yksilöissä

Yksilöissä is the inessive plural form of the Finnish noun yksilö, meaning an individual. The form is used to indicate something occurring within or among members of a population, i.e., in the individuals. It appears frequently in scientific and academic Finnish when discussing traits, behaviours, or phenomena that pertain to individuals rather than to abstract groups or the population as a whole.

Morphology: The base word is yksilö. Its plural nominative is yksilöt. To form the inessive plural, the suffix -issä is added to the plural stem, producing yksilöissä. This follows standard Finnish noun inflection, where location or state within a plural subject is marked by -issä.

Usage: Yksilöissä is commonly used in fields such as psychology, sociology, biology, and medicine to describe observations that occur within members of a group. For example, researchers might report that certain traits or responses are found in individuals, or that variability exists within individuals across a study. The term can be contrasted with yksilöiden välillä (between individuals) or with population-level statements.

Notes on related forms: The singular counterpart is yksilössä (in the individual). Other related forms include yksilön (genitive singular), yksilöiden (genitive plural), and yksilöitä (partitive plural). Understanding these forms helps distinguish statements about within-individual phenomena from those about between-individual differences or broader population trends.