Mental Aspects of Ageing 43 



(Rorschach) record whose varied content suggests an indivi- 

 dual with a multiphcity of interests. He is aggressive with a 

 strong drive for achievement, a drive that is accompanied by 

 good creative abihties . . . Emotionally he presents a picture 

 of a basically introverted individual who in emotionally 

 stimulating situations is capable of responding in a warm 

 mature manner ... he depends upon his ow^n resources . . . 

 Though he may almost appear extra verted in his social con- 

 tacts, (he) actually maintains these on a superficial level for 

 the most part, with the exception of a few^ carefully selected 

 w^arm associations". The interpretation of a Rorschach 

 record is ahvays open to question, but in this instance a man 

 who was very old indeed failed to show the changes supposed 

 to be characteristic of the elderly. 



Other means of inquiry into the personality of the ageing 

 have been interviews, attitude questionnaires, and inven- 

 tories. For the most part the populations studied were small 

 and diversely composed. The Chicago inquiry, however, 

 showed in a large sample of elderly people a lessening of social 

 contacts, satisfactions, plans and zest. The limitations of 

 large-scale inquiries about personality are great. They are 

 necessarily, as a rule, concerned with self-reported behaviour 

 and with subjective accounts of happiness, worries and pre- 

 occupations; they tell more about what a particular society 

 imposes upon elderly people of a particular socio-economic 

 class, and what effect infirmities can have upon conduct, 

 than about lasting changes of personality. 



There are those who hold with William James that by the 

 age of thirty the character has "set like plaster and will never 

 soften again". This arbitrary opinion implies that adult 

 personality has a recognisable structure with unchanging 

 components. What these components are, and how they can 

 be detected and their mode of organisation classified, is still 

 controversial. It is, however, generally agreed that when 

 certain attitudes and interests are steadily manifested in a 

 consistent way and occur often enough with certain other 

 attitudes, we can infer — and by appropriate methods derive — 



