What Tends to Happen to Personality Traits as We Age?

Psychol Aging. Author manuscript; bachelor in PMC 2009 Sep 1.

Published in final edited class equally:

PMCID: PMC2562318

NIHMSID: NIHMS59912

Age Differences in the Large Five Across the Life Span: Evidence from Two National Samples

One thousand. Brent Donnellan

Michigan Land University

Richard E. Lucas

Michigan Country University & German Found for Economic Research

Abstruse

Cross-sectional age differences in the Big 5 personality traits were investigated using two big datasets from Britian and Germany, the British Household Panel Report (BHPS; N ≥ 14,039) and the German Socio-Economic Console Study (GSEOP; N ≥ 20,852). Participants ranged in age from 16 to the mid 80s and completed a 15-item version of the Big Five Inventory (due east.g., John & Srivastava, 1999) in either 2005 or 2006. The observed age trends were mostly consistent across both datasets. Extraversion and Openness were negatively associated with age whereas Agreeableness was positively associated with age. Average levels of Conscientiousness were highest for participants in eye historic period. The i exception was that Neuroticism was slightly negatively associated with age in the BHPS and slightly positively associated with age in the GSEOP. Neither gender nor education level were consistent moderators of historic period differences in the Big Five.

Keywords: Personality Assessment, Big V, Personality Evolution, British Household Panel Study, German Socio-Economic Console Study

Age-related differences in personality have captured human attention for centuries. For case, Aristotle devoted three chapters of Book II of his Rhetoric to the description of the characteristics of individuals at different phases of the life bridge. His prediction, translated into a testable hypothesis, is that at that place should exist age-related differences in personality attributes. Conversely, William James (1892/1985) believed that character was fixed by age 30 so that there would be picayune reason to wait age-linked personality differences afterwards this indicate in the life span (see Kelly, 1955). In gimmicky psychology, much of the interest in this question has fomented around Costa and McCrae'due south work on personality in adulthood (Helson, Kwan, John, & Jones, 2002; McCrae & Costa, 2003; Roberts, Walton, & Viechtbauer, 2006; Roberts, Wood, & Smith, 2005; Srivastava, John, Gosling, & Potter, 2003; Terracciano, McCrae, Brant, & Costa, 2005). The nowadays analyses contribute to this literature by evaluating cantankerous-sectional historic period differences in the Large V personality traits in two large national datasets.

Age Differences in the Large Five

There is something of a consensus that five broad domains capture much of the variability in personality traits (John & Srivastava, 1999; but run into Ashton & Lee, 2007; Cake, 1995). These "Big 5" are Extraversion (traits like energetic and sociable), Agreeableness (traits like considerate and kind), Conscientiousness (traits similar hard-working and orderly), Neuroticism (traits similar nervous and tense), and Openness (traits like artistic and creative). Mean-level differences in the Big Five across the life bridge were summarized by Roberts et al. (2006) who compiled the results of 113 longitudinal samples involving l,120 participants. Different longitudinal studies examined different personality traits for varying periods of the life span so the degree of comprehensiveness varied for each of the traits they examined. Moreover, Roberts and colleagues drew on a distinction between two aspects of Extraversion, traits related to independence and dominance (labeled Social Dominance) versus traits related to positive touch on, activity level, and sociability (labeled Social Vitality) following Helson and Kwan (2000).

Roberts et al. (2006) found that average levels of Social Vitality tended to be fairly stable across the life bridge, although there was a slight fasten from adolescence to the early 20s followed by mean-level consistency from the mid 20s until the mid 50s when there was a slight decline. In dissimilarity, Social Authority showed a more pronounced and consistent increase from adolescence to the mid 30s when mean-levels remained consistent until the mid 50s. Data on average levels of this trait were non available across this bespeak in the life span because only 7 studies examined changes in Social Authorization for participants in their 50s and older. Agreeableness and Conscientiousness showed relatively gradual increases in absolute scores across the life bridge whereas Neuroticism showed relatively gradual decreases. Lastly, Openness showed a mean-level increase from boyhood to the early 20s and so hateful-levels remained fairly consistent until the mid 50s when boilerplate levels started to decline.

Terracciano, McCrae, Brant, and Costa (2005) conducted cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses examining links between age and mean-levels of the Large Five. This study was completed too recently to be included in the Roberts et al. (2006) meta-assay. Terracciano et al. found that scores on Extraversion generally declined from age 30 to 90 although the drop in Extraversion was more pronounced later the mid 50s or so. Conjuration demonstrated a fairly linear increment with age whereas the blueprint for Conscientiousness was curvilinear: scores increased upwardly to a peak somewhere between the ages of 50 to 70 and then declined. Average levels of Neuroticism generally declined with age but increased slightly starting around age 80. Finally, Openness showed a negative and linear association with age. In general, Terracciano found similar cross-sectional and longitudinal results with the exception that the cross-sectional zenith for Conscientiousness was effectually age 50 as compared to around age 70 for the longitudinal analyses.

Age differences in the Big Five take likewise been identified in cross-cultural inquiry. McCrae et al. (1999) used convenience samples from Federal republic of germany, Italia, Portugal, Croatia, and Korea and institute that cocky-reports of Extraversion and Openness were lower in older participants than younger participants whereas Conscientiousness and Conjuration showed the reverse pattern. Results were mixed for Neuroticism as it was found to be lower in older participants versus younger participants in Germany, Portugal, and Korea whereas age differences were non statistically detectable in Italy and Croatia. McCrae et al. (2005) found that observers rated adults (ages four−98) higher on measures of Conscientiousness but lower on measures of Extraversion and Openness when assorted with college students in research that included participants from 50 countries. Age differences for Neuroticism and Agreeableness were moderated by gender: the negative association betwixt age and observer reports of Neuroticism was more evident for men than women whereas the positive association between historic period and observer reports Agreeableness was more evident for women than men.

In sum, the existing testify broadly suggests that levels of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness are positively associated with age whereas levels of Extraversion and Openness are negatively associated with age (encounter also Costa, McCrae, Zonderman, Barbano, Lebowitz, & Larson 1986; Helson et al., 2002; Mroczek, Spiro, & Griffin, 2006; Srivastava et al., 2003). Average levels of Neuroticism are by and large negatively associated with historic period although there are exceptions in the literature such that consistent age differences have not emerged in all countries and there are hints that this trait may increase around historic period 80. All in all, these broad trends translate to age-linked increases on Digman's (1997) blastoff cistron and historic period-linked decreases on Digman'southward beta factor. In other words, every bit individuals abound older, they seem to increase on traits related to social interest and communion and decrease on traits related to agency and zestful approach to life.

Despite the emergence of some relatively consistent age differences in the Big 5, in that location are a couple of limitations of the existing literature that are worth noting. First, no unmarried study has examined historic period differences in all of the Big Five using nationally representative samples. To exist sure, Costa et al. (1986) examined cross-sectional historic period differences in Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness in a representative sample from the United States and Steunenberg, Twisk, Beekman, Deeg, and Kerkhof (2005) examined changes in Neuroticism in a representative sample from Holland; however, neither written report examined all v traits simultaneously. Indeed, the absence of data from nationally representative samples is perhaps the well-nigh serious limitation of this unabridged literature (encounter Roberts et al., 2006, p. 20). For example, nearly of the participants in Terracciano et al. (2005) were described as "generally healthy and highly educated" (p. 494). Second, few studies include participants by the age of 70 (Terracciano et al., 2005).

The goal of this study is extend inquiry on historic period differences in the Big 5 using data from ii large national console studies that include participants past the historic period of 70. In addition, we explore whether or non gender and didactics moderates cantankerous-sectional age differences. Although at that place is persistent involvement in gender differences in mean-levels of personality (due east.g., Chapman, Duberstein, Sörensen, & Lyness, 2007; Costa, Terracciano, & McCrae, 2001; Feingold, 1994; Goldberg, Sweeney, Merenda, & Hughes, 1998), evidence that gender moderates age differences in the Big 5 is non generally robust (see Roberts et al. 2006). Also, the existing literature does not advise that education effects will be large (due east.grand. Costa et al., 1986; Goldberg et al., 1998; Löckenhoff et al., in press). Thus, we view these analyses for gender and teaching equally exploratory given the lack of clear trends in the existing literature.

Method

Samples

The British Household Panel Report (BHPS) is an on-going panel study of British households that began in 1991. Households were selected using a multi-stage probability pattern with systematic sampling, and all members of the household ages sixteen and older were asked to participate. The sample was initially representative of the population of the United Kingdom, though as would be expected, some attrition has occurred. Boilerplate annual attrition is relatively depression, with about v% of initial participants lost to compunction each yr. Additional sub-samples were recruited after 1991, and the cumulative attrition at the time of the Big Five assessment for these samples is thus lower than for the original sample.

The age range of the most recent wave of BHPS was sixteen to 99 years but we trimmed the sample to participants who were less than 86 years old because of the sparse number of participants (defined as north < forty) at older ages. The BHPS sample was approximately 54% women and the sample sizes used in these analyses ranged from fourteen,039 to fourteen,055 depending on the Big Five trait. The average historic period of the sample with complete Big Five data was 45.29 years (SD = eighteen.04). Large Five measures were administered to the console at the near recent wave (Wave fifteen) which was predominately collected in September through Dec of 2005 (approximately 94% of all Wave xv participants). The rest of the information were collected before May of 2006. Participants completed portions of the survey in contiguous interviews, though the Big Five measures were administered in a cocky-completion format.

The German language Socio-Economic Panel Written report (GSOEP) is an on-going study of German households that began in 1984 (see Haisken-De New & Frick, 2005, for details). Households were selected using a multi-stage random sampling technique, and all members of the household ages 16 and older were asked to participate. Like the BHPS, multiple samples were recruited in the years since the study began, and each sample was initially representative of the population from which it was drawn. Again, withal, some attrition has occurred, which raises questions about the representativeness of the remaining sample. Attrition rates for the earliest sample are like to those from the BHPS, with average yearly attrition at effectually 6%. Over again, it is important to note that although the cumulative attrition for the original sample is substantial (which might affect the representativeness), at that place take been a number of sub-samples added to the study much more recently. For instance, 44% of the sample that was used in this assay was recruited in 2000 or 2002. These sub-samples have much lower rates of cumulative attrition because they have been in the study for much less time than the original sample.

Big V measures were administered to the panel at the most recent moving ridge which was collected in 2005. The age range of the almost recent wave of the GSOEP was xvi to 95 simply we trimmed the sample to those participants who were less than 85 given the sparse number of participants past this cutting-off (i.e., north < 40). The GSOEP sample was approximately 52% women and the sample sizes used in these analyses ranged from 20,852 to 20,876 depending on the Large Five trait. The average age of the sample with complete Big 5 data was 46.03 years (SD = 17.23). Participants completed the measure through an oral interview (roughly 26%), by a written questionnaire (roughly fifty%), or past Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (roughly 25%). ¹

Personality

Participants completed a fifteen-item version of the Big V Inventory (BFI; John & Srivastava, 1999) using a 7 point scale (BHPS: 1 = "Does non Apply" to 7 = "Applies perfectly," GSOEP: 1 = "Does not apply" to vii = "Does Utilize"). Three items were used to mensurate each dimension.² Internal consistencies in the BHPS were as follows: Extraversion (blastoff = .54, boilerplate inter-item r = .28), Agreeableness (alpha = .53, boilerplate inter-item r = .28), Conscientiousness (alpha = .52, average inter-item r = .28), Neuroticism (blastoff = .68, boilerplate inter-particular r = .41), and Openness (alpha = .67, average inter-item r = .41). Internal consistencies in the GSOEP were equally follows: Extraversion (blastoff = .66, average inter-item r = .41), Agreeableness (alpha = .51, average inter-particular r = .28), Conscientiousness (alpha = .62, average inter-item r = .39), Neuroticism (alpha = .60, average inter-item r = .33), and Openness (alpha = .63, average inter-particular r = .37).

To establish the utility of these brusque scales, nosotros correlated these brusk scales with the full BFI scales using information from the Gosling-Potter Internet Personality Project (North = 628,640; see Srivastava et al., 2003). Our 3-item scales were strongly correlated with the full versions for all five BFI scales (Extraversion: .ninety; Agreeableness: .88; Conscientiousness: .88; Neuroticism: .89; Openness: .86) and our 3-items scales were strongly correlated with the remaining five to vii items in each BFI scale that were not included in our curt mensurate (Extraversion: .73; Agreeableness: .71; Conscientiousness: .73; Neuroticism: .70; Openness: .70) Based on these results, we had confidence that these brief measures were reasonable substitutes for the longer scales. For additional testify almost the utility of shorter forms of longer Large 5 assessments see Donnellan, Oswald, Baird, and Lucas (2006) and Rammstedt and John (2007).

Mean differences between the samples might stem from both artifacts (due east.g., differences in the response scales and item translations) as well every bit real cross-cultural differences in personality. It is hard to uncrease these issues with the present data and these concerns are not the focus of the present research. Accordingly, we calculated T scores within each sample to control for any mean-level differences across the ii samples following the logic used by McCrae et al. (1999). Scores were norm referenced to the group of participants aged 30 to 34 within each sample which facilitates an intuitive within sample comparison: scores beneath 50 indicate trait levels that are lower than the reference grouping whereas scores above 50 indicate trait levels that are higher than the reference grouping. Such differences can be interpreted against the overall T score SD of 10 for crude effect size calculations. For instance, the average score on Conscientiousness for individuals ages 16 to xix was 42.76 (SD = 10.97) in the BHPS and 41.49 (SD = 12.27) in the GSOEP (encounter Tabular array ane). Both of these values indicate that late adolescents scored more than 7 tenths of a standard deviation lower than individuals in their early 30s, a pattern which is consistent with longitudinal research that has found increases on traits linked with Conscientiousness during the transition from boyhood to machismo (e.g., Caspi, Roberts, & Shiner, 2005; Donnellan, Conger, & Burzette, 2007).

Table 1

Ways and Standard Deviations for the Big Five T Scores by Age Categories

	Minimum Sample Size	Extraversion	Agreeableness	Conscientiousness	Neuroticism	Openness
BHPS
Age Group
16−19	1,007	53.01 (9.86)	48.61 (ten.61)	42.76 (10.97)	50.47 (10.86)	50.45 (ten.43)
twenty−29	2,216	51.58 (ix.93)	50.00 (ten.11)	47.88 (10.11)	fifty.x (ten.36)	51.08 (ten.21)
30−39	2,590	49.70 (10.33)	50.43 (10.02)	fifty.35 (10.21)	49.92 (10.03)	49.79 (x.16)
40−49	2,625	48.54 (10.94)	50.91 (10.03)	50.82 (10.62)	49.39 (x.34)	48.64 (10.56)
fifty−59	2,220	47.47 (xi.03)	51.32 (10.51)	50.80 (10.99)	48.99 (10.81)	48.06 (11.45)
60−69	1,697	46.98 (11.29)	50.98 (eleven.37)	49.24 (12.32)	47.87 (11.17)	46.28 (12.54)
70−79	1,250	45.56 (12.35)	51.43 (eleven.96)	47.xx (xiii.21)	46.25 (eleven.22)	44.27 (thirteen.58)
80−85	434	45.41 (12.10)	51.44 (11.92)	46.77 (13.29)	46.52 (11.74)	42.47 (12.86)
GSOEP
Age Grouping
16−19	ane,344	51.17 (10.32)	49.64 (10.26)	41.49 (12.27)	48.80 (9.96)	51.75 (ten.44)
20−29	2,835	50.94 (10.25)	49.65 (9.97)	47.fifteen (10.92)	49.99 (10.42)	51.46 (ix.89)
30−39	iii,745	fifty.12 (9.96)	49.79 (ten.17)	50.22 (9.98)	50.04 (ten.18)	l.23 (9.90)
40−49	4,275	49.84 (9.99)	50.31 (10.16)	51.22 (9.72)	50.36 (10.22)	50.xv (ten.18)
50−59	3,271	49.08 (nine.79)	50.21 (10.48)	51.sixteen (10.23)	51.10 (ten.44)	50.43 (10.68)
lx−69	3,293	48.27 (x.05)	50.56 (10.45)	50.23 (ten.78)	51.51 (10.32)	49.43 (eleven.07)
70−79	ane,683	47.54 (10.28)	52.46 (10.63)	l.46 (10.69)	51.38 (10.48)	47.66 (xi.62)
80−84	403	47.57 (10.44)	54.sixteen (x.23)	49.84 (11.42)	50.74 (11.41)	45.56 (11.95)

Annotation: BHPS = British Household Console Study; GSEOP = German Socio-Economic Panel Report; T scores were created past standardizing scores to the hateful and SD for individuals ages thirty to 34 inside each sample.

Education

Nosotros coded whether participants in each study had completed bones education in their countries of origin. Following Hu, Stewart-Brown, Twigg, and Weich (2007) we used whether or non participants had educational qualifications in the BHPS for this purpose and we used whether or not participants completed the equivalent of high school in the GSOEP using data from the Cantankerous-National Equivalent File, a dataset constructed from the GSOEP responses to facilitate cantankerous-national comparisons across five panel studies conducted in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany, and Australia. We restricted the exam of education related differences to those participants who were thirty years or older to avoid confusing education-linked differences with age-linked differences in personality. Approximately 23% of those 30 years and older did not take any qualifications in the BHPS whereas approximately 14% of those 30 years or older did not complete the equivalent of loftier school in the GSOEP.

Results

Overview of Analytic Strategy

Nosotros start created viii historic period groups (16 to 19 twelvemonth olds, 20 to 29 year olds, thirty to 39 year olds, 40 to 49 twelvemonth olds, 50 to 59 yr olds, 60 to 69 year olds, lxx to 79 yr olds, and individuals over fourscore) to examine broad age trends in the Large V. We and so used a hierarchical regression approach to formally model the clan between age and personality traits. Given the big sample sizes, we placed a higher premium on the size of the effects and on obtaining replicable models rather than statistical significance. This follows in the tradition of the "less is more" perspective used past McCrae et al. (1999) and Srivastava et al. (2003). The well-nigh complicated models that we evaluated involved cubic terms for age, a decision motivated by an inspection of the historic period curves (see Figure i) and the fact that few other studies take used annihilation higher than cubic terms to model historic period-personality curves (due east.g., Srivastava et al., 2003; Terracciano et al., 2005). Following Srivastava et al. (2003), we selected more complicated models (east.g., models with quadratic terms for age as opposed to simpler linear models) when the higher order term improved overall model fit at F > 25.00. We followed similar strategies for addressing questions most the potential moderating effects of gender and teaching.

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Historic period Differences in the Big 5

Age Differences in the Big 5 from Ages 16 to the Mid 80s

Table one displays average levels of personality traits for the 8 age groups. To facilitate an intuitive understanding of the direction and magnitude of the age differences, we identified the historic period group associated with the maximum score for each trait and the age grouping associated with the minimum score for each trait. We then computed the simple deviation betwixt the two groups which yields a difference score that is expressed in age 30−34 T "units." Nosotros considered differences of around 2 points as "pocket-sized" differences, differences of around 5 points as "medium" differences, and differences in a higher place 8 as "large" – designations that parallel the conventions used for interpreting standardized mean differences (e.thousand., McCartney & Rosenthal, 2000).

Nosotros first examined the pattern of historic period differences in the BHPS. Extraversion showed a linear design of age differences such that the youngest group scored the highest and the oldest group scored the lowest on this measure. This difference was nearly "big" (7.60 T units). Conjuration showed the reverse linear pattern such that the oldest group scored highest and the youngest group scored lowest, however the difference was fairly "pocket-size" (2.83 T units). Conscientiousness showed a curvilinear pattern of age differences such that there was a "large" divergence (eight.06 T units) betwixt the youngest age grouping and the 40−49 twelvemonth olds (the highest grouping) whereas there was a "small" to "medium" difference between the 40−49 year olds and the oldest historic period group (4.06 T units). Neuroticism demonstrated a linear pattern of historic period differences whereby the youngest grouping scored the highest and the 70−79 twelvemonth olds scored the lowest (iv.22 T units). Finally, Openness showed a fairly linear pattern such that the 20−29 year olds scored the highest and the oldest grouping scored the lowest; the difference was "large" by our conventions (8.61 T units).

Roughly similar patterns of age differences were observed in the GSOEP. The youngest group scored the highest and the 70−79 year old grouping scored the lowest for Extraversion and the difference was "minor" to "medium" (three.64 T units). The oldest group scored highest and the youngest group scored lowest for Conjuration (a deviation of 4.52 T units). At that place was a "large" divergence (9.73 T units) between the youngest age group and the 40−49 yr olds for Conscientiousness whereas at that place was a slight difference betwixt the 40−49 year onetime group and the oldest group (1.38 T units). Neuroticism showed a fairly linear increment in Frg such that the youngest grouping scored the lowest and the 60−69 year old grouping scored the highest. This difference was "small" (2.71 T units). Last, Openness showed a linear pattern of age differences whereby the sixteen−19 year olds scored the highest and the oldest group scored the lowest grouping; the difference was "medium" by our conventions (six.nineteen T units). All and all, we concluded that the near notable difference between the BHPS and GSOEP were that that Neuroticism trends were in the opposite directions. Still, in that location was a considerable degree of overlap in the broad patterns of historic period differences beyond the two datasets. To be sure, Conscientiousness appeared to exist the personality domain with the largest replicable effect size when because the difference betwixt boyish and heart historic period participants.

Nosotros and so modeled historic period differences using regression analyses and results are reported in Tabular array ii and displayed in Figure ane. Age was mean-centered within each dataset before higher order terms were calculated. The regression results mapped closely to the age trends depicted in Table 1. That is, Extraversion and Openness scores were predicted to exist lower in older individuals equally compared to younger individuals whereas scores on Agreeableness were predicted to be college in older individuals compared to younger individuals. Age differences in Conscientiousness had a predicted curvilinear pattern such that average levels of this trait were highest in middle adulthood. Terminal, age difference in Northwardeuroticism diverged in the two samples forth the previously described lines - older individuals were predicted to score lower on Neuroticism than younger individuals in the BHPS whereas this pattern was reversed in the GSOEP.

Tabular array ii

Regression Models Linking Age to the Big Five

	BHPS	GSOEP
Extraversion
Intercept	48.813 (.091)	49.526 (.070)
Age	−.118 (.005)	−.063 (.004)
R	.19	.xi
F for Linear	546.253	247.101
ΔF for Quadratic	14.754	1.161
ΔF for Cubic	2.267	0.128
Agreeableness
Intercept	50.655 (.089)	49.946 (.099)
Age	.036 (.005)	.041 (.004)
Age²	-	.001 (.000)
R	.06	.08
F for Linear	54.214	109.273
ΔF for Quadratic	12.481	36.543
ΔF for Cubic	4.168	19.039
Conscientiousness
Intercept	51.252 (.133)	51.460 (.101)
Age	−.019 (.012)	−.001 (.009)
Age²	−.007 (.000)	−.007 (.000)
Age³	.0001 (.000)	.0002 (.000)
R	.20	.24
F for Linear	31.280	449.358
ΔF for Quadratic	483.736	596.991
ΔF for Cubic	52.636	156.908
Neuroticism
Intercept	49.051 (.090)	50.541 (.071)
Historic period	−.067(.005)	.039 (.004)
R	.11	.07
F for Linear	179.200	88.137
ΔF for Quadratic	13.095	iv.887
ΔF for Cubic	0.441	2.360
Openness
Intercept	48.888 (.132)	50.284 (.101)
Age	−.114(.005)	−.006 (.009)
Age^two	−.002 (.000)	−.001 (.000)
Ageⁱⁱⁱ	-	−.0001 (.000)
R	.20	.eleven
F for Linear	525.857	199.951
ΔF for Quadratic	29.079	fifteen.202
ΔF for Cubic	0.323	40.586

Note: Unstandardized coefficients reported. Standard errors reported inside parentheses. Age was mean-centered within each sample (Age in BHPS = 45.fifty; Age in GSOEP = 46.09). More than complicated models involving age polynomials were selected only when the inclusion of the college gild term improved overall model fit at F > 25.00. Coefficients for age were reported from the final selected model within each sample. See text for consummate details and justification of the model selection strategy.

Gender and Education Effects

We first examined overall gender differences in the Big Five using d metric outcome sizes which were scored so that positive scores indicated that women scored college than men. These are displayed in Tabular array iii and the outcome sizes were more often than not similar in the BHPS and the GSOEP. The ane caveat was that the direction of the gender divergence for Openness was reversed beyond the two datasets. In addition, the overall gender differences were more than or less consistent with the effect sizes reported by Costa et al. (2001) given that we plant the biggest differences for Neuroticism, Agreeableness, and Extraversion and relatively smaller effect sizes for Conscientiousness and Openness. Nosotros likewise calculated d metric effect sizes within each of our 8 age groups and these differences are also reported in Table 3. As seen in Table 3, there did non seem to be striking evidence that result sizes varied systematically across the age groups in either dataset.

Table 3

Effect Sizes for Gender and Education Differences by Age Categories

	Extraversion		Agreeableness		Conscientiousness		Neuroticism		Openness
Gender Differences
Age Grouping	BHPS	GSOEP	BHPS	GSOEP	BHPS	GSOEP	BHPS	GSOEP	BHPS	GSOEP
16−19	.38	.24	.29	.31	.13	.34	.57	.47	−.10	.36
20−29	.26	.thirteen	.23	.30	.xxx	.13	.56	.47	−.18	.17
30−39	.27	.18	.39	.26	.16	.12	.45	.45	−.16	.12
40−49	.22	.23	.33	.37	.16	.13	.47	.35	−.21	.19
50−59	.xvi	.17	.38	.39	.08	.06	.64	.30	−.08	.09
60−69	.13	.14	.35	.42	.07	.09	.47	.37	−.14	.08
lxx−79	.08	−.01	.19	.38	−.08	.03	.51	.42	−.15	−.09
lxxx−85/84	.06	.18	.22	.23	−.17	−.04	.39	.37	−.12	−.03
Overall	.20	.xvi	.31	.35	.11	.11	.51	.39	−.fifteen	.12
Pedagogy Differences
30−39	.20	.xviii	−.03	−.11	.17	.07	−.16	−.27	.51	.xix
twoscore−49	.27	.18	.04	.06	.34	.21	−.36	−.20	.62	.42
50−59	.11	.26	−.05	−.07	.xiv	.11	−.20	−.25	.52	.41
60−69	.x	.23	−.sixteen	−.12	.05	.18	−.24	−.23	.54	.46
70−79	.07	.20	−.14	−.01	.07	.16	−.19	−.27	.37	.47
lxxx−85/84	.03	.09	−.09	.08	.07	.22	−.20	−.23	.54	.30
Overall	.22	.16	−.10	−.06	.20	.22	−.x	−.17	.60	.32

Note: BHPS = British Household Console Study; GSEOP = German Socio-Economical Panel Report. Effect sizes for gender were calculated so that positive scores indicated that women scored higher than men. Outcome sizes for educational activity were calculated and so that positive scores indicated that more educated individuals scored higher than less educated individuals.

Nosotros then formally evaluated whether gender moderated the clan between age and personality. For these analyses, we followed a hierarchical strategy similar to the strategy we used to model college social club terms involving not-linear historic period effects. We tested for interactions involving gender by modeling effects in six steps: 1) a model with gender and linear historic period terms; 2) a model with gender, linear age, and gender by linear age terms; 3) a model with gender, linear historic period, gender by linear age, and quadratic age terms; four) a model with gender, linear age, gender by linear age, quadratic age, and gender past quadratic age terms; v) a model with gender, linear historic period, gender by linear historic period, quadratic age, gender by quadratic historic period, and cubic age terms; and finally 6) a model that added the gender by cubic historic period term to the previous model. We were interested in whether the gender past age interaction terms improved overall model fit at F > 25.00 for Models 2, 4, and 6 compared with Models 1, 3, and v, respectively. None of the F alter statistics for the relevant comparisons suggested that gender acted as a moderator of historic period effects according to our standards. This was the case for both the BHPS and the GSEOP datasets. These results seem consistent with the conclusion drawn by Roberts et al. (2006) that "there is very trivial support for the idea that men and women change in distinct ways" (p. 15).

We followed a similar approach to examine questions about education. Remember that these analyses were restricted to individuals who were thirty years or older to cover the era in the life span when most people would accept completed formal schooling in both countries. Outcome sizes were calculated so that positive scores indicated that individuals with more than educational activity scored higher than individuals with less education. These effect sizes were roughly similar in the two datasets as seen in Tabular array 3 and the largest overall effect sizes were for Openness. As a bespeak of comparing, nosotros calculated d metric result sizes from Table 1 in Löckenhoff et al. (in press) who compared individuals who completed more than 12 years of education to those who did non complete at least 12 years of didactics in a sample from the United States. The d metric outcome sizes in that report were .09, −.13, .20, −.28, and .57 for Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness, respectively. Thus, Löckenhoff et al. (in press) found the nearly pronounced divergence for Openness which was consistent with our results.

Nosotros also calculated d metric upshot sizes within each of our age groups (run across Table 3) and the education effects looked generally similar across age groups in both datasets. Last, we formally evaluated whether didactics condition moderated the clan betwixt historic period and personality. For these analyses, we followed the same general strategy outlined for testing for gender furnishings (i.e. we replaced gender and gender by age interaction terms with education and educational activity past historic period interaction terms). None of the relevant model comparisons suggested that instruction acted as a compelling moderator of age differences. This was the example in both the BHPS and the GSEOP datasets.

General Discussion

To our knowledge, this is the first written report that examined age differences in all of the Big Five from ages xvi to the mid 80s using two large, national datasets from U.k. and Frg. In both countries, there is evidence that Extraversion and Openness are negatively associated with age whereas Conjuration is positively associated with historic period. Likewise, mean levels of Conscientiousness were highest for middle age participants in both Great britain and Germany. In general, cantankerous-exclusive age differences in the Big Five were detectable past age 30 which seems inconsistent with the "difficult" plaster hypothesis or the thought that personality traits are completely fixed at some point in the life span (see likewise Srivastava et al., 2003). In addition, at that place did not announced to be consistent testify that gender or education level chastened cross-sectional age differences. We now comment on several of the more notable results.

One of our more interesting findings concerned the curvilinear association between age and Conscientiousness. The association betwixt historic period and Conscientiousness is often broadly characterized equally linear in the existing literature. However, Terracciano et al. (2005) too reported a curvilinear clan between historic period and this trait. We also found that scores on Conscientiousness had a curvilinear association with age such that the biggest historic period differences were constitute when comparing average levels for belatedly adolescents with average levels of center-aged participants. It fifty-fifty appeared that average levels were lower in the oldest adults when compared to middle-anile participants. I explanation for whatsoever apparent discrepancies between these results for Conscientiousness and the existing literature is that few studies have actually examined this association past age lx using analytic strategies that are capable of detecting nonlinear furnishings. That is, Srivastava et al. (2003) did not include adults older than 60 in their report and the strategy of comparing groups of older and younger adults (due east.g., McCrae et al., 1999) or older and very old adults (due east.g., Weiss et al., 2005) does not permit an evaluation of non-linear associations. Thus, our results fill an of import gap in the existing literature and indicate to a more nuanced association between historic period and Conscientiousness. Future work is needed to resolve the discrepancies betwixt the cross-exclusive results and the longitudinal results of Terracciano et al. (2005) showing that the peak average level of Conscientiousness was near age 70.

Given that we found replicable age-linked differences for iv out of the five Big Five traits, a natural question is why such age differences exist. In that location are currently two dominant explanations for age differences in personality traits -- the intrinsic maturation perspective and the life course perspective. The intrinsic maturational argument holds that normative age-related changes in personality adulthood are driven by "preprogrammed" biological processes (due east.g., Costa & McCrae, 2006) whereas the life form statement posits that the major roles of adult life involving occupational pursuits, romantic relations, and parenthood bulldoze adult personality development (east.thousand., Helson et al., 2002; Roberts et al., 2005). Equally nosotros have argued elsewhere (Donnellan et al., 2007), it is ultimately difficult to conduct crucial tests of these two explanations because true experiments are neither feasible nor ethical in the realm of adult personality development.

Fortunately, in that location are alternatives to true experiments for partially resolving this debate. Bear witness of replicable associations between function changes and personality changes would favor the life form perspective over a strict intrinsic maturation explanation. However, at that place is much controversy over the conclusiveness of the existing evidence for associations between personality changes and adult life experiences or role transitions (see e.thou., the exchange between Costa & McCrae, 2006 and Roberts et al., 2006b). Thus, more piece of work is needed and the general interest in resolving this debate may be helpful for convincing those in charge of the BHPS and GSOEP to administrate measures of the Large Five in futurity assessments. As information technology stands, the important contribution of the present report are that we have presented articulate evidence that (a) age differences in the Big Five are detectable in large national datasets; (b) the pattern of age differences are similar in Uk and Federal republic of germany with the noteworthy exception of Neuroticism; and (c) neither gender nor education seem to consistently moderate cross-sectional age differences across the two datasets.

Puzzles, Limitations, and Conclusions

This investigation yielded at to the lowest degree one puzzling finding – namely the inconsistent results for Neuroticism in Britain and in Germany. In particular, the results for the German sample were somewhat exceptional given that older individuals were found to score college on this trait than younger individuals. On the one mitt, the accented difference between the youngest group and the oldest group was very small-scale when considered in T units. On the other paw, the full general trend fails to replicate the broad trends in the existing literature. Futurity cross-sectional work in Frg may benefit from using a longer measure out of Neuroticism that assesses its lower gild facets to provide a more than nuanced agreement of this issue. Moreover, time to come work using samples from other nations is needed to examine other potential cantankerous-national differences in the association between age and Neuroticism.

In addition to this puzzle, there are at to the lowest degree three of import limitations of the nowadays work. The first has to practice with the "representativeness" of the oldest members of the samples. The issue is that the oldest individuals in the BHPS and GSOEP are actually select members of their respective birth cohorts given that they take lived longer than what would be considered typical (encounter Hofer & Sliwinski, 2006). Such a select sub-sample may non be ideal for cartoon inference near normative levels of traits for older individuals. This fact is one of the major conceptual and methodological problems facing researchers interested in aging and personality – the oldest participants (e.thou., those in their 70s) in current samples are somewhat exceptional in terms of their longevity and information technology is possible that they may be exceptional in terms of their personalities.

The 2nd limitation is the relatively low internal consistencies of our measures. In our favor, the items on these short scales were drawn from a reliable and well-validated parent musical instrument. Likewise, information technology is useful to behave in mind that there are constraints on the length of assessments in these large console studies and extensive personality assessments are not e'er possible. Yet, information technology is of import to be precise about the consequences of measurement error -- measurement error attenuates the ability to find differences which would limit our power to find systematic age trends. The fact that many of our results replicated previous research possibly mitigates concerns over this upshot.

The more serious final limitation is the cross-sectional pattern of this study. We readily acknowledge that cross-sectional studies are unable to uncrease historic period effects from cohort effects (e.thou., Costa & McCrae, 1982). Future longitudinal and cohort-sequential studies are clearly needed to address these bug. On the other hand, the current evidence in favor of strong cohort effects on the Big Five is generally mixed and inconclusive (encounter McCrae & Costa, 2003, p. 80). For example, meta-analytic findings by Twenge (2000) suggest that at that place are cohort-linked increases in Neuroticism but these findings are inconclusive because they are based on convenience samples (i.e., nonprobability samples; see Donnellan & Trzesniewski, 2008) and these effects have not always replicated (east.g. McCrae & Costa, 2003; Roberts et al., 2006; Terracciano et al., 2005). Even so, it is possible that different socio-historical factors in United kingdom and Germany might explain the divergent patterns for Neuroticism.

In closing, we believe that the present findings are noteworthy because the age trends were derived from ii large console studies and were generally consistent across the two countries. At nowadays, nosotros think it is prophylactic to conclude that in that location are real age differences in personality and these many of these differences generalize to broad populations of individuals in Western countries. At this point, Aristotle appears to accept been right and William James appears to have been incorrect -- normative personality differences exist afterwards age 30 and there is good reason to think that detectable accented changes in personality occur across the life span.

Acknowledgments

The data used in this newspaper were made available by the High german Establish for Economical Research and by the United kingdom Data Archive. The BHPS data were originally nerveless by the ESRC Research Centre on Micro-social Change at the University of Essex, now incorporated inside the Institute for Social and Economical Inquiry. Neither the original collectors of the information nor the Archive bear any responsibility for the analyses or interpretations presented here. Preparation of this manuscript was supported by National Found on Aging grants 1R03AG026028-01 and 1R03AG028744-01. Nosotros thank Samuel Gosling and Sanjay Srivastava for providing us with the correlations between our scales and the full BFI scales.

Footnotes

Publisher's Disclaimer: The following manuscript is the last accepted manuscript. Information technology has not been subjected to the concluding copyediting, fact-checking, and proofreading required for formal publication. Information technology is not the definitive, publisher-authenticated version. The American Psychological Clan and its Quango of Editors disclaim any responsibility or liabilities for errors or omissions of this manuscript version, whatever version derived from this manuscript by NIH, or other third parties. The published version is available at http://www.apa.org/journals/pag/

¹We examined whether format type was associated with scores on the Big 5. Information technology appeared that scores derived from both oral interviews and CAPI formats were higher than written formats for some traits. Accordingly, we complanate interviews and CAPI administrations to contrast with written administrations. The main effects of format type in the d-metric were as follows: Extraversion: d = .03; Agreeableness: d = .20; Conscientiousness: d = .24; Neuroticism: d = −.xiv; Openness: d = −.01 (positive values indicated interview formats were higher). Information technology was likewise the case that older participants were more likely to use interview based formats versus written formats when compared to younger participants. The real question, however, was whether or not format type moderated age trends. Nosotros showtime used an ANCOVA model to control for format type (ane = interview or CAPI, 0 = written) for the means reported in Table ane. The predicted means were quite similar to those reported in Table 1 which suggests that differences in format type did not create major confounds (Table available upon asking). We likewise conducted tests of interactions using same regression strategy that we used for gender and educational activity (see Results). Only 1 example met our threshold for a meaningful interaction – Conscientiousness. Information technology appeared that age differences in Conscientiousness after mid-life were more than pronounced for written administrations than for interview-based administrations. Nonetheless, the shape of the predicted age curves was quite similar.

^twoExtraversion was assessed with the BFI items i, 6, and 36. Agreeableness was assessed with items 17, 32, and 37. Conscientiousness was assessed with items 3, 23, and 33. Neuroticism was assessed with items 9, 19, and 39. Openness was assessed with items 5, xx, and thirty.

Contributor Information

Chiliad. Brent Donnellan, Michigan State University.

Richard E. Lucas, Michigan State University & High german Constitute for Economical Enquiry.

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Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2562318/