MOOD, COGNITION AND DRIVE IN FEMALE NURSING HOME RESIDENTS.
Contributors: Michigan State University.
Published: 1994
Number of pages: 67
Subjects: Psychology, Clinical.; Psychology, Developmental.; Gerontology.
Description: Depression and cognitive impairments are two of the most common psychological impairments of advanced age (Hagestad, 1987). The causes of such changes are still, in part, speculative. Both normal and pathological processes have been implicated, as have a variety of psychological and social factors (Weingartner & Silber, 1982; Wigdor, 1980; Ames, 1973; Henry, 1965). Traditionally, drive is posited as a necessary source of energy used in both the experience of depression and the exercise of cognitive faculties (Freud, 1924; Rorschach, 1942). This study examined the relationship of psychic drive, measured by Pine's Drive Rating System for the Thematic Apperception Test (Pine, 1960), and changes in cognition and mood. A number of hypotheses linking drive to depression and cognition were tested, as were hypotheses concerning the relationships between cognition and depression. Additionally, the Rorschach was examined as an indicator of mood, cognition and drive among elderly female subjects.

Subjects consisted of 100 women over the age of 65, living in nursing homes, and scoring above 14 on the Mini-Mental Status Exam (Folstein, Folstein & McHugh, 1975) and above a 6 scaled score on the Vocabulary Subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised. In addition, subjects were administered the Senile Dementia Alzheimer's Type Battery (Storandt et al, 1984), the Brief Symptom Inventory (Derogatis & Spencer, 1983), the Geriatric Depression Scale (Yesavage et al, 1983), the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (Hamilton, 1960), the Rorschach, scored with the Exner Comprehensive System (Exner, 1991), and the TAT, scored with Pine's Drive Rating System (Pine, 1960). Data concerning demographic variables and current social activity were also collected.

Drive was not found to be significantly related to measures of cognition or depression. Nor was any Rorschach variable or demographic factor predictive of drive measures. Cognition and depression were found to be significantly and negatively related. Age, education, number of children and social contact were found to have significant effects on depression and cognition. Several Rorschach variables were found to indicate cognitive ability and level of depression among the elderly subjects in a direction not seen with younger adults.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-07, Section: B, page: 3019.

Thesis (PH.D.)--MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY, 1994.

School code: 0128.