Themes elicited by the Senior Apperception Test in institutionalized older adults

The Senior Apperception Test was administered to 40 older adults of both sexes ranging in age from 61 to 97 years (M age = 78.4 years) to investigate the themes elicited by the 16 SAT stimulus cards. All volunteers were screened to exclude individuals with: 1) cognitive impairments, or 2) any gross auditory, visual, and/or tactile impairment. Results found no consistent pattern of sex differences in responses. A thematic analysis illustrates that content themes depicting affiliation and physical limitations along with themes of dependency and description were the most predominant themes for an institutionalized older adult sample. The majority of the story outcomes were of an ambivalent nature and a neutral tenor. The implications of the results were discussed.