Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T13:47:36.870Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Development of a brief measure of generativity and ego-integrity for use in palliative care settings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2015

Dean Vuksanovic*
Affiliation:
School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, Southport, Queensland, Australia
Murray Dyck
Affiliation:
School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, Southport, Queensland, Australia
Heather Green
Affiliation:
School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, Southport, Queensland, Australia
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Dean Vuksanovic, School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, Parklands Drive, Southport, Queensland, 4215, Australia. E-Mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Objective:

Our aim was to develop and test a brief measure of generativity and ego-integrity that is suitable for use in palliative care settings.

Method:

Two measures of generativity and ego-integrity were modified and combined to create a new 11-item questionnaire, which was then administered to 143 adults. A principal-component analysis with oblique rotation was performed in order to identify underlying components that can best account for variation in the 11 questionnaire items.

Results:

The two-component solution was consistent with the items that, on conceptual grounds, were intended to comprise the two constructs assessed by the questionnaire.

Significance of Results:

Results suggest that the selected 11 items were good representatives of the larger scales from which they were selected, and they are expected to provide a useful means of measuring these concepts near the end of life.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bradley, C. (1997). Generativity–stagnation: Development of a status measure. Developmental Review, 17, 262290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradley, C.L. & Marcia, J. E. (1998). Generativity–stagnation: A five-category model. Journal of Personality, 66, 3964.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chochinov, H.M., Hassard, T., McClement, S., et al. (2008). The Patient Dignity Inventory: A novel way of measuring dignity-related distress in palliative care. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 36, 559571.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Erikson, E.H. (1963). Childhood and society, 2nd ed. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Erikson, E.H. (1982). The life cycle completed: A review. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Erikson, E.H. & Erikson, J.M. (1997). The life cycle completed. Extended version with new chapters on the ninth stage of development. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Hearn, S., Saulnier, G., Strayer, J., et al. (2012). Between integrity and despair: Toward construct validation of Erikson's eighth stage. Journal of Adult Development, 19, 120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, J.B. & Zarrett, N. (2005). Ego integrity in the lives of older women: A follow-up of mothers from the Sears, Maccoby and Levin (1951) patterns of child-rearing study. Journal of Adult Development, 12, 155167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McAdams, D.P. & St. Aubin, E. de (1992). A theory of generativity and its assessment through self-report, behavioral acts, and narrative themes in autobiography. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 10031015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McAdams, D.P. & Azarow, J. (1996). Generativity in black and white: Relations among generativity, race, and well-being. Paper presented at the convention of the American Psychological Association, Toronto, Canada.Google Scholar
O'Connor, B.P. (2000). SPSS and SAS programs for determining the number of components using parallel analysis and Velicer's MAP test. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 32, 396402.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ryff, C.D. & Heincke, S.G. (1983). Subjective organization of personality in adulthood and aging. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 807816 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rylands, K.J. & Rickwood, D.J. (2001). Ego-integrity versus ego-despair: The effect of “accepting the past” on depression in older women. International Journal of Aging & Human Development, 53, 7589.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schoklitsch, A. & Baumann, U. (2011). Measuring generativity in older adults: The development of new scales. GeroPsych: The Journal of Gerontopsychology and Geriatric Psychiatry, 24, 3143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tabachnick, B.G. & Fidell, L.S. (2001). Using multivariate analysis. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.Google Scholar
Torges, C.M., Stewart, A.J. & Duncan, L.E. (2008). Achieving ego integrity: Personality development in late midlife. Journal of Research in Personality, 42, 10041019.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Hiel, A., Mervielde, I. & de Fruyt, F. (2006). Stagnation and generativity: Structure, validity, and differential relationships with adaptive and maladaptive personality. Journal of Personality, 74, 543573.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed