A Profile of the Newly-Admitted Nursing Home Resident

Abstract

Sixty-eight recently admitted nursing home residents received a battery of psychological tests and were rated on a number of behavioral indices by a tester and by a nursing home staff member. A principle components analysis was performed on the tests and rating scales to determine their interrelationship. A varimax rotation was performed, and simple structure was approximated with four orthogonal factors, which accounted for a total of 71.4 per cent of the variance: Factor I, “Intrapsychic State”; Factor II, “Cognitive Competency”; Factor III, “Self-Image”; and Factor IV, “Environmental Competence.” These results revealed that: 1) the morale/anxiety dimension was independent of cognitive competency; 2) newly admitted nursing home residents who perceived themselves as internally controlled (felt that their behavior could affect change) were rated high by others in behavioral competency; 3) self-rating scales apparently measure something independent of the other tests and the ratings by others.

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