Stability of a Q-sort model of optimal mental health.

This study explores clinicians' conceptions of optimal mental health as a function of target age and asks whether contemporary conceptions of optimal mental health differ from Block's (1961) earlier Q-sort model. Ten experienced clinicians from Northwestern University described the personality characteristics of optimally adjusted 25- and 50-year-old targets using the California Q-set. Item scores from these Q-sorts were aggregated to form 25-year-old, 50-year-old, and composite templates of optimal mental health. Using the Spearman-Brown formula, the reliability of the 10-judge composite was .97. The 3 templates were very highly correlated with each other and with Block's original template. Q-sort descriptions of optimal mental health are remarkably stable over 2 generations of clinicians and between young adulthood and mid-life.