Perceptualand MotorSkiIls, 1991, 73, 137-138. O Perceptual and Motor Skills 1991
VERBAL FLUENCY AND THE MEASUREMENT O F FUTURE-ORIENTED GOALS AND HOPES: COMPARISON O F QUESTIONNAIRE A N D INTERVIEW DATA' JARI-ERIK NURMI AND JOHANNA LAINEKIVI UniveniQ of Helsinki Summary.-A total of 111 adolescents were asked about their future goals and hopes either in interviews or by questionnaire. Analysis showed that the total number of goals/hopes was influenced by the subjects' verbal fluency on the questionnaires but not in the interviews.
There is increasing interest in personhty research focussing on future-oriented goals, interests, strivings, and personal projects (Nurmi, 1991; Pervin, 1989). The most common method of investigation is asking people directly. Although goals and interests can be investigated in various ways (Schuman & Presser, 1981), the basic choice is between interview and questionnaire. However, both of these are based on verbal reporting, and so are liable to be influenced by the level of verbal fluency (Sechrest, 1968). O n this basis, an investigation into the relationship between verbal intelligence and the number of goals and hopes mentioned in interviews and questionnaires was carried out. In Study 1, 55 15- to 16-year-old adolescents were interviewed. They were asked, "Please tell me what kind of goals and plans you have? What kind of hopes and dreams?" The subjects' verbal intelhgence was tested using the Logical Reasoning Task (A4= 23.94, SD = 4.40) and their nonverbal abilities using the Figure Analogy Task (M = 26.15, SD = 11.70), standardized by Heinonen (1963) for the Finnish population. In Study 2, 56 15- to 16-year-old adolescents filled in a questionnaire including the following open question: "Please write down what kind of goals and hopes you have when you think about the future." The subjects' verbal intelligence was also tested using the WAIS Vocabulary subtest (M = 15.06, SD = 5.50) and their nonverbal abilities using Cattell's Culture Fair Intelligence Test (Scale 2) (M = 32.22, SD = 4.26). The total numbers of goals and hopes were calculated in and hopes mentioned both studies simply by summing the number of by each subject. Study 1 showed that the number of goals did not correlate with scores on the intefigence tests: for Logical Reasoning, r = .07; for Figure Analogy, r = . l l . In Study 2, the Pearson correlation between the number of goals and
'Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jari-Erik Nurrni, Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Fabianinkatu 28, 00100 Helsinki, Finland.
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the WAIS Vocabulary was moderate (r = .51, p < .001), indicating that the higher the verbal ability shown by the subjects, the more goals and hopes they mentioned. However, the correlation between the number of goals and the Culture Fair Intelligence Test was low (r = .14). The significance of the differences in correlation coefficients was tested using Fisher's z, transformation. The results showed that the WAIS Vocabulary scores correlated significantly more with the number of goals stated in the questionnaire data than the scores on Logical Reasoning did with the number of stated in the interviews (z = 2.47, p < .01). However, the correlations between the number of goals and the Figure Analogy, and the number of goals and the Culture Fair Intelligence Test did not differ (z = .13). These results indicate that subjects' verbal fluency has less influence on interview data than on open-ended questionnaire data in the investigation of and hopes. This difference may be due to various sources: (1) Subjects with poor writing skills may be more ready to give a greater number of responses in interview. (2) The interviewer has an opportunity to check that the subject understands the instructions. (3) The interview may be more motivating for the subjects, encouraging them to continue their work. Over-all, it seems that the interview is the better method in research on goals, interests, strivings, and personal projects. If questionnaires are used, the influence of verbal fluency should be controlled by measuring it as a covariate and using proportional scores for goals of different contents. However, because different measures of verbal fluency were employed in the two studies, present conclusions are tentative and there is evident a need for research. REFERENCES HEINONEN, V. (1963) Differentiation of primar mental abilities. Jyuaskylii studies in education, psychology, and social research 2. Jyviskyri: Univer. of Jyviskyli. NIJRMI, J. E. (1991) HOWdo adolescents see their future: a review of the development of future orientation and planning. Developmental Review, 1, 1-59. PERVIN, L. A. (Ed.) (1989) Goal concepts in personality and social psychology. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. SCHUMAN, H., & PRESSER,S. (1981) Questions and answers in attitude surveys: experiments on que~kionform, wording, and context. Orlando, FL: Academic Press. SECHREST, L. (1968) Testing, measuring and assessing people. I n E. F. Borgatta & W. W. Larnbert (Eds.), Handbook of personality theory and research. Chicago, IL: Rand McNdy. Accepted July 17, 1991.
VERBAL FLUENCY AND THE MEASUREMENT O F FUTURE-ORIENTED GOALS AND HOPES: COMPARISON O F QUESTIONNAIRE A N D INTERVIEW DATA' JARI-ERIK NURMI AND JOHANNA LAINEKIVI UniveniQ of Helsinki Summary.-A total of 111 adolescents were asked about their future goals and hopes either in interviews or by questionnaire. Analysis showed that the total number of goals/hopes was influenced by the subjects' verbal fluency on the questionnaires but not in the interviews.
There is increasing interest in personhty research focussing on future-oriented goals, interests, strivings, and personal projects (Nurmi, 1991; Pervin, 1989). The most common method of investigation is asking people directly. Although goals and interests can be investigated in various ways (Schuman & Presser, 1981), the basic choice is between interview and questionnaire. However, both of these are based on verbal reporting, and so are liable to be influenced by the level of verbal fluency (Sechrest, 1968). O n this basis, an investigation into the relationship between verbal intelligence and the number of goals and hopes mentioned in interviews and questionnaires was carried out. In Study 1, 55 15- to 16-year-old adolescents were interviewed. They were asked, "Please tell me what kind of goals and plans you have? What kind of hopes and dreams?" The subjects' verbal intelhgence was tested using the Logical Reasoning Task (A4= 23.94, SD = 4.40) and their nonverbal abilities using the Figure Analogy Task (M = 26.15, SD = 11.70), standardized by Heinonen (1963) for the Finnish population. In Study 2, 56 15- to 16-year-old adolescents filled in a questionnaire including the following open question: "Please write down what kind of goals and hopes you have when you think about the future." The subjects' verbal intelligence was also tested using the WAIS Vocabulary subtest (M = 15.06, SD = 5.50) and their nonverbal abilities using Cattell's Culture Fair Intelligence Test (Scale 2) (M = 32.22, SD = 4.26). The total numbers of goals and hopes were calculated in and hopes mentioned both studies simply by summing the number of by each subject. Study 1 showed that the number of goals did not correlate with scores on the intefigence tests: for Logical Reasoning, r = .07; for Figure Analogy, r = . l l . In Study 2, the Pearson correlation between the number of goals and
'Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jari-Erik Nurrni, Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Fabianinkatu 28, 00100 Helsinki, Finland.
138
J-E. NURMI & J. LAINEKIVI
the WAIS Vocabulary was moderate (r = .51, p < .001), indicating that the higher the verbal ability shown by the subjects, the more goals and hopes they mentioned. However, the correlation between the number of goals and the Culture Fair Intelligence Test was low (r = .14). The significance of the differences in correlation coefficients was tested using Fisher's z, transformation. The results showed that the WAIS Vocabulary scores correlated significantly more with the number of goals stated in the questionnaire data than the scores on Logical Reasoning did with the number of stated in the interviews (z = 2.47, p < .01). However, the correlations between the number of goals and the Figure Analogy, and the number of goals and the Culture Fair Intelligence Test did not differ (z = .13). These results indicate that subjects' verbal fluency has less influence on interview data than on open-ended questionnaire data in the investigation of and hopes. This difference may be due to various sources: (1) Subjects with poor writing skills may be more ready to give a greater number of responses in interview. (2) The interviewer has an opportunity to check that the subject understands the instructions. (3) The interview may be more motivating for the subjects, encouraging them to continue their work. Over-all, it seems that the interview is the better method in research on goals, interests, strivings, and personal projects. If questionnaires are used, the influence of verbal fluency should be controlled by measuring it as a covariate and using proportional scores for goals of different contents. However, because different measures of verbal fluency were employed in the two studies, present conclusions are tentative and there is evident a need for research. REFERENCES HEINONEN, V. (1963) Differentiation of primar mental abilities. Jyuaskylii studies in education, psychology, and social research 2. Jyviskyri: Univer. of Jyviskyli. NIJRMI, J. E. (1991) HOWdo adolescents see their future: a review of the development of future orientation and planning. Developmental Review, 1, 1-59. PERVIN, L. A. (Ed.) (1989) Goal concepts in personality and social psychology. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. SCHUMAN, H., & PRESSER,S. (1981) Questions and answers in attitude surveys: experiments on que~kionform, wording, and context. Orlando, FL: Academic Press. SECHREST, L. (1968) Testing, measuring and assessing people. I n E. F. Borgatta & W. W. Larnbert (Eds.), Handbook of personality theory and research. Chicago, IL: Rand McNdy. Accepted July 17, 1991.
