Personality in advanced old age: continuity or change?
Article Abstract:
Many researchers have studied long-term personality changes using cross-sectional data, but personality change over a lifetime can only be studied using longitudinal data, collected at intervals over time. The Berkeley Older Generation Study is a longitudinal survey of adults begun in 1928. Researchers have found that some personality traits were stable over 50 years. It is possible that these and other paper-and-pencil tests measure not the stability of traits, but the rigidity of people's views of themselves. In order to describe the transition period between young-old age and old-old age, 420 men and women from the Berkeley Older Generation Study were studied. These respondents were educationally, intellectually and socially advantaged, and all were married at some time and had living children. They were reinterviewed during 1968-1969 and again during 1982-1984. In 1983, 47 members were between 74 and 84 years old, and 27 were between 85 and 93 years old. Four of the ''Big Five'' personality traits (namely, extraversion, agreeableness, satisfaction, and intellect) emerge from the data, and another trait, energetic, appears. Satisfaction was the most stable trait; agreeableness, a complex construct, increased over time for more than one third of the respondents. Intellect, which includes open-mindedness, was also stable. Extraversion was stable in rank, but declined for one third of both men and women. Energetic was the least stable variable, but this may have been caused by health differences. These findings counter the common belief that people become rigid and more cranky in old age. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Journals of Gerontology
Subject: Seniors
ISSN: 0022-1422
Year: 1991
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Continuity and change in personality in old age - evidence from five longitudinal studies: introduction to a special issue
Article Abstract:
The study of personality began over 2,000 years ago, and many of the controversies surrounding it are hundreds of years old. The differences of opinion about whether personality is innate or environmental continue, with the situationists and behaviorists on one side and the trait theorists on the other. About 60 years ago, longitudinal studies began to explore development and change in personality. Personality traits were shown to endure over 45 years, and researchers are finding that there is great stability in personality throughout adulthood and old age. Although personality does not change, there were obvious differences in personality characteristics between generations. These generational differences had earlier been erroneously interpreted by cross-sectional studies as age changes. More recently, studies have considered interactionism, the influence of the environment on personality. Personality development in old age is a new concept, and research must verify it, but it does seem that some aspects of personality change in old age are really developmental. The decline of extraversion, for example, may actually represent a developmental increase in inner-directedness. So far the human personality, observed over time, is so complex that attempts at categorization have failed and controversy continues. The articles in the November 1991 issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences attempt to clarify the issues. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Journals of Gerontology
Subject: Seniors
ISSN: 0022-1422
Year: 1991
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The influence of health on family contacts and family feelings in advanced old age: a longitudinal study
Article Abstract:
The influences of health, age, gender, and socio-economic status on family relations were evaluated from the results of the 1983 interview of the 62 respondents of the 74 surviving subjects of the Berkley Older Generational Study. The study started in 1928-1929 with interviews of 420 young adults and reinterviewed at periodic intervals. Health and socio-economic status were found to have the most significant effect in the maintainance of family contactand family feelings.
Publication Name: Journals of Gerontology
Subject: Seniors
ISSN: 0022-1422
Year: 1993
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