Personality and Age

Abstract

TN his presidential address to Section J (Psychology) on this subject, Dr. LI. Wynn Jonea directs attention to recent investigations with adult subjects. Most of the psychological measurements of the present century have been concerned with the mental traits of the child or the adolescent. Until recently, the later decades of human life had not been systematically studied. Adult populations are relatively inaccessible, the selection of samples presents statistical difficulties, and it is not easy to differentiate between what is largely native and what is largely acquired. Nevertheless, by the use of questionnaires, introspections, biographies, as well as various psychological tests, there has recently accumulated a mass of objective data concerning adults, resulting from the work of such investigators as Profs. Charlotte Buhler, Giese, Catherine and Walter E,. Miles, Edward K. Strong, Terman, and Thorndike.