Publications by authors named "Leif E O Kennair"

After mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), a subgroup of individuals experience persistent post-concussion symptoms (PPCS) that include headaches, cognitive difficulties, and fatigue. The aim of this preliminary study was to investigate possible effects associated with metacognitive therapy (MCT) on PPCS, maladaptive coping strategies, and positive and negative metacognitive beliefs following mTBI. A pre-post design supplemented with single-case A-B replication series to assess potential MCT mechanisms was used.

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The aim of this study is to measure young adolescent boys' and girls' attitudes toward uncommitted sexual behaviors and gain insight into their perception of peers' sexual exploration interest in committed versus non-committed opposite-gender relations. We constructed a new 5-item measurement of young adolescents' attitudes toward uncommitted sexual behavior (sociosexuality) and report on the reliability and construct validity of the scale. Analyses were performed on a sample of 425 secondary school students (187 boys, 238 girls, Mean age = 14.

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Pain, a widespread challenge affecting daily life, is closely linked with psychological and social factors. While pain clearly influences daily function in those affected, the complete extent of its impact is not fully understood. Given the close connection between pain and psychosocial factors, a deeper exploration of these aspects is needed.

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Sexual violence among adolescents represents a significant problem in society. In this study, we aimed to examine risk factors for sexual violence perpetration in adolescent men and victimization in adolescent women among a community sample of Norwegian high school students. The participants (560 men and 751 women, aged between 16 and 21 years) responded to online questionnaires covering physical and non-physical forms of sexual harassment and possible risk factors identified in the literature.

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The aim of this observational study was to examine the predictive and discriminant validity of patient motivation and adherence in metacognitive therapy (MCT) for depression. Motivational development for recovered- and non-recovered patients was also investigated. Motivation in sessions 1, 4, and 7 was measured using the Motivational Interviewing Skill Code 2.

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In recent years, researchers have discovered much about how disgust works, its neural basis, its relationship with immune function, its connection with mating, and some of its antecedents and consequents. Despite these advances in our understanding, an under-explored area is how disgust may be used to serve a communicative function, including how individuals might strategically downplay or exaggerate the disgust display in front of different audiences. Here, we generated two hypotheses about potential communicative functions of disgust, and tested these hypotheses in four countries (Turkey, Croatia, Germany, and Norway).

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Sexual double standards are social norms that impose greater social opprobrium on women versus men or that permit one sex greater sexual freedom than the other. This study examined sexual double standards when choosing a mate based on their sexual history. Using a novel approach, participants (N = 923, 64% women) were randomly assigned to make evaluations in long-term or short-term mating contexts and asked how a prospective partner's sexual history would influence their own likelihood of having sex (short-term) or entering a relationship (long-term) with them.

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Recent cross-cultural and neuro-hormonal investigations have suggested that love is a near universal phenomenon that has a biological background. Therefore, the remaining important question is not whether love exists worldwide but which cultural, social, or environmental factors influence experiences and expressions of love. In the present study, we explored whether countries' modernization indexes are related to love experiences measured by three subscales (passion, intimacy, commitment) of the Triangular Love Scale.

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Background: The aim of the study was to explore symptoms of anxiety and depression, insomnia, and quality of life in a Norwegian community sample of older adults.

Methods: A representative sample ( = 1069) was drawn from home-dwelling people of 60 years and above, living in a large municipality in Norway (Trondheim).

Results: Based on established cut-off scores, 83.

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Flirting involves various signals communicated between individuals. To attract potential mates, men and women exhibit flirtatious behavior to get the attention of, and potentially elicit sexual or romantic interest from, a desired partner. In this first large, preregistered study of judgement of the effectiveness of flirtation tactics based on Sexual Strategies Theory, we considered the effects of flirter's (actor) sex and mating contexts in addition to rater's (participant) sex across two cultures, Norway and the U.

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Depressive symptoms are prevalent in adolescence, and girls have higher levels of depressive symptoms and depressive disorder than boys. Rumination and especially brooding, seem to be a central maintaining factor of depressive symptoms, where metacognitions about rumination play a prominent role in maintaining depressive rumination. There is a sex difference in adults in depressive disorder.

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Article Synopsis
  • Metacognitive therapy (MCT) has shown better long-term results in treating generalized anxiety disorder compared to cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT), with recovery rates of 57% for MCT versus 38% for CBT after 9 years.
  • In terms of sustained recovery, 43% of patients who underwent MCT maintained their recovery status, while only 13% of those from the CBT group did the same.
  • The study highlights that patients treated with MCT experienced more significant reductions in worry and anxiety symptoms, suggesting its advantages over CBT in the long run.
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In this study we examined how people perceive social-sexual behavior of women and men, and how these perceptions were associated with beliefs about the outcomes of the #MeToo movement, sexism, traditional values, and gender equality. In addition, we examined the effect of having experienced sexual harassment on such perceptions. Analyses were performed on a Norwegian snowball social media sample covering 321 women and 168 men, aged 18-59 (M = 33.

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Article Synopsis
  • This study investigates how sociosexuality and sexual compulsivity contribute to sex differences in voyeuristic and exhibitionistic interests among 1113 UK participants, with a focus on evolutionary perspectives.
  • Findings indicate that there are notable sex differences in repulsion towards voyeurism and exhibitionism, influenced by the interplay between sociosexuality and sexual compulsivity.
  • The research suggests that sociosexuality plays a significant role in shaping these interests, which may have broader implications for understanding courtship disorders.
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Sex differences in jealousy responses to sexual and emotional infidelity are robust in samples of heterosexual adults, especially in more gender egalitarian nations. However, investigations of when and how these differences develop have been scant. We applied two forced choice infidelity scenarios in a large community sample of high school students (age 16-19, N = 1266).

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In several recent papers the sex difference in regret predicted by sexual strategies theory has been supported: men more than women report regret passing up short-term sexual opportunities (inaction regret), while women regret having had sexual encounters (action regret). However, the adaptive function of regret, to improve future behavioral choices, has not been tested. In this first longitudinal test of behavioral change following regret, we consider whether regret actually results in adaptive shifts of behavior: will men who regret passing up sex engage in more short-term sex following regret? Will women who regret short-term encounters either choose better quality partners, reduce number of one-night stands or shift their strategy to long-term relationships? Across two waves (NT1 = 399, 65.

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Interpersonal touch behavior differs across cultures, yet no study to date has systematically tested for cultural variation in affective touch, nor examined the factors that might account for this variability. Here, over 14,000 individuals from 45 countries were asked whether they embraced, stroked, kissed, or hugged their partner, friends, and youngest child during the week preceding the study. We then examined a range of hypothesized individual-level factors (sex, age, parasitic history, conservatism, religiosity, and preferred interpersonal distance) and cultural-level factors (regional temperature, parasite stress, regional conservatism, collectivism, and religiosity) in predicting these affective-touching behaviors.

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Objective: We aimed to discover whether psychological treatment for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) was associated with changes in the big five personality traits and their facets.

Method: Patients with GAD were randomized either to receive cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT, n = 28) or metacognitive therapy (MCT, n = 32). Before and after 12 sessions of treatment, 55 of the patients completed the full Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) (240 items).

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Few studies have investigated what soldiers find meaningful after being exposed to highly stressful events and what positive effects they might have in the aftermath. This study reports the psychometric properties of a newly developed questionnaire, Meaning of Service (MoS), and its application to the study of how strongly meaning-making processes are associated with psychological growth. One hundred eighty-four Norwegian Air Force Veterans who have participated in various missions abroad in different branches of the military completed the MoS questionnaire along with other scales reflecting psychological growth, hardiness, resilience, stress, and exposure, as well as personal and mission characteristics.

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The Triangular Theory of Love (measured with Sternberg's Triangular Love Scale - STLS) is a prominent theoretical concept in empirical research on love. To expand the culturally homogeneous body of previous psychometric research regarding the STLS, we conducted a large-scale cross-cultural study with the use of this scale. In total, we examined more than 11,000 respondents, but as a result of applied exclusion criteria, the final analyses were based on a sample of 7332 participants from 25 countries (from all inhabited continents).

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The aim of the current study was to explore protective (resilience) and vulnerability factors (dysfunctional metacognitions and brooding) for self-esteem. A total of 725 participants were included in a cross-sectional study. A path analysis revealed five paths to self-esteem.

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A growing body of research has demonstrated that metacognitions are associated with alcohol use and other addictive behaviours. In the present study (N = 588), we investigated the validity of the Positive Alcohol Metacognitions Scale (PAMS) and the Negative Alcohol Metacognitions Scale (NAMS). The results supported two-factor solutions for both the PAMS and NAMS, but three items from the PAMS were deleted.

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Considerable research has examined human mate preferences across cultures, finding universal sex differences in preferences for attractiveness and resources as well as sources of systematic cultural variation. Two competing perspectives-an evolutionary psychological perspective and a biosocial role perspective-offer alternative explanations for these findings. However, the original data on which each perspective relies are decades old, and the literature is fraught with conflicting methods, analyses, results, and conclusions.

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