title: Stability of a Q-sort model of optimal mental health.
abstract: This study explores clinicians' conceptions of optimal mental health as a function of target age and asks whether contemporary conceptions of optimal mental health differ from Block's (1961) earlier Q-sort model. Ten experienced clinicians from Northwestern University described the personality characteristics of optimally adjusted 25- and 50-year-old targets using the California Q-set. Item scores from these Q-sorts were aggregated to form 25-year-old, 50-year-old, and composite templates of optimal mental health. Using the Spearman-Brown formula, the reliability of the 10-judge composite was .97. The 3 templates were very highly correlated with each other and with Block's original template. Q-sort descriptions of optimal mental health are remarkably stable over 2 generations of clinicians and between young adulthood and mid-life.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University Medical School, USA.
authors.forename: P B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Zeldow
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bennett
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D010553:Personality Development; D011594:Psychometrics; D011779:Q-Sort / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results