Sointu Leikas

University of Helsinki | HY · Swedish School of Social Science

Women and girls consistently outperform men and boys in educational outcomes. A large body of qualitative work suggests that boys’ difficulties in integrating peer acceptance with being studious may explain this gender gap. Gender differences in personality have also been suggested as an explanation. We investigated whether empirically constructed...

Experience sampling methodology (ESM) has provided researchers with a flexible and innovative measurement tool, and the methodology has become increasingly popular in several fields of psychology. Therefore, validity studies on such measures are important. The present study investigated convergent and discriminant validity of ESM measures using pee...

Becoming a parent could be expected to affect personality development, but the existing results on parenthood-personality change connection are mixed. The present study investigated 2445 primi- and multiparous mothers’ facet- and domain-level changes in Neuroticism and Extraversion from early pregnancy to 6 months post-partum, using latent differen...

The popular idea that extraverted behavior is mentally depleting has received support in one previous study. The present research attempted to replicate this finding and rule out some alternative explanations. An experience-sampling study was conducted to this end (N = 74, observations = 1046). The results showed that extraverted behavior was indee...

Yksilön asenteet eivät ole satunnaiset. Sen sijaan ihmiset omaksuvat tiettyjä asennekokonaisuuksia – poliittisia ideologioita, joita eri sosiaaliset ryhmät ylläpitävät. Esimerkiksi maahanmuuton kannatus tai vastustus tuo useimmiten mukanaan tukun muita asenteita sosiaali-, talous- ja turvallisuuspolitiikasta. Tavanomainen muuttujakeskeinen lähestym...

In a representative sample of Finnish car owners (N = 1892) we connected the Five‐Factor Model personality dimensions to driving a high‐status car. Regardless of whether income was included in the logistic model, disagreeable men and conscientious people in general were particularly likely to drive high‐status cars. The results regarding agreeablen...

The populist, anti‐immigration‐oriented Finns Party was considered the winner of the Finnish 2015 parliamentary elections. In a representative sample of young adults (N = 606), a longitudinal pre‐ post‐election design revealed that attitudes towards immigration became more favourable among those disappointed by the outcome and those who did not vot...

Spousal similarity and its consequences are widely studied, but methodologically challenging topics. We employed Response Surface Analysis to examine similarity along political attitudes, personal values, and personality traits. Opposite-sex couples (624 individuals) expecting a child were recruited. Spouses were highly similar regarding their poli...

There is little research on how life transitions influence value priorities. Our purpose was to investigate, within the framework provided by Schwartz's Values Theory, the effects of entering parenthood on personal values. Study 1 (N = 12,850), employing cross-sectional European Social Survey data, showed that Finnish mothers, as compared to non-mo...

Spousal similarity and its consequences are widely studied, but methodologically challenging topics. We employed Response Surface Analysis to examine similarity along political attitudes, personal values, and personality traits. Opposite-sex couples (624 individuals) expecting a child were recruited. Spouses were highly similar regarding their poli...

Young adults’ decreased engagement in politics has theoretically been linked to issues in personal identity formation, but there are few and limited empirical studies on the subject. We examined, in a Finnish community sample of young adults (N = 744), for the first time the associations of diverse measures of political engagement with the identity...

The aim of this study was to construct a short, 30-item personality questionnaire that would be, in terms of content and meaning of the scores, as comparable as possible with longer, well-established inventories such as NEO PI-R and its clones. To do this, we shortened the formerly constructed 60-item “Short Five” (S5) by half so that each subscale...

Data files and description of the variables. (ZIP)

Instructions and items of the XS5. (PDF)

Supplementary results. (PDF)

Theory and empirical findings suggest that sociohistorical changes have made identity formation a precarious developmental process in contemporary Western societies. Firm commitments may be delayed until the late twenties or discarded altogether. We tested the reliability and factorial validity of a recently developed five-dimensional process model...

Aim: Experience-sampling studies on Big Five-related behavior show that people display the whole spectrum of each trait in their daily behavior, and that desirable Big Five states - especially state Extraversion - are related to positive mood. However, other research lines suggest that extraverted and conscientious behavior may be mentally depleti...

We investigated the psychological adaptation of Ingrian–Finnish migrants from Russia to Finland between 2008 and 2013. Pre-migration data (N = 225) were collected at the Finnish language courses that were part of the immigration training program. The three post-migration follow-ups were conducted half a year (N = 155), and 2 (N = 133) and 3 years (...

The present longitudinal study examined personality types, their change, and their relations with life outcomes and well-being in a sample of young Finns (N = 493) that was followed from age 15 to 23. The Big Five traits were measured at ages 20 and 23, and four personality types – Resilients, Overcontrollers, Anti-Resilients, and “Averages” – emer...

Recent research has shown that personality traits continue to develop throughout the life span, but most profound changes are typically found during young adulthood. Increasing evidence suggests that life events play a significant role in many of such changes. The present longitudinal study examined the role of work, education, social, and health-r...

The present study examined how Big Five personality ratings of the same target individuals differ as a function of the power relation between the target and the judge. Our targets were 37 employees with leadership duties from two large organizations. The targets' subordinates (N = 352), peers (N = 186), and superiors (N = 62) constituted our groups...

Person perception research has focused on the accuracy of observers receiving truthful target information; however, in real life people may often wish to manage the impression that they convey. We investigated whether people can “pose personality” in photographs. Sixty target participants posed each in 10 photographs in which they sought to express...

Understanding how persons, situations, and behaviors contribute to behavioral consistency is a central goal for the science of behavior. The present study focused on dyadic social situations that were created by professional actors who enacted 4 social roles derived from interpersonal theory: dominant, submissive, agreeable, and quarrelsome. A tota...

Individual differences in threat identification moderate the associations of personality with emotional experience and behaviour. The present two studies examined whether adeptness at threat identification also moderates the associations between personality and emotional processing. Participants completed personality scales, different emotional pro...

The feeling of regulatory fit is thought to arise from the right kind of goal pursuit, but some studies imply that it may be evoked even by lesser involvement in the right kind of strategies. The present experiment explored the minimum of involvement necessary to evoke regulatory fit. Participants (N = 71) first completed a regulatory focus manipul...

Cognitive ability has been shown to moderate the relations between emotional stability and self-reports of well being. The present study examined whether this interaction effect generalizes to non-self-report measures of well being. Male conscripts (N = 152) completed an emotional stability scale and a cognitive ability test. Several indicators of...

The influence of food risk type and risk characteristics on food risk responsibility judgments was studied. A total of 1270 Finnish consumers judged their personal responsibility and the responsibility of three non-personal targets, industry, retail, and society, in relation to six food-related risks. They also evaluated the risks on several psycho...

The present studies sought connections between two highly influential, but separate motivational systems: the regulatory foci and personal values. Study 1 (N = 173) showed that promotion focus was positively associated with Achievement and negatively with Tradition values, whereas prevention focus was positively associated with Conformity and Secur...

The present studies examined the moderating role of state motivation on the associations between trait avoidance motivation, risk perception and emotional processing. In Studies 1 and 2, avoidance or approach states were evoked in participants who then completed a risk perception task and a trait avoidance motivation measure. Both studies showed th...

Self-enhancement and its implications for psychological adjustment were studied in a replication and extension of a study by Kwan et al. (200426. Kwan , V. S. Y. , John , O. P. , Kenny , D. A. , Bond , M. H. , & Robins , R. W. ( 2004 ). Reconceptualizing individual differences in self-enhancement bias: An interpersonal approach . Psychological Revi...

We evaluated Big Five personality factor differences between research volunteers and nonvolunteers. In the first study, 158 military officers were asked to participate in a mail survey. The personality scores of the officers were available from an archival data set. In our second study, adult siblings from large families were invited to participate...

Risks appear to be perceived in two different ways, affectively and rationally. Finnish adult internet users were contacted via e-mail and asked to fill an internet questionnaire consisting of questions of food risks and measures of avoidance and approach motivation, analytic and intuitive information processing style, trait anxiety, and gender in...

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the moderating effect of Conformism values on the relations between other values and behavior. The authors expected people low, but not high, in Conformism to behave in a manner that is consistent with their personal values related to self-transcendence versus self-enhancement. In Study 1 (N = 199),...

Some 200 military cadets rated themselves and other members of their platoons on a variety of variables, including the quality of their leadership behaviors. They also completed standardized personality questionnaires measuring the positive and negative aspects of narcissism. Strong predictions were found for variables related to the two sides of t...

The present research focused on motivational and personality traits measuring individual differences in the experience of negative affect, in reactivity to negative events, and in the tendency to avoid threats. In this thesis, such traits (i.e., neuroticism and dispositional avoidance motivation) are jointly referred to as trait avoidance motivatio...