Biomedical subjects

T Gärling

Publications and source records attributed to T Gärling.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2003

Phobic anxiety in 11 nations. Part I: Dimensional constancy of the five-factor model.

The Fear Survey Schedule-III (FSS-III) was administered to a total of 5491 students in Australia, East Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden, and Venezuela, and submitted to the multiple group method of confirmatory analysis (MGM) in order to determine the cross-national dimensional constancy of the five-factor model of self-assessed fears originally established in Dutch, British, and Canadian samples. The model comprises fears of bodily injury-illness-death, agoraphobic fears, social fears, fears of sexual and aggressive scenes, and harmless animals fears. Close correspondence between the factors was demonstrated across national samples. In each country, the corresponding scales were internally consistent, were intercorrelated at magnitudes comparable to those yielded in the original samples, and yielded (in 93% of the total number of 55 comparisons) sex differences in line with the usual finding (higher scores for females). In each country, the relatively largest sex differences were obtained on harmless animals fears. The organization of self-assessed fears is sufficiently similar across nations to warrant the use of the same weight matrix (scoring key) for the FSS-III in the different countries and to make cross-national comparisons feasible. This opens the way to further studies that attempt to predict (on an a priori basis) cross-national variations in fear levels with dimensions of national cultures.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2001

The short-EMBU in East-Germany and Sweden: a cross-national factorial validity extension.

The factorial stability and reliability of the 23-item s(hort)-EMBU previously demonstrated to be satisfactory in samples of students from Greece, Guatemala, Hungary and Italy, were extended with 791 students from East-Germany and Sweden. Previous findings on factorial validity, internal reliability and correlations among scales were replicated. The 23-item form thus continues to be recommended as a reliable functional equivalent to the early 81-item EMBU, when the clinical and/or research context does not adequately permit application of time-consuming test batteries.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2000

The effect of choice on intention-behavior consistency.

Three studies were conducted with the aim of investigating whether choice of behavioral alternative increases intention-behavior consistency. In Study 1 undergraduates were asked to write and mail back an essay on a topic they either chose or were assigned. Demonstrating an effect of choice, significantly more subjects who chose an essay topic mailed back the essays. These subjects also rated their intention to write the essay as stronger, thus suggesting that the difference between choice and no choice is that the intention is self-generated. Supporting this interpretation, no differences in mail-back rates were observed in Studies 2 and 3 between a difficult and easy choice condition. Furthermore, an alternative hypothesis that choice induces implementation intentions did not receive support since independent effects were in Study 2 found of deciding when and where to write the essay and in Study 3 of making an outline of the essay.

Adult↗

PubMed1996

Sequencing actions: an information-search study of tradeoffs of priorities against spatiotemporal constraints.

How people choose between sequences of actions was investigated in an everyday errand-planning task. In this task subjects chose the preferred sequence of performing a number of errands in a fictitious environment. Two experiments were conducted with undergraduate students serving as subjects. One group searched information about each alternative. The same information was directly available to another group. In Experiment 1 the results showed that for two errands subjects took into account all attributes describing the errands, thus suggesting a tradeoff between priority, wait time, and travel distance with priority being the most important. Consistent with this finding predominantly intraalternative information search was observed. These results were replicated in Experiment 2 for three errands. In addition choice outcomes, information search, and sequence of responding suggested that for more than two actions sequence choices are made in stages.

Adult↗

PubMed1996

Environmental influences on psychological restoration.

Research on psychological restoration and restorative environments is a needed complement to work on stress and environmental stressors. Two laboratory experiments tested the utility of two restorative environments theories, one concerned with directed attention capacity renewal and the other with stress reduction and associated changes in emotion. Various strategies were employed to distinguish restorative effects from other effects, to limit the role of arousal reduction in attentional restoration, and to begin mapping the time course for the emergence of outcomes. Both experiments tested for differential emotional and performance effects as a function of photographic environmental simulation (natural or urban environment). Across the experiments the natural environment simulation engendered generally more positive emotional self-reports. That consistent performance effects were not found in either study suggests that attentional restoration as reflected in performance is a more time-intensive process.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1995

Mothers' anticipation and prevention of unintentional injury to young children in the home.

Investigated anticipation and prevention of children's unintentional injuries in the home. 150 mothers of 1-, 2-, and 3-year-old children kept weekly diaries of anticipated injuries and unanticipated injuries/near injuries to their child. Mothers anticipated between 57 and 67% of all injury events, a majority when the child was in the same room as the injury-causing agent prior to interacting with it. Few anticipated injuries led to injury. In these cases no significant differences were found depending on child's age and sex. In contrast, mothers of younger children most frequently reported preventing injury by physically restricting or moving the child away and by changing the environment, whereas mothers of older children more frequently engaged in teaching.

Accidents, Home↗

PubMed1993

Mothers' supervision and perception of young children's risk of unintentional injury in the home.

Investigated whether control exerted through supervision is believed by mothers to reduce risk of unintentional injury to their children. 150 mothers of 1-, 2-, and 3-year-old children rated the risk of their child having an injury and indicated what injuries they anticipated in different rooms of the home under four conditions of supervision. A clear effect of supervision was observed in that rated risk and the number of anticipated injuries decreased depending on whether the mother was in the same room or not. Furthermore, a decrease was found when the mother was in the same room engaged in the same activity as the child (either playing with or being assisted by the child). The observed effects of supervision were less strong for older children and for rooms perceived as less dangerous.

Accident Proneness↗

PubMed1990

Discrimination of cardinal compass directions.

The study tested the hypothesis that east-west is more difficult to discriminate than north-south because pre-experimentally the former is associated with right-left and the latter with up-down (or front-behind). Forty-eight undergraduates first learned north, south, east, and west in slides of unknown places. In one condition the compass directions were indicated by labels. Arrows presented in the plane of the slides were in other conditions used to create different associations between the compass directions and the egocentric directions right-left and front-behind. In a subsequent RT task subjects indicated if the directions were the same or different in two consecutively presented slides. No reliable effects were found for same responses but different responses supported the hypothesis in being slower for east-west than north-south when associated with right-left (or left-right) and faster when associated with front-behind (or behind-front).

Adult↗

PubMed1990

A commentary on Rönnberg's distinction between perception and cognition.

In a commentary on a note by Rönnberg (Rönnberg, J. On the distinction between perception and cognition. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 1990, 31, 154-156), it is argued that one of Rönnberg's criteria for theoretically distinguishing perception from cognition, that of different biological purposes, is invalid. Congruent with a broad definition of perception and cognition which most researchers agree upon, Rönnberg's two other criteria essentially state that how internally represented information is processed distinguishes between perception and cognition. However, the more strict criterion of whether explicit retrieval of information from memory is necessary is too dependent on a particular, rather limited theoretical framework. A third, less theory-dependent criterion of whether the information available in the stimulus is sufficient to account for comprehension may be useful in research which investigates hypotheses about similarities between perception and cognition.

Cognition↗

PubMed1987