In order to detect and quantify intellectual impairment current IQ test performance must be compared with an estimate of premorbid intellectual level. One means of obtaining this estimate is to use a current ability measure which meets, as fully as possible, the following three criteria; firstly, the measure should be reliable, secondly, test performance should correlate highly with IQ in the general population, thirdly, test performance should be resistant to the effects of neurological and psychiatric disorder. In the present work, the National Adult Reading Test (NART; Nelson, 1982) was evaluated against these criteria. The NART is a single word, oral reading test and consists of 50 words of irregular pronunciation (eg ache, deny). The results indicated that the NART has high split-half, test-retest and inter-rater reliability. Secondly, the NART has high construct validity as a measure of intelligence (ie it loads highly on g) and predicts a substantial proportion of WAIS IQ variance. Thirdly, NART performance was largely resistant to the effects of neurological and psychiatric disorder. In this last respect it was superior to the Vocabulary subtest of the WAIS, a commonly used, putative premorbid index. An alternative method of estimating premorbid IQ was developed by Wilson et al. (1978) in the US. Using the WAIS standardisation sample, these authors built a multiple regression equation to estimate premorbid WAIS IQ from demographic variables (eg education, occupation). In the present work, demographic regression equations were built to estimate WAIS IQ in the UK population. The results indicated that the demographic approach is applicable in the UK. Demographic variables predicted 50&'37 of WAIS IQ variance. It was also demonstrated that regression equations which combine the NART and demographic variables provide more accurate estimates than either method alone. While the demographic approach is a less powerful predictor of IQ than either the NART or combined method, its compensatory advantage is that the estimates it provides are entirely independent of current cognitive capacity. The clinical utility of premorbid indices was demonstrated by the fact that they improved discrimination between impaired and healthy subjects over the use of current IQ measures alone. To date, UK research on premorbid indices has used WAIS IQ as the criterion variable. The final aim of the present work was to build equations to estimate premorbid WAIS-R IQ. Drawing on the results of earlier work, a revised version of the NART was developed (NART-R). Equations for the estimation of WAIS-R IQ from the NART-R, demographic variables and the combination of these variables are presented.

Bakgrund: En kund köper inte varor och tjänster som inte skapar något värde, vilket är något företagen på marknaden måste ta hänsyn till. Utöver det är företagens mål att nå finansiella samt icke-finansiella vinningar från sin produkt. Det är stor konkurrens på marknaden vilket innebär att konsumenten kan välja och vraka något som företagen måste anpassa sig till. I tjänstesektorn är det kunskap som är den viktigaste faktorn för att locka till sig kunder och är på så sätt något tjänsteföretagen ständigt måste arbeta med om de skall överleva på marknaden. För att undersöka detta kommer företagens syn på värdeskapande, kontinuerligt lärande och de egna resurserna studeras i uppsatsen. Syfte: Att undersöka hur tjänsteföretag arbetar med värdeskapande, kontinuerligt lärande samt dess nedlagda resurser inom ramen för internt utvecklingsarbete. Vidare är syftet att jämföra tjänsteföretagens mognadsgrader med varandra för att därigenom se vilka skillnader samt var potential till förbättring finns. Metod: Uppsatsen grundar sig i den kvalitativa ansatsen med ett heremeneutiskt förhållningssätt. Den sekundärdata som samlades in var genom vetenskapliga artiklar, internetkällor och böcker. Fyra företag och fem personer deltog i uppsatsen vilka intervjuades genom en semi-strukturerad intervjuguide. Datainsamlingen analyserades med hjälp av ett organisatoriskt IQ-test. Resultat och slutsats: Företagen har en liknande grundsyn i sättet de tänker på värdeskapande och kontinuerligt lärande. Dock visar empirin att företagen skildje sig i konflikthanteringen samt att några av företagen hade svårigheter att förändra sig på lokal nivå eftersom de agerade på en global marknad. För att uppnå ett värdeskapande och kontinuerligt lärande lägger samtliga företag ner mycket resurser för att erbjuda en tjänst som möter kundens behov och krav. Hur mognadsgraden för värdeskapande och kontinuerligt lärande ser ut skiljer sig mellan företagen eftersom företagen var bra på olika saker. Det är även inom dessa områden potential till förbättring finns. Uppsatsens bidrag: I sin helhet ger uppsatsen en ökad kunskap om hur tjänsteföretag i den privata tjänstesektorn arbetar med värdeskapande och kontinuerligt lärande. Därutöver bidrar uppsatsen med ytterligare kunskap inom vilka områden tjänsteföretagen utmärker sig, deras mognadsgrad i värdeskapande och kontinuerligt lärande samt var det finns potential till förbättring. / Background: Customer do not intend to purchase a product or service that does not provide them with value and this is something that companies have to consider. At the same time companies aim to achieve financial or non-financial profits by selling their products or services. The market is very competitive and ultimately it is the consumers who have the power to pick and choose whatever alternative that fits them best. Hence, this is something companies have to take into consideration. The private sector provides services rather than products and it is this which is used to attract customers and therefore something companies continually have to work with in order to survive in the market. In order to investigate this, different companies’ view of value creation, continual learning and resources have been studied. Aim: To investigate how service companies work with value creation, continual learning and utilized resources (within the range of internal development work). The aim is also to compare company’s level of maturity and suggest where improvements can be made. Methodology: The study is qualitative with a hermeneutic approach. Data were collected from scientific articles, internet sources and books. Four companies and five persons in total participated in the study and were interviewed using a semi-structured interview form. The data was later analyzed with the help of an organizational IQ-test. Results and conclusion: Companies often have a similar ethos in the way they think about value creation and continuous learning. However, the empirical data shows that companies differ in regard to conflict management, as well as some of the companies having difficulties in making changes at the local level because they act in a global marked. In order to achieve value creation and continuous learning all the companies use a great deal of resources to meet the needs and demands from customers. However, the maturity level of value creation and continuous learning look different between various companies because the companies are good at different activities. It is in these areas there lies the potential for improvement. Contribution of the thesis: It provides increased knowledge in how the private service sector works with value creation and continual learning. It also provides further knowledge of how the service sector excels, its maturity grade in value creation and continual learning, and how they can improve.

Abstract A psychological test may be defined as an objective and standardized measure of a sample of behaviour. The interpretation of test results is usually based on comparing an individual’s performance to norms based on a representative sample of the population. The present study examined the norms of popular adult tests. The validity of the Wartegg drawing test (WZT) was studied using two rating scales, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory as criterion tests. Weak to moderate correlations were found. It is concluded that the WZT has some validity in the assessment of Alexithymia. Efforts to develop a psychometrically valid and reliable method of interpreting the WZT should be continued. Cross-national and historical analyses of the norms of Wechsler’s adult intelligence scale (WAIS) were performed. The results show that the Finnish WAIS III test norms are distorted in the younger age groups. Significant cross-national and cross-generational differences in relative subtest scores, test profiles were also observed. Differences in general intelligence cannot explain such variations, and educational and cultural factors probably underlie the observed differences. It is suggested that the concept of a national IQ profile is useful for cross-national test validation studies. The validity of a validity scale, the Chapman Infrequency Scale, was studied in the context of a survey study. Results showed that careless responding is significantly more frequent among psychiatric patients relative to healthy respondents. The common procedure of excluding careless responders from final samples may affect the results of survey studies targeting individuals with psychiatric symptoms. Cut-off scores for exclusion should be flexible and chosen according to the demographic and health characteristics of the sample. In conclusion, the results of this study underscore the need for up-to-date and representative test norms for valid test interpretation. / Tiivistelmä Psykologiset testit voidaan ymmärtää otoksiksi tutkittavan käyttäytymisestä. Mittauksen tulosta tulkitaan yleensä vertaamalla sitä tavalliseen tai keskimääräiseen tulokseen eli testinormeihin. Väitöskirjatutkimus tarkastelee suosittujen aikuistestien normien pätevyyttä. Warteggin piirrostestin validiteettia aleksitymian ja depression mittarina tutkittiin käyttämällä vertailukriteerinä kahta lomaketestiä, Toronton aleksitymia-asteikkoa ja Beckin depressioasteikkoa. Mitatut korrelaatiot olivat melko matalia. Tutkimuksen johtopäätöksenä oli, että Wartegg-testi saattaa olla hyödyllinen menetelmä aleksitymian toteamisessa ja että empiiriseen tutkimukseen perustuvaa tulkintamenetelmien kehittämistä pitäisi jatkaa. Tutkimuksessa selvitettiin myös Wechslerin aikuisten älykkyystestien (WAIS) eri versioiden osatestien kansallisten normien välisiä eroja ja eroja ikäkohorttien välillä. Tulokset osoittivat, että suomalaiset WAIS III testinormit ovat vinoutuneet nuorempien ikäryhmien osalta. Tutkimuksessa havaittiin merkitseviä eroja osatestien keskiarvojen suhteissa eli testiprofiileissa eri maiden ja ikäkohorttien välillä. Kyseisiä eroja ei voida selittää älykkyyden yleisellä faktorilla, vaan niiden taustalla on luultavasti koulutukseen ja kulttuuriin liittyviä tekijöitä. Osa eroista kansallisissa testiprofiileissa näyttää olevan luonteeltaan pysyviä, ja tätä tietoa voidaan käyttää hyväksi testinormien pätevyyttä arvioitaessa. Chapmanin vastaustapa-asteikon (CIS) validiteettia tutkittiin Pohjois-Suomen vuoden 1966 syntymäkohortin kyselytutkimusaineistolla. Psykiatrisista oireista kärsivät henkilöt saivat korkeampia pistemääriä kuin terveet vastaajat. Johtopäätöksenä oli, että vastaustapamittarit voivat karsia psykiatrisia potilaita liian herkästi ulos tutkimusjoukosta, mikä voi vääristää tutkimusten tuloksia. Kriteeripistemäärän pitäisi olla joustava ja sen määrityksessä pitäisi ottaa huomioon tutkimusjoukon ominaisuudet. Tutkimukset osoittavat, että testituloksen luotettava tulkinta vaatii ajanmukaiset ja edustavaan otokseen perustuvat testinormit.