Mid Sweden University

This study investigates the educational potential of role-playing exercises in addressingcomplex social phenomena such as attitude change, stereotyping, conformity,and racism. Building on prior research demonstrating the efficacy of role-playin reducing prejudice, this study aims to explore how such activities influenceboth cognitive and emotional engagement with these issues. The methodologyincluded observation and evaluation of a professionally facilitated role-playingactivity simulating the experience of being a refugee, conducted at an outdoormuseum. Follow-up focus group interviews were conducted 2–3 years after theparticipants, students from local secondary schools engaged in the exercise. Thefindings indicate that the role-play had a lasting impact on students’ perceptions offorced migration and asylum seeking. Participants reported both cognitive insightsand emotional responses, including empathy and personal reflection, as well asmoments of detachment. The role-playing event was consistently described asone of the most memorable educational activities during their school years. A keyimplication from the evaluation and interviews is that, for role-playing to be aneffective pedagogical tool in addressing sensitive topics such as xenophobiaand prejudice, careful planning and structured facilitation are crucial to ensuremeaningful and constructive outcomes.

Studies have found that bilinguals respond differently to personality measures in their two languages, indicating that bilinguals change their personality as they switch between their two languages and/or cultures. Across two experiments, we attempted to investigate the effect of language and culture separately on how bilingual speakers rate themselves on the personality dimensions on the Big-5 Personality Inventory. Swedish speakers were asked to imagine applying for a job either at a Swedish (home country/own culture) or an American (foreign country/culture) company, and they responded to the Big-5 questions in either their first language Swedish, or their second language English, in a 2 by 2 design. Overall, differences on several of the personality dimensions were found, mainly affected by the language factor, generally replicating previous research. These results suggest that separate processes may be driving previously found differences on personality measures in bilinguals' two languages to some extent, and that these processes affect the personality dimensions (as measured by the Big-5 personality inventory) differently, even if the language variable seems to be the stronger indicator.

Gender stereotypes play a potent role in how the work of men and women is perceived and valued. Stereotypes also influence the way people look upon themselves. In the present research, two studies are reported where men and women at work rated the degree of warmth and competence of a person with their own occupation, and how they think people in general would perceive a person in the same occupation. A wider gap between own perceptions and that of people in general was expected for women than for men, as it was assumed that the view of other people’s perceptions would serve as a proxy for stereotype threat for women. Study 1 comprised 449 participants (74 % women) working within the public sector, mainly in social, caring, and education professions, and Study 2 comprised a convenience sample of 189 participants (70 % women) from a variety of sectors and professions. Both studies yielded consistent results; contradictory to what was expected, men and women did not differ in terms of how they thought people in general would perceive the competence of their occupation, instead women rated the competence of their own occupation higher than men did, even after controlling for type of occupation and educational level. Warmth displayed only minor gender differences. The results are discussed in relation to research on counter-reactions against stereotype threat, how the concept of competence could be understood, as well as other possible explanations of the unexpected results. 

Research indicates that subgroups of refugees may be at increased risk for suicidal ideation, but further knowledge on this topic is needed. This study aimed to assess both prevalence and factors associated with suicidal ideation among newly arrived refugees in Sweden. Assessing suicidal ideation was part of a larger project, aiming to develop a model for assessment and treatment of mental health problems among refugees. The included data were based on a cross-sectional survey among 510 asylum seekers and refugees, all under the care of the Swedish Migration Agency. The project group visited 12 asylum accommodations and 9 other locations, asking potential participants to answer a survey with questions on mental health, suicidal ideation and quality of life. Data were analysed using logistic regression. Symptoms of depression, anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder, low physical and psychological quality of life, and being of young age were all independently associated with suicidal ideation. This study points to the importance of identifying refugees with mental health problems and of providing them with adequate care. It also indicates the importance of assuring a decent quality of life at asylum accommodations, and it shows that the young may constitute an especially vulnerable group. 

Culture, language and emotion all influence and affect our daily lives in their own manner. Although there is a large body of research suggesting that these factors interact with each other in intricate ways, they have traditionally been studied independently of each other. Furthermore, although biculturalism and bilingualism are not new phenomena, they are now prevalent globally to the extent that research investigating culture or language cannot be complete without taking them into account. Thus, in this paper, we discuss how culture, language and emotion may mutually influence one another in a globalized world where biculturalism and bilingualism are commonplace and suggest how future research could investigate these individual factors jointly.

Österundshems projekt med arbetstidsförkortning har följts upp under ett och ett halvt år. Denna slutrapport baseras på en enkätundersökning som genomförts tre gånger under projektets gång samt analys av företagets frånvarostatistik.

Sammantaget ser man att välbefinnande och sömnkvalitet blivit bättre under projektet med arbetstidsförkortning, och upplevelse av kompetens har ökat. Hälsoeffekterna är störts bland kvinnor. Sjukfrånvaron minskade under det första halvåret, men ökade sedan under slutet av 2018, till samma nivå som innan projektet startade, en förändring som sannolikt främst har att göra med de turbulenta händelser i företaget som kulminerade under hösten 2018. Det som främst lyfts fram som positivt med projektet är möjligheten att själv styra sitt arbete, dvs det förtroende som givits medarbetarna att själva bedöma när arbetet är klart för dagen. Man kan också se att sjukfrånvarostatistiken följer de positiva och negativa perioderna i företagets utveckling under projekttiden. Detta visar på att arbetssituationen inte endast påverkas av faktorer i själva arbetet, utan också vad som sker på organisations- och ledningsnivå.