Gerontology 23: 262-266(1977)
Sex Differences in Overt Personality Patterns in Older Men and Women Donna Cohen Psychogenetics Unit, Brentwood Veterans Administration Hospital, Los Angeles, Calif.
Key Words. Overt personality • Pattern A behavior • Bortner scale Abstract. A population of 118 older persons, 59-90 years of age, completed an adap tation of the short version of the Bortner rating scale. The seven scales and a total score were analyzed in separate 2 (sex) X 2 (age) analyses of variance to examine sex and age differences in overt personality patterns in men and women under and over the age of 70. Although the results in no way presume to characterize these older persons as proto type A-B personalities, for theoretical reasons, the women reflected significantly stronger pattern A behavior than the men regardless of age. The Bortner scale appears to offer a crude but effective measure of overt 'Type .Active’ behavior - aggressiveness, expressiveness, and time-conscious activity - which is consistent with reports of sex differences in intra psychic and psychosocial adaptive measures of personality. The lack of any main effect due to age is also in line with previous reports that age appears to be a significant variable in internal personality processes rather than external or overt aspects of personality.
Received: November 21, 1975.
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Sex differences in age-associated personality measures were first reported in middle-aged and older persons with regard to intrapsychic coping styles by Neugarten et al. (1964) and Neugarten and Gutman (1968), and later confirmed by Lowenthal et al. (1975). Older women appeared to be more expressive and aggressive in their roles, whereas older men were more passive and seemed to experience the environment in a more cognitive fashion. If older men and women are divergent in intrapsychic and psychosocial adaptive dimensions, e.g., aggressive and affective behavior, self-ratings of their overt behavior should also show sex differences in the predicted direction. This paper reports an analysis of sex differences in overt time-conscious, hard-driving, and aggressive behavior patterns in older men and women who have maintained social productivity and interaction.
Cohen
263
Methods
Procedures The short version of the Bortner rating scale (Bortner, 1969) was slightly modified for use with an older population. Bortner originally developed his self-rating scale within the theoretical context of type A behavior and coronary heart disease to assess some aspects of pattern A behavior in men under the age of 55 who were employed or of working age. Although the standard interview developed by Friedman and Rosenman (1959) has been more effective in identifying the action-emotion complex of type A behavior than the Bortner rating scale, the latter seemed to offer a suitable brief instrument to assess overt patterns of time-conscious, expressive-stylistic, and hard-driving, instrumental-productive behavior. Consistent reports of sex differences in aggressive-affective dimensions in middleaged and older persons suggested the following hypothesis: older women will rate them selves higher on scales reflecting aspects of pattern A behavior compared to older men. The adaptation of the Bortner instrument utilized the original seven scales, and each scale was composed of two descriptions separated by a line 3.5 inches in length. Pilot work indicated that a longer line was easier for the older respondent to see and mark than Bortner’s original 1.5-inch line. Bortner had chosen each set of descriptions to represent contrasting dimensions of behavior, type A and type B. The items describing pattern A behavior are underlined in the listing that follows and they were interpreted as the more instrumental-productive behavior for this study: (1) never late: casual about appointments; (2) not competitive: very competi tive; (3) always rushed: never feels rushed, even under pressure; (4) takes things one at a time: tries to do many things at once, thinks about what to do next; (S)fast (eating, walking, etc.): slow doing things; (6) 'sits’ on feelings: expresses feelings; (7) many interests: few interests outside work. Although Bortner originally indicated that ‘few interests’ was an aspect of type A behavior, the scoring was reversed in this study. The (3-weights were positive for this item when a multiple regression analysis was done (Bortner, 1969), indi cating that it should have been scored in the opposite direction. The subjects were instructed as follows (Bortner, 1969): 'Each of us belongs some where along the line between these two extremes. For example, most of us are neither the most competitive nor the least competitive person we know. What we would like you to do is to make a vertical line where you think you belong between these two extremes.’ The rating scales were scored to the nearest '/14 inch by measuring from the beginning of the pattern A end of the 3.5-inch line to the mark made by the subject. In this way, lower ratings were indicative of a higher self-estimate of instrumental-productive type A behavior. The ratings were examined separately and were also summed for a total instru mental-productive score. Separate 2 (sex) X 2 (age) analyses of variance were computed. The young-old age group contained persons under 70 (59-69 years) and the old-old age group contained persons over 70 (70-90, only eight persons were older than 80 years).
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Subjects 194 participants in a gerontological investigation of sex differences in cognition (Cohen, 1975) were sent a mail questionnaire to gather data on health, ways of living, and personality. An 84 % return rate yielded a sample population of 163 persons, all of whom were active members of senior citizen organizations. However, only 118 individuals, 60 men and 58 women, ranging in age from 59 to 90 (one man and seven women were over 80 years), completed the personality measure as they were instructed. The other 45 respon dents wrote short essays describing their behavior patterns, but they were excluded from this analysis.
264
Cohen
Results Examination of tables I and II reveals very significant main effects for sex, but no main effects for age in the samples studied. Women reported stronger aspects of instrumental-productive behavior for item 3, ‘rushed’ (F = 6.91, p < 0.01), item 4, ‘many things at once’ (F = 6.97, p < 0.01), item 6, ‘expressive ness’ (F = 9.73, p = 0.002), as well as the total score (F = 7.40, p < 0.01), as shown in table II. For each of the component scales (table I), 1.75 would be the midpoint, and 12.25 the midpoint for the total score. All four groups (age-sex combina tions) were on the ‘active’ side of the midpoint for the total averaged score. Analysis of the mean scores of the component scales revealed that both men and women saw themselves as quite punctual, having many interests, relatively fast in their activities, and in a middle range for competitiveness. Discussion The sex differences in these data are consistent with the results reported previously by Neugarten (1968) and Lowenthal et al. (1975). Lowenthal et al reported that sex differences were generally greater than life-style differences in their cross-sectional investigations of life transitions, and stressed that malefemale discrepancies should be interpreted in terms of developmental shifts in needs, goals, and problems. However, sex differences are only one aspect of a larger issue, the explana tion of individual differences. The analysis of personality and the variables that influence the expression of sex differences incorporates the assumption that Table I Average scores for older men and women on the seven items of the short version of the Bortner rating scale
young-old (n = 33) Never late Competitive Rushed Many things Fast Expressive Many interests Total score
Women
Men old-old (n = 27)
young-old (n = 31)
old-old (n = 27)
0.51 1.83 2.19 2.07 1.40 2.56 1.04
0.62 1.61 1.77 2.17 1.64 2.19 0.96
0.59 1.98 1.51 1.47 1.19 1.74 1.08
0.59 2.02 1.55 1.71 1.13 1.73 0.97
11.34
10.82
9.54
9.69
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Items
Sex Differences in Overt Personality Patterns in Older Men and Women
265
Table II. F ratios from the analysis of variance for the items on the short version of the Bortner rating scale Items
F ratios sex (1,114 d.f.)
age (1,114 d.f.)
sex X age (1,114 d.f.)
Never late Competitive Rushed Many things Fast Expressive Many interests
0.03 2.49 6.91* 6.97* 3.42 9.73** 0.02
0.23 0.26 1.16 0.72 0.23 0.86 0.29
0.20 0.57 1.82 0.13 0.61 0.81 0.01
Total score
7.40*
0.12
0.38
behavior, measured as an overt or covert processes), is organized about certain dimensions, where genotype, time, and the environment are important modi fying variables. Continued research is desirable to bring the phenotypic personal ity dimensions as well as the modifier variables into focus with systematic biobehavioral investigations of developmental change. Neugarten (1973) has argued for a developmental view of intrapsychic per sonality changes. The divergent orientation of men and women as early as the fourth and fifth decades, who are actively and socially engaged in mastering their environment, is an intriguing research issue. Internal personality measures of change seem to be age-associated (Neugarten, 1968), whereas overt goal-directed behaviors are not related to age. The lack of any evidence for an age effect in the data presented here for instrumental personality scores are in line with Neugarteti'% observations. The data presented in this report in no way presume to characterize these particular older men and women as prototype A-B personalities for theoretical reasons. The A-B distinction in behavior has shown itself to be a medically useful tool to predict coronary heart disease in a certain proportion of employed men under the age of 55, and it is a significant indication of the predictive potential of behavior patterns. What is the type A personality which the older women in this sample re flected relative to the older men? The short version of the Bortner rating scale appears to offer a crude but effective measure of overt active instrumental per sonality which is consistent with the literature on sex differences in older per
Downloaded by: Access provided by the University of Michigan Library 141.216.78.40 - 1/11/2019 6:42:05 AM
* Significant at or beyond the 1 % level of confidence. ** p = 0.002.
Cohen
266
sons. The total score and component scales may be interpreted as dimensions of an action-emotion complex related to the frequency, intensity, and style of active affiliative behavior. The ‘Type Active’ pattern of overt personality may prove to be a useful concept to be developed and applied in future research with aging and aged cohorts. For example, it is a well-known fact that women live longer than men, and a variety of biological and psychosocial hypotheses have been advanced. It remains to be seen whether measures of sex differences in personality, overt or intrapsychic, can be utilized to predict sex differences in survival. The association of behavioral dimensions with mortality and morbidity are interesting relationships to be examined in prospective longitudinal studies. Furthermore, the rigorous fractionation of personality into quantifiable units, which are biologically meaningful and consistent with a reliable individual differ ence theory of personality, may prove to be a rich biobehavioral frontier. Acknowledgements Computing assistance was obtained from the Health Sciences Computing Facility, Uni versity of California at Los Angeles, Calif., supported by N1H special research resources grant RR-3.
References
Donna Cohen, PhD, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle. WA 98195, and Geriatric Research Educational and Clinical Center, Seattle!American Lake VA Hospitals (USA)
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Bortner, R.: A short rating scale as a potential measure of pattern A behavior. J. chron. Dis. 22: 87-91 (1969). Cohen, D.: Sex differences in the organization of spatial abilities of older men and women; diss. University of Southern California, Los Angeles (1975). Friedman, M. and Rosenman, R.H.: Association of specific overt behavior pattern with blood and cardiovascular findings: blood cholesterol level, blood clotting time, inci dence of arcus senilis, and clinical coronary heart disease. J. Am. med. Ass. 169: 1286-1296 (1959). Lowenthal, M.F.; Thurnher, M., and Chiriboga, D.: Four stages of life (Jossey-Bass, San Francisco 1975). Neugarten, B.L.: Adult personality: toward a psychology of the life cycle; in Neugarten Middle age and aging (University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1968). Neugarten, B.L.: Personality change in late life: a developmental perspective; in Eisdorfer and Lawton Adult development and aging (American Psychological Association, Wash ington 1973). Neugarten, B.L. and Gutmann, D.: Age-sex roles and personality in middle age: a thematic apperception study; in Neugarten Middle age and aging (University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1968). Neugarten, B.L. et al.: Personality in middle and late life (Atherton, New York 1964).
Sex Differences in Overt Personality Patterns in Older Men and Women Donna Cohen Psychogenetics Unit, Brentwood Veterans Administration Hospital, Los Angeles, Calif.
Key Words. Overt personality • Pattern A behavior • Bortner scale Abstract. A population of 118 older persons, 59-90 years of age, completed an adap tation of the short version of the Bortner rating scale. The seven scales and a total score were analyzed in separate 2 (sex) X 2 (age) analyses of variance to examine sex and age differences in overt personality patterns in men and women under and over the age of 70. Although the results in no way presume to characterize these older persons as proto type A-B personalities, for theoretical reasons, the women reflected significantly stronger pattern A behavior than the men regardless of age. The Bortner scale appears to offer a crude but effective measure of overt 'Type .Active’ behavior - aggressiveness, expressiveness, and time-conscious activity - which is consistent with reports of sex differences in intra psychic and psychosocial adaptive measures of personality. The lack of any main effect due to age is also in line with previous reports that age appears to be a significant variable in internal personality processes rather than external or overt aspects of personality.
Received: November 21, 1975.
Downloaded by: Access provided by the University of Michigan Library 141.216.78.40 - 1/11/2019 6:42:05 AM
Sex differences in age-associated personality measures were first reported in middle-aged and older persons with regard to intrapsychic coping styles by Neugarten et al. (1964) and Neugarten and Gutman (1968), and later confirmed by Lowenthal et al. (1975). Older women appeared to be more expressive and aggressive in their roles, whereas older men were more passive and seemed to experience the environment in a more cognitive fashion. If older men and women are divergent in intrapsychic and psychosocial adaptive dimensions, e.g., aggressive and affective behavior, self-ratings of their overt behavior should also show sex differences in the predicted direction. This paper reports an analysis of sex differences in overt time-conscious, hard-driving, and aggressive behavior patterns in older men and women who have maintained social productivity and interaction.
Cohen
263
Methods
Procedures The short version of the Bortner rating scale (Bortner, 1969) was slightly modified for use with an older population. Bortner originally developed his self-rating scale within the theoretical context of type A behavior and coronary heart disease to assess some aspects of pattern A behavior in men under the age of 55 who were employed or of working age. Although the standard interview developed by Friedman and Rosenman (1959) has been more effective in identifying the action-emotion complex of type A behavior than the Bortner rating scale, the latter seemed to offer a suitable brief instrument to assess overt patterns of time-conscious, expressive-stylistic, and hard-driving, instrumental-productive behavior. Consistent reports of sex differences in aggressive-affective dimensions in middleaged and older persons suggested the following hypothesis: older women will rate them selves higher on scales reflecting aspects of pattern A behavior compared to older men. The adaptation of the Bortner instrument utilized the original seven scales, and each scale was composed of two descriptions separated by a line 3.5 inches in length. Pilot work indicated that a longer line was easier for the older respondent to see and mark than Bortner’s original 1.5-inch line. Bortner had chosen each set of descriptions to represent contrasting dimensions of behavior, type A and type B. The items describing pattern A behavior are underlined in the listing that follows and they were interpreted as the more instrumental-productive behavior for this study: (1) never late: casual about appointments; (2) not competitive: very competi tive; (3) always rushed: never feels rushed, even under pressure; (4) takes things one at a time: tries to do many things at once, thinks about what to do next; (S)fast (eating, walking, etc.): slow doing things; (6) 'sits’ on feelings: expresses feelings; (7) many interests: few interests outside work. Although Bortner originally indicated that ‘few interests’ was an aspect of type A behavior, the scoring was reversed in this study. The (3-weights were positive for this item when a multiple regression analysis was done (Bortner, 1969), indi cating that it should have been scored in the opposite direction. The subjects were instructed as follows (Bortner, 1969): 'Each of us belongs some where along the line between these two extremes. For example, most of us are neither the most competitive nor the least competitive person we know. What we would like you to do is to make a vertical line where you think you belong between these two extremes.’ The rating scales were scored to the nearest '/14 inch by measuring from the beginning of the pattern A end of the 3.5-inch line to the mark made by the subject. In this way, lower ratings were indicative of a higher self-estimate of instrumental-productive type A behavior. The ratings were examined separately and were also summed for a total instru mental-productive score. Separate 2 (sex) X 2 (age) analyses of variance were computed. The young-old age group contained persons under 70 (59-69 years) and the old-old age group contained persons over 70 (70-90, only eight persons were older than 80 years).
Downloaded by: Access provided by the University of Michigan Library 141.216.78.40 - 1/11/2019 6:42:05 AM
Subjects 194 participants in a gerontological investigation of sex differences in cognition (Cohen, 1975) were sent a mail questionnaire to gather data on health, ways of living, and personality. An 84 % return rate yielded a sample population of 163 persons, all of whom were active members of senior citizen organizations. However, only 118 individuals, 60 men and 58 women, ranging in age from 59 to 90 (one man and seven women were over 80 years), completed the personality measure as they were instructed. The other 45 respon dents wrote short essays describing their behavior patterns, but they were excluded from this analysis.
264
Cohen
Results Examination of tables I and II reveals very significant main effects for sex, but no main effects for age in the samples studied. Women reported stronger aspects of instrumental-productive behavior for item 3, ‘rushed’ (F = 6.91, p < 0.01), item 4, ‘many things at once’ (F = 6.97, p < 0.01), item 6, ‘expressive ness’ (F = 9.73, p = 0.002), as well as the total score (F = 7.40, p < 0.01), as shown in table II. For each of the component scales (table I), 1.75 would be the midpoint, and 12.25 the midpoint for the total score. All four groups (age-sex combina tions) were on the ‘active’ side of the midpoint for the total averaged score. Analysis of the mean scores of the component scales revealed that both men and women saw themselves as quite punctual, having many interests, relatively fast in their activities, and in a middle range for competitiveness. Discussion The sex differences in these data are consistent with the results reported previously by Neugarten (1968) and Lowenthal et al. (1975). Lowenthal et al reported that sex differences were generally greater than life-style differences in their cross-sectional investigations of life transitions, and stressed that malefemale discrepancies should be interpreted in terms of developmental shifts in needs, goals, and problems. However, sex differences are only one aspect of a larger issue, the explana tion of individual differences. The analysis of personality and the variables that influence the expression of sex differences incorporates the assumption that Table I Average scores for older men and women on the seven items of the short version of the Bortner rating scale
young-old (n = 33) Never late Competitive Rushed Many things Fast Expressive Many interests Total score
Women
Men old-old (n = 27)
young-old (n = 31)
old-old (n = 27)
0.51 1.83 2.19 2.07 1.40 2.56 1.04
0.62 1.61 1.77 2.17 1.64 2.19 0.96
0.59 1.98 1.51 1.47 1.19 1.74 1.08
0.59 2.02 1.55 1.71 1.13 1.73 0.97
11.34
10.82
9.54
9.69
Downloaded by: Access provided by the University of Michigan Library 141.216.78.40 - 1/11/2019 6:42:05 AM
Items
Sex Differences in Overt Personality Patterns in Older Men and Women
265
Table II. F ratios from the analysis of variance for the items on the short version of the Bortner rating scale Items
F ratios sex (1,114 d.f.)
age (1,114 d.f.)
sex X age (1,114 d.f.)
Never late Competitive Rushed Many things Fast Expressive Many interests
0.03 2.49 6.91* 6.97* 3.42 9.73** 0.02
0.23 0.26 1.16 0.72 0.23 0.86 0.29
0.20 0.57 1.82 0.13 0.61 0.81 0.01
Total score
7.40*
0.12
0.38
behavior, measured as an overt or covert processes), is organized about certain dimensions, where genotype, time, and the environment are important modi fying variables. Continued research is desirable to bring the phenotypic personal ity dimensions as well as the modifier variables into focus with systematic biobehavioral investigations of developmental change. Neugarten (1973) has argued for a developmental view of intrapsychic per sonality changes. The divergent orientation of men and women as early as the fourth and fifth decades, who are actively and socially engaged in mastering their environment, is an intriguing research issue. Internal personality measures of change seem to be age-associated (Neugarten, 1968), whereas overt goal-directed behaviors are not related to age. The lack of any evidence for an age effect in the data presented here for instrumental personality scores are in line with Neugarteti'% observations. The data presented in this report in no way presume to characterize these particular older men and women as prototype A-B personalities for theoretical reasons. The A-B distinction in behavior has shown itself to be a medically useful tool to predict coronary heart disease in a certain proportion of employed men under the age of 55, and it is a significant indication of the predictive potential of behavior patterns. What is the type A personality which the older women in this sample re flected relative to the older men? The short version of the Bortner rating scale appears to offer a crude but effective measure of overt active instrumental per sonality which is consistent with the literature on sex differences in older per
Downloaded by: Access provided by the University of Michigan Library 141.216.78.40 - 1/11/2019 6:42:05 AM
* Significant at or beyond the 1 % level of confidence. ** p = 0.002.
Cohen
266
sons. The total score and component scales may be interpreted as dimensions of an action-emotion complex related to the frequency, intensity, and style of active affiliative behavior. The ‘Type Active’ pattern of overt personality may prove to be a useful concept to be developed and applied in future research with aging and aged cohorts. For example, it is a well-known fact that women live longer than men, and a variety of biological and psychosocial hypotheses have been advanced. It remains to be seen whether measures of sex differences in personality, overt or intrapsychic, can be utilized to predict sex differences in survival. The association of behavioral dimensions with mortality and morbidity are interesting relationships to be examined in prospective longitudinal studies. Furthermore, the rigorous fractionation of personality into quantifiable units, which are biologically meaningful and consistent with a reliable individual differ ence theory of personality, may prove to be a rich biobehavioral frontier. Acknowledgements Computing assistance was obtained from the Health Sciences Computing Facility, Uni versity of California at Los Angeles, Calif., supported by N1H special research resources grant RR-3.
References
Donna Cohen, PhD, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle. WA 98195, and Geriatric Research Educational and Clinical Center, Seattle!American Lake VA Hospitals (USA)
Downloaded by: Access provided by the University of Michigan Library 141.216.78.40 - 1/11/2019 6:42:05 AM
Bortner, R.: A short rating scale as a potential measure of pattern A behavior. J. chron. Dis. 22: 87-91 (1969). Cohen, D.: Sex differences in the organization of spatial abilities of older men and women; diss. University of Southern California, Los Angeles (1975). Friedman, M. and Rosenman, R.H.: Association of specific overt behavior pattern with blood and cardiovascular findings: blood cholesterol level, blood clotting time, inci dence of arcus senilis, and clinical coronary heart disease. J. Am. med. Ass. 169: 1286-1296 (1959). Lowenthal, M.F.; Thurnher, M., and Chiriboga, D.: Four stages of life (Jossey-Bass, San Francisco 1975). Neugarten, B.L.: Adult personality: toward a psychology of the life cycle; in Neugarten Middle age and aging (University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1968). Neugarten, B.L.: Personality change in late life: a developmental perspective; in Eisdorfer and Lawton Adult development and aging (American Psychological Association, Wash ington 1973). Neugarten, B.L. and Gutmann, D.: Age-sex roles and personality in middle age: a thematic apperception study; in Neugarten Middle age and aging (University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1968). Neugarten, B.L. et al.: Personality in middle and late life (Atherton, New York 1964).
