A qualitative exploration of mental health professionals' experience of working with survivors of trauma in Sri Lanka

This study explored the struggles and rewards of trauma work and the notion that individuals are changed in some way by the work they do with survivors of traumatic events. Interpretative phenomenological analysis of interviews with twelve mental health professionals working in Sri Lanka has shown these changes to have both an accumulated negative emotional impact but also to simultaneously contain positive, growth-promoting and personally satisfying aspects. There is a bias prevalent in the trauma literature towards focusing on the many negative aspects of the impact of working with survivors of trauma or surveying the moderating factors for managing secondary trauma. The present research, instead, uses the paradigm of adversarial growth to demonstrate that when mental health professionals rebuild their assumptive world in light of their experiences of working with survivors of trauma there are valuable opportunities for personal, and by implication, professional growth. This study is of a qualitative nature and explores phenomenologically grounded knowledge seeking to gain an understanding of the lived experiences reported by mental health professionals working with survivors of trauma, and the subjective and collective meanings that shape these experiences

Thriving at work: Toward its measurement, construct validation, and theoretical refinement

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90225/1/job756.pd

Experiences of clinical psychologists working in palliative care:A qualitative study

Background Compassion fatigue refers to the emotional and physical exhaustion felt by professionals in caring roles, whereas compassion satisfaction encompasses the positive aspects of helping others. Levels of compassion satisfaction and fatigue have been found to be inconsistent in palliative care professionals, which could have serious implications for patients, professionals and organisations. Objectives This study explored the experiences of clinical psychologists working in palliative care, all worked with adults with cancer, to gain an understanding of the impact this work has on their self and how they manage this. Methods A qualitative approach was taken, using semi‐structured interviews and interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results Three superordinate themes were identified: commitment, existential impact on the self and the oracle. The participants' experiences were characterised by the relationship between themselves and their patients, the influence of working in palliative services on their world view and the impact of organisational changes. Differences between working as a clinical psychologist in palliative care versus non‐palliative settings were considered. Conclusions Professionals working in palliative care should be supported to reflect on their experiences of compassion and resilience, and services should provide resources that facilitate staff to practice positive self‐care to maintain their well‐being

Norges Bank’s Money Market Survey in April 2013

In April 2013, Norges Bank conducted a survey of the Norwegian money market. This was the first time such a survey was conducted in Norway. The results provide new insights into a market that is essential to the Norwegian financial system and important for the conduct of monetary policy. Results from the survey clearly show that unsecured lending is concentrated at the absolutely shortest maturities. Secured lending primarily takes the form of currency swaps. Activity levels in the currency swap market are high out to a maturity of three months. The survey also shows that Norwegian banks are net lenders of NOK through currency swaps and receive the NOK back as unsecured overnight deposits.publishedVersio

Norges Bank’s Money Market Survey in April 2013

In April 2013, Norges Bank conducted a survey of the Norwegian money market. This was the first time such a survey was conducted in Norway. The results provide new insights into a market that is essential to the Norwegian financial system and important for the conduct of monetary policy. Results from the survey clearly show that unsecured lending is concentrated at the absolutely shortest maturities. Secured lending primarily takes the form of currency swaps. Activity levels in the currency swap market are high out to a maturity of three months. The survey also shows that Norwegian banks are net lenders of NOK through currency swaps and receive the NOK back as unsecured overnight deposits

Identifying Non-Psychotic Cognitive Errors on the Wais-R: a Study of Borderline, Depressed and Normal Subjects.

There has been little empirical study of the impact of non-psychotic psychopathology on cognitive functioning. Cognitive psychology has focused on normal and ideal cognitive functioning, while clinical psychology has focused largely on psychotic thinking processes. A measure that combines knowledge from both fields to evaluate non-psychotic thinking would allow empirical testing of common hypotheses about cognitive functioning in clinical groups. The hypothesis that borderlines manifest "intact" functioning on structured tests such as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale - Revised (WAIS-R) is commonly stated, but has not been convincingly proven. On the basis of clinical presentation, there is reason to think borderline patients show subtle but significant nonpsychotic thinking errors which have not been categorized. This study tests a measure of non-psychotic thinking errors which includes six errors reflecting four areas of cognitive functioning: Attention and focusing, Categorical thinking, Causal and sequential reasoning, and Metacognition. The measure is applied to verbatim responses from seven WAIS-R subtests. The study shows acceptable interrater reliabilities for the measure and tests the hypothesis that borderlines will show "intact" thinking on the WAIS-R. Test protocols of twenty inpatient borderlines, thirteen inpatient Major Depressive Disorder subjects, and sixteen normal subjects were scored using the Coding Measure for Cognitive Errors. Rate and type of errors are compared across groups using an ANCOVA covarying for IQ. Overall, there are few significant differences among the groups. The differences that occur suggest borderlines show greater inconsistency on measures of metacognition. The study provides only preliminary support for the hypothesis that borderlines perform like normals on structured tests. There is reason to examine further borderlines' metacognitive abilities. The lack of group differences may reflect limitations of the coding measure. Until we can evaluate cognitive errors according to more specific subcategories of particular cognitive skills, and levels of pathological severity, we cannot definitively conclude that borderlines show "intact" thinking on the WIAS-R or that they do not differ from normals in rate or type of cognitive errors. The paper discusses ways to improve the coding measure for future use.Ph.D.Clinical psychologyUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/161312/1/8702822.pd

Productivity and maternity leave - Findings from a Norwegian insurance company

This paper explores the relationship between maternity leave and productivity. It explains and discusses the different applications of such a benefit, and discusses the change in this institution over time in Norway. It also presents the costs such a system is imposing on the governmental budgets. Furthermore, it reviews previous literature on the effects from maternity leave and absenteeism on health, the labor market, and productivity. The research is empirical and analyzes weekly data on individuals working in an insurance company based in Norway for the time period of 2003-2009; the data is thus a panel. It analyses the data with the fixed effects approach and by using the difference-in-difference method (DID). It also controls for problems which may occur in DID estimation such as autocorrelation, heteroskedasticity and potential outliers. The estimation controls for both linear individual-specific trends and quadratic individual-specific trends. This paper then finds, on average, a negative effect from maternity leave on productivity. This negative relationship is found to be largely caused by the first 0-20 weeks of returning from such a leave. In addition maternity leave seems to have similar effects on average as a period of 10 weeks absence for other reasons from work. The findings suggests that since the 0-20 first weeks are the main cause of the negative effect on productivity, other factors such as getting reaccustomed to work might be the main reason for the drop in productivity. In addition it argues that without maternity leave the negative effects from giving birth on productivity might have been worse. The statistical program STATA is used for analyzing the data

Norges Banks pengemarkedsundersøkelse i april 2013

Norges Bank gjennomførte i april 2013 en undersøkelse av det norske pengemarkedet. Dette var første gang en slik undersøkelse ble gjennomført i Norge. Resultatene gir ny innsikt i et marked som er sentralt i det norske finansielle systemet og viktig for implementeringen av pengepolitikken. Resultatene fra undersøkelsen viser tydelig at usikrede lån er konsentrert om de helt korteste løpetidene. De sikrede lånene gjøres i all hovedsak som valutabytteavtaler. Aktiviteten i valutabyttemarkedet er høy ut til 3 måneders løpetid. Undersøkelsen viser også at norske banker netto låner ut norske kroner gjennom valutabytter, og får kronene tilbake som usikrede overnatteninnskudd.publishedVersio

Essays on Market Microstructure

This dissertation consists of four paper: “Fixing the fix? Assessing the Effectiveness of the 4PM Fix Benchmark”, “Trading strategies and information flow around price benchmarks”, “A note on optimal trade times for financial quotes with a last look”, and “Order anticipation and large traders - evidence from FX markets”. In this section I provide a brief summary of each of them. In the first paper, “Fixing the fix? Assessing the Effectiveness of the 4PM Fix Benchmark”, we examine the design and effectiveness of the 4pm Fix, the largest benchmark in FX markets. We study trading around the benchmark between 2012 and 2017 with a unique dataset that allows us to identify the actions of individual traders. These data provide new insights into how trading decisions affect the properties of the Fix benchmark, and how the presence of the Fix affects trading patterns. Two events are the particular focus of our analysis: the 2013 allegations that major banks had been colluding to rig the 4pm Fix, and the 2015 reform of the benchmark methodology. In the second paper, “Trading strategies and information flow around price benchmarks”, I characterize equilibrium pricing and trading strategies in a competitive market where a subset of liquidity traders have a preference for executing their trades at a benchmark price. The model explains recent empirical evidence from foreign exchange markets, including those of my first chapter. In the third paper, “A note on optimal trade times for financial quotes with a last look”, we model the option value embedded in ”last look”-quotes, building on results from option pricing theory. We introduce the time-changed discrete Levy process as a model for price dynamics, in order to account for realities of high-frequency financial prices, and we show how the optimal stopping problem associated to the quote can be solved via Least Squares Monte Carlo. For various special cases we provide explicit formulae. We also solve the optimal stopping problem for the cases where the price process follow a Brownian motion, and a Skellam process. In the fourth paper, “Order anticipation and large traders - evidence from FX markets”, we provide novel evidence on how a major FX dealer bank adjusts its inventory before particularly large customer orders are executed. This is to our knowledge the first time such evidence is presented. We also study pre-trade price dynamics, and show that the observed price patterns differ significantly before large customer trades than at other times. Our results indicates that pre-trade price impact is a significant source of indirect trading costs for these orders

Norges Banks pengemarkedsundersøkelse i april 2013

Norges Bank gjennomførte i april 2013 en undersøkelse av det norske pengemarkedet. Dette var første gang en slik undersøkelse ble gjennomført i Norge. Resultatene gir ny innsikt i et marked som er sentralt i det norske finansielle systemet og viktig for implementeringen av pengepolitikken. Resultatene fra undersøkelsen viser tydelig at usikrede lån er konsentrert om de helt korteste løpetidene. De sikrede lånene gjøres i all hovedsak som valutabytteavtaler. Aktiviteten i valutabyttemarkedet er høy ut til 3 måneders løpetid. Undersøkelsen viser også at norske banker netto låner ut norske kroner gjennom valutabytter, og får kronene tilbake som usikrede overnatteninnskudd