Examination of personality-ability relationships in the elderly: The role of the contextual (interface) assessment mode

Abstract

Personality-ability relationships in old age were examined in 71 elderly persons. Two modes of assessment were used. One consisted of measuring intellectual abilities (17 tests) and personality (6 dimensions) by means of established instruments. Intellectual abilities covered were drawn from Horn and Cattell's model of psychometric intelligence. Personality dimensions included three measures of locus of control and one measure each for achievement motivation, anxiety, and morale. The second mode of assessment was aimed directly at the interface between cognitive abilities and personality. Six such interface (context-specific) scales, involving self-assessment and attributions dealing with intellectual functioning in the context of aging, were developed using the six traditional (transcontextual) personality scales as conceptual criteria. These newly developed interface scales exhibit satisfactory convergent and discriminant validity with their transcontextual parent scales of personality. The six parent personality measures and the six personality-ability interface scales were correlated, separately, with performance scores of psychometric intelligence. Relationships between the two domains (personality, ability) were substantial and of greater magnitude when personality was assessed in the context of the personality-ability interface. Because of the conjoint anchoring of the interface scales to both personality and ability, the findings provide a basis for beginning to clarify the nature of personality-ability relationships in old age. In addition, the results support the continuation of a measurement approach to the study of interdomain relationships that includes the use of direct assessments of the domain interface, in addition to traditionally distinct measures of different domains.