The Compilation And Application Of Self-syndromic Questionnaires For The Elderly

Self-identity is an important research subject of psychology. At present, the self-identity researches have made much progress in domestic and abroad, but the self-identity study of the elderly is less, and also lack of localization studies. Therefore, this study chose the old adults as research objects, in order to have a deep exploration and research on the self-identity of old people.The purpose of this study was to compile "the elderly self-identity questionnaire", and verify its reliability and validity. Then this study used three kinds of questionnaires in order to discuss the relationship among self-identity, physical and mental health, and control on daily environment. Finally, through interview research method, the study had a profound understanding of the factors which affected the elderly people’s self-identity.Study one was the development of a questionnaire. Through the exploration of the elderly self-identity contents, the study selected 150 elderly subjects in Nanjing and Tongling cities, and finally compiled the self-identity questionnaire for Chinese elderly people. The questionnaire included 30 items, and was divided into 6 dimensions. Each dimension contained 5 questions, all the questions were used point 1-6 scoring method. Cronbachs’ coefficients were 0.853 for the whole scale, and 0.6-0.9 for 3 subscales respectively. The test-retest reliability of the questionnaire was also in accordance with the statistical standards, indicating that the questionnaire had a good stability, and was a reliable tool of psychological measurement.Study two was a research of the relationship among self-identity, physical and mental health, and control on daily environment. The main conclusions were as followed:(1) the elderly had a pretty positive view of their self-identity, physical and mental health, and control on daily environment. (2) Demographic variables had important influences on self-identity. (3) The control on daily environment played a mediated role between self-identity and physical and mental health.Study three was an interview of old people’s self-identity. The results found that factors influencing elderly self-identity could be divided into two aspects. The external factors mainly included family relationships, life styles, social activities, social support; the internal factors included cognitive style, social comparison, attribution styles, aging attitudes, etc. All these factors had impacts on elderly people’s self-identity interactively. This study also showed that the self-identity was still an important development task in late adulthood.In this study, due to sample size and sampling area constraints, the applicability and popularization of research results had some limitations. Therefore, the elderly self-identity needs to be further studied in future. Especially, it is necessary to carry out a follow-up study of self-identity in old adults, in order to achieve a better comprehension of the developing mechanism of self-identity.