Geriatric Assessment Instruments and Scales Developed at Polisher Research Institute

   Through its almost 50-year history, the Institute has developed a number of geriatric assessment tools, including several widely used instruments developed by Dr. M Powell Lawton (1923-2001). This page is designed to facilitate the dissemination of these instruments and scales.

Caregiving Appraisal Scale

Instrumental Activities of Daily Living

Lawton's PGC Morale Scale

Lawton's PGC Multi-Level Assessment Instrument (MAI)
-- includes full-length, mid-length, and short-length versions.

Observed Emotion Rating Scale
-- (cited in the literature as the Apparent Affect Rating Scale)

Preferences for Everyday Living Questionnaire

NOTE: Permission is granted to use or reproduce these scales provided that proper attribution is given. See individual documents for suggested citation format. Authors who wish to reproduce part of an article where a scale first appeared should request permission from journal publishers before doing so.

If you produce books, articles or book chapters containing translations or research using the above materials, please forward copies, reprints, or citations of same to the Research Librarian, Polisher Research Institute, Abramson Center for Jewish Life, 1425 Horsham Road, North Wales, PA 19454-1320.

For questions about scales, please contact the Research Librarian.

Please e-mail any problems obtaining documents on this page to PRIwebmaster@abramsoncenter.org

Note: The documents on this page are in PDF format. Adobe Acrobat Reader is necessary to view them. To obtain the free Acrobat Reader, follow this link: