Psychological Well-Being in the Aged

This research concerned the multidimensionality of psychological well-being and some related domains of perceived quality of life. A pool of items used by others to measure a variety of such constructs was administered to four groups of older people ordered in presumptive overall well-being: retirement community, residents of an ordinary neighborhood, congregate housing, and clinically depressed people. Factors were derived by component analysis and adjusted on theoretical grounds. The resulting indices were subjected to a variety of psychometric analyses. The dimensionality of subjective well-being as revealed in these results is discussed in relation to several theoretical notions regarding mental health and aging.