Personality-Ability Relationships in Aged Adults

Abstract

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.

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