Revisiting the Need for Age-Based Norms in Personality Assessment Using the Cleveland Adaptive Personality Questionnaire

Authors

Amir M. Poreh, Cleveland State University; Case Western Reserve UniversityFollow
Jennifer B. Levin, Case Western Reserve University

Abstract

The need for age-based norms in personality assessment is of great interest given the trend of adjusting for demographic variables in neurocognitive evaluations. We examined the need for age-based norms using the Cleveland Adaptive Personality Questionnaire (CAPQ; Poreh & Levin, 2019) in 1,646 individuals ages 25 to 95 years (M = 44.5, SD = 16.1). Results showed that scores on the CAPQ clinical scales linearly declined across the lifespan in conjunction with a linear increase in measures of social desirability. Power analysis indicated that the CAPQ Avoidant scale produced the most significant effect, followed by a moderate effect for the Anxiety, Borderline, Depression, and Paranoia scales, in that order. However, when the social desirability scale served as a covariate, only the Avoidant and Depression scales significantly declined across age/cohort, showing medium and small power, respectively. These findings are consistent with the literature on other multiscale personality assessment measures. In sum, while age-based norms do not seem to be necessary, a linear regression-based algorithm that controls for social desirability would improve the meaningfulness of personality assessment results across the lifespan.

Recommended Citation

Poreh, Amir M. and Levin, Jennifer B. (2022) "Revisiting the Need for Age-Based Norms in Personality Assessment Using the Cleveland Adaptive Personality Questionnaire," Archives of Assessment Psychology: Vol. 12, Article 5.
Available at: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/psyassessment/vol12/iss1/5