The Cesarec–Marke Personality Schedule, a Swedish inventory for the measurement of needs, was administered to a sample of females, aged 15, and readministered 10 years later. Longitudinal analyses showed that most dispositions changed significantly, although the changes were rather small. All traits were moderately stable over the 10‐year period.

The aims of this study were: to relate women's subjective experience of primary dysmenorrhea to psychogenic needs assessed longitudinally at the age of 15 and at the age of 25 in a nonclinical sample; to compare the psychogenic needs of women with severe primary dysmenorrhea with those of other women who never have experienced dysmenorrhea; and to examine whether women with severe dysmenorrhea were less conventionally feminine than women who never have experienced dysmenorrhea. At 25 years, 42% of the women experienced dysmenorrhea and 15% experienced pain that limited their daily activity. Differences in psychogenic needs according to the Cesarec Marke Personality Schedule and in psychological masculinity and femininity according to the Attitude Interest Schedule were found in women with severe primary dysmenorrhea compared with women who never experienced dysmenorrhea. The results indicate that women with severe dysmenorrhea have less self-esteem at 15 years, but compensate for this at 25 years by being more achievement-oriented and aggressive than women who never experienced dysmenorrhea. Further, women with severe dysmenorrhea are more conventionally feminine than women who never have experienced dysmenorrhea.

A female sample (N = 349) was administered the Attitude Interest Schedule (AIS) and the Cesarec-Marke Personality Schedule (CMPS) at the ages of 15 and 25. It was found that during adolescence subjects change towards a more conservative feminine self-image. Diflerential stability, based on the AIS scores, was substantial. Masculinity-femininity appeared to be related to needs as measured by the CMPS. Masculinity was related positively to instrumental needs and negatively to expressive needs.

A study of 29 psychiatric inpatients was performed to investigate the relation of handshaking variables (anatomical and physiological variables) with demographic data, personality traits, psychosocial functioning, and clinical diagnoses. Two psychologists rated patients' handshaking independently of each other according to four variables on an ordinal scale of five steps. The interrater reliability was satisfactory. Analysis showed that the handshaking procedure may in fact give some information about the personality make-up of the patients, most clearly through the relationship between low temperature and humidity of the palmar skin and social introversion, depression, and tendency towards symptom enhancement mainly in women. The handshaking procedure did not seem informative about psychosocial functioning and clinical diagnoses.

In a longitudinal study of personality, 66 women completed the Cesarec Marke Personality Schedule, a Swedish personality inventory, in order to asses their psychogenic needs at the age of 15 and 25. Psychiatric symptoms and a number of background variables were assessed independently after the completion of the Cesarec Marke Personality Schedule, with the aim of examining whether traits and background variables were related to psychiatric symptoms. The psychogenic needs Defence of Status and Guilt Feelings at the age of 15 were positively and significantly related to depressive and anxiety symptoms and high score on psychiatric morbidity in general. The psychogenic needs Defence of Status, Guilt Feelings and Succourance at the age of 25 were significantly related to the symptom constructs Somatization, Interpersonal-sensitivity, Depression, Anxiety-phobia, and General Morbidity. Subjects with a low score of psychiatric symptoms differed from high scoring subjects by having been raised by older parents, experienced a secure childhood, better relationships with siblings and peers, and a longer education. It may be hypothesized that high scores on Defence of Status and Guilt Feelings in combination with less favourable background variables may constitute a vulnerability factor for depression and anxiety.