Normative data of

the Finnish version of

Hypomanic Personality Scale

Jouko Miettunen, MPhil, MSc

Department of Psychiatry
University of Oulu
Finland

Kuopio, June 17th 2004

Hypomania
episodic, speeded state resembling mania, but
lacking its intensity or duration

Hypomanic personality
Individuals with hypomanic personality are

cheerful, exuberant, optimistic, extraverted, tireless and

self-confident

but they are also

irritable, overbearing, reckless and irresponsible

Hypomanic personality is thought to be a risk

factor for manic and major depressive episodes

Hypomanic Personality Scale (HPS)

48 items (true/false), for example
There are often times when I am so restless that it is
impossible for me to sit still.
There have often been times when I had such an excess of
energy that I felt little need to sleep at night.
There are so many fields I could succeed in that it seems a
shame to have to pick one.
I seem to be a person whose mood goes up and down easily.
I can't imagine that anyone would ever write a book about
my life. (keyed false)
Eckblad & Chapman (1986) Development and validation of a scale for hypomanic personality.
Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 95, 214-222.

Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort

12058 children born in regions of Oulu and Lapland
the 31-year follow-up survey

subjects living in regions of Oulu and Lapland, and in Helsinki

area were invited to clinical examination (N=8465)

postal questionnaire including HPS filled in at home (N=5999)

HPS was filled in without missing items by 4661 subjects

Representative sample, most previous samples have

included only students

Hypomanic Personality Scale

normative studies on adults
U.K. (1)

mean

Males 25-29y

19.88

Females 25-29y

20.03

Males 30-39y

15.09

Females 30-39y

17.70

Finland (2)
Males 31y

10.62

Females 31y

11.78
t test, p < 0.001

...

10

12

14

(1) Rawlings et al. 2000, (2) Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort

16

18

20

22

24 score

Education and hypomania

45

Hypomanic Personality Scale score

40
35
30
25
20
15

12.7

10

11.3

10.7

2999

1256

5
0
N=

404

Primary

Secondary

Tertiary

Educational level 1997

Conclusions
Preliminary results in this Finnish data set show
low scores on the HPS scale compared to
previous studies
There is a comparable finding of low incidence
of mania in Finland
Females scored higher in the HPS
People with lower level of education scored
higher in the HPS

Study group
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oulu
(Matti Isohanni, Liisa Kantojrvi, Juha T Karvonen, Kristian Lksy,
Jouko Miettunen, Juha Veijola)

Tampere School of Public Health, University of Tampere (Matti Joukamaa)

National Public Health Institute, Helsinki (Leena Palotie)
Imperial College London, UK & Dept of Public Health, University of Oulu
(Marjo-Riitta Jrvelin)
UCLA, Los Angeles, USA (Nelson Freimer)
Columbia University, New York, USA (Jesper Ekelund)
University of Bonn, Germany (Dirk Lichtermann)

References
Claridge et al. (1996) The factor structure of schizotypal traits: A large replication
study. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 35, 103-115.
Eckblad & Chapman (1986) Development and validation of a scale for hypomanic
personality. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 95, 214-222.
Meyer & Hautzinger (2003) Screening for bipolar disorders using the Hypomanic
Personality Scale. Journal of Affective Disorders, 75, 149-154.
Rawlings et al. (2000) A factor analytic study of the Hypomanic Personality Scale in
British, Spanish and Australian samples. Pers Individ Dif, 28, 73-84.