The effect of sensitization and coping style on post-traumatic stress symptoms and quality of life: two longitudinal studies

The present study investigated the effects of multiple trauma exposure and coping style on post-traumatic stress symptoms and quality of life. It was hypothesized that sensitization would occur in subjects repeatedly exposed to life-threatening situations (study 1), and different coping styles would act as a resilience or facilitating factor in symptom development (study 2). The results showed that the single-exposure group revealed a decrease in trauma specific stress reactions from three weeks to four months, with a persistent reduction at 12-month follow-up, while the repeated-exposure group showed an increase in symptom reporting over the 12-month period. The same pattern emerged for perceived quality of life-measured by the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-30). The second study revealed a correlation between scores on avoidant-focused coping style and the Impact of Event Scale-avoidance dimension, Post-traumatic Symptom Scale and GHQ-30. Furthermore, only subjects with a dominant coping style of emotion-focused or task-focused coping showed a reduction in trauma-specific symptom scores over time.     

Positive organizational behavior and safety in the offshore oil industry: Exploring the determinants of positive safety climate

Much research has now documented the substantial influence of safety climate on a range of important outcomes in safety critical organizations, but there has been scant attention to the question of what factors might be responsible for positive or negative safety climate. The present paper draws from positive organizational behavior theory to test workplace and individual factors that may affect safety climate. Specifically, we explore the potential influence of authentic leadership style and psychological capital on safety climate and risk outcomes. Across two samples of offshore oil-workers and seafarers working on oil platform supply ships, structural equation modeling yielded results that support a model in which authentic leadership exerts a direct effect on safety climate, as well as an indirect effect via psychological capital. This study shows the importance of leadership qualities as well as psychological factors in shaping a positive work safety climate and lowering the risk of accidents.     

The relationship between attachment, personality and antisocial tendencies in a prison sample: a pilot study

This study examined the role of adult attachment and personality in relation to antisocial tendencies (i.e. convictions for violence and interpersonal problems in romantic relationships) in Norwegian prison inmates (N=92). Attachment styles and personality were measured using self-report questionnaires (RSQ; Griffin & Bartholomew, 1994; and NEO-FFI, Costa & McCrae, 1992a). The prison inmates scored higher on avoidant than on anxious attachment style. While age and agreeableness (negatively associated) emerged as significant predictors of violence, anxious attachment explained most of the variances in aggression in intimate relationships. The study suggests that different types of antisocial tendencies could have different attachment and general personality correlates.     

Terrorism as a process: a critical review of Moghaddam's "Staircase to Terrorism"

This study reviews empirical evidence for Moghaddam's model "Staircase to Terrorism," which portrays terrorism as a process of six consecutive steps culminating in terrorism. An extensive literature search, where 2,564 publications on terrorism were screened, resulted in 38 articles which were subject to further analysis. The results showed that while most of the theories and processes linked to Moghaddam's model are supported by empirical evidence, the proposed transitions between the different steps are not. These results may question the validity of a linear stepwise model and may suggest that a combination of mechanisms/factors could combine in different ways to produce terrorism.     

Using the Job Demands-Resources model to investigate risk perception, safety climate and job satisfaction in safety critical organizations

Using the Job Demands-Resources model (JD-R) as a theoretical framework, this study investigated the relationship between risk perception as a job demand and psychological safety climate as a job resource with regard to job satisfaction in safety critical organizations. In line with the JD-R model, it was hypothesized that high levels of risk perception is related to low job satisfaction and that a positive perception of safety climate is related to high job satisfaction. In addition, it was hypothesized that safety climate moderates the relationship between risk perception and job satisfaction. Using a sample of Norwegian offshore workers (N = 986), all three hypotheses were supported. In summary, workers who perceived high levels of risk reported lower levels of job satisfaction, whereas this effect diminished when workers perceived their safety climate as positive. Follow-up analyses revealed that this interaction was dependent on the type of risks in question. The results of this study supports the JD-R model, and provides further evidence for relationships between safety-related concepts and work-related outcomes indicating that organizations should not only develop and implement sound safety procedures to reduce the effects of risks and hazards on workers, but can also enhance other areas of organizational life through a focus on safety.     

Predicting Transformational Leadership in Naval Cadets: Effects of Personality Hardiness and Training

The present study investigated whether personality hardiness predicts peer ratings of leadership style in Navy officer cadets. Cadets ( n  = 71) completed the Dispositional Resiliency (hardiness) Scale, and later rated their peers using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (full range of leadership model). Results show the hardy–commitment facet predicted peer ratings of all leadership styles covered in the model, both before and after and intensive military exercise. The challenge facet was a positive predictor of transformational and transactional leadership and was negatively related to passive-avoidant leadership. Transformational leadership predicted leader performance, as indexed by military development grades; and a partial mediation effect was found for hardiness on the relation between transformational leadership and leader performance.     

An exploratory study of differences in emotional intelligence in U.S. and Norwegian undergraduate students

The present study explored sex and cultural differences in Emotional Intelligence scores in samples from Norway (n = 297) and the United States (n = 234). Significant main effects for sex were found in overall Emotional Intelligence scores and the Empathy factor. In addition, results revealed a small but significant effect for culture in the Self-control factor, as well as support for an interaction between sex and culture in the Handling Relationships factor. The results are discussed in light of cultural differences between U.S. and Norwegian societies.     

The combined influence of hardiness and cohesion on mental health in a military peacekeeping mission: A prospective study

A large number of studies have shown that hardiness and cohesion are associated with mental health in a military context. However, most of them are presented without controlling for baseline mental health symptoms, which is their most significant source of error. The present study investigates the combined effect of hardiness and cohesion in a prospective design, controlling for baseline levels of symptoms among Norwegian personnel serving in a peacekeeping operation in Kosovo. Multivariate regression analyses were performed in which self‐reported mental health complaints were regressed on our explanatory variables. Our findings suggest that both cohesion and hardiness contributed to increased stress resiliency, as measured by a lower level of reported mental health complaints. Our baseline measure of mental health accounted for a larger proportion of the variance than our other predictors. A significant interaction between cohesion and hardiness suggested a combined effect, over and above the individual contributions of the predictors. For individuals who scored high on hardiness, cohesion levels did not influence levels of mental health complaints. Individuals who scored low on hardiness, on the other hand, reported lower levels of mental health complaints when cohesion levels were high.     

Dichotic listening and sleep deprivation: vigilance effects

Twelve sleep-deprived and 13 non-deprived Navy cadets were tested with the dichotic listening procedure for effects of sleep deprivation on hemispheric asymmetry and sustained attention. Consonant-vowel syllables were presented to the subjects in three different conditions, a divided (non-forced) attention condition, a forced right ear and a forced left ear attention condition. In the two forced attention conditions the subjects were instructed to focus attention only on the right or left ear stimulus. The results showed an expected right ear advantage for both groups during the non-forced and forced right attention conditions, indicating superior left hemisphere processing. During the forced left attention condition, the sleep-deprived subjects showed no ear advantage at all, while the non-deprived subjects showed an expected left ear advantage. The results are discussed within a theoretical framework of a dual process model, where sleep deprivation disrupts the ability to sustain attention, caused by a temporary failure of the right hemisphere's top-down (instruction-driven) processing to override the left hemisphere's bottom-up (stimulus-driven) processing.     

Trauma narratives and emotional processing

The present study examined the relations between indicators of emotional processing (e.g. trauma narratives), posttraumatic stress symptoms, and psychological distress in two military samples (N = 120) exposed to significant training accidents. Trauma narratives were collected at 2-3 weeks, while outcome measures (e.g. IES-15, PTSS-10, and GHQ-30) were collected at 2-3 weeks, and 4 months after the accidents. Emotional processing was indexed by the content of positive and negative emotional expressions in the trauma narratives. The results showed that positive emotional expressions were associated with lower levels of psychological distress, whereas negative emotional expressions were linked to trauma specific symptoms and psychological distress at 2-3 weeks. Negative emotional expressions explained between 6-8% of the variance in trauma specific symptoms at 2-3 weeks, and 11% of the variance in psychological distress symptoms at 4 months after the traumatic event.