THE NEED FOR QUALITATIVE RESEARCH ON MENTAL-HEALTH OF ELDER HISPANICS

This article contends that purely quantitative measures of Hispanic ag ed mental health have been insufficiently sensitive to cultural factor s. It describes the uses and limitations of qualitative methods, espec ially in-depth interviews and life histories, and suggests that resear chers should include the use of psychometric tests in these interviews , in order to improve the interpretations of the data. In this article the Adlerian perspective is developed along with several relevant dim ensions for evaluating cases. Finally, seven cases illustrating the di versity of Hispanic elders are presented.