title: The development of a scoring system for the Gerontological Apperception Test.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of North Texas, Denton 76203, USA.
authors.forename: Bert
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hayslip
authors.forename: Jacqueline
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Francis
authors.forename: Lisa M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Radika
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lambert
authors.forename: Paul E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Panek
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bosmajian
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D005852:Geriatric Psychiatry; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010552:Personality Assessment; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012649:Self Concept; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012725:Sexual Behavior