Browsing by discipline "Psykologia"

The purpose of this study was to examine the possible connection of applicants' self-esteem and gender to their performance in student selection for teacher education. The significance of teacher's personality has grown with working conditions that increasingly demand better social skills. Teachers have reported unusual tiredness and the willingness to quit has become more common. It seems reasonable to consider self-esteem as a protective buffer against the emotional stress these working conditions present for teachers, and therefore the student selection at least shouldn't favor those with whom this protective buffer is low. Self-esteem's connection with student selection for teacher education has not been studied before, but due to prior results regarding the broader benefits of high self-esteem, it was hypothesized to be positively connected to success in student selection. The selection process consists of a theory test and an aptitude test, which were addressed separately and together. In line with prior research, women were hypothesized to be more successful in theory test and men in the aptitude test. This study was a part of the SeSTE research project (Selecting Students for Teacher Education). There were 470 subjects who had participated in the selection process for teacher education in the University of Helsinki. Self-esteem was measured with Rosenberg self-esteem scale as self-assessment. The main method of analyzing was multinomial logistic regression. Gender was examined alongside self-esteem, and the effect of age was controlled. The hypotheses for self-esteem were mostly confirmed with no apparent connection seen with the aptitude test. Gender related hypotheses were confirmed as women were more likely to pass the theory test and men the aptitude test. According to this study the student selection slightly favors applicants with higher self-esteem, but the effect is small. If the hypothesis of high self-esteem as a useful protective buffer for teachers gains more evidence, it might be beneficial according to this study, to consider the possibility of focusing the student selection more to applicants with higher self-esteem.

Objectives. Earlier studies have shown intergenerational continuity in child-rearing attitudes. The child-rearing attitudes reflect the atmosphere of childhood. There is only a few longitudinal studies of this topic and temperament has not been studied earlier in this context. The purpose of this study was to examine the intergenerational transmission of parental child-rearing attitudes (i.e. parent's perception of emotional significance and tolerance towards her offspring) using longitudinal data. Also, the role of sociability as a mediating factor for the child-rearing attitudes was examined. There were two hypothesis of the study: There is intergenerational continuity in child-rearing attitudes, and sociability mediates the relationship between child-rearing attitudes of the two generations. Methods. The participants of this study (N=1034) were derived from the ongoing prospective Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study. It was started in 1980, when the participants were 3-18 years old. The subsample of this study consisted of six age cohorts (63,2 % women) and their mothers. The self-rated child-rearing attitudes towards the offspring were measured in 1980 by the participants' mothers and 2007 by the participants. The sociability temperament trait was measured by the participants themselves in 1992 at the age from 15 to 30. Linear regression analysis was used to examine the relationships between sociability and child-rearing attitudes. Sobel test was also performed to examine the mediating role of sociability. Results and conclusions. In line with the hypothesis, the child-rearing attitudes were transferred from the older generation to the younger one. The intergenerational transmission was stronger with emotional significance and weaker with tolerance towards the offspring. Sociability did not act as a mediating factor in either one of the child-rearing attitudes. However, sociability was associated with parent's perception of emotional significance of the offspring. The more sociable the participant was at the age of 15-30, the more emotionally significant he/she perceived his/her own offspring in 2007, 15 years later. The interventions that support parenting have long-term effects for future generations because the child-rearing attitudes are intergenerationally transferred.

Concentration as a cognitive function is closely related to attention which has many definitions. Functional subsystems of attention are crucial in cognitive processing and attention is related to cognitive performance. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) is a test designed to measure cognitive performance and the newest, fourth edition of the test (WAIS-IV) has also been standardized in Finland. Because attention is crucial in cognitive processing it is relevant to examine the association between concentration difficulties and cognitive task performance in WAIS-IV –test. This Master's thesis is based on WAIS-IV's Finnish standardization sample. Observation of concentration difficulties by the examiner was available in 600 cases and self-evaluation by the examinee in 607 cases. In 580 cases both evaluations were available. Based on examiner observation 358 (59,7%) of subjects experienced little, medium or a lot of concentration difficulties. Based on self-evaluation 419 (69%) of the examinees experienced little, medium or a lot of concentration difficulties. Differences between the evaluations were found in distributions of concentration difficulties groups and in relations between concentration difficulties and cognitive task performance in WAIS-IV –test. Concentration difficulties evaluated by the researcher were related to almost all subtests, all indices, General Ability Index (GAI) and to Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) where as self reported concentration difficulties were not related to cognitive task performance in WAIS-IV –test. The results show that concentration difficulties are common and they may have an overall negative relation to cognitive test performance. One of the main purposes in clinical neuropsychological examination is to evaluate the optimal cognitive performance level of the examinee. For this reason it is crucial to pay attention to negative relation of concentration difficulties to cognitive test performance. This improves the reliability of the clinical evaluation of cognitive performance.

Attachment relationships to primary caregivers are one of the key aspects that make a difference when considering small children's overall emotional development. The effects of attachment have been studied widely and they have been acknowledged to have great influence in children's socio emotional development. Concurrently with the primary attachment relationships formed at home a child can have secondary attachment relationships with people who regularly take care of them. So children might also form secondary attachments to day care nurses. In Finland 63% of all under school aged children and 53% of all two year olds attend to day care. Full-time day care is physiologically stressful for most toddlers and early commenced long days in day care outside the home can predict anxious, unadapted and aggressive behaviour to rise in later years. All this taken into account it is obvious that the early care in day care and attachment relationships within are very meaningful to little toddlers. Based on scientific literature we know that by focusing on caregivers' sensitivity, homelike care environments and high quality of the overall care we can support the formation of secure attachment relationships and reduce the stressfulness of day care. In Helsinki University's Kenguru- project a primary nursing design was made to assist the actualization of these factors. This study is a part of that project. The aim of this study was to investigate if having a primary nurse design in day care will promote secure attachments towards the primary nurses. The hypothesis was that primary nursing design will increase attachment formation in day care. It was assumed that the children who got a primary nurse to look after them would make stronger bonds toward their caregiver than the children who didn't have a primary nurse to care for them. Attachment relationships were rated twice during the year with the Attachment Q-sort that has been found to be a reliable measure of attachment between a dyad. Study group consisted of 97 children in 14 different day care groups. The results showed that the primary nurse design did not have an attachment promoting effect throughout the whole group of children. When the subgroups were studied further one could see that it was the subgroup of the old children who had already been to day care that had a decrease in their attachment. All other subgroups had attachment relationship scores staying the same throughout the year. The results shown in this study are largely limited as there were only two groups where the primary nurse design could be executed as planned. Nevertheless this study gave some reference that small children under the age of three could really benefit a primary nurse design and being cared for in a smaller group. This supports the notion that children under the age of three could benefit homelike day care in smaller groups. Further studies are needed to really comprehend the influences of primary nurse design to children's socioemotional development in the long run.

The aim of this current study is to increase awareness and to provide insight into the human psychological constraints and their contribution on hazardous situations at work as well as to provide new tools for the further development of occupational safety. Interruptions at work are common and may result in hazardous situations. The accident risk caused by interruption is often based on the employee's work experience converted into automatic cognitive processing. We know very little about the impact of interruptions on the automatic processing. In addition to other adverse effects it may cause, interruption may result also in cognitive bias. Interruption may lead to a situation, where we falsely believe that what has been started, has also been done. The case study used data that has been screened in international and national fatality investigation databases. The selected cases were analysed by applying a cognitive analysis of interruption method. From the available literature, research and analysis of the cases, it appears that the automatic cognitive processing is very vulnerable to interruptions. Vulnerability was manifested especially in situations where the attention demanding controlled processing broke off automatic performance. Automatic processing can also lead to situations with significant risk when unexpected change in the environment is occurred or if environmental conditions no longer reflect the current automatic cognitive processing. In automatic work process, which includes subtasks operated always in same specific order, case analysis gives a clue to the emergence of cognitive bias. This is manifested in a situation where already started subtask or part of the started work, which is perceived as a whole, is interrupted. However, more research is needed to determine the exact mechanisms behind this phenomenon. The damage interruptions might cause during an automatic work performance can be reduced by the use of external cognitive tools to increase attention and to ensure situational awareness especially when disengaging and/or resuming the original task and by the development of technical security solutions.

Objectives. Previous research has pointed out various predictors of school achievement. Along with cognitive capacity, school achievement is associated with female gender, beneficial socioeconomic status, school temperament and school motivation. The aim of this study is to bring together various findings of previous research of qualities influencing school achievement, and to find out whether school motivation is connected with school grades after controlling for pupil's gender and self-rated temperament. It is important to thoroughly understand school motivation, because among other things it has also been associated with effective use of learning strategies. Through vaster understanding of school motivation it is possible to find ways to motivate pupils in risk of social exclusion. Methods. This research is based on a vast Finnish SITRA school study. This study uses a subsample of 3 040 pupils between ages 13 and 19 from 64 different schools forming a geographically representative sample of Finnish speaking ninth graders. Pupils provided self-rated answers for temperament surveys DOTS-R and TABC-R as well as to school motivation survey created for the use of the SITRA project. Their latest grade point average was also self-reported. The data was analyzed using linear regression analysis. Results and conclusions. As the main result, school motivation explained 38 % of the variation of school grades, when the pupil's gender and self-rated temperament were controlled. Girls got better school grades than boys. However in regards to school motivation, there was no difference between the genders. There were differences between temperament traits between boys and girls, however ideal school temperament traits were divided to both genders evenly. All school temperament traits were correlated with school motivation. The strongest positive connection was found with persistence and the strongest negative connection with impulsivity. There may be a common factor, school environment for example, explaining the strong correlation between school temperament and school motivation. All results are in line with previous evidence.

Objectives. Anxiety disorders and anxiety symptoms are common even as a child, and they cause a major burden to the child as well as to the society. In order to prevent anxiety disorders it is important to understand the predisposing factors to anxiety. The influence of child's temperament and parenting style on children's anxiety symptoms have both been studied, but the results are partly controversial, and there's only a limited number of longitudinal studies. The importance of interactions between temperament and parenting style has been emphasized, but the amount of interaction studies is scarce. The aim of this study is to examine the associations between child's temperament and anxiety symptoms, associations between parenting style and child's anxiety symptoms, and whether parenting style is a moderator between the association with temperament and anxiety symptoms. Methods. The sample consisted of 262 mother-child dyads participating in the Glychyrrhizin in Licorice-study. Mothers assessed their child's temperament with the Children's Behavior Questionnaire and their parenting style with the Parent Behavior Inventory when the children were 5,5 years old. Children assessed their anxiety symptoms with the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders when they were 12 years old. The associations between the variables were analyzed using regression analyzes. Results and conclusions. High negative emotionality and its subfactors anger, fear, sadness and low soothability were associated with several anxiety symptoms. Extraversion was not associated with any anxiety symptoms, but its subfactor high impulsivity predicted increased anxiety symptoms. Low effortful control and its subfactor low inhibitory control were associated with symptoms of school phobia, and low intensity pleasure was associated with panic symptoms. Anxiety symptoms were associated with hostile/coercive parenting style, but not with supportive/engaged parenting style. Both parenting styles moderated some of the associations between temperament traits and anxiety symptoms. The findings give support both to the independent effect of temperament to children's anxiety symptoms and interactions between temperament and parenting. The findings give also some preliminary support to the "goodness of fit" –model, indicating that the effect of parenting style on children's anxiety symptoms may depend on child's temperament.

Objectives. Theory of mind is the ability to assign mental states (e.g. beliefs, intentions and desires) to oneself and others as well as to recognise that others have mental states that differ from one's own. Theory of mind helps individuals understand others' minds and interpret and predict their behaviour in relation to their mental states. Thus, it is one of the most important skills for children's social development. Normally developing children are usually able to make inferences about the mental states of other people by 5 years of age. Theory of mind development is associated with e.g. verbal ability, gender, culture and family background. Recent studies indicate that temperament may also have an influence on children's theory of mind. Specifically, a less reactive, more observant temperament seems to enhance theory of mind development. Poor theory of mind may lead to various difficulties in social relationships. Thus, it is important to investigate relations between temperament and theory of mind. The aim of this study was to examine if children's temperament at 9 months and 3 years predicts theory of mind at 5 years of age. Gender differences in the relationship between temperament and theory of mind were also investigated. Method. This study used a sample from the prospective British Millennium Cohort Study. Child temperament was assessed by parental reports at 9 months and 3 years of age. Theory of mind was assessed with a false belief task at 5 years of age. The relations between child temperament and theory of mind were examined using logistic regression (n=8041). Results and conclusions. Child temperament at age 9 months did not predict theory of mind at age 5. However, low hyperactivity and inattention, high independence and self regulation, and high prosocial behaviour at age 3 predicted theory of mind at age 5 after controlling for gender, ethnicity, vocabulary and maternal education. There were no significant gender differences in the relations between temperament and theory of mind. In accord with previous studies, these findings suggest a relation between individual differences in temperament and theory of mind development. Future research is needed to clarify relations between temperament and theory of mind during infancy and early childhood.

Objectives. Late-preterm birth (34+0-36+6 weeks' gestation) has been associated with increased risk of adverse outcomes in executive functioning during early childhood. There is still little knowledge of long-term disadvantages associated with late-preterm birth. A majority of infants born late-preterm are also born with intrauterine growth restriction, which has been shown to increase risk of adverse outcomes in executive functioning in childhood and also in early adulthood. Although these factors have similar adverse effects in executive functions during childhood, there is little research of their possible additive effects. Previous studies have also used mainly performance-based methods to measure executive functions, which places doubts on ecological validity of previous results. The aim of this study is to examine whether late-preterm birth, intrauterine growth restriction or their additive effects are connected to self-rated executive functioning in early adulthood. Methods. The study sample comprised 2193 regionally sampled infants, who were born 1985-1986 and participated in the Arvo Ylppö Longitudinal Study (AYLS). Basic measures from peri- and neonatal periods were extracted from maternity hospital records and maternal interviews. Intrauterine growth restriction was estimated with being born small for gestational age (SGA). The participants' gestational age was reliably specified and they filled in the standardized and self-report based Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning- Adult Version (BRIEF-A) at age of 24-26 years. The final sample comprised 634 participants, of whom 88 were born late-preterm and 37 were born SGA. The effects of late-preterm and SGA birth to self-reported executive functioning in early adulthood were analyzed using multiple-hierarchical-linear-regression, controlling for multiple confounders. The additive effects were analyzed with multiple MANOVA. Results and conclusions. Late-preterm birth and additive effects of late-preterm birth and SGA were not associated with adverse effects in self-rated executive functioning in adulthood, although negative trend was found. SGA was significantly associated with fewer adversities in self rated executive functioning. The systematic loss found in the study sample and the possibly positively skewed views of SGA adults may have affected found connections. Therefore, more research is needed from effects of late-preterm birth and SGA on executive functioning in adulthood.

Objectives. The aim of the current study was to examine whether patients with mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) have neurocognitive deficits in acute phase and in three month follow up after injury that can be detected using a brief neuropsychological battery. Second aim of the study was also to examine if there was a subgroup of patients with more neuropsychological deficits. The aim was also to compare self-reported symptoms and objective neuropsychological deficits. MTBI is known to cause neurocognitive deficits including dysfunctions in memory, attention and executive functions in some patients. Usually neurocognitive dysfunctions resolve in three months but a minority of MTBI patients are reported to continue experience dysfunctions longer than three months. Methods. 26 patients with MTBI and 23 healthy controls participated in this study. Patients were examined with neuropsychological tests three days after the trauma. Neuropsychological tests assessed the domains of memory, attention and executive functions. Second examination was conducted three months after the first one for both groups. At the first examination patients completed SCAT2 questionnaire concerning self-reported symptoms. Results and conclusions. On a group level the neuropsychological test performance of MTBI patients did not differ from healthy controls. A minority of patients with MTBI showed significant neurocognitive deficits. Some self-reported symptoms correlated to neuropsychological performance. In the future more research is needed to explore the factors contributing to long lasting deficits after a MTBI. Also new neuropsychological tests are needed to examine the subtle deficits of MTBI.