Michael W. Katzko

Does a self-report measure for emotional intelligence assess something different than general intelligence?

One of the theoretical claims made regarding the concept of emotional intelligence is that it concerns a range of human abilities which are independent of the more familiar concept of intellectual ability. This study was conducted to evaluate the divergent validity of Bar-Ons EQ-i as compared to the General Adult Mental Ability scale (GAMA), a measure of fluid intelligence. In a Dutch subject sample (n = 873), results indicated that the correlations between the EQ-i and the GAMA were very low, for both the total sample as well as for the sexes separately. These findings indicate that the two tests are psychometrically independent, in that the EQ-i is measuring something other than the GAMA. There were also some small age-related changes in the correlations between the EQ-i and GAMA. These results replicate and elaborate those reported by Bar-On [Bar-On, R. (1997). BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory: technical manual. Toronto: Multi Health Systems].

Life contexts and health-related selves in old age: Perspectives from the United States, India and Congo/Zaire

Although aging and declines in health appear to be intrinsically related all over the world, there are large cultural differences in the meaning of health in old age. From a perspective on subjects who give meaning to themselves and their life world health-related selves were examined in relation to biological decline and social systems of caring for and curing the ill in the USA, India, and Congo/Zaire. Two hundred fifty-two elderly filled out a sentence completion questionnaire which asked for self-descriptions. For the American elderly health was an important value; they expressed fears of becoming ill and dependent, hopes for maintenance of autonomy, health and cognitive functioning, and intentions to health behaviors. The Congolese elderly expressed fears of death, hopes for a good death, expectations for decline in mobility and strength, and for support by their children. The Indian elderly generally fall between the Congolese and American extremes, but culture-specific cognitions about meditation and a peaceful death are also found. The differences in health-related selves are interpreted in relation to chances of healthy aging, specific illnesses, medical systems as well as care systems in each country. The findings are discussed in terms of universal and culture-specific themes of aging and their consequences for gerontological theory.

Individualism and Collectivism in the Personal Meaning System of Elderly Adults The United States and Congo/Zaire as an Example

Two problems in cross-cultural research are the increasingly complex definitions of individualism and collectivism and the relation between culture and self. A cultural psychological perspective on the construction of meaning can address both problems. In attributing meaning to self and life, people appropriate cultural values so that even the most authentic level of experience, the self, is culturally constituted. People are expected to use different attributes of individualism and collectivism in qualitatively different ways in relation to age-specific life contexts. The meaning of self and life was studied among American and Congolese elderly by the use of a sentence completion task. Each group showed a qualitatively different constellation of individualism and collectivism beyond cultural differences in the level of individualism and collectivism.

The Self-Concept of the Elderly: A Cross-Cultural Comparison.

This study examines the self-concept of the elderly in a cross-cultural perspective. An open-ended sentence completion methodology was employed. A sample of elderly Spanish and elderly Dutch were compared to gain an idea of the cross-cultural generality of the content of the self-concept. Analysis focuses on responses to sentences which probed the respondents motivations and future plans and goals. Differences could be interpreted as reflecting an individualistic (Dutch) vs. collectivistic (Spanish) distinction between the two cultures. Furthermore, the findings had implications for how to interpret dimensions of meaningful aging. For example, a dimension such as “purpose in life” was more generalizable across the two samples than a dimension such as “autonomy.”

Two methods for analyzing pleural smears for the presence of abnormalities

Abstract Two methods of designing a cell classifier as a first stage in a pleural sample classification procedure, where reliable a priori cell class labeling is not available, are presented. Cluster analysis is shown to be capable of taking into account structural information at the cell level, which may be lost in other methods.