Research projects

Ongoing research projects

  • The research group runs a series of specialised studies within several areas, e.g.: Mindfulness-based stressreducing methods for health professional students, sleep and circadian rhythms, intervention projects for obesity, negative/positive perfectionism, reviews/meta-analyses, validation of standardised health measurement instruments, health economy, group-based psychotherapeutic treatment of traumatised individuals, patients having eating disorders, use of digital tools in treatment of social phobia, stresscoping among refugees, as well as diverse projects within sexology, sexual habits, sexual practise and marital relations among patients having serious somatic diseases, sexual diseases and contagion.

Research projects run by the individual members

Jan Rosenvinge

  • The longer time outcome for obese patients who have undergone bariatric surgery – does an intervention based on self-determination theory of motivation improve outcome? Research group in cooperation with University of Oslo, Oslo University Hospital and Vestfold General hospital.
  • Perfektionism – prevalence and explanation models. Research group in cooperation with UNN and CAPIO Hospital, Sweden.
  • The psychiatric comorbidity between personality disorders and eating disorders: a metaanalysis. Researcg group in cooperation with RKBU/UiT, University of Oslo.
  • The psychiatric comorbidity between personality disorders and depressive disorders: a metaanalysis. Researcg group in cooperation with RKBU/UiT, University of Oslo.
  • The psychiatric comorbidity between personality disorders and anxiety disorders: a metaanalysis. Researcg group in cooperation with RKBU/UiT, University of Oslo.
  • Validating screening instruments for eating disorders. Research group in cooperation with Århus Eating Disorder Center, and Osdlo University Hospital.
  • Health economics – what is the cost- benefit of eating disorder treatments? A comparison between two evidence based interventions? Research group in cooperation with CAPIO Hospital, Sweden and University of Örebro, Sweden.  
  • A group based treatment of relational trauma. PhD-project.   
  • Using PC as a tool in treating patients with social anxiety. PhD project. In cooperation with Center for Telemedicine.
  • The impact of mindfulness-training among refugees. In cooperation with UNN and UiT/IKM
  • 12 year prospective long-term follow up of patients with severe and long standing eating disorders. In cooperation with Modum Bad and University of Oslo (Post-doc-project).  
  • Mindfulness – the effects and outcomes. A randomised controlled study involving two student samples. PhD-project. Research group in cooperation with National Documentation Center and University of Oslo.

Bente Træen

  • Cancer and committed Relationships (a longitudinal qualitative study of couples affected by prostate / breast cancer, is planned as a PhD scholarship application to the NRC).
  • Understanding Effects of Web-Based Media on Virtual Populations; The Use of Sexually Explicit Media in Men Who Use the Internet to Seek Sex with Men (international collaborative project with Simon Rosser (USA))
  • Reduced sexual interest in healthy men (a quantitative online collaborative study in Norway, Croatia and Portugal)
  • Sexual behaviour surveys (various sets of data from web populations, random samples of the population, collaboration with the National Institute of Public Health, Health Directorate and Dagbladet)
  • Dating on the Internet (in collaboration with Lovisa Eriksson and Bo Lewin University of Uppsala, Kristian Daneback University of Gothenburg, MA student Tove Beate Engum)
  • Someone who is right for me? Dating on the Internet (in collaboration with the Q500, Gert Martin Hald, University of Copenhagen)
  • Chlamydia and sexual habits among young people in Finnmark (PhD project with Kirsten Gravningen, UNN)

Oddgeir Friborg

  • Relations between seasonal variations in sleep, sleep problems and mental health, and the role of self-regulation for sleep and sleep quality across seasons.
  • National surveys aimed at studying associations between stress, vulnerability, resilience and mental health, with main purpose of validating the importance of resilience factors for an increased understanding of individual differences in mental health.
  • Performs reviews and meta-analyses on for example associations between personality disorders and anxiety, depressive episodes and eating disorders, as well as on the efficacy of clinical interventions for women exposed to sexual abuse in terms of affective and trauma-related symptoms, as well as intra- and interpersonal functioning.
  • A PhD project on dropout from the upper secondary school. The main purpose of the project is to identify relevant predictors and mechanisms relevant for understanding the increase in dropout during the past 15 years.
  • Participates in several projects on development and validation of (health) psychological measurement instruments mainly within a classical test theoretic frame.

Ida Solhaug

  • Evaluation of the effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reducing methods among two groups of health professional students (medical and psychology students) at the University of Tromsø and Oslo. The project is run in cooperation with the Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services (supervisor is Jan Rosenvinge).