Cognitive Age: A New Multidimensional Approach to Measuring Age Identity

Abstract

An exploratory field study was undertaken to explore the way in which age-concepts are experienced, and to assess the relationship of age identities to each other. In addition, this study seeks to establish a new multidimensional age scale, Cognitive Age, to replace the well-established standard scale, Identity Age. This research also functions as a follow-up to an exploration by Kastenbaum et al. of “ages-of-me.” Ths most frequently used subjective age measures, Identity Age and Feel/Age, are unidimensional, and thus very difficult to evaluate in terms of reliability and/or validity. A multidimensional view of age as reflected by Personal Age is very appealing, but complex to assess. Cognitive Age successfully merges Identity Age, in which respondents identify with age-referrent groupings, and Personal Age, in which respondents rate themselves in terms of four functional age dimensions. The resultant Cognitive Age scale is both reliable and valid.