Research Interests: Psychology and Testing
Introduction The Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) is used to measure novelty seeking (NS), harm avoidance (HA), reward dependence RD), and persistence (P). Objectives We will study temperament in individuals with psychosis and... more
Introduction The Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) is used to measure novelty seeking (NS), harm avoidance (HA), reward dependence RD), and persistence (P). Objectives We will study temperament in individuals with psychosis and healthy controls. Aim We aim to study the stability of temperament in individuals with psychotic disorders (with onset of illness before and after first follow-up) and in healthy controls. Methods As part of the 31-year follow-up survey of the prospective population based Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort, the TCI was filled by a large sample of individuals. A subsample of psychotic individuals, with the onset of illness before (n=16) or after (n=15) the 31-year follow-up, and healthy controls (n=117) filled in these scales again at the age of 43. We studied also the association between psychotic symptoms and premorbid temperament. Results The 31-year and 43-year temperament scores correlated strongly among controls (Pearson's r: NS 0.68, HA 0.60, RD 0.56, P 0.54), whereas correlations among psychotic individuals with the onset of psychosis before first follow-up were weaker (NS 0.38, HA 0.50, RD 0.17, P 0.53). High HA before the onset of illness (at age of 31 years) associated significantly with a lower likelihood of remission and with more negative, disorganization and total symptoms in the PANSS. High NS before illness associated with a higher likelihood of remission according to the PANSS. Conclusions Temperament was stable among controls, and more unstable in individuals with psychoses. Premorbid harm avoidance and novelty seeking predicts the clinical outcome in schizophrenia.
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Americans have a longer Digit span but a shorter Spatial span than FinnsObjectiveCross-national studies of test norms show American superiority in digit span (DS) length as compared to European norms. In our study, American and Finnish DS... more
Americans have a longer Digit span but a shorter Spatial span than FinnsObjectiveCross-national studies of test norms show American superiority in digit span (DS) length as compared to European norms. In our study, American and Finnish DS and Spatial span (SS) norms were analyzed to study the hypothesis that the differences in DS reflect a systemic difference in working memory and are not based on linguistic factors.MethodThe mean DS and SS scores from the Wechsler Memory Scale III US (n=1250) and Finnish (n=251) standardizations were compared.ResultsA significant difference between American and Finnish mean DS (16.5-14.2) and SS (14.7-15.9) raw scores was observed. For six out of seven age groups, the American sample had longer DS while for 4/7 age groups, the Finnish sample had longer SS.Conclusions It is concluded that differences in DS are based on other factors than a systemic difference in working memory. The results underline the need for establishing national test norms for ...
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The Wartegg drawing completion test (Wartegg Zeichen Test, WZT) is a projective drawing test developed in the 1920’s and 1930’s by the AustroGerman psychologist Ehrig Wartegg (Wartegg, 1939). The standard DIN-A4sized test form has eight... more
The Wartegg drawing completion test (Wartegg Zeichen Test, WZT) is a projective drawing test developed in the 1920’s and 1930’s by the AustroGerman psychologist Ehrig Wartegg (Wartegg, 1939). The standard DIN-A4sized test form has eight white, 4cm-by-4cm squares in two rows on a black background (Figure 1). Each square is blank except for a small sign, such as a dot or a line, that is given as the starting point of a drawing. For example, a dot is located in the centre of square 1. Subjects are instructed to complete the eight drawings, incorporating the given sign into the drawing. Like other projective drawing tests, Wartegg’s test is based on the assumption that the content and the qualitative aspects of the drawings reflect the personality of the person drawing. For example, a higher than average number of human drawings in the WZT protocol is generally interpreted as a sign of sociability (Gardziella, 1985).
IntroductionPersonality traits have been associated with risk for depressive disorders. Studies with premorbid measures on personality are uncommon.ObjectiveEstimate effect of premorbid personality as a predictor for remission in... more
IntroductionPersonality traits have been associated with risk for depressive disorders. Studies with premorbid measures on personality are uncommon.ObjectiveEstimate effect of premorbid personality as a predictor for remission in depressive disorders.AimTo study premorbid personality as a predictor for remission in depression in a population based sample.MethodsThe sample is based on the large Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966. Temperament traits were measured at age 31 years using the Temperament and Character Inventory. At the age of 46 years depressive symptoms were measured using the Beck Depression Inventory – II (BDI). The sample included those with self-reported life-time depression history at age 46 years but not yet at age 31 years (n = 298). Temperament at age 31 years was used to predict remission (BDI≤13) at age 46 years using logistic regression analysis, with gender and educational level as confounders. Cohen's d was used as effect size measure.ResultsTwo hundred ...
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There have been linguistic studies on the gendering mechanisms of adjectives and psychological studies on the relationship between personality traits and gender, but the two fields have never entered into a dialogue on these issues. This... more
There have been linguistic studies on the gendering mechanisms of adjectives and psychological studies on the relationship between personality traits and gender, but the two fields have never entered into a dialogue on these issues. This article seeks to address this gap by presenting an interdisciplinary study that explores the gendering mechanisms associated with personality traits and personality trait-denoting adjectives. The findings of earlier work in this area and basic gendering mechanisms relevant to adjectives and personality traits are outlined. This is followed by a linguistic and a psychological analysis of the usage patterns of a set of personality trait adjectives. The linguistic section draws on corpus linguistics to explore the distribution of these adjectives with female, male and gender-neutral personal nouns in the Corpus of Contemporary American English. The psychological analysis relates the usage frequencies of personality trait adjectives with the nouns man, ...
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Analysis of the age of acquisition (AoA) of personality terms represents a genetic method for the study of the individual personality lexicon and offers a potential alternative to correlational analysis for identifying the fundamental... more
Analysis of the age of acquisition (AoA) of personality terms represents a genetic method for the study of the individual personality lexicon and offers a potential alternative to correlational analysis for identifying the fundamental personality descriptors among the thousands of terms that appear in language. In the present study, the relationship between AoA, word frequency, word desirability, and factor loading in the Big Five and Hexaco models of 274 and 408 personality adjectives was analyzed. It was found that young children (2nd graders or younger) acquire personality terms that represent traits at the core of the broad personality factors in the Big Five and Hexaco models slightly earlier than words that represent more peripheral traits. In older children beyond second grade, the correlation between factor loading and AoA is weak. Words that describe the broad openness and stability/emotionality aspects of personality are learned later than words for the other broad factors...
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Supplemental Material for Generational Changes in Personality: The Evidence From Corpus Linguistics by Eka Roivainen in Psychological Reports
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A psychological test may be defined as an objective and standardized measure of a sample of behaviour. The interpretation of test results is usually based on comparing an individual’s performance to norms based on a representative sample... more
A psychological test may be defined as an objective and standardized measure of a sample of behaviour. The interpretation of test results is usually based on comparing an individual’s performance to norms based on a representative sample of the population. The present study examined the norms of popular adult tests. The validity of the Wartegg drawing test (WZT) was studied using two rating scales, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory as criterion tests. Weak to moderate correlations were found. It is concluded that the WZT has some validity in the assessment of Alexithymia. Efforts to develop a psychometrically valid and reliable method of interpreting the WZT should be continued. Crossnational and historical analyses of the norms of Wechsler’s adult intelligence scale (WAIS) were performed. The results show that the Finnish WAIS III test norms are distorted in the younger age groups. Significant cross-national and cross-generational differences in relati...
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One of the criteria for mild mental retardation is a total level of less than 70 IQ points measured by an intelligence test. The results of intelligence tests are approximate. There are differences in the norms of test versions, and... more
One of the criteria for mild mental retardation is a total level of less than 70 IQ points measured by an intelligence test. The results of intelligence tests are approximate. There are differences in the norms of test versions, and measurement error must be taken into account in individual testing. A total level of 80 measured by adult tests utilized in Finland does not exclude the possibility of mild mental retardation, and a total level of 60 does not confirm it. The test performance should be compared with other measures, such as school and work history, practical functional capacity and previous test results.
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The relationship between age of acquisition (AoA), word frequency, word desirability, and factor loading in the Big Five and Hexaco models of 274 and 408 personality adjectives was studied. It was found that young children (2nd graders or... more
The relationship between age of acquisition (AoA), word frequency, word desirability, and factor loading in the Big Five and Hexaco models of 274 and 408 personality adjectives was studied. It was found that young children (2nd graders or younger) acquire personality terms that represent traits at the core of the broad personality factors in the Big Five and Hexaco models slightly earlier than words that represent more peripheral traits. In older children beyond second grade, the correlation between factor loading and AoA is weak. Words that describe the broad Openness and Stability aspects of personality are learned later than words for the other broad factors. Word frequency (in book texts) and desirability have a weak negative correlation with AoA. It is hypothesized that the age of acquisition of a personality term reflects the importance of the corresponding trait for children and may be used as one criterion for ranking facet level traits. Further analyses of age of acquisitio...
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In this study, we tested the linguistic relativity hypothesis by studying the effect of grammatical gender (feminine vs. masculine) on affective judgments of conceptual representation in Italian and German. In particular, we examined the... more
In this study, we tested the linguistic relativity hypothesis by studying the effect of grammatical gender (feminine vs. masculine) on affective judgments of conceptual representation in Italian and German. In particular, we examined the within- and cross-language grammatical gender effect and its interaction with participants' demographic characteristics (such as, the raters' age and sex) on semantic differential scales (affective ratings of valence, arousal and dominance) in Italian and German speakers. We selected the stimuli and the relative affective measures from Italian and German adaptations of the ANEW (Affective Norms for English Words). Bayesian and frequentist analyses yielded evidence for the absence of within- and cross-languages effects of grammatical gender and sex- and age-dependent interactions. These results suggest that grammatical gender does not affect judgments of affective features of semantic representation in Italian and German speakers, since an ov...
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Background Which personality facets should a general personality test measure? No consensus exists on the facet structure of personality, the nature of facets, or the correct method of identifying the most significant facets. However, it... more
Background Which personality facets should a general personality test measure? No consensus exists on the facet structure of personality, the nature of facets, or the correct method of identifying the most significant facets. However, it can be hypothesized (the lexical hypothesis) that high frequency personality describing words more likely represent important personality facets and rarely used words refer to less significant aspects of personality. Participants and procedure A ranking of personality facets was performed by studying the frequency of the use of popular personality adjectives in causal clauses (because he is a kind person) on the Internet and in books as attributes of the word person (kind person). Results In Study 1, the 40 most frequently used adjectives had a cumulative usage frequency equal to that of the rest of the 295 terms studied. When terms with a higher-ranking dictionary synonym or antonym were eliminated, 23 terms remained, which represent 23 different f...
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Wechsler Adult Intelligent Scale (WAIS) III
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Careless responding was studied in the context of a large-scale survey-based study (Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort; n = 5024) wherein the Chapman Infrequency Scale (CIS) was used as the validity scale. Careless responding was... more
Careless responding was studied in the context of a large-scale survey-based study (Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort; n = 5024) wherein the Chapman Infrequency Scale (CIS) was used as the validity scale. Careless responding was infrequent in comparison to earlier studies that used students as subjects. Logistic regression analyses showed that the odds ratio for careless responding was 2.1 (95% confidence interval: 0.9–5.0) for respondents with a psychiatric diagnosis relative to healthy respondents. Male sex and lack of secondary education were other factors that correlated positively with CIS score. It is concluded that the common procedure of excluding careless respondents from final samples may affect the results of survey-based studies that target psychiatric patients. It is suggested that cutoff scores for exclusion should be flexible and chosen in line with the demographic and health characteristics of the sample.
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Wartegg’s drawing test (WZT, Wartegg Zeichen Test) was developed in the 1920’s and 30’s by the Austro-German psychologist Ehrig Wartegg (1897- 1983). While practically unknown in English-speaking countries, the WZT is widely used in... more
Wartegg’s drawing test (WZT, Wartegg Zeichen Test) was developed in the 1920’s and 30’s by the Austro-German psychologist Ehrig Wartegg (1897- 1983). While practically unknown in English-speaking countries, the WZT is widely used in continental Europe and Latin America. Wartegg was introduced in the 1920’s to mystical philosophies, modern art, psychoanalysis and Gestalt psychology that can be considered to be the roots of the WZT. Wartegg’s academic work on the WZT at the University of Leipzig during the 1930’s was based on the doctrine of Ganzheit psychology. The rise of Nazism, the Second World War and the postwar division of Germany hampered Wartegg’s work. Wartegg lived in eastern Germany, where the post-war communist government opposed Gestalt psychology and psychoanalysis and favoured Pavlovian theories. Several interpretation methods have been developed for the WZT, but none have yet been empirically validated. There has been very little research on the WZT, despite its popul...
The Wartegg drawing test was developed in the 1930s at the University of Leipzig by the Austro-German psychologist Ehrig Wartegg (1897&endash;1983). Wartegg lived an intense life and was introduced in the 1920s to psychoanalysis, gestalt... more
The Wartegg drawing test was developed in the 1930s at the University of Leipzig by the Austro-German psychologist Ehrig Wartegg (1897&endash;1983). Wartegg lived an intense life and was introduced in the 1920s to psychoanalysis, gestalt psychology, mystical philosophies and modern art &endash; the roots of Wartegg’s test. Wartegg was a member of the NSDAP in the 1930’s and remained in the GDR after the war. However, Wartegg’s test is based on theories and philosophy that were opposed by both nazis and communists, but were valued by Wartegg himself.
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The susceptibility of aged persons to verbal transformations was studied in an experiment with ambiguous verbal stimuli (‘reversible words’). Twenty-five subjects, aged 64 to 86 years, participated in the experiment. The results indicate... more
The susceptibility of aged persons to verbal transformations was studied in an experiment with ambiguous verbal stimuli (‘reversible words’). Twenty-five subjects, aged 64 to 86 years, participated in the experiment. The results indicate that the aged are somewhat less susceptible to verbal reversals than are young adults, but there seem to be no age differences in the type of illusory forms heard. These results differ from those of experiments with nonreversible words, which show a very low rate of transformation and a total absence of transformations into meaningless forms in the aged. It is hypothesized that the reversibility of repeated ambiguous patterns is a general phenomenon arising from satiation, whereas transformations of repeated unambiguous verbal stimuli, involving phonetic distortions, are based on specific speech-perception mechanisms that are absent in the aged.
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Research on secular trends in mean intelligence test scores shows smaller gains in vocabulary skills than in nonverbal reasoning. One possible explanation is that vocabulary test items become outdated faster compared to nonverbal tasks.... more
Research on secular trends in mean intelligence test scores shows smaller gains in vocabulary skills than in nonverbal reasoning. One possible explanation is that vocabulary test items become outdated faster compared to nonverbal tasks. The history of the usage frequency of the words on five popular vocabulary tests, the GSS Wordsum, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Revised (WAIS-R), Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Revised (WISC-R) IQ tests, was analyzed by means of the Google ngram viewer. Usage frequency had a 0.38 to 0.73 correlation with item difficulty. In the period between test standardizations, the median change in usage frequency was −17% for WISC words, −8% for Wordsum, −5% for WISC-R, −4% for WAIS, and 0% for WAIS-R words. The correlation between median change in usage frequency and gain in vocabulary score was 0.33. Further studies with a larger set of vocabulary test...
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ABSTRACT To study the concept of national IQ profile, we compared U.S. and Finnish WAIS, WAIS-R, and WAIS III nonverbal and working memory subtest norms. The U.S. standardization samples had consistently higher scores on the Coding and... more
ABSTRACT To study the concept of national IQ profile, we compared U.S. and Finnish WAIS, WAIS-R, and WAIS III nonverbal and working memory subtest norms. The U.S. standardization samples had consistently higher scores on the Coding and Digit span subtests, while the Finnish samples had higher scores on the Block design subtest. No stable cross-national differences were found on the other nonverbal tests. It is hypothesized that linguistic, educational, and cultural factors underlie national IQ profiles. Some of these factors may be stable, leading to constant cross-national differences. The study of national IQ profiles may contribute to the validity of testing in smaller countries, where the adaptation of foreign, most often U.S., tests rarely includes national standardization. Furthermore, the results of the study implicate that the concept of national IQ is problematic.
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Background For unknown reasons, females outperform males on tests of psychomotor processing speed (PS), such as the Coding and Symbol Search subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. Method In the present study, the effects of... more
Background For unknown reasons, females outperform males on tests of psychomotor processing speed (PS), such as the Coding and Symbol Search subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. Method In the present study, the effects of intelligence, memory, personality, fine motor speed, gross motor dexterity, height, weight, age, sex, and education on psychomotor processing speed were studied in an outpatient sample (n = 130). Results Moderate (r > .40) correlations were found between PS and verbal reasoning, nonverbal reasoning, verbal memory, and fine motor speed. Weak (r > .20) correlations were found between PS and gross motor dexterity, extraversion, education, weight, and sex. Females outperformed males in PS and in fine motor speed. Stepwise linear regression analysis indicated nonverbal reasoning, fine motor speed, and sex as independent predictors of PS. Conclusions One interpretation of the results is that the factors underlying sex differences in processing speed a...