Projective measurement of adult peer relations as a function of chronological age.

The relationships between chronological age, year of measurement, cohort membership, education, and perception of horizontal peerships versus vertical different status associations are explored through a sample of 1,428 respondents randomly selected from two larger representative national samples of American men and women utilized in a 1957 study and in a replication of that study in 1976. Data are based upon a thematic apperception procedure in which stories projected by respondents are coded for perceptions of peerships and of status differences. Significant age changes in interpersonal preference are observed for both sexes; there is no evidence of cohort changes or interactive effects with year. Contributions are made to research involving adult peer relations as well as to theories concerned with role discontinuity and ego changes in adulthood.