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Lars-Gunnar Lundh

Lund University, Psychology, Faculty Member
The present paper describes case studies where the purpose was to identify two unknown ancestors: the author's paternal grandfather [FF] and his paternal grandmother's maternal grandfather's father [FMMFF]. A four-step method was used:... more
The present paper describes case studies where the purpose was to identify two unknown ancestors: the author's paternal grandfather [FF] and his paternal grandmother's maternal grandfather's father [FMMFF]. A four-step method was used: (1) The author's and his brother's closest atDNA matches were identified, and the genealogical relationships to these matches were searched for by a comparison with their family trees. Those atDNA matches for which no explanatory genealogical relationship could be found were named unplaced DNA matches. Nineteen unplaced DNA matches were found who shared more than 100 cM with the two brothers. (2) The family trees of these unplaced DNA relatives were compared to each other, and common ancestors who recurred in the family trees of at least two unplaced DNA relatives were referred to as genealogical junctions. The four "strongest" genealogical junctions were focused (involving, eight, four, three, and three unplaced DNA matches, respectively). (3) An analysis of the connectedness between these genealogical junctions (e.g., marriages between descendants) were used to generate two hypotheses: the FF Norberg hypothesis, and the FMMFF Jon Pehrsson hypothesis. (4) The FF Norberg hypothesis was tested in collaboration with four descendants of the Norberg family who tested their atDNA, and one of them who also tested his Y-DNA, and the results fully supported the hypothesis. The FMMFF Jon Pehrsson hypothesis was tested by segment triangulation methods, to see if DNA segments shared with descendants of Jon Pehrsson's (*1795) children overlapped with DNA segments shared with descendants of the author's FMMF. Support for such DNA sharing was found on seventeen of the chromosomes, and the most conclusive support was found on chromosome 16. The results are discussed in terms of the distinction between proofs and evidence, the sensitivity of the genealogical junctions method, the importance of having one's siblings DNA tested, the confounding factor of the number of descendants of a hypothesized ancestor, and the choice of cutoff for identifying the set of unplaced DNA matches.
In a previous paper (Lundh, 2023), it was argued that psychological science can be seen as having three main branches, corresponding to three levels of research: research at the person level, at the population level, and at the mechanism... more
In a previous paper (Lundh, 2023), it was argued that psychological science can be seen as having three main branches, corresponding to three levels of research: research at the person level, at the population level, and at the mechanism level. The purpose of the present paper is to discuss the critique that has been raised against this model by Lamiell (2024) and Nilsson (2024) and to elaborate and specify the three-branch model in more detail. This is done by an incorporation of Nilsson's concept of person-sensitivity into the model, and by a clearer differentiation between the two contrasts involved: (1) the methodological focus either on individual persons or on populations of individuals; and (2) the theoretical focus either on whole-person functioning or on sub-personal mechanisms.
Background: A proportion of individuals with pervasive emotion dysregulation or BPD have other severe co-principal diagnoses. In these cases is not uncommon for functioning to be reduced to the extent that living independently is not... more
Background: A proportion of individuals with pervasive emotion dysregulation or BPD have other severe co-principal diagnoses. In these cases is not uncommon for functioning to be reduced to the extent that living independently is not possible. These individuals can be referred nationally to a residential DBT treatment centre in South Sweden. Because family members of individuals referred nationally are unable to commute to weekly Family Connections (Familjeband) sessions, the manualized program has been modified to an intensive format offered over two weekends spaced one month apart. Aims: To examine whether a modified intensive form of Familjeband produces meaningful therapeutic change, and to compare change trajectories between the standard and intensively delivered programs.Methods: Family members of individuals registered at two different DBT treatment centers were invited to participate in the study. Standard Familjeband delivered in the outpatient setting followed the 12-15 we...
ABSTRACT Patterns of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and their association with other psychological difficulties were studied in a community sample of young Swedish adolescents, by a two-wave longitudinal design with a 1-year interval.... more
ABSTRACT Patterns of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and their association with other psychological difficulties were studied in a community sample of young Swedish adolescents, by a two-wave longitudinal design with a 1-year interval. Hierarchical cluster analysis at T1 identified eight NSSI subgroups in each gender, of which five were clearly replicated at T2. Among these were a subgroup with generalized high-frequency NSSI, which was associated with both internalizing and externalizing problems, and a subgroup of girls who engaged primarily in cutting and showed mainly internalizing problems. In general, NSSI clusters among girls were more stable over time and associated with more psychological problems. The results indicate that different patterns of NSSI have different developmental and clinical implications.
Most present-day research on mindfulness treats mindfulness as a variable that is studied in relation to other variables. Although this research may provide us with important knowledge at the population level and mechanism level, it... more
Most present-day research on mindfulness treats mindfulness as a variable that is studied in relation to other variables. Although this research may provide us with important knowledge at the population level and mechanism level, it contributes little to our understanding of the phenomenon of mindfulness as it is experienced and enacted at the person level. The present paper takes a person-oriented phenomenological perspective on mindfulness, comparing this perspective with that of von Fircks' (2023). In a first part of the paper, mindfulness is discussed as a phenomenological practice that can be studied by means of experimental phenomenology. It is argued that there is room for the development of an immense variety of personalized mindfulness practices that may serve people's health and well-being. The second part of the paper contains a brief discussion of the possible role of mindful observation and reflection in psychological research. It is argued that mindfulness skills may be important both for improving the quality of phenomenological observation and to facilitate creative thinking in connection with the development of psychological theory. A main implication is that an integration between mindfulness and phenomenology may serve as an important part of this process.
Deliberate self-harm was studied in 14-year-old adolescents from four schools in southern Sweden with a test-retest design, using a nine-item version of the Deliberate Self-Harm Inventory. At Time 1, 40.2% of the adolescents indicated... more
Deliberate self-harm was studied in 14-year-old adolescents from four schools in southern Sweden with a test-retest design, using a nine-item version of the Deliberate Self-Harm Inventory. At Time 1, 40.2% of the adolescents indicated deliberate self-harm on at least one occasion compared with 36.5% at Time 2. Test-retest data showed high stability over periods of up to 2 months in duration. Cross-validation of the results from Time 1 to Time 2 showed robust correlations between deliberate self-harm and general psychopathology, a relative absence of positive feelings toward parents, and a ruminative style of emotional regulation. Further, rumination/negative thinking and a relative absence of positive feelings toward parents were predictors of self-harm independently of general psychopathology. In addition, deliberate self-harm correlated with symptoms of eating disorder and negative body esteem in girls.
The experience of embodiment is a central theme in phenomenological philosophy and has recently received increasing attention also within psychological science. In the present paper we argue (1) that the experience of embodiment... more
The experience of embodiment is a central theme in phenomenological philosophy and has recently received increasing attention also within psychological science. In the present paper we argue (1) that the experience of embodiment represents a fundamental synthesis of having a body (the body as an object) and being a body (the body as felt "from within"); (2) that this synthesis is basic to an individual's experience of self-identity; (3) that each individual, as an existential task, has to develop their specific version of the embodiment synthesis; (4) that these syntheses can be more or less harmonious or disharmonious, and that disharmonious syntheses are associated with psychological distress and psychopathology. Different phenomenological accounts of possible variants of disharmonious embodiment, as found in the literature on eating disorders, are discussed and compared. Finally, some research implications and clinical implications are discussed.
There are different ways of dividing psychology into subdisciplines. The purpose of the present paper is to explore one specific metaperspective on psychological science, seen as having three main branches: person psychology, population... more
There are different ways of dividing psychology into subdisciplines. The purpose of the present paper is to explore one specific metaperspective on psychological science, seen as having three main branches: person psychology, population psychology, and mechanism psychology, linked to three different levels of research. Person-level research focuses on psychological phenomena as experienced and enacted by individual persons in their interaction with other persons and other parts of the environment, and in their development over time. Population-level research focuses on populations of individuals, frequencies of various psychological phenomena in a population, risk factors, and population-level effects of various psychological interventions. Mechanism-level research focuses on psychological functioning as explained in terms of neurophysiological mechanisms and information processes at a sub-personal level. It is argued that the failure to differentiate clearly between research questions at these three levels lead to questionable research practices. Most notably, a failure to differentiate clearly between the population level and the person level leads to problem-method mismatches in the form of researchers trying to answer questions about persons by research on populations. Also, because of a failure to differentiate between the person level and the mechanism level, explanations in terms of sub-personal mechanisms are too often seen as providing answers about what occurs at the person level, thereby failing to study persons as intentional agents in interaction with other persons and other parts of the environment. It is argued that a clear differentiation between three levels of psychological science-population, person, and mechanismmay contribute to an increased clarity in these matters and may thereby contribute to the development and maturation of psychological science.
Introduction Although there are many studies of disordered eating (DE) in adolescence, studies examining the longitudinal stability and change of DE and its longitudinal associations with other factors are still rather scarce. Such... more
Introduction Although there are many studies of disordered eating (DE) in adolescence, studies examining the longitudinal stability and change of DE and its longitudinal associations with other factors are still rather scarce. Such studies are important to inform parents and clinicians how stable DE is and to what extent it will go away with increased maturity. Longitudinal studies may also be of help in establishing predictors of long-term problems. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the stability of DE over a 10-year period from early adolescence to young adulthood, and to explore body dissatisfaction as a predictor in a 10-year perspective. Methods Data were taken from a three-wave longitudinal project (SoL) with survey data collected among the students in Grades 7and 8 in a Swedish municipality in 2007 (T1), 1 year later (T2), and in a 10-year follow-up in 2017 (T3). DE was measured by the eight-item version of the Risk Behaviour Related to Eating Disorders (RiBED-8), and a quasi-clinical criterion of six or more critical answers on the RiBED-8 was used to classify DE cases. Results Of the girls, 5.8% passed the cutoff for DE at T1, whereas 9.1% did so at T2 and 7.9% at T3. The boys showed markedly lower figures: 0.5% both at T1 and T2, and 1.5% at T3. There was significant individual stability of DE over the 10-year period, with almost 30% of the girls who passed the cutoff for DE at T1 also doing so 10 years later. Body dissatisfaction in early adolescence predicted the incidence of new cases of DE 10 years later, even when controlling for degree of DE in early adolescence. The results also indicate that DE in early adolescence may be a passing phase among adolescents who express relatively high body satisfaction. Conclusions The present results show a complex picture of different individual trajectories of DE, with degree of body satisfaction playing a significant role for the outcome in a 10-year perspective. Body dissatisfaction appears to be a risk factor for the development of new cases of DE, whereas body satisfaction may protect against the continuation of DE into adulthood.
Your article is protected by copyright and all rights are held exclusively by Springer Science +Business Media New York. This e-offprint is for personal use only and shall not be self-archived in electronic repositories. If you wish to... more
Your article is protected by copyright and all rights are held exclusively by Springer Science +Business Media New York. This e-offprint is for personal use only and shall not be self-archived in electronic repositories. If you wish to self-archive your article, please use the accepted manuscript version for posting on your own website. You may further deposit the accepted manuscript version in any repository, provided it is only made publicly available 12 months after official publication or later and provided acknowledgement is given to the original source of publication and a link is inserted to the published article on Springer's website. The link must be accompanied by the following text: "The final publication is available at link.springer.com”.
Previous research has shown that a less positive emotional tone in adolescents’ relationships to parents, but not in their relationships to peers, predicts more of behaviour problems and substance use. The purpose of the present study was... more
Previous research has shown that a less positive emotional tone in adolescents’ relationships to parents, but not in their relationships to peers, predicts more of behaviour problems and substance use. The purpose of the present study was to replicate these findings, and to extend this research to deliberate self-harm. In a first study with a variable-oriented approach, correlations were analysed between emotional tone in close relationships and a number of behaviour problems. The main results showed that deliberate self-harm among girls, as well as conduct problems, hyperactivity, aggressive behaviour, and the use of alcohol, were more strongly associated with poor emotional relations to their parents than with poor emotional relations to friends. In a second study, a person-oriented approach was used to investigate girls’ profiles of emotional tone in close relationships by means of cluster analysis, and to compare the clusters on measures of deliberate self-harm. The analysis led...
According to Zagaria et al. (2020), evolutionary psychology may be the meta-theory that is needed if psychological science is to enter a paradigmatic stage. Other writers have suggested that what is needed is a person-oriented approach,... more
According to Zagaria et al. (2020), evolutionary psychology may be the meta-theory that is needed if psychological science is to enter a paradigmatic stage. Other writers have suggested that what is needed is a person-oriented approach, which focuses on the person as a complex system that needs to be studied (1) as a whole (holism), (2) as an intentional agent in interaction with its environment (interactionism), and (3) in terms of his or her individual characteristics and development (idiographic focus). The purpose of the present paper is to discuss the compatibility of these two suggestions. A brief analysis of some formulations central to Dawkins’ gene-centered approach (e.g., “the intricate interdependence of genes”, and the dependence of genes on their environment) suggests that it is quite compatible with holism and interactionism; and applications such as genetic genealogy illustrate the possibility of a person-oriented genetics. It is argued that these two perspectives are...
The aim of this study was to investigate cognitive interference caused by tinnitus by means of a modified version of the Stroop color-word test. In a mixed-design study, the performances of tinnitus patients ( n =23) and healthy controls... more
The aim of this study was to investigate cognitive interference caused by tinnitus by means of a modified version of the Stroop color-word test. In a mixed-design study, the performances of tinnitus patients ( n =23) and healthy controls with normal hearing ( n =23) were compared on three versions of the Stroop test: the original version, a modified version including physical-threat words, and a tinnitus version for which tinnitus words (descriptors of tinnitus; e.g., peep ) were derived empirically. Matched control conditions (words) were included for all three versions, yielding a total of six screens that were presented on a computer. Participants in the control group were matched with the patients for age and gender. Main dependent measures were performance on the Stroop tests in terms of total time for completing each test. Also included were the Tinnitus Questionnaire (TQ), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the state version of the Spielberger Trait State Anxiety Inventory ...
The present study assessed the rate of depressive personality (DP), as measured by the self-report instrument depressive personality disorder inventory (DPDI), among 159 clients entering psychotherapy at an outpatient university clinic.... more
The present study assessed the rate of depressive personality (DP), as measured by the self-report instrument depressive personality disorder inventory (DPDI), among 159 clients entering psychotherapy at an outpatient university clinic. The presenting clinical profile was evaluated for those with and without DP, including levels of depressed mood, other psychological symptoms, and global severity of psychopathology. Clients were followed naturalistically over the course of therapy, up to 40 weeks, and reassessed on these variables again after treatment. Results indicated that 44 percent of the sample qualified for DP prior to treatment, and these individuals had a comparatively more severe and complex presenting disposition than those without DP. Mixed-model repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to examine between-groups changes on mood and global severity over time, with those with DP demonstrating larger reductions on both outcome variables, although still showing more s...
... Women have also been found to report changes in mood and well being, such as elevated levels of depression and lowered self-esteem, following exposure to the thin ideal ( Irvin, 1990; Pinhas, Toner, Ali, Garfinkel, &... more
... Women have also been found to report changes in mood and well being, such as elevated levels of depression and lowered self-esteem, following exposure to the thin ideal ( Irvin, 1990; Pinhas, Toner, Ali, Garfinkel, & Stuckless, 1999; Stice & Shaw, 1994). ...
The role of defensiveness and repressive coping style for the performance on a combined emotional Stroop and tachistoscopic identification task with masked and unmasked words was studied in a community sample. Defensiveness was associated... more
The role of defensiveness and repressive coping style for the performance on a combined emotional Stroop and tachistoscopic identification task with masked and unmasked words was studied in a community sample. Defensiveness was associated with a decrease in ...
Deliberate self-harm was studied in 14-year-old adolescents from four schools in southern Sweden with a test-retest design, using a nine-item version of the Deliberate Self-Harm Inventory. At Time 1, 40.2% of the adolescents indicated... more
Deliberate self-harm was studied in 14-year-old adolescents from four schools in southern Sweden with a test-retest design, using a nine-item version of the Deliberate Self-Harm Inventory. At Time 1, 40.2% of the adolescents indicated deliberate self-harm on at least one occasion compared with 36.5% at Time 2. Test-retest data showed high stability over periods of up to 2 months in duration. Cross-validation of the results from Time 1 to Time 2 showed robust correlations between deliberate self-harm and general psychopathology, a relative absence of positive feelings toward parents, and a ruminative style of emotional regulation. Further, rumination/negative thinking and a relative absence of positive feelings toward parents were predictors of self-harm independently of general psychopathology. In addition, deliberate self-harm correlated with symptoms of eating disorder and negative body esteem in girls.
Meta-cognitive observation is a kind of cognitive activity that may serve to interrupt worry, rumination, and other kinds of sleep-interfering cognitive processes. In a pilot study, 40 individuals recorded their sleep on a sleep diary... more
Meta-cognitive observation is a kind of cognitive activity that may serve to interrupt worry, rumination, and other kinds of sleep-interfering cognitive processes. In a pilot study, 40 individuals recorded their sleep on a sleep diary during one week (the baseline week) and were then administered a meta-cognitive observation task to use at bed-time during a second week (“the treatment week”). Consistent with the hypothesis, the participants showed a decreased sleep latency during the treatment week compared to the baseline week, and also an increased total sleep time and an improved sleep efficiency. The lack of a control group (i.e., a group who kept a sleep diary for both weeks, without any meta-cognitive observation task), however, precludes any definite conclusion with regard to the effects of the meta-cognitive observation task. It is suggested that meta-cognitive observation tasks should be tested in controlled studies.
The purpose of the present study was to compare the effect of cognitive reappraisal and acceptance on subjective distress, physiological reactions and behavioral avoidance in relation to aversive emotional states elicited by film-clips.... more
The purpose of the present study was to compare the effect of cognitive reappraisal and acceptance on subjective distress, physiological reactions and behavioral avoidance in relation to aversive emotional states elicited by film-clips. Ninety-four participants were randomized to one of three groups. The Reappraisal group was instructed to think about what they saw in a way that minimized negative emotional reactions, the Acceptance group was told to let their feelings come and go without trying to control or avoid them, while the Watch (control) group was told just to watch the film-clips. Compared to the control condition, both reappraisal and acceptance led to significant reductions of subjective distress, physiological reactions associated with aversive emotions and behavioral avoidance. On the three types of measures there were few significant differences between the Reappraisal and Acceptance groups, but when such differences existed they were to the benefit of the Reappraisal condition. In the reappraisal condition there was however a positive correlation between elicited aversive emotion and avoidance, while no such correlation existed in the acceptance condition. The results are interpreted and discussed in relation to the theories underlying reappraisal and acceptance as well as the conceptual framework for emotion regulation established by Gross (2007).
Introduction Although there are many studies of disordered eating (DE) in adolescence, studies examining the longitudinal stability and change of DE and its longitudinal associations with other factors are still rather scarce. Such... more
Introduction Although there are many studies of disordered eating (DE) in adolescence, studies examining the longitudinal stability and change of DE and its longitudinal associations with other factors are still rather scarce. Such studies are important to inform parents and clinicians how stable DE is and to what extent it will go away with increased maturity. Longitudinal studies may also be of help in establishing predictors of long-term problems. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the stability of DE over a 10-year period from early adolescence to young adulthood, and to explore body dissatisfaction as a predictor in a 10-year perspective. Methods Data were taken from a three-wave longitudinal project (SoL) with survey data collected among the students in Grades 7and 8 in a Swedish municipality in 2007 (T1), 1 year later (T2), and in a 10-year follow-up in 2017 (T3). DE was measured by the eight-item version of the Risk Behaviour Related to Eating Disorders (RiBED-8), and a quasi-clinical criterion of six or more critical answers on the RiBED-8 was used to classify DE cases. Results Of the girls, 5.8% passed the cutoff for DE at T1, whereas 9.1% did so at T2 and 7.9% at T3. The boys showed markedly lower figures: 0.5% both at T1 and T2, and 1.5% at T3. There was significant individual stability of DE over the 10-year period, with almost 30% of the girls who passed the cutoff for DE at T1 also doing so 10 years later. Body dissatisfaction in early adolescence predicted the incidence of new cases of DE 10 years later, even when controlling for degree of DE in early adolescence. The results also indicate that DE in early adolescence may be a passing phase among adolescents who express relatively high body satisfaction. Conclusions The present results show a complex picture of different individual trajectories of DE, with degree of body satisfaction playing a significant role for the outcome in a 10-year perspective. Body dissatisfaction appears to be a risk factor for the development of new cases of DE, whereas body satisfaction may protect against the continuation of DE into adulthood.
A cross-sectional study of adolescent non-suicidal self-injury: support for a specific distress-function relationship
Copyright © 2011 Lars-Gunnar Lundh et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work... more
Copyright © 2011 Lars-Gunnar Lundh et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The associations between depressive symptoms and deliberate self-harm were studied by means of a 2-wave longitudinal design in a community sample of 1052 young adolescents, with longitudinal data for 83.6 % of the sample. Evidence was found for a bidirectional relationship in girls, with depressive symptoms being a risk factor for increased self-harm one year later and self-harm a risk factor for increased depressive symptoms. Cluster analysis of profiles of depressive symptoms led to the identification of two clusters with clear depressive profiles (one severe, the other mild/moderate) which were both characterized by an overrepresentation of girls and elevated levels of self-harm. Clusters with more circumscribed problems were a...
The UPPS-P model of impulsivity proposes that impulsivity comprises five distinct facets-negative urgency, positive urgency, lack of premeditation, lack of perseverance, and sensation seeking. The UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale has been... more
The UPPS-P model of impulsivity proposes that impulsivity comprises five distinct facets-negative urgency, positive urgency, lack of premeditation, lack of perseverance, and sensation seeking. The UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale has been used to measure these facets. The purpose of the current study was to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of a Swedish version of the 20-item UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale (SUPPS-P). The sample comprised 343 Swedish young adults ( = 24.21,  = 2.01; 27% men, 2% other or undisclosed gender identity) who answered a questionnaire including the SUPPS-P; Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21); and questions regarding their alcohol consumption and substance use. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a 5-factor, inter-correlated model, where each subscale of the SUPPS-P constitutes one latent variable. The convergent validity was established by replicating previously found correlations between the different impulsivity facets and de...
The frequency of eating-related problems in young adolescents, and their stability over a one-year period, was studied by the RiBED-8 (Risk Behaviours related to Eating Disorders, 8 items) in a community sample of 13-15 year old... more
The frequency of eating-related problems in young adolescents, and their stability over a one-year period, was studied by the RiBED-8 (Risk Behaviours related to Eating Disorders, 8 items) in a community sample of 13-15 year old adolescents who took part in a prospective study with a 2-wave longitudinal design. The RiBED-8 was found to have good reliability and construct validity among the girls, although it did not show equally convincing psychometric properties among boys. With a cut-off of at least three critical answers on the RiBED-8, 28.5-31.0% of the girls were seen as risk cases for the development of eating disorder. Of those girls who were risk cases at Time 1, a majority (68.8%) remained so at Time 2; of those girls who were not risk cases at Time 1, 16.1% became risk cases at Time 2. It is suggested that the RiBED-8 is a brief, easily administered instrument that may be potentially useful in screening for eating-related problems among girls.
Emotion regulation group therapy (ERGT) has shown promising results in several efficacy trials. However, it has not been evaluated outside a research setting. In order to increase the availability of empirically supported treatments for... more
Emotion regulation group therapy (ERGT) has shown promising results in several efficacy trials. However, it has not been evaluated outside a research setting. In order to increase the availability of empirically supported treatments for individuals with borderline personality disorder and deliberate self-harm, an evaluation of ERGT in routine clinical care was conducted with therapists of different professional backgrounds who had received brief intensive training in ERGT prior to trial onset. Multi-site evaluation, using an uncontrolled open trial design with assessments at pretreatment, post-treatment and 6-month follow-up. 14 adult outpatient psychiatric clinics across Sweden. Ninety-five women (mean age=25.1 years) with borderline personality disorder (both threshold and subthreshold) and repeated self-harm were enrolled in the study. Ninety-three per cent of participants completed the post-treatment assessment and 88% completed the follow-up assessment. Primary outcome was self...
During history humans have developed a large variety of contemplative practices, in many different areas of life, and as part of many different traditions and contexts. Although some contemplative practices are very old, the research... more
During history humans have developed a large variety of contemplative practices, in many different areas of life, and as part of many different traditions and contexts. Although some contemplative practices are very old, the research field of Contemplation Studies is young, and there are no agreed-upon definitions of central concepts such as contemplative practices and contemplative experiences. The present paper focuses on contemplative practices, defined as practices that are engaged in for the sake of the contemplative experiences they afford (e.g., the contemplation of nature, or the contemplation of various aspects of being-in-the world). The purpose of the present paper is to discuss the potential of experimental phenomenology to contribute to the development of the research field of Contemplation Studies. Experimental phenomenology is defined as the investigation of phenomenological practices and their effects on experience. Phenomenological practices involve intentional vari...

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Lundh, L.-G., 1983. Mind and meaning. Towards a theory of the human mind considered as a system of meaning structures. Acta Univ. Ups. Studia Psychologica Upsaliensia 10, 205 pp. Uppsala. ISBN 91-554-1487-7. Various theoretical approaches... more
Lundh, L.-G., 1983. Mind and meaning. Towards a theory of the human mind considered as a system of meaning structures. Acta Univ. Ups. Studia Psychologica Upsaliensia 10, 205 pp. Uppsala. ISBN 91-554-1487-7. Various theoretical approaches to the psychological problem of meaning are analysed and criticized, and a theory of meaning structures is introduced and successively elaborated. A person's meaning structures are said to constitute his or her world-the world as it has meaning for the person. The system of meaning structures has a structural orga,1ization, but also a quantitative, affective aspect. Structurally, it has extension and intension. "Extension" refers to the world as it is differentiated and categorized by the person's meaning structures; "intension" refers to these structures considered as mental structures, involving a temporal integration of events, e.g. in the form of expectations. The quantitative, affective aspect is seen in the fact that an object or action may have more or less meaning for the person. "Memory" refers either to the meaning structures as such ("semantic memory"), or to a reactivation of the constellation of meaning structures which were activated at the time of the original event ("episodic memory"), or to the time during which activated meaning structures remain in an active state ("short-term memory"). It is argued that there are various kinds of short-term memory-various levets of activation. One such levet is the conscious level-the levet of selective attention, with its limited capacity. It is argued that meaning structures develop prior to conscious awareness, and that the activation of meaning structures goes on continuously at a preattentive levet. Conscious perception and conscious thought are the result of selectively attending to some portion of what goes on at this preattentive levet. The development of conscious attention makes possible a conceptualization of the person's meaning structures, whereby the extension is transformed into conceptual structures, and the intension into propositional structures. A person's concep tual structures define his "logical space", i.e. the thoughts which he is capable of having. A person's propositional structures represent his habitual ways of thinking-certain "paths" in his logical space. Finally, some methodological implications of the theory are discussed.