Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, Vol 55, Issue 1 P4-17, Copyright © 2000 by The Gerontological Society of America

ARTICLES

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.