A cross-cultural investigation of the communication of suicidal intent in Swedish and Turkish adolescents

A recent study found that Swedish adolescents were more disapproving of a suicidal disclosure by a fictional friend than their Turkish counterparts. Given this finding, the present study investigated whether or not more adolescents in Turkey than in Sweden disclose their own suicidal thoughts to someone, to whom adolescents disclose their suicidal thoughts, what reactions such disclosures produce, and reasons for not disclosing suicidal feelings among 966 Swedish and 956 Turkish high school students. A questionnaire was used to collect information about different aspects of suicidal disclosures. More Turkish than Swedish adolescent suicide ideators disclosed their thoughts. More Turkish than Swedish students believed also that young people thinking about and planning suicide tell others of their plans and thereby ask for help. An overwhelming majority of adolescents in both groups revealed their thoughts to peers. The social reactions to suicidal disclosures in both samples were mainly positive. The two most common reasons for not disclosing in both groups involved interpersonal hopelessness. Adolescents who disclosed their past suicidal thoughts to someone reported having lower current suicidal ideation than those who had not. In line with favorable social attitudes towards suicidal disclosures and lower suicidal mortality rates in Turkey compared with Sweden, more Turkish than Swedish adolescents reported having disclosed their own suicidal thoughts to someone in their social milieu.     

The three-systems-model of fear and emotion—A critical examination

The ‘Three-Systems-Model’ of fear and emotion (Lang, 1968; Rachman. 1978b) is reviewed and discussed. The paper is centered on four topics relevant to such a view of fear; The definitional focus; Measurement and quantification of components; Implications for etiology; Implications for treatment of phobias. Definitional problems with the radical operationalist view implied by the Tree-Systems-Model are identified and discussed. In addition problems with measurement and quantification of the various components are discussed. Implications for etiology of phobic fears are noted. Finally, it is suggested that treatment methods be individually tailored to the particular component response-profile displayed by each patient, and that the identification of such a profile is included in standard behavioral diagnosis procedures when fear is clinically assessed.     

Acquisition of phobias and anxiety response patterns in clinical patients

The ways in which phobic patients (N = 106; animal-, social- and claustrophobics) acquired their phobias were investigated in the present study. The results showed that a large majority (58%) of the patients attributed their phobias to conditioning experiences, while 17% recalled vicarious experiences, 10% instructions/information and 15% could not recall any specific onset circumstances. There was no clearcut relationship between the ways of acquisition and anxiety components (subjective, behavioral, physiological), nor did the conditioning and indirectly acquired phobias differ in severity. However, some interesting trends emerged in the data, showing that animal phobics who recalled conditioning experiences to a larger extent also responded physiologically. For patients with indirect onset experiences (for all three types of phobias) the reverse was true, i.e. they responded to a larger extent in a cognitive-subjective way, rather than with increased physiological arousal.     

Conceptual system and personality: A multivariate study of system stage and personality correlates

Conceptual system as a cognitive-developmental variable in personality has been assumed to relate to different cognitions of self and others and of interpersonal relations at each developmental stage. The assumed relationship between conceptual system and some personality variables was studied in a group of students (N = 85). The “This-I-Believe” test (TIB) [Harvey, O. J. System structure, adaptability and creativity. In O. J. Harvey (Ed.), Experience, structure, and adaptability. New York: Springer, 1966.] for assessing the developmental stage of the conceptual system was administered together with personality scales for traits assumed important in socialization. A modified TIB scoring procedure was used. Highly significant differences in personality were obtained by a MANOVA, using conceptual system for classification. One dimension accounted for discrimination. Measures assumed to relate to sensitivity for and conformity to a social environment contributed most to the discrimination.     

Letter From Stockholm

Some of the ideas of Sigmund Freud were preceded in a literary form by the Swedish writer August Strindberg in the late 19th century. Psychoanalysis itself was introduced in Sweden about a decade into the 20th century by two rivalling pioneers, the doctors Emanuel af Geijerstam and Poul Bjerre. After a slow start, the Danish‐Norwegian Psychoanalytical Society and the Finnish‐Swedish Psychoanalytical Society were formed in 1934 in Stockholm. The same year, Ericastiftelsen [The Erica Foundation], a psychotherapeutic clinic for children, was founded by Hanna Bratt. Five years later, in 1939, also in Stockholm, the organization that was to become St. Lukasstiftelsen [The Saint Luke's Foundation] was founded. It has been, and still is, an association that has trained psychodynamic psychotherapists, with a focus on existential, religious and philosophical questions. Today, St. Luke's tries to be up‐dated from an academic standpoint. During the Second World War, several important psychoanalysts came to Sweden, for example René de Monchy, Lajos and Edith Székely, and Stefi Pedersen. Ola Andersson's doctoral dissertation (“Studies in the Prehistory of Psychoanalysis”, 1962) and the historian Gunnar Brandell's essay (“Freud, a Man of His Century”, 1961) have had an international impact. In the last two decades, an authorized and carefully edited translation of Freud's collected works has been published by Natur och Kultur, and the history of psychoanalysis in Sweden has been written at the University of Gothenburg. As a result of a recent interest in the work of Jacques Lacan, and French psychoanalysis, philosophy and literature, the journal Psykoanalytisk Tid/Skrift was founded in 2002, in Gothenburg. Since 2011 the journal is called Arche. The largest organized group of psychoanalysts in Sweden today is the Swedish Psychoanalytical Association (SPAF), which has around 225 members. Since 2008, it no longer has the right to license psychotherapists, a situation which reflects the position of psychoanalysis outside the mainstream of psychiatric health services and academic psychology. Despite the criticism of Freud's thinking from biologically and cognitively oriented theoretical standpoints, the interest in psychoanalysis endures.     

Uppsala 1968 – The Swedish Context

The 4th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Uppsala, Sweden, in 1968 was an event of global significance, drawing participants from around the world under the theme “Behold, I make all things new.” At the same time, it was an event taking place in Sweden – a country that by the 1960s had become a model of “responsible society,” with strong economic growth, an all‐encompassing welfare state, and an ambitious policy for international development that was channelling material aid to Southern Africa. For the Church of Sweden, the assembly marked a continuity with the 1925 World Conference on Life and Work convened in Stockholm by Swedish Archbishop Nathan Söderblom. In turn, the Swedish churches themselves were influenced by the Uppsala assembly, especially in the renewal of liturgy and worship. This article explores the Swedish dimension of the Uppsala assembly through examining the legacy of the Stockholm conference of 1925, the societal and political context in Sweden of the 1960s, the participation of youth, and the impact of the assembly on Swedish church life.     

Adolescent Place Attachment, Social Capital, and Perceived Safety: A Comparison of 13 Countries

In adolescence, children become increasingly independent and autonomous, and spend more time in neighborhood settings away from home. During mid-to-late adolescence, youth often become more critical about the place they live. Their attachment to home and even community may decrease as they explore and develop new attachments to other specific places. The aim of this study is to understand how 15-year-old students from 13 countries perceive their local neighborhood area (place attachment, social capital and safety), and how these different community cognitions are interrelated. We hypothesize that their place attachment predicts safety, and that the relationship is mediated in part by social capital. Result show that, despite cross-cultural differences in neighborhood perceptions, the proposed theoretical model fits robustly across all 13 countries.     

Individual response patterns and the effects of different behavioral methods in the treatment of claustrophobia

The importance of individual response patterns in claustrophobic patients was examined in the present study. Thirty-four psychiatric outpatients with a phobia of enclosed spaces were assessed in a small test chamber. During the test their overt behavior was video-taped, heart-rate was measured continuously, and self-ratings of experienced anxiety were made at certain intervals. On the basis of their reactions in the test situation, the patients were divided into two groups showing different response patterns—behavioral and physiological reactors. Within each group the patients were randomly assigned to one behaviorally-focused method (exposure), one physiologically-focused method (applied relaxation) and a waiting-list control group. The patients were treated individually in eight sessions. The between-group comparisons showed that both exposure and applied relaxation were significantly better than the waiting-list condition. Furthermore, exposure yielded better results than applied relaxation for the behavioral reactors, while applied relaxation was better than exposure for the physiological reactors. The improvements were maintained at a follow-up assessment 14 months after the end of treatment. The results support the hypothesis that greater effects are achieved when the method used fits the patient's response pattern than when it does not.     

Observations on the development of reaching for moving objects.

How infants come to master reaching for moving objects was studied in a situation where the distance to and the velocity of the moving object varied. Eleven infants participated in the study. They were from 12 to 24 weeks old at the first session, were seen at 3-week intervals until 30 weeks old, and were finally seen once at 36 weeks old. The following behaviors were observed from video recordings: frequency of fixated and followed motions, latency to first goal-directed behavior, type of goal-directed behaviors, and type of reaches. It was found that by the time the infant masters reaching for stationary objects he will also successfully reach for moving ones. Eighteen-week-old infants caught the object as it moved at 30 cm/sec. The results suggest a basic human capacity to time-coordinate one's behavior with external events, and to foresee in one's actions future positions of moving objects.