Ingegerd Carlsson

Anxiety and Flexibility of Defense Related to High or Low Creativity

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in anxiety and defense mechanisms between differently creative people. Two extreme groups that scored either very high or very low on a test of the creative function were selected from a larger cohort (N = 60). Each group consisted of 12 male undergraduate students, who took a test of defense mechanisms and completed anxiety inventories. The results showed that the high-creative group had more anxiety than the low-creative group. The high-creative group also used a greater number of different defense categories than the low-creative group. The number of defense categories was positively correlated with a fluency measure in the creativity test. These results are discussed in terms of variability in basal arousal, flexibility, and a creative defensive style.

Creativity and the Subliminal Manipulation of Projected Self-Images.

Abstract: This is a report of two experiments on the relationship between creativity and the effects of manipulations of self‐image. Creativity was estimated with the Creative Functioning Test (CFT), an assessment of the tendency to bar the use of subjective interpretations when the support for a “correct” interpretation is being gradually eroded. Self‐image was manipulated in the Identification Test (IT). This involves a backwards masking design in which an ambiguous picture of a face is presented briefly on a viewing screen, preceded by either of two subliminal verbal messages. These were I SUPERIOR and I INFERIOR in a pilot study (n = 25) and I GOOD and I BAD in the main study (n = 33). In the latter, there was also an interview which served to further cross‐validate the CFT. In both studies, creative subjects alternated between reporting young faces and adult ones significantly more often than uncreative subjects. Their identity was not, then, fixedly adult. Creative and uncreative subjects also defen...

Lateralization of defence mechanisms: Differing influences on perception with left and right visual field presentation of anxiety‐arousing stimulation

Forty‐five undergraduate students were randomly divided into two groups and tested with the Meta‐Contrast Technique (MCT), in the left or right visual field (VF). In the MCT, the presentation of a subliminal threatening picture is intended to evoke anxiety and ego mechanisms of defence against it. More signs of repressive plus isolating defences were found in the left hemisphere (LH) group. Signs of projection plus regression tended to be more common in the right hemisphere (RH) group. The total number of anxiety signs in the MCT protocols did not differ between the groups. A clear sex difference was noticed, namely that the female LH and RH groups showed significant lateralization, while the male groups did not differ significantly on a combined defensive score. The data suggest that the left and right hemispheres may show differing perceptual styles, which are described as ego mechanisms of defence in the psychoanalytic literature.

On the interpretation of pictures with and without a content of child sexual abuse

OBJECTIVE The purposes of the three experiments were to validate the possibility of a picture to evoke the recognition of child sexual abuse, to determine if the picture was anxiety evoking, and to investigate if the content of child sexual abuse would be transferred to a neutral picture. METHOD In all three experiments, adult men and women were presented with a drawing intended to depict child sexual abuse, and were requested to interpret the picture. Experiment 1: Before and after the picture presentation, 226 participants were given a test of anxiety. Experiment 2: After the exposure of the child abuse picture, 200 new participants were asked to interpret an innocent child-adult picture. Experiment 3: To complete Experiment 2, 89 new participants were asked to interpret the pictures in the reverse order. RESULTS Almost three-fourths of the participants saw child sexual abuse in the picture with a sexual threat. Those in Experiment 1 who saw the picture as child sexual abuse or as a problematic child-adult situation without sexual implications reported a significant increase of anxiety level. None in Experiment 2 or 3 saw child sexual abuse in the innocent picture. The sex of the abused child was significantly more often interpreted as opposite to ones own sex. CONCLUSIONS The study indicates some peoples deficient capacity to recognize the message of child sexual abuse in the picture. It seems that certain people can spare themselves anxiety by not registering the childs precarious situation or not seeing the child as being of their own sex. This has implications for the recognition of child sexual abuse in society. It was also shown that a sexual abuse theme was not transferred from one context to another context, which immediately followed it.

Sleep and the generalization of fear learning

Fear conditioning is an important survival mechanism, as is the ability to generalize learned fear responses to stimuli that are similar to the original conditioned stimulus. Overgeneralization of fear learning, prominent in many anxiety disorders, is however highly maladaptive. Because sleep is involved in the consolidation of fear learning, and in active processing of information, the present study explored the effect of sleep on generalization of fear learning. Participants watched a random sequence of pictures of a small and a big circle, one of them coupled with an aversive sound. Then, after a delay period containing either a nap or wake, generalization was examined as participants watched the two circles again, together with eight novel circles that gradually varied in size between the former two. Results showed that the fear response increased as a function of similarity to the conditioned response. However, there was no difference in the degree of generalization between the sleep and the wake group.

Process and personality : actualization of the personal world with process-oriented methods

This book is a joint effort of like-minded researchers to define the concept of process within a psychological setting. Although minor differences exist as regards choice of background theory, their common focus is on personality in a broad psychodynamic context. Their definition of personality rests on a series of test instruments that have been validated during decades of thorough and vigorous empirical work. These were originally designed to open up micro-processes underlying the adaptation to or construction of reality, and have subsequently proven diagnostically efficient. Coming from both sides of the Atlantic, the contributors have their background in psychological as well as medical institutions. The contributions in the book are examples of a vital source sustaining our efforts to get a more profound understanding of the vicissitudes of the human mind.

No Effect of Sleep on the Generalization of Fear Learning

Objective: The aim of this study was to describe the prevalence and characteristics of periodic legs movements of sleep (PLMS) in theadult general population. Methods: Data from 2162 subjects (51.2% women, mean SD age:58, 11 years, range: 40.5-84.4 years) participating in a population-based cohort study (HypnoLaus, Lausanne, Switzerland) wascollected. They completed a series of sleep related questionnaires and underwent polysomnographic recordings at home. PLMS index(PLMSI) was determined according to AASM 2007 criteria. APLMSI>15/h was considered to be of potential clinical significance. Conclusions: PLMS are highly prevalent in the general population. Age, male gender and RLS are independent predictors of a PLMSIhigher than 15/h. Further studies are needed to evaluate the clinical impact of PLMS.16 Social burden and management of sleep disorders P. Jennum Danish Center for Sleep Medicine, Department of Clinical Neurophysiology Glostrup Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark Sleep disorders, such as insomnias, obstructive sleep apnoea, and central hypersomnias (narcolepsy, idiopathic hypersomnia), short sleep or sleep loss, and restless leg syndrome, are common disorders or complaints with a significant healthcare burden with consequences for healthcare contacts, medication use, education, employment and the risk of traffic accidents. There is now compelling evidence that the health-related (direct) and social (indirect) costs are significant, and comparable to those of other major disease areas. Thus, in order to care properly for patients presenting with sleeprelated morbidity, and to reduce the consequential economic burden, accurate screening efforts and effective, cost-effective treatments need to be developed and employed. Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.Objective: There is limited knowledge about the prospective relation between work characteristics (stress, physical work environment, work hours) and disturbed sleep. The present study sought to provide such knowledge. Method: The study was based on self-rated questionnaire data from two waves of the SLOSH cohort, The Swedish Longitudinal Occu- pational Survey of Health, an approximately representative sample of the working population in Sweden. In total, 5741 persons (54% women, age 24–72, gainfully employed at both waves) were included in the analyses. Results: Work-related factors at T1 (e.g. work demands, control, social support, physical work environment, work hours and stress) were analyzed with logistic regression with sleep disturbances at T2 as the outcome. Work demands (OR 95% CI, 1.57; 1.28–1.93) and stress (1.51; 1.27–1.85) at T1 predicted sleep disturbances at T2. When the work related predictors from T1 and T2 were combined, persistent high work demands and stress levels related to disturbed sleep at T2, as did an increase in stress and decrease in social support. A reverse relation between disturbed sleep at T1 and stress and high work demands at T2 was also found, suggesting a bidirectional relationship. Neither shift work, long hours, heavy physical work, noise at work, nor poor lighting conditions predicted disturbed sleep. Conclusions: Psychosocial risk factors at work related to subse- quent self-reported disturbed sleep, but long hours, shift work and physical work environment variables did not. The results are important for understanding the role of work factors in sleep disturbances. Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Chapter 11 – Personality

Publisher Summary Trait words are the natural units in personality descriptions. Traits capture a persons typical behavior, and thus describe what a person is generally like. The enormous variety of traits, or trait names in use have tempted scholars of personality to construct typological schemata—sometimes termed super factors—of which the most popular include both psychological traits and somatic attributes. These sets of traits are purported to be universal, in the sense that everyone would have them to a greater or lesser degree. Most trait theorists rely on self-report questionnaires and different kinds of multivariate statistical techniques to capture the traits. Factor analysis is the dominating statistical tool. Trait seems to be a practical designation, and looking at the accumulated research, much is done in the field of trait and personality. However, on second thoughts, it may not be as practical as presumed by advocates of the Descriptive Trait Approach in the investigation of personality. Trait does not fit naturally into the individuals historical context, as is necessary to comprehend how distinctive personality features have come about. The main reason for this is that trait is a static concept, a reified once-and-for-all designation.

She, You and They – More Actors on the Creativity Research Stage!

Abstract The commentary confirms and builds on Glăveanu’s critical scrutiny of the current stage of creativity research. The need for more actors, theories, methods and definitions will not be fulfilled until critical reflection concerning what has been done and synthesis between different research attempts are achieved. The authors first expand the creativity stage by discussing what will happen in creativity research attempts if we alternate with a “ she, you and they” perspective? They then present a new definition of creativity. Creativity is seen as a collective, generative, novel way of experiencing reality ending with the idea of a shared product that is evaluated as creative in a relevant context. This definition is in line with the development of a new creativity tool or measurement, the Test for Distributed Creativity in Organizational Groups (DOG). The DOG can be used both for measuring the products of creative groups and investigating their processes.

Enhancing team creativity with playful improvisation theater : a controlled intervention field study

ABSTRACT This study investigates the impact of an intervention of playful improvisational theater on organizational creativity. Teams from nine participating organizations (N = 93) completed pre- and post-test measures of adult playfulness, workplace playfulness, individual creativity, group creativity, and psychological safety. Group creativity was assessed with the newly developed test Distributed Creativity in Organizational Groups. The intervention group (n = 50) participated in improvisation training, whereas the control group (n = 43) did not. After the intervention, the intervention group reported higher scores of workplace playfulness, individual creativity, and group creativity compared to the control group. Individual creativity was positively correlated with adult playfulness. No differences were found for psychological safety. The findings suggest that organizational playfulness can be increased with brief interventions and that play is a promising enhancer of organizational creativity.