Validity and stability of a new desired control measure pertaining to psychological adjustment of the elderly.

Abstract

The four studies reported herein were designed to test the reliabilities and predictive validities of a 70-item Desired Control Measure. This measure is based on the findings of a survey to establish what everyday reinforcements contributed to the happiness of senior citizens. Within the new measure, there were 35 Expectancy items indexing the extent to which senior citizens expected to realize these reinforcements and 35 were Desire items indexing the value older adults held for these reinforcements. The Desire items were used to weight the Expectancy items so as to derive a Desired Control score. Fifteen of the 17 correlations between Desired Control and a variety of measures of psychological adjustment reported across the four studies were significant and sizeable (mean r = .44). Social Desirability responding had negligible effects on correlations. Furthermore, five of seven correlations between Desired Control measured at one time and Psychological Adjustment measured 12 months later were significant (mean correlation = .46). Consistent with theoretical expectations, Expectancy scores were stronger predictors of well-being than were desire scores. The results of these studies gave support for the supposition that personal control is an important variable in psychological adjustment among the elderly.