Hilmar Nordvik

Why people engage in parasuicide: a-cross-cultural study of Intentions.

Information obtained at interview from 1,646 parasuicide patients in 14 regions in 13 European countries participating in the WHO/EURO Multicentre Study on Suicidal Behaviour was used to study self-reported intentions involved in parasuicide. Comparisons were made across cultures, genders, and age groups. Although some statistically significant differences were found, the effect sizes were very small. The main finding from this study is thus that parasuicide patients in different countries tend to indicate that similar types of intentions are involved in their acts of parasuicide, and that the intentions do not vary greatly with gender or age. The hypothesis that rates of suicide and parasuicide vary between regions with the frequency with which suicidal intention is indicated by the patients was also tested, but was supported only for women and in relation to national suicide rates. The findings from this study are likely to be generalizable to other settings and have implications for clinical practice.

Self-Reported Suicidal Behavior and Attitudes Toward Suicide and Suicide Prevention Among Psychology Students in Ghana, Uganda, and Norway

Self-reported suicidal behavior and attitudes toward suicide in psychology students are reported and compared in Ghana, Uganda, and Norway. Small differences only were found in own suicidal behavior. However, experience of suicidal behavior in the surroundings was more common in Uganda than in Ghana and Norway. Although differences were found between the three countries in attitudes toward suicide, which emphasizes the need for culture-sensitive research and prevention, many of the differences were not as big as expected. The most pronounced difference was that the Norwegian students were more reluctant to take a stand on these questions compared to their African counterparts. Some differences were also found between the two African countries. The implications of the results for suicide prevention in Africa are discussed.

Endorsement of the New Ecological Paradigm A Comparison of Two Brazilian Samples and One Norwegian Sample

Results from 240 students (120 each from Brazil and Norway) on the 15-item revised New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) show higher endorsement of the ecological paradigm from the Brazilians; suggestions are that this relates to cultural variables rather than to technological development variables. There is no consistent relationship between scores on the NEP and scores from tests of justice based and care based morality, gender roles, or cultural orientation. Alphas, inter-item correlations, and factor analysis show much variation between the samples, but the relative ranking of items show very high agreement.

Five-factor model personality traits in opioid dependence.

BackgroundPersonality traits may form a part of the aetiology of opioid dependence. For instance, opioid dependence may result from self-medication in emotionally unstable individuals, or from experimenting with drugs in sensation seekers. The five factor model (FFM) has obtained a central position in contemporary personality trait theory. The five factors are: Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Few studies have examined whether there is a distinct personality pattern associated with opioid dependence.MethodsWe compared FFM personality traits in 65 opioid dependent persons (mean age 27 years, 34% females) in outpatient counselling after a minimum of 5 weeks in buprenorphine replacement therapy, with those in a non-clinical, age- and sex-matched sample selected from a national database. Personality traits were assessed by a Norwegian version of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R), a 240-item self-report questionnaire. Cohens d effect sizes were calculated for the differences in personality trait scores.ResultsThe opioid-dependent sample scored higher on Neuroticism, lower on Extraversion and lower on Conscientiousness (d = -1.7, 1.2 and 1.7, respectively) than the controls. Effects sizes were small for the difference between the groups in Openness to experience scores and Agreeableness scores.ConclusionWe found differences of medium and large effect sizes between the opioid dependent group and the matched comparison group, suggesting that the personality traits of people with opioid dependence are in fact different from those of non-clinical peers.

A Discussion of the Value of Cross-Cultural Studies in Search of the Meaning(s) of Suicidal Behavior and the Methodological Challenges of Such Studies

ABSTRACT The main purposes of this study was to test the psychometric properties of a questionnaire on attitudes towards suicide in a cross-cultural setting, and to discuss the value of cross-cultural studies in the search of meaning(s) of suicidal behavior as well as the methodological challenges encountered in such studies. Data on attitudes towards suicide among health and social science students from Norway and Uganda were employed to illustrate the points made. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed different factor structures in the two countries. Whether this result is due to different latent variables indicating differences in meaning(s) of suicidal behavior between the two countries or lack of reliability and/or validity of the instrument is discussed.

Socio‐economic Factors and Sex Differences in an Egalitarian Educational System: academic achievement in 16‐year‐old Norwegian students

ABSTRACT The importance of socio‐economic factors and sex differences in an educational system characterized by mainstreaming, no ability grouping within classes, very little acceleration, and no holdbacks of students was studied. Cohort data of 16‐year‐olds from the township of Trondheim (N = 1750) and a sample of about 250 students were analyzed, using graduate records, questionnaires and inventories. Sex differences in average achievements were small, over‐all about 0.4 SD in favour of girls for Norwegian (mother language) and about 0.1 SD in favour of boys for mathematics. However, the proportion of boys who obtained the highest grade in mathematics was larger than expected from the mean difference in the subjects. Parent education was a powerful predictor of student achievement. Questionnaire data showed that sex‐stereotypes were strong regarding abilities and career aspirations. The analysis suggested several ways in which sex and socio‐economic differences in achievements may be mediated in an egal...

Work activity and career goals in Holland's and Schein's theories of vocational personalities and career anchors

Abstract Two taxonomic theories describing the relationship between people and the world of work were investigated. Hollands and Scheins vocational and career concepts were conceived of as categories of preferential decisions about work and career goals, respectively. Ipsative scales were developed for each category set, and preferential choice data were obtained from 725 Norwegian adults. Relations within and between the two sets of categories were investigated by factor analysis. Three factors extracted from the vocational scales were in close agreement with the diagonal dimensions in Hollands hexagon model of the vocational categories. Four factors were extracted from the career scales. Both the correlations between the scales and the factor correlations indicated that the vocational and career categories are rather distinct domains. Career goals cannot be derived from assessment of vocational personalities, and vice versa. However, Hollands Enterprising and Conventional vocational categories correlated with different sets of career goal categories, those having to do with preferences for challenge and excitement, and security and vocational stability, respectively. More extensive behavioral specifications of the career anchors are needed for future research on the generality of the concepts and their interactions with other concepts in determining dimensions of people-work relationships.

Personality traits in leadership tasks

A common factor analysis was performed on the four personality dimensions measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and questionnaire measures of preferences for the four leadership tasks, Production, Administration, Enterprising, and Integration, described by Adizes. The sample was 1040 Norwegian adults. Three factors showed distinct common variances among the task preferences and the personality traits in a way that supported the construct validity of the traits. The implication of logical consistency among constructs based on self-report data is discussed, and it is argued that such concepts are valid and necessary at both personal and organisational levels although they may not predict performance as exactly as one might want for example in personnel selection.

Suicidal behavior as communication in a cultural context: a comparative study between Uganda and Norway.

In this study, we attempt to even out some of the imbalance in suicide research caused by the fact that most such research has been conducted in the Western part of the world with the corresponding common disregard of the potential problems in generalizing findings to different cultural settings. Our point of departure was to look at suicidal behavior as communication and our main purpose was to investigate whether Qvortrups semiotic four-factor model, which has been empirically supported in the West, would be applicable in an African context, exemplified by Uganda. Interviews of patients admitted to hospital following an act of nonfatal suicidal behavior were conducted in Uganda and Norway and the data were compared. The results showed that the four-factor structure found in the West was not applicable in the Ugandan context, but that two by two of these factors were collapsed into a two-factor model in Uganda: One factor regarding the external dialog and one factor regarding the internal dialog. Some differences and some similarities were found between Norway and Uganda when suicidal behavior was considered as a communicative act. The results are discussed in terms of the differences in the psychological characteristics of the suicidal persons in the two countries, as well as the different cultural settings of the study.

The Communicative Aspect of Nonfatal Suicidal Behavior— Are There Gender Differences?

Data from the Norwegian part of the WHO/EURO Multicenter Study on Suicidal Behavior were used to investigate gender differences in the communicative aspect of nonfatal suicidal behavior by means of analyzing precipitating factors, intentions involved in and effects of the suicidal act within the frame of Qvortrups interpretation of speech-act theory. Eighty-nine patients (48 women and 41 men) were included in the analyses, virtually no gender differences were found. Thus, in general, the results did not support the view that persons engaging in nonfatal suicidal behavior should receive different treatment or follow-up as a group based on their gender. The results gave some support to Qvortrups speech-act theory and his four categories of suicidal behavior, emotional toward others, regulative toward others, emotional toward oneself and regulative toward oneself.