Christina Hellström’s research while affiliated with University of Gothenburg and other places

This article explores the dimensions of time and temporality in the context of product design. The study builds on a phenomenological approach, where in-depth, explorative interviews with six product designers were conducted. The results provide insights into how the designers use mental experimentation and imagination by actively envisioning various futures, or `possible worlds' in the design process, and how they use these temporal explorations in conceiving of novel design concepts. Apart from temporality figuring as the designer drawing actively on past experiences, we were able to discern two additional cognitive factors affecting how designers use temporality: by projecting a future goal; and by investing this goal or image with an emotional loading, i.e. by `emoting a vision of the future'. Finally, these results are used to extend current thinking on the role of time and temporality in design processes, and suggest a line of further inquiry into the significance of affective dispositions and moods on temporal orientation in other creative contexts.

The present paper introduces a view of how ideas develop in organizations that goes beyond the traditional focus on either individual or structural conditions for creativity and innovation. An interview study was conducted with key actors in a large Swedish telecom company. A model was then constructed where idea development is viewed as a process of combining and integrating various informal, yet powerful qualities of the organization. The paper argues that successful idea development depends on the capacity of actors and ideas to move on "organizational highways, alleys and by-lanes". A number of suggestions are presented for how to stimulate the processes of creativity and innovation from this perspective.

This article explores the process of small-scale technological innovation through the concept of experienced and enacted time. By conducting a series of semi-structured, deep interviews with 10 entrepreneurial innovators around issues of time and their ventures, we were able to construct four higher order concepts: time as a force, time as a flow, time as relations and time as a personal, cognitive resource; as well as 12 subcategories depicting ways in which time and innovation are weaved together. The study concludes with a number of suggestions as to how previous research on innovation may be extended in the light of the present findings. Especially important in this respect is the call for a stronger emphasis in innovation research on intentionality, uncertainty creation, vision and social action as being significant denominators of this phenomenon.

The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate chronic pain patients' perceptions of the pain-future relation, more specifically, of the way such perceptions affect: (1) well-being and coping; (2) psychosocial organization/adaptation; and (3) experienced agency in a clinical context. In-depth interviews with 18 chronic pain patients were conducted in order to generate categories describing the influence of chronic pain on the patient's perception of the future. The analysis resulted in six general conceptual patterns: diagnosis - `a signpost' to the future; changes in prospective thinking and feeling; `frozen futures'; changed strategies for coping with the future; perceived degree of agency; and approaches to handling conflicts in a clinical setting. The results call for more `time empathy' in patient-doctor encounters.

Objectives: To investigate psychological symptomatology and distress in sub groups of chronic pain patients with different adaptation styles. Methods: Subjects were 660 patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain who were tested by the combined use of the two large and much used psychological inventories-the Multidimensional Pain Inventory and the Symptom Check list-90-Revised. Results: The results showed significant differences between the three adaptation profiles, dysfunctional, inter personally distressed, and adaptive copers. Adaptive copers were equally and less distressed than a sample from a normal population. Conclusion: This study calls attention to the risk of blind faith of the ‘objective ness’ of psychometric scales and of the use of them as the sole basis for designing treatments. More attention seems to be needed to get more information about the ‘healthy’ group of adaptive copers by extended clinical judgment.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore temporal aspects of chronic pain patients' conceptions of their selves; what they were in the past, how they were functioning at the present and what they thought about their potential and future. In-depth interviews with 21 chronic pain patients were performed and analysed. The main results of the analysis included four higher-order conceptual patterns: “the body and I”, “maintaining the consistency of past self”, the “entrapped self”, and “projected selves, defined by others”. These results are presented in a systems-oriented model illustrating the temporal dynamic between the perceived functioning self, the body and others, such as health care personnel and significant others. The mechanisms of the process of how selves are developing in the chronisation or healing process of pain are finally discussed. A clinical implication of these findings might be that with an enlarged insight of the temporal dynamic and the importance of interactive and social factors in shaping positive possible selves, health care personnel can contribute more effectively in stew-arding the chronic pain patient toward health-promotive ends and a concomitantly higher quality of life.

Perceived (subjective) future has been found to be a significant factor in explaining the relationship between pain and pain-related distress. The present study is based on the assumption that chronic pain patients with the three psychological profiles introduced by Turk and Rudy in 1988 could also be found in a sample of chronic pain patients and if so, these profiles have different perspectives on the future. The Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI) and The Future Scale were used to collect data from 569 patients with heterogeneous non-malignant chronic pain. A cluster analysis was conducted, where the resulting clusters closely resembled the profiles labelled by Turk and Rudy as 'dysfunctional', 'interpersonally distressed' and 'adaptive coper'. The results indicated that patients with adaptive coper profile have a more positive perception, while those with an interpersonally distressed profile have a more negative perception of the future. With an increased duration of pain, the proportion of the adaptive coper category decreased linearly, while an opposite trend was noted for the interpersonally distressed category. These results may better enable profiled psychological interventions in clinical pain treatment, e.g. by providing patients with therapies focused on positive future orientation, resulting in increased motivation for health-seeking behaviour and better abilities to cope with pain.

The coincidence of chronic pain, psychological distress and depression has been well documented in several studies. However, there is still debate about the type of causality linking these factors and whether psychological distress and depression precede or are a consequence of pain. This study contributes to this debate through an analysis of the latent structure behind these complex concepts. To test the hypothesis that subjective future (i.e. how the pain patient perceives the future) has an impact on pain, data were analysed from 660 chronic pain patients who were tested with The Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI), The Symptom Distress Checklist (SCL-90) and a Future Scale, which was constructed from items of the Sense of coherence-scale. By use of path analysis and structural equation modeling (S.E.M.) four latent constructs were tested: Pain, Interference, Distress and Subjective future. The results indicated that Subjective future has a strong impact on Distress, is a mediating variable, which contributes to conceptually explaining and practically nullifying the relationship between Pain and Distress, and finally that Pain is a concept, that changes with increasing duration.

The cold pressor test was used to investigate perception of time and change of mood in subjects experiencing pain. Using a within-group design, 15 subjects were tested in a pain vs no-pain condition. Subjects were requested to fill in the mood adjective checklist (MACL) concerning the mood factors of activity, calmness and pleasantness, and were interviewed about their perceptions before and immediately after each condition. The results indicated that subjects in the pain condition estimated retrospective time passage as significantly shorter, indicating a disorganization of temporal orientation (the relative dominance of past, present and future in a person's thought). In addition, results indicated that many of the subjects in the pain condition, although underestimating time, experienced time as long-lasting. The main finding concerning mood was that the activity level was increased, and calmness and pleasantness were significantly reduced in the pain condition. The main conclusion is that pain per se changes the perception of duration of time intervals and temporal orientation within the same individual.