Psychology entrance exam in Finland 2024

Finland’s universities that offer psychology programmes collaborate with one another and use a common entrance exam. It is quite challenging to pass this exam, if not the most challenging. The preliminary exam material, which consists of eight research papers and one document that translates English professional jargon to Finnish, was issued today by the university collaboration. The material can be found at Psychology and Logopedia collaboration website (resources, link below). With a delight I notice that these articles were published not too long ago. The most recent one was published last year, and the oldest in 2019. I’ll now quickly sum up the subjects covered in the articles:

1. A document that seeks to determine whether to refer to someone with autism as a “person with autism” or as a “autistic person”. The research group was Dutch autistic adults and parents of autistic children.
   • Buijsman, R., Begeer, S., & Scheeren, A. M. (2023). ‘Autistic person’ or ‘person with autism’? Person-first language preference in Dutch adults with autism and parents. Autism, 27(3), 788-795.
2. A research which supports that written reflective practice (WRP) when facilitated with speech-language therapy (SLT) students has positive implications. Jesus! This language is so difficult. I’m not sure if my line makes any sense…
   • Cook, K.J., Messick, C. & McAuliffe, M.J. (2023). Written reflective practice abilities of SLT students across the degree programme. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 58(4), 994–1016.
3. A review of methods used to prepare a child for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and techniques of how to produce a success of scan on a subject which does not like to lie still.
   • Copeland, A., Silver, E., Korja, R., Lehtola, S. J., Merisaari, H., Saukko, E., Sinisalo, S., Saunavaara, J. Lähdesmäki, T., Parkkola, R., Nolvi, S., Karlsson L., Karlsson, H., & Tuulari, J. J. (2021). Infant and child MRI: a review of scanning procedures. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 15, 666020.
4. Children (mean age at 12-month follow-up = 48.22 months – I don’t know what this means) with language delays received Enhanced Milieu teaching (EMT) language intervention or business as usual treatment. Those who did receive EMT were reported to have lower rates of externalising, internalising, and total problem behaviours.
   • Curtis, P. R., Kaiser, A. P., Estabrook, R., & Roberts, M. Y. (2019). The longitudinal effects of early language intervention on children’s problem behaviors. Child Development, 90(2), 576-592.
5. A note which provides information about statistical outliers in psychophysical data and how to detect those outliers.
   • Jones, P. R. (2019). A note on detecting statistical outliers in psychophysical data. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 81(5), 1189–1196.
6. An article which is presents explanations for the complex interplay between job stressors, lack of recovery, and poor well-being. And, how to moderate these factors and which research methods to use in the future.
   • Sonnentag, S. (2018). The recovery paradox: Portraying the complex interplay between job stressors, lack of recovery, and poor well-being. Research in Organizational Behavior, 38, 169-185.
7. As a teacher do you stress more in your work if you have a voice disorder or not? That is the question. And answer to it might lie in this document:
   • Vertanen-Greis, H., Löyttyniemi, E., Uitti, J. & Putula, T. (2022). The interaction between voice disorders and stress for work ability of teachers. Logopedics, Phoniatrics, Vocology. Volume 49, 2024 Issue 1, 11–16.
8. I hope I understood this right: Children with dyslexia have weak activation of the right temporal cortex, which affects their control for second-language words correlated with native-language literacy.
   • Ylinen, S., Junttila, K., Laasonen, M., Iverson, P., Ahonen, L. & Kujala, T. (2019). Diminished brain responses to second-language words are linked with native-language literacy skills in dyslexia. Neuropsychologia, Volume 122, January 2019, 105–115.

It will not be easy to master and understand the content. Even if I will be well-versed in the subject, the chances are still stacked against me, as just 1 to 4 percent of all candidates are accepted to study psychology at a Finnish university.

Resources:

For the exam material please go to

• https://www.helsinki.fi/fi/verkostot/psykologian-ja-logopedian-valintakoeyhteistyo/valintakoe [24.4.2024] Scroll down the page and look for Valintakoe 2024: Valintakokeen ennakkomateriaali drop down menu.

• Some of the text has been enhanced with Quillbot AI.

Picture:

• Featured image by Priscilla Du Preez https://unsplash.com/@priscilladupreez