The Occupation, psychocardiology and sleep (OPS) research group focuses on multidisciplinary projects related to health psychology, clinical psychology, community psychology, personality psychology and work- and organizational psychology.

Our main interests are:

• occupational psychology
• psychocardiology
• sleep

Occupational psychology

We are engaged in several projects within occupational psychology, regarding psychosocial work factors, motivation, emotions, health and sleep among shift workers. Our latest project, Sleep, Affect and Night work (SAN), is an ecologically, momentary assesment study measuring sleep and emotions at different times of the day in shift workers across different occupations. Our projects STrESOB and SAPPH are in collaboration with Trøndelag police district. In STrESOB we explore coping strategies, motivation and job stress in police officers investigating sexual abuse and violence against children. In SAPPH (Sleep, activity, psychosocial work environment and police employees’ health) we investigate physical and mental implications related to sleep and psychosocial work factors in a real-life work setting. We are also interested in personnel selection, as well as work and health in creative occupations like for example musicians.

Psychocardiology

We study the interplay between mental health and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in adult populations, including different working populations and older adults. Our research aims at identifying psychological risk profiles. We focus specifically on the role of anxiety and depression in the development of CVD and how medication like antidepressants affect this relationship.

Sleep

We are working on several projects on sleep and circadian rhythm. We are investigating individual differences in the effect of sleep deprivation on affect and cognitive control functioning (in the research project SLEEPIC) and are interested in sleep and health among the elderly, as well as sleep and mental health in youths and young adults. In addition, we are interested in the circadian rhythm of psychological processes, especially affect.

Innovation and technology

We utilize qualitative and quantitative methods and are interested in innovative research design and research methods. In our newer projects we have started exploring the use of virtual reality (VR) in education, organizational learning and psychological assesment. We have developed VR games for organizational learning and psychological perspective taking, financed by the Norwegian Directorate for Higher education and skills. Moreover, we administer the YouTube channel Psyport where we teach and present psychological research methods.

Collaboration

We collaborate with several other research groups at the department, as well as internationally. We are part of interdisciplinary networks, among them EMERGE and SOBI.