The attachment patterns of younger and older adults were studied using two-dimensional self-report measures of adult attachment. Community-dwelling younger (n = 144, M = 22.5 years, SD = 3.6) and older (n = 106, M = 68.6 years, SD = 8.3) adults completed the Measure of Attachment Qualities (MAQ; Carver, 1997) and the Relationship Style…

The Meaningful Activity Participation Assessment (MAPA), a recently developed 28-item tool designed to measure the meaningfulness of activity, was tested in a sample of 154 older adults. The MAPA evidenced a sufficient level of internal consistency and test-retest reliability and correlated as theoretically predicted with the Life Satisfaction…

Constructed a Modified Purpose in Life Scale and used item analysis to validate it on a sample of 177 Oklahoma retirees and 202 Taiwan retirees. Results suggested the seven-item Modified PIL is a satisfactory measure of psychological well-being among the elderly and a valid tool for cross-national comparisons. (JAC)

Developed scale to assess routinization (tendency to maintain daily events of one's life in relatively unchanging and orderly pattern of regularity) among older adults. Findings from over 200 older adults revealed 2 underlying factors: Having Order and Routine in daily living and Disliking Disruption. Evidence was found for validity of the 20-item…

Examined the internal consistency and construct validity of an expanded version of the Inventory of Psychosocial Development (E-IPD), which included the generativity and ego integrity scales creatd by Boylin et al. Total E-IPD scores from 79 adults were found to have high internal consistency, but many individual stage scales did not. (Author)

The factor analytic model of the practitioner-oriented "Opinions about People" was tested with a population of gerontological practitioners. An analysis eliminated nine items not warranting inclusion in the instrument, redistributed the factors, and brought out a completely new factor. (Author)

Translated Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale, Life Satisfaction Index, and Affect Balance Scale into Castilian Spanish and Catalan and obtained responses to instruments from 151 elderly persons living in Spain. Reliability estimates for Life Satisfaction Index and Affect Balance subscales were comparable to those for English-speaking…

Conducted exploratory field study to examine how age-concepts are experienced and to assess relationship of age identities to each other. Proposes Cognitive Age as a new multidimensional age scale that merges the standard scale, Identity Age, and Personal Age. Study results attest to Cognitive Age scale's reliability and validity. (Author/NB)

A contextual age construct was developed and examined as transactional, life-position index of aging. The findings reflect the weak validity of chronological age as a unidimensional indicator of life-position and well-being. (Author/BL)

Examined validity of the postulated perceptual style-personality dimension of modulation of stimulus intensity in two elderly samples. Results indicated a significant linear relationship between kinesthetic aftereffect and degree of social engagement, life attitudes, and items previously validated with young adults. Discusses implications for…

Developed interview-based Geriatric Depression Rating Scale (GDRS) and administered 35-item GDRS to 68 older adults with range of affective disturbance. Found scale to have internal consistency and split-half reliability comparable to those of Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression and Geriatric Depression Scale. Concurrent validity, construct…

Administered Anticipatory Grief Scale (AGS) and Hopkins Symptom Checklist-SCL-90-R to 27 wives who were caring for their spouses suffering from dementia. Alpha coefficient for AGS was 0.84, indicating good internal consistency. AGC was positively and significantly correlated with depression, anxiety, and hostility dimensions of SCL-90-R,…

Tested the Life Satisfaction Index-A for validity and reliability using a sample of 240 Black elderly. The study failed to support the existence of five dimensions that were supposed to form the life satisfaction scale, but the scale was highly reliable in measuring life satisfaction among Black elderly. (Author/JAC)

Investigated age changes and differences in personality as measured by the Holtzman Inkblot Technique (HIT). Concluded that the HIT measures perceptual-cognitive variables that are moderately stable in adulthood. (Author/ABB)

Seven frequently used measures were examined by construct validation to improve measures. Results of this research indicate that there is a construct, termed "life satisfaction," shared by six of the seven measures and that no existing instrument best encompasses that construct. The construct is composed of two factors. (Author)