Research suggests that the perception of personal competence may account for a significant portion of the variance in individual physical and psychological well-being. Yet to be investigated is how people arrive at judgments of their competence, the structure of personal competence perception represented by these judgments, and the relation of the various elements of this structure to physical and psychological well-being in older adults. To examine these issues, three parallel forms of a questionnaire were constructed, each representing one of three judgment perspectives (self-anchored, comparable age peer, generalized other). The questionnaire assessing perceived cognitive competence and social/emotional competence was administered to 19 older adults. Subjects also completed the Revised Philadelphia Geriatric Morale Scale, the Profile of Mood States, the Health Status Interview, the Hassles Scales, and the Social Support Questionnaire. Product-moment correlations between self-anchored, ipsative judgments of competence and normative judgments, based on either the age peer or generalized other standard, suggest that they are relatively independent of each other. It appears that participants were responding differentially in reporting their competence judgments, depending upon whether they had been instructed to take an ipsative or a normative approach. Overall, the findings suggest that both cognitive and social/emotional competence, and all three judgment perspectives, may play important roles in affecting the well-being of older adults. (NRB)