In this study we report on two successful replications of a five‐factor personality inventory in two non‐Indo‐European languages, Estonian and Finnish, which both belong to the group of Uralic languages. Costa and McCrae's (1985) NEO Personality Inventory was adapted to these two languages. By all relevant psychometric parameters neither developed construct differs from the original construct: the reliabilities of only 11 per cent for the Estonian and 36 per cent for the Finnish subscale were lower than those of the respective NEO‐PI scales. The factor structure of both Estonian and Finnish inventories was very close to the five‐factor structure of the NEO‐PI, accounting for 71.7 per cent and 67.0 per cent of the variance, respectively. In spite of this generally good agreement, some language‐ or culture‐dependent differences were observed. Both Estonian and Finnish women were more extroverted and conscientious than men, compared with their English‐speaking counterparts. Also, some differences exist in the need for other people's company and excitement seeking. In the Balto‐Fennic culture gregariousness appears to presuppose some emotional stability and openness and excitement seeking is conceptualized more as a tool of rescuing from anxiety, depression, and low self‐esteem. This study is considered as a step towards determination of which parts of the most popular instrument for the measurement of the Big Five personality dimensions are truly universal and which parts of it are specific to a particular language and culture.

To achieve effective rehabilitation and to enhance patients' well-being, it is important to improve the quality and amount of social support network, as well as to support patients' adequate coping efforts for promoting an active lifestyle.

This study demonstrates different expressions of functional and dysfunctional impulsivity in behaviour. While platelet MAO activity is lower in alcohol-related risky behaviour, non-alcohol-related self-acknowledged risky behaviour is related to higher platelet MAO activity. Thus, deviance towards lower as well as higher end of central serotonergic functioning may lead to impulsive behaviour. While self-reported impulsivity did not correlate with MAO activity, both MAO activity and impulsivity were related to risky behaviour.

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Change in social support network may be an important resource for increasing quality of life in patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage not only through help provided by supporters but also indirectly, through increasing subjective well-being. The absence of subjective complaints in patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage is not necessarily related to better objective condition but rather to inadequately optimistic life orientation.

These findings demonstrate that platelet MAO activity is lower in subjects with socially deviant behavior, and the association of low platelet MAO and problem drinking is not an artifact of smoking.

The aim of the study was to explore personality traits as predictors of coping with disease-related distress in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). All patients with clinically definite MS in a city with a population of approximately 100000 were asked to complete the NEO Personality Inventory and a multidimensional coping inventory (COPE). There was an 83% response rate yielding 49 patients for the study population and 49 controls, matched for age, gender and educational level to the MS-patients, were used as comparison. Only Neuroticism correlated significantly with emotion-focused coping in both groups. Extraversion and Openness to Experience were linked to task-oriented coping strategies in normal controls but not in the MS-group. Agreeableness was associated with avoidance-oriented coping strategies only in the MS-group. Thus, the relation of certain personality characteristics to the choice of strategies for coping with the disease-related distress appear to differ from coping with stressful problems in everyday life. As dispositional characteristics may interfere with adaptive coping responses, analysis of personality traits and coping strategies could contribute while attempting to relieve the consequences of chronic disease on everyday life.

The aim of the study was to explore personality traits as predictors of coping with disease-related distress in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). All patients with clinically definite MS in a city with a population of approximately 100000 were asked to complete the NEO Personality Inventory and a multidimensional coping inventory (COPE). There was an 83% response rate yielding 49 patients for the study population and 49 controls, matched for age, gender and educational level to the MS-patients, were used as comparison. Only Neuroticism correlated significantly with emotion-focused coping in both groups. Extraversion and Openness to Experience were linked to task-oriented coping strategies in normal controls but not in the MS-group. Agreeableness was associated with avoidance-oriented coping strategies only in the MS-group. Thus, the relation of certain personality characteristics to the choice of strategies for coping with the disease-related distress appear to differ from coping with stressful problems in everyday life. As dispositional characteristics may interfere with adaptive coping responses, analysis of personality traits and coping strategies could contribute while attempting to relieve the consequences of chronic disease on everyday life.