The MMPI and the Aged—Some Normative Data from a Community Sample

Abstract

There has been much speculation but little evidence concerning the view that personality characteristics, like cognitive factors, change with age. Consequently, the lack of information on the MMPI for aged populations may well have led to its inadvertent misuse on the assumption that the standard normative data given in the revised Manual (Hathaway and McKinley, 1951) are applicable to the elderly. The authors present data on a sample of the aged taken from the community which shows this assumption to be misleading, and attempt to improve this situation.