Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, Vol 55, Issue 1 P4-17, Copyright © 2000 by The Gerontological Society of America
Age differences in adult personality: findings from the United States and China
G Labouvie-Vief, M Diehl, A Tarnowski and J Shen
Department of Psychology, Wayne State University, Detroit, USA. gvief@sun.science.wayne.edu
This study used samples of adults from the United States (n = 285) and the
People's Republic of China (n = 450) to examine age, gender, and culture
differences in personality. Participants in both samples ranged from 20 to
87 years of age and responded to the California Psychological Inventory
(CPI). Factor analyses of the CPI resulted in 4 personality factors (i.e.,
extraversion, control/norm orientation, flexibility,
femininity/masculinity), with high congruence across cultures after
targeted rotation. Multivariate analyses of variance with scale scores
revealed significant Age Group 3 Culture and Gender 3 Culture interactions,
and significant main effects of age, gender and culture. Specifically,
negative age differences were found for scales that loaded on extraversion
and flexibility, with older adults having lower scores on these scales. In
contrast, positive age differences were found for scales indicative of
control/norm orientation. In general, age differences were more pronounced
for Chinese adults than for U.S. adults.
