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BioPsychoSocial
Assessment Tools for the Elderly - Assessment Summary Sheet Test: Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale (PGCMS) Year: 1972; revised 1975 Test Category: Psychological Variations/Translations: The Philadelphia Geriatric Center (PGC) Morale Scale initially had 22 items which were later abbreviated to 17 items (Lawton, 1975). The 17-item revised version of the PGC Morale Scale is the one in general use. A 15-item version (Liang and Bollen,1983) and translations in Chinese and Japanese are also available. Setting: It is applicable both to community residents and to people in institutions. Method of Delivery: The scale can be either self- or interviewer- administered, thus two styles are in use: questionnaire style and interview style. Description: The Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale was designed to measure dimensions of emotional adjustments in persons aged 70 to 90. It provides a multidimensional approach to assessing the state of psychological well being of older people. It measures perceived morale in elderly people through three factors: agitation, attitude toward own aging and lonely satisfaction. Scoring/Interpretation: Each high-morale response receives a score of “1” and each low- morale response a score of “0”, so that the total score ranges from 0-17. As a general guideline, scores at 13 to17 would be considered high scores on the morale scale, 10 to 12 fall within the mid-range and scores under 9 are at the lower end. They provide a framework for beginning to assess the individual’s psychological disposition. Time to Administer: Not stated. Estimated to take approximately 10 minutes. Availability: In public domain. Widely available. Software: N/A Website:
http://www.abramsoncenter.org/pri/documents/PGC_morale_scale.pdf Validity (Quantitative): The PGC Morale Scale correlates strongly with the most comparable alternative, The Life Satisfaction Index (LSI). A correlation of 0.57 was obtained with LSI and 0.74 with LSIZ. Factor analysis of the scale identified three main factors, namely, agitation, dissatisfaction and attitudes towards one’s own aging with alpha internal consistency coefficients of 0.85, 0.81 and 0.85 respectively. Reliability (Quantitative): Test-retest reliability ranged from 0.91 after five weeks to 0.75 after three months. References: Lawton, M.P. (1972). The dimensions of morale. In: Kent, D.P., Kastenbaum, R., & Sherwood, S. (Eds). Research, planning and action for the elderly: the power and potential of social science, pp. 144-165. New York: Behavioral Publications, Inc. Lawton, M.P. (1975). The Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale: A revision. Journal of Gerontology, 30, 85-89 Liang, J., & Bollen, K.A. (1983). The structure of the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale: A reinterpretation. Journal of Gerontology, 38, 181-189 Morris, J.N., & Sherwood, S. (1975). A retesting and modification of the Philedelphia Center Morale Scale. Journal of Gerontology, 15, 77-84. Comments: The consistency of results across several studies suggests that Lawton’s scale offers a reliable measurement of a relatively stable concept. In treatment settings, one of the major strengths of the Scale lies in its ability to promote communication between the clinician and the client, often more useful from a clinical perspective than the actual score which has been generated. |