Alternative mechanisms for improvements in fluid ability performance among older adults.

To cross-validate and extend previous work regarding fluid ability training, I randomly assigned 256 community-living older participants to either induction training, stress inoculation training, or nocontact control groups. Practice effects were common to almost all of the ability measures, whereas training effects were specific to measures of inductive reasoning. Both training groups demonstrated greater immediate posttest gains in Letter Sets performance relative to control groups, which were maintained to the greatest extent one month later for the induction training group. The control and stress inoculation groups experienced slight declines one month later, although performance differences still favored the later. For Letter Series, one week follow-up findings favored both induction and stress inoculation conditions, whereas only the stress inoculation group demonstrated gains at one month follow-up. No differential pattern of training transfer to other components of Gf-Gc was observed. These data suggest alternative means by which the facilitation of intellectual competence in older adults may be accomplished.

Older women's perceptions of female counselors: the influence of therapist age and problem intimacy.

Elderly women (N = 96, Mn age = 69.6) who served as pseudoclients in an analogue study were more positive toward all counselors when vignettes dealt with less intimate rather than more intimate problems. Older counselors were preferred when less intimate concerns were discussed whereas younger counselors were preferred for more intimate problems. Perceived differences in helper expertness, attractiveness, and trustworthiness were also influenced by perceptions of the individuality of counselors. These findings have significance for the delivery of mental health services to older persons.

Young and middle-aged adults' perceptions of elder abuse.

Middle-aged and young adults (ns = 201 and 422, respectively) completed an adaptation of the Severity of Violence Against Women Scale and the Elder Abuse Attitudes and Behavioral Intentions Scale--Revised to examine the impact of (a) respondent age, (b) age and gender of perpetrator and victim, and (c) history of experienced violence on perceptions of elder abuse. Results suggested that middle-aged respondents viewed psychological behaviors more harshly than did younger respondents and that both middle-aged women and young men were less tolerant of middle-aged perpetrators. Although history of participatory violence toward older persons was predictive of perceptions of elder abuse as it interacted with respondent age, history of experienced abuse was not predictive. These data support a view of elder abuse that emphasizes its relativistic nature, wherein perceptions of elder abuse depend on both the characteristics of the perceiver and the victim and perpetrator variables.

Long-term efficacy of fluid ability interventions with older adults.

Three-year follow-up data were gathered from 108 elderly persons to investigate the long-term efficacy of fluid ability (Gf) interventions with the aged. Results suggested that the effects of reminding older persons to use previously acquired training strategies facilitated 3-year Letter Series performance, particularly so for stress inoculation participants. No reminder effects were observed for Letter Sets scores. While 3-year declines in Letter Sets performance were observed for all persons, losses in Letter Sets performance were minimized to a greater extent for stress inoculation group participants than for those in both the induction training and control conditions. These data collectively underscore the interaction between qualitatively different types of Gf interventions and the ongoing use of previously acquired training strategies as factors in the maintenance of Gf training effects in older persons.

Custodial grandparenting and the impact of grandchildren with problems on role satisfaction and role meaning.

This study compared three groups of grandparents, attempting to disentangle grandparental role demands from child-specific problems as sources of role-specific and grandchild-relationship distress. Those grandparents raising grandchildren reported to demonstrate neurological, physical, emotional, or behavioral problems exhibited the most personal distress, the least role satisfaction and role meaning, and the most deteriorated grandparent-grandchild relationships. Custodial grandparents raising grandchildren reported to have few difficulties also differed in the ways listed above from those grandparents not raising their grandchildren and from those raising grandchildren displaying problems. For men, but not women, more positive grandparent meaning was associated with raising a grandchild. Significantly, custodial grandparents were more likely to be raising boys, suggesting that boys may be either more difficult for grandparents to raise or that boys react more negatively to the adverse circumstances under which grandparents assume care.

Evaluation of driving-while-intoxicated programs; some methodological considerations.

Some methodological problems encountered in evaluating the effectiveness of driving-while-intoxicated programs are discussed.

Construct validation of the Hand Test Withdrawal score on institutionalized older adults.

The Hand Test Withdrawal score was correlated with an independent criterion measure of general intactness, the Mental Status Questionnaire, for a sample of 57 "normal," institutionalized, elderly (M age = 77.26 yr.) to establish the construct validity of the Withdrawal score for older adults. A Pearson r of .43 (p < .001) was obtained, suggesting that the Withdrawal score is a valid measure of mental status or general intactness for institutionalized older adults.

The viability of an abbreviated version of the Holtzman Inkblot Technique with older adults.

Multiple regression analyses of Holtzman Inkblot Technique (HIT; Holtzman, Thorpe, Swartz, & Herron, 1961) factor scores were conducted to empirically determine the viability of a short form of the HIT with older adults. Although R2 values were acceptable, the contribution of individual cards to total factor scores was dubious at best. These data suggest that the development of a short form of the HIT for use with older adults is premature and requires more systematic research to justify its viability.

Construct validity of the Kendrick Battery with institutionalized aged.

In this study, we attempted to explore the construct validity of the Kendrick Battery by using an American sample and psychometric tests as indexes of diffuse organicity, depression, and normality. Institutionalized residents (N = 53) were tested twice (6-week interval). When organicity was defined by disorientation and memory deficits, then both the Object Learning test and the Digit Copying test were accurate in differentiating preestablished criterion groups. When organicity was defined more broadly, including sensorimotor function, the Digit Copying test alone was more accurate when depression was defined in terms of irritability, restlessness, and despair. These data suggest that although the Kendrick scales appeared to be sensitive to organicity and depression in this sample, their validity varied with the criteria for each when such were defined psychometrically.

Personality-ability relationships in aged adults.

In an effort to investigate personality-ability interrelationships in older persons, 102 community-residing elderly persons were administered the Holtzman Inkblot Technique (HIT) and measures of both crystallized (Gc) and fluid (Gf) intelligence. Results suggested that each ability factor loaded on separate personality dimensions established in a previous analysis of HIT data using this sample. Whereas the personality factors labeled Anxiety Over Ideational Sufficiency and Feelings About Bodily Integrity loaded on Gc, factors termed Use of Cognitive Resources to Deal With Reality and Organizational Ability/Intellectual Functioning loaded on Gf. Causal inferences are difficult to make. However, these data suggest that individual differences in the maintenance of higher levels of intellectual functioning in later adulthood might be motivated by ego defensive mechanisms that act to insulate the older individual from feelings of self-worthlessness and failure and/or a loss of control over external forces via the development of intellectual skills.

Relationships between intelligence and concept identification in adulthood as a function of stage of learning.

Three groups (n = 54) of participants aged 17-26, 39-51 and 59-76 were asked to solve two types of concept problems to investigate the intellectual correlates of concept identification as a function of stage of learning in adulthood. Predictions derived from the Gf-Gc theory of Horn and Cattell were partially supported in each age group. Differential ability-performance relations as a function of stage of learning were considerably less potent in the elderly versus the young and middle aged. Comparisons both within and between age groups suggested that a dynamic picture of interactions among organismic and task-related variables is preferable, reflecting structural changes in such relationships with practice and cohort membership.

Idiographic assessment of the self in the aged: a case for the use of the Q-sort.

Literature bearing on the use of the Q-sort in gerontological research is discussed. It is argued that the measurement of self-concept and the design of outcome measures with elderly clients should be rooted in a perspective emphasizing multiple, interactive determinants of life-span development; increases in intraindividual variability/interindividual differences with age; ecological validity; and a growing concern for the practical utility and acceptability of nontraditional counseling and psychotherapy and the aged. Suggestions for the development and use of the Q-sort in evaluating intervention-oriented efforts from within such a perspective on the self in old age and on outcome research with elderly clients are offered.

The Holtzman Inkblot Technique and aging: norms and factor structure.

The Holtzman Inkblot Technique (HIT) was individually administered to 102 elderly community-living adults, aged 59-94. The purpose of the present study was to gather basic normative data for a sample of noninstitutionalized elderly persons, as well as to investigate the factorial composition of the HIT for the present cohort of elderly. Substantial variation across persons was noted for 18 of 22 HIT variables, and a principal axis solution (varimax rotation) yielded 7 identifiable factors, similar in some respects to those identified in previous analyses of the HIT with other age cohorts. Substantial within-cohort variation for several HIT scores was found across age and sex, but not for level of education. The implications of these data for the projective assessment of personality in elderly persons was discussed, and directions for future research were recommended.

Verbosity and projective test performance in the aged.

Using normative data collected by Hayslip (1980) where form A of the Holtzman Inkblot Technique (HIT) was administered to 102 elderly adults, aged 59-94, correlational and factor analyses were carried out in order to investigate the extent to which response length (RL), as previously identified in HIT research with younger age samples, influences HIT scores. RL correlated significantly with HIT scores for 14 of 22 variables and loaded on two factors: A bodily integrity/vulnerability factor, and a cognitive problem-solving factor. While no differences in RL across sex and level of education were obtained, within-sample age effects (in favor of the younger) for RL were found. Implications of these data for the projective assessment of older persons were discussed.

Determinants of anagram problem solution in adulthood.

An evaluation of the indices proposed in the literature regarding measures of anagram difficulty was made by asking three groups (ages 17-26, 39-51, 59-76) of adults (n = 54) to solve a list of 30 anagrams. Results indicated that only two of these indices (Thorndike-Lorge and Bigram Rank measures) significantly predicted frequency of solution in samples beyong college age. It was also found that the cognitive variable mediating the effects of these indices in middle aged and elderly subjects was crystallized ability, suggesting an experiential basis for the effects of both task and organismic variables as determinants of anagram problem solving in adulthood. The role of fluid ability as a mediator of problem solution in the young received limited support.

Toward the equivalence of the HIT and HIT 25 in community-residing older adults.

In a study by the first author wherein 102 community-residing older adults were administered the Holtzman Inkblot Technique (HIT), data collected were analyzed regarding the equivalence of the HIT and the HIT 25. Although alpha coefficients and split-half correlations were low when single-response-per-card data were analyzed, corrected Spearman-Brown coefficients were more supportive of the use of the HIT 25 with older adults. These data suggest that although a shortened form of the HIT may be useful with aged persons, research exploring the substantive bases for creating a shortened version of the HIT is nevertheless necessary.

Locus of control and retirement preparation.

Locus of desired control and participation in a retirement preparation program were investigated in relation to retirement attitudes and adjustment. Fifty-nine older workers and retirees, approximately half of whom had participated in a retirement preparation program, completed measures assessing locus of control, attitudes toward work and retirement, life satisfaction and self-esteem. Retirement preparation was found to maintain both the desirability and expectancy of internal control and positive retirement attitudes among the worker participants relative to controls. Retirees did not differ on measures of adjustment; those with retirement preparation, however, evidenced higher externality than those without. Although the results indicated that internal expectancies were associated with positive psychological functioning, the role of retirement preparation in maintaining such expectancies into retirement remained equivocal.

The Kendrick Battery: sensitivity to survival effects.

In an effort to establish the sensitivity of the Kendrick Battery (KB) to mortality effects among institutionalized aged, the residualized pre-death KB scores (Digit Copying, Object Learning Subtests), as well as measures of affect (Zung Depression), and organicity (Luria Pathognomic Scale, Orientation Test) were compared in a sample of fifty-three elderly persons (M age = 82.7, SD = 7.76). Forty-two were female, eleven were male. Twenty-two of these individuals had subsequently died during an eighteen-month period following assessment. Six years after testing, thirty-six of these individuals had died. Step-wise discriminant analyses at each occasion yielded functions defined by the KB subtests, measures of organicity and depression, age of institutionalization, sex, and length of institutionalization that differentiated survivors and nonsurvivors. These data suggested that the Kendrick Battery subtests, measures of depression and organicity, in combination with length of institutionalization and age of admittance predict death among the elderly, for the most part, replicating previous research.

Custodial grandparenting: new roles for middle-aged and older adults.

An overview of grandparenting in light of changing demographics, family composition, and intergenerational dynamics is presented, as well as a review of custodial grandparenting which is impacted not only by these changes, but also by factors unique to this role. Research to date suggests that the demands of custodial grandparenting may be harmful to the psychosocial adjustment of those raising grandchildren and that such persons may be particularly in need of mental health services, especially if they are caring for problem grandchildren. However, such work also suggests that there are nevertheless many strengths and rewards associated with raising a grandchild later in life. The implications of these stressful demands on middle-aged and older persons' adjustment and life satisfaction are discussed, as are methodological issues in such research as well as future directions work in this area might take.