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Syftet med föreliggande studie var att kartlägga källor till self-efficacy hos individuella idrottare med hjälp av self-efficacy teorin och pyramid för prestation. Följande frågeställningar har besvarats: (A) vilka källor använder individuella idrottare vid hög self-efficacy (B) Vilka källor använder individuella idrottare vid låg self-efficacy? och (C) Vilken är relationen mellan self-efficacy och prestation? Tio semistrukturerande intervjuer genomfördes på tio individuella idrottare (5 manliga och 5 kvinnliga) i ålder 18-27 år. Resultaten visade att tidigare erfarenheter var den största källan till ökat self-efficacy. Uttryck som "tränat bra innan" och "bra förberedelse" använder intervjupersonerna för att beskriva denna källa. "Prestationsångest" och "press på mig själv" utryckdes bland intervjupersonerna i det känslomässiga tillståndet som var den största källan vid lågt self-efficacy. I sambandet mellan self-efficacy och prestation kan ett mönster presenteras, högt self-efficacy ger framgångsrik prestation och lågt self-efficacy ger misslyckad prestation. The purpose of this study was to examine the sources to self-efficacy among individual sportathletes based on self-efficacy theory and the high performance pyramid. The objectives were to examine: (A) sources individual sportathletes uses in high self-efficacy (B) sources of individual athletes in low self-efficacy (C) the relationship between self-efficacy and performance. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten individual athletes (five men and five women) in age 18 - 27. The results showed that past experience was the major source of high self-efficacy with expressions such as "trained well before" and "good preparation" used the most by the participants. "Performance anxiety" and "external pressure” were the largest source of low self-efficacy. Examining the relationship between self-efficacy and performance revealed two pattern, high self-efficacy in 90 % cases is associated with successful performance and low self-efficacy in 80% cases is associated with poor performance.

In the current thesis, the neurogenic and angiogenic response to electroconvulsive seizure (ECS)-treatment was investigated in the adult rat brain. ECS-treatment is an animal model for the antidepressant treatment electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), which is considered to be the most effective antidepressant treatment modality today, however with not yet fully understood modes of action. Depression, which is a common and devastating illness has recently been proposed to be caused by a decreased hippocampal neurogenesis and cellular plasticity in general, possibly due to elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol, manifesting itself as a reduction in hippocampal volume. In the current thesis, ECS-treatment was shown to be able to oppose stress hormone-induced decrease in hippocampal neurogenesis and also induce proliferation of non-neuronal cells. A large majority of these cells were identified as being endothelial cells, and neurogenesis and angiogenesis in response to ECS-treatment seemingly occurred in concert. In addition to neurogenesis, ECS-treatment induced strong neuronal activation in the hypothalamus, co-localising with a strong angiogenic response. Endothelial cells have been shown to influence neuronal and glial function and we hypothesise that the increase in hypothalamic endothelial cell proliferation could for example influence neuroendocrine signaling. Besides possibly influencing neuronal and glial function, endothelial cells are building blocks of blood vessels. We detect a strong angiogenic response in the hippocampus, which in fact results in a 16% increase in vessel length in the molecular layer of the dentate gyrus. This finding has important implications for the trophic actions of ECS-treatment. In addition to counteracting decreases in neurogenesis, ECS-treatment increase the vascularization of a structure that has been shown to be vulnerable to stress and decrease in size in depressed patients. Understanding this angiogenic response and possibly being able to stimulate it by other means than ECS-treatment could possibly lead to the development of new and more effective antidepressant treatments.