Emotional intelligence: Psychometric status and developmental characteristics--Comment on Roberts, Zeidner, and Matthews (2001).

States, in this comment on the article by R. D. Roberts, M. Zeidner and G. Matthews (see record 2001-10055-001) that there is now sufficient work in the literature on emotional intelligence to suggest that this construct or series of constructs deserves serious attention, but several questions remain as to adequate construct validation as well as to the emergence and development of these constructs. There is a need to conduct convergent and divergent validity studies on a midlife sample that is likely to show the optimal level of differentiation of the new constructs. The reference domain of cognitive intelligence should be constructed in a multiple-construct manner, and the validation procedure should use confirmatory factor analysis and P. S. Dwyer's (1937) extension method. Once properly validated, there is a need to study the emergence, age differences, and age changes in the level and structure of emotional intelligence. A paradigm that investigates the invariance of factor structure across age and uses the model of differentiation-dedifferentiation would be useful for this purpose. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Continuity in intellectual functioning: The role of self-reported health.

Surviving members of the Berkeley Older Generation Study were interviewed and tested with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale in 1969–1970 and again in 1983–1984, when subjects' ages ranged from 73 to 93. Health was assessed by self-reports at both measurement periods. Although many individuals showed some decline in intellectual functioning, substantial individual differences were apparent at all age levels. More than one half of the subjects showed no reliable change, and a minority showed a reliable increase in verbal scores. The role of self-reported health has increasing importance in the maintenance of intellectual functioning in advanced old age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Longitudinal invariance of adult psychometric ability factor structures across 7 years.

The hypothesis that psychometric ability tests retain equivalent factor structures across a 7-year interval was examined in a sample of 984 persons (disaggregated into 6 cohort groups: M ages at first test?=?32, 46, 53, 60, 67, and 76), assessed in 1984 and 1991 as part of the Seattle Longitudinal Study. A best fitting measurement model was estimated for 20 psychometric tests marking the 6 primary abilities of Inductive Reasoning, Spatial Orientation, Perceptual Speed, Numeric Facility, Verbal Ability, and Verbal Recall. Gender was partialed out at the variable level by including a gender factor. Weak factorial invariance over time was demonstrated for all cohorts. Configural invariance could be demonstrated across all cohort groups. However, weak factorial invariance across groups could be accepted for all but the youngest and oldest groups. Latent means were modeled for the accepted solutions across time and cohort groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)