Personality and aging: a study of the MMPI-2 among older men

We examined whether separate norms for older men are necessary for the revised Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2). Scores from 1,459 men in the Normative Aging Study (NAS) (age: M = 61.27, SD = 8.37) were contrasted with those from 1,138 men from the MMPI Restandardization Study (age: M = 41.71, SD = 15.32). Results showed that scores on the MMPI-2 validity, clinical, and content scales for the NAS men were highly similar to those from the MMPI-2 Restandardization sample. There were also few differences between the two groups at the item level. Within-sample analyses revealed some differences between age groups. However, the magnitudes of these differences were small and may represent the single or combined effects of cohort factors and age-related changes in physical health status rather than age-related changes in psychopathology per se. We concluded that special, age-related norms for the MMPI-2 are not needed for older men.