Daniele Artistico

Perceived self-efficacy and everyday problem solving among young and older adults.

This research tested the hypothesis that age differences in both self-efficacy perceptions and problem-solving performance would vary as a function of the ecological relevance of problems to young and older adults. The authors developed novel everyday problem-solving stimuli that were ecologically representative of problems commonly confronted by young adults (young-adult problems), older adults (older adult problems), or both (common problems). Performance on an abstract problem solving task lacking in ecological representativeness (the Tower of Hanoi problem) also was examined. Although young persons had higher self-efficacy beliefs and performance levels on the Tower of Hanoi task problem and the young-adult problems, this pattern reversed in the domain of older adult problems, where the self-efficacy beliefs and performance of older persons exceeded those of the young.

Dimensions of health-related dispositions in elderly people: relationships with health behaviour and personality traits

The principal aim of this study was to examine a health‐related disposition construct in elderly Italians by explorative factor analysis of the Multidimensional Health Questionnaire. The questionnaire had a two‐factor structure. The first factor was loaded by cognitive variables such as Health‐Efficacy, Health Control, Optimism, etc.; it predicted compliance with self‐rating health seeking behaviours and it was correlated with personality traits such as Emotional Stability and the Lie scale. The second factor comprised emotional dispositions including Health Anxiety, Health Depression, Health Preoccupation, etc. and it was negatively associated with Conscientiousness and Energy. Interesting results emerged for sex by age differences in both health factors. Moreover, men and women showed different correlation patterns between the health factors and the Five Factor Model. Copyright

Alternative factor structures of health-related psychological tendencies and their relationship to self-reported health seeking behaviors

Abstract The MHQ-Multidimensional Health Questionnaire (Snell and Johnson, 1997) and a checklist of twenty Health Promoting Behaviors were administered to 1,011 Italian subjects aged 21 to 80 years. The MHQ measures twenty health related psychological tendencies (e.g, Health Efficacy, Locus of Control, Optimistic Expectations). A Principal Components Analysis was carried out on the twenty scales to study their internal structure. Both a four- and a two-factor solution are discussed, presenting different perspectives on the data. The former solution yielded a larger motivational factor, which we labeled Aspiration for Health, and three smaller factors, which we labeled Optimistic Expectations, Internal Control and Lack of Control. All factors, particularly the first one, discriminated self-reported health seeking behaviors. The latter solution yielded a Health Management factor and a Negative Thinking one, both discriminating health behaviors. Moreover, the two factors provide a useful model for distinguishing efficacy, optimism and internal control in terms of their cognitive and affective components.

Unidimensionality of Life Satisfaction and its Relation to Social Desirability: A Confirmatory Study of a Short Form of the Life Satisfaction Scale

This study investigated construct validity of a short version of the Life Satisfaction in the Elderly Scale developed from an exploratory factor analysis in 1990 of the original version of Salamon and Contes Life Satisfacion scale. First, a confirmatory factor analysis (maximum likelihood method) was conducted on 149 adult and elderly Italians to assess whether the latent variable of the Life Satisfaction Short Form scale was adequately represented by one factor. Analysis showed a good fit for the proposed unidimensional model, the items achieved good internal consistency on the scale, and no age differences arose in the score for the Life Satisfacion factor. Second, the correlations between the items measuring Life Satisfaction and the Eysenck 1985 Lie scale indicated that the items on the Life Satisfaction Short Form are largely independent of social desirability for younger and older adults.

Stability of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire for a Cross-Sectional Sample

Factor comparability of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire–Revised was tested by contrasting three groups of people: young, adult, and eiderly persons. Personality trait factors were significantly invariant among age groups. There was a significant age × sex interaction for Neuroticism scores.

Validazione del punteggio scalare per la scala ADL (attività di vita quotidiana) = The Validity of a New Scoring Procedure for the ADL (Activities of Daily Living) Scale

The validity of a new scoring procedure for the adl (activities of daily living) scale - In this study we analyzed the validity of a new scoring procedure for the ADL scale on a sample of 44 elderly people living in a nursing home. We administered the ADL scale using two alternative scoring procedures: 1) the traditional scoring procedure assessed on a nominal scale (dependent vs. independent), and 2) a new scoring procedure assessed on a three-step-likert scale. To gauge the validity of the two scoring procedures, we re-tested our sample after nine months. The results indicated that the new scoring procedure is more predictive than the traditional one of the psychosocial and functional status of the elderly living in a nursing home. We found similar results after a follow up of nine months.