Martin Bäckström

Lund University | LU · Department of Psychology

Background: Knowing whether interventions addressing everyday life as a whole can affect work readiness for people with severe mental health issues would be important for how to develop support. Objective: To compare two groups of people with mental health problems, receiving either of two types of 16-week activity-based interventions, Balancing...

The purpose of the study was to explore employees’ appraisals and coping responses to workplace incivility in the foodservice industry. Five group interviews with foodservice workers were conducted. 13 different types of experienced or witnessed incivility were identified. Positive-benign, irrelevant, and negative appraisals were found, as well as...

Personality is usually measured by means of self-ratings. Despite some drawbacks, the method is here to stay, and improving on it, particularly regarding social desirability, is essential. One way to do this is evaluative neutralization, that is, to rephrase items such that it is less obvious to the respondent what would be a desirable response. We...

Background The aim of the present study is to explore whether (experienced and witnessed) workplace incivility is a risk factor for (experienced and witnessed) workplace bullying. An additional aim is to explore whether experienced workplace incivility is associated with psychological well-being above and beyond the influence of (experienced and wi...

Social desirability may cause spurious relations in self-rating measures. The present study sought to disentangle socially desirable responding and content in the relation between measures of personality traits and well-being. Social desirability was operationalized as the evaluative factor (the tendency to react to evaluative content in questionna...

The aims of the present study are formulated to test theoretical assumptions of the incivility spiral presented by Andersson and Pearson (1999). The first aim is to investigate possible longitudinal outcomes of witnessed workplace incivility, in the form of instigated incivility and well-being. An additional aim is to explore whether witnessed work...

Proponents of the general factor of personality have suggested that it is related to more instances of agreeable, conscientious, emotionally stable, extraverted, and open behavior. We tested this frequency hypothesis by relating the GFP from personality self-ratings to the number of instances of typical Big Five behaviors in real life. For a period...

Experience sampling often makes use of items that are similar to personality questionnaire items. Arguably, this opens up for item-popularity effects, where some respondents react to the items’ level of evaluative phrasing, causing a separate factor. Gauging the risk of item popularity effects in experience sampling is important since the multifact...

This research examines whether the items of some of the most well-established five-factor inventories refer to competence. Results reveal that both experts and laymen can distinguish between items that refer to how competently a behavior is performed and items that do not (Study 1). Responses to items that refer to competence create a higher-order...

Background Personal recovery is associated with many significant health-related factors, but studies exploring associations between activity factors and personal recovery among service users are scarce. The aims of this study were hence to; 1) investigate if various aspects of activity may mediate change in recovery while also acknowledging clinica...

Background There is a call for valid and reliable instruments to evaluate implementation of evidence-based practices (EBP). The 15-item Evidence-Based Practice Attitude Scale (EBPAS) measures attitude toward EBP, incorporating four lower-order factor subscales (Appeal, Requirements, Openness, and Divergence) and a Total scale (General Attitudes). I...

Evaluative neutralization implies rephrasing items such that it is less clear to the respondent what would be a desirable response in the given population. The current research compares evaluatively neutralized scales measuring the FFM model with standard counterparts. Study 1 reveals that evaluatively neutralized scales are less influenced by soci...

Most psychometric research relies heavily on patterns of correlations between items on which perceivers describe targets. Apart from the targets’ actual (“substantive”) characteristics, this type of data has been shown to also reflect a number of other, non-substantive sources of variation. This is problematic because each of these (semantic redund...

The influence of military members’ malevolent personality traits on their ethical attitudes and behaviors has been the subject of research for decades. We investigated the relationship between malevolent individual difference factors (Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, the dominance facet of social dominance orientation, and right-wing auth...

This research investigated gender differences in misperceptions of gender differences in income. We hypothesized that men misperceive and underestimate the magnitude of gender income differences to a greater extent than women. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire, and respondents' (N = 314) perceptions of income differences were compared...

Background We need to better understand how the use of different substances and psychiatric comorbidity influence premature death generally and cause-specific death by overdose, intoxication and somatic disorders in people with substance use disorders. Method A cohort of 1405 patients consecutively admitted to a Swedish detoxification unit for sub...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how witnessing workplace incivility from coworkers and supervisors relates to instigating incivility toward others. A further aim was to investigate if witnessed incivility is indirectly related to instigated incivility via perceived stress and low job satisfaction. An additional aim was to study if c...

The article “Mind-Personality Relations from Childhood to Early Adulthood” attempts to investigate the relation between cognitive ability (GMA) and personality, especially how these two concepts are related during childhood, and whether they may exert influence on each other during development. [...]

Background: The Brief Child and Family Phone Interview (BCFPI) is a standardized intake and follow-up interview used in child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). Although it has shown good validity compared with other measures using parent reports, it has not yet been compared with diagnoses derived from a Longitudinal Expert All Data (...

Self‐reported level of right‐wing authoritarianism (RWA), the two facets of social dominance orientation (SDO‐Dominance and SDO‐Egalitarianism) and pro‐torture attitudes were measured both in the immediate aftermath (terror salience, N = 152) of the terror attacks in Paris and Brussels and when terrorism was not salient. Results showed that RWA and...

In three studies across three cultures (U.S., Sweden, and Israel), we examine whether implicit theories about groups are associated with political identity and whether this relationship is mediated by Social Dominance Orientation (SDO). Study 1 found that raising the salience of entity beliefs leads to increased right-wing political self-identifica...

Three experiments on professional recruiters explored how applicants' ethnicity affects questions prepared for a job interview and the implications of this. Study 1 revealed that outgroup applicants prompt recruiters to focus more on whether applicants have integrated cultural norms and values fitting the ingroup norms (person-culture fit), as well...

Background: The widely used Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale (RSES) has not been evaluated for psychometric properties in Sweden. Aims: This study aimed at analyzing its factor structure, internal consistency, criterion, convergent and discriminant validity, sensitivity to change, and whether a four-graded Likert-type response scale increased its reli...

Employment discrimination causes problems at the labor market, and is hard to combat. Can increasing the degree of structure when selecting applicants increase fairness? Students were asked to perform a computerized selection task and were either provided with tools for systematizing information about the applicants (structured selection) or no suc...

SPSS data file providing the raw data of study 1. (SAV)

SPSS data file providing the raw data of study 2. (SAV)

Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore health- and work-related outcomes of cyberbullying behaviour and the potential mediating role of social organisational climate, social support from colleagues and social support from superiors. Design/methodology/approach – Altogether 3,371 respondents participated in a questionnaire study....

To reduce the horizontal gender segregation in the labor market, we need to understand gender differences in career choice. The current study followed a large group of Swedish adolescents as they made their first educational choice, and tested for mediation of gender differences using measures of ability beliefs and career goals, which were collect...

Throughout the world, the labor market is clearly gender segregated. More research is needed to explain women’s lower interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) majors and particularly to explain men’s lower interest in HEED (Health care, Elementary Education, and the Domestic spheres) majors. We tested self-efficacy (compe...

Initial exertion of self-control has been suggested to impair subsequent self-regulatory performance. The specific cognitive processes that underlie this ego depletion effect have rarely been examined. Drawing on the dual-process theory of executive control (Engle & Kane, ; Kane & Engle, ), the current meta-analysis revealed that initial self-contr...

Aim: To investigate how day center attendees with psychiatric disabilities perceived their worker role and the importance of current work situation and personal factors in that respect. Methods: Two-hundred attendees completed the Worker Role Self-assessment and questionnaires addressing possible predictors of the worker role: current employment si...

A computerized paradigm was created to allow for testing in the laboratory whether increasing systematicity helps the recruiter make better selection decisions. Participants were introduced to the job and the applicants on the computer screen and asked to select who they thought should be considered for the job and who should not. Level of systemat...

The job analysis questions, job advertisement, job description, and examples of CVs. (DOCX)

Much of what we know concerning impression formation is based on experimental methods where the participant receives a list of traits or behaviors and is asked to make trait judgments or meta-cognitive judgments. The present study aimed to put some well-known effects from the impression formation literature to a test in a more dynamic computerized...

Data study 1 ratings. Data study 1a. (SAV)

Data study 1 probability. Data study 1b. (SAV)

Data study 2 probability. Data study 2b. (SAV)

Data study 3 probability. Data study 3b. (SAV)

Data study 2 ratings. Data study 2a. (SAV)

Data study 3 ratings. Data study 3a. (SAV)

How do donors reason and justify their choices when faced with dilemmas in a charitable context? In two studies, Swedish students were confronted with helping dilemmas based on the identifiable victim effect, the proportion dominance effect and the ingroup effect. Each dilemma consisted of two comparable charity projects and participants were asked...

Even though Sweden stands out in many ways, with for example a well-developed welfare system, there are some indications that Swedish egalitarianism does not include tolerance for people with low income. The present research concerns the content of the Swedish stereotype of poor people, and examines whether the poor are associated with just as nega...

The aim of this study is two folded: 1) to analyze the reliability and validity of a cyberbullying behaviour questionnaire (CBQ) in working life and 2) to analyze the reliability and validity of a short version of a cyberbullying behaviour questionnaire (CBQ-S) in working life. A total of 3371 working adults (M Age = 49.85 years) in Sweden, and 238...

Including the same data as the published article: Erlandsson, A., Björklund, F., & Bäckström, M. (2017). Choice-justifications after allocating resources in helping dilemmas. Judgment and Decision Making, 12(1), 60-80.

. During very long self-rating sessions there is a risk that respondents will be tired and/or lose interest. Is this a concern for users of long personality inventories, such that the reliability becomes threatened in the latter half when respondents have made hundreds of personality self-ratings? Two thousand three hundred fifty-two volunteers com...

Nonverbal behaviour has an important function in team sports, but research is limited. Adopting a psychological momentum (PM) framework, this study explores the relationship between a team’s history of events, nonverbal post-shot celebrations in the form of gestures and touch shown by the shooter after scoring, and subsequent team performance durin...

The general factor of personality (GFP) is understood as a hierarchically superordinate factor, which suggests that it and the subordinate personality traits are mutually dependent on one another. If a personality inventory captures the subordinate traits the GFP should appear too. Likewise, manipulating the GFP should affect the subordinate traits...

The present study investigated workplace incivility in a Swedish context. The first aim was to assess how common the phenomenon is and the second was to study which groups (gender, age, ethnicity, and power position) are most targeted by workplace incivility and are more prone to act in an uncivil way. Additionally, the relationships between experi...

The present study investigated workplace incivility in a Swedish context. The first aim was to assess how common the phenomenon is and the second was to study which groups (gender, age, ethnicity, and power position) are most targeted by workplace incivility and are more prone to act in an uncivil way. Additionally, the relationships between experi...

In recent years a growing amount of research has been conducted in the area of workplace incivility. Whereas many studies have focused on the victims and the consequences of incivility, little attention has been paid to the perpetrators and antecedents of workplace incivility. This study aims to identify possible antecedents of workplace incivility...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a leadership program in a way that captures leadership self-efficacy, political skills (PS) and resilience in the form of indicators of health and well-being that would have relevance for leadership roles in turbulent organizations. Design/methodology/approach – The design was quasi-experimental w...

Both right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and the dominance facet of social dominance orientation (SDO-D) are related to positive attitudes towards torture in a war context. We investigated whether dehumanization of Muslims and identification with Swedes as an in-group served as mediators of these relationships. Employing a student and a military samp...

The aim of the study was to explore what types of incivility temporary agency workers might experience or witness. A total of 162 temporary agency workers (97 women and 65 men) from three unions and three temporary work agencies completed an online questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of a one-item question, with an open-ended response format...

The aim of the study was to investigate workplace incivility as a social process, examining its components and relationships to both instigated incivility and negative outcomes in the form of well-being, job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and sleeping problems. The different components of incivility that were examined were experienced and witne...

The Five-Factor Model of personality is strongly linked to common mental disorders. Yet the relationship between the lower order personality traits (facets) of the model and eating disorder (ED) features remains unclear. The aim of the study was to explore how patients with non-anorexic ED differ from controls in personality and to examine the abil...

This study investigated possible mediators of the identifiable victim effect (IVE), the proportion dominance effect (PDE), and the in-group effect (IGE) in helping situations. In Studies 1-3, participants rated their emotional reactions (distress and sympathy toward the victims), perceived impact of helping, perceived responsibility to help, and he...

This study explores nonverbal behaviors in the form of gestures and touch during elite handball matches. Based on a coding scheme, 616 postshot periods following a goal, stemming from 18 matches, were analyzed. Results revealed that, on average, 2.77 nonverbal behaviors were displayed after scoring. Play-off matches resulted in a higher average of...

Background In mental health care practice and research it is increasingly recognized that clients¿ subjective perceptions of everyday occupations, such as satisfaction, are important in recovery from mental illness. Instruments thus need to be developed to assess satisfaction with everyday occupations. The aim of the present study was to assess psy...

Objective: This study examined a national cohort of 2.5-year-old children born extremely preterm with respect to behavioral problems from the perspective of parents and whether developmental variables mediated the effects of extreme prematurity on behavioral problems. Methods: As a part of the Extremely Preterm Infants in Sweden Study (EXPRESS),...

The aim of the present study was to explore the ability of personality to predict academic performance in a longitudinal study of a Swedish upper secondary school sample. Academic performance was assessed throughout a three-year period via final grades from the compulsory school and upper secondary school. The Big Five personality factors (Costa &...

The difference between evaluatively loaded and evaluatively neutralized five-factor inventory items was used to create new variables, one for each factor in the five-factor model. Study 1 showed that these variables can be represented in terms of a general evaluative factor which is related to social desirability measures and indicated that the fac...

Workplace incivility (WI) is a topic of increasing interest. Although research on areas closely related to WI, such as bullying, have been extensively studied in Scandinavia, WI has to this day gained little attention. Authors have discussed the overlap between WI and related constructs, such as bullying. WI, however, stands out in two ways: firstl...

The original version and an evaluatively neutralized version (with items rephrased to reduce popularity) of a personality inventory were compared. The results revealed (i) similar criterion validity across three different sets of self-rated behaviours, (ii) stronger relations to the rated social desirability of criteria for the original version and...

Workplace incivility includes behaviors that violate the workplace norms for mutual respect and is characterized by low-intensity and ambiguous intent to harm the target (Andersson & Pearson, 1999). Several authors argue that there has been an increase in workplace incivility in recent years and that changing working life, downsizing and stress may...

Background: The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) measures general stress and the Swedish version, although used in several studies, has not been extensively evaluated for psychometric properties. Aims: This study aimed to investigate psychometric properties and the factor solution of the Swedish 14-item version when used with two samples, namely a m...

The proportion dominance effect (PDE) refers to a higher motivation to help when the victims are part of a small (you can help 56 out of 60) rather than a large (you can help 56 out of 560) reference group. In two studies using different experimental paradigms, we investigated possible mediators of the PDE. Study 1 (N = 168) was conducted in three...

This article reports the reliability and validity of the Swedish version of the Workplace Incivility Scale (WIS), a 7-item self-report measure assessing subjectively appraised workplace incivility. The scale was offered to all 490 white-collar employees in a medium size Swedish company resulting in a response frequency of 54 % consisting of 266 par...

Athletes constantly report experiences of momentum during athletic contests, and they consider momentum as being an important factor for the outcome of a competition. However, researchers trying to capture momentum with quantitative methods see themselves confronted with inconclusive results. To explain this gap between athletes’ belief and results...

Job incivility, a recently recognized phenomenon in work- and organizational psychology, includes behaviors that violate the workplace norms for mutual respect and is characterized by low-intensity and ambiguous intent to harm the target (Andersson & Pearson, 1999). The deleterious effects of job incivility for both the individuals and the organiza...

Correction of judgments of people of different ethnicities and sexes was explored by exposing participants to cues to the risk of making biased judgments (from explicit warnings to subtle hints). In three experiments, a three-way interaction was revealed, where the effect of a cue to bias varied as a function of both the ethnicity and sex of the ta...

Bäckström, M. & Björklund, F. (2012). Social desirability in personality inventories: Symptoms, diagnosis and prescribed cure. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology. An analysis of social desirability in personality assessment is presented. Starting with the symptoms, Study 1 showed that mean ratings of graded personality items are moderately to stron...

The present study investigated the unique contribution of learning approaches to academic performance, also taking gender differences into account. The participant sample consisted of 476 school pupils (53% girls and 47% boys) from two upper secondary schools in Sweden who completed two self-reported measures related to personality and learning app...

This study investigated a possible mechanism behind employment discrimination. Participants completed a recruitment task where emphasis on cohesion (employees should "fit in") versus fairness (everybody should be treated equally) was manipulated by describing the norms of a fictitious company differently. There was a comparatively stronger preferen...

Right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) is regularly implicated as a potential risk factor of abusive behavior, whereas social dominance orientation (SDO) is not. We compared RWA and the two subscales of SDO, SDO-Dominance and SDO-Egalitarianism, as factors behind legitimization and hypothetical self-involvement in the use of torture-like abusive behavio...

Rankings of countries on mean levels of self-reported Conscientiousness continue to puzzle researchers. Based on the hypothesis that cross-cultural differences in the tendency to prefer extreme response categories of ordinal rating scales over moderate categories can influence the comparability of self-reports, this study investigated possible effe...

Although several studies have demonstrated that stereotypes can be mixed in terms of warmth and competence (e.g., cold but competent), the possibility of mixed discrimination has received very little attention so far. To this end, the present study investigated mixed discriminatory judgments of individuals. In two studies, the participants judged t...

The aim of the present study was to create a scale that measures motivation to control in-group bias. It is suggested that people sometimes control in-group positivity in order to avoid intergroup bias, and that people vary in their motivation to control in-group bias. Also, we sought to explore whether specific motivational sources underlying such...

The aim of the present study was to investigate the extent to which personality traits, after controlling for general intelligence, predict academic performance in different school subjects. Upper secondary school students in Sweden (N = 315) completed the Wonderlic IQ test (Wonderlic, 1992) and the IPIP-NEO-PI test (Goldberg, 1999). A series of hi...

Depressive personality is commonly seen in clinical practice, and today only one exclusive self-report instrument-the Depressive Personality Disorder Inventory (DPDI)-is available for its assessment based on the DSM-IV description of the construct. The purpose of this research was to evaluate a Swedish version of this measure (DPDI-Swe) in terms of...

In three experiments, participants rated how well a number of adjectives described their in-group (e.g. kind-hearted, helpful, intelligent, efficient, etc.). In Experiment 1, females were found to rate their ingroup (females) more favorably when reporting verbally to female (rather than male) experimenters. This finding was further explored in two...