Bo Heffler
PhD, Licensed Psychologist
I have been a lecturer at the Department of Psychology, Stockholm University (1970-2011). My teaching experience adds up to 40 years full time lectureship. Teaching, tutoring, examination and management have been the integral parts of the lectureship.
Temporary post as Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Psychology during part of spring and fall semester 1996 with staff administration and management. Director of Psychologist Programme 1999-07-01 - 2003-06-30.
Psychologists, Becoming psychologists, Teachers, Study advisors, Speech and Language Pathologists are some of the different groups of students of psychology I have met.
Main teaching interests
Developmental psychology: cognitive, emotional and social development, and especially their possible integration.
Life-span developmental psychology: what extra knowledge do we gain by using a process-oriented developmental perspective on the grown-up life?
Personality and Social psychology.
Tutoring, papers and reports.
Group experiences , i.e. discussions and training concerning the profession and the professional role, structured group dynamics.
Interview courses.
Concerning the last three paragraphs I have been interested in the role of the teacher and how to facilitate the students growing professional role, both intellectually and emotionally.
Research Projects
i) Using the Learning Style Inventory (Kolb,1984) the aim of the project is firstly to study the test-retest reliability of the inventory by presenting two versions of the inventory. Secondly to shed light on learning style for different groups of students, e.g. between those who have chosen psychodynamic therapy vs cognitive-behavioral therapy. Are there differences in learning style for each individual over time, e.g. from the first half of the psychologist programme vs the second half? What relations are there between learning style and teaching style?
ii) The aim of this project is to collect information and literature concerning intersubjectivity, especially in dyads. Recent research focusing early infant-caregiver interaction give some clues to this area of meeting of minds. How do we become a person of our own? The paradoxical duplicity of that process is put into the following words by a researcher: ”Not until the individual belongs to herself is she able to belong to another one. But it is solely through others she can belong to herself.” What does such a proposition stand for in a developmental perspective? In what way is it possible to empirically study intersubjectivity?
Find Heffler's abstracts in the Annual Report database.
Dissertation
Consistency of Behavior? Studies in Interactional Psychology. Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, 1979.
This dissertation summarizes and integrates the following reports:
a. Magnusson, D., Heffler, B., & Nyman, B. The Generality of Behavioral Data II: Replication of an experiment on generalization from observations on one occaison. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 1968, 3, 415-422.
b. Heffler, B., & Magnusson, D. The Generality of Behavioral Data IV: Cross-situational invariance of objectively measured behavior. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1979, 48, 417-477.
c. Heffler, B. The Generality of Behavioral Data V: Cross-sectional invariance of self-and peer-ratings. Reports form the Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, 1978, No 528.
d. Heffler, B. Trait-State Ego Threat in an Interaction Model of Anxiety. Reports from the Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, 1977, No.503.
e. Heffler, B. Trait-State Physical Threat in an Interaction Model of Anxiety. Reports from the Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, 1977, No.504.
f. Heffler, B. Physiological Reactions in an Interaction Model of Anxiety. Reports from the Department of Psychology, Stockholm University,1977, No.513.
g. Magnusson, D., & Heffler, B. The Generality of Behavioral Data III: Generalization Potential as a Function of the Number of Observation Instances. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 1969, 4, 29-42.
Institutional and External Assignments
Visiting lecturer to University of Warwick, England, two months 1994, planning and carrying through a course in developmental psychology. Visiting lecturer to California State University at Fresno, USA, lecturing full time six weeks during Fall semester 1998, two classes in developmental psychology.
Appointed Adjunct Professor of Psychology at California State University, Fresno, Fall semester 1998.
Running a semester course 1997 and 1999 in Developmental psychology for American students in The Swedish Program, sponsored by a consortium of American Colleges and Universities and by Stockholm University.
Deputy chairperson of Division of Personality-, Social- and Developmental Psychology.
Deputy member of the Executive Board, Department of Psychology, Stockholm University.
