Age, Personality, and the Holtzman Inkblot Technique

Abstract

Recent longitudinal studies using personality questionnaires and ratings have shown remarkable stability across the adult years. In an investigation of age changes and differences in personality as measured by the Holtzman Inkblot Technique (HIT), ninety-three men and women aged twenty-five to ninety were administered Form A of the HIT; forty-four of these were retested one to three years later. Stability coefficients ranged from .07 for Form Appropriateness to .73 for Form Definiteness, with most variables showing significant but moderate stability. Repeated measures analyses of variance showed increases in six variables and decreases in two others, but only one of these changes was paralleled by cross-sectional age differences. Correlations with self-report measures of the broad personality domains of neuroticism, extraversion, and openness to experience failed to show hypothesized relations, and the associations seen were attributable to chance. It was concluded that the HIT measures perceptual-cognitive variables that are moderately stable in adulthood.