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.HEIDI HJELMELAND is with the

Background: Personality 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.

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.

The relationships between the variables measured by the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and ipsative scales measuring the concepts in Holland's theory of vocational personalities and Schein's theory of career anchors were investigated by analysing data from 1063 Norwegian adults. Three bipolar factors extracted from the vocational scales were in close agreement with the diagonal dimensions of Holland's hexagon model of the vocational categories. Four factors extracted from the anchor scales were interpreted as bipolar career anchor factors. Regression analysis, using MBTI variables as independent and vocational and career anchor factors as dependent variables, showed that extraversion–introversion predicted the enterprising–investigative factor, sensing–intuition predicted the conventional–artistic factor, and thinking–feeling predicted the realistic–social factor. The Myers–Briggs variables were not distinctly related to the career anchor variables.It is argued that the three‐factor structure of the vocational categories corresponds with Holland's hexagon model of these categories because preferential choice data tend to expand the hexagon to an octahedron.

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.