Psychological well-being of the parents and child development, behavior, and quality of life in very low birth weight infants

The parents of premature infants, especially the mothers, are at increased risk for distress. Infants born prematurely are at risk for developmental problems. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the psychological well-being of both parents is associated with child development in very low birth weight (VLBW, ≤1500g) children. The burden of prematurity-related morbidity to the children and to the family was also assessed. A cohort of 201 VLBW infants born during 2001–2006 in the Turku University Hospital, Finland, and their parents were studied (I–IV). One study included a control group (n=166) of full-term infants (IV). The psychological well-being of the parents was evaluated by assessments of depressive symptoms, parenting stress, the sense of coherence and general family functioning. Cognitive, behavioral, and socio-emotional development, and the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of the children were determined when the children were 2 to 8 years old. The psychological well-being of the parents was associated with the cognitive, behavioral and social development of the VLBW children. The VLBW infants with prematurity-related morbidities had a poorer HRQoL and the general functioning of the family was inferior compared to the control children and their families. 64.5% of the VLBW children survived without morbidities. Most of the VLBW children did not have significant behavior problems (93%), had normal social skills (63%), had no emotional problems (64%), and had no problems in executive functioning (62%). Only 3% of the surviving VLBW infants had significant cognitive delay. In conclusion, the depressive symptoms and stress of the parents can be risk factors for disadvantageous child development, while a strong sense of coherence can be protective. Parents of the premature children with developmental delays might also experience more depressive symptoms and stress than other parents. Prematurity-related morbidities were a burden to the VLBW child as well as to the family.

Psykologia

Psykologian pääkokoelma sijaitsee pääkirjastossa (Linnassa), jossa painettu yleis- ja käsikirjastokokoelma koostuu noin 7200 nimekkeestä monografioita (painettujen monografiasarjojen osat mukaan lukien). Psykologia-kokoelmasta noin 2/3 käsitteli psykologian erikoisaloja ja 1/3 yleistä psykologiaa. Molemmista ryhmistä kartoitettiin kaksi osa-aluetta. Kehitys- ja lapsipsykologiaa käsitteli noin 1/5 kirjoista (1445 nimekettä), joten se oli selvin painopisteala. Kognitiivista & oppimisen psykologiaa käsitteli 14,6 % kirjoista (1050 nimekettä). Persoonallisuuden psykologian (9,5 % / 683 nimekettä) sekä tunteiden & emootioiden (5,6 % / 400 nimekettä) osuudet kirjakokoelmasta olivat pienehköjä. Käsikirjaston karsitussa noin 100 nimekkeen kokoelmassa on hakuteoksia, sanastoja, bibliografioita jne. Painettuja lehtiä oli 11 nimekettä (Behavior Analyst, Cognition and Emotion, Mielenterveys, Perceptual and Motor Skills, Perheterapia, Psychological Reports, Psychotherapy Research, Psykologi, Psykologia, Ryhmätyö ja Voltti). Sähkökirjoja kokoelmassa oli 22 nimekettä NetLibrary-tietokannassa, noin 487 nimekettä Ebrary-tietokannassa sekä 3 nimekettä sähköisinä hakuteoksina (Encyclopedia of Applied Psychology, International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences ja A Dictionary of Psychology). Verkkolehtiä kokoelmassa oli noin 450 nimekettä. Tietokantoja oli 4 kokotekstitietokantaa (PsycArticles, EbscoHost Academic Search Premier, Elsevier ScienceDirect ja Annual Reviews: Social Sciences) sekä 3 viitetietokantaa (PsycINFO, PsiTri ja Social Sciences Citation Index).

Behavioral Responses in Mice Selectively Bred for High and Low Levels of Open-Field Thigmotaxis

In animal psychology, the open-field (OF) test is a traditional method for studying different aspects of rodent behavior, with thigmotaxis (i.e., wallseeking behavior) being one of the best validated OF parameters employed to measure emotionality. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the selection response in mice selectively bred for high and low levels of OF thigmotaxis (the HOFT and LOFT lines, respectively). The mice (N = 2048) were selected for 23 generations, resulting in bidirectional phenotypic divergence between the two lines; that is, the HOFT mice were more thigmotactic (i.e., more emotional) than the LOFT mice across the different generations. The origin of the line difference in thigmotaxis was further investigated by using the crossfostering paradigm, with the results suggesting that the divergence between the two lines was primarily innate in origin and not influenced by differing maternal behavior. The stability of the selection trait was examined by testing the animals at different ages as well as in varying conditions. The results indicated that the line difference in thigmotaxis was not affected by age at the time of testing, and it also persisted in the different OF testing situations as well as during pregnancy and lactation. The examination of a possible coselection of other characteristics revealed that the more thigmotactic HOFT mice lived longer than the less thigmotactic LOFT mice. In addition, the HOFT mice tended to rear and explore less than the LOFT mice, supporting the general assumption that emotionality and exploration are inversely related. The two lines did not generally differ in ambulation and defecation, that is, in the traditional OF indexes of emotionality, conforming to the suggestion that emotionality is a multidimensional construct. The effects of sex on different OF parameters were also assessed, with the results suggesting that among the HOFT and LOFT lines, the female mice were more emotional than the male mice. The examination of the temporal changes in the HOFT and LOFT lines’ OF behavior revealed some contradictory findings that also partially conflicted with general assumptions. Although this study did not show prominent differences in maternal responsiveness between the HOFT and LOFT mothers, the results suggested that the line divergence in emotionality was more pronounced in the presence of a pup after parturition than during pregnancy. The present study clearly demonstrates that OF thigmotaxis is a strong characteristic for producing two diverging lines of mice. The difference in thigmotaxis between the selectively bred HOFT and LOFT mice seemed to be a stable and robust feature of these animals, and it appeared to stem from a genetic background.

From Fluid Dynamics to Human Psychology.What Drives Financial Markets Towards Extreme Events

For decades researchers have been trying to build models that would help understand price performance in financial markets and, therefore, to be able to forecast future prices. However, any econometric approaches have notoriously failed in predicting extreme events in markets. At the end of 20th century, market specialists started to admit that the reasons for economy meltdowns may originate as much in rational actions of traders as in human psychology. The latter forces have been described as trading biases, also known as animal spirits. This study aims at expressing in mathematical form some of the basic trading biases as well as the idea of market momentum and, therefore, reconstructing the dynamics of prices in financial markets. It is proposed through a novel family of models originating in population and fluid dynamics, applied to an electricity spot price time series. The main goal of this work is to investigate via numerical solutions how well theequations succeed in reproducing the real market time series properties, especially those that seemingly contradict standard assumptions of neoclassical economic theory, in particular the Efficient Market Hypothesis. The results show that the proposed model is able to generate price realizations that closely reproduce the behaviour and statistics of the original electricity spot price. That is achieved in all price levels, from small and medium-range variations to price spikes. The latter were generated from price dynamics and market momentum, without superimposing jump processes in the model. In the light of the presented results, it seems that the latest assumptions about human psychology and market momentum ruling market dynamics may be true. Therefore, other commodity markets should be analyzed with this model as well.

Understanding organizational wrongdoing

The topic is white collar crime in its organizational form. The research question is why otherwise law-abiding people engage in wrongful behavior within legitimate organizations and what kinds of dynamics are involved in wrongful organizational processes. This is a theoretical inquiry the method of which is to bring together relevant literature on organizational behavior regardless of the branch of science. In addition to criminological and sociolegal writings, I mostly refer to works of social psychology and organization theory. At first, I discuss the terminological multiplicity related to organizational white collar crime. In conclusion from a critical analysis of the dominant terms and definitions, I argue for the concept of organizational wrongdoing. The approach of organizational wrongdoing captures unethical, illegal and criminal organizational behavior. Thus, it is not retricted by legislative categories but ethical reasoning. The approach aims at grasping a behavioral entity, and state law crimes do not constitute an ontology of behavior. In order to understand organizational wrongdoing, the dominant criminological theories applied to white collar crime are discussed. To a surprisingly large extent, they lack a sophisticated organizational perspective and do not offer viable frameworks for building a plausible theory of organizational white collar crime. In order to fill the gap, I incorporate the social psychological dynamics of organizational behavior and present several findings on collective behavior that criminological theorization must come to terms with. ------ This publication has been first presented and accepted as a master's thesis at the Faculty of Law, University of Turku. It has been published on the series: Criminal Law and Judicial Procedure, Series B: 15, in print format. The publication was digitized in 2015 and published online.