PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

S B Hansson

Publications and source records attributed to S B Hansson.

8 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↗
PubMed1988

Relation of mobility-fixity to the interpretation of pictorial stimuli.

A group of 61 students who had previously (in 1986) been classified by Hansson, Rydén, and Johnsson in terms of perceptual fixity-mobility using a "free" Rod-and-Frame Test, were investigated regarding their interpretations of a nonfigurative stimulus shown repetitively at short exposure-times, and their characterization of two pictures each portraying two soldiers in intensive interaction--one man apparently attacking the other in the first picture and apparently rescuing or taking care of the other man in the second. Mobile subjects on the free Rod-and-Frame Test reported a larger number of different interpretations of the nonfigurative stimulus and construed it more frequently in terms of human themes than did the fixed subjects; in rating the pictures of soldiers, they used more extreme and complex characteristics. It appeared that, when confronted with ambiguous stimuli, the mobile individual moves both "horizontally", as it were, along the surface of objective reality, and "vertically", from present to past realities, thus conjoining subjective-emotional and objective-analytic aspects of perception. This interpretation agrees with Werner's model of mobility-fixity which implies that the mobile individual operates on different developmental levels of perceptual functioning.

Attention↗
PubMed1987

Relationship between differentiation and integration of self and nonself: an investigation in terms of modes of perceptual adaptation.

Differentiation and integration of self- and nonself-aspects of perception were investigated as features of the process of adapting to a spiral aftereffect (SAE) induced with massed trials. The cessation of the SAE at each trial was assumed to indicate that self-aspects of perception had been differentiated from nonself-aspects, changes in SAE duration over trials being considered to represent the integration of these aspects. Degree and stability of self-nonself-differentiation, reflected in the level and persistence of field-dependence measured on a serial version of the Rod and Frame Test, varied between individuals (N = 129). The results suggest that persistent field-independence requires both self- and nonself-aspects of perception to be adequately and continuously represented in an integrative process which is oriented towards stimulus-proximity, self-aspects of perception being successively replaced by nonself-aspects.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1986

Field-dependence/independence: ability in relation to mobility-fixity.

Previous authors have pointed out that, while the classic Rod-and-Frame Test (RFT) yields a measure of ability to perform field-independently, it is unsuitable for identifying stylistic preference, such as mobility-fixity within the field-dependence/independence dimension. To relate mobility-fixity and ability aspects of field-dependence/independence, we compared data obtained from two versions of the test: one with a "free" instruction, on which the subjects were invited to adjust the rod to any position(s) they preferred on each of 10 trials and a process-oriented version (RFT-P), involving 20 trials with the standard instruction but with a constant rod-and-frame configuration, making possible analysis of the process of adaptation. Mobility versus fixity was defined in terms of more or less frequent changes of rod positions and choice of a high or a low proportion of nongeometrical positions in the RFT-Free. 38 female and 23 male university students completed first the RFT-Free and thereafter the RFT-Process. Women were more field-dependent than men throughout the RFT-Process trials; there were no differences between the sexes over trials or in choice of positions in the RFT-Free. Compared with field-dependent subjects, field-independent subjects more often changed rod positions in the RFT-Free and preferred nongeometrical positions somewhat more. Among field-independent subjects, those with consistently low deviations in RFT-Process more often preferred a variety of nongeometrical positions in RFT-Free than did those with gradually increasing deviations. We conclude that field-independence is associated with mobility and field-dependence with fixity, as defined by the RFT-Free variables, and that a prerequisite for high mobility is a relative stability of field-independence as reflected on the RFT-Process. Theoretical implications of this conclusion are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Bronchial reactivity in patients with recent pulmonary sarcoidosis.

Non-specific bronchial reactivity was assessed in 17 consecutive non-smoking and non-steroid treated patients with recently diagnosed pulmonary sarcoidosis, 11 with stage I disease and six with stage II disease. Bronchial reactivity was measured by recording the FEV1 after increasing doses of methacholine. Three subjects with asthma were hyperreactive. The 14 subjects with no asthma had a mean FEV1 of 96% predicted. Only one was hyperreactive, with a fall in FEV1 of over 15% after 0.1% methacholine. The median provocative concentration causing a 15% fall in FEV1 did not differ from that in a normal population studied previously. It is concluded that sarcoidosis seldom induces airway hyperreactivity within one year of diagnosis in patients with normal spirometric values.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Differentiation of back pain patients using a pain questionnaire.

A specially designed pain questionnaire was administered to 52 consecutive out-patients referred to an orthopaedic clinic of a general hospital over a two week period because of pain in the lower back. A clinical evaluation, based on the patients' markings on 'pain drawings', and on the degree of compatibility between their reported pain symptoms and the results of physical examinations, led to the classification of 21 cases (40%) as psychogenic. The answers of these patients to the questionnaire differed in several aspects from those of the remaining 60%. Pain was more severe, multiform and enduring, and had a more pervasive influence on their life situation; they included a higher frequency of family problems, changes of employment, stress experienced at work, sleeping problems, and 'specialist shopping'. Without being aware of which patients were classified as psychogenic cases, the orthopaedic surgeons made less auspicious prognoses for these patients and also found the questionnaire more helpful in evaluating them. When asked to rate the intensity of the patients' pain, the surgeons, unlike the patients, avoided extreme ratings. Comparing the two scales used (a six-step verbal scale and a 10 cm graphic rating scale (GRS) for rating pain intensity, patients found the GRS to be more meaningful. The words occupied different relative positions on the verbal scale and the GRS, and their position on the GRS fluctuated according to whether they denoted general pain or pain during attacks. The findings suggest that the questionnaire is a useful screening tool for identifying patients requiring further psychological evaluation.

Adult↗