No abstract

Data from a sample of 392 adults (M age = 34.3) were used to empirically establish a blended psychometric and projective measurement model of overt and covert death anxiety. Two equally plausible measurement models were derived. Based on a randomly selected sample of 196, both a two-factor model, Overt Death Anxiety-Self and Covert Death Anxiety, and a threefactor, Overt Death Anxiety-Self, Overt Death Anxiety-Other, and Covert Death Anxiety, fit the data. Data from a second randomly selected subsample of 196 adults was also consistent with a two-factor measurement model, as well as a three-factor model. On the basis of parsimony, the two-factor model of death anxiety was retained for both the development and cross validation samples. Those data substantiate a view of death anxiety which suggests that is best defined in terms of its conscious (overt) and unconscious (covert) components. These components are in varying degrees interrelated and reflect the dynamic nature of death anxiety in adulthood.

To explore the viability of a revised and more differentiated scoring system for use with the Gerontological Apperception Test (GAT; Wolk & Wolk, 1971), 102 older adults (mean age = 68.3 years) were administered the GAT. Scoring criteria were developed to reflect a variety of constructs speaking to the interpersonal, health-related, and intrapsychic dimensions of the experience of later life. For each of these 20 GAT variables, indices of interscorer agreement exceeded 80%. Bivariate correlations suggested that 12 of 20 GAT dimension scores were related to chronological age as well as to scores derived from measures of crystallized and fluid ability. This also was true for 2 of 5 GAT factor scores. Not only do these data suggest that newly developed GAT variables can be reliably scored, but they also indicate that these more carefully differentiated variables relate to measures of intellectual functioning in theoretically meaningful ways. These findings therefore speak to the utility of the GAT using more carefully defined scoring criteria.

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.