Age Differences in Biographical Inventories- A Factor Analytic Study.

Abstract

^ Whereas historians have been keeping records for hundreds of centuries about cultures, it was not until the work of Sigmund Freud that emphasis was given to the nature of the individual's past history.Currently life history data is used for clinical, counseling, predic tive and interpretive purposes as well as for theory building.Two major problems in the use of such data have been quantification and relating them to a given criterion.In order to remedy these problems, the biographical information blank has been developed.While this approach has improved quantification it is still limited by empirical validity methodology used in constructing a biographical information blank.Purposes of this study were to demonstrate that similar factors exist for all individuals regardless of the time period in which they were reared; and the differences between the various age groups is reflected in the specific items comprising the factors.Subjects for the study were 439 middle management executives from a large international petrochemical company.At the time of testing, 116 were under 25 years of age, 206 were between the ages of 25 and 30, and 117 were 30 years or older.A biographical information blank consisting of 62 scaled items was administered to all executives.Item responses were scored by a single scaling method.A principal components factor analysis with an orthogonal rotation was the statistical technique used to analyze the data.viii Eleven factors were identified--ten of which were common to the under 25, and 25-30 year old groups, the eleventh was unique to the oldest age group.In addition, the oldest age group did not have factor loadings on Factor VI due to a statistical artifact.The factors are: 1. Self-description in terms of the world of reality and concrete areas.2. Self-sufficiency-capacity to take care of one's self and personal life.3. Upward mobility through the means of educational achieve ment .4. Self-perception of personal ability and achievement in more abstract a r e a s . 5. Socio-economic status.6. Attitudes and orientation towards tasks.7. Attitude toward family.8. Interpersonal relations in social activities-sociability. 9. Achievement through the use of conforming behavior.10.Rate of maturing.11.Physical and mental health.Similar factor structure of the biographical data were identified for the three different age groups, but the specific items loading on a given factor varied from sample to sample, as did the factor loadings.It was possible for naive subjects to take the items from the different samples loading on a given factor and correctly assign the same mnemonic labels assigned to them by the experimenter; thus ix demonstrating the consistency of factor structure across the different age groups.This study points out that psychological measuring instruments can be constructed for use with different age groups provided that the instruments are loaded with historical cognates; that is, the instru ment should include items that load heavily on factor dimensions common to all of the age groups involved, but the items comprising the factors should represent manifest behaviors that are endemic to the specific age group.

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