Psyykkisen toimintakyvyn mittaaminen

As an object of measurement, general psychic functional capacity exists only in the conceptual sense. Everyone has different qualifications and conditions for action. The human psyche has a complicated evolutionary, cultural and individual history of differentiation and integration. Its measurement implies a configurational approach that integrates the different levels in psychic regulation system. What can be done is evaluation, description, understanding or prediction of different intertwining aspects of behaviour in relation to some specified situational challenges. These differ fundamentally from measurement which allows comparison with some accepted standard. In health surveys several aspects of human performance can be approached satisfactorily both conceptually and methodically. In the past many attempts have been made, however, to approach the problem from only one angle. As its starting point this report took the best known of them: the long and controversial debate on measuring intelligence. Rational thought, quick and accurate learning and the knowledge thereby attained constitute important aspects of human competence with living. There is, however, little guarantee that tomorrow's social challenges connected with health behaviour will be met by concentrating only on them in the assessment of human psychic functioning — even if they are methodically easiest to master. With respect to measurement, it should be emphasized that equal scores in psychological measures often indicate different dynamics of performance. This introduces the requirement of simultaneous assessment of the output and strategic-tactical aspects of performance. Each concept differs somewhat in application, the former being mainly a base for static diagnostic decisions (e.g. evaluation of working capacity), and the latter for decisions about treatment and rehabilitation.