Perceptions of Development

Abstract

A group of 144 college students expressed attitudes about the competencies of self, average peer, average middle-aged person, and average old-aged person for abstract thinking, everyday problem solving, and moral reasoning. An additional three groups of 48 college students role played one area of competence by completing Cattell's Culture-Fair Test, the Means-Ends Problem Solving Test, or the Defining Issues Test for each of the four target groups. The aim of this study was to assess the agreement between the two methods. The attitudinal results reflect that general self and middle-age ratings are significantly higher than peer and old-age ratings, except for moral reasoning where the old-age ratings are highest. The role-playing results for abstract thinking and moral reasoning indicate a perceived decline between college age and old age. The disagreements between the attitudinal and role-playing results indicate that there are substantial limitations on the equivalence of the two methods.