptioon kohdistuvat interventiot vähentävät yleistä ahdistuneisuusherkkyyttä, voisi niitä hyödyntää myös muun altistamishoidon täydentäjinä tai osana erilaisia terapiaprosesseja.
  • Etholén, Saku (2017)
    Autism spectrum disorders are pervasive developmental disorders that are manifest early in development. Two wide symptom categories are problems in social communication and repetitive or restrictive behaviors. There are many views for the mechanisms behind autism. Many explanations see deviations in attention and sensory processing as central causes. Intersensory redundancy hypothesis (IRH) states that already in infancy attentional resources are first focused on information that is amodal (redundant for many modalities) like temporal synchrony. Only after this are modality specefic properties like the tone of voice or facial characteristics of a talker focused on. This attentional hierarcy helps socioemotional and verbal development by focusing attention to social stimuli which have much amodal information and opportunities for learning. Bahrick considers one cause of autism to be an early bias in attention. Autistic children and their siblings who have high risk for autism have been found to focus less on amodal information and more on modality specific information compared to typically developing children. This bias may cause deficiencies in learning because social stimuli are neglected and objects or details are preferred, which would explain the problems of social communication. Also restricted and repetitive behaviors could be explained to be a way of organizing amodal information to a better anticipated or understood form by repeating the same behavior. IRH has been found to apply in different situations and ages. The connection between autism and IRH has, however, little evidence to show for it even if the logic behind the connection is plausible. In future, the processing of multimodal and amodal information as possible factors behind autism spectrum disorders should be researched more thoroughly and with scientific rigour.
  • Koskelo, Anna (2024)
    Aim. Intuition is known to often develop with expertise. The review inspected how recruitment professionals use their intuition when making recruitment decisions, how they perceive their use of intuition and what recruiter-related factors predict intuition use. In addition, the aim was to determine whether experts differ from laypeople in recruitment decision making based on intuition. Methods. The literature was searched in Web of Science and Google Scholar databases using the keywords "intuition AND hiring" and "intuition AND recruitment". Articles published since 2010 were selected. The papers selected for the review were all studies in which the participants were individuals making recruitment decisions in their jobs, or studies comparing recruitment professionals to laypeople. Conclusions. Intuition is used in particular to assess the organizational fit. In addition, it is used to predict the personality or the competence of the candidate. Even though the possible drawbacks of intuitive thinking are recognised, it is also viewed to be a good tool in decision-making processes in some situations. There are indications that people who tend to base their decisions on experimentality in general, are also more likely to use their intuition in recruitment decisions. Evidence on the differences between professionals and laypeople in the accuracy of intuitive decision-making varies. On the whole, there is a lack of quantitative research on the subject.
  • Särkilahti, Elina (2018)
    Irony is a way of communicating a message in which words and their meaning is in conflict. People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have a tendency to interpret words literally which is a result of their problems in social interaction. It has been reported that people with ASD have difficulties to react to irony in a proper manner which leads to the assumption that they do not understand irony. In my Bachelors thesis I will review studies on irony comprehension of individuals with ASD. The aim of my review is to find from the literature if the assumption that individuals with ASD cannot detect irony is correct and what kind of explanations there are on the underlying issues of their difficulties in irony comprehension. Studies are quite contradictory on how well people with ASD can detect irony. Some suggest that individuals with ASD can detect irony as well as typically developed and others propose that people with ASD cannot detect irony even closely as well as typically developing. But studies are unanimous that people with ASD have great difficulties in the comprehension of irony compared to typically developing. There are many explanations why people with ASD might have difficulties with irony. One is that children with ASD lack the theory of mind, so they have problems in understanding that the speaker has his or her independent intentions that they might want to transmit to the listener when using irony. According to another explanation the disturbance in language development might influence irony perception. Sometimes tasks testing irony perception require the ability to produce difficult verbal outcomes which are difficult for people with ASD. They have also difficulties to perceive prosodic cues overall and irony has a wide variety of possible prosodic cues. In addition to the specific difficulties in, for example prosody and language, people with ASD also have hard time in integrating these multiple different cues automatically. However, there are compensatory mechanisms that help them to overcome these difficulties. They just do not automatically use them when processing language but if they are explicitly told to take in account that there might be irony individuals with ASD are doing better in irony tasks. For future research it would be important to study how well people with ASD detect irony in more natural situations. Furthermore, it should be studied how much they understand irony even when they recognize it because it has been shown that people with ASD do not enjoy irony as much as typically developing.
  • Saari, Olli (2023)
    Autism spectrum disorder is a widespread neurobiological developmental disorder that can be detected early in childhood. General features of autism spectrum disorder include learning difficulties, disorders of language development, repetitive behavior, difficulties in maintaining eye contact, and difficulties in forming social relationships. Self-injurious behavior is common in autism spectrum disorder, but it is not included in the diagnostic criteria for this disorder. This review introduces self-injurious behavior in autism spectrum disorder specifically, its prevalence, predictable risk factors, and factors that trigger and maintain the behavior. About 27.7% of those diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder exhibit self-harming behavior. The most prominent predictors are poor verbal abilities, sleep problems, autism severity, low cognitive level, stereotypical behavior, impulsivity, and atypical sensory processing. In this review, the factors that trigger and sustain self-injurious behavior, are discussed from a behavioral perspective, which is also combined with ideas of body awareness also known as interoception. According to the behavioral model, self-injurious behavior can be a learned way to avoid unpleasant tasks, communicate anxiety, discomfort, pain, frustration, or attention-seeking. The environmental response to self-injury can in turn maintain, reinforce, or weaken self-injurious behavior. The review also considers the challenging nature of the symptoms being treated and emphasizes early identification, intervention, and increasing knowledge for relatives and other caregivers.
  • Pöntinen, Janna (2017)
    Desires are an integral part of everyday life. Many desires can be enacted without problems, but some desires are in conflict with other goals. Success in managing one’s problematic desires is influenced by many factors. This review aims to describe the role of trait self-control in managing daily desires and in achieving long-term goals. Traditionally, self-control research has assumed that trait self-control operates by resisting temptations. However, recent work has shown that avoiding temptations rather than resisting them and adaptive habits can act as moderators between trait self-control and goal attainment. An important question for future research is how trait self-control contributes to the formation and maintenance of adaptive habits. Future studies should compare different self-control strategies and measure people’s actual behavior in real-life situations. Experience sampling is a useful method for gathering empirical data on how people behave, think and feel in their natural environment.
  • Puhakka, Melissa (2023)
    Tavoitteet: Itsemurhariskin ylisukupolvisuutta vanhemman ja lapsen välillä on tutkittu jonkin verran, mutta isovanhemman itsemurhan vaikutuksista kolmanteen sukupolveen tiedetään vielä melko vähän. Tämän tutkielman tavoitteena on tarkastella isovanhemman itsemurhan vaikutuksia lapsenlapsen itsemurhariskiin. Aihe on tärkeä, jotta osattaisiin arvioida itsemurhariskiin vaikuttavia tekijöitä ydinperheen itsemurhia laajemmin, ja kohdistaa esimerkiksi itsemurhien ehkäisyyn liittyvät interventiot tehokkaasti. Menetelmät: Lähdekirjallisuus hankittiin Google Scholar tietokannan avulla erilaisilla yhdistelmillä hakusanoista “transgenerational transmission”, “trauma”, ”third generation”, “suicide”, “familial transmission” ja “suicidal behavior”. Tulokset ja johtopäätökset: Isovanhemman itsemurha voi vaikuttaa lapsenlapsen itsemurhariskiin niin geneettisten ja epigeneettisten muutosten, perheen psykososiaalisen ympäristön, mielenterveyden häiriöiden periytyvyyden kuin häpeän ja stigman kautta. Osa vaikutuksista on suorempia, kuten geneettiset tekijät, ja osa epäsuorempia, kuten keskimmäisen sukupolven psyykkinen sairastuminen ensimmäisessä sukupolvessa tapahtuneen itsemurhan seurauksena. Ensimmäisessä sukupolvessa tapahtuneen itsemurhan ja kolmannen sukupolven itsemurhariskin välillä on siis havaittavissa useita riskiä välittäviä tekijöitä, mikä on merkittävä havainto esimerkiksi itsemurhariskiin vaikuttavien tekijöiden ymmärtämisen ja itsemurhien ehkäisyn kannalta.
  • Suomalainen, Esko (2019)
    Borderline personality disorder is a mental disorder which is associated with high levels of subjective suffering and severe decline in everyday functioning. It is considered quite difficult to treat and it has been linked to substantially increased risks of self-injurious behaviour and morbidity due to suicides. The psychopathology and core symptomology of borderline personality disorder can be conceptualized through the feelings of chronic shame and having a shameful self-image. Shame is a highly aversive affect, which has many different unadaptive behavioural and cognitive consequences. Borderline personality disorder has been linked to many abnormalities in emotional processing of shame and in susceptibilies to experiencing affects of shame. Self-compassion is a theme adopted to western psychology from Buddhist traditions. Self-compassion has recently seen an increase of attention in the field of modern psychology. It has been linked to many positive psychological correlates and to reduced general psychopathology. Self-compassion constitutes of an attitude to oneself in which one accepts his/herself subjective difficulties with mindfulness and as an essential part of the common human experience. Self-compassionate attitude toward oneself, also includes the desire to alleviate ones subjective suffering. Based on intuition self-compassion seems to target the main difficulties behind the problems that are faced by people with borderline personality disorder and chronic feelings shame. The objective of this paper was to examine the empirical and theoretical data of the role of shame in explaining the symptomology of borderline personality disorder and the applicability of self-compassion in treatment of psychopathology stemming from intense feelings of shame. Randomized controlled trials, pilot studies of self-compassion based interventions, meta-analyses and systematic reviews were searched from common psychological databases and Google Scholar. Additionally articles were included in this paper after manual scanning of the lists of reference of the selected literature. Even though the information obtained from research on the applicability of self-compassion in treatment of borderline personality disorder and transdiagnostic shame has its limitations, self-compassion may have its unique additional offerings to the treatment of borderline personality disorder. Future research on the mechanisms of change in self-compassion and their neural substrates would be highly useful in order to understand the potential mediating effect of transdiagnostic shame in reduced psychopathology associated with developing a self-compassionate attitude.
  • Pitkänen, Saara (2020)
    Objects. Self-compassion means kindness toward oneself, perceiving one’s experiences as a common event also for other people and accepting one’s own thoughts and emotions. The lack of self-compassion is manifested in self-criticism, isolation and over-identifying. Self-compassion is positive emotional attitude for oneself. It has been found that self-compassion predicts greater psychological well-being in adults. There are few studies with adolescents. The aim of this review is to gather studies about self-compassion that concerns adolescents and asses self-compassion as a developmental factor. It is thought that self-compassion may protect against negative effects of changes and challenges that happens in youth. Methods. The articles related to self-compassion were searched from database of PubMed, Google Scholar and Scopus. The age gap was from ten years to 19 years. Studies were published in the past five years. Results. In the studies concerning adolescents, self-compassion was associated with lower levers of depression, anxiety and social anxiety symptoms. The was also an association with increased curiosity, resilience and overall psychological well-being. Self-compassion was associated with decreased affective empathy and increased sense of community. Therefore, it may protect against distress resulted from affective empathy and increase social well-being. Higher levels of self-compassion were associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms and psychological maladjustment among bullying victims. Among nonsuicidal self-injury groups kindness toward oneself and feeling of common humanity may prevent self-destructive thoughts to proceed into self-destructive actions. Self-compassion moderated the link between harmful perfectionism and depressive symptoms because adolescents with higher self-compassion had fewer symptoms of depression compared to low levels of self-compassion. Therefore, self-compassion may mediate and moderate the link between other variables. Conclusions. The lack of self-compassion may cause or maintain emotional problems in youth. On the contrary, high self-compassion may improve well-being and buffer against challenges. The positive effects of self-compassion may extend into interpersonal relationships, too. Based on the research it appears that there are similar associations among adolescents than among adults but there is not enough systematic research concerning different topics. Many mental health disorders occur for the first time in youth and early interventions are important so interventions targeting self-compassion among adolescents could be important.
  • Nurmola, Jenna (2024)
    Tavoitteet: Post-traumaattista stressihäiriötä, eli PTSD:tä, sairastavilla esiintyy runsaasti heikkoa hoitovastetta. Häiriön yksilöllistä oireilua saattavat hallita traumaan liittyvät tunnetilat, jolloin niiden uniikkeihin toimintamekanismeihin tulisi kohdentaa tarkoin valittua hoitoa. Yksi näistä PTSD:ssä usein toistuvista, hallitsevista tunnetiloista on häpeä. Itsemyötätunnon harjoittamista tulisi tutkia häpeäpainotteisen PTSD:n hoidossa, sillä niiden on todettu lieventävän häpeälle tyypillisiä itsekriittisiä ja itseä tuomitsevia toimintamalleja. Tutkielman pääasiallisena tavoitteena on selvittää, auttavatko itsemyötätuntoiset menetelmät häpeäpainotteisen PTSD:n oirekuvan lievittymisessä. Samalla kartoitetaan PTSD-oireiden, häpeän ja itsemyötätunnon välisiä kahdenkeskisiä yhteyksiä sekä selvitetään, vaikuttaako itsemyötätuntoisuus eri tavoin geneeriseen kuin traumaan liittyvään häpeään. Menetelmät: Tutkimuskirjallisuutta haettiin Google Scholar, Ovid Medline, PubMed sekä Helka -tietokannoista. Käytettyjä hakusanoja ja niiden yhdistelmiä olivat “ptsd”, “self-compassion”, “shame” ja “trauma”. Tulokset ja johtopäätökset: Itsemyötätuntoiset menetelmät vaikuttivat lupaavilta häpeäpainotteisen PTSD:n hoidossa. Traumaan liittyvä häpeä sääteli itsemyötätunnon ja PTSD-oireiden välistä yhteyttä. PTSD-oireet, häpeä ja itsemyötätunto ilmensivät mielekkäitä kahdenkeskisiä yhteyksiä. Lisäksi itsemyötätuntoisuus osoitti samankaltaista yhteyttä niin geneeriseen kuin traumaan liittyvään häpeään. Tulokset itsemyötätunnon traumaan liittyvää häpeää sekä siitä kärsivien PTSD-oireita lievittävistä vaikutuksista saattavat olla yleistettävissä ainoastaan interpersonaalista väkivaltaa kokeneisiin yksilöihin. Tulevaisuudessa olisi hyvä tutkia lisää itsemyötätunnon ja häpeäpainotteisen PTSD:n yhteyttä myös toisenlaista traumaa kokeneiden populaatiossa sekä keskittää huomioita erilaisiin PTSD:tä ylläpitäviin ja sen oirekuvaa hallitseviin tunnetiloihin.
  • Metsola, Wilhelmiina (2020)
    Aims. Research on positive impacts of self-compassion has increased during 21th century. Previous studies have shown that self-compassion is associated with more adaptive coping strategies, more effective emotion regulation and better readiness to face up personal weaknesses and life challenges. Furthermore, self-compassion is consistently associated with less psychopathology, especially depression. Chronic pain is a globally significant cause of burden, often existing with comorbid depression. The aim of this bachelor’s thesis was to examine the associations between self-compassion and typical psychopathology in people living with chronic pain as well as to examine how self-compassion is related to close psychological processes in this population. Methods. Literature search was carried out in Scopus and PubMed -databases using keywords self-compassion, selfcompassion and chronic pain. Keywords were limited to exist only in the article title. Intervention studies were excluded from review. Results and conclusions. Studies on positive impacts of self-compassion in people with chronic pain have so far been mainly cross-sectional which does not allow causal implications. Still, the evidence is fairly impressive. Self-compassion is shown to have negative and strong associations with typical psychopathology, especially with depression- and stress-symptoms. There is also tentative indication that self-compassion is a prospective predictor of depressive symptoms. Self-compassion is associated with close psychological processes, particularly acceptance of pain, healthier coping strategies and less experiential avoidance in people living with chronic pain. Together these processes seem to lead to better mental health, better social functioning and less pain disability. Findings suggest that one key element of self-compassion is its motivational impact on action. Enhancing self-compassion is an interesting and potential way to promote health and quality of life in people living with chronic pain. It would also be worth to take into consideration when developing psychological interventions for people suffering from chronic pain.
  • Ukkonen, Emilia (2021)
    Mental health patients face a great deal of prejudice and discrimination in their lives. One of the highly stigmatized disorders is schizophrenia, and it’s stigma can hinder patients’ lives in several ways. Self-stigmatization is a phenomenon in which patients end up internalizing the public stigma. Research has mostly been focused on stigma, but self-stigma has started to attract scientists’ attention recently as well. The aim of this literature review is to examine self-stigma and the effect it might have on the lives of people with schizophrenia. The self-stigma of patients with schizophrenia has been found out to be strong and its degree is associated with different psychosocial and clinical outcomes. Increased self-stigma is associated with lower self-esteem and self-efficacy. It has also found out to be positively correlated with social avoidance and non-adherence to treatment. The severity of schizophrenia symptoms appears to be associated with self-stigma but the results are a bit unclear if positive and negative symptoms are treated separately. Self-stigma might mediate the association between lack of insight and different negative outcomes. There is some preliminary evidence of treatment methods, and cognitive and narrative methods along with methods focusing on empowerment might prove to be effective to reduce self-stigma. Further research on the associations mentioned in this review would be necessary since the knowledge of the mechanisms behind these associations is scarce and according to these results, self-stigma may reduce patients’ quality of life. With efficient interventions, it could be possible to promote patients’ mental well-being.
  • Heikkilä, Junia (2022)
    Vaikka suuri osa ilmetutkimuksesta nojaa erilaisiin oletuksiin neutraalista ilmeestä, sen havaitsemaisesta on vain vähän tutkimusta ja neutraalin ilmeen tarkkaa määritelmää ei ole useimmiten pohdittu lainkaan. Kasvojen ilme voidaan määritellä ilmeen havaitsijan (”näyttää neutraalilta”) tai sen tuottajan (”tuntuu neutraalilta”) näkökulmasta. Tunneilmeistä poiketen neutraali ilme voidaan tämän lisäksi määritellä myös kasvojen lihasten täysin rentona tilana. Neutraaliksi tarkoitetun ilmeen tunnistaminen tunnetyhjäksi on vaikeampaa kuin tunneilmeiden, kuten vihaisuuden tai ilon tunnistaminen. Tunnelataukseltaan neutraaliksi arvioimisen sijaan se usein havaitaan hieman negatiivisena ilmeenä. Miesten ilmeeltään neutraalit kasvot havaitaan herkemmin vihaisina kuin naisten, mikä johtuu osittain kasvojen sukupuolityypillistä rakenteesta. Havaintoja onkin selitetty mm. kasvojen yksilökohtaisten piirteiden samankaltaisuudella tiettyjen tunneilmeiden kanssa niin, että ilmeeltään neutraalit kasvot herättävät rakenteensa vuoksi tiettyä tunnetta. Kasvojen ilmeen tunnistaminen oikein on helpompaa, mikäli henkilöt ovat samasta sosiokulttuurillisesta yhteisöstä. Eri sosiokulttuurisista yhteisöistä tulevien henkilöiden välillä on puolestaan korkeampi riski tulkita kasvoilta välittyvä tunneviesti väärin. Neutraalin ilmeen taustalla saatavat vaikuttaa tunneilmeiden havaitsemisesta poikkeavat kognitiiviset prosessit, mikä tekee neutraalin ilmeen havaitsemisesta herkemmän tunneviestin tulkintaan vaikuttavien tekijöiden vaikutukselle. Neutraalin ilmeen määritelmään vaikuttaa kyseessä olevan tutkimuksen tarkoitus. Emootioiden tutkimuksessa saatetaan määritellä neutraali ilme havaitsijan näkökulmasta ilmeeksi, joka ei herätä mitään tunnetta. Ilmeen havaitsijan sekä tuottajan näkökulmista määritelty neutraali ilme on kuitenkin haastava kontrolloitava. Neutraalin ilmeen määrittelyn ollessa kasvojen lihasten täysin rento tila, sitä ei oletettavasti havaita tunnelatauksettomana, mutta on helpommin kontrolloitavissa. Neutraalin ilmeen tarkka tutkimuskohtainen määrittely parantaisi sekä neutraalista ilmeestä ja sen havaitsemisesta että ilmeistä tehtävän tutkimuksen laatua kokonaisuudessaan.