PhD projects and Master's theses
On this page you will find current PhD projects and Master's theses connected to the Existential Psychology Lab / Oslo.
The role of meaning in life and coping in adolescents' mental well-being: insights from a mixed-methods study in Norway.
Charlotte Rosenberg, MF School of Theology, Religion and Society, Oslo, Norway
PhD project
Project description
The overall purpose of this mixed-methods study is to explore meaning in life in adolescents aged 16-19 in Norway, possible associations with health variables and how adolescents reflect on and apply meaning in life. Young people struggle with their mental health, can meaning in life help them?
Exploring near-death experiences (NDE) among critically ill patients at Oslo University Hospital
Øystein Buer, MF School of Theology, Religion and Society, Oslo, Norway
PhD project
Project description
This project investigates near-death experiences among critically ill people from a perspective of existential health.
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Meaningfulness and crises of meaning in young people’s lives examined in relation to psychopathology
Sebastian Boesgaard Bloch, University of Southern Denmark, Odense
PhD project
Project description
Since 2006, the number of children and young people in Denmark diagnosed with mental disorders has tripled. Central to both the psychology of religion and existential psychology is the exploration of people’s search for meaning in life. Studies within these research fields point to high, significant correlations between crises of meaning and psychological distress. In this light, existential psychology and the psychology of religion become relevant perspectives to understand the increase in the diagnoses of mental disorders among young people. This area further constitutes an important field for closer examination due to the limited knowledge about existential conditions in young people’s lives in Denmark.
The main goal of this Ph.D. project is to generate knowledge about how young people in a Danish context experience meaningfulness and crises of meaning, as well as the relationship between meaning in life and psychological distress among young people in Denmark. The objectives of the project are to estimate: The levels of meaningfulness, crisis of meaning, and psychological distress in young people in Denmark; the extent to which meaningfulness can be present in young people experiencing psychological distress; the characteristics of those who succeed in finding meaning in times of psychological distress.
Evaluation and efficacy study for using the Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI) in palliative healthcare contexts
Yvonne Aarestrup, Sykehuset Innlandet HF and the Research Center for Existential Health
PhD project
Project description
The CFI has been used in DSM-5 international field trials to test its efficacy, operationalized here as feasibility (can it be done?), acceptability (do people like it?) and clinical utility (is it helpful?) among patients and clinicians (Aggarwal et al., 2016). Primarily, though not exclusively, the field trials have included patients with minority ethnic backgrounds (Adeponle, Groleau, & Kirmayer, 2015; Aggarwal, Nicasio, DeSilva, Boiler, & Lewis-Fernández, 2013; van Loon, van Schaik, Dekker, & Beekman, 2011). The main conclusion of the field trials is that CFI is feasible, acceptable, and useful (Aggarwal et al., 2016).
Our project adds to and expands upon the current knowledge about the efficacy of the CFI, by extending into a previously unexplored context - palliative medicine. We seek to investigate whether the CFI can be a useful tool to enhance medical communication also in this context. Our patient population is a majority population, thus we seek also to explore whether the CFI is deemed useful also when used with persons from a majority population.
The flight from everyday life. How existential indifference helps us flee from existential anxiety
Bendik Sparre Hovet, University of Oslo
Master's thesis
Project description
Bendik's thesis examines existential indifference as a protection against existential anxiety, and how we can understand this process psychologically. Through a case study of a vision quest, a Native American ritual undertaken in Europe by a European participant, he studies how the case can illustrate a crisis of meaning taking place when modern man is left without projects, a social group, and constant stimuli. He uses the works of Ludwig Binswanger, Harry Stack Sullivan, Martin Heidegger, and Tatjana Schnell's Sources of Meaning to make sense of the existential anxiety evoked in the vision quest.