Evaluation of driving ability of the disabled persons in the context of the psychological activity theory

In the future the number of the disabled drivers requiring a special evaluation of their driving ability will increase due to the ageing population, as well as the progress of adaptive technology. This places pressure on the development of the driving evaluation system. Despite quite intensive research there is still no consensus concerning what is the factual situation in a driver evaluation (methodology), which measures should be included in an evaluation (methods), and how an evaluation has to be carried out (practise). In order to find answers to these questions we carried out empirical studies, and simultaneously elaborated upon a conceptual model for driving and a driving evaluation. The findings of empirical studies can be condensed into the following points: 1) A driving ability defined by the on-road driving test is associated with different laboratory measures depending on the study groups. Faults in the laboratory tests predicted faults in the on-road driving test in the novice group, whereas slowness in the laboratory predicted driving faults in the experienced drivers group. 2) The Parkinson study clearly showed that even an experienced clinician cannot reliably accomplish an evaluation of a disabled person’s driving ability without collaboration with other specialists. 3) The main finding of the stroke study was that the use of a multidisciplinary team as a source of information harmonises the specialists’ evaluations. 4) The patient studies demonstrated that the disabled persons themselves, as well as their spouses, are as a rule not reliable evaluators. 5) From the safety point of view, perceptible operations with the control devices are not crucial, but correct mental actions which the driver carries out with the help of the control devices are of greatest importance. 6) Personality factors including higher-order needs and motives, attitudes and a degree of self-awareness, particularly a sense of illness, are decisive when evaluating a disabled person’s driving ability. Personality is also the main source of resources concerning compensations for lower-order physical deficiencies and restrictions. From work with the conceptual model we drew the following methodological conclusions: First, the driver has to be considered as a holistic subject of the activity, as a multilevel hierarchically organised system of an organism, a temperament, an individuality, and a personality where the personality is the leading subsystem from the standpoint of safety. Second, driving as a human form of a sociopractical activity, is also a hierarchically organised dynamic system. Third, in an evaluation of driving ability it is a question of matching these two hierarchically organised structures: a subject of an activity and a proper activity. Fourth, an evaluation has to be person centred but not disease-, function- or method centred. On the basis of our study a multidisciplinary team (practitioner, driving school teacher, psychologist, occupational therapist) is recommended for use in demanding driver evaluations. Primary in a driver’s evaluations is a coherent conceptual model while concrete methods of evaluations may vary. However, the on-road test must always be performed if possible.

Eteva Järvenpään perhepalvelukeskuksen lyhytaikaishoidon suunnittelun kehittäminen

Objectives. The thesis objective was to analyze how person-centred planning is applied to develop short term care in interaction between the disabled children, their families and the workers of the family service centre of Eteva Järvenpää. The thesis contributes to developing the methods of person-centred planning. I applied theoretical frameworks of activity theory and developmental work research, family-based work framework and disability phenomenon. The research questions were: What development needs did the families of disabled children have for the services? How were viewpoints of disabled children, their families and Eteva workers noticed in person-centred planning in the interaction between the disabled children, their families and Eteva workers? What disturbances and development challenges emerged during the person-centred planning? Methods. I first analysed the local history of the disability sector and the short term care to analyse challenges arising from the local history. The actural research material consisted of interviews with four families, two person-centred planning discussions and two discussions where the person-centred planning was reflected by the families.I used interaction voice analysis as defined by the activity theory and developmental work research. From the recorded interviews and discussions I analysed scripts, disturbances, innovation attempts and innovations. From the discussions I analysed also the interaction types (cooperation, coordination and communication). Results and conclusions. As problems, the families considered the scarce resources and the inflexibility of services. The challenges of developing the short term care were how to transfer information from short term care to home, how to develop activities for the children and how to take into account the individual needs of the children in the short term care. Both from the local history analysis and from the family interviews arised the conflict between caring and fulfilling the individual needs. In person-centred planning, the voice of the child was either interpreted by other family members or guided by family members or workers. I modelled the progress of person-centred planning in a two-dimensional coordination. Person-centred planning should be deepened in cooperation between the child, the family and the workers in everyday situations at home and during the short term care. The challenge is to expand person-centred planning to become cross-organizational cooperation connecting the actors of the child s service network in everyday life. Avainsanat Nyckelord - Keywords short term care, activity theory and developmental work research, person-centred planning, disability

Infinitiivi ja sen infiniittisyys : Tutkimus suomen kielen itsenäisistä A-infinitiivikonstruktioista

"Infinitive and its infinity" advocates an approach to infinitives that differs from most previous descriptions in several ways. Infinitives are generally considered to be an illustrative example of an inherently subordinated verb category. This is due to the fact that they are morphologically reduced and are allegedly not able to function as the only predicate of an independent clause. While former descriptions have thus treated infinitives as a linguistic category heavily dependent on the finite verb, my claim is that Finnish A-infinitives (e.g. juosta to run , olla to be ) can be used as independent grammatical units: they need not be either dependent or subordinated, but can have an equal status with finite constructions. In other words, they can be conceptually and interactionally non-dependent. Theoretically, the main objective of the thesis is to discover the nature of non-finite conceptualization and the ways in which it is utilized in everyday interactions. This is accomplished by contrasting finite and non-finite conceptualization with respect to the morphosyntactic marking of person, tense and modality. I argue that the morphologically reduced nature of infinitives can be used as an interactional resource. Independent A-infinitive constructions designate verbal processes that profile no participants, lack any connection with time, and present states of affairs as intensional, structural spaces. Consequently, they provide the interactants with a conceptual alternative in contrast to finite predications that are in Finnish always grammatically anchored to time, modality and person. The deictically unanchored character of A-infinitive constructions makes them highly affective and reflexive in nature. I discuss my findings primarily in the light of Cognitive Grammar. I have drawn insight from various other fields, too: among the theories that are touched upon are interactional linguistics, functional-typological linguistics, and studies on the poetic and metapragmatic use of language. The study is based on empirical data interpreted in qualitative terms. Analyses are based on 980 examples coming mainly from written language. Some 20 examples of spoken data are analyzed as well. In sum, the thesis presents a critical statement towards the finite-verb centred outlook on language and shows that analyzing non-finite elements as such reveals new aspects of grammar and interaction. This is to acknowledge the fact that infinitives, albeit prototypically participating in the coding of dependent events, can also be used outside of the context of the finite verb. Such a view poses several new research questions, as a linguistic category generally seen to code dependent, less prominent states of affairs , now is viewed on as possessing a full cognitive and pragmatic potential.

Drag på parnassen. Två sextiotalsstudier. : Del I: Medelklass med mänskligt ansikte. Medelklassradikalism i fyra romaner av Christer Kihlman, Jarl Sjöblom, Marianne Alopaeus och Ulla-Lena Lundberg. Del II: Modernistdebatten. Sak, person och fält i en finlandssvensk litteraturdebatt år 1965.

The objective of my dissertation Pull (or Draught, or Moves) at the Parnassus , is to provide a deeper understanding of Nordic Middle Class radicalism of the 1960 s as featured in Finland-Swedish literature. My approach is cultural materialist in a broad sense; social class is regarded a crucial aspect of the contents and contexts of the novels and literary discussions explored. In the first volume, Middle Class With A Human Face , novels by Christer Kihlman, Jarl Sjöblom, Marianne Alopaeus, and Ulla-Lena Lundberg, respectively, are read from the points of view of place, emotion, and power. The term "cryptotope" is used to designate the hidden places found to play an important role in all of these four narratives. Also, the "chronotope of the provincial small town", described by Mikhail Bakhtin in 1938, is exemplified in Kihlman s satirical novel, as is the chronotope of of war (Algeria, Vietnam) in those of Alopaeus and Lundberg s. All the four novels signal changes in the way general "scripts of emotions", e.g. jealousy, are handled and described. The power relations in the novels are also read, with reference to Michel Foucault. As the protagonists in two of them work as journalists, a critical discussion about media and Bourgeois hegemony is found; the term "repressive legitimation" is created to grasp these patterns of manipulation. The Modernist Debate , part II of the study, concerns a literary discussion between mainly Finland-Swedish authors and critics. Essayist Johannes Salminen (40) provided much of the fuel for the debate in 1963, questioning the relevance to contemporary life of the Finland-Swedish modernist tradition of the 1910 s and 1920 s. In 1965, a group of younger authors and critics, including poet Claes Andersson (28), followed up this critique in a debate taking place mainly in the newspaper Vasabladet. Poets Rabbe Enckell (62), Bo Carpelan (39) and others defended a timeless poetry. This debate is contextualized and the changing literary field is analyzed using concepts provided by sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. In the thesis, the historical moment of Middle Class radicalism with a human face is regarded a temporary luxury that new social groups could afford themselves, as long as they were knocking over the statues and symbols of the Old Bourgeoisie. This is not to say that all components of the Sixties strategy have lost their power. Some of them have survived and even grown, others remain latent in the gene bank of utopias, waiting for new moments of change.

Laadukasta yliopisto-opetusta kehittämässä : Laadukkaan yliopisto-opetuksen kehittäminen ja yliopistopedagogisen koulutuksen yhteys opetuksen kehittämiseen Helsingin yliopiston opettajilla

Objectives. The purpose of this study was to examine the development of high-quality university teaching among the teachers of the University of Helsinki. Furthermore, the relation of university pedagogical training to development of teaching was analyzed. This study introduces a new perspective to the research of quality of university teaching by considering quality from the teaching development perspective. The individual level examination was done from teacher's perspective. The development of high-quality university teaching was approached through three factors of teaching development defined by Biggs (2003). These factors are 1) the level of thinking about teaching on which the teaching development is based on (can also be called the quality model), 2) the methods for and 3) the impediments to teaching development. The research of Trigwell and Prosser (1996), Lindblom-Ylänne, Nevgi and Postareff (2004) and Postareff, Lindblom-Ylänne and Nevgi (2007) and the ideas of Ramsden (1992) have been central sources to this study. Methods. This study was a survey study. The data was collected with an electronic questionnaire in the spring of 2007. The sample consisted of 655 person of which some had and some had not university pedagogical training. Total of 251 answered the study. The data was mainly analyzed with SPSS statistical programme. Item analysis, principal component analysis, nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests, correlation and crosstabulation were the methods used to analyze the data. Results and conclusions. According to the results it seems that the teachers of the University of Helsinki have good basis for developing high-quality university teaching. The 3rd level of thinking about teaching, which emphasizes student-centred features, could be identified on majority of the teachers. The use of teaching development methods was comprehensive. Most frequently used methods were related to the enhancement of content knowledge. In general the impediments to teaching development were not considered to be very significant. The most significant impediments were the factors related to lack of appreciation of teaching and factors related to lack of time meant for the planning and developing of teaching. Differences were found according to sex, teaching experience, degree, position and faculty. This study also showed that university pedagogical training seems to have a positive relation to the development of high-quality university teaching among the teachers of University of Helsinki. According to the results when the amount of teachers university pedagogical training increased, the 3rd level of thinking about teaching could be identified more often. Teachers also used more often teaching development methods related to cooperation and active participation and enhancement of pedagogical skills. Furthermore, they considered the factors related to lack of pedagogical skills and motivation to be lesser impediments to teaching development.

Adnominal Person in the Morphological System of Erzya : Adnominaalinen persoona ersän kielen morfologisessa järjestelmässä

This dissertation is a synchronic description of adnominal person in the highly synthetic morphological system of Erzya as attested in extensive Erzya-language written-text corpora consisting of nearly 140 publications with over 4.5 million words and over 285,000 unique lexical items. Insight for this description have been obtained from several source grammars in German, Russian, Erzya, Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian, as well as bounteous discussions in the understanding of the language with native speakers and grammarians 1993 2010. Introductory information includes the discussion of the status of Erzya as a lan- guage, the enumeration of phonemes generally used in the transliteration of texts and an in-depth description of adnominal morphology. The reader is then made aware of typological and Erzya-specifc work in the study of adnominal-type person. Methods of description draw upon the prerequisite information required in the development of a two-level morphological analyzer, as can be obtained in the typological description of allomorphic variation in the target language. Indication of original author or dialect background is considered important in the attestation of linguistic phenomena, such that variation might be plotted for a synchronic description of the language. The phonological description includes the establishment of a 6-vowel, 29-consonant phoneme system for use in the transliteration of annotated texts, i.e. two phonemes more than are generally recognized, and numerous rules governing allophonic variation in the language. Erzya adnominal morphology is demonstrated to have a three-way split in stem types and a three-layer system of non-derivative affixation. The adnominal-affixation layers are broken into (a) declension (the categories of case, number and deictic marking); (b) nominal conjugation (non-verb grammatical and oblique-case items can be conjugated), and (c) clitic marking. Each layer is given statistical detail with regard to concatenability. Finally, individual subsections are dedicated to the matters of: possessive declension compatibility in the distinction of sublexica; genitive and dative-case paradigmatic defectivity in the possessive declension, where it is demonstrated to be parametrically diverse, and secondary declension, a proposed typology modifiers without nouns , as compatible with adnominal person.