Because it remains one of the third leading causes of death among adolescents around the world, suicide is a major public health concern. This study was designed in response to this concern by examining the relationships among perceived stress, emotional intelligence, and suicidal ideation and to test the moderating role of emotional intelligence in the relationship between perceived stress and suicidal ideation. A sample of depressed adolescents (n = 202) was recruited from five hospitals in Tehran, Iran, and then asked to complete measures of patient health, suicidal ideation, perceived stress, and emotional intelligence. Structural Equation Modeling showed that depressed adolescent in-patients with high levels of perceived stress and low levels of emotional intelligence were more likely to report suicidal ideation. Multi-group analysis indicated that depressed in-patients high in both perceived stress and emotional intelligence had less suicidal ideation than others. The findings support the notion that perceived stress acts as a vulnerability factor that increase suicidal ideation among depressed inpatients. Suicidal history moderated the relationship between emotional intelligence and suicidal ideation. These findings also highlight the importance of emotional intelligence as a buffer in the relationship between perceived stress and suicidal ideation.

We examined the influence of connectedness on school engagement and life satisfaction among Roma (n = 121) and Bulgarian (n = 143) mainstream adolescents (mean age 15.89, SD = 1.18). A set of measures on family, peer, school and neighbourhood connectedness were administered alongside life satisfaction and school engagement scales. Multigroup path analysis indicated that while the relationship between connectedness, life satisfaction and school engagement was largely the same across groups, the strength of such relationship differed among groups. A closer inspection of the model indicated that when it comes to school engagement, there was a salient difference in the role of different forms of connectedness between Roma and mainstream adolescents. For Roma adolescents, familial connectedness was especially salient for school engagement. The practical and theoretical implications of our findings for strengths and adaptive processes among Roma adolescents in Bulgaria are discussed.

There is hardly any cross-cultural research on the measurement invariance of the Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scales (BMSLSS). The current article evaluates the measurement invariance of the BMSLSS across cultural contexts. This cross-sectional study sampled 7,739 adolescents and emerging adults in 23 countries. A multi-group confirmatory factor analysis showed a good fit of configural and partial measurement weights invariance models, indicating similar patterns and strengths in factor loading for both adolescents and emerging adults across various countries. We found insufficient evidence for scalar invariance in both the adolescents’ and the emerging adults’ samples. A multi-level confirmatory factor analysis indicated configural invariance of the structure at country and individual level. Internal consistency, evaluated by alpha and omega coefficients per country, yielded acceptable results. The translated BMSLSS across different cultural contexts presents good psychometric characteristics similar to what has been reported in the original scale, though scalar invariance remains problematic. Our results indicate that the BMSLSS forms a brief measure of life satisfaction, which has accrued substantial evidence of construct validity, thus suitable for use in cross-cultural surveys with adolescents and emerging adults, although evaluation of degree of invariance must be carried out to ensure its suitability for mean comparisons.

Soundscape exists through human perception of the acoustic environment. This paper investigates how soundscape currently is assessed and measured. It reviews and analyzes the main soundscape descriptors in the soundscape literature, and provides a conceptual framework for developing predictive models in soundscape studies. A predictive soundscape model provides a means of predicting the value of a soundscape descriptor, and the blueprint for how to design soundscape. It is the key for implementing the soundscape approach in urban planning and design. The challenge is to select the appropriate soundscape descriptor and to identify its predictors. The majority of available soundscape descriptors are converging towards a 2-dimensional soundscape model of perceived affective quality (e.g., Pleasantness–Eventfulness, or Calmness–Vibrancy). A third potential dimension is the appropriateness of a soundscape to a place. This dimensions provides complementary information beyond the perceived affective quality. However, it depends largely on context, and because a soundscape may be appropriate to a place although it is poor, this descriptor must probably not be used on its own. With regards to predictors, or soundscape indicators, perceived properties of the acoustic environment (e.g., perceived sound sources) are winning over established acoustic and psychoacoustic metrics. To move this area forward it is necessary that the international soundscape community comes together and agrees on relevant soundscape descriptors. This includes to agree on numerical scales and assessment procedures, as well as to standardize them.

Inom det sociala arbetets praktik ser vi en ökad närvaro av internetrelaterade problem. Samtidigt föredrar allt fler människor webbaserad hjälp, samt råd och stöd i relation till mer traditionella behandlings- och preventionsprogram, vilket öppnar för nya möjligheter för det sociala arbetet.

We begin this chapter with a discussion of the history of ICBT and its roots in bibliotherapy and computerised CBT. We then provide a brief description of one way of administering guided ICBT, including the role of the therapist and data security issues. This description is followed by examples of conditions that are not covered later in the book, such as specific phobias and addictions. We end this chapter with a discussion of technical developments, cost-effectiveness and implementation.

The country-of-origin effect is a topic central to the field of international marketing. Country of origin has been found to exert a particularly potent effect on consumer evaluation in situations where there is a strong link between a country and a particular product category. The present study provides further insight into how this particular effect can be understood. Drawing on a novel conceptualization of how country image and product categories interact, this study tested the relative evaluative relevance of product category with respect to estimates of brand equity across a variety of product categories. The findings suggest that facets of a country's image that are more closely related to the evaluation situation exert a greater influence on the evaluation of brands. This result encourages scholars as well as practitioners to re-evaluate which situations might cause the country of origin effect to hold managerial relevance and paves the way for new paths toward a more comprehensive understanding of the effect. 

This study investigated the effects of a mock-up version of a low-height sound absorbent street furniture and a fountain on the local soundscape in a pocket park in Stockholm. Binaural recordings were conducted at two distances from the main road (on the sidewalk and in the park). The recordings were conducted with or without the mock-up, and with the local fountain either turned on or off. Thirty-two students (16 women, Mage = 26.6 yrs., SDage = 5.7) participated in a listening experiment, and assessed eight experimental sounds, in context of 12 fill sounds, on how pleasant or eventful they were. ANOVA showed that the mock-up had a stronger effect on pleasantness on the sidewalk than in the park, and the fountain contributed to pleasantness only in the absence of the mock-up. Moreover, the fountain reduced the eventfulness in the park but not on the sidewalk. The results are in line with previous case studies. Taken together, they suggest that it is better to build low-height sound absorbent street furniture  han fountains, to improve the urban soundscape.

We examine relationships between social identity domains (ethnic, national, and religious) and negative affect among Turkish–Bulgarian and Turkish–German youth. Path analysis confirmed a multiple social identities (MSI) factor that has negative relations to experiencing negative affect for Turkish youth in both countries. Beyond this negative relationship, the component of national identity showed a positive relationship to negative affect for Turkish–Bulgarians, but not for Turkish–Germans. Our findings indicate that beyond the generally adaptive effect of MSI on youth development, unique components of social identity may not always be an asset: In an assimilative acculturation context (i.e., Bulgaria), the endorsement of national identity was not adaptive. Our research therefore highlights the need for a contextually differentiated view on “healthy” identity formation among immigrants for research and practice.

There is a need for improved normative information in particular for older persons. The present study provides neuropsychological test norms on seven cognitive tests used in a sample representing the general older driving population, when uncontrolled and controlled for physical health. A group of 463 healthy Swedish car drivers, aged 65 to 84 years, participated in a medical and neuropsychological examination. The latter included tests of visual scanning, mental shifting, visual spatial function, memory, reaction time, selective attention, and simultaneous capacity. Hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated that, when uncontrolled for health, old age was associated with significant impairment on all seven tests. Education was associated with a significant advantage for all tests except most reaction time subtests. Women outperformed men on selective attention. Controlling for health did not consistently change the associations with education, but generally weakened those with age, indicating rises in normative scores of up to 0.36 SD (residual). In terms of variance explained, impaired health predicted on average 2.5%, age 2.9%, education 2.1% and gender 0.1%. It was concluded (1)that individual regression-based predictions of expected values have the advantage of allowing control for the impact of health on normative scores in addition to the adjustment for various demographic and performance-related variables and (2) that health-adjusted norms have the potential to classify functional status more accurately, to the extent that these norms diverge from norms uncontrolled for physical health.

Enkätmetodik ger såväl teoretisk som praktisk kunskap om enkätundersökningar från att identifiera ett problem och formulera lämpliga frågor, till att analysera och tolka resultatet. Boken har ett evidensbaserat perspektiv där läsaren får lära sig olika verktyg som bidrar till undersökningens tillförlitlighet.

Fokus ligger på metodiken, som förklaras och sätts in i sitt sammanhang med hjälp av många exempel, faktarutor och tydliga beskrivningar. Läsaren får således god förståelse för centrala områden såsom mätteori, reliabilitet, validitet och faktoranalys.

The present study examines the effect of language experience on vocal emotion perception in a second language. Native speakers of French with varying levels of self-reported English ability were asked to identify emotions from vocal expressions produced by American actors in a forced-choice task, and to rate their pleasantness, power, alertness and intensity on continuous scales. Stimuli included emotionally expressive English speech (emotional prosody) and non-linguistic vocalizations (affect bursts), and a baseline condition with Swiss-French pseudo-speech. Results revealed effects of English ability on the recognition of emotions in English speech but not in non-linguistic vocalizations. Specifically, higher English ability was associated with less accurate identification of positive emotions, but not with the interpretation of negative emotions. Moreover, higher English ability was associated with lower ratings of pleasantness and power, again only for emotional prosody. This suggests that second language skills may sometimes interfere with emotion recognition from speech prosody, particularly for positive emotions.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Competence and Adherence Scale for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CAS-CBT). The CAS-CBT is an 11-item scale developed to measure adherence and competence in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety disorders in youth. A total of 181 videotapes from the treatment sessions in a randomized controlled effectiveness trial (Wergeland et al., 2014) comprising youth (N = 182, M age = 11.5 years, SD = 2.1, range 8-15 years, 53% girls, 90.7% Caucasian) with mixed anxiety disorders were assessed with the CAS-CBT to investigate interitem correlations, internal consistency, and factor structure. Internal consistency was good (Cronbach's alpha = .87). Factor analysis suggested a 2-factor solution with Factor 1 representing CBT structure and session goals (explaining 46.9% of the variance) and Factor 2 representing process and relational skills (explaining 19.7% of the variance). The sum-score for adherence and competence was strongly intercorrelated, r = .79, p < .001. Novice raters (graduate psychology students) obtained satisfactory accuracy (ICC > .40, n = 10 videotapes) and also good to excellent interrater reliability when compared to expert raters (ICC = .83 for adherence and .64 for competence, n = 26 videotapes). High rater stability was also found (n = 15 videotapes). The findings suggest that the CAS-CBT is a reliable measure of adherence and competence in manualized CBT for anxiety disorders in youth. Further research is needed to investigate the validity of the scale and psychometric properties when used with other treatment programs, disorders and treatment formats.

Decisions were sampled from 108 participants during 8 days using a web-based diary method. Each day participants rated experienced regret for a decision made, as well as forecasted regret for a decision to be made. Participants also indicated to what extent they used different strategies to prevent or regulate regret. Participants regretted 30% of decisions and forecasted regret in 70% of future decisions, indicating both that regret is relatively prevalent in daily decisions but also that experienced regret was less frequent than forecasted regret. In addition, a number of decision-specific regulation and prevention strategies were successfully used by the participants to minimize regret and negative emotions in daily decision making. Overall, these results suggest that regulation and prevention of regret are important strategies in many of our daily decisions.

In contrast to much research concerned with differences in male and female managers’ leadership strategies, this study focuses on how organizational arrangements vary for managers in differently genderized contexts; it explores the opportunities for frontline managers in municipal services to fulfil their assignment. The organisational preconditions for over 400 managers of municipal health and social care, education and technical services are analysed in a cross-level and comparative research design. The results indicate that managers of feminized care services work in an environment with fewer resources, less organisational support and larger spans of control, than managers in masculinized municipal services. These results shed light on meso-level mechanisms involved in the unequal distribution of health risks among men and women in working life.

Learning new motor skills may become more difficult with advanced age. In the present study, we randomized 56 older individuals, including 30 women (mean age 70.6 years), to 6 weeks of motor training, mental (motor imagery) training, or a combination of motor and mental training of a finger tapping sequence. Performance improvements and post-training functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) were used to investigate performance gains and associated underlying neural processes. Motor only training and a combination of motor and mental training improved performance in the trained task more than mental-only training. The fMRI data showed that motor training was associated with a representation in the premotor cortex and mental training with a representation in the secondary visual cortex. Combining motor and mental training resulted in both premotor and visual cortex representations. During fMRI scanning, reduced performance was observed in the combined motor and mental training group, possibly indicating interference between the two training methods. We concluded that motor and motor imagery training in older individuals is associated with different functional brain responses. Furthermore, adding mental training to motor training did not result in additional performance gains compared to motor-only training and combining training methods may result in interference between representations, reducing performance.

Many studies have documented the efficacy and effectiveness of using virtual reality to conduct exposure in the treatment of anxiety disorders (Wiederhold &amp; Bouchard, 2014). However, the factors related to treatment outcome remain unclear. In this symposium, four studies will be presented in order to document: (a) the role of presence in the potential of virtual reality (VR) to induce anxiety reactions in people suffering from an anxiety disorder (PTSD); (b) mechanisms of change, including treatment expectations, in the cognitive behavior treatment (CBT) of panic disorder where VR and in vivo techniques were used to conduct exposure; (c) the role of cognitive changes and self-efficacy compared to other predictors of change, such as presence and treatment alliance, in the CBT of social anxiety using VR and in vivo exposure; and (d) expanding these findings on predictors of change to augmented reality exposure for specific phobia. The first study is based on an experimental anxiety induction protocol while the other three use randomized control trials. The findings highlight to contribution of a few factors specific to technology-based exposure and those common to CBT of anxiety disorders. Attendees to the symposium will benefit from a clear understanding of what are the few key factors they need to take into account when conducting exposure with VR and augmented reality.

Previous studies have linked positive emotions with creativity, but it remains unknown why creative activities may enhance positive emotions. We tested how creative tasks influence autonomous self-expression and task absorption, and whether this in turn increases positive emotions. Data from 478 participants were divided into four language samples (English, German, Italian, and Polish) and analyzed in a series of multigroup structural equation models. The indirect effects were replicated in all samples. Creative tasks enhanced positive emotions through an increase in autonomy. However, participants who solved creative tasks also reported lower task absorption, and this has hindered their experience of positive emotions. In total, a small increase of positive emotions was recorded for creative tasks in comparison to non-creative ones. We suggest that creative activities may support autonomous functioning and enhance positive emotions, given that participants will stay sufficiently focused on the task.

The Roma represent the most relevant and sizable ethnic minority across Europe with estimates varying from 10 up to 15 million of people. However, discrepancy in external (ascribed by others) and internal or self-defined ethnic identification of Roma are largely present in Europe and Romania in particular. We set out to explore internal and external ethnic identification of Romanian Roma by investigating Roma communities from 58 Romanian sites (10 cities and 48 villages), based on data collected from local experts (policemen, teachers, social workers, religious leaders). Results showed that: a) external ethnic identification (identification made by others) is three times higher than the official census data and the extreme poverty is the common characteristic of Roma communities; b) according to local experts, main markers to identify Roma refer to geographic proximity, extreme poverty, poor living conditions and enlarged family size. Implications for social inclusion programs at local and European level are discussed along with directions for future research.

This study investigated the effects of cognitive dissonance on abstract thinking. According to action-identification theory, whenever people try to understand a situation in a new way, they activate an abstract mindset. Based on this premise, dissonance was hypothesized to put people in an abstract mindset. The induced compliance paradigm, in which participants are asked to write a counter-attitudinal essay under either low choice (producing little dissonance) or high choice (producing more dissonance), was employed. Results showed that dissonance did in fact activate a more abstract mindset, and this effect was more pronounced for participants having a more concrete mindset to begin with. This suggests that increasing abstraction, as a reaction to cognitive conflict, is a way for people to resolve inconsistencies.

In this study, we investigated how individuals’ abstract thinking increases when experiencing dissonance. Dissonance theory holds that people reduce dissonance by accommodating their attitudes in order to fit their most recent behavior. This process resembles the reasoning of action-identification theory (AIT), which postulates that people usually try to understand their actions in a meaningful and coherent way, and also that actions can take on new meanings when people move from a low-level to a high-level understanding of the action. Thus, acting inconsistently threatens the coherent understanding of ones action; and in order to regain a sense of consonance, people will try to find a new meaning of their action (e.g., via attitude change). However, this occurs when moving to a high-level understanding (i.e., thinking more abstractly) of ones action. However, the effect of dissonance on abstraction should be stronger for individuals with low level of abstraction to begin with – since AIT holds that people who naturally tend to think abstractly already have high-level understandings of their actions. We predicted that: (1) dissonance puts people in a more abstract mindset, and (2) this effect will be more apparent for individuals low in abstraction. First, we established participants’ natural tendencies to abstract thinking with the Gestalt Completion Test (GCT). This variable was later split into low and high GCT. Several days later, we employed the induced compliance paradigm, in which participants were asked to write a counter-attitudinal essay under either low choice or high choice. High-choice participants usually experience more dissonance. We also created a neutral condition (to serve as a comparison to the other conditions) in which individuals were asked to write a pro-attitudinal essay. After the induced compliance manipulation, the Behavior Identification Form (BIF) was used to measure abstraction. The sample consisted of 125 non-psychology students. A 3 (condition: high-choice vs. low-choice vs. neutral) ˙ 2 (GCT: low vs. high) between subjects factorial ANOVA showed that participants in the high-choice condition (who experienced more dissonance) did exhibit a more abstract mindset, and level of GCT moderated this effect. The following simple effects analysis showed a significant effect for the low-GCT groups: (F(2, 119) = 6.607, p = .002, &#951;2 = .100) and the pairwise comparisons revealed that high-choice participants exhibited a significantly more abstract mindset (M = 16.65, SD = 4.54) compared to both the low-choice participants (M = 13.18, SD = 4.45) p = .013, d = .77 and the neutral participants (M = 12.25, SD = 4.71) p < .001, d = .95. No significant effects were found when comparing the high-GCT groups (p = .398). The present study demonstrated that dissonance activates abstract thinking, which is thought to facilitate people’s understanding their recent actions. This finding has important implication for the future study of consequences of cognitive conflicts, and also the study of how abstraction enables people to find new meanings of their own actions. Hence, investigation on these mechanisms could shed more light on how people regulate their thoughts, emotions and behavior in real time.

Internet-delivered cognitive behavior therapy (ICBT) has a relatively short history, with the first trials being conducted in the late 1990s. Since then well above 120 randomized controlled trials suggest that ICBT can be effective. Effect sizes for ICBT have been well within the range of face-to-face CBT with the exception of unguided programs (e.g., not even minimal therapist contact), which usually, but not always, result in smaller effects. So, the evidence is there but how is it done? In this keynote Carlbring will present recent research findings from efficacy and effectiveness studies, but also share experiences of how to become a true expert internet therapist. It is clear that therapist guidance generally is important for good outcome – but how much, how often and when should you do it? And most importantly, what should you write in your feedback? Based on the Swedish research from analyzing the written content of email messages, sent from both the client and the therapist, suggestions will be shared.

In the keynote short clinical case examples will be provided together with screenshots and demonstration of treatment systems including the Swedish web platform as well as a gamified virtual reality exposure therapy intervention. Furthermore, a recently tested smartphone application will also be briefly presented.

Finally, you will learn about the risk of negative effects of Internet-based cognitive behavior therapy and how to measure the occurrence of symptom deterioration, adverse and unwanted events, and their relationship with long term treatment outcome.